Good evening everyone. Today is Tuesday, February 24th, and the time is 6:33 p.m. And I'd like to call this meeting to order. Uh, first on our agenda is the consent agenda. First is meeting minutes from February 3rd. >> Excuse me.
>> Questions or comments on those minutes? Hearing none. I'll take the motion. >> Make a motion to accept the meeting minutes from February 3rd, 2026. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor. >> Next is warrants 4950 and 52 which have
gone around for signature. Questions or comments? Hearing none, I'll take the motion. >> Um I make a motion to um accept warrants 0049 0050
and 0052. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I excellent. 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. Student
representative >> Brianna wasn't feeling well, but she did Oh, Brena, I keep I know I'd call it all the time. Uh Brena wasn't feeling well today, so um she sent a uh email. So, I'll just read briefly what she'd said. Um she was se all students selected their courses for next year today. Um
last week was vacation so they didn't uh I don't have anything to report on that. Um she was Brianna Brena was selected as the student government uh representative to attend student government day in Boston >> school uh two attendance quarter two attendance competition went to the
sophomore class. They earn a pizza party before February break. And then the future plans and goals is the my cap team is coordinated career day to be held this spring. Uh the work is being done in the well the work is being done in collaboration with mass hire and the junior class will attend
two field treat field trips this spring uh regarding that and that's what we have in there. >> Excellent. Okay. >> I just like to you know congratulate them on their great basketball season >> that they had this year. They're still
going. Yeah, >> that's what I was wondering. Yeah, >> game for states is Friday. It was Thursday, but the game that the opponents So, there's two teams playing each other to determine who will who will Graby will play >> and their game got all messed up because
of the snow. They're both way out east. Um, so their game, I believe, is either today or tomorrow, but the Graanby game is Graanby >> here home. It's either four or four o'clock. >> Four o'clock. Um
>> is that on Arbiter? >> I believe so, but not an opponent. So, um that would be filled in as soon as that game is played. >> Um so, we have um >> couple more games to go at least. >> Yeah. And I think the first couple
should be home depending upon how >> how they do. So, come out on uh on Friday, I guess. Poor. Um All right. Hopefully Bren's feeling better. >> Yes,
>> I need her to play on Friday. All right. New business. Uh a donation for an electric piano. >> We'll let Jenny present this as the GMPA president. self. >> Um, so I received a phone call from a
um, uh, Mr. Kennedy and he called me and let me know that his brother had passed away and they were cleaning out his house and he had offered this electric piano to anybody and none of nobody wanted it, but he didn't want it to end up somewhere and he knows music
departments are always looking for things and he said, "I'd much rather it go on behalf of my of Donald Boyce and alt." um or boysome I think it was is so he donated it to to uh the GMPA to be able to donate to the school.
>> Awesome. That's amazing. Thank you very much to Mr. Kennedy. That's lovely. Um uh if there's no further questions, I'll take the motion. >> Um make motion to accept the electric piano um from the Kennedy family on
behalf of Donald >> Boyce and Hulk. Yeah. Maybe we can get a little plaque for the front of it. We can attach or that way the kids know that it came from here. >> Was donated. That's a nice idea. >> Oh, that's a nice idea. >> A second.
>> All those in favor? I >> All right. Next is um a discussion about the school committee vacancy. >> As you know, we have a vacancy from that we has still gone unfilled from um Mr. um George Balky. So, we just wanted to
let folks know that we still have an opening on the school committee. Um, it is a is it a two-year term, Jenny? >> It's a one year. One year left. >> It'll be um it would be fulfillment of the unexpired term. Should be a year. >> That's what I thought was a year.
>> Um, but I I don't know because sometimes it could be a threeyear term. I think I don't know. It's already been Would it be a matter because it's already been posted through the town clerk's for
election in the in May? >> Um, yeah. So, we would have to try to get a writing campaign going. If there's anybody that's interested, does anybody know anybody? If pe if somebody out there I'm talking to the camera. If somebody out there is
interested in joining our school committee, it's a great team. We'd love to have you. Um if you could contact um myself or Jenny um Jenny Hajamowitz at at our on our website u we'd be happy to talk to you and get you through the process um because I think we can the
town can appoint somebody prior to the election. correct if >> um well what yes um >> depending yeah >> but I think his that's why I'm not sure because I'm not sure if his position was one that was up >> his charges was the one year
>> it it >> yeah but the >> they're all meant to be three years and they become one year and two year when people vacate and everything but I think his term actually expired in May. >> No that was mine >> that was yours. Yeah. So, I don't know. I we'd have to get clarification from
the clerk about what the um term would actually be >> cuz what I recall was Liz had the three-year, George had the two, and I came in with the one. >> Yeah, they're all supposed to be three years. >> Yeah. I'm just saying that to to fit to just to fulfill the remaining
>> term of what you know, previous folks. >> Either way, we need we need some people. >> We'll continue to put it on Facebook. Uh Jamie will put on our website. Um maybe the communications committee in town. I don't know if they've done anything yet. So, if we can get something out for that, maybe I can put it on our I can
put it on our sign outside. >> I can suggest it. >> Okay. Thank you. Maybe the town can get on the website, but we'll try to get it out there. But if anybody knows somebody who'd like to uh serve on the school committee, it's a great place to be and we'd love to have
any community member be great. All right. Uh, continuing business, we have a second read on the medication um, administration policy. Garrett Slok is back here if you had any questions about that.
>> Hi everybody. >> Hi. >> I'm bad. So last time I recall um there was just question about uh who's liable with the unlicensed uh personnel being delegated the medication. Um and it is the school
district that would be held liable. >> Okay. >> Um according to our school attorney I can tell you that in the regulations it is the nurse who delegates the medication because the unlicensed personnel is working under the nurse's license that delegated the medication.
So ultimately it also is is the nurse who delegates the minute I got. >> Um so that yeah that's that's wonderful. I know of people stepping up being good Samaritans and all. >> Yes. And that would also cover them as well in certain in certain responses but
yes so thank you. >> Did you have any other questions? Um like I said a lot of uh the policy is the new regulations. So there's really not much leeway on the language because again it's it's a regulation CMR 105
um 105 CMR 210. >> So one thing is if we approve this that it says Graanby School District 121225. So yeah we can take >> we would have to update the we'll update it to when it we actually take it into advisement right because it's
>> we didn't approve it as of that date. So, I think it should be >> we can just change that updated. >> Yes. And I apologize. I think that's when I had >> That's what you um It's It's not a problem. I just want to make sure that we have it as of the correct date. Um if
it assuming it passes. >> Are there any other questions? >> No, it's all very straightforward and condensed. It's great great work. >> Thank you very much. Uh >> if there's no additional questions, um I'll take the motion. This is for the medication
administration policy or all of them? >> Um, no. We're going to do one at a time. >> Okay. I I make a motion to accept the medication administration uh policy. >> I'll second it. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. And you've got the health and
wellness poly poly. >> Yes. Policy. >> A fee. I will say that the committee met again the Thursday before vacation and we're um assuming that it passes. We know there was a chance that it might not, but we've already started doing
protocols. Um we have a teacher on board and a couple of the principles, Mrs. um Ricken and Ms. Hero uh Mrs. Hero are there um and the wellness committee feel very supported with what we are proposing and think it is definitely
doable. to meet our objectives. >> Questions or comments? >> Hearing none, I'll take a motion. >> I might make a motion to accept the health and wellness policy as presented. >> Second. >> All those in favor?
>> I excellent. Thanks for >> Thank you very much for your time and consideration. Thank you. >> Have a nice night. You add background checks. That policy was don't forget that's the one we're going to talk about the sorries and the quies to include that
into our co into our um check of new personnel. So we just included those. We already did the corey check but we got to include the soy checks and the um DC is it DCF one in there and the DCF. So we're checking both against DCF um
reports. So those are two things that we added to the policy. >> This is uh pretty standard, right? >> Yeah. More and more districts are putting the sorans. They always had the queries and sorries are are something that they're starting to recommend for folks and the
DCF is uh and none of them are really uh a heavy lift on the district or the staff. It's just a matter of signing the paperwork and then it's not of running it, which is pretty quick for Virginia. It doesn't take a lot of extra effort and there's no cost either. Basically what I would end up doing moving forward
for any new hires, I'd update the form that would say Corey and Sori check. Any of the information that is on our current Corey check is any of the information that I would need for a Sori check or a DCF check. >> The staff would just have to be alerted that right >> we are both running the DCF and the Sori
check based on their quy. >> Excellent. Questions or comments? >> Hearing none, I'll take the motion. Um, I make a motion to accept the ADA background check. Second, call.
>> All those in favor? I >> All right. So, we have um we're supposed to adjourn the subcommittee. So, we have evaluation for um Liz and Trevor, but Liz is not here. Um I do think we probably need to have a chat about um
budget as sure. >> So, um how long do you think? >> Um probably not more than 10 or 15 minutes. >> All right, so we'll pause here for subcommittees and we'll come right back. All right, and we're back. So Todd, you
want to give us a a brief update on what we just discussed? >> Uh, so we are still in the early phases of our budget development. We've sent um our initial draft with a less than 2%
increase um over FY26 for our FY27 budget. Um we've reached out to town leadership to uh schedule a meeting with school committee chair, finance committee chair, representative from the select board, town administrator, uh
superintendent and me um to go over the final um kind of final benchmarks that we need in terms of inkind expenses and uh what the town's contribution if there's any additional contribution.
over what is required spending. Um, and once we have that, we'll have a final version to begin presenting at our budget hearing uh for the town on March 24th and then we'll follow that up with a budget forum and then a vote on a
final uh budget so that we can be ready for the May town meeting. >> Excellent. All right, standing reports. Mayor Jane. >> Um I just want to let you know that u parents have probably heard that we have been talking about uh reunification. So
as part of our ongoing commitment to safety, our emergency response team conducted a standard reunification drill. Well, that was supposed to be today, but we did not. We moved it till Friday. Um these drills are essential to ensure our district is prepared to keep students, staff, and uh in the event of
an actual emergency. So the emergency response team consisted of uh police chief O'Rdy, fire chief Evan Bryant and members of our admin team. Um and although we have been using um Alice training to the school and community, we really just have not done a lot of what it looks like if the students leave the
building to reunify somewhere else. So um we've decided um this week to move the elementary students to the high school and the high school students elementary school and we're going to stagger the times. The high school will be heading over to the elementary school about 1:15 1:20 to be dismissed from
there and the elementary students will be coming over to the high school about 2:15. We've talked to the bus companies um van poolool and we just need to be prepared in case of an emergency. So these are and when we're done we'll follow up with families to let them know you know how it went and uh really we
need to re review our processes. In the meantime I've also reached out to um Beltertown and McDuffy. So those are places that we can go to in the event of an actual emergency. So we have M s umus with them as well. So in an actual emergency, we're ready for that as well.
So we're moving along with that. So you know, we'll keep you updated on that. And uh we moved it to Friday because we weren't sure about today. So um so I also want to let you know some good news. We received a grant for $26,000 um re about the revised timeout
regulations from the board of education. And you can click on those to what they look like. It's about changing the definition of seclusion and timeout um for students um with disabilities. So these behavior support strategies um were give the money we received about $26,000 has given us the opportunity to
hire additional person from now till September to help us um work with students with disabilities and behavior programs to give our teachers and our uh pair professionals the um tools they need to support students in those areas. So we do receive a grant on that. Um and
you know hopefully if uh you know our budget goes well it could be something that we could keep in place you know permanently but right now it's just a grant for now until um September. Uh Mr. Dorman and myself attended a monthly Connecticut Valley Superintendent Roundt at the Delaney House in Hoyok. Um, as
they do in each February, the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation presented the governor's budget to us and I actually gave you a copy of the presentation. So, um, I won't have to go over it with you, but if it's something you want to go over in the future, we can certainly bring it up for everybody to look at. Um but it does talk about um
you know where the governor spends the money, where you know how it affects education and where uh you know where money goes. So we get that presentation every year and um do you find it informative? >> Yeah, there's um how
the student opportunity act is affected by it. funding formula. Um they do talk a little bit about chapter 70 and then um the use of the sir tax, the uh millionaires tax and how that's uh being
used to support education. Um because it's budget related, it's always has an element of doom and gloom. you know that the sir tax uh being used as uh something to use for reoccurring expenses uh is a concern of the mass
taxpayers association um because you've now relied on something that has poss you know volatility to it as a tax uh revenue stream. Um they're using it to support universal uh meals. that's one of the big items um that affects us that
we would know is coming through uh that certex. So right now that's still uh a healthy account and still looking to run those programs. >> It's good information for people to take a look at if it's it's available for other folks if they're interested in and
going to the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation. You can actually see that presentation um for the general public. It's out there for you guys for you folks to see it as well. Excellent. Questions or comments? >> All right, Tom. >> Uh, the only thing that I have is I have
our monthly update. Um, I didn't print it this time. I put it in the folder. Um, as with my last update. Um, there's no areas that I have uh any concerns with. Um, all the departments are are in line. I'm meeting with each of the
department heads uh later this week just as an update of where they are. um are there any you know budgetary priorities that they have between now and the re uh for the remainder of the fiscal year uh to make sure that we can you know
accomplish those goals if there's any you know transfers that we need to request from the school committee if there's something along those lines. So if there's any questions on those or any of those uh budget areas just let me know. Will we be um facing any shortages
with the amount of shoveling and sanding and salting and >> not yet with the transfer uh that we did? Okay, great. >> And so certainly still monitoring that with our latest round. >> Another one coming Tuesday. I heard >> today's Tuesday. >> Next Tuesday.
>> No. >> Yeah, sure. >> Oh, >> and I know there's supposed to be um some work tonight into tomorrow >> morning commute. Yeah. >> Yeah. I'm a little worried about that, but >> maybe a delay hopefully. >> The problem is to June 17th.
>> Next, great. The problem with the delay is the way that storm is tracking is supposed to be done at 11:00 a.m. and >> and the kids will still be >> starting anywhere from 3 to 6. >> If it's 1 to two inches, I think we'll be okay. We can we can drive and that we're New Englanders, but I do worry about the students driving. That's my biggest concern.
>> I'll be ringing. >> Okay. >> I'm not ready. But if we if we if we we have one more day before we have to skip to the phone week because of Junth. So you know I' I'd like to try to keep tomorrow free if we can.
>> Is there is there any other alternative in the calendar for PD days or anything else? >> We can take a look. I don't I don't >> if we have we have one in March. >> March. Yeah. >> Next next week March 30th is the 18th. Yeah. Someday in March >> PD. So, we only have one full PD day uh
remaining in the calendar. >> Do don't we can't use half days? >> No, >> because we'd already be here. >> You should just check. >> Okay, I'll just check. >> Cover all the bases >> because at the end we go to the half
days anyway. So, it kind of really would be that anyhow, right? >> We don't do a full day >> at the end. So, >> get us to >> because we're already it's already a day. Let's try to get our >> plan B thought about. >> Tomorrow's a little
>> because if we do it, then we won't have a problems. If we don't look at it, we're going to have, you know, 27 feet of snow. >> I thought it was the third or the second. When is it next week? Isn't it next week? The half day. >> No, >> the PD. >> When is it? >> The 18th.
>> Oh, the 18th. It is the 18th. All right. We don't have our CES representative. Um, anything else? Um, >> well, I can give you a little update because I did talk to Liz today about CES. There really is some influx with the new um person they hired to be the
the um director and the interimm director uh currently went back to her whole position. She's not interested in serving in that position either. So, um, right now they're going to be looking for an interim for the intern. And there's been some issues with the person that they've appointed from Northampton
who's lovely and she really interested, but I be believe because she had some votes of no confidence in Northampton, they thought it would travel over here, but uh, so I don't really know what's happening there. It's it's a little um,
in flux right now there at CES. Awesome. So, we just thought we'd let you know every Yep. All right. If there's any nothing else, then we can take our vote to go into executive session. >> Okay. >> All right. Executive session. The school
committee will now enter into executive session under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 3A section 21 part A to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body. And the and the chair
so declares. We will be discussing negotiations for unit A. The school committee will not return to open session. Can you do a roll call vote for us, please? >> Mr. Augustino. >> Hi. >> Mr. Durham. >> Yes. >> And Miss Bartos. Hi.
>> Thanks everybody. That's it.