all right thank you um good evening everyone um I would like you know Sasha you're out there right Sasha can I have you take your camera off so Sasha is visiting us via um the internet tonight because she was on a field trip all day to the state house right what were you
doing there Sasha just to I'm just curious um I was with Mr tus and we were talking with state representatives to lobby for bike safety in our area excellent thank you so Sasha is with us
tonight Sasha is the recipient of the superintendent's academic Excellence award um and it is with great I go through my speech here was a great pride and admiration I present the frontier Regional School Districts 20232 24 super 2425 superintendent academic Excellence
award to an extraordinary student who truly exemplifies excellence and academics leadership and character Sasha is an exceptional student standing at the very top of our class her academic journey is nothing short of remarkable with a rigorous slate of advanced placement courses
under her belt including AP environmental AP Government AP Calculus AP language AP human geography and AP Statistics earning nearly perfect scores of five on the majority of her exams her consistent presence on the maximum
honors throughout her entire career reflects her unwavering dedication to learning Marissa stoki her English teacher said from passionate debates on the future of AI to thought-provoking Socratic seminars on the intersection of
language and double Consciousness you guys all keeping up with that Sasha's enthusiasm is truly contagious she's not only engages her peers but also inspires them to dive deeper into complex subjects her compassionate and collaborative nature
paired with her drive to create positive change in her community makes her a natural leader I can easily see myself casting a vote for Sasha in in political office one day that was from Miss stroi um as an athlete Sasha is the is a is in a Cornerstone the frontier
athletic Community she serves as the captain of both the cross country team and the Spring Track Team Sasha has earned numerous accolades for academic her athletic Excellence including being named three-time all League Honore receiving prestigious Nina
prero award and being recognized with the true blue award the honors speak not only of her academic skill but also her unwavering commitment to sportsmanship beyond the classroom in athletics Sasha is a passionate Advocate and leader following the Supreme Court
choked up um um following the Supreme Court ruling on roow versus way Sasha demonstrated her remarkable Courage by organizing and leading a student walk out which culminated in heartful speeches about women's rights on the front line of the school the following year she was was a leader in the purple
out a movement that United the school Community wearing purple to raise awareness about violence against women whether ones agrees with her stance or not these acts show her tremendous character convictions and willingness to turn her belief into meaningful action a rare and aborable quality Sasha extends
her compassion leadership to her family in in the broader Community she works alongside her mother as a voice in the Federation for children with special needs driven by her love and advocacy for her brother Sasha work is deeply personally reflecting her profound sense of loyalty and care care for those she
holds dear within the school Sasha is also the president of the National Honor Society and her class vice president she's the codirector and founder of the student Le Writing Center where she tutors peers several days a week making lasting impact on students who benefit from her guidance and during the summer she works
as a camp counselor swim instructor and shares her talents and positivity with the younger generation as Sasha looks ahead we celebrate her acceptance her acceptance to her first choice School Boston College but no matter where her journey takes her there's no doubt she'll continue to lead Inspire and leave
lasting impact as she done at the in the frontier community so is with my great honor to S to to present Sasha Malo with Frontier superintendent academics excellent award now there'll be a brief questions in answer period
jok so thank you Sasha for com any comments or thank you I you have other plans as well so you can take off thank you so much thank you everyone for thank you heing through it choked
up sounds like maybe we should have little video Snippets to include in the you know the the video for all the financial boards uh next item on the agenda is to review and approve minutes from January 7th
need a motion move to approve and second second all in favor motion passes we have um Tavo here for the student council report
uh hi I'm to FR here on second we can bring oh yeah cuz can you guys fil oh yeah here or yeah she's going to want you she's going to watch you here she's going to want yeah about the cameras
t uh hi I'm Tabo I'm the president of frener student council um I want to say congratulations to Sasha um she's a member of student council and it's really awesome to see that a member how a very active our community is um receiving that award um so recently
student council has done a variety of activities um this past month we participated in the Greenfield High School Polar Plunge um so this was a fundraiser where students could sign up to jump into this plunge of cold water
to support the Special Olympics um and this fundraiser um all told ended up raising $10,000 um which is very impactful [Applause] um um the musical it's going to be up uh the light in the Pizzaz I believe um
March 14th um tickets are available online so for those who are interested in uh Frontier uh musical stylings I would say please show up um Frontier student council is also looking forward to a field trip that we're going to be participating in um this field trip is
going to be a three day field trip to hyanis um with lots of other student councils um this is going to be an opportunity for many leadership trainings over those 3 days um and is what we've kind of been working to fundraise over the past couple
months um in addition to that the senior class is gearing up for their kind of class field trip um in March they're going to Boston and they're hopefully going to do some good class bonding then uh this week student council is selling carnations um in light of
Valentine's Day um this Friday so we've been trying to get people to buy carnations and uh spread some cheer among their classmates um additionally student council is working to facilitate a kids game night um been doing some work to
try to maybe have an opportunity for parents to drop with their kids have some fun and also raise money for this field trip to hyanis which has been uh a very big tax let soon C the budget um Sports this week uh there's a girl
senior night tonight I believe and many of the teams are goinging for western Mass um track is going to States some of us for the reays and for the hurdles and some of the wrestlers are going to Western Mass and states I believe and I believe the boys and girls basketball teams are both in good positions to go
to States um additionally NHS is looking to move towards finding a superable charity to donate all their funds to um that's something that is done and now we're trying to think what cause do we as a National Honor Society want to support additionally uh peer leaders of
the kind of system of collecting all the leaders in our school um has been meeting in circle and is now working on trying to think about action steps to better impact our school Community as a whole um ways to build community in our school and help strengthen bonds between
grades and also like Institute more student uh Liberty um and also I wanted to say thank you to M Modesto for your statement um about protecting students within the school um it's really awesome thank you yeah thank
you guys thank you thank you a lot of good work you guys uh I know it's early March I think it's like March 5th maybe you have to bre yeah a little pressure keep us load
awesome thank you George you're up next to um any basketball games that are happening tonight our Winter concert is also taking place right now it started at 6:00 p.m. so uh if you have time on your way out stop by the auditorium uh check out the Winter concert um our
annual career fair and reality Fair is happening on the 26th of March uh this year we've got folks coming like Chris is coming from the recorder we've got basate Franco Medical Center is coming again this year us fish and wildlife Big Y South Deerfield Police Department uh
and state representative Naval blae coming as well uh many other local businesses so if you're able to stop by on the 26th that would be welcome uh this week we are uh administering our health survey in conjunction with the communities that Care Coalition uh this Coalition brings together schools
families youth young adults uh and the community to improve young People's Health well-being and Health Equity so students in grades 8 10 and 12 are being surveyed this week uh to Echo what uh Tabo already mentioned we we'll be
presenting uh the light and fianza uh on March 14th and 15th uh at 7:00 p.m. and on March 16th at 2: p.m. um in your reports I have a link to uh how to get online tickets uh students council is sending
two student delegates uh Romy Lukes Curtis and Isa barnon uh to Student Government day at the Massachusetts state house on April 4th um this has been an annual event since 1947 and I once again I I dropped a link in my report if you want to if you want to
check it out um and I do want to give a public uh shout out to Melissa stry and to Kate Blair for all the wonderful work that they're doing um with our student council this year and then finally we're doing our annual 8th grade trip to DC which is happening from February 25th to
February 28th um there's a one-day stop over in Philly uh we're going to the Kennedy Center again uh Smithsonian museums National Portrait Gall Gallery us Holocaust Memorial Museum Arlington National Cemetery the LI Library of Congress in murn so um that will be
happening uh can we get back from the break I'm sorry okay uh yes there were 23 warrants reviewed and signed by Mr holla totaling 2,591 25.74%
needs to be encumbered for example if you look at the report for the general fund right now the health insurance line shows a significant amount still available that's because we pay it monthly when the bill comes in cuz it changes every month but we're going to estimate get that encumbered so that we can really see what we're looking at for
end of year so nothing major to report but I'm happy to take questions if you have any questions for next uh we'll move on to public comment uh there's a we have a sign up sheet here but I think a couple other people maybe have joined is anybody
else here for public comment no no and anybody online here for public comment that would like to speak L thank you all right
um I have a statement that I'm going to make prior to public comment I'd first like to recognize the number of individuals who reached out to us about in particular the topic of uh graduation requirements and competency
determination that's on the agenda today regardless of where everyone stands on a particular issue it always feels good to be part of a community who has so many people reaching out from a space of General care both about the students and the teachers so I hope that everybody continues to feel comfortable both
sharing and receiving information that's right that's okay with an open mind knowing that everyone comes from the same space of General care for the well-being of the students and the teachers even if as individuals we see different paths to get there I would also like to make a
statement addressing a large volume of comments on the changes in both the graduate graduation requirement and the competency determination these changes were proposed in light of the ballot question that passed last year to eliminate mcast as the competency
determination for graduation from high school across the state there have been a lot of discussion and review about these recommendations that were proposed at the last meeting and I'll let Darius speak to that in a bit as well the intent was not to cause division in the community nor was it to stand in the
face of the results of the ballot question as some have suggested unfortunately Ely what was left in the wake of the ballot question was the need for each district to come up with their own competency determination the question before us as a district and ultimately as a state is what measure or measures will be used to
determine if students have met a level of Education that's consistent with what we expect of a high school graduate mcast did not go away it will still be administered and continue to be used to assess the trajectory of students over time and areas where we as a district need to be aware of deficiencies or a
need for extra attention either on the student or District level I'm not saying it's a perfect tool but it's what we have until we or the state identifies something else this is the most pressing for any students who have yet to pass
the previous competency determination in our case I'm told this is seven students so at this time the state hasn't offered specific guidance but since our last meeting Governor Healey has announced that there's a council that's charged with studying and making recommendations on a new state wide graduation
requirement we aren't sure what that will look like or how long it will take to get one one piece that I hope the public is open to hearing is that while we know what the results are of the ballot question we're still left with a need to discuss what competency in graduating from high school in our
district and in the bigger picture outside of these walls in Massachusetts looks like many people referenced life skills in their emails to us what are those life skills how will we measure those to ensure that we're using the
same or a similar bar as other districts will it be the same in our district as they are in Boston in Cape Cod in Greenfield or Springfield this is the discussion that I hope as a district we are starting not pointing figures as what the result of the vote was but engaging in a productive discussion
about where we go from here and what options and standards do we want for our students and teachers going forward don't know if you have anything to add that no I think Holly we have you on um ume Johnson I'm the co-chair of
District special education speak louder sorry I'm sorry I'm Holly Johnson I'm the co-chair of the district special education parent advisory Council and I'm also a parent in the district the CPAC did already write a letter um and signatures from our members and hoping
that everyone had a chance to read it I've heard that um we are not making that decision about what we talk about mcast that was talked about last week and I want to thank everyone who took the time to really um go over that and
to take into account what um parents and and um community members were saying um CPAC would would love to be included in in helping create policy or procedures or have our say um when they children um
disabilities um I fully understand that something has to be put in place because that cast was taken and now we have to come up with something else I think putting a standardized test as a requirement any standardized test puts um many students at disadvantage um my
students had a disadvantage I was just at an IEP meeting a week ago and we went over standardized results and I was told by the teacher this doesn't reflect your student it doesn't reflect her ability and so I would hope whatever that you
come up with it would be some alternative for kids who cannot pass simply cannot pass standardized tests um because they still need a diploma to get a job even if they're not on a college track I want to thank every listening Lou
yeah thank you missy can you hear me on okay we can great um I I didn't come prepared to speak particularly but I did want to I did want to mention that I I'm extending my gratitude publicly to Darius for the
communication that he shared with the district around keeping students safe as Papa mentioned um in regard to our migrant families and also our lgbtqia community and those words um sound to me
like a contract of care that I want to be up upheld and I know that talking about immigration um and I being in schools is a topic tonight and I just feel very concerned
that adults in the building will be prepared to meet that um will'll be prepared to meet um their call to keep every child safe and I um I'm eager to hear what um plans and Protocols are in place for adults in the building should
um they encounter um ice and on grounds or in the building and also um I just want to continue to support professional development and everyday support and training for people in the building to
support every single student regardless of politics around um around who people are every single one of this is human and deserves dignity care respect and safety um and I hope that um will
continue to uphold that thank you thank you right back to you shell for Budget budget Bob can you pass those a hot off the press budget off the press Yes actually
all right I'm going to share on the screen up there as well if you want to follow along um on paper or you want one more this way oops morning than are
don't wor somebody's missing if you handed out the one that's not stapled who got the not stapled copy I did okay a coule Pages sorry about that we one short so all right literally hot off the
presses from the uh budget subcommittee meeting so let me see if I can make this bigger up there all right so this is a full present First full presentation to this Committee in January subcommittee met um but we didn't make a full presentation
to the committee so you all are seeing this fresh for the first time and we do believe this will be the budget that goes forward to public hearing which there will be a larger presentation then verion but there is a lot of information I think all of you now
our veterans around the table when it comes to budget so we should all get it but I'm going to talk through some things just because we have quite a bit of public here online and person so um getting to the bottom line of the budget increase so we're talking about a
2.32% increase over fy2 which equates to just over $300,000 growth in the budget it includes a placeholder for wage increases for teachers and instructional assistants whose contracts are currently in negotiations as well as wage
placeholders for school-based and central office staff I've also provided a chart here of the most significant expense increases within the budget so health insurance other insurance retirement contributions and out of District placement the health
insurance is the most significant that is because Hampshire County Group Insurance trust who we have our insurance with voted a 18% increase on HMO plans and a 20% increase on P this is not particular one just a
frontier anyone who's a member of the trust which is I think about 30 surrounding communities and schools um they're going to all receive that increase Maya is looking at double digits I know sulin is part of Maya and not part of the trust but they are talking about double digits for their
insurance as well and then there's a couple of other groups um across the state that are looking at significant increases so also just aind F which probably isn't discussed at this level as much as it is just administratively the trust has had minimal increases over
the last several years last year was 8% the prior year might have been a couple but the 5 years before that there was 0% increase on health insurance so they're making a big adjustment right now there's a variety of reasons for that and that is reflected here in our budget
based on what I currently know so current enrollment which will change always does with new staff coming on or people dropping but we do feel like this increase should be adequate for next year other insurance includes an adjustment for liability um Auto student
accident workers comp uh we're looking to bring that up to where it is in the current year we don't have what the rates will be yet for next year I don't actually usually get those until um late June which is unfortunate it's not part of the budget cycle but we're making a
best C best case guess in adjusting for $30,000 there retirement contributions is the Franklin Regional retirement assessment that we pay that's up by almost $3,000 and then a minor um increase in out of District placement
which really $122,000 isn't much in the grand scheme of things but outof District expenses are one of the most significant costs in our budget so I think when we are having changes it's good to talk about them whether they're up or down any questions yet how many kids is
the 795,000 do we have I don't know that the top our represent are you satisfi their reasons for the 18% increase you alluded to there being a lot of different reasons can you talk about that um so I think
what they're claiming is one of the largest reasons is the increase in pharmaceutical claims um because of the new weight loss drugs that are available so not only are those drugs you know providing providing diabetic support and the other things that OIC and um Wabi
supported but now there's a much more significant population um utilizing those for weight loss which means that your pharmaceutical claims are increased so in order for the trust not to be in a deficit they have to make an adjustment
in the rates to help cover those plane costs they also have a commitment to hold um three months worth of bills in their savings you know they have CDs and investment accounts and things so that
if the trust did have to close for some reason which has happened across the state um over the last couple of years they would have funds to cover 3 months of expenditure should there be something major that happens um so am I satisfied with it no it's terrible it's terrible
for any of the cities and towns or any of the school districts it's going to have an impact on employees as well myself included cuz my own premiums are going to go up um but based on the data that they provided and I sit on the executive committee and I'm our
representative for Frontier um I have to trust just like you all trust me in the budget presentations I have to trust that what their president has presented his accurate data and um he's the one boots on the ground doing that work every day
and I do believe that they did the appropriate thing in making the agreement it only three members um voted no everyone else voted yes 0 and then we need to go to 18 we
did zero way R yeah and that that came up as part of the conversation this is totally off topic of our own budget but I think it's a really good question and you know that came up that in the future the membership so Regional Schools Deerfield Conway weighty like those
folks spoke up and said we'd rather you have a 2 or 3% increase every year versus nothing and then have this hugely inflated amount so does that answer your question not a whole lot we can do and here it is reflected in our budget so
all right I'll keep us moving along um so what I want to point out and talk about next is that to get the to the 2.32% and this was part of the big discussion tonight with the subcommittee we had to make fast changes to this um
we are using $100,000 of rural Aid and an additional $100,000 of school choice to bring this budget number down to 2.32% it would have been at 3.86% if we did not have those additional funding sources it doesn't
seem like a lot of money um you know 3.13 I think is good percentage growth for our budget it's been pretty consistent with our historical numbers but when we get to looking at the assessment and talking about what the impact to our towns is it does have a
much more significant effect um no new requests are included in this this is strictly a level service budget so based on existing programs Staffing and student needs total budget because we use Grant
funds and revolving funds to help offset is uh 15.5 million just over 15.5 you can see the total there 500,000 in Grants and then 1.7 in revolving funds which is primarily school choice but also
revolving account funds a significant portion of Sal and wages in particular because we bring students in from other districts I'm not going to go over these numbers but you have it there hisorical figures the average over the six bu
Cycles has been 2.74 so I think the 3.13 that we originally started with was was a good spot 2.32 brings us down below the average over the last six years so I think number towns will be happy with that enrollment data you can see in the
next chart that Resident enrollment is staying pretty consistent it's grown by one student over the last three years school choice numbers are going down which is bringing our overall total down um we're not seeing a decline in Revenue though in school choice because
we do have some students who have special needs that come to us through school choice so we receive over the $5,000 increase for those students and revenue um so we're not seeing it reflected that our choice numbers are
dropping uh it is something that we have to keep an eye on because we do rely on Choice pretty heavily to help offset the budget so if we have you know 12 outgoing seniors we really should be looking to replace those 12 with whether it's 7th eth grade or somewhere you know
9th through 11th um which is a little bit harder in older grade bubbles but that's something that we'll be um keeping a close eye on and keeping communication for George B so the assessment is comprised of four components um there is a piece that's
outside of our control that I talk about every year so the state required contribution is part of the Chapter 70 formula that is what the state says our towns can afford to pay it's based on multiple factors um one of which is
enrollment another is um property values in the town not taxes but the state property values uh and then um income actual income of your residents so if you have a wealthy resident population the state's going to
say that you can afford more um than other member towns and then we have the additional amount to cover the full budget because we spend well above net School spending and the required State amount our towns have to pick up that amount capital projects and then Debt
Service there's no debt assessment for FY 26 we paid off all of our loans last year if you recall Just sh I have a million dollar we funded uh with various funding sources so there's no debt assessment and we are not recommending a capital assessment either for next year um we
are going to be doing some capital projects but uh Administration is going to recommend to the subcommittee and then it'll come to full committee that we use existing funds so that could be school choice could be rural Aid could be other miscellaneous revolving accounts that we have
available I'm going to make this a little bit smaller because some of these charts are going to be hard to read up there all right so uh general fund expenditures there are classifications identified here based on the Desi chart of accounts so these are the major
categories not line by line obviously but the sum of those lines within the categories and you can the changes are so the general fund is presented today at uh just shy of 3.3 million which is
$1,888 over the prior year and then you can see the increase or decrease by category and what I want to point out that the student services and the operations while it's showing reductions that's where we've applied the rural Aid
and the school choice funding so we have not cut any services to bring the budget down that's really important for everyone to understand we're simply using additional funding sources to help offset revenue revenue is um pretty
bleak when you look at these numbers you can see we've only had $23,000 in growth uh the state actually says our towns can afford $113,000 less than prior year uh towards the budget so that's been accounted for and then our Chapter 70
because we are in hold harmless which is stagnant or declining enrollment uh we only receive the minimum P per pupil contribution so that is less than $36,000 which Nets to 23,000 roughly for additional Revenue it's really not a lot of money
when you're looking at your budget growing by we just said 302,000 almost and we only have 21 or 23,000 in new Revenue that means that our member towns have to pick up the difference which is a significant number and that was part
of our conversation with subcommittee today was what else can we do and there was the decision to use another 100,000 of school choice to help reduce the liability to Our member towns so their contribution additional um to be funded
on top of last year's is $278,900 and getting into our assessment so quickly just to explain the way that the ass mment works it's based on a cost share percentage so it's a 5year rolling enrollment we dropped off 2020 and we
added 2025 numbers which this is based on the October 1st assessment um not based on the current enrollment it's based on that 101 uh so we show uh 2190 students in the 5 year Rolling
enrollment which is a change of 48 students from the prior calculation the impact to our towns in the cost share is demonstrated here so Conway Deerfield and weight we are seeing minor incre decreases and Sunderland is seeing
a pretty significant increase because their enrollment number increased by 18 students in that change and what does it actually look like the bottom line I know everyone likes to get to the bottom line so here is the assessment mapped out um uh uh FY
26 compared to fy2 and the change per town and then you can see there's no capital and no debt um Conway the state says cannot afford to pay at the capacity that they have in the past that is where that reduction is
coming from um they've either had a uh significant change in property values or more likely they may have had some very wealthy residents move out of town which would change their ability to pay based on the chapter 7 per so they're seeing a
significant reduction in their assessment Deerfield is coming in at 5 or 4.51% higher than last year or just shy of 202,000 Sunderland 9.39 almost
223,000 and Wy 5.86 which is 6,500 over the prior year um on that screen it doesn't it might have been a mistake in my updating the I literally updated
this in 14 minutes no I want it to be accurate so I'll have to update the math I can assure you that the percentages and the dollar change amounts are correct I'll update the FY 26 numbers
she had this all done for we gave 14 minutes to fix oh maybe I did I can fix it um these numbers in the change column are accurate so that is the growth for each of the four
towns the reason that we applied the additional 100,000 was because when we looked at this originally with the budget at 3.13% Sunderland was over 10 Deerfield was over five and weightly was at almost 7%
increases and the committee just felt like those numbers were not um feasible for our towns even as they stand right now they're still pretty high especially when we add in the elementary increases
as well cuz three of the four towns are having um larger growth in the elementary budgets too so this is where things currently stand I think that that's the last piece I had I'm going to go look at the and and fix the changes or fix the mistakes that I
have in there um next steps just a the next upcoming meeting so tonight you're getting the presentation for the full committee public hearing is March 4th budget vote is on the 6th I think Sunderland and Deerfield town meeting dates are correct but I couldn't find
them on their website um weightly I don't believe has set their town meeting date yet and then Conway is usually that first Saturday in June um so we have a limited amount of time between now and the public hearing which is where we would make additional changes should the committee wish to
bring any of the members down what what else can I answer what other questions do you have I was just asking Bill in the past I'm sorry no goad in the past we've taken 200,000 out of free cash to bring the assessment down this year we're bring we're taking
100,000 plus 100,000 from rule 200 from end will still be used okay and applied to the assessment okay but we're using 100,000 of R Aid and 100,000 of school choice to bring the
budget down so they're sort of they're two separate things in where they show up but essentially we're using an additional $200,000 to support I missed something in the no it's a good question so talking about
rural Aid um so we have not used it to offset the budget in the past um but the rural Aid is really that the states kind of um attempt to help the districts that are getting so short funded by chapter 7 and so we we are we are spending you
know we call it year in a rear year in the rear when we talk about like school choice spending meaning that we are using this year's money in next year's budget it gets kind of tricky because technically you have to spend rural Aid in this fiscal year but we're going to
you know we'll shift like you know basically we'll be shifting like school choice and applying to next year but using those funds as the marker um and those funds are not guaranteed so it doesn't show up in our Revenue um it's like a grant um right now the governor
has um evenly funded it for next year so it is something that could be cut and so it is like we're we're cautiously using it so we're applying 50% um toward this budget we're doing the same thing in the elementary schools not putting it all in there are districts around us that have
to put all in um and then when you have you know rumors of 9C Cuts or that kind of stuff that would decimate their schools during that year because they would have to make Cuts in order to reach those things so we're trying to do a healthy use of that to bring down the burden on a taxpayer um the other
application is that we are applying the other half of rural a which we're going to talk about later we hope to um toward the fire alarm system as we got the bids in in and they came in higher we have to get it done and so we by using the money that way again we're not going to the towns for any Capital um any capital
expenditure so we're holding that in house um so it's there's savings at multiple fronts and the way we're using the money the towns is just coming in different pots from the cap there'll be no Capital request and um you know trying to work down that budget so but it's important because that's a new um
looking at U rural Aid we haven't used it in this way before and once we start to use it this way we start to use this way moving forward unless we make a you know find a different funding source to offset that in the future so but I think it's the the appropriate thing to do
because I believe that is um the states helping the taxpayer in the town pH those numbers that are up there are fixed and correct I did paste into the fy2 you had that right
so but the change doesn't didn't change sh yes would it be possible to get a summary of what grants we're applying with designations of which ones are federal grants that might be at risk of the current Administration I don't believe any of our grants would be at
risk from federal Cuts because um I don't think they can Karen I'm looking at you because I think I read this but Ida Ida would not be impacted by any federal Cuts as far as I understood it
title one I don't Title One is minimal that making threaten noises about these things we don't know and they're saying they might not listen to the judicial system saying they have to I can absolutely depending on a list of of
Grants uh primarily circuit breaker which I don't that's a state funded um idea and and Title One and Title One is only $40,000 for the budget impact there may be other things that
curriculum uses the funding for that we would also have a negative effect on if they cut that but that's it only those three but where it's hidden it's only 500 the federal money then goes into Desi and Desi's grants are funded in federal so we don't see the direct line
to the federal government so if let's say you have like we have a saf and supportive schools Grant we don't know if well we don't know off hand if desie is getting money from the federal government to go into safe supported schools right and so because we get the Grant from desie they may be the
facilitator of the money coming federal government that's a lot that's a couple steps back so we'd have to look at all grants and try to research them back and bit more and that would have a greater impact there's definitely more federal grants that are not they don't have an impact on the budget but there's other
projects happening within the school um safe and support of schools is one that we just received it was about $10,000 I think um but it's not typically for Budget related needs but I can
definitely generate a list for what other questions it was a lot of information how do we feel about the assessments and the um 2.32% increase on the
F Bill's happy winner winner chicken dinner Hey K is the winner this year yeah but I mean at the cost of losing a lot of students good front it's something to brag
about yeah the Chapter 70 um formula has Conway down 19 students from last year ke I like to point out that and correct me if I'm wrong I think this is a a thoughtful budget because uh Frontier trying to help the
towns as much as possible I think that there is an eye towards um understanding what the elementary school budgets are and trying to put the towns in the best position to be able to support those and also the
not asking for Capital there is a line of thought that we should be asking for Capital every year but that that by not asking for Capital this year it is trying to help the towns as well so that this budget was formulated with an eye towards trying to do as much as possible
for the four TOS absolutely and we do have capital projects that are you know we did put off the capital commit did need to talk about the parking lot those you have been out in it today um you can see it's it is and it's a million dollar project I'm just throwing a blanket number out there you know it's you know
800,000 to 1.2 right it's going to be somewhere depending on what you do and how you fix it um it's a big project and so we're not going to be able to after just doing the you know remember we went out for to take on debt and then we paid that all off but we used all that covid money and all that Savings in order to
do that because that was the appropriate thing to do so you're absolutely right that're we are holding off this year because three of the four towns are Elementary budgets are higher than we normally put forward not crazy compared to we're seeing other communities you know there's costs going up across the
board I think overall we're under control if that's a good way of saying it um but it is absolutely looking at that I'm looking at that and so we do need to continue and I look at members with the um different select boards and such in the room have that conversation that we are
trying to adjust based on the town needs and not just pushing forward everything we want and even some places you know we go out the parking lot you're going to say you need to fix this um but we're holding off one more year we're also trying to see if we can get another GR Grant around uh Municipal vulnerability
around where the rain water goes and that kind of stuff I don't know if there's going to be much I'm not putting a lot of um stuff that's going to happen but we got at least try I would just Echo that that that is not just what we've done this year but this is a trend that when you bring forward the budget that you guys have
thought about what do we do to help the towns and I hope that even those fin committees might not tell you that in person I hope that somewhere they appreciate that that's um what the mindset going into those yeah I think we're trying to have
I know Darius and I at a minimum in the subcommittee as well and all of our school committees that conversation of looking at the whole of how it education impacts the TOs we know it's the most significant part of their budget so we're doing our best to make fiscally responsible
decisions and keep things as low as we can so I believe you're going to take a vote to move this forward to vote agreement to move this forward to the um public a motion to move this it's not a
motion to accept a thing it's just forward to move it forward so moved second let me go uh roll call for you uh Chris Jessica yes Olivia yes Mary yes Bill sure
yes yes yes pH all right thank you next item of business is the graduation requirement competence and in termination you want to put forward sure so rision of so the revision you know so
we we did have a lot of conversations um and we also had a lot of conversations with our um our faculty as well and um you know the the idea of making mcast a required to even take really struck a
Accord folks um and where the direction are we going with standardized testing um I think it's very important to understand that mcast is not going away we are still going to be judged on mcass and I think um The Proposal we brought forward I know I've written this several
different ways in in in letters to the school committee um you know our intention was not to incite the kind of um uh passionate about the question too but what are we doing moving forward about our own accountability of mcaps the
students are going to be taken and in part of that so this evening what I would like to do is administratively um request to um table the mcast requirement um the mcast graduation requirement to even taking the test any
portion of that and just move forward with the compensative determination proposal which is the successful completion and passing of English 10 US History geometry and biology okay and so um those are all sophomore usually
sophomore level classes um and would meet the criteria of um what we need to put in place for competent determination as you may have also heard um Governor Healey has put forward a a council to review graduation standards um and what
they would look like around the state so whatever we put forward even with these compe determination they we'll likely be adjusting it um I think it's going to take a year for them to come up with anything so um this will be for this year's graduates and likely next year's graduates so well um and also remember
compy determination I know we talked about it lot last time but anybody watching we still have grad graduation requirements and then we have to create a comps determination so they still have to um pass the classes that we put through um as part of our graduation requir
um the long list of different courses and whatnot um that we require them to graduate so um this is no change what we already do in order to graduate but you have to have a compy determination put in place and they kind of I say they dumped it on local schools in in how to
coming out of um the November of dropping the mcast is that standard so that's what we're looking for tonight I do think that there is a healthy conversation out there and I think we have to continue it in the sense
of what does and I think Missy did a great job of kind of saying that what when we create standards how do we examine how our students are doing versus the rest of the state how do we measure our success versus other schools
success um I think those are important things because over time we may all be you know they things will as you create your own internal um assessments how are Measuring Up versus external you can't just use SAT scores or that kind of thing because only certain number of
students are taken those fews so um and I'm using again a standardized test but some kind of has to be a standardized measure so probably not tonight to have that but probably we will have more conversations as time comes forward um if the committee's Willing so I'm going to make a suggestion that we split this
into two pieces and we uh have first I would entertain a motion to move forward with the new competency determination and I don't know if you want to specifically list the 10th grade courses there or 10
presented at the last meeting I will make that motion and again I'm going to do a roll call for you Chris Jessica yes Olivia yes Mary yes Bill yes yes yes yes Phil
and Chris and then we can do the second portion of this which is the request to table any change in the graduation requirements we'll take a a motion and then a second and then we can do
discussion after that if there's any discussion to be had Mo the table manager second any discussion that is that clarifying enough that that motion table don't take you got to take
it off the table then you got to put it on the agenda so it's it basically goes away without having to go into the the weeds of that discussion seeing as there's no discussion Jessica yes Olivia yes Mary
Bill y Bob yes yes yes Keith Phil Chris right motion passes the change in the graduation requirement is tabled all right next item of business is to accept a donation for the entryway sign
and establish a revolving fund for that purpose yes so yes yes yes do those things um so we have a uh Community member a group actually started with the hoopsters
right who the sunset hoopsters sunset hoopsters who were using the gym pretty regularly here right um they made a significant donation uh I can give you the exact amount on all these but I also have a total for you because we could just V your total um
but their intention around the gift is to replace the sign that is out by the main road that we currently you know put letters up on every time we have to change the monthly calendar um they would like to see something digitized
perhaps um leaving the design and the final decision up to the school but that is their intention is for the donation to be put towards that um how they had a conversation with Darius and I believe George was involved and Bill hrth and Facilities to kind of get some estimates
on what the cost would be so their goal is to raise about $20,000 uh and we are looking to establish a or vote to establish a revolving fund to keep this money in a separate account so that we can keep track of the the donations coming in and
the expense going out and then also a vote to accept uh the donations received of $1,136 186 for this purpose w we need a motion to so
moved second all right all in favor okay without a roll call on this one all right are youing I like that b Park feel you have a digital sign all right hopefully not so stingy on this
next one donation of $4,000 from y c yeah so we received I I think we we didn't receive it in time to put it on the agenda last time that is what happened so we we knew about but um Yankee Candles once again did a generous donation to Frontier Regional for $4,000
to be used at the discretion of the principal um and in the past we've always used that toward um student-based need and events and that kind of thing something to enhance something we already do not to replace or some PL something that's in the budget so um and
so we need a a moot we need a motion to accept the $4,000 for Mak can so move second all in favor I think we should declare the front sign Surplus property so F can by and take it off yeah cway can
happen I'll hope I'll hope you carry it up there all right we won't give you all the letters up after to like you know be creative like potluck supper you missing half the letters you know yeah all right uh that motion passes if
you missed that among the banter um Darius you're going to present the so right so we did open up the contract um of our uh business director or director of finance and business
administration um and the good news is we were able to uh come to an agreement and extend her contract um for 2 years um the terms of the contract are to do an adjustment this year um to uh move
her salary from uh 128 5 12 12850 to 13350 and then the following year doing Market adjustment to $150,000 and then the two following years to follow Unit A of 38 call
adjustment um the subcommittee um which you could also chime in if you want to afterwards but um looked at Market where the market has changed for business directors um overwhelmingly shows the amount of money that um goes through the eyes and
brain of Shelly here is is is an immense responsibility she does five budgets for the majority of our surrounding um business managers are doing one maybe two if they're unfortunate none of them are is unfortunate enough to do it five times um about meetings and so forth the
committee also discussed um you know having um active discussion about how what can be done to reduce the number of night meetings there are some that are so required and there are some that um you know we could do some more finagling
of our schedules to do less nights out when you have somebody um it's myself included so I to do that but right lat on sh um but you know you have young family you have family at home and you have other events and that kind of stuff having you know double digit number of
meetings in a single month nights out um and including having to be here during the day for most days is a lot so talking to chairs having conversations about what we can do more to make um job desirable um so anyway that is the uh
contract you do need to vote it it was decided to take it to each of individual instead of having one meeting to meet just on this alone is a little bit too much um so it's gone to each um school committee to approve so we need just a general approval and then see what sign so
moved I and I wanted to say it was it was a it was a nice group of us we're all um I think I was in North Carolina we're all online and but it was a good conversation that the chairs had with
Shelly and Darius um about this and we know how important shell is to our district and and I know there's a lot of towns folks in all our towns that appreciate the work that Shel does too so if you had if you guys had all ridden
the roller coaster as many times as the three of us have had you would realize the way this place runs compared to the way this place used to run do not fool with that do not fool with that I think that the other piece that's
important as much as we really appreciate the work that you do this is also something that needs to be in place for the longevity of the position regardless of who's there that the amount of of meetings outside of work
and where the market is that regardless of who's in this position this was a space that at least needed to have a discussion about if it's not Shelly what kind of changes do we make so that somebody will be in this position for
any amount of time let alone an extension of Shell's time here and I think that's important to keep in mind that this is just where this position is and the demands of our district in particular that we need to be mindful of the pressure that it puts both on Shelly
and Darius to have the extent of evening meetings they yeah staggering numbers he's got it way worse than I do we'll try to help you with that is there any other
discussion I'm going to do a roll call for this go ahead Chris uh Jessica yes Olivia absolutely Mary yes you like y yes yes ke Bill thank you thank you all
right again increased funding for the fire panel okay so you we have two pieces of the fire panel that we're going to talk about tonight so increase funding and the contract they go hand inand but we're going to do them separately um um so I think we had asked in October for
an additional $200,000 to fund the fire panel we had originally allocated 200 we added 200 the contract came in um about 65,000 over that 400,000 um and we want to have some
flexibility with contingency plus we've paid the engineer and then we paid procurement Services out of those funds as well already um so we are looking for approval of additional $100,000 to fully fund the fire panel project which will
give us about 15,000 for contingency should there be any changes that need to be made um and we would propose that we use the remaining rural aid funds to fund the balance of this contract sove
perfect I just I just have one question we just hang on let me just pause we have a motion but perfect go right ahead my my question is I know fire panels are so much different but in weightly we just spent correctly if I'm about $9,000
for a new panel and now we're talk we're talking the whole oh I know I know I know there had to be a difference the 9,000 panel for weightly and ours at x amount of dollars so it's not just a panel they're rewiring the building so we have you know horns that don't work
in certain areas we you know you and so on and so forth well everything's working that working to it's passing but there it's time needs to be up smoke detectors carbon dioxide detectors you know all those kind of things all those
heads all having you know pull stations and things where we don't already have them because the code has changed but it is a really good question it is a a significant project um I think we how many bits glad we have the money for to
pay for did I send you the it's such a long streak of Escavating projects and number of sh shock well this was over so we failed on this one how many B
did we get the quote was from three years ago when we started this conversation how many bids did we get I was trying to pull up we have four yeah yeah we we promised bill so two years ago we got this
what yeah sorry I don't know should be if I should ask it right now or wait for go ahead this is part of the discussion so there was four bids one we're taking the uh lease one at like 440 or so and there was one in the 500 two in the 600 ranges what was the
significant difference between like the 600,000 650 and 400 so can we do that sorry I I thought it was a different kind of question but if we're just looking at the increase in funds let's limit the conversation to the increase in funds and
then hold on that for for we got to approve the funds then we got to award the any discussion about the increase in funding for the fire panel project all right all in favor for the increase in the
funding all right so unanimous pass on that motion passes and they'll then we're looking I think a motion to uh approve a contract or sign a contract with dmh Electric Incorporated of
Sterling Mass for a total of $47,375 so moved s any discussion wondering what the difference was between those a pretty wide range um some of so some of the things
they had to pull out was like pricing on you know U square foot for for uh wiring and that ranged you know there was huge ranges in that not just you know for what they're you know they have to pay prevailing wage and such but um what
they think the amount of time it's going to take to do it um is whatever whatever their profit margin is there was a wide range um we were concerned so as part of that we also do reference checks to make sure that the company who is the low bidder um has done this work before and
has you know proven references to do it and we got quality reference checks back on this so um that's the thing about the open bid I mean some people may be coming in higher they may misread the bid the person who got the low bit may have misread it but they're they're stuck they're on the hook for what they
they bid so um there is a white it's $100,000 difference you know some was more hungrier than the other person you could also have number of jobs that they were able to take on the size of your Crews um some places do over bid and because they don't really want it but
they'll take it if they can get it and we certainly saw that when we did the tennis court we got bids that came in that were like uh they don't want this job and when we talk to we hear through the kind of things they don't really want it but if you pay them for it though you know they kind of they you know they're pushing those things out so
um yeah it's all all factors there appreciate dist y if there were a reason that we felt to disqualify them we could even it they're the lowest bidder but if references were bad or a conversation we had with them because um Bill hild our facilities
director called and and spoke with the owner you know because that has come up before other project and we've done that before we' have just we've had a low bid that came not on this project but on a different project where they misunderstood the bid so we disqualified
them um because it's the appropriate thing to do any other discussion on the selection of the contract for dmh electric work some project they're going to start before summer well right no
they're going to start doing summer before get the whole thing in sorry but not disrupted to the school they expect it to be done by Yeah by mid August it'll be done they're going to do some afternoon things once school's dismissed starting I think even in April possibly
I forgot we made that change because the bigger window we gave them the cheaper they can make it too right you say you have to get in and out in two months thank you any other discussion on all in favor of awarding the contract to
dmh Electric motion passes thank you everybody yeah go ahead to next yeah yeah go ahead all right so the next one was just kind of an update on procedure for immigration and law enforcement
requests in school um so obviously that obviously there's been a lot of conversations that you've seen on the news and um concerns about immigration law enforcements coming to school and carrying out warrants or any other
activity in Immigration duties in the school building um and so I want to what I've already done is created a procedure for immigration law enforcement requests with the district I've trained all the
um administrators on that and they in turn have gone back and trained their front office staff and have since the beginning since last week this information to their staffs as well um but I you know I mean kind of give a little bit of a education for people out
there um who you know are interested in this um one if some the verbal laws still well first of all where this is kind of a mess and I I hold some anger toward the federal government on this is that the Supreme Court in 1982 ruled
that all children in the United States have the right to a public education including undocumented children refugees and as ases um they're allowed to be in ability we've invited them in and said that we will educate you despite
whatever your immigration status is and for many years they became you know the uh uh immigration law enforcements would call this schools a sanctuary sit there were other sites as well such as religious places um where they would not conduct business and so one of the first
things the federal govern is they said schools will no longer be a sanctuary site so we're saying we will take everyone in but well with you're here um you know you could be subject to law enforce the enforcement of immigration officials and so that's kind of a really
it's a messed up premise if if I have to put it out there and we have a duty as Educators to educate everybody um and I think it doesn't matter if um you know their residency is with us or not and the good that we do by educating every
body in front of us folds out there to the world you know and so I just kind of want to put that out there first because that is my philosophy on this is that despite the immigration conversation that's out there leave schools alone let us do our jobs and don't don't mix the
two with that that said um furball also applies to our students in our schools um which basically you know we cannot share information on student records with anybody outside of the school unless they have a warning and they have
to have a Judicial warning okay so a judge has to sign off on that the big concern was is that the Ice immigration you know the immigration law enforcement um has their own internal warrants okay so they're doing their jobs all right
and while you know they've been demonized as who they are but they are employees of the federal government and they're doing their jobs they get warrants internally that says you need to go and pick up so and so um because there in violation of their immigration status where you know they missed a
court date they whatever whatever the story may be and um they have those internal so they can go out and they can pick up base on that they that paper is the concern that was out there immediately um is that they would be able to come to school and round up
people at school schools are not while it says we are a public building we are not a public place the public we have a certain level of protections you cannot just walk into the school building and say this is a public place I can be here no we have a we have the ability to say no we have rules that you cannot come in
the building you know we have the ability to keep our um School building safe is that includes access to our students and that includes needing a Judicial warrant which is a warrant signed by a judge which is a much higher
level and a lot harder to obtain um and so basically what we have put put into place is anybody coming um from immigration law enforcement ment to the school has to be processed through the central office okay and um so either through me I trained Shel and Karen
fandino who's over there um director of student services um to basically work with our attorney we'll be on speed dial to work to make sure that the proper paperwork is in order from a Judicial warrant which again is a very high standard so I want to put out there the
reassurance to families that when you send your child this to to our school um we are going to protect them their legal rights and to make sure that any paperwork any of those kind of things is properly done um if some you know law
enforcement does show up with a Judicial warrant it's the same as a Jud like an arrest warrant um of that the same kind of thing where we will have to comply I'm just putting that out there the likelihood of that is very very very small they would have to um and for um
and I know this is secondary so if you talk about the elementary level even there it's even you know never a Judicial warrant for a fourth grader um again the majority of our students in at Frontier Regional are also not adults um and so to carry that out in the school
building um is very very low um I believe it' be very low and we will see that if that does change um you know we are all the superintendents are talking to each other um we have not seen ice going into public schools in Massachusetts um and doing um outside of
a few individual instances where there were judicial warrants where crimes were committed um we have not seen ice doing that in the state of Massachusetts um I say the word yet because we will we will stay um you know very U aware and active
in that kind of thing so um anyway so I just wanted to uh that's what we put into place what was sent to you was two um documents um for consideration that are from your National Organization miss the uh National Education Association um
basically this is off of a safe schools recommendation for policy and uh a safe schools resolution for students uh for school committees to um consider and so a few you guys have all gotten those
through email and this really would be a space you know I think when we first discussed it darus gave some reassurance that we have things in space I think that things in place I think this gives some weight to those reassurances that we give to the community to have a
resolution and a formal policy in in place to reinforce that procedure so the draft the policy um the policy one that is before you is a almost a mirror image of what I did for procedure yeah so I guess that that
right now and we would put this on the not for tonight we put on the next meeting agenda um that basically would hold that as your policy so that if I was a suddenly walk out the door and a new administrator walks in is the policy moving forward that this would be the procedure moving forward the procedure
wouldn't be able to change um you know regarding the resolution that's that's up for you guys to do right now the policy um the elementary schools we've had meetings already this month um have voted to put that on their agenda for the next meeting to discuss
the policy side um resolution was not um done at all the elementaries um the idea there and I kind of did push a little bit you can do a resolution that's up it's totally up to you I think the policy sends the message that um it's your it's your law your your Congress
it's your law to say what you're doing um and putting action behind um your beliefs the resolution is kind of um there's a lot of language in there that we'd have to really go through um to make sure it's all appropriate to how we are so I think it's a little bit more complicated so that's my recommendation
is really to push the policy onto the next meeting agenda um resolution you guys can discuss um just a couple of suggestions speaking um that a couple of additions
to the proposed policy to consider um one would be in the part that in the part that requires the Furnishing of a of a warrant signed by a Judiciary officer or a magistrate that the warrant also uh a requirement that the warrant
also um States the name of the student s um how would they you know who to get if we can't do a fur without the name of the student on the warrant they can't get a warrant without they can get warrants without a name on it they can't
get a warrant without a name on it but that's uh but there're also uh things things are changing so but that that should be a requirement in policy because it's a current it's it's a current statement of the law but don't
know if it will be tomorrow um and and then the other thing is that uh why let them in the build are we required to let them in the building to go to the central office that um is can
we not have a sign posted um at all entrances saying if you are imig here to enforce the immigration laws um call the central office and slip the warrant under the door we'll be with you in a minute
I mean you make it prettier than that so my my thought on this is that these are know these are law enforcement officers and um if they are going to if they need a glass door to keep them out
inside the building to do their business um I think it's more of the you come into the office we have a conversation what your business is here we have a conversation that they to let's say don't have the proper paperwork to conduct business here and they need to
leave and I think you if if you know we are correct it it you know is not a military State you know if they're going to you know varnish weapons and that kind of stuff it's I don't think that's a realistic outcome um that's going to
happen um and I think that you know when you know I'm going to treat all law enforcement with respect when they come to our building I'm not going to give them access but I'm going to treat them with respect doing their jobs and so I mean I kind of feel like that's the the appropriate um that's the appropriate thing ice agents are um you know people
who are in law enforcement who dedicate their lives to you know whether or not people agree with that they're doing is that that's the administration's decision not their decision so um I get that but you know the flip side of that is that do we not have a duty to
take the maximalist position in support and defense of the children in our care custody and control don't make an adversarial position right off the bat that's about the worst thing you can do for yourself I agree with you we do all we can do but you don't make an adversar
position right off the B so I would just try to clarify we have a procedure in place the Pol and I know that this was just set out this this morning so I don't know how much everybody's read through that the policy recommendation that is is there for review is that the school personnel must not allow any
third party access access to a school site without permission of the site administrator so I would say that that would kind of reinforce what what your suggestion is my underlying concern is that it um it's very difficult for
someone C whatever the the the first person that would encounter them in the central office it's very very difficult for a regular person to say no or to say hold your horses to large human being being with
weapons it really is we also have a resource resource officer in this building too right so somebody's going to come to the door and and Mr ravish is in the building I would imagine maybe one law enforcement would meet the other
law enforcement at the door maybe I mean let let's not go down this rabbit hole it's keep I got one just a clarifications so I I actually appreciate there to framing this that this policy is following Supreme Court
case law that the district is not operating outside the bounds of the law I also appreciate that the language of using professionalism and respect in all interactions and I appreciate you also saying that this has not been there have been no instances in schools so to like
to take down the tension my question is the difference between school grounds and the interior of the building and what the interior of the building what is is it just inside the building or do school grounds cut like outside Athletic Field stuff like that I so school
grounds is so anything that so this is where it gets tricky right and this is um in in conversation in the trainings that I had with you know the the Attorney General did a training and in cooperation with the um office of
immigration um and basically so if you're at football practice that's a closed event it's not open to the public a football game is and so it'd be very you know and if they came to a football game to carry out a
Judicial I mean we would still treat anybody who's under our care um where we could but it does gets kind of dicey because let's say you went to the game as a fan and your immigration status was in question um and they decided to track you down to the football game I mean was
be you know I mean that's not um it could happen but the school officials are going to be in an award position in order to um you know if you were there as a student we would try to as best we could in that it gets very messy and a lot of wha ifs out there um you know
within that and we can only do the best we can you know we're not going to train um you know do 200 500 hours of training for a very small what if you know we're going to have the general policies in place and do the best we can with them um if things in the state change and we
have a different level of protection that we feel as a district we need to do then we will meet around this table we'll have a change of discussion on that is how I my Approach on that is I think the likelihood is very unlikely just like to speak to Phil's thought about whether or not I should be
in the building in terms of maintaining a the learning environment that if we did have an ice agent with ice on their back standing outside your office which is visible from the Middle School Wing has everybody here met a middle schooler that's going to get around
among the students very quickly and it's going to distract from learning for the day I think that the impact on the students just from their presence because it is very distinct their responsibilities are very distinct from a Town police officer I think we should not
that there also the glass window doors are going to see right out and see there's a bunch of officers standing out front wait waiting for I think um and their role in that particular visit may not be um
politically whatever we could have a they could be there to with a Judicial warrant with a someone who has committed a crime and they need to do conduct their business and we need to find out what their business is and I think you need to treat them as the professionals they are you guys can go against it but
I just I think that um we are the role of the our policy and procedure is is to ensure that the rights of the students are protected okay is it to go completely against all the federal government's decisions around immigration that's that's for you guys
to decide I'm putting forward that you know I think that it's that my job is to protect students when they're in the building to make sure their rights are if someone comes in is trying to we have to have the conversation with them we don't know what their intentions are coming to the door you know it so
anybody dressed in a uniform and also if you you've all been to our building um an officer comes to the door we're going to make a secretary walk out to that door and say please I'm going to make you stand here while I make phone calls um realistically person gets
brought in they conduct their business and if they're unprofessional then we'll legally go after them unprofessional for being unprofessionals and if it's a police state I think we're going down too many wh ifs and it's it's getting a little crazy you can I I would agree that I think
that both in how I read this procedure and the policy recommendation is that the school personnel and the first Contact they're going to have is when they push the button right so they're not going to be in the building
so if someone requests access and identify themselves as a law enforcement agent that the first step shouldn't be to let them in the the building but to assess what their need is to be in the
building they and this policy should state that explicitly yes that this shouldn't be that anyone in some uniform shows up requests access to the building and we say come on in that we have to assess if we are going to maintain that
we are going to have a learning environment that's not unnecessarily disrupted we need to assess what's your reason for be but you wouldn't you wouldn't you invite him in bring him to George's office George runs it runs the building and George can
assess what's going on or he can bring somebody else in to help George I don't think it's an unnecessary and I would I would ask if you would do this in your home if a law enforcement Agent shows up at your home and says I'm here can you let me in first and then we'll talk
about why I'm here later I would suspect might say why are you here I'm not going to let you into my home until you tell me why it is you're here can you produce appropriate documents and I think we should have the same threshold for keeping our community safe within our
walls they should expect that same standard why I agree we're not going to let them in until they show us a Judicial warrant with the name on it and stuff I mean I think that's what we're saying I think that's what we're saying that they don't get to go have a conversation with George or darus before
they show that level of here's my reason for being here and it has to have a certain validity to it with this um with the judicial War it's makes it more comfortable I
think we are talking about Frontier Regional and I'm not going to pick on any other communities around our area but we are Frontier region and people come to school here for a reason correct they get a great education I I just I want to
make you want to make somebody if somebody's at the door and wants to come in and they have a warrant you invite them in mean it's not like they're going to run down the hall and grab somebody out of a freaking classroom but but you ask but but you but they ask exactly you
ask for the warrant if they don't have it then they can't come I think that's what we're saying that that's exactly what we're saying saying no it's not what you were saying but I think that's what everyone else is saying including it sounds like that's what you're saying that you're well the
judicial warrant is the key thing we have an ice agent at our front door and if we don't have that then then you got to go to plan B and we have plan B's in C's and is it only ice agents or all government
Agents FBI is at the door do they allowed to come in have Agy the federal government so we'll keep them all outside conspiracy if I come to the ask exactly exactly right so any other
member of the community ring the bell if you're a parent and you're an nice agent you're not allowed to no but anyone who who are you and and why are you here it's the same I would say it's the same threshold the difference here being simp
have a Judicial warrant and if they say no we say see you later yeah so and we're not voting on anything today we're not voting on anything today um and I don't know I guess we just yeah
yeah of course I mean we can go down a rabbit hole though I think Darius said it right is the wh ifs there's so many wh ifs what if what if you can't you can't put a a rule in place I because if if we
start if we start making walls up for every entrance we're really going to have to make a wall up for every parent I mean I come in and I my my not really my daughter drops her left she leaves her phone at school or at home and then
I get a message from a friend hey can you drop my phone off I mean I I walk up to the front door and most of the time I can walk right in and have to and if I do I'm not asked anything I hit the button and then I immediately get buzzed
in and I go in and I go to the attendance office I go to the main office and I you know do what I need to do but I'm not asked I'm not questioned on anything and were you not asked her question the very first time you ever had any interaction with cuz I was no
maybe because I'm recognized as I mean I think that that's a valid I don't know but I just know that our are if we're going to start making policy for I think what what Darius is saying if someone comes to the door invite him in and sit
down at a desk I don't think there's a harm with sitting down and saying why are you here I I it's it's very Prof it's professional courtesy to just sit down like what's your business here what do you need versus if we start stopping everyone at the front door we're going
to have to stop every parent we're going to have to you know make every you know the receptionist and the in the in the office are going to be inundated you know asking questions to every single parent what is their purpose for entering the
building go ahead Olivia George had uh oh so and so I just want to chime in so first of all I so our policy right now that that I've talked to our our front office about is if somebody does come you you they they're coming in we're
bringing them to a private place right away so they're and we're we're see we're asking we're getting our attorneys on the phone to determine whether or not there's any type of Warrant or anything like that because if there's no warrant we're not doing anything for them so I I don't want to put I'm not I hear all
everybody's concerns I'm I'm afraid of putting pressure on our front office for them to be able to make that determination I'd like I mean we've been instructed and I've seen this from you know the association of of Massachusetts superintendent and from administrators that the first thing we have to do is
get our our attorney on the phone they're the ones that are making the determination as to whether or not it's a j a Judicial want I don't know if our if our front office has that capability to be able to do something like that I've asked them to be able to I said if anybody shows up and it's it's a it's a very slim chance that that's going to
happen you get me right away you get them to a private place so nobody can see them and then I take it from there I contact the superintendent I contact uh he contacts our attorney and we take it from there that's how that's why I've instru our front office to handle this
so I hear everybody's concern I hear Phil's concern about not wanting to let them in the building I just think from a pragmatic standpoint um I think that that's I I think that they're they're might I think that that might be a little bit too difficult so thank you for clarifying
that I think that's very important but I also think we seem to be getting on this kind of crazy thing like I don't think that anyone who shows up who's a parent who's dropping off a phone or a trumpet I did it 880,000 times you know like or
anything like that necessarily needs to have a Judicial warrant and we stopped there I think the fact that most of us are visible to our you know front office staff and you know but I think if someone identifies them themselves as an ice agent which they will they're not
just going to you know walk up in you know a cute little skirt and be like you know hey I'm here and all of a sudden run in and say now I'm I you know what I mean but they're going to identify themselves agent and I think at that point you know they shouldn't be you know allowed to have contact with other people unless they have a Judicial warrant with all the specifications that
we said but I think getting down the kind of rabbit hole of doing that for every single person who walks into the building is seems to be a little bit George I'm wondering if you can clarify what's the current policy for letting any person into the building so
basically we know most of the parents they able get buzzed right in and if somebody who comes to the door who isn't a known entity they may ask bus but Ty conice and they have to sign in correct
well but if they're I think it sounds like it's a much more difficult piece to manage once there in the building I think it's seems like it's a much more controllable situation with them out of
the building so there are so many exceptions to the but once you get once they're in the building once they're yeah once you're in the building and you you basically the whole policy then depends on the
good faith of the individual law enforcement individual so I would recommend that maybe the policy subcommittee can get together and they can so uh I think that uh in the recent past sometimes there's been some
difficulty in getting enough folks together uh Olivia do you have a sense that there can be enough groups of the policy committee gathered to review this prior to the next meeting sure I don't know who else on it but I can be
available sure so unless there's any further discussion because I feel like this could go on for a little bit we move on to the next um piece of the agenda since this is not a voted item I think I only have one piece to
mention and that's the uh you sent out a piece it up the audit um that they're going to come and would like to meet with five school committee members is that through all committees or of just looking for one from each committee one
from each committee if any really wants to do it they so if anyone happens to be free on Monday March 3rd from 3: to 4:00 p.m. I'm not um I can kill two birds with one stone and for weightly in froner if we
you a question how long says 3 to four yeah probably come here or like yeah please here come to I'll send out exactly where it but it'll be a FR to yeah you can put me down for if I can do both of them to cover both or
unless somebody else here wants to go or whatever it doesn't matter are you doing double I'll are you doing double duty with Sunderland as well you want me to that's up to you I think especially if especially if you're covering both committees probably
not a bad idea to have more than one of you uh as part of that we know approximately how long they last an hour it's yeah it's a three four they blocked off an hour they ask really good questions I need toing CL I here
you have ex they're they're very they're trying to get a general view of things Keith do you have anything from the collaborative uh collaborative is servicing um a few uh Frontier students
they're offering continuing professional development but the majority of the meeting was that they're in a financial disaster right now they're at about a $1.5 million deficit and they're laying off staff mid year they're eliminating their licens share program they are not in a good fiscal position uh they are
there's a number of reasons uh uh the number of uh contracts coming to them has dropped they're competing against uh the state changed small business um procurement laws it got
really technical but they it affected them so they're they are struggling right now and um they're going to give us an update at the next meeting about where they stand wow they're saying they're they're about a year behind the fiscal cliff that a lot
of districts are facing no no and uh we're going to go into no all right so seeing as there's no need to go into executive session I need a motion to Mo
to chair second all in favor