##VIDEO ID:p01CamB8lkg## [Music] all right good evening everybody thank you for coming out tonight um I would like to open the meeting with a roll call to go into executive session under reason number three to update the full committee on collective bargaining with the MTA John B obain will is not here obain Steve syvia PR here yes Jen Blum Bob Clark Carol here yes can I make a correction I am here right I I was going to make that for [Music] you I will abstain from entering the executive S I was just going to say would you all right good evening everybody committee has returned from executive session um meeting is open I'd like to note additionally M Harry Fleming Mr Jack Higgins Miss Kelly steel also present um aside from Lake cam is anyone here recording the meeting seeing none I'll invite you to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic of which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all um I'll entertain a motion to accept from the meeting from January 15th of this year I have a motion do I have a second second Motion in a second uh any discussion uh all in favor I opposed abstain okay okay I'll entertain a motion I didn't get the um minut second session okay can we um can we push that till to next on next week's agenda than you next next meeting next I do not see any uh student Representatives [Applause] tonight we'll move on uh presentation from AES [Music] [Music] hi I'm Bethany panal the principal at as wet um and I have my grade two team here tonight I'll just let them introduce themselves be second grade Jenn second grade Kathleen Franco Lisa cludia and Rosie Coffman and Kathy Ash is also second grade teacher that could not be here but she is part of the work that we're going to present tonight um Mrs fluming will just get that up on the board so the grade two teachers tonight are going to talk about what they've been working on since last year where they've really been taking the stories from our Wonders reading program and integrating them into their science and social studies curriculum um the Wonders program we think very highly of it um it's definitely introduced the kids to a lot more um diverse diversity and cultures um the authors of the texts are definitely um just as diverse as the actual text themselves um and the authors are also something that we look at so I'm trying to think what slide is up there I don't know um but I do want to just give a huge shout out um to the second grade team um it takes a lot of time and work what they're doing so again they're taking the three subjects and kind of integrating them then into language arts as well and writing um so they made this a team goal where they collaborated so they use all their common planning time every day um where I meet with them also weekly and see where they are um and help them with anything that they need um but this goal has truly been done by grade two um and I think you'll really get to see their Um passion about it when when they talk about it it's been a really great project um and then just a little bit about the why and the the purpose behind it um so what we're going to be talking about again is um kind of Crossing curriculum there is a quote up there that I found kind of sums it up perfectly the tremendous power of a river is diminished if broken into several different streams so I love that because it talks about the curriculum if you teach it in isolation you don't get that deeper meaning um but I also love that because it also talks about the staff if they teach an isolation as opposed to a team which is what they've been doing with this work um it wouldn't be as successful um and that's just um again just some of the brain research so obviously just the more connections that you can make um will lead to success it leads to a more deeper understanding um it allows for students to think outside the box it allows them for problem solving and how to transfer that into the real world um that brain is just actively Making Connections it stimulates the development again of critical thinking skills um retention of information um and it also promotes that more holistic understanding of knowledge by again activating all those different Pathways together and making connections so what does this look like in the classroom I will turn it over now to the teachers okay um so earlier this year we created a goal um and we decided as a team we will refresh and build upon our knowledge of the updated social study standards by correlating topics into our wonders literacy units as opposed to teaching the topics in ins in isolation as measured by at least two wonders units complete with social studies and science curriculum objectives and assessments um so earlier this year a few months ago we really dived into our wonders units um and looked at individual lessons and read alouds in those lessons and looked at the second grade social studies and science standards and really tried to tie those standards to the lessons into the units as much as we could so we spent some time doing that so in social studies one of the big standards that we focus on in second grade is um teaching the kids about the seven continents on earth um what you know about them and also how to locate them and about 10 years ago we actually started a program called holidays around the world which we um do every like November and December each teacher te um picks a continent and then we focus on a different celebration that takes place on that continent around that time of year um and the students actually make little p Port booklet so they get to travel around the world to each of our classrooms and when they come to our classroom we teach them about that one continent and a celebration that takes place at that time of year um they love it and it's a great way for us to teach the social study standards of the continents but also um exposing them to different cultures and being open to different um celebrations so that's a little background on the holidays around the world you can switch the slide thank you um so when we started using the Wonders program to help with our literacy curriculum we noticed in unit four the essential question um was how is how are kids around the world different and we thought that's a perfect um you know perfect unit to mesh together with the work we were doing in the social studies so we decided to kind of teach them at the same time so while the kids were um learning about where the continents were on Earth and locating them at the same time we were preparing them for these stories in this unit that um take place in all different different settings around the world and like Miss P was saying they make great connections because they were learning it in social studies but then in the literacy block making that same um connection of where the story is taking place on a map and um seeing the differences there um so while we're preparing them for the holidays around the world we're teaching the continents but also um helping them build background knowledge for the stories that they were going to be reading and writing about in this in the literacy unit at the same time um which was great and the kids really really respond well to that because of the connections um we are building the background knowledge of the social studies and also um getting them ready with the vocabulary words that we might be in the stories and as you see up there that's one example of a vocabulary slide that we made with the word culture so we used a seven-step vocabulary process to teach the vocabulary and this is all kind of coming together to get them ready for the um holidays around the world project and going back to the liter sorry lit lit literacy unit that they were doing so one of the stories that we read is the happy New Year so in the story we learned about a little girl who celebrated the New Year's in two different places the United States and in China and then we compare compared how new year was celebrated in each of the C in each of the cultures and then the students did a compare and contrast using the V diagram one of the graphic organizers to see the the differences and how it's celebrated with me to make sure that we have these aligned in all of our K to3 units um so it's very exciting and they've done a wonderful job I will entertain a motion to move our next presentation um at the end of new business as our I heard our presenter had a family emergency and may be late so moved second Motion in a second uh all in favor I opposed stain okay director's [Music] report okay yes yes hello um thank you uh this is the director's report for today is um shorter than usual uh because of course we'll be talking about the budget shortly but um year to date uh as I've shared with you in the report uh you can see where we are with Revenue as well as a detailed report of where we are with expenditures we are closely monitoring those expenditures obviously with the weather where we are currently um over the past uh week or so we've had some um inclement weather and we're expecting some more inclement weather in the near future as well as in next week uh so we are keeping a close eye on those things because of course they they affect our um they certainly do affect our expenditures uh we um at at the last meeting there was a conversation regarding the uh Grace pool uh and per the request I had a conversation with our house doctor relative to um whether or not they would be uh available or able to uh um to do a study they share that they would um but that they would uh be able to put together a proposal and and establish a scope of work at at no cost we can do it through the through our relationship with the house doctor to create the proposal I would I'm I'm here asking you essentially to to to vote that we would have them move forward with a proposal there's nothing more than simply asking them to um to to create the scope of work in the proposal that we would then decide whether we wanted to move forward with them uh for a study okay uh I think that's later on in the in the uh in new business uh The Stadium scoreboard thanks to the combined donations from an anonymous donor and the arhs Boosters club a new scoreboard has been installed at the arhs stadium at the aponic stadium uh the previous scoreboard had been in use for over 40 years in fact I was having a conversation with our athletic director James kabuso and he shared that he actually played on that field with that scoreboard if that a sense of the age of the scoreboard um in in addition the the donation money was utilized to update equipment in our pic with Fitness room so that our sports team athletes as well as our PE classes can utilize that new equipment and uh in the space and then uh finally we have the uh aset PTO is uh would like to make a donation to the school to as swamps at elementary school for the purchase of five additional prometheum boards to be used at the with in AES classrooms we thank the PTO for their fundraising effort and their generosity to the school program the donation would amount to $1,150 $ 4.35 wow do we have any questions Mr Higgins thank you thank you Jack thank you m Ste I focused on as this time around as I've done in previous uh meetings with different schools um so just a brief overview it won't be too long um right now total number of students um on IEPs there is 69 um that includes we have two out of District students who if they weren't out of District would be assigned to aamet and three students are either homeschooled or attend private school so that's the total number now um with the total enrollment at asaam set being 429 currently um if we look at our percentages 14.92% um of students there on IEPs it is a bit below our district average about 5% below um 4 to 5% below that's that's typical for ASA wamps and FES they have the largest growth of students um becoming special eligible across the year because they have the youngest number of students or the number um of students they building are the younger age so that number aligns with what we would expect at this point in time um Staffing wise we have four inclusion teachers which just means they're pushing into the General Ed classroom most of the what their service is is pushing in um we have one teacher who has half a day of pulling students out half a day of pushing in and then we have all of our service providers and we do um have contracts out for consultation for deaf and heart of hearing um teacher visually impaired and educational audiologists right now those are all consultation only not direct service so they're not coming in and pulling students they're just Consulting with the teams to make sure the kids are getting what they need um and then we do have a bcba who spends um one and a quarter to one and a half days um at as aamet and then for par professionals we have six grade level par professionals that would be three um in kindergarten and then one for each grade level above and then we have six special education par professionals um two are one to one and then the rest are shared so that's kind of the breakdown um and then I just put out some numbers that I won't go through all of them but the division between full inclusion um and then partial inclusion and just as a reminder full inclusion means students are in the General Ed classroom for 80% or more of their day and then partial inclusion is between about 60 and 80 and then sub separate is below 60 we don't have any subpar right now at ASA WSET we don't have any classrooms there that would be considered subpar um we do have a few students um that are in partial inclusion we have six out of um the 64 that are in building um 46 are full inclusion which is nice to see that they're being supported within the General Ed setting um and then we have 12 students that are related Services only so that's either speech oot PT or a combination of those um and like I said three private or homeschools and two out of District 504 plans we have 15 currently with um a meeting next week that could be an eligibility meeting um and they're broken down by grade so kindergarten has two first is four second is three students and then third grade we have six students um Jamie McKenna is the sole School adjustment counselor there so she does do the case loads for all of the 504s so she has 15 504 students right now um I went through Power professionals and then evaluations it's just kind of nice to know where we are so far in the year so September to now um we've had 32 total special education evaluations um initials which means students that have not been on an IEP we have 20 evaluations um reeval which means students that have been on an IEP for almost 3 years that need to be reevaluated we've had seven and then additional testing either asked by a parent or guardian or recommended by a team we had five so um of those we've had 14 students qualify for special ed through those evaluations three were reeval and 11 were new um initial evaluations 13 did not so we're about 50% qualified 50% didn't um which is again pretty standard uh for the district and then um right now we have 13 initial evaluations in process two re-evaluations in process and five additional Assessments in process um and the last part is just my regular updates for district so our next CPAC meeting there was one last night Meredith Foy was the representative for the administration and it was more focused on um homeschool communication and kind of how to navigate that and in different ways um for effective communication so that teams are collaborating and um Gail trink one of the co-chairs of CPAC did email me this morning and said that she felt it was a really good meeting and and really enjoyed the conversation which was great um the next meeting I'm trying we're going to be getting Flyers out for this one um it's Dr Carolyn mcney will be presenting on bullying and tools um it's really open it CPAC meetings are open to everyone again this is open to everyone and it's going to be in the lecture hall here at the high school um and that will be on March 4th I will also be present but it's nice see pack is um they secure the speakers so we give different people they could reach out to and they work on securing them so they secured Dr McCarney who is a mark trainer um and does these trainings also for school district so she'll be presenting um and then vacancies and hiring um we've of the three positions we had three weeks ago we're now down to two which is good so we hired a power professional as swampit um so we're still working on a one toone power professional at FES and we are working on a long-term special education teacher substitute at the middle school so those are our two vacancies in special ed currently um and then my last thing is professional development our third of four parts of our um series will be Friday afternoon for our half day so we'll be running part three and then we'll finish up in April with part four of what we've been doing for Special Ed training in p so that's my wrap up any questions about as aamet or just anything in general I have a question MH so I'm looking at the par professional assignments by grade level and I think in the past in kindergarten we had a par professional in each classroom and then it was reduced this year at both elementary schools so we're halfway through the school year now do we know if there's been any impact to that decision good bad or indiff we've had conversations kind of both ways I mean we can speak more to it as we as we go through and looking towards next year um I think we've shifted some resources when we've needed to for some it the kindergarten is hard because kids come in and some kids come in unknown and we don't know how that's going to how that's going to play out so um the support is there and we've moved it around as we've needed to so I think moving forward I think everyone would always want a full-time power professional in every classroom in kindergarten all day long and I think that would continue to be the ask so we'll keep looking at that data we have also had some interesting movements that we did not predict um which did put more of a strain on our support system more at as aamet um and then we've also now we have three move outs coming that rely on that support a lot so it kind of goes up and down um but I would say you know I think the request would be we would love to have a full-time Kar in every classroom like all day long um so that'll be an ongoing conversation as we work through looking to next year any other questions from this J go ahead this buing present station what time is that um the regular CPAC time so it's at 6:30 and it'll run until 8:00 thank you um I have a couple of things on my report prior to showing off a little more of asit uh um good work in their building uh midyear benchmarks are taking place across the district and you have a packet you have a packet that shows cohort comparisons um for as swamps at school so as you glance through there what you're going to see is that in ela our kids are moving in a positive trajectory so our our cohort of first grade students that are now second grade students have um these are spring data to fall data they showed little loss of learning and they showed a nice progress in their Ela um Frameworks and then um you will note and we did as as well that math over the summer they uh had a little bit of learning loss so we are trying to regain some of that uh fluency and math and the midyear benchmarks are occurring right now so that analysis will be happening and ideally we're going to see that bump back up to to a nice um positive trajectory in the math world for our as students and that was for both our first second grade and our third grade cohorts um kindergarten you'll notice just one because they don't have a prior cohort to compare to they don't have a prior year to compare to so that's the da data that's in front of you for us want it um I was super excited between our last meeting and this meeting I was able to meet with the PTO uh chairs from both aset and prown Lakeville and we are in the process of preparing to grow those Gardens that I've been talking about they're going to start they're going to start to come to fruition or vegetable um so we're getting planning on those we're super excited for our Outdoor Learning spaces and the opportunity for our kids to get their hands stury in the spring um we'll have our first plantings in um in May and those will be the pumpkins that our kindergarteners will harvest in the fall so it's going to be a great um opportunity for our kids and I am very very thankful and excited for that partnership with our PTO there just been wonderful um our homeschooling numbers did increase I wanted to make sure that everyone uh saw that uh we had a new high school student and a new preown elementary student um transferred to home schooling um we still have seven families that are out of compliance I will be um sending out the reminder that we collect our progress toward our progress towards Proficiency in June I will be um again asking for Ed plans and um we can continue to um keep monitoring the seven families that are not submitting their Ed plans we have done well checks so we do know that those students are okay and we just don't have their Ed plans yet uh I am very excited also that we have more students um joining us that speak multiple languages we have a new family at the high school that speaks Spanish and um we're excited to support support the family and the new student students there's actually three of them um access testing is in the middle of being conducted right now we're just getting those tests wrapped up um but that includes a kindergarten pilot because the test is changing so our we had a handful of our kindergarten students take a pilot test so we could see what how they felt during it how they experienced it um and so those results will be out in late April or early May and I'll make sure to share that with everyone um Kelly already mentioned that our professional development third of four parts is occurring this Friday so um we're looking forward to having people have some time to grow in their own professional growth in in areas of learning I wanted to make note that our girls in stem conference is in Weston Massachusetts in um late April and Julie Mills and Melissa L are taking a team of 20 grade 8 through 12 female students to attend they've done this for um at least the three years that I've been here it's a wonderful opportunity for our girls to attend a stem conference and then we also have Lucas sores and Ava Melo who are going to the healthy youth Summit in Boston um they participate in a panel discussion with the lieutenant governor and youth leaders and they have choices of breakout sessions um so this is a great opportunity it was put off it was supposed to already have happened in February but they moved the date till April so I'm hoping that our students from the high school are able to share some of those pieces um we also have eighth grade students that are going to project 351 again that's a leadership Ambassador and they run our cradles to crayons um drive at the middle school and so that is occurring again and we have uh I don't have my name written down I'm going to have to get the names we have two oh yes I do Ryan Messier and Weston um brma from the Middle School that are our ambassadors this year I have the competency determination on for our vote and then I just wanted to show a quick slide presentation of a um this is some artwork from the art from the art group last year that just was my opener page uh oh it says noal um this is just I I can't they're gone but I just want to say they embody the work that they're doing in asaam they it is in their hallways it is up you can it's such an enjoyable place to walk through um this was on one of their walls Pi of one of their walls that the Lunar New Year um Art and Design that they put up uh and so I just love going in there because they just have student work all over and they have just wonderful displays of Art and um culture and learning and so you're going to see some of those pictures throughout we FOC the continuation of focusing on writing is going to be seen here they touched on a little bit go ahead Ryan thank you um this is one of our teachers giving the early bird assessment it is our early screener for dyslexia and this is the results I wanted to make sure that you got to see what the data looks like this doesn't have any of our students names on it but this is what the teachers get to see and one of the nice things is they don't use that like bright red and bright orange and bright there's not these obnoxious colors there's these lovely shades of blue that we're working with and so um so this this column right here shows that we have a student at risk and then we're able to actually drill down so one thing that I ready does is it it gives us information about phonemic awareness about fonic about fluency vocabulary and comprehension but it doesn't give us this breakdown of rhyming first sound lending non- repetition letter sounds um the Rand test for for literacy is super important um so what early bird does allow for is that drill down and teachers are able to take this data and you can click into a student and you can click into a category and then have more resources available so if I just want to work on vocabulary with this student I can click in and some additional resources to our curriculum for vocabulary specifically and it's really fun to listen to the kids as they talk into the headphones and so forth again this is another picture of what um teachers are able to see these are actually the characters that the kids see on the on the screen so it's low anxiety like none of the kids come up to the table and are stressed that they're taking an assessment um it was another piece that we loved about bird was it it was just a calm way to get kids to demonstrate their understanding at that point in time from early bird we actually can access some of our tier 2 intervention and this is one of our small groups in the classroom of tier 2 intervention that happens we try not to pull them out we just go to a side table and and work with small groups on things and there's St map Gigi is um very active in the buildings and as swampa is flying um they're very competitive there and so they run these little internal competitions and um the kids and the puzzles and the percentages are just adding up this is already outdated because I took it last week and um so they're doing it lovely and this again it's one of their walls you walk down the and this is a giant piece of their wall they're building an igloo and as kids finish puzzles they get to put things on their Igloo so and then for engagement and strategy we've talked a lot about applied learning you're going to he hear that word from from me for quite a while right getting the kids in doing things that are real tangible that um are that cross content piece and that really apply to what's happening in their world and in life so here's some things that are happening um the teacher pull out table is very commonly known but the prometheum boards are being used in ASA wamp suits all the time I think um they're begging for uh two more after the uh donation Quest and then here's some Sciences happening where there I think we might all recognize that food coloring that's going up into a carnation and a Celery Stock and they're talking about the dispersement dispersement and displacement of um color and water um and Christina Murray has done a really good job of um providing some supports for teachers in in the world of science for that building uh reading conferences is something that U Bethany didn't talk about but it's one of the professional growth goals in that building and just making sure that teachers understand what the readers know and what they need to know they're working through this book um this is a picture of one of the books that's in wonders and so I was thrilled that right now they're working on a book um that has to do with Gardens and I thought of what we're going to be doing in the future so I love that alignment so I put that picture in too and then here's writing there's writing happening kids kids sitting here these two were talking as they were writing together they were writing an excerpt together there a student working on uh writing assignment these this is the result of their science writing about Turtles um this is from the Wonders curriculum it's called robots in space there's this finding text evidence questions in here and this is what the the teacher has done rather than telling the students answers she was collecting like information from the students so that they could determine how to use that and write their own paragraphs from it this was a third grade classroom that might be it yeah so I just um love being in that building I the energy in there the positivity is wonderful and the things the kids are doing are just amazing they just are um it's a great place to to be excellent any questions Miss F thank you I have a question um the girls and stem conference and the healthy youth Summit is there a cost for the student or their family for attending that um there is a cost to the students for the stem conference um we do pay for the transportation um I have that out of uh I have that budgeted for them to attend um but there is a a small cost I don't have it memorized but I want to say it's like $20 um we do provide scholarships um if if students can we can only take 20 it is limited that's the other piece so okay I'll find out the specific cost but the other ones no there are no cost and we do provide transportation actually Lucas and aa's parents are going because it was supposed to be over February break and it got moved but they're attending with them and then um project 351 is in in-house so okay Steve did you have a question I don't just thank you sorry thank you moving on Old business um we need a vote for the program of studies at aan quit you need to speak to that at all um if you want uh if you have questions I can certainly try to help there was minor shifts this year in the program of studies um some renaming of some of the music courses if you recall when kayn presented um uh new AP research course and uh we dropped a few courses that had not been enrolled in uh in business and in um the English uh Humanities and so those were electives that just weren't being signed up for and so those were being dropped out of the program of studes excellent I'll entertain a motion to accept the aate program of studies as presented prior by principal desert so moved second I have a motion in a second any discussion I'm hearing none um all in favor I I opposed abstained okay motion passes thank you Mr Higgins I'm going go to voting right [Music] thank you I'm going to start here uh with the discussion of our uh the initial budget presentation uh by by giving you a little review of the process that we took uh in order to get where we are today uh I'd like to begin by thanking all those who were involved which include the principles the directors um as well as the business office who assisted in the process and we um our curriculum leaders in our buildings who participated in budget conversations in the buildings as well as school councils who participated with the principles and conversations about the needs that to that they have in each one of the buildings uh we started this process in November uh with individual meetings uh with directors and principles that um I would sit down and myself um to talk about uh what are their needs uh and what are their interests in the coming year we took from that step we took to a collaborative meeting that included all of the administrative uh meeting uh excuse me all the administrators throughout the district here at the um high school and discussed in a larger sense what are the needs not only for the individual buildings and individual areas but also U districtwide those were followed up in beginning of January with with individual meetings with the again with all the directors and principles to sort of go through what are where where those um priorities are in terms of their requests and what needed to be put to the you know sort of like secondary and third tertiary priorities as we move forward the um budget numbers at that point were then directly entered into the district accounting software if you remember um there was an the old process utilized spreadsheets uh and at at the end of the process those spreadsheets would then be uploaded into the accounting software uh we sort of took away that step in order to make things a little more streamlined and uh Neer so then in my meetings with those uh directors we sat down and went through their numbers and enter them directly into the system then what we were able to do is then pull those numbers out of them for the presentations that you're going to see tonight and also the information that's in your books um adjustments um were made at that point and they will continue to be made as in the system directly as we go through this process and again I want to thank all the administrative teams and and business office members that participated in this process you can go to the next screen actually you can go a few pages to the mission statement as always we um the preown Lakeville Regional School District is committed to providing each student with high quality relevant education and this budget uh I believe promotes the academic success well-being and uh and responsibility of our citizens our budget timeline go ahead the budget timeline uh first we kick off tonight with February 5th the initial budget presentation we have a school committee meeting on February 26th where we will continue to have conversations we have a regional fincom meeting scheduled for March 5th uh school committee meetings on March 12th I'm proposing without a date uh a budget discussion that would include members of the school committee uh Board of Selectmen and finance committees uh should that be uh requested at around that time beginning of March uh we would have our public hearing scheduled for March 26th the boote the vote the school committee meeting vote would be on April 9th and then the town meetings are June 2nd and 9th factors include influencing this budget uh probably the largest as we know we are in the middle of contract negotiations with our teachers our par professionals and our secretaries uh we did settle our collective bargaining agreement with our custodians last year so we're in year two we're going into year two of that bargaining agreement those negotiations with the teachers par professional secretaries are ongoing uh our district tuition tuitions um are influencing the budget as well the influ excuse me the inflation increase as well as uh we had um a couple of student movein that are included within this budget we um level or reduced funding on supply lines as much as we could knowing that we were going to have uh uh some D some Dynamic nature to the bargaining negotiations with the teachers peros and secretaries and the budget continues to advance the educational plan I I think probably I should add another bullet on here we can go to the next slide um because if you look at the bottom SL on the next one you can see health insurance cost includes an estimated rate increase of 11% that really is obviously affecting this budget as well uh we within your budget book you'll see the um the communication that we received from mayia relative to that uh we were hoping for uh a percentage increase that was going to come in similar to last year or certainly closer to last year the information that we've received at this point does not does not uh appear to be the case so the um the costs include an estimated rate increase of about 11% for FY 26 though we haven't received that number yet we are in negot iations and we're having conversations on how we might be able to bring some of that um that percentage down uh through some maybe some adjustments in the in the way that we approach the process state aid Chapter 70 is an increase of uh $16,500 which is a $75 per student that's only a 1% 1.6% increase uh this is the um uh one of the issues that we have in schools in the state of Massachusetts is that Chapter 70 increases don't increase at the rate of inflation uh and over time obviously the percentages uh that our costs go up obviously all the school systems costs go up at rates of inflation and sometimes higher and sometimes lower uh but the state doesn't keep keep pace and so the it goes to the towns to keep Pace with those those increases the regional transportation chapter 71 is a decrease from last year of $ 46,99 though um initial conversations that we've received in information we've received from the state uh demonstrates that we will likely see an increase in that but this is the number that we've gotten so far in the initial um chair sheet estimates school choice use of funds is estimated to increase this year by $98,900 th000 a little over $700,000 in school choice funds for um our current budget um we will be uh increasing that to $800,000 in the coming year according to the assess you know our initial assessments circuit breaker is also uh we're looking to increase the amount of circuit breaker funding by 54,56 I'll talk about that in a little more detail uh later but um we are expecting to utilize obviously all the circuit breaker that we're required to in the coming year as well as some of additional circuit breaker funds in the next year's uh reimbursement that we'll be receiving as obviously negotiations are ongoing for contractual obligations I said as I said for teachers secretaries and Par professionals you can go to the next page so the FY 26 recommended budget is 49,1 35,2 2017 this includes the use of the $800,000 for for school choice $1,592 from circuit breaker and then 80 $80,000 from miscellaneous Revenue these are um so that so you understand the general uh the the general fund um is therefore 46 m665 um the fy2 general fund is$ 44,1 3814 so the um the increase there is 2,584 258 doll at 5.55% increase how does that translate to the towns as I said to you before uh Chapter 70 isn't keeping pace and so uh the increase to the towns is greater than the increase of the overall budget the FY 26 assessment for Freetown is 14 m66 uh$ 66,9 and Lakeville 8,681 and2 18681 26 you can see the increases of $655,000 in change for Freetown and 1.6 in change m$ 1.62 six million for Lakeville which corresponds to 4.89% increase for Freetown and 99.54% increase for Lakeville the the adjustment in the in the percentage is the reason why there's a disparity part of it is due to the number of students uh but also it also has to do with what the foundation funding uh requirements are designated by the state as well um so the breakdown where does the increase come from as you can see uh as much as possible we were looking to bring down our costs and everywhere that we didn't see a requirement of increase as a result of things like salaries and insurance so salaries is obviously our largest uh increase in terms of dollars at 2.25 four million uh whereas in for technology we're able to bring down our costs um insurance as I mentioned to you our health insurance is going up as it is for uh essentially all districts in the in the um in in the Commonwealth uh and our increase there is 59759 that's actually the number it repeats itself but it it is in fact the real number um supplies and textbooks as I mentioned before we were looking to level fund or bring down wherever we could in order to be able to make uh this budget work so our supplies and textbooks were brought down by nearly $90,000 at a 133% decrease uh Transportation so you'll see this number here and I want to uh make very clear what's happening in this case so if it has been the practice of the district to utilize uh the uh Ida grant funding 94142 grant funding for salaries primarily for salaries it also had a small section for contracted services and a small amount for uh supplies uh the problem with utilizing it for salaries is that a portion of that funding has to be set aside for fringe benefits so you don't get to maximize the number of dollars that you're receiving from the Grant in in to actual uh application to student usage or to the needs of the district and and so forth so what we're I'm proposing for this year and this is common amongst school districts it's very uncommon for school districts to utilize uh special education grant funding for salaries typically they're using it for things like special education Transportation instead um and what's nice about the using it for special education transportation is every single dollar is then translated into usage there's nothing there's no set aside for fringe benefits so you'll see a decrease in overall and transportation of 70463 and that's that's part of the reason why the salaries went up right because uh essentially $700,000 of that increase is because it moved from the grant funding into the general fund and then $700,000 moving out of the transportation and going to the grant uh facilities additionally we we saw a decrease in our facilities overall uh but understand too when you look at the budget and you look at the budget book in each one of the sections you'll see that these don't NE these are not um these are not the the separate departments so facilities there includes everything except salaries that are within facilities we've already included salaries on the top line so when you open up the budget book you'll see that in the facilities tab it's not a decrease of $2,515 It's a small increase but that small increase is because it includes everything from salaries to supplies to contracted Services um retirement uh our contracted Services a small increase this is contracted services for uh special education primarily and a small increase of 16,000 um a retirement assessment so the retirement assessment increases um is a fixed uh a fixed cost that we receive from um uh the Bristol County Retirement Association and this is uh the required our required contribution for the employees that are um on retirement through that program that's not our teachers who utilize mtrs but this is for our pair of professionals our custodians uh and others that would be retiring uh through the Bristol County program uh our debt this is another piece I need to be to to provide clarification so we've paid all of our debt for the current year okay we received the money from the state and we we paid it there's there's a the one last payment that comes in April and it's $1,900 it's the last little bit the coast however the reason why there's an there's a increase in the debt cost in the debt number there is because it was not fully entered into the 25 budget so the we we moved money and spent and paid for the paid the debt as we were expected to but just so you understand I didn't want want to make the adjustment to the budget line till we got to the end of the year because it it was sort of it was omitted in terms it was an empty line uh half of it was not included in the budget we were able to pay obviously because we have the we had funding we overfunding in another place that was part of the issue that we had in the FY 25 budget if you recall but that was one of those places so in truth okay in the in the budget line You'll see there's some increases because of that lack of Bud that line but but in truth as we'll go further down you'll see we have just one more year of uh of debt payments to make on the current debt and it is actually a decrease in what we've currently paid we're actually going to pay uh and then our state and County assessments according to our um chair sheet estimate we actually have a slight reduction from our current assessments you can look at the Historical budgets these are the the total budgets for the last four years uh with the percentage increases um these are the actuals uh the from from each one of the years um I think it's pretty self-explanatory so you can go to the next page the employee salaries I I I wanted to give a little more detail here uh because obviously that is the largest increase uh so there's a few places the the the increase is 2254 376 $2,254 376 so where does how does that break down where does it come from uh we as I mentioned before we have um we're in the second moving into the second year of our custodial uh contractual obligations and uh there's a 25% incre a $25,000 increase as a result of those obligations not necessarily directly through salary but understanding that as salaries increase in positions like uh custodians they overtime rates have to increase as well and so what we set aside for overtime has to be adjusted uh so there's a $225,000 increase for there our collective bargaining and negotiations for par professionals secretaries I'm sorry it it should say there I think does say okay it does for teachers prayer professionals and secretaries the estimated increase is 1,180 good idea um as we go into the summer what the what those numbers are going to be there's our uh enrollment history for special special education you can see in uh from prek to 5 that our numbers are uh a little bit lower um in the coming in in our estimate for next year though slightly increased in grades 6 through 8 9 to 12 and then in add of District a slight increase the numbers of students in out of District increase can be small though the the cost can go because the uh particular needs of the student may be substantial uh our excess in deficiency in the current year is 2,211 691 as of you can see there's a star there and that's uh this current year resulted in excess funds of $746,000 being returned to the towns our enrollment over the uh past 20 years you can see has decreased from in 2005 a little over 3,000 students districtwide uh to the current year uh where we are at uh two two sorry 2600 or so I have the the number in the assessment sheet in the beginning of the book uh there's the breakdown in terms of enrollment by town uh the The Gray Line dotted line is for Lakeville and the black solid line is for pre- toown both you can see have gone down over time um since 2015 the school choice numbers we're starting to see a little bit of a stabilization of school choice numbers um we certainly would benefit from you know an increase in the number of school choice students we have uh we we have from year to year we'll see an uptick interest from uh local communities and then a little bit of a diff so it's hard to tell from one year to the next how many applications we're going to get um we um but in the in as I I mentioned I believe in a previous meeting um in the current year we're expected to receive um about $250,000 from the state relative for for the school en choice for the current year uh so there's the recap the number as I mentioned for the total budget is 49,1 35,2 uh which is an increase a percentage increase of 5.5% from the uh FY 25 voted budget thank you Jack thank you Jack very much thank you thank you anybody have any questions I I will mention too um I know we have some um Town members here we will be uh taking bringing budget books to the towns tomorrow uh in our regional fincom meeting there was also a request to provide item in digital form as well so we'll be sharing out with all the regional fincom members um the town administrators um a Google folder that basically includes all of the PDFs of this information as well okay could the committee have that digital format as well yeah absolutely once I once we put it we'll create a we share with every thank you just go ahead Steve um Jack in your's past we've done sort of the budget discussions by topic or by school is is that the plan again so so for example on February 26 should we focus in on just to have questions ready or it's a great question it's my first time doing it I'll happily do it whichever way you'd like me to do it okay maybe we as a committee can give some recommend recommendations through the chair but we've typically gone by the school sites and then different departments just to kind of focus the conversation sure and we would like those building princi at that meeting so that they can yes that conversation okay thank you wel okay there's no other questions for jaff we'll move on to um approval of payroll warrants from the 22nd of January I will detain a motion to accept those so moved second have a motion and a second any discussion [Music] um all in favor I I I sorry for the opposed obained bar are approved as PTO donation think this was discussed this was discussed earlier this is for the five Promethean boards right okay um I'll entertain a motion to accept this donation from AES for a total of $1,154 35 for the purpose of Promethean boards motion to accept the 18,1 15435 for Promethean boards with thanks to the AES PTO second I have a motion in a second any discussion no good point Courtney thank you to the PTO absolutely a big thank you thank you all in favor I I closed abstained donation approved thank you um house doctor proposal also discussed this is the pool um study yeah and and and the vote is just simply to give me the goad to say please create a proposal and and there's no cost there's no cost this is due d just I didn't want to go forward and tell them to do the proposal without giving you the information and and letting you you know make that decision yeah this is a great idea I absolutely support this so thank you for the the research on that yes did they say what the timeline might be for all this they didn't no it part of that's GNA be their part of that's going to be their bandwidth yeah you know um I will entertain a motion to allow to allow Jack to request a proposal from the house doctor at no cost to the district for purpose of evaluation of the grace pool can I answer this question absolutely house director is Habib right correct okay y yes yes yep who want a clarification thank you so moved second I have a motion and a second any discussion all in favor I I opposed obain proposal approved thank you John um privacy policy I wanted to um remind our Freetown Lake bille Regional School District um and community that we are dedicated to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students regardless of their um immigration status or that of their family members ensuring that the well-being and security and educational rights of every student is a Cornerstone of our mission and we are unwavering in our commitment to up holding new principles uh week before last we reminded students of our free toown Lakeville Regional School District dist follows the privacy policy is posted under Section J R a-r Student Records in our um preown Lakeville Regional School District privacy policy manual and it is summarized on our student privacy policy page on our website families are able to go to their buildings and revisit their privacy policy and what they have um signed and not signed uh and those can be updated throughout the year although we do send them out annually so we did want to remind families of that opportunity okay um I would like for the policy subcommittee um to take a look at this and have a discussion in a in a separate meeting of that group um we don't need to vote on it so just a referral to the policy committee yes please yep okay we give an update we have we had a posting um for an interim superintendent um we received some letters of interest from a handful of candidates for that um the committee has started um assembling a a search team or a screening team uh for these candidates uh the tentative initial meeting of this sub team will be the 13th of February um the committee is still finalizing um the attendees of this team um we received interest from um a lot of parents community members um some staff some some uh District administration um and we will be finalizing that um within the next couple of days um school committee members present on this team um will be Jen Blum Courtney Brightman Steve Sylvia and Crystal um I want to thank the members for participating in this um and for those who reached out with interest we will be reaching out to you shortly to finalize that too um any questions what's the timeline like for inome like how many people are going to be on the committee and like how long does it usually take to find an inter room I've never done it before I was just curious as that the timeline go quicker because we need someone in my opinion for an inter it is intended to offer citizens an opportunity to express their opinion on issues of school committee business um there is a signin sheet present at the Podium um is anyone here for public participation tonight so we'll take a look at that and come up with a date thank you and capital committee no update at this time no though uh in the book you'll see I did include the executive summary from the master plan that was presented uh and you received or the draft of the master plan you received earlier the year in in this uh school year uh and we are in you know not necessarily uh it's like separate from the capital committee um myself and uh their director facilities uh Mr Goodwin we're having conversations with the towns uh to talk about what the needs are in the buildings um we just had a conversation regards to pre toown element uh with the Town Administrator for free Town um and uh to look at what you know what what can we do what do they what would they what they can do to support the building uh in terms of capital needs thank you excellent thank you any questions for any of our subcommittees see none any other business that may come before the meeting yes please I have stat to read okay good evening it is my fundamental right as I was born with given by God and as an elected official and a US citizen the right to free speech not only I can speak and speak and right freely but also I have the right to access and hear different point of view to determine what is good and what is right for the people on January 8th 2025 Mr estra read a public statement and Shar with the district numerous of very serious accusations that involve myself and another school Committee Member I am here tonight to set the record astray and to tell you that I never mistreat or abuse Mr Strauss in fact in my time here I have I have very little interaction with him I never question his health or abuse him in any way no one thing he allerg is true nothing was ever ever done in any malicious malicious manner I deal with the facts and the facts I will acquire to make an assessment due to constituents concern especially excessive expending the time I was under the the impression that Mr Strauss was the HR person and I and I need to acquire with him that was the only reason he got one email from me in that regard he never responded as a new man member of the committee the seniors member never provide me with the paperwork contract or approval to support any excessive spending of the district is very important and part of my responsibility about many other duties it is in my strong opinion that this action and a statement were to begin a narrative to avoid the real issue and the dysfunctionality the contract signed by William squix and 2023 to cease any voluntar voluntary in in any Desi school for lack of professional boundaries and inappropriate action with the students this for the safety of our children and the school Community We are failing to perform this Duty and perhaps some are unwilling and fully aware in suchal environment it is imperative to continue the good fight and progress for what is best for the students also um in regards to uh I want to uh get the record estray as well and the statement that Miss Jennifer blun uh read on General Mar was all untrue and in my opinion it was to further harass us including that I do not partake in the executive session as if it was by choice please and I say that to the community feel free to foer all the email exchange between the school committee and the share from November 27 to January 8 and the open meeting law complaint from October 2024 the school committee the school committee set up executive meeting on the days that they knew I was not available including being out of the country and having medical procedures in my opinion it is sad that this people has been making decision for our community and our children one of the emails that I have from 12 uh December 3rd 2024 good afternoon and I emailed this to the entire committe is right here good afternoon you are potentially making decisions on moving forward and negotiating with Alan to make financial decision for his Advantage I find that very troubling and John I inform you and the school committee members that I was traveling that I was traveling and I will be in the future accent uh I just wanted to clarify that and bring this facts and um to show to the community since a lot of energy has been P to discredit myself uh to discredit my Persona and I just want to I think it's important for people to know there is no need to elaborate uh more than this I would let the evidence uh and the truth to do the talking thank you thank you okay motion to adjourn so moves all in favor Iain thank you everybody for