##VIDEO ID:WDfyOo5uXc4## everyone it's 7 o'clock and I'd like to call together the December 12 2024 school committee meeting if you would please rise and Jo me the allegiance States of America stands Nation indivisible all right this evening we have our consent agenda posted which are the minutes from the November 21st 2024 meeting as well as o bills and payroll everybody have a chance to go over the minutes no proposed edits motion to accept and we accept the consent agenda motion made by Elaine second seconded by V all those in favor indicated by saying I I I passes so first opportunity for interested citizens be a second opportunity towards the tail end of the meeting is anybody witness this evening I would like to speak before the school committee either in person or on Zoom we do not as your chance we do not or is closing that so close the citizens portion of the meeting and we have a number of recognitions to get through the first of which will be from our student representative Harish ganach thank you for joining us this evening look forward to your report thank you um good evening everybody uh a couple updates from the four schools uh on Wednesday the Shaker Lane school collaborated with the Littleton Police Department to host a safety drill should the students ever require one the Russell Street School is participating in a very important assembly tomorrow about Ai and the future of AI um principal McDonald would like to thank M Gregor and the other AI ambassadors for facilitating it and next Thursday RSS will hold a schoolwide singalong in the afternoon Littleton middle school as usual host of the holiday V and Littleton Middle School drama club is preparing to present news's Junior in January Littleton High School hosted their Winter concert last week on December 4th and they begin their Winter Sports Seasons thank you very much good job next we usually go to superintendent keny but I'm GNA stick with the order here so we have an update from The Playbook initiative uh director of student services Lynn that we're going to be participating in play again this year um we were selected again we one of 20 districts across Massachusetts that was selected to participate and um they've actually added three districts from Maine um to join um the initiative which is fantastic and just to give a quick recap it is a partnership among project 51 the Boston Celtics in the Massachusetts Association of school superintendent superintendence it's an anti-discrimination and bias prevention program and it's l by student trainers in um School District throughout the state and so on November 21st uh Littleton was represented at the plan mission of imersion summit by student trainers and CH jors Harris Khan and K Shero they were our trainers last year and they will be training um the Middle School staff again this year also representing Littleton was assistant principal Matt Lei at the middle school I attended as well and um Littleton middle school math teacher Amy Amy manheimer has joined as our Playbook educator this year and so it was a great opportunity we were able to really delve deeply into the Playbook stying PR principles and engage with experts and Educators across the state and so following the summit uh kirab and Parris participated in the first train the trainer session on December 1st at Wellsley College where they gain valuable tool to help implement the Playbook strategies of the ground level of Harris actually intended a full day uh a full day um full day conference for all of the project 351 ambassadors across the state and it was a really amazing and inspirational day the trainers will continue their professional development and um and then begin to schedule the trainings for the middle schoolers the sessions prepare the trainers to be able to equip the students with knowledge and practices to gain um to give them the experience and support that they need to be student influencers that the mid school and so the selection for us to participate in Playbook initiative it speaks volumes about the commitment of this schol community to challenge ourselves and to consistently improve the experiences and outcomes for our staff and students and so we really wanted to take this opportunity to commend the team for their leadership and for representing the district so well at the summit it continues to be a transformative partnership and we're confident that the initiative will positively impact Educators and students for years to come and so we're just grateful that we're able to have the um commitment and the participation and support the district to move forward with this Mission thank you any questionn about that just that I hope they come again in the spring an incredible presentation that they did we can make that happen that's our only ask I have to great uh superintendent CL yeah just I'm thrilled that we're part of the Playbook Initiative for the second year in a row somewhat unique to to have two consecutive years being part of project 351 this particular initiative the only other thing I'd like to mention is uh we have implemented School status so any notifications in terms of school delays or uh school closures will uh be sent through School status our Blackboard uh program that we're using before we we won't be using it you probably won't notice a difference you're still going to get the same same type of uh phone call chain that we we use with with the black process and we're we're still uh getting used to school status so still working some Kinks out so this yesterday we found a way to be able to use our app on our iPhone on our phones to able to uh post messages which is huge for us rather than trying to take a picture then send a picture to yourself get on your computer and post from there go right for app so it's thr about that other than that uh one more week until our our holiday break I'd like to wish everybody a wonderful holiday break and looking forward to seeing everybody back in the New Year quite quick didn't it it did all right uh close subject recognition por evening we've got one order of new business and a number of presentation scheduled for this evening so our uh singular new business item I'd like to invite Police Chief Matt Gard to the podium to uh have a conversation with the school committee and the superintendant um to discuss the need for an additional school resource offic welcome welcome thanks appreciate you guys having me tonight course um I honestly don't know where to start and say that because I feel like we've been kicking this SC down the road the last probably seven years since I've been cheap um one of my goals when I became chieve was to get a second schools was insi uh she's in the schools right now and just from January 1 until this day date she's at close to 100 calls for service in those schools now those calls of service could be anything from a l to a bullying issue that she's dealing with to a lock up parking but she's handling this CS so that's not including the Alice trainings the alert trainings and the training we did yesterday did you I did not sure and I can certainly chime in so uh yesterday we had a training and it was all the administrative Council and it was at this police station and detective wasinski actually put the whole thing on um we had n SWAT NX Stars myself back to Sergeant Fernandez a couple other Chiefs from the area that are in charge like sism and whatnot a lot AC but I apologize for that there's any questions should um so what the tabletop exercise did was each school was given a scenario and the administrators in each School school and the handle the scenario and explain exactly what we did what you would do these scenarios um you know it could be an act shooter inside school it could be an unknown person outside the school and how are we going to handle it and what can we learn from best practices for that um I'm G reach over to these six over here and it was just an amazing training that we learned a lot we're ahead of we're ahead of the curve I I still feel we're ahead of Cur but we still learn a lot that we can Implement and um we can better so that's another next one so my main goal for tonight is to B complete the school to a second s um ACU and I have talked about this millions of times so the way I'd like to set this up is right now we have the and I'd like to keep the tski assign to high school and her second school would be the Shane school for obvious reasons obviously more calls for service at the high school than there is at Shan school so she'd be able to go to Shan school when it's need the second SRO will be in charge of the entire Russell Street campus therefore that person be officer Brian Jones who's our hard time right now he be assigned full-time to the schools and he would take on the role of both the Russell Street schools at that point um there's a lot of planning that we aren't doing and that we're lacking on and that's going through the books and making sure that all of our doors are actually locked making sure they're all numbered makeing sure lers the school are there making sure we have correct phone numbers for people in they regards to who we call the GS we call watering are all these nums being K or we rely on just calling dispatch solely and getting those wor CS so there's a lot of planning procedural things that need to be done that can't be touched upon by Meg right now because she's handling qu service so I think we probably lean on the second to do that a lot more I think it be very beneficial to the schools I'm sure we've been Matt and I have had these conversations for a number of years and until this year we we felt we we're doing okay but if you know things we're building up our community is is is continuously changing uh the resource officers uh provide a lot of support not only to our students but to our families that are struggling as well and there's been a an increase in in the need for more coverage in that area and as as we all know uh the problems that we're seeing in society in Massachusetts are definitely uh ramping up during the last three four years and schools are not exempt we're we're part of the community and what the community is seeing is what we see in our schools so it is time that we we we do add a second resource officer um visibility in the schools is important developing relationships with our students and families is is important uh our public will will will continue to gain a better understanding that our Police Department is here to to help they're not just here to call you over if you're speeding they're they're a resource and uh is is is working really hard and as a result of that does not have the time to to spend sufficient time to spend in in our other three schools a lot of our time is is taken up at the high school and the middle school has become a close second for her time as well so I feel very strongly that that this is the time and we' like to move forward and start a second SRO in January and 22 years ago this position started it was me and the things that have changed and evolved since 22 years ago is just mind I used to have a displ high schol can't do that sort of thing now there's just so many things and so many changes that that post and regulations that agation put you know and we have to make sure we do full attention basically every service reques time leave at 3:00 the afternoon computer satday Friday night make sure 700 next consider we have it all queued up ready to go so you I say yes um I know we're we've been talking about budgeting for in the next fiscal year we've talked about uh the adding this position as early as1 officially um and notice that there's not a vote on the agenda right um we don't beat until after one one ultimately does the school department like a vote from the school committee on this if so we can have one tonight even though it's not on our agenda it's the addition of a of a staff person which would fall under your perview um if you're looking for know informal head nodding or questions we can certainly give that to you I think in this case because of we are adding a staff member it's in you know it's operational we we uh are able to uh pay for this individual within our current budget I think just a head on and any questions that you have would be sufficient yes I I probably should know this so the current resource officer is that that's completely under the school committee budget no never that's what I saw Okay so then the second one would be in the school committee budget that's the thing yes okay there's some history here too uh yeah many many years ago uh we all had a real tough budget year and we were splitting the cost of of the resource officer between the police department and the school department so we're faced with cutting close to $500,000 off our budget our a of District sped costs were increasing by 4 or 500 by so we ended up cutting some staff and and as a result we had to recommend to cut the resource officer as well uh Chief Kelly at the time uh advocated to keep the resource officer and picked up the full tab so this is our time to to uh repay the favor that that happened many many years ago have we talked to bom I mean and select board I mean you know like I don't know I know we don't need their permission right but in the spirit of collaboration well my job as a superintendent is to talk to the administration of the town and they're fully aware of that okay yeah I mean this is there's nobody that's been an elected official in this town in the last seven years that haven't been involved in a discussion about adding a second resource office it's it's been uh conversations have been plentiful during that time so I would be very surprised if they didn't know this was com so going forward with so we'll have two Sr would one be funded from the town side and one funded from the school side that's correct okay yes well I just want to say I really appreciate you staying on top of this and you've been pushing for it for a while and it seems like now is the time that everything's falling into place and I appreciate the data points that you have too because I think that's really impactful on really what we've needed um to see how how busy Meg is and how um stretched thin she is with within the schools and obviously the student St safety is the utmost importance and you've been recommending this for a long time now um and it seems like we you know are getting much closer to that but that wouldn't that wouldn't be without you continuing to push it through so thank you I appreciate it I have no conc it sounds like you know it work on the budget that comfortable with it this is a long time coming we've had these conversations for year certainly and just appreciate officer Meg holding down the fort until we're able to get some support in there hopefully and I I really wish you guys could have take like that at least one of you because she she knocked out of the park and I she did she did a great job she did I think we got right into the next one us there for the she did technically that's when we actually do the lack of shooter in the school and you dress up on it make be trust um yeah know this all sounds this all sounds good I I I love the proor approach and I appreciate your consistency with this with this topic you know I wouldn't certainly want to be adding a second school resource officer in response to something that has happened I hope that we never need the emergency response that been my star just you know that that you folks offer but I I was thinking about this as you were speaking like you know the early literacies like Community Heroes and police is certainly one of those and then um then you get into real curriculum and you don't oftentimes get like an opportunity to have a relationship with the police force and this provides us that opportunity which I think is truly powerful so I love everything about it we heard from all the school committee this a great idea perfect thank you uh just one more comment about our table talk exercises yesterday two of our police Chiefs that were in attendance had actually had incidents uh in their school district um one Ed I mean they they both were something that that we all don't want to talk about but they went through it and it's a it's a humble reminder that uh these these districts are towns uh are not as similar from ours you would have never thought anything would have happened in those towns so it for for me as a superintendent I mean I've seen some things in my career that that just come with the job as being a superintendent but for the rest of the administrative team to be involved in those discussions and and hear the Chiefs talk about their particular situation it's very powerful and and it helps us uh you know be able to talk with an expert that actually has been through something and and point out you know things were doing well and give us suggestions we want to get we want to keep our campus our schools as as safe as we possibly can the only way we can do that is to keep reviewing what we're doing reflecting and bringing experts like that that have some experience to to make sure that that we're not missing so if I have my wish and it comes true I'd like to do that every year just uh to keep us current and you know change the scenarios up and uh I think it would be helpful to all parties and the training yesterday was with the new protocol it wasn't the Alice Protocol no it was with the Alice protocol police officers have not been trained in the alert protocol yet oh okay just saw yest [Music] actually just start and and so when is the um date that we're planning to shift over to the new codol it's like so far out in the future that yeah true we have to wait for for us do thought I remember hearing that it was like the beginning of next school year I yeah yeah all right thank you very much thank you very much finalize the position all right all right uh number presentations to get through first of which is athletic director Mike Lenn give an update on the Public School athletics good evening Mr good evening thank you for having [Music] me I got it show y it's coming there it is all right uh next slide please hi um so we're week and a half into the winter season um all wrapped up on Thanksgiving officially the final uh you the football game uh just for probably some new people in the room we have nine Sports in the fall um not going to read this for btim I know that it's um I think you have eyes on this prior to the meeting right in your packet so probably taking a look at this but uh we have nine Sports 17 teams 262 athletes and we played over 200 contests in the fall uh fall participation um for me for most athletic directors what we do always starts with participation um you know we want to get as many students involved in our athletic programs possible um we have C certainly have sports that lend themselves well to mass participation and we have sports that don't allow that but um in Littleton we're fortunate that we don't really we only have Cuts in boys basketball um most years so the numbers you see there every student ath came off for a sport had a place to play in the sport that they chose to play um we're fortunate in a talent build from that we can strike that balance so you can see the numbers there some of those numbers are are down a little bit from what we'd like to see um girls cross country is down a little bit hopefully it rebounds uh football is definitely down from where we were um you know in our not that long ago uh but socer numbers are are are very high very strong and um unified basketball I have a slide coming up about that so I don't give a lot of touch upon that just now so move the next slide on the middle school in the fall we have the most sports we offer at the middle school level of any season so we have five sports um you know basically we have everything but football and Che eating and golf as far as fall sports for them that match back to the high school um a lot of these sports are somewhat redundant to what these kids are all also participating in at the Town level or maybe the club level so sometimes you see Middle School uh students playing on a school team in addition to a non-school team but again participation was strong um I think we did need Cuts in boys and girls soccer unfortunately but that just uh the Middle School level I do that next slide please um just some records here if you're interested in that as far as how our fall teams did I only I only offer the the the records of the the VAR City teams because that's really the only ones that we would uh if you ever want to see the records from all of our teams they're on on the Athletics website but uh here's our Varsity records next slide um so our Unified sports we have a unified program for every season uh basketball we had the most participation yet with 17 uh students being involved um a lot of fun I think most the administrators came to at least one game if not two of our of our season uh it's really Unified sports has been something that was new at least in this to us in this area not all that long ago now it's become common place and um we have a bowling team I think we're the only School in our league that does an official bowling team so kind of proud of that but every most people most schools in our league do have basketball next slide uh boys cross country repeated as sectional Champions um so proud of them for that uh gr soccer on quite a role I think they were this is their third leag champ I ship in a roow and the last two years prior to this one they went to the final four this year they made it to the round of eight which was down at Basset which was an absolute nightmare to get to I don't know how many people are familiar with this self sure but I had to get down here we went down there for 6 o' I sent the bus at 3:00 and I thought there's no way and you know I know what we're in for uh trying to get down toass it for a 6:00 game but uh we made it just in time and um I survived to drive as well and uh anyways that was the end of the road for us down in Kass but um anyways sh sure is not for me would not be a place anybody um uh we often have um more student athlets in this signing uh n signing dat would be for division one or division two but uh Brook o Brian signed for GR for lacrosse with s anel uh we do have some other signings potentially coming up put those on the next presentation but as of right now we've got one next slide I know I've been putting this in the presentation I just want to keep you everybody uh well informed on our two feature facilities um and and there are there is some new information uh Alumni field we have played 15 seasons on that field so far opened in Fall 2017 which I still remember that night I think a lot of us were there and I can't believe it's you know 15 seasons ago that we did that but our 7year warranty ended this September um I did have some warranty work down on the field uh this fall that you know obviously was free of charge but from this point forward anything that we deal with on that field would cost us uh some money uh the only thing that we've dealt with honestly out of 15 Seasons um all those lines you see those are seams and we've uh they did the the installers did an amazing job but I've had we've had a few splits in the seams and they just come and they uh I've done some repairs and then also the as Turf has done some repairs but um that's the only thing that really we've had to deal with the field has performed incredibly well the drainage everything about it um but those are the types of things you see with the amount of wear and tear we put on it you might start to see some splits in the seams that are easily repaired but you have to keep up on it like anything else uh next slide so uh Steve and I have already started dialogue about this I believe Kelly's also CCD on you know some Communications we had um we track at the age it's at it is due for a resurface as of 2026 um it's that would be the 10e point and then at 20 years you need more substantial work but the track is performing incredibly well for us as well but it is coming up on a substantial uh maintenance item we have started getting preliminary estimates on what that would cost and I believe this's talk about combining efforts with Park and wreck and other funding sources the CPC which right sounds like it might make sense and um the other thing I want to talk about here is you know we have that the grass actually is in much better shape than we have a Serial shot done so that doesn't look so great that was after like a terrible drought summer but um the field looks great looks better than what you're seeing there um we do what you don't see on that slide is there's a p vote venue uh in the in the nearest D area right by the starting line and when we did that we did it after the fact but it has a has the Box uh we have the landing system but what we don't have is a Plexi track Runway so when we do this resurface we should absolutely incorporate um it's mainly just it's literally just spraying the rubberized surface on top of the pavement that you see in front of that high jump uh rectangle so that would be something I would highly recommend um the other thing that I know that the track coaches are advocating for is a javelin venue that's a different that's a whole another thing that we would want to talk about about and decide if that's something we would do at this point but the p runway is you know that's a something we've been waiting on right now we have rolled out rubber Runway which isn't great but um so we're working on that just want to make sure everybody's aware of uh that the winter Athletics like I said we I'm sorry I was I just car do we have Javelin now oh yeah we have Javelin we throw um we throw move that we throw right in the middle right now um we used to throw if you can't you can't really see but in the Outfield of Wick y but we've been using that baseball field because of the construction so we really can't do that so what we have to do in the uh in the bottom left corner there that's where the U that's where the discus cage is so that throws out into the infield so we just time it up that I want to say discus and shotter going on and then once discus wraps up we start throwing the Javelin in the Middle where they would like to put a javelin venue um is I I think I need to come up here and just uh where they'd like to put a javelin venue is up in here and I don't somebody you know the runway would be here and then it would throw out into here I don't know really know enough about that land I I've told the coaches that that would require probably more um work yeah I think we have to look and I do believe the town owns the land I'm not sure about Wetlands all that kind of stuff um but it would be ideal it would be safer um than throwing it inside the oval uh would be safer to have it out there and you would you could have everything going simultaneously as opposed to like I to stagger it now but I want to be clear we we make it all work just fine but you know in a perfect world the javelin venue would be probably outside um winter Athletics we have 12 Sports when I say we have 12 we have six six under our roof and we have we're fortunate to have six co-ops uh we've built those up over the years and we've been fortunate to keep them in place um people should know that co-ops are not a guaranteed um a guaranteed entity that will go on forever they're approved every two years it's it requires some votes and things of that nature and some data collection and then we we hope to sustain them and hope that the numbers will be favorable that we'd be able to to have the co-ops um everybody should know that a co-op has can only be uh installed and maintained or uh you know sustained because the host school has the need not because the guest School wants a place for their students to play a certain sport because I often get people asking me hey my son or daughter has an interest in this and you it doesn't really work like that has it it mutually benefit usually both schools but the post school has to have the need for participation in order to sustain their programming so in our case we're fortunate um sport like girls ice hockey prior to getting that up and running I think year seven or eight we used girls would have to play on on our boys team um and now that had obvious safety risks obviously and uh so once we were able to get Westford Academy on that that was great for our girls uh we I'll show you the participation numbers on the next slide we have swimming and diving with Brownfield the Brownfield we do them we return the favor to Brownfield their boys play Ice Hockey for us um the outan skiing again you know lunberg numbers were down it was a window of opportunity for us to to join and provide that for our student athletes and then uh gymnastics so with the co-ops we have like basically every win is Sport tods um and then UniFi bowling like I already mentioned so we have 11 Littleton Public School schemes we have 17 total and we have 202 student aths next slide please um so you can see our winner participation there we're at um basketball numbers are strong boys indoor track numbers are you know we're really strong in in in the running sports right now and um Casey cinberg in particular just an amazing coach and I his participation numbers show that um you can see our boys I already mentioned uh actually we take in Parker as well so we have 30 participants 18 from Littleton this is a perfect example of I was talking about you know 18 skaters in a hockey program would be could you do it yeah but you wouldn't be able to have JV you wouldn't be able to really have any injuries it'd be tricky but you had nine Grandfield 3 Parker and in Specialty Sports like I hockey um it really works we have seven seven girls playing over with wa we have six kids swimming and Diving five Aline and uh two doing gymnastics and uh bowling we're we're getting that up and running um after the holiday break uh in the winter for Middle School we only have boys and girls basketball uh you know I showed you in the fall we got five we have five sports for them but in the winner we land too uh you know Winn's a challenging season uh you know it's all facility driven and um It's Tricky like even our indoor track program at the high school um it seems a little chaotic daily uh with with everything that's going on in the building with them in the gym and the waai room auxiliary gym in the hallways in the parking lot but that's how we make it work and then we go to we go to facilities that have indoor tracks um I want to include this um you know uh I think we're I don't even really like uh acknowledging Co but I sometimes I have to that it definitely had an impact while we were going through it but we're still feeling that and um you know our participation rate used to be 68 69% I was always I was always like man I just want to hit 70% and we just seemed like we're always one or two two percentage points away from that and then obviously 1920 there was no spring season took a major hit the next year was the was a Four Season year we were still in the in the 59 um you know rebounded 63 62 right now we're down as much as 9% um last school year from preco numbers so hopefully those numbers continue to rebound or rebound um in the years to come but right now those numbers are our overall participation is down from uh prepandemic just forur I'd show you that right is that a percentage of the student body or is if you're playing multiple Sports you be counted two or three times so that is the that is the count of how many of our students play at least one so student body plays yeah yeah so you know we have a total count and we have an a count whatever you want to look at that so I I draw that data at the end of every school year and um cre report and just shows participation by every sport shows our student participation overall like how many of our students played at least one sport during that school year um you know be I only really focus on the athletic people it'd be interested in probably look at the student body Beyond Athletics and then see how many involved with drama music and things that nature and then what's our true percentage that doesn't do anything beyond the school day doesn't engage in co-curriculars at all um you know I don't necessarily draw that data but I draw the Athletics data are you Noti oh I'm sorry question um has there been interest in or have we considered volleyball um so we have a uh I think I probably didn't include that actually I forgot to conclude that that field hockey as of this year because our numbers in field hockey have been dropping we have an active co-op with a Shirley in field hockey which only resulted in one new new girl um and we have an active co-op in in girls volleyball and we thought that that was going to work out just fine but then as air shirely started during the sign up phase in the spring we were on track but then as they got closer to the season they had some new kids show interest and it has to do with the markings on their gym floor but I I just had another talk with Steve Kendall who's the who's the ad over there and um I'm going to pick that up again we're hoping that we are going to be able to send suth to them this fall he's so in volleyball we have he has varsity and jb1 but if we were over there he'd also have enough to have a jb2 team but right now they don't have the cross volleyball courts on their on their floor but he told me in my last meeting with him that it looked like they were going to approve getting those cross volleyball courts painted because they need that so they can play the jb1 and the jb2 games simultaneously and then when they get to the varsity game to playing on a main court so if he gets that we're going to be fine and we're going to be able to send pretty much as many student athletes that are interested um personally I don't think we're I know there's been talk of volleyball um you know to have a strong volleyball program I don't know that were're there yet and I would definitely be worried that I'm showing these numbers and certain Sports have been impacted we're not filling up particularly on our girls side we are not filling up our rosters on our girls Sports um we don't have a JB field hockey team we don't have a JB girls across team and we our JB softball teams primary and middle school is so I would hesitate to add another girl team sport when we're not filling up the ones that we have right now I'd like to see those that participation come back uh in those Sports and what we're seeing isn't unique to Littleton uh our league is seeing this a lot in in uh in certain Sports so but hope as my last talk was see he was very hopeful that he was going to be able to uh allow participation from our girls we like I say the co-op is the here it's active it was approved it just uh we they couldn't take us this past F yeah that would definitely be the best way to phase in a volleyball team is to get kids playing competitive real volleyball at another school yeah because right now I think our kids have probably played Recreation volleyball but competitive volleyball is is a you know is a different uh it's a whole different animal it's a whole different animal and there's you know set of I think you set like just two rows of players like they have positions and things of that nature and they have tacticals and um there a lot to know and a lot to to do and um I do think it's probably if you look at our sport offerings it's probably boys and girls volleyball probably like the two we don't have honestly yeah but um boys volleyball in our league anyways is only about six or seven so 26 schools um with the top school be in lausett that's over 2,000 students so only about I think it's like seven or eight schools have boys volleyball and um about half of our league has girls volleyball with air Shirley being really the only small school that has it the next school after air Shirley is like Hudson and and above so that's why you're surely I think why we got the co-op approved is they able to say hey we've struggled to be competitive because we're playing primarily larg schools little would give us a boost and then they had some more um students come out for the team so they weren't able to take us but it like I say if they get that second Court configuration painted and they go jb1 and jb2 there'd be plenty of room for pretty much any student student that wants to join and get playing competitive volleball want to do a with I yeah we'll get the girls I [Laughter] didn't question something you said earlier about the decline and interest in football and are you are you noticing a trend that um soccer is increasing while football is decreasing or is it not that clear there's definitely um definitely es and flows to everything we do um I've been at Littleton now this is my 24th year at Littleton I've been the athletic director for 20 so yes when football had really high participation numbers uh we peaked out at about 60 60 players um that was well over 20% of almost hovering around 25% of the student body um you know the soccer numbers weren't where they are now and so yeah we definitely see that that if soccer has strong numbers maybe football doesn't have so strong numbers we're definitely very concerned about football um I've been keeping Stephen Kelly uh John and all the middle school as well um informed about where we're at with that and we definitely had some some meetings after the football season with our students high school and prospective students the Middle School to just see where our interest is because we we have looked at co-oping in that sport it's not something we want to do uh that would really uh for me that would be very hard I was I was the head coach here for 20 for 20 years I've been out of it for three years but um littleton's had its own football team since 1965 so if you lose that brand and that identity it's going to be hard to get it back and as far as as far as and I know some people might have different feelings about sport football I know it's a very violent rough sport but no sport uh is an event like a Friday night football game is Thanksgiving day football game it's the amount of people the cheerleaders the band You' seen three different student groups there between cheerleaders football and Van and just the community not just parents like um so hopefully we can get back on track there but yeah we're definitely um not not at where we were at one point but soccer is definitely increasing over the years soccer soccer right now is is definitely um very strong participation and looks always to be in a good place for years to come what what what's the plan with the football team I mean what do you need to have to happen to have a run the football program year year you know I've been we all been to a number of games there's like 12 seniors you know pictures on the fence and we know those kids graduating we're look at kids in the sideline and we're like I don't know if there's enough yeah it's a great question we're actually graduating 13 seniors off of 32 man roster um held a meeting at uh held a meeting during the last week of the season with the with the current players told them we're having a meeting in one week after thanks uh after Thanksgiving to see what other students you might have in the current High School population that maybe is thinking about playing next year also went down to the middle school with the head football coach uh your son was there uh held a meeting for all six7 did he get out of class to go to a meeting I was during Flex just work so um we we held a meeting with all six7 graders and all I asked them to put in the announcements was any student who has an interest in playing sport of football um please attend this meeting we just wanted to meet the kids see where the see see what was potentially coming up um football is definitely a sport that needs pretty strong numbers um I would I would tell you that I think that 40 40 players is kind of that's where you can have a Barca JB program we hav at JV in two years so now you're not really getting that developmental uh that you you would see through JV participation particularly in a sport like that um we played you know we played two JB games this year um when we had opportunity to do so so yeah so we're we're definitely working on on it and definitely you know Barton wck has a strong flag program right now the participation is up um but the youth football is really down um yeah so it's definitely something that we're working so as of last night we created a park and R flag board okay um to try to continue to bring improvements to that I you know my impression like football think number one I think football is a great sport Ric Community event I think flag football is a great sport I'm not sure that you're going to get you know the crossover um like you might hope maybe you will you probably pick up a few kids but I'm just you know I think parents see flag football as an alternative to the concussions that can come with can come with any sport but um you know the NFL had some tough years with uh with concussion um and that trickled all the way down to you Sports I right right no definitely sure and you know I think it's awesome that you guys had the meeting it was funny Henry did come home he like I went to the football meeting yeah I'm like oh really cool um so if you had you know X number of kids sh out from the meeting hopefully you get a couple but I I don't I mean I think maybe a lot of like football kids were there or kids play the sports I don't know that they're going to be putting them PS on right that's the tricky part for sure and the eighth grade numbers I think there was 8 eth graders the meeting there was only two seventh graders but there was 23 sixth graders so that is somewhat indicative of the age and everything they're like I want to go to the meeting you know but um but I will say that that that group of kids that we were talking to seemed very excited and uh you know it was a good meeting um we're just trying to see if we have a path forward um I think as of now the plan is the reason why this was time sensitive is because this is a realignment year and I'm actually going to a meeting on Wednesday where we'll be building football schedules and I was trying to just make everybody's life easier I guess on our schedule by if we were not going to be able to continue the right thing to do was to basically drop out of scheduling pool and you know there were there have been preliminary talks about a Littleton air Shirley merger in sport of football but um as of now that would result in the air shirely post little yes and um yeah I think you're going to see that would then You' see further fall off of kids because now you plus you have a ninth or 10th period who can't drive you know out of how's Mom or Dad who maybe are working get him over there daily to practice over there so we're trying to avoid that we're trying to keep it going um you never know five to 10 years you could have 40 50 60 kids playing them you just don't know I mean we we have the facility for it obviously um we we had it for a long time we have everything in place we just don't have the participation numbers at you know for the last few years in all of the co-op sports are are we were the guest are the students responsible for their own transportation like we have a number of girls playing with Westford Academy yeah they're not going to wa they're going to some rank somewhere yeah but are they on their own where Westford Academy is potentially being BS to practice uh I don't know if anybody buses the practices so it would basically be the same yeah so hockey's in you know hockey High commitment parents High commitment sport going to do anything that it takes to play H 6 a.m. practice we're there you know later so it's it's that's a different so and because the rinks are all neutral signs anyways you know it doesn't matter if you're really in our case Littleton or Harvard kids they probably all driving the same it's over at Brad school um you got like swim die again it's at a pool on site um gymnastics is at a gymnastics gym and ski is on a mountain so the co-ops that we do have it doesn't matter if you're the host or the guest because you're all going to some neutral site Place some off-site location um again field hockey we might have seen more girls come over for our field hockey but maybe only one was able to maybe it was the only one who was interested or maybe it was only one who was interested and also could facilitate the uh the transportation to get there daily because you know just it's not feasible to get one girl from here to the little field on yeah so um and if we do the if we move for volleyball it's going to be Transportation on your own um there's no way we could do it uh transportation and for Justin you keep asking me questions so I'm gonna keep going I don't want to take couple more minutes all right couple more minutes sry so uh we're pretty fortunate um the we're in a good situation Transportation with DBS some other school districts it is absolutely uh it is devastating they just can't move their teams um there's a certain bus company I all mentioned that they just they don't provide buses for the schools and then it has a trickle down effect of impacting say us if we're playing them and they have to get to us we have we have to move around sometimes you I play middle school games some we played Middle School soccer games at 5 o' when light was still there because um School couldn't get there for the nor time so um but yeah so but transportation is tricky enough as just moving the teams never mind trying to move like um poop now needs to uh in perfect world yeah he you know be able to do that so and the plan is with this would be like spring 26 Season the Bas baseball would be at the new facility tennis would be at the new facility Spring 26 yeah great question um the that all passed a town a town meeting um and uh using CPC funds and um we'll still be playing at the Wicken field this spring um it won't be what it's going to be yeah so if you look at jet field just kind of picture that as a baseball field and that's that's what you're going to have there and then tennis um the tennis courts will sit beside the gym there'll be Four Courts Plus a small field um and then the school department has already um renovated the High School tennis courts and I believe there's four pickle ball courts there now right as part of that R so uh that it's kind of exciting because pickle ball is I think it just keeps growing so I think once those are online and and available to people I think I'm interested in it so so it's funny to ask um that that was a that was a proposal for a rule change to add sure uh pick a ball is an official Mia sport it was it didn't make it um but it's come up the last two we do rule changes uh every I don't every two or four years I can't remember if we do them Mia level um but it's come up the last two rule change proposals pickle ball has and I think people are just like we probably shouldn't add get another sport um but it's definitely a lot of fun yeah we'd be we'd be in good shape for it we have fours they ever had it justar the Four Courts you have to supply your own net but yeah that yeah that's a par yeah they have portable Nets you just get a portable net set it up but the lines and stuff are there right just to be clear it'd be good if it'd be good if we move to a level where the courts those Nets are just on the side of the Court you can just roll them on or play tennis or play pickle ball but we'll have to maybe you know look at that but thanks for the upate really want to say see Uncle Mike do his uh job I guess yeah right yeah all right uh next up presentation number two we've got the special education mcast update director student services L will provide an update on the special educationc results I suppose the deeper dive deeper dive deeper dive yes right thank you um this is start I'd like to introduce said our our whole special education leadership team is here this evening and thank them for being here tonight Margaret desit is our student services the aison so she joined us this year Allison Gilman is our special education administrator for the Elementary grades and Michael Jarvis is our special education administrator for the middle and high school gr they work hard for the presentation we're going to a brief uh review of the data given that the principal have already presented on the school data inclusive of the special education subg group and then we'll share some next steps um I just want to share a few limitations of the data set before I hand this I'm actually going to hand this over to Michael JIS he G to take us on a deeper dive um but I just want to make sure that you have an understanding that the performance of students with disabilities should only really be compared against their individual performance um that being said I do think it can be very for ative and educative to um an exercise to look at the data and draw some takeaways because uh we do want to know how our students with disabilities are performing on this standardized measure and we want to be able to use that data to um to inform our instructional practices a few limitations to call your attention to are that we do have a very small standle size given this given the size of our district so looking at the aggregate data can be challenging it needs to be interpreted with caution and um we're also certainly in the Sunset of the after effects of covid um that students are continue are going to continue to be impacted by the pandemic for the next several years so as we look forward we need to continue to consider the next steps that are going to accelerate the student growth so I'll encourage you to listen closely to Michael's talking points related to student growth percentiles and understand that scaled score is a data point that we use only to compare a student performance against their performance it's not a data point that we should use to compare an individual student on an i against a group but having said that it's help helpful for us to look at that performance over times so that is included um the special education leadership team did a really great job digging into the data this is something that we do do every year so um at this point I'd like to turn it over to Michael our special education administrator um to take us into the next um part of the presentation thank you L it evening everyone thank you for the opportunity to come up and present um what I I hope to be context to special education a point Lynn made and actually Mike Lyn had made is is referencing preco the the the period where we were before everything kind of fell apart and are we back where are we just some context so in moving through this 's next one as Lyn said we're going to highlight student growth percentile because that compares students to their individual scores to their own growth but we do have the metrics that we look at across all mcast and scaled score which is their individual outcome as well as percent meeting and exceeding but this table and graph depict where we were pre all the way through the Journey to where we are now and the hope is that you'll see the visual progress that we've made so you don't just see numbers in isolation B well that that doesn't look like the rest of the district what's the problem but actually where we're going is on par with the rest of the district when you look at a student body as a general population the general education our subgroup of special education does have more challenges however is making progress and in some cases that you'll actually see here more um rapid progress so this would be our Ela across the entire district and you can see the numbers from the district which is the Gray Line you wanted to see that check mark formation the dip of that obviously being that the that pandemic time and then time coming out of that um is where we actually want to see the blue line which is students with disabilities identified in isolation of their scores to the total District which is the gray line so you can the next two slides will just be the same Ela points with different metrics so scaled score you go to the next one you'll see individual scaled scores and you can kind of see that there's still that same pattern so again we're following the same trajectory that the general population in the district is um and percent meeting this number is always going to be the biggest Gap right when you think of passing the mest it's actually partially meeting in Beyond to earn that diploma so this really is an unfair metric for special education because we still were achieving successful outcomes but this metric won't highlight that but it's something that we're still in internally as a department working towards closing the Gap the next three slides will be uh commence with suppli youc but I'll just say the next three slides are going to be the ma version and this is grades three through 10 so it doesn't indicate science because that's an even smaller outlier it's only the grades 58 in high school um but if you look at this really quickly you can see that the top line is our district metric numbers so we pulled these to indicate the percent of the district that is meeting exceeding the average SGP right so the individual student growth measured by their scores the previous year we're actually showing that we're really making progress in that area at a really really high clip commensurate of what the general population the general student body is performing at um so again a little bit of context and you look at special ed isolation you see students with disabilities at a lower score doesn't actually mean it's not as low or on the different Trend than where we are at as a district that's the big point the data kind of reveals is that numbers aren't necessarily crisis but we're actually moving in a good direction um as far as stability recovery from where we so this is Ela breakdown by grade now we'll move into math this one is even uh has an even more positive kind of Bend and even though you see a little bit at the end that ping but um the progress coming in has been much quicker to get back to the same level of progress and this again is that student growth percentile student performance measured year to year older students who scored in that certain score getting to dudal growth year-over-year and so this is a um for math we're happy to see that that came back we obviously want to close that continuously but in relation to general education again not so far off as far as the progress relative to the student does that make sense okay so we can go through the next two again it's scaled score and you can see the trend line there again um and student percent meeting and exceeding it's the wider Gap but it's still um a pretty consistent Trend we can jump the next one and then the this one again from math you'll see the district numbers across the top and you'll see where they're at with average SGP and average scaled score and you can see down the list by grade um where some of the strengths lie some of the weaknesses May lie but we're able to to jump in and and provide some grade level based intervention support for for those levels as needed corts are kind of reflect there you'll see over years if there was this a cohort that seems to struggle that'll that's generally going to reflect year after year as we go forward but the highlight of what we just compared was again to Lin's point the cave if you never want to compare student with a disability to a general education performing student what we want to look at as Trends and our students with disabilities are trending at the same or as close to the same levels that our general population students are trending now three four years removed from covid that's not going to end what our hopes are of bridging that Gap right and there's still work to do there and and I'll turn it back over to in to kind of talk about what our numbers look like compared to the state which is a little bit more Equitable student with disability to student with disability comparison but um as far as this analysis it was within our district students with to students who are General performing so hopefully you see that we're actually on a pretty good Trend towards recovery commencement with the district thank you sure before we lose you can we just jump back one slide just so I can ask I wanted to take a little going to take a little a little dive back to um the student growth percentile for ELA like if we can move back to go there yeah maybe you'll answer my question one more back y there we go so when we're looking at um student growth percenta which is the most important me we want to look at when we're when we're talking about students students with disabilities um where we were in 2019 our student gr percentile was 42.6 and so now at at 2024 our average student growth percent is 53.8 so that's a really notable nice um you know point to highlight so I want to highlight that and then I want to bring us to our math SGP overall so we can couple more too far there we go that one so we've seen not as much growth but we've we've also seen from basically where we were at 2019 which is really that last year before that that that pandemic that that year that we all remember um and then the two years after that 22 and 23 are also our recovery years and so if we just look simply at at the data point from 46.6 to 52.6 there've been some nice there've been notable growth we want to keep seeing that number increase um but one thing that Mike shared which I I I wanted to call attention to is like we want to see we see that check mark we want to see that going back up in the same way but if you notice you see 22 and 23 we were really making some nice growth but we're seeing that little that little piece of pie it a little big we want to close that that little alligator's mouth a little bit so that's something that we're going to be W to to be monitoring closely over the next couple years so those are just two takeaways about Ela and Ma did you have a different question no that's help that's helpful how how high nsgp be and what is the difference between 9 yeah but to have that me that's essentially how much progress you've made over one over 365 days in test to task yeah so we think and we're looking at all of our students on I which is a Continuum of students with a myriad of of of um ability levels and so seeing that kind of 50% that's solid that's good I mean I want to always be pushing that needle um that being said we have you know many students that are you know that's our our mean so we have many students that their student growth we could have a few students drill down to the individual student level that could have student growth percentiles in the in the 90 in the 90s we could also have several students at their student biren in the 20 and 30 so that's why when we're looking at students with a disability we really need to look at it down to the individual level and see where they were so if their student growth percentile was let's say 37% one year we want to set uh challeng and yet attainable goals for them each year so that we can you know accelerate that back R but when we look at the when we look at the 5,000 foot view um it's solid and we want to just keep moving in the right direction way think a percentile like if you line up 100 kids where do you fall after that 100 that's one to 99 so that's where we fall compar just like I think Mike was saying you know he wants to get participation he wants that one or two% get over that you know I want to see that that 52 point I don't want to see us us push that that number higher I I you never want to see that number yet go lower um so then what I'm going to do if you can just bring us back to the Statewide comparisons I just want to touch briefly on this because um only because what we're essentially doing when we're comparing student data for students with disabilities against our aggregate District data it's comparing it's in some ways comparing apples to oranges um but looking at our our um District subg group data can be helpful because now we're at least looking appol to Apples we're looking at students with disability against a larger Sunset of students with disabilities um so um what you can see is positive growth and so there's our little our little alligator M they're getting bigger that's what we want to see so when you look at that um that yellow line that's little pin and that Gray Line is the this the state and so we're seeing our our growth and our recruitment post pandemic um is is looking is looking really good um specifically with our student grow percentile but also with our average skill for so you want to see those pieces of pie in the chart getting bigger and that's what we're seeing here even with the percentage of meeting and exceeding and so you can go to the next slide and we're seeing the same thing um as I said with the average scale scores we can move on to that this is meeting and seeing same thing and so as far as um what we next now what we've drawn away is a few next steps to so what we want to do is we want to continue to do an item analysis review like I said really drilling down to the individual student and look at areas of concerns with um word problems open response questions because the open response questions can be a really area that can impact a students a student score so looking at what what skills we need to be embedding and building um individual student capacity and then continue to look for PD opportunities for specialist staff that that do provide um them with opportunities to review and synthesize data and also looking at um looking at diagnostic screening tools curriculum based measures looking at intervention resources to support individualized instruction and then continue to investigate research based programs maximize the instructional efficiency and and targeted skill develop in development in both what we jump back SL what's the um what is what do the n stand for and then I'm assuming the numbers the number of students but that doesn't seem right so what on the under the description yeah so the n is for like the the number of of students who took M so in 2021 we had 119 students because students in grades three through eight and then 10 take M and so um we that's out of our we have roughly about 300 students on our okay yeah the score and what's so if we use that number where where were you I was looking at math um in 2021 119 and now what's the what's the 18 number me that under the 119 in ela Ela 119 and then 18 in 2021 18 sorry yeah like every where that cursor is right what's that 18 stand for see where it says and 119 students and 189 the 15 the 15% no I don't know hold we get where we looking so C what is n 119 number of students that were that must be the number of students in the population that were meting and meing and exceeding and that 15% yes percent is got it there you go I'm glad I answered that question for so if we were to look at that year across the state 16% of students were were meeting and we were 15 but if we were to jump to 2024 now we've got 18% of our students in the states got a lot of cor yes okay right um what what I'd rather the other slides More Than This One well and highlight mathematics in21 10% to 2024 um 21 where um you compare that against the doing great yeah it's just there's still a lot of work to do and I think also another point to to to keep in mind too is over the over the past four or five years we have been more students have been with us in District and so students with um more needs students with um more complex challenges um and so while maybe that's going to affect our scores it's going to affect our our district in in an incredibly positive way with regard to our inclusive practices so with students that have out of District placements are they part of the Litton aggregate or do they get reported from the school that you're so we actually they they are they are included we can we can we use open Architects to look at our data we can pull like out of District students in and and out it's a very small number that doesn't yeah I mean this is the problem with the small District your the aggregate number is to answer your question on the the data that we presented earlier when we compared students with disabilities to General students in our district we did it both with and without out of District students in that and it actually very minimally affected the numbers so um you can assume that when we add in the few students for out of District to that numbers don't really change the the the overall thank you and I think I remember you saying at the last mcast presentation that this was the first year you got reporting on um students on 504s as a subgroup did you am I remembering that night oh we were able to differentiate open arble to differentiate students on high students with disability so did um the data for students on 504s follow these same terms so that's reflective in the the whole population because students with students on five four years receive accommodation students with disabilities on just can you go back a couple more slides to the m breaks down by grade yeah yeah sure so if we look at 10th grade for example we've got 15 students in total that have that on not that on an I that took this that took the mcast of those 15 20% were meeting and exceeding which doesn't sound good but that's okay um except that partially meeting with an EP also gets them to yeah I think and when we're looking at students and this is just like a hypothetical if you have five or six those students that have that are on an i they may have an emotional disability they may have significant challenges with executive functioning or the ability to take a standardized test but their performance could be really great and it might not be representative of their their True Performance and so when you really looking at 15 students if you break that down to like in in my mind when I'm thinking about why students are on IEPs some of them have academic you know many of them have academic needs learning disabilities some are on for social emotional some are on for a variety of different um it makes it hard to interpret because our numbers are so small but yes that does mean 15 students and then and then 20% were were needing and and exceeding but of the 15 students the average Flor was 44 which and that's why we and you only need to be at 500 to be yes mean that's one thing get the mcast if it was still a graduation requirement you're somewhere there's you guys the number but it's somewhere between 470 and 500 that you need for that it's anything in the yellow up it's 470 oh it's 470 okay right so these students if they're if they're partially meeing and getting an EP which means they they have to continue to take a course in that content area successfully um they're obtaining their diploma they're meeting they're meeting the yeah so the average score well within that meeting y I think this information is is great that we shared it because when we looked at it the first time we just see really low numbers among the special education population of meeting or exceeding and you didn't get a chance to see how well this group's actually doing right so this was nice for you to share you look at the no and the yes so the no is students not on IEP so the average scaled score for students not on IEP is 9 right oh that's what the know yes not not right this was helpful yeah I'm glad you so much thank you to everybody for digging the data out and presenting it in a fashion that we could comprehend and for all the work you do thanks thank you right you ready Steve give me a second blow us away all right third the third presentation we have for this evening is the fiscal year 2025 prop proposed Capital requests can I flip it and do the financial report first and then go right into the capital I'll allow it is that all right yes I'll allow it I'm just trying to keep it light all right so we go with the financial update first y so there's a report it's in your packet um again we're in good shape this year so uh if you look at these numbers uh you might say hey we're a little light a little light on the expenditure so far year to date uh this is through November and we've own the expended 28% we're about 40% of the way through the year so you'd think we'd be up uh in that neighborhood so a couple of ERS um teacher salaries we withhold partal those teacher salaries and we pay those over the summer that's about $2 million 1.8 somewhere it fluctuates uh so that's not reflected here um uh special education out of District tuition uh we charge that to circuit breaker first before we um before we charge into the appropriated budget because we have to spend spend those circuit breaker funds uh first before we dip into the appropriated budget um so that's a little um under reported here um and then uh I noticed on the transportation side um I think we're a little behind in getting some invoices from our uh bus company they're notorious for not invoicing us on a consistent basis and sometimes we have to chase them down but um but so that's a little underreported here as well but um so overall we're still in good shape we have uh enough money forecasted to meet all of our uh expenses through the year including the new uh SRO officer that's um um included uh in our budget forast as well so we're in good shape um financially for the year at this point in time no no big surprises yet great to hear any questions on that none for me anybody else all right let me stop this and let me pull up let me pull up something else so when it comes to Capital [Music] um every year uh we have to submit a 10-year Capital plan uh to the town uh including what our request is going to be for um the upcoming um next fiscal year so for this year is 2026 so uh this report uh is a is a 10-year summary um little light on the on the year 78 and N because I I have a hard time thinking out that far in ahead and thinking about what's going to happen with facilities um and things like that but um so uh if if we go down to the bottom and I'll get into the projects um we'll see that for FY 26 we're asking for a million four that's a big number it's probably on honestly kind of unrealistic what we think we're going to get from the town um but we want to make sure that the town is aware that we have some big capital projects coming and so we include them in the request and then we let the town um figure out what they can afford and what we move forward with so uh if it's okay I'd like to go through what the projects are um just so you uh understand what they are so um hello where is it so um at the middle school um so we're in the process now we're replacing some rooftop units at the high school we we uh we did one uh for the uh Library a couple years ago we're replacing three of them on the high school this uh this summer we have the funding approved from the town for that um been out to bid um contracts been awarded um at the middle school um we have a couple of rooftop units that um are really kind of getting to the point where we need to replace them so we're asking for the town for $225,000 in FY 26 to replace uh at least one of these units uh it's a it's a rooftop air conditioning unit uh probably that that does the library uh we'd probably do that one first because there's more students in the library we want to make sure that one uh is is is running uh efficiently um we're hoping possibly we might be able to these are smaller units in the high school so we're we're possibly hoping when we go to bid we might be able to get um two units done for this price uh we're still working with the to come up with his estimate but this will at least cover the one unit uh on the middle school to do the library uh and then we have uh additional units uh to be replaced in the upcoming years uh at the middle school as well so that's one project for 225 um back to the summary uh the high school boilers um so um these boilers are original to the school they're cast iron big you can see the pictures how big they are um we've had some issues with the boilers over the years we've had some uh um some sections some cast iron sections developed cracks in them uh and so we've had to replace those uh cracks uh those sections um the problem is we can't find parts for these anymore they're obsolete the boilers are obsolete the cast iron sections uh you can't find them uh the last one we found um from our uh technician company our service company literally called us up and said this is after two months of waiting uh he said we found one it was in lemon store I think you have to decide right now if you want it was $110,000 uh for one section so they're very difficult to come by um if if we develop cracks in the boilers and they're bad enough and you have to shut a boiler down obviously we lose heat in the building so um so again we're working with the engineers uh to come up with uh a comprehensive plan as to what's the best method to replace these do we do do smaller condensing boilers I do replace them with cast iron similar boilers but newer because they still make them um the million dollars is the right number um because if you do with a smaller condensing boiler you have to redo all the piping and stuff to go with it things like that so you had a question yeah because I think people in the town are going to ask um have we reached out to um or is can you even put things like mini splits in a building that size can you can we convert to Electric you could it's not efficient okay um you could put mini splits that offer heat in the buildings in the rooms as well and in some rooms we do have Mini Splits for air conditioning that some of them can do heat and some can't so yes that's an option but it's not the most efficient most effective way to do it just as a favor when we do a presentation for the town can we have some numbers to throw back out when someone says you know why aren't we going green well so I'm working with the engineer to come up with um um options we're going to look at electric options we're going to look at gas options yeah we're going to look at all those work with the engineer that's that was that we had had this discussion and I had a thought as like you know when we especially when we go to the public and when we're when we're you know talking about how this is in need just to cover what bases can we cover yes right out of the gate and say and I know you can do that yeah working with uh blw Engineers here in town this is this is what they do for living so we rely on him and his expertise but um again this is out there so that the town knows this is coming whether it gets funded this year or next year the you know the town has to work out the financing I want to make sure it's you know front and center this is something we need to look at we're also going to look at potentially uh applying for msba funds uh when we we might be able to tie in requesting msba for the roof and the boilers at the same time um not sure where that's going to go with msba but we're looking at that option as well thank you um so the other two projects uh quick projects [Music] um um Mike Lynn talked about the track during his presentation it's time to resurface the track uh we did get uh one estimate from cap and Island track um who through out the number of about $160,000 uh we have $40,000 already uh in um school department gifts and donations account that the lto donated so we're sitting on those funds um so we're requesting $120,000 if we can work with CPC funds and get additional funding that will either reduce the cost or we can possibly use those CPC funds to help do the um the javelin area or something like that so we haven't quite worked out all these details and I don't have those details so my position here is I'm asking for the $120,000 to resurface the track portion because that's what we think we need anything else we get from CPC would be kind of over and above and we'll have to modify the project as we move forward so we're still working with the town and Ryan um Ferrara um on availability of CPC funds to help fund the track so um that's where we're at with the track any questions on that L Litton Littleton track organization yeah they they do the Littleton Road Race every year um they also um responded back and said they may have some additional funds um to put toward this project um we're trying to figure out if they donate the funds to the town who then can offset it and match it with CPC funds we can maybe double that money or or you know extend their the lto donation in addition to the $440,000 we already have so we're still working all those details but right from my point of view from my ask the 120 would cover the surface resurfacing of the track because that's the important thing right now everything else we can do with CPC funds possibly and things like that so that's that's my take on it have you looked at the mou we have with lto yet to review it to M we're doing the part both parties are doing what they need to do yep in terms of donations yep perfect yep and notifications um you know school committee would have to approve the 40 the use of the $40,000 and lto would have to approve the use of the $40,000 to the track and so we'll we'll work through all those um approval permissions as we get closer so when you quote track would you just be to include that inside uh curving that not you know a the pole the pole VA area no just mik Mike brought to our attention a meeting ago the last time he was here that the that inside Lane is crumbling oh yes yeah well that's I think that's part of the resurface they fix that so just make sure it is because we wouldn't want to resurface it and then have that inside Lane crumble again yep so it might be more than just resurfacing it we don't have C track but Mike point was it extends the the life of that inside Lane yes um and I'm keeping uh Mike as the athletic director involved in this whole process sure y yeah the uh yeah and then the the last project um this is at Russell Street School I'm sorry the pictures are so small on the screen but um so we have U so there's a couple things we need to do at Russell Street School we need to um re resurface the playground area right now we have bark mulch on there which is not handicap accessible um so we're trying to make that playground handicaps accessible for uh our wheelchair bound student at Russell Street School um so uh the plan is to um um smooth out the bark mulch compact it and then you put a rubber rubber matte surface on top of it that makes it handicap accessible um so we're looking at that with the company but the we also have some sidewalk issues some some major cracks that we have to fix with some hot top issues so we'd have to get a contractor in um pel that up repave it and things like that um we think that whole project uh is about $100,000 I have um we have $45,000 left from a prior Town um article um for sidewalk repairs and things that so what we're asking for is the additional 55,000 to make up that difference so um in a nutshell that's the million four uh that we're asking uh those are the four major projects that are um going on the capital request for the town and then if you want to talk about future years we can do that um High School roof is out there uh Middle School roof is out there Russell Street roof is out there identified in this document so the town can make some long-term plans for Capital planning so is your strategy here with I I see your priority Callum that's really helpful with organizing this so is your strategy just to ask for the funding for the highest priority and then the second highest goes into the following fiscal year and so forth is that how you're thinking of it no it's not really it's not really set up that way it's it's um they have priorities on here um their priorities are really designed around is this a life safety issue is this a facility issue is is a um are a request you know like a want instead of a need kind of thing that's what really their priority uh is on their spreadsheet so I I've tried to schedule I've tried to spread out um their Capital Project based on the estimated useful life of the project or the unit or the rooftop unit or the roof and things like that I tried to spray that out um if you look out and and I know it's not on here 200 I think 28 or uh down the bottom here um 2029 and 2030 um that's when we think we're going to hit the end of life on all of our touch view screens that we bought in all the classrooms so I'm forec casting that out to replace those over a twoyear period so we're trying to look at all those all those Capital needs Capital 28 is in correct it is yeah um Capital needs are anything over $155,000 so anything under $155,000 is really on us to take care of and repair uh so this year we have a a couple of doors at Russell Street School that need to be repaired or replaced um those are about $66,000 a piece um so that comes out of our maintenance budget things like that so FCO year 26 this is um the ask get made in March it's voted through May time meeting and then we would look to accomplish these line items June 1 25 through or July 1 25 through June 30 26 not necessarily the the an approved Capital project good for three years so the funding is um secure the funding is secure from the town for three years and you've got three years to complete the project correct which would be the high school roof would be a great example of that right because we at some point we're absolutely need a high school roof because we're going to run into um a situation where we've got so much you know the roof's in such bad shape that it potentially become safety issue right so the town identifies the money perhaps we apply for msba financing MSB msba program maybe we don't get in we've got the money maybe we decide we can Proby one more time if we get in great give some of the money back if we don't get in maybe we have to spend the P money to replace the roof correct and the roof um you know the roof you know it's been thrown out where maybe we can do it in sections um do the worst section first and then do another section the following year it's an option um to me I think that increases the cost because now you have a contractor having to Stage twice bring in cranes twice you know but it's an option we're looking at yep what kinds of things does msba fund I thought they were just they just did new schools no they'll do uh roofs and uh roof replacement and boilers um as part of they used to call it emergency I forgot what they used to call it um do they do windows as well they do I think they do windows as well but is it the same aru process yeah it is you now have to you now have to apply under um the basic building process they used to have a separate program for that they they've done away with that program and now any of those projects you now have to apply as you would a building project so you have to start with a statement of interest uh wait to get accepted and then go through the whole process and with the fact that we're in the process Shaker Lane has no has no bearing on it no no bearing on they're viewed at as separate identi separate projects um from msba funding the the track such a Community Asset I don't I don't see a lot of opposition there and it's something that we certainly need to take care of the um the playground then smaller item um the just to refresh the Middle School um rooftop units those are end of life not not functioning properly they are they are working now but they're Band-Aid together by our HC technicians and outside company so I mean they that building's now 19 years old the estimated useful life of these are 15 years old uh the difference between because honestly if you think about if you look at the high school some of those units on the high school are 22 years old still running the fundamental difference is the location in the high school those units they have high walls around them uh they have like 8 foot paet walls around where those units are located and so they're protected from a lot of the elements on the high school the middle school they're on the roof they're not protected from the elements at all and so they take a lot more wear and tear um rain Sun things like that um would we look to protect the new ones better I mean is that a design there's no no it's it's I don't think it's a design floor it's just the way the buildings were designed architecturally different the uh the boiler thing we went through at the budget sub committee but that's we're in a situation where that's got to be done and every every year that we don't do it we run the risk of needing emergency boiler Services because when it goes it's going to go when it when it goes we're not able to Source parts anymore essentially correct so if one Bo we have two boilers so if one goes you have the other one uh as backup and we run that one right put and push come to shove if if the second one broke down we'd scaven probably the first one um take parts off the first one fix the second one so we would have a second but you wouldn't have a backup so not a good situation when it gets to zero degrees outside and you got a boil kinding of keep up right um so I think you talked about this at another meeting but you already looked into solar panels on high school with the new Ro we we've had multiple conversations with multiple companies and the electric company about solar panels um there was never able to reach an agreement with the outside companies who were going to who're going to install the solar panels as to rate BuyBacks and that kind of stuff and um yeah we can reopen it again I mean is that like a uh something that changes year to year you know as solar panels become more widespread is it worth revisiting or pretty low rates too so it's uh well that's that's taken into account vendors yeah it's really the cost of installing the units and the electricity they produce and that they're able to sell back if if the electric company isn't willing to buy that back at a at a at a rate that pays back the company for doing the installation they can't reach an agreement and you know these solar companies are used to are used to um going up against National Grid and these in these other cities in town that are paying 18 19 22 23 cents a kilowatt Littleton we pay 12 13 cents a kilowat for electricity so it's it it it really the numbers haven't worked out um well is it an interesting problem to be in because as you say Kelly our rates are so low here in Littleton compared to others across the state and I'm not a solar panel expert so I know we've had discussions multiple times with companies uh we had quite an elaborate plan we're to put canopies over the parking lot the middle school and the high school yeah they have school oh they're awesome yeah yeah yeah yeah but couldn't I mean the pay back to the company was like 25 years or something like that and they said can't do it so yeah I think uh when we get closer to funding that High School roof project be to open that conversation up again we would put the panels we wouldn't consider doing the panels with a roof that's needs to correct that's also part of the conversation you don't want to put the panels and have to take them off redo the roof and then reinstall them that's just not financially because if if a company installs them we have to do a roof we would be responsible for removing them the cost of removing them and then installing the solar panels back this so that's where I'm at with capital I've submitted the file to the town um so there aware of these again that's up to the fincom and the board of selectman to decide what funding is available um and how much they give us so those are the big requests in the immediate need that I see uh that we need to do thank you for being so thorough thank you for projecting this I really like seeing us ahead of time this is what the maintenance will be something I've been concerned about in town on and off is that I I've seen maintenance be pushed out really too far and I love that you're helping us stay in front of that because I think that I just think that's more physically responsible as well as you know I mean it's the the safety and health of our kids you know thank you Steve did anything ever come of that um at the track that that uh light pole request that we got a few years ago so we had a request to had additional electricity further down the track yeah like safety issue yeah um we had uh an electrician out we had Littleton electric out um the cost to add one Outlet to the other end of the field was about $60,000 we said forget it we'll buy you a generator small generator if you want electricity down there so um it just was not economically feasible uh the the power that's coming in there that feeds the outlet and the the string of parking lots there um at Russell Street um barely has enough energy in that line to power the lights let alone add additional lines down the track so it just didn't work out um we looked at it had the estimates it didn't work out so for $1,000 they can buy a little Honda qu very quiet generator that you hardly hear running and run there um track timing lights off a little generator if they need to yeah no I remember there was a um I thought the need came from like folks that were walking the track in the early spring or early or they wanted an additional light well again more that side super dark right right it's just there's no way to get light there's no way to get electricity down there and do it inexpensively and less less light and water changes that whole power line that's in there and a different runs a different okay voltage or whatever amperage I don't know what it is but questions all set great all right thank you very much yes second opportunity for Citizens hearing from none we'll move through our subcommittee reports um bmbc feel free to talk about sh yeah do sh sure yeah um so we just actually submitted our PSR on the 10th um to the msba so what that is is the schematic design that we voted on in November so the TR to think of the last time we've updated you guys so I think it was November November 13th uh School building committee meeting we voted on one of the three options um that we had originally proposed it was 3.2 the upper Fields um that we voted on so PSR goes into to msba for them to review I believe they have they don't they're not getting back to us in two weeks they have like a month and then in Fe at the end of February yeah they have like they have like six or eight weeks I think if IOD like that so MSB is currently reviewing that proposal for that schematic designed put on in November um and once they give us the approval on that then we move on to the next steps Yeah we actually have to meet with msba sometime after the approval okay y mandated meeting that's where we talk about square footage once again justify why we chose that that options so moving along we had we had good attendance at the two um Community fours that we had for Shaker hoping to do more if we need to but we got a lot of good feedback um from voters as to some questions that we're obviously going to see in town meetings and concerns and things that we needed to address in some of our messaging um so I think those were really really valuable meetings to have um to start to get some input from the community as to what we need to speak to for the concerns with it's a big projects the biggest project wi will we'll see so um we need to get voters on board so it was helpful to get that feedback good question if beings down what was just submitted do we have the opportunity to come back and like talk to them submit a different choice I would think so right kind of it's a collaborative yeah it's a collaborative approach yeah there more msba isn't going to turn it down but they might have questions clarifying questions I think that's my understanding think was like a 600 Page 6 pages so they they'll go through that and probably pick up a few things that we need to adjust mostely thank you thank you uh budget subcommittee jine feel uh we had a meeting not too long ago rolled through some of these uh Capital requests that we shared with you folks tonight um took really our second look at the next year's budget um so continue to work hard to find efficiencies within the budget to try to keep um keep the numbers as low as possible uh and provide the same exceptional educational value to our citizens uh we talked about that SRO position so I was glad to see that come to portion tonight um really we were going to meet um there'll be a likely a new um format this year's presentation which you guys will see in March so um we'll fill up some of the same slides that we've seen in the past but we'll kind of slice it and dice it a couple different ways anything I covered everything good uh policy subcommittees got number are you ready policies policies all the D policies if you want them on the screen let me know I can pull them up um I think you all have them in your packets and this is really for first read what we can go through and thank you Dorothy for this this is so helpful rather than going through each one Dorothy made a chart of all the changes we made in each one um the majority of them we aligned with the masc policy um but I I can sort of go through and tell you where we aligned but changed something so in da we aligned with the masc policy not too drastic in terms of changes just a lot of updates but we did add in um bullet number five which was wait is it bullet five or six it's five five yeah yeah um which wasn't in the masc and we wanted to keep in our policy so if you look at our proposed da policy it's the same same as an ASC but we added in bullet five actually it's actually B one talk oh that's what I thought yeah okay so the fifth bullet that's what it was right but then now it's number one correct I believe so yeah that makes sense excuse me that's why I was like it wasn't the timely appropriate yeah um we had that bullet in our original policy and masc doesn't in their new version and we felt like we wanted to keep it so the part about E Yeah so we have kept that in our proposed da policy for first reading okay um DB we also for the most part took the update of the masc policy um in the second to last paragraph where it says revisions to the budget may be made from time to time with the super in with from the superintendent at the last sentence revisions to the budget may be made from time to time this said by the school committee and so we had changed that language to propose the superintendent because it's talking about um uh the like what we thought yeah is is sort of transfering from line item to line item which we didn't feel like for every piece needed the approval of the committee but that's a proposed revision from the masc policy otherwise we copy the masc policy um I have a question about the paragraph after that yeah where that makes reference to the school council what is that is that supposed to be school committee is that the school schol council yeah good to me the principals work with the school council as well when they're preparing a budget to submit to to Steve and I with some participation from school council so for each school they can give input to their specific school budget yeah that um that the yeah the um I was just curious what the other school Comm members thought about the change that you folks made so revisions to the budget may be made from time to time by the superintendent Kelly no offense of course but it that's a pretty BR statement um so not just thinking about five of us but thinking about whatever six or 7,000 households in ml 10 in a $25 million budget um you know should material changes come before the school committee um theti line item transfers which I see because I signed for them yeah um it's just referring totally fine it's just referring to line item transfers okay maybe we should say that then to specify that we specify just make it more clear because otherwise it's like we present the budget and we tell you where all the money is going and then this says superintendent can make changes yeah so maybe we say revisions to specific line items maybe that's fine I mean between line items I think we can work on the statutes actually actually say that the school committee votes on the budget the superintendent allocates funds to to take care of the needs of of the district but we do everything together anyway it's just that line transfers or or something that we need to do they need to be done quickly and yeah be just too time consuming our job is to to make sure our budget balances to have school choice funds that we we can take out but uh legally we we have to stay within the realm of of what the budget is with the with the acception school choice funds or 240 Grands Etc so can we say line item transfers instead of revisions oh that's fine yeah well and I think because the the line before that was there yeah that that was the context for it if circumstances may occur which necessitate changing spending priorities and redirecting funds within the budget that's what it's referring to but I appreciate and happy to sort of make that line specific it's it's that it's in the line before and that's what it's referring to yeah I kind of feel like that paragraph already says what yall are concerned about um but to me let we could say such revisions may be made to the budget because we're then referring yeah I hear you yeah that would work that works hard yeah okay uh does this still then go for first read that's okay rision so what is the what is it so in that line second to last paragraph where it says revisions to the budget may be made from time to time if we add a such revisions may be made then we're referring to the before good words thank you why on the policy side okay dbj um we actually are proposing that we keep the Littleton policy so this is no change to our previous policy I think when we read the masc policy it just was overly complicated and it said the exact same thing in many more work and so this just it really accomplishes what the policy says in our mind the yeah last sentence in paragraph two maybe just because maybe because I see it other places I'm just wondering if this is part of our practice so do we do we close out the fiscal year with a presentation to the school committee about all of the final line item expenditures we have not done it on a regular basis so I perhaps we should up to the school commit if they like to well maybe we should make a policy if we don't do it on a regular I'm just prob we provide it to the committee By Request might be accurate or just so you're doing it I'm sure you're keeping track as it goes along so it's just like you know run the run the report you want to see other details right there yeah yeah we used to do it yeah typically that would not be done until probably September or October when the town closes its books and we balance all the accounts and have everything's finalized so I think it would be a good idea to do it yeah well it's in policy we should be doing it but it's a it's a good idea yeah let's do it the September would show for the previous year right I'd show what the what the June 30 would be like our second school committee meeting yeah it's a good practice yeah great whenever whenever it's done yep whenever it's done y great okay DGA um we just adopted the masc policy and this is about um authorized signatures this we felt like reflected what we currently what we currently do right sense di um we also updated to the current masc policy it aligns with what we do b i e um we did adapt the masc policy for the most part there was which line is it uh upon completion of the audit um there was a part that said in the F no this is in the first paragraph uh an audit of the school Department's accounts shall be conducted annually by external Auditors the masc um policy said within 9 months of the close of fiscal year while that is certainly desirable and the goal we didn't want to when we can't control external Auditors and when they're available we just didn't want to hold ourselves to something so we just took that out but kept it um so we took out the within nine months the language we kept in is the current language we have in the policy y so it's the same and then um we added Design After superintendent in the first sentence in the second paragraph so it says says the superintendent slash design could you send us the most recent report yeah I thought I did you probably did you send it yeah I'll send it to you great would you all like to receive it the most recent audit the most recent audit was probably 2023 they're still auditing they're in now AUD 202 yeah the whatever have 2023 just so I can familiarize myself then compare to 24 yep we usually send that to school committee every year when we get the report so yeah if I forgot this year I apologize I'll check I um thought I did I remember seeing it but was me didn't send it okay I I'll send it um DJ we also adapted the masc policy uh only changes we added it shall be the responsibility of the superintendent slash designate otherwise the same and we did keep towards the end you'll see the superintendent will designate the district purchas and agent but this isn't about the policy per se but I was just curious um is there a dollar amount Beyond which a purchase has to go out to bid but does the district have a policy on that so we follow Mass 30b laws so with the school department anything over $10,000 were supposed to get three quotes anything over $100,000 we have the goote to bid on um with the exception of contracted service correct and then if you buy from vendors that are on this approved State vendor list you don't have to do any of it you just have to really kind of buy some approved vendors so we follow 30b it gets audited every year policy DK similar we um adapted the uh Masa updated policy except in the first sentence where we added superintendent slash design me this is about procedures for payment and then dkc we've just updated to the new masc language around viers so these are all for first read motion to accept the first reading you would call out the letters of the policies any motion I motion to accept the first reading of the following policies b a d B dbj DG a d d i e DJ DK dkc motion made by second second by Lane all those in favor indicate by saying I I I perfect thanks so much we'll see this for our second meeting next meeting next meeting great we already heard about the building committee um this for everyone's education the um LBA reached out about the uh annual opportunity for couple members of the Lea Educators Association schol committee to get together and um talk about educational Trends and such um so I had asked for a couple dates in January and they'll offer a couple dates and get those dates out to us to see if who would like to volunteer for that I think most recent years we've kind of shared in that opportunity um so if you didn't make it last time want to make it this time that'd be great we're looking to send two people to the meeting so that we don't have a quum okay okay anything else from anybody ask for a motion to toot motion by by Janine all favor H by saying I I we have a journ next meeting will be January 9th 2024 2025 um see you happy holidays Merry Christmas everyone holiday