[Music] good evening everyone today is uh Tuesday March 18th and the time is 6:30 p.m and I'd like to call this meeting to
order first on our um agenda is the consent agenda um first is the minutes from January 21st 2025 which seems like a lifetime ago any questions or comments on those minutes
hearing none I'll take the motion we'll make a motion to approve are we approving or accepting what's the We approve okay motion to approve i'll second all those in favor i next we have um warrants 46 47 49 50
52 53 55 and 56 um which have gone around for signatures any questions or comments on any of those hearing none I'll take the motion i'll make a motion to accept warrants number
46 47 49 50 52 53 55 and 56 can I have a second second all those in favor i next is visitors comments any citizen wishing to speak before the committee must sign in with the administrative assistant prior to the 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 you clearly state your name and address so that this information can be included in the record for the meeting uh seeing
none we'll move along uh Cole is unable to attend okay uh new business first up is our Hail Harold Ginsspoon Excellence and Teaching Award for Kelly Romano you almost do that i just want to let um everybody know that Kelly Romano has
been selected as the Grahamby public schools uh 2025 Pioneer Valley Excellence and Teaching Award um Kelly is I'm going to read to you what one of her colleagues said to her she had several nominations but I kind of compiled them and this is what what we get the compilation kelly Romano a
dedicated educator at Graanby Junior Senior High since 2018 has been honored with a prestigious Greenspoon Excellent Award oh sorry that's my part teaching 10th and 11th graders across a range of subjects including history English and advanced placement courses kelly's impact extends far beyond the curriculum
as the adviser for the high school student council she fosters leadership and community spirit among the students kelly is widely celebrated for going above and beyond for both staff and students building strong connections and consistently modeling inclusive teaching practices that create a welcoming and
supportive learning environment for all kelly will be honored in an in-person banquet at the law cabinet on April 30th 2025 in addition to being honored Kelly will be receiving an engraved plaque and a check for $250 um generous tuition incentives and scholarship offered by
eight major colleges and universities AIC Bay Path Elms Mount Holio Springfield College West New England and Westfield State as well as University of Massachusetts and additionally winners will receive a three-month membership at the Jewish Community Center or one of the six regional
YMCA's so thank you and you did a great job thank you so much congratulations congratulations congratulations thank you congratulations thank you kelly's joined today with us her husband enjoyed her
husband Michael right yes there we go i really appreciate that wonderful and if anybody's interested in going to the banquet let me know and uh we can certainly uh enjoy the evening it's a lot of fun up at the log cab
thank you all for coming thanks for coming thanks for having me here okay um well that's a nice start wanted a photo op but Oh well it's too late now there's um it's um we'll have to be
better about that i didn't even think of it yeah I just Yeah and she is fantastic it was a good It was good choice she had several I know the kids just adore her um all
right so next up is review of out of state field trip advisory okay there's been um we had a couple of out of state field trips on the agenda for the last couple of um meetings but since that time there's been some advisories from the um health department about out of
state field trips um so I'm just going to give you a quick synopsis um any field trip that has been requested from out of state in Massachusetts will need to have an RN um on the trip but in order um for the out of strip out of state ship to be um honored the only
states that honor Massachusetts RN lensure is Connecticut so are you kidding no we're considered a compact state so in order for us to send another nurse out of state we have to apply for um reciprocity yeah reciprocity i don't want to say that um and that may take up
to 90 days so right now um the seniors wanted to go to Rhode Island and at that point you know just we won't w able to accommodate that with this new regulation there is still some discussion going on but right now that's our attorneys have advised us to um stick with that for now so from now on
we can just really go to Connecticut until we get further information that's terrible bridges so so we're working on becoming a compact state with other states and that's been going in the process for a little bit more a little while but right now we're just Connecticut and you can only use it for
24 hours in Connecticut so what is the um where did this come from because we've been doing out of state field trips uh so what changed the Trump administration no not this we didn't get a lot of detail as to the background so all we're doing is speculating there must have been an incident that either a
nurse wasn't present or something that this it feels so reactionary midschool year uh to put this kind of directive out to the all the schools in the districts in the Commonwealth yeah again February a lot of people have DC trips planned and things you know
other school districts so it's um there is some some anxiety with some folks and some people are scrambling to get that um certification but you know we only had the senior one and then we had another one um that was easy enough to reschedule so so if we had been able to
talk about this a little bit ago with the senior would they have been okay in time we would have had to resend probably take back that approval um because we would have been out of compliance with that right we would have had to they still have to apply to Rhode Island to go to
that field trip and so we're out it calls fingerprinting you have to put 90 it's a fee there's also a waiting time waiting period u Nancy Jenkins our nurse leader went through all the process and the only one that had anything with us was Connecticut New York is even is even longer the
wait so fingers crossed you know hopefully terrible and I you know some districts are um you know looking to see what they can do to expedite it but our our legal told us to you know and even you could conceivably you know have seniors go um after graduation because
then they would be responsible with the school but you know that's just on us and I don't feel comfortable doing that because they're still our kids so this is really a catch 22 where you can't even send a certified nurse licensed nurse I should say um but the
nurs's only good for Massachusetts mhm but I feel like that's not the case for nurses that work in a hospital because there's reciprocity for um like the tri-state area it always has been like I know like Bay State pulls from nurses when I
worked there right you know you'd see people coming in from different things on different It's a DPH school yep yeah something happened we got it midFebruary which is again why wouldn't we get this in July we got it in February right that's terrible it is too i think I've
seen it are a little upset right now i don't blame them they have every right to be upset i know so yes they do and the advisory is just vague it's I did I did attach it you all can take everybody can take a look at it is in there and there's some links to it and you want to
do some light reading feel free to take a look at it that's all I have for that all right next is the field trip to Connecticut Science so there is a field trip going to the Connecticut Science Museum and that is going to be um for uh
8th and 9th graders to go to a STEM um demonstration with the Project Lead the Way curriculum so that is taking place um the date on March 21st it's Friday it's Friday okay any questions or comments on that
no sounds fun yeah I'm glad um I'm glad someone's getting to do something um can I have a motion uh make a motion to uh accept the field trip to the Connecticut Science Museum i have a second i'll second it yeah that's a fun trip all
those in favor i I I okay next is the I'm assuming PA is um parent association and not P Pennsylvania donation to music department that's the um Graanby Music um association so GMPA yep
that was your tool pa is a sound system the PA is actually the sound system donation yeah Sue Craiggo is donating a sound system to the music department um that is uh will help the students with their little bands and things like that
so she's donating it from her days um and uh Bob Castella Castella was very excited to uh get that in get that in his uh um supplies because his just broke so it worked out really um quite nicely excellent so we have that
donation okay so um can we can I have a motion sure we have a motion to accept the PA donation to the music department have a second with a big thanks from all of us right yeah of course second
the next donation is Chinny all those in uh favor now I'll be able to say it loud and proud through the new system okay it's a small system it's not a big one and that's from Sue so Sue Craig I will thank you to uh to Sue that's amazing
thank you very much all right next is a saxophone donation to the music department presented by Jenny yep um I'm the GMPA chair for the Grammy Music Parents Association and Jessica Funk actually donated a saxophone to the band
to be able to put into the hands of a student instead of us purchasing one and uh it actually needs zero work and everything so it can literally be picked up and given to a student to be able to use that's amazing that's awesome okay thank you um can I have a motion
motion to accept the donation of a saxophone uh to the music department second all those in favor i Thank you Jenny for bringing that forward and thank you Jessica that's um that's amazing all right next is the MSBA
statement of interest this requires a vote um Grahamby submits a statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority that's the MSBA on a uh yearly basis but now it is a two-year basis um even though we don't intend to replace or make modifications to the high school
without the with the exception of the kitchen we still have to keep our name in the queue for MSBA so um each district school committee must vote on the SOI and once you guys vote on it I have to bring it to the town for vote as low i also put a copy of that into your
um folder basically it just states um um you know what our deficiencies are and what things we'll be looking for it talks about heating ventilation um size space um things like that so I did give you a copy of that um it's the same one that we've submitted in the
past nothing new um so this is the beginning of a two-year cycle we don't have to revisit this again until 2026 yes 27 okay and may I ask um because I don't know the answer has the town been
on board with this in the past they're on board as far as us submitting um and keeping our name on the queue okay we're told repeatedly that they no one thinks that we would the town would vote for Proposition 2 and a half for the
override that would be needed to fund it um but at the same time they also realize that we can't go along and be like ostriches and put our heads in the sand um you know I don't believe anyone's denying the fact that the building needs repairs and needs to be
updated and um is one catastrophe away from being a real problem so we've been doing it year-over-year they uh we honestly it sort of feels like you know we go we show up we um read it through
they accept it and we move on and then they wait and see uh the last time we went through the MSBA came didn't even allow us to really go forward because they knew that the town at that point in time was not uh in a financial situation
but we like to keep our name in there and we've been doing it every year since I've been um since I've been on the committee and moving it forward um at some point we're going to end up actually being able to do something which will be super exciting but I'm not
really sure when that would be um so if I may so the town has so MSBA has determined that the town doesn't have the initial doesn't have the
ability to pay back whatever the percentage is that has been so when we've when we've met I've been on one of the calls with MSBA and with the um former town administrator and it was that the town doesn't have the appetite
for the debt exclusion according to the finance committee chair and the town administrator on behalf of the select board okay so um and so we according to MSBA we would
wouldn't qualify for some of their more targeted repairs whether it was the heating system or the windows because they're aware of some of the other significant deficiencies in the building yes so they would not approve us for uh one of those more targeted repairs
so the if I may just so I can better understand so the select board left it in the hands of the finance chair and the town administrator to make that assumption is that how that works i just
really don't know here they were the representatives from the town side at that meeting and that was their statement in the meeting how they came to that conclusion I don't I can't speak to that right well that would be
interesting to know um and I guess if you think that there's anyone on the town side who might help me better understand that I'd be happy to give them a call and try to understand what their thinking is um because you should
never underestimate a great communication plan um especially when it comes to schools um I would say the communication if you go to any number of town meetings it's it's fairly obvious
the appetite oh okay so we're we're not we're not just we're not just No that's what I'm wondering if you go to the annual town meeting or if you've been to special town meetings or whatever it's very very clear what the finance committee what the select
board what town um patrons think i think the tide is starting to turn but we're not there yet okay we're a very highly taxed town yes we're finding that out but we don't um but um the finance committee said the only way we could pay
for such an uh for for such an endeavor would be to do proposition 2 and a half and there's something with the amount that we have i don't know there's all these numbers that they talked to us about so we're not it's not like we don't think a
communication plan would help it's we've been living this for a while so it's um and they did again part of this larger discussion indicated that we're only into you know 5 years or so of paying for this renovation and so to have the
significant bill added to what's already the debt exclusion that they're covering or the town is paying for is the message the way that I received it and what's the state reimbursement currently for new construction i think it depends on the project there's a number of factors
that uh that come into it from the feasibility study um I I wasn't in this role when this building was done but I believe it was around a 60% reimbursement uh for this building it's
in one of the town uh the annual Thank you the annual reports and and actually it's probably in a bunch of them you've been um searched up on the website and it says what all of the stuff is i don't I don't know the specific numbers off i'll do my best yeah I'm sure I can find and it does
does change based on need uh low income enrollment like there's so many factors that go into what creates because there are communities that receive 80% or more reimbursement yes depending on their demographics and a number of the factors in community where said we got probably
around 60% for this building right okay thank you that's helpful i will do some looking just so I can better understand um make a motion to accept the MSBA statement of interest as written may I have a second second all those in favor
i I um and just let us know when or let me know when you're going to go in front of the select word um I usually like to sit in on that if I can sure that'd be great because I have to print it out too to have you sign it so um yeah do we know when it is we will have to once we
have Right we have We can go to them now and say the school committee has authorized it so we'll need to be on an upcoming agenda we have some time i'm um I'm off on Friday so if you have it ready I can pop in in the morning oh at some point in the morning and Okay and sign it oh yeah i wonder if I could
print it off until we voted so I think we might be okay now i do have to check a box so I think we're good now and then that it's not this round it's the next round with the crazy signatures online yes okay um after after the select board
approves it then it's that weird one okay um next is payment of FY24 vanpool invoices this is one of my favorite topics in here i always bring all the best things so in your folder I have uh a breakdown of a
number of older invoices from fiscal 24 uh from Vampool um there's a couple of factors that led to this um I really feel there's a major uh communication issue with Vanpool we were trying to get
um clarification on some overcharges uh some invoices that were incorrect um we were not we weren't receiving call backs and emails um and we finally were able to get them squared away and
unfortunately we're left with $39,284 remaining from FY24 um we are able uh to use carryover from an FY24 special ed grant uh for contracted services to
cover this cost and so it wouldn't be coming out of FY25 you know our original FY25 budget it I said it's carryover that we didn't end up using last year um from our IDEIDA grant so I'm looking at the the
breakout there with the invoices um so why is the one from April 1st 2024 $26,000 that is our at for last fiscal year that is the regular invoice amount for out of district transportation for a month um
so each one so the way that they are broken out is by service so we have in district as a separate invoice out of district we have um our Mckin Venta homeless transportation we have our um
our Smith vocational transportation each comes as its own invoice per month it's not one van pool invoice per month and so that as I said that's representative of our out of district uh tuition or out of district transportation all right so
I get lost with the numbers sometimes i'm sorry so tell me so the 39284 is the total amount correct left that we still need to pay correct and how much do we have in the what how much are we short the 39,000 after using the
roll over no the the rollover will cover the 39,000 that's I Yep and so there our carryover was about 82,000 okay so there's still money which we'll be using because I know earlier in the year I told you that we had underbudgeted for
FY25 so we'll be using that balance okay and that was part this 39,000 was part of that original calculation I gave you earlier this year okay sorry no that's okay and we haven't talked about it in a little while so Right okay
um it's it's interesting that it would take so long and I do understand that times it does take so long um for vanpool to communicate back and clarify the question so that's not best business practice but
they sort of have a lock on the market don't they they do and I have a ongoing concern with them and I'm holding on to two invoices right now because I'm not getting clarification from them on on a question regarding some roots
and so still locally owned as it is part we have a regional or a local branch but it is a much it's part of a larger conglomerate I I don't know if that's the right word I'm going to use it if you say so I'll agree um I was able to
get more information once um a person above our regional area was started to be looped in on a couple of these to get me to this number today it's stalled on my current fiscal year
but I'm pressing on them to get better answers i may not get the savings I'm looking for but I'd at least like to understand how we got these charges so never tip off thank you okay um do we already do it no i need a
motion um make a motion to accept a payment of FY24 vanool invoices second from Do we need to state or just that it's from 24 carryover does it matter as described no because the the
the grant is a two-year okay great second thank you all those in favor i I I Okay uh finalist for superintendent search i don't know that that's actually a vote
okay i think it's just an announcement isn't it okay go ahead Todd um so the initial screening committee is presenting the school committee with two names as finalists for the Grand Superintendent
Search uh Mary Jane Rickson and Dr joanne Manard are the two names being brought forward by the search committee okay so um we need to schedule we have interviews scheduled we haven't scheduled them with them yet we have the
window in our original um posting for the job okay and the flyer um if that's the timeline you want to keep we can move forward with that timeline i think we should try to do our best if we can make it um if we can make it happen okay
um so we'll get those um scheduled okay and then are you in a next meeting going to review questions or prepare questions yeah I think we have to because we didn't have it on the agenda and I didn't actually stop and think about it
when I reviewed the agenda so there's some um questions that are in the folder that came from um the search committee so for our next meeting um if we can come with some thoughts on questions we can kind
of go from there and narrow it down okay so it's it says questions from search committee jenny put it in on March 7th um and then if you have anything in particular that you would like you know we can um provide time for that and when
we do do that you'll have to step out for those so you don't have a very big okay okay so bring a couple questions yep and there's um there's some that the uh screen
um screening committee had some um thoughts on so they presented those so we can decide when we have that conversation we can decide if we want to use any or all of those and how we want it to um to play out so okay we'll go
from there so did um the group have or do you all have access to sort of that larger compilation of questions that comes from MASC to look at okay good that's where
these um some of these came from and would your suggestion be that we come we obviously we'll look at these right and then come with anything from that larger compilation that is seems like I mean like the when I was on the search for
the town administrator I spent some time and I Googled and found some other ones that weren't on you know on any particular site just ones that I was like oh this might this kind of makes sense to me and how I and how and what I've I would like to know from this next
pro potential person so um feel free to do that that's smart yeah I actually have my own sort of collection that you're you're right um because it's I feel like interviewing is a very personal thing when you're sitting there what it is that you're looking to get
from the candidate and having those discussions so sometimes how I frame a question or how I think of question the point is coming across but it looks completely different than what is there so you know if you come with a couple we can we'll spend some time um looking at
those so that we can um get be ready to work be organized for how we're going to do it thank you Todd um I'm just the interview schedule roughly when were we thinking of that are we going to do are so candidates will do site visits
here i mean we have are we announcing the names of the candidates publicly did we say them out loud yes sorry obviously still on that cold med stuff keeps me again Todd keeps me a little Mary Jane
sometimes and Dr joan Manard thank you thank you thank you um has and the committee has talked about um obviously there would be site visits here for both candidates even though one is the interim um and had did the
committee talk about a potentially a site visit i guess we'll call candidates equal out of the district we had talked about it and potentially having a member of the screening committee perform that
task mhm um for us okay okay um well if that works for you all um I'm okay with that good um well I mean it's
site visits out are getting um less useful than they used to be right with the whole um I feel like it changed during co It did um we we did ours for the
um uh site visit and it was when we we hired Steven I think right must have been search committee um it wasn't but it that was done during remote yeah so it was everything was remote and um
yeah so well virtual site visits are be are became popular in co and still are quite popular because if you're traveling any distance which I guess this is not a huge distance but it it saves a lot of time and um and
money um I'll look at the brochure just so I'm sure to save those um the time um I would imagine I guess I wouldn't imagine anything but you'll tell me but will we be interviewing both candidates on the
same evening different evenings our goal was to do that but it depends of course on the candidates you know availability you know um but that is that's how we did it in the last the last um couple of searches that we've done
and we just had So Mary Jane when you came in for the intro you were just we met you in a and you came in in front of us right and it was I think there were yeah right there and it was I think it waited up there for
something and someone went probably got yes it's just a little bit of coordination and there's two candidates so that's completely doable one more and then come the other yeah that's why he did that today not really but we tried and would you imagine that uh
deliberation then happens after the two interviews okay good good thank you sure i mean and all of this is depending upon if we can make it um coordinate and everything if we have to do adjust and because of calendar commitments or
anything else that we'll take that under adisement and see how we can make I'm trying way harder trust me I only had the two dates for this month for some reason differently and maybe it's because in my mind I don't know we we missed the one meeting because of
absences um but anyway I went through the rest of my calendar and they're all in there according to the list so I'm good to go i want to just be sure to block off uh time for this as well i shared the brochure with you just so you can see it
hey I know a guy thank you so much okay so more to come on that and we'll make sure to discuss questions at next um I didn't put down the agenda i'm next meeting jenny's got it all right my next favorite topic school choice um I didn't put a vote in
here in case you wanted to have some discussion and kind of illuminate it over the next week or so before the next meeting i went talked to the principles and then we talked to um our data uh administrator to see what was coming in as far as children's first at the
elementary level with kindergarten and grade 1 so in meeting with the principles um these are the numbers that they came up with um you can see that there's um really a good number of students in
grade two um grade four um grade five you know they're at capacity so the only rooms we have room for right now would be um 1 3 6 7 9 10 and 11 um but again
that's always up to you um so I don't know if you want to have discussion on it but and you can see the notes on the side we already had kindergarten registration so this works out these are the numbers we have um I did have a couple inquiries about kindergarten um but those will make the classroom right
now 35 would be 17 in one class 18 in another so you know just a matter of what we're looking for at the kindergarten level um but other than that I don't uh think these numbers are really much different than last year's i do have a question about the grade 10
um numbers that's current grade 10 of 2027 no this is uh that'd be grade nine grade nine okay these numbers these kids are all moving up the grade okay okay and then we're still not accepting seniors
or at 45 that's totally up to you um I you know it's hard at seniors because the problem with seniors when they come in you don't know what their credits are yeah but the my my whole thing with that is if we had a student move in that was a resident we'd have to take them so you'd have to figure it out yeah so
whatever you want I have no problem adding more seniors absolutely whatever you you know I just feel like you know that is a good point by the way I highly doubt that a senior is going to walk to school choice um uh it's valid though it's back in but I don't want to
I hate having that door closed because I know there was CL uh students in my daughter's class that would have liked to potentially come back and didn't i mean the class you know the class is small enough so you know it's again most of these credits but you're right
somebody came in from out of district what would we do anyway we'd make it work you'd absolutely make it work so I'm okay if you want to add a couple slots there what you know talk a bunch of and think about it and we can bring it back to her vote next time or I can put it in here where we can What are you guys thinking uh we'll
bring it on for a vote for next week um yeah it's next week right right do you want me to put some numbers in here do you want to talk i don't know well we can't uh Well does that mean we're not voting feelings about adding I mean I just feel like we should at least have the option for
seniors um again highly doubt it but I don't want to have a door closed that could potentially be opened because I know there's some kids that have history of going back well for a variety of oftentimes very good reasons right um yeah I don't I'm I
think that uh unfortunately or fortunately we're in a place now where we have to compete for students and while it's only $5,000 um coming in yeah i say the more
that um can be well managed the better so you know maybe um maybe two sure just so that their spots open instead of having a zero okay okay I'm okay with that and Todd you've been part of some of the
other discussions about classroom size and everything are we okay with where we're at right now as far as this building is concerned yes okay excellent um All right so we'll move that along
any other questions on school choice at this point moving on um uh policy D C addendon addendum that was provided to us for subsections and um second read and we
have the option to vote unless we have additional questions after um tonight so policy denied uh George not here oh were you you were on
that right you're on that right okay so talk us through it well um the only thing that I had a question on was I was really having a hard time finding the edited version of section D which um says that there needs to be some
discussion on DK is that the case that was the payments isn't it right payment procedures um so we had a really good meeting um
policy work is something I do an awful lot of um and I did with section D here what I would do for any other school committee i simply took the policies matched them up with the policy
templates from MASC um highlighted the differences um provided explanations as to why there were differences in some cases um and George and I had a pretty good discussion and um I think that we
were in agreement on everything it must have been except the DK it's we're going back now a couple of meetings um there was not a whole lot of s there wasn't any I would say significant uh changes offered but there was some language changes there were some legal
updates um just to keep us in compliance um and I'm I'm completely comfortable with what the subcommittee recommended as we do a second reading here this is
our second reading second reading so do we need a motion for that i mean if there's any specific questions I'm happy to open up section D and take a look um as I recall we spent about was it about 45 minutes that night or did it just seem
like 45 minutes in that little room probably close to that yeah um and um you know again without having any significant changes to the language um just minor wording changes and additional cross references and legal references I think that we're probably
pretty good to go unless um our director of finance and operation had any questions nope i don't yeah so I'd make a motion that we accept as a second reading do we then have a third following this year at the typical protocol the the final
approval at the next meeting if we're well the way we have it on the agenda and the way we've done it is we if there's no additional changes or questions after the second read we always have it as a vote to be able to go through after the second read if there's still lingering questions or whatever we can vote to bypass the vote
and push it on to the uh to the next one but again like you said I'm pretty comfortable if it's following what MASC says and there's um we've gone through this now i think at this point we're just um trying to keep um up to date on
changes you're following best practice is what you're doing by going section by section um so we we have done the whole we have made it all the way through once um and we probably finished that how long have you been on now uh just
over two years i know right right when you started or right before you started and so now we're just kind of going through and we've gone done some out of order because there was something that was announced and we I I don't know say it was I it might have been I might not have been I can't
really remember well we had to just revert back on the AC policy right um and you might not have since you already went through you might not have gotten the latest update from January like so it's in non-discrimination
harassment anything involving committee meeting so you were probably still using the 222 policy which basically we had to re revert back to we made significant changes based on um decisions that the Biden administration made um and then we
have we voted on that in in uh in the summer we have to go back to the other one so we have to bring that we have to revert back to which will be in our January meeting it'll be at the next meeting it's on my calendar good we have to revert back but the good news is so to me the good news is anyway um that
Massachusetts constitution provides a great deal more protection than the federal constitution provides to young people in our schools mhm um so we're literally reverting back to the changes that the policy before um the more
comprehensive changes came in place and the AG and the governor um repeatedly stand in support of protecting students in our school buildings so um again I for one am pretty happy about that
um so if we're comfortable we can do um the vote uh for acceptance of the updates to policy D as they stand or we can push it off and do it at the next meeting it's entirely up to the So I'll
try a motion okay um I would um make a motion that we accept the second read and move forward to approval on the changes made test policy um section D finance finance and budgeting
i have a second um move forward to vote okay second yeah for a second all those in favor i I Okay and so we are good so we'll you guys in your next subcommittee will have to
decide which policy to tackle next yeah so I guess whatever um whatever needs to be tackled next right so what um Mary Jane's bringing um the one that's coming forward you know the other what whatever it was AC or whatever so it's tail knife
policy we have yep yep so whatever that is we'll be able to um bring it to the subcommittee first or should I just bring it as it bring it to the meeting and then because the next meeting should have um maybe not the 25th but I was thinking I was thinking the one yeah okay yeah the 25th I think
will be because we'll have our um forum before then so yeah it's simply reverring reverting back to your previous policy so okay um if there's nothing else we'll move on next is continuing business
enrollment numbers i feel like well there has been a little bit of change because we haven't had a meeting in if you take a look at um because we do the the um enrolling changes at the end of the month you can see that from December so we didn't have any meetings in February so I didn't have to put that in there so we had a couple students come
back from uh tech school we had two new enrollments and one relocated from somewhere else in the state so we have six new and then uh just last month we had one student um move out so uh our enrollment's up from December we're up to
681 we're up five wow wow wow wow that's kind of That's good it's coming back pretty pretty though i don't love it okay any questions on these i have one simple question that I
had when we looked at school choice does non-resident automatically mean school choice students here i'm going to have I'm going to defer that to Todd does non we have anybody tuitioning in i We do have um we do have some tuition in students
oh okay even better get more money for those youngsters thank you you're welcome so non-resident is a combination of both we don't have it uh we don't have it singled out correct it would be Oh they
do no they do have a column of tuition in it could be like a program that they're they want to come to their life skills or something like that and I think that's um Stacy does break it out into tuition in versus so non-resident would be our school that's great
okay so nothing on that we'll go to superintendent report are you going to read like four of them or Yeah I just put it you know I just kept adding stuff to it so um I had it quite extensive but I kind of shortened a little bit because I figured So I've been attending webinars
uh you know as you know if there's been some new changes coming fast and furious at the um at the federal level so I've been attending and as well as all my administrative team Mr dorman and myself our heads are spinning um so we've attending webinars on title N immigration charter schools federal
funding and what's going to happen with Department of Ed um I did want to let you know that the charter school uh Chinese emerging charter school opened 100 seats this year so that we're going to be keeping an eye on that on our end um so we'll be sending some more updates
in the next few weeks on our policies at our next school committee we'll be discussing the title N policy which is what um Lisa talked about i met with police chief Grady interm fire chief Russ Anderson and our emergency preparedness team to review our emergency response team so we took a look at our documents that Mr svin had
worked with uh the last couple years on and we're going to move forward with some practice case scenarios which include some reunifications um and we're planning to have u we had additional meeting on the 27th so I missed that one and then um we're going to do something in the spring we'll notify the families
ahead of time that this is happening keep it open and transparent so that we know but really reunification is it's going to be you know um dismissing students from the high school to the elementary school to get on the bus it'll be at the end of the day and the same thing will happen at the elementary school just so that students know and
how we're what our practices look like and making sure that we can keep track of students so we're going to work on that on February 6 I attended the Connecticut Valley Superintendent Round Table this is really interesting that's why I left it in here because the topic was from the Massachusetts Taxpayer Association and this is a nonprofit
nonprofit nonpartisan public research organization and they discuss the governor's budget specifically emphasizing the trends in revenue collection um so I just want I kind of put this in here because I was really interested in the specific term that says slow revenue growth versus increasing costs and I think that's a
really the crux of everybody's budget revenue is not increasing but costs are going up so I really just want to put that in there um so I was working with the taxpayers association to present information um through a Zoom meeting but um unfortunately they were unable to accommodate us they said they could but
guess they got booked um so this month we met with the Connecticut Valley roundts which kind of followed up through the last part and they were um in in that um round table we met with local legislators uh like um Jake Alivera uh Dom you know
representative Dom and and um and those folks and they were want to know what our concerns were i mean they also didn't know what the funding is going to look like at the federal level so they're very concerned but they did want to let them know that they're going to do what we can to support them um an additional top is they're really trying
to explore the use of using fully funding rural aid because we're not fund at rural aid at um at at the 100% you know I'm not really sure what they were talking about at that point because um they use some of the rural aid for for other things um some of the rural aid
money is used to um we can use it for anything we want but we want to make sure we get more funding for that um we were also invited to attend a um what is it called the forum from the mass ways and uh ways and means committee on UMass on March 24th and
Todd and myself are going to be heading that um Todd's going to um speak on behalf of the Grammy no he's not he said he's not speaking but so we're going to advocate uh superintendents are all getting together to advocate on what um what we need and hopefully the Ways and Means Committee can hear us
um East Meadow Principal Search uh Sue Craiggo our curriculum instruction coordinator has asked uh was tasked with this project she did a fabulous job and her and um Jenny really worked um miracles to get uh the finalists here today so they were here um to meet with
our staff our parents and um toward the schools they our three uh candidates are Penny Mntaria Stacy Burgess and Cynthia Sykes um I have a synopsis of each person's um qualifications you like me to read them for as Genie's going to put
on the website i believe it's on our website or Facebook uh yes website yeah it's on the website and it's also in your vitals so they'll be there as well and so um I will be meeting with candidates on March 20th and we'll be mounting the final candidate on March
21st so we'll have that um ready to go by the end of the week on March 21st we've invite we've been invited to participate in regional finance discussions uh myself Mr dormant and our new interim town administrator Ira but I'm not sure Mr bzinski will be there um
our hope is that Western Mass will have a voice in in funding so um typically Western Mass is kind of left out of the loop but again everybody's really hopeful that we're not going to be uh slashed so just remind them that we know we're considered the annex of New York
but we still are part of Massachusetts we are yeah um so yeah I already talked this March 20th one um so on March 21st we're going to be um yeah so I just talked about that you know twice um and then the last thing is we had kindergarten
registration march 20th was something different no I put the wrong date in there that was me i thought we had Don't we have a meeting coming up oh that is the right one you're right here i just I wanted to clarify the time yep um yeah March 25th i thought I was reading the same thing again uh March 20th we are
meeting at 5:00 oh yeah that's And it's here that's at the uh council okay yeah it's at 5:00 and that will be I was reading that i thought I read I thought I wrote it down twice not too fast so yeah we're going to be meeting with town officials discuss the parameters of our
FY26 budget and hopefully this meeting will help us with our budget presentation next Tuesday March 25th so Mr mr dormant has done a nice job of putting lots of scenarios together so hopefully we'll be able to shore that up uh
soon and that's all I have council on aging site you said right uh thank you yep what's the address there try to remember West State Street yeah West State Street
yeah I think that's going to be ourselves um I don't know if the board of selecting is going to be there in the there's it's anticipated one member from the school committee one from the uh select board and I from the finance I don't know if the finance committee I
haven't heard back yet i think uh the town replaced uh Mr bzinski with Mr martin uh as of yesterday's select board meeting i wasn't sure when I put that in here yeah I just a heads up so you're not expecting one walk into the other
thank you um so just to clarify it's a it's a dis a posted meeting open to the public this is it no okay thank you you are
it's u what we're doing is we sit down with the town administrator and um usually select board sometimes finance and we just go over what the school budget looking like um if we're asking for any additional funding so that they're not blindsided and just kind of
what does how does it look for us or you know are they are we expecting layoffs are we do we need to do massive cuts is you know just kind of the discussion yeah um okay just I'm just curious that it
was I understand everybody does things differently and I respect that i just wanted to clarify whether it was an open public meeting or not thank you okay Todd you're up all right so I was gonna
say so our FY25 budget update so we have the meeting scheduled on Thursday to uh hopefully iron out our final parameters uh to be able to present um our first draft of the budget for our public hearing on the 25th this coming Tuesday
um is our time for community input um so present that initial what are our drivers um we have already taken some of the parameters we've gotten but I said that meeting Thursday will give us really our final marching orders to try to be able to
present uh the best budget possible um so that's the first thing um what I did I put in your I think I gave you hard copies um I had prepared one for our first February meeting but I would and
through January and then I have one that is year-to- date through February it's our major funding categories um what we have budgeted for the year um how much we have expended uh for some of
our revolving accounts uh receipts that we've received um and then incumbrances that for in some of particularly in our uh teaching and pair professional lines those are their summer pays from uh the
previous year and then what's remaining uh available in those uh fund areas um so I will give you a monthly update uh laid out in really in this format um it takes it through again all of our
major categories administrative teaching uh classroom instructional supplies through transportation and facilities is there any that is in critical need or are they all on track to be um our major
one is going to be special transportation which I had given the board the committee um made you aware of that earlier this year um as I said we have a few you might see a few lines um
here and there that are in the negative but they're part of a larger funding group and so that total funding group is still in good shape okay so um and then I
also when you get uh to it at the end I have our grants that we're uh currently using this year how much we've expended in those grants how much we have received from the state and reimbursement for those grants so far and then also the same thing with our
revolving accounts like our school lunch and athletic revolving are two of our major ones um with our grants a number of them we haven't drawn very much of our funds yet because a number of them are connected to stipens that are work going on
through the year so those stipens will typically be paid out um towards the end of the school year any update on the kitchen i do have an update on the kitchen that was number three on my list oh okay we'll go number two then sorry we just did number two okay so you're right in line perfect uh
we have sent So the select board voted to approve uh awarding the contract for the kitchen renovation to uh contracting solutions out of Southwick uh we have a mechanical sub bidder and we have an electrical sub
bidder so we have the major players in place um I sent a draft of the contract to the town administrator for in case there's any edits or reviews because um our interim town administrator is also a chief procurement officer um so once I
get those back I will forward them those to um our architect and uh to general contracting solutions so at this point we are in line to start our construction this summer um our tenative completion date is middle of August so hopefully to
have the kitchen ready to go for when the students return that's our goal uh hopefully we can have uh labor and materials line up the way we need them to and we are well in line with our allocated amount because I know that's been a concern the way this
project been uh delayed getting biders um but we're still well within where we need to be for this so that's great news so um yes so that's all that I have clearly could end on a positive note
love it um CES we don't have I don't know has anyone been going so um I think I went to the last one um and it might be good that I go to the next one unless somebody has a burning desire i was just
going to say I'm scheduled to go to the one on March 26th and I I was going to say I cannot attend because I have a work commitment and there are some [Music] um
gosh I'll have to double check um the last meeting I attended uh there was some discussion about some significant financial deficits mhm um that included
um layoffs of staff and closing of some programs um it wasn't the greatest first meeting for me to attend um I think that um it was a very emotional meeting there
were staff members there uh present um and I think that I would expect a lot more information to come in at the next meeting which was not provided at that meeting um two months ago as to how they got there i think it's always the like the last Wednesday of the month but I'm
not really sure yes um can I email you on that because I do see something here in my calendar for a policy meeting with another district but I'm wondering if um that's actual meeting date or a proposed
meeting date so I'll confirm that tomorrow okay um and then I think that um if I can if that is a meeting and I can get them to move it up um I could attend virtually okay it would be great to get there were just
sort of so many questions uh that I think a lot of people had and there was no real information forthcoming on it um except their plan to sort of cut their deficit and get back to where they were running um to the end of the year but it was disappointing to hear and I think
everybody was hearing it at the same time like there was no real heads up on that as far as I was taking it at that meeting it will be March 26th that's when it is 6 uh March 26 6:00 to 8:30 yeah that's
what I have i'm just unable to attend uh I can tell you that I'm very interested in attending that if I can get it first I have to confirm this meeting um and then I'll see if I can get it moved up well I can tell you I attend those meetings pretty frequently we have we meet they've um run some of our
superintendent meetings and that that is a concern they're really having a hard time um finding PTO so the services that like we're looking for to provide they can't provide to us so I think that's where some of the deficits are coming from and then when they do find people um like
they're not generating revenue for PD because people don't have the ability to have the money to go to them for PD so I know those are some of their concerns um they can't generate the revenue that they've had and people like I said we're not taking advant we're not taking advantage of them because we just don't have extra funds to be doing this right
well right so again not having the information that I think um maybe would have been helpful for everybody in advance of that meeting to better understand how they got there um it would be I'm just interested in getting it at the next meeting
awesome so let me know so we can uh I will definitely let you know Okay all right um so for our meeting next week we have our forum on budget hearing we have budget hearing i always
get those messed up so budget hearing is on the 25th starting at 6:30 so 6:30 to 7:30 yep and then we'll have our or 7:30 6:30 to 7 and then we'll have we'll start our
meeting at 7 um and we h sort of had our subcommittee meetings last week we do have some policy stuff but I'm not sure George will be be here so I think that what we
should do is push subcommittee until April unless there's a pressing ne need but I feel like we usually do the second meeting of the month so we'll wait until April um so we have we'll have that from
6:30 to 7 and then we'll do um our regular budget for the school committee meeting yes um so other additional things that we want to talk about is we'll have questions for the
superintendent and kind of talk about that superintendent search just how it all plays out um well school choice school choice and then is there anything else that we
talked about i feel like there was something else and I can't find it do you want me to do the 109 thing or do you want to wait oh the title line yeah no that's fine that's a good one because that we can sort of have a discussion it doesn't have to be policy yep okay and then on April 1st will be the forum okay and
that is the only thing we'll have that day it's not ahead of a regular meeting um and the So hearing is when the public can ask questions yep see those words are different in my forum should be where you can where you can ask questions hearing is where we're where
that's why I know and I took it right from the legislation when I when I posted the hearing but do you not do you not agree that the the wording forum first yeah forum is when you have usually discussion is like gavvel right
that's what I want I need a gabble I I might have some if I can unpack all my I certainly had one from my legal studies class when we had to be judge and uh so this is when we listen to any members of the public who might appear
right right and toggle present for us we we can ask questions um a lot of times I ask questions with wearing my parent hat rather than a school committee hat sure um and um and then the next one is where you
know any any last minute changes or whatever and the committee can continue to ask questions of that one but the public would not be able to they can still attend i just can't ask questions yeah and we've had we've had at least ones where people came on the night of
the forum and during open visitors comment they posed questions for us that we were able to take them to advisement as we went through the final presentation yep thanks sir and then vote on the budget on the April 11th meeting
um okay so if there's nothing else we can vote to enter into executive session we're now going to vote to enter into executive session under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 3A 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 committee the committee will not return to open session jenny can you do a roll call vote for us please yes miss Bartos I mr durham I miss Leaf I'm sorry was that a motion or that's
just we're doing it roll for second session absolutely okay um that's it for us thanks very much have a good night everybody thank you