good evening House and welcome to the April 3rd 2025 uh meeting of the House and School Committee originally planned as a budget meeting but we got something even more exciting um budget will the uh budget hearing will be next um next Thursday on the on the 10th so
um please uh come join us so be before we uh get to into our um regular agenda we do have the consent agenda to approve some minutes i think we're only going to approve for for
release the redacted version of the November 26 2024 minutes and we'll scrub the rest of them for later so thank you i will entertain a motion to approve that one set of minutes for release moved by Don second all in
favor carries um school committee individual conference uh nothing um I just wanted to say I had the pleasure of attending the um kind of the
inauguration I think of the um community bridges project this morning um Jess Speedy and Victoria Briggs and um Laura Ryan all did a fantastic job of putting this um kind of it was kind of like a
breakfast reception together um where they're really working to get um students with special abilities connected with like local businesses um various you know the parks and recck department um finding kind of cool
internships and jobs And it was just a really fantastic morning the kids were amazing um so thank you for making me feel very welcome it was really the highlight of my day so thank you it was very good um I just wanted to comment about the
fact that there's five students over at the in Paris or should say in France for the French exchange and um a number of them spent the weekend in Paris which is very exciting so they're all having a great time as far as I know and um hopefully we'll have lots of pictures and they'll have stories to share when
they get back um but they won't be back until after the break but I appreciate the community um supporting our exchange program and I hope it continues thanks no comment okay and nothing for for me
at this moment so uh we do have a opportunity for for the public to comment um if there's anyone on the Zoom that wishes to make public comment please use the raise hand function and we will get to you once we get to the uh people in the room nobody
no one's on there no somebody on there popped off okay um yes please i didn't sign in no we didn't have a sign in today um wherever wherever thank you
good evening hold just one moment barbara how long are we doing okay we'll do three minutes and I'll just let you know what the Yeah I I'm not gonna have three minutes thank you so much um Barbara Ryan 14 Irving Place um just coming uh from um two perspectives PTO
and as a parent um PTO we have a June 10th meeting i know I need to email you um to get officially on an agenda just probably at the end of the year kind of what we've done where we've been but always thank you for accepting the donations and going through that rigor
and this really helps in the classroom so uh we thank you for that continued support um we're in a really good place budget-wise next year we're looking probably to have similar anywhere between 60 and $80,000 of direct support somehow to enrichment andor assemblies
those type of things um and the executive board um will continue to make those decisions um and then in June a plug for anyone who's here out there um there will be some open positions um in the PTO so and always looking for
volunteers so thank you um I think I was reading today um as a parent I'll put my parent on and parent hat on um certainly uh the environment of the question whether the department of education at the federal level is going to remain
intact or continue to seemingly um be dismantled um I have a concern not only as a parent but just I'm sure there's thought around um does federal funding really impact the state of Massachusetts where does it impact it and how does that trickle down to the town of Hollist
i'm particularly concerned about children with different and um special needs i don't know if that's the appropriate way to say i like to say different abilities in my world because we all have abilities um so I'm really concerned about that i just I'm sure this is on the mind of our
administration and all of you but I just want you to know as a parent um I have concerns not only for my own child um but but children everywhere and that's part of my pediatric hat that I wore professionally too so I'm sure you're thinking about that but I just wanted um
to put that out there um as as something that I hope you're thinking about which I I I presume you are and that's it thank you and thank you to you and the PTO for for all your generous gifts and and we we we love accepting them they're very nice of
gifts to accept uh but and as far as the stuff going on at the federal level we are absolutely watching it and it's it's uh it's a bit scary especially with the news this week of the 106 million that was uh sort of uh it impacts every student and it impacts our staff and um
thank you for for being aware so thank you hello um and Canoni again i wasn't going to come tonight but um I'm just so passionate about everything that's happening in math at Hollist Public School System and I'm
tired of watching it go backwards versus forward and I just think we have to really think about where we're headed um so I came here in the fall i've come many meetings and I was hoping last week was my last week but um I spoke in the fall to explain how difficult it is to
be a teacher at the current time especially a math teacher in Hollist public schools we are constantly under a microscope to adjust our standards we have new curriculum with minimal PD support in the continued uncertainty of the math program between Rams and HHS m creates a more anxiety for all of us
math teachers as you know in the fall of 2023 the 13 math teachers on the math curriculum review committee voted to reinstate levels in seventh grade math and continue to offer levels in eighth grade the administration did not like that answer and if I recall Jonah Manard stated at a school committee meeting that we did not have time to discuss
levels which is not true we went down rabbit hole after rabbit hole to discuss the levels there were several meetings we just talked about it and we couldn't we had to stop like we just had to be controlled because there were so many conversations so here we are heading into the fall of 2025 almost two years
later and we still have not we still not listened to the math teachers the experts i was on the school start time committee and we had all these people on there and at the end I remember Dr kusca saying "Let's listen to the experts the administrators they're the ones that
know the building." So you guys went with a different plan which I respect that and I get that but as math teachers we're not being listened to um another committee has been formed to complete an in-depth study of the direction of the math program at Rams which has a which will have a domino effect at the high school my hope is that whoever chairs
this committee comes in with an open mind and listens to all sides because I don't think that that is happening i myself wouldn't be able to facilitate that meeting and I think there's a lot of other people that wouldn't be able to facilitate it because we come in with our ideas and I think we have to all right not I think we can't be looking at
apples to oranges we have to be looking at studies that are um not private schools they're not um charter schools they're not schools that are not compared to Hollist um and here we are waiting again um so I do think that um I
hope that whoever does chair it will come in with open mind um at the last few meetings it has been proposed that you are going to remove or RAM proposed that you remove the geometry standards from the algebra 1 curriculum at RAMS instead these students will learn these standards in replace of art class using
a math tutor so a math tutor not a math teacher which is not direct instruction so we're going to take away in our class from these students and have them learn geometry on a computer this is like taking away a recess for these students i encourage you all of you to speak to
your children to get their feedback on it is not the best program for learning and students aren't they don't they don't like it so I don't know how they're going to learn on it and I personally don't want my child to be learning that way where geometry is fun it can be a fun class okay no I I I want
to finish i'm gonna I'm just I'm almost done in addition um other school systems have done it and I noticed you have in your budget three new math tutors two at Rams and one at HHS how will these tutors be integrated into the school system i'm concerned that we are hiring more positions
without a plan in place and I think that we really need to have a solid plan moving forward and I worry that we don't thank you just one quick question one Rams math tutor and and then one at the high school i thought there was two in the budget no the two was a footnote i I
All right okay it's all my fault um I thought I was reading wrong so thank you um I uh because of the we were trying to keep the uh the agenda brief no brief that's fine um I'm just I took the the the opportunity for our our central office administrators to uh to to
comment off there but we have public comment you are obviously certainly more than members of the public but at least members of the public if there's anyone from central office who has any comments um no I too want to just thank um Victoria Briggs and Laura Ryan along
with their support from Jessica Bey it was a wonderful event today and I will say Laura approached me during co this is something that she's been passionate about for years and then because of the hard work that just supporting them it came to fruition and I was really
pleased to see what our students are accomplishing and and some of the um people in town the communities in town and the businesses in town that are having them work there just to Sarah's point it was wonderful to see and the highlight of probably my entire week and
maybe even longer so thank you to them i will be sending out a district curriculum teaching and learning newsletter tonight please check it out tons of great videos and information and pictures of students doing wonderful engaging learning in Hollist so check it
out i'm just kind of reiterating what uh Dr kusk Fitzgerald um indicated uh this is also just going to add to that is to advocate to our businesses out there and anybody that's listening to this um to please open your doors for our neurode divergent students uh especially these
are house and residents um oftent times or many of them are in our 18 to22 program um that are looking for employment um and opportunities that exist within our community um so if you just have questions or curiosity and you're a business owner in Hollist uh
please reach out to either uh Miss Bey uh Miss Briggs uh or Dr ryan thank you so moving on to really the reason why we're we're here tonight um we
um have a uh high school schedule MOA that we reached with the HFT and the teachers um and so we're here tonight to uh vote on ratifying that or or not um I just want to say before we we get
into discussing the the MOA and and um and voting that um you know this has not been an easy process and uh certainly I think I'm just speaking for myself but I'm sure other members of the committee recognize the sort
of you know confusion and and difficulty this has put a lot of people in throughout the entire process and um what I'll say is that was certainly uh you know we were we were working towards trying to find a solution with with uh the the the teachers that um
would improve and increase you know student learning and and outcomes and it was with the students in mind that uh we were you know working on on finding the solution for so um I think that uh personally I I um
believe that the solution that we did arrive at is a is a good one and um I hope uh that the uh the teachers will will ratify that this when they vote on Monday and um the 7th um but just quickly we don't have a
a full presentation but just to kind of go over it it's fairly similar to the um the schedule that we emailed out to the community as we were working through the the schedule it is a five period a day schedule with 64-minute periods and a 41
41 minute DSB um students will take seven classes at a time and so it's what's called a seven drop two which is uh obviously taking seven classes at a time and each day you drop two of those classes to have five classes at a time uh this is a very common schedule across
the Commonwealth including with many of our our neighbors Ashlin need uh Hopington just to name a few um that said there are there are different implementations of this schedule so um not not every seven drop two looks the same but
um the few remaining items that we we had uh yet to agree on with the teachers we were able to agree on over the last uh last week and so um we've uh had the ability to to review this and um now we can discuss it
so again in the seven drop two uh students would be able to have math as a fullear course um and also foreign language as a fullear course um I think we got we received a lot of feedback about the um
77 minute blocks which would regardless of whether we had stayed with the existing schedule or after we moved to our AB block the blocks for um w would would increase and I think we we have heard feedback in the past about how
long the blocks are this seven drop two brings it back down to 64 minutes i think that's um an important change so DSP continuing every single day as part of that schedule yes yes for 41 minutes and there'd be an opportunity
for extra help during the DSP period or one of the DSP periods a week right correct some of some of the DSP periods would be it would vary based upon the the teacher but there would be you know they would be available for for specifically for extra help um outside
of what DSB is you know traditionally abandoned course would be class scheduled class oh sorry and to be clear this this is can't believe I I forgot this one this is for the 26 27th school year this one more time 20 this this this schedule that that we're voting on
will be will go into effect for the 26 27th school year um we you know we definitely heard a lot of feedback from the community about the speed at which we were we were moving um and uh you know a lot of the fact that you know a lot of work you know needed to be done
and so um we agreed to this uh when when um when it was presented as starting in the 26 27 school year and really appreciate the fact that uh the uh the HFD and all the teachers engaged with us on on on this seven drop two um schedule
right and and where the registration for our high school students was going to end um tomorrow tomorrow uh uh principal list has now extended it to um April 14th is that correct yes so Monday April 14th so um so there's still time to meet
with your guidance counselor yes if you need to like mine is and so while you know obviously the HFT isn't isn't voting until until Monday um one of the things that uh I'm looking forward to most about hopefully having a ratified uh schedule is the fact that we
will be able to remove ourselves from a lot of the decision-m and really ensure that uh Mr list and the rest of the uh central office administrative team you know are are able to um to to lead the charge on on on its implementation working with
all the partners um with in the uh in the schools and and you know also seeking feedback from the community that said obviously if you have concerns you're more than welcome to uh to send them to us and let us know but um but reinforcing the chain of command of
going through the administration correct yep i think it's important to we on operational issues through this whole experience um all the question individual questions that came up like what does this mean for me i have this situation i think it's important now to have that year and have those questions
answered so I think it is without the haste that we have now or have had um having that year is going to be important and I I do want to thank the HFT and and and I think it was mentioned last week all the teachers that I mean it's not just the HFT it's the teachers that came together uh and collaborated
on this and I think this is a positive direction yeah i I would just ask one thing you know there have been lots of questions about AB versus you know other things and um I know that if the the the schedule is ratified by both parties uh
Mr list will begin you know uh communicating details to people i just ask for a little bit of additional patience as as they work through it there are tons of different things that are going to need to be decided and and worked out over the next um months uh
you know um maybe year whatever um so please you know make sure that you your your voice and concerns are heard but but also be patient as as lots of the details need to need to be worked out because this is even more than the AB is a is a dramatic change in sort of
the the schedule so um lots of decisions need to be made over over time and um I'm sure some of them may involve us eventually after Mr list makes a recommendation with with the central office but on program of studies and things like that the traditional role of the school committee but um
um because I we I can guarantee you that uh if the agency ratifies on on on Monday no one will be able to tell you what a schedule will look like the next day so just and that's why it's important to note 26 27 26 27 so we're
not switching schedules again for 25 27 drop too and is Mr list are you continuing theformational sessions within the classrooms you you mentioned that you were having information sessions sorry I know you're
So we had informationational sessions this week um with students and finish that up with counselors um and I met with uh each of the classes um and then should everything ratified then we'll send out information for folks um so
that they know what to do and um sort of replay that time where kids can go and talk to the counselors or um makeshift to what their requests had been okay and the HFT is not ratifying till well they don't have their vote until Monday because they have to give a 7-day notice
right so whereas we just have to give like two days so I just wanted to it wasn't like anybody's trying to delay anything it's just they are processed yes that's a good point any other thoughts and things you want to questions questions
no I feel good about it i'm just you know hanging on my I know just really I hope that they ratify it so we can all move on but that's Yeah and I guess I just want to hopeful thank the students too for really bearing with us i think
um it was difficult we we heard we heard we listened to you guys and we know that it was difficult these last few weeks trying to figure out what was going to happen what next year was going to look like what future years were going to look like here so
um just you know you guys were troopers and it was you know thank you it was difficult right it was difficult it's a challenging change and anyway so thank you i just think I mean it is difficult not
sort of having certainty on on the future of what your your classes are going to look like what your your schedule's going to look like and you know what that might mean for for your future for for college or for your careers um and how that is compounded by all the other uncertainty that's going on in the world and you know it's uh
it's it's uh it's not easy stress um it's it's challenging we uh you know we we I certainly appreciate um bearing with us as we we we try to figure this out okay
okay so um if there's nothing else do we want to put it up on the big board or no uh we could certainly the the MOA okay would you like to put up the Do you have the MOA
i can find the sign i don't have I didn't actually forget the It has to be a signed copy so much as just so that everybody can see what they're looking at [Music] you want me to share with you
i could share with you i got it do you have it you got the cut you got the I can forward it to you did you hear that uh did she Okay yeah so um just remember
that the dog yeah well this will be just here mhm so you sort of scroll down yeah there you go this is actually slightly there's a there's one la we don't have to
there's one more sentence no no there's just one more sentence in the official signed version which is just simply that uh it's subject to ratification um that was added to the at the right the minute and it just says this the sorry this agreement is subject to ratification by the committee and by federation
membership at the um which was always what we were operating under the offices of but it was was added by council at the last minute not last minute but right before we signed Okay can you make sure to send us the signed
copy when you're I I need to rely to send it to me so yeah I don't have I don't think I have a scan yet okay yep we have signed though for anybody looking at this I just want to make sure the language is clear to everyone the last second to last sentence evaluating
the schedule yearly does not mean the schedule will change yearly because It's also current contract language so yeah it's it's Yeah yeah we always evaluate but yes it's evaluation is not changing
so um with that I will entertain a motion to um ratify the memorandum of of agreement which tenative agreement on the new schedule for the Hollston High
School for the 26 27 school year um based on a seven drop just seven drop two schedule format as laid out in the MOA so move second who's who who's seconding it hillary did okay okay hillary okay
hillary all right well um we'll take a roll call in just a second just so you know um we do the the town manager town administrator uh is is given the opportunity to to vote i think that on our sort of main contract i was I couldn't quite find the language to know if that was something that was necessary
for something like this but I did extend an offer to to Miss Buckley and uh she she would have been happy to attend but I also thought that that she it wasn't necessary she didn't want to and didn't need to take more time away from from from her personal time so um with that
we will uh we'll vote frank Stink Bug uh yes hillary yes joe yes sarah yes uh Cynthia yes don yes i vote yes as well so uh we
have now ratified uh the MOA i will communicate that uh to Miss Katona the HFT president and um we will go forward from there okay um and there will be a
communication going on next item so the next item on the agenda is to discuss a communication just go with the agenda thank you Sarah bring this together yes so I put on here general community i'm not exactly sure what I was thinking about when I put that on there but so we
can unless there we'll continue with our house reporter updates we just put one in for the last meeting which was just last week so we'll do another one for this one great that's and then Yeah and so
so looking those specifically at a high school schedule um uh communication that was Sarah was nice enough to spend some time putting that together um it's in our drive do we want to discuss it further
do we have changes let's read let's read should we put the date at the top of it yep is it going to go tonight or tomorrow since we have uh Dan here we'll send it out tonight so we'll just say tonight yeah good yeah
do you want me to read it sure and and this Dennis will go to to the parents guardians students no no worries there's so so many different lists um and then the community list too um I I think given given the fact that
the the teachers have not voted on it yet I I don't everybody's addresses not staff just because they have not voted on yet i just want to be be uh cognizant of that um but if any any um staff are watching it's just that we're
just trying to make sure we're we we're obeying the rules um but then we if we could maybe post it also on on Facebook so that way the public can't see we're not part of it shall I start oh you want to read it
yeah we put the date in i put the date just did yeah where oh right on the top is that okay d the internet is really slow it took like a minute for it to to the date to pop okay so dear parents guardians and students we are reaching out to provide an update on the Hollist High School
schedule the Hollist High School sorry the Hollist School Committee and the Hollison Federation of Teachers have successfully reached a tenative agreement subject to ratification by both parties on a new seven drop two schedule for Hollist High School this new schedule was ratified by
the HSC at our meeting tonight and will be voted on by the HFT on April 7th the tenative agreement stipulates an implementation for the 2026 2027 school year under the new schedule laid out in
the tenative agreement students will take seven classes at a time with both semester which are half credit and year-long classes full credit with five classes meeting each day on a rotating basis each class will meet three or four times per week and five times in a 7-day
cycle h each class will be followed by a designated study block DSB once per cycle further teachers will have some DSBs as designated extra help periods for further opportunities for students to receive additional support from their
teachers classes will be 64 minutes in length while the DSP period will remain 41 minutes this structure is designed to support year-long learning for core subjects like math and world languages while allowing for happier electives additionally abandoned course will be
offered as regular period electives as was planned under the AP schedule we recognize that this has been a difficult process and we want to thank the entire community for your valuable feedback thoughtful input and patience we especially want to recognize all of
the students who have endured this period of uncertainty with their high school future especially at a time when uncertainty abounds everywhere we also want to thank the HFT leadership all of the members of the schedule subcommittee and the entire group of high school educators for their collaboration and
dedication in helping us reach this point ultimately we believe that this new schedule will enhance the overall student experience at HHS we realize that many of you continue to have unanswered questions about what exactly happened how did we get here and
most importantly what will the next year look like as our educators and high school leadership work on implementing this new schedule upon HFT ratification these are all very legitimate and reasonable questions we expect to continue to put out additional
information over the coming weeks and you can expect even more details from high school administration as they more fully take over the process in collaboration with the teachers over the coming year in conclusion please do not hesitate to continue to share your opinions with us about the schedule or
anything else you want to bring to our attention while this process was anything but smooth please know that our goal at all times was to improve the educational experience of the students of the Hollist public schools ultimately students are the main focus of everything that we do sincerely the
Hollist School Committee i have two two things okay you said um let's see in that paragraph hold in that paragraph where you're just second paragraph where you're describing each class you said each class twice so it says each class will meet three or four
times per week and five times in a day cycle each class will be followed by a designated and will be should say and will and then my only other thing is that you said we will in the fourth paragraph it says we expect to continue to put out additional information instead of put out can we say
disseminate oops what about share share or share is fine too share i like share share is better it's a little Sharing is caring sharing is caring don't Don't steal my motto you can't have it yeah it is thank you
those are good good catches thank you um any other edits or comments so I think that this actually reminded me now of why I put on general uh communication you know do we want not
tonight or anything you know do we do we want to sort of request that the communication so can we put together something on on more of an overview of sort of um the pro once once everything is sort of finalized assuming that it is um put
something together sort of on the the process go forward or what do you mean though no you know there are a lot of questions about what happened okay in terms of um when we started where we were in December all of those pieces I
guess you mean just kind of codifying what hap the I'm not going to codify it historical perspective i mean not like even saying the record it's just more there's just a lot of questions about you know what what's going on and I get
you know for us we were we were living it sort of you know intensely and and most most people don't have the same um you know probably masochistic my sense is move forward i think we need
to move on yeah let's move on and move forward people have specific questions i was going to say this specific questions I'm happy to answer if we continue if we if we going forward if we have questions about how we got here we could put on FAQ we could always
we could put I just wanted to talk about it just because you know there was so much I know I know confusion about that so yeah I I personally just I think that I think I'm just thankful we've gotten to this point um it was definitely
harder than I ever anticipated it would be um and that was unfortunate but I still am thankful for where we are right now and full steam ahead i think this is a will will be you know a a a huge improvement
um and and really meeting a lot of the the sort of issues that were identified you know through numerous different reports and yeah but if people have specific questions I'm I think we are all happy to answer so feel free to
email but that's process questions and purpose of following came to the policy but more anything operational needs to go not to us so because we're not really going to be doing the dayto-day please i can't build schedules um I don't want to nor nor should I
do we need to vote on our communication should we vote on Yeah so uh um I'll uh entertain a motion to approve the uh the uh dissemination of this uh this sharing sharing the dissemination of this uh sounds did
you make go ahead okay okay so moved are you make the motion motion to share the communication motion to send the communication communication okay all right all in favor yes thank you you should have all access and everything to it so just uh if you could
send it out put our email addresses at the bottom um and then just you know subject to high school schedule update may put a date on it now because we've been sent so many of them yeah I might want to put April 3rd on Yeah but April 3rd Hson High School scheduled out to
April 3rd um All right [Music] um well we have three hours so what should we talk about oh my god all right I'll entertain we do not have the reason for executive session do you Are you guys good
just like it's good night tonight so perfect um uh we do not have reason for executive session our next meeting will be next week on April 10th uh for our budget hearing so we've uh disseminated our budget if you have questions please come shared our budget shared our budget we shared our budget we are presenting our budget to the
finance committee on Tuesday um and so uh then we will do the the budget update on the 10th um anyway no executive session with that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn moved by Cynthia second by Don all in favor yes we stand a journ thank you very much
have a good night