--------- [Music] all right good evening everyone welcome to the select board and wage and Personnel meeting board meeting on Monday February 24th at 5:45 p.m. here at the Lakeville police station Lake ham
is recording the meeting is there anybody else here recording no all right if we could please just rise for pledge allegiance I pledge to the flag of the United States of
America and to the for stands na indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you all right we just have a couple of things here um some select board
announcements our Treasurer collector would like to remind residents that excise tax bills are due March 3rd and if you have any questions regarding the excise bill um you can contact them at 508 946 8801 as a repeat our Council on Aging is
in need of volunteer drivers for Meals on Wheels delivery program or as an outof Town Medical driver these are very important programs for our seniors and are only able to run with the help of volunteers you can volunteer as many or
as few days a month as your schedule will allow and for more information on volunteering please reach out to the Council on Aging at 508 947 7224 and just a quick fun fact the town
office building was built in 1894 and was originally used as a pumping station for the city of Taunton drum yes um if you like to ask the public for some fun facts cuz I am
running dry as you can tell from the fun fact tonight I am out of ideas so I need help from anybody that has fun facts about Lakeville please email them to me good all right anybody else have anything for select board
announcements I'd like to turn it over now to Our Town Administrator Andrew thank you madam chair um so I I've met with Michael Ellis and uh Lacy Marshall on the fiscal 26 budget um we put pretty much meet um daily trying to Crunch the numbers pull any tricks out of our hats
for the budget this year um we will be presenting it on the 31st of March we'll be sending it out two weeks ahead of time to the select board finance committee and capital expenditures committee um for review um our D LTA funding request was
unsuccessful um however I put in a um letter of interest to the community onetop um got positive feedback so I'm thinking of applying for that this year um I'll come back to the board for approval on that of course um I met with
the town administrators of Rochester and a kushit um going over different cost saving and just our budget issues it's a region obviously it's a Statewide uh national issue um just fixed costs going up just cost of business is going up um
but they did learn a few good things from them um then I'd like to thank uh both member day and member Carboni um as well as the department heads and Jake Ain Claus for the round table discussion we had this past week um thought it was pretty good conversation he's pretty
sharp obviously with his uh back and forth um but helpful nonetheless that's all I have anybody have anything for inro well thank you very much all right uh we have a few a couple of
meeting minutes here to for approval uh select board meeting minutes of February 3rd and February 10th did everybody have an opportunity to go through them right well I'll entertain a motion to approve the select board meeting
minutes of February 3rd 2025 so move second Motion in a second um and discussion Tracy I just had a couple of things um I know at the top you usually put the submitted by and then um the date of
approval and I didn't know the page numbers don't you usually put page numbers on these yes okay anybody else okay roll please Donahue I Carboni i c i
i and I'll entertain a motion uh to approve the select board meeting minutes of February 10th 2020 25 so Move Motion in a second any discussion I had one Tracy at the bottom
of page six um discuss schedule for select board member hours at the council and aging um just the um who was taking what um it looks like you had chair Fabian in
there I didn't have anything else here same thing at the top just a submitted by approved all right there's nothing else uh Ro please joh I'm stain carbon I do thank
you okay at this point I would like to invite uh Chief Perkins up to the table please nice to see you nice to see you thank for having me um with the uh appointment that we had uh last month
that brought us up to full staff in the police department um which leaves us with just one Staffing issue to address which is the vacant Sant position um tonight um I come before you um with my recommendation of Officer Emily Melo um
to be promoted to the rank of Sergeant uh Emily has been a police officer for 17 years she's worked for the town of Lakeville for the past 13 years uh even serving as an acting sergeant in 2020 when she filled in uh for a sergeant who was out injured um she's well known in
the community she serves as the liaison to the senior population Works closely with the Council on Aging uh she's well known in law enforcement she's part of the southeast Massachusetts law enforcement council's uh critical incident stress management team she's a
a peer support person uh she helps uh police officers all across uh Southeast Mass um if we have a positive vote from the board tonight the promotion aligns with our policy she's passed the written
examination she's passed the assessment center and she currently sits uh at top the candidates list um for promotion and she has my 100% support and my 100% recommendation uh for her promotion to the Ranos
s excellent M all right well with that um I will entertain a motion to appoint Emily Anne melow as a sergeant in the Lakefield Police Department for a probationary period through February 4th
2026 and with the term to expire February 24th 2028 or we can go out till July 31st 2028 so what is the um yeah Tracy I know you made the um
police appointments expire July 31st 20 of annually each year okay um so it's up to you whether you want to bring this up in line the other on or just have separate so then um the probation Peri was January um February 24th you said
four oh so February 24th and then I'll do the term to expire um July 31st 2028 second all right I have a motion in a second discussion very happy to be these are these are the great things there's not a
lot of great things that come before the select board but this is one of these things and it's it's an easy yes um I wor I worked with Emily Anne over the years and we got to know each other especially through Co just being like a ever presence um in town and making sure
uh she's taking care of the people at the COA and it's just a it's a wonderful thing to see someone grow into the the position and the role and have homegrown people the ideal that we want so very impressed and uh it's a big yes for me
clearly we have the support of the the rest of the the crew just to Echo what member candido said every single interaction withan has been fantastic um always bright always there with a laugh if you need it to COA uh and the director have always had very
high remarks to say and at to meeting I'm always please to know she's protecting herself on the left side of the stage things go around Ray wal do thank you right roll please Donny yes Carboni
I I [Applause] excellent thank you if you don't mind we're just going to we're going to have uh Emily's Mom Louisa come up and fin her badge on and then then the town
clerk Lilian dra's going to give her her o office I em M to saw me affirm to saw me affirm that I will support that I will support the Constitution of the unit States of America Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth and the
Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts the bylaws of the town ofo the bylaws of the town ofo the rules and regulations of the town of police department the rules and regulations of the police department and I will and I will to the best of my ability to the
best of my ability Faithfully discharge Faithfully discharged the duties of the police Sergeant the duties of a police sergeant in and four in and four for I have have been appointed for which I've been appointed according to the law according to the law for the town of Leo for the town of Leo during my um my
continuance of office during my continuance of office effective effective February 24th February 24th 2025 2025 thank you everyone who came out I appreciate it thank oh thank
you nice to see you all got you yeah all right so we're moving on to agenda item number six is um attorney shie No not
tonight no so you will be here in I'm here in his presence his absence I guess all right so um in front of us this evening um jie B from Zenith um engineering
consultant uh is here to talk about a conceptual comprehensive plan for a residential subdivision at six bar sty street so normally um we don't usually see you at this point in the game so this is kind of a a nicity um it's kind
of like a prequel I guess to the whole process so um I'm going to turn it over to you Jamie if you wouldn't mind and have to speaked all right well good evening Jamie B from Zenith Consulting Engineers for the record um in front of you is a conceptual exper um and and
you're right typically what we've done in the past is we've met with Town departments unofficially um this is I believe the first time we've reached out and actually been invited to to meet with the selectman on a project that's this small uh usually the bigger ones that turned into 40 ours we've we've met
with the stuff been on but um this is a 20 uh lot um comprehensive permit is what we're looking to do here um a little bit different than some of the 40 BS that you've seen um this one we're looking to do single family houses on uh
it kind of fits in with the characteristic of the neighborhood as you can see this is Myrick Street which is Route 79 um they're going to be re locating the intersection uh with mass do which will help with our access um
out of the site it'll actually provide us with what I believe to be a better sight line it'll get rid of an intersection where you could have some confusion um essentially this property makes up two pieces uh one is six Baro Street the other one is 127 Precinct
Street uh the 127 Precinct Street just has a single family house out on essentially my street and um the six bar St is an equestrian facility the property owner wants to keep the equestrian facility that's the most common question I would imagine that
I'll get and right now they house approximately 40 to 50 horses they're looking to keep somewhere in that range maybe a reduction of about 10 at the most um going forward um and as you can see we've been able to keep the main parts of the paddock some of the
operating areas and then there's a large uh indoor area down here that's also being kept um so that it can still function as a whole they do have to give up a little bit of area over in the vicinity uh that's working but they believe they can make that work um all
of that being said um we're looking to bring this forward as a friendly 40b um I know that that's a a word that's thrown around sometimes in this case the reason that we're looking for it to be a friendly
40b is we feel like in looking at it we haven't tried to maximize the number of lots we haven't scrunched them down to the smallest they can be the lots are between a quarter and a third of an eight um each um the roadway as shown right here is 24t wide um we have the
traditional right of way width on here as well um we're showing you know residential houses conceptually with garages we're looking to do something that would fit in um if we had an open space subdivision regulation or something along those lines this would
probably be something that it would fit into um so that being said um right now like I said there's 20 units uh the proposed roadway on here roughly runs about 13 1250 to 1300 linear feet
and the last part of it is that we're meeting with the zoning board on Thursday so tonight what we were hoping to do is give you our presentation um whether you have feedback tonight or not that's fine our goal is we meet with you we meet with zoning board and any other
board that you know wants us to appear in front of them we're going to apply with um with Mass housing one way or another for a for a uh eligibility letter um at that point they'll also send you a request for
comments which is very standard and select boards and zoning boards have always had comments in the past so we believe that's going to be the process forward but we're happy this this early in the process to take any any feedback any comments um any thoughts and present
it to the you know the client and see if it's something we can work into this okay so there's 19 right we're not so we're including the conceptual lot um for the existing house will be included in that that would yes okay and so with
20 um it would be two would be affordable five five would be affordable okay yep it's one out of every four okay all right and are
these um one Lev homes we we don't have that 100% nailed down that the concept that we're going with right now is we're trying to spread something that would work um with the town going through the housing plans and the master plan for
the town um it's changed over the years from the 2017 to the newer one I believe but the thought process is with the town working with the developer also providing a spot that you can have um housing for firsttime home buyers um we
don't want to necessarily build massive houses that are going to push firsttime home buyers out this is more of a firsttime home buyer neighborhood I believe but we also don't want to pigeon hole ourselves because the economy um can do funny things so our thought
process right now is probably Colonial farmhouse style houses we'd like to you know make it look as if it's not the same house on at every single lot um and hopefully the thought process is is start our houses to family style houses
so there'll probably be two floors with a two-car garage okay anybody else approximate square footage that you're looking for as shown right there the the Box itself is about 1350 Square ft so that's including the it's very
classic yep um my other question would be is this phase one of many or is this just phase the only one as you can see we left an opening over here and and again we're we're not going to hide anything um the main reason for that is
yes in the future if they do want to take and develop more we have the ability to but the other main reason for it is the the property owner wants to keep the access for himself he's going to maintain ownership for my understanding of the equestrian facility so
um his thought process he actually from the plan we originally submitted to to that he actually had me widen it you'll notice um so it's it's actually greater than what a right of way would need and he he just wanted to have more access over to the property um will you tell me about the
intersection again did you address that at all sure so Mass do is redoing um parts of 79 and from the plans uh actually I believe the select board's office provided us 79 up here is going
to lose this part of the intersection and they're going to come up and curve with a stop sign here so this will no longer merge going this way this will essentially this part will be deleted okay so what that does is if you're looking at it this actually provides a
nice easier exit as opposed to have a road and another road for us coming out it was actually perfect timing for us and how far down um I guess I could probably say this myself oh it's a little further down
when it goes into the Taunton was it South Street off to the right okay yes I yeah this this property stretches significantly beyond what we see in the picture here because it was all the way down to like the Golden Tulip for what used to be golden tulips okay yeah yep
it it goes pretty much um there's a Culver that runs down and underneath the road um it runs down into that vicinity so if you drive by and you look you'll see flowing water going under the roadway it it encompasses right to roughly in that area so the farm field
that's out down here that is part of this piece now should all of this um progress you know on schedule when are you looking to start the project you know that I don't have an answer for you on
um we're really just starting it I mean really just starting so this is um if if we could get through this process in the next nine months to to a year um we'd probably get started shortly after that but I don't know um I don't know
how things are going to line up mam ch um if there were going to be more phases would the phases come off of this Branch basically or would there be more private roads going in in different
areas or would this be coming through here and then branching off um I can tell you that we have not laid out any additional phases that's and I mean I live in town I've I've been in front of
you guys for 20 plus years I have not laid out another layout here this is all we've laid out um in complete honesty there is the chance that there will be one I did not hide it because I put the radius point right there to make it abundantly clear I don't want anyone to think I'm misleading them but we have
not laid out any further lotting of this um since you we've looked at prior to this we looked at several different layouts more units but that was this is this is the plan that we're going with with no phase two in mind as as this
point through you madam chair yes um you made a nice to see you Jamie there was a statement you made earlier which maybe I just interpreted wrong you said something along the lines of the owner would like them to keep the equestrian facility so is it under different ownership now no no so the owners still
owns it yes yeah basically what I what I try to do is I try to make statements that if something does if they do change hands eventually that you're not looking at me saying hey you let us to believe they were going to own it my understanding is he intends to keep it um there's he's led me to believe
nothing different so my understanding is he's going to keep ownership of the equestrian facility but maybe somebody does buy it between now and then um right that's unbeknown to me because they they if memory serves me right they remove from chapter 61 protection over a year ago so the town's wrer first
refusal is gone it is um they had come to us way back but wasn't going to work um so I guess I'm I'm with the two of you that have already said like it looks Prime for further development I don't know if there's any if you've done any
you know geological geological assessment Beyond this area to say like there's no way they could build here there's nobody could build here like how much of that land that's left is developable um like Beyond we have here in green there's there's a significant portion it's not I mean it's it's a
large lot but it's not hundreds of Acres I believe it's around 40 acres so it's not like we're going to be proposing 600 house Lots here if if there are I don't know where they would come from um and as you can see down over in here there is a vegetated wetland that we've delineated and that does run up over
along the side so there are some Wetlands on site um yeah and how how large is that area for development is that um oh um yeah that's that's a so there's roughly 20 lots and if we called it a qu of an acre
each we' probably be somewhere around 5 six acres in total okay that just gives me a visual I would say with the drainage basins in the road probably call it seven okay now as far as um the water lines I
don't know where it ends here but um I was asking the question of when this would be starting um because of the 79 project um that's supposed to be starting in you know in 20 26 at some point
um but you know and and again I don't know if the you know the water people are going to be asking for water at this point you know if the water Line's going to be down because if the road is is going to be torn up it's always a good opportunity to kind of look at that MH um because the last thing anybody wants
to do is go in and you know rip up yeah no absolutely not causes way too many you know issues down the line so just trying to you know wrap my head around the timing of it all I appreciate that Madam chair I've already had one
resident reach out which I expected um on barow street there's already concerns from some residents that some of the Uplands and I don't know the area well enough so please do correct me sure that some of the Uplands they are already draining into their properties now and they're concerned that you know I see
you've got drainage bti such here but they're very concerned that any further development behind barow is going to cause additional runoff and they're you know not sure what will or won't do to their property sure so um I mean as as you know with the zoning board if this goes forward the zoning
board typically hires a peer reviewer that reviews any plans that we put together and they would make sure that our plans met storm water and and local requirements so I would say that um at the end of the day the the problems should either stay the same or get
slightly better or maybe really better in some cases but they should not get worse our job is to make sure that they don't get worse okay thank you okay anybody else I think it's a nice project I look forward to seeing more my biggest
concern about it was that intersection because that's a bad intersection but with those stop signs I think that's really helpful for traffic and safety um I don't know I just appreciate what you said all right thank you appreciate it I mean similar to what remember Don Hughes
said like I like the fact that you've not tried to CRM it as much as possible like these do for now at least theoretically look at actual true starter homes that we have very little inventory in town for um so it is nice to see that I would love to see us
overlay Mass Dot's plans on that just to to get a better visual cuz the first soon as I saw this come in I'm like how is this going to work sure um just a lot of moving Parts in that area over the next few years there are I agree and and that will actually be something we're going to we'll have to do during the
design phase okay I'm positive of it because they'll want sight distances to be able to pull out into the road so there yeah question from to administrator under the 40R zoning
starter home from 2017 is there any way this would qualify um under those standards it's possible because that's one of their standards is around 1, 1300 foot starter
home dense I know there's got some standards about um the highway access and Etc um yeah so just wanted to know if that is a option uh as it would be a benefit to the town I think in
perpetuity yeah right I can look it up but I think off hand it's a good chance yeah yeah 2017 yeah small with the square footage on that is that the total square footage or is that the square footage for for the footprint because on some of these units if if not all we
were thinking they would have second floors um I don't remember specific but I'll I'll let Andrew speak to that um but I remember it was 1300 for Star home that was I'll reach out to Andrew play
this week or next week sounds good and uh Nancy actually asked me her first day about it's 40 y got is what what it's under and I can we can connect and get an answer okay got it because there could be options there um that that allow for looks like it goes up to 1,850
square ft he of heated living space I think that's complet completely reasonable for what you're saying you're looking for in this project and if we were to be able to go forward with these
type of projects and mitigate some of the the impacts with our um 40s money um it would be a benefit um question through you madam chair how many bedrooms are you thinking these
will be probably three first thing is at least 50% of the homes in starter home zoning District must have three or more so yeah take a box how is that a starter home though that's I know that's enormous well it doesn't say how big the bedrooms have to be could
be that's nuts they do you a 11 by 11 room yeah not even a closet they have offices that they count as bedrooms and stuff like that has a closet but a so a four bedroom house is a starter Home Three it's three at least said so no I I
agree I'm I'm with you 100% it should be two bedrooms for a starter but one for you one for the kids that's just how you starting third one's like usually a guest room or an office these days depends on
how all right thank you Andrew all right guess we're we're good J thank you I appreciate you coming ince see you thank you all right and with that we'll move on to agenda item number seven why don't you can one
up were you looking to do a screen we have a presentation I also have handouts if that's easier whichever whichever you prefer hand are fine happy okay don't fall
please it's a maze thank you very much would you leave another copy with um our count administrator so we can make sure that um member Fabian receives it actually there's an extra two
extras leave there thank you thank you if you can make sure that gets into her inbox that would be great well welcome thank you it's been it's been a little while it has we're do for an
update this is partially why we're here for the record j o liri uh with Ryo capital S Rand Rino um so it's good to see you all again um I think the last time we were in front of you I want to
say it was like maybe June so it's been it's been a while since we were last here um we wanted to provide you all with an update on on where this project stands um and in part of that also discuss um as the the title
suggests um some Grand funding opportunities that we're hoping to pursue um with with your help um so the goal today again like I said is just to sort of give you all an update and just kind of walk through where we stand and then talk about kind of what we're
thinking what we're where we're where our challenges are um and what we're thinking of targeting um to try to overcome those hurdles so um to take a quick step back project in general um so not much has changed I think since we were last in front of you in terms of
what we were designing um generally speaking the the master plan um is the same and for those that aren't aware this is the uh former Lakeville State Hospital site located at 43 Main Street quick highlight sort of three main components of the project um
southernmost portion of the of the plan or of the project closest to Main Street is a a senior living uh campus uh named The Windgate residences that's 190 units of senior living a mix of Assisted Living uh memory care and independent
living um as you move further north on the site um you come to the cranberry Heights residences which is a 200 unit um multif family project permitted through chapter 40b um and then furthest North you come
to the Fox Estates which is a 68 unit uh age qualified active adult 55 and over um uh Cottage home um project with a 5,000 ft Clubhouse servicing those residents residences um and then very
top of the page uh is sort of the two main components that where we want to focus on this evening which is one the wastewater treatment plant which is a uh 75,000 gallon per day uh wastewater treatment plant that will service all
458 units that are proposed um and then sort of faintly outlined in Orange um is the approximate limits of an existing unlined and unper permanent landfill it's about 1.1 Acres uh a little over 11,000 cubic yards of material uh that
previously serviced the um Hospital operation um so I think as as or I guess I should say just to kind of give everyone again an update in early January um we received unanimous approval from the planning board uh for
the Fox Estates and The Windgate residences uh in late January we received unanimous approval from the zoning board for uh the cranberry Heights residences um in early December uh sorry late December um we received an
order of conditions from the Conservation Commission for work within the buffer zone and direct we impacts related to the landfill removal um the slide says meepa project will or meepa review will be complete it actually is complete um we received our meepa
certificate um uh middle of last week um and at this point really the only outstanding permitting items that that we have left are some state level permitting for the uh treatment plant and uh Wetland impacts uh to the Vernal pool which is exists in that North
Western corner of the or Eastern corner of the property so we're substantially complete with permitting it's it has been a long road and we're really happy with with where we've gotten it's been a collaborative effort um with the town with um State uh uh state folks with uh
incredible project team um that we're really proud of and we believe it's sort of highest and best use for the property um the dense issues that that that we could get to try to absorb some of the extraordinary costs um that we're facing as part of this um but unfortunately
despite all of that the project is financially infeasible in its current state um we have been hitting our heads against the wall trying to figure out a way to to make this work and unfortunately have just continuously come up short
um where we believe there's opportunity though is that as a I think most everyone is aware the state has has really prioritized housing preservation and housing creation um there is a housing housing shortage in the state in this country I don't think anyone's I don't think that's news to anybody um
and our project really hits on a lot of the key um elements that the state is is trying to uh is trying to achieve and and fortunately they've they've really put their money where their mouth is and and put a lot of funds in place to try to
Spur Housing Development which we're we're hoping to try to key in on unfortunately um many of the opportunities or the grant uh programs as a private developer we're just not uh eligible for um Municipal agencies and municipalities are the only eligible
applicants um and so what we're here today to speak to you about all about is sort of how do we try to get to a point where we can um become eligible and and try to leverage some of those some of those funding opportunities um so I think I I sort of
hit on the biggest ones but you know the the extraordinary costs as it relates to remediation and demolition of the buildings removal a remediation and removal of a solid waste disposal area and the construction of a wastewater treatment plant amidst what
is already challenging Economic Times from just a a construction perspective and given what's going on at the at the federal level we're going to continue to see construction pricing increases unfortunately um so there there's significant headwinds as it as it
relates to this project and um you know we have a state and and a governor that is supportive of these types of projects so we're hopeful to try to leverage those opportunities um that exist but excuse me but it's it's just struggling right now um so just included some
existing conditions photos just to kind of show the the state of the property um you know we want to clean this up just as much as as everybody else I mean we own it um and we really want to want to see that redeveloped um
so what's next what are we what are we targeting as I mentioned the state has really kind of put their money where their mouth is um and has authorized again I apologize if any of this is done and I'm sure most of you are aware but um Governor Healey signed in to uh law
the affordable homes act which is a 5.2 billion roughly $5.2 billion um spending Bill uh which will be um used throughout the next 5 years um as part of that has really sort of reestablished um some funds as a relates
to the onetop for growth um so the community onetop for growth is a streamlined application portal that's open and eligible for municipalities um and again I apologize if any of this is redundant but um that that one stop for growth that allows access to 12
different funding platforms administered by three different state run uh organizations um it really is as quote critical funding that Spurs housing and economic development by investing in the public infrastructure preparing sites and cleaning up round fields to prepare them for development and supporting
vibrant downtowns um so we check the box for a lot of these a lot of these opportunities but there's two that we're really specifically targeting um which really kind of hit on two of the major hurdles um that we're coming across the first is the brownfields Redevelopment fund which is targeted by or or excuse
me administered by mass development the second is the Housing Works infrastructure program which is administered by housing and livable communities um our our first sort of you know goal or or or um Target um
is is really the brownfields Redevelopment fund um which in their words is used for environmental sight assessment or remediation activities conducted conducted by a Massachusetts licensed site professional or a licensed site remediation contractor and conform perance with M's contingency plan
um key here and again this is the key across the board is that the lead eligible applicant is municipalities Municipal agencies or authorities Economic Development industrial corporations or Economic Development authorities as a private developer we're not eligible um for these for these funds and to be an applicant and that's
why we're here tonight is to discuss with you all about how we can find a way to move forward this the case across the board with all of the one stop for growth programs um specifically again what what we're want what we would like to focus on and discuss with you tonight is is really
the brownfields Redevelopment and that's geared towards that landfill removal and Remediation um the Housing Works infrastructure one is another one that we're targeting um this really hits the nail on the head for the wastewater
treatment plant um but we want to spend tonight what we want to discuss is really the brownfields um you know I think I think you know how does this benefit you all how does this benefit the town I mean I think the the common theme since I've been
working here in Lakeville which first came across this property almost 5 years ago which isn't all that long but for me it's been a while um they spent a lot of time trying to see this site cleaned up I mean common common theme across the board for everybody involved is just clean this place up that's what
everybody wants to see and that's what this would would go towards is remediation um of the landfill there's more cleanup to be done and we're going to continue to try to find buckets of capital um to do that and are committed to doing that um but we believe that
this brownfields Z Development Fund is really well positioned um for for this project to see that um that landfill be removed um and that's really what we want to focus on um and what we're hoping for your support here this
evening um in in terms of project costs we we have worked with um uh our engineers at VHB we have had a handful of of qualified contractors come through and price this thing we have a lot of research on it we have a pretty
good idea of what it's going to cost um to do um and I think the important piece is is that this project should we come to should we find an arrangement that makes sense the town would not be burdened with any cost um that the cost
the the the money would come from the state would go directly towards the remediation any cost overages we would structure it in away such that we as as the site owner would be responsible for for any cost overages there so just want to make sure that everyone understands
that there is no added cost um as it relates to the town um the last piece here and and and then I'll and then I'll stop talking um uh you know I I think 40b is obviously a very hot topic um
across the board just had another presentation before us um the Cranbury Heights residences would put Lakeville into Safe Harbor um this uh would exceed uh that 10% 10% affordable threshold um
with this project is as Safe Harbor as I think maybe you'd wear would allow you um in the town and the zoning board to effectively deny um further 40b projects um um the state requires a 10% threshold for all towns to be in um and so with
our project all 200 units count towards your um your your uh yeah Shi excuse me thank you Sam um subsize housing inventory list which would then put you above your 10% threshold being above
that 10% threshold means that you H have the ability to say no effectively um did I skip anything I fly over anything the timeline okay last and then I actually we'll stop talking answer questions um just a couple just a couple
of quick notes the uh expression of Interest which is a non-binding um letter which just you know you you summarize your project Supply that to the state they give some feedback on hey we believe you're well positioned hey this is what we need they just give you some helpful feedback that's due by
March 26th and then the One-Stop application deadline itself is is um um June 4th um as this as if this effort progresses um we would Envision that Rino would take on the bulk of all
application material we have uh a project team in um VHB Sam um attorneys we have a team that knows this well knows how to navigate these processes well we've partnered with a lobbyist who's who's representing us on on Capitol Hill so we have a really well
built out project team the concept would be that we would put up put forth all the leg work and then essentially the town would just click submit on the application um and we understand there's a lot of conversation and negotiation to go and this is a lot of information to
hear this evening um so we totally understand that this is an ongoing conversation we expect and anticipate um to have a lot more discussions hopefully we have some answers for you all tonight I'm sure we won't have all of them and
and um we hope to kind of keep an open dialogue and try to figure out a way to make this happen at the end of the day you know we want to see this project move forward um this isn't really a uh Rhino trying to find a way to make
more money that's really not it at all um this is really more of a function of this project won't happen um this site won't get cleaned up um unless we find a creative way to make that happen um and so that's why that's why we're
here in front of you all this evening so with that I conclude um I know you indicated here um that there were other municipalities that have done you know similar um I
mean we all know how long this project um or that property you know has been in discussion and I think that this was the most um viable and attractive you know option and um you know there was a lot of Buy in and support for this so um I'm
curious to see you know what the other municipalities are that did something similar to this um because you know of course my head's running through okay we're clearing house you know we're the ones that are you know putting the the request through but then where does the
oversight come from you know for that to see the project through and you know whatever I mean you obviously mentioned that you would provide the resources so there's reporting that has to be done you know on any type of grant program and um so those are Logistics that you
know kind of go through my head for at first thought so so to answer your second question I'm working on another project not with Rhino but with another group where we were awarded Max Mass Works funds um and
just so you know the the developer um essentially does all of the reporting like in that case the municipality reaches out like when the report is due or ahead of the report being due and the developer orchestrates making sure that all that information is included they
literally send it to the municipality who then sends it in for reporting so that's that's the type of arrangement we would um we would think about here is is really taking the burden off of the town because we understand that it will cost
time um and money to continually um seek that reporting so that's something that we would take on um we also have a list of comparable um awards for each of the programs in municipalities um one in great barington
which was this is regarding the brownfields fund which is the one that we think would be a good fit for the cleanup of the landfill and the remediation of the landfill that award was $2 million um it was a a site that
was previously used by New England log homes as a treatment and Manu ufacturing facility so there was a significant amount of remediation that needed to happen as part of that um project which then I believe um was developed into like a park and affordable housing or
some mix of housing uh that was a $2 million award that's one example um we have a few others I don't know if you want to hit on any of the other brownfields yeah Madam chair through you would you mind sending us that list so we can research it as much as I like
hearing about it here totally to be able to see what's going on think the biggest one that was sort of therapeutic for me in a sense was I had a conversation with the folks from Trinity Financial who are a phenomenal group um they do a lot in the affordable housing space they are
currently going through the process of redevelop redeveloping the Medfield state hospital um which is a behemoth of a project um they have been able to find a way to make it work with keeping the existing buildings in place um so it's a little bit different
um Medfield also owns that site which makes it also a little little unique um but they were in the last cycle for for um One Stop they were awarded $4.48 million for infrastructure improvements as well as
$500,000 for other infrastructure improvements my conversation with the Project Lead aternity Financial said that they're seeking $3 million of funding over the next 5 years um we aren't seeking nearly that much um so it was like I said bit therapeutic to hear
that there are other people that are facing similar daunting challenges and are finding a way to make it work um but that's just again we we can provide a list um and you had um touched upon cost because that was obviously you know
something that um was going to be a question I'm sure that this board would have asked so with regards to the cleanup there's a cost associated with that in your minds and what would that be specifically for the landfill removal we
have a highend and low end unfortunately landfill Challenge and to kind of know exactly what that what that bogey is um highend is $2.1 million 2.16 um okay and unfortunately that has
climbed over since we first started working on this project largely due to disposal facilities um and their rates so that quote was as of no November I had that pulled reped so um it's a few months dated at this point so if let's just say
that this all went through and you know we were awarded you know $2.16 million for for this cleanup and it ended up I know that you had said that it wouldn't come back on the town um because that's something we could not ask for our TA
taxpayers that would I it would be illegal yeah just right yeah but um so if in fact if it ended up being let's just say you know $500 a million doll in additional
um that you would be covering I would just hope that that wouldn't be a point where you would of no return like I guess the commitment would be that we're going to see this through yeah and it's Our intention as part of this conversation negotiation is
to put together a memorandum of understanding that will be a legally binding document that outlines exactly what you just stated which is that we would be responsible for any cost overages um and that would be spelled
out via contract essentially I do have a question for you Andrew so if in fact you know let's just say that we were what this particular you know Grant we' applied we we received it does that put us out of any running for other additional grants
under the program it's hard to say I mean generally speaking the more money you get from the state the less likely are to get the next round but I think for a project like this where it's a former state hospital with a the state with the ones
that put us in the situation they might look more kindly but I can't say youer it in one way or the other hi um thank you I just I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly you can't apply for Grants only municipality canre so you asking us to
give you the okay to draft it all and just have us look it over it and okay it and then you submit it so you're doing all the leg work and everything okay so my question next question is to you guys what is the negative of this I because I'm not seeing any like I don't think
they can rewrite what they're doing in these grants they I don't think they can do something so what would a negative be mam chair just like Andrew was saying the negative would be that the state doesn't always fund the same place the
same at time with for different projects so there is a risk to other projects that we might want to be able to do in town got but that's the only thing that I can think of because remediating of Brownfield that has been festering there since 1992
94 is is a positive yeah what what level of cleanup are you going to for the uh landfill uh it it'll be completely REM remediated and removed um we will we
will not be able to accept any U activity use limitation because typically an aul would restrict residential use be like only allow commercial use that obviously doesn't work for us so it'll be completely
entirely remediated fortunately the the the investigation and the research that our project Engineers have done thus far is that really the the uh contaminants of concern are spus related from really they what it seems like is they were
dumping uh uh construction debris cloths bedding things like that into that landfill so the majority of the material that we found has been asbest related to construction debris um and a fairly luckily and hopefully this is the case a
fairly concentrated area of that done about I want to say six or eight different test pits across across that acre and we'll continue to hopefully do more to continue to qualify it and get that number that $2.1 Million number tighter um but that's that's that's the
goal is to have a the only other uh concern I would have um so I think you guys are going to draft theou to demonstrate municipal site control um I just don't know what the liability would be on the town even if we have that and that I that's without a legal opinion I
want zero yeah right yeah right right and that would probably be in theou um that we would make sure any liability goes there m I'm chair through you my other concern is um as much as the landfill is a hazard removing a landfill
uh could be hazardous as well when it comes to what's below uh that area which is an aquifer yeah um and I'm trying to map it out like exactly on that map where the aquafer like touches but I believe part
of it touches right where that landfill is if I'm remembering it correctly I don't know how far it went up I know it's it's right behind the Eastern Bank that's where their um test um spot is but I know where that is
it's further north right or further whatever it's further than that way um so I'm not sure but I don't know where it goes for yeah yeah yeah are you talking about the ponds no there's there's there's an
aquifer under there that um is regularly tested for water levels you remember that right I believe it's further south as you mentioned I think it's I know where that yeah cuz it was on it was on the property just
behind disturbing it is yeah concern don't yeah totally understood and we I can I can we can get you a map so we know exactly where that is I just feel confident speaking to it right now yeah that's one of those hidden gems that you know it's out there
yep few questions if I may that I'm sure um welcome back two of you when when did CBA approve the comprehensive permit do you know the data in that but chance so uh January 28th um hearing was closed vote was taken
I don't I saw a draft at the final decision last week I don't know if it has been stamped by the town clerk at this point but we were good with the way it was so so that starts a clock as you're probably aware so in your presentation when you're saying this project is going to put us in St Harbor
that's a very broad statement yes I wouldn't put it like that because from the time that you got that zva stamp you've got 12 months if it takes longer than 12 months none of the housing qualifies for Shi until you get building permits then you get 18 months to get occupancy permits
what's the chances you're going to build and have occupancy in 18 months it it it should be that should that shouldn't be that far off from if if when we pull the building permit we truly start construction and go it shouldn't be longer than an
18month construction process what I'm just trying to outline is we're going to be in this period of in out in out in out there's plenty of other projects looking at us right now so I don't I I think this going to be another number of projects that get completed well before we even get into Safe Harbor if it's you guys or another whoever is first I think
is going to be the one that gets us there um the other question we have is what changed when did this go from feasible to infeasible because in none of our conversations not in our s sidewalk you and I were talking about probably going to start demo spring
summer 2025 when did this change we've known that we were up against this Challenge from the start um we were we were hopeful that we were going to find a way to make it work that the market wasn't going to totally flip upside down on us um that we were going
to figure out a way to capitalize this and get this to move forward but we knew we were up against a pretty extraordinary cost um you know we to date we've spent a little over $1 million on this project between site acquisition um our
first Redevelopment attempt our second redel velopment attempt um that number got bigger and bigger um to the point where it is now and unfortunately we're just it it's too challenging um for us to try to take it on I I don't I don't think that I don't
have a great answer for when exactly we knew this was going to be a challenge I think we knew it was going to be a challenge all along and our Focus was let's get to a point where we actually have a project that we can move forward with because in my mind hear me out if you had an inkling that that was a challenge you're were up against did you
tell zba did you tell conservation did you tell them because now I feel like you've gone through and expended all those resources to get that permanent in place now you're coming to us and saying guys unless you help us get another check we're walking away that could have altered the thought process and the discussions as he went through those
other groups so were they told that no no I think I think we've because we probably should have done this first I said we're willing to help you get through that process before going through everything else this seems like a light lift compared to what you had to
go through for zba and conservation everything else it just feels at the last minute to be told this like we're being put a spotlight on us like well here we go I hear that but I would I would say that you know given that we had two site
plan review processes and a 40b process with the zba I don't know what would have changed through those processes like I don't I don't know if any of the conditions would have been different had we brought this challenge up I mean the other thing I would say is you know John's also not giving himself
enough credit we've gone to like every larger developer in the area to try to see like what they think a project of this size and scale and magnitude could absorb in terms of like just having the individual phases absorb these extraordinary upfront costs and the
market has really told us that this is this is an extraordinary cost and not something that a project of this size can absorb without without additional help from the state so April 24th we were all in this room and Ryo said that you would deliver the town of Lakeville
an economic impact assessment and a analysis on New Growth and fees part of this project where is that uh we have that we can we can present that to you why wasn't it presented already that's something we asked for inter Town Administrator specifically want to put into our budgeting process okay we we
we're more than happy to present that material I was going to have a slide that discussed it and presented within this presentation um it is more than just a slide so we thought it made more sense to have a follow-up conversation
um that will go over all of the details within that there are three separate reports that analyzes each individual element what the costs what the estimated revenues are um but in summary and again we can we we can go over this in further detail but estimated total
revenue um at full buildout being $999,000 U just short just short of a million dollars into the town so again we're happy to present all that material and share that with you and I apologize that that wasn't something that was done
earlier it's all it's for me a lot to take in in in one night with all the moving parts and the history on this I mean I don't know what the board wants to do I I'm not I'd say we need some kind of agreement with them between them and the town to figure out what's going to happen moving forward I don't think it's easy saying yes we'll do
and I would like to talk to Town Council no I think we do need to have a conversation with Town Council I just want to um because this is the the first time that I know that I've experienced you know um this type of scenario but I just want to make sure that you know we
are looking out for the best interests you know of the town and we understand you know that that property is you know a liability for you know the town we we get that um this is just a shift in Gears and I want to make sure that we
are educated enough in in you know being smart Shoppers I guess you know for making this big decision um so I think you know we're going to tear this up a little bit I think with our questions you know to town councel and so um the
deadline you said was March 26 mhm for the expression of Interest all right and that would be um way postmarked just say I mean technicality but or received by received by but it's
submitted online so click it and submits and and we can if if we can prepare that and present that expression of interest to you all at your next meeting so that you understand what it is that would be being submitted
um so that you can have an informed discussion on what that looks like and what's represented in there um that's certainly something that we can prepare between now and then Madam chair not to be a dead horse but that would have been good to look at as well in in this setting for us to
understand all the ins and outs um of what it is that we're being asked to do m is is there is this an annual program it's an annual program yep Awards I believe in October October November is when they announced
Awards all right so we'll have to schedule time um a meeting with Town Council yep definitely and not to complicate it more but there is the bond Bill hanging out there too so we can bring that back at the next meeting
and there's a bond billu Bond bill yeah okay that we're planning to use for a light and some other stuff long time ago yeah very long time ago but it's it's active till 2027 yeah so
yeah all right um so I guess um we'll add this to the agenda for um is it March 11th 10th 10th doesn't leave much time no well that's I was asking all my questions
so Madam chair may I ask the Town Administrator and I forgot already see this is why I need it emailed to me what town was it that was redeveloping their Hospital Medfield Medfield um maybe
reach out to uh whoever's handling the project at Medfield and get some of the finer points I know it's different you know being Town owned versus whatever but they at least know right time fres bells and whistles all those was great barington great barington was the other is that private or public
owns don't know off the top of my head I believe that one was privately owned yeah I'm not sure I have to we can get the details though of that that was for the brown Fields right Medfield was Housing Works I then I completely understand
that this is coming up quickly and this a this is a lot for you all to handle on on uh tonight the the expression of Interest that's that's um deadline at the end of March um that is a non-binding just a a letter um so just
be because that's submitted doesn't mean that we're in the queue that the process is started that's just a way for us to provide or the state to provide us uh feedback on what makes a good application yep um so just understanding that this is not very far away it's so
again you're just asking for our okay for you to submit Municipal qualifying grants yes okay I don't see what the issue here is because and that's just me verbalizing these thoughts Lakeville needs to you know get off the pot you know we keep talking about at this point
put the warehouse back like we need to potentially sacrifice one year of development in order to do this if this is what the town wants otherwise just put the warehouse back because I'm so tired of everybody complaining about everything this is great like this makes sense if you need help then we should be
helping them so let's talk about it and ask Council questions and everything but this is a no-brainer to me and and I think it's we want to ensure that you all are protected like we have no interest in putting the town at risk like that is not at all what we're trying to do we're
not trying to slide anything under the rug like we want this to be as open and as transparent you guys want to develop your project we we want to find a way you worked hard I get it well it might be another question then do you anticipate only the need for that 2.16
or whatever it was for the landfill or is there there's still Remediation in the buildings so is this going to be like 2.16 this year next year you come back and say okay we got that now we need to get this I mean what happens if the state says you didn't get it the second year in so our so as it relates the building
demolition that's kind of a that's a a separate bucket of capital and sort of a separate bogey that we're chasing the feedback that we've received is the state is very has has put in sort of Protections in place to prevent them from being responsible for demolition
work okay um they'll do remediation work but taking down buildings is really not something that they want to be in involved in um I think they'd get too many applications frankly if that was the case so we're trying to figure out another Avenue for that one specifically tax credits as it relates to Brownfield
re developments so that's kind of it's one of the Avenues that we're that we're thinking the other you know we we're we're trying to explore that one as best we can um what we do anticipate and I was mentioned in in here this evening um is that Housing Works infrastructure
program for um the wastewater treatment plan that's another that we think is really well positioned for that program um but we don't want to put in two applications uh in the same round a round um of funding and in addition just
in terms of order of operations the landfill has to be gone in order for the treatment plant to go in because they literally overlap so we have to get the landfill out first so we'll do that first and the feedback again again some of the feedback that we've gotten is
once the state commits to your project in essence if they were to award us some money for the remediation they kind of have egg on their face if they don't continue to support so because they've already allocated funds
in first round it's likely you're that they'll continue to support you in order to try to get it out of the ground and we'll be open and transparent with them they like Hey we're again this is what Medfield has done that's $30 million over 5 years you know we're doing our research we're really trying to make
sure that we're going about this the right way and I understand the concern and and I hear you that that we should have been more transparent as soon as this came to be and I apologize for that um right now we're we're trying to tackle it as best we can all right so our deliverables um
you're going to be getting us um something the list of comparable projects y the economic analysis economic analysis Y and Andrew you're going to reach out to great barington and
Medfield and Town Council mhm and you'll put together a letter we'll draft the expression of Interest we'll get that into your hands ahead of your meeting on the 10th so that you have some time to review that to read that we can have a okay informed
discussion um is the thought and the thought is to wait on the mou right so like we don't want to be too presumptuous and have like bullet points at the next meeting for what it is I think that would be beneficial okay we can put that together too ahead of the
meeting yeah I don't want to get that two days ahead of time no no so yeah so sooner soon you can get that to us we already have an example from another project that did it in in Canton so okay um you know we're working with
folks that specialized in this typ of okay we appreciate the time thank you we'll see you on the 10th sounds good thank you thank you um we'll reach out once we figure out what else we have coming on the 10th and we'll arrange it so works for us all
right thank you thank you very much good night okay now it's warm in here it's not my feet are cold yep all right I can tough it out all right agenda item number eight uh we're revisiting our charge uh
that we had uh approved may I interrupt um did we want to find out if these people are waiting for are you're here just to see us I'm not public use for 11 we can move those
up all right as much as we like having an audience I saw you guys looking for Lorn all right so we're going to jump to agenda item number 11 thank you mad chair I mean I just you know what I get excited when I have people in the audience and I see them and oh they're
just here though just enjoy so very interesting stuff I mean I had quite with the fire station and now two interesting projects I got to listen to I'm Jeff Smith I'm the race director for um Outsider endurance Patriot in
Cranberry utilize town and state roads in Lakeville um I'm not sure which one is listed first but cranberry is August 24th here that's the one that's hosted here t Williams with Park approval already in hand and um then patri on
June 14th just Cycles through the town um the first one in front of us is the cranberry um trifest and what year is this in now 24th 24th year right and we've received all of our sign offs from our
um police if right here it's got the Public Works inspectional Services police and fire okay curious Madam chair the event form notification dated January 2nd was still
missing all of our signatures fire local what's that that's the do form correct so um that signed after you approve okay we need to update these all right 10 different fonts um
have you seen an increase in participation over the last few years do you think it'll be pretty it'll it should be consistent um we don't have much room more room for parking so it's kind of at where it is um we've stopped registration the last two years at this
event so uh it's an extremely popular event both here with residents athletes in the town and uh surrounding communities for sure you know it just jogged my memory we did have a resident um attend one of our meetings previously
and I'm not sure which which um event prompted it but it might it might have been this one but um we just have to be very well aware um and if you can maybe find a way to communicate the message uh to the participants and The
Spectators um that any of the properties along the precinct Street um you know they got to make sure one that they're cleaned up obviously um but not to sit on people's I think I saw this I didn't get a chance to talk to him I saw him
interacting with the police officer that was working in detail and I couldn't quite hear the I'd be curious to know what happened I think it was volume of of he put coffee cups all over his rock wall and they went through his flower beds yeah there was more too yeah and
there was other I to be interested um I I can't imagine anybody that is on staff for Outsider endurance or the athletes would have done it hopefully it was a coincidence of spectators okay okay and then I think you also said they started too early really early it's like 5:00
a.m. yeah and the race is early but it's the volume of uh lots of people attacking next to people that are sleeping on now I'm doing it the east side of of
uh of Ted Williams the East so that would be Precinct street it's Precinct this way y um so we don't have any yeah I mean we have we yeah you guys were pretty clear about um audible
Amplified noise being at 7:30 or something like that I think it was so I I I don't know I we certainly look into it I'm not aware I think it's more The Spectators is is my that was my thing so I think the partici we don't do any parking none of our parking is over there it's all inside of the park
obviously not on bed for n in the police station um all parking is here just I don't know who would have been over there to be honest with you just have to make make sure that nobody parking on that side of the street you know just there none of our we have we have you know the only people
I can think of maybe our parking detail itself the people the young uh the volunteers from uh um deol middleb might they might have been out there communicating that's the only thing I can think of but we'll certainly make it a point of emphasis this year um I can
reach out outside of the meeting to offer my community my uh info for that individual so they can communicate exactly what happened on have I mean we want to see these things you know continue to be successful and you know I mean they're um you know to
have the participation and it's here and you know helps L chair just a question and um I think the problem is um needing overflow parking um possibly is is that U we're happy with the the size of the
event I mean obviously we would look to grow but um I feel like it's a for the impact it has on the community both positive and the some inconvenience to to neighbors I think the event is healthy where it's at numbers wise um we manage parking we've have drone video to
show where exactly where our parking is for people that are working at to guide them in on Race morning um you know can't park on the stage Street anyways and the there only other options would be the fields in the side of the park well I was thinking that ASA W's at
school cuz it's on a a Saturday yeah uh the race is um Sunday Sunday yeah which we don't uh I think we're I think it works where we're at um yeah yeah I
I'm not uh I think we're we're I feel confident with the logistics of race moring here uh where we're at so okay Madam chair through you um there was an issue last year and I don't know which event it was so I'm not going to point fingers specifically um but one of the
events we held in town gone off and marked their route and pretty bright paint all over the street which makes sense um but then left it there and it was there for months and months and months where some events organizers will come back and like spray pain over black just to make it kind of blend in and whatnot our streets just kind of like
looked littered with random Dig Safe type stuff all over the place so we use an approved marking chalk not a paint it's uh designed to wear on its own um it's the only thing we'll put on the roads yeah I just bring it up cuz whoever did this last year definitely wasn't chalk sure our great talk and I'm
happy to provide the MSDS labels for what what we use good all right well I'll entertain a motion to um approve the application um for the cranbery trifest
scheduled for Sunday August 24 2025 um from the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. so moved second motion is second any discussion
none uh R please Don I carbon I okay um the next one that you had um mentioned would be the half um Triathlon which was or proposed to be scheduled
June 14th correct um and I believe everything has been signed off here DPW inspectional Services police and fire um in the 14th is that a Sunday as well that's a Saturday that's a
Saturday I was hosted at a church so Sundays are offord on that one right and this is that one cycling pass through um similar roads that are affected from cranberry um slightly different route
but um um I just need to make the point that um you know it is single file you know um we do the best you can you know with the participants to let them know that you know when it's two or three you know wide it makes it very difficult for any
passing on that note we do have usat officials uh which are sanctioning an insuring body that um monitors the course and penalizes and dis qualified for riding if they're caught doing that so it's a definitely a point of emphasis I know over the past couple years since I've taken this over I know Point since
PRI hopefully we've improved on it um and we do have between the leges we do have um one of our photography points and that's one of the faster points of the course I would say um I've been pleasantly fleas we being footage in images that I see most of them pretty
Single Fin so uh there are allowed to pass uh of course but every every morning of race morning it's um it's the main focal point that I'm talking about that you know these are open roads and they're required for you know safety purposes to be checking the vehicle any ways as they're making taxes so and what
is the time for this event uh patri half for coming through um athletes would start on the bike around 9 be finished uh roughly noon for that one okay all right anybody
else all right I'll entertain a motion to approve the application um for the public way license for the Patriot half Triathlon scheduled for Saturday June 14th 2025 roughly between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. so mov
Motion in a second any further discussion hearing none roll please I carbon I CID I thank you I'll get you uh the information um send my personal information over to Tracy for the um
citizen if that wants to discuss this I certainly don't want to have that happen again I wish I could have talked to them uh that day um I hate you know I don't want anybody to have a negative sure impact from this thank you for your time thank you J nice to see you and we do send out cards again um okay so for both
events everybody in Lake along the affected rout will get post and Tracy these are um these have been approved so I want to make sure that we get our communication piece up on our website as well um we get that out to to Residents
um a little bit a little early that yeah no but a further Outreach than you know sure it usually was the week of I can do it two weeks before so I'll coordinate with you all right perfect thank you thank you thank you all righty all right are you here for
something all right um so uh back to agenda item number eight so um we had approved the direction to actually put together the um town hall building reuse subcommittee
and had provid a direction to uh Our Town Administrator to put together a draft and bring it to us uh for the next meeting and that's what we have in front of us so I'll open it up for discussion and Andrew if you'd like to yes so I I
took um quite a few different towns and communities um what their charges were kind of like leals kind of passed charges on a few things um I took a first crack at it draft definitely put an emphasis on that um I've gotten some feedback on the the members I put on the
committee um that was just really did kind of spark the conversation I wasn't really sure how how big was small the committee should be I know for certain I want to put a Board of Health member on there um and maybe take a couple members off but I wanted to see what select
board said about that and then the other big point that I wasn't quite sure on is when the select board would want like a report back from the subcommittee I put December 31st 6 it kind of puts us in line with the fire station a little bit
but I'm certainely open to changing that around um I mean maybe that might be a good timeline for a final report but I think updates you know along the way would be helpful um because you might run into some roadblocks or some
concerns that you might want to bring in front of the board to maybe help with Direction but right and obviously there's no funding for this so any sort of appropriation would have to come to the yeah so
um I know looking at the the makeups you have what 10 members here yes um and then adding the Board of Health which I think is is um prudent um would be 11 we do know that running
large committees can be a little taxing um so but again it's up to the to the board if they want to um reduce the numbers or how many were in fire station um that work pretty
well nine nine another 10 or 11 that's not much different no and we um you know believe it or not we actually had a night that everybody was available you know two nights during the the month so um
but again you know you've got some staff members on here and you know to meet in the evening you know that's the first thought that pops into my mind that typically our meetings are in the evening but with staff um you want to
make sure that you know we're conscientious of their time yeah and some of those are some of the people we could take off but they'd be obviously the first phone call of once we get into this what are we going to do with the building and like someone like Paul NE I could see being on or off but
he'd be someone that we'd call and bring in because you did say here um that you would reach out you had other um yeah engage the advice and counsel
professional advisors as needed um so mam chair I'll jump in too if you're sure thinking um I would reduce it down to nine if I if if that was uh the will of the board um and I would do exactly uh that saying uh adding in the Board of
Health um and I would have the same concerns adding um members of the town because we would have to give them in kind and there would have to be some agreement there that we'd want to you know make sure we're not making our people work outside
of their regular schedule um I just try to add as many kind of stakeholders I could because it's kind of like a I think it makes sense it's a build everyone kind of cares about know yeah and the the other part of the
charge and it's not super applicable to this one but I think it's applicable to any building project that we'll ever do in town is we should always have a not to exceed number I think on on these type of projects um not that we have
anything to exceed from because we have zero um but uh I always worry about projects that go in that say let's build it exactly the way we want it without those guidelines of you know what does that price look like at its maximum
point because I think that helps inform the project in general I agree and um just with the the current climate and then the the capital products on the horizon there really not we're going to have to be pretty creative well I'm I'm hoping I'm hoping there's some funds
you know you know that just like the ones we were talking about earlier that there's some funds because I know there was some infrastructure funds um available um especially for dilapidated buildings which this absolutely
qualifies for right and there's opportunity for you know a lot of that's where the creative juices need to you know come into play um someone that's a grant writer would be I'm not sure if it's specifically called
out let me just do it real quick um are we looking to focus on only the portions of town hall that are going to be evacuated by fire when they go or is this a whole look I would do the I I
personally I I thought it would be the whole look okay cuz like I would I feel like to do ourselves of Justice it's got to be a whole look and outcomes we should not immediately rule out any particular outcome so if the outcome is
abandon this thing and start over because it's going to be too much to put into it to make it functional then fine just tell us that set us up for that expectation I wish the money the 200k at town meeting passed a couple years ago so we could already kind of have that in front of us now because now we're
starting from scratch I don't know where we have to because we can't do it not to exceed until we actually have like something we're building towards and designing and what and what there obviously there has to to be you know some ideas generated as to what funding
sources well not even not even that but the idea of what the building would be because then that's you know you might that's where you would might start to rule out you know some of the um the ideas like oh we're going to
put in a ballroom you know because that you know everybody wants a ballroom cuz they want an annual you know party the lake field ball Well Middle bar has a ballroom okay but and a ghost so we don't have that either but I'm saying that that would be the soft that would
be the soft thought or creative um ideas that you okay so maybe that comes off the block mhm but I think that we really need to have that community outreach um you know in looking at our
needs as far as our town is you know like the administrative needs um need need services and departments um um additionally if we added in any other space we would have
to do other things to the building yeah if we touch anything existing square footage we'd have to do the sprinklers and the um figure out any best best abatements right and all that I think is part of the feasibility study that was
done from sosia umch I think those might be included in that too so I think you know this this committee would have to take that into consideration and because you're right
that you know whatever the percentage is of the footprint in that building much then that would be a cost definitely there it used to be 200,000 and I'm sure it's about 400,000 cuz we scoped it out into
2019 was 200,000 so it's probably double but when you're you're putting you know as you're coming up with um I guess the use of or potential uses of the building and Associated costs at the same time we
could look at um you know opport funding opportunities that might be able to match so there's a there's a new sprinkler Grant out there I don't know that but maybe there will be that we could tap
into all right let's go back to the um the makeup nine members gives us a an odd I I I keep it odd yeah I mean I don't mind the 11 but if there's a concern then drop it just who you're dropping the reason I chose 10 there was
a reason for that it was forced um collaboration if it was 5'5 someone had to so I I hate seeing a 54 vote personally Survivor so we can keep it at 10 but somebody would have to come off um is
there any um for the members at large is there any criteria that you would look for um residents or residents that would just be interested I would love criteria to be you know someone that's worked on
public building projects before or someone with extensive grant writing experience or funding source experience which is pretty esoteric but it's what they did on the Old Colony project like some of their residents are you in the construction industry have built schools
yep yep just you know having an extra perspective instead of which is always great feedback but we would get the feedback we needed through surveys and out Outreach uh whereas in we really professionalize it a little bit more
with um some residents to support some skills that you know either we need some support on or some balancing opinions on and I also um maybe they did that through the um feasibility study I I don't recall off the top of my head um
but I know that the building is still owned by Taunton if I'm not mistaken right it does come up every now and then it does no um I checked with gar on that and she confirmed that it was purchased by the town um with the caveat that if
we ever sell the building we have to sell it back to TA okay then that's what it was okay I knew that there was something I can find no record of this transaction or this vote anywhere by the way so in ta doesn't have it yeah taon has
no record of that Vote or transaction oh so they think they own it no no I just I knew that there was something that there was some connection there I knew cuz I had reached I had reached out back when Tom Hoy was mayor um and because we're
trying to knock down that old um squirrel breeding place beside Town Hall home no no it's a it's just a structure you might not even notice it anymore I think it's been absorbed yeah yeah it's been absorbed we were trying to knock it
down um and we reached out and they're like we don't even have Goods that that we ever owned it I was like nice checked off but yeah it's the cell all right so uh two select board members one fincom member
um three members at large with um some you know criteria um Town Administrator Building Commissioner Town Clerk and Facilities uh manager now and one b a health member
again not burdening our town officials um I guess we'll have to we can take those final two Off The Town Clerk and Facilities I know you'd be tapping into them you know for input anyways yeah um because you're going to be looking
assuming space needs yeah t CLK has his big footprint with the basement and everything and probably be the action part of some of it exactly okay to be Annex yeah no more annexes that's bad for okay for flow all right so that
brings us down to nine 6 78 n okay do we need to vote did you already double check the p p off I think it says they can be on building committees I think so CU I think Larry
Larry's on the fire station okay good M they allly limited um it's not by Statute it's because um uh in is it 1990 something there was a school committee person that was going to be on both and
they and they did that this town doesn't like that no so they they made that bylaw specifically for that person yeah I always enjoy rule rule making like that super Fair okay I would keep the
deliverable uh December 31st 26 I mean that's a you know it's out there but I think that that's a you know Golden Torch everything else seemed to be um I might want to think about who
you would take on for your administrative support uh because that would be a consideration I know that when we form these types of subcommittees um it's important that you know somebody has to manage the
communications of the and the minutes and the agendas and room location and some might want to think about um who that designated person might be okay Madam chair the question I would have is are we just creating an unfunded mandate
here I mean it's comprehensive analysis current conditions and such but there's no finding that goes along with this well do we I mean I don't know but we can't leave it as is an empty
building I don't disagree yeah but but we have to them to get the information they need to make the correct report so obviously we this board couldn't appropriate right now it would have to be obviously town meeting if you're if you're interested we could
put something on the annual I would say it wouldn't be a lot of money wouldn't recommend that but are we saying like a feasibility Brian or are you well I mean the it depends on what level of depth we're looking for I
mean if they do have to you know go in and figure out structurally if it's okay and what in what areas and what kind of you loads the building can handle I don't know that anybody can do that for free um I don't know I don't know if there's anything that they can tap into from contractual services that are in
the budget but like I'm just afraid we're going to get a list of great ideas with nothing to back it up right and but that's where you where do you start you know do you get the ideas and then say okay this is you know what we would like to see happen here and then
find out if it is a viable it's we're talking 22 months to come back with maybe nothing that's actionable and then do we start talking about funding to do a real feasibility study I don't I'm not I don't have the answers but like this timeline seems really long no I see what
you mean I see what you mean um I guess that would be maybe final what would that date be representative of the last date would it be have it ready for a warrant ticle that's that's I think the part we're still missing a little bit is what
is the final report going to consist of and have they been empowered with the right resources to get it done question for the group and I know I asked it about the fire station so I'll ask it again about the town hall was there a full charge on what they were looking
for did they when they scoped it out what they were doing like I I've never seen any document that said what their goal How They Came Upon you know coming up with the solution that they did what you know what were their criteria nothing haven't seen it I've
never seen I didn't either so all right why don't we approach it this way if we form this um and then we get the dialogue going with a report coming back to us in July of this year
and that way we can talk a little bit more about what we are before then what we are looking because obviously um you know we have
the septic to consider um but that septic will have to consider anyways exactly so that's part of the equation um you know there is I I do know that we were approached
um with consideration um Lake Camp was looking for a spot so that would be something to consider um and why am I forgetting who else
came um even if we had like some kind of um initial Visionary statement or have the scope narrowed down to some degree bit like in the summer I think it at least helps us to head in the right direction something that shows incremental progress versus just come back in 22
months and I think you're I think you're on it have wrapped all right so let's put um um July by July 31st maybe then you'll have you have you hold your first meeting after you yeah maybe that's just the the starting
point like what is the vision yeah and then the vision obviously in form we'll try to work with the people of Lakeville try to come up with some ideas um from their point on what they'd like to see
there um but at the end of the day uh what we can get funded would get done so why do we um why do we do this um select board members um submit thoughts their personal thoughts to um
the Town Administrator of ideas that they would like to send out and then we can bring that back to a meeting mhm see what resonates
yeah again it's you know this board might have you know some ideas and then maybe the the next board might have were we going to vote tonight Madam chair on who the members are or we're still we should be voting on that
yes y so this would be the charge I would volunteer if uh okay anyone's interested as as one of the members right do I hear a motion um to appoint Marian candido as one of the
select board representatives to the town hall building reuse subcommittee so move second Motion in a second any discussion hearing none roll carbon i c i
okay and second member do we want to wait until uh I was going to nominate Brian I don't have the capacity right now you're you're over it anyone else I'm gone in April but or I can transition to a member at
large otherwise we can just wait for leam or we can wait until April I think we did that with the fire station building committee oh yeah we did I think we appointed one member and then we waited and then you're absolutely right all right well I'll just move
forward with a bunch of stuff then hope no one catches up until uh until so I'll have some actual stuff going so I don't want to wait okay all right so now um we need a motion on the
charge um the only thing I would just just from the the title I would just remove this the build second word of building before subcommittee so it just reads the town hall building reuse subcommittee um we'll go with nine members two select board one fincom
three members at large with criteria um Town Administrator Building Commissioner one Board of Health and we just appointed Marine to that um we're a deliverable uh uh report back the end of
July yeah July um 25th to um present initial Vision okay all right so I'll entertain a motion to to approve the
charge as outlined um for the town hall building reuse subcommittee so mov second Motion in second any discussion hearing none Ru please Don I carbon I thank you okay uh agenda item number nine did
you already turn little so good uh so this is our second reading uh of the purchase purchasing card policy and procurement policy um presented by Our Town Administrator at
our last meeting um did anybody have anything that they wanted to bring up since the last meeting I did just want to ask what were there any changes since the first copy
no changes thank you um I have brought up the last reading uh about cash handling and procurement for the parks and for the uh anal uh control officer I
didn't know and we were talking about do we want to have two cards or one card I was thinking one card townwide um it would include the parks since all their pares go through the town technically um and then the last one
cash handling um that'll be a separate policy okay okay that'll come back um the one card will be held in your office uh Town treasure collector treasure oh collector yeah in a uh safe okay all right and
these policies would go into effect as of the boote I was thinking July 1st just to kind of do the training I plan on doing a lot of like work until July 1 I don't want to just drop it on people and then kind of Causes Chaos in the finance World cuz
they got to change overnight and just like what are we doing but they're used to that they thrive on it yeah right all right I just want to make sure that we still um at the bottom we put um you know what the policy is and the the
footing and then the date that y so I guess I'll entertain a motion to approve the town of Lakeville purchase card policy and usage agreement um with an implementation date of July 1st
2025 so second and Don I okay there motion to Second any further discussion hearing none signified by saying I we have an I have only I and away okay so the uh approved date would
be this evening and then the effective date or implementation date would be July 1st and I've kind of done this last few years in different places but I'll bring it back yearly okay first second look there always things changing and improving so how are you keeping track
of them of what the changes yeah how like are you do you have a master policy list that you've attached all the copies of the policy for with a you know like a little time stamp or something yeah okay
yeah yeah always good that's good um because they're always they're fluid you got to look at everything all the time otherwise you have something where you're not allowed to have turkeys in May or something ridiculous um as far as the procurement
policy and procedures this would go into effect immediately July 1 July 1st as well yeah a lot of it mirrors state law anyways so okay right so I will um entertain a motion to adopt the um
presented procurement policies and procedures um and guide for Department boards and committees approved this evening with a an effective start date of July 1st 2025 so
move uh discussion are you going to second second for discussion yes um there was one line that I asked about last time and I didn't write if I resolved the issue and that
was the 50,000 was inclusive of everything and not like 50,000 and then another 50,000 and then another 50,000 I can't remember what line that was
oh yeah I have it on my other copy it would be per purchase so if it was like a onee 20 it was a three-year contract and it was 20,000 that would definitely have to be yeah it would have to be per purchase completely and not as a you know ongoing yeah right
50,000 a year or you know 50,000 every time it comes up for okay something that was my only call out um yeah all right so we have a motion in a second on the table um to approve the procurement policies and procedures with
a an effective start date of July 1st I don't oh okay carbon ey I'm no no I was just saying that this is where we were um in the process when back in so we just had discussion um so R Don hu I
carbon ey um just wanted to make sure the language that containing it for one year is part of the motion so moved total contract cost right total contract yeah
C included in the I'm going to need some guidance on that language because that was really confusing okay um so the the value of the total contract will not exceed 50,000 okay wherever he wants to put it yeah
just make it happen make it happen that comes up all the time okay excellent okay all right number 10 we haven't had one of these in a while um we have
a a comment um due to the planning board regarding a site plan review of 19 Main Street um their usually they tell us when their next meeting is a public hearing it looks like
Thursday February 27th um so this you know I know that they try to align the comments with the Departments with their their hearing so okay so this
is where that if I'm not mistaken with the White House is right across from MH Walgreens and Bridge Street oh you have a hospital property yes White House the the old administrative the old yes
Administrative Building okay so it would be I think there's a Road next to the um funeral and I think it's just to the left of that so I don't know if it encompasses the White House or not but I think it's like right in that vicinity W
I was way off because if you look at this if you look at the one of the maps um which was a little bit clearer doesn't have a page number on it um but I wanted to see in relation to Bridge
Street uh it's this map here I don't know it just made it a little bit more clear yeah so it's almost directly across from Bridge Street and I know that you know we're responsible for you know water and Earth
removal and um but for me right now I know that there's been traffic studies done on 105 I don't know I haven't seen the latest one but this is now another opening
yep so we just went through the um with the hospital property there there open going into the
fox well I don't know if it counts or not but there's there's already an opening there there's a curb cut in the street that's there I think they're just going to turn it back on well it has the line the lines don't line up if we ever wanted to get a
light I mean the property Encompass that whole Road it's a horrible intersection unfortunately that plot should have never been carved out for auction when the hospital was getting dived up cuz that should have been the entrance to the big project what if we did a small
roundabout um I like my life I don't want to get shot by residents no I was in Ireland last September and they don't have stuff like we it's all little roundabouts tiny roundabouts bigger roundabouts the only
place I would ever suggest a roundabout and I will take absolute gunfire for this because I will I will get lots of lots of uh messages is eight and uh 105 mhm right that is the ACC that would be a perfect place for
roundabout just like the one they have in Freetown you know we can move all of the flower things like one in this right well let's on this one here though I see what you're saying to it reduces but that's one that's a huge you don't need to move a street to put a
light as but right now that street that you're talking about is not used correct so with what they're proposing putting in here is retail and some other um auxiliary buildings in office space in the back so
there's traffic mhm um so can they they Madam chair um Can the planning board condition it so they would have to have
a central entrance point for both projects I think that they'll probably that is their under their purview um I was just pointing it out for for myself um but that's a comment that we can send back to the planning board that we're
very concerned with the egress to the property yeah just think about all that traffic if you're having two sets so close together MH I can see that being potentially very dangerous I think this
is a nice project um I think it utilizes that you know space nicely um I I have no problem with the project itself other than I hope they can actually fill the retail and we just don't have more empty spots in town the the the contractor base will get filled
everybody wants those right now yeah so they'll make their money there hopefully they're building to suit not to spec mostly spe here yeah but I I mean it's nice just start see some know some
develop happy but that would that would be my only comment is my concern of the um the Eris and trying to find a way to partner with the adjoining parcel to create one e this does get a little
weird because this I don't know if that parcel has has existed all the time or if that was newly created when they started auctioning off part of the hospital newly created it it was one big slab prior to that so it was probably it was probably under the old water allocation
so there probably is none now for 19 Main Street if it's a new property well we'll have to wait until that comes up in front of us but you're right that's um that was whole that original was for the whole the whole thing the whole thing okay cuz it didn't get split up
until the auction yeah yeah the JJ Manning auction so 105 is mot correct correct so no no curb cut so we need to um just alert mot I guess because this board has
always had concerns about the amount of traffic on 105 and now that we're adding additional I mean I just I don't want to see a route six oh yeah in Lakeville on 105 I don't think it's that bad but I do
think it is ca for concern listen I'm telling you tell them to put a roundabout here she's already drawn it I'm not even kidding perfectly I'm not kidding tell them to recommend a roundabout draw it up see what it looks like it will work
like I'm not being cooky and crazy it'll work so I like I hear you we don't want that but it's never going to slow down because that place is where everybody likes to pass on the right and that's where so many of the accidents come from because someone tries to be nice and say oh you can pull out which they're not supposed to do because that's not how
you drive and they're supposed to go in but that's that's where the accidents come from if you do a roundabout it doesn't matter if it doesn't match up perfectly because it'll just flow into it so that's my recommendation they will get it done in like 2037 that's that's Steve mot yes well
you know what the planning board is meeting on February 27th it's a Thursday yeah maybe you can send we can include in a comment that um we have concerns about um 105 select board member had suggested a
roundabout as an option I just I'm putting it out there we do have that I'll say it end the bond Bill million dollars to I guess could study design it well we have the light that we're trying to deal with which
street light forever yeah but I mean that would take care earli proba want so instead of a million dollars on the light you just put some cement down and FL the light cost 250,000 for the yes cost because um but I don't know at
what point does mass do take on the responsibility of road safety thank you Road Safety yeah I think they they take on everything after designning yep right away and everything else okay it's
just always weird that they have design on the towns I've just yeah any other comments to the planning board um that's my only one okay excellent okay thank you Tracy's smiling over
there like this board is just crazy okay um we are now I am on the what's your take on it all good luck because 28 and 105 isn't
functioning F intersection and M does nothing for that so yeah good luck round okay agenda item number 13 um we in front of us have a resignation um from Britney leapor who um was appointed
as the Parks Commission representative to our community preservation committee so because we do the appointments we need to accept the resignation um of Britney so I'll entertain a motion I
move to accept the letter of resignation from Britney leor um from the community preservation committee and it looks like immediately effective immediately so effective immediately second motion and second any
discussion hearing none roll Don I Carboni I Andy and you know if we can just say thank you to Britney I know um I believe at the last Parks Commission meeting they'll when they become um you know after the election when they have a full compliment hopefully um they'll be
able to appoint or send a recommendation to the select board for appointment so okay so thank you Britney um okay um agenda item number 14 so I'd like to invite um I knew you
were here miss Lacy Marshall our HR Director up um nice to see you Lacy to see you all so we um are bringing the classification and compensation
study um that was conducted um in the final report provided January 2024 so this board had um wanted to because we were going through a change with Town Administration and we wanted to bring this up at a future date well today is
our future date so uh this has been disseminated out to the board um at least a couple of weeks ago uh for review it's a pretty hefty document um some of us did receive it back in January 24 so did you came in April
April okay yeah the board received it May 6 2024 was the first look okay so everybody's had it for a little while okay I'm not quite sure what we do with
this at this point so um I mean it this I mean it was quite the read twice I mean I I would like to ask the HR Director and the town Minister like what's their what's their takeaway from here what are the top five things I think we should Implement not maybe not necessarily like you know salary numbers
but what how can we what do we learn from this that we can improve our organization with that's a good question thank you Brian that was very well said yeah so I think the biggest one that I liked about this is to create an actual
pay scale right now especially with department heads if one person leaves we're guaranteeing the next person that we're hiring into that rate so we're not okay sorry to interrupt that was just a policy
that the previous Town Administrator had took upon himself to enact that was not a policy prior to him and there was no if you follow your class in comp pay scale it's a number not a range yes so you are hiring into that P what board
voted on it when may of two or three bastards give me the facts so I'd like to see a pay scale okay to stop that from happening um in
the way that they have it grouped is depending on your experience in your education and your longevity is what groups you into those different scales so even though you're a department head some department heads
require um you know more training or education so they go into like a higher group group then other ones and then supervisors are in another group so the class and comp did break it down I'm not saying we have to use exactly what they said but I did like how they they gave
that group um that was a good piece of it the so the things I didn't like I came here kind of with three options for the select board one was to accept it and work with it potentially create a pay
scale um really look at job descriptions so that we're fitting the right jobs into the right pay scales and making sure that there's uniformity cuz some of the positions that we have I can't either find a job description for them or it's
so outdated that it doesn't even pertain to them anymore um second option is to say that it's incomplete and then bring the Union in and redo the whole study so what I didn't like about it is because it doesn't involve the Union
positions that are non-union uh in are in a different pay scale than our Union they're not Crossing together so if everybody was grouped together we'd see a full picture where right now we're seeing kind of half of a picture
if that makes sense can you no actually could you explain that one more time are you saying that you want to see two scales so you can so what I'm saying is I'll give you the example so right now if you have a police officer and their starting pay is $27 this class in comp
study for non-union is showing that a conservation agent should be paid $34 why so I didn't incorporate all of the positions to say hey where should where should this police officer be should
they be in the same group or should this conservation agent come down are they really truly where they are that's what I'm looking at where if you have a executive assistant that's non-union and an executive assistant that's Union why
is their pay discrepancy so large do we need to change a job description do we need to change their their pay so it's not really across the board looking like people are fitting into the right puzzle pieces right now and can so then they becomes the change of are do we look at
okay based off of when people are leaving we're going into a lower position or are we raising people up into that position that they should be in if that makes sense so the takeaway would be synthesized to what statement we had pay
scale for the so it would be an incomplete we would consider this class and comp study to be incomplete because we didn't group in everybody together to look at the whole picture so the union wasn't involved so to me I feel like it's an incomplete
puzzle because we only looked at less than half of our population uh and then the third option really is just to reject it as a whole and say we're just not accepting it as it is um I don't love that one I think if
we kind of work with the complete one which gives time for us to do updated job descriptions to make sure that people are fitting into that right category um and then also potentially instead of
paying for it this time to get like a community compact Grant to have them pay for it that's how towns typically pay for them yes no not bitter over that or anything and in the interim just having like a
pay scale for just the even department heads to kind of give us that left right limits of what we're looking at for their pay until we have this complete I could definitely see the the
pay scale range I get that would you recommend implementing that for this coming fiscal year or just IAP I would I designed one probably 6 months ago uh and I had sent it to the board just to kind of
look at the way that I was viewing it um clarifying question you had removed you removed the high town from that one right had you I all I had done was I had taken their class in comp study and used
so instead of it saying HR director is in grade K it said HR director is in grade n and in grade n was also like I think the COA director and the library director so and then there was a range so the starting pay could be I don't
know what it was but say it's 60,000 it could go all the way up to 100,000 because based off of those three people in their experience they always they all fit into that grade whereas like somebody you know the the police and fire chief would be at that highest grade of like 11 because they have to
have all that experience and all that supervisory and all that knowledge so their pay scale would be whatever it was you know 131 to 170 something um so that was all it's doing it's grouping the people in instead of being
individualized oh does the board have an appetite yes where are we going to go on it incomplete I mean I I would like to see them at least pull out what they think is immediate benefit start there and then there's there's other stuff to figure out here I I do think it should
have covered everybody it started out as one list and other people get added and a couple other specifics got added it was really a strange process it was strange cuz we have we have about 60 positions and and
only 29 of them really made it onto the class in comp study and then I had to reach back out to gov HR and say hey nonunion you're missing another like 15 positions why weren't they also considered uh so then they were rushing
to go back to complete the study so that in itself tells me that not everybody's really included in that one again same question do do you have the original charge or scope for for that project I do I at that so the board
approved the scope of work in April of 2023 um and it wasn't a very large one but that's what I believe the RFP was built off of and then they
hired gov HR which is they have a different name now but they were hired 14 June they were contracted to do this um um my concern that it wasn't done and and I thought this was the way it was
going to be done and this just might have been my understanding that they were going to do everything you said about the scales everything was going to be scaled out structured wise but they were also going to make recommendations where they thought we didn't have enough support or we were over supported I
thought that was part of the I didn't see that and when I spoke with gov HR they were focused on the pay scales and they were focused on position title changes cuz I did see you know the clerical and office assistant you know
that was a recommend recommendation and that's why I thought it would have been more expansive than throwing one random recommendation in one weird area um it just didn't flow with the
rest unless that was the the charge m to make recommendations on Staffing levels right I think that the you know creating a a pay scale range um I
think is realistic I think it's achievable um I don't know what kind of pressure that's going to put on your office but um and if we were to support going back out to include Encompass
encompassing the big picture um I think I just think that we probably have different results well I we have to also make sure we're results I guess I think we also have to agree on what the comps are I
mean having like a town like was it R them um in our comps kind of throws everything off um their budget's like 52 million uh yeah a little more industrial
there just completely not the same town um all right well you want to make a motion Brian that's a job she doesn't need a motion do we want to like direct towards the community compact or yes okay
yeah okay I mean my thought is like Community compact to go out and figure out like a res scoping of redoing this but beyond that I mean I think you know I would support these two to make any other changes they see fit right but I'm talking about the vote to receive to
accept have do we even have to like is that a thing okay there's no vote on it anyway so can carry on tell us what we should be doing great thank you for very much lcy thank
you a good night okay um so subcommittee updates uh select board policy subcommittee anything uh Leah has not shared any of those documents as of yet that she was working
on okay um and then you had presented us with two but those were not select board policies though those were not existing policies which was the charge of the select board policy um and I forgot to
put them on Word documents so you could edit them so I will send them in word because they are just in text format as I do not pay for Microsoft on my home computer I would like to bring those back we do on these I would like to bring those two back for discussion on
March 10th I will send them out for discussions um I have no updates on the fire station building committee at this time um we are meeting on March 5th um but they're still in the process of putting together their um pre I always
miss this up pre-construction qualification thank you y um Old Colony Brian uh no updates the meeting that was supposed to be the 17th last week got pushed to the 19th so I was not able to attend I'm at a different commitment so I got a catch up
and see what they discussed that evening all right um your it um tentatively going to meet on that would be the second Tuesday March 11th um we're kind of f trying to do the second Tuesday every month if necessary so there's been
no specific updates since then but one thing we need to get figured out is when to bring in um the folks for the cyber security review of the select board yes back to them on that so because they want to come and give us a presentation
okay mam chair yes um can I ask um member day um what do you want to do about minutes do you want one of the remote secretaries to be signed to you um so I was going to do the minutes for the first one um uh the remote ones Lake
ham was not able to cover us the last time um so um yeah remote would be tough when there's no remote but I mean I can even record the meeting and I vote we by Civic minutes I don't know what that is Civic minutes
it's a AI software for for minute taking specifically for gotcha yeah that you'll take care of it I'm happy to handle them for now and then if we figure something else better pivot Civic minutes all right and our
communication and committee uh community outreach subcommittee so I gave everybody a flyer this is an example of what I was speaking about earlier this year Lorraine already mentioned um it should be annual town meeting not Spring Town
Meeting um that's a fix and then it can also be special town meeting if someone has opted in and they want to receive them for the fall Town meetings as well um not necessarily the final design but basically the gist of it depending on the amount of articles there would be
a on line summary that goes with it um another thought I had was that on the left you could do the financial stuff for the annual Town warrant and then on the right you could start with the warrant articles if there's more they can continue to the back um it has the
time the location uh it says if you do not wish to receive notices you can opt out but I think it would be better for them to opt in like if they receive one a year or um you know one every other year for people who move here and don't know about it
and they can do that through email calling or texting and then they'd be basically put on a list that says they want to receive the mailings you and you had mentioned you talked to um Mr about yeah about that um
because it would be basically opting into a database for receiving a mailing MH um but yeah feedback comments concerns no I think this is great this is um you know another opportunity to
get information out uh to the Comm Community about their um town meeting their body of because it's up to the town meeting to decide how the town's
run would we also add these um and put these um in places of interest um like Baldi and at uh Clark Shores and all that like just to make it a more friendly look inition to the to the full
warrant um you know just earlier statute just to get more people involved that people that are you know not necessarily waiting on email for it that was kind of my question like where would we where would we physically put these because we have the official warrant posting locations and so we
probably like those no but you could put this earlier is like you know for interest um this is what would be mailed out this would be mailed out to everybody in Lakeville and then if people liked it and wanted to continue receiving the mailing they
could opt in so that way you're doing the the whole town once and then after that you're only doing the people who found it beneficial Goa um CU other things that you could include on it is ride sharing services like if people are offering rides you can have a database of people who are willing to drive people to town meeting but then also if
you develop like daycare or babysitting at the town meeting for the town meeting people who want volunteer hours or whatever you could also include that you know we do have r services and there will be available um but this is what would be mailed and then if they wanted to keep getting it they'd opt
in and logistically who would actually be putting this together the mailing together um did you have a thought on that I mean I'll volunteer to do it if I live here if you email me the stuff but other than that like the assistant not
going to throw more on your plate um would we be able to put it in with the COA letter or you know or any of the mailings because I know it's a cost but to do it in any of the the mailings that we get done um I forgot how much it is
like 10 cents for an extra page or yeah you have to align the timing on it somehow yeah yeah mam chair to putting in with the tax bills only gets it to taxpayers it doesn't get it to Residents who rent apartments yes so the um the
other thing I think we need to consider is like also like depending on who gets this you know the opt in opt out either way is fine but like you know the options are called text which we'd have to set that up um email then like you know the bottom the only option is go to the website to see the full warrant
right if you drop these off of the COA they're going to say okay Lori can you do that for me um so there needs to be a way that's a little more inclusive and at that point I'm almost like just mail the warrant out right wa so this is so like easily digestible it in this format
but I remember growing up in in rhan like we got the warrant like sent to the house and it was like okay here it is like everything at it and then the state do Darkness does that they mail it to every resident and the state does those little the red books or something that show up every now and then those things
I don't know what that costs I'm just throwing out I'm not against mailing the home warrant I just want you to know that it's just this seems the easier roundout to go said everybody uh yeah but this is more people are going to resonate with this style rather than
reading something in legal e it matches the attention span yeah mhm it's like a um it's a summary budget summary it's a warrant summary we can explore where it would cost one moment please you can always
put that printed copies are available at the town hall or the ca so that you're not just printing all of them and mailing them all out they see the full one in print they can go to these specific places to pick it up yeah and
then the CLA if I'm not remembering this wrong we bought them a printer and they do all their own printing for their newsletter so having this quite literally in their newsletter in this format that's probably an easy score um and it gets people to opt in without
having to you know chase them um I I find our uh our older voters are are the ones that always seem to find all the most information um you know and they're usually the the most informed about each
subject but if it's that's just coming out of the senior and somebody opts in for the mailing and it's lacy Marshall on you know ABC
Street and she's not a senior how do we I'm just saying multi-prong okay yeah but I I do like the idea of sending it out with a tax spell at least once with the time they work I don't know maybe the excise taxes
would work better I just got some on mine the other day so it might be too late too late on the excise yeah I'm just trying to what else are we sending to people
dog licenses yeah but early went out in December could we access the school the schools to send it home to the Lakeville students or even how about just sending
it in their uh superintendent six page summary that comes out on Sundays 16 page there's something there's something about disseminating information through the superintendent's
office um I can't Rec I can't put my finger right on the policy you know what what we could do is put like take the warrant out just pretend you could put the the great big red lettering that says example you could just send this out with the tax bills and say we want to send this out to people who are
interested if you're interested opt in and before town meeting you'll receive a mailing so we wouldn't be sending the mailing we wouldn't be sending an actual legitimate mailing to everybody we'd send the if you want this you opt in and then if they opt in we'll send them the
mailing does that make sense because that way you don't have to line up your times you just you try to get them when you can and if they want it then they' get it when the time is right another option which is exactly what you're saying but it's through different means is what Lori the COA just did with the town clerk when the census went out had
a little thing in there that said hey if you're a senior in need of you know food you can drop it in there like you said you know that and then to somebody's point right then it's not just going to taxpayers it's going to Res everybody um
you might get your your first net cast I is this something that I mean Andrew I know you have so much going on right now but there has to be some conduit for um to have this come to fruition and
I'm not quite sure where it would fall I think it is going a multi-prong initial effort to get it out Oneal op they cuz there's some things that have to be set up obviously the email you know and if the telephone number if it if it's going to be the
town administrator's office or you know select board's office MH um let me um let me work let me work it a bit adjust it accordingly because now I'm going to try to see about two different versions the initial one of if
you're interested opt in and then what might actually look like um and then we can get back on that I think the I think the one that went out for the COA and the census was like you know just one of like the short one thir high it was like
this was like a half yeah half it okay okay so I see what what you mean okay very this is good thank you thank um Citizens Academy subcommittee we were um supposed to attend a virtual U
meeting by MMA but that's been put off so um we'd like to sit and go through that I just don't know when um but I think I know Marin's collecting information I'm collecting information that we can bring together for the
meeting um so we can get this get a timeline together and present it back to the select board for you know for approval uh you didn't hear what if MMA was rescheduling a different dat right I
haven't seen anything yet okay all right okay may I that's the last one right yes may I provide a water boy update since I'm a delegate even though we didn't well that's yes we haven't added
that on there but yes you are a delegate what do you have Bri um so I'm going to try to summarize the best I can but you know going back a number of years now we've had many different residents in learon Hills come to the
select board different members different times different concerns um over the water infrastructure that's there who owns it who's doing the water quality testing who's flushing the hydrants how do we get off the Master Meter which is this whole other would take us 90
minutes to go through that discussion so um what's happened is over these these years and it's come to ahead more frequently lately was that's now causing discussions between other T officials city of Taunton uh the developer of Le Baron
Hills all these residents Mast EP and everybody's like trying to work together and figure things out but there's been a couple of things that have the first time that I'm aware of come up where it's like this feels like it needs a little more exploration so um
prepared a letter I'm happy to read it or if you want to read your El to consider sending to the zba which in short says that there was a letter from D we learned about recently February 22nd 2023 that essentially says in summary DP
says Le Baron Hills is a consecutive water supply so then responsibility is no longer like at that Master Meter it's no longer taous water it's somebody is it the HOAs is it still the developer since it's not complete yet and there's
a whole bunch of requirements for flushing and testing and whatnot um so basically D at one point in here says I apologize because I had it here somewhere uh it is important not to expand the learon Hills Water System until it's been brought into full
compliance with the applicable regulations and I don't know given this was basically two years ago what has changed what the current status is um so that feels like something we should ask CBA to consider figuring out just since they have other hearings going on right now
the other thing that's been brought to our attention is there seems to be and nobody understands why there seems to be no as builts available or nobody's owning up to it for the water infrastructure which makes no sense at all um and it appears that the comprehensive permits did say that all
asts have to be furnished as part of the permit um so that's just a second thing that I included to say let's figure it out where are they so that you know we can be educated the next time a resident comes to us and then if we have to Advocate on their behalf because there's some of these conversations are coming back to well we don't know what's in the
ground so we won't we don't want to take the risk on of what's in the ground that we don't know about it's like there has these have to exist and in my mind if it was part of the permitting process then we're just saying you know let's make sure in your compliance with what you signed up to do that's all um and then
maybe that maybe that opens doors and leads us somewhere else but those were just two things that seemed worthy of asking zba to look into no you have my Buy in out same so um that cover everything yeah I mean uh
there's going to be a hearing on I think Thursday night yes it might get continued but we can still send the letter in for a future date Thursday for CPA yes this week 27th for the hearing is for what or bearing phase six yep be
phase six so yes that would be prudent to get even if it isn't continued at least in the they're aware yeah right so they got more information um the letter does say at the end in case you haven't had a chance to read it um you know
first the D item second was the as builts and third just says uh please take the above into consideration for any pending hearings related to learon Hills the select board respectfully suggests no further approvals until the elements have been proven to be satisfied course for me
so I don't know if we need a motion and a vote or not or we just want to throw this on letter head can send it up or cross yeah so let's do it all right we got to get
some kind of um I hate to say structure but there's no structure here for that yeah you know yep complicated issue very complicated too many moving parts thank you very much for that thank you appreciate it
good job water boy yes could you just em us yeah so I'll I'll send you the DP one as well so youve got both of them and I think I caught it if we can include that d one with the letter to the CBA we'll
do all right thank you everybody that's all all right and any new business okay old business um we have an update on the American Recovery plan act uh project update
and all of us received an email um I have it but um from our facilities manager yeah um beautifully done so after a lot of these questions I kind of we've I've kind of gotten over the time
like what's this update what's that update I kind of asked Paul to put something together and he knocked out of the park I wasn't expecting this but this is like incredible um so I mean we didn't know what these projects were you could look at these and be like be an
expert almost um great pictures yeah great great everything um yeah wasn't necessarily on the agenda for this but it was a good time it came in on Friday soig is fantastic um is this something
that we can put up on the website yeah yeah an update by our um facilities manager as he's cringing right now cuz he's watching um I just think that this is this is one of those Outreach you
know that people know that this is you know we s you know money on projects but I think this is fantastic those really good so I'd really like to see this up on the the website yeah I can certainly do
that did you have anything to add on this no that was that was I was going to mention okay U also is the revisit and um vote on the revised annual town meeting Warren schedule so after
our conversation at the last meeting about dates and timing uh Tracy went back to the drawing board to try to fit everything in there um because the the big question that had come out or discussion point was the recommendation
of the select board and um the vote to put the items on the warrant so we wanted to make sure that those dates fell in line with um the schedule so we've opened the meeting um warrant which was February 10th we voted
for that we voted to close the warrant uh for was it March 31st yes so we can consider through this vote um that it would be Monday April at 400 p.m. and it
per the bylaw um and then sending them to Town Council um so we vote on the Articles to send to Town Council Town Council um will have time to review and then the recommendations to be put on the um the
warrant once they come back from Town Council vote on the final warrant on May 5th and then the rest Falls in line with the legal ad warant posting review and then annual town meeting meeting on the 9th so we have not voted our main
meetings yet so I think these would fall in line with what we had in April I believe so the warrant is open right now yes and it's going to close on April
14th M yes do we have anything on it right now um I think Andrew you have a list going right yeah there's only a couple just like CPA has one mhm um the one with the recall Earth REM removal bylaw I have a list in my office
yeah um if I want to put something on do I just come in and see you or do we do it here where how do how does that work feel free to let me know um I think we are going to come at some point and discuss them whether we're going to put
it on okay yeah but anytime work me yep yeah I can't remember what we had in here for for the April but um we'll come back at the next meeting um just to reconfirm our meetings for um for April
and then maybe we can go into possibly what the the mayil looks like but um so I'll entertain a motion to um approve the um updated or
revised timeline for the annual town meeting schedule so move second any further discussion hearing none R please I carbon i k do okay all right you have your orders
traced all right our next scheduled meeting is March 10th um at 5:45 p.m. um please note the public that we have changed our starting time from 5:30 to 5:45 so some of us will probably still be
here at 5:15 because we'll forget but 5:45 mam CH yes speaking of dates I feel like we touched on this from one of the last couple meetings but when do you think we might schedule all the budget meetings that I was hoping Andrew was
going to have um I can send it out this week but I was thinking presenting it on 30 on the 31st you'll have it by March 14th I'm thinking that first week of April the first week of April you wanted to do all the bang bang bang bang meetings yeah okay yeah are we going to
remet with Freetown and the school committee before April I don't think so but me and Deborah trying to meet on the recall provision because we said that timing was going to be a little difficult for town meeting but um that we were still
going to work to get that meeting together for the amendment potential Amendment less interested in that more interested in the budget as I understand it it's 1.4 million this time 4 million they're asking for this year 1.6 1.6
yeah um I don't foresee that happening and I'd like to know why they're asking for that so that's my concern with that um because I will absolutely speak against that at town hall meeting just so they're aware if you're watching so I wanted to have that meeting ahead of
time if possible okay one consideration that if we do the first week give April then whoever is U reelected or newly elected won't be part of that process the next week so but they're also missing all the budgeting season other than what they're
coming into like I remember when I was on the school committee they passed the budget that night so that I the people coming in couldn't deal with it you know I didn't attend that meeting but you're talking about holding those
meetings that first week so first or second second because the second week April SE 7th is the um the election you can come right after come on in 9:00 we'll hold it get swor in and jump jump
on the fire jump in so we could potentially um look at Wednesday the 9th Thursday the 10th and maybe the Tuesday the 15th I know we've made accommodations the select board um with the off days
you know to try to fit those budget meetings in so that they weren't eight hours yeah you know we were able to break them break them down until three nights could you give me those dates again um Wednesday April
9th Thursday April 10th Tuesday April 15th and you do have a regularly scheduled meeting on April 14th right 14th and the 18 so I guess we can revisit I don't know if we're going
to need the 14th but it's possible I mean we could I don't know would you be looking to reor like I'm thinking that we're going to need we have to reor the first meeting after um Town meet you know after town
election so if the first meeting is the 9th then the first thing we would do is hold um just a quick reor the board I wouldn't put any other business on there we can always hold that off and with the chair um decide when they do the subcommittees and the rest of the
reorganization but I would think that for that night at least we put that on there okay K good good all right and then
um I know the 14 was up Ear marked I don't know that we we'll see if we need anything I guess I'll stay whoever will stay in touch with Andrew to see if we need to have that that extra night that was the closing of the warrant was it
yes it was so we will good thought it's late we're holding it on the 14th all right so we do have some correspondents in here um we did receive um an update
from um Comcast with their annual filing notice um I would hope that I don't need to read at this point but it's available online um or on the town website under
our agenda posting um we do have a letter in here from a resident um regarding a formulation of a regional affordable housing collaborative um potentially we can add
this to a future agenda I don't know I'll go over that with you Andrew on on that this point but um I appreciate uh the fact that the residents you know are sending these in
so this letter is also on pack resident H is he a resident I don't I'm assuming thought it was a resident he's a former yeah he's former ta I don't know that he's a resident I
think he's just reaching out to all if your community would be interested in joining together in the regional area yeah see I took it it was Aid that I'm like oh we have a gag and Resident Gagney okay he could
be but I don't know that he is all right we get that on agenda um okay all right that's all I have for Open session so um give me a minute
as I read this next novel um so I'm going to entertain a motion to enter executive session pursuant to General Law chapter 30A um section 21 A3 to discuss strategy
with respect to collective bargaining with the dispatchers Union in pursuant to General Law chapter 30A section 21 A3 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or
contract negotiations with non-union Personnel specifically the police chief and pursuant to General Law chapter 30A section 21 A6 to consider the purchase exchange lease or value of real estate if the
chair so declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiation negotiation negotiating position of the public body and the chair so declares and pursuant to chapter uh General Law chapter 3A
section 21A 3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares bottleful
Farms juicy Northeast Alternatives buds goods and twisted Growers and not to return to open session so move second motion and a second role please t i Carboni i c i
okay for Part: 2
[Music] all right good evening everybody uh seeing six o'clock um I'd like to open this meeting with a roll call John B here will squit here Steve Sylvia here Jen Blum here Bob
Clark here Carolina Hernandez here Chris Ling here Courtney B here additionally like to welcome Miss Terry Fleming Mr Jack Higgins joining us tonight I see Lake cam present
um is anybody here recording the meeting hearing none um I'll invite you to join me in the prge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one
nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all [Applause] okay and starting tonight we have a candidate present um for the position of interim
superintendent of schools a finalist I'd like to introduce you to Dr Barbara starky by welcome thank you chair thank you for coming and you're welcome to begin a opening statement or presentation all
right great thank you so much um I knew I had to make an opening statement so I went ahead and put together a small presentation uh to call your attention over to the screen and walk you through it it usually answers that typical very first interview question tell us about yourself and why do you want this position so I figured I would tackle
that in a in a bit of a presentation and Renee I think you're clicking for me great thank you very much little bit about my personal history uh that's my mom she's my inspiration she's no longer uh with us uh physically but she's with me every day in spirit um she's a first
generation American she took uh she did not have the opportunity to go to school you know she uh had a public school education until high school and then her parents would not allow her to go to college so my mom raised three children and uh while she was pregnant for me and 40 years old she decided to go back to
school and earn herself a bachelor's degree to master's degree and become a public school educator and uh my mom was a perfectionist and dedicated her life both to my family into to public education uh for the longest time I thought I was just going to be a Wareham
Viking cuz that's where I spent spent all my time uh as a kid and she was a teacher School administrator and someone I look up to very much um for me I was raised in the city of New Bedford I'm currently a resident of f Haven with my wife um I have a blend of public and
Catholic School uh background for my uh upbringing I'm from a family of Educators like I said my mom was a teacher my aunt was a teacher my uncle was a teacher my brother was a teacher and I can keep going uh what I like to do when I'm not teaching uh cuz I I like to believe that no matter where you are
in the public school you're a teacher somehow uh is to spend time with my family to read and to travel uh my education I get a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Salva reginia University after that I got a job here at a ponit while working here I went and
got a master's degree from Bridgewater State College uh and then uh on a foray away from here when I worked uh for Sten Public Schools I got my doctorate uh in education from Northeastern University my very first job though wasn't here at
Aon quit my very first job was working at the I Schwarz children's Rehabilitation Center uh which at the time was located in New Bedford now over in Dartmouth I started my career believe it or not with early intervention birth to three so there I was 22 years old
probably not likely to have children myself but in charge of birth to three-year-olds uh really interesting experience I did that for a year while working there I also worked in the chapter 766 program with children with uh significant needs it was an out of District placement for uh New Bedford
Dartmouth Fair Haven so I worked in those classrooms as well what I really learned there was the uh important developmental Milestones of children uh birth to three the significant impact that parents in those early years certainly have on the lives of their
children uh and for me that was Paramount because as I indicated to you before it was not likely that I was going to have children myself learning that lesson in that job was really important to me because it began to shape my Foundation of how I would work with children and the importance of partnering with parents to raise their
children great along thank you very much uh from there I uh wanted to be a high school English teacher in this place called a ponor Regional High School posted an ad in the New Bedford standard times back when it was a Hardy newspaper and it was a Sunday want ad and I flipped it over and there was an ad looking for an
English teacher out here didn't even know where the school was typed my resume on a good old fashioned typewriter on a paper with Watermark and sent it out there were 200 applicants for that job I got an interview because I checked the box and said I would be the theater
teacher didn't know much about it I had been in a play or two no lie that's the truth so they called me for an interview a lady named Jame ridington who worked here in the office from the day after she graduated from high school until she retired she called me for an interview I had no idea how to get out here but I sure found my way had an interview with
a guy named Lloyd Dudley who some of you might know God Rest his soul um and he and Jim Conroy Jim conry the principal at the time gave me the job because I said I would I'd take over the theater program and that's what I did for the next 17 years I worked here at aona as
an English teacher right down the hall in what was room 111 at the time now room 113 cuz while I was teaching here we put a $15 million addition on the building while we were in it which was Quite a feat uh but anyway I taught English uh everything from grade n inclusion I was one of the very first
inclusion teachers to partner with this special education teacher here in the building in the very early 90s I were in the theater program for years I coached freshman field hockey didn't know a thing about that either but we did all right um I was a class adviser and a mentor to new teachers as
they came in I developed my philosophy of teaching at that time which was really centered around the idea that all students can learn all students can learn and you have to meet them where they are uh it's all about building relationships with the kids they don't have to like you every minute but they sure have to respect you and you have to
respect them too um and it was really about content knowledge versus skill acquisition at the time and uh I I think I was one of the teachers who was really starting to focus on skill acquisition um building Pathways to Student Success and again building on
that need to include parents in their students education uh while here serving here at Aon quit I had the opportunity to be the English department chair those are not positions uh that exist anymore but they were here at the time you were a part-time administrator part-time teacher so I taught three classes a day
and the other three periods I uh oversaw the matters of the English Department during that period of time I learned how to be the leader of a building based team in a building um I was in charge of interviewing and mostly hiring the English teachers in the department I supervised and evaluated those teachers
so I was into uh getting myself into the opportunity to be constructive uh informing how people te Teach and work with students I was in charge of departmental scheduling departmental budgeting grade to grade transition sub subject specific curriculum alignment
content programming and building staff relationships uh after serving in that position in here for 17 years I took the advice of my colleague Michael Ward who was a math teacher and business manager here in the district who looked at me and said if you want to be a leader in this school you have to leave this school I didn't like it when he said it
but I understood what he meant and I did and I took his advice and I applied for a job over at the Robert gonnell Middle School in Stoten being middle school teacher uh Middle School administrator sorry something I thought I would never do cuz I birthed three and then the high school and I thought Middle School why would I want to do that but I applied
for the job and they gave it to me and it was a great experience I I came to understand the importance of 6 through eight education I began to see what it was like to build an education from sixth grade to 12th grade and the importance of the vertical alignment of those two buildings I became a member of
a district leadership team focusing on schoolto school transition so moving again from the Middle School to the high school um I was in charge of interventions and enrichment plant programming for the building I was also in charge of humanities curriculum for 6 through 8
and articulating that through to the high school and um I was in charge of forming Community relationships and um partnering with others in full disclosure I was part of the team that hired a person named Terry Fleming who also worked at the Robert G odonnell Middle School old known fact after
serving there for 3 years and being away from here there had been quite a bit of change in the district in a three-year period there were more than 17 administrative changes in this District the high school was in a little bit of a tail spin to be honest with you and they had been I think it was two principles in a three-year period there were
several assistant principles in and out of that role down down the hall and to be honest the students I cared for the community I cared for and the teachers I worked with many of which I hired wanted help and I wanted to be that help so I applied for the job I
made it to the finish line and um Dr Jessica heisinger who is the interim Superintendent at that time awarded me the position and I was grateful for it for the next eight years I served as a Pit's very proud principal until this day I'm still proud of the fact that I did that and uh I just took a little bit
a little bit of a walk down the hall cuz I haven't been in the building since I left it and I I have to tell you I was feeling quite nostalgic um in that role I was a member of the school and District leadership team building District culture um I was in charge of Safety and Security here
for the school core values and beliefs in this building and forming a plan for what would happen here at Aon quit in the days I served and then the days to come really proud of some of the programming I think is still happening here that I was instrumental in starting engineering programming building up the Fine Arts programming in this building
and bringing in an online learning program that Services a good number of students in this building uh who all bring different stories to the table but need to engage in their learning online so those are three programs I'm really proud of just to note note a few uh big supporter of ponit Athletics I wish
Jimmy kabuso was here tonight um I was also in charge of a good amount of the extracurricular programming here in the building again being an ambassador for the school building community relations here I got into school budgeting I was in charge again of accreditation and accountability for this building as a
teacher here I served on three Nas evaluations of this building then as the principal I prepared and got us ready to go through a a neas evaluation that I didn't get to see through to the end but I hear Mrs desert did a great job I was in charge of Staff professional development for the building day-to-day
management and operations and something that we'd all kind of like to forget leadership during Co and being the principal of a high school during Co was uh certainly challenging but I'm proud to say with the good help of uh my leadership team kayln dessert Jack
Higgins and uh Andrew Davey who's no longer here working over in for Haven we're able to give the kids here at Aon quit and I believe throughout the district a really good education during a very challenging time especially when you see what happened in some other districts and then uh after serving it
for about 8 years I was looking for an opportunity to work in central office it wasn't clear to me exactly when the when the opportunity was going to happen here in this district and I I wasn't exactly looking to leave but I was looking to get that opportunity to have central office experience much of that with the goal of being a central office
administrator here not sure that that was going to happen so I applied outside I applied to borm public schools and again uh I was very grateful for Dr Carrie quinland Joe who gave me the opportunity to serve there and I'm still serving there as the assistant superintendent of teaching learning and
everything else because it's so much more than just teaching and learning in the role so that's what we we joke and call me the teaching learning and everything else person here I'm a member of the central office District Administrative team largely in charge of everything
from student safety planning and day-to-day crisis management I act as the superintendent every time Dr Joe is not in the district or not available um I oversee curriculum from prek to 18 plus acquisition of all of those resources and communicating with
the school committee curriculum subcommittee around any changes we're making to school curriculum I'm in charge of Grant acquisition and management for the entire District um I do District level budgeting I am the administrative and District person who hires all the other
administrators in the district and I'm happy to say since since I've been there we've hired all but one administrator from the uh I'm sorry all but two administrators uh throughout the district who are new and now I'm rolling through the names in my head hoping the number two is correct but we've hired a
whole lot of Administrators in our district and I've been responsible for that I'm very proud of it um I've uh Taken part in two contract negotiations for our teachers in the district of Bourne I've served on the jlmc for the district I'm in charge of
professional development for the entire District I am the el director Title One director 504 coordinator and the mentor induction program director I oversee all of the handbooks updating policies and procedures for the district I am also
the district El Title One civil rights Audits and accountability person I engage in strategic planning and scheduling for the entire District I oversee homeschool coordination I run this I designed and run the summer enrichment program for the district I oversee summer
school I send weekly staff communication that people are sure going to miss if I leave uh to everybody in the district and uh I'm sure I do a ton of other things but the one thing not on that slide that I do is I spend time in a building every day and I'm in the
classrooms all the time and it's probably my favorite part of the job because no matter how high you get you can't forget that the kids are why you're here and I sit here today looking at these bullet points saying this is the next step in my professional career certainly love to have the
opportunity to take that step back here in Freetown Lakeville these are just the bullet points of the job that I that dovetails with what I do now and certainly things that I am more than willing to do learn to do and I'm
ready to do and with that I'm going to turn everything over to you because I'm sure you have questions to me and thank you for for listening during that presentation thank you very much Bara Renee if you wouldn't mind just leaving it up because I'm going to close with that thank you
so [Applause] much I'd love to go around the table and give uh the committee members an opportunity to ask you questions Caroline you want to start off Jen can start Jen you want to start off okay Goode thank you Barbara great to
see you glad to have you here thank you um I'm sure you've been paying attention and considering the current climate of our district and also this committee um what are some of the qualities you feel you have to help us build back the trust of our communities well I think I'm a known entity here in the district I think I
have a proven track record um the times that I've worked here I've been truthful honest sometimes a little too blunt with people uh but I'm nothing but a dedicated servant for whever I work and I'd like to really do that time here in Freetown Lakeville I think I'm a strong relationship Builder I'm a good listener
I can't say that people like everything I say all the time when I say it uh but I'm more than willing to listen I think uh I can partner across the table and reach hands with almost anybody and at some point we're going to come to some kind of consensus and some kind of agreement um and just to turn it back a
little bit um Jen I have been watching you know the school committee and it's and things that are happening in the community here and it's heartbreaking to read it's heartbreaking to watch and I'd love to be a part of the solution because I think we can I think we can do it I think we can put our hands together our heads together more importantly our
hearts together and do has to happen for the kids of Freetown and Lakeville and that's to focus on what matters them thank you you're welcome if we can if it's okay to go right down the line Bob go ahead okay excuse
me uh that's a question I ask every superintendent since I've been here it's been a few you probably heard it before yeah what do you think it means you don't know what you don't know oh you don't know what you don't know you're right I mean if I get this job tomorrow I have no idea what's going to happen
the very first day and what's going to present itself how do you get ready for that you bring who you are to the job you know for me I bring my experience and I'm I'm not afraid to ask questions I'm not afraid to tell you when I don't know something and I'm not afraid to go
and learn it so I don't know what I don't know but I'm happy to find out great go ahead will Dr starky welcome welcome back welcome home um you did Miss You did leave off one bullet from your teaching experience that was probably your greatest accomplishment was probably getting me to pass English
in 10th Grade so congratulations there um so you've been away for the district for the past three years right can you speak to a little bit how your experiences over the last three years have kind of put you in a position to come back and and potentially leave yeah I think as a central office
administrator I've had the opportunity uh in particular in this role to look at everything you know from that kind of 10,000 foot View right my career has gone from you know literally holding holding small children to now kind of looking at everything from from the bigger View and I think having the
opportunity to take a look at curriculum from prek to our 18 plus program uh and to work at putting in Just Right programming for all of those grade levels and all of those content areas is really beneficial when walking into this role um I've had the opportunity uh to
take part in budget planning for an entire District also another important uh important piece of what you do here as a superintendent I think I've become a real Ambassador for Bourne and I'm happy to come back here and be an ambassador for preown at Lakeville I think that's a big part of central office's role you've
got to be the face of the district but you've got to be the heart and mind of the district as well great I hope that provides you with a bit of an answer well I'm sure I could give you I'm sure I could give you more but I want no it does thank you thank you barara you had mentioned in in one
of your slides earlier um you had a position where you were walking into a lot of administrative changes that were going on you know and seeing a little bit of that in this District you could potentially be walking into an
environment where there's a lot of staff that are known to you um that are now in different roles than in your previous experience do you how do you see that as potentially being
uh helpful or um a challenge in the superintendent role well I think the relationships that you established with people are always important I'm I'm not sure what you mean about somebody being in a being exactly in a in a different role but I I think
the the relationship is what matters right um I would be coming back in a new role right so I I did walk back into the district once coming to be the principal of a building in which you know I had been reared as a teacher and was best friends with half the staff and I don't
think that led to any kind of impediment my leadership in the district whatsoever if that's if that's what you're it was if that's what you're talking about yeah um you can have a good relationship with someone and still have a really difficult and challenging conversation with them you know I'm open to
constructive criticism and I would like to think that other folks are as well um I think there's a a component of this job that involves coaching people coaching people to to either do better in their position or to exit their position and I'm I'm
not concerned about my ability to do that given my relationships with people in the district thank you hi Dr starky I we had the pleasure of not my daughter was with you for a few years so but but I think you left
just before her senior year um but but anyway um and I apologize if some of these questions overlap but maybe if you could expand on leadership style you mentioned that you got the advice and and somebody suggested you leave I think when you went to stoen um I think as you
you try to advance your career to become a superintendent you left and went to Bourne how did that impact your leadership style or change your perspective being in a main office like what could you bring um you know there's some potentially difficult conversations on the horizon with difficult budget Cycles
but being in the main office in perspective in your leadership sty mhm well again I want to go I I want to go back to the having that 10,000 foot view you have to understand that every decision you make is going to impact every single child in the district and every family in the community it's it's not just going to be a decision that you
know impacts a certain group of people and you have to keep that in mind and that is a perspective I gain uh by going to bour and working in in the central office like I said I spent an awful lot of time in the buildings and I know that any conversation we have at central office any kind of meeting we have any
kind of kind of decision we make when we're thinking about the budget when we're thinking about our strategic plan when we're thinking about the potential of reorganizing a district you know if we think about here in Freetown Lakeville if we think about Capital plans that might be coming down the line if we think about making a decision like
potentially closing a pool right I've heard those conversations coming up here I know it's unpleasant but it's one of the conversations that's going to have to happen right uh you have to think about everyone and you have to think about what's best for all of the kids in the community at all times
thank you no it's the way your perspective changed I was just curious on on when you went to Bourn and yeah I think it's a broadening right right it's a broadening at the root of it is my care and concern for the education of the kids uh but it's a broadening of the perspective yeah you know you're looking
at everything now great thank you you're welcome hi Dr starky hi um some of the most important decisions that a superintendent might make involve um how to utilize limited Financial Resources um can you tell us about your experience
and vision for developing u a budget advocating for a budget with the towns um managing spending and how you evaluate whether resources are effective in achieving goals data is important right so anytime
you you're well I'm going to take the end first right anytime you're thinking about resources and how to expend them and whether to keep something or Let It Go you've got to look at the data what's its use what's its functionality what's uh what's its endgame what's its benefit to the kids right and how much do we need
this uh to continue to Foster the best academic social and Civic program in here in the district right it's looking at data um surveying uh Gathering the information that's at your you know they set your fingertips that can help you make a decision it's consensus building around
those decisions it's not making those decisions in a bubble either um I don't see myself having any problem advocating for the budget I did take a look at the budget that was presented at your last meeting it's $49 million it's quite a bit of money it's a 5.5% increase over
what you asked for last year people don't take those numbers lightly whatsoever and free toown in Lakeville has have a history of being fiscally conservative right the per people expenditure Falls below the state uh below the state number all the time you know do I think those things are uh you
know acceptable or great no but are they real they sure are and it's would be my job as the superintendent of the district to continue to be fiscally responsible by being aware that the money for these districts come from the taxpayers and
that that money has to be spent again for the academic achievement social and Civic advancement of the students in the district weighing all those things together and advocating for what what the community believes the district needs right to support the mission of
the district I I've not been able to put my hands on a recent strategic plan but I do hear there is one I'm happy to meet with the people on that strategic planning committee and see what was at the core of all of those decisions and how does the budget support that plan and to advocate for a budget that does
support that plan I hope I answered your question yes thank you hi Dr sty thank you for coming tonight than you for having my question is about your availability okay um when will you be available I the budget we're due to vote on the budget at the end of
next month okay beginning of April when will you be available so my contract has a 90-day Clause so if you were if we were to you know I'd be lucky enough to be offered this position I have an Ida clause in my contract however I've had a
conversation with my uh superintendent who was at one time an assistant superintendent in a position very similar to this exiting potentially exiting a a district at this time of year and she has given me the grace to be able to leave within a more reasonable time period perhaps 30 days
perhaps a little bit less uh but I need to be able to have that conversation with her and a meaningful way if I'm offered the position um it's potential that I could start here as early as April 1st I would hope that wouldn't be a
barrier um I hope that wouldn't be a barrier but I do understand the urgency for a need to have a single person in this in this seat would you be available for consultation on that budget if we had budget meetings would you make
yourself available I would make myself available thank you hello hi um I was happy to hear a lot of things that you say so thank you um I have two
question I asked John but I'm going to ask one and then if uh we still have the time I will ask another question my my first question is uh what are your thought on sexually transitioned children to sex
change I'm not what are your thoughts yeah as a superintendent how you will navigate that uh and what are your thought on sexually transitioned children sex change I got you I can
speak to I can speak to the idea that I believe all students all students deserve an appropriate safe public education and as a superintendent of a school district that's my responsibility
to make sure that every child who walks to this door no matter where they come from no matter what their story is no matter what their support is at home how much they have how much they don't have it is my job to make sure they get a free and public education every day and
is safe responsible respect respectful environment that that's where the plane lands on that for me I am I am not the judge of anyone else yeah but you will be the leader in the position that obviously um will
probably will have situation where you need to be involved so that's why I asking you where are your thought on that I I will certainly do you believe in parents right or do you believe like what are your thoughts on
that I believe that parents I believe that parents are the primary Caregivers for their children I sure do do I believe that transgender students have rights I do I do and I will follow the Massachusetts state law as long as that
is the law I'm required that I am follow that I will follow but I believe transgender students have rights they do just like every single student mhm thank you you you're welcome thank you
anyone go around again if anybody has an additional question to ask no thank you Dr than no but Carolina had a second question and I would like to hear it if that's okay with the absolutely yeah ab and how uh how do you uh involve parents
and the community members and the decision making process thank you very much for that question I think parents should be involved in in their children's education um as a teacher I remember calling parents holding meetings sending
out daily emails uh I think this district has really Advanced the way it communicates with parents I see the weekly s'mores that are going out from all the principles with bulletins about everything that's happening in the building um I I don't see any events happening here tonight but I'm guessing there are events all across the district
the parents are invited to come to I think one thing I'd like to do as a superintendent would mirror something I did when I came back to the district as a principal um I held some coffees with the principal happy to hold some coffees with the superintendent to get to to get to learn about some of the community members who are new who I don't know uh
to reintroduce myself to the people I do know and to help to to get more parents involved in decision-making around their students I think parents also serve on school councils in each of the buildings I'm sure there are parents on the strategic planning committee I'm understanding there's a capital planning
committee I'm guessing their parents on that um I welcome compar involvement thank you you're welcome any additional questions anybody Bob go ahead yeah I would ask on
after I done my standard question uh can you uh you relate to us one of the one of the more difficult problems you've had in B uh and how you uh resolved that problem difficult problem H you know we're facing a we're facing
an issue right now in born I talk about that we're we're facing an enrollment issue um and it's becoming a very public issue for the communities uh because they're they're in a Crossroads with what to do their enrollment is really dwindling and uh we have made a real PR
campaign around the district we're in the middle of developing a strategic plan for the district to try to address enrollment but we're looking at a potential for a restructure of the schools and that's that's a challenge not the physical challenge of the restructure right it's the it's the
financial the emotional uh the community challenge of thinking about restructuring a school districting and changing Where Your Children Where Your Children Are educated so that is one thing we're facing okay um is that sufficient or would you like some
other having been in a similar position I know but sometimes that position is really a Dumping Ground that a lot of problems get dumped in your lap uh sometime byy the higher up so I'm sure you're multitasking on a daily basis to
try and deal with those uh with those problems I want to thank you for acknowledging that Bob that's the everything else I still uh you know when when the parent isn't happy with what the principal says I get the call next sometimes they skip over the the
principal don't sometimes they do but I'm happy to send them right back for that first round uh to be honest because you should really talk to the principal and before that have a conversation with the teacher uh and then I'm happy to try to mediate when things in at those levels don't go well uh I do the substitute hiring for the district as
well and uh and that sometimes leads to some additional some additional challenges uh in the role that I'm in now thank you you're welcome anyone else have an additional question F I did I just thought of one
um excuse me in the last year or so we've had a problem with race in this District how I know I kind of feel like I'm putting you on a spot I'm sorry but how I'm here would
you deal with that I'm I'm going to go back to part of the answer I gave Carolina and I say it with my whole heart all students deserve an opportunity here it is one of the strongest ways to change hearts and
Minds is through your own behavior and what your modeling for the kids and how you want them to treat one another and how you want people in the community to treat one another has to start with you and I am more than capable of modeling inclusion and acceptance
how would you be willing to introduce some type of programs if that if that is if that is if that is a need I don't what I don't want to do is impose something I think is going to work in a community that I've been away from for 3 years I'd like to sit down
with people who are having the issue I'd like to sit down with a group of people and let's let's figure out what the real problem is and then let's find a way to solve it together it could be bringing in a program it could be bringing in guest speakers it could be a myriad of
other of other choices we have but I don't want to pick a choice sitting here at this table without really understanding a problem okay fair enough but I thank you for the question thank you right close it yeah see hearing no other questions to the table um I'd
invite you to to make a closing remark if you do Barbara we'll do thank you thank you T um why me why me I think uh I have you know I know I have an established relationship here in the district I have knowledge of the
communities and I think I can pretty expeditiously start to address what you have alluded to in your questions tonight what you've been honest and sharing about some of the concerns you have for the district some of the Discord that's been happening here some of the Discord that's been happening between constituents out in the
community in this committee and I think I have the the ability to work and bring people together I've done it in every position that I've had I can't see see why I wouldn't be able to do it here so I'd ask you to give me that opportunity I want to click one more time I'm just I
find that I'm uniquely situated to employ my previous experience here in the district and my experiences here in Bourne you know to shift our attention back to this well-known really respected High achieving District that's a picture of the class of 2017 graduation it's one
of my favorite pictures with it rained on that crowd for an hour while they waited for graduation then we get a double rainbow and um I would love to come back and and have the opportunity to bring the feeling those people had that day into this room every
month when we meet and I think I can do that and my last slide there just it's a quote and it just speaks to the urgency you're never going to find the perfect right you're never going to find the perfect candidate for any position
but I think I'm the best fit you have for Freetown Lakeville at this time that's for sure and I'm ask I applied because I want to be back here it's posted as an interm position I don't have an intention of being an interim in this District I'd like to come back to this district for for a significant
period I've got 3 to 5 years left before I can retire I'm happy to work right up and beyond my retirement so I'm looking for you if you'd be kind enough to give me this position to serve as a long-term interim with an opportunity to roll that based on
performance into the permanent position and the reason I'm asking you for that is because you want me to be invested and I am also not in a position to walk out on three years of a contract in Bourne to come here for something for two or 3 months and although I would I'd love to
be here I can't just be here for 2 to three months I'd like to come here and do the work CU that's what I do when I go someplace thank you very much for listening to me tonight thank you for having me and I wish you the best in your decision thank you thank you thank you
appreciate [Applause] [Music] it got find thank thank you just let me know okay thank you got it ready for
you yeah you guys ready do you want me wa I told Barber that was the longest I've ever sat out here when our meeting goes on I couldn't talk so that do you want me to please yeah have a all good hey [Music] folks please take your time take your
time get settled I call this the hot seat but that's the hot seat I sat in the B ear I know this isn't the SE how are you Rick I'm doing well doing well nice to see everybody nice to see you and in my back to some of my some of
my other friends and pal Barbara just said it was kind of awkward and I said not really as we were kind of p and pass in the hallway there so certainly not from my perspective I think that's it I don't have um I I did catch a glimpse of it I didn't stick
around I actually would rather be down the hall no offense and watch some of the playoff basketball gam so with some of you guys probably but um I do want to say before I have an opportunity that oh yeah no it this isn't really my kind of comments anyways only that I'm
I'm glad the screen went back up you guys would be here for a real long time if I did 18-year superintendent PowerPoint presentation I just I may add so but I'll turn it to Mr Burke how do how do you want me to proceed yeah I'll wait till everybody
comes thank you give us one [Music] sure no no Jose b s meeting oh he is back for kep me in he past three years sorry sorry Mr
bur no all right I want to welcome you back thank you to Bon High School thanks for having for the crowd we have Mr uh Richard madas here as a second candidate for the position of interim
superintendent of schools you are welcome to start with a I'll try to keep I'll try to keep my open brief because I'm guessing some of the other things I'll say are probably going to come up through the course of your questions and I know you know kind of the system and set up so first of all ladies and Gentlemen Just thanks for the
opportunity um to to really come before you and present my case to be appointed as the interm superintendent I want to make sure though in my initial comments we remind the community and certainly the board I think it was a great move by posting for interim the term interim
really up is an up to a six-month position it's a transitional format there are basically two pools of candidates you typically get when you're looking for an interm superintendent you get retired experienced superintendents
from outside the district who apply who basically keep the seat warm take about 3 to 6 months to kind of get acclimated in the community and I don't think you can afford that option the second option that typically happens for candidates looking at intern positions is a person
who has no superintendent experience right they have no superintendent experience and they basically are using it as a stepping stone on the job training they are going to try to explore and extend the security of the contract go beyond 6 months why
so they can buy more time so they can understand what the job's all about and at the same time commit you and cut a deal that's those the basically two pools of candidates for interim superintendant throughout the Commonwealth I think I offer
this District a unique circumstance having sat in that seat they still point to the seat I think the superintendent still sits there based on my light Camp piece for eight years having been a superintendent I think I am a blend I think I am the ideal transitional candidate if you base it if you base
your decision tonight on qualif qualifications and experience this is even close it's not even close for superintendent of interim superintendent and I'm here tonight certainly to answer all your questions I guess I I'm guessing there's some Patriots fans here
and my analogy to the Patriots fans would be the following Patriots organization ask Robert Craft ask the Patriots organization right now whether they think it was a good idea to hire a high
quality competent assistant with no head coaching experience we know the answer they fired that individual and what did they do I'm a Giants fan by the way so I'm a little biased here but what did they do they then brought in an experienced head
coach who's familiar with the organization to lead them and that's where they're at right now I think it's very analogous to what's happening here it's not a criticism it's the reality of the choice that you have before you tonight as a board and I respect that
both Mr Burke and Mr squit no I have not reached out to any administrators within the district very easily I have not reached out to any of the board members here not one with the exception of the chair and vice chair 44 days ago
on a Saturday Mr Burke and Mr squits going attest to this I texted both the chair and vice chair and offered my guidance support and leadership in any way possible as the interm or whatever it may be consultant and I still put
that out there in any role possible to get the district back to where it needs to be you have some serious issues here and I have to acknowledge both Mr Burke and Mr sanit that morning probably shared this with the board but acknowledge receipt of the text it wasn't a phone conversation it was a
text offering that both of them acknowledged that now that was before you ultimately met just to be clear so the community hears that that was before I think you were meeting that following Monday and made a determination to then post an interim position at that point
that's what brings me here letter of interest resume anything that I can answer for you tonight and I have since followed the process and protocol there are no deals being made by this retired superintendent schools I've been here for eight years I think I think my
record here in the district and Beyond speaks for itself but I do think it's important and why I'm here tonight is not with an understanding that this should be your decision based on what I've just shared with you but the reality of what you need right now some
real close folks to you folks shared with me when I expressed interest in this and some personal individuals said you've got to be crazy based on everything you've seen happening in the last couple of years you're pretty happy right now things are going well
personally and professionally why would you do that thanks to Jose and Lake cam I've been able to stay pretty connected watching the meetings I'm going to disagree those individuals though and I told them this both personally and professionally not a lot has changed in these two towns and not a lot has
changed with the board people have a short memory if you think the board that I dealt with was not made up of high-profile diverse opinions strong willed individuals and in some cases some characters right so I mean that that's
not different the one difference from three years ago is you did not have and it's not a criticism but it's a fact you didn't have an experienced leader to keep you focused keep you on task do what was best for kids do it in
a professional manner not let it be personal keep it professional because some of you folks obviously were part of the process to try to keep me here eight years ago I'd be starting my 11th year if you had your wishes back then those folks that did that right if it wasn't for some
some personal um decisions that were made financially so I I get it again I all of that what I just said first Mr Burke thank you I know it's probably about three minutes more but I didn't do a PowerPoint so I'm trying to use up some of that time a little bit I I just wanted to point out it's important folks
if you truly want an interim and you want to make a transition to finish this school year four years successfully and then build for the next school year that's what that's what an interim is going to do for you and you have some
Legal isales Financial issues I think you have some significant financial issues in relation to what the towns can afford and the budget as I seen presented I know we're early on that process but every day that goes by
I'm telling you not because I've had conversations with the individuals but I'm telling you you're putting undo and unnecessary stress on everybody at central office and in the buildings as it relates so as this process which I
completely respect and support your decision to do an interm it's why I'm here tonight um and I thank you for the opportunity to do that some of the other pieces which I got to be a little more detailed I'm guessing you had to tweak some of your questions from me in comparison to the other candidate just
because of the differences in our backgrounds but maybe not um but I but I'll speak to some of the retirement pieces that may come up my long-term commitment some of the things I think that are important to you folks so that there's continuity consistency and stability throughout I
can tell you I bring to town officials in both Freetown and Lakeville instant credibility in relation to what we need to get done here and I say wait my wife still can't believe that I can sit in the couch 2 and 1/2 years later with an earpiece happily married for 34 years so
you noce I have the earpiece she's not listening to you folks don't be insulted but she's reading watching TV and I'm watching I'm watching school committee meeting in relation to that one year pieace in if it's a good basketball game I see Bob kind of smirking I might still kind of tune into the game PC's playing
or something these but but but I'm I'm generally trying to trying to be light with it but be serious to the fact that I'm still very much I'm here tonight because I'm engaged and believe that you can't afford to wait if you're focusing
on 3 to six years and you don't get it right in the next 3 to 6 months you're in trouble you're going to be in trouble in three and six years so I hope I'm here tonight to give you as much information to make an informed decision Mr Burke thank you if you guys
had that three minute timer for public participation I would have long gone over but I know this the rules are a little different here tonight so so thank you all right Rick thank you um I'd love to allow the committee members to ask questions absolutely Jen you get a stop
thank you Mr madus and thanks per John's orders we are asking all the same questions but if you need to tweak them a little bit to get information from me somehow you guys know I'm going to probably get out to you anyways but we're asking the same question I get that I didn't mean that
didn't mean that to be that it wasn't going to be objective I just didn't know if there had to be things that you wanted to make you hear from me that you might not necessarily needed to hear from Dr starky that's all sorry that's all right I just wanted to clear that up um obviously you have been watching as you said and considering the current climate of our district and also this
committee um what are some of the qualities you feel that are going to help bring trust back to our communities so it's it's credibility it's transparency and I don't I I listen I I don't want to give all my advice away cuz if you want to sign me up and do that there's there's an appointment letter I'll do that and I'll give you I
go step by step what needs to be done I do that with for the next person that came on board too if that's something you guys want to pursue but but I but I also know I need to answer the question tonight so you feel comfortable and so the community feels comfortable I'm the one who's I was advocating for this to be a public meeting by the way in an
open meeting I think it's was a great move right full transparency no matter what you did someone was going to question this was there was a backd door deal in relation to that no pretty doubt PR pretty apparent that that's not the case tonight right I mean based on you know kind of
where we're at in relation but I think it's important that you are professional that you are ethical that you are moral that you are that you are speaking to everybody and I mean everybody it I referenced that old board some of you
are on that board I'm not going to list the individuals but there was a diverse group so you might argue with me maybe not argue with me you might debate with me on the fact that the composition of this committee is different I would
respectfully say that we went through a pandemic with some of my board members who wanted to get us back to school faster some who didn't want to come back to school I had a principal didn't want to come back to school by the way during this crisis so I think I have the people
skills I think I have the willingness to sit down the fir what you know in addition to the leadership team central office and dealing with that the community as I see people getting up and I know your public so I'm going to give a little bit of my my two cents for in relation to your public participation
for example people leave and don't feel that they've been heard now I know you followed legal I understand that the process is you don't respond to that but you need to task that to the superintendent and that's where an experienced leader comes in and says Mrs Jones or whoever it may be I'm going to
get back to you on in relation to that and I don't think that again I I don't see behind the scenes obviously as the public person now right I don't see what happens in executive session or outside of that but I get the sense that the communities and I'll use the financial piece as as an example don't feel
confident that they're getting all of the information I'm not suggesting I think that's the case I'm just saying to your question Jen I believe you need an experienced leader you can't afford someone who's coming in there and showing you all the different things
that I would do if I was superintendent I did it for 18 years eight years successfully not in the easiest of times the last two during a pandemic some of the people who sat in the audience by the way and were pushing for me to get the kids fast faster I
have to acknowledge we're probably right in relation we did it safely we got back our kids faster than almost every Community right we did it we had a 5 day on 5 day off not well received initially but it was the idea to get kids back
into to school safely I just want I make that note about kind of acknowledging that maybe they were right and I was wrong I think that's a a flaw sometimes we have people aren't standing up and being held accountable and so you'll get that for me this board is going to be
faced with a lot of issues relation to the budget legal issues and so forth I'll own that as an experienced leader and I think that's what I bring and can provide and offer hope I answered that question you did thank you Eric
Bob go ahead I'm going to I'm not going to ask you the same question because I asked you years ago when we H when you hired so I must have answered halfway decent Bob I did make it there but go ahead yeah uh I'm curious I in your resume here you
you've been a substitute teaching yeah which and I'm curious why you're doing that so so thanks for asking me and I know that wasn't a question you asked the last candidate cuz just the reality of the the resume so first year I I'll I'll be quick two and a half years right
since I've retired right again decision you folks try to keep we work through better circumstances today for me to come back and I'll I'll speak a little bit of maybe through one question or not in response but so what I did is the first year I did some part-time Consulting classic mentoring and things
that superintendents do second year I said I miss the kids so I went down the street to Hurley Middle School and secon stayed out of d r hobit right where I live in the community and said hey can you use a sub and I did it for a year I
had a blast I passed this around cuz I would like you to read it kind of was a little prepared didn't cograph this this is the yearbook that the school dedicated to me as a substitute teacher sub daily sub I came home on the
in June right right before the 8th grade award assembly and I thought to myself am I really hav making a difference like I was making decisions I was the superintendent of schools and we were making policy decisions wasn't making a difference I'm going to share this with you if you don't mind have enough copies kind of was a little prepared no
PowerPoint but still a little prepared so year two substitute daily sub the staff the administration I became because of my experience 35 years in a mentor built a relationship with the kids in the classroom but also
students and staff and I'll let you just read it yearbook was dedicated the invited me to the eighth grade night and I got to be honest with you I'm thinking cuz I've only been to like 100 eighth grade nights I'm a daily sub he said you got to come Rick you got to show up because I received an award in
plaque so that was year two roll into year three continued I like the practice right I didn't go out into Rhode Island looking for a three-year contract and superintendant and one of the reasons I didn't cuz I wasn't sure that I would stay in Smithfield for example and I
didn't want to sell something that wasn't truthful so that's just a page from the yearbook some you may read it just I just I think it captures kind of my enthusiasm my professionalism and my belief I didn't know that I was giving it to the directors too Mr Higgins and M
flaming but I do have others coming around I have one more here too okay so so that's what I've been doing to start this year the other day and I literally mean the other day about them 3 weeks ago I got a call from the superintendent in West sport Tom auben some of you may
know Tom right he's a d and great guy Mike Grandfield of teacher I hired was going out and leave and they said how would you like to be a building administrator in Westport one day they sent me an appointment letter one day that's all it took appointment letter per DM by the
way I might suggest not a bad strategy considering your financial circumstances right now hire an interm superintendent pay them on days they work don't pay them on days they don't work short term you could do the math it's a much better scenario Mrs madus would be not too
happy with my negotiating strategy in relation to that because a contract would make more sense a larger contract but in your circumstances finishing one year and doing another may be something you consider for an interim position so Bob longwinded you know I'm long-winded
with that my last three to four weeks I committed because Mike um Grandfield who's a former teacher I know how many you know Mike he was at aswanson element he asked me he said I'm coming coming back I promise it's my second kid can you help us out I've had a blast over there middle school high school hadn't
been to Westport the one thing I will say in addition to being around kids and having a blast is it gave me a little perspective on some other communities and what they're doing which was neat to see being here 8 years being in Somerset 20 years previous it was helpful having
some insight into what's happening so I'm there right now dayto day they also know I'm here tonight and they certainly know where my prior ities are so in relation to maybe a question that might come up I was accessible and both Mr s
Mr burkill is January 10th it's February 24th the clock's ticking on folks that are sitting some folks that are sitting here it's a lot of pressure on them to get this done I'm not suggesting that you suggesting you have to rush to this
decision but as each day goes by I think it raises a level of EX that's not needed so that's what that's what I've been doing M I'm I'm still i' I've made an obligation Mike's coming back they just had he actually had the
baby last night his wife had the baby last night and so it was like a two to three week piece I went over to help him out I actually have my name tag in here they printed out I mean it was like pretty I show up the next day and they had building administrator name face bang we were there I wanted to say freak
down Lakeville but I didn't say that to Tom when I got there he's retiring by the way at then in June as well so they're going to be looking for a superintendent there a conversation that one school Committee Member said the other day when I was in the in the hallway having been there four days I'm
not I think those of you that work me for eight years know I'm usually not here with an ego saying this is what I'm how talented I am what I can do but in the same token for some folks who haven't met me or know I do want to present the fact that at this
point in what I believe are multiple crisis issues going for this board and this District you need experience and you need someone who's who can walk in the only difference from me not walking into work tomorrow here all the way down the
hall is they've taken away the passcode and I'd have to have Renee buzz me in I think she would let me in I think I think she would let me in but and again I'm trying to be a little T of cheap but serious about it who else could do
that in 5 days in 10 days maybe even 30 days this school year can't be lost it's an interim position I get it it would be much easier and simple if you could bring someone in today and say this
person's going to stay with us for the next 5 years and lead us to future success and I can tell you I'm 60 by the way young the my predecessor here right 60 I could do that I could do that but that shouldn't be how what you base your
decision on this week as it relates to the interim you have too much at stake in the coming days and months to worry about that ultimately you can negotiate that and work that out with whomever that individual is and I'll support and walk away folks
just so you know at the end of the day I still I still there to Westport and secon that some of them think it's Arizona but it's okay Jimmy Cabo's vest with the A on it I let them think I let
them think of Arizona cuz cuz the ones who really know don't like the fact that I'm showing up there rolling in with an aonic with uh veston I should know Mr Mr Clark likes briefer answers than that for sure but I but I thought it was I do think it's
important that you realize that I've been active during that time frame and you're not bringing someone in by I have a followup but I'll wait till you go all way and and I may add you've had some success with bringing a former superintendent into
this district with Steve f um and it worked from my perspective pretty well well thank you m vus welcome home um as always uh Mr Clark stole stole my
thunder with my question but you've you've been away from the district now for for two and a half years right my question for you is what have you been up to and you shared a little bit of that um but outside of Mrs mad's kicking you back out of the house
um what how do you feel like your experiences and maybe your experiences in Westport getting a different perspective um will help coming back to to Freetown Lakeville so so I I will say and i' say it to the community M all time boy is it easy sitting watching the
TV folks and and commenting and and being critical and thinking oh no I wouldn't have done that because you're not in that hot seat there I will say that I feel that there's been a loss of student
centered peace perception that needs to get brought back and by being a day-to-day sub I will say this I think I pride myself Mike Grantville said you still had those tickets where you used to cover classes as kind of a a gimmick first day and so when we were talking
the other day one thing that helped me will to your point about being in the trenches I have a greater respect for we do it all the time you guys do it weekly in your message I get that right we talk about how how how par professionals are so
important boy you don't even know how important they are until you're you're in the classroom and you're a substitute working with them how about custodians I I I I know we say that I said it I just having a different perspective being in there working with students the
funny story last the week before vacation the commissioner of Education came to the Westport Middle School High School right so I they' hired me as a building administrator like three days before I think that was part of Tom's orchestration to kind of help him out with the whole process commissioner comes down I've known the commissioner I
didn't I stayed clear said I'll help you guys out clear the hallways up and a few of the kids come up now I've only been there a couple of days and say to me Mr madus we thought you were the commissioner and I'd been there like three days and I'm like what made you think that they're like what I you know
guess if you address the part it kind of looked like that but it but it just being will to your question about what did I get from going to se Con in addition to just the the passion I do think it kind of re recharged me right the last couple years of the superintendency year year seven and 8 we
were coming off the pandemic we were finally starting getting some normaly back we had gone from the transition it was exhausting it was exhausting I didn't think at that point I would be as enthusiastic as I am if you asked in
truth I don't I think it's is being taped so it's not live Mrs madus about this decision tonight you might get a little different opinion what family member doesn't see whether it be their spouse or their kids
and think to themselves you want to get beat up you want to go through that I don't see that that's not happening if I'm the interim superintendent that's not happening I'm telling you it's not happening for you folks individually you
folks collectively and for this community it didn't happen in 8 years than when I was here that has not changed my pass my emotion but it has to be a collective piece I I've already given some thought
as I'm sure any candidate would how do I get a hold of the central office directors meet with them and do that right because you have some talent to P the building princip that's that's okay I want to meet individually with each of the school committee members several members I don't meet individually it can be a phone call assume I'd rather do it in person and I do that this Saturday
and set up a time need you guys come in let's talk cuz I do need to hear from your own perspective what I can do to help you in that process because it because it has been painful at times
watching some of you go through what you've gone through nobody nobody and I'm not pointing fingers at anybody anybody but nobody deserves the treatment that almost everybody in this
room has has experienced recently that's not happening in my tenure whether it be his interm or his longterm so I to will to answer your question I I felt by getting back into the schools and being able to interact with administrative
assistance and things things I prided myself on doing because you folks know I was a pretty visible superintendent you're really doing that as a sub right they're asking you to cover classes I mean DayDay sub but they dedicated the yearbook to me so I'd like at theend end of the day
my wife said to me I literally came home she said you go to the award ceremony I said yeah listen to this one H like you're going to like this they dedicated the yearbook had an award and I wasn't going to show up to the night but it but but in those small sentences it wasn't a
yearbook piece right of all the awards that I received as superintendent and as principal for 10 years that meant a lot to me cuz as you read that it said staff so people were coming up to me and I was real careful cuz you guys have been there in other
districts I was real careful about being critical of telling people how to do that I'm already here in that Westport hey can you you give me some suggestions and I'm real careful cuz don't we all hate people that come in as know-it-alls and consultants and say I'm going to listen what why are you doing that I
didn't as a sub I didn't go to the teachers room once and yet I had a great relationship with the teachers we they were going through some tough negotiations I know something you guys don't have any experience with right here you little sarcastic but but it was it was a helpful experience
looking at it from a through a different lens not being the person in charge of the school district cuz I think I thought here and in Somerset I had that but at the end of the day you're still talking to the superintendent right it was different I think when they were
able to approach me in the role that I took and we'll continue to take at the end of the day I got a good deal here folks I will get in my car go back to rith I just came from DC visiting my son who works at the Pentagon right now went to the PC Georgetown game this past
weekend past week wasn't a real good PC game if you're a basketball fan but I'm in a good place my son's an ABC 6 reporter probably don't watch Channel 6 everybody watch is 10 and 12 Ryan madus if you get a chance I'm doing a little promo here right so I can also keep the
media off because he already thought during some of the instances is there any information that sounds like a good story I'm like hey stay away from free Lakeville let I'll give you a good story you don't come back down but um he's still living at home so he's got the life Riley right now uh with a job in
doing that so again Mr sanit I hope I kind of at least responded to what I get what I gained from that you did yeah thank you I appreciate that um Mr madas you could become you could potentially be coming into to um a lot
of changes in administration since you've been here before um some of those changes include staff members that you've had previous relationships with in different roles how do you see those
relationships um potentially impact yeah the job moving forward so again because I was superintendent I think it' be less of an issue in relation especially you spoke to administrators you want to speak to sta staff I can speak there but Administration for my five principles
are still here when I left right the only new principal is the Middle School principal right we have we have Mike we have Bethany you know I'm calling by first name we have Liz right so I'm maybe some of here I didn't see but so the principal interaction I had with I
think I had a good relationship my Administrative Assistant still here she may give you my thumbs down after I leave I don't know but I'm not going to put her on the spot and ask you that um so I I don't think I don't think those Dynamics are that Troublesome I think you have three talented central office
directors doing a phenomenal job then are probably stressed out big time they can't say that I can say that to you what do I have to lose other than you saying we we're moving in a different direction they have to be extremely anxious doing their jobs and this job every
day that's what you're asking them to do I'm not saying intentionally but it's happening I'm watching a business manager who's been here was my principal outstanding guy Georgetown guy to's probably happy about
that Victory last week but who's presenting the budget that I watched I mean I I I just Terry and I had just a brief overlap and certainly I know the steel through South Coast right I was the chairman of the board for
South Coast collaborative for 16 years so my experience is there so I I don't think Mr bur to your point I will say this though you don't need a disruptor or more drama so everything I'm sharing with you
tonight is not about disruption it's not about drama you don't need those things you have enough of that yeah some and I'm not suggesting I'm pointing fingers at where it's coming from but it's unintentional I us always use this line if any of my behind are behind me have
heard this before you don't need a problem identifier you need a problem solver got enough problems right I don't need someone to tell me what what my problems are I need someone to help me solve them I think I'm that transitional
person to help in that process and I would feel very comfortable in my previous role with those individuals for the folks that I that are new on this board though likewise and that that are new administrators like the Middle School principal I need to engage and get to know those folks but interim
people should not be disruptors if you wanted a long-term disruptor repost go do that would be my suggestion go do that I don't think you have the time or the luxury and can
afford to do that though my opinion hope I answer Mr per thank you Rick you did sure syia go ahead thanks how are you it's we get to overlap for a few years yeah absolutely sure and we share some commonalities with Somerset
intha itha College abely I always enjoyed hearing how proud you were about your family especially your boys and to hear an update that that's great um my question somehow I don't know how I got that into the answer but thank you well you said you were going to get
everything in so I'm give I'm going to give you a chance to get problem solv and everything so my question to the to the to the candidate earlier was leadership style and then leaving and if it changed your perspective and but will sort of touched on that so given that
you had one piece in the ear listening to the buzz it presentation recently you know maybe you can give me some problem solving ideas on first name the percentage I'll give you a little Glimpse I'm not giving it all I this is my first rodeo here folks I you know
you're not getting a pum check for this but give me be a problem so I think there's a significant Gap I know Town officials CU I reason I know that they're not here tonight because there's a board of Selectmen meeting in both Freetown and lville tonight right so that's why I was
actually surprised I apologized to Jose in advance I didn't know if Lake came even be here to be able to do that cuz I knew they had multiple board meetings and finance meetings my take on your budget on the district's budget and then I have some strategies that I'm going to maybe hold back all the detail on just until you sign me up and then I'll fill
you in on the rest of how we're going to get there in a ridiculously short amount of time by the way folks look at your time frame in that budget I see I mean I see a huge gap in the assessments of what the towns can afford and what you've presented today
huge would you like like me to Define huge Steve does he wants me to Define hug I I I think it's I think it's at least a million dollar gap for the towns assessment not budget based on what I've watched on their meetings because I've watched their meetings too and what their
revenue is and what their income is fire station I mean there's a lot happening right in Lakeville and Freetown even more housing potentially you've got some other things happening in the community where I think it's going to even put more stress on the schools so I it's not a criticism of the
budget presentation and kind of what's going through I think it was well done but I do think and I haven't been privy to the conversations Jack maybe has with the in the regional fin comp that would be my ballpark guess of the
assessment gap between both towns combined and what they what they'll come back to you with so that means that the budget Gap is obviously even higher than that I am about as fiscally
conservative as they come right that there's so those that don't know me I am going to do what's best for students I am going to do put the necessary resources forward I've always said in my budget presentations the budget is nothing more than a reflection
of your priorities you guys have heard that at nauseum I've said that over and over again but it's true and sometimes it's even more true when you have limited resources right you really have to identify where you're going to spend that money and you have negotiations and
you can't spend one time money remember when I came on board folks going back and go back to some history if you need to maybe I should have done some slideshows to show you this end $80,000 right 80 was a number one
year over $2 million right now take a look at it when when I left what it was pretty good shape it's not going to solve your your your problem by the way one-time funding on continuation
just exacerbates the situation the other piece I guess I would say to the long-term piece we were so worked up about getting our best business managers over the years always thinking long term and what happened in almost all those instances we lost them nobody's fault
but I'm just saying before you make a final decision on who is the most qualified experienced person to take over where we're at right now think about that it's not always necessarily what we're going to get in five or six
years although I can also talk no one said it yet so if I I know we have three more questions I will speak to the two restrictions that retirees are up against if people have questions or misinformed about that CU I do have clarification on why I'm not only a short-term solution but can be a
long-term solution within the law and what the Retirement Board allows for there are basically only two restrictions time and the earnings and I can address both of those at some point it really doesn't tie into your question Steve in relation to that piece though but I mean we've got to I mean we've got
to and I say wait roll up our sleeves on the budget piece and the legal issue piece too we got to close some of those doors right we have to do it in a compassionate way and we got to get things resolved so we can bring back what I think I I don't think things have changed that dramatically I just don't
believe what I witnessed and experienced and saw that there was enough focus on the task at hand and as a result it became much more personal than it needed to be and then it was kind of lost right it
almost doesn't matter if I've insulted you right if I've insulted you tonight I why I apologize in advance come see me afterwards and tell me at least why I did it so so I can fix it the next time but once I've done that you're shutting me down even if I have a good idea right you're starting to or at
least starting to shut the person down and that's real important it's what I saw with public participation by the way I saw the idea and you trying to stay to the 3 minutes in the time frame but I saw people walking away again just on the camera as feeling that they weren't
there wasn't followup and I'm not suggesting there wasn't followup that the business manager didn't follow up a director superintendent didn't didn't get back to them cuz I wasn't privy to that after the fact but when I watched those individuals I just wanted I jump through
a couple of times and simply say Mr Clark I'm I'm going to get back to you tomorrow on that here's my cell phone here's my cell phone I wanted to say that on camera there because it not only would have told Mr Clark and I'm just using for Bob as an ex but it would
have not only told Mr Clark that I was going to address it it would have told the rest of the community why are people lining up they're not trusting as transparent as you guys have been including this process we got to fix that we got to fix that and it is
fixable I I said all along and I said early on there isn't a lot that's dramatically different from my perspective other than Focus task professional on what's best for kids I don't in I wouldn't be here tonight if I thought anybody on this board by the way
didn't want what was best for kids in thect District right I I don't I don't believe that cuz I know what you get paid to do so you the the worst financial advisors ever if you're doing it for that reason right that's kind of what Mrs madir is
suggesting on my part why just westport's you got a pretty good gig even daily sub six minute ride I was coming back to the school coming back from the school at the time thank Sil I hope I answer I didn't give you enough I have all the answers you solve all the
problems no I mean it's it's huge though I mean it's a big issue I I I just I didn't I haven't seen it I know you have board meeting Wednesday and I know you're starting the process and you got Regional fincom coming up and and then you got a hearing in a few weeks and but but and I'm not privy to negotiations
and those types of things but based on what I watched in some of the town meeting relations with finance and board of selectman I'm concerned about how huge the Gap is and how you can fix that because it does it involve
staff when you get when you look at a school budget and it's that large and who can do that that has no experience oh you hire someone that does have experience hi Hi how are you I'm well
how are you hi thanks so um this Mr syvia took my question about the budget but so you'll have to I threw them all off tonight by saying that they weren't they all going to follow Jen so she's going to follow the rules and I having flashbacks to the meetings that you
ran I hope that's somewhat of a good thing it might be a couple all right somewhere in there I'll take I'm going to take it as it any even if it's not so um your um your time here in the district predates my time uh on the school committee and also my um
children's time as students here so you'll have to humor me if this no I and I feel bad I I apologize I know Carolina haven't had work in Courtney as well um Crystal we did in a different role so we do can you tell me what your vision is
then for um developing the budget we're in the midst of the budget season Y and how you measure whether um our limited resources are actually resulting in Student Success So based on and I'm looking at this from the outside but certainly having 18 years of experience
doing this as a superintendent 10 per of the process seems right on track what you know what Mr Higgins engaged of course he inherited some pretty ugly circumstances right we don't I'm moving forward so he had to kind of fix some things to get to
to where you're at but I so I don't think the process is I I guess I I don't feel comfortable I know enough to feel the towns have been engaged enough in the process and that's not a criticism it's just my observation on
the outside I'm not privy to conversations the buiness business manager has is having with the two Town administrators for example with you know Board of Selectmen Finance but when I watch their meetings and they're making comments about it they raising concerns
it concerns me so that's the piece that I think that bringing instant instant credibility down Regional School Districts and I was a superintendent in two Regional School Districts truly believe that you know they're autonomous and there are some rules to that the reality is if you don't have the two
Town supports you're done you're done right you can fight them you can bring the kids in and bring the parents I don't think we ever for the school committee that was here had circumstances though that we were trying to put more people in the seats we tried to convince them early on in the process
so to according to to your question I think the process that's been put together the incorporation I keep pointing Mr Higgins po days wasn't isn't another individual there but who's kind of orchestrated making sure that all the building principles were part of the process and as a result staff are part of the process Regional fincom I think
all of that I wouldn't I wouldn't disrupt that or change that but I'd want to know up front if they don't if if someone here doesn't already know I'd want to know what the bottom line assessment number is from Lake Town fre Lakeville and Freetown I'd already know
that if I were the interm superintendent maybe you already know that I'm not asking you on public spot I'd want to know what their number was and then I necessarily for those folks that are on the board of selectman that think think I'm fiscally conservative typically no I don't really like their
number but I'm going to fight for what I think is right for our kids but it's important to know that right if we got a million dollar Gap and I'm talking about adding some Fringe programs I may have to revisit that say okay so kind of what what can we do that's why I keep saying
that 3 to six month Gap that that period is much more crucial than I think than I think the 3 to six year Gap piece so from a budget perspective it would be taking a look at that and and getting more detail I mean that would be part of my conversation with
central office directors and the principles and kind of go the principles if there if there are any principles I hear I don't want to keep turning around my back that I hear they'll know I I'm not the easiest guy in negotiate with it's just the truth right there were instances that there was no
negotiation I think you're close to a no negotiation conversation folks based on your numbers right now you may not like to hear that I have never Steve kind of alluded to it I think he was trying to give me somewhat of a compliment but sometimes I said things sitting in that
chair that made people a little uncomfortable but were truthful and transparent that's what you need now but you need to be done professionally and not personally and everybody's got to be on board with it I will never do anything in that seat that's going to
surprise any one of you folks you will never have a surprise for me but the deal is going to come back I'm kind of already alluding to where I'm going with this I don't want any surprises either right I I think everybody respects and trusts that so I think that
part of it has to get worked out and you don't have a lot of time to do that you're up against Town meetings right you have laws and requirements when you have to present your budget vote your budget and I've seen the time frame but that's not a lot it's not a lot when I thought I might be starting this position even
earlier when I said to Mrs madus it was a Sunday and I used to make the joke I'll see you on Friday for pizza and she kind of nodded and loving way kind of thought that was not as funny as I thought it because it was the truth right a budget season you're going
to fincom you're going to Regional fincom sometimes you're going to board of selectman meetings un invited to talk about what it is you're are trying to to sell to them in relation to why it's so important that the school budget is in place what are we talking about a $49 million budget that's the number right
that we're looking at right now the budget number not the assessment [Music] number wow wa we're talking circumstances that I if it were my money I'd certainly want someone
experienced as a leader helping me get there I Courtney I can be more specific if you want I hope answer it okay yeah I got thank you thanks Mr madas how are you we go way back and she could tell stories that are
probably complimentary Mr syia but right I wasn't going to say that actually I was going to give you a compliment because one of our favorite memories of our son you were actually in the background at a Halloween party at school so yes I do remember that too so
I know that you used to go out to all of the events and everything and I would say that I appreciate that I appreciate that hearing that thank you Sharon um what is your availability you know we have a budget as you know
next month it's um we're against the clock as you said so what would be your availability so I made a lot of tongue and cheek comments just to kind of make it keep it a little bit light I wasn't too far off coming to work tomorrow I know you have a school board me and you're not making a decision tonight so I wasn't trying to push the envelope
maybe I was um my availability is I committed to on a day-to-day basis to Tom auben and Mike Grandfield if if a decision would was made and you were looking to hire someone and I wanted to fulfill that commitment for let's say
next week and the week after Mike's coming back it was supposed to be a 3-we period two we period I would either do one of two things I'd either try to finish the week and come in here in the afternoon beginning at 2:00 that's when the day ends and come here for the
afternoon and evening which would take care of a lot of meetings and things like that it wouldn't be as helpful probably be helping for some of you folks if I had to meet with you though right after hours and things so the quick answer is when do you need me to work that's and and I'm being serious
about that um there is not a a 30-day window 60-day window 90day window that that's just not piece I've committed to Westport on a perdm basis through this week next week and then Mike was planning to return but I think
even that's negotiable they knew I was coming here tonight so you would be available if we needed to talk to you if we wanted something to do with the budget or anything else absolutely yeah and and John and will can attest this my first comment wasn't cuz I didn't know
what you were looking for if you go back to that text I believe I said I'll offer my guidance my support or my leadership and I left it that way because I didn't at the time and I'm not sure you folks did CU you hadn't had a chance to meet right you just had a midyear
resignation pretty significant that the Le of your the district so I mean it wasn't as if you and so I understood when I didn't expect them both to respond they had T yet Steve talk to you folks so Crystal to your point um I would make myself available I did earlier say about
ethics and moral and professional I'd hate to say to Westport yeah you don't have somebody in there tomorrow and that's where I thought I could kind of navigate that and work that but I don't know if you're that pressed on that time frame I'm concerned when I when I think though
that there are other people picking up that task on a day-to-day basis um so it would be I mean I I don't think you've identifi a date you probably haven't had that discussion um but but I but I'd be open to a pretty
quick turn around okay and I and in most instances I would say to you folks nobody can do that unless you ran the district for eight years and know the players most of them I know this have been been some new individuals coming in um it was a
challenge I have to be honest with you folks um I took a I shared this with Mr madir did two things this is tape so I'll make sure she doesn't watch the tape but we were walking and she said to me 34 years sa my two she said so let me get this right you're interviewing for
your job as she called it my job and I said yeah can I ask why cuz in I mean they hired me in Westport in day one day just from that experience and I said
because they're going through a process and I didn't go into all the details because as much as a loving spouse likes to hear it she didn't want to hear all the details but I I want to say there there's been a lot happening I respected the board and I say this tonight and I'll say it to the community the process
and the transparency that you've tried to provide through this process should not leave anyone believing that there's been some deals C right I that that's from my perspective nobody should be saying after everything
you've done that there's been some sidebar piece based on this because why would you have done that you could have just gone ahead I said to and and I I said to to Will and certainly to John I mean to hire an an interim doesn't require posting school committee can
simply just appoint but I think under the circumstances you were being very guarded and careful of about how the community would perceive that and not knowing who those in you know who was even available at the
time Chrystal I hope I answered that you did thank you ready I'm ready what time is it right now 7:30 8:00 let's go down Renee give me the code let's get started the the directors are sitting here saying really come on I'm kidding I'm know but but there are not many people
in my opinion that know what needs to get done here and that can do that quickly a turn around it's just the reality of the facts it's not a criticism how are you nice to meet you thank you nice to meet you I asked two questions um to Miss Barbara and I just
GNA stay with the same questions although uh your experience is significant extended and you uh it's like you are in your like a fish and
your water coming back here so um but I want to stick shallow too so um the first question that I asked to Miss Barbara was are you uh what are your thought on sexually
transitioning children to sex change what are my personal thoughts uh your thought as a superintendent yeah I mean so I I kind of intentionally answered it that way right it's irrel what my personal thoughts are in relation to this I'm going to make a
decision what I think is best for for the school district from a superintendent's perspective and from the district I certainly respect every individual and every student but I also think we we've been missing making sure that families are engaged in the
community are engaged in the process I think that has been a a grossly overlooked piece in this whole process I respect students rights I'll certainly follow and abide by the the
law and whatever you know statutory requirements are in place I'm not going to compromise the community and the district relative to making a a decision but at the same token I I want to be sure that all the constituents are
involved in the process whatever that determination may be so you do believe in parents right yeah and there's no doubt I believe in parents right those people that worked with me for eight years know here you know that that's you're getting my cell phone everybody here is getting my cell phone but so is the
community right that's I mean that that's my deal 5082 43362 number hasn't changed I still have you guys on speed dial I give that number I used to say to people and they say school board members would say lot nice of you kind of do that I appreciate that i' say you know what good news is I'm giving you myself
on the bad news I give like everybody my cell phone so it's not like it's badge but I it's it was important it was important that parents were involved in the process but at the same time respecting students and and I'm saying there there's anything easy to the question you asked right I'm but I but I
am saying that I am supportive of making sure that people are aware of the circumstances are involved in the process and it's something that I can show evidence of examples while I was here that I demonstrated that sometimes
parents and community members not liking the answer but at least keeping them informed thank you anyone at the table have additional questions for Mr Terence yeah my second question is um how do you uh involve
parents and community members in your decision making process yeah so I I know the standard lines would be that you know I'm a consensus Builder and do that and I do believe in consensus I used to always but I did say this in some of my adist is here know if I don't want your
opinion I'm going to let you know that right if we're in a committee and I and I want you to be part of that process then you're on a committee and I want your opinion but sometimes you have to make some decisions and determination unilaterally based on what's best for the district so in the time frame of an
interim I don't know how much consensus building we're going to have on some of the topics that we're going to hit upon relative to legal issues Financial issues board issues when I say consensus obviously consensus within the board but other individuals so I mean you have you
have multiple groups of school councils and and so forth and pto's I don't think anybody who who they have a short memory thinks that I excluded any of those groups I was a a superintendent who would go to those meetings and hear what the PTO had to say in relation to what
was happening CPAC I mean we can go down the the the lists and those groups so I am very much engaged in that process guess but I wanted to be clear based on the time frame that you're up against some decisions this board's going to have to make we're going to have to
articulate it clearly to the community in a short time and maybe get some push back on folks saying well why won't we include in that process just on because where we're at right I mean we got three four months to finish the school year
I'll go back to my initial comments on that you have four months to successfully finish this school year transition through this school year then take the summer and get ready for the fall that's where I think the focus should be and I think you can include
people in the process but I think you have to use your organizational structures that you have in place you have a lot of subcommittees and so forth I I mean I I in watching for the last two and a half years folks frustrating at times and I know it's frustrating for some of you folks it was um painful is
the word I use I think most of you would agree with that word if you could privately you don't have to give it me your answer it was painful to watch and it's not a criticism cuz I knew how agonizing it was in relation to that piece and so I think it's so
important that you trust that you have confidence that it is a collective piece whoever you choose to bring in I'm walking out of here feeling really good that I pretty much laid it on what and and for some of you that haven't seen me some for some time I think I maybe have
brought a little bit more passion and some of you kind of wondering does the retired guy still have that passion and emotion in him um it's here it's here and it's vested in what's best for kids um but what what candidate isn't going to say that what candidate who
doesn't have any superintendent experience is going to come in and tell you that they can do the job sure they can I'm just saying to you folks consider is this the time to do that is this the time to do that as a board and if you
had at the end of the day feel that that's the case I'll respect that I just read out my number again some of you have hopefully still have the number I haven't delete it I'll give it to the new board members that we can kind of go with it but it's going to be a an action-packed roll up the sleeves
scenario I wasn't joking when I talked about like a Saturday morning I'll bring coffee and we can kind of meet or we can do this over the phone or kind of meet CU I think I would think you folks would each want to meet with me individually or we can do it in pairs I know we have to kind of play the rules but I just think you i' want to offer everybody that opportunity especially some of the
newer members who haven't had a chance to work with me but even for the members who have you know it's been some time I don't think the problems I don't think the it is so broken that it's not fixable it is absolutely the case let's be honest
what's the strength of of the district the students and the staff that hasn't changed I don't I think you'd all agree right that hasn't changed I don't think the town the towns are that dramatically different and you guys definitely will agree and
I'll probably blow this with my answer but I'm not so sure the composition of the board is that dramatically different and for those folks that have been here a while when you're driving home tonight some of you are shorter ride than others think about some of the characters I'm talking about and don't
and and if you can honestly say that they didn't have their own opinion and it was a strong opinion on topics let me know they did but it was professional and that's the focus and that's why you can bring that
together right I mean Mr Sylvia referenced my experience here he sat and commended me one night uh on a it was it was during the pandemic because it was a pretty ugly meeting former board members were behind me very upset that we weren't bringing the kids back if you
recall fast enough and we hit the questions head on not always the the best answers that they an want to hear but it was done with compassion with an understanding that we have a plan trust us we're going
to get that back in short time trust me I do believe that um and for the some of you that have been painfully sitting here for these past few months you're saying short time Rick well maybe we have to Define short
I I just think that that you're up against it in relation to that I can speak to I I know it wasn't a I hope that answered question Mr Burke Mr S I don't know if I have a closing but I just wanted to reference because I know for discussion purposes for you maybe it's not maybe would it would only be the case if I
were the candidate I just wanted to speak to as a retired employee the the time restriction earning piece um in relation please so being in my third year each year that you retire it expands your wage opportunity so basically you can make that you can make
in a given calendar year what your pension is the difference between your pension and what you would be making now in that current position so let's say that's think about what I was making $200,000 let's
say that Gap plus $115,000 per year so I'm up to almost 45,000 in a calendar year so it's a triple dig digit wage piece so the wage it's w i guess my point is the wage on both parties is nonissue for an term
position cuz then it that that's that's an annual the time restriction is 1,200 hours in a calendar year so you go to December 31st you start zero again you can put you can work for 1,200 hours so just if you do the quick math on 1,200
hours including the summer months that's about eight months again interm basis you can just renegotiate another contract that should not be the deciding factor from my perspective on me not being a viable
choice if you're concerned about the fact that just having someone for 3 to 6 months doesn't work if that person's not able to stay on longer I just wanted to point that out that's certainly something that is possible within the the restrictions
those are the only two restrictions and then the last piece I just throw this out which is easy enough to do I would draft it up is the chairman of the board school board can ask the desie to wave it right and then there are no restrictions and I can tell you there
are multiple examples of a superintendent resigning midy year relieving and desie approving the waiver which would put no restrictions I I just kind of Shar with you I don't think the restrictions are an issue in relation to an interm position but even
more long-term I think it they would be open to that especially where you have some legal issues some Financial issues and your brain back potentially the the former superintendent in that role so I just want to leave that as food for thought in relation to kind of where
we're at thank you so so at the very beginning Mr Burke I promised you you were thankful that I didn't have a PowerPoint presentation that'd be short but you didn't know I was just going to fill it up with time and and answering the questions do family background but I'd
be happy to if there's any followup I know Mr Clark May mention is there anybody else who has I'd be happy to respond I know it's getting late for you folks I'll follow up because I said I was going to uh I know we've had some FR discussions in your office when you were here and you indicated to me that you
were considering uh going to Rhode Island position yeah I was just curious how that how that work yeah so I so I haven't applied for any any full-time superintendent positions I haven't seen an intern position which I would have considered somewhere else so being honest and and the reason I didn't apply
to any full-time because I would have had to sell and I use Smithfield just pick a town I grew up in Middletown Rhode Island pick a community that has a superintendent the superintendent comes in and says you got me for life right I'm going to stay forever then signs on for 3 years takes the money and their
pension and then leaves I couldn't do that in good conscious and so as a result if I wasn't going to be that committed to the community I didn't apply so today and not that that could change I saw this as a unique opportunity as I'm sure Dr starky did
too you know quite candidly I everything I've shared with you tonight I'm going to be completely truthful if in any way it appeared at all I didn't reference her name up until this point and this our conversation the
utmost respect for as I as I do everybody here tonight so and the process um I just I just think considering this is a significant transitional decision that needs to be made
I think I check a lot of those boxes off in relation to that and that's when when I said early on and maybe took your back that I don't think this is close I don't think it's close when you put all those things into consideration but then you got to put up with this person out in that
seat so that was wasn't the greatest close for me right I didn't close that real strong but that was my that was the honest piece I did want to pie pick that out cuz when I did have the very limit it was limited will contest this I haven't spoken to any other board members there was kind of the question
relative to retirement right cuz I think that at one point they had waved all the restrictions they brought them back after Co so would it would require a waiver um to to eliminate those but with an intern process you wouldn't do I don't I think you have you might have a couple of board positions I didn't
reference that right put someone in a six six-month contract or on a Pam basis for 6 months revisit it in 3 months both sides you might have a couple new board members potentially let them be part of the process right which is kind the end of the school year those individuals come
on board and feel part of the process maybe it doesn't work but talk to Robert Craft oh my God I'm a giant guy that's why I can say that a little bit but they did the right thing
ultimately so thank you for the opportunity I really again I'd like to talk a lot of personal tales and professional tales with a lot of you I've had some I've had a great exp I had don't I can leave I left after eight years and I think say this I don't have a negative thing to say about how I was
treated in my experience here I think that's kind of why I feel I I can fit that piece I really I'm not saying I haven't burned some bridges and that some parents weren't happy with some things I did and so forth but I think at the end of the day they knew that I was doing or at least I thought I was doing
what was best for our kids Rick I thank you thank you Mr B thanks M thank you appreciate it thank [Music] you just a quick recess no yes I'll ask if we can take a
5 minute recess all right everyone we're back from Recess no we had the privilege of talking to two candidates tonight for our position um both with different background different levels of
experience um I'd love to hear the thoughts from the table anybody care to stop I guess I could start um this is frankly one of the best problems we've had in a while here um we have two
candidates that certainly have great um proven leadership skills some Legacy knowledge in the district and clearly want to come back to the district which I think is great um I do want to add some perspective from the search committee and just say give a public
thank you to that group um we had about 12 members made up of teachers um District administrators principals school committee members and parents um that did a great job um in a thorough
vetting of about 12 candidates um that were comprised of and and Mr madas is I have a lot of respect for him but I in some ways disagree with his definition of of the interim position we had a nice balance of
sitting um uh people with current jobs verse retirees in that role um which led to some some good spirited thoughtful conversation about moving names forward um we forwarded three names one of the
candidates withdrew um we did not release that person's name but that person was a sitting superintendent um highly qualified obviously Barbara is a is a sitting assistant superintendent and then Mr Madera so it was a good conversation I
would be remissed though if I didn't share the sentiment of the full committee and some of the other school committee members that that sat with me on that panel um the sentiment was pretty strong that they looked at the candidates um with sort of through the
lens of one candidate in particular provided a short short-term option um and then the preference of of the search committee and there was consensus on this um the potential for a longer term solution through the interim role um and
that was the recommendation of the person that withdrew and Dr starky which was unanimous so I just wanted to a publicly say thank you to the search committee participants but also share um the consensus or the sentiment of that group that they were looking to use the
interum position as more of a potential long-term solution for the district because they felt as though it would provide stability consistency um not only working through the budget process this year but over a period of time um and personally as a facilitator in
that meeting I didn't really give my position but I certainly agree with that position so that's the that's my public thank you to the search committee thoughts on that well if I may quickly Steve you did a great job facilitating that committee oh thank you you're very
welcome it was a great group it really was a great group and and you did a great job thank you and I do agree um the consensus was that um we most everybody was looking for
more of a long-term solution versus a short time term solution but it's a good problem to have it's a great problem proven leaders that they're Lakers that want to come back yep I think that says a lot for our
district for our faculty the fact that two people that have been here and do have a history here want to come back here yeah through the through the chair obviously it's unfortunate that we're we're in the position right but as you said Steve we're we're we're blessed to
have two kind of former Lakers wanting to come back and and kind of Step Up for sure um I think they bring two unique skill sets right it's undeniable the work that Rick put in here over an 8-year period and and Rick came in during a period where this
District needed consistency um and he certainly provided that and I think Barbara too I mean just listening to her speak I mean she's Freetown Lakeville to the bones right and you could hear the passion in her in her voice and it says
a lot about a person that's willing to walk away from a full-time role to accept an interim role in in the district that she knows and loves for sure um especially willing to put her neck on the line and throw a performance requirement in there too I was I was kind of my head kind of tilted back when
she said she was willing to put in a a performance piece to to really try to extend the contract and stay longer um so yeah I mean we have a definitely a diff difficult conversation I certainly think um Dr starky
is I think she could absolutely lead the district uh I think she absolutely wants to be here I think she considers this home um and I think her leaving and going to Bourn and being in central office and being the assistant superintendent and having to step up when in certain times um certainly
helped prepare her to come back and be an even better leader than she was previously very similar to her leaving to go be a middle school principle to come back here and Lead again so um ultimately I think we're in a good spot here um it's going to be a tough
decision for sure I agree with the sentiments um I like a lot of what of what Mr madas could bring to the district you know this week um but I like the experience Dr staky
brings you know I like being able to follow her career and seeing you know the times when she did leave the district was just to advance her career um with opportunities that weren't present here at the time you know but then returned to this
district and we were able to benefit from those additional opportunities you know I can see her as um a face to lead this District over the next handful of years I
agree anybody else I'll say I was on the search committee and thank you Steve you did um do a great job facilitating that and um you know one of the comments that I heard from staff was about having so
much change over and bringing an interim in for 3 months or 6 months and then you know or six months from now we find someone else and someone else comes in they were concerned about the the turnover and how we would be able to develop a longterm or longish term
Vision if um we were constantly searching and we were constantly if we had to post the job again um and that was from a staff member which um you know I kind of agree with well I was on the scur committee as well [Music]
um I liked barara I liked what she had to say um but Mr maderas um I want consistency I want somebody who could start
yesterday um I feel that he could bring that and I feel like he could get us to back to where we were um and then we could open it up to a permanent position and with that
permanent position we could open it up to a lot more people cuz I think a lot of people didn't apply for this job because it was listed as interim so I think we could have a much
bigger audience and more candidates to look for um I am really apprehensive about how hiring someone who does not have superintendent experience again
um and that's just the way I feel um and I just think someone with experience he would bring stabilization he would bring I think a fractured relationship
with the town back and I think that right now that that's very very important um you know this budget is huge um there is going to be going a lot
of back and forth about this and that's another thing I don't want a new superintendent to be caught in the middle of this again um and I think that's what would happen I think there would be drama over this and I think it could possibly get ugly
and I also I don't think it's fair I don't think it would be fair to Dr starky if that were to happen so that's why I believe that if Mr maderas came back could get us on the right road then if she wanted to come in and
apply for the permanent position and be handed off a soft handoff like um our former superintendent was where everything is done everybody has their ducks in a row I think that would be beneficial because I certainly do not want to
see um another person dragged through the mud because I feel that it's going to get ugly because of the budget teacher negotiations and I just don't feel that it's it it would do us any good to put
um more drama on someone who certainly doesn't need it I think um I appreciate um Mrs Barbara um background and her expertise in some areas however
uh Mr mad he have the knowhow of this district and I think he could definitely bring us back um and help us with
um with a budget with transparency with uh I think it's so many um broken relationship if you want to call it that way or riches uh and and a lot of issues
that we are facing I think um his energy he's uh enthusiastic his experience um the experience that he have in the district he wasn't here for one or two
years he was here for eight years so I think uh that is very significant again and you know when he leave he left the budget um I mean and the district um in a good shape and I think
he's more than capable to do that again B go ahead that's a it's a real difficult decision for me because I known them both now I've known Bara for years and I've come I'm friends with Rick and you're Dam you're damned if you do
and you're damned if you don't uh the fact that she's got a 4-year extension to her contract and Stella is is looking to come here I think speaks to her loyalty and love of the district uh
Rick's a great guy and you do a great job but I'm trying to look at the for the good of the district and the district needs stability it doesn't need musical superintendence like we've had in the past
U with that said I'd make a motion to appoint barber St as inum super with with the opportunity to extend
second further discussion okay I have a motion in a second um let's discuss I again I I can't stress enough that this is a good problem to have and and I think there's good points on all sides of this I mean if it
weren't for the one word interim in that application we'd probably be sitting here with Barbara starky and and Mr madas probably wouldn't have applied for that um I do think we can use the the interim to our advantage especially with
the evaluative process yeah um it would be a good thing um to to do it that way but I also noticed on this and Crystal we just had a side conversation about going paperless and potentially having technology and and if this was um the
ability to touch I noticed Mr vus recommended Dr starky and I don't know in my time on the committee we've had um a an open seat where the two applicants and one recommended the other so I can't read it because I can't download it from piece of paper but I think it's it's
neat that that Rick has certainly endorsed her candidacy I don't know if it was specifically for this job but it's noted on on yeah he was a reference for her for something yeah he's a reference so I I think we're in good hands either way but uh you know I've
learned over time listen to the school Community listen to the teachers listen to the staff and they want stability and I I think they want the potential for a long-term solution and with that I would say uh Dr Stark's the answer so that my she certainly has my support as does
Rick but I think at this point in time it would be Dr starky for [Applause] me Bob go ahead as to speaks the availability of superintendent candidates over the years as people who have been on the committee know for a
long time the pool is a puddle now and a lot of applicants you get because they've been fired from or dismissed from their another position or you get first time superintendent with no experience at all
Barbara's been an assistant superintendent all of that superintendent stuff filters down to the assistant through time uh it's not easy to go out and find a person who has ties to a district loyalty to a district and
is willing to give up a 4-year contract to come here those those kind of applicants are extremely rare and I think she' make a good fit for the district I think she'd be welcomed by the faculty and
staff uh and I think she do a good job she's a she's a worker out he got a master's degree and and her doctorate while working what does that tell you uh I think she's a good choice Rick's a great choice
too but I I'm trying to think long range for the district on my end I I would agree with those sentiments exactly Barber is someone that I can see 3 to five years from now being in that seat doing an excellent
job on the very short term I like what what Rick brings to the table getting us through it to [Music] April I want the long long term solution for the district is would be my
vote potential for the long term but yeah Chris like and appreciate you being very straightforward and asking both candidates you know what their availability was and you know we learned some good
information from that for both of them anything else anybody we have a motion and a second on the table I sorry I just have one question yeah are we going to have to pay for her to go through the superintendent induction or did she already do that as an assistant
superintendent it just kind of came into my head I can answer you can okay they do have to do an induction as an assistant and it's the same as a superintendent induction okay so everything's all set she should have completed her all right
good mentoring but I wouldn't say that that would negate a responsibility to support her but sure well maybe we could get Rick to do that thank you ter there we go Al there we go problem solved problem solved may we could get Rick to Mentor yeah it would be great to be
unified on this but that's a great suggestion any additional discussion to come forward no I just I agree with all the sentiments that were shared and you know I'd like to look forward and you know move forward and I think that Dr starky
gives us the best opportunity for that all right um I would ask for a a roll call vote for consensus with the school committee uh to be able to go into negotiations
with Dr Barbara starky for the position of interm superintendent yes we SLE yes siia I just have one question sorry who is that negotiations from done with the chair and the vice how does that work
negotiations it's typically the chair okay okay thank you yes Clark yes Jen Blum yes Courtney breitman yes Ching yes Carolina Hernandez I
obain okay motion passes I thank everybody for this this was a tough decision good problem to have no thank you and again thank you to the search committee thank you very much
and Renee obviously for all the coordination thank you thank you make I'll make a motion to adjourn second second all in favor Clos thank you
everyone for