Um should we can we just clarify for folks that aren't aware of what that means following accounts? >> Sure. Um I can go ahead. Thanks. >> 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 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 and sustainable. >> Okay. I make a motion to accept our proposal. Okay. Second. All right. Toby. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Jessica. >> Yes. >> All right. Do we need the ATS has to go
to the contract and discussion? Do you want to speak to that first or >> Yes. I'm asking the committee um to um vote to support the contract changes as presented and to um allow um chairperson
to sign on behalf of the committee. I'll make a motion to move to accept that and allow cherson laws to sign on behalf of committ. >> So this is the motion to go.
>> Yes. for the the custodian to accept the changes on behalf of the school committee. >> Second, that's where I was. >> Oh, great. Okay. >> Um, yes. Lauren, yes.
>> Thank you. >> And now we'll go on to the HDA. I'm asking the committee to um accept the changes in the MOA as a whole as um
presented and to allow um our chairperson to sign on behalf of the committee. Um, so moved in. >> It is a good one. >> Yes.
>> Who are you? Jessica. >> Yes. Myself is yes. >> All right. >> Next, I'm asking the committee to um approve the amendment of understanding with the Halifax Police Department. This is our SROU. There are no substantive changes. last
year. It's updated annually and we need your approval in order to sign and enter into the agreement with our Halifax Police Department. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Toby. >> Yes. >> Lori. >> Yes.
>> Yes. >> All right. And now I need to complete our organization chart which the rest of the school committees have been begging us to do. Um, so Lori, you do not want to do >> Yeah. So I would like to respectfully
ask that someone else join the um pilgrim 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 for Mary collaborative
does an excellent job of answering questions. Um, our secretary put together this great um, update and 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 the meetings in person or are they >> They are 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 o'clock. Okay. And there'll be a meeting in January. We just did the most important meeting in December to approve an audit. So, okay. I have Karen listed as the ultimate. So, I'm wondering if I should move her to the
>> Karen's already done it. >> Oh, okay. She did it before I did it. Then I did it last year and we put her as the alternate and then I carried it this year because um she had a vacancy or we had a vacancy on the committee. Just kept it.
>> Right. Okay. Well, so um Jody, is this something you would be interested in or >> I'm happy to answer questions, but truly I didn't know a whole lot before I joined it. It is very informative.
>> There's a lot of learn as you go here. >> Yeah, that's good. >> Um the other thing we need to fill is the third person on Union 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 subcommittees we have. >> Um and so typically the chair appoints but I also like to get feedback cuz 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 need a third person and Jessica is our alternate so the third person would either have to be you
or Karen um because Jessica >> usually meets about three times a year. >> Yeah, it meets about three times a year. Would you be interested in >> just a question about it? So if there's three of us on it then like >> there is there is supposed to be a forum
there. Well, it's to make it's to make sure we have a quorum 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 thea 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 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 >> I did that one too.
>> You did it right. Yeah. And then I um I feel like I stepped off that one. I don't remember why. >> Would you be interested in doing it again? >> Um if you need to that would be great. I mean just did you want to do that?
>> No. I had a question. >> Okay. Okay. Well, yeah. We have So we Everything else is Okay. survey on um yes you can your question >> is that one um is that virtual or is
that personal >> I usually isn't you call this steel and say what happened I don't know I don't know that they actually had meetings I think you just get updates from the >> coordinator I'm pretty sure that's how
it was Katie last year was >> yeah it was TV that's not Bank the alternate. >> Okay. Correct. >> I'll
kind of just cherry >> any >> they're usually minimal. >> Well, and then the other one kids need some breakfast. Might as well throw myself on there. Lauren has to put are you an alternate for that one? Did you >> I'm the alternate with the sick bank. The sickly bank. Okay.
>> And Jessica is the youth and rec leaison 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 the PTO meeting? >> I don't but I think >> All right. So I'll put you down instead of hearing for that because I'm one of I
think so. I can't remember. I don't think I don't think many of us were on that call when I was doing this. was a little bit challenging like we did that in January not July. >> All right. So I think that's Did we get everything? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you everyone.
I know it's a lot on top of what we already All right. So that is done. All right. So full regalization discussion. So, we don't really have a ton of updates to be signed with the contract with the call center. Um,
>> so the call center was waiting for a signature. Um, I believe it needed to be signed by Jonathan Celic and the chair of union 31 and we are now waiting for the once the contract is signed, 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 call center will la. And we have another meeting scheduled in January. >> Okay. >> And this is expected to take about a
year, right? >> About 18 months for the start of the signed contract. >> Okay. And that was just signed? >> We believe so. >> Okay. All right. Um update. Yeah. So, we haven't uh haven't been
talked in a while. Uh so, there's been a lot of great stuff happening at the school. Uh back in October uh was national anti-bullying awareness month and lessons were taught to every single grade level, every single classroom by teachers and school counselors to really kind and teach those pro-social skills
through second step and development of classroom guidance lessons. Uh and also messaging through the heroic peril to help at home as well. Uh parent teacher conferences back in October were a huge success. Um, huge participation. Fantastic. Uh, 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 where's Waldo book characters. And 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 Star and Dibble's datas to make make sure that kids needs were being met and um letters went out to families that they need 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 uh for our kids. And then we held our school council meeting, our first one back in October as well. Um agenda went on on time within the time limits and making sure that we have enough people on school council uh to make sure that it's accurate for people.
>> 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. >> Yeah, the handbook policy. That's what
it is. Are you guys on the hands of policy. Is that one of your >> One of the things that we're working on right now is looking at the um school improvement plan and looking at the different aspects of it that are directly related to the district's improvement plan. We're currently looking at the the survey that went out
and seeing how we can improve the survey and how it can drive this year. >> Okay. And typically um handbook changes would be pres any um proposed handbook 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 couldn't 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. I feel like a whirlwind. Uh but we've been doing a lot of work with TNTP 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 right here in Halifax for helping hands and kids were directly involved with those things and making sure that kids were the process and kids were the ones driving that course. We had tons of people come wash the turkey to try it. We went for first experience. It was a
lot of fun running around the kids to see um and make sure they're really active within our community. We are encouraging staff peer observations um seeing how we can um you know get teachers involved and and building our own practices here in the
building. There's a lot of incredible things happening as you'll see within our MCCAST presentation later where we're really driving um kids to be successful in ELA and math in um science. Pretty impressive. And ongoing cyber training just based on a grant that Steve Pello got us making sure that
teachers are up to date with most cyber trainings. In December, we ran our first emergency drill uh in u in accordance 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 that kids know and adults know what to do. Turn home report cards went out today. Um holiday and Halifax is coming up this coming weekend. the PTO Mingle
and Jingle and also the chorus will be here. Um their performances at 5:00 I believe 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 represented and then we're having a good time before the
holidays, but also making sure that 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. 2018 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 BCBA that started on the 1st which is great. Uh we had a nighttime custodian uh resign and we were able to hire them
back even feels like ages ago uh October probably. And we have two paraprofessional positions open um right now that are in the process of being hired. So getting getting people fully fully engaged in our staff.
>> Um >> just to be clear those I'm sorry to interrupt and ask the question >> but those are all positions that were budgeted for. They're not new hires. I'm just you're stating that for the benefit of folks that are budget conscious that
might be viewing. >> Yeah. additions that were budgeted as part >> what's the enrollment right now I know it was on the slide >> um >> I don't know what that was >> uh it's 532 >> thank you
>> I do not have >> Oh yeah I'm Sorry. >> Um, yeah, >> I would love to see it. It's very new. >> So, I want to actually point out to this new touch here. I think it's like 75 in.
Steve Cello and his tech team have been um putting them together. We're hopefully going to be rolling them out pretty soon to classrooms. Um, we want to make sure that they're, you know, usable to staff and making sure things are going well with them, but it's also sometimes a little piece of training that goes along with them. So, I just
don't want to like stand in the classrooms and be like, "Here's some piece of technology and then just not be utilizing." I don't teachers. All right. See if I See how it so the first part here is just like what the accountability means. Um a lot of
the things are going to be there. Um I prefer just not to read off slides. So please make sure you're kind of just paying attention to it. Uh these are just the detail of the master's accountability system and the things that they're looking for. Um, it's kind of small here designed to measure how a school district is doing and what kind of
support they need and how those need considered all the things here um to make sure that schools are doing what they need for accountability for us overall. And I want to say thank you to Dr. Clifford and Brian Sanders
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% of substantial
progress towards targets. Um which means that we are that we're doing pretty well. It's uh pretty impressive actually and that's something really huge to celebrate because our teachers here work really really hard and even though we're looking at MCCAST scores from third to sixth grade, it really starts in
kindergarten and getting that rigor 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 prepandemic 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, talk about. So, it's pretty impressive. Something definitely celebrity um 70% on progress versus targets.
It's great. Again, higher than prepandemic levels. >> Yes, higher than prepandemic levels statewide. This is just a historical piece of MCCAST. Full test was taken last year in grades 3 to 8
summary. >> That's the statewide summary. >> Yeah. >> Not the LC summary. 3 to six. 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 the expectation of MLA in MS. Um grade three% of all um health until third graders meet their senior um expectations.
61% before um 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 were meeting exceeding uh in
grade four for ELA. Grade five, 57% were mean exceeding. Fourth grade more than pre- pandemic and sixth grade 62%
um we are exceeding for just a quick snapshot across the board for the years of the kids meeting exceeding average of 62% overall as opposed to
2019 and 59 Take a moment here for the ELA grades K to six phases different instruction things that we're currently doing here. Um we're doing a curriculum review right now in phase one to go core program for phase six. Um
teachers directly involved in that too to kind of see which curriculum they want to go to next year. writing. This is a huge strength here at Halifax and I can I just got here I can take no credit for that. It's um a really big push within teachers um here
for years to make sure that they're hitting those standards and making sure that kids know how to read the writing with different props and a lot of work that Brian Deantis was doing with them too um over the years and 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 three to six overall went from 48% um in up to 53% here in 2025. also um a great trend from pre- pandemic
um from the pre- pandemic 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 an incredible trend going up and then sixth grade too 78 but also too
sometimes there's a little snap 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 to make sure that our kids are continue to move forward. Not saying that the work that the teachers are doing was any less than
before. is giving them research based curriculums to make sure that we're driving this and and giving kids back to the the one that there was a dip in fourth grade and sixth grade and specifically the standards 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 the title teacher and the math teacher recently to talk about the new HMH program in fourth grade particularly with fractions and that focus because it
seemed to be like a true weakness last year in grade four. We didn't get that that standard up and in sixth grade a lot of a lot of the assessment was algebra beginning stages of equations >> and 30% of the assessment and we 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 sharing that. Great. Thank you. >> So sorry, just to make sure I'm looking at that right. So like in 2024, grade five was at 59% meeting and exceeding and then in grade
six went down to 43%. Is that what you're talking about? Okay. I just want to make sure Matthew grades uh 3 to six. Dear one board is what um what Brian was talking about with the HM. This is our first year implementing it. Um we have coaches
that came in to kind of model to see where 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 especially the writing. especially the writing and 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, STAR as our assessments for grades one to six for um for for benchmarking and that's the data that we look at in the beginning of the year, middle of the year um to utilize um groupings with our tackle teachers as
well as our math interventionists and past analysis. Um we're utilizing this year too some different protocols that um Brian Dantis 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 this will just continue to get better and better and better. intervention provide target interventions during each intervention
walk that's built into the schedule and we have consultants and professional development days for that science technology grade five um this year 50% mean expectations he's implemented the um mystery science
program five um instances across grade levels and building out the curriculum. So the kids are being the kids are getting the curriculum um uh Berkeley here at Hass professional training um for performance
based test as well. Do you want to touch a little that Brian about the performance piece? Yeah, I think one more year it's going to be a trial test. Um, and 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 we have a typically um teacher teaching
just silence all day. She's going to have some state training uh cuz they're going to do the they're going to do some assessment training. So I'm going to send her particularly for that state training because she's focused on science and that'll that'll it's another trial
year. So part of the assessment will be not scored and part of it will be and then next year it will be total performance. hopefully she can bring back some good information to the district. >> Great. Thanks. >> Districtwide initiatives to drive our
teaching and learning forward is that um thanks to Dr. Clifford um is we're utilizing the research based teaching train 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 targeting interventions. Um or Gillingham training for reading fluency. It's an ongoing training that teachers are getting certified in uh multi-eer system of supports. Uh MTSS, that's a general education kind of like
brainstorming sense of kids that we start seeing kids struggle a little bit. 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 of what we're doing. the environment the the the instruction curriculum in the environment sometimes
educating too um a little bit at a time and uh getting used to that platform and uh you know as we're data driven professional development focusing on student performance year one of the ELA curriculum process that's currently
happening now grade level team leaders um a great opportunity for um for classroom te teachers Um we'll be we'll be meeting monthly to go over um things that are happening in the building but also instruction and curriculum and data focus for um uh like the protocols that
we're currently using that we're going to be using more often. Here two are the math curriculum review process implementation for HMH uh and assessment benchmarks using data wise processes and that's what I was talking about earlier. Um and just kind of like the last piece
too, a huge success too which um we should be very proud of is that once again HS is one of nine schools in the state of Massachusetts um to be at or above prek and test levels in ELA. Um it's just an incredible accomplishment 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, Pedro Martinez, in
recognition of Halpex Public Schools and reputation of their hard work of their educator, staff, students, and families that has that have raised their English language arts MCCAST 2025 achievement to prepandemic levels or higher in grades
through eight. This That's incredible. Thank you. >> I know. I have people send me that article. Honestly, they're like, "Look what your school did." Not the I school. >> They're like I'm like I know. I'm so proud. Awesome. Amazing.
>> Thank you for that as well. Um Uh, no, it was great. >> Sorry, I didn't mean to do that. That was a great thing. Sarah, >> I do not have anything in addition to everything that's in the consent agenda.
>> Okay, great. >> And the budget. >> Thank you. I think I have a few things tonight um to follow up with what um already talked about. But the first piece is um in my
curriculum instructional assessment update is we are implementing HMH this year. So that's a math program. HMH being implemented K through 8. We're also at high school implementing most of those maths. Um but this year for the
math it's been a lot of work. The teachers have really done an excellent job. It's a huge be implementing the curriculum. Um we've had professional development, we've had people from um HMH come and do model lessons. They will be coming back to work with teachers um
again. And we really try to offer both model lessons so teachers can watch the person the expert and then also opportunities for teachers to be um implementing lessons and get feedback. So it's really been sort of a I think a good process and they read back and we want to
continue that implementation. You know 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 you know hats off to the teachers that are
really putting in a lot of time effort and I want to continue this implementation workers in the classroom. So that'll be on. The other piece is English language arts. This is year one of core 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 is called a curriculum council. and it's a group that meets
regularly and we'll be looking at um new programs and we'll also be looking at um piloting those programs um from basically you know January on a good span of time teachers will actually get to try out different um programs and so
we've been fortunate um that um now that teachers have been a part of that I funded that through a grant some grant autism but other grant so they can be a part of that because it's really import important that we have a consistent approach. Um, ideally the vertical
alignment as we know is important because all of our students go to separate together. So the experience um being as um you know as comparable as consistent as possible is really important as they both grade. So we continue that. Um and as Ryan 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 mcast data or looking at star data and really gauging what needs to happen and what we need to do to move on instruction so
it's a strong and that's really those are two big major things is the math and the pieces that are happening right now >> okay that's it thank you in your packet you will see the October
on uh enrollment charts. The first chart is the homeschool enrollment with 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
Halifax has increased by one. The next chart is student enrollment in room 31. You can see Halifax represented by the gold or yellow line. it has decreased by one student um and that was as of October 1st the number of students
was 530. The next chart is the October one 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 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 Halbox in
their assessment percentage has gone down by point4 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 of I mean not I 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 is >> your percentage of
silver like could still go up even though your elementary population has declined. Does that make >> So like we have more Silver Lake. So it's our percentage of kids at Silver Lake is not necessarily declining or
does that makes our I'm just so if I may absolutely there's the number of students from Halifax at Silver Lake and it may go up and may go down but if the population of Silverl goes up and the population of Halifax at Silver Lake goes up you're going to see that's okay
and so then 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 at prek middle school high school divided by the total number of that student population. >> Yes. >> Okay. Just for also >> and if if everybody's population goes
down even even our population is going down, the percentage may stay the same, >> right? Because if everything's moving, then it's all Yeah. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Which is why we have the charts. >> It makes sense. It's just I don't know. I've always wanted a more clear
explanation. Anyone else have a question? Sorry. Go ahead. >> That's all I have. >> That's all I have. All right. All right. Um, subcommittee reports. Um, Adam, I don't think they metary
collaborative. I have a couple of lengthy reports. Um, we did meet in Nove well the preliminary collaborative met in November. Um, I'm going to share um these minute or updates, physical copies
with our um notetaker so they can be incorporated in the minutes for this meeting. Um but um in November we will do the auditor's report for 2025. Um this was done by CIZ formerly Markham
accounting associates was presented um it was 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 in the amount of uh 11,291,69926. The amended budget is done annually every fall. Preliminary 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 of selectment opt to fund the public schools with every year. Um the end of every year, there's leftover money from the pack budget. It can be saved in what's called the
cumulative surplus after the annual audit is done. If you are familiar with city found 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 COVID, PAC was able to save more than the average as PAC was getting more students and provided more services than anticipated. State law prohibits collaboratives to have more than 25% of
their annual budget saved in its cumulative surplus. PAC also traditionally tries to return 25% of its annual surplus back to its member towns. However, in the past uh in the 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 zero dollars were
returned and that is because we had zero students attending the pilgrim area collaborative so there was no money to return. Um so um that's noted as a note here. There are Halifax students that attend Silver Lake. So there was some
money given back to Silver Lake. Um that is factored into their um budget. Uh there's an additional uh 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. Um the first read was done in the 1000 and 3000 series um which is business finance policies. 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
DESIE and to the chairs of each member district by July December 31st. The audit will also be sent to the state auditor's office. All the negotiate notifications will be done through email. Both documents will be published on the PAT 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 PAC
website and the revisions that are approved will be uploaded shortly uh other updates PAC's executive director and board chair uh presented at the Mass um Association of Student Council conference in November together and it went really well. Um Boston 25 News had
an hour news segment on special education in Massachusetts over the Thanksgiving weekend and PAC was uh pilgrimary 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 PAC's partnership with Foxrock and the recent signing of the new 10-year lease for the facility. Um so again, I'm going to make sure that those are given to our
noteaker. Um one of the things that was noted in our last audit was um we we had a very favorable audit from a state. However, um uh 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 a local school committee. >> Nice. Thanks. Well, thank thank you Becky Hoff for that all together for us. She makes us look good.
>> Union 31, I know they met. I was not >> 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. On negotiations, we did not meet Capital budget didn't meet and then
policies. We already did the the last time, right? We did the pass >> the first we you waved the first reading. >> So you could wave and approve
the second reading the policies. If there's some that you don't want to approve, you could pull those out and you could vote them. you could have vote 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 the policy in the packet? >> So, we can vote to um wave the second read and approve the policies, but we have to read all of
them. So, um, not the >> No, not the entire name of the title. Sorry. 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, KBE, Relations and Parent Booster Organizations, KBG, Parent Advisory Councils, KI Deser School.
>> I'll take a vote. Um, any discussion? Um, Jody, >> yes. >> Lori, yes. >> Jessica, >> yes. Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, we just got our new leazison on to youth and rep. So, I don't think you know. That would be
impressive. >> You're like, and then our PTO ref is not here, but now is Jody. 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 Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And our next Halifax Elementary School Committee meeting is January 26th. Um I will now entertain a motion
to journal. Thank you. Second. All right. Ros, Joey, >> Lorie, >> yes and Lauren. >> All right. Thanks everyone. Thank you.
I know.