It being 6:00 on Monday, February 9th, 2026, I hereby call the regular meeting of the Gardener School Committee to order and ask the clerk. Please call the role. >> Mrs. uh Mrs. Cormier, >> present. Mr. Lefrenier, >> present. >> Mr. Schwarz, >> present. Natalie Ruis present.
>> Miss Pavven >> present. >> Miss first >> present. >> Mr. Cormier >> present. >> Mayor Nicholson >> present. >> Dr. Pelgro >> present. >> At this time who are able please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. First item on our agenda this evening is open time for the general public. [snorts] Is anyone here from the general
public who wishes to be heard? >> Seeing none, unless uh we'll move on to item C. Actually, first the consent agenda. This was included in your packet. Is there a motion on the floor with regard to the consent agenda? >> So move.
>> Motion made by uh Mr. Schwarz, second bytorney to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there any discussion on that motion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. >> Oppose. Nay. >> Motion carries. Unless there is objection, we are going to move to item
number 3752 uh under the discussion items and item F on the uh packet for the school improvement plans. We have three presentations here with us this evening. Uh and we're going to begin uh with the school improvement plan for Gardner
Elementary School with Mr. Martin. >> Move the podium on me. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening everyone. So, as Mayor Nicholson said, my name is Earl Martin. I'm the principal at Gardener Elementary School and uh I'm here to talk about uh
the status of our school improvement plan and where we are at this point. So, I always start off with uh what is at the heading of our school improvement plan, which is our mission, very much tied to the Gardener Public School mission statement. uh our core values of being safe, respectful, responsible and
kind and our vision in which all community members uh will experience joy, achievement and care. And so these uh this vision of joy, achievement, and care was broken down into uh strategic objectives. Uh in as if you noticed in
all four of those strategic objectives, the multi-tiered systems of support is featured prominently. Uh as Dr. Dr. Pelibino says that is how we do school. So that is how we uh aim to achieve these objectives. And the first uh
orange colored one centers around the joy and care what we often in uh education parliament refer to as social emotional learning. Uh and we have that as a part of our school objective. Um, and I'm proud to say
we've worked really hard uh over the eight years I've been principal on our multi-tered systems of support to help kids achieve social and emotional learning at a high level. Uh, and
>> and I didn't put it in here, but they're uh broken down that strategic objective one and it goes A, B, C, D, and E um in the full school improvement plan. And even though it's uh the school improvement plan is from 2024 to 2027, we actually have achieved all of those
objectives for our social emotional learning. Um which we're very proud of. Um in terms of the next the blue colored uh uh strategic objectives. This centers around what most folks think of when they're when we talk about school and school improvement, which is academic
achievement. Uh and we in this uh column um again it's broken down A through E not here but in the actual improvement plan and we've achieved partially all of those letters but that is still a work in progress for us and I'll get into
that in a little more detail. Uh the green column uh strategic objective just really centers around how we use data to help us achieve these objectives. Um and multi-tered systems of support is really looking proactively at data and saying how can we get students what they need
when they need it. And so this column a lot of the objectives centered around okay what are we using for academic and social emotional data? What what is our benchmark? What is our criteria? How do we know we're on the way to meeting that? Um and so that is uh something
we've worked on uh identifying and and we're we're there. um we have a lot of um success in terms of identifying that criteria and those measures. Um and then the last one just relates to community uh family and community engagement. So the uh seal that I referenced joy and
care uh we look at a lot of different factors here uh to see how we're doing socially, emotionally uh behaviorally uh and the uh first two bullets uh center around our discipline referrals. And
when we talk about multi-tered systems of support, we're talking about tier one, tier 2, and tier three. Uh we're very happy that 88% of our students need only tier one support. All students receive tier one support, but 88% uh uh
only need tier one. Uh and in the student with the students who need more than that, tier two, um you can see students receiving two to five discipline referrals. has decreased during the course of this year by 3.76%. We've seen gradual decreases throughout
the last few years which I referenced last year. Um and then students who receive six or more discipline referrals that has also decreased. We also measure joy and care which is tough thing to measure. So we did quantify it uh through a student survey. And so the
student survey that we do at the end of every year, we ask students uh one question which centers around uh do you enjoy coming to school most or some of the time? And we had a goal in our school improvement plan of 90% of the students would say they they did. And as
you can see up there, 92.5% um last year said they enjoy coming to school. So um that that was nice for us to see. And then the care, how we measure that is, and there's a lot of data and research to support that when
adults in the building demonstrate care, uh, uh, students have a lot of success, not only socially and emotionally, but also academically. And so we asked students, do you feel three students in three adults, excuse me, in our school care about you? And 90 over 90 almost
97% say yes. Three adults I feel trust are people are trusted adults that care about me. So, we're very happy about uh some of those some of that data. And then we this year we're very excited. All the teachers are very excited. We adopted a new social emotional
behavioral learning curriculum. Um and again, we're very data focused as is our MTSS way. And that graph to the right, um the red is how we uh students performed on various social emotional
learning measures uh this winter and the blue is how they uh did on these assessments in the fall. And as you can see, the red has shown growth in every one of those character uh categories like you know uh making responsible decisions or dealing with um
your peers respectfully. Uh those are things that are not just uh practiced and measured but taught in the same way we would teach English or math. Uh we also sorry monitor data. Yes, we monitor data. Uh we monitor attendance. Um and as you can see from
that left uh we at this point stand at a 94.1% attendance rate. Uh and more importantly we've shown growth from year to year. So that first bottom um uh row is it's a darker gray it looks like.
Um that was two years ago. The middle row uh again the attendance rate is increasing. It was last year. It's like a light blue. And then this year is that top teal tier uh teal colored row. And you can see we've improved even more so from uh last year. So we're really
working on that. We've noticed our half days are our lowest attendance rates. And you know, and it's understandable. I'm a parent of five children myself and I know that uh you know it's tough sometimes to find daycare for a half day, but we've really tried to incentivize getting kids into school because even though it's only a half
day, we're doing good work and good learning during that half day. So, we're trying to get students here. Um the students can only learn if they're here. So, um moving on to the academics, um we're very focused at the elementary level on literacy growth. I bring this up all the time, but if there's a lot of
research that says if students don't read at grade level by second grade, it has a terrible um effect for the rest of their academic career. And there's a lot of research to show that it really affects their life trajectory as well. So, we're we're hyperfocused on creating
systems in our MTSS uh way of helping students get what they need. So, one of the things we did this year based on um experiences last year using the curriculum, uh we adopted fully our foundational literacy curriculum called
UFly. Um and as is our MTSS way, we are monitoring how well that implementation of that new curriculum is going. We are doing that in part with our um a grant we we received to work with a literacy consultant called the Hill for literacy. Uh and also uh we've also done spot
checks of how people are doing again implementing this uh new foundational reading curriculum and uh you know I was happy to find out that uh we just did a spot survey with our uh literacy coach and she 100% of our students were either
partially or fully uh meeting the implementation criteria for it and I will say even the partially it was very small percentage it was mostly fully implementing it which was good to That's our tier one curriculum. Everyone gets it. Um, and it's important. Uh, for us
to monitor that. Um, and we monitor that also through the achievement data, which is our dibbles. That's is what a lot of schools use to measure how well kids can read. Are they at grade level? Our goal is that 85% of our kids will be at,
near, or above uh grade level reading. Um, and this year we're always focused on students with disability, but this year we put some really hard numbers on decreasing the gap between student general education students and students with disabilities and closing that gap,
helping our students with disabilities to really achieve in the same way all our students uh achieve. So, with the right supports, of course. So, um just a few quick um uh data points to show this. Um the uh graphs at the right,
it's a little tough to see, but those last two columns are uh beginning of year BOI and middleofyear um growth. And um the six columns prior to that are beginning, middle, and end of year growth. And I, you know, and it's been
good to see we just finished our winter um reading assessment. And it's it's it's nice to see that our a lot of our reading measures are actually comparable to our uh spring endofear measures from the last two years. So we're still not we want to be that red is kids who are
still reading well below grade level. So we're hyperfocused on that. Right now we have about 32% of kids who are still well below um grade level reading. Uh but within that red band we've seen a lot of kids make significant [clears throat] jumps and leaf leaps. But again, it's not just about growth.
were seeking achievement. Um and we had similar results. The uh the graphs on the left are our star reading data. Um this is you know you think reading at the elementary school we differentiate between foundational reading which is dibbles those graphs on the right and English language arts which is you know
uh finding the main idea looking at character theme those type of things. And they're very well correlated the star is very well correlated with uh MCCAST. So, um the last column on the right of those those two graphs are um
midyear uh achievement or or star data. And so, we've seen some good growth particularly amongst the kids uh well above um benchmark, the dark blue at the very top. Um so, we're encouraged by what we're seeing. We're hoping to still make a lot of growth. Again, we have a
lot of kids still in the red. We want um to see that decrease, that red decrease, and we're again hyperfocused on closing the gap with students with disabilities. And then in terms of family and community engagement, um you know, we do a lot of things to try and connect with
the community. Uh we're doing a lot of spring events as last year, this year with with each grade level. Uh, one of the things that um I wanted to point out in our school improvement plan, we had a goal of increasing family participation in our climate survey by 25%. And that
gray bar at the right is this year's participation in the uh uh family climate survey. And you could see it's it's jumped well above that 25% hope for number. We also connect uh and this very much ties in with our social emotional
learning goals and curriculum. We do character traits of the month. Last year was last month was perseverance. This month it's honesty. We emphasize it. We reward it through our uh positive behavior improvement systems. We teach
it. Uh and the uh every month we do a celebration of the kids who earn the most points for showing whatever character trait of the month that is. And so there you could just see that's just a snapshot of our fourth grade kids at the assembly. And it really it's nice to connect with the parents. We invite
them in. They come in during the day. They watch their students receive the certificate. It's it's a really nice connecting moment. Um and the climate surveys, we're going to analyze uh the results of those at our next parent input council. So, so that's um where
we're where we stand in terms of progress on the uh school improvement plan. Does anyone have any questions on that? >> Right. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I say this every >> Thanks. [applause] >> I say this every year and I'm going to
say it again. If it wasn't for Mr. Martin, I wouldn't have majored in history at UMass from being a former student of his short. He would have done this >> in his uh AP US history class at Gardener High School. Uh up next, we're going to invite Yep. Garden High School principal Mike Park.
>> I will say a lot more intimidating than when you guys are on TV. All >> [laughter] >> right. Um, I'm Mike Barkcus. I'm the principal at the high school. Jazz to be here. Um, I wanted to focus on we have 10 outcomes listed in our school improvement plan. We currently are meeting the target on four of them and
are uh in progress of meeting uh the rest of them if not right on the bubble of meeting them. So we start with our first one which is you can go to the next one. Uh the first one is implementing our acade our tier one interventions academic, behavioral and
social emotional. Uh we are working on this goal. Everything we do every single day is revolved around tier one services whether that's academic, behavioral, social, emotional. While we continue to work on that goal, whether that's through um our CPT structure or all the other supports that were in place, we're
seeing results already. From an academic standpoint, our failure rates are down already year-over-year. uh our office discipline referrals are down and our students needs for additional social emotional support are also down this year. So uh while this goal hasn't been met yet, it is uh trending in the right
direction. Our next goal our next goal is about uh 100% of our teachers uh reviewing schoolwide expectations multiple times a year. This is a goal that we are meeting. We currently have laid out our schoolwide expectations three times so
far this year in the classroom. We did it at the beginning of the year uh around Thanksgiving break and then we did it just a few weeks ago when we changed over the semester. This is something that our students are used to year-over-year um and has helped with everything we do. We have um classroom
expectations in every single classroom in our building and some of those expectations are being implemented with student input of what they should be for specific classes. So this is a goal that we are uh meeting. Uh the next one is 80% of our students receiving tier 2 or tier three meeting
their uh meeting their uh progress targets. This is something that we work on consistently and are trending in the right direction. Uh because of such a focus at tier one this year, we have students that are receiving uh that are not needing as strong as tier 2 and tier
three supports. So this triangle on the right was at the end of last year. 78% of our students last year were just receiving tier one services. So far this year, 85% of our students are only receiving tier one services. Uh 17% were receiving tier one and tier 2. At this
point this year, it's at 12%. Um and then tier three is is staying strong at 5%. So while this is uh a goal that we're in progress, meeting uh in progress going towards, um there's a lot of growth happening around this one. Uh we're trying to eliminate the dispar
the discipline disparities for all subgroups. This has been a strong emphasis since I've been in gardener. Um the gaps have been closing year-over-year. Um it's something that Paula has instilled in me every single day and our numbers are starting to look stronger. Again, we go back to our focus
on tier one. So um while we're not there yet, the gap is closing and the triangle on the right hand side is showing that uh it's working. the students that are re are receiving additional office discipline referrals uh for the same offense or for additional offenses are are substantially down this year. Um so
trends in the right direction. Um these are our goals related to MCCAST. This is what we're doing every day. Our district priority has revolved around uh improving student outcomes specific to students with disabilities and our multilingual learners. Um it's what we're working on. We we consistently work on this. MCCAST season
is right around the corner. So, I'm antsy to get MCCAST started. I might be the only person that's ever said that ever. Um, but we're antsy in the next few months to get MCCAST cooking and in in seeing uh what we're doing, if it's working. Uh, this is a goal we're meeting. The
goal was to have 50% of our graduating seniors involved with one of our great programs that we have. Uh, we have 56 seniors currently enrolled in our early college program. We have uh five students who are currently enrolled in our MVP program or our partnership with Monty Tech. Next year we're on pace to
have 15 students enrolled in that program whether that's for carpentry, electrical or next year they're starting plumbing. We have students who are doing um automotive classes in conjunction with the mount and we have manufacturing technology classes going on through the high school. So this is a goal we're
meeting. We currently have 55% of our seniors enrolled in one of these programs. I think it's a great offering that we have for our students. Um, and it's a differencemaker for our school. Uh, this is I don't have glasses. Our dropout rates, uh, this is a goal that we meet. Our our dropout rates are
substantially lower um than most schools. Thank you very much. Uh, our dropout rates are are fantastic to say the least. I think this year we we currently don't have a dropout. Um, which at this point last year would be a huge improvement. So
this is a goal that we're uh we're proud of. And then lastly is our parents and students rating the school relationship at at least 90% satisfactory. Uh we send out the survey to parents, teachers and students once a year. We have met this
goal with our students. Uh the students has uh the students and teachers have have reached this part of the 90% satisfactory for the parents. Uh we've had data start to trickle in a little bit. So far compared to this point last year was at 74% and this year we're at 79%. So while we're not meeting the
goal, we have made progress and we are on pace to hopefully uh beat the goal this year. So a lot of great things at GHS, a lot of great things to be proud of. I think I could stand here for a couple hours, but I will uh not do that. [laughter] >> Any questions for Mike? >> Questions? Yes, sir.
>> What are some of the reasons why a kid would drop out of school? Uh some of the reasons we haven't had one this year so I don't have a reason off the top of my head but in the past some of them have been as simple as uh family issues student that now has to
tend to their family um and has decided to go to a different path and might drop out and go through a GED program instead of staying through the typical route. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> I just had a question about the um >> Yes, ma'am. >> the college and the vocational stuff.
>> Yes, ma'am. um how many of those students um have um you know IEPs or >> English isn't their first language? >> Yep. I'd say I'd say right now I don't I don't have a number in front of me um but it's something that is uh grown over
the past few years. We we spent a lot of time working with the mount this year uh on ensuring that those uh students with disabilities and our multilingual learners are being offered those opportunities. um because I I don't think
um it we focused more on it this year and tried to assist with the mount who I don't think was uh as prepared uh as they could have been. >> One of the struggles we have with um with the program is um it's uh in our school we can require teachers to follow
an IEP and that they can that they follow specific accommodations. At the college they don't necessarily follow those accommodations. So we're really trying to work closely. >> I was just curious as to how many, you know, you have students who are academically doing okay and they can do
these things and then I' I've seen that progress slowly. Students with different needs are starting to take advantage of these programs. And I just kind of wondered what the numbers are for us. Is it
increasing? Staying the same? That was all. >> Yeah. I I think Paul Paul will be able to answer that question. >> Okay. >> So, let me That's a great question. >> Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Barkcus? >> Generally, uh Yes, sir. >> On the college programs with the high
school, how does it work? So many days at the high school and so many days at the college or >> uh most days the students at the college for like se I'd say roughly 75% of their day and then come and then come back for the last two blocks of the day um to receive classes that wouldn't be offered
at the mount. whether that's maybe a specific math course, uh an elective art course, um or other things that are still needing to meet that graduation requirement. >> So, I'd say five days a week they're at the mount or roughly uh and then come back for a couple hours a day. >> Thank you.
>> You're welcome. >> Thank you, Mr. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And now making his Gardener School Committee debut, our new principal for Gardener Middle School, Mr. Brian Cody. >> Y >> Thank you everyone.
So, I'm going to invoke the um as Earl says, you know, you got to ride as long as you can. You know, I'm the new guy. [laughter] So, sorry I don't have a power point for everybody, but um no, seriously, uh very happy to be here and talk to you tonight about
the the gains that the middle school is currently involved with and um we can just kind of highlight a few of those for you. But I Mark, if we could just take a look at the vision first, you know, as I came into Garter from my
other districts, you know, one of the things I when I I remember the interview, you know, people asked why and why Gardener and I I truly believe this. I I want to make Gardener, you know, the premier school district for their for the students. and I see the
students on a daily basis and I see their energy and I and I truly believe the things that we're doing currently at Gardener Middle School, we're making an impact and there's this there's a different environment and enthusiasm uh
in the building and I think it goes to uh Mark if you could go to bullet or number 10 we're on the same page. I think part of that um had to do with being involved with the hiring. Uh when
I came on board, we were able to um we hire including myself, we hired 18 uh new staff members and we the team and I we vetted them uh and and I again thank you Dr. Pino and the the school community to support us in the hirings
because we were able to bring on some great people and that had, you know, years worth of educational background and they were able to step in and they're they're involved with our, you know, high quality instructional materials and they're using it with Fidelity across the floors and the
students when you walk the halls of Garden School, you will see students in classrooms, you will see them focus on their instruction and and that kind of lends into um another piece as we go to is number nine. A big focus that we're
working for this year is um increasing the reading and the comprehension skills. And I was going to start out by saying, you know, everything those two gentlemen just said did. you know, we're we're we're doing the tiered supports, we're doing the MTSS, but for for me, taking the opportunity to really, you
know, glean into what we do because Gardner does things different and and I've said that time and time again. And you guys are doing it right because a lot of school districts are not doing the the heavy lifting with looking at the data, looking with the tiered
supports. And you know with that said uh [clears throat] we were able to decipher very quickly and and and I want to give support thanks to to Dr. Goen for allowing us to have uh share the coaches. So right now at Garden Middle School we have uh sharing between the
elementary school and the middle school. We have a math coach and we have a literacy coach. And with that said, we were able to really narrow down and look at some skills that we need to increase and
that's kind of driven our approach to RTI, the response to intervention. So, we're we've changed and we're changing our response intervention um procedures focused on literacy. So three days a week started last week we have really
honing in on certain skills the the decodables the phonics we have reading groups going on because that's across the board you know and yes some are tier one but really focus now on the tier 2 interventions that's happening uh on a
weekly basis and if we can really focus on there that's teaching across the curriculum it's going to show in math it's going to show in history in every discipline with the reading skills. Um, and and a big piece is that, you know, it's going to close the gaps for
our students and and really looking at that. Um [clears throat] if we could jump to kind of working backwards here. Um to highlight a big piece of you know our vision looking at number seven um regular monitoring of student discipline
and data. Our discipline referrals on on a on a monthly basis have gone down drastically. uh and I can say this um students last year with zero to one referrals was 56 point you know 56% with
0ero to1 right now we're at 73.0% 0% of students with zero to one refer office referrals and that's across majors and minors. Um which then you jump down to two two to five percentage points and you know just to give you a
synopsis compared to last year and this year we're down roughly you know 2% from 15.9 last year to 13.4% in the 2 to five range. And here's here's the next piece that is really
we're I think we're working towards is students that had six or higher referrals percentages. Um we're down 15%. It was up to 27.8%. And we're down to 13.6.
So the work that the tiered monsoons, the work with the programming and the work that our teachers are doing in the classroom on a regular basis is working and we're my vision of making gardener Middle School a premier destination. It really comes down to getting our house
in order and we are doing that and uh we're continue to refine it and and I think big pieces going forward with the RTI which going to lead into the academics and our academics uh are going to improve as well. So that's what I have for >> Thank you very much Mr. Cody. Any
questions? >> Middle school is a challenging job anyway no matter what you do. Thank you so much. you know, it's uh you know, it it's great to see the students, you know, even off the bus saying thank you,
good morning. Um they're in the hallways if the hallways are quieter. Um and we still have some challenges, but uh it wouldn't be fun if it wasn't challenging, right? >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank [applause] you.
>> Um while we have our uh principles here, we have three field trips uh to approve. So, we're going to take those items out of order unless there's any objection. Uh, we'll take item 3755, Gardener Middle School overnight field trip to outdoor classroom in Groten on
May 5th through 8th, 2026. The school committee is required to approve all overnight field trips. Is there a motion on >> Motion to approve? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion made by Mrs. Her, second by Mr. Cormier to approve the overnight field trip. Is there any discussion on that motion?
>> Hearing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Nay. Motion carries and the field trip is approved. Item number 3756, Gardener High School senior class day field trip to Chucker's family fun farm in Chichister, New Hampshire. Definitely
said that wrong. On May 19th, 2026, uh, school committee is required to approve all outofstate field trips. Is there a motion on the floor? >> Motion to approve. >> Is there a second? Motion made by Mrs. Her second. >> Chai Chester. >> Chai Chester. Thank you very much. >> Massachusetts, born and bread. Um [laughter]
motion by Mrs. Second by Attorney Pavan to approve the field trip. Is there any discussion on that motion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. Nay. Motion carries and the field trip is approved. And [snorts] item number 3757, Garden High School field trip for the grades 8 through 12th to Canoby Lake Park in Salem, New
Hampshire on May 18th, 2026. The school committee is required to approve all out of state field trips. Is there a motion on the floor? >> Mrs. Motion made by Mrs. Second by Mr. Schwarz to approve the field trip. There's any discussion on that motion hearing? None. All in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. Nay. Motion carries and the
field trip is approved. Thank you very much. [laughter] >> And thank you to our principles for your time tonight. Thank you. >> Going back to the beginning of the agenda. >> Good night. Thank you. >> We'll go to section D, our reports of our subcommittees, beginning with the
facilities subcommittee. Mr. Schwarz, >> let me find my place here. facilities committee met on February 2nd and we were presented with as I mentioned in the report
um 40 pages of maintenance and it's work orders consisting of 206 entries. And what we discovered was there were none
of these work orders had to do with any preventative maintenance schedules. It was all something that happened at a school that needed attention. Just as a point, I didn't put in the re
report, but most of the requests were submitted by the elementary school. Middle school was the next highest and then high school after that. And then Elm Street, I included central
office with Tom Street. So there's things that go on at elementary school that I don't clearly understand other than they're they're in a mode of breaking things.
And that led me to another thought by some of the some of the work orders that um like the m quite a few of them re re relating to the early childhood cubbies
where the hooks were breaking off the cubbies which I thought was kind of unusual but Mr. Anderson relayed that the copies were made out of particle board and I said how did that slip by the
building committee? So I'm just wondering that should we ever get into another building mode that deals with cubbies or other types of furniture.
We need to really watch the quality of the furniture or the items that go in that building and not use particle board which is obviously economically cheap.
But as the comment in the superintendent's office a week ago, he says, "Look at those cabinets against my wall." He said they're over a hundred years old
and there ain't a damn thing wrong with them. >> Something to think about. [laughter] >> Something to think about. >> And maybe the next building committee or the building repair committee or something needs to pay more attention as
to what we're buying. In the long run, it's cheaper for the city in the long run. So anyway, I find the work orders very interesting. Looking forward to the next
batch and I was discussing with Mr. Cormier early today. We were discussing these beautiful things. He said he had a meeting. Why don't you say it, Paul, what you had with the meeting? Well, I I when I was introduced
to a school committee member at Monty Tech, he says, "How come we don't use the kids at Monty Tech to do more work in the city of Gardener?" So, I don't know. I said, "But I'll find out." He says, "If there's an opportunity and uh you know, there's programs at Monty Tech where you might be able to bring the kids into the Gardener high schools and uh not the high schools, but the
Gardener schools and uh do some work, some maintenance, and get some hands-on training what it's really like to be out there fixing things." And uh it's an opportunity to explore. >> I think that's something we should it would relieve Mr. Anderson of some work
that he could pass off to somebody that's learning how to do something and then we would get it done. May cost us a few bucks, but it's still cheap. It would be cheaper. And it's a double win for the kids that are going to do the work and it's a win for the school
department. So that's something we need to look into further and how to accomplish that. The other thing I noticed about, as I mentioned, the multiple work orders from the elementary school. It seems that they don't like to
do anything that's related. If they can pass it off, they want to pass it off when that's not so much the case of the the other schools. So maybe it's a learning thing that they needed to get into some of the do-it-yourself things.
So that's my report, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Schwarz. Uh I will note before we start that the Mont Tech students are doing the current kitchen at the Gardener Police Station that was never finished with the construction of the police station 10 years ago. So we are using them here in Gardner for some stuff. So it's always a good place to build in opportunities in
the future, pun intended, with the build on opportunities. Uh, is there any questions, comments, concerns on the facilities subcommittee report? >> Thank you very much, Mr. Schwarz. Moving on to the finance subcommittee, Mr. Lefrenia. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The uh facility
subcommittee met on February 2nd. Finance, I'm sorry, finance. Um, we went over the uh expense report. The committee reviewed the uh year-to- date expense report. Um, Mr. talk noted uh
Comcast processed our e- rate discount and the management and information line is back to normal. The out of district tuition line is negative and is about 40,000 uh more than last month. Um Mrs.
Plven noted that the GES electricity line item was in the negative. All the others were in the positive for the other schools. Uh, so Miss Hawk was going to look into that for us. Um,
also Miss Hawk noted the uh district needs a new pickup truck. Um, as the one we have now is a a 2012 GMC. It's got over 100,000 miles on it. Will not pass inspection. So uh that's submitted as a
capital uh need when with the uh or on the latest capital improvement report. Um let's see the revolving accounts were reviewed and all are healthy and operating as normal. In new business uh Mr. Mr. Hawk
presented the uh presented a preliminary budget uh preview showing anticipated revenues and expenses. Uh there is currently anticipated $2 million deficit um uh that we're going to you know the
team's going to work on resolving. Um we also had uh Joyce West uh at the meeting presented us information and graphs depicting a rapid increase in students with disabilities. The information included charts showing how gardener
stands as compared to the state as well as other similar districts with regards of students with disabilities population um autism rates and other sectors. GDER is higher than the state averages in competitive district averages,
especially at the elementary level. All of this is going to lead to higher than normal out of district costs and a restructuring of our prek program. Um what what that really says in layman's terms
is is um a lot of our budget or a lot of resources have to go into that. obviously affects our budget. Um so we're going to work on that, do everything we can. Um but most importantly get the students what they
need and give them what they need. Um that was it. >> Thank you, Mr. Leferny. Any questions, comments, concerns from the members of the committee. I just wanted to comment that, you know, that is happening everywhere and that um
some of these kids too have come into our district and have already have an outside placement and that this isn't, you know, it's no reflection on what we do as a district.
uh it's just it there are kids with needs that we don't have the staff and the support for them. So I you know because we talked about the multi-tered system of support and all that and we
are ahead of a lot of people but um you know this is it it just kind of sometimes it is what it is and you know so just want to be clear on that. >> I I apprec [laughter] I appreciate that and that was a big part of her
presentation. She she presented a lot of statistics and that was that was one of them. the um the the students who are moving who are moving in who already have out of districts that are just that's their placement and so that's where they're going to be >> and it's not like you know there's a lot
of new kids that are going out it's you know I mean we have foster children we have you know there's all sorts of >> high needs definitely >> yes >> any questions comments concerns
seeing none we'll move to our student advisory update. Miss Ruiz, >> congratulations to our January Wildcat winners, Lorissa Susa Marino, no prit Patel, Daniel Tadres, and Devon Depala.
Gardener High School is in conjunction with our patterns partners at college affordable held an information webinar session regarding financial aid and resources relating to the college application progress on process on
January 15th. On January 15th, recent Gardener High School graduates came back to talk with some of our current seniors about life after high school after high school and college and the workforce. On January 20th, 16 new members were inducted to the National Honor Society
during our annual ceremony [snorts] in Landry Auditorium. A group of 40 GHS juniors and seniors were taken to Fitchburg State University on January 21st. Students were able to attend an info session, completed a college tour, and then were able to eat
lunch in the dining hall. Student council members and class officers held their annual overnight lockin at GHS on January 23rd. [clears throat] Students were able to have a lot of fun while working together in many team building activities. Our winter athletic season is running on all cylinders. Our teams
are working hard this season with some of them already clin clinching playoff um I don't know. Okay, that's it. >> Thank you very much, Murice. Any questions from the members of the committee?
>> Thank you very much. Uh moving on to item F, discussion items number 374 and9 second reading of policies. These were presented at last month's school committee meeting. We have policy DBD budget planning. DBJ budget transfer
authority. DD grants proposals and special projects. DGA authorized sign uh signatures. DH bonded employees and officers. DI fiscal accounting and reporting. DIE audits. DJ purchasing. JA field trips. J O- E field trip approval
form. These were recommended by the policy subcommittee for approval. Is there a motion on the form uh floor, Mrs. Hurst? >> I make a motion to approve. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Motion made by Mrs. Hurst, second by Vice Chair Cormier to approve the policies as presented. Is there any discussion on that motion? >> Seeing none, all in favor say I.
>> I oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Item number 3750, CAPS collaborative second quarter update. This was included in your packet for information purposes. Any questions, comments, concerns from the members of the committee? Seeing none, moving on to item 3751,
program of studies. This was included in your packet this evening for information. Is there any questions, comments, concerns from the members of the committee? We have already taken action on item number 3752. So, we'll be moving on to item 3753, the 2026 2022 2026 2027
school choice acceptance vote. Uh, Dr. Fabino, anything you'd like to say before we start? I think we everybody knows that this is to vote for school choice um for the upcoming school year and to allow students to come here. School choice for those classes that are
open. Usually it's um uh right now it's been closed as you all know from um kindergarten all the way through grade seven. Grades 8 through 12 at both Gardenner High School and Gardener um Academy have been open. Um so that's
most likely what it will be next year for opening spots. >> So it's if we have capacity after our students are done. Um and the vote does say that if we allow students to come in, we also have to allow students to go out as well. So that's the the give and take with the vote. So, is there a motion on the floor?
>> Make a motion that we accept. >> Motion made by Mr. Cormier. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Lefrenier to accept the school choice for 2026 2027. Is there any discussion on that motion? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I.
>> I. Oppose. Nay. Motion carries. Item number 3754, the 2026 2027 school committee schedule of meetings. The draft schedule was included in your packet this evening. Is there a motion on the floor? >> Motion to accept as presented. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Lefreni, second by Mr.
Schwarz to accept the calendar as presented. Is there any discussion on that motion? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. Nay. Motion carries. We've already taken action on 3755, 3756, and 3757. So, we'll be moving on to item
3758, curriculum coordinators update. This was included in your packet for information. Is there any questions, comments, or concerns? Thank you, Dr. Kobe. Moving on to item number 3759, grant administrators update. Is there any uh this was included in your packet for information this evening. Is there any disqu
questions, comments, or concerns on this item? Seeing none, thank you, Director Dunn. Item number 3760, special education update. This was included in your packet this evening for information. Is there any questions, comments, concerns from members of the committee?
M >> M Mr. Schwarz, >> I think that when Joyce presented that to us at the finance committee, um don't anybody throw that away. We need to follow that and we need to support
Joyce as best we can because it's very important to all those students that need that special special help. Thank you. No, I was just going to mention that the finance committee report that all the data was in that report of what we went
over. >> Any other questions, comments, concerns from the members of the committee? >> Thank you very much, Miss West. Moving on to communications from the superintendent, Dr. Pelgro. >> Um, so I was at the the finance committee and I think the thing that's
been on my mind um constantly every now and again wake me up at night right now is the budget for this year. This is the first year we're going to have a very very tough budget with me as the superintendent. Um right now after we listed all the things that we could
still use like additional um additional positions um we've cut some of those positions that we were going to add. Um but right now um it started with a $2.5 million gap between what we would need
to support our students. um and what we're going to be getting for minimum funding. Um so there's a lot of work to be done. There's definitely going to be cuts to the budget this year and that's very concerning to me. Um so I'll keep
you a breast of obviously our our planning. This is not something that I do alone um in a room. We I have all the directors and >> principles >> um principles all together in the room and we make decisions that are right for the district looking at all different
levels from the highest level of central office um all the way through the organization. This is going to be a very difficult year. Um um as we've already mentioned several times um special education um costs are definitely going up to support
our students. We have more students. Our student population went [clears throat] up 20 28%. Was that what it was over the last few years, Joyce? Approximately >> about over 100 students, right? >> This year, but um percentage wise, >> it's so it's been going up steadily and
the students who um are coming in have a high level of need and it's our job to make sure they get what they need. Um and so that's expensive. health insurance. We're looking at a cost a cost increase of we don't know it's going to be probably over 10%.
>> Um >> we'll get actual we're we haven't heard from the brokers on any of that yet. We won't know until at least AP March or April. >> Yeah. But right now with other districts um other um plans coming in that's what we're hearing that it's going to be very
high. So we're very concerned. Um, so we're going to be doing a lot of work around the budget and I'll present I'll be presenting that, but I can't see coming out of this on the other end. Um, um, unless we have a sign some kind of significant increase somewhere. Um,
right now we just have the governor's numbers. Um, but so far over the last several years that I've been superintendent, those numbers have held firm from the beginning to the end. The only change was um 300,000 above minunes spending last year from the from the city. So I am very concerned. Um and
I'll be talking more about that later on, but that's something that's concerning. I'll just leave it at that. Any questions, comments, concerns from the members of the committee. Seeing none, moving on to our final comments from the school committee. Mr.
Cormier. Uh >> no comments. >> All right, Mrs. Hurst. Um I just wanted to say that people who think negatively about like the district or things like that after listening to um the you know
the principles and stuff tonight you have to look at the bigger picture and we are a lot more ahead and doing so much better than some other places and it's I'm proud to be part of that. Um, I did get to go to the National Honor
Society induction. That was really a really good night. Um, again, there's just these things that good things happening in our district that um, people need to to know about. And, um, I guess that's it.
>> Thank you very much, Mrs. Hurst. Uh, Attorney Blair. Um, I think I mentioned this before, but I obviously within my work, I engage with a lot of different districts and I was in a meeting that I want to say it was June, um, with a district that was just starting to
implement the MTSS tier one, just starting, like wasn't close, wasn't meeting, wasn't partially just starting, right? And which is like a completely different scenario than what we have here. And I think it's true there has been a lot of work done to that done with the MTSS system just to make sure
that there is progress which is helpful. Um we see that in the data right now right um and the other thing I wanted to mention is that unfortunately but doesn't make it any better but the financial situation across the state for most districts is a problem and there's
going to be a lot of cuts um everywhere. It's not unique to Gardner right now. I think we've been blessed for the past couple of years that we have been able to do what we needed to do and add the different um staffing that we needed to add and you know hopefully
things will work out a little bit better than it looks right now. Um but I do think it is going to be tough planning financially this year. >> Uh Mr. Reese, do you have anything you'd like to add to this evening? >> No, I do not. >> All right. Thank you very much. Mr. Schwarz, >> I think I'm going to be quiet
[clears throat] tonight. All right, Mr. Leier, >> I'm all set. Thank you. >> All right, Vice Chair Cormier, >> no comments tonight. Thank you. >> All right, I'll end by saying that the Rockwell Committee will be meeting in a couple weeks to uh review the applications that we've received. Uh so
hopefully the you know soon to be meeting down the line, we'll have some good news to announce. Um and with that is there uh there are no executive sessions this evening. Our next meeting will be on Monday, March 9th at 6 PM right here in the council chamber. And with that, is there a motion to adjourn?
>> Motion made by Mr. Lefren, second by attorney to [clears throat] adjourn the meeting. All those in favor say I. Oppos. Motion carries. Thank you all very much.