I'm finally freaking done. I couldn't even enjoy my afternoon. Where did you finish yesterday? Rating. So, yeah, they had one random last day
and like everybody and they were like, "Oh, we're going to meet every block." But then they didn't even have stuff set up to take attendance. We need one more day.
Test one, too. Okay. Good evening. Good evening. Test one, two. There you go. Can you hear me? Down. Good evening. All right. Um,
just testing the microphones, making sure everyone can hear. David Frankle, can you hear me? Can you make it louder? [Music] Okay. Good evening.
Nope. David, can you hear? It's your microphone. Is there Is there anyone in the gym? Because is it coming through in the gym? Can you hear me now? Yeah, there's a speaker in the gym. You Okay, I'm working on it. Okay.
testing. Testing was hoping Can you hear? You can't hear me. So, I'm getting people over there who can say they can hear me, but all the people over here can't hear me. So,
I can't hear you either, Dana. Okay. I just so yall know, I'm not the one actually troubleshooting. So, [Music] you like only thing I didn't look at. Is is Bill
here? Bill. No. It's that fan. Okay. All right. Do you want So, okay. I'm gonna test out turning off this fan because I wonder if that's the feedback you're getting. I don't know. Okay. Definitely 20° hotter. That's
different. Okay. Can you hear me now? Yes. Excellent. All right. I see people in the back giving me the thumbs up, so it looks like Yep. Okay. Great. Good evening. All right. Uh Julia and David, can you hear me? Yes. Yep. Great. Okay. Um, I call to
order the meeting of the Hamilton Regional School Committee on Tuesday, June 24th, 2025, 7:03 p.m. And we'll begin. I to begin I'll invite you to join us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible. Okay. Um, thank you all for being here. Um, I just want to let everyone know this meeting is um, being recorded and
livereamed on HWC Cam. Additionally, I just want to let people know that there are some coolers in the back of the room with um, water and ice. And please, um, if you're not if you're feeling faint, please, please, please go get some water
and ice. Um, it is really, really warm, as you probably noticed all day long. Um to get started, um the first item on our agenda is an opportunity for citizens comments. Um the way that citizens
comments work here at the school committee is this. Um any citizen who's wishing to speak before the committee should identify themselves. Please give us your first name, your last name, your address, and please spell your name so
that your last name so that we can get it correct for the minutes. We do take the minutes pretty seriously. We would like to have them accurate. Um there are potentially people on Zoom that might also want to make comments and I will give the people on Zoom an opportunity um to make comments if there are people
there that choose to do that. Um so you know citizens comments are an opportunity for that which is comments. Um, it's an opportunity for you to be heard and for us, the school committee,
to listen. It's not a dialogue. It sometimes feels uncomfortable, but we're not going to have a back and forth conversation. We're going to listen and then when you're finished speaking, we're going to say thank you. Um, I ask you to keep your comments to
three minutes. Um, I will ask Amy if she will be a timer. She'll let you know when you have 30 seconds left so that you can wrap up your comments and then she'll let you know when the three minutes are up. We're going to dive right in and at 7:30
I'm going to take a break and we're going to evaluate where we are in the room. It is possible that at that time we're going to close citizens comments. All right, we'll see where we are. All
right. Um, all right. I see that some people are at the podium already. Um, I'm going to start in the room and like I said, at some point we may move to I will move to let people on Zoom have an opportunity
as well. Good evening. My My name is Marjorie Gajeski. M A J O R I E G A Jes k I 7 Perkins Street Winnham. Um,
this is my comment. The Hamilton Wenham Regional School District School Committee is out of control. The voters oppose your blank blatant attempt to nullify our votes again. We have been told that the school committee will try
to nullify our votes by invoking MGL 7116N, which will change the process of voting from twothirds to just a majority. This is unprecedented. It's seizing power. In the previous four town meetings, the school committee has arranged babysitting through the
National Honor Society encouraged families to bring their children with them and added additional rooms for that. Anything to get the vote you want. You did not outreach for the seniors. The end justifies the means is all that
matters to you with absolutely no regard to the taxpayers. You want to change the voting threshold because you could not win with a twothirds yes vote on one, two, three, four town meetings. And now you still insist on bringing the
question back to the front of the community for a fifth and sixth vote. Do not do this. Do not waste any more of our town's money to vote again. A consolidated school is not the plan the town wants. It is what the town has voted against. I repeat, four times we
have voted twothirds no. What part of no do you not comprehend? We the people voted down monies to build a huge consolidated school because we want our three existing small schools maintained. The job of the school
committee is to oversee the budget and maintain the school buildings as well as other duties. Obviously, the school committee has misused the monies to maintain the buildings. I'm almost done. The monies that I, as well as twothirds
majority of the voters, have personally voted in favor of maintaining the buildings for the past 46 years I have lived here. So as we are told evidently you the school committee who have kept your mission away from the general public and
even to our wom board members tonight you school committee have to vote among them yourself 30 seconds to I'm almost done to get twothirds agreements among your own board members to be able to recommend a joint ballot option for the
towns requiring only a majority vote. Let's pray that there are members of this board who will vote their conscience and vote no to bring the question back in front of the community. Vote no for asking us to vote again and move on to renovate and keep our small
schools which is one of the reasons why we moved to Hamilton and Winnham and why that's three minutes always supported the school committee in the past years to keep our schools maintained. Thank you. Thank you. So, I think we're going to take two more
people in the room and then I'm going to move over to Zoom. I I just Oh, I'm sorry. You can't hear me? Yeah. Oh, no. Thank you for your comments. I was just going to say to the room, we're going to take two more comments in the room and then we're going to move to Zoom. Good evening. Can you hear me? Good
evening. My name is Nette Malero. Mel EO is my last name. and I live at 247A Forest Street in Hamilton. I am here tonight to express my appreciation to the towns, to the school committee, and the school district staff who spent
countless months researching the best plan to address our outdated schools and who developed a plan that was approved by the majority of town residents. I would also like to share my disappointment in the failure to secure town funding for the school consolidation plan. I am speaking
tonight as a grandparent of children in the Hamilton Wonum Regional School District, as a retired teacher who substitutes in the Hamilton Well elementary schools, and as a resident of Hamilton who values education and feels that investing in education is an investment in our children and the
future. I would like to advocate for the district to continue to pursue avenues to implement the school consolidation plan. The plan addresses the educational needs of today's students and considers future needs. Numerous people spoke about the physical limitations of the current schools and the badly needed
repairs. Something will have to be done to address these issues and the plan that was approved by the majority of Hamilton one residents is the best and most economical option. Much time, money and effort were already expended to develop this plan and it would be a
shame to drop the project altogether. I hope there is a way to make it happen. Our children deserve the best learning environment that we can provide. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Good evening. Good evening. Jeff Austin,
Hamilton President. I speak tonight out of a concern of for the process, the precedent, and the integrity of our school district governance. The school committee is now considering using Massachusetts General Law Chapter 7 71 section 16N as a tool to bypass our own regional agreement. an agreement that
clearly requires supermajority approval for a largecale debt project such as this $142 million proposed mega school. Let me be clear, state law set, that's the floor, not the ceiling. Chapter 71, section 16N provides a minimum standard, a simple majority. Our regional
agreement goes beyond that, requiring a higher threshold precisely to ensure that projects of this financial magnitude receive broader community consensus. This is not a conflict of law. This is a floor preeemption and our local and our local more restrictive rule prevails. Why is the supermajority
important? Because projects of this size impact every household. They raise taxes, redirect educational funds, and reshape the future of our town. A super majority ensures that the entire region, not just a slim majority, agrees on that direction. To seek a loophole to avoid that to safeguard is not only legally
questionable, it's 100% ethically wrong. The school committee has already disregarded two failed public opinion polls, four failed town votes, and a clear community opposition to now pursue a legal endrun around the agreement is betrayal of the public trust. It's a
misuse of power and a man manipulation of the process. Let's talk about cost. Over $1.5 million in taxpayer money has been grossly misused on the feasibility study the superintendent and school committee knew would fail. Including nearly $20,000 in marketing materials
aimed at not informing but persuading residents with claims like MSBA doesn't support renovations. That's false. The education plan submitted to the MSBA was designed around a signal outcome consolidation, effectively setting up any renovation options to fall to, I'm
sorry, to fail under its restrictive criteria. The MSBA does support renovation option plans. This is no longer about one school project. This is about governance, transparency, and fiscal responsibility. This process has fractured trust, created unnecessary
animosity between residents, ignored and ignored the pressing needs of the entire district, including aging middle and high school facilities. It's time to stop. Respect the votes. Respect the agreement. Respect the people. The path forward must include renovations,
reconfigurations, and comprehensive plan that supports all five schools, not just two. Thank you. Um, I'm going to now turn to Zoom. Mr. Tracy, do we have anyone on Zoom who is wanting to make a public comment? Does
anyone on Zoom? Please use the raise your hand feature and let me know. I've been messaging them back and forth, but nobody's Okay. Get that nighttime DJ voice going on. All right, we'll continue. We'll continue on in the room then. Please approach the podium. Yep.
Scott Matter 12 Oldcart Road Consolidated Grammar School is not just an option. It's the only way for Hamilton and Winnham to elevate our schools and in turn our community's character. Now is the time and this is
the place to help make that happen. Voting no means asking voters in April for $15 million in urgent maintenance. This isn't a one-time fix. It's the beginning of years of escalating requests and even higher avoidable taxes. Beyond the financial burden, a no
a no vote would impose an unsustainable strain on our dedicated town volunteers. Imagine the time and effort required for a decade of social media monitoring, corrections, and rebuttals to combat misinformation.
All while technology that generates it rapidly evolves. As someone who has led many boards and committees in both towns, I can tell you the burden of our fincoms, select boards, capital committees, and others would be immense.
A misconception is that renovation is cheaper and the state's accelerated repair program will cover it. Renovation is not cheaper. The program only covers minor upgrades. Comparing our situation to PI Peabody's Welch school is a ruse.
They had existing space for renovation which our schools do not. Another misconception, the schools are adequate and major investment isn't urgent. That this is not true. We have many special needs students who cannot learn in closets. Anyone who believes otherwise
is out of touch with the realities of modern education. Furthermore, the direct street AC access at Winthrop presents a significant safety concern. Even with our police hundreds of yards away, consolidation means sacrificing the small school experience is another
misconception. This is wrong. The new consolidated school uses a pod model, grouping stat students one and two years apart. This design fosters a strong school culture and equitable education for all students in learning environments smaller than either of our
current elementary schools. Parents anxiety could be helped by understanding how these pods function or even better by visiting one. Our schools are the primary reason why people choose to move here. Investing in our schools will have a profoundly positive impact
regardless of your age or whether you have children in the system. The record attendance and clear majority yes votes at our recent town meetings clearly demonstrate that our communities are ready for this long overdue investment. Let's ensure a positive future for our
towns by voting yes. Thank you. Okay, please approach the podium. Yep. Head right up. Still no one on. Yep. We're going to stick with the room for now. It looks like the Zoom view. There are not people on Zoom right now that are ready. Okay. Thank you. Um Sandy
Fischer, Green Brook Road. Um, I have a number of questions and the last school committee meeting, um, I was at two issues were raised concerning water on the site. I also agree with the people who have talked about, um, not honoring
the vote, but I'm going to focus on water because that's my expertise. That's my education. Uh, but I do want to say why do you bother having public comments and questions at the school committee meetings? Do you put them on a future
agenda? Do you contact the person to find out their sources and learn from their experience? Are you continually seeking to learn from people who care enough about our children, our schools, and our town to give up their time to
come to meetings again and again? Or are you moving full speed ahead with your own agenda after saying thank you to the people who comment? Now, last time I was here, a woman by the name of um Ms. Galante
spoke at the June 5th committee meeting. Have you answered her question? She works for a municipal contractor and having heard about water pooling issues at the Cutler site and hearing testimony from a former town clerk who lived next to the site for over five decades that a
small stream used to run parallel to Woodland Lin me through where the current ballfield is. acquired water table information and asked the owner of the company that she works for and two project managers to estimate what it would cost to properly deal with the water at the site. She was told that
based on the building size, water table, etc., it would cost $30 million minimum to protect the structure. On June 5th, she asked the school committee and superintendent directly if the proposed $142 million for the consolidation
project included $30 million to address that water issue. No one would answer her. The costs of ignoring water issues are great and will bleed the town's finances for years to come. Ask
Danverse. I grew up in Danverse. In 1960, they built a high school in a low area. By the mid60s, the building had structural problems, and about 10 years later, a new addition was built and housed students in double sessions while
old building and foundations walls were being fixed. As time went on, the newer 1970s edition had so many problems, it had to be demolished and replaced. To this day, the 1960s section of the Damber High School is limited by its
original foundation. I'd like to see efforts made to salvage the credibility of the school committee, honor the four town meeting votes already taken, and abandon plans to subvert the process agreed upon by our
towns. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. Hi at uh Bob Nolles 2011 Main Street in Wenham um Hamilton Wenham Climate Action Team. So a little off the the typical topic here.
I'm here to just speak really briefly because there's a lot of people here about the um uh school bus contract which I'm strongly encouraging all of you to vote in favor of Dar's garage so that we can electrify the bus fleet and meet all of
our 2040 zerocarbon goals for Hamilton Wenom and the regional stool school district. So just a couple of quick bullets. It's a cost neutral neutral solution for the district. Represents savings, stability in the long run. It's a better product, better for students
and drivers alike. It locks in a electric electric rate without gas, fossil fuel fluctuations. It's going to meet our zerocarbon goal. Now is the best time to do it. We've got a $5 million grant that's waiting for us
to to utilize it. If we don't utilize it now, it's going to go away. It's going to the the administration is going to pull it right back. Uh furthermore, Salter Beacon, who has been our provider for a long long time
now, has had a very unfair monopoly on the Northshore. It's time for that to stop. In quick summary, we should do this now. There's grant funding. A 10-year solution provides the best stability for the district.
Darity. Um, Dar's Garage, the local operator would do a fantastic job. Thanks very much. Thank you. Hello. Hi. Uh, Anna Seed, 227 Highland, S is in SAM, IE, D is in dog, Z is in
zebra. Ik. Um, I'd like to speak to you tonight bearing my hat as a former school committee member. I remember meetings like this during COVID. And I just want to emphasize to the committee and also to the public, it's a really uncomfortable feeling to know that
whatever decision you make will be embraced by part of the community as the best thing ever. And you will also be hated by part of the community for ruining their life. During co there was never always a clear option because it was uncharted territory. It was a
pandemic. None of us knew what to do and state guidance was frankly really lacking. So, it was a hard time for us on a committee and there's a similarity to that moment now to today. You're going to get feedback. Oh, thank you for the light. You're going to get feedback
both ways and I just want to acknowledge that's really hard and I hope the public recognizes that you all take your work very seriously and that's not a great feeling. But there's a really big difference between COVID to today. The difference is we actually have a clear
obvious right choice. Not right based on emotion or anecdotal feelings or or what you think about kids or teachers. We actually have expert testimony on a variety of points. All of which leads you to continuing to pursue the
consolidated option. It's different because you have number one the teachers themselves who I would argue are the most knowledgeable people about what our kids really need and what kind of environment they really need to work
because they work in it. Our teachers you not unanimously but by a margin almost unheard of within the union at an 80% threshold support this project. We talk about respecting our teachers. Respecting our teachers starts with valuing their professional opinion. I
think we have to acknowledge the expertise of the teachers supports the school. Secondly, you have the fincoms who arguably have done the most work on the financial analysis. Not napkin math, not a spreadsheet they made themselves. They've actually put in hours of time
studying the pros and cons of various options. and both town fincoms do unanimously agree this is the most financially wise long-term investment in our district and that's unusual because for those of us who followed the fincoms the fincom and the district don't always
agree on things 30 seconds thank you lastly you have the expertise of almost a dozen years of different boards who have looked at this problem a million different ways including you you know as much about the process and the MSBA and the guidelines and the criteria
If you take a step back and look at all of the voices of knowledge, the most knowledgeable people all agree that consolidation is best. So unlike co when you don't have a clear answer, you have that in terms of base plus you have the
majority on your side. Please continue. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Jay Burnham. B U R N H A M2 North Street in Hamilton.
Some of you will remember me as a founding member of a group called Enough is Enough, sometimes called EIE. It was actually a political action committee that was registered with the
state as Hamilton Winnham residents for fiscal responsibility. One of the major initiatives that that uh committee did was to get both towns to come together to authorize and to
fund an $80,000 operational audit from an independent outside firm. Thi this is a copy of that report. It was 377 pages long. There were over aundred recommendations.
About 30 of them were fiscally involved. The reason I bring that up is that there's a lot of talk about how things have just been rushed through or we've only been doing this for two years or four years or six years or eight years.
But this report came out 15 years ago and although it was not part of the scope of the operational audit, there were comments that were made in it and I quote, "Consider a new school on the Cutler site. This will allow for easier phasing
of construction with less impact on educational function. The new Cutler school could be a consolidation opportunity." It went on to say, "Of the three Hamilton Wenham resident uh school, district, elementary schools,
Cutler appears to be the most likely candidate for demolition and rebuilding. Demolition and rebuilding should only be considered if such a move would save considerable money over renovations and additions. Since the school is located on the largest of three elementary
school sites, a new school could conceivably be erected while the existing schools remain in use. So 15 years we kicking this can down the road.
I think it's long enough. At the recent uh Hamilton special town meeting, one of the opponents 30 seconds of the opponents My mother used to say, "What part of no don't you understand?" My mother used to
say the same thing. But I think today it'd be more apt with six votes, clear majorities in favor of consolidation that the phrase should be, "What part of a yes don't you understand?" And I request that the school committee consider uh a ballot
vote with a majority. Thank you. Three minutes. Thank you. Thank you. Um, go ahead. Hi, I'm Julie Lenker. My last name is Len O Ker.
Um, I am a Hamilton resident, a mother of three, one at Cutler, two at the high school, and both of the older two went to Winthre Elementary. Um, I come before you. you know, this is like a we have to
be brave and courageous to stand up here in front of people. And um I know people dear dear friends of mine, people that I have um been in relationship with on both sides of this issue. And I know
that we stand here and sit here sweating in front of you to show support on either side. And what I really want to share is just that we all have we come with passion on
either side. And the passion that I bring that I just want to clarify is that the there's there's a population lacking here tonight and that is the students and the majority of the staff. And so that's what I can bring is to
represent them. Um staff at Winthrop and Cutler morale is lower because of the conditions that they work in. Students know very clearly and can
communicate how Cutler and Winthrop are a very um dark place um a dank place. um locations in the school that that
some of the students have to actually be educated in are unfavorable and that plays an impact both in on the staff side and the student side. Um, I do also want to just mention that when we talk
about space and lack of space, what's happening currently at the Winthrop for next year is that because of our special programs and because of our moving to five days um with our STEM that we
actually have to take our bubble class that's moving from kindergarten to first grade. there's no space to carry that third classroom. So, we are folding those two uh those three classrooms into two. Thank you. Which means that what we
are trying to do on both sides of this issue is to keep classroom size low and we're not able to do that at a small school. So, these are some of our largest first grade classes because we
are absolutely out of space and the only way to gain that space is through a thoughtful long-term process that we've been talking about. So, please consider consolidation. Thank you. Thank you. So,
I'm going to just take a quick pause. Um, do we have someone on? Yeah, we had an issue with the the waiting room. So, I just pulled everybody in the meeting. So, if anybody's online, here's where we are. So, it's 7:30 now. If you remember, I said we would take a pause at 7:30. We
haven't had the opportunity to hear from anyone who's on Zoom yet. They have, I think, successfully gotten themselves in some line. Is that correct? Yep. Okay. Um, I want the room to hear, this may be difficult for you to hear, but I want
the room to hear that there are at least 10 people in line here and I don't know how many online on Zoom. I do want to hear from some people on Zoom because I want to give people that option. I am not sure I want the group here to be
prepared that it is possible that not everyone here or on Zoom might have the opportunity to speak. If you remember at the beginning of the meeting, I mentioned that we would let public comment go until about 7:30 and then we would reassess. So, what I'm going to do
now is I'm going to have a couple people on Zoom. Then, we're going to make an assessment about how many more people really feel like they need to speak. Okay? Work with me. We're trying to make sure everyone knows what's going on. All right. Hey, Mr. King, you are up. All right. Good evening. And let's make sure
that we can hear him before we get started. Thank you. Can you hear me? I think the committee can the committee all hear him barely. Okay. Um I think we're going to turn your mic up just a little bit. I think the committee can all hear you, but I want to make sure
that um the room can hear you as well. Is that mic on? Okay. Can we HW Cam, can you check the mic that's here on the um Zoom? That's a great solution. Thank you. I like that. Thinking outside the box.
Makes sense. All right, Mr. King, can you give it another try so we can hear you? Uh, thank you. I hope you can hear me. I can't hear you all that well. My name is George King and I represent a group of citizens from Hamilton and Wam and their concerns about the school project.
So I speak to you as their attorney, but I also had a lengthy career myself as a public administrator, including over 10 years as a senior administrator in a Massachusetts regional school district. So I understand the issues you face and I found many things carry over nicely
between my two careers. Specifically, a respect for the rules and for process. Every day in court, I have to follow a myriad of rules. And in schools, of course, we set expectations, demands, and demand reasonable performance by our students. These are important life
lessons for everybody to respect the process. My clients are concerned the school committee, the educational leaders of the district are considering disrespecting these very basic tenants. In other words, changing the rules in the middle of the game, something we
would never let our kids do. When you discuss amending a regional agreement or attempting to use another state law in a way that was not intended to get your desired outcome, that is what you're doing. Now really is a time to understand why
the project has not been successful and what can be done to coales support around the project that can be successful. Will it take longer than you desire? Maybe. But that's really building the strength of community. working towards a goal, not forcing your way is the best
and only way. So on behalf of my clients, you know, be assured a quick detour around the rules you do not like presently to get to your goal won't be easily attained. It's not going to work that easily. My clients will challenge legally any attempt to change the debt approval process. Your
regional agreement is very clear on how debt is to be issued. Your original agreement is very well thought out and it actually raises the bar over state law requirements that was obviously intentional. So the intent of the people that wrote that the framers of the agreement they knew what the minimum
state requirements were and they raised them. There's no doubt about that. So an attempt of the school committee to circumvent those intentions shortcircuiting the process will have to be legally challenged. But for my clients and I would suspect others. So
I'd ask that you show leadership realize that your solution, well intended, was not something the community as a whole in the required amount was willing to support. And I ask you to look long and hard at obtaining a solution that could be embraced by the community and resist
any urge to barrel through roadblocks that were thoughtfully installed does not do any any good for anybody to just ram through them. 30 seconds. I think he's good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dr. Tracy, do we have another person
on Zoom that anybody else on Zoom that would like to speak? I can see everybody. Nope. Okay. Um All right. So, just so the room and everyone hear. So, I am not going to go back to the Zoom line. It
doesn't look like anyone there has their hands up. So, we're going to not go back to Zoom. I'm going to ask the committee. Now again, I'm inclined to have extend the um public comment for a few more minutes. Um I'm looking to the committee
um whether people are comfortable with extending for a few more minutes. I am concerned that I do not think we will be able to extend for the entirety. It's unclear to me exactly how many people are in line back there. Um, but I'm game to say let's take let's say five more
people committee committee. Yeah, I think five makes sense. I mean to watch Well, we have more business to get to. So, so I'm actually right now I'm
actually just asking the committee whether they are comfortable with the extension of the time. Sure. Okay. All right. So, we're gonna um have five more comments and then again we're going to check in with you. Okay. All right. Please. Thank you for
waiting. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Tracy. We Oh, I stole his mic. Sorry. This one. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I think it's good for now, right? We're going to need it later, though.
Hold on. I want to be I want to be focused on your comment. I don't Yeah, we we'll need it. We'll definitely need it later. Um Okay. I appreciate your patience. Thank you. My name's Top Stevenson. Tapley
Stevenson. 18 Lake Avenue, Wenham. Last name S Pen S. Is that better? There you go. I can hear you. I'm here about
the system having a having having to take out to twothirds that was put in there by our by the towns for to avoid big problems like this is the reason it was put in there.
The last town meeting I was at there was over 600 people. I don't think there's 75 people here. So, I'm fairly certain that not many people know about this meeting. I'm for democracy. Democracy requires that everybody has
the opportunity. I don't think you people want the full towns, both towns to vote on this. I think you want a consolidated school. This is not the right way to do it
in my opinion. Why don't you just put forth an executive order and just tell us all to go to heck? It's done down in Washington. Why can't the school committee do it?
Thank you. Thank you. We do have one online. Good evening. Yeah, perfect. Thanks. Hi. Uh Deb Saffford, 46 Maple Street. Um, just want to say none of this is personal. So to say that we're going to
hate you or people are going to hate you, that seems like a veiled threat. So let's just wipe that away. We're all going to be adults here and we're just going to deal with the the process. Um, it's really about the process. It's not even anymore about the project. If we were taught basic civics civics, of
course, we would understand that our country operates as a constitutional republic. We just said it in the pledge. We are informed by democratic decisionmaking. We are not a straightup democracy. So this means that law triumphs over opinion and desire. Mob
rule is the simple majority deciding something and then demanding it happen. Rule of law ensures protection so all get a fair trial. This is the equity we all seek. Equal opportunity for justice. A civil society of course is based on
common understandings of law, structure, and processes. There are people here pushing for an override of the agreed to process to toss out results from the town meeting. Considering tossing out the agreement because you don't like the answer is ascribed to lawlessness. And
frankly, it feels a little petty. We don't always get what we want. But aren't we all adults here modeling for our children how to handle disappointment? This is basic parenting. Do we let our kids decide the rules that they like and and the ones that they don't and they can change those? Of
course not. And again, like how we handled this and how we've positioned and framed these discussions. Our kids and our teachers of course are picking up on that, you know, and of course they feel miserable. It's really sad to see that they're so feeling so dark in those rooms. Winthrop is a beautiful building.
So I think maybe they're just picking up some of the vibe in the community that uh they're in a crappy place and therefore they should be miserable. Rules and laws of course exist in a society to protect the minority against this mob rule. Changing rules is a tactical maneuver because a simple
majority dislikes the answer. It dishonors the process and it fractures the basis for civil society. I ask those who protest Trump being a king to consider their own actions in this case where they are unhappy and seeking to be king and change the rules
to suit them. I ask the League of Women Voters who are weekly protesting the importance of honoring the vote to be consistent in this circumstance as well. Let us not be hypocrites here. After four total votes taken at prior Hamilton and Winnham town meetings, the decision-making has run its course. The
known threshold before this all started has not been met. We don't want a school size of Brockton and Fall River for our elementary school. It's just a simple fact. There's a lot of reasons why people are against it. And there is nothing new in the arguments to position
to do this again as another vote. People have been standing up here for 14, 15, 16 months saying don't do it. This man, Trent, he said the worst thing will happen is if we push ahead and we don't take a pause and restructure this and reconsider the negative opposition to
this plan and then we're going to end up without anything. And that's where we are. So, you were precient, Trent, and I'm sorry to see you go. Thank you. Thank you. I have more to say, but the opportunity cost is over needs to be looked at. Thank you. [Applause]
Good evening. Ed McCarthy, 60 Cuttingham Drive. We had a lot of people talk about four votes. Let's not also forget there was during the first uh town meeting. There was a lease extension that was voted down. That was
another no. A group of citizens got together and put on the ballot a citizens petition. and I brought it down to the patent estate to have that put on there and that was no to renovation, excuse me, no to consolidation and
explore the renovation possibly. That was a no vote. There's more no votes out there. Please don't forget about them about the twothird supermajority. It's a protection device, a circuit breaker if you will. I'm an electrician. I'm sorry I couldn't let that one go by.
But it is a circuit breaker so that when the revenue streams come in from two different towns across different demographics against people who are are just getting by and please I'm going to mention the elderly over and over again. We talked the town talked about well
it's $1,500 or $2,000. Let's be realistic. This is over $30,000 out of your pocket over and above your taxes. And if you have a house of greater value, it's even more than that. So, it's a lot a lot of money. And that's
what the twothirds protection is for. Are we all on board? And I was the guy who was always on board. And I voted for every single override for our teachers. Every single one I voted for because the money was going to a good place and it
was well spent. It wasn't going to the Taj Mahal. It was going into the teachers pockets. The schools that my kids went to, the color and on to the middle school, they helped teach them values of integrity
and respect and they helped form these kids into who they are today. And this school committee did a great job of educating. So let me tell you that what you instilled in the kids, I would like you to adhere to yourself.
Please be respectful of the people like myself who reach into their wallet every year and come up with $10,000 for salaries and for schools. And I know a lot of people volunteer their time here. But that money that we come up with and
this whole room comes up with. That's a lot a lot of money. Be respectful to the people who pay the freight and have done it year after year after year. If you could educate and instill those values in our children, I ask you to adhere to
the goodness that you instilled in them. As somebody said before, they they stole my line. Respect the process. Respect the vote that took place. And please respect the people that you represent. We are a republic. It's a it's a it's a
democracy and we are a republic and you represent us. Thank you very much for all you do. appreciate it. Thank you. Good evening. Um Susan Norman, 24 Lee Park. Um first time speaking and um I have
gotten involved in this with the first vote. We spent five and a half hours at the town meeting voting on this and then voted at the ballot and then voted uh spent another three and a half hours revoting on it. Um, so basically you are
asking us how we feel about this issue and as I was thinking today um it most definitely affects me financially and I uh have a 92 year old mother who I
care for and I work as much as I can to keep up with things. Um, but I was thinking today about the whole process and the words that came to me were selfish, manipulative,
disrespectful, confidence, democratic process and you know selfishness. when you don't get what you want and you manipulate it to
get what you want that is selfishness and um and so you know this whole process in terms of being confident that I have a vote and that that vote will be respected
really is not something I can say honestly that I feel confident anymore and I think a lot of other people do too. So I do ask respectfully that you consider um
my feelings and others and um I thank you very much for doing what you're doing. Thank you. So welcome. Um, so just so everyone is clear, the current next speaker, the
gentleman at the podium right now is the fifth speaker that we discussed earlier a few minutes ago. Please begin. Hi, my name is Dan Hogan. I live at 59 Willow Street and I have two grandchildren uh
11 and 12 and I want uh the best schools for them and the best teachers but I don't think uh you also I teach them so you have to respect the vote you know how many times we have to come we're going to keep when does this stop till
you get your way vote after vote after vote and tonight it's over 100 degrees no heat but that didn't stop you guys, you know, and it it's just that, you know, you have a beautiful community, two town, Winnham and Hamilton. That's
why people come here, you know. I hate to see that you uh divide the people and destroy the towns because we all know uh this is associated with 3A and there's no getting around it. I just want to remind the uh the committee and uh the
people here that the MBTA has a $80 billion in instructional deficit in the federal government is $ 37 trillion in debt and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We
passed a voter mandate by 70% to audit them. You think we have the uh the vote that audit done yet? No. So when you talk about compliance, let them do it first. Let them show good uh good faith by doing that first. If you had a
portfolio and you would want the federal government, the MBTA and the Commonwealth of Mass running your portfolio, I think not. But I just hope I came from a different city and it was destroyed. You guys don't know what you have. you have beautiful communities,
you know, and I I think, you know, there should be a solution on the school that could be doing fine. Keep changing the rules as you're going along. You're just getting people angry and it's not we, you know, uh I know people some some
people I'm not going to say which that they say, well, they don't understand, you know what I mean? We we know better than you, you know, but don't don't think everybody else is stupid. You know what I We know every game you're playing because you use the same playbook every
different time that they wanted 3A. All right. So, respect the vote and you want to be respect is not given, it's earned. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause]
So, I um as I hope that the people in the room are seeing that I'm trying to honor what I'm the the word my word. So, we stopped after five people. are checking in. It appears there's three four people left. I'm hesitant to go
beyond 8:00, but I'm going to look at the committee. I am willing to let those four people speak if people from the committee. We have a very long agenda. There's one online. Um I did already say that we
were not going to go back to Zoom. Um I'm sorry for that person, but we gave lots of opportunity on Zoom. Um, okay. I'm seeing no objection. All right. So, can I see I don't see the last person in line. Okay. So, that is the last person is raising her hand there. That will be
the last person and then public comment will be closed. I'm melting. Please approach the podium. Good evening. Uh, I'll be less than a minute. Should be. Um, Steven McCarter, 18 Cunningham Drive. I'm going to
represent four groups of people. Uh MSBA. A little closer, Steve. Just Yeah. Uh I'm going to represent the MSBA teachers, the children, and the town of Hamilton. MSBA, they have a model school program. Uh you can build these schools
half the time, a third of the budget. And uh Lexington are in the program right now. I don't know what's wrong with our educational plan, but um there's qualify for that. Uh I'm asking you to consider
that. I've recommended it to the MSBA and uh you know, I think we can move uh forward with ideas like that. Um you know, the other issue is the lot there is going to eat you up. Uh there's
hydraulic pressure on it. It's between two of the biggest wetlands you've ever seen. Mother's Day flood, 10 inches of rain went through that lot. Your school will be crumpled and you won't be able to put a septic system. Uh, forget about
negative stuff. Let's go to the teachers. Last summer, spoke with uh Gloucester teachers in a consolidated school. They said 440 almost unteable. Last week met a Beverly teacher
unsolicited. He said Beverly consolidated school awful to teach in I'm I'm just being a voice of what's out in the street. Uh and out in the street the small school sign now you're going
to hear from your students your customers. More than one occasion one pulled up with their parents could read. I was thrilled. You know, I young grade school con considered it, looked at it
and said small schools. I agree with that. So, so now we go to the town. I've knocked on 2,000 doors in this town. I have an idea what the people are
saying and what they want. Maybe not all of them can get to that voting ballot, but under this circumstances, I'm going to encourage you to vote for another ballot. The more people we have, the better it is. Hamilton, we're only 13
people away from just regular regular majority. Wenom, we'll cover their 180. So, do whatever you want. We're going to protect our town. But, and thank you for all the work you do. in going forward.
We're here to help you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Tosh Blake. Uh Sagamore Street. Tosh Blake. Um yeah, just like to agree with a lot of what people said about the process. I think it's kind of annoying to have my time and a lot of other people's times wasted going into votes
where probably you was already decided that you would do whatever by means necessary to overturn the results of those legitimately taken votes to move a process forward that you want to have done. I understand you all a lot of time and emotion invested in the project but
procedurally it's um wonder why we have voting you know if you could just override change the stuff but my bigger point is which hasn't been brought up here um and some officials in town have brought up recently after the first vote was taken is the real estate issue and
someone mentioned 3A one of our uh committee members shook her head and when someone brought 3A up is it pertains to the winup site and school capacity so if we get rid of Winthrop up and there is more development in town whether it's due to 3A or extra 40B
because of 3A by right development your win your consolidated school could quickly run out of capacity for students and I haven't seen any plans where you could expand it vertically or outward so if you give up that win site and it have to be voted on and all that but the town manager of uh Hamilton says he'd advise
it be sold off there could be development be put there and you could have combined with three in both towns a thousand or more students needing to go to an elementary school. So, I think it's extremely short-sighted of this committee to give up that site as an educational site. Now, even Mr. McGrath
of the of the Fincom, he said, and maybe he was just kind of bluffing a little to get it on the um the warrant, he said that would still might have to be an operational school. This is this is in a recent meeting of the select board in Hamilton. He said it still may have to operate as a school even with a consolidated school because of future
potential capacity. I think the smarter thing is to keep both schools operational. Cutler and Winthrop. You know, I know it might be more ownorous for the children as if you do it to renovate and expand, but there's certainly room on both sides to renovate and expand. That might go someone against the small schools ideal, but
just as a practical matter, if 3A comes down and hits us hard with a lot of new enrollment, it's extremely shortsighted to give up a huge property like Winthrop, which functions as a school and could be easily expanded. I haven't heard much uh discussion about that from the committee. up to a bunch of these
meetings and um you know and there seems to be an allergy to mention 3A with it but even you know Mr. Emil Dalquist and um Marne Crouch of the planning board says it's an intertwined issue with the Winthrup site. So if you give up that site it becomes highdensity apartments you're going to have particularly a lot
more students in the school. So, you know, maybe this could be an out if you didn't want to bulldoze this through to think you might need those two sites for two schools because I don't see how you're going to expand the color site much beyond what the plan calls for, you know. So, you kind of maybe have a
difference with Mr. Mr. McGrath with the equity issue. If he says there should be two schools open and you guys are dead set against having two schools because equity issue, they're not the same. Maybe rethink it and try to scale down and do the expansion and renovation. 30 minutes.
Thank you. Good evening. Hi, Michelle Bailey to Remington Road. Um, plenty I could say. It comes down to this. I was in this room at that meeting Mr. Burnham referred to earlier 15 years
ago. At that time, we were looking at consolidating the schools. It was determined that Cutler was the at that time we thought Winthrip was going to be the site that would be demolished. Um because the town of Hamilton wanted that
site for economic development. And here we are 15 years later, same story. We have the chance now to do the right thing and just put this issue to bed. We
need to have a vote of the town. It is the most open process. It gives everybody an opportunity to vote. There will be absentee voting. So, if you're out of town and can't make it to town meeting, there will be early voting so that you can go and do it in person. There'll be day of voting so that you
can do that. It is the only way we will know the true will of the towns. I also want to point out that our government, it's been pro talked about the process, the process, the process. Our government has many
checks and balances. Our court system has appeal after appeal after appeal. This is your last appeal. It's as if you're going to the Supreme Court, the entire community. And at that point, we will have an answer. We will have the final decision on what we're
going to do going forward. I know the job you do is difficult. I know it is hard. I know and understand the people in this room, but it's time. Please put it to the vote and we will turn out. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening. And just one second, just so the entire room is clear, the speaker who is standing at the podium will be the final speaker in the public comment
section. Good evening. You may begin. Linda Mastriani. M- T R I A N I. I live on Maple Street in Hamilton. I have spoken over and over and over again as a graduate, as a teacher, as a parent of
graduates, as a grandmother of kids coming in, as a taxpayer, as everything that is connected to these schools. I think everyone knows my position. Honestly, there's nothing else I can say. What I'd like to do is take three
minutes to try and rebut all the misinformation I've heard, but it would take more than three minutes. So, instead, I would just like to say thank you to the school committee for recognizing tonight 178 years of teachers who are retiring
this year. That is what makes our district special. That is what is most important in our district. And yes, teachers can teach anywhere. As I can tell you right now, because we are indeed teaching in hallways and closets,
but it is hard to keep teachers when we don't have the same facilities and the same pay that you can get by going to Manchester Essex or by going to another nearby town. So, I will let you go. I appreciate you letting me be the last
speaker. I would like to just say thank you very much to all of those retiring teachers and staff and um have a great summer. Thank you. Those to you make a point of order. I don't have a speech real quick. No, hold
on. No, no. I I was very Zoom guys can hear you calling people names, so I'd be careful. I was very I was very and everybody on Zoom heard it. Excuse me. I was very clear and I have been so impressed. I have been so impressed with
this entire process. I appreciate everyone following along methodically. Um that was a long time. It's hot. I appreciated all the comments. I think I speak for the entire school committee
when I say we appreciated very much the emails. There were many many many emails on this topic and it is really important to get those emails and to hear what people say and I am grateful for all of
them. Okay, at this point we are going to move forward on our agenda. Next up is a portion of the review of our school committee protocols. David,
excuse me. As elected members of the Hamilton Regional School Committee, we including the superintendent accept the high honor and trust that has been placed placed in us to ensure that the students of the district receive the best education
possible. To that end, we hereby commit to the following in the conduct of our business. School committee members will channel requests for information, reports, and data through the superintendent and the school committee chair rather than the staff. The superintendent will ensure that each
member of the committee has equal access to this information in a timely manner. Recognizing the importance of proactive communication and avoiding surprises, school committee members will whenever possible contact the school committee chair
and/or the superintendent in advance of a meeting if they have questions or concerns about an agenda item or will ask the chair at least 48 hours prior to a meeting that an item be placed on an agenda. Thank you. Uh next up, Amy is going to read a
portion of our uh mission statement. The Hamilton Regional School District School Committee's mission is to ensure our schools create graduates with a passion for lifelong learning together with the critical skills needed to maximize their potential. The Hamilton
Regional School Committee will lead and inspire a district that is a source of civic pride and municipal engagement to serve the community for generations to come. Thank you. Um, I'm just going to pause, Mr. Tracy. I want to make sure that
everybody except our school committee members has left the Zoom and they all know that the best way to watch is on HW Cam. Yep. We've been sending them messages the whole time. Great. Thank you so much. Okay. Um, next up is the consent agenda. Does any uh one have any
items from the consent agenda that they would like to hold? Julia or David Frinkle? Julia. No. No. I'll set it. Okay. All right. David, excuse me. I move
Sorry. I move that the Hamilton Regional School Committee accept the consent agenda as presented in tonight's agenda. Second. Second by Amy Kunberger. Um because we have some members participating remotely, we will do a roll call vote.
I'm going to start um with our Zoom members. Julia, yes. David Franco. Yes. Uh Jen, yes. Uh David Pledo, yes. Uh oh. And Dana's a yes. Um and that is
unanimous of the one, two, three, four, five voting members. Um okay. I wanted to um just take a moment um to acknowledge on um on this list of donations.
I mean it's to be honest I was just really overwhelmed by the sort of amazing grants provided by the ed fund and I just wanted to take a minute to acknowledge that because it's um
really transformative. So, um, thank you to the ED fund out there. Um, all right. Um, I'm wondering whether the committee needs a moment.
Um, lost two. Well, and Vinnie, too. Here comes. Yeah. Um, yeah, I think you just went to the bathroom. All right. Um, just making sure the committee let can you can let me know if you have a point of personal
comfort. If you need a moment, um, you can just let me know. Um, okay. Um, to you, Mr. Tracy, on um, recognizing retired staff. Thank you very much. It is my honor to present this list of our
staff members who have dedicated their time, efforts, um, and hearts to our schools, our children, and our communities. I'd like to just name them out. I think it's important. They've really spent, um, hundreds of years here in the in the district together. Scott
Buer, teacher at the middle school, 21 years of service. Nancy Canister, an ESP at the high school, 17 years of service. Phil Coleman, a custodian here at the Buer for 11 years. Kathleen Dachio, teacher at the middle school, 25 years.
Nancy Duffy, uh, teacher at the Cutler, 18 years. Lorie Many, teacher at the high school, 32 years. Donna Stevens, who worked in the cafeteria at the Cutler for 31 years, and Karen Senning, ESP at the Winthre School for 23 years.
Um, this is is bittersweet. We are losing some really potent educators and people who really believe in our children. Uh and you know by their dedication, their time they have spent here, they they uh you know it's it's tough to see them go. But we are wishing
them the best as they move off into the next phase of their life. And one thing I've always say to our retirees is once a teacher always a teacher. So they will probably end up somewhere back in some form of education. So congratulations to all the retirees.
[Applause] Um, I just I I don't know if any other members want to say anything. I just wanted to say thank you. And because my kids are a little bit older every year,
it's um hard to see all the teachers that I recognize um from their experience graduate. Um, I was just uh thinking my senior year was Lori Manning's first year teacher. Um, yeah. And uh, and I I remember Donna
in the cafeteria taking um, my son Daniel won some sort of a prize and he got to pick the menu for the week. Donna did a whole nutrition lesson with him. It was lovely. Um, years and years and years ago. Um, okay. Next up, we have
Mr. Managoni to discuss uh the student handbook changes. Um just so the committee knows, we have um reviewed much of this before. Good evening everyone. When I arrived tonight, I looked up and I thought,
"Wow, people are really excited to learn about the student handbook changes. Quite a turnout." Uh I learned after a little bit, though perhaps we're here for a different reason. Uh but uh thank you for having me here tonight. Um just want to go through student handbook changes uh for next year. Um as you can
see I've given you a track changes version of the proposed changes uh for next year. Um in addition you should also have a summary of the proposed changes. Um and I thought I would just point to four substantive ones um that
that don't involve changing dates or names, things like that. Uh first substantive change has to do with uh grading system at the high school on page 12. And the story behind this was pre-COVID um our semester grades were determined
um by two quarter grades and an exam grade. And that exam grade carried a weight of 20%. And then when COVID hit, we stepped away from exams and kind of talked internally about what would be the most appropriate thing to do as we're trying to get back to our normal way of doing things. And you know, after
we started exams again, uh we moved to have uh the exams be 10% of semester grades. And we've we've run through that a couple of uh years now and learned perhaps that uh students may or may not be seeing the exam um as something that
is is deserving of as as much attention as it should get. Um, knowing that most of our kids are going on to college and in a college setting, a lot of times exams aren't really your grade for a class, uh, we thought we could offer a better way to perhaps prepare them. Um,
so what we plan to do next year, um, is to actually have a developmentally appropriate um, grading system um, when considering how we determine semester grades. So, for grade nine, uh because they're so far away from actually taking
an exam in college, um we're going to have the exams count for 10% of the semester grade. Uh when you get to grade 10, we're going to up it a little bit to 15% and juniors and seniors, it will be back to the way of doing uh business
previously um where the exam counts for 20% of the semester grade. something we spent um a couple of faculty meetings going over, reviewed that with the curriculum leaders. Uh and that's kind of where we landed. And again, that was to align us uh you know, with where our
kids primarily are headed, but also to do it in a developmentally appropriate and responsible manner. The second item of substance that I would point you to has to do with the graduation requirement area, specifically the competency
determination. As you're aware, in November, uh, through a ballot measure, MCCAST was removed as part of the competency determination for high school students to receive a diploma. Um, the state then put it back on school districts to figure out what exactly they're going to do. Uh, because the CD
didn't really go away. Um, so we're going to do what most districts are doing. Um, in other words, they need to pass a course um, equivalent to the standards that are measured by MCCAST. So we're saying that is English 10, geometry and biology. Now biology is a
grade nine course. However, that is the science exam that we give in school. So when students pass those three courses, which they need to do anyways as part of the graduation requirements, um you know, they will have earned the
competency determination and and then are eligible for a high school diploma. Um, on a side note, we've done some listening uh with the state about directions they may be headed in terms of how they're going to handle the CD. Um, and it looks like they could be
going in a very different direction perhaps. So, uh, it doesn't make a lot of sense for us right now to try to invent something when um, the state may just step in and give us an entirely new system alto together. Can I jump in on that quote right there? And this is
probably going to be a one-year set only because um I'm I'm part of a subcommittee of the superintendent uh Massachusetts superintendent group that's working with the state house um to determine what the next steps are for uh graduation requirements now that
MCCAST has been taken off the table. Um the the governor created a a fairly large committee of people that are studying this. And then there are there are a number of um opportunities right now both online and in person to kind of weigh in on what you think about uh what
the graduation requirement should be across the state. One of the things we're learning really quickly is if you leave it to the individual schools, they'll all be very different. So um there's a new commissioner coming in soon to be sworn in I think this week and that will start the ball rolling
towards this council to determine what the actual outcomes will be probably in the fall. Um, but we're we're kind of just waiting for them to do uh meetings with the public and online meetings so that they can gather information about thoughts that people have. So, this will
probably be need to be re-examined again next year or partway through the school year if the state changes the the requirements. Okay. And the final two changes uh that I would like to discuss are uh in the
student conduct portion of the handbook. And just for your information, uh both of these items were voted on and accepted by school council in the April and May meetings as required by law. Um the first change uh has to do with
conduct at athletic and extracurricular events. Um recently there have been a number of issues uh in Capean League Massachusetts and also nationwide uh related to fan behavior um at athletic events. Um and
it's become a real challenge for athletic directors and school administrators uh just dealing with some of the crazy things that happen in the crowd. This these are high school events. Um these are not major college events or professional sports events. Uh these are things where we are trying to
show our best selves in the community um and also trying to model appropriate behavior um as our students grow towards adulthood. Um so the change uh really that we have put in the student handbook um you know is in response to that. It's
also an opportunity for us because we will be opening up um the new outdoor athletic facility and we would expect to have some pretty good crowds there and I think it's a time for us to show uh the Capean League and the rest of uh the schools that we play, you know, that you
can uh cheer positively u for your classmates and again put your best face forward. Uh so what we've done in the student handbook um is try to show number one what some positive fan behaviors are and then what some negative fan behaviors are. This is not meant to be all-incclusive. Um but a lot
of times when you see in student handbooks it's kind of vague. Uh as we talked about this at the school council level we felt that it was important to just give some concrete examples of what both positive and negative be behavior looks like. um consequences uh that we
laid out um really are kind of aligned with um MIA policy in terms of what happens if a student athlete um is removed from an event. Um so Ryan, I'm going to just pause you for a second. Jen has a question. Okay. I don't see
any of the examples of positive or negative behavior in the copy we have. there's a link in the the electronic uh version of it that you can click on and should take you there. I I was going to say great minds think alike because I was like there is a there's sort of a paragraph that gives general like it
says expected to support and cheer for their classmates in a positive manner but that's not what you mean. There's a pretty good long list of about a dozen good things and not so good things. It's linked in there. Um but anyways um you know what we've done is really try to align with what happens with student
athletes if they're removed from a contest u by a game official. So if uh event staff you know at the high school has to remove um a student from um an athletic or could could be any extracurricular activity. Um that
student will have to miss the next scheduled event. Okay. And if a student is comes back and then is removed again that same year, they have they will miss all athletic and extracurricular events for a year, which is what the MIA does.
So, I think it sends a pretty clear message. Uh you have to work pretty hard to get thrown out once and if you do it twice, you're working extra hard. Um you know, kids on the playing field. You're in a competitive situation. Okay, I think tempers boil over there. Uh but I
I don't think there's a reason for adults or students to be doing that in the stands. The second um item is something that I had already uh come to the committee um probably about a month ago or so. Um and
this has to do with the cell phone policy at the high school. Um where we are going to an away for the day policy. Students will turn in their cell phones at the start of the day. uh they will be out without them for the entire school day and at the end of the day they have
a few minutes to go back to their home rooms and pick them up. Um we've met with all the kids. Um we had a webinar or I had a whopping three parents at it. Um so we we've made kids and parents aware of what's happening. Um you know
and I would expect there to be some challenges early on just because it's new for us at the high school, both adults and kids. But um you know, we're looking forward to re-engaging with each other more um you know, being where your feet are um and establishing those close
relationships uh that a lot of times cell phones quite frankly get in the way of. So those are the four items uh that I have uh for you right now. Um I will have probably another update in um mid to late August. I believe you have an August 21st meeting um at which time I
will bring forth another one. But this is what I have for now. And so just wanted to get your feedback on where we're at. Um so just so we're clear, so you're not looking for a vote this evening. You're looking for feedback. Is that correct?
Um feedback or a vote on what has been proposed so that way you could vote on this, but you might have some additional edits. We have one one additional item to consider later this summer. I just wanted to make sure I understood what you were looking for. Um all right, questions for Mr. Miggoni.
Um, David and Julia, do you guys have questions? I don't I don't have questions. Anybody else in the room have questions? Jen, I actually do have a question only because a community member brought this to my attention. Um, I
forget if it was on page 12 or 13. Let me just scroll back and see. It's 13. Page 12 or is it You're looking on the document or the number on the document. Um on the waiting of the grades on page 13, it was brought to my
attention that Hamilton Wenom uh weights their grades um very very differently from other schools in the district potentially to the detriment of schools if we have any colleges or universities using weighted GPA.
So that's the very item that I'll be bringing to you in August. So thank you. Then I will hold my question till August. Other questions? I've just got one. Full support of this new cell phone policy. Very exciting.
Um, one, um, thing that I think we brought up the last time that you, um, presented on this was, um, cell phone is problematic because it allows access to apps and, you know, messaging and communication
that's very distracting in school. Um, if we get rid of cell phones, we give them devices. are they is are we just changing the device upon which these things are going to be accessed? So that's uh I think a
good point to bring up. Um the thing with cell phones is that they fit in your pocket. You walk around with them. They go into the bathroom with you. Uh which is kind of disgusting to think about, but it happens. Um you walk into the bathroom with your laptop. I have
bigger questions. Um it I just think that the size of that particular device creates some additional challenges. You know, kids can have I mean I've seen it. It's on their lap. You know, while they're supposed to be working, they're also texting away or doing who knows
what. Um I think it's it's easier to monitor kids on an iPad or a laptop in the classroom. Um especially if you're, you know, running your class as you should. You're moving around, getting behind kids, seeing what they're doing. um it's a little bit easier to hide on a
cell phone. Um you know there's there will be challenges because we are going to make the messaging app available on the iPads and they certainly if you have a MacBook or something you can have that because we we've chosen not to to to go in the direction of being an all Chromebook school or something like that. Uh
because I I think kids do still need access to information. Um you know there are going to be the same schedule changes for sports that they have to respond to. Um, you know, parents may need to remind kids like, "You got to go pick your brother up after school.
Please don't leave him stranded." Um, those kinds of things. You know, we're trying to work with parents about, you know, when is the best time to do that kind of stuff. What's the best way? We're also trying to push kids more towards using email as a way of doing business because that's what's going to happen when they leave the high school.
Um, you know, you don't get Snapchated by your professors hopefully when you're in college, um, and things like that. So they really need to move to that medium I think of using email and if a parent has a very important immediate message that needs to be given to a student they should
contact the main office so that way we can relay that as quickly as possible. Yeah, there's still going to be challenges because they have devices. You know, we do manage the iPads. Um, we don't manage the other devices um that they may bring into school. Um, but again, I think a lot of it comes down to
classroom management and the phones just a little bit insidious and that they're hidden and um they go everywhere with the kids and kids probably are not going to bust their laptops out at lunch too much. A lot of times what you will see at lunch tables now though is it's really easy to lay your phone on the
table and just start scrolling instead of talking to the others who are around you. So thanks for asking that question. It'll be a little bit push and pull but I think at the end it will be better. Yeah. Jen, um when you first presented the cell phone policy, there was a
medical waiver for example for students with type 1 diabetes or other diseases where they have to have their phone on them. That's not in the final policy. Is there a reason for that? It should be. So, I'll just add it. Thank you. Yep. Because it's it's been part of all the
discussions that we've had and I may just not have put that line in the the draft that I gave you. Um, are there other questions? Um, right. So, David, do you feel like
you can craft a motion? Uh, sure. If you want to. Yeah. No, don't have to. I move that the Hamilton and Regional uh school committee vote to approve um the updated student hand high school student
handbook as presented in tonight's agenda. Second. Second by Jen Carr. Um is there further discussion? Okay, looks like we're ready to vote. I will start here in the room. David Pledo, yes. Amy, yes. Dana is a yes.
Jen, yes. Trent, yes. Uh, Julia, yes. David Frankle, yes. And that is unanimous and the motion passes. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. And we look forward to seeing you in August. All right. Thank you, Mar.
Um, so I'm going to take the uh temperature of the committee. Um, I am mindful of the
people in the room. I am appreciative of the calm demeanor and quiet room that has allowed us to do our meeting um, thus far. I'm going to ask the committee given the comments that we heard. It
appears that most people in the room are interested in item E on the agenda, which is the elementary school building project next steps. I'm going to ask the committee whether people are comfortable
moving that item up to address it now to sort of honor that. But I want to hear from the committee if people are comfortable with that. I think that makes sense. Sure. Yes. I I don't hear any objection. Go to
the bathroom really quick, though. Okay. So, I know and that's I I actually Please go. That's fine. I So, let's take I I could use a little water refill myself. So, let's literally take a 60
seconds recess. I'm going to get some extra water. We'll come back recessed for two minutes. 60 seconds. pressure. I have Julia is back. Yep. Good. All right,
come on back, people. Okay, we're back. Okay. Oh, it's only gonna be 90. All right. Can you hear me? All right. All right. Welcome back.
Okay. Welcome back. Oh, can I ask people to quiet take your seats? All right. And uh we are back in session. Thank you all for that brief. My laptop is on. Um here we go. Can you
all hear me? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um, so next up, so just so everyone's clear, we're going to do item E, elementary school building project next steps. Um, and then we will after that move back in order to item C, D, um, and F. Okay. Um,
so uh, I am open to starting this item with a motion if the committee feels ready to hear a motion.
Um, I intend, just so the committee knows, I intend to make sure that each person has an opportunity to speak um before anyone has had the opportunity to speak again. Um,
David, sure. I move that the Hamilton Regional School Committee direct Superintendent Tracy to formally request a 90-day extension from the Massachusetts School Building Authority in order to secure the necessary death authorization for the proposed Cutler Elementary School Building Project to
allow sufficient time for placing the debt exclusion question before the voters of the district's member towns and completing the required local approval process. Second. Second. Second by Jen Carr.
Um so just to clarify the motion um that motion um is uh a would would direct um the superintendent to request an extension. That motion doesn't provide the
specifics of the method that would be sought out. Just so for clarity, I um I know that there is another motion. We did our homework because we want to be really diligent and careful to make sure that things are done accurately. Um
so the motion on the table is to um request an extension from the or direct the superintendent to request an extension from the MSBA. Is that correct, David? Correct. Okay. Um I would like the um there
I guess what I'm going to say is that I understand um we we saw in all of our emails and in the comments this evening and in the work that we've done that um necessarily there's going to be overlap between the method and the request for
an extension. So I um I think we in discussion I I think we're going to understand that. Um I want to give everyone an opportunity to speak um should you want to. You're not required to. Um, all right. Looking to the committee.
Who'd like to speak? Julia. Julia. Hi. I had to write it down. Okay. Um, so from Can everyone hear me? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Uh something that's getting lost um in the debate around the school
consolidation project I feel like in the community conversations is uh the children the students like what is best for them they're learning and their success and to me as an elected school committee member my mandate is to do
what is best for the children all children um so you know people can call us selfish They can call us thugs. We can take it. You know, we've been called way worse because to me, you know, I'm fighting the good fight. I'm playing the
long game and I'm doing what I think in my individual way is best for the children of this district. So, to me, um, in order to live in a community with high-erforming schools, we need to keep and attract talented teachers and
administrators. And I've heard a lot of people tonight and in emails claiming that they support teachers, but they don't support the new school project. And the problem with that is that 80% of the teachers want this
school. And teachers have shown up in person. They've shown up here tonight. They've shown up at many meetings. They've shown up in numbers to support the school consolidation. They want to work in modern facilities and they want to support all of our learners. And I
believe that supporting this project is supporting the teachers and is supporting our families and our children. And it's as simple as that. And I had to write this down and I looked up this quote, but to quote the Rolling Stones, which a lot of people have quoted this evening, you can't
always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need. I believe our district needs the school and that's why I'm going to fight for this project. So, I would encourage all of my fellow school committee members to vote yes on this
motion. Thanks, Julia. Um Trent, you look like you're ready to go. Um I just have a point of order on this. The next motion that's coming is
I can't vote on this motion before I vote on the next motion. I have to understand the mechanism. Fair. No, that's before I decide whether or not it makes sense to make an extension. Okay. I think that that's that's an excellent I think that's an excellent point of debate and that's why
I tried to um articulate that normally I'm very careful about staying within the four mo four corners of the motion and recognizing that in this particular scenario the potential motions are tied and I I will just just not to make it
too complicated but I'm I'm really just talking to you that in the hypothetical right a this committee could vote for to request an extension and then they could create any number of plans including no
plan including say we just like more time right that's a theoretical again this is hypothetical theoretical um so it's we did Eric did
because at the request of members create a legally valid motion on a specific plan, it does not mean that someone on this committee could not make a motion for a different plan. Does that answer your question? Yes. Okay. So, I mean,
I'll just be transparent. The motion that um is prepared is regarding the ballot vote, which is the chapter 71 16N portion of the law. Yes. Um that is
the one that is prepared. But again, any number of things could hypothetically happen. I hope that answered and someone please. So, what do you need? What do you I would Would you prefer to vote prefer to
vote on the second before? Okay. Would you want to make a motion to I think we're still under the constraints of the first motion. Correct. You could again you could so Dana before we even get there right
because you know to to Tre's point and what I was really going to say is is is I actually think Julia might have sort of jumped the gun here. I I think it's our duty right in in in in this motion to to
realize that we're coming up to against the end of the deadline um in just a few days and um just asking for a 90-day extension makes the most sense for the school committee just to try and give us some time to figure out anything
whatever that may be because if we don't then that you know 40 million $49 million plus, right? Um is just going to be gone, right? And and then we have days. So to not do that, but
by asking for an extension, it gives us more time to figure out any alternative, right? that we I I think that it's really important to understand what the um empirical probabilities of the
alternative are before deciding whether or not I support an extension, right? Um because I think that they're so inherently linked um that I'm just not comfortable voting on this. I'm one member. You can all
move ahead without me. Um, but I think that it makes sense and I think what everybody's here to talk about is the second motion. And the first one I you know I I think is is something
that I I don't have a sense of how I would even vote on it without that information. Okay. Um, so um I guess what I'm
do are you I like I'm looking to you for what action you're looking to take. I think that we should discuss the motion that I haven't seen but has obviously been drafted first. So we have Okay. And then this motion second. I guess that's
what I was trying to ask is are you making a motion to table this motion until after Sure. That sounds right. I I'm just I'm not I'm not I'm literally just Right. So, I move that we table the motion um until we have the opportunity
to discuss the um the specifics of what we would be asking um the MSBA to delay us for. Second. Okay. So, just everyone's clear,
the motion that was motion to uh request an extension was moved and seconded. We began discussion. As part of that discussion, um, a member asked to table it, um, to be still heard within this
same meeting. I'm reading that correctly. Yes. Okay. Just table it for a moment. I heard a second on that. So now what we're discussing is that motion, which is to table temporarily, still to be seen in this meeting, the
motion to request an extension. Does anyone have any comment or discussion on that? I think if tableabling this motion until after we've discussed the other one makes school committee members feel more comfortable, I think we should do it.
Any other members? All right. I don't I don't think we need to table it, but that's me. Okay. Any other members? Okay. So, it looks like we're ready to vote. Just to be clear, this motion is this vote is only on tableabling it. A
yes, a yes vote would mean we would uh table this motion for the moment. A no vote would mean we would continue with discussion on this motion right now. That is clear. Trent,
yes. Jen, yes. Uh Dana, yes. Amy, yes. David, no. Julia, no. David Frankle, yes. Okay. So, that is five to two and the motion passes. That motion will be
tabled but again to be heard within the same meeting. Okay. David, do you have another motion? I do. Let me take my gum out. Excuse me. I move that the Hamilton Regional School District hereby
appropriate the amount of $142,266,34 for the purposes of paying costs of designing, constructing, and equipping a new Cutler Elementary School at 237 Asbury Street, Hamilton, Mass. that will allow for the consolidation of grades one through five across the district and
for the payment of all other costs incidental or related thereto the project. which school uh facilities shall have an anticipated useful life as an educational facility for the instruction of school children of at
least 50 years and for which the district may be eligible for a school construction grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority MSBA set amount to be expended at the direction of the Cutler School Building Committee. To meet this appropriation,
the district is authorized to borrow set amount under the pursuit under and pursuant to chapter 71 section 16N of the general laws in the regional agree in the regional agreement as amended or pursuant to any other enabling
authority. The district acknowledges that the MSBA's grant program is a non-entitlement discretionary program based on needs as determined by the MSBA and any project cost the district incurs in excess of the grant approved by and
receive from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the district. provided further that any grant the district may receive from the MSBA shall not exceed the lesser of 151 28% of eligible approved project costs
as determined by the MSBA or two the total maximum grant amount determined by the MSBA and that the amount of borrowing authorized pursuant to this vote shall be reduced by any grant amount set forth in the project funding agreement that may be executed between
the district and the MSBA. The debt authorized by this vote shall be submitted to the registered voters of the district's member towns for approval at a district-wide election in accordance with the provisions of chapter 71, section 14D, and chapter 71,
section n uh I'm sorry, 16N of the general laws and regional agreement. The date of such district-wide election should be September 15, 2025 from noon until 8:00 PM. Second. Second by Denar.
Okay. Um, so again, I will What was that date again? September 15th. November 15th. David, 2025. Um, so again, I want to give every every member opportunity to speak. We're going
to have opportunities to ask questions. Um, so just want to make sure everyone gets a chance to say what they need to say. Who wants to speak next? Jen. Probably not as well known as the
Rolling Stones, but Terry Pratchett's always been a favorite author of mine. And one of his quotes, uh, is that a lie can run around the world before the truth actually has its boots on. And I think there's been a phenomenal amount of misinformation spread
um either by people who were unhappy with the project and chose to can the information a particular direction or for people who just didn't know what had already been done. Um,
with all that misinformation out there, I think it's impossible in the time frame we had for our residents to separate what is false and what is true. By extending this vote as a ballot vote till September 15th, we're
giving people the entire summer to which most of us are not as busy during, thank goodness, to learn what the truth is and hopefully um eliminate the spread of misinformation that has
come from various parts of this town. The other reason I am supporting this motion um there is twofold. First of all, every single vote that has been taken
while it has not met the twothirds um threshold has been a majority of the people and we represent the people. That's our job. And the last aspect is financial. I'm
the chairman of the capital finance committee and if I thought this project could be done to serve all our students in a less expensive way, I would 100% support that. But it cannot be done
in a less expensive way. We cannot renovate Winthre and Buer for less money than it is going to take us to build a consolidated school.
And that's probably the biggest bunch of misinformation that's been out there. Despite what the fincoms have said, despite what the schools committee has said, everybody, there are multiple people who say we can do this cheaper. Trust me, if
we could do it cheaper, I'd do it cheaper. Part of my job as a chair of that committee is to watch the bottom line. And so those are the three reasons I support uh putting this towards ballot vote. Thank you.
Um, let's see who wants Can I just ask a question to Mr. Tracy? Yeah. Eric, have we cost out the renovation on each of the schools in a comprehensive way that is not an order of magnitude estimate?
Only order of magnitude. That's that was part of the initial 14 site examination. So only order of magnitude. Thank you. Um David Frankle or David Pledo or Amy would you like to speak?
Yeah. Um I my reservation is there's nothing in that. We talk about all students but this is not all students. It's only students in the elementary school and my fear all along since I've become aware of this project is that there there won't be enough
money to do anything for the remaining schools. um and nothing nothing will happen for any of the students in any of the schools at least for two years and then after that the middle school and the higher school will be pulverized by this
project. Um and we haven't really costed out what it's going to take to improve those schools or when it or when. Um, so I don't really think we have done enough homework and and I understand somewhat
how we got to where we are, but I I feel that, you know, as a as a um parent, grandparent of a middle schooler, soon to be a high schooler, there's nothing in this project for my my um family. And
um I I can't see why any of the parents in the district uh of middle and high schoolers would see this project as as being a fair allocation of resources. It's not that it's intrinsically bad. It's that we don't have the full picture
of how to bring all the schools up to an acceptable standard. And we haven't measured in the the the middle school and the high school sufficient to even know how off the standards they are. Basic things like today temperature and
humidity control um is not there except in a you know a couple of rooms but certainly not in the classrooms in any of the schools. So um it's not that I'm intrinsically against um building a consolidated
school. I just think we are going to the voters with a very incomplete picture of what what the total expenditures are needed. You can then debate over what time and and what are the sources of funding and so forth, but we haven't
done that and I I feel as a collective we we haven't done the whole job. Okay. Um Amy or David? Sure, I'll go. Don't feel obligated. You're not required. Don't feel obligated. I just
It's important to me that everybody understands that this is an incredibly difficult decision to make despite what you might think about how I feel about this project. Um my responsibility lies with students, teachers, families, and community. I ran for school committee
twice with that all over my signs, and I truly believe in it. Um when I make decisions, these are not black or white decisions. There's so many kind of levers to consider and I always consider those groups first when I make
decisions. The thing that makes it easier is I know that I'm also responsible for the fiscal part of these projects and I even if you only care about finances, this is also the right way to go. I care
about your wallets and mine too. I'm also a taxpayer. But making this choice is super hard. Obviously, there's a lot of pressure from both sides of this issue to vote a certain way and we can't make a decision
tonight or anytime that will make 100% of you totally happy. It isn't possible. Um, so those are some of the reasonings behind why I plan on voting yes for bringing this to a ballot vote. But I
also agree with some of my colleagues that one of the hardest parts of this for me as a person who's really interested in the truth and media is that a lot of money and time was spent misleading people about this
project. And it's understandable. Things are in print, things are on websites. It's hard to know what to pay attention to. I spent the last month sitting at the library on Thursday afternoons inviting people to come sit down and ask me
questions. My phone number is in the signature of my email. I'm happy to talk anytime. I truly am. I want I've spent a lot of time reading about soil reports and traffic studies and I've been um annoying friends who are engineers
asking a lot a lot of questions about soil engineering. So, I have I have done the research and I'm happy to talk to anybody. Um, but I'm uncomfortable letting this money go to waste and I really encourage my
fellow committee members to vote yes on this ballot vote. Thank you. You want me to go? Do you want to go? I'll go. Um, but I mean I I think it's the school committee's right and it's its civil
duty, you know, civic responsibility to pursue every lawful uh path forward to securing this funding for the project, right? it's already been backed by the majority, excuse me, of people here, you know, within the within the district,
you know, and it's important to remember that, you know, our regional agreement came before this MGL happened, right? So, it's not like we're circumventing the system at all, right? We're we're actually using
resources that are available to us that weren't always available to us, right? this idea of having a, you know, 67% threshold really creates this uh this
minority rule, right? And and and tonight I've heard over and over again that just trust the process that trust the votes um and and and you know and uphold the democratic process, right? um this this idea of a minority rule,
right, really just throws the idea of democratic process out the window because it takes 1.5 yes votes to equal one no vote, right? And you know, every opportunity that
we've, you know, put it to the public that the majority every single time has been in favor of the project. So going through our, you know, our diligence in finding
opportunities to secure this funding and putting it back to the voters is our responsibility. I just got reelected to this seat. I know why I was reelected to this to this seat. Right? It was my support of this project that people want to be back in
the seat. Right? So if you want to talk about seven votes that won, you can count that one too, right? Um so this is the way to go and this is our responsibility as school committee members to try and secure this funding.
Thanks. Um I want to respect that Trent. I know you spoke, but you really asked some questions. I don't know if you felt like you got an opportunity. I I definitely have something to say, but I'm happy to let you go first. Okay, I can go first. Sure. Um uh I didn't prepare something to say. Um
I've been behind this project since day one. I am going to say that if um if I had fully understood the option that is here before us
um a year ago, I would have pushed hard to do that. I have made both sides of this issue pretty angry by not declaring openly what I was going to do.
And I did that because I have spent a lot of time researching. Um, I researched the history of the middle school. I researched a I'm not a lawyer. I dug deep into the law. I did a lot of
work. I do understand the emails that say, "We've already voted. Why are we voting again? Yes, I want to make sure you hear what I
am saying that if I had had this opport if I had understood this opportunity a year ago, that is what I would have pushed for. It is not new. It is not changing the rules. It is mass general law.
It is it is mass general law. It is mass. It is mass general law. run for office yourself. As with other portions of our regional agreement which I have worked
extensively with, there are more than one indicate in more than one part of the regional agreement in which Mass General law supersedes our very old decades old regional agreement. I have spent a lot of time working with that
document. So, um, that's where I am on this at this moment. Um, you trend. Thank you, Dana. Um, so I I know I'm going to say things that many of you
disagree with. Um, appreciate that. I think it's amazing that you're all here. I would just appreciate if um we could just concentrate on the the argument here uh moving forward. Um so um David
to your point first I just want to say that I know everybody has put a lot of thought and time and energy and effort into this project. Um, and David, to to your point about minority rule, I I think that um when I go back to a year
ago when we sat in this room after getting a poll that was done scientifically that has pretty much predicted where we are today, um like we should have we should invest in that company, right?
Like um it's amazing how how well it identified how these votes were going to come out. Um, I I don't see a twothirds vote as being something that's a unique to this regional agreement or something
that's oppressive. I think that when twothirds votes exist in a democratic process, what they're saying is you have to compromise. It is your imperative to compromise because to quote the Rolling Stones, you
can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need, right? The perfect is the enemy of the good. The project that was selected, uh, I want to some given given all of
our schools need, um, renovation. Every single one of them, right? kids would be in here sweating like this if it was a school day today, right? Um, high school, middle school, all given, right? Um,
so I completely support that. Um, what what has concerned me about the project and it's exactly what I talked about before is not the merits, it's the process. Um, I think that we did go through a
long school building committee process that identified four potential options, right? Two of those options weren't actually consistent with the ED plan is what my understanding is. Two of them were um, one of them was a compromise, right?
It also not um considering the cost of updating all of the elementary schools in the district. It also was the one option with the highest price tag. Right? And a year ago I brought to this group there are two people that I have
heard have heard from one a group that is very passionate about small schools and that's not unfounded. If you go back to the 2014 master plan, it says in that document twice in all 300 pages was written by people in this district that
there's compelling evidence that small schools are better than a consolidated school. That plan didn't actually make any recommendations. That was just a given that they wrote into the plan. It's actually a really interesting document that also talks about how the
high school is a problem. Um two, um is the people that are really concerned about their taxes, right? And we do live in a place that's unbelievably high taxes. Um and I think everybody
understands that that that tax is an investment in the community, right? Um if if a year ago we had compromised, we had said there's two options on the table.
one of them is cheaper than the other, we wouldn't be here today because it would have passed, right? How many how many people are really concerned about small schools, right? That would have maintained small schools. And I I understand that the
idea of compromise is anathema to like the political zeitgeist that we live in right now, right? Instead, let's just like double down on our partisan side. But I think that it's really important. The reason that our regional agreement has a twothirds requirement is because
it's saying you have to compromise. And that's what I haven't seen us do despite the fact that I've seen nothing but um goodwill and good intention and concern in every single vote that this group has taken about the well-being of students.
Um, so my my main critique of where we are today is an ethical critique. I do think that we have all said in public on camera, people can go back and
identify it that in order to pass this, it required a twothirds majority. Right? I have also seen that there is a tremendous amount of problems that I've had with the process along the way. Right? the school building committee was not formed properly. I was not happy
with the fact that there weren't more residents on it. Uh I wasn't happy with the fact that this committee didn't dictate how it made decisions, right? Because we never charged that group. Um all of those I think are different ethical considerations than the one
before us because all of those were this is new. It's never been done before in recent memory. Um, and you're bound to make mistakes along the way in terms of process. Um, my my concern with this one
is that it retroactively impairs the credibility of this body as a government entity. We are saying that the the things that we told people in the past are wrong because we choose
to make them wrong today. And that's where I have a really big problem with it, right? Because this is not the last project that has to get funded. I firmly believe there's going to be an override to give everybody the pay that they need. Although I don't think that the
pay got to where everybody um needs it to be. I think that the the community in any other instance would get behind and support teachers for their contracts, which I know we don't know if it's going to be an override next year, but let me just say that's my opinion is that
there's going to be an override next year. We are in the MSBA project or process for the roof for the high school. Right? If you go back to the 2014 report on the high school, the first thing they say is it might be time to build a new high school. There are a lot of projects that was that was 11
years ago that it said you might be time to build a new high school. There are a lot of projects that are going to come forward and I think that if we decide that this is the way forward for the school committee, I think that the school committee is going to have to invoke this same
process every time moving forward. And I just want everybody to be comfortable with that. Um because I I do think that you're going to have a group of people that feel betrayed and I think that they're ethically correct because I think that
law is not ethics. If something is legal, it does not mean it's ethical. I could give you tons of examples of things that have been legal in the United States that are abhorrent. Right? Retrospectively they're abhorrent, but at the time they were legal. The law is
not a bar for what is and is not ethical conduct. This I think the ethics are clear. I think that moving forward violates the integrity of this comm uh this committee um retroactively. We we are all agreeing
that what we told people on camera is false. Right? And I have a problem with that. I have a personal problem with that and I have a problem with it for for this committee. Um but because of that there's there's really not a way that I can support
moving forward. I think that um the the idea that MSBA funding is a one or done is not true. We have seen other communities that have voted down schools and they've
gone back and they're in the MSBA process. Right. So, I think that the the the narrative of, "Oh my gosh, we're going to give up this money." That that was the concern that I brought before this group a year ago, right? That there isn't community support for that. We have scientific evidence for that. And
now we're at a place where we we are changing the rules. And I know, Dana, that we didn't know about this a year ago, but we did know about it before we took it to the net the last school um the last district vote, right? We discussed it in this committee before we went to that meeting which means we all
knew and and everybody in this committee like disavowed it and they're like we didn't ask for that right you can go back and look at the video we didn't ask for it because we didn't right but we did know it before that vote so that is that that is the overarching
concern that I have and the reason why I asked for this vote first because I can't support fracturing the integ integrity of this committee moving forward, right? And at the same time, because I can hold two contradictory things in my head at the
same time, I completely utterly understand that all of our schools need funding. I just think that there has to be a ethical way to do it and I don't think this is it. That's it. [Applause]
Okay. So, is is there We need to be able Excuse me. We need to be able to hear each other. Um, do other people have other discussion? Do people want to ask questions and discuss, rebut,
debate? Um, I have something to say. Did everyone speak? Yes. Yes. Okay. Um, one like Trent, I do share your concerns. Um, but like I said before at the last
vote that was very kind of sim a little bit similar to this one. Um, people have elected us. There was a recent election and the school committee members that were elected are very vocally in support
of this project. Um, and the other the other thing I would say is obviously a majority of people want this school consolidation project, but I think we do have to vote with our conscience. We have to vote on what we think is right and we have to vote on what we think we
were elected to do. And so I'm not challenging you on that. Um, the other thing that I want to discuss is something that David Frankle said, and I think it's a point that I've been hearing a lot is sort of like, well, my family is not going to benefit from this, or I don't have kids in the school
anymore, or, you know, it's like, but what I'm trying what I what I think is and and David, um, I don't mean that you're not thinking about the district as a whole, but we need to get out of this thought of, um, you know, because I don't have kids. My son is going into
fifth grade. He's never, you know, my daughter is in high school. Like there I am personally never going to benefit from this school project. I know there are other school projects, but we need to think about it as who are we as a district. Who are we? What is our vision
for this district? Do we want to move forward? Do we want to be innovative? Do we want to attract and keep the best teachers and the best administrators? or do we want to stay in the past? Do we want to stay in nostalgia? Do we want to keep band-aids and keep patchworking
things? And we're not saying that a vote for elementary school consolidation is a vote against the high school. We're not pitting the schools against each other. You know, it's sort of like when you live in a city, it's like, "Oh, my neighbor's road got paved, so I'm mad my
road didn't get paved." Well, hopefully I live in a town that's going to pave that road, you know, this year and pave my road next year, right? We can't just kind of do tit for tat and um quidd proquo here. We have to really think
about like the district as a whole and the type of town and towns and community that we want to live in. So, that's how I see it. I see it as a bigger picture vision for um attracting families, keeping
teachers, keeping administrators, moving things forward, moving into the future, and um helping the community get on board with some other projects that we might want to invest in potentially in the future. Um looking at the middle school, looking at the high school. I
mean, I don't have I don't have, you know, a crystal ball to say what's going to happen there, but to me, it's sort of one it's it's just really putting a stake in the ground and saying what do we want this community to be and how do
we want to stand up for um our students and you know, sort of who do we want to attract and who what kind of talent do we want to keep here in um our district? And that's couldn't agree more. Um the only thing is we we haven't developed
that picture. We we have a half a picture and and there's no it's impossible to develop the whole picture. We can never see the future. You know what I mean? I don't think that's true. I think that's what strategic planning is all about. And we didn't have a strategic facilities plan. We did it in
2016, but we don't have now. And that's really my complaint. It's not that I don't want to do something with the elementary school. It's that we have failed to do the homework and the planning so that when the taxpayers make their decision
they're making with with the whole picture in mind. Okay. Um do I'm just looking at people. Do people feel like we're ready to move? Are we ready to vote? Does anyone have anything else they want to say?
Just like every vote this evening, this will be a roll call vote. Um, I'm going to start in the room. David Pledo, uh, yes. Amy, yes. Dana is a yes. Jen, yes. Trent, no. Julia,
yes. David, no. The vote is five to two and the motion passes. Okay, David, do you have another motion or we need the I have to take it from the table already. Can you Okay, so
we'll just take it back. We're So, next up is the tabled motion. Um, which if you recall is to direct the superintendent to write a letter requesting an extension to the MSBA.
Um, does anyone have any discussion, questions, comments? seeing none, I'll start on Zoom. David Franco, uh, no. Julia, yes. Trent,
no. Uh, Jen, yes. Dana is yes. Amy's yes. David, yes. Okay. And that motion passes five to two. Okay. Um,
so looking at our agenda, I am mindful of the time and I know that we have certain things on the agenda that really have to occur this evening. So if the committee is willing, I'd like to move on to item D, request for FY26 ESP. Um,
if you guys are okay with that, I'm going to try to get everything done, but I want to do things in a thoughtful manner here. Um, and seeing no objections, I'm going to ask you, Eric, to talk to that. Sure.
I kind of alluded to this a couple meetings back where we were examining some of our moveins and some of our potential changes uh for students who are on IEPs. One of the solutions we are unable to
solve without adding an ESP position is we have a particular move in a student who requires onetoone support based on the IEP that they brought into our district. Um we can we can pay for that position
through IDEIDA grant funding. Um it's just one of the the realities that we this child needs to have a onetoone support while in our schools. So it was a recent move in it was after we cleared the budget and as we went back and forth
and started moving some programs around we were unable to fill this particular point. So I'm requesting a 10 FTE position added to the FY26 budget to be funded by IDA grant funding. Um and this is specifically for next year only.
We'll review it at the end of the year. Okay. Let's um if you're willing, David, let's start off with a motion. Uh sure. I move that the Hamilton Regional School Committee um
accept the request for the FY26 ESP full-time position as presented in tonight's agenda. Second. Second by Amy Kberger. Anybody have any questions? Is there discussion? Okay, looks like we're ready to vote.
I'm going to mix it up. I'm going to start with Trent. Yes. Jen, yes. Dana is a yes. Amy, yes. David, yes. Julia, yes. David Franco, yep. Okay. And that is unanimous and the
motion passes. Excuse me. Thank you, Eric. Um, all right. Uh, do we want to do the bus contract? All right. How do we all feel about talking about the bus contract next? I'm
mixing things up. I'm just trying to make sure we get through everything. Um, that really that needs to be discussed this evening. Are we all good with that, Julia? David? Well, that means we would be moving to item 8A, award student transportation
contract to you, Vinnie. Sorry to spring that on you. Sorry, I couldn't hear that. Julian David, can you still see my screen? What happened to them? They're here.
Okay. All right. Computer's about to die. I don't want to risk it. Oh, good. Mosquitoes. Yeah. Isn't it? That's what I thought. That makes this even better. It's like tropical. Fully tropical. Fantastic. Thought we needed something challenging tonight, so I invited them
in. Mosquitoes. Perfect. Air feels good, though. It's fine. Sure. None of us are sweaty so they won't be attracted to her. Yeah. Turn on a hard time.
When you get on the bike, right? Yeah. What's wrong with that? Who is speaking to this? So, thank you guys for letting me present to you tonight. Uh we are here to review the results of our invitation
for bid for our student transportation contract that'll get us through uh either the next three years or almost the next decade depending on which uh direction you choose. Turn this on. I'm sorry.
Uh so just to kind of level set where we are uh as of those of you who are here on the committee uh back in November or December of 2024 uh the school district submitted a request for a grant award from the US uh
department of EPA on January 6th uh 2025. The district was notified that they were awarded a roughly $5 million grant under the EPA's clean heavy duty vehicles program to
help electrify our transportation fleet. Uh but we don't actually have our own transportation fleet. We contract that out. Uh so on May 12th uh 2025 I issued an invitation for bid uh to procure the
I school bus transportation services. Uh those bids were due on June 3rd and we've obviously received those results. Um we tried to make the invitation for bid uh go both ways to give the school committee a choice on which direction
they wanted to go. Uh because obviously this is new to us electrifying our fleet. We really had no idea what these prices were going to come in at. So, we kind of I worked with our attorneys to structure the invitation uh to bid to have you have your choice on which way
you'd like to proceed. Uh so, interested companies could submit a bid for either alternate A or alternate B or both. Alternate A is our normal uh course of doing business. It's our three-year diesel bus contract. This is what we've
done historically for roughly the past 30 years. Uh or they could submit on alternate B which was a new option for us. It is a 8-year with two single individual uh options to extend the
contract for a total maximum contract term of eight years uh which would provide electrical buses uh to transport our students. uh within it, as I had mentioned, we tried to reserve uh the right to the school committee to award the contract
to either alternate A or alternate B uh whichever you guys deemed to be in the best interest of the school district. Uh we did receive bids from two companies. Uh one company submitted only a bid for alternate B while the other company submitted uh both al alternate A and
alternate B. Uh so in terms of alternate a our diesel buses again the regular course uh of how we do business our lowest our only bidder sorry was transportation who we have done uh business with for quite some time. Their
total three-year uh contract term came in at just over uh 3.3 million. Uh Salter Transportation Inc. has provided school transportation services for uh approximately 70 years. They have a long-standing relationship with the
district. Uh we've used them uh for over 25 years. I couldn't narrow down exactly how long we've used them as uh most people that have been around back then are no longer with the district are no longer with Salter. So no one could really answer how long we've been with them. Uh I had documentation back about
25 years and it's been Salter for uh that time. They know our roots. We know they have the staffing and they know they have uh all the buses. they would stay the same. Uh the company already owns and operates uh the number of buses
we require. They already have the land uh and the infrastructure to maintain uh the diesel bus fleet. The the result of the bid is an increase of approximately 3% over our current contract and then 3% every year after
that. Uh so in other words, it's 9% over three years uh for all Um Vinnie, a quick question. Historically, um my understanding was that their their three-year kind of percentage increases
was quite a bit higher than that. Uh yes, if you rewind back three years ago, there was a drastic increase in gas prices back then. We almost hit $4 a gallon. Uh so the last contract came in well over uh 3% increase, but gas prices
aren't nearly as high as they were uh when that happened. Does that answer your question? Yeah, it's kind of if that was the major variable. Yeah, that does. Uh the last time we went out to bid, correct? That was the major variable back then, which is what caused the
prices to jump uh so much last time around. Right. Okay. Sorry, keep going. It's okay. Yep. Uh so, uh alternate B, we received two bids. Uh the lower bidd
uh was Dar's garage. Their total 10-year contract came in at for 14.3 million. Uh whereas Salter Transportation for Alternate B came in at 16.3 million for the total 10-year term.
Yep. Does that include subtracting out the money from the feds? That is correct. Okay. That's the That's our out of pocket. Correct. Right. I just want to make because I wanted to make I wanted to double check that too. That is in other words, assuming they get the $5
million, this 14 million really is 19 million. Uh, no, it's 20. They get the 14 million from us and in addition, they get the $5 million. Yes. I just wasn't adding all the extra. Yes.
So for the 10-year term for Dardies, it would be more like the a 19.3 they would receive from us. Uh five coming y through a pass through and 14 from us. Okay. So Dardies Garage, Inc.
uh was founded in 1905. They currently operate out of Lincoln, Massachusetts uh as a service and repair shop. They also have gasoline pumps. They do bus uh transportation for uh the Lincoln school district as well as a lot of private schools in the area and they also run a
uh rubbish trash removal company. Uh their 10-year electric bid uh DY did provide a lot of third-party uh letters promising uh sufficient inventory of diesel buses because of course we're not going to have fully electric vehicles in
the first year of the contract. Uh so they would uh initially have to come in with some diesel buses as we transition to the electrical. Uh in addition, they do have uh letters uh from other vendors promising to lease land from them and
help them build out the infrastructure uh and maintain and repair and service the electric vehicles. Uh so I do have a recommendation tonight that has uh changed a little bit since we presented to this, but I'm going to move forward and then explain that. Uh
so the recommendation at the time is to stick with Salter transportation and stick with our three-year uh diesel bus bid. Uh how I looked at it was in terms of dollars act obviously for the three-year electrical bus contract with DY. Again, that's the first three years
of the 10-year contract. Uh those first three years came in at 3.5 million. Uh when you look at Salter transportation three-year buses, those came in at 3.3 million. Uh so ultimately the EV cost to
us is over those three years is $238,000 more to go with electric even though we received the $5 million uh dollar EPA grant. Uh so how I looked at it uh we already built our FY26 budget that we
passed last year. I'm looking forward to the year after that. I'm always looking one year ahead looking at our 27 budget. Our 27 budget underter would come in at just over 1.1 million whereas Dardies would come in at just under 1.8 million.
Uh that difference is roughly $79,000 which if you look at our teachers contract that's pretty much exactly what we pay a master step five teacher. A master step five is really where we kind of benchmark our new hires. It's where we put in our budget placeholders uh
when we have vacant positions. So, how I looked at it is next year when we go to build our 207 budget, uh, as you remember during 26, we used approximately $2.1 million, uh, in END to supplement the budget. Um, we have to
bridge that gap in 27 when we go to build our next budget. I don't think we will have to bridge the whole 2 million. Uh, but this kind of amplifies the problem. I looked at it as this is one more additional staff member that we're going to have to review and we're going to have to find whether or not we can
come up with the funds or whe whether we will have to do uh something different to try to cut costs uh to either pay for the transportation or pay for um that step five teacher. Uh, one thing that has come up since I posted this
presentation is Dard's Garage has made some advancements uh, in their leasing process because again um, other than the finances, they don't currently own the buses. They don't currently have 17 staff members on duty to drive the
buses. Uh, excuse me. So, I do have some concerns about how the beginning of the school year would go, how the transportation is ultimately going to roll out with a new company uh that is going to have to acquire all of these things within the next two months before we start
transporting students on September 1. Uh so, in addition to the finances, I do have concerns about how the process will uh roll out in September. uh as you guys uh just discussed in September, uh we might be uh in another political uh
contentious environment with the new school building vote. Uh this would kind of go head-on right into that. We might have transportation issues uh in September. Uh so just from my point of view uh I would stick with Salter as it is risky but I would like to say um that
DY has offered to lower their price in the beginning of the three years to reduce that amount below the diesel price. Uh so they did offer to reduce the first three years of the contract by $90,000. That would ultimately drop them
below in the first three years. I've also uh made contact with a lot of their third-party um vendors who have promised to uh lease them land and supply the buses. I am confident that they will supply them the
buses and they will um lease them the land. However, it's not guaranteed. They still have to procure it all. They still have to make uh deals and arrangements with these people. Uh things could happen between now and then. Um, just me personally, I wouldn't be willing to
take that risk at the be at this time and at the beginning of the school year, but I would just like to say this is your decision. Uh, if EV is the way you guys want to go, uh, you have every right. This is just my recommendation. My feelings will not be hurt. I am all for uh, EV. I am just a little nervous
on the price, but that has been kind of settled with uh, recent recent talks with Darity. Um, but ultimately it is your decision. I do have a motion awarding it to Salter, but I we can obviously uh you have the right to change that if you like and I can try to answer any questions. I'd just like to
end with um this is a very confusing bid and there was a lot of back and forth with the attorneys. Hopefully I can answer your questions if you have them. Thank you for that question. What's the 10 year I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Go
ahead. I I wanted to get the comparison of the diesel for 10 years. versus the electric for 10 years. So, we only went out for three years for diesel. So, we do not have prices for 10 years on diesel. Um, only extrapolating it based
on the prices, you know, you're looking at anywhere from $700 to a million dollars more for uh the electric. And that is only a guess. Again, we do not have prices beyond year three for diesel. And that could change greatly depending on Salta
doesn't once Salt doesn't have the electric bus competition that they will jack up their prices at a higher pace after the three years. So that's why I was I was hoping that we would have an apples for apples 10 year versus 10ear
deal to compare. Uh we do not. We only ask for a three-year price for diesel. Uh, you only authorize me to go to 10 years on the electric. Would Salt be prepared to bid a 10-year
bid? I can't answer that question for Salter. Uh, we could certainly do that, but you would be putting us behind uh months. At that point, my guess would be Dary uh might not be willing to hold off that long. They have to have everything uh
ready to go by July 1. So you are jeopardizing our other bidder. But I can't speak on that behalf. Can I say can't we just sort because we know salter it's like a 3% increase I
think totally normal every year. Right. Correct. 3%. So, couldn't we maybe kind of I mean, we would be making this up, but estimate 3% 3% 3% 3% into 10 years.
So, we could if we wanted to if they're willing to freeze the rate at that that's true. We would be completely making that up. But I'm only guessing, but I would assume that Salter would raise their price drastically because
they have to assume gas prices for the next 10 years. And without that assumption, they're probably just going to, you know, put a multiplier on it. Right. I I'm not sure if this is what but Jul I'm not sure Julia what you were asking but I mean were you saying like we could
hypothetically try to extrapolate that in three years we would get another bid another contract and those would be also 3% 3% is that what you're saying Julia me I was well I was saying if you want to
estimate the cost because what this said that salter is pretty steady in it's a 3% it's been a 3% % increase year-over-year. Am I mistaken? I've got to look back at the slides. Um, but that's the only way
we could maybe estimate it, but it's impossible. I mean, to extrapolate that for 10 years, but we could maybe think about a ballpark in that way. But also, if we don't have a bit official bid from a vendor, I'd be
hesitant to do that. Yeah. Well, it's also not just a financial decision that there is a um as I g significant obviously a significant reduction in emissions um that does affect the health of some students particularly those that
are more sensitive to that kind of um emission particular um and um and noise. Correct. Those are all great things that we would gain by going EV. That's that's why it's really you guys' decision on
which way you want to you want to go. Um so I actually tried to quantify those costs. So I went to the Harvard uh found a couple of articles out of the um Harvard School of Public Health and per
year the savings in health benefits is a little over 200,000 207,000 for how many? Um per what? like so an electric one and health benefits per
bus per bus and then an additional $40,400 in climate benefits just due to the reduced carbon footprint. It's interesting. Yeah, but that doesn't affect our budget.
But we live in the world, right? Yeah. So, can I ask a I know we've been we have been through this. No, no, no. We've been through this and I and I tried to really make sure I understand that like how many buses how many electric buses
are being are put in use year one. How many electric buses are because I did there was a chart somewhere in there. I didn't see that. Uh so there's a requirement that they have them all by year the end of year two. Okay. Okay. Because year one in both of these cases in year one
they're using mostly diesel buses until they get the first electric bus. Correct. Uh correct. There has been some uh advancements with DY since then. They may have had um
a different client fall through. So they might be able to roll out EV buses quicker than originally planned. But again, I wouldn't But and same with Salter. They have to acquire these. Correct. Correct. Yep. They would basically pass Yeah. the grant to them
with the grant. I've got it about the grant. It's just timing. They take each about three months. If you were to buy, you know, I need 16 buses. they they go out about three months because there are other it's pretty the competition's pretty high across the and when because
I I if I read the grant correctly when whichever when you receive a new electric bus the company would be required to decommission diesel bus correct correct my understanding if I'm
not wrong is that they just they don't they like destroy the bus. They don't that bus doesn't go to some other You destroy the bus. It's taken offline. Kind of hard for me to something we have to bring back to the state to show proof
that that bus was decommissioned completely as part of the grant. Question. Yeah. If the grant is withdrawn, right, what do our numbers look like? Right. I have that same question. Uh meaning on the
are these like Is this a commitment from Dohy that irrespective of whether or not EPA honors the $5 million, if that grant goes away, we will have to cancel the contract, but there will be there will
have to be stipulations in the contract that we develop with that and then we would be without a contract potentially at any point in time in the middle. We would then have to rebid the contract for diesel. Okay, I had the same question. There is
a lot of risk for Dardy in this. Um, it all obviously even if we choose this way, it still depends on whether we have a executed contract. Um, our attorneys are still developing that contract to give us certain protections. They could not like those.
Yeah. I I I Well, go ahead. No, no. I It is a tough decision. It's a very tough decision. And I actually I'm I'm It doesn't matter because it's not what happened. But I I'm questioning how I would have felt if Salter had come in with the low electric bid
because I feel like it's really hard. It's a big risk. This is a big risk for everyone. And I'm nervous about like it could be great like I am concerned and have been concerned about
the I think someone from the public mentioned about you know that Salter is typically the only bid we get or you know and I am concerned about that and I'm encouraged that's another company like that's I think that's good
at the same time it's a big risk for everyone. I like I guess I I really want to try the electric buses, but I'm really nervous about taking a risk on the grant at the same time as on a new
somewhat smaller I guess company and to transport point like there's just every company has to start somewhere even salter right no I right I'm so I guess I'm just but I mean it sounds like even if the EV
funding falls true that Doerty can provide us with diesel buses because they're going to have to until we can get the electric buses. Is that is that something that we can put in a contract and write in? Well, they have to provide diesel right off
the bat. Even there might be some electrical mixed in there to start, but at a minimum they have to have diesel. They have to have seven 16 buses for us. So, it's it's not like the EPA money might fall through and we're
stuck without any buses at all. Can still provide diesel. I I guess I'm just saying I feel like there's a lot of and I I'm very torn because of course I don't know anything about Doh's garage and I'm not trying to like like I I'm
just worried about there's a lot of unknowns here. It seems like they're they have to go out and acquire both diesel some diesel and some electric buses I guess it just there is members struggling at the same
time team in the audience but what there is members of their team in the audience I don't know if that matters to you guys well I I feel like I wish I had known that in advance because I would have wanted to of opportunities for
both committees both. Yeah, I I don't disagree. But again, I you can always someone else can outvote me on that. Um All right. Other people should talk. I'm David. Quick question. Yeah. How you
probably don't know these numbers off the top of your head, so I'm going to apologize in advance for putting you on the spot. In the past 10 years, how many years has Salter actually given us just a 3% increase? Like that seems like something I would have prayed for on the finance committee. Um, probably I would,
if I had to take a guess, like six out of 12 years, half half the time, 50%. I don't quote I'd have to definitely look at that. I I know you don't have the numbers off off the top of your head, but like it's it's not unusual for them
to go above 3% and sometimes even substantially above 3% if I remember correctly. It's not. It really has to do with what the gas prices are when we go out to bid. I don't know how relevant this is, but I also get emails on a daily basis about
how the school buses are not running on time. Um, that's not a daily basis. I'm sorry. Sorry. I'm sticking up I'm sticking up for Salter. I love them. They've taken my kids to and from school for like a ton of years and I think
they're wonderful. I think it's it's more like I mean like there's always going to be hiccups. I definitely don't see it as a daily basis, but we can agree to disagree. Email. I get different different people are
expressing different opinions on that. Did you have something? Oh, yeah. I mean I I I mean I have a a thought I just want to put out there because I I need sort of help from you guys with that. Right. It is
it's it's I think we're we're sitting here and we have we have to look sort of where we want our district to go, right? and how we all would really love to see these electric buses go and take advantage of this grant. Excuse me. Um, you know, but on the other, you know, on
the flip side and sort of what I was sort of getting at earlier too is like, you know, knowing that it's more expensive. It's a little tough writing another open check. It just seems like there's a there's a few open checks that's floating around there right now.
Um, you know, however, I also think, you know, to go back and and I'm sorry if I'm rambling a little bit. I'm really am trying to figure this out as I go. um you know, I I think we're as a as a
school committee, we're we're we're really doing a good job of having a vision for our district and saying we're willing to support it financially or put it to the towns financially to support, right? in in
that we believe in it. whether it's, you know, the teachers contracts, whether it's, you know, um building a new school and, you know, moving to um take advantage of this, you know, grant and and try to move to
cleaner busing, right? So, so, so, so there there's a really strong part of me that's like, you know, let's let's hop on it, you know, and and it's something that we, and I don't mean to speak for anybody here, like I said, I'm really trying to collect my thoughts out loud.
Excuse me. But I think it's important for us to sort of, you know, say stick to our guns and say, "Hey, you know what? We do believe in this. We do want to see this happen in our future even though it's more expensive." Vinnie's doing his job by telling us
what makes more financial sense and if you know he's he's going to jump over the podium and attack me at some point soon because you know over the past year it seems that I've sort of pushed him you know um push back a little bit on
his recommendations um in that sense but I'm having a tough time here because just as volatile as the, you know, gas prices are which dictate you, you know, diesel prices that dictate this this one
contract. So is this very very very important $5 million grant, you know, that this all hinges on, right? And then I and and so that's where where I'm sort of having this moral sort of argument in
my head, moral, ethical, but logical, whatever whatever it may be that, you know, um I'm hoping I'm really looking to you guys to sort of try and help me because I can I I have very good reasons why I would vote for both. Yeah. You
know, and and and and you know, so that there is a bit of just financial security and just knowing that we're locked up for another three years and it's one less thing to worry about. But then there's this other just more um
you know I don't know what's the word I'm looking for like just theoretical or vision where I see our district where I really would like to be you know with with moving towards you know cleaner busing and excuse me and there's definitely some you know some support to
that too and um so that that that's where I am and sorry if I thank you for letting me ramble there for for a couple minutes, but um it's it's helped me a little to try and try and organize my thoughts. So, I'm curious to see what you guys I think you bring up some
excellent points, which is, you know, change is always hard, right? It's generally expensive. Um it already is saying we're going to we're going to make it whole based upon our estimate, right? Um which is pretty
amazing. um we are making the assumption that oil is safe and we have that same assumption in lots of places in the school district and so this would be diversifying that portfolio in terms of where we get energy for one of our main
um entities right um it would also be not turning away money that exists right and I think that for me it just needs the backs stop of if the money goes away, we still have diesel buses
and the cost is still the same, right? If that if that is if that exists, then I don't see I don't see the risk. I think there's lots of unknowns. Yeah, I was going to say I still see some that's the bigger risk.
I I do still see some risk about and again this isn't I know that this isn't necessarily fair to do but I I wish that we like I wish that some of our neighbors were using you know using doories and we had evidence about how
because to your point like it is important that the bus they know the bus routes that they have the drivers and like I'm a little bit worried about them Like I and I'm not it's I get that that's I'm a little concerned about
their ability to ramp up and make sure they have all the buses, they have the drivers, they know the routes that like and I hear your point that you're not pleased with the way Salter is doing the routes and I also heard Julia's point that she is happy with Salter. But
I guess I just feel like there's a lot of uncertainty around the electric bids. Not through any fault of either of these companies, just there's a lot of uncertainty. I think that the other
thing that we haven't discussed is that the there are lots of reasons to make the change, right? One of them is that diesel exhaust is toxic. It's one of the most toxic substances that we expose ourselves to every single day, right? Um
the the evidence is really incontrovertible. Um and that's not something to not consider, particularly because we line up these buses out in front of schools and then move all of our kids in and out
of them. Um which is essentially exposing the most vulnerable. But if the EPA money goes away, we're we're we're doing that anyway. Um, can I ask a like a a little bit of a tangent question, but I did a lot of how
does Highland fit into this because I got online and I was they supply the I think that was on the Doerty website maybe or somewhere. They help with the uh electrical infrastructure. Do they get charging and both? They
would help both of these people get the electrical infrastructure. They could they could help Salter, but I don't know how Salter do it. They didn't tell us that. Only Dy uh told us how they would do it. So, Highland would assist Dar
with the building of the infrastructure and that's what they do. Highland. Highland. All right. Is there do other people have other discussion? I have a question that might be answered within this very
comprehensive document, but um battery replacement would be the expense of the owner of the contract. Correct. That's expensive. Um, okay. So, we don't have a motion on
the table right now. Does anyone want Oh, well, does anyone Does anyone want to make a motion? I move that we accept the Doerty contract for the 10-year electric vehicle buses. Second.
Um, okay. So, we had a motion and a second to accept the Doherty contract, which I am is the alternate B electric buses 10-year contract. Uh, 8 plus individual options. So, I'm sorry. Might
not necessarily go to 10, but I know. What was that? Gosh, just laughing at everyone. Just everyone is so like bug hit the side of my head. Completely annihilated by mosquitoes. There's a lot of mosquitoes up here. Um, okay. Is there do people want to continue to discuss? Do people have
things to say? I can sense that no one is actually ready to vote, but but I don't know that anyone has more to say. In a very busy night, who knew this would be the toughest decision? I actually sort of
thought this was I' been um Okay, it looks like we're ready to vote. I'm gonna start with Jen. Yes. Uh oh. Me? Um
no. Amy, I'm a yes. David, yes. Uh, Julia. No. David Franco. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Uh,
Trent, I was like, I missed somebody. I'm sorry. What did you say? Yes. Okay. Um, and so the motion passes 5 to two. Welcome EV. Welcome to the EV world. All
right. Electric buses, here we come. I think I think this is a really good move for the district. I I I really do. It's for mother nature. Um, thank you all for that. Um, and to both like Amy
mentioned, very comprehensive, complicated contract bids. Thank you for that. Um, can I actually just suggest and maybe this not was in the time but with some people in the room that maybe we invite the guys from Door back at some point further along to sort of try
and help us get a better understanding of, you know, this whole process and Sure. I don't know exactly when or what that looks like, but me neither, but it just seems like something I want to know in the future. Seems like um that was Yeah. Um, again, I
just uh did appreciate they came up. I didn't let them speak just because we don't let people speak unless we know that they're coming. We'll start getting a lot of emails and calls from other school committees asking us. Yeah. Okay. Become the res. All right. So, it sounds like we've got a committee member that
would like that on a future agenda. Yeah, I'll bring that up later. Um, could be virtual you. So, Okay. Okay. Yep. All right. Thank you. Um, okay. So, just so you're paying attention, we're going very out of order
on our agenda. It is 9:57 p.m. Um, we have I do really need to talk about the school committee open seat procedures and timing. So, does anyone have a motion for me regarding
the fact that it's 9:58 p.m.? I move that we extend the Hamilton Wenham Regional School Committee meeting until 10:30 and then re-evaluate. Do I have a second? Second. Second.
Regretful second by Amy. Um Trent, yes. Jen, yes. David Frankle, I suppose yes. We'll get along with it. Julia, yes. S yes. Yes. Amy, yes. Okay.
Okay. And the motion passes. Um, okay. So, item number 7F, school committee open seat procedures and timing. Um, so you'll see that there is a um
exhibit there. That is just the standard language that we've used before um to um put out to the public to request letters of interest for the open seat um because Trent is moving and departing the
committee. So, we'll have an open seat. You just he just left. Um so, um we've done this before. I've consulted already with the Hamilton Select Board. Um they have agreed and we've done uh everyone
has this committee has agreed that that date works for them that we're going to have a Hamilton Select Board joint meeting on Monday, July 21st, 2025. Um I am still working with them to see whether they want to meet at their usual 7 p.m. time or whether they want to start a little
bit early at 6:30. I'm working to confirm that. Um but please pencil that in on your calendars. Um basically members of the public should know that um they can send letters of interest um uh to the committee. Um it goes to our
executive secretary um Janelle Powers. Um the process is that we would interview all the candidates jointly with the select board. Um it um I you all have this document which is why I
felt comfortable resending it to you. somewhere in your files, you have the document from 2023, but I resent it to you today, which was basically the um questions that we used. Um I'm going to just pull it up. Questions that we used
last time. I say that, but now I have so many things up. Here it is. Um I sent that all to you today. Um, I don't know if you have that, Eric, if you can put it up in um, but basically these are the
potential inter interview questions that we used last time. Um, this is just me talking. If anyone wants to do something different, you just let me know. But last time there were two questions that were asked by the select board. One was
about budget and one was about communication. Um and then the rest of the questions were composed by members of the school committee. My thought is that perhaps if you guys are comfortable with
that, we just ask them the select board to do that. Not that they have to ask the same question, but that they Oh, here. Thank you, Eric. So, here's the these are the um questions that we used last time. Um those number four and number five. Can
you make it bigger? number four and number five um were asked by the select board last time. Um again, we're all sitting together. It doesn't really matter who asks the question. Um but um they actually
like that one that's in italics. That's because that was kind of a draft and then the select board edited it. But that was basically their question. So thoughts Well, it worked well last time. We got a great candidate, some great candidates.
So, let's stick with this list. Okay. The only thing I had that I wondered about whether people think is that when we did this last time that we were appointing Trent in December and so I feel like the committee felt like it was really important to find out whether the
candidate intended to run because that was we you know Trent didn't really start I think until January and then the term ended in April. So that felt really important. I just want to ask the committee whether you feel like that question is still really important given that the person would be starting at the
beginning of the year and not up for election until April. I just want to put that out there. I could either go either way. You mean the budget season? Pardon me. Say that again. You're talking about number four. Uh number three in April.
It's Oh, number three. Okay. Yeah. Um yeah, I don't think Yeah, go ahead. I don't think that's I mean relevant necessarily, but I would I would ask them if they do have any intention to run in the next cycle.
Any other feedback on that? Um again, I wasn't saying it wasn't. I just was noting that it was a different it was fairly different situation because the member would be starting at, you know, a different time of year, right? Um, and that was at the
beginning of a term, too. Yeah. Right. There's the year, right? Well, and this this um right the it's always the case that if you're appointed during the year that you would need to run in April, but in this case, it's also the end of the
term anyway. So, this it's the person is if they were to run again, they would just be running for a normal three-year term. It would have been the end of Trent's term anyway. So, oh, okay, cool. Um, so there won't be any of that like
running for one more year or any of that. It's just a regular um, so I guess what I'm asking is, do we like these questions? Are we comfortable just keeping these? Are we comfortable
asking the select board to ask those questions similar questions to they did last time? Yes. Do we I like these questions. I think they're I think they're very comprehensive. I like them. Okay.
Anybody have any other things? Do we need a motion on it or do we feel like I don't think I don't feel like we need a motion? All right. I will continue forward getting the date from the select board. I mean getting excuse me getting
confirming the time start time of the meeting from the select board. Um and then I will chat with the chair of the select board about those number four and number five about whether they want to ask those some version of those questions and we will do it. Just so
everyone knows um the process is very public. Um members have to vote publicly in front of the candidates. It's uncomfortable. Um but that's what we'll get done. Okay. Anybody have anything else on this item?
Are we done? Okay, I'm crossing off, so tell me if I'm missing anything. So, next up, the only thing left under new business is a vote on the superintendent evaluation, which is a very important thing that we
are required to do annually. uh David and Amy. Um I I'll just say that after going through all of this, Amy actually helped um volunteered to um take it over and
help um neaten everything up and and get everything all set to present out to you guys, which I really appreciate very much. So, I'll just hand it over to you at this point. Um, I just want to start off by saying that
something was up with the PDF, which we kind of suspected. So, I I went through You were not wrong. You were not wrong with the PDF. Um, I've been working with PDFs for 25 years. As have I. As have you. And what was just as
like a little thing that was happening was like you would put your cursor in on page 12 and it would fill in what was on page two. So I it was hard to get everybody's actual feedback. As soon as you touched the page, it would give you
the first set's feedback. So I just have just feel vindicated. Yeah, you're you're right. So I went really old school. Um Janelle had scanned in all the originals. Um I printed everything
out, got out a pencil um for the There's parts of this evaluation that are scores basically and that was one of the things that was affected on the PDF that we were working with. So I tallied them
all by hand. Um, so David, you did a lot of work as far as like compiling comments. I just kind of added to what you had done and very manually pulled out a lot of comments from other
people's documents. Um, so that being said, I guess a question I have is should I go through this as if this is the first time we're seeing it or Has everyone had a chance to look and we can
answer questions? Let's ask the committee. Does the committee what what is the committee want to have happen here super quickly? Do we want to read this in detail as is our normal policy or do people feel like they've had
sufficient time to review it or what are we looking for? Nothing very late. I think we can vote on it. That's just me. I didn't hear what David said. move that we vote on it. Can I make a motion or no? He said that it's getting pretty late. Is the motion already on the
table? No, I just wanted to make sure I David, what did you say? Did you say it's getting late? Yeah, it seems late and we Okay, just No, I just make I'm just making sure that that's what you said. It's too air conditioning where you are, David. We'll trade you. Yeah. Do you have
mosquitoes where you are? Got it all here. Um, I'm sorry, Julia. It sounded like you were saying something. Oh, I said I I think we can I know I can vote on this, so I'm but I can't speak
for every everyone else, but I could make a motion that we can vote on it. I think you should do that to accept it. The motion. Okay. I move that we accept accept I move that we accept the
summitative evaluation report of the superintendent as presented. Second second by everyone in the room. No, I'll give it to Trent. Um okay. I think that's my first one.
This first second for a second tonight. All right. Uh, do does anyone have any questions? No, I again I just wanted to thank Amy for for taking that over and I apologize to everybody and you, Eric, that there
was this problem that just sort of made it a lot longer of a process than it should have been. So, apologize to everybody. It's a good team effort. Yeah, I I want to thank both of you for fighting with that and um we will
be wary of that ahead of next year. Have ideas for Yeah, I was going to say I do too. Um okay. Does anyone have any questions or comment regarding the content of the document? Okay. All right. Looks like we are ready to
vote. Everyone's clear on what the the motion is? Yes. Um Eric, did you want to comment or anything? Everyone's all set. Okay, everyone is hot. Um all right. Um Julia,
yes. David Franco, yes. Trent, yes. Jen, yes. Dana's a yes. Amy, yes. David, yes. All right. And that is unanimous and the motion passes.
Yay. Wow. Okay. Um All right. On to committee reports. Capital finance. Uh we haven't met since and um since trends leaving will be down an individual. Okay. Um Okay. That's important to note.
All right. We'll need to address that. Yep. Um policy. You look like you have a first reading there. Yes. [Laughter] Okay. Sorry, I have melted.
Yes. This is something that we have reviewed and would like to put. Do you want to I had a quick question, but you can say something. Yeah. So, this is supposed to be reviewed every two years. Thank you. the wellness committee came together this year um dug into it did
did an update uh gosh it was first update was a while back and we haven't you know policy hasn't met for a little while so it's should have been few months ago but it's fine we're still on our schedule so the changes are in
red we left them on the first reading as we always do um the committee itself the wellness committee updated this document So that was my question, Eric. Is it this language this what I'm looking at the about the school counselors? Yep.
Did the wellness committee craft that language or does this language come from you know Desi or somewhere? So the the the statement itself it it was um my understanding it was pulled from
the director of count school counseling who helped to get the information together along with members of the committee. Okay. All right. Other questions? All right. So we would expect this to come back for a vote the next meeting.
Next meeting. Y Okay. All right. Questions? Sounds like we're moving on. Uh, negotiations. Don't think we have I don't have anything on the schedule. I know there's something that we do need to discuss at some point. Y
regional agreement. Yeah. Well, in Nick leaving Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Um, okay. Um, secretary report. I don't think we have one. Yeah, I've got nothing. Um, superintendent's report. Quick and
dirty. Thanks everybody for an amazing school year. I uh just finished my own my 34th year, my 12th in the district. So, it's been uh great to see the growth and things that we've been able to accomplish together and I look forward to another year of really digging in and
and um making positive change for our students, our families, our staff, and our communities. Continue moving forward the way we've had. So, thank you all for your work and thank you to the communities and all the people who are in our buildings every day sweating like
this. Thank you. Like this. Thank you. Questions for superintendent? Um, okay. I am also melting. But the cherry report I did want to ask Amy, do we have a retreat date? Oh, um, I think we do. Sent the two dates that had the
most consensus to Janelle. It was the August 12th and 13th. Is that correct? Yes. Eric, did we pick one that we thought wanted to offer to the committee or I think we're leaning into the 12th. To the 12th. Okay. So, the 12th. August 12th. Pencil that
in. Try. You coming back for that? Yeah. Oh, we'll try hopefully. Um, August 12th. Okay. I'm gonna just What? Sorry, I didn't hear proper. What? What is on August 12th?
School committee retreat. The retreat is August 12th. The retreat. Okay. Yeah, August 12th. Okay. Excellent. Um I am too melted to say much more. Um I do want to say thank
you and goodbye to Trent. We will miss you. Um and we wish you all the best. And um what a meeting go out on. Wow. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. You all right? Um topic for future
meetings, anyone? I heard one already which was uh sort of electric. Yeah. Now that we're in it, let's Yeah. And then we need new capital finance member and Yeah. the capital finance
member. Well, right. I mean when we get a new member we will discuss the committees in general but we definitely need one so we'll discuss that. Okay. Um looking at you David Franco. Uh I would like to move that we adjourn.
Second 16. 16. All right. It's a roll call vote. Julia. Yes. Yes. Yes. David Frinkle. Oh. Yes. Trent. Yes, Jen. Yes, Dana's.
Yes, Amy. Yes, David. Yes. And we are journ