there's so many wires at my feet right now something's going to get unplugged sorry all right good evening good evening all right can everyone hear me we'll talk about it
[Music] um All right good evening at this moment I call to order the uh meeting of the Hamilton and Regional School Committee on Thursday April 17th 2025 at 7:01 p.m um and I will remind you that this
meeting is um being recorded and livereamed on HWC and I will begin by inviting you to join us in the pledge of allegiance i aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay um so uh first off on the agenda
um we have you will see it is the reorganization and tabulation of the election results um I am going to read the results um of our recent most recent
election um so David Frankle received a total of 1,739 votes amy Kunberger received a total of
1,684 votes david Paleo received a total of 1,722 votes courtney Ashwood received a total of 1,179 votes jeffrey Austin received a total of
1,26 votes um there were 36 rightin votes um and so the top there were three um positions up for election and the three um top vote getters were David
Frankle Amy Kunberger and David Fledo congratulations to the three of you thank you congratulations i have uh spoken with or heard from um all of you and the town clerks that you're um all properly sworn in and ready to go thank
you all very much for getting that done um and so welcome back to the committee thank you um all right uh next Oh first Julia can you hear us okay
you muted Julia um yes I can hear you good great and we can hear you um so we do have one mo member who's participating remotely so we will be doing uh any votes will need to be a roll call vote um okay next up on the
agenda are citizens comments um the way that our citizens comments work here at school committee is that this is an opportunity um for any citizen who has um something that they would like for the committee to hear and the public to
hear um as long as it's within the purview of the school committee um we give each citizen three minutes we ask you to keep your comments to three minutes um we will take comments both from people on Zoom as well as from
people in the room um if you do choose to make a comment I'll ask you um to first state your name and please spell your last name so that we get it um correct for the minutes um I will ask that we have a timer amy would you be
willing to be our timer um Amy will let you know when you have about 30 seconds left and the um that's really just a reminder so that you can make sure to wrap up at the three minute mark um we do look like we have quite a few people here in the room and maybe a couple a
few maybe on Zoom um what I will just look to the committee usually we'll go till about 7:20 or 7:25 and at that point I'm going to take a pause we'll check in with the committee we'll see where we are um and see whether we feel
like we've wrapped up comments at that point okay um I think I covered it um we'll start in the room if you're interested in making a public comment I'd ask you to approach the podium good evening how you doing jeff Austin Hamilton Mass good evening everyone
first I'd like to offer my sincere congratulations to those reelected to serve on the school committee public service demands time energy and dedication and I respect the commitment it takes to step up and lead in this way although I was not elected to the seat this time my engagement with the district will not end here i remain fully committed to advocating for what
is best interest of the students and the equally important what is in best interest of the towns of Hamilton and Winnham from the sidelines i will continue to challenge the committee to do better to be more transparent more accountable to the public and more balanced in its approach to both educational quality and fiscal
responsibility one area that must be examined with more clarity and courage is the committee's role in managing the district's leadership leadership demands oversight and it's essential that our elected officials recognize that when a district's direction may not align to what is truly best for the children or
the community is meant to be served aspirations must be grounded in the reality of what the community can support financially logistically and educationally i must ask why for the past three to six months has the superintendent repeatedly stated both in public meetings and in communications
that the MSBA would not fund renovation projects and yet when directly questioned at town meeting he finally acknowledged that this a revised education plan in a new statement of interest the MSA MSBA would in fact consider supporting renovations why is this not communicated to public from the
start why present renovations as a non-option when that was clearly not the case residents deserve full transparent information to make informed decisions not selective messaging that serves the predetermined outcome the town meeting the recent town meetings sent a clear
message residents have expressed a desire to preserve our small neighborhood schools and to prioritize the financial integrity of the district that message should not be brushed aside i'll continue to hold both the superintendent and the committee accountable to that directive lastly I encourage the committee to open a
monthly public forum a space where residents can engage in meaningful discussion beyond the rigid threeinut time limit and feel that their concerns are not just heard but considered our disagreements shouldn't divide us they should challenge us to collaborate more thoughtfully and effectively this district belongs to all of us and
whether elected or not every voice matters thank you thank you do one um let's do this one first okay um good evening okay yeah we're going to take one in the room and then and then we'll take someone online after that go ahead
all right thank you scott Matter MAD RN 12 Old Cart Road in Hamilton uh good evening dear school committee and superintendent 30 years after Cutler and Winthrop elementary schools were opened my family and I moved to Hamilton we
share the reasons most people move here schools community and the Northshore beauty in the 40 years since we've been very active in continuing to build our community jan my wife who's over there helps raise tens of thousands of dollars
a year for the Friends of the Library with their bianual book sales we were both involved in the schools as our four children benefit benefited from the entire span of our excellent K through2 education they all said they were better
prepared for college than most of their peers i had the honor of leading the joint library committee and the building committee for 10 years a two-time project that came in under budget and ahead of schedule i have also served on Hamilton's fincom select board and
formed our capital committee relative to the schools I didn't always agree with superintendent for example I'm still pretty old school on winter weather cancellations one area I have agreed upon with every superintendent I've
known and I've known them all going back into the last century is that they believed one of the best ways to save money for our schools was to consolidate but it's not just money that our leaders consider it's also why families move to our towns education and
community our education plan and investment advice led to the re recommendation of a consolidated school at Cutler to give our towns another opportunity to consider our most significant financial decision please do
the following things one reestablish your position to support consolidation number two request a joint Hamilton and Wenhamtown meeting and pay for it this is a common issue and we need to
decide together three have the superintendent attend the next Hamilton and Wenham select board meetings and at least monthly with public Q&A similar somewhat of a request we heard before including key questions from voters like the
education education plan what our citizens and educ educators want to deliver 30 seconds thank you the building renovation options operational savings from consolidation and request another five
board meeting lastly Jane and I work to build our community as we expect to for many years to come even though those decades before us are fewer than the ones behind us help us to continue to build on what those who came before us
created what we've participated in and what is yet to come thank you thank you uh looks like we've got someone online um on Zoom
go ahead Natalie you're up hi thanks uh Natalie Hilddrth 121 Lynen Street Hamilton um I wanted to make public comment tonight to voice my support of the consolidated school project at the
Cutler site both town meetings and the ballot vote showed strong majority approval of this project i'm asking the school committee to be united in pushing the project to the finish line so that we do not lose $50 million from this
state to build a new consolidated school that will benefit all students in grades 1 through 5 i'm asking that the school committee be united in voting that this project be brought again to a special town meeting vote in early June and that
the school committee works to dispel the widespread misinformation in the community regarding renovations and long-term district costs the Cutler and Winthrop school are well past their prime they've been maintained to the best of our ability on a limited
facilities budget but we have outgrown them their systems are not efficient they're literally toxic and past their lifespan consolidating overhead costs would save taxpayers money in the long run while creating valuable
opportunities no more transfer bus costs my elementary kids spend an hour on transfer buses each day more after school programming no costly outdated boilers and electrical systems more prek district enrollment more teacher
collaboration resources and a greater substitute pool let's add a district placement costs which are around 4 million and that doesn't include transportation costs this would allow us to serve the students with the greatest needs in our district and keep them here
uh consolidation with a 50 million reimbursement is the answer to our long-term financial needs for this school district um and I'm asking you please don't let us lose this opportunity thank you
thank you um Beth her 270 Asbury Street first and foremost we all love and value our children um I hate that we're here after we did a professional poll last year
because we could have seen this coming i know there have been talks about a revote and as I pondered this question um about a revote if the vote at town meeting passed would we ever consider bringing it back for a revote for a
no would we ever do that we would not so why would we bring the school consolidation back for a revote it's a basic fairness question if you want your vote to count when it's your turn at this then treat the town meeting with
the same respect because this will at some point be you on the other side there was an extraordinary effort made by the town in the regional school district to get parents out to vote we had record high attendance 16% registered voters attended at the
fields it was 8% this was double that and quadruple a regular town meeting i believe the two towns in the district made extraordinary efforts to accommodate families we had family-friendly space we had more families than I've ever seen the cafeteria was full off-site babysitting
and the shuttle for the overflow parking there was lots of chatter that not all the parents could make it but if we look at the turnout for the polls we can see there were more no voters who were unable to make town meeting town meeting had a 57.7%
um yes vote um in Hamilton while at the polls it was only 50.3 and there were 44 blank votes which could have turned that vote i know people were confused about it maybe people voted yes that wanted no and no that voted yes i don't really
know but that shouldn't even count because we already had the town meeting vote um the te parent demographic was flooded with information on this project by the superintendent's weekly newsletter and the importance of parents getting out to town meeting so I do not
believe a revote will bring more yes votes but again if we wouldn't entertain a revote if it passed so we could subsequently reject it then why would we do it when the article failed we wonder why we have issues with civic engagement
this may be one of the reasons why people feel disenfranchised when their votes are ignored so my concern is a revote is not only unfair but more contentious personally I had an aerial shot of my
house posted on Facebook yes I was doxed by an ex-school committee member and I felt very unsafe for me and my family i find it disturbing that someone felt the need to do this and honestly if this happened this last week what's going to
happen with a revote will a revote bring us together or will it divide us i ask that you let the school the failed school consolidation vote stand so we can move forward as a community thank you thank you one
um I'm going to take um you can approach the podium i'm going to take one online and then we'll take more in the room jessica you're you're up hi hi uh hi i'm Jessica Leget i'm at 49 William Fairfield Drive in Winnham and I just have a short
statement i'm also asking the school committee um first thank you for your time and and everything that you do for the kids in our communities but I'm also asking you to support um and continue to put your support behind the school consolidation project despite um it not
getting the twothirds vote it did show a majority in both towns for both meetings and then at the polls um it seems to be the most fiscally responsible option and it also I fear that if we do not do this now and we lose the money that um going
forward with renovations or rebuilds will eventually pit the towns against each other um since W and would have to kind of put their faith in Hamilton then voting for Puker later on down the line so thank you for your time
thank you thank you okay looks like we have more people in the room good evening my name is Katherine Pile i live on Homestead i'm sorry to interrupt you can you move the mic so we can Yeah there you go that I never knew I was too tall i think so yep
okay hi good evening i'm Katherine Pile i live at 43 Homestead Circle um I grew up on Bridge Street so born and raised here um and I wanted to thank the school committee first of all for bringing this effort forward for the past two years um
I have two young daughters i felt very very informed um I've helped get my um peers informed i think just the fact that I even know Eric Tracy's name speaks to how well you guys have been communicating with us and giving us information um you know I saw the
renovation options that were on the table that the school building committee weighed really appreciate the um construction of the school building committee thought there were a lot of knowledgeable um subject matter experts on it which I know for my professional field is always what you do you ask the
experts um and the experts helped us come up with this plan for town meeting i did just want to clarify that um it was at my urging that the family-friendly overflow room was created not at the towns um and we did the same thing in Winnham so I really appreciate you hearing the voters on
that i worked so hard to get all those parents out there and there were so many more that I know that weren't able to attend um so I do ask you know that we take this 50 million that's sitting in front of us move forward with it i think a consolidated school would be amazing in this town getting the children
together would just continue to foster that absolutely unique sense of community we have between these two distinct towns that are also one community um getting them together letting kids find each other at a young age is just I I hope my two girls get to
experience that um also I ask that you guys bring a special town meeting i thought Scott um said it best this is a joint decision it it needs to be made together we all need to get in the room Hamilton and Wenham and talk about it to Jess's point you know are we going to
renovate two Hamilton schools if we can even get through two votes in the next 15 year god knows what costs we'll do um also the renovation or the cons consolidation plan in front of us addresses space issues it addresses compli ADA compliance issues it
addresses security measures the thought of people just walking into Winthrop is you know don't even want to go where that goes um it addresses the HVAC the systems everything that we've just been pouring money into and allows us to
address those all at once i appreciate that there are certain renovations that could be done for cheaper 30 seconds yeah but the addressing all the issues that we're able to get with 50 million on the table it's just there's it's the right decision it's the right fiscal
decision for us i know the taxes will be hard but renovation taxes would be harder and longer and more fighting so again thank you very much thank you so it looks like we um looks like we
have a I see two people in line um I don't know are other people if you could kind of give me an indication of how many other people might want to speak um okay we'll see go ahead hi Deb
Safford Maple Street so here we are again we've been here for about a year talking about this consolidation and there's been a lot of people uh expressing their concern about the way we're headed and uh showing that you that there's some
resistance to this plan and I know people feel really strongly about it and I appreciate it you know it's important that we all feel strongly about these things but at some point there's the rule of law um we're a constitutional republic we're not a democracy so the
rule of law matters the regional agreement is a contract it's like a law and so we can't just change that because we didn't meet it i mean that's what the federal government does that's you know and it stresses people out right people
are in charge and then they change the rules so that they can get something through that they want that doesn't sit well does it so I know it was floated in Wenom to just change the agreement from a twothirds threshold to a simple majority and I think that's a
reckless dangerous um comment to even be floating i mean that's really crazy to be thinking about doing that the town meeting votes has already been uh expressed it failed the supermajority the supermajority is important because taking on debt requires more than just a
simple majority and basically the ballot shouldn't have even counted i've talked to some clerks from years past and they said "Well if it didn't pass a town meeting we never would have even counted the votes on that ballot because the two go together." And we've always known it was took four votes and it was a hurdle
so it was four votes it's not supposed to be the best of you know seven or eight votes four of the best of eight you know what I'm saying it's like supposed to be four votes so there's a pattern in this district of yes meaning yes and no means let's just keep trying
the residents see this they're awake and I don't think they're going to tolerate this we did this in the middle school and people remember that in my analogy that I've always used for this last year as a parent you know do you want to bring your toddler you asking your toddler do you want to go upstairs do
you want to walk or shall I carry you because either way you're going upstairs so I think the people who voted in that super majority that was not achieved they don't want to go upstairs they don't want to go to bed they don't want to be a part of that they don't want to
be carried they don't want to be forced into this situation where it's a non-choice right it's like you're just going to keep voting until it passes at what point do we have to show resilience there's always in a vote going to be someone happy and someone not happy okay
i just ran for election i lost okay am I gonna like go under a rock now no am I gonna fight it no that was what happened that's great congratulations to those who won you guys were just in an election you're not gonna you know you can't fight it we have to show resilience to our kids that in life
there's always going to be a group in a vote who's happy and a group who's not happy and I think we need to model to our children how to have resilience and not have options up our sleeve to accomplish come hell or high water what we want i think it's really important for the people to come together and show
resilience in the outcome and move forward for a better outcome for everybody thank you thank you okay um so looks like we have one more person um and
no one does there anyone else online no okay so I just want and you're definitely going to get a chance to speak um and I just want everyone in the room to hear that I'm saying that after this final person we'll be done with citizens comments so is there anyone else who's going to want to
speak okay please approach the podium thank you good evening um my name is Laura Das i live at 11 Bruce Lane in Winnham um I am a Wenham resident and a mechanical engineer uh with a career focused on energy efficiency and sustainability in
existing buildings i emailed a lot of you earlier this week and really appreciate those of you who responded um I'm speaking tonight in support of the proposed consolidated plan i believe it's the most fiscally responsible forward-thinking and equitable option for our two two towns uh my family and I
moved here in 2022 partially due to the school system i I understand the desire to keep the small schools we live on Bruce Lane i just walked here um we bought our house thinking our one and three-year-old would walk to elementary school um but prior to moving to the
Northshore my husband and I grew up in Beverly we spent 11 years in Colorado where I had the opportunity to work in a number of school districts out there in those school districts large elementary schools are much more common i had the opportunity to work in elementary schools both as new construction projects and
renovations i had the opportunity to work with several schools in Denver public schools and Cherry Cherry Creek public schools with enrollments of 7 and 800 students in elementary schools exactly what we were talking about um these did not feel like mega
schools that people hear about they felt like small communities they it is a large building but when you enter you were entering a small community and that's what was proposed to the students and that's what it felt like when you walked in uh they were welcoming and student- centered environments designed with
intention and care the architecture firms that specialize in schools do this work over and over again and they approach it with children's development emotional and educational needs in mind they are not doing this haphazardly from a fiscal perspective continuing to maintain our aging elementary schools i should note also
I've worked with um Curtis Whiteitman for the last two months doing the comprehensive building assessments funded by National Grid on all five schools i have gotten to see the guts of these schools and as a engineer who focuses on building systems I am seriously concerned about renovating these schools the idea that we can put
in systems for minimal cost someone recently floated $10,000 per classroom to me $11,000 per classroom it's not feasible we are talking major infrastructure changes we are talking about displacing our students and ripping apart our buildings and based on
what I've walked around and the age of these schools and what I've seen in other facilities we probably have asbestous issues that we need to consider i'm looking at piping insulation and I'm thinking well where are we going to put the kids while we're doing this 30 seconds thank you the capital investment required to renovate all of them is more expensive and we'll
be left with buildings that still fall short they're still going to have small classrooms accessibility limitations inefficient layouts that cannot be corrected with major reconstruction without major reconstruction i'm not a civil engineer renovation would cost more and I think yield less and critically this
plan brings in sub or the the consolidation plan brings in the substantial funding everyone has mentioned from NMSBA i'm worried if we delay or abandon this plan we risk losing that funding and starting over at a much higher cost thank you everyone thank you
okay um so this time I'm going to close citizens comments um and we will close um or I guess Julia is going to still join us on Zoom but everyone else if you are on Zoom should um everybody's watch over okay good um I just want to say
thank you to um all the people that are here this evening that was a really nice demonstration of the way that everyone can respectfully hear each other um and listen to a variety of viewpoints and I just want to say thank
you for that um appreciate it um okay oh I didn't do my job here hold on hold on uh I didn't uh next up we have uh a
reading of a portion of the school protocols as elected members of the Hamilton WM Regional School Committee we including the superintendent accept the high honor and trust that has been 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 the school committee will demonstrate professional and collegial relations with one another to this end members will work to maintain trust and mutual respect between and among each other the superintendent and the administration by
treating everyone with dignity and respect even in time of disagreement all voices and concerns of individual school committee members shall be given equal weight and significance and I'll also read the next one recognizing the importance of honoring these protocols members will
respectfully remind each other when they get off track thank you um having not passed them out beforehand I will uh read a portion of the mission statement um the Hamilton Wenham 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 Wenham Regional School Committee will lead and inspire a district that supports and guides the
superintendent to execute and achieve the approved 2024 2025 district goals thank you um next up uh looks like we are um on the consent agenda
um does anyone have any items that they would like to hold from the consent agenda julia nope julia all right david to you i move that the Hamilton Regional School Committee uh approve the consent agenda as
presented in tonight's meeting agenda second second by Jen Carr um we're going to do a roll call vote uh we'll start with you Julia yes Jen yes uh David Frinkle yes david Pledo yes amy yes dana is a yes and the
motion passes uh unanimously of the six members present i have a quick question just um I saw in the uh consent agenda a grant for a mini grant for uh theater
consulting services what is audiovisisual and theatrical consulting services is that something for a for a show or is that are we still sort of looking for consultants to update the the theater itself so this is uh the
consultants to update the the actual microphones the trans transmitters and receivers that's the one the Ed fund um did their fundraiser for a couple weeks ago uh money is going towards that so that's that's kind of a joint effort
with photo ed fund and really trying to get enough microphones to do a full uh theater presentation enough uh receivers that are legal uh they have to be approved by the FCC now uh because yeah it's so that cost us some money too so
we're we brought somebody in we want to bring somebody in to be able to help us to understand what we do what we how can we add into our current uh board i don't know if the the board was recently replaced in our last renovation so it's really just kind of connecting the dots so that the kids have all the equipment
they need to run a good presentation so yeah i know it's just interesting that renovating this older stuff you when you fix some new stuff you uncover about five other things that need to be updated there's more coming i just want to add thank you for all the
donations there's a ton um Friends of the Arts Laboratory Robotics Interest Group of New England and HWEd Fund thank you thank you yeah thanks for mentioning that i was going to chime in at Oh sorry no no that's great i think that's great
it was nice to see a lot of a lot of donations there from you know variety okay um all right moving on next up we are going to have a uh presentation and a request um from our director of
nutrition services Alani B all right just one second i think we're going to get your presentation up good evening hi how are we all doing congratulations to the re-elected officials thank you i had your old one up
there we go all right sorry it's okay um I'm here tonight to uh request a price increase for our adult meals uh you're asking why simply because we're just not in compliance with uh the state
and federal regulations and how do we know that we just got reviewed by DESIE our administrative review we were in our cycle so our previous was 2019 uh the current one just happened in March of this year at the Cutler School
um the administrative review is part of the DESIS's oversight responsibilities to conduct scheduled um BA on a scheduled basis in the public schools their purpose is to ensure that the school nutrition programs are operating in compliance with both state and federal regulations um it's a five-year
cycle they have changed it since co um next slide the finding one of the results was that our pricing for adults was too low and that we weren't in compliance so we are in violation of a regulation which is 7
CFR 210.14 F which is stated here uh it's a little complicated but uh basically it's trying to the purpose of it is to uh ensure that the federal reimbursement funds
that we do get for our student meals uh are not used to subsidize adult meals um next slide there are guidelines and the math of how they figure it out um it is the federal reimbursement rate plus the
current USDA food value plus state tax that's the amount that we should charge as you can see by uh the calculation here it should be 537 $537 we currently charge $4 so we are losing $137 per meal
up until today year to date we've lost $448.50 so here is the pricing um current price increase and proposed price we are also adding the student second lunch and student second breakfast um that will ensure um that
our program is in line with the actual food and supply costs um that support sustainability and the compliance of our of our overall um operation for school nutrition um I think yeah so my request
is to raise it from $4 to 550 and the breakfast uh accordingly to to the graph which was sorry uh $2 to uh uh to 275 student second lunch from $2 to one uh to $3 and student second
lunch from $2 to250 thank you um I just had a quick question about Well I I have a couple questions yeah maybe other people do too i just want to make sure um we we all understand this is the second the second launch in other words
students get lunch for free currently right so at I is is it just at the at the high school if a student has to purchase a second lunch they can't elementary and middle I I actually already asked Eric but I just wanted to ask it here second lunches in all cart
are only second lunches are only allowed at high school all cart items are allowed only at middle school and uh high school all cart meaning the snacks and the extra drinks um and then just on the timing when we um if this were motion were to pass when
would the price increase take place we immediately okay okay per request of Desi yeah uh is other people have questions clarifying questions i actually do yep so can you go up a slide please thank you are we currently
losing money on second lunches and second breakfast for students um no but we aren't we're breaking even at breakfast and uh second student lunch we are right within uh I think it's 5 cents
of on using our current prices correct so why do we want to make a profit on students we don't want to make a profit on students we want to make profit on um alle cart items which we are allowed to
do that we can right but you're asking us to change the price of second lunch and second breakfast above what students are actually what we're paying as a district for the cost so we don't get reimbursed for seconds for
second lunch or second breakfasts i I understand that but why would we charge students more money than it costs us to make like this is supposed to be a notfor-profit program and if we increase the price because we have to our
overhead our food costs our uh Okay but that's what I just asked you i asked you if our current prices are covering that amount of money the second student excuse me the second student student second breakfast is not covering the $2
is not covering okay the student second lunch is at $2 our current cost is $1.99 okay so looking towards for next year when prices go up when prices go up you
know especially with the unknown of of of what's going to happen with Governor Healey and Ways and Means and stuff like that we'd like to get it ahead of the schedule instead of coming back to you again next year that's why what I wanted to know i just wanted to know why we were increasing the prices above what
we're currently we're also thinking ahead that's why the current was um we're going to 550 because we know it's going out next year instead of coming back to you again that's what I was looking for i figured I got to it sorry that but I wanted to
make sure okay anybody else have any clarifying questions right david just wonder if I can see can you make that bigger sorry i got it um the Hamilton Regional School
Committee oop sorry i move that the Hamilton Regional School Committee approve the increase to the cost of meals served as recommended here and the director of nutrition services and as shown on the previous slide titled
pricing i need to my glasses second by Jen Carr no I do have glasses all right is there discussion do we have Julia she's still here all right do you have any questions or discussion Julia
no thank you okay all right seeing none it looks like we're ready to vote um I'm going to start with you David Frankle yes yes dave Leto yes amy yes jen yes julia
yes and Dana is a yes and that is unanimous of the six members present and the motion passes thank you thank you very much okay um All right next
up to you uh Eric thank you this is um part B of the earlier submission of evidence it happens in two uh slices if you will once in February and once in April uh this is part of the evaluated process
for my own evaluation um I will note some of the stuff is still ongoing because a number of the items will be uh completed in May and June as we move through the school year uh so where where it's noted in the document is ongoing it's it's still ongoing and it
will be continuing uh throughout the year um until the end of uh June 30th in in many cases uh so this is uh in addition to basically I took the previous document and added to the previous document so you still had it
all in one place um and certainly I can answer any questions about it but it's more there for your review as you begin the process of completing my evaluation thank you um anybody have anything for the
superintendent think only for my edification because I have a couple of people have asked me this recently but when do we expect the athletic fields project to be complete it should be we should be punch listing in July which which we're anticipating
having everything complete before the fall season starts which is usually kicked off by the start of the football season okay thank you right now we're on track um so I will just say regarding the
evaluation process um I know you all know because we voted on it and we talked about it that the individual evaluations are going to be due on May 5th and you'll be turning those in to David Pledo um
um I believe that I have sent you all the documentation that you need if you need something else from me um Janelle did a really nice job at getting the um form in a sort of more usable um format
so that it should be easier just without all the wonky formatting that we dealt with before again if you need that resent please let me know um we're happy to get it to you again um and I guess that's it i encourage you to
ask if you know as you dig through reach out to Eric ask questions yeah absolutely if you have questions please reach out um okay uh next up is the vote on the last day of school
i got nervous the other day when it snowed but uh looks like we're okay we'll cross our fingers that we don't get any more late snow uh but this is really just recommending that we shift the last day of school which was originally scheduled on June 17th to June 18th for the one
day that I did have to call um so I'm recommending a vote to change the last day of school to June 18th 2025 okay um we want to have a motion on that uh I move that the Hamilton Regional
School Committee vote to approve June 18th as the last day of school for 2025 second second by Amy Kunberger um anybody have any questions there discussion okay um all right uh looks
like we're ready to vote um Julia yes jen yes amy yes david Pledo yes david Frankle yes dana yes that is unanimous of the six members present and the motion
passes um thank you okay hopefully we don't have to revisit this yeah let's not i feel like this is like putting your shovels away i was about to take the roof off my Jeep i thought it was already off
storm the doors um okay uh next up um back to you Eric to talk about the uh schematic design funding for the high school roof thank you um as you know we were accepted earlier in the year um
into the MSBA accelerated repair program ARP program to replace the high school roof we finally after a number of submissions uh our roof was old enough to meet their guideline um so the first stage is very similar to the core program where you need to have a
feasibility and schematic design stage which is much more truncated than the um feas feasibility and schematic design for the core program so I am uh requesting that we fund the initial stage of uh feasibility and and uh
schematic design using district funds from the stabilization fund in the amount of $450,000 to to fund the first stages of the feasibility and schematic design um what that'll allow us to do is go back
to the state to show that we secured the monies needed they will uh in the ARP program they assign your OPM and your project manager you don't interview and hire you don't uh have to interview they just assign them to you and then that gets the process starting so we can figure out what the price and the
reimbursement will be from MSBA so it's a little bit different from the core program but in some ways similar um right i know that there's a very specific motion yep and it needs two
um Okay um maybe we should start with the motion and then have discussion you see that i'm trying to pull it up on here because I don't think I can read it from my eyes would you like to tap someone else my glasses we could do that could someone else read i really I'm
usually Jen's got it she's got it i move that the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District hereby appropriates the amount of $450,000 from the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District Stabilization Fund established pursuant to MGL Chapter
71 section 16G um 1/2 for the purposes of paying costs for a feasibility and schematic design for the roof repair andor replacement project at the Hamilton Wenham Regional
High school located at 775 Bay Road Hamilton Massachusetts including all costs incidental and related there to set amount to be expended under the direction of the Hamilton Wenham Regional High School roof school
building committee the district acknowledges that the Massachusetts School Building Authorities Grant Program is a non-entitlement discretionary program based on need as determined by the MSBA
and any costs the district incurs in excess of any grant approved by and received from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the district provided further that the amount appropriated shall be reduced by any grant amount set
forth in the project funding agreement that may be executed between the district and the MSBA second second by Amy Kberger um thank you for reading that Jen
um okay um people have questions first let's start with questions yeah I must admit I was a bit shocked when I saw that amount um can you explain why I thought what we're doing was just replacing the roof
as is rather than designing a new roof and uh and I'd previously had one vendor a wellrespected roof vendor ballpark that's at about 2 million that's ignoring um subsidies so I'm I'm curious
as to how I mean this is a bit of a reputation of MSBA adds a lot of costs because they have a lot more structure that they demand of these sort of sort of projects is this the best way to go about it when I guess my mental picture
was get three bids from from major roof vendors to replace it and see where that lands yeah the the the kind of safety of the MSBA program lies in the that feasibility schematic design they actually take the time to go through the
roof to make sure it's structurally sound um to make sure that what's underneath uh is not water damaged not doesn't have to be replaced so kind of hidden costs if you will that that you can't see uh you don't get that with the
with the uh three bid system where you just say "Okay let's do three bids and replace the roof where then you're doing change orders and um adding as you go along." The MSBA also now uh funds uh solar ready solar readiness as part of
their roof program so that's uh a new feature that is uh something that's interesting for us to look at we've talked to the um HWCAT team a little bit about that when we talked about solar for the the uh solar canopy at the
middle school this gives us more roof area uh so they they do that work too to see structurally can anything like that be done on the roof they'll do uh below grade um measurements they'll do they'll actually open it up and check areas that
um come up on their sensors as either wet or damp or damaged so they'll we'll have all that information going into the actual process so we have a price that's closer to a final price rather than having surprises along the way mhm
and and that whole solar ready thing is included in this 450,000 is what so the that part of the the process becomes after schematic design and feasibility when in that just like the school building process here's the pricing of
it and then it'll include the breakdown this is for solar readiness this is the reimbursement we don't even know the reimbursement yet until we go through schematic design and feasibility in the ARP program so part of that will become u the breakdown of each of those costs at the end of feasibility and schematic
design so and it's much more truncated it's not like a year-long process like the core program and your estimate what's the source of that is 3 to 5 million estimate the last estimates that were done when Mr gary was here they were in the three to5 million range um
that was that written that consultants report right so that what we did was we went back to the MSBA and said "Let's go through the MSBA process so that we can get a a more manageable number." And this allows us to get more focused in on a number rather than a range you know
well the critique of that number was that it it was based on on material that was really um more suitable for a hospital roof or a pharmaceutical factory roof and was way over spec for for a school was what I got and and was
much more labor intensive to apply that's the feedback I got other people questions um just can I make a comment or you still Yeah well just let's do questions does anyone have any just clarifying questions first and then we can definitely have debate and comment is I was just going to say is um
this feasibility and schematic design um reimburseable uh no that your question the hard part with with schematic design is they basically say to you look at other projects that have done been done recently and that's how you get your number so we we
actually kind of honed in based on similar size projects across the state that that have been done in the last year and a half so there are a number of roofs being done this year as well so it's it's kind of it'll be more accurate yeah it' be much more accurate
the be more accurate than what taking a guess something done separately yeah they don't the MSBA won't say to you put this much aside they'll they'll say they'll direct you to their website and say look at all the projects that are occurred over they did the same thing with the
feasibility for the core program you know how much do we need for feasibility well we can't tell you that you need to go and look so we had to go and pull things that were very similar to the timeline that we had and try to come in close and we were slightly short but so let me make make sure I understand what
you're saying about the the amount here you're saying that this amount could be that this is more than we need to do the feasibility study is is that possible that's a I'm just I'm
not saying you're saying that but that that is possible it is a possibility okay um what's the timeline for the like when would we anticipate if everything we go through the whole process when would the roof actually be completed the fastest
timeline we'd like to do it during summer so it's you know if you could if you could get all the ducks in a row and in a very short window of time you'd start the summer i don't know if that's realistic given the you can't do a roof when kids are in the building you just
can't strip the roof when and add the adhesives and things so it's going to have to be either the summer like the best case scenario or next summer the following summer just because because it can't it can't be done like during the winter they're not going to do it in a December break or anything like that
even though it'll take longer than that okay so still some time in the process okay and how long do we think the um how long typically does the um schematic design feasibility and schematic design portion of this last
yeah it can take up to four to six months depending on how much how in-d depth they get and what they find so once they start doing their investigation of the roof it's out msba came out and walk the roof with us they had several people come and walk the entire high school roof with us
including on top of the auditorium um initially so they have an idea of what's up there and how many repairs have been made and how many we've continued to make so they'll uh pass that along to the to the group that whoever's assigned OPM and
um designer i have a couple questions so the can you just outline what the feasibility study and schematic design includes i'm guessing it does not include like final engineering design or does it it'll it'll be to the point
where um because the roof doesn't have to be structurally designed it's really an investigation into what's under there okay what's a what's what's underneath the layer of roof or layers we don't even know how many layers of roof are on
there um so it's more of an investigation and then it'll give us a breakdown of if we say they want we said "All right let's be solar ready." MSBA covers those costs now so that would be part of the design they'd have to figure out where things would come through what
happens with what's currently on the roof so HVAC units that are currently on the roof have to be um laid out specs part of the quote design work that'll occur in schematic design they'll do final design as they get
closer only because we may say "Oh we have to move something to get electricity or access to electrical you know." So those things will happen along the way we don't we don't know we can't get even venture to guess that okay and then my
other question is about the roof school building committee this is a new school building it would be a new building committee that would school building committee okay yep that would be put together after right and again I would I would imagine it's a it's not the same
level not as the same level as the school but still and does MSBA give us like the ingredients of what that list should be similar template they use everything's templated at the MSBA so so probably be very similar template it'd
be a probably a smaller group and it'll probably be less involved only because there's not a whole lot of decision making and option you know like rate weighing options like there was with the school building project so it's much more truncated all right thank you
um Jen did you have something um so we did discuss this on in the finance committee on Monday and discussed whether using this $450,000 would affect or take away
anything from our student experience and um there were only two of us so but I think at the end we definitely did feel comfortable that this was the right way to go with this $450,000 and that using it for this
purpose would not take away from student services so just because it's in the stabilization fund and that's the purpose of the Yeah stabilization is specifically for capital improvements right okay
um other people with debate discussion uh the only last thing is just if we somehow miss this you know school's out in 8 weeks so if this goes too long and we miss the window we can't do the roof until next
summer probably yeah yeah i don't I don't think it could be done over a vacation just don't think it's enough time it's a pretty extensive project yeah and I mean I know we've we certainly discuss
it a lot here but I I mean in other words how much are we spending annually just to continue to patch and because I know we talk about it a lot and I you know again I I try not to bring them up a lot but you know my kids my kids are
28 and 26 and when they were at the high school it was we were spending a lot of money to continue to patch it up then so it's probably 25,000 in a good year bad year it's about 60 okay yeah last
last summer was I think $40,000 just to fill replace fill holes find holes you got to find them first yeah make new ones it's very delicate right now feel like I've been paying attention i would have said about 40 so feel good
other questions yeah i have a question for Vinnie when didn't we have a a roof vendor come out and and actually walk the roof and look for the same sorts of things uh I think Tom had one come out and then Curtis had one come out I think
his first month in August and what what feedback do we get from that i think they gave us a uh Tom got a price proposal from one of them i'm not sure what Curtis received have to ask him is that where we got the 3 to 5 million yes yeah
yeah it's quite a range it is quite a range yeah David said it depends on the materials it depends on I mean you're this this goes to bid so it's it's you know it falls under Massachusett laws but the materials in in many cases are
different there's different uh thicknesses there's different sealants there's different like the current roof that we have now is a white roof that uses a very specific adhesive if you don't use that adhesive the regular roof
adhesive like a tar or something doesn't work it doesn't seal so it you know you end up spending money in those ways and that's what David was I think the point David was trying to make where if you go with a hospital grade roof which we don't clearly don't need but you want something that's going to last the the
the uh MSBA is going to push you to go 25 to 30 year roof material so that'll determine at least the minimum uh specs is that realistic though i mean are we really projecting
that the that the high school and middle school are going to be around without being replaced in within 20 years i always got the impression that 20 years was kind of the outer limit yeah the the current middle school roof is 26 this
year right i think it's 26 years old um it has a few few issues but not like not like the high school so yeah I think 25 is a a target of maximum kind of your maximum push if you would i don't you know having been in involved in many
schools they all generally leak at some point but I think 25 years is is really a max threshold when you're when you're looking at how long will this last us i wouldn't I wouldn't ever say that hey this is going to last 30 years no problem ever because as soon as somebody
goes up on that roof and walks around you create a problem it's just inevitable and the longer the older it gets the more fragile the material gets and the easier it is to to ruin and the the reason we we did this too is
also to to not go to to debt service to be able to say "Oh let's take out debt service we have the money and this is one of the uses for it so that we can at least get the process started." Yeah this is the purpose of having y
that stabilization fund is the purpose so um and the the school building committee for the roof will be only formed when exactly and once the MSBA gives us the go then I would put the committee together and bring that back
here okay yeah yep this would this approval goes to them tomorrow if it gets approved I would send it to them tomorrow and say "We've been approved for funding out of our stabilization fund." They would then initiate the process of assigning the OPM and the
designer and then it would go forward from there at that point I would say "Let's put together the committee and put the put the word out for members of the committee." And I I don't know off top of my head how many people are on that committee but everything at MSBA has a template so I'm sure I'll receive a template from them that's the outline
so but the formality is the school committee forms that under your guidance right correct y yeah we'll we'll do the same thing that we corrected with the original core process with the building to say here's the recommendation bring
it to committee committee approves it and then they take over from there and they basically are approving expenditures in a case like this it's usually uh in short bursts not monthly like a like a school building project is a monthly reimbursement over time yeah uh this is
in I think minimum is it minimum $50,000 i think it's minimum $50,000 before we can start asking for reimbursements so it they're it's just different time spans so they would manage that part of the process and then any changes that came up or any issues that came up along the way the building
committee would decide what to do okay thank you all right anybody have anything else um I'm sorry i think that you I have one more i think you said I know we don't know but when you did you know when you look
around to other roof projects what is I mean are we able to sort of look at a ballpark for what the reimbursement might be i know that it's such a hard question but yeah I think it I it it feels to me in talking to other people it feels to me it'll be similar to what
we received for the school project in the 40% range yeah which as we know is a reimburseable cost not not the overall if we want to have a sparkly roof we would have to pay for that ourselves and they don't they they they have made the change to the one change they did made
that they alerted us to in a webinar was the the solar edition msba has never been involved in reimbursement of any of that so that's that's new for the whole program this this past year um so that's
that's an interesting thing to look at too because I think they're reimbursing that at 100% right but it's just the solar ready notar they just do it yeah then you'd work with a vendor to get the to get the solar panels and similar to the some of the other things that we're working on right now
okay all right anybody you ready to vote i'm ready like we're ready to vote um All right everybody clear on what the motion is yes yep um All right
uh start with you David Frankle yes from me yes david Pledo yes amy yes jen yes julia yes dana's a yes and that is unanimous of the six members present and the motion passes
thank you okay no I put it on the wrong thing okay there we go um so next on the agenda is a discussion about the elementary school project votes
um and where to go from here so um I think we're all aware of the results which was we had two town meetings and
um two uh ballot votes um and the uh proposed uh consolidated elementary school project um was supported by a majority um and on all four of those votes but
not by the 2/3 majority um that was needed at the two town meetings so the way um so to be clear the ballot vote really required just a majority that did occur the two town
meetings required a twothirds vote for passage that did not occur at the two town meetings okay um I'm opening it up for discussion if anyone um I think of note was that the
the Hamilton vote was what really shocked me it was almost line ball in in the ballot correct the Hamilton ballot was quite close yep and and that seems to me to make it really difficult
to get to 2/3 if 2/3 remains the the threshold just because that's a it has to move a lot when not so much well the the twothirds is going to remain the threshold no matter what because it's part of the regional agreement and to
change it no matter what anyone from the one water select suggests it would have to go to town meeting to get voted and changed in the regional agreement so I know it's a big hurdle yeah it it and it's just not feasible um you know the
the the twoth3 threshold was always going to be a challenge right and And we knew that going in it you know through every building in this that currently stands in this in this
district has has gone through multiple votes to try and reach that threshold um you know it's it's it's a tough number it's a and and and it's made to to create
discussion and you know and and and not be a simple majority that's sort of forced through on purpose right and so we knew that was that that it's coming you know at the same time you know the the worst case scenario
happened right we passed all four votes went in the affirmative and um you know and and it's a lot it's a lot more difficult to sort of figure out what the next step is
having narrowly missed the two3 majority than it would be to have just been outright defeated because you know the the no way about it that the you know majority has voted that they are in
favor four times at this point right and um you know so then you just you're left with this gray area um you know there we are in the books right now in in sort of looking at a lot of things in the regional
agreement excuse me because you know that this paperwork we wrote up 70 plus years ago is not really uh relevant and illegal in some spots um you know and and and this is something
that perhaps should be discussed um you know I I I mentioned my thoughts to a few people around town um about possibly changing to a qualified majority moving forward just to try and help things in the future um
so but but you know I I don't think that's right now but I I do think that you know we should continue to move on and if the MSBA is still willing to give us a you know second chance to try and get this through I think it's our sort
of responsibility and duty to you know not only try to push this project through um I don't know if pushing it through is really the the word I want to use because it seems like a you know I I
think that the the the the people who aren't in favor of the project do feel like it's being pushed down her throat which you know I don't want to do even though I do firmly believe it is the right decision um you know I do respect that it's not the right decision for uh
every people for everybody in the town and in and you know but I do think it is the right and best decision for this district and our students so that's why I'll continue to you know advocate for it and and and fight for it and I'm happy to you know put together you know
a motion to actually try and get another town meeting up um you know within a certain time frame so can I'm sorry go ahead no I just That's um I don't know if it would
be helpful like that was a lot and that was um I don't know if it'll be helpful to sort of just and Eric can make sure that I'm getting it all straight but just to sort of say where we are in terms
of our speaking with the MSBA about what's possible um so I mean if that's you know and Eric can well could so the MS I'm sorry I was going to say could can we also review the the possibility
of alternative scenarios well we can't because we're again right we do we we we had an interesting agenda tonight and maybe it was done on purpose um but like in in talking about the MSBA process for
this roof right and um and you know in in just sort of everything else that we're going through right it's this idea of one what is required by the MSBA this sort of rigid sort of guideline of needing a feasibility and schematic
design for a roof right and you're thinking as we all did and the discussion just sort of said that you know it's a roof why would you need that for a roof however the you know there are these guidelines lines that are very very strict that I think is sort of
keeps getting lost somewhere in the messaging right that yes we entered into this project and and and as we sort of kept making decisions along the way that the our our sort of ability
to flex lessens you know um you know as we get deeper into the project the you know the idea of the fact that you know can re can the schools be renovated yes they physically can be renovated yes the you know uh
MSBA does allow to do that but not in this project not in this scope not in not not right now not where we are we would have to put this aside the $50 million is gone and start over and then we have
to start over so can the idea in that as well which I think is not being we're not doing a good enough job on our end to say to say to um to sort of
um convey out is this idea of what exactly an ED plan is in in the idea of like oh we can just change it right like sure we can just change it but like that's not
what what you know when we came together and had all the experts get all the experts in the room to say what is best for the learning and future of our children right in our district and and we created this ed plan and then we
created a building project around it to then say oh we could change the ed plan that that's that's you're you're going back and sort of saying that like okay well we don't care what the experts had to say about what's best for our children right because I think we can
fix these smaller schools right and in and and I don't care that somebody else is sort of has gone through and done all this research right to say that why this makes the most sense and I don't care
that architects and engineers came in and said it makes more sense to build a new school than to try and recreate you know something that's on a limited footprint right so sure it's physically
possible it's it is there there is the ability to do it but you're ignoring all of this right that all this work that's been done for far more someone said that they've been here for a year I've been here doing this since
2018 you know it's been far more than a year excuse me and like you know we're here right now we have you know if the MSBA is giving us one more shot to do this it's our job to make sure we try
and do this because once it goes away it's gone right so it's it's and min I think had the best sort of said the best thing which you said it's just a $50 million check being burned in front of us well okay so I think I do want to
give you a chance to respond but I I want to thank you for all that and I I'm sorry to step on I do want to sort of back up just a little bit um just because I think I want to give a little bit of framework
david touched a little bit on where we are right now um so the way the MSBA project process works is that from the time the MSBA approves the project you have 120
days district has 120 days um and in that time we have to meet the steps that I outlined at the beginning which would be both town meetings that does not come from the MSBA that comes from us but it we have to meet our requirements our requirements in are the ballot votes
need to both be at a majority again that that occurred so that happened both town meetings would need to be at a twothirds from the point of view of the MSBA my understanding and Eric and you know see whether I'm on track
with his understanding but our understanding my understanding from speaking with listening to the MSBA is that within that 120 days we can do what what we want and as as long it
occurs in those 120 days if we were to ask if we were to say we'd rather have a town meeting in August that would be outside of the 120 days and we would then need to ask the MSBA for an
extension currently um we're still within that 120 days and so from the point of view of the MSBA we haven't either succeeded or failed yet we they're just waiting for
us um does that make sense i'm just trying to and I I don't I know you are waiting to speak David i just wanted to make sure Fair enough that I wanted to give sort of context about where we are right now
so I don't know if anybody So go ahead i'm sorry thank you for waiting the the two categories of scenario that I would would have liked to have seen costed um just to see how it did stack up well one is um my understanding is some
school districts choose off off the uh I guess off the table um plans that MSBA have standardized plans rather than customuilt and the cost per square foot as I understood it is considerably
less so what would that what would a scenario that that did did that either parallel or sequentially the problem with that is we didn't have the land to No but there's but like No it's a great question the problem is that is we we we
didn't have the land we we didn't have the the space to just be able to build a blank to build a you know model school jump in on that for one second just go ahead the model school program doesn't exist anymore the TU I think it was Tukbury High and I
quote me but I believe it was Tukbury High was one of the last ones in that M model school program and it was for cost reasons that the things that um Newton High School had built that $300 million school which kind of set that whole thing into motion and and it
just became financially difficult because people would say okay we want this model I think you have four models to choose from they would say we want this model and by the time they built these schools it didn't fit what they needed in the end so I think they have steered away from that that program i
don't know that they offer the model school program anymore they did it for a while because I was uh principal in Wilmington the next town over from from Tukbury when they they had selected the to be in the model school program so I think that high school was one of the last ones that was done
and I I do like I I re I genuinely and it's okay to keep it I want you to continue to ask your question but I also do want to say the reason I sort of frame that at the beginning is I want to really all of us to think about the moment that we're in now and the moment
that we're in now what I just talked about about those the decisions about what if anything is our next step and and if and the moment that we're in Now we're just talking about the
particular project that's before us because there's no option in this next hundred in this moment to do a different thing that's so just to counter that Dana though I think this is actually the perfect
opportunity to be able to answer you know some of the questions that popped up earlier right and and and there is concern I mean the idea is you know if if people you know are sitting there and they believe that these are the you know there are there
other options and to make sure that we're doing a good job of explaining why we're in this pos position right um hopefully you know I'll just speak for myself I'm now doing a better job of
explaining and so I don't feel like I'm forcing something down their throat right that that this that these things were considered you know and and people were being listened to but there are reasons why right that these other
options weren't you know weren't chosen and that we are where we are right because because because there's still a lot of confusion and a lot of things that are being said repeatedly that just aren't
true right and that's either you know because we haven't done a good enough and and and you know what I'm not even a but I'm just taking the blame we haven't done enough good enough job of explaining period okay so it's it's up
to us if we want this to go forward to make sure we're doing a better job of explaining why this makes the most sense for our district david I know you've been cut off many times go ahead i know but I I know I I
really have No no I appreciate it um the second category was uh and correct me if I'm wrong there there's a threshold uh above which um as a percentage of the value of the school that you get forced
into um uh complying with all the codes i think I think it was 30% Is that correct is it 30 or 20 i think it's I think it's 20% 20% of the assessed value of the the commercial
building that you're working on a school i think it's I think it might be 20% do we know then that triggers full ADA compliance so that adds So I I read somewhere 30 but any let's say it's 20 that's right yeah to national and
um so you know one of the things that I've heard floated is the idea look at all five schools set that 20% um threshold what what could meaningfully be done within that that
that isn't necessarily MSBA although I don't know that MSBA doesn't support that but let's say they don't there are you know mass save and um tax credits and so forth for certainly certain categories of of
improvements but if you're under that level um then you may well be well below the 90 million that we're now being asked to spend but but you've improved all of the five schools i just hadn't seen that scenario played out and and I
think that that's one possibility of for a plan B and assuming that what I see in the in those Hamilton numbers is a really really steep climb to to get through the current proposal
so I'm not really clear you're proposing we update the schools as little as possible to not trigger that threshold or to update as much as possible without triggering frame it i in my eyes part of
the problem with that one is I want to make sure we meet all of the goals that we're trying to solve with this project and one of the big things is footprint so that's one area that I don't think we'll solve i also think anyone who's owned a relatively old house knows when
you start digging into things changing things moving things around you end up finding more so I feel like that's it would be a really risky thing to count on that we would only we could just stop at that 19% or whatever the percentage is well that's what I would want to see
tested rather than just to assume that it's a fair comment but my first part I mean that is the part I'm mostly concerned with is that that doesn't solve the footprint problem yeah somebody made an interesting suggestion to me earlier in the week
actually which was that given the declining um enrollment in the high school middle school um would it be feasible to move grade five to the middle school that's a very
controversial topic I feel and buy by by buy by buy by buy by buy by buy by buy by buy by buy by buy by buy by space back in the elementary schools that way i don't know it was just um I thought there was a really effective answer to that question actually from a couple of teachers that I talked to um just
because and they made the point that just because there's extra space doesn't mean there are extra classrooms so we may have extra seats in a classroom so for example um AP US
history is probably running next year and my daughter was talking about and she says there are 10 students taking AP US history that means there are empty seats in that classroom but that doesn't mean we don't still need that classroom right we can't fill those 10 seats with
fifth graders right and multiple teachers both at the high school and the middle school have said even though enrollment's down we still need all the classrooms um to teach the courses that we're teaching uh so I mean I that was something I was
curious about and so that was something I asked about um both at the level of the high school and at um the middle school where I have friends that teach at both i suppose the other other possibility is to build on supplemental space on on the
uh two or three schools rather than again And I've certainly been in enrolled in schools as a kid where that was done what do you mean you mean like a modular classroom yeah it was supplemental space that they my high
school built whole supplemental multi-story library like an addition yeah an addition well we have figures on renovation plus addition and they very expensive it's I feel like that's part of how we got whittleled down to this one option that's on the table now yeah
i guess I didn't see anything quite that incremental well there was a there was an ad rena option that was de couple ad rena options right and and I think it's really important again well I'll I'll go back to the agenda earlier right we we if we don't get this roof built this
summer we have to wait a whole year to build it next summer right because you can't there's only so much construction you can do with kids in the building yeah we sure should do the roof we should get rid of the asbestous too so I mean but how are we going to do that with kids they got to do that in summer
right so but now so we have a roof we have a speestous we have air qualating where's that 20% right and then and then what is that 20% triggering ada compliance why aren't
we going to make sure every single school is ADA compliant why are we trying to stay below that you know uh 20% threshold i I'm not attacking you here what I'm trying to say is sort of where this conversation is going right because we want that we want we want to make sure that we're solving all of
these problems we want to make sure that there's enough classrooms so that you know kids aren't getting pulled out of school out of their classroom and and and having to do you know special um speech therapy whatever in a hallway or
in a closet right which is l literally what's happening right now look I couldn't agree more the where I stumble in thinking this through is that we we end up with this enormous bill and we have done nothing for the high school
and middle school in Bua well I mean the high school I mean again the middle school's 25 years old and when we did the middle school we renovated the high school right and and we're putting a new roof on there so we you know what I mean
there there's only even if we had incremental smaller build right we'd still have to go to the town to get $10 million to go fix color and then there'd still only be four there would still be four other schools right then we'd have to go get $10 million to do something else at at
the high school you know in and there there's no way i mean we can go to town meeting and ask for um I'm sorry can you guys um both of you need to speak in your mic we can we can hear you but I guess the people I guess my problem with all that
is too much sorry so we're guessing what the numbers are sorry yeah yeah sorry i I appreciate what the argument is but I I my whole point is I think we need not a fine-tuned MSBA estimate but we need some ballpark decent estimates for a
couple of those scenarios if nothing else to take care of the argument that it can't be done or or that there is a meaningful set of improvements that can be done if the premise of is that you've got to meet
the current needs of the current proposed project then um then you then you're making a calculated risk assessment as I understand it that you think you can you can get to the two/3 threshold but do you well I mean that
was always the part of the that was always the the hurdle right i'm just not encouraged that the the Hamilton vote is what what made me kind of mentally but I want to I hear your concern
i it's a steep hurdle i hear that concern i guess what I'm trying to now that I'm listening I'm trying to understand are you talking about that whether because I don't know what this committee is going to do but
whether the committee decides to ask to try again or not or are you asking are you saying if whatever happens and this project is not supported are the things that you're talking about are that's what you're anticipating we should do
next yes okay because I was not understanding that i was thinking that you were saying that that that's instead of in other words right like that's what I was trying to say is right now here you you've you've gone
this far i mean I'm not not trying to talk you out of of going back to the towns i just think that it's hard to see how it will work but not impossible no I understand no that's Thank you that's that's helpful to Hey I have I have one question for
you David um the questions you have and that you've been asking right um do you feel like that or or do you do you think that those questions weren't asked at any point in the process i I don't know i wasn't close enough to
it at the time i I mean I think my my concern with the um what was said at the formation of the committee had me um checking out until two years later you know because the assumption was we we
were told we had no say and uh and no involvement and that was the way I treated wrongly I think what do you mean at the formation at the meeting where the original school building committee was formed
Eric um said this is all structured by the MSBA and he was putting it together and that we and there was no need for a vote and there was and that we would have no vote we were in the process already you know we had voted to have towns vote on the
feasibility study like we were already in the middle of the project i'm just explaining where I'm coming from on this is I kind of did not check in to the project in the detail I I would have normally checked in for something that
was so substantial and consequential bad my bad quite frankly so however but regardless of I mean your point is well taken and
and your point is in other words if you were not a member of the school building committee which you were not and neither was I that we didn't we weren't on that committee but we did always know as the school committee that the purpose is that the school building committee was
going to bring us a preferred project that was the goal all along was for them to come forth so we did all know that that that was that was the idea yeah David go ahead yeah no I I
just I I I'm just listening to what David said and I'm really just thinking you know thinking back to I don't know if it was Miss her or who spoke earlier again to that that that comment of of this been going on for a year you know and and the fact that it's been you know
so much longer than that um right and that it's just that you know unfortunately the way as small and tightknit as this community is there's so much you know that goes on behind the scenes for long periods of
time you know before anything sort of becomes word of mouth public I guess is the best way to put it right because because I I think we get we get hit a lot with the lack of transparency in everything we do is sort of posted or whatever but everyone's got
lives right like you're not sitting there walking by seeing what's posted for meetings here and and and and that makes sense and as much as I'm involved here you know um I I'm not always you know don't always know what's
going on at you know in the in the FinComs or or or you know either town select boards and you know I have I have good friends on both boards and like oh geez I didn't even know this was going on because there's only so much time in a day you have to do this and there are
other people doing lots of you know lots of work and lots of things lots of different things at the same time right and it seems like like this is the only thing that we've been talking about for a long time but I've got a list of other things that I'm you know want this
committee to be doing in the year moving forward and you know and I mean it it starts definitely with getting this this uh school voted for because I think it makes the most sense long term but you know I it's really interesting to hear
you say that because I'm sure you just vocalized how a lot of people in town are feeling you know and and I don't know I I wish I had the answer on how to sort of how to change that but you know I'm going to interrupt i know Julia's been waiting to Oh sorry Julia um
Julia Julia okay hi i I think um it there's really just a question here like we're debating like things that can't change we're debating the past so what we need to do is talk about like you said Dana where we are and then what are
our options going forward so to me this is me it's very clear to me that on the one hand the majority of citizens in Hamilton and Wenham want this project to go forward one because of the vote yes
we didn't get two/3s but we got the majority the second because of the ballot the third because of the school committee election okay if they really were against this project why would they reelect Dave and Amy so I'm just saying and I just think like people there's really an appetite for it we're getting
a lot of emails we're getting a lot of communications for it that's those are facts those are actual facts that cannot be disputed the question that remains though is even even with that information that we have that we know the majority of the public
supports this project it failed at town meeting so to me I I just kind of want to get some direction on like what do we what are our options and what do we do next personally I do not have an appetite for another town meeting
um I I don't I that's just me personally um but I think I I I don't know if there are other options i don't I'm fully in support of this project i've been in support of it the whole time and I don't want to number one give up on my ideals and number two let down my constituents
so I guess I'm just wondering like where do we go from here when we know that people support it but it failed because of the twothirds ballot like what do we do now and I I don't know if there's a debate about this but I just I guess I want to see like where where can we go
forward from here where what are people thinking okay um I I think people probably have things to say about that I'm guessing but I know that Jen has also been waiting to talk so if we can let I'm gonna let Jen talk and then I do think people probably have things to say
about what you're saying go ahead Jen so this was a decision that I've been thinking about since town meeting and I've been struggling with because prior to town
meeting most of the people who attended school committee meetings and most of the people who sent emails were not in favor of consolidation since town meeting I've been able to see that both
communities supported this no we didn't get the twothirds majority but we still got substantial majorities at town meeting um in both towns um Winnham was only a few votes off um I think it was
less than 20 you're right um and in addition the emails that I have received in the last two weeks so since town meeting and the ballot vote was
had I haven't read the percentages but I would say over 95% like we're talking high double digits of families that have emailed me in favor of this project i have received
more emails in the past two weeks in favor of this project than I have against this project in the last three years um I think we would be doing our constituents a
disservice since pretty much almost everybody who has contacted me has asked us to bring this forward again yep that I mean that is an accurate depiction of our email hour we um just
so the public knows we have a um policy if we get an email and it's just addressed to one of us asking us to do something we forward it on so we all get the same we've all seen our email boxes i mean we accurate description are
supposed to represent our constituents and I believe our constituents have said they want to see it again they want another chance um I agree thank you um I'm going to jump in and try to answer if people are comfortable
i'm going to try to answer um Julia's kind of question of like what so I'm just going to be like you know honest is that you know I in other words I watched the Wom select board meeting I'm getting
all the emails you know and so I spoke with Eric one possible thing that this committee could do is that this committee could request to have this um
uh topic the vote put onto the upcoming special town meetings in both towns um that is something that this committee can request of the select boards in both towns my understanding I certainly don't want to
speak for the Wom select board but my understanding from watching that meeting was that it appeared to me that they voted that if asked to do so by the school committee that Wenom would put it on their warrant um the Hamilton Select
Board has not yet met since the election um because you know I do a lot of preparation for these meetings um I spoke with Eric um I said I don't know if the committee is going to want to do
that but one of the things I would not want to have happen is that for that to have been that a motion to be made that wasn't fully vetted and legal and so I Eric um I said if we have this motion I'd like to make sure that it's the
proper motion and so we do have one that's written up because I didn't want something to get made on the fly and have it be not worded properly as we saw from the school uh roof vote that we just had
to have it has to say certain things sometimes i'm sorry David go ahead the um it seemed to me like we got the best in the best indication of of um the greatest number of people in the when it was done on the ballot in the what when
it was done on the ballot that you know there was greater participation you know if we want a revote I would I don't know that there's a good mechanism for doing this but getting it on a or having a special ballot or plebicide or whatever you like
to call would engage the the maximum number of of voters so town meetings are okay but so that might be true but the requirement would is we've already met
the we wouldn't have a ballot like a ballot vote wouldn't satisfy the requirement requirement the requirement is a town meeting is okay that's that's the only place where the two/3s correct so the ballot So the two ballot votes
met the ballot requirement they're complete got it so it's a it's a good point and I'm glad you asked it but that but yes that that if so yeah that's need to happen
so I don't I'm certainly not I don't know if anyone wants to make a motion at this point we're not under we're just having a discussion at this point but I did want to share with you that I Well I have a question yep julia what happens if we don't call a town
meeting and we just sort of like what then what happens then theund or two questions what happens if we don't call a town meeting and then what happens if we call a town meeting and it fails again so in both of those situations either if
we didn't if we did nothing or if we were to ask both select boards to put this on the warrant both select boards did that and then we still didn't get a twothirds majority what
would happen is the 120 days would expire um and then I guess it's likely that the next question for the committee would be did we want did the committee want to ask for an extension from the MSBA um and we don't know the MSBA has
said that they kind of won't entertain how likely that would be to occur like they're not going to tell us in advance whether or not they're going to give us an extension they are not commenting on that until does that answer your question
yes so in other words yeah so um thanks on that a little bit yeah either way you have to notify the MSBA um that you're you don't intend to
continue with the process so to answer to both your questions Julia is the same answer either way you have to let the MSBA know um that you won't be continuing with the process or that the the vote failed i
would believe both of those outcomes would have the same outcome at the MSBA they would say "Thank you okay apply next year again okay okay okay um so does anyone have a motion?" I do
i have two motions okay um I move that the Hamilton Regional School Committee directs the committee chair to formally request that the select boards of the towns of Hamilton and Wenham each include an article on the warrants for a special town meeting to be held no later
than June 26th 2025 for the Cutler School project second uh seconded by Jen Carr so um if I understand the warrant correctly this is a request it would go to both select boards and then the
select boards would vote as to whether to put that vote asking you to contact the select boards to ask that i'm sorry oh not we i would ask oh actually dependent on um new business section F a
person sitting here will ask um whoever is in the seat whoever is sitting here in half an hour um okay um does anybody have any further discussion on the so I still don't think the June 26th I guess I'm taking it is
either the 120day threat is 120 days oddly the 120th day which happens to be the day that Hamilton is scheduled there is coincidentally it's not literally couldn't have picked that if you wanted to and it couldn't be the worst special town meeting that could we could ask for
right so right right so I I do have something I have a question um I don't know if that's a question i'm just really conflicted about this because is the is the premise here that
we're going to do a better job of educating people before the vote and that there are still questions to be asked that people have and we feel like there are still some undecideds out there or we feel like the other town meeting vote
was not representative of everybody so I think that's different people can answer that i think that's directed to the committee because I I'm very conflicted about this i I have an answer but I want other people to answer go ahead Amy yeah well it's my feeling based on all the communications I've
received that there were a lot of people that couldn't attend town meeting for one reason or another um I also think there's still people out there who aren't aware of the project like you know if you look at the voner turnout um I know everyone in this room is very
engaged in this project but some people just aren't they're just not aware of it happening so yes I do think part of it is educational um and I hope that we have the opportunity to do a little more outreach before that date if we end up going back
to town meeting um so I'm going to just chime in and say I I also feel the conflict um I I really do i think it is a difficult decision i understand like
that um I from listening to people in general I do think that there is still a lot of education that could be done i um I hesitate to even say the words out loud
but I really do think that we are just the the 3A situation is continues to confuse people that I um I feel I continually have the conversation with people that 3A is a
completely separate issue completely separate vote that a person could vote No on 3A yes on the school yes on 3A no on the school yes on both no on both they're all those they're not related
yes um and I do feel that's something that we really struggled with and I think that there were people that spoke at town meeting that indicated that and people in my So I do think there is I I share your hesitancy Julia
around it because I support the project but I really don't support I mean I think that the people I think that people spoke and I know that that's not a popular thing to say just because we've gotten so many emails
So many people emailed me also like if everyone knows I'm on Zoom I'm having health issues I have a disability I it's really really almost impossible for me to attend the town meeting and I got a lot of emails from people where it was impossible for them to attend so I don't
know if there's going to be more accessibility um accommodations if there's going to be maybe you can vote absentee i think those issues are going to still continue to come up especially for people um with disabilities or chronic diseases and I
don't know i think my I don't I don't know i think my I'm just thinking out loud my main conflict is I really really vehemently support this project and I voted for it and I've always supported it but I I personally don't know if I
can support calling another town meeting and I just wanted to put that out on the public record and that's all I that's all I'll say other people yeah um a question to Eric um when are we expecting to get the um
energy efficiency report across all the schools because that's one further piece of input the one from from National Grid grid i believe they just finished it up i don't I don't know that we'll see that for a couple more weeks two more weeks i
don't know about two but I would say in a few more weeks i would assume they'll have to compile the report and get all the information together but I'll double check with um what they with um Curtis to see yeah I wanted he's the one he's been working
with them i I wanted to that's one input that I you know if you if you look at the the big picture of a with a more of a continuous improvement kind of of mindset that's one set of concrete
inputs that might help to get our head around the possibilities and um the other thing is Curtis's list and which according to your document you describe is complete but is
it complete is it prioritized is it broken down by expected cost or urgency to you know it didn't it was a very good start I thought but it didn't give me a sense of of any kind of time timeline
implied timeline and level of urgency and level of funding needed to actually address it so I don't know where he is i assume it has progressed from that first draft the capital process just kicked off in April so that process will go now
through the budget season for FY27 which the list will be prioritized and finalized by that subcommittee of that capital improvement process group um in September or early October i think will be rough costed you know each item with
with an estimate of of what it would take to to cure it i think Curtis is really trying to get solid numbers i don't I don't know that he's just doing the magnitude order of magnitude estimating i think he's trying to get
more solid numbers okay or even better but I mean that plus that energy audit could provide the basis on which to have a more minimalist kind of of set of scenarios across all the schools
maybe maybe yeah um okay are you sorry about that yes okay i I just wanted to mention to Julia Sorry nope go um
that special town meetings tend to not be five hours long on a Saturday they tend to be um during the week um and much shorter which definitely changes the demographic that's able to show up
well that's helpful yeah um and I Yeah it is i mean it's a it's different but my my I was thrilled that we had a huge turnout my hope is that we'll have a huge turnout yeah no but there's also a
lot of people that said they you know that I got 7 60 emails in you know 45 of them said that only one parent could go because the other one was home you know um watching the child and Yeah or you
know someone had sports or you know people were out of town at and you know so that it tends to help in in those scenarios you know and it can equally work against us at the
same both things can happen i guess I I I want to and maybe we're I don't know if we still have I mean people can continue debate did we lose Julia no she's still here and I'm here oh okay we just lost your visual but we can still hear you she's here um so
um yeah I I feel like I have struggled with this as well and at this point I really I feel like I want to do everything we can within this 120day
window to give the opportunity for as many people to you know to try it i I that doesn't mean that I don't hear the concerns around Yeah um bringing it back um I actually wasn't here when I moved
here in O2 so I wasn't here during the middle school vote and my understanding is that got maybe that got voted on i'm not sure more than once i don't know if anyone was here but you know I'm glad we have a middle school i mean so I'm
thankful to the people that got that built and got that done and um I guess that's where I am on that well I also feel that the town the special town meetings are happening anyway so it's not like we're just
creating a special town meeting for just this project that kind of helps me feel like we might as well take advantage of that opportunity i think it's our job to make sure that we're doing everything we can within the 120 right in in you know as I
agree we're spending tax mayor money and doing this whole feasibility study and schematic design okay um does it look like we're about ready to vote yeah I'm ready okay julia are you ready to vote are you there okay yeah we're
hearing you just fine i just can't see you anymore that's okay um sorry uh okay uh where shall we start mix it up sorry david Pledo yes amy yes jen yes julia
yes david Frankle no sorry no no uh Dana is a yes and that is five to one and the motion passes um
I so I understand my duty there or I'm sorry I guess I don't know someone the chair someone may have another duty the chair will bring that to the two select boards and I believe because we did the work that there actually is a required
second motion yes i move that the Hamilton Wum Regional School Committee directs the committee chair to formally request that the select boards of the towns of Hamilton each include an article on the warrant for a special town meeting to be held no later than January
26th 2025 i'm sorry June 26 2025 um for the lease extension for the Cutler school project one clarification it's just Hamilton sorry yeah so I was actually realized I just said that wrong
as well um friendly amendment to I'll give you friendly amendment to just include Hamilton for the uh lease extension for the Cutler school project 50-year lease extension for the color school project it's written down and I tripped over it
three times second um second by Amy Cumber Cumber um we're all getting tired um all right so um everybody understands this is just this is a requirement it's really just tied
to the vote that we just had the Cutler school has a 30-year lease our um town bylaws require it go to town meeting if you're going to give a longer lease than that um and in order to build a school we it's required that we have control of
the land for 50 years um so this is very much tied um so anyone have discussion so I didn't realize we're on a 30-year lease there they were on a 10 aren't we on a 30-year lease the Select Board approved at the Hamilton Select
Board meeting a 30-year lease which was the maximum they could but they need a 50 for the MS to meet the MSBA requirements that was an inside thought I let out I should um all right are we ready to vote yes
all right David Frankle this What's the motion again the motion on the table is to ask to direct the chair to ask the Hamilton Select Board to add the um extension to a 50-year lease to the warrant for their special
time meeting yes yes amy yes jed yes julia yes dana's a yes and that um is unanimous of the six voting member members present and the motion
passes okay thank you all for that work okay um All right next up I Are you ready Eric i turn the gavl over to the
superintendent take it away okay try and pop this thing back up here here we go so as part of tonight's uh agenda and because of the recent election we need to reorganize committee uh members into the appointed positions
of chair vice chair secretary vice secretary and war warrant serer so I will entertain a motion for uh was that I mean a nomination excuse me i'll entertain a nomination uh for
the position of chair of the school committee i nominate Dana as chair second dara are you willing to accept that nomination yes are there others should we nominate Trent because he's not here
he'll never forgive you to nominate him from something sign him up for other things lots of things okay we have a nomination that's been seconded and accepted any other discussion
start with a vote julia I think stepped over no she's back start with you Julia vote for what care dana oh yes happily yes thank you dan Carr yes
david Frankle uh yes david Pledo yes amy Kunberger yes dana um yes motion passes unanimously and I will hand the gabble back okay thank you Dana thank you it's a lot of work in a new
um Okay uh next up is uh are nominations for the position of vice chair i nominate Amy Kunber Kunberger i can never pronounce your last name kunber
um for the position of vice chair do I have a second i second uh am seconded by David Pledo amy would you accept that nomination i accept thank you um are there other nominations for vice [Music] chair seeing none is there any
discussion looks like we're ready for a vote uh David Frankle yes david Pledo yes uh Dana is a yes jen yes julia yes amy do you want to vote yes yes okay
um and that is uh unanimous of the six members present and the uh motion passes congratulations Amy okay um secretary um does anyone have a nomination for
secretary happy to do it i really I nominate David Pledo as secretary i'll second that i like doing it i'll just remember my glasses next time it'll be fine uh do I have a second was that David you
seconded David um there and David would you accept that position yes nomination all right um uh Julia yes jen yes is yes amy yes david Frankle
yes david heck yeah okay um okay the warrant signer is a little bit um we can do it tonight we might want Trent to be here if we
want i don't know if he got the time to do it i don't know if he does you do it now right do you Are you the one who does no it's it's Julia right now um I can do the warrant signer that's like a low lift okay it's not like a super
heavy lift and it's also really like dependent on my schedule which I like all right well hearing that I can I can do that campbell yay well I want to feel like
I'm contributing okay um All right are there other nominations for Warren Siner okay um uh David uh we're we'll just we'll vote then david Franco yes uh David Pledo yes amy yes dana's yes jen
yes julia yes all right and it's unanimous of the six members present congratulations Julia and then um typically it's helpful if we could have a motion that in the event that Julia is unable to sign the
warrant um that any member of the committee could yes so if someone wants to miss signing the warrants I was thinking about that the other day you can learn a lot about the district it is good yeah um so I I move that the Hamilton
Regional School Committee allow any member of the school committee to fill in as warrant signer at any time second second by Jen Carr is there any further discussion all right uh Julia
yes jen yes is a yes amy yes david Pledo yes david Frinkle yes okay and that is unanimous and that is an important vote i'm glad we took that um all right
um next up is the subcommittees if you all are willing um what I would love to do if unless you want to do it is if people would want to just Huh email and just say what
committees i mean you're all I mean nothing turned over on the committee here so we don't have any new people so if you could just shoot me an email and say whether you're content in your current position whether there's other subcommittees and we can put it on the
agenda for next time um oftentimes it just falls into place um but if not we can talk about it more if everybody okay with that i'm okay with that speak now okay we'll do that next time
okay uh Vinnie you have anything on finance and operations um not today next week I will though okay all right um we'll just committee reports um capital Finance um we met on Monday and we went through
um our third quarter summary and we discussed um the stabilization funds excellent and you have another meeting on the books or you will um we have one on the books
I think so who are the members it's Jen Trenton Julia me Trent and Julia um yeah I saw that in my Monday June replied at 2 o'clock okay june 2nd okay
that's a ways from now that's good um yeah vinnie said we didn't have to meet again until we did fourth quarter stuff complaining just just observing okay uh policy subcommittee you've got something on here for us i got something on here for you i assume it's why people
came tonight yes um do you want me to explain this okay oh whoever yeah this is just a um one of the rolling reviews every two
years we review uh this policy EBA regarding pest management um it's been reviewed by Curtis there's a memo from him attached to the agenda um and he
says that our current plan aligns with um MASC meaning through our policy and so we don't need to change our past management policy but it's also attached to the agenda as well you want to read it you want me to read it would
you mind reading the entire pest management policy um okay okay and this is just a um to your review um are you looking for a vote on this or you're bringing it back next time for a
vote or I think this is just a review so to vote on it so I I would do the same thing we do with all of our other policies you say this is a first reading we'll bring it back and vote on it because then we can memorialize it at the base of the policy like we do with all the other ones the um interesting thing with some of
many of our policies that have the multi-year review is some of them say review by the committee and others say just to be reviewed so we're going to just keep them all the same and bring them to policy and have them come back through the committee just so everybody has has seen them yeah we'll get move that onto So it'll go on the next one as
a second agenda yep okay um negotiations um nothing on the books but you and I happen to bring up in um another conversation the idea of maybe getting together for a meeting to
talk about where we are with um regional agreement discussions just to touch base yeah so yeah and I can just jump in i I I mentioned to David and I I said I think it would be a good place um to have some conversations i have been
going to the regional agreement um meetings with Vinnie and Eric and um members of the two towns and I think it would be good to have some conversations at NEG at the negotiations subcommittee just to get I know sometimes I'm in
those I'd like to get some guidance on some of the things that are getting discussed so that would be good if we could get that on the books yeah i'd love that there's actually work getting done and it'd be interesting to see what's come up yep i'm definitely We have a request from the uh teachers
union for a sidebar conversation okay it's actually attached to negotiations that we just completed so it's not a I don't think it's something that's unknown it's just they he sent me an email i thought you might have a sidebar on the regional agreement no no no no on the Sorry on the on the the contract when we finished negotiations
we had said that we would revisit something after the fact and Okay you just sent me a reminder so we may have to meet discuss that so maybe we can get that on the board agenda we can even just do that right after the meeting just get a date set um are we going to do
we're sort of making assumptions that the committees are going to stay the same i think it we are making some assumptions but I also think it can't negotiations subcommittee could certainly put a date on the books it's always I learned from
a wise man that it's always better to have it on the calendar sounds good looking too um yeah all right i didn't say um Yeah so I think we could put on the calendar um I just did want it to get
into public record because it was mentioned that we were trying to change the regional agreement like last minute and that's not true dana's been working on changing the regional agreement for like this predates me three to five
years somewhere when I when I referenced 2018 earlier this was before 2016 when I first started so this is easily nine years this is not some type of sneaking maneuver by the school committee this is something that's been in progress right
and for three to five years now and it's we're having really good productive discussions but we are not moving at a rapid pace i know I was just putting that out there for the public record no
we Yes mf and Michelle Bailey are going nuts at home right now going what do you mean we've been talking about this for decades no this was Michelle Bailey's the whole time she was on the committee wanted to be talking about the regional commitment and her instead of a lawyer
yeah um sorry yes go ahead i'm interrupting but speaking of dates remind a little policy subcommittee our next meeting is May 14th oh May 14th for policy okay sorry i don't know my calendar all right
um all right now that you've just recently been elected secretary David what private policy meeting no I'm just looking at next up is the secretary report so as we start a fresh
so I will get right on that get right on that i have it halfway done dana do we have to elect a vice secretary it was on the list no that's right you know and it actually is you're right and it is actually helpful to know who to turn to that is correct um
Um Okay so we're out of So we're out of order but out of order we're But that's okay that's I I appreciate that that's what we're supposed to do so Janice noted that we skipped something on the agenda up if we want to skip back up and we did not You are correct that we did
not do the vice secretary which I actually think is really the assistant secretary but regardless it's an important position um do we have nominations i can do that when I heard somebody do we have a nomination nominate Jen for
Okay secretary do we have a second anyone second second sorry I'm getting controversial so the look the entire lacrosse team
just showed up at my house to um ask prom proposal oh prop posal i'm glad that was awesome i was there my phone is blowing up so okay um All right so I heard a nomination i heard Jen saying she would
accept that and I heard a second is there any further discussion if only five people in the room that's okay yeah all right all right so yeah okay so um David Franco yes yes amy yes yes jen yes all right and
that is uh unanimous of the five members present i think Julia is not with us okay so um thank you Jen for noticing that and for stepping up and being willing to do it um okay superintendent report uh real
quick the uh this week this month I should say is neurodiversity month and I've had uh gotten out of my town meeting mode fortunately and been able to get into classrooms and do some reading with some of the kids uh some different books about neurodeiversity and uh even had a nice presentation with
a fifth grade classroom the other day and we had a great discussion about neurodiversity and how they see each other in those different uh lights in their in their lives and it it was it's been really really good so far i have more tomorrow and a whole bunch more the week after that um so it's been good for
me to get into all the different classrooms to read first grade second grade kindergarten i have a whole list of places where I'm going in the next few weeks but it's been awesome to be back in the classrooms uh so much and the conversations have been fantastic and I really appreciate what kids will
share uh not only with each other but with me it's kind of like the the new guy in the room we we've had some really great conversations about differences and how to be kind and how to be inclusive and I think that's an important piece of the role that we have for the within the district second thing
is I think I sent to all the committee members but we have were selected by the department of education uh several of our elementary classrooms were fil filmed yesterday and many of our elementary teachers were were also videoed and interviewed yesterday as
part of the TNT P um uh work that's been done with us they're they're a group that was uh we brought on through a grant uh through the Department of Education to help us to implement the uh Eureka Squared Math program and I'm
proud to report that the Department of Education has seen us as a model district already uh so much so that they're here videotaping the things that we're doing um TNTP has been extremely helpful working with our director of teaching and learning Jen Clifford and
all the the people connected to our curriculum and curriculum implementation i I really think it's a a great opportunity for us to show for our people to show what what we can do and to be that you know already kind of having a light shined on us in our first year of implementation is an important
piece so this video will be produced and then used across the state uh to work with other uh teachers and districts in Massachusetts so congratulations to our elementary people
and vacation is coming up next week don't forget don't come to school on Monday start today yeah so just a reminder vacation is coming up that's all thank you anybody have questions for the superintendent
um I don't think I have really anything i already reminded you about that you're get to get to work on your evaluations and because they're due on May 5th um I have anything else
yep is there an updated version of what Curtis is producing that we could have a look at of what of his his sort of rundown of the all the buildings state of the schools the state of the schools there's
no update on it the process just started okay the capital process just started in April so it goes from April through September right but has he not I thought you were saying he's added priorities or urgency or anything no the prior pri
prioritization occurs in September with once the committee once we gather all the information in April and May mhm that information is taken and Curtis is going to try to get re more realistic pricing so through the summer and then sit with the committee in September or
early October and um prioritize that list for the budget process in FY27 so once we start in November building the FY27 process we'll have a full list of um capital projects that's been vetted
by that committee which includes people from the two towns um people from this committee uh and several of our administrators in the district so that's that's he's following that process now that we implemented with the CIP program
got it okay thanks um I just um I I just want to suggest that we um find a time in a future meeting to talk about how like we as a committee can uh continue to support the district's DEI pro uh efforts and um I
think it's really important that we we back these initiatives and give direction and support to Eric um you know especially if if you know um anything from you know national pressures start trickling down to the local level make sure that we're on
record of you know where we stand and make sure that Eric knows that he has our full support and direction can we can we also add since we're talking about DEI a title n review of like what the current policy is in Massachusetts please because I know it's different
than the federal level okay yeah actually good timing with this because I have an email coming out to all of you tomorrow regarding the information that we're receiving from both the state of Massachusetts and the federal government so that everybody is on the same page but we can certainly
put on another meeting but I I I want to make it very clear right here and right now all of our kids are all of our kids doesn't matter what they look like what color they are what they choose to believe or not believe the kids that are in our
buildings are part of our buildings and they will always be part of our Hamilton one family in this district and I think the communities are just as supportive in that case as well so that's all I want to say get your back
um okay uh all right so I heard both of those top those topics for future meetings anything else okay enough for him i move that we adjourn the today's
school committee at 9:27 p.m second got to be fast second by David Frankle um I thought I was I was looking that way very funny i was gonna I was gonna Good work to it this time usually I'm second
i looked to the right and I was like "No you don't want to." But we got all three of us here