##VIDEO ID:gMtcikb0XHY## it being 6:30 on Tuesday January 7th 2025 I if I call this meeting of the gardener school committee to order and ask the clerk to please call the role yes Rachel Cormier present Ann Hurst present John leier present Shannon Ward Leighton is absent Jennifer pavin present Robert Schwarz present mayor ni n son presid Dr pelo pres Nora Moore student rep absent all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ indivisible andice for all first item on the agenda for this evening is open time for the general public is there anyone here from the general public who wishes to be heard seeing none we'll move on to item C recognitions by the superintendent of the John and Abigail Adams scholarship recipients for the class of 2025 uh Mr chairman uh uh Shannon Ward Leighton is President she present she has just arrived thank you very much Madam CL thank you so as you know each year we we like to celebrate our Abigail Adams Scholars um and this year we have more than ever we actually had 47 from the high school and we had six students from Gardener Academy which is the largest number that gardeners ever had so I'm really excited about um about these results um with mcast um not being a mandate it's going to be interesting what it'll be for the future but again you can save you know thousands of dollars um in uh in uh scholarships for um for college so I'm really excited about this tonight's a tough night cold weather and these these um wonderful Souls Brave the braved the weather to come out here U and we also have a big basketball game tonight too I think the girls um are doing pretty well in their basketball game and I think um one of our students just scored a thousandth point so which is very exciting um but um considering that there's um basically check my math I think that's 56 uh 53 then if I have 47 and 6 right so 40 so that's 53 names um what I'll do is I will be submitting them um to missman for um for the record but I would like to call out the students who are here tonight and afterwards if you wouldn't mind just St around for real quickly we'll have get your picture taken so we can get that on the website and to the Garden news Okay so without further Ado I'd like to um identify the students who um who've actually earned the Abigail Adam scholarship which means they're in the top 25% um across the state for their mcast results huge huge wonderful performance um and again the the number of students we had this year was just phenomenal so without further Ado you actually you want why don't you read did you oh I didn't but I'll be okay Anastasia a Ponte reela Rodriguez auy Richard ran [Applause] s yeah would you guys onl just kind of come right out here for the uh commital stand in recess and we'll after that okay kids and e e e the committee will come back to order at 6:37 p.m. uh if there is no objection we're going to take item number 3661 School Improvement plans for garden high school and Gard Academy out of order uh because we have guest presenters here with us this evening uh miss buer you like to start thank you good evening everyone um somebody give a quick a quick update of where we're at with our school Improvement plan um and some of the things that we've been doing at the high school um you know one of our goals was to bolster our tiered interventions which is something we've been working on for several years now both academic um not both but academic um behavioral and social emotional um so we've been working a lot on the academic piece in our common planning time and with our um four core departments which has been going very well um the behavioral data is something I'm super excited about I just got some fresh data before I came um a few years back when we were kind of just starting to roll out our mtss um processes and really looking at tier one interventions we started with behavioral interventions and what that looked like in the classroom and supporting teachers to deal with um some of the behaviors in the classrooms um so so we took uh probably like four or five years ago we like halfed our discipline referrals which was a huge um win for us and it's kind of stayed that way for years um but it's decreased significantly even more um in this last year or two we were just I just did a quick look at the beginning of the year through the end of December referrals even from this year to last year last year's referrals were way down um we went from last year having 400 86 discipline referrals which could be for a whole variety of thing but whatever the discipline referral was and this year only having 2 46 so that's almost cutting it in half again um and again this is um due to a lot of the hard work that's happening right in the classrooms with the teachers um you know with the support of administration so we're super excited about that um and something that we do is reviewing classroom expectations we do that in 100% of our classrooms on a regular basis right nor nor is nodding her head yes I like that all the time about what's expected in this classroom what's expected in the cafeteria as far as behaviors um so we are um doing that very regularly we revisit it always coming back from a break after a long weekend um when a semester changes so we're constantly reviewing that data um our our tiered our tiered interventions are going um very well tier one we've been making a lot of progress um tier three so our highest highest um the students who need the highest intervention so um are our most needy may say two to 3% of our population um I think we've been doing an excellent job with as far as individualized plans and really drilling down to the needs of those students um and we we've seen progress with those students um tier two has been we're starting a lot more groups and doing a lot more work with that it's we have homework club going now we have check and connect going um probably the area we still have the most work to do just because it's a there's a there's a lot of students that need that that um meet the criteria for that um but we're making some great progress with that too so those tiered interventions um have been a huge focus of ours and um and that's been going really well as far as you know working towards the elimination of dispar arities in our subgroup data from attendance and discipline in particular again um making a lot of progress with that not too long ago our our discipline data um um well was not particularly Equitable we were we our percentages with our our special um education population and some of our subgroup other subgroups um you know was higher than the general population um and although those aren't completely eliminated the Gap is significantly been closed for those um and that's something we keep our eye on all the time and um you know I put it in my monthly you know reports to um school committee so something we're looking at all the time um attendance again we've been making significant progress with our attendance um and also looking at the subgroup we're still a little bit higher for our special ed subgroup um but we it's closing which we're excited about so we're continuing to do that um our overall attendance data is near you know the state threshold is they shoot for that 95% across the board and we are um we're close I think what I looked at it for the year was like 94 point something so we're um making a lot of progress with that um progress with mcast we have been we've had some nice growth results the last couple of years which is um we've been very happy with um our achievement scores um we're always looking to increase um but what we preach all the time is you can't the achievement scores can't get better until we start without good growth data so um you know even though we might see although we've had some growth with our achievement scores as well um but at you know what we want to keep seeing is the improvement from year to year with the students and we've been seeing that so we are um pleased about that again where we still need to make some progress is um our special education students closing that Gap with the with the achievement um scores um which you know last year in particular with science we closed the Gap by 10 points which we were happy about that um um something I'm super excited about all the time is our um College and Career planning for our students um I was saying this to the superintendent that when I wrote my last um School Improvement plan you know I put out that I wanted 50% of our Juniors and seniors to have participated in either early college or some of our Vocational Technical programming um um sometimes when you set those goals like at the time I thought are we ever going to get there um but I'm was looking through the data and doing some calculating um and when you consider our early college program which has 100 Junior in juniors and seniors enrolled this year which we're super excited about we have our new MVP program through mon Tech which has um we have got 10 students in centry and 10 students in electrical they're adding Plumbing next year which we're excited about our Auto Tech program through Masachusetts which we have um 11 students enrolled in um in our own in-house manufacturing program um for the juniors as far as overall numbers we have um 40% of our juniors are either in one of those Vocational Technical programs or in early college and our seniors are at 51% um and these programs aren't for everybody some kids want the traditional um High School experience and that's great we still got that too um so those are numbers we're just super super excited about um Early College growing and our vocational programming that we're able to offer kids is growing growing growing and that doesn't even include the great stuff we have going on in our building with our woodworking program um our Tech and engine engineering programs um so that's something that's um I'm very excited about um and again our one of the things is to with a reduction in um Dropout rates our Dropout rates are consistently very very low um I think our last year was 1% um 1.7% for special ed so that's always a number that we're looking at that we need to decrease but um we've got some um great Dropout data um you know which speaks to we've made a lot of progress with our overall accountability data with the state that we've been really pleased with we had several years where we were kind of down in the 20th percentile and the last three years we've been over 40% and at 47% this past year um which we're super excited about um and one last thing with our um community outreach and and monitoring that um and parent involvement and feedback from families we've consistently um our surveys have consistently be coming back positive and with improvements on a 1 to four scale one being lowest four being highest in 22 we're at 3.09 on for an average score considering all the questions 23 3.23 and this past year 3 26 so you know we're pleased about that and the feedback that we're getting from um parents and Guardians um and the student feedback possible teacher feedback so we're um we're excited about that so that was kind of me reviewing what our what I had established for outcomes in the scho for next three years we'll keep plugging away any questions comments concerns for Miss buer Mrs Hurst I just wanted to say you have so many things to be proud of and in my work are all over the state so the disparity with the um special needs students it's everywhere it's and um you've done a phenomenal job our district has done a phenomenal job to to bring that you know to a more equal number but and as a parent of adult children now um you know there are things in place for special education students that I have advocated for for all those years that I see it coming to fruition I see those gaps closing I see the things that are put in place to support these kids and um you know anybody who has a kid going through public school right now you know they have a lot to be thankful for thank you a lot of hard work from a a lot of people a lot of people so yes it is yeah Mr Schwartz do you have something to say you mentioned Ro also curious as to some reasons as to why kids would prop part of school oh boy I know this that sounds like such a simple question listen there's a whole host of reasons um and I you know um we work super hard with kids that are um you know struggling often it's things outside of school you know um which we still support those students um um you know we try everything we can think of to keep them in school so you know it's it's it it's about such a hard question answer but every kid's different but I think it's there's uh it could be family stuff it could be just students who are disengaged kids that have severe mental health issues you know sometimes they're just kids that are have been dis disengaged with school despite everybody's efforts to try to get them um to re-engage um yeah it's um they just want to don't want to pitch in yeah I mean these kids have a lot some of these kids have a lot of obstacles to overcome and you know it's it's um it can feel like a pretty Monumental task to some of these kids and if they don't have a good support network around them then you know they can throw the towel in and um despite our best eff difference unfortunately there's some that don't make it through but our numbers are really really small um and we're excited about that you know and I also recognize part of that is we have an alternative school that is able to Corral a lot of those kids too um and then some of creative programming and you know so some that leave some of them come back very few come back but they do come back as far as totally leaving and coming back um occasionally occasionally we we'll get some kids to come back but but you know that's that doesn't have often right thank you any other questions comments concerns for Miss Baler thank you thank you thank you now making her inaugural debut before the uh school committee as a principal here in Gardner Public Schools Dr imp parado from Garder Academy such a great introduction so I don't have as much data and I'm sure you can tell from the previous school committee reports that we're really working on getting accurate data that is one of the things that we're doing this year is some structures in place and processes in place to get accurate data um so that is definitely something that is important to us and we are moving in the direction of becoming a restorative school and what that means is as you know we just talked about Dropout is there's different reasons why school does not work for a lot of those students that come into our building and a one restorative approach is that we're building those relationships and that sense of community so students want want to come to school every day and they want to come to school every day because I know at least one adult in that building is happy to see them and that makes a huge difference um and we have noticed from the numbers this year with the attendance is that we have a lot of our students in school every day not quite at the state the state level but we have some grades are up in the 90s with attendance on average some grades a little bit lower into the 70s with that but on average R the upper 80s to getting students to school every day which is phenomenal for an alternative setting our challenge is getting them to class so that is more of what our interventions are focusing on we're so glad you're here we're happy you're walking the Halls could you walked to the classroom and really focusing on that so some of what we do on a restorative approach is we've moved to semesters we were in trimesters we moved to semesters and also what we did with that is that we made it that you're earning credits at the end of each semester so instead of waiting until the end of the year to get those five credits you're getting two and a half semester 1 and then two and a half semester 2 what that does is because our students a lot of them don't have those good student habits they're not always motivated is you mess up first term or second term you only have to make up a semester for that credit recovery that we have students that come in and repeating a grade for the second and third time if we say to them you have to make up another year they're done they're going to be that next Dropout number so what we're hoping is by going to that semester system it makes it more doable it makes it feel like oh we can do this and as part of that we also have buyback for academics and for attendance for class attendance so again twice a week we have intervention blocks so students can buy back the time if they've missed too many classes they can bring up their grades to a level where they're at credit recovery and those kinds of things and we're working on now what does that credit recovery look like for those students so again they're here making mistakes School hasn't always been good for them how do we keep them engaged and how do we keep them motivated and those are some of the things that we're trying with the academics we're also looking at going to more of a standards based curriculum model where there's certain standards we're going to cover in a class and we want all students to show Mastery with that but what that also does it gives us a way to assess where students are because we also get districts that move in from other towns into Garder and the end of a gardener Academy you have no idea what their educational background is we don't know what they took they may have failed the class also for example but actually took in a lot of the information so we can find a way to assess where they are when we're doing those Credit Recovery classes we can focus more on what the students need and they can keep moving at a faster Pace again don't want them to come to us and think I have five more years of High School wait a minute what do you mean it's usually four for example but again to make it more accessible for them um we're also uh very proud of the MVP program and a part of that too is when students come to us especially if their n9th or 10th grade is when they're coming in the doors thinking about not just that College and Career planning After High School but really what do you want to get out of high school is your goal to go to the MVP program is your goal to go back to Gardener High School is your goal to do some Early College whatever that is that we're already starting a plan early on what that's going to look like while you're at Garden Academy but also what happens beyond that so it is something that we're working on as a goal that we're growing with that in terms of the academics um in terms of theal and behavior again we're restorative School we're also trauma informed so we've worked very hard to to establish classroom routines across all of our content area classes and it may sound simple but it's not um but also get the students to know when I go into class this is what it looks like this is what I can expect um so for all of our students we do a whole class check-in checkout system for example where are our students feeling today what is their goal for the classroom and then individually our teachers meet with those students and we're lucky enough to have those small class sizes to check in and again continue those relationships but also the student is not feeling great what do you need right now how can we help you so then you are available for your learning so that's been a huge piece of oural push this year another large piece of that is we have learning communities which think about advisory groups we call them learning communities each content teacher all four of them have about 10 students that is their advisory that is our Learning Community every week on Mondays we have Community Building circles you do that within your learning community Tuesday is more of the traditional advisor in theal curriculum that we have a second step like I said Wednesday and Friday are interventions and then Thursday are more community building activities but what's nice again as I started with that small group is your smaller Community within our smaller school to begin with you have that adult right away that you know that you can go to and you have peers that hopefully you're building relationships with along the way which has been really great um the other nice thing that we have is that gives us readymade ways of have contests so we're talking about our four schoolwide expectations beginning of the year with contest for being here for being ready being engaged and being honest and that was an easy way to do the contest and have the students earn the points and get the prizes and motivate them so that was a really successful way that we've used those um we also are using the restorative model it we have those Community circles is we're also growing more restored practices we're not doing that P of discipline that tends to be inequitable as we're doing harm circles we're doing conflict circles we're doing those restorative conversations in the moment with staff and students so it's not always send it to the office it's not always calling home it's like we're here together harm happened in our community let's fix it and make it right so really helping these students own their learning own their relationships and own their behavior by taking that accountability but also to make it better so we're doing that for them with the BuyBacks we're also giving those skills because those are life skills to own what you're doing and to own um who you are as a person um the other piece that we're really trying to grow and look at is our family community involvement um this year already when we had our welcome back with the ice cream truck we had more families that came even to the back to school night so both of our events the welcome and the back to school that we had more families coming still want to have more than we had come we did have more families come and they were engaged um and that was really great to see the other thing that we're working on is having more events like that so we're actually Awards night for first semester coming up in a few weeks we're getting Awards night at the end of the year that is all kinds of awards not just academic but noticing those kids that are always helping out somebody are always being that good citizen for that as well so we're always looking for ways to increase our family participation um we also don't really have an active parent organization at all so that is another goal of ours this year as to think about how do we get more parents involved from a PTO perspective but also from a school counsel perspective to make sure we're getting their voices in all the decisions that we make um the other nice piece like I said we have those learning communities is that every two weeks the teacher that is that learning community teachers reaching out to families an update how is your student doing in class how is your students attendance how are they doing making friends and socially do we have any concerns what are we celebrating and that's also happening so again hoping that families are becoming engaged because they know what's going on and they're not always seeing that phone number coming up like oh what did they do today it's the positive we also as an admin team are trying to make sure we're in touch with families too for the good stuff so they're not just getting calls when something has gone wrong and families seem to enjoy that and a lot of them are responding to the teachers emails which is really encouraging and then in terms of the community um one of the things that that I really want us to see with our students is for them to realize there's a world outside of gardener especially for our students that don't feel like school is a good place for them so we're doing a lot of work to get different Community groups to come into our school and they're always thrilled to see our kids and our kids are always thrilled to see them um Mach has been doing some health classes and that's been going really well we did something totally new this year and we had the Department of Mental Health came in on Halloween and they have a lot of peer mentors peer counsel filment mentors who have had mental health struggles themselves and some of them have gone to Alternative High Schools so they came in and ran this event so students could get to know them and start again building those relationships and that trust so they can keep coming in and doing more activities to work on coping skills and different kinds of things and there was an air brush tattoo guy it was not my influence I swear um but he was very popular they made slime they made lava lamps so they weren didn't realize some of what they were doing were actually coping skills and that's what made it the best day ever because they they weren't put off by they were really engaged with it and learning from it and they're going to come in and do some more events we're hoping to do something around cooking because that was an interest of students and maybe some more art um we also have just uh started a partnership with the child and Family Wellness Center in lemonster um which has been phenomenal because they're new enough they can take our students as clients but they also been coming into our school and they did a welcome activity before the break and the students had a blast um they actually have a clinician come to our school hopefully and start seeing some students and running groups um and and the great thing is too is that their staff a lot of their staff are people of color so our students see them in them so that to see their faces light up like what I'm like I know it's great um this it's also been the best part of it when they see that you can hear them talking in Spanish to one of their their clinicians and things like that so that's been the best part too is to see them see themselves and the people coming in um we have also had a good relationship with our probation officer we're trying to not not file cras as often but really to work with students and their families in preventive ways and be creative so we're not going to the court all of the time and um do putting families through that process and that's been mixed somewhat successful we've been trying that this year and actually Corey is the one who introduced us to the Child and Family Wellness Center so that was a great connection that we got there um that we have going we also had the Army recruiter come in before a break that was also phenomenal so just again getting more people from the community in our building to show our students that people do care about them and like them but also that there are opportunities outside of of garden so that's also been um pretty exciting for us as well and in terms of some of the areas of growth very similar to what Paul was saying for the high school is really like I said looking at that career and College Planning piece of it to really build that up while they with us but also after there with with us um again increasing that family engagement um and just really working on our tiered intervention system we have a good solid foundation of tier one but really building up those other tiers so we're pretty proud of what we've done with tier one but to continue to to have that growth and really think about how we can help our students and families more any questions comments concerns for Dr thank you very much this this is really impressive oh thank you this is really impressive the um the way that you're weaving I mean social emotional learning can be woven into anything it's it's just like it's ingrained it's it's human learning and the way that the relationship building and the sense of belonging the the way you're describing how you're fostering it I mean it's it's exciting to hear what the plans are and the ideas so just thank you for um engaging in this work because you know and we all know it's it's just important to make these kids understand that they do belong and that they can see themselves successful and it may look different than it does to Kids In traditional right public school so just thank you for your energy and welcome to the position this thank you thank you any other questions comments concerns thank you very much Dr for both of you thank you very much for what you're doing really appreciate that a lot and uh Mrs buer happy birthday oh no place i' rather be on my [Laughter] you can thank someone in my office for letting me [Laughter] know uh there are two more items we're going to take out of order just to be uh respectful of the people who are here presenting we're going to go to item 3659 support for the appropriation for the massachusett school building authority Gardener Middle School feasibility study for a new roof project Drina actually oh director Hawk do you want to let us know the process on this yeah um we submitted to the NBA we were accepted into their accelerated repair program this is the first step after the acceptance we have to uh go through the motions the city council has to vote on the appropriation before we even know how much we're appropriating seems odd but they give us guidance to come up with the number so this is sort of a uh what I hope is a not to exceed number I hope it'll come in much lower but um generally the city council looks at the school committee for General support of the project so that's what this vote was for General support so that when it goes to the city council hopefully at their next meeting um they'll know that the school committee is uh fully behind a new roof the government mle school thank you director hot uh this is something we've done before with the new school with the new roof Windows other msba projects that we've had uh and it is odd that we have the appropriation before we know how much we need in the appropriation but that's just the process that's legally outlined by the msba statute is there a motion on the floor attorney a motion to approve the support Second motion made by attorney p and seconded by Mr Schwarz to recommend favorable on the appropriation that will be coming before the city council at a future date is there any further discussion on that motion po time we got it done for that part yes that accepted any further discussion on the motion none all in favor say I hi oppos nay motion carries and last one out of order before we go back to the top item 3662 the College and Career Readiness coordinator presentation director pay you everyone um so you already heard a little bit about the College and Career stule from the high school of port and Gartner Academy um so I just wanted to kind of um be here as well to give some some semester One updates since semester one closed in regards to our updated retention rates where we're at for Recruitment and then just some of more of the behind um movement that we have within the state in the designation process um you know as much as we know and then we try to relay that to you guys so um you know the the demographics hasn't obviously changed much since the beginning of the year once the the cohorts accepted that's kind of um who we have for the year so we're currently at 90 students for the year uh we had a really successful semester one with these students um we were I like I actually have not got official transcripts yet but I've been able to go through the computers and read them um right now we're at a 95 retention retention rate um for semester one so we were really happy with that this was the largest cohort we've had go into Early College Academy um obviously we have larger cohorts and you're taking in more students and you're trying to make sure that all students have access um you have to provide a higher level of support and planning for those students and to keep our retention rate at 95% where it has been throughout the program we were really happy that we were able to continue to deliver that same kind of service to those students um one of the other kind of improvements that we saw within the retention rate um last year students who did not retain the program were across the board students who were um historically underrepresented and specifically are students on IEPs that was a very high um dropout rate from the program um who matriculated back into the high school from this share all students who receive um any IEP or P Force Support Services actually did retain we did not have any students from any under um represented populations in any of the 5% that is coming out of the program so we were able to really make sure that that group was more heavily supported based off of last year's data um so we were you know pleasantly surprised that again we're still going through um official transcripts but as of now it looks like we um over yeah a lot a lot of success out of the you know 95% who did retain we also saw huge Improvement in just their overall academic performance um this is something that I think is a result of us really working on our scope and sequencing of the courses that we offer being more strategic about the math courses um we've done some work with with Dr vogan and with um Dr Pard over at Mount lausett to try to kind of align some of the courses and then really work on like what should they be coming out of at the high school before they're going into college math um and I think we really saw the impacts this that this year uh last year at this time we had 26 students on probation so that's somewhere between a two and a 25 college gpa um this year within our 95% retained group we only have nine students within that uh GPA range everybody else is over the 2.5 GPA at a college local GPA so we really saw a lot of success in their um performance I think that's a really kind of it attributes to the the alignment we've done and the work we've done with our high school teachers to get them academically prepared for this so um so those you know that is all kind of very exciting updates that that we shared in the report um in regards to our MVP program that they both had touched upon um uh we did get the green light for plumbing we have a little bit of a hold up on the state side so um it's it'll be behind schedule but it you know it'll be open for next yeah we should be able to recruit for next year so will be going from electrical and carpentry we will be officially adding and plumbing and then that'll give us an additional 10 seats in the program so we'll be have um 30 students over in the program total 15 Juniors 15 seniors for next year so we were um happy with that and that program has had a lot of success those students are loving it over there it's really fun to go over there and watch them um they they attendant and their grades over there are are phenomenal even our students who are still struggling with attendance and grades on those academic weeks weeks they are not struggling over there like on their shop weeks they are there they are working hard they are performing well um so it's just really fun to see that program you know off the ground and running um some of the behind the scene things that are you know going on with Early College designation um that I wanted to share we have had the opportunity this year to to contribute to two state level um working groups research Pilots you know they kind of throw different names on them um because of the work that we have done within and the growth that we have seen within our community and the um you know the positive outcomes we've seen within our community um so we got invited to participate uh with the commissioner of the Department of higher education and partnership with desie um in regards to kind of researching and rolling out some pilot initiatives to address our ffer rates uh within Gardner but also within Massachusetts which is hisor you know has been over the past years about 50 to 60% across the state um which is very low you only have 60% of your students filing pass that's not good um so part of our early college um data has really shown that our early college students um are going at a much higher rate and they're persisting in a much higher rate so we were um invited to participate in this and as a result of that we actually get to launch some new pilot software and work with the Department of higher education um that will be designed for us and one other school participating so our students will have access to some uh supposedly some some advanced technology and some more guided assistance and and Financial a access and support um so we're really excited about that so for I mean that's a great benefit for our students to be able to have at try it's something that nobody else in the state has a Trad which should increase the financial aid awareness and financial aid capacity that they have um and making College more affordable and accessible um hopefully this pilot runs well hopefully it's impactful for our students and then the state would ideally pick this up and roll it out to other communities um so we're in the middle of that process working with those um two organizations um and then we're also invited to sit in and work with um the Department of Education actually rewriting The Early College designation criteria so we've been working this year to sit in with desie on the Consulting Group and and contribute to the feedback of the rubrics the designation expectations what should the program look like different models for this researching different models um and a lot of that is because of the success that we have seen within our programs and the student outcomes of that um so it's been really nice do you know for to have our programs to be recognized but then to be also to contributing to moving these initiatives forward in the state based off of the work we've done um so is there some of the behind the scenes updates um yeah any any questions that I not covered either through the report or yeah so you you have become part of a study group within the Department of Education at Higher Learning in in the state I'm I guess it's safe to assume that not all districts in the community in the Commonwealth have college program like we do that is correct so that's actually one of the big questions that we have been tackling um so right now there's the enrollment across the state is you know give give or take about 7,000 students depending on how you define an early college program um desie just put out there for their fiveyear plan that they'd like to see it at 25,000 in the next five years I mean that is obviously substantial growth and requires all sorts of sta you know there's staffing issues there's again you know designation how you get schools designated so that's one of the the things that we are assisting them in kind of looking at and having these conversations around like how would you even scale it to that level and how do you make it accessible to all schools not because when I went to high school we were lucky were able to graduate no no one ever thought about going to college and high school at the same time um yeah and the data has continued and desie is really doing a little bit of a better job of tracking some post-graduate data they have a somewhat new post graduate um resource so we're we're just getting access to that um so that will be helpful we'll actually really start to be able to see um where our students are matriculating into and if they're persisting um our data from last year we had about 93% of our early college students um matriculated to college so they we know that they at least deposited and accepted and and and went in the fall we don't have the data whether they retain from the first semester or forward um the piece that we got recognized for the state which was one of the things that got us invited was that of that group 100% of our lowincome students who participated in some postsecondary uh Early College Plan Automotive plan 100% of those students did enroll in a Higher Education Institute um and that was a data that stood out you know to share with you I didn't complete College till 27 years at the high school it it takes a long time for some people the goal is to make it more accessible the choices were I was married I had children yeah and if I didn't go to get a college degree it was my job so that was certain motivation and sometimes it just depends on where you're at in your life and but if we can get students foot in the door and get them experience and make it quicker and easier and less of a financial burden um we see more success in completing it so yeah you any other questions common concerns for director pain thank you very much thank you very much thank you for we're going back to the beginning of the agenda again so now we will be in order for the rest of the meeting uh item D is listed as introduction of school committee members that's because we copied and pasted from the last organizational meeting that we had last year after we had an election uh we do not have any new school committee members we need to introduce tonight so we're going to skip over that to item e reorganization of the school committee officers pursuing of section 38 of the charter of the city of Gardner the school committee is hereby meeting on Tuesday the on on Tuesday on the on the Tuesday excuse me uh following the first Monday in January for the purpose of our annual reorganization meeting to elect the officers of the school committee pursuing to section 37 of the charter of the city of garden the mayor serving as the chair of the committee shall provi preside over the organizational process the process for the election of officers of the of the committee shall be as follows nominations will be opened by the chair any me member May nominate another member or themselves for the position for which nominations have been open opened nominations do not need to be seconded by another member but other members may choose to do so as a sign of support for the nomination the chair shall ask if there are any other nominations from from the floor for a total of three times after which the chair shall call for a motion to close nominations for that position following a successful vote to close nominations the chair shall ask the clerk to call the role of members voting when called members shall State the name of the person that they are voting for in that position the election of officers shall proceed in the order in which they are listed on the agenda for this evening's meeting at this time I'll hereby open nominations for the position of Vice chair I nominate Rachel Cormier to be Vice chair a second that there's a nomination by attorney P seconded by Ms Ward Leighton for the position of Vice chair are there any other nominations from the floor are there any other nominations from the floor third and final are there any other nominations from the floor is there a motion M to close nominations for the position of Vice chair so Move Motion made by Mr Schwarz seconded by Mr lefer to close nominations for the position of Vice chair is there any discussion on the motion all in favor say I I oppose nay at this time a clerk will please call the role for those voting for vice chair when called please State the name of the candidate who you wish to vote for and uh Miss hman I'll be voting on all of be sure I got the right page here yes this is a roll call uh voting for uh r carier for vice chair she was the U only uh nomination for that position and the motion was made and seconded so I will uh have to call i c have to call them in alphabetical order so the first person is Rachel Cormier vote for myself Rachel Cormier uh Mr uh Mrs Hurst Rael Cormier uh Mr lrer Rachel Cormier Mrs Shannon Ward Leighton Rachel Cormier uh Mrs P Rachel Cormier Mr Schwarz Rachel carier and mayor Nicholson Rachel carmier okay so that's two four six seven votes for uh Mrs Cormier congratulations Mrs Cormier thank you nominations are hereby open for the position of finance officer is there a nomination from the floor I nominate John lrer to be finance officer I'll second uh not uh Mr still frer has been nominated by attorney pen seconded by Mr Schwarz for the position of finance officer of the committee are there any other nominations from the floor I I'm sorry uh the nomination was for Mr lefer yes okay thank you did I say that right yes yes uh second time is there any other nominations from the floor and third time is there any other nominations from the floor at this time I'll entertain a motion to close nominations move to close is there a second second motion made by Mr Schwarz seconded by Mrs Cormier to close nominations for the position of finance officer is there any discussion on the motion all in favor say I I oppose nay motion carries the clerk will please call the role for finance officer this is a roll call vote for the position of finance officer and you're voting for Mr John lafrenier uh as the only uh candidate finance officer uh Mrs Cormier John leener uh Mrs Hurst John lefer Mr lefer John lrer Mrs Ward Leighton John Leia Mrs pavin John lefr Mr Schwarz John LR and Mr Nichol Amir Nicholson John lefr there seven votes for Mr Leia thank very much our nominations are now open for the position of alternate Finance officers there are two of these so when your name was called for the vote you'll say two names uh for that one are there nominations open on the floor I will nominate um B Schwarz are there any of the nominations Mr I'll nominate uh Mr Schwarz um so nomination by Mr Schwarz by Mr second by Mr I'm sorry second and uh second I was seconding it yeah sure I was seconding it okay and then I'll nominate uh Jen pen nomination by for Mr lren for Jen pen for one of the two seconded by Mr Schwarz are there any other nominations from the floor are there any other nominations from the floor third and final are there any other nominations from the floor seeing none is there a motion to close nominations for the move to close s is there a second second by Miss word Leon motion made by Mr Schwarz uh any discussion on that motion all those in favor say I I all those nay at this time the clerk will call the role for alternate Finance officers in which the response would be two names yes okay this is the role call vote for alternate Finance officers and you are to vote for two uh Mrs carier Bob Schwarz and Jen Fen Mrs Hurst Robert Schwarz and Jennifer Fen Mr lrer Robert Schwarz and Jen pen Mrs Ward Leighton Rob Schwarz and Jen pen Mrs pavin I'm Robert Schwarz and Jen pan Mr Schwarz Robert Schwarz and Jennifer pan and mayor Nicholson Robert Schwarz and Jennifer Blen that's seven in favor of uh wa minut Mrs tavin and Mr Schwarz your two fin your two Finance officers Mrs pavin and Mr Schwarz thank you very much uh nominations are now open for the position of secretary is there a nomination from the floor I nominate an Hurst one second uh motion made uh nomination made for an Hurst for the position of secretary by attorney Cen seconded by second Mrs cor already seconded but I got uh is there any other nominations from the floor is there any other nominations from the floor is there any other nominations from the floor is there a motion to close nominations motion made by mrr second by Mr Schwarz got you that time Bob to close nominations for the position of secretary is any discussion on the motion all in favor say I I oppose nay at this time the clerk will call the role for the position of secretary yes this is a roll call for the uh uh position of secretary and Mrs Hurst has been nominated uh Mrs Cormier Ann Hurst Mrs Hurst Ann Hurst M Jula fer an Hurst Mrs Mrs Ward Leighton an Hurst Mrs pavin an Hurst Mrs schwar an Hurst and mayor Nicholson an Hurst seven in favor Mrs Hurst is elected secretary congratulations to everyone on their new assigned positions for the 2025 calendar year moving on to item F the consent agenda this is included in your packet uh we'll note that it includes $943,000 in grant funding of which $118,000 is going to support multilingual newcomer students who are also facing homelessness and $925,000 that is for continuing the work of leadership pipeline development in the north central Massachusetts region uh there's also two donations incl included in this from the rollstone charitable foundation/ NOA gry football donation in the amount of $1,250 and from Yen Yen Chinese in the amount of $2,500 as well uh is there a motion to accept the consent agenda so move second motion made by Mr second by Mr Schwarz to approve the consent agenda as presented is there any discussion on that motion hearing none I'll in favor say I oppose nay motion carries item G subcommittee reports beginning with facilities subc commmittee Mr Schwarz subcommittee uh I didn't say when we met that was in November and um looking at the high school we review the maintenance facilities project list and what was noticed was the Landry auditorium at the high school still not ready for use uh the HVAC upgrades are about 80% complete and the theatrical upgrades hopefully will completed sometime in January so January is not over yet the kitchen at the high school is scheduled for a dishwasher replacement and a compliance requirement for the exhaust hood that goes over the burners in the kit and the kitchen they have scheduled for completion during a school break and it wasn't really identified what school break so I don't know if it happened at this school break or it's going to happen in April or when we have a next one at the middle school schedule for replacement of the exterior front doors and the walkoff grill is scheduled for a school break again unknown wet break dishwasher replacement is scheduled and the replacement of two hot water system pumps and a nonpotable water heater is scheduled for a school break also you find attached there are pictures of trees that are cut down just piles of dirt or sawest those trees were around the high school excuse me around the middle school they were pretty bad so I'm very happy that they're finally down maybe we'll be able to replant something else in a soon the uh at down Street School the doors at the auditorium and the gym was scheduled for replacement but what the maintenance department did was they rehung the doors and the door alarms were installed at a cost of $2500 so we saved a great deal of money and it seemed to work just as well as what we wanted with the replacement of the new doors there were several other projects that are scheduled on the project list but we're waiting for specifications waiting for funding and going up a bit so there'll be future reports that's all I have to report thank you Mr chairman is any questions comments concerns on that report moving on to the finance sub commmittee Mr laier thank you Mr Mayor the uh finance committee met on December 4th uh we started our meeting as usual just reviewing the expense reports um the committee asked questions that were simple questions answered but the best thing was there were no uh new negative line items which is always good and we reviewed the revolving funds all the funds are healthy and Performing appropriately um we already we uh reviewed the uh donations that we had just voted on in the consent agenda and the easements for the safe routes to school project on Elm Street were reviewed and discussed a motion was made by jeim plen and second by Mr Schwarz to donate the easements for the project and it was so voted and that was all we did at that meeting thank you very much any questions comments concerns Mr chairman moving on to the policy sub committee Mrs Hurst um I'm going to have Rachel do the November piece and then I'll do December just cuz she was in charge that night all right so I have the report from the November 20th meeting of the policy subcommittee um we reviewed a number of policies that day we have two that are marked um reviewed November 2024 with no changes we have eight up for first read in addition to the ones that we reviewed in December and we have one for removal and that is JL ca- e and that we felt um was a job description it's the school physician um policy so it really wasn't needed for the policy manual so um the eight first reads will be an item 3658 later in the agenda thank you Mrs HST um we met um in December on December 18th um tonight we'll have we have seven for um first um excuse me five for first read and two for adoption um you'll find them in your packets um that's really about it questions comments concern uh moving on to our student advisory report M mors thank you the fall athletic season ended off on a very positive note with several teams making it to playoffs our winter athletic season is now underway and we're very excited to support all those teams over the next few months parent teacher conferences were held on November 25th and 26th many parents came to meet with teachers and see all the great things that ghs has to offer on December 28th the holiday concert was held in the ghs gym as is the band and chorus were amazing and played to large crowds we're hoping this will be our last concert that needs to be in the gym um as the auditorium Renovations are in the final stages on the half day of school on December 20th we held a fun dodgeball tournament between students and staff it was lots of fun and students prevailed we also sered we also served hot coco on December 20th to all the students who had their good citizen card as an award for their great work with passing all their classes having good attendance and having no disciplinary referrals the students in our early college program are enjoying are enjoying their break finished finished their first semester at the college students did a great job the sem the next semester starts in a couple of weeks and lastly our MVP program with montech is going great and all those students will be in a new stateoftheart building that holds electrical and carpet carpentry shops next year we're hoping to add Plumbing a plumbing shop as well our students are doing very great in the program thank you very much any questions comments concerns on M Morris's report thank you very much uh before we go to the next one we'll take a brief two-minute recess just to get or less than two minute recess just to get clarification on something and then we'll reconvene after that the committee will come back to order at 7:32 p.m. item number 3658 first reading of policies there's no action being taken on any of these items tonight there for information for consideration at our next school committee meeting uh policy jlc student health services and requirements jlca physical exams of students JCB immunization of students jlcc communicable diseases jlc administering medication to students jlc food allergies jrd student uh photographs kbba non-custodial parents rights kcda computer donation policy kcda combined with kcd public gifts to schools kdb Public's right to know kha public solicitations in the schools khb advertising in schools JQ student fees fines and charges and k dayc Community use of digital resources the policy subcommittee has recommended the uh acceptance of the above policies and these will be voted on at the next meeting policy jlca D position description of school physician this will be on next meeting's agenda for a vote to remove this policy the the following policy has been found by the Massachusetts Association of school committees to be redone we can vote on the removal tonight okay we're going to take jlc a-e tonight but all the other policies that I read that the policy subcommittee really had me work for tonight really good will be voted on at the next meeting when I have to read all of them all over again um but policy jlca the position description of the school physician uh is up tonight for a vote to remove uh the the policy has been found by the Massachusetts Association of school committees to be redundant or un necessary and uh has been recommended to be considered for removal from our policy manual is there a motion on the floor Miss word lighton motion to uh remove the policy is there a second to remove the policy as written and presented is there any discussion on that motion one less to read next month um all in favor say I I nay motion carries we've already done item number 3659 moving on to item three 660 easement for the safe roots to school grant program at 160 Elm Street for Elm Street schools parcel uh this is a city project that has come before the school committee uh the way that the general laws of the Commonwealth are set up uh the school committee has jurisdiction over land in the city outside the scope of what the city council uh and the administration on their own have uh jurisdiction over therefore the school committee is considered the land owner of this land or any land that's owned or operated by the schools unless voted on by the school committee to give that land back to the jurisdiction of the city council and the administration uh we are in a the proposal for the project reads as follows the proposed projects includes the resurfacing of Elm Street in the city of Gardner from cross street to Temple Street approximately 1,340 ft the project involves the alteration of the roadway geometry including the implementation of a road that's supposed to say divot not diet uh safety improvements and the formation of a pickoff drop off area for the Elm stre School Gardener Academy area and bicycle accommodations have been provided in accordance with the applicable design guidelines uh improvements also include the Reconstruction of an ADA Compliant prestan facilities including uh side walks pedestrian curb ramps and rectangular rapid flashing beacons at the school's driveways for increased road crossing safety uh what this vote is before us tonight is so the project can continue on its this spring/summer timeline for the full reconstruction of that section of Elm Street in terms of new sidewalks and new road paving uh the school committee has to vote to donate the land as an easement to the city of Gardner that way the city's administrative departments can move forward without taking land away from the school committee because of the way that general laws is set up the city council will have to vote to accept this donation at their next meeting uh we are paying for the easements that we have for private property in the city but where this is a city dep Department to a city Department that's why it's considered a donation is there a motion on the floor so move sh motion made by Mr Le second by Mr Schwarz to approve the easement as presented in the packet is there any discussion on this item uh because this is a land vote Miss Helman this does have to be a roll call vote oh you want a roll call okay this is a roll call uh vote to approve item 3660 on the agenda which is the uh uh easement uh at 160 Elm Street for the Elm Street School to uh support that easement correct okay okay uh Mrs Cormier yes Mrs Hurst yes Mr lafrenier yes Mrs W Leighton yes uh Mrs pavin yes Mr Schwarz yes and mayor Nicholson would you like to vote on this one or no uh no because I'll have to sign the final vote from the council so just uh no I have to sign the final vote from the council to accept it so I don't want to be a conflict okay that six in favor thank you very much the motion passes the easement is granted item three 663 curriculum coordinator update this was included in your packet for for uh information is there any questions comments concerns thank you Dr Goen item 3664 Grant administrators update this was including your packet for information there's any discussion questions comments concerns thank you Director D item 3665 special education update this was including your packet for information there's any questions comments concerns on this item thank you Miss West item J Communications Dro um just a couple things you know first Happy New Year to everybody very excited to be back I was excited to be here tonight you know for the Abigail Adams scholarships and our having that number of Scholars is excellent um but I will also say it would have been nice to be in West Boon seeing tadty Vasquez for her thousandth goal that would have been nice um but congratulations to her um I do want to say you know you saw a phenomenal D Dynamo Trio tonight um um Miss Payne um Dr emperado and U Miss buer are just three very very strong leaders working very well together um they really brought the name of Garder um to the state in a really good positive way um we are being asked to be um involved in a number of different ways and has so much to do with the leaders like them and we have you know other very strong principles as well we're really pulling um teachers in and changing the culture of the schools I'm just really really proud of the work um that they're doing um Dr emperado is doing a great job making sure that teachers have very consistent practices and expectations everything seems to be very consistent we're all pulling in the same direction so I'm just very excited and just to see their energy shows you how dedicated they are not only to their schools and their kids but just a gardener in general in our community so I love having them um as some of our leaders um I also want to U mention that another great partner we have is Mount WUSA Community College the early college program they're right now they were they have this whole thing where it's free college and so they have a lot of people who are applying and so capacity is very difficult they've dedicated themselves to make sure that we have will still have the capacity that we need for Gardener high school kids to continue our early college program and to continue growing it um so I'm thrilled with the work that they're doing with us and they're just the been a wonderful trusting um partner um our leadership pipeline Grant of that 900 some uh $45,000 or so that we um have for that Grant is just unbelievable that's going to be another 3 years of continual professional development and coaching from the Lynch Leadership Academy for our leaders again all pulling in the same direction um and just one last um uh Point um there is a wellness challenge going on Becky mcaffrey I don't know um I didn't notice it in her report but um organized with u CrossFit 696 we're doing a challenge with against naraga um a healthy challenge and there will be a video coming out of the two superintendant going head to-head so um we're really excited about that but again um that's that's all that's part of the wellness committee and it's not only for students but it's also for our staff and so hopefully we'll have a lot of Staff participating and we're going to tr snare against it sorry going to do really well help that's thank you Dr pelo any questions comments concerns go okay uh moving on to final comments of the school committee Miss word L awesome um actually wrot I I wrote like notes notes because every week I feel the every meeting I feel the pressure being first so I'm I'm actually going to like really read through these now um so just first of all happy New Year Of course um and congrats to everyone taking an officer's position thank you um I appreciate that you take those extra steps of leadership because I learn a lot from it being still in my freshman year and the committee so just thank you um uh again just super impressed especially with the gardener Academy plan um and Dr 's energy so just want to say that again and just I'm looking forward to seeing what they do uh and so this this actually was a we like fell into this conversation right when I walked in late and I apologized for that um about mcast um being removed as a graduation requirement and I know there's a lot of mixed on this um across the board teachers community members parents probably administrators everyone in all walks and I know that I'm coming at this from my own lens as an educator and as kind of working with um The Campaign and whatnot but I think the the the message I settled on was have faith in our Educators um and in their ability and training to deliver really robust Rich content to these kids um without mcast being as big of a measuring stick for that graduation requirement um it's been such a norm for a long time it's just change is difficult I think and um but just to have that have that faith in the Educators um because uh it's again it's a mixed bag of feelings but um we're also Massachusetts we got a lot of great people here doing this work um last but not least please keep in mind that we are the not so maybe bright mammals that fight biology this time of year we should be hiberdating we should be eating and sleeping and it is very cold and crazy tonight and just I don't know just a quick Wellness Shield to take care of yourselves um this is a rough month mental healthwise and I know that Ann has um always made some really great statements about it so just can find the light go go sit in the sun when it's out and just take care of yourselves so um full light B well yeah I remember my mom having light boxes in the 9s that she would sit in front of because she was like it works and I was like oh okay I don't believe you and 38 years old I believe it I believe it now so um and that is all thank you so much thank you very much Mrs Hurst um happy New Year everybody um and the um the three presentations tonight were topnotch they we have some really amazing people in this district and I would like to point out that as good as they are it's because they have good leadership above them as well so um other than that I don't really have much more to say um mental health is important especially this time of year um I found myself I was sick and in the hospital during um Thanksgiving and I found myself feeling pretty depressed and what turned it around for me was looking at things through the eyes of my granddaughter so just take those moments to really sit back and you know appreciate the the little moments that are so precious as I think we all get bogged down with way too much stuff and bombarded by the media and um just work and everything in general and uh yeah self-care thank you okay um happy New Year to everyone and I would like to um send out a congratulations to all of the um John and Abigail Adams um recipients and thank you to the presenters tonight I Echo what has already been said that you know I think there's so much work going on in this district and everything is moving in the right direction um and oh and congratulations to the new officers um especially Mrs Cormier um it's um being Vice chair can be a lot of work but it's very rewarding and I look forward to what you're going to do in that position thank you do you have anything you want to say um happy New Year everybody and also I kind of walked in late sorry but I was here for the presentations which I thought were amazing hearing from I never really I know about the alternative school but I've never really got to see the principal and hearing presentation I know she's going to do amazing things and seeing my own principal and Mrs Payne which I work closely with it's really nice to see and I know and I can attest to all the amazing things they're doing thank you very much Mr Schwarz congratulations to the new officers or all officers reelected except for Rachel new position Happy New Year to everyone this week is sort of a sad week and that uh Jimmy Carter our 39th president it is we were participating in his funeral and I I just hope that the younger kids and school have an opportunity to watch the ceremonies on television because this is a historical event and Jimmy Carter was as we found now found out that he's quite a guy and um also further down the road uh what happening are in auration of our new 47th president so hope everybody participates by observing if you have an opportunity to go to Washington go for it I'm not going so thank you thank you Mr mrr uh just happy New Year to everyone congratulations Rachel look forward to working with you in that position um and the presentations were fantastic like everyone said was really good good to see thank you Vice chair cormary I'm looking forward to a new year and new position I thank you all for your support and congratulations to the rest of you with your roles um I one of my favorite parts of meetings in general is seeing the students here so it was great to see them um I'm so proud that there's so many others who couldn't be here even though um you know this just a very busy time of year with sports and other activities but it's nice to know there are that many kids who are just achieving such great things um the administrators that presented tonight were amazing and I think what struck me from all three of them is they're meeting the students where they are they're not expecting the students to fit into a box that they might not be you know willing or able to be in and I think that's really incredible that we're giving these kids an opportunity to achieve things where maybe they don't feel like they can or deserve to or wherever they're coming from and giving them every opportunity and I think that's wonderful and I'm just so happy to be part of a district that can do that thank you uh I have a couple of stuff to say but just to start uh with a a note um one of the things that I'm going to be doing with the city council at least from now through the end of the fiscal year is just giving updates on accounts that we are going to be watching uh due to just you know the budget process beginning seeing trends that we have seeing uh and I know one that's been coming up a lot lately is the health insurance account for the city and the rates that had to go up this year uh for our employees because we implemented a 20% rate increase this past year uh the city is a self-insured organization so we have our own health benefits TR fund that we oversee uh the city the city pays 75% the employee payroll deductions pay 25% of the insurance costs that are there and the benefit breakdowns are actually on the city's website you can see what each of those cost Shares are as we continue to move forward one of the things that we're looking at is um because of that increase that went up it wasn't just an increase in the employees payroll deductions but also an increase in the city's 75% share of those costs too so we are going to financially be watching uh where we are there uh we anticipate it'll need a free cash appropriation at the end of the year to help supplement the funds that we've already appropriated in the budget uh we have money set aside for that right now but to put this into a perspective picture how the city gets built by Blue Cross on a monthly basis is we pay what's called a level monthly deposit in advance where it guesses what we're going to be paying in claims on the month that we're going into so that we can almost prepay those claims and at the end of the month we get what's called a uh deposit settlement payment uh invoice in which if the uh claims came in higher we send a supplemental check to cover those claims if the claims came in lower we get a credit on our next bill and so on from there in fiscal year 2024 as a whole the city had to pay $1.2 million over what our level monthly deposits paid in those claims that came in because we're seeing a trend just like every other community in Massachusetts and quite frankly across the country is seeing in high claims coming in higher as of December 31st we have already paid $1.3 million over what those level monthly deposits have been paid because those High claims continue to go higher uh so we have already paid over our deposit number in the first six months of this fiscal year what we paid in total last fiscal year over that amount and that's based off of what the Actuarial studies that Blue Cross has in the contract that we have for them to operate our health plan for us uh so as we continue to move forward that's just something that we're going to be monitoring I'll be sending regular updates to the city council on where we are in terms of where the budget's at where the Health Trust Fund is at and things like that but because that does affect employees in the school department side I want to make sure the committee was at least aware of those items there and what was the force behind those drives it's the high claims that are coming in and we actually get a report now bi-weekly on the high claims that come in and you can see that a lot of its elective procedures that were put off 3 years ago and now the doctors had the backlog as a result of when the co uh regulations lifted everyone came in and that backlog is starting to have its release Gates and people are starting to get in and the now now it's our backlog and almost in some ways because a lot of our employees are undertaking those elective uh procedures uh that are there so hopefully we'll see a shift come down once that Trend ends but at the same time it's just something we need to Monitor and be cognizant of that this is something that's currently happening so I want to be transparent with the committee about that um as I've been writing the this year's state the city address I asked Dr pelo to send me a report on just some stuff with the schools that might be interested in including I'm really proud to be from Gardner as a resident and um not even just the mayor here but just someone who lives here and Al Lum of garden Public Schools too there's a lot of good things happening here in the school district we heard a lot of that tonight from our two principles that came and presented and there's a lot for the community to be proud of so thank you very much for the work that you and your team do to our teachers to our administrators Dr Goen Miss West everyone else who was here earlier today uh the Rockwell committee will be meeting uh the week of Valentine's Day to do our next round of Grants um the applications close at the end of this month so make sure or Martin Luther King week I believe the the teachers know when the grant applications Clos but it's towards the end of the month um because of the way the fund has been performing it looks like uh by Statute we can give out up to 90% of the income that's earned in the given year we have a legal opinion now that defines what the income is uh we'll be able to give out up to $295,000 uh in grant funding this year uh based off the applications that come in based off of the way the committee votes but that's the much we have available to us to give out if we choose to so uh I just want to say thank you to everyone because their school committee has a seat on that committee uh Dr pelo helps uh provide information to the committee on uh the when the applications come in it's there's a lot of good that's come out of that account and that was just someone thinking outside the box on that as a way to give back to our students in the classroom uh so it was great to see there uh other than that congratulations to our new officers who are here uh and also thank you to miss pen for the work you did in six years as Vice chair um from the phone calls we had especially when uh we weren't in our classroom buildings I appreciate all of your help uh and the amount of work you did because a lot of it was behind the scenes so thank you very much for everything you did other than that have a new year and we'll see you all soon is there an uh there's no executive sessions this evening our next meeting uh aside from the state of the city will be on Monday February 10th at 6:30 p.m. here and is there a motion to adjourn so moved motion made by attorney P seconded by Mr lrer to adjourn is there any discussion on the motion h those in favor say I oppose n motion carries thank you all very much