[Music] Good evening everyone. Seeing 6:00 PM on October 22nd, we are opening the Lakeville Freetown Lakeville Regional School Committee meeting. >> Renee, call to order. >> Jen Blum >> here. >> Bob Clark
>> here. >> Courtney Breitman >> here. Melinda, sorry. Melinda Richards >> here. >> Tim Emory >> here. >> Steve Sylvia is running late. Yes. >> And Carolina is absent. >> Yes. If everyone could join me in the
pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
>> I see Lake Cam is here. Thank you very much as always. Is there anyone else here recording the meeting tonight? Seeing none, thank you. Also sitting at the table with us tonight is Kelly Steele, director of student services. Terry Fleming, director of curriculum,
Jack Higgins, director of finance, and Dr. Barbara Starky, interimm superintendent. We're going to start tonight with public input. Is there anyone here for public input? from >> I just want to address comments that
were made at the last meeting. Um having public participation at the beginning of the meeting does not allow for any replies during the meeting and I just couple of things. I was accused of not communicating
>> and I feel like I did communicate. I sent a couple of emails before the meeting. I stood up at a meeting and spoke. I kind of feel like it was in your ball in your court to get back to me. Um,
I got my information from town clerk. You said you spoke to town clerks. you didn't respond with what they said, only what legal and um MASC said. So, I did not feel that
was very fair. I did not feel it was fair that I was blamed for pushing the timeline back on the pool. You hadn't received the report from the engineers, so you couldn't go forward anyway.
So, I just wanted to put that out there. Thank you very much. Thank you, Margaret. Moving along to reports and presentations. The chairman's report, chairwoman's report. Um, in regard to So, I have two reports tonight. One is
in regards to uh the subcommittee and the swearing of of members. This is the last time I'm going to go over this. We have literally um exhausted all means at this point. So, I've continued to reach out to everyone. Um, the sitting committee members, this is how it works. Sitting
comm sitting committee members at this table, meaning Courtney, Bob, myself, Steve, Karolina, Melinda, and Tim do not need to be reworn in to sit on a subcommittee. The superintendent, as far as being on the collective
bargaining team, does not need to be sworn in to the subcommittee. She is not voting. She has no actions except advisory. Every member of the community that is going to ever be appointed or chosen to be on a subcommittee will have to be
sworn in by their respected towns. So putting that one to bed. Um my second order is we had so at one of our past meetings I
had said that in an effort to bring unity to this committee that I was setting up a training with MASC and that training took place here on Monday October 6. Six of the eight of us were in attendance. In fact all six of us except for Steve who is running late
were in attendance. Um it was a great insightful training. We certainly learned a lot. We enjoyed it. And our regional representative from MASC recommended that we form an operating that we form operating protocols which we currently do not have for our committee in which we will be held
accountable for our actions moving forward. We do not currently have operating co protocols and this will not only benefit this committee but also future committees. We look forward to working on these operating protocols and sharing them with you all as we will all
have to vote on them. That's all I have for tonight. All right. Well, through the chair, I'd like to ask that we take events out of order this evening. We have a number of students who are making presentations tonight and we would really like to make sure our youngsters are presenting in
the early part of the evening and able to get home uh and get in bed at a reasonable hour tonight. So, I'm asking you to vote to take things out of order tonight uh so that any presentation involving students would happen at the top of the agenda.
>> I make a motion to move those presentations to now. >> Second. >> Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion on this? Okay. Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> I.
>> Any opposed? Any abstensions? I. Motion passes. >> All right. Moving forward, I'd like to introduce Terry Fleming, our director of curriculum and instruction, who is going to bring up uh a bunch of really proud and very bright students who are going to share with you tonight uh their adventures in STEM learning. Take it
away. Great. Thank you. While our students make their way up to the front table with their teachers that are present, I want to thank our science curriculum leaders, uh Mrs. St. An, Miss Murray, Mrs. Lec, Mrs. Clever, Miss Holmes, and
Miss Mills for leading their buildings into this week. And we of course want to recognize our amazing staff for embracing this week and building the enthusiasm for engineering design process throughout our campuses. But most importantly, I want to applaud the
energy, curiosity, and brainstorming that our students approach this hands-on applied learning with. So, with us today, we have representatives from every um building, and we're going to start with our youngest. So, um, we're going to start with, um, fees. So, our
Freetown Lakeville ele students are taking on a whole school approach to STEM week with all grade levels learning about kinetic and potential energy resulting in some balloon car designs. And we have with us tonight Robert Duza Jr. and Myra Costa. They're here with
Mrs. St. An from the first grade classroom. balloon cars. We worked together to solve the problem of making the car go. Our favorite part of of the project was
making it with friends because it is fun. We learned that engineers and scientists need to work hard. If we could change one thing about our car,
our design, we would change it to a race car design. >> You want to show off your cars a little bit? >> Show Show yours. >> Robert, what did what did you decide to do with your your car?
>> What have What did you decide to do with your wheels? I decided to use two bottle caps and two CDs. >> All right. So, I kind of I told him it kind of reminds us of a tractor. And then what did you say? >> You don't remember? Okay. All right.
That's okay. And then Myra, this one, right? This one's yours. >> What do you think? We She kept with the bottle caps. She wanted to keep it steady, right? >> Uhhuh. >> We did. Do you have any questions for
our race car designers? Great. Okay, we're going to go to our opposite elementary school students. They are taking STEM through literacy with each grade level um reading a book and taking on a design challenge from the reading. And tonight
we have Athena Duket and Amelia Fado from grade three, Miss Julian Santos's class to share a bit about their challenge from creepy carrots in order to keep the carrots safe. >> All right, you guys ready?
>> Our STEM week project was building a fence. >> We worked together to solve the problem of Jasper Rabbit trying to keep the creepy carrots away. My favorite part of the project was sticking all of the tape on because I loved wrapping the tape around my fence.
>> My favorite part of the project was when we made our plans because it was fun and I could not wait to finish it. >> We learned that engineers need to plan their work before they build. >> If I could change one thing about my design, it would be to make sure it
would um be more sturdy so it's less likely. If I could change two things about my design, I would make it more of a square and make my popsicle sticks closer. >> So, which design is whose is whose design there? >> Amelia, which one's yours?
>> This is my design that I made with my group. >> You want to talk about it a little bit? >> So, what did you do? I made a fence to keep Jasper out because the creepy carrots made a plan to creep on Jasper to make
sure that to make sure that he stopped eating the carrots cuz he loved the carrots. So, we made a fence to keep Jasper out of out of the out of the patch field. >> Nice job. Well, can you just talk two seconds about what's this top? Why did
you add a top? I I added a top for decoration and so he can't just easily hop over it and get inside. >> Nice stuff. Lucy, do you want to do a quick quick about yours in your group? >> So, we decided to use popsicle sticks to
build it cuz we thought that was like um it would help keep it more sturdy. And um we had to build it um at least 4 in tall so that Jasper rabbit can't just hop over it.
>> Yes. So they did do a lot of work with like perimeter and area that's all like underneath it. So it was more involved than like what it looks like but it was a quite a task and I think they did a fantastic job. >> Any questions? >> No. Great job.
Moving up our engineering grade level, we have our GRA students. Um, as they get older, they have more constraints put on their tasks, um, like limited materials and specific outcomes. Um, Gray's grade four students are testing their bucket
towers, while our fifth graders are designing newspaper structures that can withstand heavy weights. So, tonight we have Julia Morsette and Henry Hughes from grade four with Mrs. LEC uh to share their experience with their bucket tower challenge. >> During STEM week, our design challenge
asked us to find a way to build a loadbearing bucket tower. Our given constraints were 20 straws, a piece of string, a 3 oz cup, and 36 in of tape. At first, it was hard because we didn't know how our structure would hold up, but we solve the problem by using three
straws for each side and base to make the structure stronger. Something that surprised us was that it could hold two pairs of scissors, a bomb, and and a pencil without collapsing. I learned that teamwork and testing are important because without helping each other, our
tower would have fallen apart. Testing helps us know how strong our structure is and what we can do to make it better. Next week, we are going to see how many pennies our towers can hold. During STEM week, our design challenge asked us to find a way to build a
loadbearing bucket tower. Our given constraints were 20 straws, a piece of string, a 3 oz cup, and 36 in of tape. At first, it was hard to figure it was hard because we had to figure out a way to make it. But we solved the problem by
building um a base and making sturdy sides. Something that surprised us was that it didn't collapse within the first 5 seconds. I learned that teamwork and testing are important because we can work together to make changes that will make our tower
better. >> Do you want to show them which one you made? >> Um, I made this one and Yeah. >> Did you test it out today with something? >> Yeah. >> What did you What did you use? Um, we
used um a Sharpie with bomb and and this plastic screw thing, >> right? A plastic screw that we had in the class. And Julia, yours? >> Um, we tested ours out too. Ours also was able to hold two pairs of scissors, lip balm, and a pencil without
collapsing. >> So, when we decided on these two students to present this, they hadn't planned their structures yet. So when we started planning, I was like, "Oh, they both planned kind of the same way," which was great. But we have one little difference. What did you decide on your
group, Julia? >> We our group decided to have a little platform at the top so we would be able to hang our cup with a string. >> So we decided, the three of us, to bring one more just to see a different kind of shape, too. So another group in the class decided to go with more squares
rather than triangles. Can you two uh share with us u the your favorite part about doing some of these design challenges? >> I really like building things that involve like not like I just really like building
things in class. >> That's a good that's a good answer. >> Um I like challenges and also crafts. So yeah. >> Do you like working with groups? cuz I heard you talk about working with your groups. >> Well, it depends on what it is.
>> That's a loaded question, right? >> All right. Thank you both. >> And we are now up to our middle school students and they are uh doing a lot they go into more depth as they do more research um about their designs. And
this year, the seventh grade students are doing a zoo makeover project. I'm going to go ahead and leave some of the details up to them because they have some well planned speeches for you. >> Our seven week challenge focused on red redesigning a zoo habitat. We came up
with a design for North American river otterters. >> An important step in the engineering design process is research because you need to know what your you need to know about your animal before you build. One challenge we faced during testing was building the slide for the river otter.
We fixed it by using more pieces and hot glue. >> This project taught me how science, math, and creativity work together. >> If we had more time, we would improve our design by adding more grass and putting more coverage on the box. >> You want to walk your design around so people can see it?
>> There's a great I would like to be an otter in this. There's a great slide. Why is [Music] >> that? Thank you, Mr. G. >> Could you walk around also? >> Keep going. Y
I got you right there. Thanks a lot. uh they have a presentation through the whole school can come through and they the kids um ask questions and they have to continue their speaking and presentation skills as uh their peers
and and teachers come through and um ask more questions about how they got their design. It's actually a great day to be in the building when they do this. It's Friday. Yep. I love going through. I never hit enough classes because there's so many
of them. But yeah, it's fun. So, any questions for our young engineers? Zooaker. Zoo maker makeovers. Great job. All right, that leads us up to our high school students. And how many of you got to play um tag with the robots out in
front when you came in? If you did, oh, good. I'm so glad. Thank you. Um, so I'm actually just going to turn this over. This is where it leads to this curiosity and the questioning and the stuff that happens in the elementary leads to these um larger hands-on
projects and designs that the kids do. And so tonight we have um Lex Eaton from our physi our physics class. Uh nope, not physics. I'm sorry. You're in engineering. >> Robotics.
>> Robotics. Lex from our robotics class. um Sean Barnick from engineering and then Alex Baker from our physics class and they all three have things to share with us. >> Rock, paper, scissors. I'll go first. >> I go first.
>> So, in our robotics class, we were tasked with building a robot that can play freeze tag. So, uh we have a very small class. So, that allowed us to work together. Uh we all helped each other with our designs. This is my design.
So, I put treads on mine just to set it apart from the others. The back. Here's the button. This is how you would be tagged. And the coding aspect, you have to give yourself five lives. And you have to wait 5 seconds every time you're tagged.
So, this is the remote. Just gonna do a quick uh >> Lex, do you want to put it down there? Will it run by? >> It'll get stuff done. >> These are VEX products that the kids are
building with VEX. We >> certainly would love to get some more of these in. >> Might run the battery down. to someone. >> Sean, go. >> All right, Sean, we're going to lose you. >> Hi, I'm Alex. Um, Alex, I unfortunately don't have a robot. I have a little tin
foil cup from physics. We're revisiting uh thermal energy and heat transfer. Um, and different types of it, how it works. And we, our project was to make two types of thermoses. One that was the bad thermos that allowed heat in to heat up the water and the good thermos that
worked in the thermos. It would stay the water cool. This is an example from someone's class. I'm not sure who. Um, and they used pin foil as a conductor. This is the bad thermos, so it allowed the heat in. Um, and yeah, I think the coolest part about
this project, even though it seems very simple, sorry, Matt, seems very simple. Is that we were then able to look at this and go, okay, this makes the thermos bad and apply it to actual thermoses like you'd buy in a store. Like Miss Mills was showing off her very big clunky thermos, but she was like,
"This keeps the water a lot more cold than your little dinky Gatorade one because it has more levels of um types of heat transfer." I was like, "Oh, so the expensive water bottles are expensive for a reason." It was very cool to be able to see in real life and go, "Oh, that's why that's how that works." And I feel like that transfers for all of STEM. I feel like that's why
STEM is so interesting as a subject. You're able to see it in real life and go, "Oh, that's why that's how this is." Um I remember my friend Sophia was in my pool one time. We're watching the waves. She's like, "All I can think about is physics and wave wave equations." It's very funny. She says it plagues her. But I think that's why STEM is so cool.
You're able to see in real life. And that's um I think a very cool part of you can really avoid STEM. You have tech club and you have engineering classes and physics. It's kind of everywhere um in your real life whether you want or not. And I think that's very
interesting. They're able to just go out in real life and be like this is heat transfer. This is waves. This is, you know, like when you're in I learned in middle school that triangles are used in engineering cuz it's the strongest shape and oh my god, all these bridges have triangles and that's why it's very interesting that transfers throughout
high school throughout high school whether you go into STEM or not. >> So that's why I like them. >> Alex, if you could bring another um area in or another class or another learning opportunity, what would that look like for you? >> Like for STEM, like another class I've
taken? Um I also took engineering my freshman year and again my junior year engineering one and two. Um I remember oh engineering we had to make gears. Um
actually think what you have as well had to make gears. Mine really bad but it was still really fun cuz you had to work then with a different type of we had to work with Canva for the it's Canva right for the first time used for the years little website. You have to like 3D print all the materials. I have to really like get involved with like you
have to measure everything out. Make sure it's very specific and cool. So I might fail cuz I didn't measure very well. But it was very fun to be able to like see so in depth like how each mechanism of like everything works like okay I have to go down to this very specific number for this to then go into
that and for this to then like cause this reaction to happen and etc etc etc. So I don't know if that answers your question at all. >> Those are more more hands-on things more designing things. Yes. >> Yeah. Great. >> Yeah. >> Take two.
>> So, the remote, we had to learn how to pair them. We had to learn how to code the robot. We learned how to connect all the motors to the brain there. Learned how to connect the touch sensor on the back. If you can see the screen, you can see
that there are words on it. We've recent recently, that was our project to code the screens to display if we've been tagged or not. >> Sean, would you like to just like kick it to get me to >> just tag it? Go.
And then kicks right back on. This is definitely I love doing this. Always love building stuff. I love controlling it. Love robotics. It's great for most other areas of life cuz now coding stuff has become major part
of the world. So I feel that anyone who's taking classes and learning how to do this already has a leg up when they're growing up and trying to find stuff to do. Okay. >> Well, Alex is parking his robot. >> Okay. In engineering 2, our design
challenge was to create mechanical movements using different mechanisms. Um, we were given a certain set of constraints. So, the design must be fit within 30 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm. The design must be 3D printed and it must use at least two mechanical movements.
So throughout the project I learned a lot about tolerancing my components and how to make working designs. Um, one major issue that I encountered which kind of set a hiccup in my project was what material I printed my project in. I don't know if you can see it from here but there are very small components in
my design. And I had originally printed it in a material called ABS, which is really difficult to print in because it requires to be heated a lot more. So when it actually gets printed, it ends up flattening out more than a material
like PLA, which I ended up using um wood and caused the parts not end up fit not fit together. So I went past that and I printed it again now in this orange PLA um which worked a lot better. As you can see, it it moves very moves a lot more a
lot smoother than I had originally anticipated. Um, I had assembled my project at home with my dad, which was very helpful because he taught me how to use like different kinds of super glue and cement and um, it was assembled in about an hour and it
worked a lot better than the than the last try. I think my favorite part about um engineering, specifically my engineering classes, is because I definitely want to go into engineering when I go into college and um also with business um tied to that. Um and I think
by having the STEM classes, it helps me really learn more about um what do engineers not only how do to do things in engineering, but also what engineers do to solve different problems. So, as you can see, this is the movement that I ended up creating, which um was
basically like a wheel. You spin the wheel, which spins three different gears and connects to a uh slider, which moves out in kind of like a piston-like motion. So, thank you. >> Any questions? >> No, just comments. Um, thank you to all
the presenters, not only from the STEM stuff to to your presentation skills to the nice detail with the Renelier sweatshirt. Um, great stuff and thank you to the leadership team and all the teachers for bringing more STEM opportunities into into the district. I've seen that grow
over the last couple of years. So, it is great job everyone. Thank you. invite our families to go ahead and um get their young ones home. So, if you were a presenter for STEM week, thank you. Thank you. And I'll continue to
snap some pictures of those tests and trials. >> And thank you to our teachers. Mr. Morray, you did not come up, but he's our amazing engineering and robotics teacher here at the high school. If >> we could have 15 of him, I would be over
the moon. So, the next presentation tonight, because we we voted to go out of order, the next presentation with students is our um campus programs update, which is letter D on the agenda. So, Diane Sepiga can't be with us this
evening, but she did send uh Mr. Leage and Mrs. Chase in her place. And there are some students here, so as soon as this crowd thins, we'll have them come up. >> Great. Mr. >> Lest. >> Yes. >> Yes, sir. Your honor,
>> she she has some slides for her. So, I'm representing uh Mrs. Aiga, Dian Zapiga from Community Wreck. >> Slide seven. >> Now, I get no one to present to here. Um >> I mean, everyone to present to here. So, I've been fortunate. I was a classroom
uh teacher beforehand. I'm the PE teacher down at Graze now. Um, but I've been fortunate the last I think I was in my 12th year doing uh after school programs with community wreck. Um Diane gave me the opportunity years ago to run programs um after school. So I always loved it because I was able to see the
kids out of the classroom. Um and I do a lot of sports based obviously now being PE it's a lot easier for me. Um but we've had several programs. I usually run four to five uh throughout the year. They're fiveweek programs. It's uh first come first serve. some of the school committee members, children have been a part of it. Some of the students that
just represented STEM week or former students that went through the program. Um, but it's a great opportunity for students that aren't maybe on an actual team. I mean, there's tons of different sport teams out there these days, but this is still kind of like we're having fun at this age. Um, it's not really
we're playing for wins and losses. So, the kids get to show up after school, they sign up. Um, we do a lot of skill-based stuff like we do in PE and then they get to play presentation style games. if you've been in the field, we've been doing flag football this past week. Um, but the program itself, it's
great. Um, the kids come. The cool part is though, I've had the fortunate ability of having students return as volunteers. So, when they get to the uh junior high level, the National Junior Honor Society, the um obviously National Honor Society at the high school, a lot of students come back and want to help
me out. Uh, and they come back and they get community service hours that they're able to use towards college applications um and their high school requirements. Um, but it's just cool to see and then I I get more perks to the job now. I've been able to call the football games. I
just came from girls soccer and I see, you know, athletes that started way back at Gays when they were first starting to kick a soccer ball that are now on the varsity soccer team. So, just like the STEM program, Community Rex allowed the students to try different sports and games that maybe they wouldn't have the opportunity
to do. Um and then they uh move on and hopefully play some sports and represent the school the way they have for us here. Uh we try and do new programs. I always ask the students kind of feedback. Obviously the major sport, soccer, basketball, flag football tend to be popular ones, but we've taken recommendations. Handball is an
interesting game that a lot of the kids get excited about. We dodgeball after school. That's something they enjoy signing up for. Parents sign off on it so we can uh have that. Mr. Perier here, another former student, not only an incredible golfer, but he went through all the programs with me as well. Um,
but it's just a great program and Diane and I have worked kind of hand by hand in hand. Uh, we use Google forms now for signups, so there's no more paper chasing and check cashing in that sense. So, it's a fun way to get information uh from the families. We do a lot of exit tickets and feedback for what the
programs provide the students. Um, and again opens the door for other opportunities and uh I very much enjoyed being a part of it and get to see the students outside of the classroom and their personalities come out in all different ways. So that's what I got for you and we'll continue to carry on
programs as long as they'll let me. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Also tonight as part of uh Dian Pig's program uh that she oversees is Mrs. Chase who runs the uh reading program, right? the partnership program between
our seniors and our students and the poor qua summer program. >> Correct. Correct. Thank you. Um good evening. As um she said, my name is Karen Chase and I work with and for Diane Sepiga uh for campus programs. Diane asked me to share a little bit
about what I do here tonight. Since 2012, um I've taught the afterchool storytelling program at Grae. If you're not familiar with it, I teach the art of oral tradition. Students choose a folktale, then they bring that story to
life um not by reading, but by performing it. They use their own words, gestures, facial expressions to make that story come to life. They then perform the stories for the entire Grace population. And we also have an evening
performance at Graze as a community performance where everyone is invited. This program gives the students a chance to explore diverse cultures, collaborate as a team, express their creativity, and build confidence through public
speaking. And over time, uh, with working with the students, I noticed they were especially drawn to poor quas stories, folk tales that explain how or why something came to me uh, to be. And Diane approached me and asked if I would consider running a program for the
summer camps. And so I developed the playing with poorqua stories program. Uh they write their own porqua tales, their own original stories. They illustrate them and they bring their story to life with character mass sock puppets and
folding theaters. It's a joyful experience, very creative, and at the end each students receives a book with their own illustrated cover featuring their story and those of their peers. And here is one one of the students did this year and it's called why trees
change color in the fall. Quite appropriate right now. Also um from the storytelling program I was inspired to begin a new program called Once Upon a Generation uh which
began in 2016. Some of my students are paired with senior citizens from our community the storytelling students in our greatest class. They listen to a story from one of the seniors lives that we pair them up together. They conduct
interviews and over several weeks they craft that story into a firstperson narrative and the students then perform the story as if they lived it as if it was their own story in two public
performances also filmed by Lake Ham. Uh and I want to thank Dr. Starky for being the first U superintendent to ever attend one of the once upon a generation performances. It meant a lot. Thank you. Uh this program has created powerful
lasting connections between generations. It's a reminder that storytelling doesn't just preserve culture, it builds community. Uh Diane continues to be a very strong and supportive partner for all of these programs. Now, one of my
students who participated in both the storytelling program and the once upon a generation program is an aonoquit high school senior Cameron Poryer and he's here tonight to share some of his reflections. Cameron, thank you.
So, I guess I'm involved with everything. Um, my name is Cameron Porer. I'm a senior here at Aonoquit and I'm an intergenerational storyteller. I happen to write my college essay on this program. So, I'm just going to read that as it's a great reflection of how great
this program is. Like most kids, I hang out with friends after school. The only difference is that mine have lived through Jim Crow, the space race, and the Vietnam War. I am an intergenerational storyteller, building relationships with my elders at
our local senior center. I have had the privilege of learning about lives that span history and the personal, often painful accounts of the events that shape those lives. The program is based on an African proverb that claims when an elder dies, a library burns down.
Meaning that when someone dies, their stories and knowledge are lost. Storytelling preserves the library of memories. And my role is to save the library's books by sharing other people's stories in front of an audience without reading off a script. Each
spring, intergenerational storytelling members meet with senior citizens interested in sharing their stories. We introduce ourselves and exchange life experiences to develop a strong and trusting connection. My senior partner decides which story to share and over
the course of two months, we collaborate to create a living oral history. In June, we host two evenings of storytelling for the local community. Over the past eight years, I have told many stories, including Williams fight for racial justice and Winston's
determination to earn the respect of his older brother. Most recently, Hank, a Vietnam veteran, broke into tears as he shared his private untold story of lifelong friendships and profound losses experienced during combat.
In his story, which he titled A Life Well-Lived, Hank opened up to me with long buried memories he had never shared before. No senior had ever cried while telling me their story, but it was clear that Hank needed to be heard.
The following week, the program director, Mrs. Chase, told me that Hank had considered leaving the program before meeting me. She confided that he was dealing with challenging personal matters and feared that being a part of storytelling would be too much to handle. Knowing this motivated me even
more to perfect Hank's story and ensure his voice was heard. What he shared with meant so much to him and I was nervous before telling it for the first time. As I told his story in front of a live audience, I was overcome with the same
mix of joy and sorrow that Hank had felt while telling me his story. When I finished, I glanced over to see tears welling up in Hank's eyes as he rose from his seat and began to clap. The pride and relief in his eyes said more than words ever could. Watching him
embrace the moment filled me with a sense of joy and gratitude I'll never forget. Afterwards, he shook my hand and thanked me, saying that sharing this part of his life helped pull him out of a rough patch. Many of the seniors I work with struggle with anxiety and are too shy to tell
their stories. My role is to be a voice for those unable to use their own. Everyone has a story and sharing them brings people together. Over the years, I have not only refined my public speaking and communication skills, but I've also developed a deep appreciation
for the importance of listening. Sharing other stories has shown me that leadership is about making people feel truly heard. As DECA president, golf team captain, student representative on the school committee, and former class president, I strive to give students a
platform to express themselves, actively listen to their concerns, and foster meaningful two-way dialogue. To that end, I hope to bring intergenerational storytelling to new communities, perhaps even as a college club. The impact this program has had on my life is immense,
and I hope others can experience it, too. Though I've seen members of the program pass away, I take comfort in knowing that their stories live on through the library we built together. >> You have a bright future, Cameron. Good job.
Can I can I just say that if there's a college >> that reads that essay and doesn't accept you, that is their loss. But >> appreciate it. >> That was great. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Great job. >> Thank you. Great job. >> Thank you again.
>> Thanks Miss Chase for being here tonight and for representing campus programs. Comrac. Excellent. And you'll notice that in your packet you have uh much more detail about the program from Diane who again is sorry she couldn't be here with you this evening. >> Thank you so much for being here. >> Awesome. Uh next up we have uh Lisa
Pacho who's here uh for the before PreK plus Kids Cafe summer program. >> Good evening. Um thank you for having me here tonight. I'm happy to share an update on the extended programs. The financial status of the extended programs is solvent and continues to be
in good financial standing. We had full enrollment in kids cafe summer camp and closed sessions. Enrollment at the before and after school program continues to grow. We have full enrollment at prek plus. We continue to increase enrollment for vacation club.
We have increased clubs and activities for after the bell at most of the schools. and we have full enrollment at the score music academy. I'm going to start off with Kids Cafe. The purpose of Kids Cafe is to provide
parents with a quality summer camp that incorporates enrichment classes in the morning with meaningful activities, supervised free choice, and directed play in the afternoon. Kids Cafe is a unique blend of academics, hands-on learning and fun designed to enhance
each child's social, emotional, physical, and intellig intellectual growth. In the morning, campers choose an area of interest or an area that needs support. These classes include science experiments, nature, dance, reading, and more. In the afternoon,
it's fun in the sun or cool in the shade. We use the entire campus um to our benefit. Uh this year we had three sessions starting at um on 6:30 and ending on 88. We're open from 7:30 to
5:30 in the afternoon. Um we had a a total of 892 campers enrolled, an average um daily on session one of 270, session 283, and session 3 294. We service approximately
8 thou a little over 8,000 um throughout the six weeks. This summer we had a total of 52 staff members, 10 instructors per session. Supervisor Jenny Patterson and project coordinator Christy Norton. Each group had two staff members.
Um prek to six except for grade one had three. Um and um I'm most proud of the campers for seventh and eighth grade. We had 30 campers in seventh and eighth grade. And that's an attestament to um the program overall because they really do not ever want to leave. Um we enjoyed
this year a DJ dance party, pizza parties, talent show, campwide contest, slime color um camper of the session, a magician, a slideshow, water slides, field trips, tent area, scavenger hunts, and a special eighth grade camper sendoff, photo booths, exotic animals. We attended two field trips, one to
Roger Williams Zoo, and the other one to Holiday Lanes. and a total of only four campers stayed back the entire time. >> Um this summer at the direction of central office, we had a nurse on site. When you're um servicing approximately
8,000 campers, um the numbers are here. One camper received medication, 46 ice packs, 39 band-aids, 29 heat, sick beastings, lost tooth, and I just want to visit the nurse. Um 12 sent home, 12 epiens, and one broken arm.
I cannot emphasize enough how important the pool is to the district and I would be remiss if I did not bring that up right now. The community at large, the programs and kids cafe. The pool is important. This summer brought me to the edge more than last summer. This takes a
toll on staff and campers. I tried to find alternative ways to beat the heat. We started with a large tent with hammocks, couches, tables, and music. We were so excited until the first weekend and a windstorm blew it all away. I bought inflatable
pools, sprinklers, water balloons, hoses, anything to get wet and cool down until I found myself emptying them every night, disinfecting them, and putting them all back together the next morning. We went on field trips. We had entertainment. We had a larger game
area. We had water slides. Although these activities were a minor reprieve from the heat, it doesn't replace the pool. My goal is to continue with all of the extras and to one day have access to the pool. In the end, we did what we had to do in an effort to keep Kids Cafe
Summer Camp fun and full of excitement. Um, and it's not it's not me. It is definitely to my staff and to my two coordinators. Um, they were a big help. We move on to the before and after school program. The extended programs
before and after school program continues to be held at each individual school. There are four sites housing students from within their own building. Children are engaged in art, cooking, recreations, and group projects. We continue to concentrate our on our efforts on homework assistant. We have a
total of 271 students right now, and we are so grateful to be fully staffed. The AM program begins at 6:30 in the morning and we service a total of 685 students a week. There are 10 staff members and
three site supervisors. Each PM program begins immediately upon dismissal. The kids from the middle school walk over to Graze with um a a Grace staff member and everyone throughout the elementary schools and Grace and um the middle
school um work on homework first. Homework is essential in my eyes. That time provided to do homework enables families to spend more quality time together, which I think is most important. We service 685 students
weekly in the PM program, and a detailed account um is to follow. There are 14 staff members, three high school helpers, and three site supervisors. I review my options um regarding the breakfast and snacks. the price continues to increase while the variety
decreases in the nutritional value suffers. There are other companies in which we are looking at right now which may be a better fit for the program. We are also unfortunately considering discontinuing offering breakfast as part of the program since all students have access to a free breakfast school
program. It doesn't make much sense for the program to buy the same food that the district offers for free. I continue to monitor the program coordinator position created last year and held by Jenny Patterson. It is so beneficial to have a coordinator to be in different
sites throughout the week to ensure that all program policies and procedures are being met. Although the position is salary based, I'm need to tweak the hours so Jenny is not overextending herself and that the best interest of the program is at hand. She is also putting 100 miles per week
on her car which is something that we are both all addressing. Christy Norton is a prek plus program director, PM program director, and kids cafe projects coordinator. I am so fortunate to have her. She took a load
off my plate. I am developing a more detailed program job description for her for future expansion in her position. I am desperately trying to streamline all aspects of the program to offset increased cost and expenditures. We
cannot keep increasing tuition. It needs to remain affordable and that is my ultimate goal. Certainly creating new programs is always on the table, but there is a fine line and I will address that later. You can see the program enrollment numbers. We have 70 in fees. FES is a
down about 17 students this year. Um Dr. Stock and I are going to start um monitoring um enrollment throughout the district to see where the grade levels are and that might have some um you know impact on these numbers. Um AES is 101
students. Um this is about five off not really a big deal. Grace enrollment is stagnant remainder of 70 students. Um and FLMS um still floors me with 27 students in the afternoon.
Okay, prek plus not done. Um, the prek plus program is a service for students who need placement for the students accepted into the district preschool program. This is designed to offer a full day program whereby students that are um h students that are placed on the
waiting list um for the district have an opportunity to enroll in the pre preschool plus program. Um I think we work hand inand Meredith Boy um sends those students my way and we have them register and we go from there. Um I
don't know what the district the numbers are to follow I guess. Um but we currently have um maxed out our enrollment and there is a waiting list. Everybody keeps saying to me, "What is PreK+?" And the way I explain it is PreK+ gets to do a little bit more than
what they do during the day because their time constraints in the day are are um you know go according to their curriculum. When they're learning with apples, we're counting apples, we're um eating apples, we're cooking with apples, and we learned a variety of what
apples really are. So, we're more of an enrichment program, but we still are learning based. Um we are accommodated in the fees um school and there are two classrooms right across from the school nurse should we need anything at that time.
Okay. Vacation club. Vacation club. The purpose of vacation club is to provide parents with quality care during both February and April vacations. In the morning vacationers will be involved in recreation and fun. They will work on team building, personal expression and goal setting by choosing stations. in
the afternoon. It is a fun-filled journey for all. We changed this up. Now we because it's called vacation club, we now travel to different um areas of the world and we learn about their culture along the way. This year we'll be traveling to both London and Australia
to see the sites and taste the food. Last year we had a total of 101 vacationers for February and 105 vacationers for April. And we service about 350 a week. Last but not least, Score Music Academy.
It's back in action. Score Music Academy is an instrument lesson program for fifth graders. Each student has one group lesson per week scheduled on a specific day after school. Lessons begin lessons began this week. We have a total of 25 music enthusiasts
enrolled. There will be concert in May. Tuesday is percussion and sachs. Wednesday trombone and clarinet. And Thursday flute and trumpet. We have three clarinet players, four flute players, seven percussion, four sacks, one trombone, and six trumpet.
In closing, again, I want to thank you for having me here tonight to update you all on the happenings with extended programs. As extended year programs grow and develop, I expect there to be new challenges should new philosophies change. As I direct my remarks to the
school committee, I hope everyone lends an ear. I have said it a million times. These programs are prime examples of how communities and schools can be partners in achieving common goals for the health and welfare for children.
Courtney, I have been haunted over a question that you posed to me last year. How do we grow and expand programs? There are so many possibilities. There's cooking classes for kids. There's holiday paint classes. There's there's kids in and parents out nights. There's
hot chocolate Santa and the Polar Express. There's summer drama. There's adult programming. There's yoga, Zumba. Uh chuterie board classes, knitting club, and maybe even cornhole leagues. But the choices are endless. I know firsthand that these schools were built,
renovated, and supported by taxpayers as community use buildings. Once we lose sight of that, then programs will dry up and disappear and the community relationship will falter. I have sat in your seat. I have sat in the selectman's
seat. I know all about the bottom line and budgets. I understand that education is broader than the school day. I further understand that in order to garner support from the communities, we must commit to providing them with opportunities. Look around. There is so
much that we have to offer more than any other school district in our area without the use of district funds created by us and for us. Why are my remarks directed towards the school committee? Because administration often
changes and so do philosophies. This school these schools belong to the community and these community these are community programs and you represent the community. It is your resolve as putting a puzzle together that all the pieces fit and work cohesively. So I ask you
all, philosophically speaking, where would the community be without extended programs and where would the district be without community support? Thank you. I'll answer any questions that you might have. >> Yes.
>> Wait, how much uh how much did the lack of a pool impact program? So, um, we lost 100, um, students, but we also gained 100 100 students. Um, we actually gained a little bit more than that. Um,
but these are brand new families that didn't know anything about the pool, never used the pool, didn't know we had a pool. So, um, I think the testament will be this coming summer when they know, you know,
where we are and where we're going. 100 families is big. >> That's a lot. >> Yeah. >> And on top of that, um I know that you got home well past 7 o'clock many nights sanitizing those pools in your and your
bare feet. So, I commend you for that. >> And that goes to show your loyalty to our kids and our community. And I thank you so much for providing our families with an inexpensive way. Where would our community be without it? I'm not really sure because it's right here. It's
in-house. There's a lot of students that work there, which is important. I had a my own son was the student that worked there. And still in our own neighborhood, we hear Mr. Hunter, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Hunter. So, it lasts a long time. Um, and I thank you so much. Like, you're doing a great job. And our
community needs you. And without you, our community needs to figure out a new way to where they're going to put their kids and how they're going to trust that. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> I don't have a >> Sorry. That's okay. Am I >> recognized by the chair?
>> Oh, sorry. Through the chair. >> Sure. No. Um, I was just gonna um kind of echo Jen's comments and say thank you. I know um as working caregivers sometimes it's putting together a puzzle figuring out where your kids are going to go and when before school, after
school, before chorus, um during the summer. So, I think this is a great program for the community and the parents in the community. Um and thank you for your um efforts in that. >> And I love the music part. That's great. >> Yeah, it's great to have it back. >> Yep. >> They're really excited. And it just it
works, right? Because now these kids go on and they work they play band in the middle school and they go to the high school. So it just starts off earlier and it's a feed program >> and they started up with that early. >> Yeah, it's awesome. >> Go ahead, Bob. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, I've said it many
times, but where are you going to find a better public relations tool than what we have here? And I can remember the days when we didn't have anything, nothing. And now it it's incredible the offerings that we uh present to the
community. Uh the pool is so important, I think, because you can talk about a dangling participle in English, but uh is that more important than teaching a kid how to swim? I mean, that can save a life.
It's and it's all it's all because what we all have now is because of her and I don't want any of the committee or the community to to forget that. Uh it's we're the envy of all the other talents of programs that we have. So thank you
again for all you've done. >> Thank you. >> Yes. I I just want to say thank you just robust offerings and and the the chair mentioned the word inexpensive which is something you don't hear these days. Um when is the last are your is your fee
structure pretty been stable over the last >> Yeah, we we um talked about that the other day. I I don't want my fees to go up so I'm trying really desperately to keep the expenditures down. Um you know, a little here and a little there all adds up, right? So, um, but I don't
foresee any increases in the in the years to in a couple of years to come. Anyway, I can't commit to that because it right, I don't see what's on the other side. Like, I don't know what's going to hit me like things come up I I that I don't know about. So, I'm going
to ensure that um from my point of view that they stay affordable because that's why we started this. We started it in how we could have a a company come in. I looked at company prices. There's no way that anybody can touch those prices. You can't afford it. It's crazy
astronomical. >> So, we keep it in-house because first of all, who knows our kids better than we do? >> That's number one. And number two, we do it in-house because it's affordable. Like, we work together as a team, you know. Um Pete Gallagher
was here. He worked for me. Matt Shinny, he works for me. A lot of the kids that are up here, they attended, you know. Um, there's people in the audience. They worked for me. So, >> our kids work together, >> right? So, I mean, it's handinand the
community and this program works hand in hand. We're connected and we should always be connected. >> It's just quality, quantity, inexpensive community. It's Thank you for everything. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Great job, Lisa. Thank you. through the
chair. Uh, Lisa, when you were >> I was just saying through the chair. Um, when you were finished talking about the summer program, I tried to interject there for a minute and I wanted to compliment you on the summer program, having been over there several times and recognizing uh the increased
responsibilities related to not having the pool. Uh, but having spoken to many of the kids involved in the program and hearing from parents, it was a really successful summer. Thank you very much for that. Thank you for the meetings that we've held >> uh to start talking about, you know, entrance surveys, exit surveys, and how
can we continue to partner and serve the community. So, I want to thank you for that and thank you for tonight's presentation. >> Thank you so much. Thank you everybody. >> Thank you, Lisa. Thank you. [Applause] >> So, through the chair, we're still going out of order. >> Okay.
>> Apologize. We have uh our CPAC representative tonight, Gail Trink, who would like to make her presentation as well. And then we could go back to order if you don't mind. Or although did Mr. Kabooseio come in? >> He's here. >> Oh, he is here. Okay. Gail, why don't you if you don't mind and then we'll go to athletics and then back. >> Mine's quick. >> Yeah.
>> So, I'm Gail Tra. I'm one of the co-chairs for CPAC. Amy Masso is the other co-chair. Um, she couldn't be here tonight. Um, so CPAC is off to a great start. Um, for any of you here, any of you watching at home, um, that might not
know what CPAC is, it is, um, the Special Education Parents Advisory Council. So, this includes parents from all the schools in the district. Um, and it's a great place to voice your concerns about your child with special
needs. Um, you're you can be supported. Um, and you can also gain knowledge through um, the many guest speakers that we have at our meetings. Our meetings are the first Tuesday of every month here in the library at 6:30 except for next month. Next month it's the first
Monday. So that's November 3rd. Um, and it's going to be in the the lecture hall right down the hallway there. So at our first meeting, we had kind of just like a a casual meet and greet. Um we had a a you know many of the administrative um
team was there which was really great. Everybody kind of went around the room talked a little bit about themselves. Um, we got a chance to meet um, Jasmine Smith, the new special education administrator, and um, I don't know if many of you know, but last year um, the secretary of
the Catpack, Melinda Hernandez, she started working on um, trying to get an ADA compliant playground here in the district. And, um, Dr. Starky had uh, an opportunity to speak with Senator Michael Rodriguez. um she took that
opportunity to um ask if any of the earmarked funding becomes available to consider helping our district to fund the ADA playground. So, she also helped draft a letter and an email that we um sent out to our members that asks
Senator Rodriguez to consider um those funds if they become available. So, we really appreciate that support. Thank you, Dr. Starky. And our at our last meeting on October 7th, um this is Kelly Steele presented on parents rights. Um it was a great
presentation. She made it very kind of low-key, answered lots of questions, not just about parents rights, about everything you can think of. Um she's always such a great resource to us. So, thank you for that. So, November 3rd, I mentioned um we're uh it's that Monday.
Um and we're having uh Dr. Marcy Atkins. She's a child psychologist and she's going to be presenting on anxiety. She'll be covering topics uh such as non-compliance, sleep issues as they relate to anxiety, behavior issues
related to anxiety, touching on ADHD. Should be a great presentation. I hope you guys will join us. And then in December, um we're going to encourage our members to bring their children as we have Melissa um from the heart and
art. that's a nonprofit in Middleboro that makes the arts accessible to everyone. Um, so she's going to do a little holiday craft. She's going to talk a little bit about her organization. Um, and at that time we're also going to tour the mock apartment
that was recently completed here at the um high school. Uh, that was something that the students had uh taken on as their civics project last year. Um and then with the help of the administration it was completed this year. So we're excited to um to tour that as well. Uh
on January 6th we're going to have the Bridge Center um here presenting on their summer program. Um and we're hoping to add some other organizations that offer some um summer program opportunities for kiddos with special needs. In February, uh the Ark of
Bristol County um and a coordinator from DDS will be here to discuss services and um supports that they offer. In March, um we are planning on having a presentation on meaningful inclusion that will cover the kind of the four
pillars of inclusion. Um you know, being present, participating, achieving, and being supported. In April, uh we're going to have a presentation on um for kiddos that will be transitioning into the high school.
Can be kind of scary. So, we're hoping to um allay some of those fair fears. In May, we're going to have a presenter on ADHD. And then in June, uh it's the end of our year. Um again, we're going to have all the kiddos come back in. um
we'll have a a social and we'll also do our elections for um the following year for our board. So, we're looking for looking forward to a great year and um I hope that some of you will join us. Um and as always, we appreciate the support
from administration. Thank you. Any questions? >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, we also have our athletic programs presentation. So, Mr. Kabusio,
we have some student representatives with Mr. Kabusio. >> Well, well, good evening and thank you for your patience. Uh, we still have the girls soccer senior recognition going on outside right now, so thank you for adjusting your schedule. Uh, I'll talk about the report in a moment, but right
now what I really want to do is introduce a couple of our student athletes. Um, you have sheets of all the achievements that our athletes uh achieved through last year. It was a great year to be a Laker. It really was a lot of excitement, a lot of
achievement, but what we're most proud of is the skill sets that our student athletes develop through resilience, developing coping skills. And one of the most important things I feel is that employers someday they want people who
can do the most amount of work in the least amount of time. Most of us can get it done if we have all the time in the world. So I think the um uh time management skills that our student athletes develop in our building and with the size of our building, our student athletes are that they're
students and they're athletes. They're scholars. They're involved with DECA. So, we're very proud of them and I'd like to bring up two of them to speak on their experiences and then I'll be happy to take any questions from the uh report that was submitted. So, uh the first uh athlete who's still in her uniform
because she ran from her senior day right to uh the school committee meeting is CC Levo. [Applause] >> Okay. Hi everybody. Hi. Um, I would like to begin by thanking Mr. Kabio Kabusio on inviting me to speak to all of you today and for your time and attention.
My name is Cece Levall. I'm a senior here at Apoquit and I'm involved in girls varsity soccer, basketball, and lacrosse. In addition to being very committed to athletics, I am also enrolled in three AP classes, a member of National Honors Society, and many other clubs. I also work outside of school and I've gained a lot of
community service hours in our town. With all this going on, time management is a very valuable skill I have learned. Being a student athlete is not an easy role. It's early mornings, late nights, and juggling so many different things. In order to balance academics, athletics, my weekend job, and my social life, I have learned the importance of
routine and how staying organized can make balancing life so much easier. As much as I complain about having such small amounts of free time, I wouldn't change my experiences for the world. Being a student athlete is very stressful and timeconuming, but at the same time, one of the most rewarding experiences you can have. That isn't
just about individual achievements. It's about sharing those incredible moments with our teammates. Those championships, those tough losses, and everything in between. I have learned to handle failure and to pick my teammates up to come back stronger. Being part of three teams tier, I have built bonds that will last a lifetime. I'll never forget the
late night bus rides, screaming our favorite songs or the or early Sunday morning practices. We are all still waking up. Sports are a fantastic stress reliever, a way to stay in shape, and a constant challenge to push our limits. We are constantly developing skills, both physical and mental, that will serve us well long after we leave the
fields. I have been pushed to exceed on the fields and in the classroom and shown the value of hard work and dedication. I have learned the ability to handle pressure, the importance of collaboration, and the resilience to bounce back from setbacks, which are skills that will serve me in my future career and life. I've learned how to set
goals, create strategies, and work tirelessly to achieve them. I know that whatever challenge life throws at me in my future, I'll be able to draw on the experience and lessons I've gained as a student athlete at Aponquit to overcome them. I'm grateful for this welcoming community that has truly made my high school experience all the better. Thank
you for letting me speak in front of all of you today. [Applause] And if you if you've been a parent of one of our student athletes that you know how busy they are and what they achieve, but not enough people in our community realize uh the accomplishments
they do off the playing field and what they don't see on the in the newspaper. Our next uh student athlete is Ryan Lec. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Ryan Lec. I'm a senior here at Aponica Regional High School and thank you for inviting me to
speak with you today about my academic and athletic experiences throughout my four years here at Aponquit. I've been a three sport varsity athlete and honor student. I ran cross country my first three years and played golf this past fall. I've also played three years of both basketball and baseball. To be
successful in both academics and athletics, I must plan my time properly to get all my school work done. School work is always the priority. Sports and high school are filled with practices, long bus rides, and late night games, which require organization and time management. Being able to manage my time
has been key to both my academic and athletic achievement. Every free moment is mostly spent on school work or in the gym to help me maintain success inside and outside the classroom. Learning these skills now is setting me up for the future. My athletic accomplishments
would not be possible without my coaches. The coaches here at Aponit have taught me about being a team player and a leader. All of the coaches want their players to have the best chance to succeed on the field, but that starts with prioritizing success in the classroom. Aonica coaches are
understanding if you need extra help, are absent, or have meetings for things like DECA or National Honor Society. Every coach's goal is to support you and help you improve. Of course, winning is the objective, but working as a together as a team, giving your best effort, and
representing AON as a school that teaches respectful individuals is always the priority. My coaches are available to talk whenever I need them. I've been able to build a bond with my coaches. Being able to talk with them has been a key factor to my success. When I be
began cross country as a freshman, I did it because I was good at it in sixth and seventh grade. Little did I know how much I would like it. Coach Rutled and Wallica made running more fun, especially in a pack, and taught me how to improve as a runner and person. Although I did enjoy my cross country
experience, I chose to try out for the golf team this fall because of how much I generally enjoy this enjoy the sport. And whether it's golfing in the summer with the boys or even hitting balls at the range by myself, Coach Gazella has helped me become not only a better golfer, but a better
individual. Coach Kay teaches you edi etiquette on and off the course. With basketball and baseball, I am fortunate to have coach Kabusio. He has given me many opportunities and builds a great team community that supports each other. He's always willing to stay late and let
anyone shoot, practice shooting, hitting, or even open the weight room to allow me to stay strong during a sometimes grueling baseball season. I can't thank my coaches at Ponica enough for supporting and helping me achieve my goals. Many teachers and staff members work
behind the scenes to help support athletics as well. One teacher that has supported athletics is the gym teacher and athletic trainer, Mr. NASF who throughout the year checks in on injured athletes during the school day and asks them how their injuries are feeling. He makes sure to help by providing strength
exercises and proper care to ensure the injury does not get reinjured during the season. My four years at Apona have been nothing short of amazing. The friends I have made in the classroom and on the field I know will be friends for years to come. I will never forget all the memories I've made with my teammates.
Whether it be spaghetti dinners, fun bus rides and golf van rides, or just attending other sporting events to support each other or scout another team. But the best memory will be this spring when the baseball team brings home the Division 3 state championship. [Music]
Lastly, I would like to give a huge shout out to my parents. They are always supporting me both on and off the field. Without them, I wouldn't be the person I am today. After graduation, I plan to continue my academic and baseball career at a university. However, I have not made a decision yet. Thank you again for
your time this evening and thank you for supporting athletics. So, as you can you can as you heard, we're not always successful on the on the field, but we are absolute as a school district awesome at producing great citizens. And uh so we're very
proud of uh uh both their efforts. and I we could pro we could probably bring up dozens of different student athletes in a very similar mold. So, um we're very blessed to be involved with the uh uh the athletic department here at Ponquit. Uh all right, so you have my report. Uh
right now uh we're still members of the South Coast Conference and throughout the 10 teams all the teams are experiencing similar issues in uh all our enrollments are dropping down a little bit and so um participation is becoming even more more important. One
of our philosophical cornerstones is to keep as many of our kids busy until they get that driver's license after their sophomore year. So that's going to be our challenge the next few years is that uh our enrollment is dropping like everybody else's enrollment and I know of no school where their enrollment is
increasing in the area. So uh that's going to be a uh we're going to have to be as creative as we can with eighth grade waiverss. Uh we are um looking into co-ops. We're waiting on a co-op right now. We presently had for the first time in school history last
year we had uh five young ladies uh participating in co-op gymnastics with Middleboro where teams and school systems are coming together to share the cost and give kids opportunities and we'll continue to do that. Uh we're co-oping uh in in swim in uh with uh
middle school waiverss. Uh we co-op uh boys ice hockey. There's nine or 10 and I think I uh expressed that a couple years ago. We were st we thought we could get into it at Bishop Stang. There's nine 10 schools contributing to the Bishop Stang girls ice hockey team. So, uh we've been very fortunate the
last two or three years that our young ladies that uh uh want to skate uh aren't forced to skate on the boys team and they're on their own team and it's been a fantastic uh experience for them. So, we're going to continue with that co-op option. We're going to continue with eighth grade waiverss and try to
keep as many kids participating at least between the uh middle school and high school between grades six and 10. Uh most people focus on those varsity teams. The subvarsity teams are so critical in a school system because my experience is I want to keep young
people as busy as possible as long as you can. Once they get that license, their life and if you're a parent, you've gone through it, your life changes. They're going to be working. They're going to be dating. there's going to be a lot of different uh it opens up their um uh it it opens up
their social calendar. >> So that is still an emphasis for us is the subvarity teams and that's going to be the challenge because not only us but for instance we had a team that didn't play today uh simply because the other team uh uh JV team didn't have enough to
participate. So this is a common problem throughout the conference and throughout southeastern mass. Uh so that's that's with co-ops. the report. Are there any questions from the report? And as you see, we've got so many achievements on that. Uh, you know, we we should be extremely proud of um
what these student athletes accomplish, but I am open for any questions that you may have. >> I'll bite. >> Always a pleasure, Mr. Kabusio. I I miss the the Aponquit sports family and and having two student athletes myself.
Great choice with Ryan and Cece representing all the student athletes. appreciated and I know Cam is is part of that circle. You mentioned co-op and swimming. Where will they be swimming this year? >> We are still working on that because uh for instance uh we swam at someone else's pool last winter and they are
experiencing the same thing we did this year. They have shut their pool down. We have a couple um uh options out there and I should know by the uh within a week or so uh because we also we are we also are seeking a co-op in that program
with a neighboring high school. uh and we are remaining the host. So if our pool does eventually come back online, we still have a team intact. But we are because of the numbers have decreased over the years and the numbers have decreased in other schools. Uh for
instance, Middleboro, their Berkeland pool is shut down for the uh uh for the winter. They are also going through an engineering study on uh repairing it. So that seems to be a common theme in the area. >> So So the swim team will be swimming. We will be swimming. There's no question we're going to be swimming. It's just a
matter of when. And uh right now, until I know if the co-op is approved by the uh MIAA, that will help us decide which pool we're going to. >> I know we can't go to the Oakland pool. That is shut down, but we uh there are other options out there, and we've been exploring those. Actually, we've been
exploring those options since June. >> Don't you have a pool in your backyard, Mr. >> We do, but it it's very cold. Bob. >> And then one more question. Uh the other side of pools Ice, is there still a co-op in place for?
>> Uh actually the co-op with O colony uh for boys ice hockey has pretty much saved ice hockey at Ponicquit because they provide anywhere from six to nine athletes. We normally provide 14 to 16. So it's a viable program. U Yes. So we're skating. We're still skating at
Driscoll Rink and uh we are co-oping with uh Old Colony. Good. We are the host. We are the host team with that as well. And for those that don't know, we got into that co-op approximately 18 years ago with Bishop, the old Bishop Connley, which is why we
uh skated uh at Driscoll. And Bishop Connley was the host team, but then when our numbers got larger than theirs, uh we had an option of picking it up. And uh we're grateful we were able to uh pick it up and offer ice hockey in the winter to our athletes. >> Great.
You're the chair. I want to just thank you, Mr. Kusio, for everything you do to keep our athletic program running. I know you hate that, but you have to hear. >> It takes a full community. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Nothing else.
>> And we are um through the chair moving back to order, >> back on schedule. >> And the first item on the agenda is our student rep uh presentation. >> Thank you. >> 5B. Thank you for being so patient, Cameron. >> Okay, so I think all of these
presentations tonight kind of speak to the great lengths of our academic, extracurricular, and athletic programs here at Aponquit. I'm going to give a quick rundown of what we've been up to the past month and what we're looking forward to before the next meeting. So
Thursday, tomorrow, we are welcoming eighth grade students from the middle school as well as representatives from a Kushnet school district. The event will run from approximately 8 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Current ARHS students will
set up tables in the cafeteria to represent the respective clubs and sports. Prospective eighth grade students will have the opportunity to interact and engage with current students and learn about the many programs offered here at Aponoquip. Laker leaders will run tours to show
students the building. And in addition, a student panel Q&A will be run in the auditorium for the members of the Aushnet district as well as personalized tours following that event. Next week, the 2025 NHS induction
ceremony for juniors and new members seniors will take place in the auditorium from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. The senior class has their senior breakfast this Friday in the cafeteria, which is preceded by their senior sunrise in the bleachers of the football
field. Seniors will be responsible for turning in their senior dues and will be treated to a catered breakfast. As mentioned last meeting, the Uponquit players will be performing puffs as this year's fall play. Those interested in
watching can join us on Friday, November 7th at 6:30 p.m. or Saturday, November 8th in the Aonoquit auditorium. The green team run by biology teacher Mr. Marshall met yesterday and planted
bulbs around the entire school campus. As for the life club and unified basketball, unified basketball had their senior nightpinkout on Monday and recognized five seniors, Luchiana Martins, Jonathan Earl, Brian Fernandes,
Cliff Holberg, and Claire Lucy. This team is a varsity co-ed sport, including 24 members who work together to promote inclusion, sportsmanship, and teamwork while having fun playing basketball. Our
boosters generously donated goodie bags to our unified basketball team at this game. They will have their final away game at Secon High School on Wednesday 10:29 and our end of and their end of the year season jamberee will be at Dartmouth
High School on November 10th. The mission statement of the life club is as follows. Life aims to provide a variety of opportunities to develop and maintain meaningful relationships in in in an inclusive environment.
Enrichment opportunities foster true friendships while encouraging growth and development and promoting a safe, supportive, and welcoming atmosphere that is conducive to empowerment for all. Members of life strive to be the best version of themselves while
inspiring those around them to do the same. The life club meets two to three Thursdays per week, sorry, per month, and currently has over 30 club members. They are also currently doing their annual collection of non-p perishable
food donations and toiletries for Sacred Heart food pantry until November 25th. And that will be followed by their toy drive for Toys for Tots beginning in December. As for the Aonoquit Student Council,
they have beun begun their preparations for their winter bonanza community event and plan to host a card show on January 3rd sponsored by the Aonoquit Pokemon Club, which is a club within the student council. We look forward to the next
month and what it will bring. And I thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Cameron. Thank you, Cameron. >> I have a brief update tonight on uh transportation, and I'm very happy to uh just let you all know that the adjustment to the start time and end
time of the school year seems to have uh rectified the busing issue that we were having. Our students are getting to school on time and leaving school on time. Uh and more importantly for our elementary kids, they're getting home uh at a more reasonable hour because we don't have buses running 20 and 30
minutes late. So, I'd like to thank everybody in the community uh for their understanding and for adjusting over the summer so that we could get to school uh with a new with a new start and end time and have our buses running and our our kids getting in and out uh within the confines of what we expect for a school
day. Uh and then also along the lines of busing, I'd just like to remind the committee that our bus drivers are engaging in safety training all the time. They have an upandcoming training uh specific to train safety, which we had discussed quite a bit last year, in particular in the spring. Uh that's coming up in November. And we are
continuing to work with our students regarding train safety uh now that we have the trains certainly up and running and coming through uh both towns many times during the day and into the evening. Any questions regarding bus transportation? >> I just have a comment. Thank you. I know
you guys worked really hard this summer >> to get this busing situation taken care of and it's working. So, thank you. It doesn't go unnoticed. We appreciate it. That was a major problem for us and you guys took a lot of time and got it done. So, thank you. >> Thank you for acknowledging that. And in
terms from first student who did the who did quite a bit of work on this for us. So, thank you. >> Great. Uh now it's my pleasure tonight to introduce Ryan Blanchard who's here to give us an update on technology here in the district. You do have uh anformational handout from Ryan in the
packet and he's going to work off the slide I think that's behind me. >> Yes. Uh good evening. I'm excited to share the updates on the technology projects in progress the tech team has been taken. Uh we started uh with the
Chromebook device health check that started back in May when we collected uh the senior uh Chromebooks and inspected them for damage, testing their functionality and ising issuing bills as needed. Shortly after that, we started to collect the middle school
Chromebooks. We inspected those as well for damage, tested the devices, and issued bills as needed. Um that took us to about middle of the summer. Then we started going through the grace Chromebooks and we did the same thing as there as well. We inspected them, tested
them and sent out bills as needed. Um, after we looked at all the Chromebooks, we then repaired all damage and started preparing them for the opening of school. Um, we distributed uh Chromebooks during 9th grade orientation.
Next, um we've been working on uh multiffactor authentication throughout the district uh as we continue to strengthen our cyber security measures in response to the growing number of fishing attacks in security incidents, many of which have targeted neighboring districts in their members. The
technology department with the support of central office has begun implementing multiffactor authentication MFA to add an additional layer of security. [Applause] As we're trying to increase our cyber
security and posture, we have offered cyber security training again to the district. The district was awarded the cyber security grant from the state executive's office of technology service and security in the office of Numisible and school technology. This grant will
allow us to continue providing comprehensive cyber security awareness training in an ongoing effort to strengthen our cyber security defense. On August 28th, 2025, the district set aside dedicated time for faculty members to complete the
traditional path where everyone was automatically enrolled and we offered an educational path. The educational path was designed for teachers and administration allowing individuals to earn up to 10 PDPs that provided more extensive training
totaling 10 hours to qualify for these PDPs. Cyber security training remains essential for every role in our organization as each of us is critical to enhancing FRSD cyber security posture.
um desktops to Chromebooks. The district computers were purchased in 2015 and originally came with Windows 7, which was later upgraded to Windows 10. The hardware does not support upgrading to Windows 11. As a result, we'll be
phasing out the desktop computers for classroom teachers, specialists, power professionals, and guidance counselors by the summer of 2026. We will utilize the Chromebooks already acquired in transition from desktops to
Chromebooks. This change will result in hardware and cyber security cost savings for the district. I'm proud to say that we formed a tech committee. The technology department sent out a cyber security and technology
planning form to all faculty members inviting those interested in joining the technology committee. This committee will help guide techreated initiatives and will meet once a month. Our first meeting was held
today at 3:30. ADA compliance. Under title 2 of the American with Disabilities Act, ADA, digital content must be accessible by April 24, 2026. Public entities serving populations of
50,000 or more are required to comply by April 2026, while those serving smaller populations have until April 2027. The requirements applies to websites, mobile apps, and other online material
that must meet web content accessibility guidelines, webcap 2.1 level AA standards. The district has begun this process by proactively reviewing content, updating procurement procedures, and providing training.
Phone system. We recently upgraded the phone system over the summer. The technology department has migrated the legacy office 250 Mel phone system to the Mel enterprise platform, bring the district into compliance with the Raybond act. As part of this upgrade, we
reused all existing phones, allowing us to utilize 100% of the current inventory. and it resulted in significant cost savings for the district. Does anybody have any questions about the technology updates? >> Yes, >> I have a question. So, I'm I'm glad that
you presented this tonight because I think I started getting multiffactor authent authentication requests >> and I was curious like it seemed like it was coming out of nowhere. So, I'm glad that um you presented this tonight, but is that just for like employees and staff or is that for students too?
>> We're not at students yet. We're starting with all of employees, anybody that has a issued account from the district. We've been rolling out MFA. We've got all the teachers, administration, now we're working on some accounts that would be for like coaches that have accounts. We've been working with them because they're not
in, you know, they're not here every day. So, we've been trying to schedule that. Uh we started with a couple school committee members last week and we have a couple more that we're working on. So, eventually the goal would be to be at 100%. um we're not quite there for students, but uh other districts are looking at
and have implemented that and what does that look like, right? You know, so some things they do is like the child or student would make a code that would be like uh images and they would have to know it would be like a four, you know, image thing that they would have to
choose prior to logging in. But we're not there yet. We're focusing on faculty and staff and we're really trying to tighten up and really you can't prevent a cyber security attack but we want to prevent it from spreading or add layers
so that it gives us potential to I won't say be ahead of it but you know be knowing and try to stop some of that. >> That was my only question. Thank you, Ryan, for always helping us with all our tech issues and giving us
our Chromebooks and being on call when we need you. So, we appreciate it. >> Compliments to you and your entire department. >> Yes, absolutely. I have a great department. Yes. Thank you. >> And we love our Chromebooks. >> Thank you. >> Have a good night. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you. >> Moving right along. Um the next thing I have for you is uh seeking permission for a DECA overnight field trips. Uh you have information in your packet that's more detailed about each of these trips, but advisers Frank Rosa and Jennifer Cronin are seeking your permission
tonight for five field trips. The Deco Power trip to Washington DC, Arlington, Virginia, the district conference to Hyannis, the state conference in Boston, the ICDC conference in Atlanta, Georgia, and a trip to the Newport car museum over in Newport, Rhode Island.
Can entertain any questions you might have right now. Okay, thank you. I'll move right along. Uh we're also seeking your uh approval tonight to accept a donation from uh the FLMS PTO. The FLMS uh school, the front
of the school is the beneficiary of an upgrade to its memorial area. Thank you to the PTO. Uh and the PTO in turn had received donations from Nelson Excavating in Lakeville. That was all of the mulch and from the Lawrence family greenhouse in New Bedford for all of the
mums. So, we tried to capture that in a picture there for you uh tonight. So, we'll be seeking your approval of the of the donation from FLMS PTO. Questions about that? Thank you. We'll move right along. We're also seeking your approval tonight of
two donations to FLMS. One is from Hannifford, the Hannerford Helps Schools program. Uh that is money in the amount of $2,350. That money is a result of uh parents and folks in the community purchasing specific projects uh products at
Hannerford uh and then scanning in their receipts to redeem store dollars and the store dollars convert to actual school money. Uh upon your approval tonight, that check will be deposited into the FLMS student activities account which covers awards for students, club
activities for students, and then other more general activities uh in the school that are all student driven. The other uh donation for FLMS tonight is from Life Touch. That's our photo company that does a school portraits. As a result of the volume of purchases, they
are extending a check to the school for $2,240.61. And that's a uh result of the number of pictures that have been purchased. Upon your approval tonight, that check too will be deposited in the FLMS student activities account. Uh and it will again fund awards uh clubs, club activities
and then general activities for the students again both into the student activities account and all of the money will go to things for students. Questions about those? >> No, but thank you to everyone that purchased at Hannah Burns because that's great. And scan their receipts. That's a
commitment right there. >> Yeah, that extra that extra step, right? >> That's a commitment. >> Moving right along, we also have some uh donations from the AES PTO. they are sharing with you tonight that from August to September they have donated a total of $18,08324
uh worth of items. There's a a list there everything from the popsicles for the popsicles on the playground event to grade three field trips to teacher ripple awards to a pen pal program supplies. Uh that pen pale program is really interesting. That's a new uh
program starting up between fees and AES and the two PTOs are working on that. So tonight they're looking for you to both acknowledge and accept uh those donations from the AES PTO. Questions, comments? We certainly want to thank all of the
PTO uh leadership over AES and all of the parents and community members who are helping to fund these efforts. And then the last thing I have for you tonight is a brief update on Aushnet public schools. As you heard from Cam tonight, we are getting a visit tomorrow. Just to take you back a little
bit, uh we did make a presentation to a Kushnet back on August 20th uh because they are seeking a high school to enter into a tu tuition agreement for their high school age students. Uh we have spoken to her already about that presentation at length. Subsequent to
that, uh we received an invitation as did the other three uh schools who are in contention to meet with central office administration uh over in Aushnet on October 8th. Chair Jennifer Blum attended that with us. It was an initial meeting so that we could come to understand a little bit more about what
uh a Kushnet was looking for in an agreement. Um as a result uh Mr. Higgins, Terry Fleming, Kelly Steel and I have had conversations around a Kushnet and we were able to put together um some tuition options and some
packages for a Kushnet to look at. uh wanting to do that with school committee uh awareness and uh initial support, we held meetings with school committee members. Seven of the eight members attended meetings at central office and listened to uh our presentations that we
we still cannot share publicly with anyone because we are still in uh competition for lack of a better word for uh a Kushnit's tuition agreement. We then had a follow-up meeting with the Kushnet central office staff again on October 21st at which we made some presentations regarding tuition and some
potential agreements. And we'd like you to please stay tuned on that. As soon as we're able to share any information whatsoever publicly, we will. But I will assure you tonight that uh the options that we presented to a Kushnet uh revol involve a tuition agreement that is
commensurate to what the taxpayers in Freetown and Lakeville are paying for their students to attend school here and I'll be able to speak uh more about that certainly as we advance in the process and I thank you for your patience uh as we wait. Aushnet has reached out to all
four schools that are in contention and set up opportunities to visit schools. So tomorrow is the first of two visits. We have members of Aushit's school committee and central office staff will be here uh to engage in the eighth grade showcase. They are going to uh assume
the role of eighth graders and see our building from that perspective. And then the remaining school committee members and central office staff will be back here on November 10th to visit and they will see the kickoff to our civics action action projects right here at the
high school. uh in both occasions they will uh take part in student presentations. They will take tours of the building. I think Cam alluded to that earlier so I won't continue. And I just would like to remind everybody here this evening that ultimately if we have the opportunity to engage in a tuition
agreement with a Kushnet it would be very beneficial uh to Aonic Regional High School. It would help us with our enrollment and to maintain programming that we have here at the school. Certainly as we look at uh enrollment as Mr. Kabusio did point out to you tonight that you know enrollment is a concern
for our district as well as many other districts. So we're looking to partner in this way uh to help a cushion and to help ourselves at the same time. And this would eventually if we were the school that was selected be a school committee decision.
Any questions at this time regarding a questionna? Not to beat the horse, but uh I'm still hearing in the community that this is going to cost our taxpayers money. So, and I saw it in our groups. It is not going to cost the taxpayers of Freetown
any money. Um so, I just want to reiterate that again like this is not costing the taxpayers of Freetown money. This is going to be good for us, good for our students, good for a cushion it and again will not affect the taxpayers of Freetown.
through the chair, if I may add. Yes. It won't cost the taxpayers of Lakeville anything either. >> Oh, I know. But I'm sorry. I should have said Lakeville as well. That Yes, Freetown and Lakeville. I hear it more in Freetown because I'm in Freetown. So, >> thank you. >> If there are no further questions, we'll
move on and I'll turn things over back over to Terry Fleming. >> Okay. Uh just a couple of u policy things that need to come across the plates. We had a great policy subcommittee meeting on October 8th. uh Courtney Breitman, Tim Emory, and Stephen Sylvia met with us to
go over some things that are on the horizon for our policies. Uh September 15th, the commissioner's newsletter directed districts to create a new policy providing families an awareness of pathways and high school options while the students are in middle school.
The intent of this is to allow students and their families to make informed choices about their education. Um, districts with middle schools that have access to CTE programs through their high school or through their municipalities memberships to a regional CTE district must have and implement a
middle school pathway exploration policy and it must be submitted by November 1st. For that reason, this one is sitting with a request for a vote because of the turnaround that was given to us. um in your in your um
in your file. Uh there there were no current policies. Um we did provide a template from the um Massachusetts Association of School Committees. Um Brian Olivera and I met immediately following the this and the template and
we reviewed it. We put an initial draft together that then went out to to um stakeholders including parents and staff and students. Um and we made very few changes from the template itself and we aligned the
options by town's access. So if you have any questions on proposed policy IKE- I can help answer those or the subcommittee can >> just through the chair I think we had a solid recommendation from the policy
subcommittee as part of that meeting. >> Yes. So I should just move on. I'm not can I great. Um the next policy that we are having a first reading for be um is the proposed update to the comp competency
determination policy IKFE. Um late in July Desi released a competency determinated guidance and policy submission process which outlined updated requirements from the work we had done last year on the competency determination following the passage of
ballot question two. Um, the amended regulations require districts to submit their CD policy and local graduation requirements to DESIE. Following local approval of the district's policy, each district must submit its local policy and graduation requirements to DESIE
through our program by Wednesday, December 31st. Um what we did was similar where the high school administration staff and student voices parent stakeholders all were engaged in a review of an initial draft that we modified from last year.
The biggest change that Desessie um put out to us was that wording that we had all been aware of and that was that um mastery. So we had to separately address passing courses and mastery of learning.
And so the um through this work we in um addressed the passing courses as laid out last year with our math, science, and ELA courses. And then to prove mastery, we added the language that was
for um passing the final. And we provided options that included if um kind of an if then workflow of if if a student um did not pass the final, they could pursue a a portfolio or a capstone
type project. And um there's lots of if thens, but we did have to address the needs of um our EL students and we had to address the needs of our special education students and how they might also ex access uh the competency determination policy.
through the chair that came with a unanimous um support of the policy subcommittee too. >> And I'm going to just tell I' like um pat ourselves on the back because the template was really confusing to go through and after multiple revisions and
lots of talking. I think that um we landed in a a format that was very um legible and can be easily followed. We used a table which sorry Ryan we used a table. We're going to have to make that ADA
compliant. Um so uh it's it's easy to read and hopefully easy to follow for our students. We also included uh US history as a part of it even though that is but we labeled that for um our 2027 graduates not our 2026 graduates.
And then the last one is a proposed update to our graduation policy due to all of this. And that is policy IKF. Um and our first reading on this was we didn't um the um there was no new template for it. There was no new
recommended language changes for this, but districts needed to make sure that their policies were up to date in conjunction with the competency determination policy. So, we added um a line to our current policy that stated that students must meet competency determination requirements. We kept it
nice and neat and clean >> and remove the MCAST requirement. >> And remove the MCAST requirement. Thank you. >> Any questions on any of those policies right now? >> No. >> All right. And then Terry will move on to the innovation career pathway implementation and support grant. So,
I'm happy to say that um we have been um awarded upon your approval the receipt of an innovation career pathways imple implementation and support grant. Um we were eligible for $75,000. We applied for $75,000 and we were approved for
$75,000. >> Great job. >> Um this grant is in conjunction with our initial innovation career pathways grant for social health. Um and it will be um the funds will be used for program coordination uh curriculum development
which is our new animatage tablets which the science department is thrilled with and has already had some training on um engaging with mass hire boards and industry and providing work-based learning opportunities for our students including um instructional and industry
recognized credentials in phabbotomy. We were able to add some student transportation through this grant and um additional professional development for the staff. This grant has a timeline for spending of now through June 30th and the um high
school team is awaiting our approval so we can meet and make sure that those funds are spent. >> Questions about that grant? No, congratulations. >> Yeah, great job, >> Terry. Thank you. >> Thank you, Terry.
>> You do a great job with grants. >> I um I like I like it. >> I can tell. >> I actually got to spend time >> at uh Maritime Academy. And just to give a little like whisper out that um we uh
were able to join a team uh in the acknowledgement that we are being honored again for our new innovative career pathway grant that we applied for as well. I don't have all the semantics on that but um I did get to spend time with uh Secretary Tutweiler and um some
very amazing cadets at the Maritime Academy yesterday. >> Great. >> Great. Thank you, Terry. All right. If you don't have any questions for Terry, we will move on to uh Mr. H's presentation. >> Thanks. Um so before I jump into FY26 to
just give you an update on FY25, we are essentially we finished the closing of FY25 as I had mentioned to you before the the last big step of that is the end ofear report which I'll discuss in a moment. But in addition to that, we're working closely with our auditor through the FY25 audit, uh, which is moving
relatively quickly, uh, which we're happy to see and with the hope is to have a an audit report to you, um, you know, within the next couple of months. Essentially, it's just the the difficult process of going through, um, the multiple stages that that that an auditor does with multiple schools at
the same time, which is why it doesn't happen just, you know, in a week. Uh, but in terms of FY26, we are on track. We're conducting week weekly central office meetings uh superintendent and the three directors or two directors and myself uh to review uh our expenditures, review potential revenue sources like
grants uh as Terry mentioned. Uh I conduct bi-weekly meetings with our director of facilities to oversee and look at what are some upcoming expenditures that may be relative to facilities and grounds and buildings. Uh, one of the things that we've put in place this year that's different from the past is I'm doing monthly
walkthroughs with the lead custodians from each one of the buildings so that I get a little bit better sense of upcoming needs that the buildings might have um rather than having sort of a layer between the um those lead custodians and myself. Um we are conducting monthly finance meetings with
the department though we be small we be mighty. Uh and one of the things that we are doing now is um uh starting the process of some cross trainining uh so that in the event that someone might be out, we're still able to conduct all of our business as needed. And then
finally, we are conducting monthly grant management meetings as well with those those individuals in the business office and in central office who are involved with um the manage grant management process. We received our rates for the retiree health insurance increases for
the uh coming uh calendar year. Retirey health insurance runs uh on a calendar year unlike the fiscal year for the rest of the employees. Uh the average increase as we've seen the increases have been uh significant for all um all groups as we saw last year for the the
current employees. But the average increase for the retirees starting on January 1 is 10.5%. uh which as you can see is a a pretty significant increase. That information is going out to our retirees right now through our benefits administration uh
secretary uh Miss Na. And then our FY27 rates for current uh employees and I apologize that this bullet is on the retiree health insurance sheet, but I just wanted you to know that we will have the rates for the rest of the the district for next year by February.
Uh the end of year report is uh or was due uh prior to September 30th. Uh we met the required submission date. Um and uh we will make follow-up amendments. As is always the case, we have incumbrances that carry over past the the prior year.
Those items are still expenditures from FY25. Once we close those out, which they have to be closed by December 30th, and for the most part they are. We just have a few items remaining. Once those are closed out then then the next step will be to make amendments to our end of
year report and submit the final end of year report after the new year. Uh the grace pool update we received the engineering study. We are in receipt of that which is being in review. The the the pool um subcommittee will be meeting and having discussions about that in the
future. There are nine um vans from that the district is uh district owns uh that are up for surplus. These are vans that have been outside of the of usage for some time when the school committee purchased
the new vans in 2023. These vans were put um out to pasture essentially. Uh they do potentially though have some uh um some use for someone else um who for either parts or potentially someone who
wants to fix it and and and and put it back in use. For our purposes though, it's not they're no longer viable for um transporting our students. Uh you have a full detailed list of those vans. I have on this sheet here just some, you know,
essential um bullets relative to the mileage that these vans went through in their lifespan. And then you can see some of the reasons why they're being surplus. But then what will happen will be, as has been the practice in the past, those vans will go through a um an auction um and the the uh revenue will
come back to the district through the auction process. >> Uh we have two surplus tables. Sure. I'm sorry. >> Just can you translate when will they be off the property? the van. >> As soon as you vote, we'll make the call and they'll we'll arrange for them to be
picked up. >> Yeah, >> it's an eyesore for sure. >> Yeah. Yeah. We keep them as neat as we can. >> Well, and and quite honestly, they you're right and it's something that um they they were left basically, you know, no one was doing anything prior to coming in last year. So, we are we are
happy to get them off the >> So, initiating this. Thank you so much. Uh the um Asswams Elementary School has two broken tables for surplus that will need a vote to surplus those tables. Um
you have pictures in your in your packet for those as well. And that is all I have for you tonight. >> Thank you, Jack. >> You don't have any other questions for Jack? We turn things over to Steel. >> All right. I only have one thing um tonight. So we uh working with South Coast Educational Collaborative and
Reeds Collaborative. you just have to kind of share out their quarterly report. Um that's part of what we need to do with them. Um just a quick brief explanation. So we partner with collaborives which means we're a member district um and in Barber serves on their board of directors at each
collaborative and so they have they have their um regular board meetings. I have special ed director meetings with reads and those are quarterly. I don't have them every month. Um they're a little bit more sporadic. I don't attend any at South Coast. um but they take our students that we aren't able to support
in district. We don't have the services um that they require for a least restrictive environment. They may have more needs than what we can provide. So they um a lot of our students do attend these programs um both at Reeds, both at South Coast. Reeds is based out of Middbor. Uh South Coast is based out of Swansea, but if you know anything about
collaborives, they have classrooms everywhere. So they're not just there. They're they're all over southeastern Massachusetts. Um so we do have a fair amount of students that attend and their quarterly reports are included um in the drive uh that we have for you to review. Um just some highlights I can I can
start with reads. The big thing they have happening right now um a big success of theirs is all of their teachers are appropriate licensed and fully staffed which is a great thing because they they're a niche program. They really work a lot with deaf and heart of hearing that's sometimes really hard to keep that program staffed and
they've got a great thing going right now with all of their support. We do use them as contractors. So, we use their teachers of the deaf in our district. We use their educational aiologists in our district. Um because we're a low instance district, they come as needed per student that requires it. Um they
are in the process of building a new building, a standalone building for their deaf and heart of hearing program. It's not completed yet. So, um most of their housing is in Norton, but they've going to be working with Norton and their standalone um building so they can still provide inclusive opportunities. So, the big thing for them is they're
still working on getting that building finished so that they can move into it. Um, South Coast really it was more of just reporting out numbers that I won't go over, just kind of where they fell with their audit. Um, they are working um they're on their year two of a four-year commitment um with a
partnership with Mass General um for the Think Kids program. Um and then they're just doing some reorganization of their business team. They just hired a new um human resources person with a lot of um school experience, which is going to be a great thing for them because they haven't had that in a long time. I I
formally worked there for 13 years. So, they're they're making some good moves in their central office right now. So, that's kind of the gist of their quarterly reports. And that's all I have is Gail came and presented on CPAC tonight. >> Thank you, Kelly. >> I have a question. >> Go ahead.
>> Um during our meeting last month, I think there were two vacancies in our district. Um Oh, yeah. Are those still vacant or are they filled? >> So, right now I am down to one vacancy. Um, and it is an inclusion teacher at the high school. We do have all of those courses covered. We, what we do is, um,
we refresh that posting probably weekly, just making it new, making it, you know, at the top of the list. Um, we do have, like I said, teachers are covering that. It's not really where we want to be. We do want to hire for that teacher, but, um, we had a lead and then that person's kind of fallen off of communication. Um,
so we're going to actually be refreshing the posting on Friday again, but still pursuing it actively, trying to find someone, but outside of that, happy to say that every other position we have right now is full. And um, we have a couple of positions coming up. We have a retirement for a par profofessional at
FBS um, in January. And then we do have to fill like a long-term sub position that's coming up at the end of February, beginning of March. So, we're going to post for those two months ahead so that we're not doing it too last minute. So, that's what we're looking at right now for special ed. >> Thank you. Nice job done.
>> Any more questions? Okay, moving on to number six, school committee, subcommittee, and district committee reports. Starting with number one, regional finance committee. >> We're meeting in November. So, I have no update.
>> Okay. Intern Superintendent Evaluation Committee. >> We have a meeting a week from today. Uh we'll be looking over evidence and start the process for the formative and bring it to the full committee. um at a date in November. I just don't know the date of the time. >> November 12th.
>> 12th. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Wellness and health committee. Nothing. >> Policy committee. >> Uh we met recently. Thank you, Courtney, for stepping in. >> You're welcome. >> Um as the chair, but we we had a very positive meeting and I'm sure there'll
be more to come at some point. >> Excellent. Capital committee >> and pool subcommittee. I'm very happy to share >> too >> that uh we were finally able to officially form the pool subcommittee within the last 30 days. Um everybody
has been sworn in who needs to be. Um and we're excited to meet in person uh next week with a walkth through. Um thank you Jack for setting that up with um facilities director Greg. he'll be there also um to take us through and
then um we'll be meeting to discuss our initial thoughts um based on the uh the pool engineering study which we just received last week. So we're taking this time to go through that on our own. We'll meet in person next week and next
month we'll have some sort of initial update after our our first official meeting as a pool subcommittee. >> Great. Moving right along. Awesome. >> When is Go ahead. >> When is the tour of that? >> Uh next Wednesday.
>> Wednesday. At what time? >> Uh it's at 5:00 p.m. >> Okay. >> Okay. Okay. Moving on to discussion items. I have a couple things. One would be Renee, if you could please note that Steve came in at 6:15 p.m. Awesome.
Second, um, yesterday, October 21st, I received the official resignation letter from committee member Crystal Ing effective immediately. Crystal held the Lakeville seat at this table and anyone interested can contact town administrator, Lakeville, sorry, town
administrator Andrew Sukforth, and he will walk you through the steps. That being said, Crystal held a position of treasurer on this committee, which we now need to fill. Um, I'd like to make a motion to nominate Melinda Richards as
our new treasurer. >> Second. >> Okay, I had a motion. There's a second. Any discussion? Do we need a roll? We need roll call for this, right? Yep. >> You're okay.
>> Yes. Jen Blum, >> yes. >> Steve Sylvia, >> yes. >> Bob Clark, >> no. >> Courtney Breman, >> yes. >> Tim memory. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. Motion passes. Congratulations.
Thank you very much for stepping up to that short notice like that. Um, okay. Moving on to action items. I will entertain a vote to approve ARHS DECA overnight out ofstate field trips. This is a majority vote. >> So moved.
>> Second. >> Okay. I'm hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any. No opposition. Any opposed? No. >> Any abstensions? Motion passes.
I'll entertain a a motion to vote to accept the FL LMS PTO donation of mulch and flowers. >> A motion. >> Second. >> Okay. Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion? Looks great, by the way. >> Does looks great.
>> It does look great. >> Okay. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? I. Sorry. Any opposed? Any abstension? Motion passes. Entitain a motion to accept the LMS Hannifford Help Schools
donation. I'll >> move second. >> Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions.
Motion passes. Next, I'll entertain a vote to accept LMS life touch donation. So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Hearing motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.
>> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstension? Motion passes. Next vote to accept the AES PTO donation as noted. >> So moved. >> Second.
>> Okay. Motion and a second. Any discussion here? Um, I just want to say thank you to the LMS and AES PTO's um for their gen generous donations. >> Yes. >> Um, to the district and for our students.
>> Thank you, Courtney. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? >> Hearing none. Motion passes. Next, I'll entertain a motion to vote to adopt the FLRSD middle school pathway
awareness policy. So moved. Okay. >> Hearing a motion. >> Seconds. >> Second. Thank you very much. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed?
>> Any abstensions? Hearing none. Motion pass. Motion passes. Next, I would like to entertain a motion. I will entertain a motion to vote to approve the the van surplus, aka the van. So moved. Second
>> the vans. >> Hearing a motion, a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Any abstension? Hearing none. Motion passes. >> G, please.
>> Oh, I didn't say that one. No. >> Nope. Yeah, we skipped one. >> Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I'll entertain a motion to accept Innovations Career Pathways implementation and support grant. >> Thank you. Second >> hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hearing none. Motion passes. >> Next, I'll entertain a motion to vote to approve the AES surplus. >> So moved.
>> Second. >> Okay. Hearing motion, a second. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hearing none. Motion passes. Vote to motion. I'll entertain a motion
to vote to approve payroll vendor warrants from 1012025 to 10:15 2025. >> So move. >> Second. >> Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hearing
none. Motion passes. Last but not least, I'll entertain a vote to approve regular session minutes from 9:24 2025. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Hearing a motion and a second. Any discussion?
>> Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hearing none. Motion passes. At this time, I will entertain a motion to adjourn at 8:06 p.m. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Okay, hearing a motion and a
second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Seeing none, good night all. Motion passes.