I OK, um, good evening. Uh I'd
like to uh call to order the, uh, public hearing. This is public hearing number 2 for the Hamiltonyham Regional School District, uh, FY 26 budget. Um And Uh Eric, I just, so is there anyone on Zoom besides
Julia? Yes, a few people in the waiting room. I just want to make sure they can. They're all good. They, they can hear or whatever we know that because I wonder if they have a question then or. Yeah, I just sent them a message that we're going into budget hearing. Alright, Vinny, ready when you are. You can, it should switch over now, yeah.
Mhm Mhm OK, thank you all for
joining us tonight and coming out during, uh, tonight's weather event. We are here to, uh, present to you the superintendent's final FY 26 budget recommendation. Uh, for the public hearing number 2 of the FY 26 budget process, uh,
just so everyone knows, uh, in the full meeting later on tonight, uh, the school committee will vote on the budget, so for the 2nd presentation, I'm not gonna go through the entirety of the presentation. I'm really just gonna advance to the motion slide and then uh start any discussions or any final comments, uh, unlike the last public hearing, public hearing number one, I presented the public hearing and then a full Uh, school committee meeting, I updated those numbers. That's
not the case this time. The exact numbers in this public hearing are what we are going to vote on for the final budget. Um, so for those who might be tuning in for the first time or haven't seen a lot of the budget presentations. I'm just gonna go over a list of things that we look at when we go to build our budget. Uh, without a doubt, the biggest thing is our collective bargaining agreements. Uh, these are agreements, uh, and contracts that we've Uh, come to agreements with our five unions.
Um Within these collective bargaining agreements, we find our cost of living adjustments, uh, otherwise known as a cola adjustment. In addition, uh, it signifies, uh, it stipulates any step increases, uh, so if an individual is in one of these unions, uh, at the end of the school year, they might be eligible for a step increase as well as a cola adjustment. Uh, so both those things are, are found within our collective
bargaining agreements. Uh, and for certain unions, they also have the ability for any column or lane changes. Uh, this is if an individual, uh, goes back to school or takes in-service credits, they can move, uh, horizontally. Uh, in addition to these documents, uh, big thing we look at is retirements. Uh, at this point in time in the last few years, we've seen an uptick in the number of retirements. I, I think it has
to do with the baby boomers coming to that retirement age. Vinnie, can I just interrupt you for one second? I just, uh, looks like people, are you trying to see the screen and you can't see it because we could. Oh, are you sure? I just wanna make sure you can see that the. Cause we all have it electronically too, so yeah, so, yeah. Are you guys all good? Good, OK, yep. Um, so the next thing we might look at is
retirements, uh, historically when an individual retires there uh more seasoned and deeper within the salary schedule, uh, making, uh, more of a salary when there's a retirement, we usually, uh, bring in an individual who's younger, less seasoned, and isn't as deep in the salary schedule and we realize, uh, savings through these retirements. Uh, in the same note, we also realize savings from staff turnover, uh, so when building the FY 26 budget,
we are, uh, 6 months ahead of when the actual fiscal year starts, uh, in 8 months ahead of when the school year starts. So there might be an individual or a teacher who's employed right now, uh, making, say,, $60,000 a year. Uh, we incorporate that individual into our FY 26 budget, uh, but for whatever reason, when the school year starts, that individual is no longer with us, whether they left on their own accord or whether they were not
renewed, um, there's staff turnover and the individual that we might bring in, uh, now might be making, say,,, $50,000 so we would realize a 100 00 $0 savings from staff turnover. Um, this is one big area that we see savings or changes to the budget from one year to the next. Uh, the next big ticket item is our health insurance enrollment changes or any premium rate increases, uh, health insurance, I believe, represents about a $3 million
line item within our budget, um, and historically, health insurance companies year over year, uh, apply an increase to their premium rates. Uh, so in, uh, 5% increase on our premium rate could be upwards of $150,000 increase to our health insurance overall. Uh, so depending on what that Premium rate increase, it could have a big effect on our budget from one year to the next. Uh, same thing with transportation
contracts, transportation costs, uh, over the past few years have increased dramatically. Uh, this is the result of increased gas prices, as well as um increased costs, uh, increased salaries for the bus drivers for FY 26, we do not have a contract. We have a 3-year contract in the last year is FY 25. Uh, so we will be going out to bid for FY 26, but transportation in itself. Uh, can have changes within the budget. Uh, this is both for
General Ed transportation and special ed out of district transportation. Uh, next thing is our out of district tuitions, uh, for our outer district tuitions, uh, it's regulated by OSD, the operational Services Division, uh, they set a rate increase, uh, every year for FY 26, I believe the increase is 3.6% out of district tuitions again is a line item about $4
million so any change in um that rate, again, can have a drastic uh. Effect on our budget. Uh, next is any requests from our building principals or department heads, uh, every year and throughout the year, we're always meeting with our principals and the department heads and listening to ideas they might have or kind of innovative projects that they wanna, um, initiate in the classroom, so we go over and try to help find funding for any of those requests, if we have room in the budget. Uh,
next is the condition of our buildings and grounds. Uh, if you look around, most of our buildings were built sometime in the 50s, so they are approaching a 70 years old, uh, so there is a failing equipment. Most of our equipment is past its useful life, uh, so we always meet with Curtis, our director of maintenance, uh, facilities and operations and go through any requests that he might have, uh, to keep the buildings operational. Uh, next is the district's enrollment shift, our regional agreement,
uh, dictates how we break out our budget, uh, to one community to the other. Uh, it's based on a rolling three-year average of the makeup of the population, meaning how many students reside in Hamilton. How many students reside in Wenham, whatever that percentage is, is how we disperse, uh, the cost of the budget to the communities. So any changes in the enrollment shift is something we look at, uh, while building the budget. And last is just the general state of the communities, uh, what's
going on in Hamilton, what's going on in Wenham? Are they trying to put forth a major project during what is the appetite among the community, uh, to support the school district budget. We are always keeping this in the back of our minds when we go to build the budget. So when we go to build it, where do we start? We always start with our enrollment shift, uh, presented here is just residents only,
there are also um pre pre-K tuition in students as well as school choice in students. This does not represent our total student population, uh, but rather just the population that makes up. Um, how the budget is split between the two communities. 24, uh, we saw an increase of 13 students overall, but if you look kind of at the bottom corner of the screen here. You can see that all 13
students were from Wenham, uh, Hamilton did not see an increase in their student population whatsoever year over year. Uh, so what this translates into is Wenham now makes up a bigger portion of the population, which then means they make up a bigger portion of our budget. Uh, for FY 26. But what was the result of that change. Uh, so right now, currently for FY 25, uh, we have a split of 66.29%.
Hamilton and 33.71% Wenham. Uh, the result of the new data for FY 24, uh, has changed by 0.37%, uh, going towards Wenham and away from Hamilton. So if you apply this new percentage, it ultimately means 130. $000 is moving away from Hamilton and going towards Wenham. That means right out of the gate if we completely rolled our budget over from one year to the next,
took a complete snapshot, didn't change anything in our revenues or our expenditures and only applied the enrollment shift, it would result in an increase to Wenham's budget of 1% and a decrease to Hamilton of 0.5%. This is important because it's the first step in building the budget. We really want to know what effect the enrollment shift has on the community before we start building expenses because as you can see here, right out of the gate Wenham is going up 1%. So if you think of prop 2.5, we
already ate up half of that increase, just in the enrollment shift without anything else occurring. Um, just for a point of reference, if you look at our prior year budget, the enrollment shift was about $24,000. Uh, so we're looking at nearly um 4 or 5 times the amount it was last year. Uh, so this is just the same, uh, information presented in a different format. Again, it's step one in the process is
the enrollment shift. If we stopped there, again, it would be no increase for the regional school district overall, uh, but an increase to one of 1% and a decrease to Hamilton of 0.5%. The next thing we look at is our revenues, because we really want to know if we have any revenue growth or any revenue shortfalls before we go and build our expenditures so we know what we're working with before we start building our expenditures. For instance, if we had a drastic change in our
revenues going down, we're going to approach our our expenses in a much different um format and really try to refrain from changing anything. However, the opposite, if we have a lot of revenue growth. Uh, we might try to think of different programs or different um things to initiate with this new, uh, revenue funding source. So what we have in front of you now is the changes in our offsets and revenues from FY 25 to FY 26. Uh, this is all of
our offsets and revenues, except our assessments. Uh, so all of this is all the funds we take in, except for what Hamilton and Wenham, uh, covers. So year over year we are seeing an increase of 216,000, or roughly 2.3%, uh, to me, this is really just OK. It's not horrible and it's not revenue growth higher than 2.5%. Uh, it's just about right there. So
again, uh, to me, it is just OK. Uh, but one thing I do want to point out, uh, is our access and deficiency, the last, um, 2 or 3 lines, uh, when you combine those two lines, we are seeing a reduction in our revenues by about $210,000 and that's because excess and deficiency is such a wild card, you really can't rely on it from one year to the next. It is unpredictable. Uh, there are too many moving parts that
could either increase or decrease your excess and deficiency. So historically, uh, we try to move all of those, uh, to offsets and expenses that I will get to in a moment, uh, but when you look at all of our revenues again, uh, we have a $216,000 increase. But when you remove our excess and deficiency, it paints a much different picture. Uh, we have strong revenue growth of 430,000, which looking at this,
if again removing END, it, it's a much different picture. Uh, it really shows that we're trying to do the best we can to increase our revenues year over year. So now layering, layering in our enrollment shift in our changes to our, um, offsets and revenues, the end result would be a decrease, uh, to the regional school district's overall budget of 0%, and an increase to 10% and a decrease to Hamilton of just about 1.1%.
Um, but we don't stop there. The next step is our expenditures, but this represents what would happen if we left everything the same and level funded our expenditures from one year to the next. So the last step in the process is adding in any changes to our expenditures, uh, in front of you here is the summary by DesE category, including all of our operating and our debt. Um,
based on DESE regulations, a regional school district must, uh, a regional school district's school committee must approve a budget, uh, broken down by DEI category. Uh, so this is that chart, uh, year over a year, the FY 26 budget recommendation is an increase of 1.9 million, or roughly 4.08%. Um, so just quickly, what does this mean for our final town assessments. We've now layered in our enrollment shift, our changes to our
revenues and now any changes to our expenditures, uh, the end result is an increase to Hamilton of 972,000 or just under 4%, uh, and an increase to one of 712,000, or roughly 5.7% for the regional school district as a whole from FY 25 to FY 26. increasing by 1.7 million, or roughly 4.5%. This
is that same chart prior but broken out by operating first debt for anyone who wants to see the difference between, um, the assessments based on operating in debt. Uh, you can see again at the bottom, it's that same increase year over year of 1 1.6 million, or roughly. 4.5%. So now I'm gonna go over um some difficulties that we faced during the budget process to, to outline some of
the difficulties that we had. Uh, this is in no special order, uh, it really is just kind of how it falls within the budget process, um, one of the first thing, one of the biggest, not sorry, not the biggest, uh, one of the difficulties we faced is the enrollment shift, as we just talked about, uh, it caused an increase to 1 of 1% in that shift of $137,000 away from Hamilton. Wenham Uh, the next thing, which is the biggest thing is our collective
bargaining agreement FY 25 when we went to build the FY25 budget, uh, only one of our 5 union contracts were settled. Uh, that means we were estimating and assuming uh cost of living adjustments and step and lane changes for FY 25. We did not have that final data. So when we built the FY 25 budget, we incorporated somewhere between 3 and 4% increase to salaries depending on um what bargaining unit you
were in. But when those union contracts were settled in the FY 25 actuals came in, uh, they were somewhere between 3 and 19% with an average overall just over 8%, so this alone resulted in a $1.1 million dollar increase to our annual budget, because again, we did not have that funding in FY 25, uh, for those salaries, so those have to be incorporated into our FY 26 budget. Uh, but
we can't stop there because that gets us to where 25 should have been. Then you have to apply all of our FY 26 contractual changes. So all the FY 26 cost of living adjustments, uh, step lane changes and anything else that uh came about in the new union contract. Uh, that FY 26 amount came out to another 1.3 million in increased salaries to the annual budget year over a year.
So combine when you take the, the shortfall in FY 25 and then the increase for FY 26. It means an increase of $2.4 million in salaries alone over the FY 25 budget. So if we left everything else the same, the enrollment ship the same, the revenues were the same and all other expenditures with the same except for salaries, it would have meant an increase to our overall annual budget of 5.4%. FY 26. Uh, because of
those increases, uh, the next difficult decision revolved around our excess and deficient deficiency usage. Uh, so historically, when you have excess and deficiency, you really try to match those revenues with one time capital expenditures, uh, because END is considered a one-time revenue source and is not reoccurring every year. You really want to use that towards
something that matches that, something that's not going to reoccur. year. Salaries reoccur every single year, um, fixing a boiler or replacing windows, do not. Uh, relatively speaking, it should be another 20 years before you see an expense for that again. Um, that's why you really try to use END for items like that, uh, but a difficult decision we had this year was in order to keep the budget, um,
below certain thresholds, we took the recommendation of the capital finance subcommittee and then the approval of the full committee, uh, and instead of using those one time. Uh, END funds towards one-time capital expenditures we diverted an additional $1.3 million of excess and deficiency towards that $2.1 million I'm sorry, towards our operating budget uh to lower the overall increase. Um, that
means in total for FY 26, uh, the school district is contributing $2.1 million in E&D to offset our operating budget. Before this decision was made, we already uh committed $773,000 to offset the assessment. We added another 1.3 million to it for that combined 2.1 million. Uh, now, again, for those who have listened to my presentation before. This is something we're definitely gonna have to deal
with in FY 27, uh, but we really don't know what the full impact of that is going to be until the next budget cycle. Uh, there are a lot of moving parts to our budget. We could have increased revenues in other areas that help close this $2.1 million gap, we could end FY 25 with a surplus, which would then go towards our END usage for FY 2. Um, so time will tell before we can truly realize what effect this will have on
the budget process, uh, for next year, but it is definitely going to have, uh, an impact and it's definitely something we're going to have to deal with throughout the year and during the next budget cycle. Uh, the next difficulty we faced revolved around at a district cost escalations. Uh now out of district in total increased by 423,000 a year, uh, tuitions increased by approximately 181,000, uh, and
transportation by 242. Um, you can really see the transportation both on the general ed side and on the special ed side really saw an uptick in the past year. Um, next is our Essex County retirement appropriation, um. As the appropriation continues to rise by double digit percentages every single year for FY 26, uh, we received an increase of 12.4%, uh, which
translated into a $147,000 increase year over year, uh, and this appropriation really is out of our hands. We're told the number and we have to fund it, uh, but double digit, uh, increases year over year, uh, make other, uh, put strain on the other side. of our Uh, just to review some good things, some accolades that we've, uh, incorporated into our FY 26 budget, uh, is that we've made
a strong investment and a commitment to student success through staff retention. Um, so through those union negotiations, the school committee, uh, has made it a substantial investment of our employees of that $2.1 million. Uh, we're hoping that this leads to a stronger candidacy pool, uh, and increases our staff retention, ultimately leading to a better learning environment for our students. Uh, the next item, which I'm particularly excited about is the investment in our STEM
program, so the FY 26 budget does incorporate, uh, two new STEM teachers at the elementary level. Uh, these two teachers will be dispersed amongst the 3 elementary schools, so it won't be a full 1.0 in each building, it'll be more like a 0.7 at each of the three buildings, uh, spread, spread across. Um, we're really excited about what innovative programs, uh, and, uh, projects, these and excited to see what next year brings,
uh, for our STEM program. Uh, this investment across the 3 elementary schools is estimated to cost roughly 209,000. Um, next is the support for our athletic program, uh, overall the FY 26 budget, uh, increases the district's contribution to the user fees for FY 25, the current year, um, the school committee matched the Uh User fee offset by roughly 50% for
FY 25 that has moved to 55%. Excuse me. Along with that increase in user fees, we are making an investment to maintain the new athletic complex. So in total, amongst the user fees and the additional investment to maintain the complex, our athletic department overall is seeing an increase of $18,000 and it represents a 16.14% increase for the athletic department over FY 25. Uh, the
next item revolves around our cybersecurity, uh, so with increased across the globe, our IT department, uh, has really stressed the importance of updating our security features, um, so the district is making a $55,000 investment to help, uh, increase our security posture. Uh, next, another item that I'm in particularly uh happy about is around our OPEB. This is our
other post-employment benefits. Uh, this is the 5th year in a row that the district has met its, uh, commitment to increase our OPEP contribution by $50,000 per year, uh, the first year had an investment of $100,000 which five years later for FY 26, needs a combined increase to OPEB of roughly $300,000. To me, this really says that we're taking our OPEB liability seriously and are
really trying to fund uh these obligations. I just want to thank the community and the school committee because over the past 5 years, uh, the district has has invested a large amount of money into our OPEB. I believe in FY 23, uh, we used a lot of our excess and efficiency to help fund OPEB. Uh, so right now I believe our total OEP balance is upwards of $3 million which really if you look across, uh, to other regional school districts, it really, uh, outpaces our, our
competition on the North Shore. Uh, last but not least is the enhancement to our summer school program, so the FY 26 budget, uh, incorporates an additional $33,000 investments, which will make a profound impact on students, uh, summer school experience and help bring in additional staff, uh, to support the students' needs. Uh, so presented in front of you right now, uh, is a chart of all the major expense changes, uh, over or under
$10,000. This is represented as a gross number before any Um, offsets and revenues and where I am incorporating both the operating and the debt figures. Uh, so you can see at the bottom corner, hopefully it's not too small, is that $1.9 million dollar increase or roughly 4%. Uh, next, I've incorporated a summary of all of our changes to staffing, uh, right here you can see there is a lot of movement every year amongst buildings where we
really try to keep the staff we have and redeploy them across the across the district, uh, depending on what the needs are of the student population next year. Uh, we really try to maintain our overall FTEs or our overall staffing level, and you can see here from one year to the next, we are trying to do that. Uh, we've only increased. we're only requesting to increase staffing, uh, by less than one person. It's technically 0.88. Um, FTEs,
uh, this really can be attributed to that 1.0 additional special education ESP that was needed for a 1 to 1. Um, aid for a new student that moved into the district. Um, so that concludes the overall presentation for the public hearing, and I hope to see everyone at the annual town meeting on April 5th. So I could Any questions? Thank you, Vinny. Um So as the public hearing, this is an opportunity
for the public to ask questions or to make a comment, um, we'll start with in the room. Does anyone in the room have a question or a comment regarding the budget. We are going to have an opportunity for citizens' comments during our general meeting if people have comments on something else, but if anyone has a question or comment specifically around the budget that Vinny, uh, Leonie just presented. No Um, Mr. Tracy, is there anyone on Zoom? That has a question or a comment. Regarding the budget
in there right now to the waiting room. Anybody has a question in the waiting room just for you to raise your hand feature. And if that can you just also let them, I don't know if they can hear me, but just that they, you know, certainly if they have comments on something else, they can talk about that in a couple of minutes, OK. I think we're good. OK. Right, looks like no one on
Zoom has a comment or question about the budget. OK. uh I'm just looking at the committee if everyone Without objection, I'll be moving towards closing the public hearing. OK, um, thank you very much, Vinnie, for your work. Um, at this point, we will close the public hearing, uh, portion of the meeting. Um And, uh, maybe
we'll just, uh, I don't know that we, I think we can just move right into our meeting. I, um, so the, the public hearing is closed. Um, and before we get started on the regular meeting, I'm just not quite sure who we have on Zoom. From members. I know we have Julia. Julia Campbell. OK. Alright OK. So we have 5 members. Present.
everybody good? Julia, are you good? Can you hear us? Yeah. Yes, I can hear you. OK. Um In that case, um, I will move on and I will call to order the meeting of the Hamilton Moham Regional School Committee on Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 7:04 p.m. and I will invite you to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. the. The United
States of America. s God visible. justice. Um, I just want to remind everyone, um, that this meeting is, um, Being recorded and live streamed on HWA. Um, Oh, thank you, Vinny.
Um, so I see that there are some people in the room that I think probably ought to offer a public comment, um, and I'm not sure whether there's anyone on Zoom, but we'll, um, try to get to everyone, um, if, uh, you would like to offer a public comment. I ask that when you do that, you, um, provide your name and please spell your last name so that we can get it, um, correctly noted in the minutes, um, and I ask you to limit your
comments to 3 minutes. Um, if there's somebody in the room, please go ahead and approach the podium. Um, and maybe we need a little, a little tweak of the podium there so that we can see you. Hold on, let's make sure we can see you. We Yeah, We're just doing a little rearrange. OK, there, that's better. All right. Hi, I'm Bridget O'Donnell. Uh, last name is O D O N N E L L. I live
at 105 Main Street in Wenham. I also am an employee of the district. I work at Winthrop Elementary School and have worked there for 25 years. I fully support the project and urged the school committee to vote in favor of the new school so that it can be brought to town meeting for decision. I have worked at Winthrop for the last 25 years and can confirm that we definitely need a new school. Every student and adult.
Deserves to live, excuse me, not live, learn and work in healthy classrooms and in a building that is safe. Students also deserve learning spaces that are suitable for optimal learning. When elementary students need to receive small group or one on one instruction. They could go in the new building to a breakout room right off their classroom. And leaves loses basically zero instructional time. In the current situation, they have to
walk down the hall or like down around the building, or maybe they have to go work on the stage in the cafeteria. Where there all there is is a Curtain. We've had literacy intervention happen up there, and currently now we have speech and language happening up there because they tried to have 3 speech and language people in a. tiny little room, I mean, hardly even a room. Like maybe enough for 2 desks and some children.
Um I have also, um, Be a part of this design project from the start, um, I was lucky enough and, uh, fortunate enough to be able to give suggestions and hear about it and get really excited. Um, we also, uh, I've been to different forums that we've been to, you know, that, that the town has held, or Eric has held, um, and I don't know if people really understand the
depth of need in our buildings. Um, we have 2. Or 3 adult bathrooms in our Winthrop Winthrop school, um, which can be kind of tough when you got to go like that fast. Um, also, um, our cafeteria currently does not take into consideration the needs of children who get overstimulated, um, the new school design has taken that all into account in many different facets. Um, actually, every single decision
that's been made about the new school has been thinking about how we children learn best. Not like they did in 1950. But actually, environments and situations where they will actually have the best learning for their brains and their bodies. Um. And we also have a large problem with temperature control, which also impacts learning. When you're in a room when it's almost 80 degrees in
the winter and we're opening windows. Because it's so hot, the kids' faces get red. Where people feel sick. That's not the best thing for our students or teachers or staff, anybody that works there. Um. So I do urge you to move forward with this vote and vote favorably to bring it to the people, um, at town meeting. That's it. And I, if I could, I don't know if I'm allowed to. Heidi Kasivo, who
also works at Winthrop, couldn't make it tonight or make it on Zoom. She's got something going on. She just has a quick statement if I could read that. Um, I'm gonna ask that, um, we let the other people speak and then we'll see if we have extra time. Thank you. I wanna make sure everyone gets an opportunity. Thank you. O'Brien, O B R I E N and I live at 114 Forest Street in Hamilton. Thank you. I'm gonna
just I'm gonna make sure you're that we have a timer. Would you be the our timer, um. I'm not great at the timing while I'm trying to, OK, we'll let you know when you're getting close to your 3 minutes. All right, thank you. I fully support the new elementary school project, and I urged the school committee to do the same and vote to bring this to town meeting. I was a student at the high school when the population was over 700, so this size of a school is not new to the district, and it allows more
opportunities for different groups of students to work together and collaborate in a more meaningful way than we're allowed to with the groups that we have across 3 different schools. Um, as a teacher, the design promotes small learning communities as well as appropriate learning spaces that I would be thrilled to be a part of moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Hi, uh, I'm Linda Mastriani. I live
at 2 Maple Street in Hamilton and all three elementary schools, so I am in and out of Bucher Cutler and Winthrop every single week. um, as a taxpayer, I urge the school committee to do the fiscally responsible thing and to vote in favor of the new school. I want that MSBA money. Um, I would rather have a brand new school that I am paying for as a taxpayer than to have 370. that we're Um, as a teacher,
I'd like to thank the building committee for their work and planning for a new building that will be safe, healthy, and supportive of the educational needs of our students and as a grandparent, I look forward to sending my two grandchildren to a new school in our district, um, where they will flourish, um, please allow the taxpayers to decide on this school at the Springs town meetings. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Tracy,
do we have people on Zoom that would like to offer a public comment. Anyone on Zoom? Uh, I would like to offer a comment. Please use to raise your hand feature. OK. Well, that's interesting. I'm sorry to interrupt No, All right, you can unmute yourself. There we go. Somebody just figured, OK. Go ahead, Alicia. Thank you. Gosh, it's been a while since I had to find that raise hand
feature. Uh, my name is Alicia Anderson, and I've been teaching in Hamilton Wenham for, uh, this is my 22nd year. 4 of those years were at the Winthrop school and the last 18 have been at Cutler, and I'm uh just wanting to urge the school committee members to vote in favor of a new elementary school project so that it can be brought to the residents of Hamilton and Wenham to decide if the project moves forward. Um, I have to acknowledge I'm
not a taxpayer and either Hamilton or Wenham, and I understand that those are the folks who will be shouldering the tax implications of this project. Um, however, the money being offered by the MSBA towards the project. It, it must be considered. Um, it may not be there in the future, which would leave the entire cost to the residents of the towns, um, should we choose to, to pass on this project as it stands now. Uh, our elementary
things are in tough shape. Um, I think at the moment there's Uh, that animal somewhere in my room, the odor is quite strong, uh, and we, it just doesn't make fiscal sense to keep putting band-aids on our schools, um, to the detriment of students. So, uh, again, I urge the school committee members to vote in favor of moving this project forward to the towns for their consideration. Thank you. Thank you. unmuted it, I don't know.
Hello Hello Hello Hello OK, hi, I'm Chanel Clark. I was gonna say I taught here for 20 years, but I remember when we hired Alicia, so I've been here longer than that. Um. Uh, I am also in support of new schools, uh, the new school bill. I know that I'm also, I don't live in Hamilton Wyndham, but I have seen our schools go through a
lot of repairs and um we have a lot of temperature controls and issues and um I feel like logistic wise with student supports and teacher supports and um building community. I feel like one school with a stronger community of learners and teachers would benefit the town immensely. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else online would like to speak, you can just unmute if you can't use the raise your hand feature. It's
like we're OK. OK Um, so I know that there was someone in the room, um, it is, we've made. I'm gonna look to the committee. Um, whether we feel, we feel like we have time whether we're willing to hear one more from the room. If you're still interested in speaking, sure, yep. Mhm Hi, I'm speaking for
Heidi Cascio. CAC C I V I O who lives at 11 excuse me, 11 Hilltop Drive in Wenham, and she asked me to just say the following, that she supports the building of a new elementary school and urge the school committee to vote in favor of the project. Thank you. OK, one more chance there on Zoom. It looks like nobody else is. OK. No Alright, um, at this
point, I will, um, close the citizen's comments, um. portion and um. You know, we have uh the Zoom link will not close because we have a committee member on, on Zoom, um, but I think in general it's, uh, We usually recommend to watch on HWAM, um, rather than on the Zoom link. Um OK. Um Next up. Uh Is, oh dear, a review of the
school committee protocols. And our mission statement. I didn't pass that out. Let's see who wants to, who, who's excited to talk. Um, all right, I'll do, I will do, uh, a portion of Our committee protocols. Um As elected members of the Hamilton Wyndham 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
received the best education possible. To that end, we hereby commit to the following in the conduct of our business. 9. All members will maintain the confidentiality of privileged information and will respect the open meeting law. You. Uh, next up, Amy will read a portion of our mission statement. The Hamilton Wyndham Regional School District. 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 Wam Regional School Committee will lead and inspire a district that is a source of civic pride and municipal engagement to serve the community for generations to come. Thank you. Um Next on our agenda is the consent agenda. Does anyone have any items that they would like to hold from the consent
agenda. No. Uh Julia, you're good. OK, uh, David. Uh, I moved to the Hamilton Regional School Committee. Um, vote to approve the consent agenda as presented in tonight's meeting agenda. Second, Seconded by Amy Kumberger, um, we do need to do a roll call vote because we have a remote, uh, member, uh, Julia. Yes. Trent Yes Uh, Amy,
David, uh, Dana's yes, that is unanimous of the 5 members present, and the motion passes. 5, correct? OK. Um Next up. Um I, uh, the vote on the elementary school. elementary
school building project funding. Um, it, the motion is, uh, and very long. Um, do you want to read it first? Oh, I don't have any more water. I moved to the Hamilton Regional School District hereby appropriates the amount of $142266,00034 for
the purpose of paying costs for designing, constructing and equipping a new Cutler elementary school at 237 Asbury Street in Hamilton, Mass, including the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto the project. Which school uh Which school facility shall have an anticipated useful life as an educated, uh, educational facility for the instruction of school children of at least 50 years and for
which the district may be eligible for school construction grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, MSBA. Set them out to be expended at the direction of the Hamiltonham School Building Committee. To meet this appropriation, the district is authorized to borrow a set amount under and pursuant to chapter 71, Section 16D of the general laws in the district agreement, as amended in pursuant to any other. Uh,
enabling authority. The district acknowledges that the MSBA's grant program is a non-entitlement discretionary program based on need as determined by the MSBA in any project costs a district incurs in excess of the grant approved by and received from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the district. Provided further that any grant of the district may receive from the MSBA shall not exceed the lesser. of Uh, 51. Of
eligible approved project costs as determined by the MSBA. Or to the total maximum grant amount determined by the MSBA. And that the amount of borrowing authorized pursuant to this vote shall be reduced by any grant amount set forth in the project funding agreement that may be executed between the district and the MSBA. Further, within 7 days of
the, uh, from the date which this vote is to be adopted. The secretary be and hereby is instructed to notify the select board of each of the member towns of the district as to the amount in general purpose of this debt herein authorized as required by, sorry, as required by the district agreement and by chapter 71. Section 16D of the general laws. Do I have a second? Second, seconded by Amy
Kumberger. Uh, yeah, yeah, could you say that again? Oh, So, I think um I Well, I don't know, Eric, do you or For David I think someone should Just clarified to the committee the what the Actual me, I'm happy to do it, but if you're happy to do it, just the meaning of what it is we're actually voting on here because that was
long and complicated and it's actually quite simple what we're being asked. was probably $142 million. That's the total cost of the project. Um The total cost of the product is required by the MSBA to be voted upon, even though They are committing approximately $50 million in reimbursement. Um, they still make you vote for the entire cost of the project. Um, the 51.28% is the
MSBA's reimbursement amount plus some of the incentive points that we've received along the way for various deeds, like, um, green schools lead certification, and, uh, maintenance, um, consistency over over time. So really, this allows the school committee to just say to the towns, we are um authorizing this expenditure from the school committee level. It's still If it passes here tonight, you need 5 out of 7 votes for it to move forward a supermajority. If it passes
here tonight, it moves forward to the both towns, uh, to be on the warrant. Also on this agenda are copy samples of the warrant articles as they would be presented with the motions, um, for that project. So essentially, the town would receive a very similar lengthy motion uh for the warrant in Warrant article, and then also a ballot, um, The ballot language that is also required by the MSBA. This statement and
and all the others is approved by the MSBA has been vetted by our attorneys and has also, uh, been vetted by our bond council. Who would ultimately be involved in the financing part, if we got to that portion of the project. to help Sure. Does anyone have any questions about what Eric just said? Um, so I just, I just to be the This, it's a just like the budget
later on this evening, this requires 5, a supermajority so it requires a 5 yes votes and the purpose of this is to move. forward to ask the citizens of Hamilton and one of them. Whether or not this is yes or no, do they want this project? And ultimately it would be 4 more votes. So if the vote occurred in the affirmative tonight. It would go to both
town meetings. There would be a vote at each town meeting, which would require 2/3 vote of the members of town meeting. And passed at the town meeting and each town, it would also go to the ballot the following Thursday, which it needs a majority vote because it's a, um, Because it's an excessive uh prop 2.5. We had solution, excuse me, it'd be, it would be a data exclusion, so it needs a ballot vote. Sorry. I believe that's a good question. I
believe at town meeting, it's a simple, it's 2/3 and then it's a simple majority at the ballot. Is that correct? You are correct. Thank Um, all right, uh, people have comments. Anyone want to offer anything? Um, just for Eric, um, so this is the, these are the final numbers that we've been waiting on. Um, so with these numbers, then we will be able to At some
point in time between now and town meeting. Make everybody who is a resident know what their tax burden is going to be that's something that we've been talking about since I think November. When are we going to do that? So we got uh, was it Thursday, I think Thursday. No, wait, today's Thursday. Sorry. Tuesday, we received the um The the Wenham numbers. So they gave us their numbers. We're waiting on Hamilton to finalize theirs, and as soon as we get those, we'll start to push those out
with the towns. Our OPM will work with the towns to get stuff on the website. We'll have, um, calculator on the website for people to go in and calculate their amount, um, what I'm actually did a nice job breaking it down by Uh, thousands, so depending on how many, you know, if you're if you're under 100,000 is 1%, so it's, it's a fairly simple calculation for people, they made a nice chart. If we can get uh Hamilton to match that. It'd be, it'd be easier to present to the people to say this is. This is how you can see exactly what it's going to cost you. Is there a reason
that we're not Sending it out to everybody, like, to every household, this is what your household is absolutely could. I think it. I'd have to figure out how to do it for every single household, like, here's your value, here's your value, here's your value, but I can certainly look into it. I, I think. We can definitely make the charts available for everybody, but I just, I think that the so much of what causes confusion in the town, and what we do here is that as the people are here in the
decisions that are made. And that's where I think that you could put a chart up. and you might get 75% of people that don't know it's there, because they, other things are going on in the world and in their life, right? And so that's my concern is that we can be as transparent as we can possibly be and it can still be perceived as a lack of transparency. Um, and I think the way around that is to, you know, just, just radical transparency, right? We, we've sent mailers out about this to everybody in the town already.
We could do the same thing in this regard. Um, so that it, it's, it's affronting people how much information they're getting on it, which I think is important. Yeah, I don't disagree. I think it's it's just the complexity of it I'll have to figure out. I don't. I don't, can I say something I'd have to do it in two different ways. Go ahead, Julia, sorry. Yep, Julia, we could also potentially rent like you're saying maybe work with the newspaper that goes out. Um, I
do, I worry, I mean, I think it'd be very cost burdensome to send each individual taxpayer and individual mailing of like, this is what you individually will owe. I don't know how much that will cost, but, um, I think if we have the charts. Available online and then maybe offer them up to any kind of publication that would like to share them. That goes out to all the households for free. Yeah, I agree that making like
a variable printing for every single household in the two towns might be expensive, but I wonder if we could Mail them To each person, one general message and send them online, and then Maybe provide some sort of resource for people who don't have access to looking online. I guess we could price out what variable printing would be for each household. I think it's easy. If we Yeah,
this is what your tax bill is this year. I get it every single time, you know, I think we can do it. I think that's the way to do it. I'll have to just work with each of the towns to it up I totally get the idea that there's a short period of time, and that And I will say I think that I just wanna highlight that I, that's sort of what I was thinking what you just said about the the key is really partnering with the towns because it is a partnership determining that number and what is. Joint
responsibility that like when if this goes to town meeting that the point is that People have As much information. As possible and it's A legitimate concern if a person felt like they didn't have enough information. I, I think that's A really valid point and I also think your point about it being a joint with the town is really important that Especially where there are two towns, the two towns might have different reasons for wanting to
communicate and they might. want to communicate differently. That's possible. Um, So you know David Frankel just joined the meeting. Hi David, can you hear us? Evening. Yes, I'm here. Good idea is not as good as Julia's. I, I'm sorry, say that again. That's because I'm on Zoom. Yeah, the, the audio is not quite as, it's, it's a bit echoey. I, I think whatever miking they've got there. Um Is
uh is leading to A more hollow room sound, makes it like a tiny bit harder to understand. Oh, OK, um, is it, tell me, can you hear me or and not other people? No, I mean, Eric, Eric's a booming voice through more, more readily than, than the others. Um, in terms of quality and, and uh Uh, comprehensibility please just let me know and I'll, I'll be
happy to repeat or have other people repeat if um. If needed Um So, um, just to get you up to speed, David, um, David Polito read the motion which is we're under the Hamilton Wham School. Project funding, David Polito read the motion. The motion has been seconded and now we're having a discussion around, um, this motion, um. So that's where we are, um. Do
other people, did other people have comments, questions. David, no. Um, Julia or David? I think I I um could you just repeat that? Sorry, I. difficult for it. Sure, um, so the, the Sure, I'm, maybe I have uh maybe I'll have Eric say it, but basically, but I'm trying to be loud. I, I'm not usually accused of
being too quiet. That's not been a big problem in my life, um, but, um. The motion before us is long and complicated, but this is the language that is specifically needed for a school building project, um, But the gist of this is that if this were to be voted in the affirmative this evening. Then it would move the vote, um, to
the town meetings and to the ballot to allow the people of Hamilton and Wyham. To vote on whether they would like to pursue this project and um the other thing which Trent just clarified, um, in a question is that these are in fact the final numbers that we have received, um, so the numbers listed here are the final numbers. Mhm Could you hear me? Yes, thank you. But um OK. OK,
let me just read through the motion. Hm I think I should
read the motion again. This time this time perhaps with some interpretive dance or, you know, um, David Frankel, do you have a question or a comment? I, well, you know, we've had a little bit of back and forth by email today and just to
disclose to the rest of the committee. Um I feel that my understanding is that this amount does not include Sufficient to meet the ashtra standard 241. And since we're building this building to last for the next 40 to 50 years. Um, I think it's important to make it as pandemic proof. As possible for public health reasons, not just for the reasons that the students and Stop. And, uh, so I'm not quite
sure how to Handle it, it turns out that for an extra 3 to $5 a square foot, we could have had that in there. I, See no evidence that that was actually examined. And um meaningfully discarded or included. Um, based on just back and forth querying. Eric on what was done and Why it was done. I, I, I
don't understand why it wasn't incorporated. It's, it, um. It affects uh 10 scores it affects absenteeism. It affects public health and uh it's, you know, like about 13 of the percentage point. Uh, of the total value of the project to incorporate. So, um I don't know where you go with that, um, but I'm not personally, I'm not willing to vote for something that that doesn't doesn't include it. So,
maybe Eric, you can clarify, but it definitely doesn't include it. the email response was it's not. Part of Um The states, I'm actually looking up for the the state requirement. Um You know, so That everything that has been going in is actually meets all current state requirements. Excuse me. Um, at the highest levels,
again, it's, you know, lead, lead silver certified. Um, you know, so we're, we're at the top of. You know, all, all the current. Um You're addressing something that. You know, could be. In the future down the line and that we actually are. Um, capable of upgrading to, which again I think was in the response. Um, You know, even though it's not a requirement
yet, we do have the capabilities of, of upgrading to the new requirements, should it become Mandated in the future. Um I'm concerned, well, I'm concerned that we're not at that level and in all of our schools now until 2028 and then After 2028, we still won't have them in the majority of of classrooms. And if, if this project gets set up. Um, it only, it only affects less than half of all the students in our
school system, so. We, we are The lagging badly behind other schools, but Boston public schools, for example, since 2020 has already gotten much closer to, to that, although they, they too are not yet at. At the 241. actually 241 levels. So, um And I don't think it's just, you know, it's not just a school district decision. It's
because it's a public health issue because schools are such a great driver of, of illness, uh, into the community. Um Uh, I think the boards of health will weigh in on this issue as well. So, if I, if I may, um, I don't know if other people want to speak. I don't want to step in, but, um, I From my point of
view, this is me personally, um, We're really being asked. I think this is, I'm, I actually think it's completely fine to bring up your concerns. I think that's appropriate to bring up your concerns and, and share those. And at the same time, um, The question before us is not actually How we individually might choose to vote at town meeting. The question before us
is shall we, we Well, I want to back up and say, I'm gonna back up and say, A while ago. We Went to the public. And we asked For funding to do a feasibility study, and the citizens of Hamilton and Wyndham funded that feasibility study and the deal with that is that we would do, we as the
district would do this work and come back to them with a project. So that they could decide whether they want the project or not. And we've done that. And so when I'm looking at this, I'm looking at this as this question is now, let's let the people now decide on the project that we have. Ready to present. Um And I see that as being, I personally am in support of the project. I think
it's a great project. I'm excited about it. But Even if I weren't. I'd like to say that I think the right thing is to bring it to the people and let them. decide Um, so I, I think it's absolutely fine for you to bring up any concerns you have about the project, but I hope, I guess I'm encouraging. It's just me speaking personally like. That I really would want the people to be able to vote
on this. Can I jump in? Yes, Eric. I just, I just want to be clear with the whole committee. The The, the reality of the standard of air quality hasn't even been met yet, uh, and it won't be until we get to the design stage, which is after schematic schematic design is really just the shape of the building and what it looks like, then we move into the deep design stage and, and some of those things like ashtray standard 41 is, is not even, um,
Hasn't been adopted by Massachusetts at this time. But in speaking with the contractors today, I talked to our, our, um, people who did our HVAC stuff, they gave me a lot of information about contingencies that are built into the project to be able to say, OK, at this time you have the ability to put in uh a UV light that would, you know, take particles out of the air in your, in your air systems. You could, you could add those things in along the way as you build, um, so, so those, these
kind of growth things that Dave. about are not out of the question. It's just, it's not designed to that standard because it's not Massachusetts standard, um, it meets all international mechanical codes, the lead silver standard, which we're trying to get to, actually 62.1, which is uh ventilation rate procedure, ventilation requirements of high efficiency. Uh, using MERV 14 filters, which is actually a higher level than we use now. Um, and, and it can. Grow
continuing to grow this cost between $3.05 dollars a square foot, which, which would add. Approximately 360 to $680,000 to the cost. It does not necessarily need to be added to the top. It may be part of the contingencies along the way, um, the trade-offs that are made through the, through the project we've built. So I think some of these things are worth further discussion, but shouldn't hold up the the project because I said, I still think we can get to some of the places that I, that Mr. Franco was talking about. Just to
clarify, Eric, uh, it doesn't take particle, the UV lamps do not take particles out of the air, it destroys viruses. Um In in and so there's still, but it's destroyed their effectiveness. But um 62.1 has been ridiculed by Harvard as being completely obsolete, it is worse standard than than we had in 1905. Um So, and the
Massachusetts School Building Association, uh, MSBA. It changed the Because 62.1 used to be in the building code and probably still is in the building code. But they, the building code I am told by MSBA. I simply says the latest. Ashtray standards that because things are changing so much, they, they wanted to get away with some language that's specified which ashtray stand, but the latest one is 241. So I,
I don't think it's, it's entirely accurate to say that that it's not part of the standard because they've stopped being specific about the ashtray standard and simply refer to the fact that you should use the latest ones and as I say, ashtray 241 is the latest. Can I say something? Julia, uh, yeah, I know David comes to me. Um, I think, I mean, I think we should bring this to the towns to see, I mean, I think that's our
responsibility to bring this to the towns for them to vote on it. Like this is not set in stone what what we vote on right now. This is just saying we vote to bring it to the towns and then The towns can vote however they want to vote, and we can vote as citizens how we want to vote, um. Yeah, and you know, I think we're getting too into the weeds for this particular motion. If the motion was just to bring it to the town and uh um. Seems more
long-winded than that, but Um I've got no, I've got no objection to being brought to the, to the towns. But Um, so long as it's not brought to the town by based on unanimous approval of it. Of, of its continent. I'm sorry, David, can you say that again so long as it's not brought to the town. I didn't hear the end of that that the school committee unanimously supports it in its
current form. No OK, that's it, that's a, no, I, I hear what you're saying. I was kind of like Eric said a work, a work in progress. I mean, it's, there's still, there's iterations of it that there's schematics of it. Um But nothing has, you know, ground hasn't been broken yet because we don't even know what the towns are gonna say. No, I, I think Julie, I'm not sorry to just step on your toes. I do think, David, I think that's a
valid. Question or point that, that by voting for this. I think that's an important. And valid point it as it is exactly right so and that's a great question and other people can speak to that. I mean, I do think the money is really important here that the money is the amount of money that we are saying this is the amount of money that the project is
exceed excuse me, cannot exceed. So in that sense, Yes, we are saying. This is the amount of money you look like you want to say something, David. No. Uh, I was just saying that, you know, you're, you're delving into this we of, you know, one specific Um You know, point that, that, you know, you, you tend to bring up quite often, um, in, in what has to be realized and and not sort of put aside is that we, you know,
excuse me, um, You know, we, we're currently designing, you know, as, as part of the school building. Um, committee, you know, we we're currently working with the architects and designers to make sure that everything is up to the minute. code on not only, you know, the point you're bringing up, but probably about 10,000 other points simultaneously, right, um, and what, you know, we're
paying people very good money to do is to make sure not one of them is missed and not one of them. Um, you know, isn't the most up to-date and best choice for the children in our community. Excuse me, that's, you know, not to say that your point isn't. Valid in, you know, your concern isn't real in that you have this expertise. Um, in this field, however, you know, it is one of. Very, very, very,
very, very many little pieces of the watch. That we're trying to build here, um, and. You know, while again, your concern is valid, you know, the, the, the main thing. You know, we can do is sort of assure you that, you know, we hear you and, and I think this goes to everyone else who's ever sort of sat here and felt like they've said something in the audience and and they haven't been heard. Um, we have heard you, we have, uh. You know, whether you want to believe it
or not, addressed every single concern, um, looked into, um, every, you know. Sort of Different view or uh sidestep or, you know, potential underground river that's been brought up and, you know, in, in, in, in research to make sure that we are In fact You know, dotting every i and crossing every t in this very, very, very important. Project,
right? It makes no sense to go through all this work to Ask the public for a lot of money and a lot of trust. Right? To then come up short in any way. It it it would be a complete waste of my time for the past. Going on 6 years at this point it's the first time I've. Right, um, and in You know, so I, I definitely respect what you say and what everyone else. You know, has ever come in here to say, Um, you know, but, you
know, at this point, All I could do is ask you to sort of trust. That the process is To try and bring everything. That we possibly can. For the least amount of money to this town and to our students, right? And and and that includes hearing what you're saying about You know, these, these codes possibly being updated and then making sure that You know, the people we've hired to do this.
are looking Into this, you know, every single day along the way to make sure That we're not opening. Um, which has happened just about every, with every building in this district have opened and already been sort of Behind the eight ball and So can I just ask a question? Who, for, for I've got a devil's advocate that I just can't. But go, who makes this decision?
Who makes what decisions will make the decision of Which Standard, we are going to meet in the building. you know, has the authority But we would, you know, be looking to our architects and engineers, and specifically in this case would be the HVAC engineers that we have. So then I just have one
point and then I really want to get to a vote. Which is like this committee never gave guiding principles to the school building committee, right? Um, we never said, these are the things that we think are most important. And when I look at the school building project, I think that it, like the, the values of the school building committee are well represented in there. You can see where they wanted to, they,
you. Um excellence, right? There are places where, like, we didn't go and take a building. Cookie cutter that are available, right? Um, and say we're going to install this. We said we want something that is Excellent in the sense that Um, you know, having been on this committee now for as long as I have, that David doesn't see, you know, the, the indoor
environment, particularly air quality, as something that this committee Represents in um in in investment, uh. By a reflection of its values, right? And so I think that that's If I had to, to guess what why he's bringing it up right now. David, I can't really hear you when you talk, so I'm just kind of putting words in your mouth, um, that, that he's looking for some commitment from this committee, because we aren't
the group that's going to be making that decision. Um, that we are going to value that as a component of the way that the new school is moving forward, knowing that it's not gonna be this group's decision, but we do have the ability to Guide the way the decisions are made. Does Does Does Because as members of the committee, we, you know, we are in a way conflicted. Why don't we get uh
a recognized expert on this subject. Um But it's less, less of a mechanic, you know, the HVAC engineers are, are not necessarily experts on the consequences of their decisions, they're much more mechanical in the, in their expertise, uh, you know, they're working out the volumes and the deployment, da da da da, but um if, if we could get a guest speaker. To speak to this issue to the
whole committee about why we should give a *** about which standard we we had adhered to. I think that would be very good for guiding. Guiding your decision making. you know, David, I just, I, I think that that be a recognized expert on the subject, or I'm probably better read than most on the subject, but. Yeah. The next book. And I, I think um Trent is actually familiar. No With one of the most prominent experts in this field. Uh I
think I just, I think that David, we, we've established that this group is not the one. That's going to make Those, those detailed decisions, um, that is the school building committee. And so all we can really do is give guidance to the school building committee. Yes From a procedural perspective. Could we not charge? Could, could we not
charge the superintendent. To take since his chair, that's committed to take this issue. And um Project Projectile views on the subjects of 3 members of the school building committee are sitting here right now. That is very clear what your position is, you know, and I, I will definitely be helping the next time I meet with the HVAC
um, on the project, you know, um, but you know, again, just sort of reiterated in and again, it's not that you're not being heard, but excuse me, throughout this process, you know. Um, we've had these community forums, and we've had, um, you know, different opportunities to meet with teachers in public and I did I did raise it right at the beginning of the school building committee and was told The, the weight. It's that
decision we've made downstream. Yeah, so I'm gonna just interrupt and say so hasn't been actually because I don't think you guys debated the issue, so David, I, I hear you and I heard you say that you had the opportunity to raise this issue, and I heard and I I heard and I, and I heard David Palito who was on school building committee, say he's heard that that you've raised this issue, so I, I understand your frustration. And at the
same time, I don't think the issue is that you haven't. Had the opportunity to raise the issue because It has been raised. We've We have heard the issue. Dana, uh, not to be argumentative, but. And our school protocols call for completely debating the issue and I what I, my objection about this and on a couple of other issues. Is that there was never substantive debate, as far as I can tell, but correct
me if I'm wrong, Eric and David. Uh, about Whether to be or not to be on 241, you know, did, did the school building committee go? That is one of the possibilities. Here's the evidence for, here's the evidence against we've decided against it. I. couldn't find any trace of that, but I'm looking in the wrong place. I feel like at this point this is kind of out of the scope of the motion. I dunno. Because I did ask the question right from the get-go of the committee, and I
just didn't get an answer. I'm not sure if you could hear what Amy just said, um, so Amy is just saying that she feels like at this point we might be beyond the four corners of the motion. Um, sure. OK Um, I'm not trying to, uh, what was that? I said I'm not trying to filibu Steve. OK, um, does anyone else have any questions uh regarding this, the specific
motion in front of us. It's like maybe we're ready to vote. I'm looking at the two people online, yes. Julie, you're you guys, you guys ready to vote, OK. Um, all right, is everyone and everyone is clear, no one needs David to repeat the entire motion. No, uh, we're gonna do a roll call vote, um, I'm gonna start with you, David David Polito. Amy. Uh, Dana's a
yes, Trent. Yes. Julia Yes. David Frankel. Yeah OK, and so that is 5 to 1 and the motion passes. Correct. OK Um, Uh, the next item on the agenda is the superintendent's, um, evidence, um. Before we get just before
we Do that. David Frankel, I don't know if there's any way for you to move your mic a little closer. I'm, I think we're all having a little trouble hearing in both directions, but I can hear Julia just fine, so I'm not quite sure. What that's about. But um testing 123 that's, that's a little better. I'll lean All right, um, next up is, uh, the superintendent's formative evidence. Thank you, everyone. Uh, this is the mid
mid cycle evaluation evidence mid-year, and it's really the first half, so that you can begin to go through the evidence, uh, outlying questions or uh start to track it for evaluation purposes at the end of the year, uh, as we get into May, there'll be, I'll continually add to this document. I, I, the way it's designed, I just continuously add to it. Um, so it's, it gives you an overview as to right now where I am with goals
and objectives, uh, that I laid out at the beginning of the year, uh, that were voted upon by this committee outlines everything from meetings to things that we're working on, um, through the district and opportunities that we have to, uh, look towards the future and um trying to finalize some of my goals as they relate to the district goals. So this is just for you to take and begin to digest and put other formally questions if you have them, please reach out to me, um, with the understanding that
there are continuously add to this document. So that as we get into May, I'll get a final document that'll be, I don't know, 25 or 30 pages long that we'll have um the entirety of the responses for my goals for this year. So I just want to make sure everybody had it in a timely manner and um Certainly, if, if you're going through it and you have a question, please reach out to me. Um, I just wanted to add to that, um. Just exactly that, that I do hope by
having it, you do have it in a timely manner. We have plenty of time. I, um, asked Janelle, um, to help. I don't know if you have remembered, but in the past that the actual form that we fill out for the superintendent evaluation is Really just frustrating from a formatting sense point of view, Janelle has done some real work on it and she's gotten the form already, so we, I, my hope is to get those forms to you actually very soon so that if you Um, wanted to sort of do
your evaluation as you go along, you can do that. Um, so I'll be getting those out to you, um, and then I just want to reiterate what Eric said. This is a lot of information and I hope that you'll reach out to him. Of course, you can always ask a question in a meeting. It's important, um, but also I hope that you'll ask him directly one of the things about being a school committee member is that you do have a direct line to the superintendent. So in this document, if you, I know, I glanced at it. I had a couple questions. I'm gonna ask him directly, um, so that I'm clear.
Um, anybody else have any questions about the Um, process or about Of the general what's going on here, this. OK Thank you. Thank you. Um, next up, uh, I think is maybe Amy. Who's coming right along, um, is an update on the communications and branding conversation. Um,
thank you. So I have been meeting with a member of the community. Chris Ford, who has, um, branding and design agencies, pilot and yellowfly in Boston. And I showed him all the work. That we've done up until now around branding. Um, and he has Volunteered his designers to. Take on the next steps of the project. So right
now I'm waiting for him to update me with timeline Um But that is pretty much the update and as soon as I have that, I'll share it with. Mr. Tracy. Great, thank you for that. Thank you for doing that work and for having those conversations, um, does anybody have any questions? Yeah, go ahead. Sorry, just a subset to that, um, Ford also reached it back out to me, circled back to me, uh, connected us up with some graphic design people to
do our signage. We we're responsible for all the signage at the new, um, athletic facilities, so. He connected us to kind of a a a group that does this specifically for companies like his without us having to go through a middleman so we should be able to save some money on that as well. So we're looking forward to that meeting. It should happen after vacation. Great. Um, and is this, um, timing wise, we feel like we're gonna be in an OK time frame to get
the signage done. We are, we are in good shape. OK. Um, anyone else have questions or? Comments on that. Thank you. Um, next up, um, this item is titled Procedures for Adressing Protocol Concerns, um, a couple of meetings back, um, I came to the committee and asked how the committee wanted um the myself or whoever is in the chair
position, um, to address concerns regarding member behavior and um I do appreciate. I did get some feedback from individual members, um. Um, that, um, and I appreciate the feedback that that the um would like those concerns to be brought forth to the committee to trust the committee. Um To be transparent with the committee, um, and to try to
address them, um, in that way, um. And so I appreciate those, that feedback. Um. It If anyone has anything That they would like to address regarding, um, that at this that and that conversation, um, that would, this would be the time for that. Yeah, um, Yeah, can you hear me clearly? Yes. Um, I don't want
to address one of the, the uh allegations imputations that you made at that meeting, not, not at this meeting, it will take, take too much time. But I do want to, Um Addressed one of them, um. And I just read from the minutes so that to refresh his memory. Um, you stated that the that the state chair Lara stated that several months ago,
a member David Frankel applied for a grant on behalf of the district without authorization to do so. Not having been specifically told that the district was not interested in obtaining the products offered by the grant. On that ground statement he made inaccurate and false statements. On the application. So, my response to that is that I didn't reply, I didn't apply for the grant. I was merely making an inquiry as to the size and nature of that very new foundation is apart from anything else that the
MASC's legal advice is that there is no need to get prior approval by the grant. But it was not my intent and, and, uh, there was apart from the form that they had on their site to make inquiries. Um I had several phone conversations with the, the person that was really a created this foundation and, and uh, was um knowledgeable about the grant. There was nothing to indicate how many, how many of these
boxes, and I'll explain what these boxes are in a minute. Um We're available and eventually, He said, look, I'm going to ask my board how many it's, it's possible. And came back and initially said 4000 anyway, I filled out what was characterized by the foundation as an information gathering form. I had it, um, I made it clear that any grant offer would have to be accepted by the superintendent and the school committee. I'm immediately notified the
superintendent when that inquiry surprisingly turned into a grant offer, he did not respond to me. He referred the matter to ultimately after two emails from me to him. He refer it to the, to the chair are implying I had done something improper. Um Which I think was very unfair because I brought, The, the offer to him in two comprehensive emails. Immediately prior to the offsite. Um, planning meeting where I was unable to attend
because I was away on vacation. Um I had written to Eric, asked him to represent to the committee in that informal planning session where his goals were going to be discussed. Um The following. I said, uh, this is Eric on August 8th, um, glad we had the chance to chat this morning. Um, I think we had a coffee and uh discussed the fact that I wouldn't be there and that they would That I really wanted to, um, Something's brought up. So
I said that the Kosi Rosenthal Foundation has approved in writing a $4000 grant. Which could come to 66 quasi Rosenthal box kit. Um, does everybody know what a coy Rosenel box is, or should I just give a brief explanation of what it is. I know what that is. Is that what you're asking? Yeah, David is asking, does everyone know what Accorsi Rosenthal box is. Yes, I do. It's a It's a do it-yourself
air filter. Box that um Uh, is considered by far the best price performance. Uh, that you could that that's out there in the world. Um Uh, I'm certainly able to show you, uh, one of these, uh, at, at the next meeting in person. Um, The state of Connecticut, for example, uh, just recently, uh, Spent, I think, $11 million to put one in every single school
in every single classroom. So this is not some kind of hairbrain. Scheme that uh that, that I've made up as a hobbyist. Far from it. This is, this is very mainstream, and these are the units that will actually get used. So we've made several ourselves. We use them around our home, um, I've shown to Eric that the sound level. Oh, is, is acceptable to work in a classroom, which is not true of the midfi boxes that we spent
$70,000 to put one in every classroom. A couple of years ago, and the teachers turned them down. That when they turned down from Liverpool 4 to Level 3, they deliver about 1. Not much more than one air change per hour. Uh, in the room, which renders them almost useless. They need to be running more like 5 air changes now, which is what I'm just, I'm gonna interrupt you but I will at the will of the committee, if, if. People want
You just let me know. I don't wanna and it, it feels like right now you're discussing the pros and cons of a particular air filtration system. But I think you're not addressing the protocol concerns anymore. That's what it feels like to me, uh, other people can tell me if they'd like to continue. I agree with you, uh, and the committee probably took half an hour to go through all, all of my, um, misdirects, and I
really want to clarify what was said to Eric. Um Uh, in, in two communications. Basically, the second time I followed up because he hadn't followed up, and it turns out he didn't bring it up in the off-site meeting. It's part of my request. Um, and September 11. I wrote it to him and basically said, uh, I'm just looking to understand, so would you like to discuss the grant offer um Just looking to understand if
you wish to accept this grant offer or reject it. In either case, I'd appreciate understanding your reasoning. 3 days ago, Uh, into the new school year, and my granddaughter Rena COVID and now has missed 3 days at school due to an infection that that had her temperature at almost 103. Clearly there are other students and staff that they've been exposed and a number infected. It's also turned our household upside down. Because my wife is having a hip replacement that I'm not. Not
gonna beat this to death here. The CR box, of course he raises box, the lowest and quite quiet setting has the ACH higher than the um Medifi 50 on the highest setting in the mid. Sending of the, of the CO box is able to deliver, uh, an air train of 5 in a plastic classroom. versus me. Uh, 5502.1 on its highest level setting and since the teachers turned it down or off. Um Because it's unacceptable,
it's unacceptably noisy. The it changes per hour is 1.2. Anyway. My only point is this. That we have an offer on the table. For free of 140 units of this. And I'm really not happy that that was turned into a smear. Well, I think the question is more of a false based on the false premise that that I had done something. Irregular against uh
a a set of rules that really were not made manifestly obvious and which I'm not statewide rules and I'm still not convinced that it's part of any formal policy we have. But will Uh, to treat it as if it is. But I don't believe that there was a solid foundation for making the accusation in the first place. But be that as it may. Um, the question is, we have an offer on the table and
the consequence of Using this, uh, this kind of. Is that we would have an opportunity for um Or an educational opportunity for, uh, a lot of students that, that's what ASU, now the largest university I gather in the country has done, they have created a course. Uh, for indoor air quality, uh, built around also practical build it yourself, uh, air filter system. Um And then
they've taken it to the schools. Uh, can I, can I say something? This is you're talking about, we're talking about the way you went about. Applying for the grant, not the substance of the grant in any way. It was about how you went about applying for it. The other thing is just, you know, having worked for a nonprofit for many years, we We get offers for things that are free all the time and there is
a huge resource of manpower and time, um, and other things that go into learning how something works and everything like that, but I don't wanna go into the substance of the grant because I think what we were talking about if I was correct, was not the substance or the box or whatever it was for. It was How it was, it was about how um No, I understand and the protocol that. That, uh, that, um,
characterization of what happened because what, what I did is I saw that the, the grants were all of a sudden available and I made an inquiry as to what the grant, what grants were possible, and then I took that to Eric. have been taken, it would have then been taken if he'd shown any willingness, it would have been taken to the committee as a whole. He instead, you know, implied that it wasn't really the committee's choice, it was his. I don't think that is proper either. And it, it, this
is a committee decision. Uh, and to whether or not to assign Eric. Uh, Eric was as a goal or not. Well, I don't know. I mean, I feel like I have, uh, what if I had Like 300 printers that I wanted to give. It doesn't, that doesn't have to go through the committee that would just have to go through Eric, you know, or what if I had some office supplies to give or if I had a rug or God only knows. I
just, I don't, I guess that I think um. I think that it's in the eye of the beholder. And That it's not even about the. Issue of the substance of what the grant was funding. It's the The way that It was Approached is what I understood the issue was, and I completely understand you wanting to stick up for stick up for yourself, um. But to me, I mean, I, I do
trust Eric to make decisions about Those those kinds of things that are not policies per se that are just things that are in the classroom, um, because um, because I'm sure we get all because I'm sure we get all the time I'm, I'm gonna interrupt. I'm just gonna interrupt the two of you just for a second. Just, I'm gonna interrupt. It does look like a, uh, did you want to speak? Does look we have someone here in the room that want to speak and then I do want, you know, to Keep focused here. So go ahead,
Trent. Um, thank you. I, I just, I think that it is meaningful to separate the two things, right? The how this was. Gone about and the substance of what it is. Um When Donations of substantive amounts of money come. It comes to the. Um, the first time that I heard about
this grant was In The last meeting we were talking about the protocols. Um, and so I, I do think that there's, there is, there should be a conversation that the committee has about what gets brought to the committee, but I think that the The item that's on the agenda here is about the protocol Um And I would just say that, you know, when you, at the end of
the meeting tonight, ask for additional items, um, for future meetings, then I will put that on as an additional item for a future meeting is. How the committee responds to things that are That potential donations that are coming in, cause I think we have a couple other things, um, but I just, I think that, that, that's an important discussion to have, and B is not exactly what we're supposed to be addressing under what's on the agenda here today.
Thank you. Um Other people Yeah, I would, I would accept that, um. I'm sorry, David, can you get closer to the mic? I can't hear you now. Sorry. I, I would accept that as, as a, a friendly suggestion, put it on the agenda to be specifically debated. That's some future me at, at the next meeting. Alright, we're ready to move on?
OK. Thank you. the You good? Um, all right. Next up is Vinny again. Um, Uh To the FY 26 final budget. We still have
Julia and E and David Chris, OK. Yeah, no, just, just making sure. So they can see what he's.
Uh, so as I mentioned during the public hearing, I was not gonna go through uh the entire presentation in the exhibit, there is a 50 slide presentation that literally breaks out the movement of every single dollar throughout the budget between FY 25 and FY 26, uh, right here, I have the final budget motion and I can answer, uh, any questions or
any final comments or I can go over anything in particular somebody might want to review again. Uh it's kind of Questions or or comments that you have, um, or I can Go through the whole thing. Anyone, questions or comments for Vinny? Julia or David, questions or comments for any. Um, I will just say a big thank you for my
The page that I Thank you. Um, David, do you want to read the motion for us? Sure Excuse me, I moved the Hamilton one Regional School Committee approved the final FY 26 general fund expenditure general fund expenditures budget of 45 million,441,149 dollars. This includes general fund operation expenses. After
offsets in the amount of $43,493,242. A general front, general fund debt service expenses in the amount of $1947,907. Furthermore, the gross operating expenses of the district before offsets have been allocated by the DESE defined chart of accounts according to the summary by DEI category chart included in the,
in this budget presentation as detailed in the exhibit. I have a second. 2nd, 2 by Amy Kumberger. Um The questions or discussion. You can't see the people anymore. No, no, nothing. Right, it looks like we are ready to vote, um, it'll be a roll call vote, um, Trent. Yes. Uh, Julia Yes. David Frankel
Yes. Dana a yes, Amy. Yes. Alright, that is unanimous and of the 6 members present. And the motion passes. Thank you guys. Thank you, Vinny. Um It's At comma after that. Um, Next
up is um. Uh, school committee budget and capital communication, um. Discussion, Eric, I don't know if you want to say that or yeah. We, we, um, wanted to get this on the agenda earlier rather than later to be able to put together our one-page flyer that we have prepared for. Uh, town meetings just as we have in the past, usually 11 page
visual flyer of, you know, the budget highlights, um, also the school highlights, um, that anything that would go to town meeting we put on this one-page flyer. We need to get it done, um, within a week of town meeting because it has to be approved by both moderators before I can actually bring it to the town meeting, so I just wanted to put that in everybody's. Front and center view because we have a short window to do it with vacation coming up around the corner.
Thoughts, comments. Graphic designers. I volunteered to create it, if you'd like. OK with everybody. to vote on that? Amy. Yes, I think we have voted on that before. I think you've done it before maybe and David's done it before, I think, um, yes, and I do think we have voted on that. Um I, um, Yeah,
I think, um, if people are comfortable, we could have a motion on that. I moved that Hamiltonham School Committee, um, task Amy Coberger with putting together. Uh One pager for meeting. Do you have a second? Second by Trent. have been weird if you seconded. Um,
all right, uh, anyone have any questions or? Yeah, I'm sorry, I, I, I wasn't, I didn't hear that very clearly, so, um, Very, could you possibly Sure, they just tasked Amy with creating the one page document for town meeting. Oh OK, fine. Thank you. It'll be a roll call vote. Um
Alright. Anybody have anything else? Alright, looks like we're ready to vote. Uh, David Polito. Yes, Amy pain is a yes, Trent? Julia. Yes. David Frankel. Yes. And that is unanimous of um the 6 members present. Thank you very much, Amy. Um Alright, and
you can work with Eric and Vinnie on that and It'll be fun. OK, um, committee reports, uh, capital finance. Uh, we have our next meeting on this coming Monday, we've met since the last update. Great. Uh, policy. Mm. We still need to meet, um. Yes, we're held up a little bit. You sent me a message about Monday mornings, right? I'm on
break for the. Whole week after, so it might be easier to be good. All right, I'll reach back out. Trouble getting everybody. OK. All right, um. I'm blanking on what it was, but I had another. Question for policy, but I can't remember what it was. Oh, well, yes, I'll bring it up in another time, I have a question, but yes, um. It was around remote meetings cause it looks like the rules, the laws may change,
so, um, Negotiations. Nothing. That's us, yeah, no, um. Uh Secretary report you weren't here, I had, we were going back and forth and we just didn't solidify anything and now I. All right, um. We'll get on that in the future. OK. Eric Uh,
thank you. A couple of items, uh. Exciting, the 100th day of school celebrations are coming up next week. Always fun at the elementary school. Um, also on the 12th, which is Wednesday, the annual Hearts and flowers event, if you have not been, it's a, a very nice little event that our choral kids do at, uh, the high school level and it's only about an hour long. They, they have different groups that sing and um have
food and, and, uh, usually some type of auction or something available, so Hearts and flowers next Wednesday. It usually starts around 6:30, uh, don't forget we are going on break, uh, after next. Week from 17th to the 21st, we will be on uh winter recess. And then, uh, right after that, just before our next meeting, the kindergarten information night will be on February 25th at 6:30 and that will take place this year at the Winthrop. And that is it. Hey. Anybody
have any questions for the superintendent? I do, um, several, um, one, what, what's the status of the electronic bus, um, grant. The status now is we are on hold. I have uh been in contact with Seth Moulton's office and several of his people, the, uh, As you know, the, the holds that were put on some of the government grants uh have been impacted,
um, we're still waiting for the idea of whether or not this grant will come forward or not. Nobody is sure. Nobody's come out and said that it is or isn't coming, so we're just waiting for some help from DC. Right, and that's Am I right, is that $5 million worth of grant at stake. The amount it's a, it's approximately $4.8 million. OK So um Very good.
And what, what's the status of the BTQ um energy study. I think I, I believe Curtis has reached out. I don't know uh what state he's at, but He will be here next meeting, uh, to talk about the water, uh, requests that were made last meeting, so. We can ask him then. OK. And I, I guess not to
beat a dead horse here, but I, I'm getting the impression that There, um, there's a lot of, a lot of illness going around the school, you know, it's, it's typical seasonal illness. Uh, and I've seen direct evidence of pressure to keep the kids in school, have them tough it out, and when they're symptomatic. Which, as far as I'm concerned, seems to me to Um, just
accelerate the rate at which we infect each other in uh in fact teachers, infect each other in the schools and so forth. So I'm just wondering what is your own personal policy. And what is your plan? To mitigate To, to reduce the amount of, of disease communication that goes on in the school. Realistically, we rely on our nurses. Our nurses make decision on who stays in school and who goes home. They work directly with
kids and families, uh, every single day and also keep us in the loop as to what may or may not be happening within the schools. I also noticed, I don't know if David can hear me, so you might have to repeat this, Eric, but as of Winter parent, I see in Mrs. Shadiak's email every week. There's a statement from the nurse with guidance about when to keep kids home, which I find really helpful as a benchmark. So there's no particular policy.
Um, regarding, you know, students that are symptomatic about whether they that that's. Person by person decision by the nurse. Is that what you're saying? You think that's a good policy, given But that just accelerates the rate of of spread. The reality is, is I trust our nurses wholeheartedly to make decisions on the ground level for our kids and our staff. Mhm And are they given
any instructions about the, the boxes they do have in the room to turn them on or turn them off or Turn them down I, you know, I When they were originally distributed, I didn't see much evidence of, of explaining why they were there and what the consequences of, of messing around with their, their levels was, but maybe that has changed, has it? I, I'm not sure what you're talk,
what, what. Are you talking, I'm sorry, can you say that again? I don't know what you're. The filter boxes that Eric acquired. A couple of years ago, I think it is now, isn't it, Eric? Um Uh Can be turned on. They can be turned off. The teachers can, can do either of those, they can turn them down. And their effectiveness at reducing the spread of infection in, in the room is, is affected by each of those decisions. I'm just wondering how those decisions, what, what
education have those teachers received. About the consequences of taking those actions. Um And, uh, and where are we in, in the cycle of the improvement because I noticed with, with Nick's. Um, email to all of us that they're very conscious of how sick they, their own staff get from the schools. And, and they're looking forward to the new school, hoping. The new school will enable them to not get a
sick. And yet there's very things that we're I'm not sure what we're doing to, to reduce the level of, of, of um, Disease communication in our, in our schools at this stage. So I'm just asking. So communication for disease control comes from our nurses, our lead nurse, uh, sends out. Uh, notices to staff across all of our buildings, especially in things, it could be anything
the most recent one was around um lice. So they're, they're fairly consistent communications by our nurses to people in the facilities in the buildings, uh, they generally manage all of that. There's no formal training on how to use a metafi box to turn it on or off. Um, some teachers keep them on the mid-level, some people, teachers keep them on the low level. Some teachers keep them on the. highest level, um, it just varies with each classroom. Some people don't use them at all. They don't, they don't, uh.
There's no requirement to use them, so some people choose not to use them. Yeah. Uh, I think that's probably pretty accurate. It's not very effective, but it's, it's probably an accurate characterization. Of what is going on. But, but your point is you, you delegate that entirely to the nurses. Correct. OK. Thank you. I'll take that to heart. No more questions for
me, thank you. Hi, uh, anybody else have any questions for Eric? Yep, the community reach out about the high school cell phone policy. I then saw something come out from the high school about that. is being considered by high school staff. So, eventually, I imagine we'll hear what that. ultimate consideration result
is. Yeah, the I think it was about 2 weeks ago when I, when I first talked to Brian Menegoni about his, uh, wanting to change the cell phone policy at the high school level. Currently now, they have a policy where kids put their phones in, um, they're literally shoe shoe. Uh Storage Things that hang on the wall, they drop, they drop their cell phone in there, you know, I go into a class, you probably see 10 or 12 or 14 cell phones in there, so not all kids use it. They're moving to something a
little more strict, uh, at the request of parents and teachers. So they started with the staff and faculty, I think they had 2 forums last week opened for staff and faculty to come in and, and, uh, kind of let people know how they have. There's a survey that if it hasn't gone out already, it's gone out to families and then there is a survey going to kids, I believe. On Monday of next week. And then they'll formulate some type of uh uh cell phone policy at the high school level that they'll add into the handbook and it'll
eventually come here, so. They are in the process of updating it and we've given them, um, I was on the commissioner's call today for a little over an hour and a half and uh some of the things that they gave us were related to cell phones from the Attorney General's office. So, I sent all of that to the teachers that are running this committee, um, to, to do that work so that it's, it's a tool kit from the Attorney General's office with some related information that may help them in their policy development, so. That's that's, that's what's happening right now. Thank you.
Thank you. Anything else? Um, OK, I don't, uh, really have a er report. I do have a, a little bit of a follow up to the, um, procedures for addressing protocol concerns. Um, I just want to make sure that everyone and I kind of really want everyone to respond that everyone is clear and everyone is in agreement that we as school committee members.
Should not be contacting staff directly and and Asking for information. That in fact, the chain of command is that we should ask from for information through the superintendent. Does anyone here have any questions about that or Want to respond to that in any way. Who's a new football coach? Yeah, do, do parents do all the, all the parents that make
appointments with teachers have to go through Eric to get the appointments. So that's a great question, David. So if a parent is going to meet with a teacher regarding your specific child, regarding, you know, report cards or a behavioral issue with your child, then absolutely not, then they don't need to go to Eric, but if a school committee member were asking for General information from a staff member that is something that Um So, for
example, if a member of the public wanted information, a report or data or statistics, they might not realize that they shouldn't go directly to a staff member, but if they went to that staff member, they would be directed to the superintendent. So that's how The information would be provided to a random member of the public. Members of the school committee need to
remember that as a school committee member, if you approach a member of the staff and ask for information directly about the school, you know, things about. operations or statistics or data that You're in a position in which that staff member Um May feel obligated to respond to you. You're, um, so. Yes, so that
should, so to answer your question, no, if you're talking about your own specific child and uh like conference with the teacher, of course not, but Um, so yeah, so good question. I hope that answered it. Um OK. Thank you. Anybody else have questions on that? OK, I don't have anything else I did here, um. I heard Trent asking about
a topic of donation procedures. Is that correct? Yeah, I've been thinking about how to word that request. I do want just before and before we get to the, what, because we do sort of already have a procedure and it is that if Um, and Julia actually used the example of, well, if I had 10 printers. And things like that actually do happen. People go to the
superintendent and say, I have these things. And sometimes the superintendent says actually no, we don't have. A use for that. Um So, if that's part of your question, because then they actually wouldn't appear on our. Agenda, like that, that actually does, I mean, Eric, I want to make sure that's true, but that does happen sometimes people try to be generous and donate something that we, the district doesn't actually want. So that is part of the procedures. is something like
computer monitors, people want to get rid of them, so they're like, hey, school, I'm gonna donate your my computer, my 7 computer monitors from 1993 to you, but we don't, we just say no, we, we try to stay away from technology in general that's been used, so we should stop that part of, but it's a valid conversation, um, I mean, it could just be called donation procedures if you want to dive more deeply into what those are, I think that, you know, given the concerns that were brought up around
Specifically Uh, the grant, and then I think that I think that we should have a conversation about about those because I think that if we need to Talk about updating our protocols. Um, then, That's the time to do it if we need to talk about. Um Um Asking the the policy committee to, you know, develop policies and bring them back to the, the full school committee. I think that's the time to do it. OK. Do you think it should
just be called donation procedures? Well, I, I, I think it's a little bit more than that, right? Because I think the The, the issue here isn't necessarily the The donation itself, other, I think the issue at hand. was Um, an individual member or, you know, the, the, the. Yeah, that an individual member spoke on behalf of the School committee, you know, without the consent. Of the school committee or, you
know, prior knowledge. Um, and You know It it's sort of working around that, you know, in hearing what David was saying tonight, you know, um. That he was inquiring and that was just sort of granted. The, you know, the um. given the grant Even though he thought it was just only an inquiring or whatever, you know. The concern from the committee was that in fact, he was speaking for the committee. And, you know, I
think we can obviously. Need to clarify that language a little bit. Oh I, I would entirely agree with that. I think that maybe this is a broader discussion around external communication. I actually still have a note from you in general that we do want to have a conversation around Committee members external communication and maybe that's the topic and whether it's around donation procedures or other. Yeah, yeah, I know it's it's so tough. I
mean, you guys know, you get it around how people ask you and. You know, you're not speaking in front in on behalf of the committee, but, you know, they hear no matter what, they know you're set on the school committee and so they sort of take it that way. And, and I mean, in other words, it, I don't want to spend too much time on this because it is just a topic for future meeting, but I, I wrote down committee member. Committee members or external communi communications, maybe it's just called committee member external communications or something like that, um, we can come up
with something, um. And it may really just, it may be around our Voted and approved protocols that we discussed or it may be around just having a general discussion, but I think that's a topic there. So, you and I can talk if you want to have flesh that out more or if you feel like that's enough, we can do that. I, I think it's adequately broad, and I'm adequately tired, OK, um, anybody else have a topic for future meeting. No, I just want
to note that Julia Campbell had to drop off. Oh, OK. Um, so yeah, Julia had to leave just a couple of minutes early, around 8:40. I2 FY 25. Q2 update. And that's at the next meeting. If that's OK. You can, if there's enough room, let's hope it'll be fun. OK, Eric, we also have to readdress Title 9 roll back, so it's been voted. Uh, by this
committee that the policy, the Biden era policy was voted, but we need to now go back and roll back to the 2020. Original Trump era policy, so. I'll have that together and ready for the next meeting only because we need it, uh, because we approve our handbook, our high school handbook, we need to have that. Updated it fairly quickly. So OK. We're just waiting for our attorneys to clear through everything. All right, um,
Anybody have anything else? OK. Looks like we are ready for a motion if anyone has one. I moved to adjourn at 8:45 adjourn. Second, I heard both Davids will take that as a motion and a second I thought we were a chair's report. Uh, I didn't have anything on the chair's report. I had nothing
to address. other than what I wanted to say about this, uh, staff communication. Um, OK, so I heard a motion to adjourn 8:45, uh, David, and I heard a second of. It was a chorus of David's and a second by Trent, um, David Frankel. Yeah. Trent And Sorry, yes, yes, Amy. Uh,
David and we are adjourned at 8:45.