Um I'm going to call the meeting to order the meeting of the house preschool today. Um this time is 6:01 and um Oh,
meeting the meeting is being recorded and anyone that intends to make an audio or video recording of the meeting is um please let me know at this time. Thank you. Now that's
going to say okay here Um, we'll do the leg. any other um I was thinking that we could do the
presentation and then it turned session since we have so many visitors. So we need a motion to take the um agenda out of order and do the budget presentation. I'll make a motion to take the agenda or
so we can do the budget presentation for principal is going to set it up for us. Um and tonight we will present our preliminary budget. This uh is earlier than usual. As you know, we typically present the preliminary in January and uh it was a team effort, but I would
especially like to thank Sarah, our finance director um for making this a priority uh and for all the hard work she has put in for this budget and um all of our schools budgets, especially this year getting them done so early.
Um, is that a brand new touch? So, I'm trying to I'm having >> Is that the PDF? I don't think that's the PDF. I think that's maybe your personal PDF, but um it doesn't appear
to be the one that's in the packet. That's update that says updated. Yes. 1258 as big as the screen. So, I'll go to slide number two and get us started.
We always uh work with the principal and our central office team and our principal works uh with their staff as well to identify needs for the upcoming school year. And as we create the budget, we want to meet certain goals obviously to support our students needs
to maintain appropriate class sizes and the structures necessary for effective instruction. We also want to respond to and consider the financial or fiscal conditions of the town. This year the school committee has asked us to present a budget a preliminary budget that
highlights the difference between level funded and level service. Um and then finally um to support the strategy for district improvement. Uh this year we promised a votable budget by December and so that is what we have done. We have also
included um a 2.5% increase uh for consideration as well. Obviously, level services is the budget that's best designed to meet our strategy for district improvement and the needs for our students. So, if you go to the next page, the buzz
budget basics utilities um will include an increase um over a 4-year average. The shared cost budget is included, but it has not been voted yet. So, these numbers are subject to change. Ref and rural aid
have been estimated. Um, and those are both grants that we anticipate receiving in the upcoming school year. Homeless and foster transportation has been adjusted based on prior year's expenses. The budget has been adjusted for one
known retirement at this time. And in terms of out of district vocational, Halifax currently has one um grade 12 student in an uh an out of district vocational program. We have three placements budgeted and we will not know
how many um are going out of district vocational until April 1st. So that again is another number that could change. If we go to the next slide, level services. Um, the projected level service budget for
Halifax Elementary School for FY27 would be 8,147,229. After the following offsets, circuit breaker, the IDA grant, the reap estimate, and the rural aid estimate, the Halifax appropriation for FY27 would
be 7,772,613, I should say. Sorry. And this represents a 1.4 increase over FY26. So we think that the level service is not only best suited the needs of our students but also um
realistic and in terms of we really have tried to cut down anything non-essential to make sure that this is a lean and appropriate budget. Um, if we go on to the next page, no, sorry, up one.
Oh, looks like this one is now finded in there. Is this presentation is this one updated? There were two. So, let me give you a slide. If you look in your packets under
presentation, The level funding budget for for Halifax Elementary School would be 8 million, $40,429. After offsets, the appropriation would be $7,615 $813.
This will require $16,800 to be cut from the level service budget. This would result in the reduction of 2.0 FE 2 faculty positions at Halifax Elementary School. Please note, we are
not recommending these reductions. If you take a look at what this would do um in particular to the class size in grade three would be at class sizes of 30. and uh obviously not something that um
we would necessarily want to do if there was any way we could possibly avoid that. So the next slide presents what it is uh for level services what your class sizes would be versus what your class size would be if we had to eliminate two positions.
Please note that these are anticipated where we would take the reductions from, but that we can't guarantee. For example, we could have more students enrolled in kindergarten and that could or fewer students enroll in kindergarten and that
could also change things. So just please keep in mind that these are just um scenarios that we we were we were forced to to consider if in fact we had to make a decision today on where those cuts would come from. So the impact would be the increase in
class sizes at two grade levels or class size would be um impacted in one grade level and a specialist would be impacted. So those are the two alternatives that uh were focused on when we discussed
this with the principles. And um the next thing in the packet you'll see that principal Brena has listed uh capital needs that are being addressed in FY26 versus capital needs um that he is proposing in FY27. The
phone system I want to draw your attention to that is currently in this budget because it must be done it must be paid for in this budget year. So that's not a choice and we have included it in the level services budget. We need our phones.
So, um, in your packet, you'll see a narrative from the building principal. You will see an outline of the capital plan over the years. You will see a, um, budget from our finance director, Sarah Hickey. We're asking you to review these
priorities. We're asking you to consider what capital plan items you think we should move forward to the town to consider for a warrant article. And um while you do have a votable budget this evening, I would recommend that you wait until you have stronger
numbers with regards to the estimates. If you go back to page, slide number um two three budget basics, the numbers contained in the presentation are built upon assumptions and estimates and the
numbers are subject to change. So, as you know, special education budget numbers will continue to fluctuate and we also don't have information from the state in particular. Um, and I and I also pointed some other areas such as the grants which are are assumed and u
estimated at this time. So, for that reason, I wouldn't necessarily vote on it this evening, but certainly you could vote this evening. If you have any questions, we're here to answer them. Um, well, I suppose we're getting quite,
but you know, we had we rolled over some like the special education rate money last year. Is that all been utilized or is that something that we might be able to have come into play again possibly like if we don't spend?
Remember how we made that choice last year budget last year? We offset the FY26 budget. We would held $200,000 of that FY2 5 circuit breaker to spend this year on
students. It's being spent at some point. I'm just trying to see where any places for and we don't have an order from the town yet either. So, um they're meeting tomorrow. So, we don't know what they're asking us
for at this point. Um, I mean, I don't feel like we should go to bed at this point, but I think this is really helpful information for everyone to start figuring things out because even as we stand, I mean I mean I'm just giving my opinion, but I I mean
I unfortunately don't think we're going to be able to do more even with an over. So, um I could be wrong. I don't know. But I mean, I guess we have to see what the count says, but um you know
um yeah, definitely not ready to vote, but this is very helpful information. Do you guys have any questions at this time? I agree with you though. I think we're definitely not ready to vote. I think there's more discussion we need to have but um it's concerning to
think that low budget is probably what we're looking agree um all right uh so should we go to the executive session now or we would need to be able to
address things would like um to take >> the over um I I would like to actually just since we're talking about the budget have uh Jonathan talk about the override study committee. So we have to take another vote to take an agenda item out of
order. So some make a motion to motion to take the community. Yes. Lorie Jessica. Yes. And myself. Yes, >> guys. Thank you for having me. Uh my
name is Jonathan Cely. I'm selecting here in the town of Halifax. Uh I just wanted to present to the Halifax um school committee uh an option and a position that I hope one of you would fill. We've started an override study committee as I'm sure most of you guys
have seen communities like ours. Uh we're bracing for tough financial times uh at least next year and possibly in in the years to follow. So, the idea that I kind of came up with was let's get some folks from different parts of our community um and try and get ahead of it
as much as possible um to to give the town information as to what a possible override would look like um if that's the direction that the board of select want to go. So, I would hope that maybe a member of your committee uh would be uh inclined to want to participate in
our overall study committee. Again, my thought is to have different departments in discuss the budgets, discuss um ideas of revenue generation uh of um you know, best practices, make sure we're efficient as possible. Um and I think
it'd be great to have somebody from the school part of our community involved in those so that if we are looking at an override, you guys know where this came from. It wasn't willy-nilly. It wasn't thrown together. Um we turned over so I'm asking for a member of Halifax
school committee to be a part of this committee as well as the silver regional school committee as well. I know they have another agenda for their next meeting. Full disclosure, we are getting a bit of a late start. Um we're in between town administrators. Things uh I won't say got lost in the shuffle but
did get put on the back burner. So we will hit the ground running as we're already looking at at January. So um that's my my pitch. I don't know what the commitment level is yet. It could be as much as once a week, could be twice a
month. It depends on how much we can get done and how much traction you want. So that is my pitch to how would you need to vote to have a representative or something that >> you could vote um I know a subcommittee
should >> right. So would it be more considered a subcommittee or Okay. Could we have two if there's not a forum? Are you not interested? >> I don't see too many, but uh we've kind
of we've kind of done numbers. We have a member of your committee, uh the regional school committee, uh our finance committee, a selectman, um three citizens at large and I might be missing one. Oh, and the uh no, I think that's it. I think we have said
what we said. So, we like to have an odd number on committee obviously for voting purposes. While I appreciate the gusto and enthusiasm that more than one of you would like to be part of it, I think one for now. >> Yeah, that's a great idea.
>> Okay, you'll do it. Okay. Well, does anyone else want to wait? I mean, I wouldn't mind having alternate face. Joey, are you interested? Okay. >> Okay. So you don't want to do it. Okay. I'll be okay. All right. So Jessica will
be the person on the Okay. So now we'll go to our session. Before I make one quick I just want to thank everybody involved in this presentation tonight. the town was looking at trying to get numbers as quickly as we could. Kudos to Sarah
Hickeyi. Kudos to Jill. Kudos to the whole team for coming together and putting this in front of us so quickly. I do feel like it helps stop putting the puzzle pieces together. Um, and we're not final yet, but just to know what we're doing. I'll be honest, I was getting ready for some horrendous news
tonight. And while no cuts are great, I do feel like I'm breathing a tiny bit of relief um as to what the picture looks like. Uh and I just wanted to thank you guys for for putting this together. And uh I know it's extra work and I know it's not an exact science at this point,
but I just wanted to thank you guys for for coming to the table with this. So I really appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you for your support. >> All right. So now if someone make a motion to executive session.
I will make a motion to return to executive session pursuant to MGLC 38A S2 strategy sessions in preparation for Friday HTA MOA 0.8 8 and F7
allows any general special approval on 45 and return to open session. >> Yes, we're going to have to ask. >> All right. Um so now I will take a motion to approve the consent agenda.
But first I'll read the um summary for the war. We have $726,292. Our grant and donation total is $210,131. total of $936,42. I'll I'll take a motion and thenbody.
Sure. Everything else is okay. a second. Yes. So now Yeah. So, as you know, people and they're donating um $7,000
to school to buy supplies. No, I just want to say thank you to them for that. Um, but also is there do we have like this question might be honestly do we have a supply closet? So if we did have
donations of certain things like like say you just want to do like an Amazon or something like that. It's just one of those things that like the PTO gives us money and that's great and we buy supplies
automatically get like dispersed and that's it closet or somewhere they can supp. I'm sure that if we're looking to find or like build out more of a supply closet somewhere else, I'm sure that I can find some place to to store
materials, but um I can definitely connect with staff to see um like what that would look like. >> Okay. Um to approve the PTO donation motion to approve the PTO donation.
>> Yes. >> Or yes. Okay. So, um, new business, um, well, actually, well, school committee correspondents. I had I meant to
um, but I I had it down here. Um, anyway, so I reached out to by some teachers, which I feel like it's okay to discuss here cuz I don't think any kids are watching. They're having a door decorating contest like either the day or two before the holiday break. And so last year I helped judge and it was
amazing and super fun. So I wanted to give someone else on the school committee an opportunity to do that. Um and I would give your name to the teachers that are running it. >> So I think it's the 23rd. What's the last day before vacation? >> I think we're looking to do the judgment
on that Monday before it's our last full day. Okay. >> And then also looking to take down. >> Okay. All right. Super impressive.
All right. That was really great. Um, so now we'll do the celebrate change discussion. So, I have been asked by our HR director to um recommend that our cafeteria rates for
subs um be changed um to uh step one of our power rate. This aligns with our parent and cafeteria helpers. Um this would be effective as of the goal but not retroactive. And um
we believe that this would help increase the number of people who are willing to substitute in our cafeteria. Right now they can go to some of our other schools and make money. And this is a contract for the cafeteria.
So she's put information inside the packet and she's hoping to approve her proposal. Okay. Anybody? Yeah. Um, I mean, since it's not going to impact our
actual budget, like our budget here, I mean, I'm fine with that. they feel like the revolving account can support that if we can make things getting set easier and support it. So, um should we can we just clarify for folks that aren't aware of what that means revolving means?
>> Sure. Um I can go ahead. It's called a revolving account because unlike the school budget which begins on set on July 1 and ends on June 30th of the town's budget, a revolving account can carry over funds from year to year.
So the food service revolving account gets uh funds in it from the federal school lunch from the US Department of Agriculture the school lunch program from Massachusetts with the free lunch program. It's where all of the my school
bucks that parents pay goes into that account. And then out of that account is uh pays for your cafeteria staff and milk and cookies and chicken patties and all of that. And our cafeteria director
is presenting this proposal because she feels that it is reasonable and within the means of that revolving account, sustainable. Okay. I make a motion to accept our proposal. Okay. I guess second.
>> Yes. Jessica. Yes. Yes. >> All right. Do we need the ATS to go to the contract discussion? You want to speak to that first or >> Yes. I I'm asking the committee um to um vote to support the contract changes as
presented and to um allow um chairperson laws to sign on behalf of committee. I'll make a motion to accept that and allow chairperson laws to sign on
a second. Um, can you say one more time? Sorry. So, this is the motion to the custom. Oh, great. Okay. Um, yes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Lauren. Yes. >> Thank you. >> And now we'll go on to the HDA MOA. >> I'm asking the committee to um accept the changes in the MOA as a whole as um
presented and to allow um person to sign on behalf of it. So memories. Yes. Yes. All right. Next, I'm asking
the committee to um approve the letter of understanding with the Halifax Police Department. This is our SROU. There are no substantive changes since last year. It's updated annually and we need your approval in order to sign and
enter into the agreement with our health department. >> So moved second. All right. >> Yes. >> Yes. All right. And now we need to complete our organization chart which the rest of
the school have been us to do. Um so Lori you already Yeah. So, I would like to respectfully ask that someone else join the um area collaborative subcommittee. I've been on it for a year
and a half. It is a very informative committee. Um but I'm also on um the regionalization subcommittee and it's a lot of information. I have two pretty updated uh pretty lengthy updates for tonight. Um, the one thing I will say,
it's a good um, it's a good educational committee to be on and I think that the administration collaborative does an excellent job of answering questions. Um, secretary put
together this great um, update that all I have to do is read it. So, um, I it's just it's another meeting. It's slightly and um I would just respectfully ask someone else to take that role.
>> Just for people's information, are they meeting people in person or are they all virtual? They are once a month. They're usually on a Thursday at I believe 6:00 or 6. I think it's 6:00. Okay. And there'll be a meeting in January. We just did the most important
meeting this summer to approve an audit. So, okay. I have Karen listed as the alternate. So, I'm wondering if I should move her to the Karen's already done it. Okay. She did it before I did it. Then I
did it last year. We put her as the alternate and then I carried it this year because um she had a vacancy or we had a vacancy. I really just have to right. Okay. Well, so
um Jody, is this something you would be interested in? Okay, great. I'm happy to answer questions, but truly I didn't know a whole lot before I joined. It is very informative. >> There's a lot of learning to go here.
That's good. Um, the other thing we need to fill is the third person on 31. So, myself and Lori are on here. So, we have a bunch I guess I should say we have I don't know if you looked at the
various we have um and so typically the chair of points but I also like to get feedback so I don't want to just be late you know um but so union 31 is the um school committee is it contain it has
all of the elementary schools together and Silver Lake and we need to make regional decisions and so we meet up there person and Jessica is our alternate. So the third person would either have to be you or Karen. Um because Jess >> usually meets about three times a year.
>> Yeah. Meets about three times a year. Would you be interested? >> Yeah. So there's three last there is supposed to be a forum there. Well, it's make it's to make sure we have a forum and it's posted. So it's
posted as a school committee meeting. So it's okay for us to have all three of us there or in the worst case scenario at least one of us there you know just because you know things happen. So we want to make sure we have representation but also it is okay if we do have a form
there. So and then the other one is admin review. That's the one that um they're begging me to put in. I've done that one before. Um too did I Yeah. I um I I feel like I
stepped off now and I don't remember why. Would you be interested in doing it? Um if you that would be great. Um I mean just did you want to do that? >> No, I have a question. Right.
Okay. Well, yeah, we have so we have everything else is okay. Um yes question is that one um is that person or is that person usual isn't used inter
meetings. I think you just get updates from the coordinator. I'm pretty sure that's how it was last year. That was >> the alternate mere just
then the Are you an alternate for that one? >> I'm the alternate sign and Jessica is the youth and reclaison on now. And then my other question would be that I wanted to ask is if you were interested in being a PTO leaison, do
you go to PTO meetings? >> I don't. I think so. >> Okay. All right. So, I'll put you down instead of Karen for that because she doesn't want I think so. I don't think I don't think many of us were at all when I was doing this. It was a little bit challenging
that not July. >> All right. So I think that's Did we get everything? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you everyone. I know a lot of All right. So that is done. All right. So full reization is
so we don't really have a ton of updates since the contract from the call center. >> Um so the con center is waiting for a signature. Um I believe it needed to be signed by uh Jonathan Celic and the
chair of union 31 and we are now waiting for the once the contract is signed uh we're waiting for the common center to reach out to us. In the meantime we have already begun compiling information and data that we anticipate the common center will want
and we have another meeting scheduled in January. Okay. And you expect it to take about a year, right? About 18 months start of the signed contract. >> Okay.
We believe so. Okay. All right. Um Yeah. So, we haven't uh been talked in a while. Uh there's been a lot of stuff happening at the school. uh back in October uh was national anti-bullying awareness month and lessons were taught at every single grade level, every single classroom teachers and school
counselors to really increase those social skills through second step lessons. Uh and also they did their apparel to help at home as well. Uh parent teacher conferences back in October were a huge success. Um huge
participation, fantastic u thanks for all the parents for coming. The PTO uh Scholastic uh book fair was enjoyed by all. We had a PTO Halloween social that hundreds of people attended. It was a great time for the kids, teachers, families. Uh everybody was there
for our book character day. Uh staff dressed up as Waldo book characters. It was kind of funny because a lot of kids didn't really know who we were. Uh but they got a lesson in history as well for um staff um are really data driven here
at Halifax and during the month of October they really dug into the star datas to make make sure that kids needs were being met and um letters went out to families and they needed interventions and they did a really nice job of uh getting that thing moving and making sure they're looking at the data
to make data decisions for our kids. And then we held our state council meeting, our first one back in October as well. um agenda went out on time within conflicts and making sure we have enough people on school council uh to make sure that it's accurate.
>> Can I ask you a question? Are you guys working on the um what was the policy or the policies or the the school like what they were working on last year? The school council and the handbook
that's are you guys working on policies here? One of the things that we're working on right now is looking at the school improvement plan and looking at different aspects of it that are directly related to the district's improvement plan. We're currently looking at the the survey and see how we
can improve the survey and how we can model. Okay. And typically um handle changes would be pres any um proposed handle changes would be presented usually in the spring by the principal and they would be
highlighted and then the committee would have an opportunity to ask questions. Policies would be changed. Um but practices within the school handbook um will be presented to you for review and then the school committee generally reviews and then votes to approve
whether or not to approve the handbook itself. >> Okay. Thanks. Uh November just kind of ended feel like a whirlwind. Uh but we've been doing a lot of work with TNT and Prism. Uh thanks to Brian Deantis and uh um Dr. Clifford and
going through our ELA literacy um review and having incredible teachers be open to have people come in and like look at different things to see how we can improve our our practice here at school. Uh Mr. Ruizi ran his annual turkey trot which was a huge success uh hundreds of
donations to to the food pantries uh right here in Halifax for helping hands and kids were directly involved with those things and making sure that kids were the process and and kids were the ones driving that horse. We had tons of people come watch the church and try my first first experience. It was a lot of
fun running around the kids to see um to make sure they're really active within our community. We are encouraging staff here observations um seeing how we can um you know get teachers involved in building our own practices with builders. There's
a lot of incredible things happening as you'll see within our endcast presentation later where we're really driving um kids to be successful in ELA and math in um science. It's pretty impressive and ongoing cyber training just based on a grant that Steve got us
making sure the teachers are up to date with those cyber trainings. In December, we ran our first emergency drill uh in uh in coordinates with the Halifax Police Department and Fire Department. that went very well. Looking at different um different things that we can improve in our practices to make
sure that everyone is safe and um in different situations um you know throughout the school those are regular those are just kind of happening to make sure and adults journal report cards went out today. Um, Holiday and Halifax is coming up this
coming weekend and jingle and also the chorus will be here. Um, their performances at 5:00 on the 13th. We have a spirit week coming up with winter themes. Make sure that it's inclusive and making sure the kids are well presented and that we're
having a good time before the holidays, but also making sure we're, you know, engaging in academics and, you know, making those connections. and our I listen to the concert today. You know the fifth and sixth graders today. Um they are I'm looking forward to the concert on the 18th. Should be a really
good time and uh kids are working really hard on it. We have some staff updates. We finally able to hire um a halftime PCBA that started on the first which is great. Uh we had a nighttime custodian
uh resign. We were able to hire them back. uh October probably and we have two par professional positions open um right now that are in process of being hired so
they will fully fully engage that just to be clear those I'm sorry to interrupt and ask a question but those are all positions that were budgeted for they're not new hires I'm just you know stating that for the benefit of folks
that are budgeted conscious possessions. >> What's the enrollment? >> 532. >> Thank you. >> I do not have any audience. Oh yeah, I'm sorry. So
here I think it's like 75 in the respect team have been putting them together. We're holding your warm up pretty soon. Um you want to make sure that they're you know usable to staff making sure things are going well with them. But there's also sometimes a little piece of
training that goes on. So I just don't want to like explain them in the classrooms and be like here's a piece of technology and then just not teachers. All right. See if I That's not So the first part here is just like
um a lot of the things are going to be there for just not to read off slides. So, please make sure you're kind of paying attention to it. Uh these are just the details accountability system and the things that they're looking for. Um it's smaller system how the school
district was doing support consider all things here um to make sure overall I want to say thank you to Dr. and Brian Santis for um building this out and making sure that everything is
here um for you here tonight. So 2025 our overall classification is that we're not requiring assistance for intervention uh substantial progress towards targets and 62% substantial progress targets. Um which means that
we're that we're doing pretty well. It's uh pretty impressive actually. That's something really huge to celebrate cuz our teachers here work really really hard and even though we're looking at and cast scores from third to sixth grade. It really starts in kindergarten and getting that rigger up and making sure the kids are learning how to read
at such a young age. Yes. >> One thing I'd like to point out is that the 62% is higher than the preandemic level of 16%. >> Yes. Yes. Um at the end of the slides um there's actually a link to the article that was in the news that showed that we
were one of nine school districts in the state um from just like um uh she was talking. So it's pretty impressive something accountability um 70% progress. It's great.
>> Again, higher than prepandemic levels. >> Yes, higher than preandemic levels statewide. This is just a historical piece of MCAST. Full test was taken last year, grades 3 to 8 summary.
>> That's the statewide summary. >> Yep. Not the health effect 36. This is us. Overall kind of gives a historical piece from before and now after in 2025 we're
at 62. Before pandemic we're at 59%. That mean you're exceeding expectations about ELA in MS. um grade three% of all um health third graders meet their team um expectations
61% of four uh we're at 69% here um this year and uh it's unbelievable actually it's really impressive English language for um fourth grade same kind of trend 63% of our fourth graders are meeting and exceeding uh in
grade four for ELA Okay, grade five, 57% were meeting exceeding fourth grade pre- pandemic and sixth grade 62% um media exceeding in
just a quick snapshot across the board for the years of the kids being exceeding average 62% overall as opposed to 2019 and 59. Take a moment here for the ELA race K6
differentiating structure things that we're currently doing here. Um we're doing a curriculum review right now in phase one to go program six. um teachers are directly involved in that too to kind of see which curriculum a really big push with new teachers um
here for years to make sure that they're hitting those standards and making sure the kids know how to read the writing with different prompts and a lot of work that Brian Santis was doing with that too um over the years in completing that process, making sure that kids have access to um you know what what they're
looking for on the MCAST test and really moving forward. Math math for grades 3 to six overall from 48% um in up to 53% here in 2025. also um a great trend from pre- pandemic
um from the preandemic era. Grade three 65% last year in 2019 58%. fourth grade 45% last year for fourth
grade MCAST for meeting exceeding oops fifth grade 58% back in 2019 39 that incredible trend going up and then sixth grade too 78 but also too some measures will snap through every once in
a while looking forward to is that this year. We're also implementing a brand new math curriculum to hopefully fill a lot of those gaps and make sure that our kids are continuing forward. Not saying that the work that the teachers were doing was any less than before is giving them research based curriculum to make
sure that driving us and not getting back to the no there was a dip in fourth grade and sixth grade specifically the standards of of fractions in fourth grade which is 30% of the assessment it's a big year for fractions and the
students were struggling in fractions so I just met with I had a teacher the math teacher recently to talk about the new HMH program in fourth grade particularly with fractions and that focus cuz it seemed to be like a true weakness last year in grade four we can get that that
standard up and in sixth grade a lot of a lot of the assessment was algebra those beginning stages of equations and 30% of the assessment I think we fell off a little there so it's those areas that we really need to focus on those standards so hopefully we can address
that Thank you. >> So, sorry, just to make sure I'm looking at that right. So, like in 2024, grade five was a 59% exceeding and exceeding and then in grade six went down to 43%. Is that what
you're talking about? Okay. Matthews 3 to6 is what um what was talking about the first year implementing it. Um we have coaches that came in to kind of model to see what those are going. We're also
looking at building our capacity between um schools within our district too. um not only in math but also we have some great ELA teachers here that we can also share a lot of different um interventions and programming about how they're teaching special
have them come over and watch some of our master teachers teach right on the math curriculum review cycle um teachers are involved in that as well we have benchmark data analysis we utilize math sorry as our assessments for page
one to six for um for for benchmarking and that's the data that we look at the end of the year middle of the year um to utilize um groupings with our title teachers as well as our math interventionist analysis um we're utilizing this year
too some different protocols that um Brian Santis has put together as well with our new team leaders which I think is going to be really good moving forward even like well before I got here which is just a few months ago the data focus within the school is incredible.
They are really looking at the data to drive our kids forward and that's just this will just continue to get better and better and better. intervention provides hard during each intervention block that's built into the schedule and we have consultants and professional
development days for that science technology five um this year 50% meeting expectations continue to implement the um mystery science program five um
since grade level and building out the curriculum. So the kids are being the kids curriculum um uh Berkeley here professional training um for performance based on test as well. Do
you want to talk a little about the performance piece? Yeah, I think one more year. It's going to be a trial test. Um, in 2027, the science, technology, engineering assessment will be totally performance based. It's more of an interactive platform for the
students. Um, taking the assessment is more animation, cartoons, and it's more problem solving. It's more of a constructive response assessment compared to more of a selective response. So specifically here because um teacher teaching just science all
day, she's going to have some state training. Um they're going to do the they're going to do some assessment training. So I'm going to send her particularly to that state training cuz she's focused on science and that'll that'll trial year. So part
of the assessment will be not scored and part of it will be and then next year will be total performance. Hopefully she can bring back some good information for the district. That's right. Districtwits to drive our teaching and
learning forward is that uh thanks to Dr. Clifford um is we're utilizing the research based teaching training district teachers, principles and coordinators. Uh it's a research based way to to improve teaching and learning also helpful for administration. So
we're doing evaluations that we can get targeted sessions. Um we're dealing training for fluency. It's an ongoing training that teachers are getting certified in. Um we hear system of support uh MTSS that's a general education kind of like brainstorming
sense that kids that we start seeing kids struggle with. It's a way to kind of um catch them before we need to do any sort of other pieces because sometimes it would just change a little bit what we're doing the environment the the the instruction curriculum in the environment sometimes
there's a platform that we're utilizing too um a little bit at a time and uh getting that platform and uh you know as we're data driven professional development focusing on student performance year one of the ELA curriculum review process that's
currently happening now. Great level team leaders. Um a great opportunity for um for classroom teacher teachers. Um we'll be we'll be meeting monthly to go over um things that are happening in the building but also instruction curriculum
and data focus for um the protocols that we're currently using that we're going to be using more often. year two of the math curriculum review process for HMH uh and assessment benchmarks using data wise process using that talked about
um and just kind of like the last piece too the huge success too which um we should be very proud of is that once again HS is one of nine schools um to be at or above prek and test levels in ELA um it's just an incredible
accomplish ments and that's that's the hard work and the dedication to the teachers, the pair of professionals and the people that are that are working very very hard. So thanks guys. So, Madam Chair, I'd like to ask that I be able to present um a recognition from
the Commissioner of Education, Major Martinez, in recognition of Compex Public Schools in recognition of their hard work of their educator, staff, students, and families that has that have raised their English language arts MCAST 2025 achievement to prepandemic
levels or higher and raise. This people like nothing like awesome. Amazing. Thank you.
I do not have anything in addition to everything. Thank you. I have a few things tonight um to follow up with what um talked about but the first piece is um in my assessment
update is we are implementing H&M this year so that's a math program we're also at high school implementing most of those math but this year the math has been a lot of work teachers have really done an excellent job it's a huge legoment
curriculum. Um we've had professional development, we've had people from age come and do model lessons. They will be coming back to work with teachers um again. And we really try to offer those model lessons
expert and then also opportunities for teachers to be implementing lessons and get feedback. So it's really been sort of a I think a good process and they want to continue that implementation. Sometimes it's not just a curriculum. Curriculum is one thing. It's not a
living breathing thing until it actually happens in the classroom. Implementation is as important if not more important than a curriculum. And so I have to hats off to the teachers that are really putting in a lot of time and effort and I want to continue this implementation work for teachers in the classroom
development. So that'll be on. The other piece is English language arts. This is year one of our program review and it's really um we have a we have a steering committee that's K through 12 just as we did for math and then we also have different committees a K through six
committee there's a grade seven committee but the K K through six committee is called curriculum council and it's a group that meets regularly and we'll be looking at new programs and we'll also be looking at um piloting
those programs um from basically Jan very long and teachers actually to try out different um programs and so we've been fortunate um that teachers part of that I funded that through
part of that because it's really important that we have a consistent approach um ideally the vertical alignment as we know is important because all of our students separate together should experience um being as um you know as comparable as consistent
as possible is really important these days are great. So we continue that um and as said um Halifax is really strong in data analysis um they do a lot of work looking at different data whether it's dibbles or it's um looking at cast
data looking at star data and really gauging what needs to happen and what we need to do instruction. And that's really that's it. Thank you. In your packet, you will see the October one uh enrollment
charts. The first chart is the homeschool enrollment for grades K through six. You'll see that homeschooling has increased in Halifax by two students. um and homeschool enrollment in grades 7 through 12 and how effects has increased
by one. The next chart is student enrollment in room 31. See how effect represented by the gold or yellow line. It has decreased by one student. Um that was as of October 1st the number of students
was 530. The next chart is the October 1 enrollment which is broken down by schools. Uh it lists the total elementary and it also lists out the number of Halifax students in the middle
school which is 163 and the total of 9th through 12th graders at the high school which is 342. These numbers as you know are used to generate the percentages listed on the next chart which is the assessment percentage. You'll see that Talbox in
their assessment percentage has gone down by 0.4 whereas the share cost percentage has gone up by.7. Does that mean just does that mean that overall we have less students but our percentage represented in this like
total number? I mean, not to add might be a dumb question, but um if our enrollment is going down, but also it sounds like the enrollment of like 7 through 12 your percentage of
silver lake could still go up even though you're elementary population has deformed. Does that >> So like we have more silver link. So is our percentage of kids at Silver Lake is not necessarily declining or does that
mean our I'm just so absolutely there's the number of students from Halifax at Silver Lake and it may go up it may go down but if the population of Silver Lake goes up and the population of Halifax at Silver Lake goes up you're going to see that's okay
and so the the assessment percentages are the populations of the elementary schools And the shared cost percentage are the percentages at the middle the preschool the middle school and high school. Right. Right. So so really it's
basically like just to completely simplify it is it's how students have prek middle school high school divided by the total number of that student population. Yes. Okay. just for and if if everybody's population goes
down, even though our population is going down, percentage may stay the same, >> right? That's all. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Which is why we have the charts. >> It makes sense. That's just um
more clear. All right. All right. I don't think they metary collaborative reports. um did meet in November. The preliminary collaborative met in
November. Um I am going to share um these men or updates, physical copies with our um noteaker so they can be incorporated in the minutes for this meeting. Um but um in November we review
the auditor's report for 2025. Um this was done by seiz formerly market of accounting associates was presented um a clean audit with no findings. Final version will be published um in December
um and submitted to the state audit in December. Um we reviewed that in December and voted to accept the audit um stay tuned for that. We voted an amended budget. board of directors approved the amended budget amount of uh
11,291,69926. The amended budget is done annually every fall budget is approved every May or June. Um there wasn't much of a change from the spring budget. However, student enrollment is lower than initially predicted. Cumulative surplus. So, um
the collaboratives are different than districts as they're funded with tuition based on how many kids come each year um versus an aotment that the city um council or board select and opt to fund the public schools with every year um
the end of every year. There's leftover money from the past budget. It can be saved in what's called the cumulative surplus after the annual audit is done. If you are familiar with city town budgets, it's similar to the concept of what towns call free cash. Um it's
important for collaborives to keep healthy cumulative surplus in order to draw from in years that might fall short. In the past few years after co pack was able to save more than the average as PAC was getting more students and providing more services than
anticipated. State law prohibits collaboratives to have more than 25% of the annual budget saved in it cumulative surplus. Track also traditionally tries to return 25% of its annual surplus back to member town. However, in the past few
years that have little to no surplus, no funds are returned to the member towns. Um this year um it was voted to give back $146,700 to the of the fiscal year 25 surplus back to the member towns as follows.
There's a list of all the towns for Halifax specifically. Z were returned and that is because we had zero students attending the filler area collaborative. So there was no money to return. Um so
um noted as a note here there are Halifax students that attend Silver Lake. So there was some money back to Silver Lake. Um that was factored into their um budget. Uh there's an additional 160,000 was voted to transfer to the PAC
building facilities fund with the intention of funding a playground at the standalone building of the pilgrim area collaborative. Um there was a number of policy updates that PAC is doing. Uh the first reading was done in the 1000 to
3000 series. Um which is business finance policy. Sorry this was long. Um I'm going to skip to the December. So the final version of the audit uh was um was uh also approved for Massachusetts
general law um and dusty regulations. Both documents are needed to be sent to Dussy and to the chairs of each member district by July December 31st will also be sent to the state auditor's office. All the negotiation notifications will be done through email. Both documents
will be published on the pack website under governing documents as well as uh for easy access. Um as I mentioned the cumulative surplus, we've already talked about that. That was discussed again at the December meeting. um the pack board
of directors reviewed uh policies um in the 1000 to 3000 and then again in there was a first redone in the 8000 series um there will be another review of those policies um in the February meeting there's a
meeting in January and then the whole policy manual is on the pack website and the revisions that are approved will be uploaded shortly um other updates executive director for cheer presented at the mass um association of student
council conference in November together and went really well. Um Boston 25 News had an hour news segment on special education in Massachusetts over the Thanksgiving weekend and PA was collaborative was featured and then bids were received for the new playground
that um I just mentioned um for the standalone school in Plymouth. Um it's expected that the work will start this spring. Um more upgrades are coming to the building through CAP's partnership with Fox Rock and the recent signing of
the new 10year lease for the facility. Um so again, I'm going to make sure that those are given to our home taker. Um one of the things that was noted in our last audit was um we we had a very favorable offer from a state. However,
um an area of opportunity was that not enough of the um reporting back to local school committees was happening. So, this will be a feature that happens going forward at our local school committee. Nice. Thanks.
Thank you, Becky, for that all together for us. Makes us look good. 31. Um we had a joint meeting and our director of um student services, our
tech director and our curriculum director all um presented uh budget overviews and uh presented information uh that applied to all of our districts with regards to the upcoming budget cycle.
>> Thank you. Um, negotiations we did not meet. Capital budget didn't meet. And then policies, we already did the the last time, right? We did the house the first you waved the the first
reading. So you could wave and approve the second reading the policies. There's some approve. You could pull those out and you could vote them. you could have both the approved ones first and then have
discussion about the policies that you wanted to discuss. Um, do you want to wave the second read? Does anyone have any concerns about so we can vote to um wave the second read and approve
policies all so um Not the entire name of the title. All right. I'll make a motion to um wave the second read of the the policies listed um and
approve um policy ADA background checks. Ecab access to buildings and grounds. EFBA school food and nutrition meal modifications. GBC
gifts to and solicitations by staff. JJ, student fundraising activities. KVE relations with parent booster organizations. KBG parent advisory councils. KI deserves the school.
I'll take a vote. Um, any discussion, please. Um, Jody, >> Lorie, yes. Jessica, >> yes. Thank you. >> All right. So, we just got our new lean to use the rest. So,
that would be impressive. You're like, and then our PTO rep is not here, but now it's so um hopefully next time. Um I don't have any other matters to discuss. And just for dates to remember, um December 23rd is an early
release day. December 24th is when the winter holiday vacation begins. January 5th is when schools reopen. January 19th is March 15th, Junior Day. And our next Halifax Elementary School committee meeting is January 26th. Um I will now
enter All right. Thanks everybody. I hope you have a holiday. >> Thank you.