##VIDEO ID:-CQbS_BIyJ4## [Music] good evening everyone today is Tuesday December 17th and the time is 6:01 and I'd like to call this meeting to order first thing is our public forum for the fiscal year 25 budget we are committed to Bringing transparency and public participation to school committee meetings things may not always go smoothly but we are working with our it department and gcam to ensure that we provide the best and clearest access we can during this time you will be joined to the call in mute mode please remain on mute until you are recognized by the chair the administrative assistant will unmute your microphone to enable you to be heard the chair will recognize members of the public in the order of their use of the Google meet raised hand feature remember we will ask you to state your name and the street or address of your residence when you are speaking as a reminder the members of the school committee cannot respond to any comments made during a public speak this is your time to speak on any topic there will be a three minute time limit for those who wish to speak thank you for your participation and your patience so we're doing our FY 26 public forum uh we've received first draft submissions uh from each of the principes and department heads um in this early phase we have a few um cost drivers for the FY 26 budget um in our technology department um there's a significant need in infrastructure uh we are exploring Grant and other options to remove that from our operating budget for FY 26 um the operational service division or OSD has increased out of District tuition by 3.67% uh this year leading to an estimated 60 ,000 increase in our audit District tuition cost for FY 26 and there's also um a significant increase in special ed Transportation uh that we're tracking for next uh next year as well there are also some new requests for FY 26 uh the East metal principal is proposing new math materials to support illustrative math as well as a new teaching position at East Meadow and for the junior senior high school the principal is proposing two new teaching positions uh for facilities we have a couple of proposals as well uh the HVAC system uh the management system for it needs uh to get a update for the system as well as some monitoring so proposing that there's a 5-year fire protection inspection which is approximately $88,000 which uh the East Meadow system is due and both gyms uh have some recommended repairs that we're proposing for the two buildings so those are some of our initial cost drivers okay so how are um do you have any slides that you want to put up to go over or are we just waiting for questions we're waiting for questions okay um I don't believe we have any um visitors on Google meet or at least not that I can tell any questions from the committee at first Plus this is really meant for people outside of because we talk about it in our subcommittee and regularly so um do you guys do you all have any questions um so I say we give it uh a couple minutes it's 6:05 we were supposed to start at 6 which we were pretty close to um and see if we can Garner any interest if not I say we close the Forum and move on with our meeting thoughts qu I mean I I don't know I I agree I think we give a reasonable window for people to join and then um adjourn if we don't have any um no questions were submitted uh to me prior to the meeting as well I made that available through uh the newsletters um and our Communications I didn't usually I hear I get one or two things from some you know somebody's like hey what about this or what that so I don't know I don't know because I didn't get anything this time so I'm not really sure um do you all have any ideas different ideas and how we can try to connect with people so this is our first one we usually try to have another one um before we vote right in March um and in the March one we'll have had the state chapter 79 numbers we'll have a lot more concrete numbers to really put us into that final stretch of what the budget would look like okay um so everyone put your thinking caps on on ways that we can try to generate some interest and participation so that we can um have some good discussions for these kinds of things because I I don't want to waste our time necessarily but I you know I want to be able to communicate with the masses I guess except our masses are pretty small so when we actually put the budget out will we get feedback then typically is that we're hoping that's what we're hoping okay I didn't know attendance a few people attended our March Forum last year um not very much in the way of public comment um a couple of years ago we had it in the East Meadow cafeteria there was more attendance um we did have some uh questions and some input from community members but we haven't in the past couple of years thank you um so all right so um just one quick question we have a we have a projection of the budget to um do the septic pumping this year right correct okay that'd be a mess if we did I was gonna say yeah I better not say what I was gonna say a long day sorry no we haven't uh we haven't trimmed that from the budget yet all right great um some just can't go you I'm going have to well we had to do it last year we pushed it off so um okay it's not an annual requirement we have to do it every two to three years okay so your system lasts longer can do yeah all right um I Jan is there anybody I got nobody nobody in the chat I got no questions nothing it's 6:08 I say we wait until 6:10 that gives a you know full m 10 minutes um maybe my computer will restart because I didn't he David's advice and start it um so it's trying to do some updates now um all right well that's exciting Mr dman has been working really hard trying to really pull those identifiers out for us so we met a little bit this morning and uh and uh we really honed in on really where we definitely would see the vast majority of the changes and he did a good job really identifying those okay almost there yep it's 26% of the way there just in time no it's um vinyl I have a Cricut oh okay so it's like iron on but I can wear it to work and not be like screaming ramby super pan on Fridays I will wear that shirt sometimes depends so we'll see is um was Cole planning on coming yes because we I think we'll be able to start for 6:30 so we'll just bounce back to him I guess okay okay all right well it is now 610 we still have not gotten any um any participants in our Forum so I um I don't think we need to adjourn from The Forum but we can do we're GNA we we're going to close the Google meet or yeah unfortunately we don't have anybody to participate and we can't have a um we can't use Google meet for the rest of our meeting right so therefore do we have to turn this one off y you can end the meeting so we'll end that meeting and then we'll um just right into our um thing uh first is our consent agenda minutes from December 3rd any questions or comments on those minutes hearing none I'll take the motion I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the December 3rd agenda second all those in favor I next is minutes 35 and 37 which have gone around for signature uh make a motion to accept warrants number 35 and 37 can I have a second second all those in favor I I next visitors comment any citizen wishing to speak before the committee must sign in with the administrative assistant prior to opening of the regular session of the school committee the visitor will identify themselves by name and address and shall speak for no longer than 3 minutes for anyone unable to sign in ahead of time we ask that we clear that you clearly state your name and address so that this information can be included in the record of the meeting do we have any visitors you guys are here just to listen and maybe a calendar yeah okay just want to make sure um we just talked about Cole if he shows up before we um we finish we will Circle back to him um next is new business school calendar okay I gave a proposal for two school calendars here that we're taking a look at um one is similar to last year um great proposal two is similar to last year and proposal one would be um the teachers come in on the last week of August and the students start on the the third week of I mean the 27th of Wednesday so there's two particular proposals there for the calendar so I might be something you guys want to look at and we can review it at the next meeting have some questions we did move one of the PD days from November because we do not have election next year so we took the November 4th PD because we're kind of um heavy in the beginning of the year so we took that um November meeting moved it to March so that that is one change from last year but everything else is um you know pretty much the same so which one do you all want to look at first let's talk talk about proposal one first I [Music] guess um as you can see the new teachers come the 21st and 22nd and the um professional development for the rest of the staff is 25 26 and the students start the 27th which leaves the last day of school to June 12th so I'm looking at this and I see that we have a curriculum day on February 11th which is approximately 3 days before school vacation I would say I would rather have I mean I don't know if we end up using all five days coming back on the Monday is anyone going to be up for coming back on the Monday me take the PD day out period or or is a half day says February 11th curriculum half day February 11th yeah curriculum half day wouldn't it have to be moved to a subsequent month yeah we could definitely we could move to January somewhere or um or could we do it in like May when there's no when there aren't there isn't a any day off except for I don't know I just feel silly to have it right before we one of the one of the issues that may come up with May is some of the standardized testing there's a lot of standardized testing AP at the Junior Senior High School um mcast or and things in May so that might present a problem for a half day trying to fit it in or maybe make December 23rd a half day have it oh no that a curriculum because on the teacher I don't yeah I don't think we're going to a lot of curriculum work that day yeah I mean looks like there might be some time in January if that would be we already have a bunch of days off in January right or can we move it up a week it just seems weird to have it a half day right before we're getting ready to go out on vacation and it's the same in both proposals yeah we could do the fourth the the Wednesday before that shouldn't be a problem because that would just be does someone want to come up here do you all want to have a we were just wondering if we could see it we haven't seen it Oh I thought you guys usually see it before Oh I wasn't sure what the process was we probably look at it I got it after we approved it thank you we we've tried to okay be um transparent so sorry that was my fault joh I apologize so these are just year two proposals last year we had a proposal that was uh Steven had worked on and then there was some with some dates that we had gotten from you guys so I my bad I didn't um I didn't think to uh talk to you about it Mary Jean so that's okay I take some stuff for granted I'm sorry about that fine we'll work it out when we have plenty of time it's just the first first run through so Al so we're saying September 2nd is day oh so that just prek in kindergarten that's her first day of school okay so yellow doesn't always mean off corrects oh I don't like that we got to figure out better we change the color yeah because it it should be something that like so red is off no school yeah that probably should have been changed too yeah first day of school for prek and kindergarten so it's not really an off day change those two a different col blue or the half may be a different color cuz that's right it looks to me just I mean it's just a visual cue but I want to make sure that people don't think that they're not starting this one right correct so it's off on Friday so the two start 27th and the second can make a different color and then yeah okay oh I see that makes sense okay so then the 18th and the 25th so the yellow is really just informational not an off day except sometimes it's an off day half day that's how I kind of organized is that yellow was more of an informational day like a look here type of a day got it so because if some J's GJ shs has half days and you know em you know doesn't so that's where I kind of was like look at me me yeah be on a lookout for that day okay got it got it got it got it we can still change the I think the half the first days of schools I think maybe should be different colors anyhow um any thoughts from anybody I'm glad we have the teachers here this year so there's really not too much um difference other than starting on a Wednesday as opposed to a Monday and I know we went back and forth about that last year right allthough both of them are better in handling that than they were last year last year we had like come in for one day day and then have Friday off and then yeah because the way Labor Day um if you take a look at the second proposal it does talk about that given the Friday off well yeah because the second proposal like juneth is what throws everything off people come back for the last day if we use all five snows that last day would be Monday why wouldn't they be back on the well if we use all five on no is so I'm not seeing that in proposal two I'm seeing that only in proposal one proposal one is if we use all five snow days yes that's what I was asking okay but it's like I want to take fit and pieces from both right we can do that we can do that I know that attendance will be very low if we have to have if we have snow days and people have to come back for that Monday oh absolutely you know um yeah it's great the 23rd on both calendars is a full day of December I apologize yep yes okay yep I just want to make sure I'm reading this correctly is the only way we can have a half day for it to be a curriculum half day or can we you can say half day yeah yeah does It screw up our hours it affects our hours can run the numbers on that though for you that's not a problem I think the high school's got plenty hours would be the elementary we'd have to check on because I would love I think it would be a nice way for you guys to have a half day because it feels like it's more fun that's the way I remember growing up was always like a half day yeah I can run I'll run the numbers on that one like because the high school shouldn't be a problem just really the elementary we have to look at would that be better I just I you know I I don't know just at first glance and just it's first glance I just yeah well we're not voting on it tonight no no no I know that I like to have is the is the school committee amendable to asking um staff for feedback when you guys get your um calendars um well I just I I will say we're amenable to having feedback but I don't want it to end up coming back feedback does not mean that that is the option that we will go with and that was that was some problem a little bit of a scle that last year correct so I mean I I I appreciate the input but I want to make sure that just because we're getting input doesn't mean that that's going to be the way that we go correct so that um is just how it was translated to us when we had gotten it so then that's where the confusion came in as well um certainly I would appreciate input um our next meeting is not until January okay and so if you guys could get something back to us um before that meeting um that would be helpful and then we absolutely we can look at it okay that's one because this is our first um first look at it too so okay any um any other thoughts or um proposal proposed ideas at first blush uh no thrilled to have the input up front this time and I think that will be way more beneficial so awesome thank you George anything no no nothing uh to add now if you'd like Mark them up I'd say mark them up okay bring them back to me perfect so do you want us to amend these or do you want to do a third one I guess that's what I'm thinking or just wait just give me a list of what you're thinking yeah well um if anyone has any comments or whatever send them to Jenny and Mary Jane and I think you already noted the couple ideas that I had um but if anyone has anyone else you guys can collect some um input and um and then we'll we'll probably have a third go around third option and then we'll right we'll look okay but mostly I from my perspective what I would really appreciate is like for the beginning of school um like that how you because I feel like there were some strong opinions on how school started um whatever it was this year or last year or whatever so I'd really like some feedback about about that great thank you sure all right anything else on the calendar for now all right hearing nothing we'll move on so this will appear on the next agenda thanks for coming up you guys I appreciate it thank you all right uh continuing business school choice the enrollment dashboard there's been no change in the enrollment dashboard since November okay so it's 678 we're holding steady I believe we're going to have a couple move outs at the end of the mug so but they're not uh moving to other schools I believe they're just moving it on PSAs okay next up is superintendent search so we have the brochure it looks like there's some highlighted areas that we need to discuss or these were what was changed who is Glenn coocher he is the head of MC but you can probably change that to whoever we're using or yeah so um we usually it's usually Tracy noic but we have to um we have to talk to her um Liz was asking about that too hi Cole good we started early because of our um no no it's you had you had no way of knowing so we're going to finish this topic and then we'll Circle back to you if that's okay yeah I apologize no you did nothing wrong what are you apologizing for coming on you're you're early we're just super early um so also Liz was saying um Liz leond was saying that she um was talking about using mask and how we can do that I'm trying to find the text that she sent me um if we if we want to use um technical assistant from mask and there's no cost and we can do they can help with posting and um staff member that can receive all the applications and make sure they're complete and everything so that's something I would like to consider um doing but I was hoping to have her input when she's here so we had talked about posting not until January 8th or 28th or something is that right where where dates on there what I have adjusted based on the day that it fell on last year okay for the year uh 2021 it would just be adjusted for this year yes any changes or anything that you all don't like now last time we had a a salary scale on there right was wasn't it like 120 to 135 or something do we want to put that back on there do we need to talk about where what the numbers do so we can have the appropriate range or do we want to leave it blank and salary commen it with experience and leave it be at that I think we start there um we can verify this there was some like there was legislation or ruling about salary ranges on think it starts posting okay so we might Okay so we might be okay or not I think it starts July 1st so oh 2025 y okay so then we could do commerate with experience and qualification okay um I think our brochure is pretty good do we have any pictures from the high school we could use the one in the middle is from the high school oh it's the only one I got from the high school all right Al really takes over that so if I can I can put in a picture she just has to get me one that everybody's okay as far as media wise okay you talk a little louder yeah I can't hear that'd be great I mean there's a yeah okay any other um notes comments questions no no all right Cole thank you at the high school for academics the progress reports were just sent out last week for Quarter Two the program of studies is currently being revised these revisions will take place Ann annually team leaders are working within their departments to finalize course descriptions for their classes being offered next year Faith Ramos just completed the toy drive all toys were donated this past Saturday additionally the food drive was also wrapped up last Friday and teachers that participated had offered their scale of bonus points to the students who took time to donate that food in as for school culture and the environment December exra ganza the door decorating finished last week a lot of stuff finished last week because we're coming to break obviously the winning classroom will be announced this week hopefully it's not the art room like every other year I think mine looks good Miss pikney did a really good job she teamed up with Mrs Blackburn so they put one in between their two doors and they made a really one I kind of have to vote for the art room because that's Mar door um the of course there's a spirit Weg going on this week as well uh every day is something different today was winter sports representation so everybody wear their winter sports jerseys uh we did karaoke during lunch last week and we are also hoping to offer it again this week and there will be a pep rally on Friday I know there was some back and forth about that but we are ending up doing that this Friday uh something very important to me a fast for night meeting will be held on January 30th at 6 p.m. in the high school Cafe um definitely useful to especially senior parents but I suppose useful to everybody else as they'll all have to go through that at some point as for future plans and goals advisory is slated to begin tomorrow our first lesson will ask students to design the letter G that best represents them and I was told to put out a special thanks to the PTO for coordinating the staff cocoa bar at the high school today as for East Meadow last Thursday the Massachusetts aggression reduction Center or Mark for short came to East Meadow to meet with students in grade K through six on three separate assemblies to be developmentally appropriate the focus is on bullying prevention cyber bullying issues and empowering students to advocate for themselves and others this week we have the little Shoppers a program in which students can shop for their families for inexpensive gifts for Christmas it is also Spirit Week here at uh East Meadow and there is like at the high school different days each week ugly sweater day kicked off the week on Monday and we will end the week with TW the day before holiday break a pajama day candy grams are going out to staff and students and this Friday East Meadow is having a PBIS pizza lunch and a holiday craft activity for all students excellent that's all I have any questions I don't have any perfect thanks Cole thank you appreciate it sorry I'm no you you're totally we're just like sailing through this today so you're perfect perfect have a great okay so next we have subcommittees um Jill and Liz aren't here um do we have much for budget and finance or is what we talked about initially with your little blurb or do you want to meet for a few minutes on that um I think we're good with that initial and I shared um an email with a summary with you and Mike um so if you want to take a look at that we can talk about it at our next subcommittee meeting excellent and I'll have more information from when we do that so I think what we'll do is for our it's NE typically the second meeting but we'll we'll do it for the first because we're going to have to um reorganized because Jill won't um be here so we'll just need to make sure that we all the holes are filled um okay superintendent report I did want to U before Co left I did want to say that um I also met with uh Mrs de and she gave me the same information so I decided to keep some of that out of my out of my report so um I just want to talk about a little bit about the new law on the ballot initiative of the mcap so we received a um bunch of FAQs about what's happening there but I just wanted to let everybody know I gave you kind of a blur B there but basically it's saying that for students who did not um pass the mcast this year districts have to create a plan for the students that did not pass um that is not um in our we don't have to do that this year all of our seniors have passed so we're good this year so um even next year I talked to um Sarah there's a two two students who took a makeup earlier this year and she's confident that they passed we may not even have to put a policy in place for next year but we certainly have to come up with a place a a uh new procedure and graduation requirements for our students and the state is having a meeting tomorrow at 3:00 and it'll be part of that they're going to really leave it up to the districts to what that looks like but they're really looking at Mass core you to make sure that people are following that for the most part um we also were given the directive if we choose to we can continue to Z mcast as a graduation C that's totally up to the school committees so that's just kind of what what that is saying but res of this year we're good this year and perhaps next year but at least we'll start taking a look at it um towards the end of this year to see how those students fared and uh then we can take a look at and how we want to move forward so that's what we have to to take a look at um Boomer the Thunderbird mascot was unable to visit East metal last Friday so he has um rescheduled his visit to this Friday December 20th hope hope he'll be here and then I just wanted to um probably on behalf of the whole school commit I don't know if Jen wants to say something but I want to thank Jill peler for her service on the school committee this was her last meeting she couldn't make it today so we just want to let you know that you know we've been honored by her commitment and dedication and uh and uh that's really all that I have right now yes we will miss Jill tremendously um so all I have to say about that um pad all right um couple of things so some notifications went out around um Aira which is our esus Management program that went out to the district um we are working with a company we are it is time for our three-year uh review of that program of reinspection next door um they'll make recommendations uh around our procedures that we do um East Meadow isn't impacted so when the renovation the building was abated and um nothing was specified or utilized containing aesus um but some of the building materials next door um they are for example floor tiles it's embedded in the floor tile it's not something that is Airborne it is not something that we have under any normal use is poses a threat I I understand that it is one of those terms or words that people hear and often they immediately go to worst case scenario um so We are following procedures we're doing the things that we need to do we're training our staff um but it is just time for that reevaluation and so we'll be doing that uh hopefully we'll they'll be coming in over the break so if they have any fi do they have findings from the evaluation like if they go through and there's something are we then so they rate things that may need more ATT attention sooner than later um anything that is going to need immediate attention or more time attention is likely going to be in the Boiler Room in the mechanical spaces um in the classroom spaces it's the floor tiles and the glue that holds on the bulletin boards and blackboards so as long as we leave those in place we're a good shap I no one starts chewing the floor or something um yeah and the way that um our crew waxes and maintains the floor meets all the requirements for keeping everything encapsulated that's the key thing is the encapsulation um and we're all of those requirements excellent um next facility item um I met with the uh mechanical engineers and the architect yesterday um to lay out the timeline for our bid for the kitchen um so our plan is for around January 20th is to have our materials posted um to the central register they'll go on to comis as well um doing our public advertising in January um having our site walkthroughs at the beginning of February and having bid documents due uh at the end of February um and then it will take a couple weeks once a once the bids come in to do contracts um our anticipated um start date will be June 23rd which is you know we save our five days in case we use all our snow days that is the Monday that follows that because the first step will be a batement in the kitchen and so we want to make sure the building is clear of students um we will any summer programming um Extended year programming will hold it at East Meadow uh while because of the construction that's going on and central office will find Space over here iton it will be isolated to um just that area and when a batement Crews come in they coord coordin off the areas it's all sealed um and the air exchanges the testing is all done before the space is open to construction uh the initial estimate is that the abatement should only take a couple of days excellent and then by the time the testing is all done we're probably a week to just over a week on that phase and then we can move right into demo and construction cool so um the last thing that I have um I reached out to several uh area districts so the our rural school aid came in uh La they're doing two payments or uh two dispersements um it came in at last year's level which is um overall for the year is about 30,000 less than what is um in the budget from the state uh I reached out to desie uh when that I was first made aware of that at the end of last week when the deposit was made um I don't know if I'm the first one to bring it to their attention but I certainly brought it to their attention and I'm waiting to hear how they're going to resolve that whether that is an a supplemental payment now or in the second payment to make up the difference so that we receive our full allocation um but that's something that I'm going to be watching and as I said other districts that I reached out to they notice the same thing that it was coming at last year's level instead of the current fiscal year excellent that's all that I have perfect um Jill's not here for CES um so we'll have to Al we'll have to send her a note just to see if there's anything from that last meeting and we'll um talk at our next meeting to see who might be interested in taking over um for CES anything um that we want to make sure we have on the agenda for next time besides subcommittees and we'll still be talking about uh superintendent and school calendar um anything else that you all can think of all right well with that I'll take the motion to adour ex session oh I apologize so we will be going into executive session so could you do a roll call vote I didn't read the whole agenda apparently I missed it that's a problem Jen I Mike hi George I oh so we'll vote to enter into executive session under Massachusetts General chapter 38 section 21 part A3 to discuss strategy with regard to collective bargaining as doing so in an open session may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the the committee will not return to open session we already did a roll call vote and with that I will say good night thanks everybody