Seeing the time is 6 o'clock on May 13th um 2026. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Freetown Lakeville Regional School Committee. Um we start with roll call. >> Melinda Richards >> here. >> Courtney Breitman >> here. >> Bob Clark. >> Tim Emory
>> here. Becky Kushing >> here. >> Catherine Tr >> here. >> Eric Maderas >> here. >> Jen Blum is in absent. >> Um, no. If everyone will please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Um, okay. And I'd like to acknowledge our administrative team. Director of student services, Miss Kelly Steel,
director of curriculum, Miss Terry Fleming, director of finance, Mr. Jack Higgins, and superintendent, Dr. Barbara Saki. Um, and before we begin, I would like to ask if anyone is recording this meeting besides Lake Cam.
Okay, seeing no one, um, thank you Lake Cam for being here once again. Um, okay. And now I would like to start with the chairperson's report. >> So, Madam Chair, >> we have um public input
scheduled here and um I understand that we have a budget update for FY27 with um new assessment sheets and votes required. So, I would suggest um or make a motion to move public input to after that update so that the public has an
opportunity to hear it and um then comment or ask questions if they would like. >> Okay. >> So, I made the motion to move public input to after the budget presentation. >> Was that a second? >> That was a second. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Um so, we have a motion and a second. Is
there any discussion? >> Okay. No discussion. Um, do we have to roll call or? >> No. All in favor? >> Okay. So, um, all in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Any um, anyone in favor? >> Opposed? >> Anyone opposed? There we go. All right.
And any abstensions? >> Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. So now um I will start with the chairperson's report um which in this case I just wanted to um address
some of the recent discussion. Um we had a question a little while ago. I have already um read the statement in at the in public um but just want to reiterate it for anyone who has not had a chance to hear it um regarding last year's use
of the excess and deficiency funds um as well as the as well as the teacher contract ratified um at our last meeting. School committee understands and respects the concern about using one-time funds for ongoing expenses. That concern is valid. Last year's use
of END was not meant as a long-term solution, but as a temporary bridge. It allowed us to make necessary progress toward more competitive teacher compensation while also helping to avert a potential job action that could have disrupted learning. Without that funding, the district would have faced an additional 12 to 15 staff reductions
on top of the 11 positions already reduced and the approved budget for FY26. Given that our district already ranks among the lowest in Massachusetts in per pupil spending, the 11 positions were already being reduced, the additional 12 to 15 reductions would have had a direct and significant impact
on student services and educational opportunities. It's also important to recognize that we were operating under a timing constraint. The t the contract was ratified after the school committee had already approved the budget, leaving limited opportunity to revisit the assessments to our member towns. We are
fully aware that this approach is not sustainable long term. In fact, that was reflected in a separate vote last year when a proposal to use END to offset four staffing reductions was voted down by the school committee. We hear the concerns that have been raised and they are part of how we are thinking about
future decisions. At the same time, it's important to ground this conver conversation in context. Our district operates in the bottom tier of pure per pupil spending among comparable Massachusetts districts and our teacher salaries have consistently trended below market both the entry level and top
steps compared to similar south coast communities. When looking at the FY27 comps the first year of this new contract we are still consistently in the bottom third of South Coast districts. This new contract is designed to begin closing that gap not to exceed the market but to remain competitive. It
reflects three considerations. maintaining competitiveness with peer districts, aligning the real world economic pressures, and implementing changes in a phased financially responsible way. The large percentages being cited by some in the community acrew of multiple years and include step
progressions which are standard and public employee contracts. The structure of increases in teacher contracts align with previous town employee contracts. While concerns about cost are understandable, our educators are the single most important inschool factor affecting student outcomes. There are
real risks to remaining below market, particularly when it comes to recruiting and retaining highquality educators and maintaining long-term stability in the district. Turnover, vacancies, and instability and staffing directly affect student achievement and continuity of instruction. We remain committed to
fiscal responsibility, transparency, and continued collaboration with both member towns as we work to address long-term challenges while preserving the quality of education our students deserve. So, that was my report and um what is next?
Okay, next we need to reappoint the pool subcommittee. Um, so do we need to do them individually or can we move to reappoint them all together? >> Should be able to move all together with
one motion. >> I'd like to I'd like to make a motion to reappoint the pool subcommittee members as follows. Lisa Pacho, Diane Zapigga, Kristen Maro, and Lauren Began
uh to the pool subcommittee for another election year cycle. It was the last cycle was through uh this April's election. >> Okay. >> So, I think it's fair to do that again. um they will need to be sworn in again
at uh their respective town halls. Um this does not include moving forward with Sarah Dudley um on the pool subcommittee. So it'll it'll be the the other four members >> reappointing tonight. So I'd like to make a motion to reappoint them.
>> Second >> for another year. >> Okay. I hear a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> I do have a question. Um the original task was evaluating use and funding options, grants and partnerships. What is the new task or what are we
continuing with that task? Because I feel like a lot of that's been done. So is there anything? >> We voted uh uh oh gosh, >> January. >> Yeah, at a January meeting. I did look at the minutes. We essentially voted them a new um purview. >> So they're working on the same tasks as
before. Um, >> no. In January, it was voted that we would be able to continue with uh fundraising efforts as well as uh decision making for the uh moving forward with repairs
um and leasing of the pool as necessary and and reporting back to the school committee. And you'll hear about that at tonight's pool committee report. Um but that was the change that was made in January voted by the full school committee. I'd have to look at it again. I
definitely know we voted to move forward um with raising the money and then I don't I'm unsure if that meant that we would have to come back here with any >> it would >> anything beyond like okay now next step you know um
>> can't I can't wait for the pool subcommittee report tonight where you'll hear more about >> uh our expectations for uh our new uh potential new mission but Um there was a change in January though
that allowed us to proceed with fundraising and moving forward with with some action. >> Yeah. The school district the school committee is still retaining oversight though because it's our building >> 100%. >> Okay. >> Okay. So um a motion and a second. Any
more discussion? Okay. Hearing none. Um all those is this roll call? Am I going to be unsure? Okay. So all those in favor >> I >> I >> All right. Any opposed
and any abstensions? >> Motion passes. >> I got distracted and not say I but I >> thank you. >> Okay. Um Okay. Our next order of business is the
ARHS student representative report. >> Good evening. I hope everyone is having a great week so far. It is crazy to think that the year is coming to an end, especially for all of us seniors who will be graduating in less than four
weeks. The before April vacation, the Aponquit student council ran their annual Aonocon game night, which was a great success. The following day, members of the club visited the Lakeville Council on Aging to meet with older adults in the community and tell
them about our fundraising efforts throughout this week. We were delighted to have dedicated dog be nice week to the council on aging. As the tournament entry fee for aon, we required each student bring a canned good, which were then brought to the COA for their food
pantry. This was a great opportunity for Aonoquit students to engage in intergenerational discussions with members of the community. During the end of April break and into the days that followed, 13 students represented Ponoquit at the DECA
International Career Development Conference in Atlanta. Congratul Congratulations to all students who qualified and competed at this wonderful event. Last but not least, today a group of students led a memorial service in
the courtyard for multiple members of the Aonoquit community that we have lost in the past couple of years. I would like to thank all of the students that came together to make this happen. They spent countless hours preparing for this event and building a memorial garden in
the courtyard. This memorial service was widely attended and proved the strong sense of community that the students and staff share here at Aponquip. That being said, I will be sad to leave this community behind in just 23 days.
Over the past four years, and especially this past year, I have grown tremendously as a person, not only academically, but socially, civically, and personally. Serving as a student representative on the school committee has been one of the most meaningful
experiences of my high school career. More than anything, it has taught me the importance of listening, patience, and advocating for others in a thoughtful and constructive way. It has shown me that real progress comes from difficult
conversations, collaboration, and a willingness to understand perspectives beyond your own. This year, I've been fortunate to have had the incredible opportunities such as speaking at the state house and helping develop a student advisory committee that will be
implemented next year to strengthen student advocacy within the school committee. Seeing ideas turn into action has taught me that student voices truly matter and that leadership is not simply about speaking
but about creating space for others to be heard as well. Next year I will be attending Mbury College to study economics and international politics with hopes of one day pursuing a career in high finance. As I move into this next chapter of my life, I will carry
with me the lessons, experiences, and relationships that this community has given me. I am deeply appreciative of all of your efforts, guidance, and support, and I want to thank you for giving me this incredible opportunity to represent my teachers and peers this
year. It has truly been an honor. I thank you again. I think I think the school committee has something for you and I think they're anticipating you starting a trend here of walking the inner circle and shaking everybody's hand. So did do you want to
present yours Molly together? >> Um to pick up where Cam left off, now that AP testing season is coming to an end, at the conclusion of this week, seniors are finally free. With that comes a lot of exciting events ahead. AP Spanish students have their field trip
to El Mariachi's on Monday the 18th. There will also be the NHS chord ceremony on the 21st at 6 p.m. in the auditorium here at ARHS. This ceremony will honor all of the National Honor Society senior members and award them with a cord which will be worn at
graduation. Additionally, the science award ceremony will be held here in the library after school on Tuesday, May 26th to highlight all of the students who have exemplified academic success in a variety of science courses. That night is also the student council banquet where the student council seniors will
pass the torch to the underclassman members. This leads us up to our senior finals and on May 29th, the senior lockin. This year, a little bit revamped, the senior lock-in will be held from 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. where there will be lots of exciting activities. Some of the
events to look forward to include candy bar bingo, family feud, cap decorating, a talent show, and a pep rally style event in the gym. Shortly after, there will be the senior sendoff on Tuesday, June 2nd, and that night, the senior awards assembly at 600 p.m. in the auditorium. And last, but certainly not
least, June 4th will be the senior banquet held at Learon Hills Country Club. And June 5th is a senior walk through the schools and that night graduation. I know I hit you guys with a lot of events, but this just goes to show how much work our staff puts into honoring our students, especially our
seniors. Now, I do want to shift gears as this is Cam and I's last meeting just to thank all of you for this amazing opportunity I have had to speak on behalf of the Aonoquit student body every month. Being an ARHS representative, I have been able to gain so much knowledge about the school district and I've been so touched by all
the passion we possess as a district and a variety of interests and clubs. One of my favorite parts of these meetings is seeing the different guests who come and show off their clubs. Additionally, I have loved being able to meet all of you and be a part of something that is so important to the vitality of our
district. Thank you. Thank you. I suppose on behalf of the school committee and the school administration, I would like >> you came this way so we can hug you and so speak. >> I would like to thank the two of you for being our student representatives this past year. We've really enjoyed hearing
about everything happening at the high school. Your presentations have been thorough and very well prepared. Your dedication to staying for the entire meeting, even when they last as long as three hours sometimes, is very appreciated. We're grateful for the time and energy you have devoted to your roles. And as you prepare for graduation
and opp and the opportunities ahead of you, we wish both of you continued success in your all your future's endeavors. All your future endeavors. We have no doubt that you both have very bright futures ahead of you. >> I haven't gotten weepy over Thomas and
I'm about to cry here. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Here me from crying too. >> I really you know you know that >> I do. Yeah.
>> Thank you. Again, thank you to you so much. >> All right. Um, and next we have the superintendent report. >> Thank you very much. It is my honor and privilege tonight to present to you the top 10 students in Aponica's graduating
class. And I'll be calling to the microphone right now, Principal Caitlyn Dessert to introduce each of our students. >> I am very proud to introduce this um top 10, the top 10. These represent the top 10 grade point averages of the class of
2026. The most competitive class I've seen in my 26 years. Uh I always encourage students to pursue interests in the journey that are not influenced only by the weight or prestige of a class. and they've managed to do both. And their healthy
competition had to reach the top 10 is applauded and impressive. But the next step is to compete against your own personal best. And I know you will rise to that challenge. You are impressive role models to our student body and our community. First to the microphone is
number 10, Alana Gurnie. I have Oh, okay. >> Don't scare me like that. >> That was a scare, wasn't it? It was your sympathetic nervous system, right? You wear that in a piece. >> Yeah. >> My fault. It's okay. Panic.
It's >> right behind your face. >> There we go. >> There you go. Good evening. My name is Alana Granny and I'd like to start by saying that it is an honor to be speaking here today. I can now confidently say that it was worth the countless all-nighters pulled
and the caffeine addiction created to be here. One of my proudest achievements throughout my high school experience has been receiving the science academic award of excellence in engineering, honors biology, honors chemistry, and AP chemistry. I am also a recipient of the AP Scholar Award and the John and
Abigail Adams Award. I have taken eight AP classes and thankfully as of tomorrow, I will have taken my last AP exam. Additionally, I am a competitor and serve as a senior class representative for DECA where my partner Molly and I have placed on district and state levels. Some of my fondest moments
here at Aponit have been at the DECA competitions, staying up late, laughing in our hotel rooms, listening to music, and hyping each other up while getting ready to compete, and making it up on the stage when placing at our events. Alongside school, a large part of my life has been dedicated to working. I
work as a server and manager at a restaurant on the weekends and am the administrative coordinator and coach at Lakeville Mix Martial Arts during the week. Having the opportunity to create an impact on the youth of our community has been one of the greatest privileges. I am beyond grateful to each student,
training partner, MMA mom, and coach I have had the pleasure of working and growing up with, specifically my sensei John Miranda. I could not have asked for a better mentor, coach, and boss to have guided me along the way. I couldn't have become the student I am today without the meaningful relationships I have created with the teachers in our
district. I want to thank Miss T from Asawset Elementary for furthering my love for organization, allowing me to come in early, sorting bins of art supplies, and buying me my first label maker, which was certainly put to good use. Another teacher who I'd like to thank is Miss Ma for showing me that it
is okay to have patience with myself and teaching me to work with a smile on my face. On that note, two teachers that were always able to put a smile on my face despite the challenging course loads are Miss Gray and Mr. Pino. I could not express my appreciation enough for the countless hours they ever so
willingly put into answering my endless questions. Although I could not possibly mention all of the teachers for my educational experience. I am beyond grateful to each and every one of them for the lessons they have taught me. Above all else, I would like to convey my immense gratitude for my parents.
Thank you for the work ethic you imprinted, the compassion you have taught, and the support that never faltered. Most importantly, thank you for always turning the TV volume down to listen to my nightly rants about the ups and downs of my day. I also want to thank my peers. It has been a pleasure growing up with you and competing with
you at the same time. Thank you for the unwavering sense of competition and resilience you have instilled in me. I, as should the rest of you, take it as a compliment that the school decided to no longer inform the underclassmen of their rank. Next year, I will be attending Northeastern University in the in Boston
in the John Martinsson honors program. I am majoring in biology on a pre-med track with the hopes of becoming a doctor in the future. Becoming a physician has been a lifelong dream of mine and I'm excited to move on to the next step in my journey. Although we are all heading in different directions next year, I know that the resilience,
determination, and sense of community fostered in the Freetown Lakeville district will stick with us for a lifetime. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING. NUMBER NINE, we have Mia Fado. On the bucket list I created in freshman year, I said I want to do three things.
get high honors every term, participate in the Eboard in DECA, and become a part of the top 10 in my class. I am proud to say that I have accomplished all three of these. During my high school years, I took nine AP classes and ended up with the title of AP Scholar with honor. In
addition to this, I was awarded the school recognition award from college board, the John Abigail Adams Scholarship, and an aonquit science award for engineering. However, I was not only focused on work academically and I participated in many extracurricular activities. The most
notable clubs I was involved in were DECA as secretary and a part of the heat press team, the select choir and the aonquit tech and engineering club as secretary. One of my highlights of every single year was going to DECA districts and states and hanging out with some of my best friends and also winning awards.
I've been able to meet so many people from all over the state and hang out in Boston, which is one of the things that I'm most looking forward to next year. When I applied for college, I knew exactly where I want to go and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. From when I was a child, my auntie Lee and
Uncle Mitch had such a profound impact on my life and were one of the one driving factors influencing my decision to pursue my major in Boston. They would always take me to the Museum of Science and it began my passion for STEM. they would always take oh sorry this fall I
am honored to say that I will be ma majoring in mechanical engineering at Northeastern University on the Boston campus somebody who helped me through my engineering journey was Mr. He has been the best teacher and when it when it comes to his exuberant personality, infinite supply of
knowledge and guidance whenever I had tech questions. I don't think I could name somebody who knows more about random facts and anything ever than him. Another teacher who has significantly impacted my life has been Mr. Bosanau, my eighth grade ELA teacher. Even after
all these years, he still holds a firm place in as one of my favorite teachers. In the period of middle school where I didn't believe much in myself, he was somebody who I knew always believed in me. I am grateful to have him hand me my diploma at graduation, which is
mind-boggling that it's so close. One of my favorite memories at a panquit was the senior walk since it was such a pivotal full circle moment for many. I remember seeing the seniors and thinking I had so much time left and now I can't believe in two weeks that it will be me walking down the same hallways of which
I've grown and grown up in. It will be a bit bittersweet moment when I step in to receive my diploma after years of hard work and effort knowing that this closing is only the beginning of more to come. Finally, it goes without saying that I'm eternally grateful for my parents' support through all my
endeavors. And it would be criminal not to mention their great generosity and sacrifice in helping me achieve all that I've ever wanted to succeed. I am proud to have been an aonquit student and I am excited for the next stages OF MY LIFE.
JOSEPH SYLVIA IS eighth in his class. He was not able to attend this evening, but he will be attending the University of South Carolina studying chemistry. Next, we have number seven, Patrick Irwin. Good evening everybody. Once again, my
name is Patrick Irwin and I'm honored to have this opportunity to speak here tonight in front of all of you. To talk about myself for a little bit, in my time at Aponquit, I've been the recipient of awards from the science and music departments as well as the annual Laker film festival. Last year, I also
placed second in the school's voice of democracy essay contest. My plan for next year is to attend Bryant University to study communications and film production in the honors program. Storytelling and writing has always been a passion of mine. So, it was an unexpected yet exciting opportunity to come here tonight and give a speech of
my own. To be frank, I've had an easier time than a lot of my friends grappling with the reality of graduation. I know that I'm ready for a change. But regardless of that change or where I go, I will have brought the knowledge, character, and memories that I owe to my family and
community. As I said in a speech last year to our student council, aqua is weird, in the best way. It's a school that's home to all sorts of idiosyncratic happenings and chaos. I was asked by a superintendent, Dr. Starky, to identify
my fondest memory of my time here in school. But I feel that the memory that is most representative of the case I wish to make here tonight was last year during my AP US history exam when the school's fire alarm went off and we lost about 20 minutes of testing time. In
spite of this, however, I and many of my fellow A pushers received a five on the exam without retaking it. For me, I believe I owe that almost entirely to our teacher, Mr. Ket, and the standards he held us to. And I think that's where I realized where the real beauty of my
high school is. not in its fire alarm fire alarms or ceiling tiles, but in the people that breathe life into it. It's not the leaks or the termites that Mrs. Gray has practically declared war on by now, but the human connections that make all of the chaos worth it. You've got
teachers like Mr. Lec who run the theater department year round while keeping it self-funded. You've got teachers like Mr. Solomon who organized the most wacky, weird, and frankly beautiful events I've ever seen, including a literal medieval festival. Yeah, go ask about that one.
>> And you've got teachers like my mother, Mrs. Irwin, who makes her mere presence a home for any type of kid under the sun. I could go on and on, but I believe I've taken up enough time as it is. It has been a pleasure speaking to all of you here tonight, and I thank you for having me. But to all the teachers that
have enriched the lives of myself and my peers, regardless of your compensation, I thank you. Number six, we have Hannah K. Good evening everyone. My name is Hannah Kershack and I'm honored to be speaking to you today. I hope to take this time to not only share with you my
accomplishments, but the impact this school has had on me over the last four years. Academically, I took nine AP classes and I'm honored to have received the science award for AP Biology, the Abigail and Addis Abigail and Adam Scholarship Award, and the AP Scholar Award. However, what shaped such a large
part of my high school experience is what I did outside of the classroom. In cross country and basketball, I was awarded multiple SEC and all-star and super team awards, was a two-time all-state qualifier for cross country, broke the three-point record for most in a game, and expressed a thousand career
points this past basketball season. Despite all of these awards I achieved, the most meaningful one to me would have to be the one I got with my team. My fondest memory from high school would be when we made the final four for the first time in over 25 years. What made
us so special was not only the records we broke, but the fact that we did it together as a family, and that is a bond I know will last a lifetime. Additionally, I've been blessed with the opportunity to coach basketball in town alongside my teammates for the last 5 years. Witnessing the kids with posters at our games and coming up to us to take
pictures showed me the true impact I had on the future of our community, and it's something I will forever cherish. Beyond athletics, I became very involved with clubs at our school. I am fortunate to serve as the community service coordinator for NHS, the social chair for green team and as a class
representative for our senior class student government. I'm also an active member of DECA in which I had the opportunity to compete in states at Boston for the last four years. The best part of these clubs was the collaboration with my peers, whether it be planning and setting up events or just hanging out after competitions.
In addition to my peers, some of the people that have impacted me most would have to be my teachers. First, I would like to thank Mr. Bosnau, who wrote every single student of his a personalized letter to conclude the year. And what made mine so special was that he reminded me my inquisitive nature was not something to be ashamed
of, but was the key to my success. And on that note, thank you to Miss Gray, who had to deal with me for three years, asking her millions of questions. Another teacher I would like to thank is Miss Ferrer, who inspired me to pursue a career in the medical field and showed unwavering belief in me throughout one
of my hardest courses at Aonoquit. Although I may not have said this while writing my 5-hour lab summaries or staying up late in the night, I believe that her constant drive to make us all better truly pushed me to my fullest potential. I would like to finally thank my parents who never missed a game or event and were supportive of me through
every step of the way. More importantly, they forced me to choose my own path even when I wanted them to give me all the answers and showed me to grow into a more independent person. Next year, I plan to attend Villanova University and major in biology with hopes of one day becoming a physician. And I'm proud to
say that my experiences at Aponquit will help me with all these future endeavors. Thank you for listening. Number five, you know Molly McCarthy. Hi, my name is Molly McCarthy and I'm definitely a familiar face here as I have the great privilege of co-representing ARHS at the school
committee meetings every month. And without further ado, when given this prompt to write about our school experience, I really had no idea where to start. But after thinking about it more, I wanted to start from the beginning. So, a little bit about me is that I grew up in a private school. I
attended private school from with the school called Small Wonders, which is before preschool. Um, up all the way up until the end of fourth grade. The summer going into the fifth grade, my parents decided it was time for me to step outside my comfort zone, meet new people, and experience everything a
public school education had to offer. The first day of fifth grade came around in a new school district with new teachers and new classmates. And as an anxious little girl, I'll admit I did cry. But that anxious feeling never lasted. From that day on, I have been greeted with open arms by teachers,
staff, and classmates who truly want to know me and want to build a meaningful connection with me. One of the most special things about our school district is just how amazing our teachers are. In the entirety of my intermediate school, middle school, and high school experience, I have never once had a
teacher I was unable to connect with or has ever made me feel like I'm just another student. So much so that when asked the simple question, who would you like to give you your diploma? It was one of the hardest questions I've had to answer. Obviously, not including AP bio, AP Chem, or AP Calc. But seriously,
every single one of my teachers has made a lasting impact on my life and has helped me develop as a person and as a student. Whether that be staying after school to help me understand the lesson or showing interest in my hobbies and sports, all of my teachers have helped me become the person I am today in one
way or another. Another incredible aspect about this district is how great our afterchool programs are. Throughout middle school and high school, I have been in a fair share of clubs. From NJHS to NHS, storytelling, DECA, HOSA, art clubs, student government, student
council, Laker leaders, volleyball, and more. I've been able to express myself and develop important life skills in a fun and engaging way. But yet again, it all comes back to our teachers. Our teachers run and organize these clubs, which shows just how much they put into their students and helping them become
successful in every way possible. Just to name a few, I have never felt more supported in school than by Mrs. Sheety, Mrs. Roberts, who is now Miss Long, and Mrs. Lever in middle school. Miss LMPT and Mrs. Nardi are the reasons why I love Spanish so much and I'm going to
minor in it in college. I truly struggled in AP chemistry, but Mr. Pina was always understanding and put the time in to help me understand what we were doing. I hated history, but having Mrs. Tvaris completely changed how I viewed the subject. And Miss Ferrer really helped me strengthen how I
approached school work and is why I'm majoring in biology. But I could talk about every single one of my teachers. With their support inside of school and the support from my mom, dad, brother, sister, and friends outside of school, I've been able to get into the University of Georgia while I will spend
my next four years preparing for med school in hopes of becoming a physician. Looking back on how far I've come, I can't help but be proud of myself, as well as be proud of all the extraordinary people beside me tonight. Thank you, Freetown Lakeville Schools, for providing me with an amazing place to grow, learn, and flourish in every
way possible. Thank you. Number four, Vidia Sandash. Good evening, school committee. My name is Vidyia Santhto and I would like to thank you for the chance to speak here tonight. During my time at Aponoquit, I have been an involved member of student government, DECA, and life club for the
past four years. I'm also the co-founder of our school's HOSA chapter. I have received the science award for honors and AP biology as well as anatomy and physiology. In addition, I am the recipient of the University of Rochester Bowinom Honorary Science Award as well
as the Francis W. Galasha Memorial Award for Academic Excellence. My fondest memories at ARHS include spending time with my best friends at school events like homecoming and prom, as well as working with friends at nightly student council meetings to plan spirit events
for the school. I'm grateful for all of my teachers who have helped me get to this point in my academic career. I would specifically like to thank Mr. Bosano at FLMS and Miss Ferrer and Mrs. Gray here at Aonoquit. I'm inspired by these teachers for their consistent
dedication to teaching and bettering their students. I have truly learned so much from these teachers and would be remiss not to acknowledge their hard work and passion for teaching. I would also like to thank my parents and my sister for all of their support over these past years as I would not be where
I am today without their kindness and encouragement. This fall I will be attending Tus University where I intend to major in biocsychology on a premedical track and I aspire to become a pediatric oncologist in the future. Thank you. Number three, Nor McC.
Hi, my name is Nora Mccclurken and thank you so much for inviting me to speak tonight. My four years at this school district has been filled with so many wonderful memories and people. From countless laughter-filled swim meets to fascinating science labs, I couldn't have asked for a better high school experience.
During my time in Aponquit, I have the opportunity to take nine AP courses and received AP AP Scholar with honors recognition. I also co-founded and co-ran the health occupation students of America club where I placed third at the
state level in my competitive category. This success was only possible because of my family, friends, and teachers who I would like to thank sincerely. In particular, I would like to thank my third grade teacher, Mr. Delo, who pushed me to follow my dreams, even if it was becoming president of the United States. While my dreams have changed
since then, the sentiment of following my dreams in hopes of creating a better world has stuck with me and was further solidified by Miss Ferrero's encouragement and guidance and pursu pushing me to pursue a career in medicine. As I move toward graduation, I know that the solid educational foundation that I have built at Aponica
will help set me up for success at Northeastern University, where I'll major in biochemistry on a premedical track. Our saludiatoran, Ashna Cantum Galathy. Good evening, school committee. My name is Ashna Cantamothy and I'm so excited
to be speaking with you today. Over my 12 years within the school district, I've created lifelong memories, lifelong friends, and I have undeniably grown in more ways than I could ever count. I vividly remember eagerly standing in line at the bookf fair, getting ready to run the turkey trot, the many mask
breaks and hybrid learning during middle school, and the unforgettable memories of high school, including DECA field trips and odd field trips like the Romeo and Juliet play during our freshman year. During my time at Aponquit, I have received six science award and the Rensler scholarship.
I want to thank my teachers throughout all four years of high school because of their support and guidance as I navigated my high school years. I especially want to thank Miss Ferrer, for continuously pushing me in AP biology to critically think and remind me every day that bio is life. I also
want to thank my teacher, Mrs. Mills for helping me find a deep passion for physics during my junior and senior years and for always taking extra time to make sure that we were all comfortable with what we were learning. Last but not least, I want to forever thank my parents and my siblings and my
best friends for being the brightest light whenever school got extremely difficult. As I end my aponquid high school journey, I can't wait to start a new one at UMass Amherst Commonwealth Honors College, where I plan to major in biology and on the premed premedical track in hopes of one day becoming a
physician. Thank you. And our validictorian, Luca Rabini. Hello everyone. I'm honored to speak here on behalf of Aponic's top 10. During high school, I took nine AP courses while also staying involved in my school committee. I was a part of the Buzzards Bay coalition and I served as
class treasurer and now executive board treasurer, competed in DECA and advanced to the international career development conference in financial services team decision-making and participated on the varsity cross country team. I've also received the AP Scholar Award and a science award for every science class
that I've taken. When thinking about my fondest memories at Uponquit, I honestly can't pinpoint a single moment. Instead, I'll always just remember the people that I have met over the past four years. Whether it was having conversation before class, laughing with friends in the hallways, or even shared academic
struggles, those are the moments where we have all made a bond and made a Pontip feel more than just a school. When mentioning school staff who have truly impacted my life, I would first have to mention Miss Gray. I've had her for three out of my four years in high school, including AP Calculus, and she is easily one of the best teachers that
I've ever had. She truly cares about her student success and puts so much effort into helping every student improve, and as a student, that is something you really notice and appreciate. Another amazing teacher that would I would have to mention would have to be Miss Kirk. Her passion for environmental science really made the class engaging and
introduced me to a topic that I never expected to enjoy so much. Her enthusiasm while teaching really made a difference in the classroom. I'd also love to thank my parents and the amazing school staff at Aponquit who have supported me throughout high school along with my closest friends for always being there for me and making these four
years so memorable. Next year I'll be attending Boston College and majoring in finance. I hope to one day live in either Boston or New York City as an investment banker and I know that the lessons and experience I gained at Aponquit will stay with me for all the years to come. Thank you.
We'd all like to thank you for giving us this opportunity to present. It's one of the greatest nights of the year and that's saying a lot because you have a lot of great nights coming up. But it really does highlight how impressive this group is. So, thank you for doing so. And if you could stand for another
round of applause. I think you can lead the charge around. >> Hi. >> Okay, great. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you.
>> Congratulations. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Somebody just >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Are we taking a little >> Yeah, I was going to say I think we have some refreshments for the top 10. So,
we're taking a recess. Is that right? >> Yes. 10 minutes. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. We're um we're going to take a little 10-minute break for um a little recess from the meeting. We have some refreshments for the top 10. Celebrate you.
>> So, all right. Go ahead. >> 10. We are back. Congratulations once again to the class of 2026's top 10. Um, and then Dr. Stucky, you're still Thank you. I'll move on to the next topic on the agenda. Uh, we have uh
policy updates. I think you might hear a little bit more about this from the policy subcommittee later, but the policy subcommittee chair uh Miss Breitman asked me to just quickly walk through these policies. Uh they were reviews reviewed at the subcommittee meeting. Um and uh the subcommittee
voted to move these policies forward for your review. This is your first review. Uh if you had any questions, you could certainly ask them this evening or during the subcommittee uh session or you could always ask them at the next meeting uh when you are asked to vote on them. So the first policy is from section I English language learners
policy IHBA. It's a simple change. Uh we now service students as required by law uh rather than K through 12 preK to 12. Uh section I homeschooling policy IHGB. Uh it is a change in the DESIE competency determination to the
district's competency determination at the bottom of the policy. You might remember that some time ago the district adopted as required uh by statute the local competency determination section I responsible use policy. Uh this is
policy JN DB-R there should not be an A on the slide behind me R. Um it is a clearer and more specific responsible use policy. It outlines uh definitions um relevant terms and it addresses the scope of our
use of all technological devices across the district and that policy is for students and staff. Section I is a faculty social media policy JNDD. This again is a complete upgrade. Uh it is clearer, more specific and includes uh
definitions and a scope uh of what's expected from our faculty when engaging in social media. Moving on, section D is uh in the finance section, it's authorized signatures policy DGA. It uh identifies signitories and the timing of
payroll and vendors from release to signature and presentation at school committee. Section D is purchasing authority uh policy DJ. It's an update to the policy to make us compliant with state expectations and applicable Massachusetts general law. Section D,
expenses and reimbursements policy DKC, uh just simply updates the policy related to uh the reimbursement rate for mileage so that every time there's a change in the mileage rate uh at the at the governmental level, we don't have to revisit the policy. Section J, student
activities, uh that's policy JJF. Probably the most significant adjustment there is the dispersement of funds when uh a student activity uh ceases to be or when a class graduates from the school. Uh moving along, section J, there's a
school health policy, JLC, uh a change from doctor to licensed physician. That's alignment with an MASC policy. Uh it specifies parent consent for medications and details some of the things about medication that need to be listed on the bottle and the labeling in the uh paperwork from the doctor's
office, the physician's office. Section J is physical examination of students JLCA. It's a simple change uh indicating that the physician's note that is received by the principal at each school goes to the nurse for review. So it's reviewed by our medical uh professionals
in the district. Section J is inoculation of students JLCB. Again, it's a change in terminology from doctor to licensed physician or provider. Section J, administer administering medications to students policy JLCD.
This is a policy that now uh depending on whether you voted or not would align with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees policy which now includes all of the updates uh to DPH language around 105 CMR. And then
section J is a new policy uh presented here in the district, the self- administration and self-care of medications when appropriate. That's uh policy JLCDC. Again, it's a recommendation of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees that you adopt that policy. Uh and it that
policy upon adoption would include updates to DPH language sufficient. Uh, Chair Bryman, chair of the subcommittee. Breman. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Moving on, I have the pleasure tonight of acknowledging uh Chief O'Brien from uh the Lakeville Fire
Department. He wrote for and achieved a grant. The sum total of the grant is $8,556.28 for the Lakeville Fire Department and that is for the fire prevention and education for students and senior citizens in the community. Uh the grant
money is used for equipment and materials to support an education program here in the district. And we'd certainly like to thank Chief O'Brien for writing for and attaining that grant that will benefit uh both the students and our senior citizens in the community. And then moving right along,
we have a donation this evening uh that we're asking you to accept. It's a donation in the amount of $27 from Brinker International, otherwise known as the headquarters for Chili's restaurant. It is proceeds from sales for an evening that the student council at Aponquit held. The intention of the
student council at Aponoquit was to then in turn donate the money to the council on aging in Lakeville. Uh after conversation with uh Joseph Solomon who is the um adviser for student council. He said that the students had agreed to round that number up and they were
anticipating taking that $27 into their student activity account for student council, augmenting that to $100 and making a donation uh to the council on aging. So later on this evening, you'd be asked to accept that donation. Don't know if anybody has any questions about that.
>> It'll be $100 donated. >> It should be $100 going to the Lakeville Council on Aging. You're accepting tonight though the $27 donation coming in from Chili's. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Great. >> And then the last thing tonight uh we we
did uh pres pro provide you and we will be posting tomorrow uh a presentation about our school improvement plans. You may remember earlier this year we adopted threeear school improvement plans for each of our schools. And each of those plans have three and I believe the high school might even have four
goals. uh and each of the principles in conjunction with their building based administrators have provided you with an update for how those goals have gone now that they're in the first year of those goals. You can take a look at those. If you have any questions, please reach out and again we'll present those for the community and you can look forward to a
more detailed presentation in September when they remind us all of what their goals are. They talk about what they've accomplished and then what are the immediate steps for next year as it as they relate to each of those goals. There any questions about that? Thank you very much. Hearing none and
through the chair, we'll move on to Terry Fleming, director of curriculum and assessment. >> Okay. Good evening. I just have a few items. This is our second reading for the history adoption uh through Savas Interactive. We are requesting approval of the adoption of updated history books
from SAS Interactive online version and class sets. These books have been curated and vetted according to the curriculum policy IGD which is the curriculum adoption policy and JJ the selection and adoption of textbooks. So I'll pause to see if there are any
further questions around the materials. >> This is what you presented recently. Right. Perfect. Thank you. And then I'm requesting uh approval uh to receive two grants that were for AP
training. One is through the ACS chemistry life hawk professional development grant for AP chemistry training. Um Mr. Michael Pelino is going to be the recipient of additional training in AP chemistry. Um that grant is $1,800 and allows him to go to St.
John's um AP training and covers the cost of the training and um his travel. And then the second AP training grant is from Mr. Rosa as we start our um business AP business course for our pathway. Um this is $750 from Mass
Insight to pay for his AP business and finance training. And if there are any questions on those, great. And then I just wanted to quickly highlight that civics um is happening throughout the district. Um our civics
projects in grade 8 and 11 are are quickly coming to a culmination. There are a couple of dates um Thursday, May 21st that the eighth grade is doing their local showcase and the 11th grade is doing theirs June 10th to 18th. Sandwiched in between them is uh we have three middle school groups and three
high school groups that will be going to the regional civic showcase in um Dartmouth on the 29th. We also have two freshman leaders that are returning from winning their their projects were winners last year um and they are returning to be leaders at the com at
the showcase. So big shout out to Miss Barnacote, Mr. Rutled and Mr. Laru and Mr. Well, well, >> hearing no questions. I think uh Miss Fleming had put some pictures up there so you could see what was happening during poetry week. >> Yep. >> And I believe we're moving on to Mr.
Higgins uh who's going to begin by presenting the FY26 budget update. >> Thank you. So uh in FY26 we are as always continuing the process of tracking and analyzing our expenditures as well as overview of our revenues received from the from the towns as well
as from the state. Um our revenues are in are in alignment uh as well as our expenditures are in line with prior years. As I shared with you at their last meeting uh we review over a 10-year period. We look at where we are um at May 1st, April 1st each year um to
compare what our percentage expenditures are from one year to the next. Not just expenditures but incumbrances. Uh and so currently we are within 1% of where we were in FY25 in terms of our expenditures incumbrances in alignment with what we would expect this at this point.
Actually it's 6 just so you know it's 6%. Um, in terms of our FY27, um, we do have a new budget, uh, number for you to, uh, review and to vote on tonight. The, um, Are we going to Is that in the
present presentation? Let me just >> We updated the the budget presentation. So, the first thing we do is truncate it because we we've been through the traces with you uh, over and over again since January 12th. Uh, so we modified the presentation, but it's good for the public to know that all of our budget
presentations are available on our site and we are always available to answer questions on anything, but in particular while we're talking about the budget, the budget. Uh, this evening's presentation is a truncated version of what you've seen. Uh, and it really just kind of walks you through how we get to
the new assessment sheet you'd be looking at uh, this evening. So, Mr. Higgins, if you want to uh, the the first are we there? Okay, great. The first slide just kind of takes us back to where we always go, right? What we were looking for uh this year in recognizing our ripple and thinking
about the decisions that we make. Uh the second slide reminds us that the level service budget that the school committee did vote on um would ensure our students uh these same daily academic, social, civic, athletic uh experiences that they
have today, tomorrow. With that, um, our next slide takes us into what we've been talking about, uh, over and over again. Some of the funding formulas that we are subject to that could use some serious scrutiny if not updating by our, uh, elected officials. So, I always like to
point out to the public that we have some form letters here that you can always access and fill out and send those along to the elected officials who are too uh, looking at those formulas. And with that, I'm going to turn things over to Mr. Higgins on slide five will take you back to uh February 25th.
>> So on February 25th, we presented a budget uh to the school committee uh at which point the recommended budget number was 50 3,319,217. This included federal grant money um so that you could see a a larger picture of what our entire budget is including uh
the expenditures from the um for the general fund as well as school choice as well as circuit breaker and and include in that also the expenditures that we make for through our federal bank federal grants. This uh resulted our the corresponding general fund budget with
that was $49,542,654. uh when compared to the prior year it was $3,454,915 greater than the prior year. This town assessments as a result uh for Freetown the assessment was 15,44,195 and for Lakeville it was 20,134,181.
We reviewed excess and deficiency at that point and discussed the potential for using excess deficiency for one-time expenses that existed within the budget. At the following school committee meeting, there was there were three present uh options presented to the school committee. Option A, option A
plus, and option A+. Option A was all of the onetime expenses. Option A plus was all those onetime expenses plus one 30 thou approximately $30,000 um three-year subscription that could be prepaid at the beginning of FY27. It
wouldn't be uh returned to the budget for three years. The school committee voted to utilize um utilize END in the amount of $930,000 and then as a result adjusted the Freetown and Lakeville assessments in in
accordance in that case. What happened if if you'll see from the general fund, the general fund increased and that is because instead of the project of working on the fire suppression as a separate capital project, it was included in operations because it was going to be included as payment through
the END. So, it it was added to the general fund, but it was not assessed to the towns because it was covered by the END fund, the two $200,000 of the total number for END. This resulted in the town assessments uh
being uh 100 sorry for for Freetown amount of 14 million 641,365 and for Lakeville 19,66,827. On April 15th, um we had we presented to the uh school committee a we did not at
this point have an assessment or a vote, but it was we were still in the phases of waiting for some numbers to be received from the state relative to the House and Senate budgets. So, we identified for the school committee that we had that there was a $250,000 reduction to the budget as a result of a
move out for a uh student who is a residential out of district uh student. So, a significant reduction in the budget of $250,000. This uh without any change to the state money, this resulted in the FY27
assessment to Freetown being 14,533,98 and for Lakeville $19,465,94. Now, tonight we have um presenting to you, as I stated, we have not only the reduction of the $250,000,
but we also have some new um revenue from the state. So, the House had represent u the House had released a budget that increased chapter 70 uh by $221,596. It also increased the uh charter school
reimbursement um by $42,688. There was hope that with the Senate's budget release that there would be an additional increase to both chapter 70 and to charter school. There was not. Those numbers remained the same on the cherry sheet. There is some potential
for other funding coming from the state, but at this point there's no change in chapter 70 or in or in the um charter school reimbursement. But the total revenue increases is approximately 2.1%. However, with the cherry sheet, not only
do we get the identification of new revenue, but they also identify potential increase in charges. So with the charges that we get for students who are move going out of district for school choice as well as charges for students who live in our district who
may attend charter schools. So there was an increase in the um charter school I'm sorry increase in our our charges by the state of 60,000. So the reduction of our budget of 250,000 was tempered by the
increase in charges by the by the state of 60. So therefore, we had a reduction of $190,000, which is reflected here in the general fund number of $49,551,387. The vote to this this afternoon or this evening, pardon me, the vote this
evening that will um identify that change in budget and then also you will vote the um the assessments. Um that vote only makes a change to the non salary portion of the
budget. You'll see both. You'll vote both, but just so you know, it was a reduction in tuition. So it only brings down that portion of the budget. And of course, we separate them out because we have a school committee member who has a family member who's in the works in the district. >> And that's it. So we bring you to the
slide that we typically end with uh regarding next steps. So, as always, we continue to gather further information regarding the budget. We will update uh your budget books as needed, especially the electronic version that's accessible to the public. Uh we will update our presentations and continue to engage
stakeholders in important uh conversations around the budget. Uh and I have presented for you some dates uh upcoming dates of meetings. The override vote in Lakeville is May 19th from 12 to 8:00 p.m. at Lon Pond Lodge at Ted Williams Camp. There is a Freetown town meeting June 1st, 6 PM at Aonica
Regional High School. And there is a Lakeville town meeting June 8th at 6 PM at ARHS. And as always, there are various other meetings uh available on uh both Lakeville and Freetown's websites. Are there any questions right now
regarding the FY27 budget? I think at this time I'm turning things back over to the chair. >> Okay. Um, some concerns were raised at um, last night's uh, Lakeville Select Board meeting. Um and I wanted to read
um we received a letter um this particular letter addressed to myself and um Jen Blom who is not actually the um vice chair right now as Courtney is but um I wanted to read the letter he sent us
this afternoon um and have that reflected you know in the record. So, dear Miss Richards and Miss Bloom, we wanted to take a the chance to provide a full explanation related to questions
asked and action taken at the May 13th Select Board Finance Committee joint meeting regarding the Grace debt exclusion exclusion annual payments and the associated FY27 Freetown Lakeville Regional School District assessment. We want to be clear that we do not believe
that there is any wrongdoing on the schools or town's part. Further, we do not believe that there is a systemic issue that dates back 20 years or more. We highly value our relationship with district officials and we do not want to let these perceived issues get in the way of what has been a fantastic working
relationship. We were not prepared to discuss this issue at the meeting yesterday evening and should have stated that district officials were the better source of information to explain the intricacies of their historical and current budget practices when the questions arose. It is our intention to correct these issues at a future
meeting. So that's the gist of the letter from um the town administrator Andrew Sorth. Um he then goes on to detail his explanation of of what happened, but Mr. Higgins also has an explanation of
of those numbers and I'm going to let him take over from here and explain that. >> Thank you. uh to to point that the letter references the select board meeting being on on um May 13th. It is um it was on May 12th. >> Yes.
>> The Lakeville Town Accountant stated at the May 12th uh 2026 select board meeting that the Freetown Lakeville Regional School District had been to quote baking in or double counting debt as it came off the balance sheet. This statement is false. Furthermore, it was also stated that the district has
included the amount of current year's capital debt service as part of its operations value. Also, also false. Tonight, I'm responding to those statements by providing several items that show how the district has been correctly assessing the towns for operations and capital debt over the
past 10 years and for FY27. For capital debt, the annual amounts are submitted to us by the bank that holds the debt. And in those submissions, the bank identifies the specific amounts that are to be assessed to each of the member towns. I'll share with you tonight the
debt calculation reports received by us from the Uni Bank Fiscal Advisory Services, the bank that holds the debt for the past 10 years along with the trial balance revenue amounts of reports for those same corresponding years. When comparing the loan payment defined by
the bank with the assessed revenue that was received from the town of Lakeville, you can clearly see the capital assessments associated with the debt payments match for each of those years. If you look at the slide that's behind me, you can see on the first slide that
there's the FY17 bank payment schedule. It identifies the total uh the total capital or debt uh necessary from the town of Lakeville for FY17 both principal and interest is $55,5.72. The next slide is a uh is the report
from our own accounting system which identifies that the revenue sent to by Lakeville was 500,000 $55,0008. So it was a increase. They paid $3 greater than what was the assessed
amount. I don't know why that was the case in FY17. In FY18, the assessed identified assessed amount by the bank was $557,896. Lakeville submitted revenue in that year of $557,896.
a rounding uh excuse me >> rounding. >> Yeah, a rounding up. Next, in FY 19, Lakeville uh was identified by the bank to have a uh capital debt service
payment of $439,157.86. They submitted revenue to the town in the form of $439,158. In FY20, the bank identified that Lakeville was required to pay for the debt $424,681.72. The revenue amount paid by debt by
Lakeville at that point was $424,681.73. In FY21, the bank identified Lakeville's payment for debt as $400,61.92. The amount received by the town, I'm sorry, the amount received by the district to to pay that debt was
$400,61.91. In FY22, the Lakeville principal and interest identified by the district by the bank for payment of the debt was $338,821.65. The amount submitted to the town, which was then paid to the bank, was $338,821.66.
In FY23, the Lakeville uh principal and interest identified by the bank to be paid as uh their portion of the debt was $287,287.39. In this year, the Lakeville amount was submitted was only $285,690.19.
Uh coming in under that assessed number of by amount of $1,59720. At this point, I don't know what the difference was, why Lakeville's submission was less or in that case, in fact, Freetowns was under their amount as well. It could very well be that the
calculation was resubmitted by this by the bank, but at this point, I'm not sure, but it came in under the amount that the bank originally had sent. In FY24, the amount that Lakeville uh was assessed was identified by the bank as their assessment for the capital debt
was $161,37963. the amount that the state uh the amount that the district received to then make that payment to the bank was $161,000 380 sorry $161,380. In FY25, the amount Lakeville was
identified to be assessed for their debt payment was $142,76157. The amount that was received by the district to be to be paid to the bank was $142,762. in FY26, the current year, the last year of the payment, the Lakeville uh element
of the payment was $135,000, $135,48028. The amount to this point, because it's made in payments, the amount that has been made thus far is $11,610. That is uh one that is 3/4s of the total
and our debt is paid in four payments. So that aligns with where we would be at this point in the year. For the FY27, there is no no debt payment as it is concluded and and therefore we have not included it in our operational budget. We've not included in our budget in any way as evidenced by
the region. Uh, as you can see when looking at our, this is an excerpt from the posted budget that was shared with the school committee and shared with the community. Under debt service principal excluded and under debt service principal non-excluded, there is zero dollars
budgeted in this year's budget for debt service. As a regional school district, we follow a statutory method by which member towns are assessed. The assessment calculation sheet that has been used by the Freetown Lakeville Regional School District for more than 10 years follows that
statutory method. The calculation sheet itself is not the official assessment document. Its purpose is to show the various revenue sources, the assessment breakdown for each town and how these amounts are calculated. The official assessment sheets are signed by the
treasurer and sent to the towns along with the payment schedule which I'll show you in a moment. But we have behind here I have what is an assessment calculation sheet. And you can see in this case this is the FY27. Maybe it's better to click down one please to the
FY26. You can see for the town of Lakeville what what what occurs with this assessment sheet and this is the statutory method. At the top of the page the total budget is identified that's going to be spent in the in the year for the district.
The first thing that has to happen is that it needs to pull out the transportation costs and it needs to pull out any capital costs that is going to be recalculated at the bottom. That the leftover money is then
um reduced along the way as first any state money in the form of chapter 78 in this case 12,136,839. then circuit breaker reimbursement that's going to be used by the school district and any other district revenues. So you get to the place where
you're looking at the sheet and you see that after you've subtracted all those state and district revenues from that number, you have what's now going to be assessed to the towns. The first part of that is what is identified as the required local contribution. The state
identifies what each town is required to spend as a minimum amount. That number is not necessarily dependent only on enrollment though enrollment is part of the state's calculation. They include uh wealth of a town. They include the total population of the town. They include
real estate values. But ultimately we don't do that calculation. The state issues the minimum contribution to every school district to identify what is the minimum contribution. And in that case, this minimum contribution for Lakeville is 14 for last year was 14,864,367.
Once the two local contributions have been re removed or subtracted from the the number that was remaining after the district revenues were subtracted, that remaining value in this case there's a number of 4,212,111 that does get split up between the two
towns strictly by enrollment. So in this case in this year Lakeville had 57.672%. So therefore of the remaining 4,212,000 they that there that 2,429 represents
57% 57.67% of that number. So now transportation has to be brought back into the the equation. And the reason why it's separated out and brought back in is because we do receive state money in the form of chapter 71 reimbursement. So it can't be reduced by
chapter 70. It has to sit separately. Chapter 71 is the only state money that can reduce it down. So chapter 71 in this case was 1.78 million. Our total transportation cost was 2.39 million. You you you subtract the amount that the
state is going to provide and the remainder in this case 611,000. That's again split stren strictly by the percentage breakdown of enrollment between the two towns. So in this case that 611,000 is broken up into a 57.6%
and 43.4% approximately. Then finally there's the capital debt and this has to be the last part in it because capital debt isn't necessarily calculated by enrollment. It is dependent upon the agreement that the
towns make when the debt is agreed upon. In this particular case, there was a a relatively unique debt calculation because of the fact that the debt was taken on is my understanding the debt was taken on prior to regionalization.
So there are two elements that calculate this value in this case. Element one is that enrollment of the district between grades six through um 6 through 12. But in grades four and five,
Freetown was only responsible for additional payments for any number of students greater than 109. Now I believe that might have been because that 109 might have been the number of Freetown students at that time. And so that was the threshold that was used. Again, this was a decision
made. We don't as a school district do that calculation. The bank who has it who has the agreement, they issue, as you saw earlier in the presentation, the bank issues what the two debt payments are for the towns. The towns then pay
us. This is the re the way it works in a region. The towns then pay the district and the district then makes the payment to the um to the bank to the debt holder. In when you go to look at 27 the same process is exists but what happens in
this case is there's no debt because in FY27 there is no debt. So instead you have the required local contribution you have the net school spending above assessed that's split up by enrollment and then the transport and then the transportation. Those three values make up the total assessed to the member
towns. At the bottom you can see it says what the increase is. That increase is for you to see what the comparison is from one year to the next. It's not meant to be a number. That is the assessment. It
never is. The assessment is the total assessed to member towns. For clarity sake, we have our treasurer sign the assessment. This is just our calculation sheet. We have our um treasurer sign the assessment which you
can see in the first case. You can see the FY26 assessment sheet which details the the um the schedule of payments first for the operations in 12 installments to come out to a total value of 17,645,994
and then the subtotal for capital which is in only split up into four payments of 135,480. When you go to the next page, you can see up here, you can see the assessment sheet that was issued to Lakeville after the vote made by this school
committee and signed by our then treasurer Melinda Richards. It only includes the operations and it includes the total assessed to the town of 19,66,827. So I think it's important to to to explain
to you that the we don't send to the towns how much it's increased from each year and let them have them do the calculation. We we zero base budget every year. We start at
zero. We identify how much it's going to take to pay our teachers, how much it's going to take to pay our pair of professionals, our secretaries, how much it's going to take to pay for our buses, how much it's going to take to pay for our custodians the materials that we need. And we build it up until we have a
total budget. And then we send the assessed amount to the towns. No, we don't send them the increase. The town of Lakeville did not review the sign. I can I I shouldn't make this statement. I don't know if they did not, but it does not appear that they reviewed the side assessment sheet or
the review the total assessed to member townline on the calculation sheet. Instead, the town only reviewed the bottom line increase from the prior year and used that own that number on their own spreadsheet, wrote that number into their own spreadsheet to determine how much needed to be appropriated by the
school district. In the letter, as part of the letter and their explanation that they sent, it does reference that the school district calculated Lakeville's 27 assessment by adding the proposed increase of 1.825 million to
the full FY26 total of 17,781. That's not accurate as well. We didn't add it. We start at zero. We work through the total budget. We identify what the total assessment is and we issue that total assessment. when they took the increase and saw that it and added it to their
operations number. Yes, it didn't would wasn't a coincidence that the difference was the $135,480 because they weren't taking the full assessment number. They were just taking the increase, which was subtracting the difference between last year's and this year's and just adding it to their
operations number. However, when Lakeville brought this issue to our attention on April 2nd, I explained that they had not been using the corrective assessed value as identified in the signed assessment sheet that they received. However, they disagreed and informed us that as a result, they did not have the full assessment in their
budget. In response, we began reviewing ways to reduce our budget as a means of working cooperatively with the town of Lakeville. Approximately one week later, we received notice for an out of district tuition move out totaling a reduction in our budget of $250,000,
which was mentioned at the April school committee meeting and that I am presenting tonight or presented tonight as part of the updated budget. We then contacted Lakeville and informed them that with this reduction as well as the increase in state funding, the district would actually end up needing less than the underbudgeted than they had under
budgeted for us. Furthermore, I made an adjusted assessment calculator sheet for them that include a comparison of the current assessment with last year's just operations assessment to assist them in their calculations. I did not want to embarrass or publicly
call out the town of Lakeville when this issue first came to my attention, especially since our budget reduction would make up the difference. Rather than stating publicly that they had underbudgeted the district, I attempted to resolve the matter cooperatively. The reality is uh the town did not
reconcile the total amount assessed in the assess received in their assessment sheet with the total amount appropriated. Instead, they relied solely on the increase amount shown at the bottom of the calculation sheet, which is again for your reference, but is not an assessment. That figure exists
simply to help the school committee compare year-over-year changes. It is not intended to represent the official assessment amount. Further evidence that this was an error on the part of Lakeville is that we received the omnous budget from the town of Freetown on April 20th, 2026, which also included
that they had identified the full assessment identified in the signed assessment sheet that was sub submitted to them on March 12th, 2026. Well, thank you for the explanation and um I definitely hope to see this rectified by the Lakeville Select Board
at their next meeting. I would hope >> I think you have a member with a question. >> I I just had um a comment. I think so. Everything that you just reviewed and put together was in um context to what was brought up last night at the select board meeting.
>> Correct. >> Okay. I I just wanted to call out for everyone as we know time is money and first thank you for doing that because I think our budget process has been very open and very transparent and it's unfortunate to me how it came out last
night because there was not a public opportunity to speak but yet um there was this accusation brought to the table which again thank you for taking the time to do this. I'll hope in the future we're not, you know, taking you away
from more valuable work to make to defend accusations that are just that. If if I may, I I I want to I should have probably written something else, but this was um if I believe if I
appeared very forceful here or if I appeared um it is because I want to make sure that it is clear what happened. I though want to continue to work cooperatively and collaboratively with both towns. I have enjoyed a good
relationship with both towns in my dealings with them since I took over in 2025 or 2024 under you know some pretty difficult situations and we have spent many times many hours working with um them ex
explaining and and I think you know and I and I appreciate Freetown being here tonight because I think you know we spent a couple of hours on on the phone and on and and with um going through the budget when questions came up earlier this year.
>> Um because it is the reg regional school district budgeting is different. It's different than town than if it's just a town. Um because we are our own municipality in a sense. We are assessing that the the towns in the same way that towns assess taxes to their to
their um members to their citizens. Sorry. >> Sure. Um, and and again, what I'm trying to make sure I get across is that I'm not looking I I think we can move forward. We have a number that comes
under what they have budgeted for us. So, that can still bring down their budgeted number. That's fantastic. Um, if we get an additional funding from the state in any way, that will additionally bring down the effect on the towns. It is certainly my hope uh that that's the
case. Certainly there's some some decisions to be made by the by the state over the next month. Uh and I I what what I'm hoping is is that I can make a phone call tomorrow, have a conversation with them and with with either town and
and these are continue to be collaborative cooperative conversations. Um and they understand. I don't hold we don't hold I I'd like to move on is I guess what I'm trying to say. >> No. And I think that's a fantastic attitude and I think you know just the
short time that I've known you um in this position you're extremely collegial and very collaborative. So I I don't think that's at question at all. I just find it unfortunate to have to um you know have gone I'm sure this was not an
easy task because it goes through and and there's a lot of there's a lot of money here and there's a lot to it. So and I personally for me there's never a doubt that it's it's very transparent and you are very wellversed in what what you're referring to when you're speaking
about the budget. So just a thank you for that and thank you for making sure that any questions were out there are answered very clearly. >> Should I speak quick? >> So this is definitely a lot to digest. Um but if I'm reading this correctly and
if I'm understanding what you're saying, >> is it coming down to comparing this year's full total to only part of last year's total? because because last year we had the debt and the operations.
>> So in a town they when they looked at the assessment they looked at only what the increase was. They took that number and wrote it into their own spreadsheet calculate from that they added that to which on their spreadsheet only was in
in the operation side. When we we sent them the assessment sheet it is the total amount. this the total operational amount. Um they didn't take that and simply write it into their operation number. They added they looked at the bottom and just simply added it
in. So yeah, the difference is the 135. That's not a coincidence. If you add if you're taking the difference and add it only to operations as opposed to the comparison on the assessment sheet is again it's just for the town for the school committee to see what was received from the towns in the prior
year and what is being received in the current year. What I will do going forward is we will create two assessment sheets, assessment calculation sheets. One for just for operations and then a separate one that just shows a comparison of operations
and then underneath it'll just have the capital. I want to make it as clear as possible. I don't want there to be any more issue. Right now we don't have any more debt. So next year unless some debt gets added there I don't expect it to for next year the comparison will be
there won't be an issue. this this year was it only arose because they were expecting it to come up and it did. So they just took that bottom number and simply added it to their spreadsheet. They didn't take the assess number that we had shared with them in the assigned
assessment sheet. I'll just add that I found it very disappointing that at a meeting where there was not planned public comment, suddenly public comment was allowed and then this topic was brought up and
suddenly people were saying, "Oh yes, we've known about this for a month but didn't find it important enough to bring up until we allowed a public comment, an unplanned public comment, and all of a sudden this this is an issue. I why would you have not have brought it up if
that was something that they honestly thought was a problem in the budget? I I I find it very strange honestly and very disappointed that there was then a vote and now we have to go through all of this to correct it.
>> Um yes. >> Yeah. I don't think you have anything to worry about. I mean you've been more you bend over backwards to be collaborative and uh it's upsetting the false statements we made. That's for sure. But I I don't think you have anything to worry about.
>> Tim, >> uh to echo I I guess what the sentiment is here at the table. Um I want to commend the Freetown Finance Committee and town administrator for being here for almost every meeting. Um
as a uh a member of the Freetown portion of our school committee. Um it's great to see that. Um, and and Jack, to your point, you're not being defensive. Um, I think I speak on behalf of most of us here at this table that uh transparency
is one of our biggest the biggest things we advocate for, especially now. Um, and we're no uh we're not new to being scrutinized over minor details, right? So, your transparency in the whole process, I
think, has been great. Um, I'd be embarrassed right now, uh, if I was a member of Lakeville and my town administrator and my finance committee was not at this meeting to hear the correction from the mistake from last night. >> I think some of them are actually at theformational meeting tonight.
>> It could be >> give them that. They do have somewhere else to be, I think. But >> but I appreciate our town for being here every step of the way. >> Can I add something else? I have a question. So, we talked about the chapter 70 letters and the chapter 70
talking points. And I personally think that's the biggest problem here with the pole budgeting, right? Um, we're not getting back what we should be getting or what we would like to get back. Um, and we're asking the community community to advocate for it because it's a big
problem. And I know I've done my own personal advocacy for it, but can we as a committee, >> you know, take one of those form letters and say um, you know, authorize Melinda to sign it and say great idea, >> you know, our committee is, this is a problem for our member towns and you're
really, you know, >> pushing the onus on the taxpayers here and we think that, you know, you have to >> do something about this. I know we're a little late in the budget cycle this year, but yeah. >> Um, thinking about it forward for next year. Can't our committee do that? Send
a letter, one of those ad chapter 70 letters. >> I think so. >> Yeah, >> great idea. >> We can we can do that. Would that honestly that still fairly new to the school committee? Would that be something we would have to decide to
vote on to send a letter or >> Right. I think we would have to make a motion and vote on that if you're going to be signing a letter and sending it on behalf of our committee, >> I think. >> Okay. But we would have to add that to like our next agenda then. >> We could do that right now. I make a motion that we
>> as a full school committee uh sign a chapter 70 letter, one of those form letters that we've advocated for. >> Okay. >> I second the motion. >> Okay. All right. Well, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?
Any further discussion? Okay. Hearing none. All in favor? I >> I right any oppose and any abstensions? >> Motion passes. >> Okay. Um and I think we are ready to
move on. >> You I believe you moved public comment to this portion of the agenda. >> Yes, we did. Sorry. So, um is there anyone here for public comment? Welcome you to the podium. And is there usually a sign in sheet? Is there >> There should be one there for their
please sign in. U Melissa Ryan Nolton Howland Road. Um just a question or first thank you. That was not an easy um you know as a mom and working mom and I
watched it on playback in between meetings today and it was very confusing um you know to to grasp it all. Thank you very much because that was very clear. Um, has there been an answer? Because now they voted and they voted on
something with 135,000 and change less with four or five days until a vote and a huge vote. Um, has there been something that has been sent to the school committee um explaining
where that correction will be made given where we're at? I Oh, well, the letter here just ended with um it is our intention to correct these issues at a future meeting. So, I certainly would hope the very next one >> that's >> probably won't be before the vote to your point.
>> Yeah. Other than they're stating publicly their intention before the vote to to fix that. Okay. a lot of thoughts, but um certainly not
to you. Um but you know, I hope Lakeville take note. I just kind of Thank you very much. That was excellent. Hi Margaret French freedom finance. Um, I want to just talk about transparency.
Um, and and a lot of angst in in Lakeville online, um, in person. I've heard comments to other people about the raises and the teacher pay. I
am not here to say yay or nay or anything. I just want to talk about the transparency. And Miss Richards alluded to the fact that there were in fact raises. Um
there is a raise that every teacher gets per step until they get to the top. And and I've heard so many people saying that these teachers have not gotten raises in years. Every step they take 4.87%
or below. I think 3.93 was the lowest until they got to the top step. This So they're not only getting that, but they're also getting the raises which are compounded. So they're getting
a raise at the beginning of the year and a raise in the middle of the year, which is compounding into the next year, which is compounding. When I did the numbers for the beginning and the middle steps
over 3 years, they're making 27% more. Top step, 18%. But that's a pretty significant increase. And I just feel in the interest of transparency,
we need to let the public know that it's not a 2% raise. It's not a 3% raise. It works out to be this large. Okay. Thank you. >> Good evening. Deborah Petty, town of
Freetown resident and town administrator in the town of Freetown. First, I I'd like just like to say that the numbers you were just discussing on the assessment sheet were confusing. We I was confused. I called Jack. He did help me with them. They were confusing. They are confusing. There's a lot of numbers.
There's a lot of big numbers. So, I'm glad it's getting resolved. Um, but just understand that there's a lot of numbers and it is a lot of work, especially on on Jack's part, but for the towns to digest and it's not they're not easy.
When you change the form of the assessment sheet, I was extremely confused by that. I I I finally worked it out by going through it and going from the top down and I'd got to the number where I needed to go. But it is confusing. So I I just tread lightly for
everybody involved because it is very confusing and I I had the same I had I had not the same but some concerns and Jack helped me with those. So I just want to say that um as a part of that conversation. Um I have a couple of
questions and then I have a couple of statements. I I saw you reappointed four people to the school committee. Does that the pool committee? Does that mean there's an opening on the pool committee? We don't have to respond to public comment, but um that's I would say
that's unclear at this moment. >> unclear. Okay. I did send an email I had sent an email back in March to uh then chair Bloom. I sent it to you uh but just today or yesterday. You haven't had time, I'm sure, to look at it.
requesting, and I've done this consistently here, requesting that we set up a committee for a round table with stakeholders, residents, school uh administration, town administration. We need to get together and we need to we
need to really start working about how we're going to sustain the budgets for both the towns and the school so that we all get our needs met. all of us uh might have to compromise on some level, but I I think we have a lot of intelligent people here and I think if we can get them together in a room, we
can come up with to some solutions for our issues instead of waiting until it's a crisis and and we're all just fighting for the same money. We we need to figure out how to bring in more money. Um maybe use our resources more efficiently. Whatever the solutions are,
I don't have them. But I do believe that if we can get together and create this committee, we could we could come up with some solutions. So I am again asking this committee, which I have done multiple times, to consider that. And in that, I'm asking this committee to possibly I know you set your schedule at
your last meeting, to meet during the summer months when you're not under the same pressure as you are during the school year, and we're not under the same pressure as trying to get our budgets and warrants out the door. I think this can't just be kicked down. the can can't be kicked again. We really
need to do this. I'll do my part whatever I can do. And on that note, I did go to the representatives and ask them for more funding for the schools. I do believe we all need to collaboratively go and and tell the state how important it is for our education. I was extremely impressed
with your top 10 tonight. I enjoyed that immensely. Um it it just goes to show what what a great job you're doing here. So I think you know I think we need to be a team. We have to unite as a team and we need to move forward in that direction to get what we all need both
towns and you know it's great if the schools are are tremendous but if we don't have police and fire to defend them when they're on fire um I I don't know what's going to happen. So we need everybody and we need to figure it out. So I'm going to implore you again to
please at least respond to my email. I I am the town administrator. I don't even get a response. So, I would like that. And that leads me to another point. I know that there's been a lot of course Lakeville's uh doing an override and I understand that and a lot of
communication has been coming from the school to that town and I again have been left out on a lot of that emails. Lakeville had a projected budget for the next two years from the school that I didn't have. Um, so I'm going to again ask for Freetown to be included in
anything that has to do with the school budgets, finances, and concerns because I don't like finding out from watching the Lakeville uh select board meeting that they have this information that I don't have. I did eventually get it, but I don't like having to be, hey, I hear
about this. Can I have the same information? I'm asking you again to please uh correspond with me in the town of Freetown. And then I think um I I have a question about the pink slips and if you're not going to respond, you're not going to respond. But I know that in preparation
in case the override didn't pass, you had to pass out pink slips to teachers. Can you tell me how many you have given out the pink slips? >> No. >> Point of water. It's not a question and answer period.
>> Yes. >> Okay, that's fine. So then I guess I'll move on to my I guess my last comment which uh Miss French alluded to is that the transparency that I know you um are really working towards um try to be as
transparent and I understand sometimes it gets we we it gets difficult but the thing with the teachers raises and I did watch the meeting again last night because I wanted to make sure that I didn't misspeak but it was stated that step 12 teachers
get 2% a 3% for an effective 3.5%. Well, that's really a 5% raise, right? So, effective in the budget year of 3.5, but it's a 5% raise. And they get, you know, and they went through the the
numbers. 2% plus 1.5 is an effective 3.8. I'm not quite sure how that added up. And then two and 2.5 for 4.5%. And then Jack said, "Oh, by the way, there is going to be each year a new step created and one will be
eliminated." But nobody ever said every time you do that, there's an increase to the the teachers pay as well. That they not only get these raises, and this is not about whether the teachers deserve it or not, because I'm not I wasn't privy to the negotiating team, and we
know that they do a great job. So, it's not really about that. It really is about transparency. I think people heard a 3.5% raise and that's not that's not accurate. So I am asking you to be accurate with the numbers in the future. Um I I do believe we you know they got a
18% raise over three years and a 27% raise for the lower steps over three years. Um, so that's all that those are my comments, but I do want to work collaboratively with the town and with the district and continue to do that um
so that we can continue to have a great school and still be able to function as a town. Thank you. >> Okay. Um, so it doesn't appear that we have anybody else for public comment, so we'll move along
to um, where's my student services update? >> All right, I'm going to start with something that's not on a slide. Um I have included in the school committee folder the first Friday in May every year we get our annual IDEIDA um LEA
determination which is our local district uh determination status. Um and there's different categories for that. So you could be the highest is meeting requirements and then it's needs assistance and then it kind of goes down from there. So um this year I can speak more clearly to it because it's for the
year before. Um so this is a reflection of the first year that I was director. So I have intimate knowledge of where all the numbers came from and how everything went in the two prior years. Um I got the reports but I I wasn't as involved. So we I'm happy to say that we
did meet requirements this year um with a score of 86%. Um so we jumped from 73% to 86% this year. So um the the threshold for meeting requirements is 75% and we're at 86. Um things I just want to note um because the probably
questions of like where did we lose those small amount of points they do have us um looking at performance as it relates to students on IEPs and how they perform in state testing which is MCCAST. So they give us a threshold of what their expectation is from the state
and then they look at what our scores are for that subset of students and then they give us awarded points with how well we did. Um, so that's actually the one area where we didn't earn all of our full points, but we didn't earn partial points. And just a point of note, there was a lot of conversation on the meeting
I was on with all leaders of the state to review this. And the same consistent message was stated that now that they've removed it as a graduation requirement, the the weight of MCCAST is somewhat lessened. And we've gotten that a little feedback from from from families and
students. So, it is still important for district accountability and to see how we're doing and to make sure we're meeting our thresholds. So, I just want to reinforce that. Um, and there was only one other area that we got one out of two points and that was in our preschool placement and I'm actually okay with that. It's it's a percentage
that they want you to have kids in integrated preschool that are on IEPs. We offer a lot of services in the district and a lot of those services are related service only or they are in our subsearate preschool. We have an excellent sub-searate preschool program and so we were just a little bit below what they wanted for for our fully
integrated students, but I don't see any fault in our placements and I think that they're going really well. So that's an area that it I feel okay with us getting a one out of two points in because I think the programming we're giving because we have such a great program that brings our number down a little bit for full inclusion. Um so other than that, we got full points for for
everything. Um they look at our graduation our students who graduated with regular high school diploma on IEPs. it's a percentage of um dropouts. Um they look at if there's any disproportionality in any type of um discipline as it relates to students on
IEPs or any um kind of racial bias or anything like that and we were not found to have any discrimination and we met every um indicator that Desi had. So I just wanted to share that for a little um lighter good news that we are in great shape for this year. Um any questions about our report? I did
include it in your file so you have the full report in there. Okay, next is just a review. We talked about this last week of on contracted district services. Um, and again, this is again part of full transparency. I look every way I possibly can within my department
to be fiscally responsible. Um years ago we engaged in contracts with outside providers such as South Coast Collaborative, um SMMET Collaborative, Reeds Collaborative, and other places to provide low incident services, which means we don't need to hire people for those positions, but we do need to fill
services on an IEP. Um we since then have grown in our special ed department. Um and now we have needs that are contracted services would cost more than if we were to look at hiring a one-year contract through our district. So, I did list and I won't go through all of it again, but I did list the different areas of where we're looking and what
the approximate savings would be if we were to shift from district or contracted services rather to district hired staff under a one-year contract, which would be reviewed yearly. Um, and this wouldn't be putting us into a long-term situation. So, that's just information that I did share at the previous meeting, but I just wanted to reiterate at this time because we will
need to post for those and um we just want that to be known that these are not additional services. We're replacing services at a cost savings is what our goal is. So I just wanted to reiterate that um at this meeting. Are there any questions about that? I know it's my second goound. So okay. And then just
CPAC. I just want to do a roundup of CPAC. So we had a really great meeting on May 5th. We had the Department of Developmental Services here and the Ark of Bristol County. And there were five representatives and they talked about all the services and support they could provide um families and students both in school and as they're getting ready to
turn 22 if they stay with us that long. And it the parents took away a lot. I think everyone did. So it was really great. Um CPAC has done a great job bringing in speakers this year. I'm still here to plug people coming to these meetings. You don't even have to have a student on an IEP necessarily, but it's really just to get more
information about what the district is doing and get parent input and caregiver input. Um, our last meeting of the year is June 3rd. It is our final meeting. It is a Wednesday because there um are awards nights on the Tuesday night, so it's shifted to Wednesday here in the library. They will be electing officers
for the upcoming school year. Um, there will definitely be um a new open co-chair position. Gail Trink will not be running again this year for co-chair, which is very sad. Um, but um she's, you know, they're starting to move in a different direction as as she explained
to me. Um there's also going to be an ice cream social um and a DJ as like a celebration for the end. So I really encourage families to come. And then next year the first meeting will always be a meet and greet of all the special education administrators with families and caregivers. And October uh will be
the parents rights presentation where I present all parents rights. Um and I I'd love to get a good crowd for that as well. So that is the CPAC update for the year. And then I just wanted to end with this. It wasn't on my official agenda. However, our unified track sectionals, we took first place in our division, which was amazing. And they had um
athletes qualify for states. So, that was really exciting. So, I just wanted to end my portion um with unified tracks. >> CONGRATULATIONS. >> Any questions for student services? Okay. All right. Um, I guess we're ready to move on um to the subcommittee
reports and district committee reports. Um, regional finance committee. I did not remember to bring the list. The um the regional finance committee does not have any meeting on the agenda, but I do need to check in I guess with
the parent bodies to find out who's been reappointed for this goound. Okay. >> Um I know I've been sworn in again for my for this term. Um, Derek, have you been sworn in? >> I don't think so. >> Okay. >> I do have a question. Do I also need if
as a de facto member of all the subcommittees, do I also need to be appointed to the two like the regional finance committee and the thing with a letter to the town administrators and going gets sworn into those.
>> I think it's understood that you are serving. We will get clarification from legal so that we don't go down a wrong road. >> Yeah. Yeah. I was just curious if I should be including myself in those. Um okay, interim superintendent evaluation
committee. We have nothing new. Um wellness and health committee. Um we brought along some waters today for everyone to make sure that our community is hydrated and handed them out at the beginning of the meeting. Other than that, we don't have any current update.
>> All right. Very nice. Um policy committee. >> Um the policy subcommittee met last week and we went over all of the policies that Dr. Starky referenced earlier in her presentation. So they're all available to you. Um well, we went over
them um asked our questions and then um voted to recommend to move forward with all of these for a first read. Um so you have those tonight. Um certainly if you have any questions you can ask them next meeting because I think next meeting we'll be wanting to vote on adopting
those now that you have them and can review them. >> Okay. Um capital committee >> help me. >> Okay. And the pool committee. >> Sure. Um I'd like to um thank those uh who were reappointed tonight for the
pool subcommittee. Uh Sarah had requested that she not serve. She's stretched very thin otherwise with her other uh community engagements with her kids. Um so I we have uh reappointed uh four of the other members. Um
and so uh Derek, I know you and I will be working together on it, but uh we'll be scheduling our next meeting now that those folks are reappointed and they will get sworn in again through their respective town halls uh as we did last summer. Um, I'm happy to say that, uh,
the RFP for the repair of the pool had gone out, uh, which I I did update the full school committee on last meeting, so it's no surprise. Um, we did have three companies bid on the, uh, RFP for the pool repair. Uh, they were Philly Associates, Miller's ProBuilders, and
Weston and Samson. So, I'd like to thank all three companies um for their interest in the repair of our graze pool. I I am pleased to say um that Fillian Associates did come back within the range uh we were looking for uh as far as and what we were hoping as far as
a cost um and uh with our new reappoint meetings um we'll continue conversations with with them um and and funds between fundraising earmarked money from Senator Rodri's um and also the revenue that the
leasing of the pool will will bring And uh that being said, the uh the RFP for the lease of the pool um was due back this week. Um I do expect an update soon and we'll work with Jack on it. Um and the the pool subcommittee
um and we'll talk uh with them obviously to to make sure that however we move forward with them would be in the best interest of the district as we have thus far. um school committee. You will see in the packet uh uh in our folder for
this evening, there is a certified letter from Senator Rodri's um to Dr. Dr. Stark's office with the approval of no less than $150,000 that has been specifically set aside for the repair of the pool. This is not local taxpayer funds as we promised all
along. This is from the millionaire tax money. This is from Senator Rogers from the state budget down. Um, so I'm very excited to be able to accept uh that when it comes in. Uh, I will be looking forward to next month at our school
committee meeting asking for the full approval to move forward with the repair of the graze pool. Um, so you can expect that conversation um at next month's meeting and in the meantime uh there will be a publicly posted uh if not one
one if not two meetings of the pool subcommittee between now and then. also. So, thank you. >> All right. Okay. Um, moving on to discussion items.
Um, I'm sorry. >> Through the chair, through the chair, I have two um announcements to share this evening. >> Uh, we received a letter from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges addressed to the principal of the high school. The Commission on Public Schools at its March 8 through9,
2026 meeting reviewed the three-year report of progress and planning for Aponic Court Regional High School and voted to award the school continued accreditation with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The commission would like to commend Aponic
Regional High School on the following. The systematic work to address the HVAC issues in the building. The increased staffing in the facilities area accessible. Uh, I think that's the junior custodian program. I'm not sure. The development of innovation career pathways with the Massachusetts
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. And if you recall, we have two of those now. Health, careers, and business. The continued development of the response to intervention process. We've talked a lot about that in the past few meetings. Intervention services for students.
The changes in the vision of the graduate to help inform the school improvement plan. The comprehensive membership in the portrait of the learner revision group happening at the school. The involvement of the faculty in the revision of the district accommodation plan through professional
development. The facilitation of peer observation process to help teachers learn from one another. The utilization of common planning time on Wednesdays to provide professional learning groups. The faculty buyin of adopting a growth mindset into the way the school
operates. The schoolwide implementation of the MYAP process. We've talked about that at meetings, the career and college planning we do with students, the proactive planning around budget concerns while still implementing career pathway programming in keeping fidelity to the portrait of a learner and its
goals and the implementation of a robust civics's action project which you heard a little bit about tonight in alignment with the Massachusetts requirement. So, I want to commend uh the high school on all of that and thank you for listening. And the second point this evening is we did receive a letter that is in your
packet. It is for it is from Lynch and Marini uh initiating the next audit of the district and that is uh required to be reviewed and then signed by I believe the chair. So that is in your packet uh
for your review. Okay. >> I don't have anything further. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um yes. >> Are we still in discussion? if you have something else to discuss. >> Or is there not?
>> Go ahead. Um, uh, for fear of sounding like that person that nobody wants to hear, uh, I know that there are certain parts of the budget that I'm not privy to, nor can I vote on, um, I would like to
ask the question, although rhetorical, um, as a member of Freetown, uh, sitting here on the school committee, um, I do I would like to ask question if the finance committee for Freetown has Lake Cam record or if
there's another entity uh who records and again this is rhetorical um but they're not necessarily public uh publicly uh visual um and I could be wrong so I I could stand corrected um as
well as the Freetown select board um the Lakeville select board I think has been under some scrutiny lately and obviously is very visible on Lake Cam as We are um but I'm not sure that the Freetown town boards are as visible to the public
unless you show up in person. Um I I believe in the effort of transparency even and again this is hearsay potentially because I was not present but I believe at the first meeting of the finance committee after the election um the committee did not reorganize.
that wasn't on the agenda to reorganize the committee that evening. Um, as is is per usual the first meeting after an election. Um, and I'd like to point out, I think, as to what you hear in the effort of
transparency, I've heard, and don't have a maybe a credible source, but um, when we talk about raises in town, uh, I've heard that certain town employees have gotten um, potentially over a 30%
increase year-over-year from last year to this year coming. Um, so I'd just like to point out that I'm excited that Freetown is here representing our school committee or or excuse me, representing our town at our school committee meetings. Um, but I'd like to make sure
that our town continues in the effort of transparency to be public and visual as we are here. >> Oh. Um, okay. Okay. Um, moving on to action items. Um,
okay. We need a vote to accept the ARHS Chili's donation as presented. So, >> do I hear a second? >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. Any opposed?
And um, sorry, I forgot I skipped discussion. >> It's okay. >> Sorry. So, I just Do we resend it? Do I just go? >> I would call for discussion. >> Yeah, just go. >> Okay. All right. Sorry. Was there any discussion? >> Okay. >> And then vote.
>> Okay. Um any opposed? Hearing none. Any abstensions? >> Motion passes. Second. >> Um Okay. And then we need a vote to approve the US history and world history texts. >> No move. >> Which text? I'm sorry. >> Yes. Sorry. Um
>> just go back to the slide. >> Sorry. Which text? >> I asked for the interactive sabas. >> Okay. for the so for the vote to approve the US history and world history text from Savas. >> Okay. So I hear a motion. >> So moved. >> Okay. Second.
>> Second. >> Okay. And any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Right. Any opposed? And any extensions? >> Motion passes.
>> Okay. Sorry. Motion passes. Um, and now we need a vote to accept the ARHS AP grant training. Um, American Chemical Society $1,800. >> They're moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Um, any discussion?
>> Okay. Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Um, any opposed? And any abstensions? Okay. Um, so motion passes and we now we need a vote to accept the
ARHS AP grant training um, AP College Board for $750. So moved. >> Second. >> Okay, hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion? Okay, hearing none. All in favor say I.
>> I. >> Um, any post and any abstensions? Okay, motion passes. Um, we need a vote to approve the FY27 updated recommended budget salary portion in the amount of 3
million >> 30 >> I'm sorry 30 million $145,221. Um, and I believe you >> I will >> have to abstain from this one. >> I will. >> Correct. Okay. All right. Um, >> roll call and it has to be 2/3.
>> Okay. >> We need a motion. >> Still moved. >> Okay. and second. Okay, >> hearing a motion and a second. >> Um, and then we need a roll call vote. >> Any discussion? >> Discussion. >> Oh, sorry. Any discussion? >> Okay. >> Melinda Richards,
>> yes. >> Courtney Breman, >> yes. >> Bob Clark, >> yes. >> Tim Emry, >> abstain. >> Becky Cushing, >> yes. >> Katherine Trust, >> yes. >> Derek and Daryus, >> yes. Motion carries. >> Motion carries. >> Okay. Um, now we need a vote to approve FY27 updated recommended budget. All
other portions in the amount of 19,46,166. >> So moved. >> So open. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> Okay. Hearing none. >> This is another roll call vote. >> Melinda Richards, >> yes. >> Courtney Brightman, >> yes. >> Bob Clark, >> yes.
>> Tim Emory, >> yes. >> Becky Kushing, >> yes. >> Katherine Trust, >> yes. >> Derek, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Okay. Now we need a vote to approve the updated FY27 assessment sheets for Freetown and Lakeville. Um, do I hear a
motion? >> I'll move. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? And is this a roll call or just a >> It's a simple majority. >> Majority. Yeah. >> I'm sorry. >> It's a majority. >> Just a majority. Okay. All right. So,
um, can hear any discussion? So, all in favor say I. I. I. >> All right. Um any opposed and any abstensions? Okay, >> a motion passes. Now we need a vote to approve payroll vendor warrants from
4226 and 5626. All right. Um do I hear a motion? >> So moved. >> So open. >> Okay. Hearing a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?
Okay. Um All right. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? And any abstensions? >> Okay. And now we need a vote to approve the regular session minutes from 4:1526
and the executive session minutes from 4:1526. >> So moved. >> All right. Hearing a motion. Any second. Is there any discussion? >> Okay. Hearing none. Um I will be abstaining from the vote on the
executive session minutes if you can split the vote. >> Yes. >> Okay, I can do that. >> Okay. So we will >> I'll withdraw my motion. >> Withdraw the motion. Okay. >> I will make a motion to approve the regular session minutes from 4:1526. >> Okay. >> Okay.
>> Okay. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. >> And any opposed and any abstensions? Okay. Um, motion passes. And now we need a vote to approve the executive session
minutes from 4:1526. >> So moved. >> So open. >> Okay. Any discussion? Hearing? No. No discussion. Um, all in favor say I. >> I. >> And any opposed. >> And any obstensions?
>> Abstain. >> Okay. Motion passes. >> Before you vote to adjurnn through the chair, may I just make a few comments? Sorry, >> I don't want to keep anybody here too long, but I really want to thank Cam Cam and Molly for their attendance at every meeting >> and and your presentations tonight and
everything you said just so powerful. Uh, you know, we sit here at these meetings and and tonight we had peaks and valleys like we do most of our meetings and you were certainly a peak. >> So, thank you very much. I want to thank our top 10 also a peak uh at our meeting tonight. uh the wonderful things that
happen in this district, you know, preK through 12, just unbelievable. And they are just a small example of the success that happens here in the district. And I think the more we unify around the students, the better we are as people. Uh and I also want to take a minute here to thank Jack Higgins, who's worked
tirelessly today uh to combat the information that was shared uh very surprisingly at the Lakeville Select Board meeting. So, thank you, Jack, for all of your work today, putting everything aside. uh to clarify things. Yes. In the interest of transparency and
uh I also want to just publicly thank the school committee uh who voted to level service this budget and has backed it all the way through despite uh the turmoil that has occurred. And I want to thank the new members who have joined us
at a challenging time for the budget and a challenging time certainly on social media uh for what's happening uh related to the budget. Uh, but we shouldn't be a divided community. We should be a community of people who rally around our students and I appreciate the support of the school committee on behalf of our
students. Thank you for the floor. >> Thank you. >> Could I just make a a comment about that as well? I I just wanted to say right back at all of you, the town of Lakeville has been holding community um information sessions, which has been great. I've been to a couple and I know
that you've all taken time out of your personal lives to be there and explain and go over any questions that people have. So, thank you for um you know being willing to make sure that the questions out there are answered accurately. >> Thank you.
>> And thank everyone for bearing with me. I promise to get better at running the meeting. You're doing great. Can keep them moving along. Um all right. Do I hear a motion to adjurnn? >> Oh, madam chair. >> Oh, sorry. Just one more thing. There was um a letter in the packet that we
received about um >> is that a donation letter? If if I may, that's for next meeting. It was in era placed in your folder for this meeting. Sometimes we get a little bit of ahead of ourselves. Okay. >> And we put it in your folder. It's a Freetown Elementary School request by
the PTO and you will hear that at the next meeting. >> Okay. I just want to make sure we didn't miss it. >> I'm sorry. I Thank you so much prior to it being so I apologize. And sorry Melinda, I know I'm keeping everyone here all night. I just wanted to add that Katie and I are going to the charting your charting the course um
this Saturday. So we're really excited. I'll speak for you. Sorry. We're really excited to go and um you know just learn more and and be the best committee members that we can. >> All right. Great. Okay. Do I hear a motion to >> motion to second?
>> Um any discussion? >> All right. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I >> I >> Any opposed? Any obstensions? Motion passes.