Uh the time now is 5:32. Uh I'd like to start the um Silver Lake Regionalization Study Committee meeting for uh Wednesday, June 18th. Uh in attendance right now, we have Missy Baitman, we have John Williamson, we have Megan
Cannon, we have Michael, how do you cow? All right. Cow, um Jim Walters, myself, Jonathan Celig, uh and we are joined by our school council online. We are joined by uh Joe Pru, superintendent online, uh
and uh school budget officer, Sarah Hickey, online as well, as well as members from the Colin Center. First off, thank you guys for joining us today. We appreciate your time. Very welcome. Um we'll I guess just get right into it. Uh we've shared uh questions
with you folks. Um, so I'll give you guys the floor as to uh what you'd like us to know and kind of kick this process off. Sure. Absolutely. Thank you for having us today. Thank you for inviting us uh to spend uh this time with you. Um
my name is Sarah Connan. I am the director of municipal services at the Colin Center. And in terms of what I would like to uh lay out for you this evening, um I'll give you a little bit of background on myself. Uh and then I'll have my colleagues Ann and Bill
introduce themselves. Uh and then I want to talk a little bit about the call-in center so that you all understand our sort of a our our background, our services, and our approach to projects. And then um I'll turn it back over to the committee. And I know Ann and Bill
have uh questions as they start to conceptualize what the project will look like uh based on what they've heard and what they've seen so far and of course the answers that they'll be able to get tonight. Um so I've been with the Colin
Center since 2012. Uh I joined um to uh participate on a uh data analytics and performance management project for cities and towns. Uh after about five six years I took over our finance team. Um and after six years of that I stepped
into the role of director of municipal services. And in that position I oversee all of the consulting and technical assistance that we provide to clients around the Commonwealth and beyond. So I'm going to pause there. I'm going to ask Ann and Bill to introduce themselves so you know who you're looking at and
then I'll take back the floor to talk a little bit about the Colin Center. Yeah. Okay. Hi, I'm Ann Wilson. I have been with the Collins Center since 2018 when I retired as superintendent of the Sudbury public schools. Um, previously
assistant superintendent in Brooklyn and um, principal, assistant principal, teacher in Cal Northern California and Pennsylvania. Um, typically working on organizational studies and any type of study of districts um, across the
Commonwealth. Happy to be here tonight. Thank you. Um, hi, my name is Bill Lupini. Uh, and I've been working sort of on and off with Collins since 2017,
I believe. Um, I also do some consulting work around educator evaluation, superintendent, principal, collaborative coaching, um, with Reebus Associates. Um, and I spent 25 years as a school
superintendent. um 18 of those years in Beverly and Brooklyn um but also some time in Pennsylvania and some time in New Hampshire. Um the projects I mainly worked on with Collins have been um in
regional school districts uh districts that were looking at uh stu declines in student enrollment and what kinds of strategies they might need to employ as a result of that declining um enrollment mainly in central and uh and western uh
Massachusetts. and and um like Ann, I'm I'm happy to be here and and and talk with you more about uh what you're looking um to Collins for assistance with. So, thanks for having us. Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Ann. So, I'm going to give you guys just a
quick background on the Colin Center so that you can understand, you know, how we operate. We're a little bit of a unique animal. um I think special uh and so um you know and I know that some of you may have heard of us others may uh be hearing about us for
the first time. So we were actually created back in 2008 by the state legislature and the executive office of administration and finance. They placed us into the McCormick School at UMass Boston.
Um we have our uh mission set out in state law chapter 75 section 45. Um there are five components. The most important one uh the one that we spend the most of our time on and the one that's relevant for you all is um the
top bullet which is to provide high quality pragmatic agile and affordable fee for service technical assistance and consulting on public management issues to public entities. Um since 2008 we've completed over 1,200
projects for more than 300 organizations. the vast majority of which are here in the Commonwealth. Most of them are municipalities and school districts, but we have also worked with regional governments. We've worked with state agencies, quasi governmental entities, and occasionally we do work
with nonprofits. Um, we've done a few projects in some of the other New England states. Um, but the bulk of the work that we've done is here in the Commonwealth. We've worked in the smallest communities and the largest community. Uh, we've done projects for
GZnold, which has a population of under 100. We've done projects with the city of Boston. We've worked in every single county. Um, we have been all over this state. Um, and uh, and we really love it. Um,
if you're kind of wondering, well, what kind of organization are you? Because you're at UMass Boston, but you're, you know, you're telling us you do consulting. We really are a consulting organization with a public service mission to help other public sector entities accomplish their own missions.
Um, and we have a couple of values that define the type of work we do, the approach to the work that we do. Um, and that is first and foremost that we're practitioner driven. So although we have um colleagues at UMass Boston who focus
on academic research in public administration and public policy which is wonderful um and although we all came up through masters and PhD programs you know our real goal when we're helping clients on the ground is to make sure that they know that we've been on the
ground. Um we bring that practitioner focus to the work that we do because even the bestlaid plans if there if if those plans are devised uh in uh you know an ivory tower or somewhere else um often they don't work on the ground and
what we really want uh more than anything is for our clients to be successful. Um we take a really pragmatic approach to the work that we do uh which is related to what I just said and we really focus on what progress can be
made. You may not get perfect uh but certainly you can make progress toward your goal um and public sector organizations, cities, towns, school districts are always striving to uh to improve. We're also a forward-looking
organization. We do not do um backwardlooking audits to figure out who did what wrong and why did they do it. We're really uh prefer and uh maintain that the best way
to serve constituents whether those are students, seniors, veterans, um is to to look forward and say how can we make our pro processes better? How can we make our staff better? how can we make our programs better?
Um, we're also very adaptable and collaborative. Uh, and the way that looks, uh, is that, um, we really want to be a partner to our clients. What we don't do is come in, um, ask you a bunch
of questions, disappear for four months, and come back with a big report. Um because what we know from leading our own public organizations and being staff and being constituents of public sector organizations is that buy in is really
important and the process needs to be uh transparent to those who are participating. They need to understand why they're being asked certain questions. They need to be able to follow progress and they need to understand how the conclusions came to
be. Uh that gives the recommendations a stronger chance of success in our experience. Um just a quick few sentences about our structure. So right now we have over 50 employees. Uh 10 of them are full-time
and more than 40 of them are part-time. Our part-time staff are really the lifeblood of our organization. Um, and they really fall into two categories. First, we have our analysts who uh provide support on projects. They do things like research, data collection,
data analysis, survey development, etc. Um, and often those folks are masters or PhD students at UMass Boston or recent graduates. Um, and then we have our associates. And our associates, Ann and
Bill, are are two of our associates. Um, our associates are typically retired public sector employees from Massachusetts or the surrounding states. Um, they bring decades of experience in a particular subject.
And you know, we're we're really lucky to have that structure because it does give us the opportunity to um bring that real pragmatic approach, pract practitionerdriven approach to our our work.
Uh the Collins Center has grown so much since 2008 that we now uh are structured into practice areas although we do a lot of cross practice area uh teamwork because um as you guys have probably
found in your own day-to-day uh the the public sector challenges that many organizations face are quite complex. um they can be impacted by something that seemingly is unrelated. Uh and so it's really
important to us that we are able to bring uh experts from you know a variety of different areas to the table and um uh to be able to comprehensively address an issue. Uh nonetheless we talk about
ourselves as being separated into practice areas and we currently have 13 practice areas. I'm not going to name them all. Uh, but I'll give you a flavor. Um, really it runs the gamut. Anything that a municipality does, we
also can help with. Anything that a uh whether that's finance, human resources, IT, communications, uh we really do it all. Um, and we also have a a quite a busy schools practice and that's the team where Ann and Bill are based.
Uh in terms of process, just so that you all understand sort of the way that we work, um because we're part of a state agency, the UMass system, uh we are able to uh engage and contract directly with
other public sector organizations without having to follow a 30B process. So that's uh the the reference there is um chapter 30B section 14. Um, and really what that allows us
to do is help support our communities that um, maybe don't have the internal staff capacity to run a robust bid or RFP process. Um, although that's always an option. Um
the way that it looks uh often is that clients seek us out um to find out if we're able to help them solve a problem. Um sometimes that comes through our networks. Um you know, one of our
associates will get a call from a former colleague or maybe somebody that they mentored in their uh career. Um, sometimes people call me or email me directly and often we get projects through our relationship with the division of local services um, a
recommendation from them uh, to a potential client to to reach out and find out what we're all about. We do a lot of work that is funded through the community compact best practices and ENR grant programs. And I think that's how you guys came to uh to reach out to us.
Um so folks will reach out to us and say here's what you know here's what our challenge is here's what our goal is um and if the work is within our wheelhouse then we start a conversation because um we really need to figure out what is the
scope of work is your desired timeline what is your budget uh for the project and so that can take one or more meetings phone calls etc. Um after which once we feel we have uh a sense of what
the work is, we will draft a project uh proposal. Um and really it defines the scope, it defines the proposed timeline, um it shares the budget for the work and it also lays out our work plan. Um, so
the different various uh tasks that we're going to complete toward that final uh deliverable. Um, we send that over to you and um and you know await await feedback. We often
have back and forth with potential clients uh trying to clarify things, add more detail, you know, change uh change the timeline, see if we can stretch the budget uh you know. So, we do all of those things um very collaboratively. We
want to make sure that it's a project that is uh clear and um aligned with your goals um and also is something that we feel we can accomplish. Uh once we have the project proposal accepted by
the by the client, um we have a two-page contract that the UMass General Council has um has developed for us. One that we've used for those 1,200 projects. Um it's pretty straightforward. Um and uh
we get that signed um by the three entities. And I say three because it's the client, it's the call-in center, and then we need to have someone at UMass Boston sign it. Um, and then we're we're off to the races. Does any before I before I am done, does
anybody have questions about anything I just talked about? Was anything unclear? I had a a small one. Sarah, I know you mentioned you've done 1,200 projects. Of those, uh, how many of those have been regionalization studies? And do you have
any currently being performed by the call-in center? Um, off the top of my head, I can't say that uh we've done anything exactly like what you all are uh asking to be done. Okay.
Um we have worked with regional schools on a variety of projects. Um, and some of those projects would be relevant
to some of the work that you want to do. So, for example, when I first uh was in receipt of the um ENR grant application, when I first read it through, I said, "Oh gosh, this reminds me of the project we did for um a small superintendent
union out in Western Mass that looked at fin uh basically cost efficiencies." And that was a project that an was um an integral part of and she could speak you know uh more specifically as to the scope but um
nothing exactly like what you all have done um you know which makes it fun we can learn together. Yeah. Other questions? Anybody else? Anybody else have any questions? John, if I can.
Yeah, Sarah, just to piggyback on that that you have not yet done this scope of a project, what would you um use for your comparisons and how would you come to your conclusions? Would it just be data driven or would you be looking at other studies that have been done by
other firms? Um, well, I will probably need to defer to Ann and Bill on that question. Um, I don't want to get ahead of them in terms of the scope of work.
Um, so maybe Ann or Bill, I'll ask you if you could field that one. Sure. Sure, Sarah. I'll take that. Um I I think that the answer to the question is it depends and it depends on the um the scope of
your project. It depends on if there is something that is actually comparable. Certainly we would look at that um and if comparison is part it may be part of some of the study. So for example if you're looking at different types of efficiencies we may look for other
districts or other district unions that have gone through something similar. Um, however, this is fairly unique. Um, it's unique in the projects that I've been part of. Um, and again, that that is what makes it exciting as Sarah said. Um, but I I don't know that we would uh
depend heavily on comparison. I think we really need to understand um your context, understand what your um what you would like to get from this and to really then look and analyze each of the areas to see um you know, I saw questions around
efficiency. I saw questions around cost savings. I see questions around um you know analyzing the quality of the educational experience. So these are all very unique individualized areas that would have to be looked at um separately and then how does it all work together.
Um but but I don't know that we would say oh here are the comparison districts when we go into a district sometimes for example and we're looking at just the organizational structure and um the district asks us you know you know we want to know um is our administrative staffing appropriate and I'm very much
simplifying okay one little area just to give you an idea if that's one of the questions that need to be answered in the study of course we are absolutely going to look for very specific similar districts um some that DESIE has identified, some that the district uses itself for collective bargaining, for
example. And then we're also going to look at the demographics um the students that are being served by that district. And then we get to what what um what let what um examples of um in
district testing in district evaluation that are you that's used as well as state resources. So just for that one question, we would be identifying specific comparison districts because it would be super helpful if we can get the
exact same or very close to demographics and similar types of um assessment instruments being used. I hope I didn't go like too far astray, but just wanted you to see there the these are it's a really complex question and it really does depend on what your goals are and
what types of comparisons we are actually able to find. We're not going to force it and we're not going to compare things that really are apples and oranges. The only thing the only thing I'm Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, sorry. I I um
have a meeting that starts in about 5 minutes in the other room. Uh so I was wondering, do you have any other dates set up for future meetings yet? For this committee, I believe we're July 9th is our next scheduled meeting. 9th.
Okay, let me just double check that. And it's a 5:30 start. 5:30. Okay, that'd be good because I'm in Halifax until 5, so that'd be perfect. I can I can pick you up. Yeah. All right. Very good. Sorry to
interrupt. I just want to make sure I can make the next one in person. So, yeah, no worries. Um, did did someone else Bill, did you have something else to say? Yeah, the the only thing I would say uh in in addition to what Sarah and Ann have said is that um and this is just from looking
through the questions you sent us that even though those studies a couple of the studies I talked about and that I know Ann's been involved in were different kind of focus areas with regional school districts there are a number of the of areas that you touched on in terms of
transportation questions that were brought up by what happens if we close a school what happens to our regional agreement that I think are sort of on point with what you're doing. So even though the sort of the end goal right of those studies was different, there are
there are enough similarities in terms of some of the particular pieces um that I that I think we can say we have experience um with a number of those different aspects that would be helpful here. I I will say that um I need to go now,
but I've worked on lots of regional agreements throughout the state with Mars and just on my own. And so I'm really familiar with how this process would go so we can all work together on
that. Um but I've you know like Silverlake when Penroke left my father and I worked on that transition. We've worked on combining regions. We've worked on creating K to2s that weren't K to2s before. So, there's a whole bunch
of things that I can help you all with, too. So, we can all work together, you know, collaboratively to make it happen or whatever is going to happen here. So, all right. Good night, everybody. Thank you. Bye. Uh, one quick question too. If we were
to go forward, guys, I know you mentioned you have 50 employees. What would would we have our own set team? Uh do you reach across all 50 employees to tap their knowledge? What what would what would our individual approach be to this to this project here?
Um you'd be looking at the team right now. I mean, Ann and Bill are here because we've already had conversations in our school's practice team to say who has the capacity in their portfolio and
the experience to uh take this project on potentially and that's why Ann and Bill are here and not somebody else from the school's practice team. Um there will probably be o there will certainly be others who have other roles, but Ann
and Bill would be the uh the folks that would be your your main contacts, the main uh associates on the project. Um we know for sure we would need an analyst um to help us with research, data collection, organization, etc.
Um, and there may also be somebody who has does sort of like very high level project management just to liaz with with Bill and an uh because they're not full-time. Um, all of our project managers are full-time and so it that is a sort of a logistical thing on our end.
um Ann and Bill may want to bring in again once they clarify the scope they may want to or need to bring in somebody else with particular expertise whether it's well I I don't even I I don't want to speculate um I'll let them uh speak
to that um when the time is right but um Ann and Bill would be the uh the key players on the project team. Okay. And then as far as cost, uh we've been awarded a set amount in a grant. How do we uh ensure that we're going to
be able to do this study uh and maintain, you know, be under the limit of the grant money that we have? Um so the way that our contracts work is that they're flat fee. So we negotiate a scope of work and we work uh on what
where we think the budget needs to be for that scope of work. Um, if for whatever reason we can't, we're not comfortable saying that we can do the scope of work that you've asked us to do with the budget that you have, we'll tell you that and we will work to figure
out what the solution is. Um, if we go over budget because we callin center made a mistake and didn't fully understand how many hours a particular task would take, then we eat that. So we have a flat fee um arrangement for our
projects. Now if there was scope uh any scope change is something that we would need to talk about uh and work through. Uh but we often work on projects that have a set budget because they're whether it's something that was appropriated by town meeting or their
grants. And so we're well uh well aware of the uh of those boundaries. And um and again, a lot of the work at the very beginning of the scoping and budget development um really speaks to the need to define a scope that will work for the budget that you have.
Anybody else have any questions? All right, this was great. Anything else you would like us to know? Well, I think that um if we are going to write a proposal for you, then I expect that Ann and Bill
have some questions that they're going to want to ask you. Um and so if you have the uh the ability I think I' I'd say this would be the time, right, Ann and and Bill? Yeah. So, if that works
for you, we'd we'd sort of want to probe some of the um some of what we've heard from uh our conversations and what we read in the grant application and uh and even the questions that you all helpfully shared uh ahead of this meeting.
Okay. I don't want to speak for the whole committee, but um I think we touched on them at the beginning where we'd like to look into efficiencies. Uh we'd like to look at any sort of cost savings. We'd like to look at um controls of of certain schools, you
know, um basically essentially soup to nuts. I don't I don't know how else to say it, but um every measurable impact of a regionalization we we'd like to take a look at. And can I ask? I mean, I think there's
been off and on discussions for years about whether uh making a change to the K to to 8 what that would result in. And so I think the goal here is really to make sure that we get a factual you know evaluation of
that and that way we can bring that back and and have a discussion after we have the facts because a lot of people have certain assumptions and the assumptions may or may not be correct. So that's that's really the goal and I think there's the you know the questions I think generally are around that and
there's some things that maybe branch out. So, we'll have to kind of corral all that into different buckets. But I think in the end, we just want to be able to know that we're looking at some good factual information to make decisions, right? And that's not just for for school committees, but it's for the each of the towns to be able to
evaluate and then and then try and decide what's next. And that doesn't mean it doesn't necessarily mean regalism. It may absolutely mean regalization. It it just we don't have the facts and we need the facts.
John, may I always you guys have an open floor. If I may add to um what John just um shared from Clinton's perspective and as well from Kingston's perspective, no decisions have been made. Um, this was something that has come up after multiple town meetings and school
committee meetings and board selection meetings where we're trying to figure out how to best I think make the district more efficient um in all areas. And if this is something that could help, then I think that would be something that would eventually need to be taken to a vote. Um, if it's not
something that seems practical for our district at the time, then we may not be able to move forward with it. So no decisions have been made on our end. We're just we've recognized the need for the study and that's why it was brought brought up.
Yeah, I think that hits the nail on the head right there. Can I ask too the um the educational metrics that you could provide? Would that also include um I suppose the metrics of whatever the
districts are using if we're not using all of the same measures for their educational impact, not just MCAST scores, but is that something that you would also look into their high performance or however I'm not sure what your metric base is?
Um Ann, go ahead. No, go ahead. Go ahead. It's fine. Well, I was going to say that I yes, I think I think that would include understanding what each of the districts use, whether there are consistent measures across the district.
Um, and then and then being able to to try to, you know, figure out what what that means, uh, at present and and what you may want to put in place, the school district may want to put in place to sort of make those measurements in terms
of improvements going forward. Okay. So, I think I think it starts out with us understanding what's in place, right? Sure. Thank you. Can I can I just piggy back on that? So, this may be too much of an in the weeds
detail, but a concern that I have um and have had for a while as a Halifax school committee member is the equity in what education we provide in each of the three different school districts at the through um six level. making sure that
we have the right curriculum offerings, staff offerings, that there's equity in the education that each of the three towns offers to students regardless of where they live in the district so that they're equally prepared to be at the same level when they get to seventh
grade. I don't know with differing town budgets and the crunch that all dealing with now especially that I feel like this study in particular is really important at this moment in time um as we're all trying to figure out how to do
more with less. Sure. And I'll be completely honest too. I'm from Halifax as well and that's one of the drivers for me. Uh I know there's been talk of regionalization for a while and it seems like we've hit such a financial uh tough spot now, but I think there is a little bit of the the doors slightly open right
now more maybe more so than in previous years because um we owe it to our residents to you know see if there's some efficiencies you know to see if there's a way we can um run things a little bit uh tighter and smoother so that we might not be as in a significant
crunch as we may be in. Yeah, you you you just made my uh so one thing I neglected to mention in my introduction is that I spent three years after leaving Massachusetts in one of the school administrative units in New Hampshire um SAU 21 just over the border
which is actually five different school districts and um and the remarks that you just made was was my annual speech particularly when you were working in a district if you know those towns where I had Northampton Hampton Falls and then Seabbrook very
very different demographically uh in terms of districts all feeding into one high school and the constant worry of people in those communities and us as the central office uh for those uh for that administrative unit of of how do we make sure as kids are coming to
the high school that they have opportunities to take advantage of when they get there. Um and so yes, I couldn't agree with that more. I think that has to be a really key element of this work. And you mentioned demographics. Would we get into the demographics of the three different communities? Would the would
the study go that deep as to demographics of of what our school populations are? Yeah, absolutely. Y saying do that before they do the study, right? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Can I just ask you two
questions that you uh included here? I'm And did I cut I'm sorry if I cut you off. Go ahead. I did. But thank you, Ian. Um, there's a question here about uh when can we expect the final report. First of all, there's something in here. Again, some of these I think we can
answer now. Would we have interim updates, preliminary findings? Yes. Yes. Yes. There'd be regular uh updates through this process. Whe when when when would a final report be uh
uh be most useful, I guess, is the question. What do you think, guys? As soon as you can get it done. Is yesterday too aggressive? Why did I know that would be the answer to that question?
99.9% of clients have that answer. Yeah, we are just about to, you know, we just wrapped up one school year. We'll be going into Yes. But then our budget season is going to be underway by the fall for administrators and then we start looking at the budgets in January
for the school districts. So having an idea where this might be going possibly for like 2027 that would be I think most helpful. So in a perfect world you'd want to at least have some of those preliminary kinds of recommend
uh ideas of what what what we're working on in that time frame. ideally the final report but but at the very least some of those pieces I think to see which direction we might be heading or what you know yeah I think obviously we're
too late for this coming you know budget season off I mean I mean I I think even after a final report you would need a year to even to best case scenario a year to be able to get out to educate if
there's going to be a change right? If there's going to be a change. So, you know, but I think I think getting getting that periodic feedback will be useful as we head into budget season just so we we have an idea of where things are because, you know, if if there's the hope for some people that
regionalization is this great holy grail and we're all clear that it's not maybe it has some benefits but it's not going to be, you know, anything magic. then that helps to be able to have the discussions and and take that, you know, that that idea off the table that um but
I do think, you know, it's it's um you know, if there's a final report, I think it's it's kind of like now is when a final report is needed to be able to get a jump on the next year if action is going to be taken. You know what I mean? But but I think you we're going to start to have an idea of where things are
coming out as we go along through this and through different pieces. And then probably the last part of the process would be dealing with the finer points on things and okay that's helpful. Thank you. Yeah, no worries. Ann, I'm sorry. Well, you
interrupted and you took my question. So because so you know we would we we would be interested in interviewing people um spending significant time um combing through data uh not only on um student
performance but uh there are a lot of questions that are obviously linked to finances and to expenditures and things like that. So we definitely would be spending a lot of time with that, but we would be setting up interviews and also focus groups um with the community to
really get a sense of uh where where things are going well, where are the challenges um and and what are the hopes for the future whether it's regionalization or further regionalization or something else. So what what what to to that end to Ann's point there. What there's a question
here about um how and when will taxpayers get a chance to the question is to chime in on the process. What do you see as the role of taxpayers um in in this process? I think it's extremely relevant. I think
that they're going to want to know exactly our questions. What what is most cost effective? What is most practical? But also um what is the buy in? you know, is this something that's going to are we going to pay a little upfront and it's going to save us millions or are we
going to save a lot up front, but it could cost us millions by, you know, give and takes um from grants and things like that, regional transportation reimbursements. Um I think we I think we had discussed at our last meeting we'd like to see something along the lines of
public forums that the public can come and ask questions. um whether that's at different parts of the study or at the beginning maybe middle um just to kind of gauge where the public um is at um with with the whole study not not one
way or the other to John's point neither of none of us are decided on which direction we'd like this to go it's just we we've all recognized the need for um doing this study so that's very and I think to dovtail on that I think part of it is we have three very different sized
fish in this ocean. You know, Kingston is the whale, we are the Halifax is the the bass and and Plton's the minnow, right? So, so those ones that are the smallers are a little are a little concerned that they get swallowed up by the whale here. Just being totally
transparent. Sure. So, the more we can educate people on what changes may come of this and what to expect other than just the bottom line figure, um I think will help us if this is the way we want to go. So I also think that it's important for
us at an early stage to invite taxpayers in um from a is to ask them to be agents of transparency in our community to observe and share but also um to maybe be champions of
whatever direction the committee is recommending. um but also represent the concerns that we know we're going to hear from certain constituents. Um so I you know I think a
taxpayer um that we pull in should maybe not have children in the school system. Um, you know, we all have or most of us have had kids recently that gone through the school system, but we do have a lot of taxpayers that don't have a vested
interest in the schools, but they pay in taxes to support those schools. So, um, you know, I feel like that's an important piece. Let me ask that's really helpful. Thanks. Sorry. Sorry. Well, I was just going to ask a followup because we do a
lot of projects um that have this concern um or need to have this component of community engagement. Um and so understanding how you know where it falls in terms of how priority and
how you guys think about it is really really important. Um we have done some projects where the community engagement piece is significant others where it's less significant in terms of like the number of events and so on. Um would it
be helpful? So when we do a project like this um and when we are at the start one or sort of the beginning to middle one of the things that I've done in some projects in the past not schools focused
but um focused on sharing policing actually um is to have a community forum that really focuses on understanding what does the community value what does it love about what do What do community members love about their town, about
their school district? What do they definitely want to protect throughout this process? And what do they want to, you know, think about changing? What would they want to see done differently or better? Because we want to know. Um,
so at the end of the day, this question, you're not going to get a report that says you should definitely regionalize because it's going to save you $500 million. And it's not going to be that black and white because these decisions are value judgments. And the only people who can make those decisions are the
people who live in the communities and they may say yes, we want to save a lot of money, but no, we don't want to sacrifice X, Y, and Z, whatever those values are. So, it's really going to come down to a value judgment that your communities are going to have to make.
Um, so I like having public forums toward the be or at least a public forum toward the beginning that really gets to those values that gives us a really good foundation. But what I'm hearing from you too is that you've got these three
different distinct uh towns and maybe it would make sense and here's my question. Does it make sense to have three separate public forums, one for each community, or do you think it makes more sense to have one
public? Three separate three. All those in favor? Yeah, I I was I was going there when you my mind was already there when you started question. So it's they're just different and I think you're not going to get you're not going to get the flavor of the and and then
you can also hold these and then no one shows up. So you know transparency transparency transparency. Oh, I'm busy tonight, you know, and but we need to do them to give the opportunity. Yeah. Right. And then if you get we get some good feedback from it, then that's a
bonus. Yep. Yeah. That's what And we can and we can record them and and use them to get out to the public. So that you know unfortunately may not show up, they'll at least flip on the the internet and be able to watch them. Okay. Do you envision other types of
community engagement that you feel would work really well? Uh Ann mentioned focus groups. We've done focus groups and Ann and Bill can can comment more specifically, but I remember schools projects where we've done focus groups of educators focus group. We even did
one I think Bill we both worked on it. Um we did a focus group that was high school students because we were talking about uh something that impacted uh them. We wanted to get the student perspective. So what other types of community engagement and I say community that could mean the school community. It
could mean the broader community. Um what other types of community engagement do you think that you definitely want to see if you know at this stage? I would say the board selectman and the finance committees um for each of the towns possibly even the school
committees just to kind of gauge that stakeholder interest from those that serve um I think would be different from gauging just the community members that want to have a say in this. I think coming from a
perspective of a select board member or finance committee member those would be different different questions based for different reasons. Um, like Lori said, some of us have kids in school, some don't. Um, I think coming from their their concerns, that would be good. And
then possibly a um parent focused group, depending on what you get or don't get for a broader, you know, forum. So if the forum doesn't have that many parents there, then it's better to go and corral some parents and
get them to because that's going to be part of it too is what what what values do they see for for their school, right? But I think as it moves along, depending on what the results are, moving into also community focused groups, specifically non-parents,
because I think that would help create better understanding because sometimes I think non-parents don't always get all of the information and then it it creates more problems, especially, you know, when you get into the budget, you know, when you get things saying, well,
I don't have a kid in the schools. the way this is going to impact me. Yeah. And they don't always have all of the information. So, I think that might help us kind of get it out to the broader community if that seemed appropriate based on where things, you know, are
going. May May I may I ask the superintendent are there internal are there school-based groups that that you would want to see whether it's anformational session updates or opportunity to
provide feedback that that that you would want to see as part of this? Absolutely. I I think it would be ideal to include um representatives from the schools but also the central office staff. Um one of the difficulties
of being partially regionalized is um some of the difficulties we encounter with efficiencies. So when you speak to things like whether or not we have the same testing in all of the schools, yes, we work very hard to make sure that they have the students have the same kind of
standardized measures that we use in classrooms and things of that nature. Our concern is is that as the budgets become um more difficult to maintain, we fear that some schools
won't be able to continue with certain um materials or testing or things of that nature. When I talk about efficiencies, um, I think about when I first became superintendent and I think of COVID and not only having to pre present a plan to
the state, but during that emergency, having to present four plans to the state and then working with four separate communities regularly, day and night to try to get everyone to agree to the same type of
way to return to school. because I couldn't in good conscience say these students are going to be remote but these students it's okay for them to come back hybrid and how do you advocate for to be as the superintendent
of both districts where there's different rules for different schools at a a time when people are um they have heightened awareness of what's going on in the schools in terms of their fears and their concerns for the upcoming future. So I I definitely think
that um we probably bring a different perspective than the towns in terms of uh the efficiencies that are difficult to realize. We also recognize the towns often feel frustrated that they don't have as much of us um
devoted to each particular town because we're spread amongst the several towns and we have to do multiple separate budget presentations. Um, so those are just a couple of examples of of why I think the perspective might be helpful. And I do I
do think having done my own uh entry plan with um survey results with parents and students, I do think that um the secondary students take participation in uh focus groups very seriously. And um while they may not have the same
perspective, I do think they they also can lend an important perspective and lens to the issues that they may encounter that we may not consider. That's great. Very helpful. Thank you, Bill. If I may, um lastly, I think definitely the unions. Um we would want
I know there's some questions about that that we um focus groups around the unions and what they're looking from this or not looking for. Yeah, I've never, and I think Ann would agree with me, I've never done any of these kind of studies without making
sure that teachers had opportunities for for input and and and the union and and never confusing the two of those that, right? Never making the assumption that those are the same people, right? Always.
So just to summarize, if we wanted to put a focus group together, um faculty, both central office and uh teach educators, uh students, a selectman, uh maybe a member of the PTO from each community, uh member of the finance committee, member of the school
committee, and then a union member as well. So, uh I don't know if if we want to get as aggressive enough as to have every town try and round up each of those. I think I think we might look at those as separate groups. including those school committees. Um, we I think
Sarah, you tell me if we have enough sort of to go on with just what some of those groups might be, but but in order to get a broad enough representation, we'd probably want to meet with with folk with small groups of each of those subgroups, right? Yes. um rather than
try to put them in one group or in a couple groups, we'd want to meet with them and and and and interview interview them sort of as a small group around their particular connection to the to this issue, right? Makes way more sense.
And then depending on the particulars and some of those we might be able to do some combination depending on whether everyone gets along is the other piece. But, you know, like like in Plimpmpton, I think we could probably do the school committee, finance committee, and selectman all together in one group
because we we do that at times. So, it's not a big deal. But I think it could be different town. But we can look for some efficiency there, too. So, so that you're not having 47. And we just have to help people pay attention to whether those meetings need
to be posted and all those kinds of things. So, yeah. Yeah. Great. That's great. Any more questions for us guys? Do you guys have a spe Does the study
committee have a specific written charge that has that is out there? Because I know you all represent finance committees, select boards, school committees, right? What is the charge if
if it's clear um that you all have from your home bodies? I I would I mean I would argue that was what we talked about at the beginning. I mean, this is this is about a factual
survey and analysis of where we are, what the options could be going forward, what some of the costs and benefits and detractors may be. Um, I mean, I I think I think the committee is pretty united
on on wanting to get the facts out there. And again, it's not all just about the dollar, but what are some of the benefits and drawbacks and making sure that we have it from a comprehensive group, you know, to to the superintendent's point, there's there's
a number of others that we consider and and and and get that on the table so we can stop everyone can stop debating about what they think it means or doesn't mean. And we actually have a study that says here it is and there's factual context to it. Okay. So your
committee will not necessarily be making a recommendation one way or the other. Your charge is more to um to have to play that exploratory role so that there's a foundation of fact that the three community communities and the
various school districts can then take and carry forward in until that decision point. I don't know that we make a recommendation until we see the report. Yeah. You know what I I mean, it depends. The report may come out, you know, who knows? That's the thing, you
know, it could be no-brainer. But I think I I think the focus at this point is to do whatever we can to get you what you need to help us get to a report and then take the next step from there. I guess the the question that I never
thought of until she just brought this up as far as our charge goes. Do you guys see us taking a vote at the end of this saying yay or nay as a group or no? I think so far out. I'm not sure what I'm not sure
what that even means. Like we don't you know because it's going to be it's going to be up to each town. Sure. But I I think I would focus our duty on getting the report and getting it back to our towns. And yeah, like I I don't think we could keep that report from the towns to your point, but we also don't have the
authority of this body to we none of us. I don't think I would care what our vote is. No. So we we would bring we would bring it to our communities and ultimately the board of selectments of each community decides and then probably other discussions between between the
boards of selectman's you know trying to consensus helpful for I agree you know like when we when we have town meetings and you have fin recommends or doesn't recommend you know I don't want to speak for all the selective I don't think it can go you do you do lean on I don't
want to say your experts but you do lean on the people that put the time in. Yeah. That that uncovered all their stuff to give that I don't I don't have to listen to it at all. Right. Yeah. At least it it does hold at town meeting as well like what is the recommendation
and you know but I don't know what that's down the road. I think the biggest like the value of this is just knowledge is power. We don't we have assumptions but we don't have knowledge right now. So this sets a foundation of knowledge that we can then share with
the community because there's a lot of folks that are going on their experiential knowledge of well back in the day when I had kids we did it this way and I I like local control of the school but like again our culture our world is ever evolving and what worked
20 years ago may not be feasible any longer. People aren't thinking in that way. So setting a baseline of knowledge of the current climate and the options I think is our primary objective and then disseminating that in our
community. But that's just I agree though after some of the comments that were heard during budget season this past year like that was really highlighted% with some of the comments from just the general taxpayers about how they felt things should go and their
reasoning as to why. Jim Walters, you said you were working on a charge. Well, I I've crafted a a brief two sentence purpose that I think gets the heart of what we want to do. So, in my opinion, and everyone's welcome to disagree or agree, that's fine. The purpose of the
study is to assess the feasibility, benefits, challenges, and impacts of regionalizing three school districts, including but not limited to evaluating educational, operational, financial, demographic, and le legal implications of various regionalization models.
Second. Now drop the mic. You got to drop the mic like that. That's a mic drop. Yeah, that that's it pretty much in a nutshell. Do you see your committee having a role post report in terms of
carrying the the I mean you talked about bringing the information back to your own communities. Do you will the committee stay together and bring the report to the various communities in different constituencies or will you dissolve? I guess I'm just trying to
really understand because the that will impact um I think part of what we want to produce for you all. Um you know we've done various you know types of work. We've worked with committees where they say, "Get us all the facts and then
we're going to take it and we're going to be advocates for whichever direction we we decide we're going to go." Um, others don't have that sense. And so that it will it just changes the sort of some of the deliverables and some of our thought process behind how we bring this
to a conclusion because as you all noted this is uh this is a a bounded project but at the same time it's just it's the next step in this conversation. There's going to be a lot more after. So um it's just something to think about. Um or if you have ideas now happy to hear them.
Uh but something to think about because um it it may impact where we go with the proposal uh especially as I said those those deliverables to that point. I believe that this study is going to be that would be the foundation that we would either be
saying we should be moving forward with regionalization or we should not because of this reason. So I I think this report is going to give us a lot of answers that we currently don't have. So to John's point earlier, it's factbinding
mission. We're looking for the facts and the scope of um what a full regionalization would look like. But I do think to to go off of that point, I don't think we can just dissolve after we get the report. I do think it part of this committee's charge should be to
help disseminate that information, you know, and be and be carriers of of factual information. Um, so I think that might be helpful, you know, for Kingston could hear from Halifax in Clinton, you know, if we had a a
foreigner to relay information, right? And not just, you know, I'd love to have everybody in Halifax if and when we have a Halifax. You know, I don't I don't think we necessarily need to divide it out by towns as far as we go. I think it would be advantageous to keep it together to deliver those to deliver
it. I think so. not to not to sell it or not deliver the information it all together. Correct. Right. Okay. And we may run across something during this investigative process that says we
just can't do it. Yeah. Yeah. Right. That's also another possibility that was that was one of the questions we were kicking around guys was if in any of your regionalization studies have you ever found a study that says it wasn't really advantageous to regionalize or or has it always been a I
don't want to say a blanket yes but has it um have more more than not kind of lean towards regionalization than than staying separate I guess or is it not that simple of an answer. I love that face, Jill B. That's face of
the day right there. It is not a simple um answer. I would say um it's not it's not a silver bullet because if it were a silver bullet, you would have uh you would have, you know, pulled the trigger already. Um and we
got a lot of werewolves running around right now. M uh so you know it really comes down to the nuances of your situation. Um you know we see you know we see we've worked with communities
that are looking toward regionalization. We've we've been asked to u do studies of deregionalization. You know so there I I think in our commonwealth there's all sorts of things going on. Um and there are there are a lot of different
reasons behind the the the challenges that a single district would face uh you know a regional district would face. Um that's an unsatisfactory answer but I really don't think that that you can really say with certainty
that that it's more likely that you'll want to regionalize at the end of this or not. I don't know if Ann or Bill or or maybe if the superintendent has thoughts, but No, I think that's right, Sarah. It's all context driven.
Great. All right. Well, I don't think we we haven't officially, you know, I thank you guys for coming in. like we h we haven't offici I don't want to I don't know how to put this but we haven't officially gone with the Colin center yet as as the group to to lead this for us. Um I think what we have to do as a
as a committee here is to um discuss things whether we want to go forward using the call-in center um based on what we've heard here. Um and then we have a meeting scheduled for July the 9th. Um, depending on what we discuss here, uh, might be if we do decide to go
to the call-in center, might be worth having you folks in July 9th if you were available. Um, is that seem amendable to the committee here? Yes. Well, you you Sarah, you you'd it's somewhere in this get to that point that you discussed
earlier about a putting together a proposal. Yeah. Right. And this the given your time frame I mean if I'm speaking out of turn please tell me Sarah given your time frame. No given your time frame I think we'd want to get if if that's what you wanted to
do we want to get to that point where um Sarah would lead that that particular aspect of this. But we want to make sure you had a proposal as she discussed up front as quickly as possible so that the work could get started. Right. That makes sense. Would
the committee be comfortable maybe after we hang up with you guys to to discuss internally and make a vote tonight? Vote tonight. And I say that because one of the things that Sarah had mentioned was whether or not they could complete the study with the scope we are asking
within our financial constraints because should you come back and say we can only do a small portion of this for what you have then forced to see what other options might be out there. Yeah, that's I think the discussion would be whether
we would like them to Well, without knowing what they could do. Well, that's what I mean. We would discuss tonight whether we'd like them to get us proposal together, right? Be the next step regardless of anything before we sign anything. like we're not
like you talk about there's no contract being signed until we've gotten to the point of looking at the proposal of of all agreeing on the proposal agreeing on the costs and then there's the contract so I think I think we can do what you're thinking it's just slightly different
know what the time frame would be to receive a proposal so what I know so I think it would be really helpful if you all after we are gone have a conversation about uh what you heard tonight. Um if you are
interested in a proposal from us, please let us know in the next um well the three of us are going to be meeting internally on Friday at 11:30 to debrief and start if appropriate start to kind
of piecing out that proposal. And so if we could know before 11:30 this Friday whether you're interested in a proposal from us, that would be really helpful. Um if you say yes, we are interested in a proposal, then we will move forward um
as quickly as we can in developing that draft proposal. And I call it draft because I really want, you know, it's really important to us that we have a back and forth on the proposal. You know, our our initial proposal may have some things that make sense to us but
not to you. and we want to talk about that. So I would say this is a big project too and I will also say you've got a very healthy budget uh for what but you do have a big project but I think that we we don't have to spend it all though.
That's true. That's true. then you may want to reserve, you know, there may be a need uh because the one thing of all the great things we are, the one thing that we are not is lawyers. And so if you need to uh pay counsel for anything in particular, then you'll want to make
sure that you know that upfront. But um we could have a proposal to you before the July 9th meeting. Um and and and at the July 9th meeting, if you
have two proposals that you want to talk about internally, then that's fine. If you just want us to come potentially, I don't know about Ann and Bill uh as availability, but if we're available and we could attend and you wanted to be able to ask us questions and we could
sort of go back and forth on the proposal in that meeting, we can do that. Um, but we can I think we can have a proposal to you, that draft proposal prior to the 9th. Yeah, that'd be great. And you could get it to us ahead of time so we could kick the tires on it and then have questions or feedback for you
before the meeting itself. Yeah, as much as much as we can, we will will do that. Um, excellent. Uh, luckily my vacation doesn't start till July 10th, so I I will not be going on any vacations between now and the meeting. So, going
anywhere fun? Where are you going? We're going to Scotland. Bringing my family to Oh, very cool. Yes. Got two elementary school age kids and my husband is a high school teacher and so they all just got home. They're all here. Uh so, you know, we're excited
about summer break for sure. They've traveled. All right. So, we I can do the 9th as well, Sarah. So, Oh, you can. Good. I I cannot. I will be coming home from Scotland and the UK. I work at the calling center. I don't know. All right. Well, why don't
we um why don't we say that at least we'll have some representatives from the center there on the 9th. Um I think I heard you say it was at 5:30. Yep. Um and so we'll put that on our calendars as a tentative uh you know, tentative meeting. you'll let us know before
Friday at, you know, 11:00 a.m. Unless you know for sure now that you want a proposal. Um, and then we'll get working on it. Yeah, we'll discuss offline. Okay, that's okay. Yep. Just let us know because that would be uh that would be helpful to know. I appreciate it. Anything else,
guys, for the callin center before we let them go? Thank you. Thank you guys. This was great. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Bye. Take care. Okay. Thoughts? I will make motion that we
move forward to call on some proposal. Let them know by Friday. Second. All right. Um, do I need to do a roll call where we are technically online but no members are online? No. No. No. Right. Okay. All those in favor? I opposed.
Passes unanimously. I think what's going to happen is that we will get what we need within the budget. But until that point big project and if we went with someone and if we went with an external
consultant we wouldn't have no no we don't know that. So what are our options? Well, there's another one. There's Mars, but that they likely would have to go out to fit because they're not they're not on the state list. It has an approved list. Got
it. And the Colin Center is on the approved list. Even more because they're an actual state entity. That's correct. Yeah. So, and I know they did so Halifax used them for a compensation and classification study. Amazingly, they hit the number that we had available. So I do think
there's a sure there's a I don't want to say a game but there's a little bit of they know you know if they did overestimate underestimate something elite cost they understand that those numbers can be variable. Yeah they they have a target to meet and that's what hopefully like a contractor they'll honor it hasn't done anything with them
where they haven't grants grants. Now, can I Oh, sorry. If I may. Yeah. Yes. Jill Pru, superintendent. Sorry, I tr I couldn't figure out where my hand raised was earlier. I I wanted to mention something earlier. I I do have one concern that they've never done a
regionalization study. So, again, I know I'm the fly in the ointment as usual, but I don't think I don't think that's what she said. No, that is what she said. She's never done a regionalization study where schools have regionalized. They've done pieces that they're going to try to
weave in, which tells me, which answers my first question. They don't have a report that says one that they don't recommend it because they don't even have one where they do re That's not That's what I heard. That's not what I heard. I heard I heard they
don't have a study like ours. That's what I heard. I and I know that um what Bill was saying I mean he's done a lot of work a fair number of work on that as well and um you know that the point is is that I
think the point is is that this isn't this the thing's going to come back and it's not going to be you should do this it's going to be it's going to be you can save maybe you can save this much money ranges and you're going to have this as benefit benefits and you're
going to have this is detractors and maybe it's not even you don't save money because you're going to lose certain things by regional we'll lose the we'll lose the rural aid that will go away and so you know there's some things that will offset and that it's not going to be a slam dunk it's going to be a bunch
of the factors analyzed and discussed and figured out and then it and I think that's what they were getting at when they talked about you know more about the values like you may decide that yeah okay we're not saving spend that much money, but we're going to get, you know,
Jill's hair isn't going to go completely gray in the next 5 years, you know, and that's a benefit. It's like like we we we all know, like this isn't even an assumption. We know that from an administrative standpoint, it would be a lot easier if it were all one school district. Like that's that's a no, right? And but there's other things that
we don't know. So, I mean, I I think that, you know, they have a whole school practices group and I think they picked the people in order to be able to to come up with and go through these different pieces. So, I had a couple of questions more along the lines of like devil's
advocate. Um, I think they want to do the study for them because it is unique and it would be a nice thing to add to their toolkit of experiences that they've done. they probably could be very helpful, but also I a couple reasons I think it's worth it to pursue
um another entity for a proposal. One, I think it's due diligence on our part to not just go with the only game we've heard from a community perspective. They may want to hear, oh, you also looked at this other agency and went with them. Um so that buys us some credibility among
the community too. From what I understood about the proposal process, it's not going to be we give them a check on July 9th. It's going to be yeah, we would like to give you feedback on this proposal. So, two things can happen at the same time. We can be
refining this proposal with them without committing to it. That's what I heard while we pursue Mars. I don't see any, you know, well, you're not you're not you're not going to get anything from Mars until August, right? At a minimum because
you've gota you've gota we've gota we have to draft an RFP. Yeah. We then have to go out to bid and and put the RFP out there. You have to wait for for the information to come in and it's and what how much money do we have? Let's say 140 130. Um Lori, that was actually my
concern at the first meeting um was should we do our due diligence and look at multiple different but it's the RFP process which is which Colin Center is the only they've been put they've been put in place but the whole purpose of them
existing is to make it easier is to do municipal consulting for the towns of the Commonwealth and I don't think and I could be wrong but my vision is that If we did look at Mars, I still don't know if we
would get Yes, definitely regionalize or don't. I think we're still going to be a lot of the same data. Well, if you do, I think I think if you do something, I think it's not that simple, right? There's a lot of different Yeah. Finance director Sarah Hickey, you have the
floor. Thank you. I haven't figured out how to raise my hand on screen yet, so it's a good thing. We can't really see it anyway, so just just interrupt. Just show the screen. I can't see if Keith Hickey is still in the room there. Uh Keith and Jill and I actually met with
the Collins Center uh uh about a month ago and one of the things they talked about was they were doing a study at NSET regional. So um I think they could, you know, we could request of them
studies that they've done. Naset Regional is from my understanding very similar uh a very similar ask than what we're looking for that they're fully regionalized at the middle school and high school level and then four towns um Orleans I forget the names of all the
towns that are down there but um but my recollection from that meeting with them prior was that they were doing that work with NSET regional right and perhaps it's obviously not the three that we saw tonight that are doing that
study. And that's probably why if the stud is not already complete, then they wouldn't have had the data to present to us anyway. Yeah. And I guess I guess even if we were going down the Mars road, wouldn't we request a proposal from these guys anyway? Yep. Y right. So we would we would jump that
hurdle anyway. So I guess it doesn't really hold us back from going forward with accepting a proposal. And like you say, we're not signing anything. We're not Right. not committing to anything, right? Um I would think that at least to do due diligence to ask for a proposal
from them, it still be okay. Y do we have to give them this was my question. Do we have to give them the parameters of exactly what we're looking for for their proposal to come in? They're that's what or propose.
We gave them a bunch of questions. We gave them all those questions and they talked to us here tonight and asked some questions and then they're going to kind of say, "Okay, you got all these questions all over the place. We're putting them in different buckets like Jim like Jim did in in the great statement there in kind of all these
different buckets." And then they're going to say, "This is how we recommend what we recommend doing. This is what the cost is and how we recommend getting to it from that and you know and and then the specifics of it of course are going to develop as we go." Sure. like they're going to say, "Well, we got to look at this." But then how they end up
looking at it may change as you do focus groups and realize that yeah, there's other things that need to be thought about. Okay. Any other concern? Administration, any other concerns, thoughts, ideas, wonders?
I think it I think um Russ will try to attend the July 9th. I don't know if he has it. He said he would look into that. I I do think I'm picking him up. He said he's in Halifax. I'm swinging by and grabbing him. He's going to be with me in negotiations or
I'll make I'll make sure he comes. But um he has done a lot of work with Mars and he has done a lot of regionalization agreements. So um again I I think his insights would be helpful. Yeah, I think some of the questions are definitely
Russ's questions, but some of the things that we'll need along the way to to to even to help inform probably the consultants, you know, because some of the questions hinge on on legal like like the whole question about wait, do we need to renegotiate all the
agreements? You know, he'll have the answers to help that to help facilitate them putting that into a report. Jill, do you think with Russ's familiarity with Mars, do you think he'd be able to give us a ballpark on on cost estimate
or do you think that's too premature as far as making seeing if Mars would would even be in our ballpark? I don't know that he himself has he has worked with schools that have worked with Mars. I I don't know that he would necessarily know what the the schools were charged,
but I can ask him. Okay. I I still stand I don't see that there's a a real reason for us not to at least ask Mars to meet with us other than um but we could put that request into
them now and then later say actually we're good we're going in another direction there's no harm in my opinion in asking them or trying to engage I don't think we can just do an RFP solicit solicit go from there which is a posting isn't
it? Y public noticed advertised. Yeah. All right. So I think we had a motion in a second on the floor right proposal. We uh we did we vote when I had
apologize. All right. Uh and then the other thing guys we had on the agenda were approval of minutes. Did everybody have a chance to take a look at the minutes we had? Yeah, my computer. All right. Um, I'll entertain a motion uh to approve the minutes from May 13, 2025 and June 9th,
2025. So moved. Second. All right. Uh moved by John, seconded by Jeannie. All those in favor? Opposed? Passes unanimously. Uh any other things before we I ask a uh a move to dismiss? Anybody speak now? Good. All right. See a motion
to adjurnn. Some moved. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Thank you guys.