##VIDEO ID:J4p7pg5fuUI## [Music] all right well bear with me this should be a little bumpy my first time driv fine all right uh going to call tonight's school committee meeting to order time is now 6:35 uh looks like we had a roll call for who was here last time uh could you call R please absolutely Mr dur I'm here Mr B here and M Le here uh Miss BOS is on the way she should be just a little tardy all right moving into the consent agenda uh we're going to have a vote on the minutes for January 7th has everybody had sometime to review the minutes I was just asking Jenny if this gives us a COR three does three okay is we did El I went very close to it uh we're just talking about the minutes okay so we're meeting is live and we're just well everyone get to see me in my marry poin head um has everybody had some time to review the minutes when everyone feels comfortable somebody could make a motion I will entertain it to accept or approve approve approve to approve so move second second thank you all those in favor I I practice this is good practice for when you're all right uh going to move on to vote on warrants uh warrants number 43 and 44 Conor around for Signature I'll make a motion to warrants 43 and 44 second thank you all those in favor I I I um visitor comments at this time any citizen we wishing to speak before the committee must sign in with the Administrative Assistant prior to the opening of 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 you clearly state your name and address so that this information can be included in the record for the meeting uh any visitors who'd like to speak at this time okay moon right along um to student representative uh I understand he's absent tonight yes he is absent to so I'll report out to the on on the students report okay superintendent report great and we'll move light right along to new business class of 2025 field trip out of state they were um contemplating two field trips but and at Cole is not here so they were going to Shore that up and talk about it today um for the senior class trip um but he's not here so we'll have to move that to the next meeting okay so we'll reschedule the next meeting sure uh moving on to continuing business uh school choice enrollment dashboard the enrollment dashboard has not changed we are holding steady at 678 since October so um that's where we are haven't moved okay uh next piece of business will be the school calendar I understand that there's three versions now there's three versions of the calendar in here um the original uh we had two A and B or one and two and then the third calendar was with the um information we got from rgea Representatives so I guess the discussion on that okay and they're in the folder I think they're labeled one and two and proposal one two is the last one three Jenny yep yeah so take a minute or two to review and then any comments please feel free to speak up I listened um to the discussion last time and I'm U the new guy so I'm going to follow the lead of what everybody else thinks is best here okay although new means a unique perspective you might see things differently than we have so it could be a fresh view oh I see a lot of things differently but but I need to learn gry that's a loaded statement I need to learn gry and uh and so um I think that in terms of the calendar you all probably have more insight into what will work better in the district than I do at this point is that fair enough fair enough I just want to see the third one that's fine it really was just a change in some of the days before the um like the Thanksgiving break and the winter break right more or less I was basically taking proposal one and then making some adjustments based on uh some teacher preferences and other things like that it's probably the only one that lines up pretty well as far as the juneth and not going past it excuse me so which let's go through them one by one oh I'm sorry s right if I hav absolutely please take it back it's all yours um let's go through them one by one if you guys don't um mind it should be F yeah I'm having is David here no nope he's out today I'm having trouble opening any of my um stuff so I'm going to follow along with Mary Jane but if we go to version one so this one is school would start on August 27th after professional development days starting or I'm sorry new new teacher induction is August 2th 2st and 22nd which is a Thursday and Friday professional development is for all teachers which would be Monday and Tuesday with the first day of school being on Wednesday August 27th um and then we'd have so Wednesday Thursday Friday then going into the long weekend Monday would be off and then September 2nd everyone would come back to school including prek in kindergarten and then October um have October 13th off for uh indigenous people's day which is the old Columbus Day November 11th would be Veterans Day then this one is um November 26th through 28th which is Wednesday Thursday and Friday no school all three days so it's really around these the holiday breaks that is the biggest difference then um December um December 24th through 31st so there would be a full day of school on December 23rd and then Christmas Eve until January uh 6th they'd be off then Martin Luther King Day on January 19th February April U February vacation would be the 16th through the 20th did you all like that February April vacation term would be January 5th not the 6th right on version one um correct oh I stand corrected yes I saw the orange and was reading it as red uh February vacation 16th through the 20th March no school on the 18th for a curriculum day April the 3D would be good Friday no school then April vacation the 20th to the 24th legitimate April vacation not in Fe February then Memorial Day on May 25th and then the last day of school in June would be June 12th assuming um no snow days and then um June 22nd would be the last day if all five snow days were used and we would have juneth which is June 19th off so that's version one questions or comments on version um one not for me okay version two this one is new teacher induction is August 19th and 20th professional development is 21st and 22nd first day of school would be August 25th August 29th would be no school September first for Labor Day would be no school everyone would return back on September 2nd um again October 13th off November no uh Veterans Day no school which is the 11th Thanksgiving holiday is the 26th through the 28th which is the Wednesday Thursday Friday December um 24 through the 31st off again full day of school on the 23rd they would come back on January 5th Martin Luther King Day on the 19th February same vacation 16 to 20 March 18th is still a curriculum day April uh the Good Friday is off April vacation no change May no change um and then June last day of school would be June 11th if no snow days if we do have all four five snow days the last day of school would be June 18th so that avoids the June 19th holiday we would be done before that questions or comments on that one all right hearing none moving on to proposal three get it open okay all right for this one August 21st and 22nd would be new teacher induction which is the Thursday and Friday professional development um Monday and Tuesday first day of school would be on Wednesday the 27th no school on Labor Day everyone returns to school on the second including kindergarten and prek October is the same November is uh slightly different nove uh Veterans Day would be off and the 26th which is the Wednesday day before Thanksgiving would be a a half day and the Thanksgiving holiday would be only the Thursday and the Friday in December half day of school on the 23rd the holiday would be the 24th through the um oops where' January go okay fourth through the 5ifth that stays the same Martin Luther King Day February is the same with February vacation March is the same April is the same Good Friday off May is the same June June 11th would be the last day of school um last day would be June 18th if we used all five snow days again avoiding um June 19th discussion anybody just want I'm clear J this is the version with the GAA y input yep yeah and they're choosing a half a day both before Thanksgiving and before the Christmas break MH actually I think that some of that was um my thought on how to use that um but I can't actually remember I think they were similar similarly to the the survey and it gets uh everyone again presuming fewer than five snow days or five or fewer snow days um not requiring students to come back for one day on the 22nd June probably won't happen by in LGE anyway right which is why we were um um why we were tossing this third um version around and putting some of their um thoughts into what it would look like if we M maintained the instructional hours which I'm assuming this does yep I double checked that my biggest concern was the elementary school and we're absolutely fine okay oh with all three versions obviously okay y all right let's hear it from you guys what do you got this feels like a Traditional School calendar to me I'm okay with three yeah thre is my I guess preferred out of them it does include input from the uh Union and and it has a little bit of a later start and ends before the 19th M uh which was are the highlights of the other two options really and then the half days for the holidays there Christ mind hi I'm Kristen n I'm uh the secretary of the Gea and we've been inviting her to um sit with us while we have these discussions because she's been sort of the voice of the for us um so does this version as you've seen it for three encapsulate what you guys were talking about it it absolutely um with all the surveys that we've sent out to our membership the majority um Jenny was able to take on your request and put it into a calendar and we explained to staff that you guys are going to be looking at the three tonight and you'll be voting on one of them excellent thank thank you I just wanted to make sure that it had gotten out there like we had talked about absolutely yeah we we try to text or email right away awesome yeah all right any any discussion further discussion I feel like we should talk about this for over an hour I think fine like-minded with everybody else here excellent well with that I will take the motion make a motion to accept proposal number three Ramy school public school calendar uh school year 2526 I have a second a second all those in favor I I great thank you they'll be happy to hear thanks fa but maybe we could do uh does do the calendars traditionally go to the union early on in the process yeah yeah okay um and we've just um over the past couple of years we've been taking more and more sort of input mhm good thank you okay um so next is our CES representative I actually forgot where we were um well I know you asked me to look into the meeting schedule so I talked to um Todd gazda at the collaborative so I just kind of cut paced his email so he put down the dates of the um CES meetings and he said they have the option to participate remotely if if somebody so chooses um typically they are in person but that is an option for for some folks when they can't make it so um so the remaining dates are January 29th March 26th May 28th and June 25th so those are the dates it is in your folder um I I just put that in there you can take a look at that so um I did my homework so Jen I did look at the dates in terms of how they fit into my calendar I don't know if everybody knows but a good part of my job is going out in the evenings to um work with school committees some of the dates work for me and some of them just don't and that's considering that right now I'm scheduling with people out into the latter part of March M the calendar um the calendar fills up um it's interesting work and I'd like to tell you I could commit to it but it um would be a heavy lift for me okay something they can share I'm thinking yeah I guess we'll probably have to see um if if it can be a as long as there's a representative from grany going if we can divide and conquer sure um and maybe that way at least until you know we uh we could kind of rotate through and have some exposure with the remote availability that kind of um where where's the inperson meeting located at I think it's noron Northampton yes yeah this will tell you how old I am behind where the old Jack AUST okay I'm the only one who remembers Jack August probably I wonder how the parking is over there there's a parking lot they have ni where did you put those and I will I guess add to that in the future um should be with the hope of some of my hours changing I could do it more rather than less but at the moment it's well do you um all want to try the um divide and conquer strategy can I get a volunteer for the 29th second that's one of the few I could actually make I put it in my calendar because I thought oh wow look first date I'm looking at I'm good as gold wasn't quite as good after that but all right so29 Liz can attend um March 26th is a Wednesday I don't have anything at that point basketball's over basketball's over but softball starts preseason right um they probably I actually both place I'll look and see I know they a partial agenda uh it's not an agenda when it's sports that other thing called a schedule I think they start that Monday for practices for preseason yeah yeah the first game is April 3rd so um so I could do the March 26th one I could take the May one okay kind I can flip flop with you if you want makes no difference okay and they weren't thinking that anybody attended the morning meetings that they post on their website I asked about that that's just for the board their board I specifically asked that question because I I need to clarify so well there's two meetings can they go the morning they're different meetings okay one is for the CES actual board I don't know which would be I think me as a representative I'm okay so we appreciate that all right so January 29th will be Liz March 26th will be me May 28th will be Mike and June 25th will be George is that correct does everyone remembers it it sounds good okay so I'll have to see about getting the um the location and or um I can do all that for you I'll send the location what time do they usually start it says 6:00 to 8:30 oh perfect I can just leave work cuz it's right there so um okay and I will get the address you you think from the old days they provide food too okay well I'm definitely I served served on that board when I was in [Music] Hatfield that's good okay done and done street it's h h a w l e y Street okay hot okay look up later where I was thinking all right moving um so we don't need to vote on that because we're going to there's not going to be one person we're dividing and conquering moving on school committee member for superintendent search committee um do we have um do we get a bunch of people for that would be Jenny I don't have the information did the bo go around yes they're down uh they're down somewhere Jenny has a group of people that apply I haven't been getting a correspondence okay I have um posted out to interested parties until February 3rd it's going out on blackboard it's on the town website it's everything so they have until February 3rd to say if they're interested okay from there we'll pick yeah you're getting you're getting um applications though or names not applications I think I have I mean I could probably look I think I have have probably 15 oh nice okay great um not a lot of uh representation from the Junior Senior High School from the staff a lot from East Meadow um there's maybe four or five parents there two committee community members um so there's going to be another Blackboard net going out next week on Wednesday as kind of like a final blast to text messages to families excellent okay um who would like to be on the superintendent search committee anybody anybody not particularly oh it's such exciting work spent two weeks down at the cap trying to cover two searches happening down there just because there's there's a lot going on but um um I would be the first one to raise my hand there because I actually do enjoy that work uh my boss told me that um I should stay away from the search committee um but that I would be as long as I I don't have uh I don't have a horse in the race so I could vote as a school Committee Member okay great M um but because of the work I do with superintendent searches and possibly seeing other candidates um in that initial process he advised me to stay away I totally get that that I was thinking that that was probably going to be um the situation it seems like a lot of work but it's a lot of work in a short time frame which is what I always tell committees it's usually between a week and two weeks of dates that you plot out for screening and interviewing you select the finalists and really your job is done um I'm a school committee nerd I guess um I don't know if I can I sit on the search committee as the chair cuz I all right I'll do it then if everyone's okay with it I appreciate it sure I need a motion I'd make a motion to um make our chair J Bart TOS to y t to um our representative on the superintendent have a second a second all those in favor by here we go all right back to the superintendent search brochure any um updates questions comments on where we have it I still like it um I just want to make sure that we're um we're happy with it so that we can getting get get it out there cuz tomorrow will be I guess yeah tomorrow so it can be posted tomorrow that's not in our file right should it should be it's the third in Fuller please super superintendent with a ram set up the left corner the only change I made to this were the dates instead of having one date for the interviews I changed it to 17 to the 21st for instance so that was really the only change that I made excellent did you change the site visit thing too yeah those with the range of dates because I had the site visits on one certain date instead of it in a range of a week so that was I changed it to ranges within that did a very nice job on it looking WR I think I have one question when we talk about the salary being negotiable um that's a true statement right mhm okay thank you it's uh I within the parameters that we that exist someone can come in and ask for 400,000 I would have a very hard time keeping a straight face but we would certainly certainly have a negotiation with them totally get that thank you I can't even say that with the straight who would ask that I don't know but yeah with within the confines of mhm and so far we've had Fairly good luck it may not um sometimes it's not always standard you know like we might have to figure out ways to make stuff work yes okay if we're all set I'll take the motion to approve the BR brochure and post it for tomorrow so moved to Second all right all those in favor I excellent okay so now we have um subcommittees we've got policy and um budget it is 704 how long George do you think you guys need for policy uh half hour May yeah should be fine okay is that going to be good for us for a bu more than enough all right so we will um reconvene in 30 minutes I think it's job okay and we're back um policy can we get a report out please um so we just went through basically updates and changes which uh Liz had gone through wonderfully beforehand uh the majority of the items are just bringing it to current like language things like that we will have to uh discuss for one of the subsections which also affects the second section um DGA yes the DGA with signatures we can now designate a single individual or continue as we are as a group and so I guess that's a discussion we can have at the next meeting for the second for second gr okay perfect and I'll talk to you Jenny tomorrow I put a separate file in oh okay s you saw I do this stuff in my sleep I do so much policy work so it was second nature but we can explain okay and for budget for Budget uh we discussed the distribution of the cherry sheet from desie uh for the uh Chapter 70 money and a couple of the other Main Stays of our budget and um how we're going to coordinate with the town in terms of doing our projections hand inand and a couple of the key dates uh based off past events of when that would occur uh we also have had discussion about the increasing inflation and in elastic goods and services eating way at our discretionary funds and um I had a short discussion about uh some creative ways to potentially overcome that in terms of purchasing but we won't know until we get a little bit deeper in the process so right now we're in the initial stages as soon as the initial projections are distributed we'll have a better idea but the ball is rolling in the right direction all right standing reports Mary Jen okay um I just want to let everybody know that our grand B Public Schools app has been updated thanks to Jenny she has been really diligent in looking at the website and U getting her app up to speed so on the W if you if you're not familiar with our app you can access our news events uh menus for schools you can also uh look at the apps and Char dismissal form for each School the athletic schedule and everything GPS related this app is available app uh at your uh Google app and and the Apple Play Store just search for grany Rams um one really good feature I like is that you can actually um report your students's absence to the app so that's a really nice feature that that we have and uh the school principes have um put it into their um newsletters so it's a great feature for folks to to use so um you get plus portal from there pardon can you get the plus portal I don't know I don't think so she's I'm sure she's going to find out when we leave here tomorrow Jenny's going to be out well I'm I'm looking at it right now oh allow notification yes please no it doesn't look like you can get Plus Portals well that would be the next best next thing to try to add cuz then you can go to Everything at Once cuz both schools are using Plus Portals now right I for like grades and stuff I believe so I don't know sometimes the not using the Google Classroom anymore I didn't think so but I I could be I don't know what it's called I just go to yeah I don't I'll find out for you I I'll I really don't know the answer to that for some reason I'm saying no but it may it just may not be consistent across the teachers is what I have to find out okay the next one is I met with Marie mccort she is our liaison with the collaborative to discuss summer programming for our families last summer we provided both extended school year which we are required by law to to provide and enrichment but unfortunately the enrichment program um was not as well attended um as a district so we really um really had to um um incur some of the costs with our own budget so this year the collaborative has decided to work with us through our a 21st century Grant to um offer free summer um enrichment programs to our families and right now it's going to be a 4-we program from July 7th through August 1st I am working with Marie and and the evening School director to um determine what we're going to do for those those four weeks I think we're going to make um week based stem um programs that talk about about um that that discuss um activity based um you know looking for some field trips for the students and things like that so um it will be free to charge for students in K through 6 and we will be um giving you information as we get it we're meeting the beginning of February and hopefully we'll have something to the families by February vacation so they can plan accordingly for the summer so I actually contracted with New England School Development Council to help with our future enrollment data and I sent you all a copy of that um find a copy in your folder but there's some highlights so I just wanted to let you know that this um data includes National and state and um New England uh data so you can take a look at it from 20 to just twice to say that the population and prek-k enrollment across the country and across the state are declining um so it's not increasing however um you know data for grany for the next you know 10 years or 8 years is showing that we're a little bit at a little bit lower decrease rate than some of the other areas so that's a good report to take a look at they also provide lots of services for us so I thought we get a lot of bank heru if we use them to help us with some of those projections in the future so take a look at that and we can bring it forward but I I thought it was a great um resource for us weeda testing will take place for our EF students um actually window opens today but we're not um taching till next week we did I just want to explain what WEA is WEA is a testing is a series of English language proficiency assessments for students in grade um K through 12 um and it's WEA means world class instructional design and assessment because somebody might ask me what weed it is so I thought I'd have that out for you all um currently we have about 29 e students three at the middle and high school level and uh remaining 26 at East Meadow and that will help us um ascertain what services we need for our students and and helps with establish our teachers and those types of things so I also received notification from the town that our in report is due February 28th and our DLT uh team will be spending time working on our portion for each to their departments in the in the next coming weeks and submitted by the deadline um High School updates our cion was held on Saturday 107 of our students attended the event at the Nights of Columbus and chicke I talked to Ally she said the kids are fabulous the school resource or the not the school resource officer the officer on duty was so impressed with our students that they were polite well mannered they had a great great time and then fafs night is uh gry Junior Senior High in the 30th and that's going to be at 6:00 in the cafeteria midterms were completed today and tomorrow beginning is the beginning of turn two um I just had a message from Lisa she just wants to remind parents that you know I know we really loves recess but with the colder than normal temperatures we may not have recess every day and please review your notification from East Meadow it does give you a little chart of what days we'll be using you know that they can go out full recess and you know with students waiting at the bus I encourage parents to make sure it's really hard I know as a parent kids don't want to wear coats and hats and gloves but we're really going to have some temperatures in the next couple of weeks so try to cajo your students into dressing War as a parent we know it's not easy so that's what I have any questions or comments for Mary Jan um for indoor recess the kids allowed especially own country to use the gym run around a little bit kind I get their Wiggles up if there's not a gym class but mostly usually it's in a classroom or you know well they'll they'll you know put the kids in in cohorts but you know if there's not a gym class and somebody's want to do that I think they may they may do but sometimes if if there's a gym class they be to do that is a is there a way for the teachers to know we they know in the morning what the schedule is so every teacher gets a schedule of you know where the classes are every day but I can specifically check with Lisa to see if there's someone we can move that around a little bit yeah I mean I mean for some kids they might need to run it off a little bit some some have run it off in the classroom yeah stuff so if they want to bounce around the gy sure if it's available they do let them I I do I do I have seen them do it but often times there may be another class in yeah so there's some sensory walks too it some yeah that's a good idea we do have some you can see if you walk around the building you do see um areas that they do have um designated for sensory walk sometimes I've seen them going around you know I may not be really recess bace but let's identify certain things if if you look in the windows you know what can you see bird shapes things like that with the Litt with the with the littles I see that a lot so they try to keep them busy and give them movement breaks during the day as well because you know again as a as a parent I had one of my boys just couldn't sit still at all so recess is critical for a lot of kids yeah but we have to make sure that they're you know C or sometimes that go through a little once sometimes no understandable yeah but there is a chart so um this week doesn't really look too promising but at the end of the week it does look like it's going to war up a little bit and they do their best they can and usually we talk to the nurse and and there sometimes you may not have a morning recess but the afternoon may be a recess so it's may not be a full day for some people you know may be cooler in the morning and over in the afternoon okay sounds good yep that's all I have um so as from our subcommittee update uh the governor's budget is going to be released this week and then we're going to use that um to finish uh building our projections to work with the town for our FY 26 budget um for the Junior Senior High School kitchen project we're finalizing our documents uh to put the bid out next week um so hopefully we can get interested parties uh to take on that project uh so that we can get the kitchen renovated and up and running in the Junior Senior High School and lastly um last week I met with all the with the principes and all the department heads uh to review their budgets where they stand um giving particular atten attention on grants uh we have a number of uh state grants and federal grants and ensuring that we're going to use those in the time frame um that's required in those grants and meeting the goals of those grants um we have uh Innovation career Pathways at the Junior Senior High School myap uh Grant which is also another post-secondary planning uh grant for students at the high school um we have our heat crimes prevention grant that is districtwide impact um so we have a number of things in the works in addition to to our title grads so that's what I have any questions or comments All right we don't have um we've established CES so we'll have somebody attend the January meeting which is the 26th or the 29th and that that'll be Liz um anything else for the agenda for next time we pushed the classic 2025 uh field trip with Cole um we'll [Applause] have will you'll figure it out y um anything else that anyone can think of for the agenda for next time policy justce a policy U just is it a first read or you need to meet again um it'll be a first read and we'll have to make a decision on either continuing like signing warrants as we are or electing an individual okay depending on how the of that we can either vote on it then or the one more read all right so we'll have something we'll put it with a vote but we'll uh we can have the discussion we can table it and push it if we need to um anything else if anything comes up we can uh just let us know if and there's no executive session this evening excellent um with that I will take the motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn can I have a second second all those in favor I I thanks everybody have a good night