Um it is 8:02 and I'm going to call to order the June 25th, 2026 school committee meeting. Um, first item of business is uh to approve the consent agenda, which is the minutes from the May 28th meeting
and the oath to bills and payroll. So, could I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Uh, we'll have to do a roll call vote because we are virtual. So, um, I think
I'll just go in order of who I see on the screen. So, uh, Janine. Janine I >> Annelise >> Annalise Taber I >> uh Sean >> Sean her I >> Justin >> Justin McCarthy I
>> and Ela Sandleman I so that motion carries. >> Uh this is our first opportunity for interested citizens is there uh Sean you are the co-host now right? Do you see anybody in the waiting room? Let's say
no, I just see panelists. Everyone who was uh supposed to be on the meeting is in the meeting. >> Awesome. Okay, so our first uh order of business is the FINCOM school representative interview appointment. So would like to welcome Karen McCloskey.
Thank you very much for your your letter of intent and for sharing your resume with us. Um, so this is to appoint the FINCOM school representative seat for a three-year term ending June 2029. Uh, this replaces Mike Pru whose term is
ending this month. I can't believe it's already been 3 years. Like I feel like it was yesterday that we appointed him, but it's uh he's at the end of his term and didn't express interest in continuing. So very grateful that Karen has expressed interest and um so Karen's
letter of interest is in the packet. Karen's resume is also in the packet. Um so would like to just open the floor if anybody has any uh questions or conversation with Karen. >> Uh no no particular question, but I'd
love to give Karen the opportunity to say hello, introduce herself. You know, I know we got the cover letter and the resume, but maybe she could just do a verbal introduction. >> Yeah, sure. Um, hi everyone. Thank you for uh inviting me to be considered for
this appointment. Um, it didn't really occur to me to consider the finance committee till I got the outreach email where you were looking for volunteers. and um my experience with the charter committee. I'm kind of in the mood for town volunteering and
civic engagement. So that really kind of sparked my interest in getting to know more about what's going on in the town. And I thought what better way than through finance. Uh that's really where you get to see the ins and outs and the priorities and how things get um moved
around real time as new opportunities and challenges come forward. Um, as you saw in my letter or my resume, I do have a finance background from a few years ago at this point. Um, but the skill set still kind of there. Maybe the tools are
different, but the principles I think are the same. Um, you know, and I'm just willing to learn what needs to get done and see what I can do to help um, Littleton continue in its um, fine financial position considering what other towns are going through in our
area. So, Uh Sean, go ahead. >> Yeah, thank you again Karen for stepping up. I think your background with the charter committee, your background uh being a controller for public company is phenomenal. I think now your work in LOL is great and uh I believe you said that
your husband is also an educator. So I just think it's a great fit and I appreciate your experience and I'm looking forward to working with you. >> Thank you. Retired educator. Well deserved, I'm sure. >> Uh Janine,
>> hi Karen. Thank you so very very much for coming forward. Um it is the this is a wonderful service to the town to be the intermediary because um the the school budget, as I'm sure you're aware, is very so important and it's such a
huge part of the town budget overall. um you know, not to put you on the spot, but I just wonder if and you can say that it's this is kind of like too big of a question, but I just wondered if you had kind of a philos philosophical
um thought about the difference between the the private companies you've worked for, the the budgeting in a private company, and the budgeting in a public entity like a town and and and a public school district. >> That's actually a cool question. Um well
I think one thing is transparency. You know private company you're doing it all you know for your own purposes. You know obviously with the town everything's going to be sort of documented and clearly articulated as to why things are changing or not changing
and why amounts are being um allocated to different groups or departments. Um that's probably the first thing that comes to mind on that. I don't know if that's >> Yeah. Yeah. That's a that's a that's a great observation. >> Yeah. Thank you.
>> Thanks. Uh Annaise, >> so hi Karen. Uh so as volunteers ourselves, we thank you um for stepping up. Um so on your resume, you listed
stakeholder engagement as a core skill. Um I was curious how you plan to work with stakeholders across town boards and town employees within um sort of crafting the budget. >> Yeah, that it's hard to get people's
attention first of all as you know from some of the work that you did on the school committee which I thought was fantastic to draw attention to the new school. um you know it's hard to get people to say like why is this important to me and then once you do then you can engage it.
So it's kind of twopronged. I don't know exactly how I might do that as part of the finance committee, but I do think efforts, you know, to put more in the newsletter or, you know, different outreach opportunities because we found
a lot of that with the charter committee is try as try as we can to get people to pay attention to what it is. You know, I don't think anyone's really going to be like, "Oh, wait, a charter. What is this?" until it comes before them in
town meeting. So, whatever little bits and pieces that can be done to educate people along the way, I I think are helpful, you know, and and it's I don't know what the opportunities for that are,
>> but I would encourage that and, you know, support those efforts as well. >> Yeah. Excellent. And we're here to help however we can, too. >> That's great. Thanks very much. >> Yeah, I have a I have a question as well. I you have a lot of
accomplishments on your resume. You're you're um clearly very um you've got a great background that aligns with the role that you would be taking on FinCom. I I'm wondering out of all of those accomplishments,
um which one you see connecting most to the work of FINCOM? like what what aspect of your background are you most excited about applying to um the fincom position? >> So maybe a couple different areas, but
obviously when I was doing financial planning and analysis, my job was to do the budget >> for the companies, you know, and always the first time in was kind of a challenge because you're like, what are all these pieces? Where is this coming from? What are all these people and
vendors and things and projects? Um so it's a super learning experience to get you know the first round through and then once you get one round then you're like okay now how do you plan you know now that you sort of know how the
mechanics work then you can kind of focus on the planning you know is there something we need to you know um spend money on and invest in um either maintenance or something else.
Is there a new opportunity to go out and buy something that maybe we weren't seeing? And how do you leave enough room to do the dayto-day, but also build in the flexibility so that you can take advantage of opportunities or deal with unexpected expenses?
>> Well, that sounds like a fantastic skill set and approach to bring to this position. Um, Justin, >> sure. My audio is a little choppy. I don't know if if it's me or if it's you guys, but am I coming through? Okay. >> Yeah, you're fine.
>> All right. Maybe it's just me. Um, so Karen, thanks for your interest and thanks for the work on the charter committee. I know that was probably a lot of work. I'll say the um the finance committee is a big role, so I really appreciate um your interest in that. And I just want to share with you that over the
past couple years, as you probably aware, I hope you're aware, the school committee's had a pretty good um working relationship with the finance committee. There's been a lot of collaboration, a lot of joint effort here. So um wanted you to hear it first. We look forward to continuing those uh that
collaboration and um looking forward to you being a member of that team. >> Yeah. Great. No, I appreciate that. I I've what I've learned from the charter committee is the working relationships are really key to to getting things done and I've seen a lot of great examples of
that across the different committees and boards. >> Well, we appreciate your dedication to your um being an active citizen in in Littleton and getting involved. Um, could I ask for a motion to appoint
Karim Kowski as the FINCOM school representative from July 2026 to June 2029? >> Uh, moved. >> Oh, sorry. >> That's okay. I'll second that. >> There we go. Okay, let's do a roll call vote. So Justin
>> Justin McCarthy I >> Janine >> Janine Wood I >> Analise >> Analise Taber I >> Sean >> Sha I >> and Elaine Sandelman I. So the motion carries and uh welcome to Fin Con. Karen, we really appreciate um you
stepping up and look forward to working with you. >> Thank you all for your um consideration and uh your your faith in me. So >> absolutely. >> Okay. So our our next order of business
is to talk about the uh Littleton Education Association memorandum of agreement. So So Karen, if if uh you're welcome to stay if you'd like to hear about that or but but we are done with uh the section of the agenda that um
that you were part of. So you can stay or leave. Either way, we are fine with that. >> Okay. I will say good night. Thank you all. Appreciate your uh your work that you do as well. So, thank you all. >> All right. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye. >> Thank you.
>> Thanks, Karen. >> Okay. So, um our new business is to talk about the memorandum of agree memorandum of agreement with the LEA. So, they have
already ratified this MOA. So, now it's our turn to ratify it. Once we ratify this, um, it'll get incorporated into the existing language of their contract and we'll have a full contract that will be signed by both parties. Um, so Jim
Dugen is also here because it's part of our town bylaws that the town administrator has a vote on the LEA contract. So, um, hopefully you all had a chance to read through it. And so Justin and I
were on the negotiating subcommittee and are happy to answer any questions or clarify anything um that you may want to talk about. Kelly as well was also there with all the negotiations. Sean,
>> I just wanted to thank you Justin and and Kelly for the hard work you put in. I know uh this stuff is never easy. Uh, and I'm I'm glad that we got to this resolution. Um, and so thank you. >> You're very welcome. Elaine was part of the process, too. And listen, I was
looking I was kind of laughing at this. I'm like, we spent >> we spent like 10 meetings. It felt like 40 hours and it it boiled down to seven pages of changes. But really, Sean, I appreciate the words because it really was and it always is a
lot of work to put these deals together. Um, but at the end of the day, uh, like I'm I'm I'm grateful. I'm two for two and putting deals together where I think both sides, um, you know, can call it a win-win. So,
>> uh, Anelise, >> oops, you're muted. >> Sorry. Um, so I was really pleased to see um on it's on page 19 of the packet, but the um the section about um
providing a work environment with appropriate ventilation, air quality, and water quality. Um, I think especially on the heels of Shaker Lane and sort of what we were finding out about that building and everything, I think that goes a huge long way towards
um, sort of, you know, showing our staff that we care and we believe in them and, you know, we want to make sure that they are healthy and safe at their workplace um, as we obviously work to, um, improve it by building the new school. Um, so I was really really encouraged to see that
in there. Um, I imagine that took some some, you know, negotiation to get exactly where where you wanted it to be, but um, I was really really encouraged to see that there. Um, yeah, that and um,
I was happy to see that there's a stipend for packing and unpacking a classroom. Like there's just like little things like that that I think um go a long way to sort of showing that we respect the the staff that um you know the LPS staff. So I really I I I think
this is a great MOA. Um and I can tell the amount of work that went into it must have been tremendous. So thank you again. >> Oh, you're welcome. Well, it's funny when you highlight those. Those were things that we had long conversations about. M
>> um actually when I read through it, most of these things are things we had long conversations about. So um but I think it was very thoughtfully done. I think both parties um were um respectful of
each other and it was it was a good process. It took a lot longer than we were hoping it would. Um Justin was our spokesperson um and did a phenomenal job interacting with the spokesperson for the LEA. Um
they've worked together before, so they had a good dynamic going. Um so yeah, I'm real I'm I'm very proud of the outcome here. Um anybody else have any comments or questions? Anything you want clarification on?
>> Any questions from the town administrator? No, no, none at all. Thank you though. >> Good. Thank Thank you. >> Okay, then are we ready to to vote? Like a motion to ratify the
memorandum of agreement between the Littleton Educators Association and the Littleton School Committee for the period of September 1st, 2026 through August 31st, 2029. So moved. >> Seconded.
Okay, we'll do a roll call vote. So, Annelise >> Annalise Taber. I >> Janine >> Janine Wood I. >> Sean >> Shauna I >> Justin >> Justin McCarthy I >> Jim >> Jim Dugen I
>> and Elaine Sandleman I. So the motion carries. >> Congratulations. Nice job. >> Well, I'm I'm so glad that we have a new contract before the other one expires. I was >> brilliant job you guys. Brilliant.
>> Very very happy to get this done with Kelly too. So >> yes, >> Kelly for all of your hard work and guidance along the way because we'll we'll we'll obviously negotiate and then we'll need both parties caucus and we
talk about things and Kelly and Beth um provided a lot of support to Elaine and I. So, Kelly, I just I want to say thank you one more time cuz your leadership with the negotiation has been uh very valuable. >> Well, thank you so much for saying that. And we uh we were a strong negotiation
team. So, thank you Justin and Elaine and and Beth as well. But, uh it was a long process, but that was anticipated and and I feel as you pointed out Justin that it's a win-win situation for both sides. Well, and I'm glad we're able to give
you this closure, Kelly, before you retire. >> Yes. >> Kelly, would you would you >> Kelly, would you mind sticking around? I've got four union contracts to settle for next time. >> Sticking around
steep soon. >> Yeah. Yeah. And can I zoom in from Hawaii or somewhere? >> Yeah. That rate is going to come from the town side, not the school side. Just No. Oh, you good catch. Good catch, Madam Chair. >> So, charge whatever you want, Kelly.
>> Yeah, this is this sounds enticing. >> Yeah, right. >> Um, okay. So, our uh next thing on the agenda is interested citizens. Our second opportunity. Sean, is there anyone in the waiting room? >> There is not.
>> Okay, we can speed right through that and go straight to adjournment. So, I'd like to have a motion to adjurnn. So, move. >> So, I'll second that. >> Okay. All in favor? Again, we have to do a roll call vote. So, Annelise
>> Annalise Taber. I >> Janine >> Janine Wood. I >> Sean >> Sean I. >> Justin >> Justin McCarthy I. >> And Elaine Sandleman I. So we have adjourned at 8.