##VIDEO ID:qKlbLOmyq7E## going I can't remember all the other ones if my phone starts going crazy it's because the Govern talking about myogram okay they said they might start texting me and saying good things about I hopefully hopefully she's not going to say we're doing Universal preschool so we're hoping we message really hard so that she doesn't say that but you never know what happens when comes out of her mouth you'll just tell her huh o00 good evening and welcome to the Thursday January 16th 2025 meeting of the school committee I would like to call the meeting to order and to let uh those who are here in the studio know that the meeting is not only live but it is being recorded uh and I would invite those who are here in the studio to please rise for the pledge of to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right so as people know tonight is our public hearing on the FY 2026 budget uh before we the uh public hearing actually starts at 7:05 so I'm going to um go ahead we can open the hearing a little bit early if we we're going to keep it open all the way until 7:35 we'll close it if there are not people here to speak between now and then we'll move through our other business and just leave it open so that if people come that want to then speak uh that they're able to do so so I would seek a motion to open the public hearing for the proposed FY 26 school department budget in the amount of 67 m1906 $30 I I get that motion by Kyla second by Susan all those in favor I'm I and the public hearing is now open and I would invite Dr Kavanaugh if you'd like to make some comments before we sure thank you so I understand that we have already seen the same budget presentation twice my budget recommendation has not changed we've had two joint meeting with Appropriations and the select board and so uh for the sake of uh sort of facilitating the meeting tonight I think that we are only going to show the singular recommended budget slide and we will look at what those amounts are for both salaries and expenses and what the percent increase is year-over-year and so I will ask Mrs ramik to just read through that slide and then we will open it up absolutely um so as we do every year we do break the budget down into buckets just to make it more easily understandable for the public uh so the first is our contractual obligations inflation and current services in the amount of 2,569 th000 which represents a 4.07% increase special education 489,000 increase a point 78% instructional cost and enrollment growth covering 600 50,000 increase or a 1.03% instructional program and enhancements are zero Administration support and facility enhancements an increase of 335,000 or a. 53% so the total FY 26 budget increase is 445,000 which is a 6.41% increase and again we would be requesting the um special education Reserve to be funded at 1,46 276 okay thank you people who are here in the studio is there anybody who would like to come up to ask any questions that that you have or any comments that you'd like to share on the budget we are certainly happy to answer questions um okay so we we will leave the hearing open in case there are any other people who come in uh and allow people an opportunity to ask questions if they have them between now and 7:35 but we will move into reports uh in the meantime while we're waiting and uh our student council representative Savannah is not able to be with us tonight um but so we will move into the construction update you need the screen oh sorry sorry okay so thank you this is the construction update for both the Hopkins project and charleswood um looking at the project dashboard we did have one safety incident we had a um contractor who did slip on black ice in December uh he did injure his knee and reportedly is back to work but that was something that would we discussed as a group as being a a safety item um project is on schedule as you can see what the dates are with the final completion School ready for students um in August of 26 the project is also on budget um the commitments to date are uh 86% spent there have been no quality issues um the school director of Technology learning Innovation is soliciting quotes for the owner um provided the security technology and the AV and the goal is to present uh for approval in February and March and there have been no new issues this month again looking at the construction site overview you can see the yellow is the existing school and the play area um recess area for the students the gray is the driveway and parking Loop uh the green again is where the new addition building is going up and the construction trailers over to the far uh side of the site looking at some of the construction activities and these pictures you start to really get a sense of the building and it it's getting exciting to see this um the steel go up so you can see the um steel that has been installed and the metal decking is um the install is in progress these are some more pictures you can see the metal decking that has been installed at the roof level uh some excavation for storm drainage has been in progress and you can see the stone underneath which is pending for that slab on grade pore so the progress this month uh commenced the structural steel installation that steel deliveries began in December commence the MEP mechanical electrical and plumbing uh that's what me is exploratory work in the existing building The Final Storm drainage and piping install station is in progress there's been tape sand and painting of temp walls at the connectors um in the inside the existing building and the concrete base poured for the Standalone exterior wall mockup next month um obtain the building permit uh the building department uh email allow Commodore to proceed with structural steel install on 1126 plan is to review comments issued by the building department in December and those are under review by the Perkins team and Chris I believe you had a question on why do we not have a building permit so what has happened the building department is reviewing the plans and as he accepts you know questions um the plans gets comments back and accepts certain sections then he's giving a permit for those sections so um we we've been permitted up to the steel and it will continue got um so complete uh underground plumbing and electrical install complete steel installation including the decking pour the concrete slab on deck at level two and level one and complete the exterior wall mockup for material review and testing change orders to date uh the change order total is 19 ,000 um current pending and estimated change orders uh for January represents about 7% looking at the budget update architecture expenditures to date we are running at 68% our owner project manager expenditures to date are at 29% and the construction Billings for our um GMP are at 133% % moving to charleswood uh they are in the process of reviewing the 90% construction documents um that will be submitted to the msba Conservation Commission review of the street improvements is ongoing review and execution of the msba Project funding and that agreement once it is finalized through the msba will restart the reimb Ms to the town uh for that project contractor pre-qualification is underway and the project is still looking at 1.2 million under budget uh as of the October estimates and I believe the next round of estimates will be in February the next major oh there you go next major Milestones project estimates will be in February um the Conservation Commission public public hearing on the street improvements is uh upcoming bidding of the documents will happen in March or uh April with a eye to Construction contract award in May of 25 and again this is the construction schedule update uh that we like to show each time just so the public has an eye on where we're landing and the the schedule has not changed any questions what do the colors represent um I think the red is actual construction okay I've never asked them oh okay why why what color yeah but it does it does seem to be that that the red is actual construction and it looks like the green says open to students to students um so that's good so again just as a reminder uh for Hopkins when the new addition is done students will move into the new addition while they're doing interior Renovations of the existing building so that's why you see open to students in two different places for the Hopkins level any other questions not for me all right thank you so I'd like to see if Mr Bishop would like do you want to come up early and do your piece not to push you but if you had uh wanted to watch from home while you did other things for the rest of the meeting that's okay too okay so this is nice to see you all nice to see you for folks at home this is we're onto the high school graduation competency determination yes thanks Nancy um nice to see you all thank you uh I'm looking forward to uh having a conversation about our new proposed language regarding our competency determination of the high school for your review and hopefully approval um as we know state law requir students to satisfy the requirement of Competency determination in order to graduate historically that has been the passing school on mcast tests for English Math and Science but I think as we all know um back in November it was uh voted on ballot question number two to amend that language uh and remove the mcast test as a way to determine competency or in other words it's been removed as a graduation requirement and so it has certainly been a pretty Hot Topic at the high school level the last few months uh because school committees and schools need to kind of uh establish locally what they feel is the right competency certification process and so uh that's really kind of the work that we need to be doing together collaboratively is to kind of determine what works best for for hopkington when it comes to this competency determination uh because we have our graduation requirements every school has that but the state then requires the competency determination and with the mcast not being that tool anymore that's really what we have to figure out and so uh you know I would like to say before we dive into our proposal the work that has gone into kind of coming up with this proposal we've had a lot of conversations central office High School administration the Middle School Administration has been on webinars with the deese about this uh we sent our English SML Sarah Ellum to a conference to meet with other people in the field in the area about what they're doing around the competency determination and I'm fortunate to be in a job alike group with 30 plus principles so this has been a conversation that we've had probably for two months now but what is each district doing and so I just want to be clear that our proposal is very very much in line with what other high schools in the area are doing as well as the guidance that's coming from the state so um on the memo that I uh submitted to all of you uh I'll first start with our graduation requirements that's not going to change we have very specific graduation requirements when it comes to courses and credits uh and so that's existing language that will stay in so you'll see English you take 20 credits to graduate that's four full years of English it's five credits for a year 2 and a half for a semester science is 15 credits that's three years of science often times our students will take four years of Science and you can see on and on world language is 10 credits which is two years and so on and so forth so that will stay as our graduation requirements the new language is below that where it says competency determination so this is our proposed language that we' like to put into our handbook and get approved when it comes to this idea of a competency determination and so um I'll just read that language and then I'm happy to have a conversation answer any questions that you have so in addition to our local graduation requirements which I just mentioned students must meet the competency determination that state law requires in order to for students to do that in hopkington we're proposing that they must one complete ninth and 10th grade English with a passing grade two complete 9th and 10th grade math with a passing grade that must include geometry or Algebra 1 or Algebra 2 so some students at the middle school take Algebra 1 and then they begin their High School experience with geometry and then take Algebra 2 sophomore year while others will start with algebra 1 freshman year and then take geometry so they're all taking geometry in those first two years so that's why we want to make sure that geometry is one of those requirements or algebra on Algebra 2 okay and then complete one of the Three core science classes which is either biology which most students will take sophomore year and then either chemistry or physics or other options they take them usually junior or senior year so that's what we're proposing for our competency determination that's what the state is actually guiding us is to focus more on cours work the reason why we pick these classes as they closely align with state standards and the Frameworks and these are the classes that students would generally take leading up to taking the mcast exam so uh language below that it talks about if a student does not meet this requirement they'll be monitored and supported in grades 11 and 12 uh and must pass relevant subjects in 11 and 12 that could be 11th grade English could be 12th grade English uh could be you know uh Algebra 2 if they didn't take it prior in freshman and sophomore year or there's an option of making up the course work that they may have not passed they can go back and take 9th and 10th grade English they can go back and take algebra on and geometry fortunately we don't have a lot of students that that find themselves in that position uh we also have been charged to to think about students who left school before 2025 without meeting the competency determination requirements uh we've gone back into our records and uh I've been the Principal since 2013 and fortunately we don't have students that fall into that category we're very fortunate in this school district that we don't have students that did not earn a diploma because they did not pass the mcast but there needs to be language that's put in your policy um we have I think it's important to note that of the students in 2025 are current seniors uh the only students that haven't yet earned a competency determination are are international students that come at the beginning of the school year uh and so we have already had them take the mcats retest in November in preparation because we did not know what the vote was going to be and they're already scheduled in these classes to make sure that they meet those competency determin mintion and then we have no students that fall into this category in the 2026 class the current Juniors uh and so we felt this was kind of the the the best course moving forward is to focus on our highquality instruction all of our classes meet the state standards and and and and and the curricular Frameworks uh and it gives us a little bit of wiggle room when we talk about grades 11 and 12 if a student moves in from out of state in March of senior year then we have some wig in terms of what classes they need to take to be able to earn that competency determination but in general because we have such high quality Educators in in at the high school and in the in the district leading up to the high school we don't find ourselves in a position where students um don't earn their competency determination in the past we have students do really really well on the mcast uh and so that now being removed from the equation uh sometimes I think our classes are harder if not you know much harder than the mcast exam so I do think this is a very reasonable and uh nice way to go forward with our competency determinations to focus on the coursework that we have so that's what we're proposing again a lot of the schools around the state are doing very similar things uh I wanted to make sure that I checked in with some some comparable high schools and so I'm happy to answer any questions that you have I know there's a lot of talk about this so uh any thoughts that you have about the the CD or the mcast in general I'm happy to answer great thank you passing rate is 60 UH 60 year above yep and if you pass nth and 10th grade English and math but fail 11th and 12th you still so that so what gets great question so that means you've earned your competency determination but you still need to meet our high school graduation requirements which means you can't fail those correct can't or yeah then there could be summer school options some schools some students double up yeah so you do need you still need to meet those yes yeah so a lot of students the vast majority of students will get their competenc competency determination after sophomore year but they still need to make sure that they meet our graduate question you got and then what happens to a a student who comes in in March of senior year which I assume is pretty rare but could happen Y and as a good student in some other District out of state or in state um I assume some of the stuff is pretty Universal yeah it is yeah there'll be a transcript review process where we'll make sure we'll check where they came from what classes that they took and if they meet if they've taken Biology or if their nth and 10th grade English match our curriculum then we'd say you've met the competence you got it yep and if not then we would make sure that they are scheduled in the classes that are align with State Standards you got it okay got it thanks have you looked at past classes to just to kind of see if you had people who did not pass 9th and 10th grade English yet they did okay on the mcats yes so um you know we have all that data uh in terms of of obviously students grades but also their mcast scores uh I don't have it up right now uh but if a student we've had students that may have struggled in the class and say biology for example but then pass the mcast right so then they earn their competency determination and then if you look at our graduation requirements they need three years of science so then they might be able to get it with chemistry physics and freshman your science so there is still a little bit of Wiggle RM but most of the students that we have fortunately will will both pass the class and have passed the mcast um have you uh be to um design how you're going to monitor and support students in grades 11 and 12 that haven't passed have met the requirements yeah so we have a pretty extensive process now for students if if if the mcast was still in place and students uh failed the mcast in order for them to either be put on an EP or we would have certain um things put in place to make sure that the students met the requirements to be able to graduate and earn the competency determination so I don't see any of those going away you know if students are struggling in class we make sure that we provide the sports that they need to be able to to meet the graduation requirements um you know our graduation uh percentage of students graduating is extremely high and that's very important to us so there's a lot of things that we have built in place to make sure that the students get what they need to be able to graduate from high school so it's certainly we have a lot in place that we're not going to change because of this and the expectation is students still take the mcast MH right uh that's that's everyone will everyone will that's what the that's what the law says they're expected to take that uh and so we'll see how that goes I think our kids are very diligent they want to do well um even though it's not a graduation requirement I would expect our kids still take that seriously uh and we'll see how that goes I think there's a lot of talk about that now that it's not a graduation requirement will kids take it seriously right that's a question that comes up uh and I'd like to believe that our kids will and there's also opportunities for scholarships the Stanley copi scholarship the John and Abigail Adam scholarship which is tuition credit to Massachusetts state colleges uh the Seal of by literacy that students get B on mcast based on mcast scores SC yes exactly so those are still in play all that the the the L the the vote back in November said was that it doesn't count as a graduation requirement but students still are expected you don't take it yep if you don't take it uh if you don't take it then you would lose the opportunity for those three yes you got it yep prior to the m not being a requirement if you took the mcast you did well on the science or biology component and pass through the mcast but you failed biology at the high school still graduate you could because you don't need four years of science yes exactly English and math are a little bit different yeah yeah okay yeah what is an EP it's a it's it's an educational kind of plan for students if they if they fall in a category of um kind of needs Improvement or failing the mcast uh there needs to be certain things that you do as a school to make sure that you can then provide to the state that they have met the competency determination okay and so that usually comes in based on their score so the lower scores sometimes trigger a student being put on uh this plan uh and then that usually then we'll work with the guidance counselor Administration maybe the student has a special education liaison depending on if they're on an IEP and then we work collaboratively with the teachers to make sure they're Meeting those expectations and that's specific to the high school that's not true of lower grades correct because you only need a competency determination the school does the mcast cost the district money so no no I want um I'm I wasn't quite clear so it's geometry or Algebra 1 or Algebra 2 or is it geometry and Algebra 1 or two yes good it's geometry and it's and alge so it's the two years that students have freshman sophomore year math um and my other question is for students who were non- diploma seeking because they couldn't pass the mcast before does this new set of Competency standards provide better support for them to be able to seek diplomas yeah I actually think that this is uh makes it more inclusive for students to be able to to earn a high school diploma thank you and on on that topic what about children with special needs that may have a barrier to Geometry or algebra or bi you yeah and so um so oftentimes we've had students that will be in those classes but they might not be able to pass the MC and we do certain things with those students and maybe it's a m cast alt or uh the student might be going to just different plans after high school and so with with this process now with the supports that we have because we we didn't put in here the different levels of math so we have honors math we have AP math we have College Prep we have foundations so I do think we'll be able to meet the needs of all students who who are looking to earn a diploma so I do think it becomes more inclusive for students who has have historically although we don't have a lot of students in that category but historically have not been able to pass right thank you any other questions okay so would somebody like to make a motion with regards to this I will I'll make a motion hold on I'm trying to get the wording right that we approve the high school graduation competency determination I I have a sorry I have a question do we need to not for you I'm so sorry um is since the community just received this today is there right they did that's correct okay is there any desire to hold on approving it until we give the community an opportunity to come to us with questions like being it was such a big deal of ballot measure lots of people feel really strongly about it then why they be a good idea sounds just because like they just got to I I feel really comfortable with this um but it seems like there are many parents in the community who might want to be able to look at it ask question and ask questions time sensitive to to approve it I think that they want us to yeah I think they want us to approve it um I think in the next few weeks but I'm sure we could have time to next we y yep in an EP I'm sorry I was blanking it's an educational proficiency plan that's the that's what it stands for sorry lots of acronyms yes I know I was want to make sure I get that all right so we will bring that back for our agenda next week so that we can get you okay solid answer thank you so much thank you thank you very appreciate okay so I'm just mindful of the time we're going to keep the public hearing open for until 7:35 so about 7 more minutes and then move into the superintendence report in the mean time okay all right so thank you this is a superintendent report for January 16th 2025 um because we've had quite a succession of meetings it feels like you know we don't have as much business to cover in superintendent reports so I think what's nice about this is it's entirely curriculum focused um and tonight I wanted to take an opportunity to celebrate our Visual Arts programs and our Performing Arts programs uh I think that um you'll catch a little bit tonight about how the progression of learning objectives works in the visual arts um and you'll get to see the work of one of our award-winning students and then in Performing Arts you'll get to see so many facets of music instruction in performing arts and just how busy really that season is it begins as soon as school starts and it continues throughout the year here so I'm starting with the visual arts and here you can see a picture of marathon art teacher Karen Lucy uh not only is she giving this first grade classroom a lesson on Art uh I mean on color and texture but also she's adding in geography and poetry elements um so it's really a beautiful lesson and you can kind of see over on the right hand side in that photo where they are you know playing with materials that will produce texture on that paper but I think a very cool thing is that when you think about what a texture lesson looks like in the first grade here's what it looks like in a Ceramics class at the high school um so just pretty pretty neat and thank you to Colleen janino who sent these photos along to me uh here's a finished pieces they've been com combined and kind of framed at Marathon school um inspired by wasel kadinsky Kandinsky and uh this is really it's just extremely beautiful when you look at all of the kids work compiled there and again a Karen Lucy item and then back to our Ceramics class you can see the kids here who are making coil pots um and when you see them complete they're kind of Exquisite they do a beautiful job uh our kids learn about lines then they play with lines and then they learn how to add highlights and shadows so you can see uh this is an Elmwood School thing here and I think that this right here is actually a um Hopkins thing and then finally this is our Scholastic Award winner um pascaline t uh so very interestingly um this student is not a person who won a state silver medal but rather they want a national silver medal and the painting is entitled a bright idea so just so you know how competitive that is um 100,000 students over 100,000 students entered nearly 340,000 original works of art and writing to the 2024 Scholastic Awards and so pascle's work was selected by some of the foremost leaders in Visual and literary Arts um selected for excellence in originality skill and the emergence of a personal voice uh and just so you know fewer than 2500 Works received a national medal and this student was one of the people who did so um congratulations to them wow isn't that I think it's beautiful yeah now off to our Performing Arts so in the upper leftand corner one of the things that I think we talk about is uh when we do our Orchestra and band classes we also make time for the teachers to do small group so what you're seeing in that upper leftand corner Mr Dodge there is working only with kids with saxophones as you can see so that's kind of technically a small group and Mr lbr and I were talking about this he said that doesn't look like a small group and it doesn't and I think it speaks to just how many people we have now enrolled in concert band and um Orchestra there just so many kids taking these courses and it's really refreshing to see and so down below you can see uh Mr pie doing the same thing he is demonstrating finger placement with flute students and in the bottom left you have a high school um public speaking course where they are analyzing Martin Luther King Jr's I Have a Dream speech um and you actually got to see that I did not want to leave it was wonderful so on the night of The Adams Family performance at the high school I did show some pictures of that but we have not yet seen pictures of the Middle School fall production of Dorothy in Wonderland so we have a new director uh so this is Michael mckin Hopkinson Middle School directorial debut and yeah I mean the pictures are are fabulous and the the set was glorious but one of the things that I think impressed Mr lefave so well was that uh there's actually an original scene to Hopkinton in this play Mr mcken wrote it himself and there in that scene kids are just like the pacing is amazing and each one of them has a voice that just kind of almost like follows the other one with such rapidity that it almost covers it um but it allowed almost everyone in that play to have a speaking role and the cast was enormous so congratulations to him on his first um performance uh it it was great uh so here you get to see our high school and middle school students preparing for and performing in our winter concerts uh on the left-and side it seems like the kids are having some kind of demonstration there uh you also get a couple of snapshots from those performances on the left you have high school and on the right hand side uh you've got our Middle School orchestra so here's an interesting thing these are snapshots both from our Winter's Middle School Coral performances and above you can see that we have grade eight and you can tell that they are on the Middle School stage but over to the left you can see that they are in the um High School Athletic Center and they are because sixth grade course is just so big that they would not fit on that stage so we had to move them into the high school which is a marvelous problem to have really and so thank you to all of those uh teachers with for their flexibility uh we have some marching band pictures here uh we love that picture over on the left you can see the joy that I think is is part of being in the music program but over on the right hand side at that Friday Night Football game uh the eighth graders were allowed to join our high schoolers so it's almost like a stepup night kind of for our kids who are in the music program um on Saturday this coming Saturday on a very frigid Saturday there will be the senior Festival con concert and this happens every year um the local one the district one is held at mechanics hall and then for kids who uh qualify for the All State Festival that will be held in Symphony Hall in Boston so just so you know who in our uh school district will be going from the high school for orchestra a retro chattery uh on the viola May Chen on the OBO Alexander lutter on the violin and if you see the as dists next to the students name which you do for aritro in May um that means that when they auditioned for districts they had a high enough score to uh get a recommendation to audition at the state level as well concert band Josh Kim high score um and pron of locky ready also a high score Jaz band Alper Rosie on The Barry Sachs and uh Alper also got a recommendation for all states and then finally um in chus Caroline row um she's Alto and um congratulations to all of these students for their musical success we wish them well this weekend when I was chatting electronically last night with um Mr Haye he was at rehearsal so um and just a great big thank you to all of our amazing and inspiring teachers in these departments you can see how busy they are and how much our kids take away we really do have very very high enrollment numbers in all of those programs and they're amazing so thank you thank you so any questions comments did the group um that did the Kandinsky did they learn about Kandinsky too in the process yes so I think that that's part of you know the instruction as you Lear about the artist and then you emulate the artist's work yeah yeah right very cool we have had um such impressive both performing and visual arts in the district it's a real sense of Pride so and we move back uh to the public hearing uh seeing as we do not have anybody unless there's somebody here who has been here who thought of something any questions um I would seek a motion to close the public hearing I move that we close the public hearing on the budget motion by Susan is there a second second by Kyla all those in favor I I and so just for those who are watching from home uh next week is the meeting at which we will approve a budget to pass along to the town manager to go through all the various uh channels that it goes through before it gets to town meeting uh people who were tuned into our joint meeting last week know that the this process is evolving I know that there is new information that is expected to come out from uh the state uh state aid and certainly things on insurance and we will uh continue to look at our budget as we go forward so thank you for those who have tuned in and for those who are here in person um look forward forward to to next week and anybody who has any comments or questions uh that was not able to come out tonight U please feel free to reach out to us um between now and um when our next meeting is and certainly anytime Beyond then so thank you good night oh yeah coming up sorry I just wanted to say for the public that the select board will be discussing the budget at this their meeting next week and the packet is posted with the town manager's recommendations so anyone who wants to meet up on that before Tuesday they can do that that's great thank you all right so they going to circle back then to our reports uh just to go into the school committee chair report payroll warrant 25013 and 2514 have been approved warrant 25-5 6s 25-57 s 25-5 8s and 25- 059 S have been approved all warrants included in the folder um are there liais on reports tonight can I yeah go ahead I was just going to mention Susan and I attended the IEP new IEP um information and question answer session on Tuesday evening it was well attended with lots of conversation in question did you know how many were there I have no idea that's great but there was a lot of question and answer I think maybe 20 people at least yeah that's great all right um youth commission uh meeting was last night and they talked about um shared that Hopkinson organizing for prevention has a survey for participation from students they can reach out to Don Alcott at Hopkinton Youth and Family Services if interested the public library is setting up a public SP uh study space for students looking to study for midterms they are providing snacks and beverages in the large event space um there's also a reading marathon coming up with prizes for readers of all ages oh adults too um she looked at me and I saw that Jamie you look great at all ages and um the hopkington youth commission is working on their annual report and they are considering an infographic format which was really interesting um and they're also doing some workshops for middle school and high school students with the library and talking about um initiating a collaboration with the senior center that's great do they have their volunteer site up and running the youth commission I think it was the youth commission was um there was a student who had created um that you could go on to oh I think they're working on that they're still working on because it they had a lot of B were having bug problems okay that's great uh only quick things for me uh one is uh Sheena Martin and I have been our HR Director have been working with nezda to get things kind of streamlined to come forward I know there is one couple things on the agenda for tonight but there will be more uh next week as well so that and then uh continued budget talks with the the budget Advisory Group um and as Amy had mentioned the there is the public information from the town manager is available on the budget conversation that they're going to have on Tuesday so that then um brings us into the Pol uh policy EF School Nutrition department civil rights this is a first reading Dr Kavon okay thank you uh so this is a brand new policy to hopkington and it came about because we were having an audit of our nutrition program and so this really falls under civil rights and what this very very short policy says is that the hopkington public schools will comply with civil rights requirements and essentially what that means is in the very last sentence in the policy if a participant parent guard Ian or potential participant reports any concern that involves a federally or state protected class um it is our duty to inform accept document and share the complaint or concern in cons in accordance with the procedures that we are working on so you know that whenever we have um a policy like this if there is some procedure that's carried out internally we uh label that the policy efe and then prc1 so we have that written and we will will be meeting with our food services director Michelle kakas and um Mrs rck and I just to firm that up and make sure that what the procedure says we're all comfortable with and so this in and of itself in its entirety is the policy that's great are there questions on the policy did that go out for public it did yes okay okay so we will bring that back um that brings us then into the annual Town report which I had sent out last week I moved it into a Google doc so that we could um edit it in real time because it was intended to be a rough draft uh for us to to kind of look through and and figure out what we wanted do right does everybody have have that okay right this is great because I haven't looked at it so I'm now picking up a couple of little things I just deleted an extra the in the first paragraph and for those at home that um go to that read the big thick book we get a town meeting this report will go into that it is intended to be submitted um within the next week certainly so this is this is why we are looking at it today even though it's um a calendar year 2024 um which when we get to May seems like forever ago but start with are there pieces in terms of things that we've done over the past year that people think should be included that I did not it's or the other side things that people think should be deleted I obviously I dropped off very quickly at the end um in par because I I didn't have a a final sentence there um we'll be updating it as we find out like thing or is this sort of like we're sub we submit it soon and then it's done it's and then goes to printing yep it's it's for exactly it's for calendar year 2024 right the town um likes it in January because they go to print early I think but I think they also want to make sure that everybody gets it in so they know who's missing it as someone who's not submitted their other committee ones on time they continue to nag you yes they do I think in the second line you need to put in um something like uh District's Administration and staff as well as where so second the second line of it can you read to me where the where you're starting with line two collaborative with the district's Administration and staff as well as other Town boards does that Y sound right y m that question English as a as a formatting um just as someone who reads a lot of documents I instead of just having the little dashes I wonder if even just a olded title ahead of each little paragraph instead of the like meetings and events policy updates addressing enrollment um so if someone were just glancing through it they might actually see something that they're interested in in the suting people are not interested I think they're very interested they're just you know it's buried am among other things I know they wait with baited breath for this Thun so and I can plop those in if you that would be fabulous um do we want to talk about uh our collaboration with CPAC okay something not that I have maybe something off the top of my head Susan's thinking that we met collaboratively several times yeah um CPAC and U school committee members have met um collaboratively to improve the um can you write it out can well I was going to say can you T do you have the Google Docs version of it open I don't I have the word version open sorry no that's okay I had um where the gole is in your email oh you're andry calendar no yes yes calendar y oh where Jamie's putting in those things right now um I'm writing right now I do not understand why my pencil's not working maybe that could be do you need a pencil oh R real pencil sorry doesn't last very okay so I said the school committee and CPAC board met collaborative throughout the year to raise awareness of the needs of special education students and improve communication great period the other thing I'm seeing that I missed going to put tight and we can certainly if does anybody have anything else on CPAC that I think that's I think that's right that's good uh I missed under Union bargaining and I can I don't want to type while Jamie's typing because I don't want to mess anything up I don't think goes okay is that we started um we started bargaining with the hopkington Teachers Association in November is that accurate yeah I think so it was a day off from school that we had our first had our train wasn't that in October when we had training was Jewish holidays wasn't it thinking it September October de I want to say October early like October as well yes shoot um October 3rd October 3rd that's train m um I want to just note that we didn't that it continued on as of January 2025 continuing I don't want to presume but I would say with an anticipated um agreement ahead of town meeting that's fair hopefully well ahead because that would make mean we're making good progress um okay annual be not capitalized T and the M should I that was because I was typing fast and not looking at what I was doing I feel like we need another sentence at the end just to kind of as we move forward we remain committed to fostering and I can type it that was great go ahead Innovation equity and Excellence across hopkington Public Schools perfect that's what I had um I think I want to reward a little bit in the uh transition paragraph okay so we engaged nesq um to consult and assist with the search for successor superintendent queen and a or something ahead of that for yeah for a successor superintendent um should we indicate that we chose nezda because of the successful and smooth process the last time we used them or just assume or should we spell out nzc instead of using their that might be good good yeah ative do I have what they stand for written down it's the new New England school is it development my friend I think it's development yeah Educational Consultants New England School develop vment Council really where's that other e yeah there's another in there they do go by the New England School Development Council maybe they're adding de for development development because it then makes a pronounceable word I don't know yeah it makes it a word NE on bargaining paragraph do you want to call it collective bargaining agreement oh yes don't may be thank you what were the um I know we've looked at like student safety inclusion um are there other like kind of top even from before um Chris and I and Kyla joined um that you would say we're kind of policies that stuck out versus just we did policies so i''d have to go we could go back would that be the would Kuran would fall in 2024 right it was either late 2023 or 2024 I'd have to look back through um hang on on the website the concussion policy I mean I think the piece that we want to consider is are we looking to we could we could list all of them um or we could pick a couple I think the hard thing is the broad Strokes which ones are because they're not really related for the most part which ones are the most important things that we're looking at student safety right right so on the website if you go in under school committee there's a whole thing for the policy uh if we go under sry the agenda is in minutes um you have to start in 2023 to 2024 and then go back if you look at the actions taken that'll give I mean it's maybe more time consuming on the fly but that's the I mean we recently looked at student discipline student discipline yep the Civil Rights policy that's a nutrition one was that bully and nutrition that was 2025 the way bullying and harassment we talked about they did we do the bullying policy in 2023 the um I was talking thinking about the um we talked about them being able to to put people's faces on things that wen't appropriate oh the technology is that the technology Pro policy or was that the um that's not bullying and and I don't have my file yeah or ACA I think it's an a right I'm in AC acab yeah like AC AC when was when was that done uh that was July I believe yep July the weapons and school policy was J that was a pretty big one yeah and that was in um March of 2024 Somebody by any chance writing down putting in the ones that were do you want the we're just generally saying the topic right okay um so it was weapons and harassment I don't I mean well discrimination that sounds bad M and we didn't do specifically sexual harassment right that that was all kind of folded in yeah cuz looked at Title 9 which now is non-discrimination policies I think we should say weapons in school oh yeah just because we don't make policies about things as well is there anything else that Susan you can think of or Jamie from what's been done since you guys have been doing the policy I think those are the ones that stood out to me um that seemed the most interesting that I what do you guys even do well there's this really important work that we do and we talk about it at the meeting and Dr K sends it out so you would know all right is there anything else that people want to pull out tonight um to add subtract or edit on the document as it is looks good okay does anybody feel comfortable enough to make a motion on it I move we adopt the yearend report for 2024 okay motion by Susan second by Kyla all those in favor I I and it is unanimous and passes um that moves us then into the reviewing of the proposed recruitment materials that I initially sent out because I was just forwarding the PDF but I put it then into a Google doc at about the same time I did that one that we just looked that um so that if people wanted to make any changes to that it would be simple to do and again this comes out of the work that um Sheen and I have been doing with with NASDAQ um just in terms of trying to streamline things to get them here for for the school committee to review so that it can get into the next step I feel like this last set is a really seems like it could be two sentences well that would be easy with the semicolon seems real long for one sentence should I go right ahead you talk about a diverse District but do we want to talk about the significance of our how our diversity has changed in recent years I don't know just an idea that um I think we definitely could um I mean I don't think we want too much on that cuz it's not going to be as relevant to somebody coming in right I think knowing that history is important in um what would you like to say about it you would expect me to have an idea I have ideas but there Jamie has words smithing um I think the is the goal to indicate how how much Hopkinson has grown recently including the growth in diverse populations yes because that's been a change that's been significant over the last how many yeah we talk about growth of enrollment don't we so I think we could do something on growth and enrollment between the it is home to nearly 4,300 students and over 350 licensed Educators would be a natural spot to add something about um the growth growth about how much it's grown do we have we say to keep Pace with the rapid growth over the last decade we just want to expand that a the district's undertaken construction two major building projects but you okay oh right down there in the second paragraph yeah yep oh that has another really long sentence yeah why don't we just instead to keep Pace with this W growth of last they change that make that one sentence yeah oh well that's not a sentence yeah I know make it a sentence in itself and then start a new sentence with the district has like Hopkinson has experienced rapid growth over the last decade yes I would say in population and diversity or something or so the I would the only thing I'm trying to think of how to word Smith that is the Hopkinton has experienced rapid growth over the last decade in both um size and diversity of population rather than saying population yeah um how about if you did it um having experienced rapid growth over the last decade in both population and diversity the district has has uh undertaken or has needed to undertake can you back up a tiny bit so I can scbe I think having experienced the new one where I'm looking where she's tied so this is your new propose this is the one that we just put in oh um what I wanted says the same thing you yeah I was just trying to put it together together we were trying to make it one short two shorter sentences but I don't want to argue with the English teacher yeah yeah Susan give us L us got nothing to give you nope no new words for your do you approve the I don't just so long as we don't make up new verbs would be bad I know where that's coming from I don't think that that should be part of our role as school to Def find new words no I had to I had this not Carol for calendar eyes was it calendar eyes no eyes just calendar you calend I calendared it you know it probably isn't a dictionary if we asked some of our students I'm sure they would give us a list of new verbs that they come up with throughout the year I I suest I used taking that out and making that like like making that a new sentence yep I think you want to verb in there then I will verb it what I verbed it good says it is now a verb calendar is what about verbed is that a also verb oh verb I I just got that oh we're getting Punchy at 8 o' okay I think this is good okay so Chris is quiet over here he's like think Chris Chris wants to talk more about it I think it's it's good okay um is there if there's nothing else people want to addit is there somebody who would like to make a motion sure I'll make a motion that we use this letter as uh amended as amended to go ahead and solicit applications for superintendent okay motion by Kyla second second by Chris all those in favor okay the last one is the um just feedback I had received about our screening committee that we don't have a like a director of one of our directors of curriculum in there because and people that thought that something closer to curriculum might be an important piece to have on there I also have been in uh conversation with our um executive uh with Georgette a long title but uh who agreed with kind of the sentiment that we had had originally when we were talking about not wanting the committee to get too big for screening uh and had said that she felt that that might be a a more a voice that we would want to have on there and that she would be uh happy to step aside for that person to have the slot that was initially for her I didn't and to be Clair I didn't ask her to do that she reached out to me okay one people thinking that I'm intimidating GE not um I adore Georgette I think she brings better to everything that she works on with us but would we be able be allowed to include Georgette when it came to final interviews so the final final interviews will just be be will be the school committee but certainly Georgette we will solicit feedback from anybody who's happy to do it and would love to have she wanted to participate in a focus group group and to just even from what she's seen provide feedback directly to us does that mean that Jeff would become a part of the screening committee not necessarily what directors of curriculum would be because we do have Central but because we do have a spot for central office we have a central office and a building so that that would certainly be a possibility but that this is a separate okay piece um so are there people have thoughts on that I I think that's a great idea okay yeah I I appreciate that she brought that up I would certainly not have been like hey you should get but I was concerned about the increasing numbers when they suggested 9 to 12 and were already at 13 although I will point out we had 15 the last time and we had a very successful search they said 21 was too many well they hit the the David hit that's what I think it was him that had said that 15's on the higher end but you he had seen them as big as 21 which would be I think very difficult to manage that group and I would be thankful not to be on a group of 21 people trying to come to a consensus all right is there anybody who would like to make a a motion to adjust the um positions to include a a curriculum director um I would move to adjust the positions on the screening screening committee to include a curriculum director okay and remove and remove the Executive Administrative she has a longer title than that and I don't want to botch it but it's Executive Administrative Assistant to the superintend to the superintendent that's correct but also to you and also yes she does a lot of different things that are not captured necessarily in in a title queen of central office all right so that was was that whose motion was that Susan Susan's motion is there a second on that I'll second second by Kyla all those in favor I I and that so moves and there are no items of old business and that brings us into the items by consensus okay superintendent I recommend the school committee approve the items by consensus as outlined in your agenda I move to approve the items by consensus okay motion by Jamie is there a second by Susan all those in favor I and then uh we do have need for an executive session is there um somebody who would like to read the because it has to be read aloud the read and make the motion to enter into executive session I will to comply with on the act of authority of Mass general laws chapter 30A section 21 A2 for the purpose of discussing strategy with the respected Collective Bing with the association CAF cafeteria workers of hington SEIU Local 888 um because discussing an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the school committee's bargaining position and to comply under the AC of authority of Mass General Lodge chapter 30A section 21 A3 specific to the review of the executive session minutes for the meetings of May 16 2024 June 13 2024 July 11 2024 July 25th 2024 August 22nd 2024 October 24th 2024 November 14th 2024 and December 19 2024 to adjourn the meeting executive session thank you so motion by Kyla is there a second second second by Jamie we'll do a roll call starting with You Chris yes Kyla yes Susan yes Jamie yes and I am a yes and we are entered into executive session at 11 sorry 811 feels like 11 so and we will not be returning just for folks that are tuning in from home we will not be returning to the public meeting but adjourning from our executive session and then we will just for next meeting dates we will be at the at the select board on January 21st to discuss the Adaptive playground and then we have the regular meeting uh next Thursday the 23 so thank you all who tuned in e e for