hi good evening i'm Christy Budro and I'd like to call to order the Hatfield School Committee's um FY26 budget hearing it's April 13th and as we call to order I'm going to open it up for public comment
um for our budget hearing we don't have anyone with us in the gallery today okay is there anyone with us online for public comment okay so we're going to go right into a presentation of our fiscal 26 budget um this is a we
have shared this information with town finance and with the select board and we're just going to go into just like a little extra layer of detail for the school committee so that we can vote on an FY26 budget this evening we're looking to maintain what we've sort of
talked about as a level plus service um level in terms of the things that are financially um obligated but plus in terms of we're actually going to be doing some new things for students um so maintaining these services and um we're
asking town funding for an additional 2.5% and we'll be spending from school choice funds along with grants and uh and our revolving accounts the budget that we're recommending maintains the strategic cuts that we made last year
while continuing to allow the district to build programs and academic results that help us keep our Hatfield families and draw new ones to us so this allows for two innovation pathways that will be new for next year along with the um
concurrent enrollment program with Vermont State University so these are new programming additions they are not adding costs to our budget um we are going to have a full-time music position at Smith Academy as we move the sixth
graders up uh there will still I provided we find um the staffing for it there will still be elementary school band offered the same way we have done that this year this maintains the requirements we have to retain and and grow enrollment it keeps sports
electives AP and college level courses at Smith Academy and it provides for two classrooms for every elementary grade plus the specials at HS it maintains our star classroom which saves us on out of district tuition rates um and this year
we're finding some savings by working on making sure that the people that staff that program will be Hatfield employees versus having to do outsource that staffing it includes a modest COLA for all staff um paid for by choice funds
and most notably as we talk about this budget it includes an additional 126,000 plus in additional out of district tuition so that that tuition hike alone is 83% of our increase to town so if we
look at what's where that money is going um it really is about special education costs which are 76% of our total budget increase there's still a few variables that we're dialing in if you turn to your next slide um there are multiple outofd
district placements that are still in flux but we're budgeting for all of them the estimate on that is just over 400,000 and that's the 126,000 higher than this current year and just for those that are listening along out of district placements is not talking about
um charter schools or someone that choices out this is about educational placements if the district can't meet the students needs um there are a few unbudgeted wild cards that the landscape continues to change and we're watching particular to state and federal funding
um there is $167,000 in this budget that is planned based on federal funding those funds have been appropriated at the federal level um this budget assumes that the state will continue the free lunch for all program which has been an emphasis
for the state to do um part of that is reliant upon federal USDA funding so there is some potential risk for that and we know that what those costs might look like if we lose free lunch programs um currently the
state funding it's while the budget isn't final the cherry sheet has chapter 70 reimbursement to town is just shy of 950,000 um and circuit breaker funds which go to special education are on track to be fully funded
we've outlined the staffing required for level services and you'll see that we're we've sort of updated this chart to reflect the fact that we're looking to add a special ed teacher midway through FY25 and that position would continue
and that would give us three specialed teachers um at the elementary school and then FY26 adds back that second prek program teacher um and there's a revenue that offsets that because prek has tuition You're also going to see an increase in
the number of ESPs but that's overall a sa so while it may be up in staffing it's actually an overall savings to our budget because those roles are currently filled through outsourcing and the cost for that is significantly higher even if
we when we factor in things like insurance no change on custodians admin assistants or administrators um if we go on to the next slide we know that we're doing our budgeting continues to get refined and
um as I we've continued to kind of take a look at back and forward so that we know where there are changes um thanks to some work uh done at the state level we know from the rural schools initiative that small and rural school
districts cost on average 16.7% more to run than larger districts and regional districts now we always get a little needling whether we should be a regional districts regional districts cost 22.7% more um which aligns with what we
have been saying over these many years um HPS continues to be on track for meeting the state average of being half of the municipal budget so we've looked at 26 compared to 25 so
that you can understand without having to go line by line where are the changes um we've seen a little bit of an increase in our administration line that's really about tech costs which are up um as we look seven years back if we
want to look at where our budget is to sort of a precoid era budgeting um it's the administration costs are really flat there's just been some difference in where we accounted for special ed leadership um our instruction costs 35%
of our increase over last year is specific to special ed other school services um is a small increase relative a chunk of that is actually about busing when we look back other school services is a 37% increase
over where it was in 2019 and it's all about transportation so I mean we know we remember that transportation hike a year ago we're going to that continues our facility costs we are budgeting down for next year um this is basically
because we're getting um we're fine-tuning what it costs on um utilities and we're finally starting to see some savings at Smith Academy with the solar panels and also um this is a change in facility management so with
the changes at the DPW level in town we used to be part of that contract um and going forward that is not the plan so we're saving there acquisition and improvement we're looking to be cheaper in that department from last year it's up a little bit from
where it was seven years ago and programs with others that out of district tuition is up 44% and so that's really the crux of of what's driving costs and I just wanted to kind of put a put that to a picture
so if we look at special ed increases year-over-year the purple bar is is the prior year costs and the yellow is what's the increase so in FY22 we saw a 9% increase in 23 it was up another
eight in 24 it was up another seven but last year those costs were up 21% and we're projecting next year to be up 25% and just to see what's driving that I've also shared the number of IEPs that we're servicing for those years and you
can see that we're actually having fewer students on IEPs while those costs are going up so it can be part of that may be that there are some students that are um in need of greater services but it's also the cost of the services themselves
are going up and and this is a story that is not a Hatfield story this is across the Commonwealth this is across the country we're seeing this kind of increase with special ed services um you know in in comparison we're actually in in kind of better shape than many of our
neighbors with with regard to um to these increases or or similar shape um this is just it's it's not a reflection of you know any kind of you know wasteful spending in the special ed or or anything like that this is just simply the cost of increased services
that we are the increased cost of services that we are legally obligated to provide to our students and because we're relatively small that takes up a pretty hefty chunk of our budget so you can also see below those years what
percentage of the total budget is going to those costs so next year we're looking at 30% of our budget being spent for special education um and while we need to carry those services forward and we have obligations
to do so uh we also have obligations to other students so it's we have not um wanted to cut services to cover this so we're that's part of the reason you're seeing an increased budget um we're also seeing some good
news and positive traction on enrollment and we're continuing to work towards growth we've talked about the innovation pathways we're I think running and improving afterare for elementary students which not only is a great opportunity for every parent that needs
a little extra coverage but it makes us a more attractive district for school choice um their marketing push continues and I know Dr driscoll will have more of an update on that later this evening I believe and early enrollment supports that there will be two preschools so and
we're starting to see a different trend in terms of eligible local kids at the preschool age which bodess well so FY26 budget um again we're continuing to refine
things there there is a little bit that of this that is not an applesto apples picture and so we're we're making sure that as we budget going forward that we're more inclusive to all the costs um and so I
have factored some of that out to look at the increase so that you can kind of see what the real increase is because as we're looking at FY26 you're seeing afterare and athletic revolving accounts as well as title 2 and four and their
both their revenue and their expenses so the overall budget is bigger um but it's not it's not truly grown the total of that it's just that some of those costs weren't factored into our FY25 budget
we're just trying and so we're amending as we go and noting the difference so um we're able to cover the greater costs for choice dollars given that we had higher than projected revenue for the
past couple of years in choice and savings in the past couple of years on choice um and it's we've budgeted in a little bit more because one of the things that we need to do is likely some tech updates and we're just looking at the
marketplace and budgeting a greater sum in that because we're not quite sure what costs will look like when it go So when you go to buy a laptop is it going to have 150% tariff maybe maybe not
um so we we left a a more generous budget there than had that not been the case and then the last page for you is just the breakdown um and the budget submitted for your approval so the total
budget that we're recommending for FY26 is $7,857,941 79% of that would be locally funded just shy of 14% of that would be funded through choice dollars 3% through grants and three and a half through
revolving accounts including preschool tuition athletic revolving and afterare so does the committee have questions and that would include Aman who is joining
us tonight um via Zoom or commentary that too so the other thing I'll just make a note so apples to apples this budget is 7.89% higher than last year
but when we compare it back to FY24 it's only 6.48% up so relative to what we're seeing with other budgets regionally this is actually pretty
conservative and it's really driven by costs that we can't control um and which it's still possible that we could some of that could break our way and we won't need to spend all of that
but um school finance likes to not budget on hope that accurate representation definitely like with all the out district tuitions we're planning for the most expensive potential options and hoping that we get
a more reasonable final answer so I don't have a question but just appreciation for the finance subcommittee for your hard work for the administration for their hard work and for the very
um pretty but easy to follow presentation that you made for us tonight if there is no additional convers anything you wanted to call out no I think you covered it okay if there is no additional conversation is there a
motion on the table to approve the FY26 budget as submitted so moved is there a second i'll second um I'm going to actually ask for a roll call vote tonight for everything which
will make it easier for Aman to participate and given it's a pretty significant vote wouldn't be all bad so um Budro I Englehart I Bench I Sullivan I Green I
okay thank you much so that technically concludes the uh budget portion of the night we're going to table the budget subcommittee update because I don't think we could have said any more
than we just did so if anyone has joined us in the meantime as we go into our business meeting okay we'll just move straight on to
um come out and and talk about mission moments anybody i'm betting there are some mission moments to share sure i will start um mine was the New York trip that we just got back from we had a whirlwind trip on Thursday and Friday with uh just shy of 50 students from
Smith Academy 7 through 12th grade um and it was phenomenal um we saw a Broadway show went to the Broadway Museum Statue of Liberty Ellis Island we had students uh find their excuse me their ancestral um documents at Ellis
Island which is really neat um we saw the 911 memorial and museum which was incredibly moving um and then we came home and slept all weekend um and it was great we we had a lot of feedback um from folks that we interacted with that
weren't affiliated with the school um both the conduct and just kind of disposition of our students all glowing they were really impressed by kind of the caliber of of student that we brought down there which felt great thanks we have successfully had two different
tastings on Thursday and kids are already asking what this one is going to be they're anticipating whatever is going to be brought to them on Thursday and are excited for whatever we might bring for them to taste test any hints um well ever pate uhhuh yeah no um it's
actually supposedly at some point in time they're actually going to be doing some a hot dish that's going to be involving multiple um ingredients so it's not just a single item though the first one was a blend a salad blend but or lettuce blend and we purposely didn't put dressing on it because again we
didn't want kids saying "Oh I don't like Italian dressing or I don't like ranch dressing." So just plain le lettuce leaves but um yeah they devoured them and the same with the carrots this past week i have a quick one i went to pick up Charlotte one day at preschool and I
noticed that the preschool playground area was completely cleaned out all the leaves and sticks um things were pruned and trimmed and it was amazing and I went up to Miss BLA and said "Oh my gosh they came and cleaned up the playground." And she said "No I did it." So super big thank you to Miss Bida for cleaning up the preschool playground
that's awesome well I'll I'll add to the list um we're about to go talk about the collective bargaining agreements for the HTA and I just got to say that we've had such a
constructive and collegial time with our staff who clearly are there for our kids and hearing all the stories of other things that are going on around the state it just made me thankful to be
here and so a shout out to um to Kevin to Kim to Megan to Shelley to William to Amy uh for really a lot of work that they put in to to make negotiations move forward and work that they obviously do
on the other side of things because they've got a lot of teachers to work with so did I leave anybody out trying to think catch them all um they were fantastic and the town rep and the T Well I will say a special
thanks to him when we present but that was great so okay any others is there anything that needs to come off the consent agenda if not I'm going to make a motion
to approve that is there um can I second all in favor roll call oh we we have to roll call because I'm on Ludro i Engelard I bench I sullivan i I
Okay and I don't think we have a student representative report this evening no um so moving on to the collective bargaining agreements we get to vote tonight um could you pull up the slides for that i sure can just in case anybody is
following along later so again a huge thanks to the HTA team who brought really well articulated needs and solutions to the table and just for being a pleasure to work with to Greg Gagnon from Select Board to Dr driscoll
to Aman um it was a really nice team and it was a pretty efficient team we got started at the end of January and we met our goal of finishing prior to budget season so yes and it included conversations for
both the unit A contract and the ESP contract and the HTA has ratified this so we're going to review it tonight and put it up for a vote on our end um the updated contract language has been made available to the committee but
to highlight those changes um they've fell into a handful of camps so there are changes regarding professional development so there's a a creation of a new PD committee that will set out a PD calendar for the year and the contract
now benchmarks dates around which that work will happen and that will feed into our school calendar timing so that we're making sure that any days for PTE are timed to align with that calendar when we vote through a a school year calendar
if that makes sense tracking along um it gives more districtdirected PD time it converted some of what was previously teacherdirected time and it adds a PD day for fiscal 27 and 28 um we
did a lot of work and conversation around collaboration and student services so this new contract adds additional time for regular meetings between staff where they confer with each other on student needs and plans and curriculum planning and it's has
specific time set aside prior to the start of the year for all teachers and ESPs to review all IEPs so that everybody on day one is familiar with kids plans um it codifies and formalizes things like meeting notice
administration planning for coverage when those teachers are in meetings um forousus that we have had over the past year for things like the after and before care coordinator um for the student service team meetings to review case loads twice a year and um the time
that's available for the lunch window for the ESPs it makes a few updates in the evaluation process um there's a new evaluation form for ESPs and a separate teacher feedback form for ESPs and a 360
review process that allows staff to have input into administrators evaluations and lastly compensation changes um there is some shifting in stipens that's fairly budget neutral and cost of living adjustments so for FY26
the cola is 2.7% for FY27 2.7% and for FY28 3% so does the committee have any questions about either of the contracts
are there any changes in the contract that would that the community would notice besides having that happy contract that you know hasn't engaged staff any additional half days less half days any changes that would cause anything that families would notice there's nothing changing in next year's
school calendar there is likely going to be a slight change in the following year's school calendar in terms of that extra PD day um but it won't be a half day um and it may just shift it may just every year that changes a little bit
based on where holidays fall it's more likely to be at the start of the year because that's when professional development time is most useful i do think they will notice things like everyone has read the IEP before school starts m
if you have a student with an IEP would you like two separate motions yes I would okay i'll make a motion to approve the unit A contract for July of 2025 through June of
2028 as presented is there a second i'll second okay so roll call vote budro I in Englehart I Bench I sullivan I
come on green eye thank you sorry I'm lagging and I'll make a motion to approve the education support professionals contract for July 2025 through June of 2028 as presented
okay I'll second Budro I in Englehart I Bench I sullivan I Green I thank you okay
so yay good job have your contract i didn't necessarily when I put this agenda together imagine that I had all this side by side together um but after this I'm turning it over we just wanted to give a quick update
on just sort of a little bit of this is an educa is sort of an educational background for community members might be a refresher for the committee um but just to talk about state and federal funding i think if you refresh that
there were links on the page oh but it's right there you found it you got it sorry um the ED support update so just a little bit about funding from the federal government and the state government that impacts our budgets and
just sort of where things are at this point um so I'll go pretty quickly but federal funding for education nationally federal funds average 14% of a district's budget in Massachusetts it's
10% in Hatfield it's around 2% of our budget for FY26 um their funds for FY26 have been appropriated by Congress they may be funded out of a different department time will tell um and I just wanted to share with you like what those grants
are things like IDEIDA for special education is around 60% of the funding we get from the federal government the other big chunk is a title 5 um rural education program it's about 23% so um a
lot of federal funding is based on student need which is not particularly high in Hatfield that's economic based um and so when you look at why ours is lower relative to other parts of the state it's that Hatfield is relatively
um wellto-do so we do have 167,000 planned and federal funding that is part of our budget right now that's 2.1 2.16% and we are having conversations about if that funding did not come
through what we would do so um but as per now everything seems on track is that what you're in the same this week yeah so um on the state front
there are sort of two really big primary sources for state funding one is chapter 70 those funds go to to town which help offset their portion of our budget um and the other is circuit breaker which funds go to the district to help with
special education costs the intent behind chapter 70 is to have 41% of our foundation funding come from the state and 59% to be locally funded um if you've been through the chapter 70 funding formula it's fairly complicated
thing um but some assumptions that it has are that 1% of the student population will be out of district placements we are above that um it assumes that 18% of students will be receiving services we are way above that
um and for FY26 the insurance inflation rate is uh calculated to be 6.13% and we're dramatically above that um the foundation rates especially for small small and rural programs don't
necessarily obviously cover what it costs to keep schools functioning and most districts do spend more um so there are a host of things we'll look at at the next page where people are trying to impact that positively um
circuit breaker when it's fully funded covers 75% of special education costs after the district has spent next year it will be $53,000 per student so there's a claim threshold um which has been increasing
two to 5% annually so it basically says once you spend X the threshold next year 53,000 on student X then everything after that we will reimburse you 75%
the last two years has not been fully funded so it did not get to 75% um and there's a lot of work going on this year to to get circuit breaker fully funded so that would actually be a bonus for us um there is a fair amount
of state legislation that could impact our funding on the table right now um there is an act to provide sustainable future for rural schools both in the House and in the Senate um that would probably that could be an extra 60,000
is what my memory is for that that would impact Hatfield we don't qualify for quite as much as a lot of rural programs we're not there's sort of tiers and we're in the lowest level tier um there is an act eliminating predatory transportation
pricing might not help us now but could help us later um there's an act to adjust for equitable funding and another for educational foundation budget to take a look at that um there are multiple acts looking at long-term
special education costs as well as um one reviewing the MSBA the Massachusetts School Building Authority so that's another place where in past we've had help for things like replacing the roof um and at this point
we we still aren't we aren't old enough our building isn't old enough to qualify us despite the fact the roof is completely failed so we're not alone in having that problem um and then things that would help not necessarily our
budget but town's budget would be things on how um to amend the charter school tuition reimbursement so those are some of the things that as we have an opportunity to um advocate for state funding and support those are some of the pieces of legislation we can
speak to so just an update um and there's no news yet on whether um free lunches right now it looks like free lunches will continue um but I think we're still
too early in the process to know how that might change anything else so anyone have any thoughts they want to just sort of keeping everyone
apprised as it changes okay and last month Dr driscoll talked about he would provide us an update on how we were going to get to the district improvement plan
yes can I make a request sure could we pause for about two minutes for a quick uh restroom break absolutely thank you oh you know what i think you linked it to the agenda i did but it's not in the when I pulled up from the town
it's really handy when they're all purple all right i have paper copies if you I printed one others I've got it here i'm good all right thank you though hand me down there um so do you want a
paper you as you can see here um this is just kind of a a a timeline overview of kind of when we can expect things to happen and who's going to kind of be involved in those so the first first step um in doing this
work uh as I mentioned in last meeting is really taking a look at our district-wide vision and kind of reaffirming kind of where we want students to be as they go through their journey at um Hatfield Public Schools where we want them to end up when they leave Smith Academy so thinking about
what concrete skills and competencies do we want them to have what values do we want them to to have uh what kind of you know work ethic are we trying to instill all those pieces that go into you know when someone graduates from Smith Academy when they've come up through
Hatfield Schools you know who kind of who who do we envision that that person being um and then from there kind of using to to use a educational term uh kind of a backward design process of saying okay what you know at at kind of
each level in each school how are we going to kind of uh make sure we're focusing on those on those values and skills um to make sure that we're getting them there so from that point uh we anticipate that being done um in in about a month so we're we've started
reaching out to uh staff we'll be in our mailings this week we'll be reaching out to community members to try to get a team together that's interested in doing this work um from there we can look at okay you know here's here is where you know who are graduates who we'd like
like them to be um and how do you know what goals do we need in the over the next three years kind of big lofty goals um as a district to support develop that kind of development in our students um we anticipate that work and that's kind
of the first step uh in going from a a vision to a strategic plan and a district um strategic plan or district improvement plan um and that should be done right around the end of the school year so right around June 15th um from
from that point then we can look at okay as a district those are our big goals uh big outcomes what initiatives do we need to complete in order to support each goal so within each goals you know what what three four five initiatives are
going to are going to be put in place to make sure that we are on target for reaching those goals over the course of years um and from there creating what and so that should be done kind of midsummer uh and then from there creating a what I've heard referred to
as a logic model um to look at okay within each initiative what what things need to be accomplished and when do they need to be accomplished to make sure we're on track for meeting that initiative um along with you know when do we anticipate them being finished who's
responsible for doing that what are the check-in dates um and that should be done prior to the start of next school year from that point when we begin the school year we will have our district improvement plan kind of set which will include the um you know overarching
vision the the lofty big goals uh smaller initiatives and and specific activities that that you know um get us to meet those initiatives uh and then from there um we can do kind of what the inverse of what we did last time uh
which is develop our school improvement plans to align specifically with the district improvement plan so we're not kind of going the opposite way so this is just a you know big a big quick overview and kind of when we can expect those things to happen
um yeah so for the areas that you have the school committee as participants can you have you given thought to what that looks like in terms of is it survey is it sitting down and having conversations
and brainstorm like what what does that participation look like do you think so I think it could take the the form of of any number of those things with with these conversations i I trend towards kind of in-person meetings and conversations i think the um I think the
the information you can get out of a conversation with people um when it comes to things like vision and and where where do we need to go you can get a lot more of out of having having a a longer conversation than you can with a survey question or an answer we may have
a survey that gives us kind of starting points but I think having that having that conversation would be important um and I should mention um school committee should also be in the first first one as well i said community members um but school committee should be there too as
community members or school committee um when you say community members are you talking about like members of the like the the larger community like the town or what are you thinking i was thinking more about district parents and and guardians u but it could be it could
be alumni could be folks who are connected to the school uh or schools in some other way but I was primarily thinking of of parents of students i know um in the last meeting when we like very briefly well you presented and we talked about the strategic planning
process very briefly we did discuss um like involving the comprehensive planning committee so like where do you see that fitting in here like after it's done or as part of the process i I think I think probably as part of the
process um probably with ident when we start to identify goals big goals um because we'd want to align kind of what what our our goals are with those of the town too right okay it might also be helpful to have any plan input in that
very first district-wide revisioning like that anything that's already established is like a goal that impacts education coming at the very front yeah so you're not So otherwise I think it'd be it might hard to align that later right
yeah yeah i think that would be a benefit to our district yeah um I guess my other question is do you think this timeline is realistic i I think it can be um I think that the most challenging part is going to be the
revisioning by May 15 um I think that you know I don't want to rush that conversation i think and I I don't have a lot to base this on but my gut is that um when we get a group together we'll probably find
a lot of similarities in terms of where people want to want to go um and then from there we can we can turn that into a vision if we get the group together and everyone's all over the place then we may have to revise the timeline a little bit um to give more more time for
that because I don't want to I don't want to rush that particular process because I think that you know that's that really becomes the foundation even though we're talking about kind of a you know backwards from up top that can be becomes the foundation of everything else you do um and if you don't have a a vision that folks have bought into um
and if you don't have have you know enough input for that um then the rest of it doesn't doesn't really matter yeah i mean I would I would love to see this ready for September 15th i think that sounds amazing
um how you feel there's a lot of summer deadlines um are the school councils like stable year stable enough year on year to do this by the second week of September so the the school councils those will come
into effect to develop school improvement plans right so the school councils are um like by September 15th i don't envision that's probably a kickoff yes i don't Okay i was like I need clarity so I don't envision the school employment plans being done by September
15th i envision that process for school developing the individual school group plan starting early September that makes more sense because at each school there's a process to go through to get members of the the school council um to to go through all that so we'll need to do that prior to even starting that
hence my surprise i was like wow two weeks thank you and it there might be some room for some of this to kind of like those identifying district goals and outcomes and the initiatives that some of that will kind of be fluid yeah
and those can be you know that those might even be compressed a little bit um which gives you a little wiggle room on the May it does and that's I think that's you know I think after excuse me in our May meeting I can have an update about where things stand with our our vision ideally I'd like to present the
vision at the May meeting um but if that's the case where the process is going longer then we could we can update and revise the timeline as well where is your re-entry plan work fit into this so the re-entry plan kind of
um sets you up for the strategic planning so the goal the kind of the um the the trends that that I presented at the last meeting um those those kind of go into informing the conversations that we have about vision about what the what
the goals are so ideally um so so that and just just as a a way of framing it the the entry plan that I presented the entry kind of findings are those are my impressions right before we
start developing a district strategic plan um I need to get more input from folks throughout the vision process and the and and and this process here about if those are shared um I I like to think that they are um and and
I I feel like I have a pretty good pulse of where where things have been and and where we'd like to see them go um but I I want to make sure that I'm not that this isn't my my plan that this is a a
truly kind of um comprehensive one that that involves multiple stakeholders i would encourage you to sooner than later figure out what you're looking I agree with you on the inerson conversations really matter i would
think it might really help figure out when those might be particularly for the summer windows because people's plans are Yep probably solidifying now already yep yeah so
and those and that may may be to the you're talking about the identifying district initiative to support that mostly um and in developing the logic model at those points um there you know I would I would like to have input from the staff about that
but it's I feel less that we would need necessarily an in-person conversation for those pieces than I do with the the vision and the and the big goals you know once we start to distill about what you know what the different initiatives within the goals are and specifically
about what activities need to take place um those can be you know th those don't have to necessarily be a full group conversation every time those can be input you know if you have a initiative that only involves the English department um you're not going to pull the math department in to have that conversation necessarily so you could
get that that input from them these inperson times would be similar to what we did a few years ago like a workshop style of it could be yep and if if we went that route we would
probably do that in lie of a business meeting that month so it wouldn't be an extra meeting it would just be a different meeting sounds good for July as we look at calendars we'll see how that works
so other questions thoughts right get good scheduling I think because get some stuff on the calendar yeah it's I think you're right that it's
ambitious but doable in the timeline but that kind of means scheduling it now okay um I I think it would be worth hearing district reports out loud tonight is that can Can you walk through
your particularly the district level one you bet um so a couple things to highlight here um we had a group attend the NELMs which is the New England League of Middle Schools conference um and it was great we had I think we had six folks that that went um not
necessarily just middle school teachers but also other folks that teach middle school students um or interact with them uh and we had some great input on kind of what our schedule can look like for next year uh and what other area middle
schools are doing regional middle schools are doing that have been has been effective um and that's helped with our planning process for next year um uh as I mentioned we started conversations around the strategic plan uh the ELA committee had uh they met uh last week
we're scheduled to meet again this week but that's not going to happen so it's going to be after the vacation uh we've looked at two different um well one curriculum we're going to look at a second curriculum um then uh and we've also begun looking at health curricula that have been recommended from other area districts that are um that people
have had positive experiences with and so right now two have um kind of been recommended to us more than others um HealthSmart has been recommended by a number of districts mcgriel by another one um so we're looking at both of those as part of our SEALCAL work and
committee um we've had some shifting roles at uh Hatfield Elementary School uh we had a teacher go out on leave hadley Deary uh has taken over in that role uh we had an RBT um resignation we've hired for that
um we've had a special education teacher resign as well and are hiring for that position uh and we're looking to fill another ESP position to replace Hadley as she moves into that teaching role um couple updates from school choice and projections so um so in total we've had
38 applications at this point from those we have 13 that have uh committed saying "Yes we're definitely coming." And we're starting to receive records from those those students as well we know of two students at least who are moving into town uh one actually is starting at
Smith Academy next uh the week after vacation uh and one will be starting in the fall so that's going to be a a freshman and a senior um and we have uh we received word today from another student who's moving in
um actually has moved in currently but is finishing up a year uh at their current school but is interested in coming next year as well so that's another third student who's moved into town for Smith Academy which is great um and what may not be reflected here are conversations that we have had with two
other families who have let us know that they are intending to apply and come um but have not yet submitted their application um but they are uh siblings of folks who have graduated from Smith Academy in the past and are interested
in sending their their siblings as well um so that's potentially a few more um to add to that total as well um safety and building the doors are in they were delivered to the contractor for HS we're just waiting on when that project gets scheduled so hopefully that
will be um soon uh and we are still waiting for a full estimate on the a excuse me the awning project at the elementary school um I mentioned the New York trip that was great um uh we are starting the revisioning
work as part of our strategic plan i mentioned that um and we are working with the hta one of the the things that wasn't um presented as part of the um budget update or or contract was a significant increase to the um health
insurance cost for the at the town level um significant as 20% increase which is a big hit um so we're working with representatives from staff to advocate for um some shifts that might make that more uh less impactful I guess on um
employees bottom lines yeah just to give some perspective to that the the cola that we approved tonight will not cover all of the insurance cost increase for several of our staff
so if they cover their families with our insurance they're going to make less money than they did this year so it' be an effective cut um so we're hoping that we can work with the town on that um that's my district level report if
there are any questions um have we budgeted the cost for doing the health curricula change i'm assuming there's a cost to we buying either program so we haven't yet um the health
cost uh in looking at this is specific to the health smart uh curriculum uh is something that we should be able to cover with our operating costs for next year um much of that is because we don't have a really big student population uh and the cost for those programs tend to
be per student rather than per program so some programs you know that you buy a program and it's $10,000 and it covers up to you know 300 students or 500 students um and for this one it's you know it's a per student cost that we should be able
to um to incorporate we haven't budgeted for the for any ELA change i think more likely than not next year we'd look at a pilot year um for one or two curricula that that people are interested in um to get their feedback on how it work and
both the health and the ELA is that districtwide or are they so ELA ELA could be districtwide so that could be has the potentially to be elementary and up into middle school um the health is really focused right
now in Smith Academy but it could be something that if it goes to younger levels and they're interested in in adopting it we could we could do that as well okay thanks there's also been interest at Smith Academy in lumping our not lumping but uh incorporating our secondstep program
that we do in advisory right now into the health curriculum which seems like would make a you know make a logical pairing i would also really focus that advisory time on building community and um reflecting on goals
that kind of thing okay um what can you tell us about the school choice applicants who have not said they're coming um we've received different word from different folks um some people uh have you know they put the application in to
just kind of keep the option open and keep it out there um have decided to stay in their home district some other folks have talked about going to um larger schools you know similar things that we hear about from when folks leave you know primary larger schools um but yeah I think the most
common thing we hear is that uh we applied because we you know we wanted to get in before the deadline so we had the option if we if we needed to um or decided we wanted to and then they're having that conversation maybe after they've been accepted so that they're not you know I don't know giving someone
false hope or something like that mhm so might any of these people still come or do we feel like Okay yeah no I think I think so because they're still having these conversations yeah so we have what I didn't include here is that we have we we're tracking folks who have said
definitely not and we have probably uh 20 folks 15 15 folks who are still have we haven't received word one way or the other got it and we're reaching back out to them to say "Hey two weeks is up." Um Okay um so so yeah yeah I'm looking at
those eight for seventh grade yeah the other thing I eight so the other thing I didn't put in here uh which we're starting to see more conversions of is our um kind of our ad campaign that's ongoing um so we've had 38 folks that have reached out through
that campaign to say "Hey we want more information about this." Additional to this additional these well a couple now we're starting to see applications come from that so I think we have two applicants that have you know they we got their lead from Target River and then they've applied um but a lot more
are coming through and we're finding more conversion of at this point getting students in for tours and getting students in for shadow days so that's happened we've had you know in the last couple weeks we've probably had four or five students at Smith Academy that have come in for shadow days a few tours as
well and those are so those are typically what we're seeing is they want to do that before they're applying right so at the elementary school what does that look like parent tours or kid tours mostly parent at this point i mean we welcome the students that want to come
but it's been mostly parents are you doing those tours yes generally can we talk turnover for a minute mhm um so we highlighted a couple of uh cases of turnover there's been some others
throughout the year more over the over the summer last year the bulk of our turnover is in student services it seems both within the years and kind of in between school years can you speak to that a little bit as to what's going on with exit interviews what do you have a
feel as to why we're having so much turnover and what you what Dr s are doing to address that what we can do to help support that yeah I think so the the big story this year at the elementary school primarily we're seeing this turnover has been um case loads uh
they we we did see a lot a lot of um you know an increase in case loads there part of how we're trying to address that is hiring another teacher to um um to help absorb that and and we're hopeful that once we do that in addition to uh
moving sixth grade up to Smith Academy and having another teacher down there that the the the case loads will be more manageable for folks who are there um that has been the the big the big story that we've heard in terms of um what I would say job satisfaction pieces um the
recent turnover that we've had we had uh in terms of resignations the two of the RBT and the special ed teacher um one of those left for personal reasons they had some family stuff that they needed to um they needed to really focus on uh and so
that was that was that person the other person uh found a position um that aligns more with what her professional goals are um so more of kind of an administrative role and wanting to trend in that direction um as well as in a
district that um has higher pay and and um a better insurance uh piece as well so for for the recent resignations um you know I don't think I I think part of it still has to do with case load um you
know I think in and just the the amount that that folks have to do um but I think the other piece is that this you know particularly with the special ed teacher uh there was an opportunity that that was more aligned with what what her professional goals
are in the long term what's the So assuming we still had two special ed teachers at elementary school what would be their individual case loads that's the question for you at one point their individual case loads were going to be over 40 that That's huge i
mean usually most districts I've worked in heavy case loads are considered in the mid 20s so we have was it I think they said we had 88 students with IEPs at the moment but that would be across both schools when when I look at current numbers I'm
finding over a hundred okay so yes we and and part of the issue also was that the structure that existed here last year there was somebody that had kind of like taking um kind of a partial case
load and that was uh true also for our star program teacher who had a partial case load with K students that hasn't been the case with the turnover and in the STAR program and the absence of that staff member that left a couple weeks
before the the school year started so we weren't able to hire people that could we didn't hire a specialed capable teacher to go into the like social emotional learning position the person in the STAR program was really there to
get the program up and running and then left early October so there was of course turnover there as well so we really kind of trying to juggle the case load over at HS with two people when last year there had been essentially
probably closer to three part-timeish like two full-time and then two people doing very part-time specialed work as well so the the addition of a third person is really trying to get back in some ways to what was closer to what was happening before but
it's it's taking some time to to find that person so in part of that am I correct that it's just the availability of the candidates the candidate pool is shallow and it's not that the the applicants are necessarily but there's
just not a lot of applicants yeah this it truthfully a terrible time of year to try to hire a teacher anyhow well I guess I've been hearing about a shortage of special ed teachers regardless of the time of year i mean midyear always going to be that much
harder but truthfully filling these roles I mean Kathy and I went to a meeting two summers ago and listening to other districts talk about just like what percentage of their special ed staff they had filled and they had huge
numbers of vacancies and at the time we were like fully staffed we were just like we're not speaking i was just like be quiet about that um so the fact that like this has been rough with with
because we couldn't or didn't fill all of those spots with people that held the same licenses which changed the case loads which changed even meeting availability right cuz like all of that who's in the meet like you've got to have a licensed person in the meeting
and yada yada so with all of those changes like I feel like despite the fact it's been hard we're still at least on par with other districts if not ahead and that's
no comfort to families who are struggling but um and the other thing I would share too is that you know because of the timing of some of those early year or late summer um departures that we had this year is it really put us in a position to be reactive rather than
than than proactive so if if this had happened if those had happened in June or even July or even August um we we would have been able to say okay we're you know this is how we we envision things things going and and we tried to
do that to the the best of our um the best of our ability understanding that we needed someone right now we need someone in here right now and knowing that um you know the profile of the students that we need someone to work with um and the result of that was was
kind of this this perpetual okay we you know we need to um we need to reshuffle we need to to figure out how who's who's taking which case loads um whereas if you know if you have if you have some time to plan then you're able to to do
that ahead of time um we we just haven't been afforded that that the time to to be planful um as planful we've been as planful as we can um but we haven't haven't been able to take a look at restructuring or or um you know you know
are we hiring special ed teachers versus counselors and what the candidate pools are um that really set up kind of this this um almost reactive approach this year so we're looking forward to being more proactive going forward what's the
impact on our student population right now with you know the loss of an RBT loss of another sped teacher and what are we doing to support our one remaining sped teacher to make sure they don't burn out in the next two months great question um right now I do have an RBT that's ready to start um I'm just
waiting for paperwork to finish so that will alleviate some of that stress right now as far as coverage for the STAR program and I do have a hire for special ed who's willing to come in May 19th but they just need to give a month's notice to their current position
so that's at least something to come in because the goal and plan is that we would have one special education teacher with K1 one special education work with 2 three and one special education next year work with four five so that case load can be spread out and they're not
having almost 40 kids on a case load so that should definitely alleviate some of the stress around the amount of IEPs they're writing and the amount of planning that they're doing and also more the amount of time that they're in meetings and not servicing students are kids missing services at the moment
because of the turnovers in the last couple of weeks um not yet but if I put I've posted for the this um the leave replacement for the special education teacher fingers crossed i mean the good news is colleges are are graduating people so
if anyone is looking um I'm hopeful that we could probably get somebody sooner than later i will continue to keep that posted but as of after April vacation then yes that 456 group is going to be we're going to need to start figuring out trying to be creative about how to make sure those kids are getting
services we have been trying to reach out to retirees that we know to see if they could cover for a short period of time until the person May 19th starts up i'm also trying to think out of the box is there other people that we could
utilize internally that might not be special a teachers but could help at the elementary level relevant to things like ELA and math until again we have the person start on the 19th so there might be some more internal shuffling of
people do we have staff available who given our grade sizes do we have staff available that we could shift a teacher out of their regular teaching position to co cover in special ed temporarily you know what's on my mind but I'm not saying it out loud yeah but um the only
problem with that is that that's a challenge to then uproot a whole grade level the last eight weeks of school to say "By the way your teacher's no longer your teacher." Um yeah it's not exactly fair but no it's that's a but again that might need to be something that we have
to think about again based on the fact that we're not going to want to owe a lot of compensatory services but might need to be creative so yeah we'll be trying to figure that out okay um John did you want to talk a little bit about the kind of the five to four day model too that we're looking at oh good i'm
hoping that come up actually in some districts I've worked in we utilize something called distributed practice and there are kind of like a couple of different things to to cautiously say about this um distributed practice and
what I've described as a 3:1 model in some of the districts are really kind of condensing services either condensing them into four days a week or condensing them over a 3-w week out of four-week period what we're talking about is really condensing four days for five
days worth of services doesn't mean that we'd actually diminish the amount of time that a student gets services for example if somebody was getting like speech services we'll just say three times a week uh for 60 minutes each section we wouldn't necessarily change that at all they'd still get the three
time 60 uh they just wouldn't probably get it on a particular day that would give us a a bit more time and flexibility in the schedule for teachers to do progress report writing testing report writing for any assessments and testing that they actually do also time
to actually attend meetings without being out of the classroom and worrying about making up services at at a later time so again it's not taking services away it's just kind of condensing them you know throughout the week a bit um in in a lot of districts we've kind
of like geared up as I I'll say slowly relevant to we're meeting in IEP meetings we're talking about changing the grids as we actually uh meet with the parents in like annual reviews and reevaluations so it's not just kind of like hey we're going to change your IEPs
and you're not going to have any input we're at the table with the parents making these changes as we're discussing them so this will as we do this this will take some time to actually go through all the IEPs because we'll probably do them mostly uh during the annual review process but it does give a
little bit more time relevant to flexibility in the schedule for not just the classroom teachers but the related service providers and other professional staff to be able to have some time to do those things that they're still required to do but without missing services on
the other end for students and functionally right now um you know we we might have meetings any day of the week or you know a special ed teacher has to um pull a student to do testing academic testing that kind of thing so that still happens and during that time
if that's scheduled during a time where there are services those services are missed and either have to be you know may have to be made up um so this would this would really take what already exists and and kind of put it at a designated time so it's not creating any kind of interruption to services
which I imagine would be beneficial to the classroom teachers as well because it would be just the schedule would be much more knowable right well if you also remember from my presentation a few months ago we talked about that inclusion model and what we do relevant
to an over reliance on pullout services so this the third staff member these are all steps in getting us closer to an inclusion model that focuses on the B-grid the general ed classroom first instead of pulling kids out as as the
service that they need so I I'm sure you guys have talked about the slow and easy method into shifting that schedule versus sort of a rip the band-aid is there pros and cons for saying you know what we're just going to do it we have a fairly small community
can we shift that schedule so that in September we could convert all of those grids into a 4 day versus five day schedule so I'll say yes i so my experience has
been some districts have done that as previous administrations tried to do it and it's created more headaches than it was beneficial because families didn't have good amendment meetings to actually have these discussions they basically
made it happen overnight and they kind of like pushed to do the amendments but even if you're talking about smaller numbers like we are here in Hatfield we're still talking about what should be around probably right now 60 students
over at HS um that doesn't include pre-K and kindergarten um but we're just talking about grades 1 through six right now that would be 60 amendments that we would have to write all at once that could be terribly sloppy and not really I I'm sure it wouldn't sit well with a
lot of folks just because it would be probably very short amendment meetings that we'd have to have to get everything to happen by a certain date my brain doesn't wrap around how you schedule the transition where where you're sort of half in that system and
half out so if as you guys sort that out I hats off that sounds challenging i think there's we've covered a fair amount of what was in Dr s's report is there is there stuff in
your report you want to highlight that we haven't covered i just the things about um relevant to the the vacant position uh this should have gone out today we did send a letter out to parents uh anybody who is on the case load of the teacher who's leaving in the
next uh two weeks uh that um there will be a vacancy and try to give a brief description of what we're trying to do to make sure that we're hopefully filling the gap but also kind of like letting them know by like past the miday
point we're going to have a new staff member coming into that position and again that doesn't go out to everybody just folks that would be affected by the change is this role the role that was vacated in the fall so
this is the same slot the same group of kids who it will be for now previously had some turnover yeah i I think our initial hopes was that this was going to be our third person and then we had the resignation so we're not
Are we are we hearing from staff and getting input as we're making changes I guess I'm that's where that's where the the big changes that we're talking about making came from they came from the special ed um both of those changes having more you
know more more staffing to distribute things as well as the the shift to model to 4 days that was at their request the model shift makes a world of sense to me just as well as the increase in actually having a third special education teacher
that also was something that they said really needed to happen that was another reason for the burnout why we had been actually experiencing more resignations because truthfully we had three a year ago like we've inadvertently cut a cut a
spot with the same number of staff just because of what just how that was all covered so I get it i mean understandably yeah other thoughts questions okay
so we're going to table um school finance can I back up a second sure um we didn't do the Smith Academy report or the Hatfield Elementary report we kind of Oh but I had a specific
question um regarding the conference the middle school teachers went to or the six teachers that went this win time what I need if you could just explain that a
little more because it sounds very interesting so basically this came out of um some conversations folks were having with uh at other schools where they had skills blocks just as we do for students who um were on IEPs and and
needed that um and there was a desire to give that same sort of not not necessarily the same but but a similar block of time to to more students um and so they converted it from being just specifically a special ed service to a
service for most or all middle schoolers where it's called what I need time and so you might have groups that are you know they're really struggling with organizational skills they need some organizational work and so they might be with a a teacher you know looking at how
they are you know how they're they're you know working with their notebooks how they're they're organizing materials to go home um they might there might be a uh a group that just doesn't ha for whatever reason have the experience or
knowledge of how to study for a test that's coming so they might need some specific work in that so part of the middle school meeting will be to look at groups of students individual students and groups to say hey we're noticing this um and students can also
self-identify as hey I realize that my goal for the year is to improve in math and my um you know I'm having a hard time with math facts so I I want to be in this group that's working specifically on math um so it's a chance
for teachers to identify where stu what is needed for students and again not just students who are on APs but but all students but also for students to say "Hey I need a little extra in this area." Um and so we've been able to develop a schedule that incorporates that for next year um so it could be a
skills block that a student who is an IEP has and they're working you know that's identified as part of their IEP um but if other students are working on that same those same kind of skills that are in that you know that might be a more of an inclusion kind of model as
okay we're all working on you know these these um executive functioning study skills that that kind of thing so the the team is really excited about that um I think it will also really support bringing the sixth grade into the uh into the middle school too i like
that it's the teachers identifying and that the kids have the opportunity to selfidentify yeah yeah i think it I think that's really really I hope there's more [Music] um support and education to get kids to
self- advocate yeah well that I mean that will be a big part of advisory next year as we're shifting away from um doing more of the second step pieces and more really at focusing on some of that goal setting some of that um you know the the those other pieces that we
talked about um it that will be a chance for students to really actively reflect on how things are going and what they what they need yeah if they know that the teachers will identify them if they need help they won't speak up y but if we can get them to Yeah and and I will say that we're
also having similar conversations at the high school level um you know one of the things that we've heard from some of our graduates has been it's been really great the flexibility that Smith Academy has um but you know flexible deadlines haven't really set me up for success in
college um and so we've heard that and we are looking to shift how we do makeup work um how that is you know how how we're able to support students in hitting deadlines and and kind of forming contracts with them if they if they need to make up work um so it's not
just oh you know you missed this year do it you know and we don't get a hundred emails at the end of the quarter saying hey what can I do to what can I do to make this x y and z up um so supporting students in that respect as well and that you know we're we're talking about
similar things to what I need but possibly in a different you know in a slightly different way thanks other questions for any of the administrators okay with that we're going to table
school finance probably had your financial f um and move on to policy subcommittee spinch okay policy has um three policies to put forward for review today
um they're all based on uh updates that um Dr driscoll identified um so we'll take them one by one so first we have IKF which is graduation requirements this update is uh required because of
the new state guidance regarding competency determination in lie of MCCAST requirements we did talk about this briefly at our last meeting um so the state of Massachusetts because we don't have MCCAST we have to have our own graduation requirements but then we
also have to have a competency determination that approximates what the MCCAST did so we have added that into our policy um you'll see on the draft that credit for foreign studies crossed out that's just moved to the end um to
make it flow a little bit better um but that was unchanged um the competency determination um section essentially outlines the classes that the students must pass with a 65% or better which is uh again
approximates what the MCCAST did English 9 and 10 um an algebra class geometry and biology and then we have a section on um how students can uh demonstrate their competency if they
did not either initially pass those classes here at Smith Academy or if they have transferred um to our school and yeah we will take questions um from the committee dr driscoll or
Kathy did you have anything to add only that it's silly that we have to do this um we're doing what we got to do to comply with the competency is actually a lower standard it's a lower standard than graduation that's correct and that's and and I I think maybe it
makes sense for a district where we I mean we we follow the Mass Core uh requirements so all of our students get biology and then chemistry all of our students get you know those those pieces which are part of the mass standards
before they graduate which is a higher level than the competency determination this is just a requirement from the state and I will add um based on an email after our meeting last week this may change in true Jessie fashion they may they've said at this point hey you
know here's what you need to do figure it out um and then I fully anticipate them after meeting a few times saying "Okay and this is what we'd like you to do." Um but for now this is what we've been asked to to create as a competency determination in addition to our
graduation requirements because the uh lack of MCCAST as a metric for graduation has left a hole where they're concerned about what the competency is so really dumb question why not just
make the graduation requirements the competency determination the part I'm like I don't get the two bars like what this there there's there's really no reason not to except that
um except that we're we're kind of basing this on what the what the the state has said to approximate what the MCCAST did um I will say that if you have students who are really struggling and they make it
through the competency determination pieces um you can you have a little more flexibility with them if they're on you know specific plans or anything in terms of of work study and credit that you can you can help them towards graduation um
if they've met the competency determination um but the graduation requirements are those requirements they have to pass all those things and they have to get those credits to graduate so essentially there could be a student
Mhm who does not get a Smith Academy diploma for graduation but will receive something for a competency determination they they wouldn't receive anything they would receive anything they they they wouldn't not from not
from Smith Academy um I or from the state of like nothing i'm not sure in the past that hasn't been the case like if you pass MCCAST but you don't fulfill the graduation requirements um you still would have to go you know to do your
high set or something something else like that high set uh the new what they call GRE now or GED okay um so there's no it's it's it's really you know really this is just approximating what MCCAST did um through
coursework even though so it's even sillier than we originally thought because it means ab absolutely nothing it doesn't mean that it's in place of No it's not in place of any graduation requirements i mean they will hit this
competency on their way on your way to graduation requirements they do it by default i think this is a again I think this is really designed for maybe districts that have multiple paths towards graduation um hey what you know what's the base level competency that
you know graduate finish going to show in our case we've determined and and we determined this through conversations with staff and making sure that that um you know we we took their feedback um all students are going to get are going to get get those courses and 130 credits
yeah so this suggests at a minimum state level you can stop taking an English class after 10th grade correct and you you have one science course in your entire high school career and two maths courses in your that's
that's the state minimum and you have to get a D by a state minimum right okay naive question here so that so just if I if I can for just a second yeah that I I think that was recognized by the state and that's why they have pushed the mass core uh requirements for graduation not
all districts have adopted that we have uh which is a a higher standard to graduate but the the competency determination is still at that 9th and 10th grade level in order to graduate from Sith Academy student must have earned 130 credits in order to earn the credit you have to
pass the class it's unstated but correct you have to put or if you so say you you don't pass biology uh for the year you can take a credit recovery course over the summer to get to recover those credits so you still wouldn't pass on your transcript for the year but you
would earn those credits those courses are not designed to be like "Oh I'm not going to do anything all year long and then I'm going to pass this course in the summer." They're designed for students who were present and took the course and didn't succeed to give them kind of that core core knowledge to to
move on so that is an option that we have had students take advantage of not many and not often um but that does exist is a minimum passing grade for our requirements a 65 in line with Yep which is outlined in the handbook I believe correct yep
i I'm going to um hold my nose and make a motion that we accept the revision to IKF and it can stand until Desessie decides what they want to replace it with we're complying with the law i'll I'll second your
motion is there any other conversation okay Aman is ready for a roll call vote i feel it so Aman you want to kick it off on the roll call green eye budro eye oh we can go back we're going
that's even better yeah even better sullivan eye bench eye angelart eye budro eye thank you okay um okay the next policy that we have is EFD the meal charge policy um
again this is about our legal compliance um so we eliminated one section and we're also including information about the current free meals provided for all students as we made these edits we um updated the legal references and cross-cheed with the MASC template
policy ours is quite different but we made sure that the substance um is is similar or the same um so you'll see in green that we added the free meal program for Massachusetts students and how that
uh how meal charges work currently with that um and then further down you'll see that there were um three small paragraphs that we eliminated and then the
uh references were cross-cheed and updated and we're open to hearing from the committee i deeply appreciate the um redaction of the delinquent accounts and letting kids
go hungry thank you just like and that was also a requirement that was Oh that's a new requirement yeah so so this the these two these next two um next two policies here these came out of a um an audit similar to the tiered
focus monitoring review that we did food service goes through one as well um and these next two policies came out of that so we are we are recommending that they are um adopted to comply with um the findings of that audit
so Massachusetts does not allow punitive measures for students who have a balance on their not not as we had them know i know it's um yeah you can't really you can't really withhold a student's ability to participate in anything because of their
inability to something at least in terms of lunch i'm going to make a motion to approve as edited i'll second is there any further discussion
i Englehart I Bench I Sullivan I Green I thank you okay I'm just making some edits here okay so the uh final policy that we have for presentation is ACF accommodating
disabilities in school meal programs this is a new policy we do not have currently have a policy that addresses this um we are being asked to create this policy and it was specifically asked to be a standalone policy about accommodating disabilities in the school meal programs so Dr driscoll had
received an example policy we modified that um and it was sent to legal for review um no it was not thought this one was no wrong oh no this one was Yes uh yes it was did we hear back i don't think we
have okay so with that in fact I know we have that okay so this is a first reading then yes um the policy subcommittee wanted legal to just review it because it does deal with it's a brand new policy that we
have and um parts of it are like just a little bit more complicated about the USDA and how we treat disabilities things like that we want to make sure it's like 100% good um so it is here for your consideration
so by and large it's kind of a canned policy right like a boilerplate i mean yes there isn't like a like MASC doesn't have a template policy this is in another districts um again another reason we just wanted to have it reviewed but it's basically saying that
we're going to comply with the USDA regulations regarding non-discrimination and we'll modify meals for any students that require it because of their disability correct okay um it also directs families
to information about the USDA regulations USDA regulations okay any um feedback no thoughts aman did you have anything no I don't have anything okay okay so we
will wait to hear back and bring it forward the next meeting okay and so last on our agenda for tonight we're going to hear about um plans for a Guatemala trip so this is similar to the trips that
we've run in the past um to Guatemala um and to Panama excuse me um through the squads abroad program um the the difference with this particular one so and so the propose proposed dates are next March uh
20th to 28th um those dates align with our kind of sports calendar to not interfere with the beginning of practice or any anything else um the difference is that this is going to be designed to be more of a language immersive trip so
we are looking to have this only for Spanish students in the past we've opened up the experience to folks who are not in Spanish class and we'll do that in the future but we're thinking about starting to stagger them um so that that this particular one would be really focused on um Spanishmer
immersion on the trip um it would be similar uh similar experience they would go um part of it would be a volunteer aspect um part of it would be you know working working within in a community um they would be touring local areas um so a sim kind of trip that they've done
before with the same group um but again the difference being here that it would be focused really on language um language immersion when does the vote have to be taken about this trip well they need to start working on logistics um because they
need to start um you know they they need to if if we're not going to go they need to you know get other schools um and other schools are are um securing their times as well so it's with a company that we've same
company yep yeah it's a squads abroad group um that's their you know they do they do student trips at both the high school and college level and that's their their high school high school focus they've actually done this trip to Guatemala before um and they it was it
was very successful they had a great experience so when they went to Guatemala before though you said it was a different focus well it was the same kind of focus but they but the opportunity was open to more than just Spanish students go ahead so it was open to anyone who wanted to participate um
you know through that was in I think 11th or 12th or 10th 11th or 12th grade um and it was it was a great trip um but the focus was more on the experience and less on the language the goal with having this as a as a language specific
trip would be to have the focus um they would still be doing the same the similar activities and and having that experience but to focus on the language as well um to be working you know speaking uh speaking Spanish amongst themselves uh within the community with
with folks that they interact with as well and what grades would this be open to uh this I believe is going to be 10th 11th and 12th grade um it's we are unclear if we have any 10th graders who would be interested um so I anticipate it primarily being 11th and 12th grade
but I think the the the hope was to open it uh through from 10th through 12th ju just so we get that core number of students that we need um in case you know we're one short and a 10th grader wants to go how many years ago was the last trip to Guatemala uh I believe it was two years
ago i think they did Panama last year and Guatemala the year before um I think I would have liked to have seen something you know even if it was kind of like the information or itinerary from two years ago okay it
it's I just find it a little hard to take a vote on an international trip for our students without any real information to look at or compare it to or um
is it is it so early though that they don't have all of those detail like I am assuming the price points aren't known because it's right yeah I'm I'm I'm not sure but I can I can find more information if it's the same company that they used before in the same trip
to Guatemala yeah even comparing the information that was given two years ago for a Guatemala trip would just give a better overview of oh this is what the trip could look like
because here I'm not getting any information of what their trip looks like other than oh we've done it before and the company's good and you know Um I will just say that I like personally have concerns about this type
of trip i know it's come up in the past um I've worked with similar organizations before and I'm very hesitant um about I really want our students to have this kind of like immersive experience but I'm not sure i don't feel like I have enough information to say that I feel like this
would be the right experience so there's there's two of you in that camp i guess I just want to make sure that if we're asking Dr crystal to come back um that we're really clear about the information
that we want to be presented when it comes back so that it's can we speak to the things it needs to answer that would be helpful for you to make an informed decision i think that and and I understand that it is like a
year in advance we're not going to have all of the details yet thank you for telling you know it is it is the same organization that we you know used in the past um I think for me like if it is a different program so the programs in the
past were really heavily about like volunteering but I think for me looking at the data that that company provided like the value of that volunteering is experience is just sort of like something that I questioned
um I don't really know how to say it really well i I think it would be helpful for me to understand if this is going to be about language immersion how does that schedule look what is what is different about the experience if that is the goal did they stay somewhere
different did they have different So that that I can answer and and and that answer is no they it's the same itinerary but the difference would be that rather than having um you know when they when they talked to senor it was a student that wasn't a Spanish student
they might be talking English when they talk to each other the expectation would be that maybe that they're not speaking Spanish the whole time um the expectation would be very different this time there and it may involve um some kind of uh you know a a Spanish project
to go along with it as well um but the itinerary itself where they would be staying where they would be volunteering what they would be doing would be um similar if not the if not the same um the difference would be that the expectation is that they are you know they're speaking Spanish for a week when they go down
there and if you have a vote in May is that going to are students going to lose the opportunity because if that's the case then we can always put a short meeting on the docket when there's more information the committee can come back
and vote without and I I don't know i'd have to check with Angie okay to get that information i think I think perhaps you could also get a feel for how many students would be
involved um if we voted in May or at another short meeting but I mean if you kind of got a survey of how many like you did with the New York trip you put out feelers and
it was pretty close to the number that that went and if we kind of knew how many students and it's also a pretty finite group of potential students so like if we don't have enough of that finite group would it be similar to
another trip where we partnered with Hadley that I think it was Hadley we could we could open it up um if we needed to but I don't know that we would need to okay um I see a hand here any That's not a
hand yeah Aman yeah I just wanted to um I was listening to everybody's comments and um one of the things I I just wanted to ask and I don't know if Dr driscoll can answer this how is it like for an
immersion language trip how how is how are the kids going to be prepared for this uh how does it fit in within the the curriculum of like what they're learning prior to going on this trip like I my concern is different I guess
than um others because I understand how important it is like I've been that person who didn't who learned the language but traveled to the country and had to actually speak the language and
it is very important uh it made a huge difference in my vocabulary my understanding not even taken into consider consideration learning about the culture uh and
um getting out of the same place you've been at learning a language in class is completely different than actually speaking the language with uh people who are native speakers so I feel like it
would be amazing if this is something that's well planned and thought through and the kids are prepared um and they're actually going to be going and not just speaking to each other or because people tend to want to speak English you are like that the
program is built for them to go and that they're going to have to actually speak Spanish and um be fully immersed in the language and I mean volunteering is like
an amazing add-on to that yeah I'm I'm not trying to disagree with the value of travel or immersive language experience or cultural experience just like my personal like I've worked with nonprofits before and I have like
personally ethical concerns about volunteerism as a practice um I'm only one person on the board so that is that is where I'm coming from and like I said I want our students to have like an immersive cultural experience and so if the committee wants to go ahead and take a
vote today then that's fine and that's why my question is about like how is this pertaining to what they're learning to the curriculum if it is more of an immersion program and they're actually there to learn the language and speak the language and to better their
Spanish and then that puts it in a better I mean that is puts it in a better light i don't know if that's the right word for that um just because I mean um speaking in a
real world a language is not people speak fast like I remember the first time I I actually was had to speak English to native English speakers i couldn't follow because everything was moving so
fast and I was wondering why everybody was talking to me so fast um so but I after a few weeks I got used to it and I caught up and
my language improved and because of that I'm assuming the students who do want to go on this trip want to
um to improve their their understanding in their Spanish yes and yeah so yeah I I would like like everyone I have I have questions so maybe um
getting more information would be great on what they would be doing that would be more immersive as far as language and what would they be um doing to prepare for that
have we given you enough feedback in terms of what you want to find to bring this back i I do have one other comment though um that it's not really any information that you can bring back but
um I just feel a little cautious about safety and I I mean we can't predict where things will be a year from now um about travel and but what we can find
out is what the trips insurance program looks like should we need to cancel for safety reasons yes that would be great thank you okay it's a good point okay anything else on this and if you need the committee to
take action before we're scheduled to meet again you'll let us know and we'll sort we'll solve for that okay before we adjourn Yep um could I make a request regarding the upcoming
school calendar events link that's here um because I've seen it a number of times [Music] uh the Facebook page people asking about when is the last day of school if we can
update the district calendar very clearly that will say when the last day of school is and that you know it's a half a day it's a half day on Monday yeah um yeah we can update that that's
an easy you know that and then I noticed that um because I just found out today there's a middle school social that's not on the calendar either so I just want to have somebody double check that all our little things are on the calendar if there's There's no spelling
bee this year is there no but but declinations will be happening yeah that should be on the calendar as well if we could do it spring concert we just finalized the time so we'll get that on there too just so those things are there for people to see if they go looking on
the calendar and just for the record there are people already asking for dates and times for the holiday uh um concerts for next year because
there are offices that they're having to put those schedules in now um so we just want to make sure that we have got those updated i think we have the dates but I don't think they had the times yet sure we can do that and it's yeah it's really sad when somebody's like "I took
the day off and I took the wrong like I took a half a day and I took the wrong half of the day." It's it's a it's a sad sad moment okay thank you committee thank you administration um is there a motion to adjurnn i'll motion to adjurnn
second thank you all in favor inhard I bench I sullivan i Green