Good evening everyone. It's 7 o'clock and I'd like to call together the March 26, 2026 school committee meeting. You would please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Right. This evening we have our posted which are the minutes from our March 126 meeting as well and payroll. Folks have
a chance to review the minutes edits. Okay. Is there a motion to accept? So moved. Motion made by Shan. >> Second. >> Second by Elaine. All those in favor by saying I. I. >> Excellent. Our first opportunity for
interested citizens. Second opportunity at the back half of the meeting. Was anyone with us this evening in person or on Zoom that would like to speak before the school committee? Use the raise your hand feature. Online. >> Nobody online.
>> Right. You will close first. uh close that portion of the meeting and we'll move into recognition. Have Sedara this evening with us. If you would to please provide the student representative report. All right. To start off with Russell Street trimester 2 report cards will be available to view
through Aspen portal on Monday, March 30th. And the MCAST assessments will begin uh next week on the third and third and fourth grade. Students will show what they know on their computer-based tests. It's recommended that students get a good night's sleep and have a healthy breakfast in the morning. Regarding the middle school,
members of the LA uh uh members of the LMS uh staff will have a guide on the fourth the eighth grade students on starting their classes for the fall. The LMS will also host the kids night out for sixth graders on Friday, March 6th
from 8:6 to 8:00 p.m. with multiple uh games and musics and other fun activities for the high school. During the week of March 16th to 20th, the LHS council hosted a sprint, a spirit week, which included annual hallway decorating contest, pep rally, and daily themes and a performance by the LHS drama. On March
27th to the 29th, LHS drama presents the musical MMA Mia. And on March 28th, the PAL will host a Special Olympics mobile polar plunge fundraiser, and it'll be held in the LHS parking lot from 9 to 12 PM. 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. On March
28th, the World Rolling Rally will be held at 9:00 a.m. for boys ice hockey division for state champions. On April 2nd, the Civil Action Project guest speaker will have a all school assembly with Mark Omira. On April 7th, NHS is sponsoring a mobile blood drive from
8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at LHS. On April 9th, PALS will be hosting a talent show in the auditorium from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. On April 14th, the Council of Aging lunchon will be being held in the LHS cap cafeteria from 1 to 2 p.m. And lastly, on April 15th, the Spectrum of
Sound will perform a all school during all school assembly. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. Questions for >> Thank you. Great. Thanks. I'll open up to superintendent Kenji for sitting >> very well he wishes to offer
>> covered it all really excited that uh our high school uh music program drama program is uh performing this weekend if uh people have free night encourage you to to go out and experience one of our
performances and I think one that Sid didn't mention uh nice that I have one to talk about tonight >> is I'd like to to thank Dr. Fininny for bringing her STEM projects to the uh library and having our community have an opportunity to see the excuse me the
terrific work that that our young scientists do. Now, it's always it's it's nice to bring things that we do out of our schools into our community rather than having people come in our schools all the time. And hopefully when we do that, we're uh drawing people in that
perhaps wouldn't have gone to the school to see the project. So, I commend Dr. affinity on on be creative in terms of venturing out of of the school and that's it. Excellent. >> Can I actually add on to that? I attended that. It was so impressive and
it was really well attended. Um you know the students work was um was amazing as always. But um a couple of parents wanted to help with fundraising for the materials for the um STEM projects and
um a couple of them were talking about how they their employers match contributions. So wondering if some kind of account could be created or a fund created for uh fundraising for materials for her
STEM club. So, I wanted to bring that up here and see if there was any accounting way to uh >> Yeah, if people want to make don donations, they can um make a donation to Littleton Public Schools and we'll just put it in gifts and donations with
a specific uh identifier where it's going to go. >> Okay. Would they send that to you? >> Okay, we'll get back to this. >> Yep. Send it to the business office or the superintendent's office. >> That's awesome. >> Or even through the high school. You can do it through the high school, too. >> Yeah. And can you support um uh employer
matching? >> Uh we don't support employing you. >> Well, she mentioned that. >> No, but like the so a couple parents were saying, you know, we would love to donate and our employers >> Yes. So those employers who just write a check to the Littleton public schools, they can do that.
>> Yep. And we can identify it and put it in a separate account. >> Yeah. Awesome. >> Wow. That's incredible. >> Yeah. No, it really was. I mean, well, that shows you how impressive the event was that it was inspiring people to want to help out and uh and I do appreciate
like there were several projects that had to do with um bioengineering and so I was asking you know how do you test your idea because obviously that would involve testing on humans which you really can't do but instead they had
devised um a a device that could be used to collect samples but they weren't collecting samples. So, I appreciated that with Dr. Then that she already at this young age like drawing the line between um you know what's permissible and what would require um you know a
higher level of of uh permission structure. So, it was super impressive for high school what these kids are doing. >> It's amazing. >> Thanks. >> Great. And uh I think the timing we didn't have
we haven't had the first school committee meeting since boys hockey is named state you know state champs. I was like ah we should have them in and recognize them with the select for beat us to it. >> Sean had a couple members of the uh hockey team and coach on his podcast today. So I feel like the school
committee at least recognized them in that fashion. So congratulations to the boys hockey team. >> There's a rolling rally on Saturday morning at 9:00. Saturday you got new building. >> Great. That's pretty good. >> Y covered for those. That's awesome. All
set on recognition. >> Perfect. Moving into the presentations. Our first item is the recommended fiscal year 2027 school choice slots presented by Superintendent Clench. This is an important annual discussion that balances student enrollment, building
capacity, staffing, and fiscal uh sustainability. had asked the committee listen with an eye both towards educational impact and long-term planning. >> Perfect. Well, you have the information in front of you. I'm sure you've uh taken a look at it. Uh we have 14 uh
school choice students graduating this year and we expect our resident population to drop by five students. Again, these are projections that may not happen. Uh so we're looking uh at 19
uh students uh potentially less, but with the addition of school choice, uh we have a a potential 53 students slotted. We're not going to we'll never have 53 students enroll in a district, but it's nice to open up seats when when
we have uh seats available. So kindergarten is always the hardest one to project. and we have seven classes. So, we did one per per uh class. Uh I was tempted to do more, but you really projecting kindergarten
enrollment is like bus registration. It in the last minute you have people register for kindergarten. Last year we we had 15 students come in at the last minute minimums. So, you know, thank goodness we estimated a low number of school choice students or I mean our
class sizes still would have been fine. Uh kindergarten is the only grade that the state has a has class side uh mandates for. And if you have 25 students or over, you're required to have an assistant. All of our classes
have an assistance kindergarten. So, what you're more interested in is is projected class sizes. And I think that's important for you to know. So, I'm going to go through them uh rather quickly, but uh there's nothing that
surprises uh me as a as the educational leader. I think they're they're uh very doable and something you would see in a private school setting to be honest with you. So, our kindergarten class size uh at this point in time is projected to 16
at 16.4. 4 and grade 1 20.3, grade 2 21.8, grade three 22, grade four 22, grade 5 22.8, grade 6 24.2,
grade seven we have uh students uh choosing to go to Parker Charter. So it's a little hard to predict. I assumed uh about eight students may go to ch Parker Charter. That would give us a class size of 23.8.
Grade 8 24.4. High school, you just can't go. You can't get you can't do classroom size because we have juniors and seniors taking class together. We have, excuse me, competing interests in terms of what drives our our scheduling at the high school. Our music program
plays a big role in that. So, we may have a science class, a biology class of 24 students in one section and another class with eight. So we really look at what is the class load of the teacher for the day. How many students do they have? So it again class size really
isn't applicable in the way we calculated it here the way I calculated today. So I feel good about these numbers. As I said uh before we I've never ever in my entire career uh filled the number of seats that that
we've had open. And for everybody who may be listening and and again a reminder the school committee, we don't take school choice students in to raise revenue. That's not our driving force. When we take what we do is we take students into our district to
stabilize our grade books. When I first came here 15 years ago, it wasn't uncommon to have a teacher in grade one and then we for a year and then we'd have to move them to another grade because we had a bigger class size and we we had to our grade at that level was
too small to support the number of teachers. So, we've stabilized that. I haven't had to remove a teacher or remove but reassign a teacher in the, you know, 14 years out of the 15 years that I've been here. So, that's how quickly we're able to change course. Any
questions? >> The classroom numbers that you gave us, the 20 point such and such. >> Yes. >> That's Littleton students plus current enrollment plus the seats that are available as well. >> That's the whole package. >> Okay.
>> So, if those school choice uh seats that are being open don't fill to the extent listed, the numbers would be even smaller. >> That's correct. Yep. >> Uh just curious a little bit longer term thinking but with 515k >> uh how much room do we have? We pull a
lever all the way down school choice as an input impact to appliances. What kind of agreements? How does that work? >> My experience with any housing project that that has a 40B component to it is the enrollment does not increase that
much. And a lot of a lot of the residences that are being built at at uh IBM site are really meant for younger people starting out. People may move here uh in the hopes of finding a house somewhere. It's a temporary house and
you know measure for a number of people. There are a lot of people moving in moving in and out of these apartments during the year. So I don't anticipate that it it's going to be a big impact. Uh it's interesting with all the housing that we've had built in town, our
student enrollment has gone up uh proportionally to the number of new houses that have been built, which is fascinating to me. And part of it is the cost of cost of a house. And as you've heard me say last meeting we had when we
were talking uh about our goals for the upcoming years in order to keep our school enrollment in town healthy. We need to think of ways to build homes that are more affordable for younger families. And unfortunately that may not
be unfortunately for some but people that are used to halfacre lots etc. It's hard for them at times to envision uh houses being uh built town houses or duplexes or uh houses put on 30-foot
lots, urban housing. You know, those kinds of building projects will allow us to sustain young families in our community. I mentioned last meeting that you know between the ages of we don't remember the exact ages
28 to 44 that's the highest immigration rate in the state and those are those are key income earners and key ages for uh people that have children in our community. So this is something to turn a blind eye on. I mean we need to figure this out as a state. This I believe this
is the base the best state to live in. I really do. And uh it would be a shame that we're starting to have to reorganize our schools within the state because we're losing younger parents to to other states that are affordable to
clarify that. Sorry. So for the school choice portion of that though, there's no requirement based on agreements that we have to have a certain amount of students each year, right? >> Cheers. You know, the the school choice law is is pretty basic. If if a district
wants to elect not to offer school choice, you can take a vote to do so by a certain time of the year. It's in our policy. Uh I've only seen a couple of districts do that in my career and within four or five years they were back accepting school choice.
>> I'm not advocating. >> No, but I was giving you the information. Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, we we rece we we receive considerable revenue from from these seats and and that again not is not our goal. It's a it's a perk. Uh it
certainly has allowed us to shoulder more difficult financial time. And you think this next budget year we would have not been able to do what we're we're doing >> without have having been able to put money in a revolving fund. Our school choice seats being filled in the
district for many years. So for us it's worked out really well. Absolutely. Thank you. >> And I'm I'm sure that teachers appreciate it too, not having to move up and down grade levels to follow a bump of students. >> For sure. >> Um so in in your experience, how many of
the seats typically get taken? Do we We're not maxing out with the >> No, it's like flipping a coin. Yeah. I mean, usually, excuse me, usually parents enroll their their children when they're younger, and then every now and again, you know, people when they hit
grade eight or nine may reconsider what school they're going to. We've we've had some surprises at the high school in the past four or five years. U you know, parents enrolling their students from uh schools in the immediate area that, you know, have great reputations, but they're looking for a a smaller school
field. and uh you know at times uh the ability for for their their children to take part in a number of programs that they probably wouldn't have been able to in a big school. So it's really I find this really refreshing to me as an educator that that parents are taking
that time to think about what is best for their child as they go through K to2 public education. And do these numbers include any teachers in Littleton who are bringing their they don't live in Littleton, but their students come to school here? >> They they do. Yes.
>> Yes. And and I've said many times that one of the best measures of of uh how well you're doing as a school district is when your educators want to send their children to the schools that they they teach in. Just to clarify, Sean, I think one of
the things you were after there is looking brief you to make sure this is right, Kelly. Once we've accepted a school choice student, >> they're in and they're in from 12th grade. So, it's not like all of a sudden I was wondering. >> Yeah. It's not like all of a sudden there's a lot more housing opportunity, a lot more residents moving in, kids,
you know, Littleton residents are walking into the school system that we we can then turn and accept school choice student away. Okay. So once they're in, they have the, you know, they have the ability to stay all the way through. >> That was exactly what got I missed that. Sorry. >> No, you're okay. >> And uh out of curiosity, I'm just
wondering, we got 86 current uh school choice students are ready for next year. How many different communities do you think that represents? >> This ballpark. Yes. >> Seven maybe. Seven, right? We're pulling from seven or eight different
neighboring neighboring districts. That's great. I'm um >> I'm in support of the numbers. >> Yep. >> Oh, we're taking a vote on it. >> No, we're not looking for a vote. We're just looking to give uh feedback to the superintendent to make sure that we're okay to that he's okay to proceed to this plan.
>> I I appreciate this plan. It's I mean I wouldn't second guess people that are down in the weeds, but and I and I appreciate you articulating that the one of the the biggest benefits is is maintaining those
class levels because and I remember moving into town when I think there were 60 students graduating and there were 250 in kindergarten and there was a lot of this could be bad. Well, we always have to remember too, we
have two times during the public education uh process for our students where they their parents may decide to send them somewhere else and between grades six and seven it's Parker Charter >> and you know in between grades eight and
nine it's Michelle Tech. >> So on average we we lose 20 students a year for both programs sometimes more. It's just an average I have in my head. But so that really affects our our high school if we're not careful to be able
to offer the robust programming that it does. So as a superintendent, you have to look at at that whole span of of service that you're offering and making sure that you know by the time our students get to high school, they're going to have a viable program that our community is proud of and supports as
well. >> One more followup question. the the number that's shown for first grade 109. >> Mhm. >> Uh for Littleton residents, is that the current kindergarten Littleton resident number? >> That is what we have so far. >> But it's fair to say that
>> that 109 probably doesn't capture everybody. >> That would be a very >> I think there are a lot of options related to kindergarten or nursery schools or people need extend, you know, extended child care at that age. And once once first grade becomes an option,
they're truly enrolled in the public school system. So I hope I actually hope that we have 109, right? >> Yeah. I mean, we have variations from those numbers anywhere from 5 to 20 kids. >> Yeah. Throughout the years. So, and you know, no fault to parents. I mean,
they're they're they're just entering our school system and and why would they think it's important to to tell us in March whether they're coming or not? They're used to probably contacting schools in
July or August. So, are we all set with that topic? >> Yeah. >> Great. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> All right. Next, we're going to move on to the proposed 2627 school committee calendar. The drought calendar um intend to provide predictability of meetings.
Kelly, if you walk us through this. I feel like we've this is our second time doing this. Oh, it's the first time this year. >> Oh, I thought that when we propo when we school calendar, we still looked at this. >> No, we we did in the last years, not this year. >> Okay, that's just
>> a fast one on you. >> Yeah. >> So, uh yeah, I mean the the dates that you really I mean you can look at all the dates, but I think that summer retreat is one that you need to look at and make sure that uh that coincides with your plans. August 13, you usually
have a one-day retreat. No, I'd love to uh join you, but uh there's no need to join you next year. So, uh these days do not matter to me. >> Jimmy Gardening, Thursday and Friday. >> So, for the rest of the committee, I presently do have a conflict with uh
August 13th, I'll be out of state and I wouldn't get to say joining virtually. So, I'd like to suggest we move that meeting. >> Sure. Um, I'm available the 6th 7th.
>> It's good for me. >> And it and in theory, if we could get everything done on the sixth, it would just be the sixth. The seventh forward. Well, >> we've never had a two-day one, right? >> No. >> Who knows what we're going to have? >> I know. But
>> so tenatively August 6th. >> Does that work for everybody? >> Six and seven. >> Six. on seven. So your conflict is seven. >> It is 11. Great.
>> All right. All right. All right. Thank you. Right. All right. So the third presentation this evening is um is item is the finance committee vacancy notice. Um
this is a procedural step required upon policy to notify the incumbent of their right to reapply and to authorize advertising the upcoming vacancy. This process supports transparency and strong collaboration across boards.
Is there uh I saw a notice go out to our current seat holder that's terms expiring. I don't know if we heard back from that individual. >> Not yet. >> And I I don't believe that um that individual will be able to
carry this through. I had a conversation with someone else that might be interested, but I see that individual um has uh pulled papers for other boards in towns as well. So that that might not
happen out. Um I would encourage residents to consider this position. It's really important that uh the school committee have representation of the Bidcom. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. So we we have two seats. This is
for the one expiring. It is I for anybody listening. I mean I can tell you that finance committee is a great group and they've got a strong working relationship with the select board. So if you're looking to get involved in the town, they really hold the purse. Uh
this is where everything goes through. Um probably no better way to get a an understanding of what's taking place in town and get involved than to join the finance committee. And we'd certainly be looking for somebody to join the financing committee. to be an advocate for the school system. So,
you know, no finance uh experience required, but it would certainly be helpful. What will we do to advertise this? Could we send something out? >> We can. Yeah, we can send it out through uh >> our school now and we could uh access
the town email as well. >> Okay. podcast, maybe a quick talk with um Stephen on the importance of having someone who >> It's a great idea. A good idea.
>> Yeah, maybe you might since he's on leaving or potentially potentially not, you know, not renewing the C. You might be a guest, too. But, uh yeah, if we could get it if we could push a message out >> to the town school
now or however we want to do it, that'd be great. What's the timeline on this? Like when entry isn't acceptable by the end of the year? >> So the current term expires June 30th 206. So ideally we have somebody lined up to date pick that person's
there. >> Just cruising through the agenda tonight. All right. Now we're going to move on to the town financial management policy. Uh this is a discussion and a possible vote.
Um this policy was reviewed and updated of a financial policy working group which I um sit on as school committee representative along with two members of the finance committee, two members of select board and representation from the town administrator's office. Um
uh the policy was reviewed and updated. the clarifications um that I wish to present this evening or it's included in your packet and hopefully I'll have a chance to review that. But I'll just highlight a couple things. Uh the clarifications revolve around reserves, revolving funds,
capital planning and the budget process. It's a townwide policy. It directly impacts how the school department plans, reports, and coordinates uh financially. Um, I can walk you through the changes if
you'd like me to or I can just ask for questions. >> Can you summarize? >> I can certainly summarize. What we provided was for the financial policy working group document in our packet that's made public for everybody and then there was a summary prepared by
Steve Manoodi that just basically highlighted the changes. But I can walk you through the changes if you want the five or 10 minutes. >> Yeah. It's perfect. Um, so I'll just say that the changes are
largely structural and um, for clarifying purposes and not really philosophical. Um, this was I think was sent review. So this has been in place for three years now. And the purpose behind this is just to create a document so that as the boards change over,
people who uh join the select board, join the finance committee, join the school committee, all have sort of this this plan that's been left behind. And it's not set in stone. It gets reviewed and up could be updated every year, but it gives us uh tool for great long-term planning.
Um from the school committee's perspective, it sort of matters for uh particular reasons. um first it clearly articulates expectations around financial discipline and long-term planning um including the use of reserves and the
avoidance of structural deficits. It aligns with how we approach school building and reinforces credibility with the town and rating agencies. Second, it provides greater clarity around the revolving funds and reserves which directly affect how the school department reports, plans, and communicates its financial position.
Third, the policy formalizes a capital planning and budget process that reinforces collaboration between the boards for the school committee that supports better alignment on major school capital needs and long-term planning rather than year-to-year decision-m
the actual changes that took place. Um, if we look at the mission, >> you got that overview. >> I do not have that from
I had a couple for you that >> is that within the packet. >> Oh, >> it is within the packet. It's the memo. Yeah, it's >> so on the first one here. Um, >> let me see if I can find the memo and I'll send it to everybody
>> where I'm of the PDF >> of what are you the summary is >> the packet is >> it's page 3648. >> Oh, here it is. It is included. I'm sorry. I missed it. >> Oh. Um so this first change
we we'll see what you guys flavor for this but the first change the current language it this is around >> I'm just getting scrolls on >> um budget guidelines and recommended levels they can't be pertained in a particular year. So the current language was if recommended balance levels cannot be
attained in a given year a plan to meet the balance guidelines must be established and affirmed by both committees financial management. We changed this to say that a a plan to meet the balance budget should be developed by the town's financial
management team. The finance committee and the select board will approve a final plan by the majority vote of both boards. So you can see the intricacies in the language. Um it's really procedural on how it's going to take place. So in the event that we have a year where there's structural deficit
and the plan needs to be redeveloped, we're basically saying the town should come up with a plan presented to us. It'll be the time administrator's office, um the treasur's office, and then they would bring it to both the finance committee and the select board committee. They would vote at a joint
town, I'm sorry, a joint meeting, but it wouldn't be a unanim wouldn't be a majority vote with all boards. It would be a majority vote necessary for each board. So it's changes like that that occurred where there were changes um that are
applicable to the school department. Uh the second one here was applicable um sorry it's not applicable. We're not going to be joining the tiff or pilot agreements committee. Um but they made a slight change there. the revolving funds
and enterprise funds. The school department has revolving funds and um some of ours fall under different uh Massachusetts state law than than other departments within the town, but the
current language essentially says um what we were trying to get at here was that revolving funds shouldn't necessarily be a a like a savings account within every department. So if
you have revolving funds, you should take them in. You should present um the use of your revolving funds on that super Saturday or the select border finance committee. Talk about the usage of those and then talk about what your expected balances to be and the at that
point in time like they weigh in on you know your balances seems excessive or you ought to think about a plan to have a greater balance there depending upon your department needs etc. um to make it particularly clear in this document and it stayed is that our
school choice of revolving funds account should be a target level of 10%. And which should be north five we should make best efforts to always keep it north of 5% of our total budget which we're in alignment with and that was a change from a couple years ago. So no real impact on us there.
Um when we go to present our budget, uh recommended change was that each department will util utilize a revolving fund is required to submit a policy to the finance director for each individual revolving fund that outlines the source
of funding. the estimated total receipts, the types of expenses, um, and the estimate of total expenditures that'll be charged annually from the fund, and the amount of potential use of any excess dollars that may accumulate. And this is not just us. This is
townwide document. So, all we're we're just acknowledging this and when we make our presentations, we would just fall in line with everybody else. Um employee costs union and non-union I don't think it's applicable capital planning this was a change and obviously
we've got four buildings >> yeah back to >> yeah okay we've got four buildings require great capital need uh for upkeep so this was a new idea as opposed to submitting a capital plan at the same time with the budgetary process and you
know it either being really important because capital needs are high and we need to replace school or something like that or rooftop dock or a roof. It was let's set a separate time in the year aside to talk about capital planning. So, we built in a um a capital planning
phase that will take place over the summertime where there'll be a dedicated group that'll sit and discuss the capital plan. School committee will have a seat on that. It's a working group. They'll just review the capital plan for 10 years for all departments.
um prioritize the items, talk about need, talk about cash flow from the town, whether or not we think we're going to need to raise money for these things, raise money being borrow money or whether or not we'll be able to fund these out of cash flow. And then when we get into the budgetary process, we can talk about operational budgets and the
uh pound revenue and it's it's sort of all all the capital needs analysis can sort of back into that. So, it's just we found a better way to do it. Um, in terms of the budgetary process,
this doesn't necessarily impact us, but it talks about um how the town administrator's office and the finance director will provide the initial three-year budget estimate prior to the start of the budgetary process. the select board in conjunction with the
finance committee will establish their own budget priorities for the town. Uh there's a calendar been prepared. Um the town administrator is going to hold department meetings to get a a sense for what the what the needs are
of that department and how the year went and where they're going to land. that separately um which has been customary is last couple years is the finance committee and the select board also have meetings with those departments heads and then sort of everyone's notes get
passed back and forth as to what the real needs are and how we're going to fund this and where we want to invest our dollars as a town. Um, and then there was a change to the budget calendar which essentially was the opportunity
for a public hearing before most of the work is done. See if I can find that. Um, the bottom of that page says page five. that >> you get a key section. Well, I found section 8 budget calendar.
>> Yes, your situation. >> There's a you're not in the packet though. You're in the separate document. >> I am in the packet. I've just scrolled further. >> So, there's a memo after this. >> Oh, that's got the changes. >> Okay. Um,
>> yeah, I was looking at one that says current language and recommended language. >> And it's called >> what what number is it? >> Um, isn't it section 8 budget calendar? Is it? >> Yes. Yes. I'm within the budget
calendar. What I'm trying to find is the additional line item that was added which was a a public hearing >> um which was a recommendation of the committee to similar to how we have our our public hearing where it's sort of an opportunity for the public to address
budgetary concerns. Mhm. >> Um the TA's office, finance committee, the select board, they were going to kind of take a pause, ask us for uh public input and then finish the process and that's been built into the calendar. I just
can't specifically find it. >> Um >> like September capital working planning working group will need to review. >> Yeah, it was I want to say it was in this uh it's actually in the chart. >> You got it. Yeah, first bottom page of
the first >> What page is it? >> It's a chart. I don't have a page number. >> Oh, it's February to April, uh, finance committee and select board will schedule a >> No, thank you. Just didn't jump off the page for me. >> So, that was kind of the big change on
the calendar. >> Yeah. >> So, for us, um, >> yes, >> we we would now have a seat on the capital planning working group, which I think is a is a great win for us. >> Yeah. It gives us an opportunity to be involved in the process, advocate for
the school department, and then also understand the needs of the town as well, >> so that we're not just we need this, we need this, we have a better understanding of what the overall town needs. When we go to present our budget, we'll have to be, you know, we'll have
to um provide greater transparency or reporting on the revolving funds, which is no issue. No one has any issue with our revolving funds. It's just an inner requirement to um present them and the rest of it really I feel like is black
board finance committee administrator's office type stuff. >> Steve got a question. >> So um a concern I'm looking for additional clarification I guess. So if I look on the page two at the top of the page it says current language and recommended
language. Um the spark where it says revolving fund expend expenditures shall not be made to pay wages or salaries for full-time employees unless the revolving fund is also charged for the cost of prince benefits associated with the wages or salaries. That would be a big
change in procedure and practice for us. >> Are I think so Rob Rob clarified that? >> Okay. So >> my understanding is that our is this the the school of choice revolving funds? >> It's it's not only school choice. >> Yeah. >> Um we pay salaries out of the prek
tuition uh that we take. We pay salaries out of grants that technically go into a revolving fund. So if we now have to have to take >> grant money and charge friend benefits. That's a whole thing with the state and all that and that would change the dynamics and how much funding from grant
money actually flows down to the students. It would go to a benefit. So I think there needs to be some additional clarification specifically around some of those. So prek revolving fund uh the athletic fund we don't usually pay salaries but we pay a lot of stipens out of that. Um school
choice would be an issue. the cafeteria would be a big issue. Um because we we the the cafeteria is pretty much self-funded anyway right now. Um we don't subsidize that cafeteria program
at all with uh appropriated money, but it would change the dynamics in the forecast if we now charge fringe benefits for those cafeteria employees into that revolving fund. The only revolving fund right now program that we have right now that gets charged for
French benefits for the employees is the Tigers Den program. >> And historically that's been the only one for as long as I've been here close to 20 years. So, I just would like some clarification to make sure we specify if
if they're moving on that either the school involving funds are exempt from that clause or if we're going to change practice moving forward. >> I don't have a problem with that technically, but we need to start making financial plans around those. >> I would, you know, I'm going to use a
bit stronger language. I would recommend an exemption. I mean you have you you have to remember we have our own statutes. >> Correct. The point I wanted to raise is Robin had Robin uh the town director
clarified our revolving usage for an example. Now you just rattled off like six or seven. So what I would propose is that you and I hop on a phone call with >> Absolutely. just to double check all of our usages because the intent here was not to really change any of our
practice, but I'm in total agreement. We don't want to agree to something that's out of our ordinary practice and then be obligated to do so going forward. >> Correct. Or at least put some language in here that says >> exactly why this goes before the finance committee, the select board, and the school committee to make sure that all three boards are in agreement. We got a
document that works for everybody. >> Yeah. >> So, let's we'll plan a call tomorrow or early next week. >> Yep. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. And then what we can do is bring this back to a following um agenda item and vote it through. >> Yeah. And in addition to that, I'll may
I suggest we also visit the the capital funds part of it to be sure it I while actually I was super excited to see the town sit down and look at everything that that is that is owned within the
town, you know, as public and and continue to monitor it for needs to be um to be repaired and and and maintenance. because that's been something I think we missed. So, we're adding this. This is great. But as we
were reading it, I had the thought of is there anything in the school budget in the way that the schools handle um our our buildings and and our capital expenses that this language might might eat into.
Um I'm just being really aware that my understanding is that a school budget um needs to work beside the municipal budget. It can't always fit in because of some of the statutes etc. >> That's correct. and and this is a great
a great step forward, but um that's one of the things I would I would say, you know, like asking and being really aware that we need to make sure we're not setting ourselves up to shoot ourselves in the foot and and I think you're I think you know I think you're doing a
great job with that. as the person who's been involved with the front end bubble working group >> huge respect for the school system all the work we do >> you know I think the little residents as a whole >> are supportive of a strong educational
uh system so by no stretch of imagination is anybody looking to >> get into our purse what they're looking to do is provide some guidance for all departments which we are one of them so we would have to apply what's in or we
asked to comply and your your points raised tonight are are very valid and we should just double check that before we sign off on this. >> Thank you. And I think we've been good partners with the town um notably over the last couple years when it comes to
capital requests and capital expenditures. Yeah. >> Uh we we realize we have um a school choice balance greater than this threshold that's in this document. We're above the 10% at this point in time. We're working to get that number down, but we're spending it on school capital
projects, one-time projects, and things like that. We're not increasing, we're not paying salaries out of it. It's going to be a long-term thing. You know, it's it's got to be sustainable. So, um, so I do think this is been a very positive move. I mean, we we all know
and that our school budgets are separate by statute. uh we by law only have to give them a number, but I've never recommended that as a superintendent. We need to be more transparent with that. But there will come times where where
this policy needs to be reviewed because it may not meet our needs. And having a member at the table is huge. I mean, before we did this, we we kind of came together, but we we always had that, well, we're kind of part of you, but we
know you have separate statutes. So, we were split. But what this has done, it's allowed us to to come together and find those commonalities, which are so important to uh visionary budgeting within a m municipality. So, I I I really support this and and you know,
I'd like to thank Justin for all the work that he's done to to uh work with the town to develop u these guidelines. >> Steve does a lot of the work. >> Well, I'm sure he does. >> So, thank you, Mr. Venudity. But, um
your uh your remarks are on point with school committee's got a um seat at the table, involved in the discussions. That's the way it should be. Capital planning thing I think is a win for all departments because it gives the town an opportunity to digest and plan and then
go into the budget season. >> Yeah, >> John. >> Yeah, just a couple of points, but yeah, on the capital plan, I was surprised we didn't have more of that at town level. So, when I moved to town, so I was really happy to hear that we're doing that. Um, and yeah, I I guess one thing I keep looking out at is uh obviously
we're spending down our school choice funds uh in the short term and just making sure that we have the ability to replenish them. It's not just the fact that we are able to kind of come back to what we're used to for funding from the town, but also that we're actually able to bring money back in. So, the fact that there's a 5% bottom threshold makes
me more comfortable. >> Yeah. And and again, you know, long this is important to get it right now because long term 5 years, 10 years from now when none of us are sitting around this table. It's got to be in this document because if it's not,
somebody on the town could say, "Hey, this is what it says. We're going to start doing this." So, >> right, >> I think it's important. So, thank you, Justin, for all all your work. >> You are welcome. >> So, we'll we'll do the call with Robin and we'll bring this back. >> I'll set it up with Robin clarification.
Okay, >> perfect. >> Thank you. >> Good kill. All right. Next is financial update from business manager Steve Marks. He will provide a high level snapshot of where we stand financially and any items the committee should be monitoring as we look ahead to 27. Let
me share this. Um, okay. So, uh, reports in your packet. Let me expand this. Come on. Come on. People at home can see it. um reports in your packet. Um again, there's no big
concerns here. However, I do want to talk a little bit. Um if you look at the bottom two lines of transportation and the busing, uh we're we're and this is through February. So, we're um 72% expended in transportation and busing.
And just by way of explanation, um we have our yellow bus contract with the bus. And then we have case transportation. Uh case transportation we pay twice a year. Um so I believe I'm pretty sure this has the second payment case in it. So what's left uh gets us
through the rest of the year with uh DBUS um 14 our 14 bus contract. So that's why that's a little high. Uh facilities and maintenance uh again looks a little high um and it is. I'm a little worried. I'm not worried overall budget-wise. Um we have had some
unanticipated expenses. Um, we had high school, if you remember, we had a high school boiler that was about $10,000. We had the middle school elevator that's still in process. That's going to be $33,000. We just had to do the Russell Street fire alarm panel repair. That was
completely um took us by surprise because we've had fire drills and it gets inspected every year and suddenly part of it stopped working. So, uh that was $25,000 that was unanticipated. Uh, and then our our our plow truck, our
white plow truck, um, that doesn't have a garage to sit in, uh, needed about almost $10,000 worth of repairs. So, um, that's close to $80,000. That's unanticipated. Again, we're fortunate enough, we have some flexibility in the budget to cover that, but um it is a
concern that we've had um quite a bit of unanticipated costs. But again, you know, we have school choice to fall back onto if we need to. So, I'm not worried about meeting obligation for the end of the year. So, >> we've been on a bad run, but you're saying we're
>> Well, hopefully, you know, not knock on road here. So, um but again, there's no guarantees, you know. I mean, um >> I don't know what's going to happen to the facility. So, >> fire panel expense 25 grand. Did that include the uh the fire detail that we had?
>> No, that did not. That was just the contractor. Um, I haven't seen the invoices for the fire detail yet, but that was what, a week of fire detail, eight hours a day. So, that's going to be probably significant. So, but thank you, you know, again, thank you to uh
Steel Mccertie, the fire chief, and uh the the fire um um the fire guys, the fire officers um who came in, walked through the school, and made sure our kids were safe. Um that's the important
thing. So, so glad to answer questions or provide additional detail. >> Thank you for nobody getting hurt. >> Nobody got hurt. Yeah. And we're hopefully we're done snow. So, hopefully we're done the cold weather. So, um you
know, we did get a little bit of a rate reduction on our natural gas um um amounts that we were paying because we were locked in. I said this before, we were locked into a high contract. Um that contract ended, so we're down to market rates. Uh we're working with Tony
Souza, the assistant town administrator, on um a multi-year townwide natural gas purchase agreement. Uh that would hopefully get us in locked in at a rate. Uh and those rates when when we've done them in the past, those rates have
usually been very favorable. So uh we're working on those as well. itself and then our energy savings program uh managed by Dave Riley um has also contributed to um a reduction in some of those usage the rates go up a little bit
but the usage is down a little bit so we're looking at everything so good >> all right thank you very much our second opportunity for interested citizens
Seeing none. Hearing none. Let me just make sure. >> Nope. Nobody online. >> All right. We'll close that portion of the meeting and we'll move through our subcommittee reports. First of which is the NBC. We're still going to speak. We'll wait on that one. Budget
subcommittee. Uh really the budget subcommittee's congregation to the meeting today was the financial policies working group and we'll hear more about that next next meeting. uh policy subcommitteees got have got a couple for us tonight.
>> We have three policies that um we would like to put forward for the first reading. You can find them at the end of your packet. Um there's only a a small language change in the second one. Um once again the policy subcommittee um
sat down with the administration and decided that we wanted to pair back what we were doing so that um as we are going to be having a new superintendent we can we can you we can um do more work with the new superintendent and they are more
part of our um policy overview polic policy review. So um using uh administration's guideline guide guidance we um chose to end this year with three very special
policies. One um is simply the minutes and how the minutes are handled in school committee meetings. Um I we can do do would you like to read through it
or do we just count that we've all read it and >> we probably it was provided I we read it and we're familiar with it but yeah the the first of which has no proposed changes >> correct. Yeah. So the second um the second policy
to be reviewed is the school choice policy. Um once again we wanted to uh stay up to date with that one since it is a situation that is yeartoyear. Um and administration came to us and said
that these changes that that we've put in which um are very small changes to the wording that simply give administration a little more time and leeway within um the time period of when
to um when they must um um notify families and make the decisions. Um this is based on several years of work from school choice and what we did is we talked to the people that have been doing the school choice and said and
they said so this is this is how to word it so that we aren't kind of a ball. We we don't have to like rejigger a calendar. We can simply move forward year to year with these guidelines. What
is uh what is fine being here where we talked about this photo tonight, right? So any students accepted for admissions under policy is entitled to remain in the graduation high school except if there was a lack of funding of the program. Does that just mean except if there's no exchange of school choice
money for that seat >> if the if the state stopped funding school choice? >> Okay. So it's not like our budget got tight or Yeah. So it's >> correct. And those charges for school choice >> outgoing gets done on the cherry sheet
that the towns are responsible for and blah blah blah blah blah. >> Yeah. And I think there were there was some discussion about um um programs at the high school um that that
if if the students would were there for something that we could no longer maintain >> that we would let them know. I wasn't sure if that was that might that might have been part of another discussion. >> Yeah, I think it was part of another discussion. I mean they a student that
school choice can decide on a yearly basis or even during the year whether they want to continue to attend our schools in our school district. I mean we we don't have that happen very often but at times and circumstances
arise where they need to move or so there's there's uh freedom on the other side but once we accept them they're they're here uh until they graduated so choose and then the last policy there are no
other questions on that one um student absences and excuses we read through sever several times and um as written which reflects the Mass um Mass Association of School Committee
guidance. Um this is working for our school district at this point. Are there any questions? Does this touch upon the question of um when families
>> leave the country for several weeks um say go visit family >> um we like how long of an absence do we allow before the student has to disenroll? I think you find this under student absence notification program I
think um where there is a guideline after a certain number that uh well that's unexcused but but um starts to to give some guidance to how how much time
um we kind of are expecting. Um but what mostly this policy does is gives the administration some guidelines within which they can act but it isn't very it isn't super
restrictive so that administration has the opportunity to work with par with families on an individual basis >> in terms of especially in terms of things like um
out of out of country visits or or family obligations that are sometimes beyond the parent and child. Um you know um >> since the since the state has uh started to track attendance, they recommend that
we keep these students enrolled. >> Okay. >> So that we're consistent. >> Yeah. >> I mean there was a >> Yeah. I think before it was like district by district making your own decisions. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And you know when you you first have data being >> compiled by the state it's and they're
they're giving you benchmarks. You know I have to admit it's at times tempting if they don't have some general regulations to uh exit a child and and rein reenroll them when they come back because it uh it's favorable to do that for attendance rates.
>> Right. So, the state really had to make a statement in order to be able to compare us. >> And so, now how do we handle that? Say if a student um say leaves in May and that's the end of their school year because they're going to another country, >> we would we would uh
>> they're coming back. If they're coming back, we would we would keep them enrolled. >> Okay. But if they're not coming back, >> we would uh not enroll them. >> Just enroll them and then reenroll them the following September, August. Well, okay. And come back if they can eventually come back.
>> Come back eventually. >> Yeah. Then we just reenroll. I think there would probably be an evaluation about coursework completed and >> there would be like a summer school offering if key assignments were missed. Like they've got to complete >> Kelly speak to this, but they've got to
complete the school year. You can't just >> leave and move on to the next grade. You probably need to show >> Well, that's that's different. That's >> well that's what maybe that's covered under >> that's yeah this is just a tendency question. >> Well I guess I'm wondering if if those scenarios are part of this policy or if
that's a part of >> that's a that's a different I mean that that embedded in in our handbooks in terms of you need you need uh passing grades to to move on from from one to grade. Uh I mean this is this is it's
interesting that we're having this conversation because two years ago uh we very seldom would run into any issues but now when people travel overseas if their embassies are closed they may get stuck over there for a while. So there's a a new reality that
we're dealing with people are traveling overseas especially if they're on visas. >> Yeah. I mean, it's easier to calculate grades and course completion when we're talking about, you know, middle school or high school, but
elementary students that go overseas. I'm just using May as an example because I've seen it happen before, but you know, it's there's not a course completion component of that. It's more that, you know, they attended school until May 15th and that was their last
day. then they come back and reenroll or what would be the policy then they come back start school again the end of August like do we have a policy >> the situation >> if if they attend school with homeschooling uh we would take a look at that uh we
can give a readiness test if we so choose >> and so I mean we be we embrace this as an opportunity to to work with the family and and make sure that the decisions that we're and they're in the best interest of the child.
I mean, I've had children come in from other states who who were on accelerated programs and I've I've done this before in my career with with students and other school systems would try to move them back and I would just give them uh MAP testing and if they test it out
fine, we would come to an agreement that we're not going to fasttrack you here. we'll put you in the grade that you're in, but you're gonna you want to come to our district, then you're you're going to finish finish with your cohort that we put you with. >> So, >> and am I misinterpreting that this is
kind of two different? >> Well, that's what I was wondering. You know, part of this policy or if there's another policy that instead >> I think there's >> more operational than what we're talking about. >> Yeah. Not a school committee policy. No, I think I think this one is strictly
kind of like there's a there's a legal component, isn't there, around school absences and when we need to talk to >> in terms of providing notice to, you know, we engage parents. I mean, >> yeah. >> Realistically, we
we need to not only notify parents, but we need to work with the family and the child to do whatever we can to get them to want to attend school. I mean, there's the key. You can send all the letters you want, but the bottom line is if there's an issue, we need to get to the bottom of it and figure out what we
need to do to to get that student uh feeling comfortable coming back to school. I mean every school district deals with that every year and you know you know what are the students interests what are the barriers depends on the age barriers
change with age as we know so get on uh so is so thank you for covering those for the first reading um if the committee's desire to accept them we need a motion a second >> so I can I can move yes um I move the
committee accept uh policy is BE DG JFBB and JH and for the first reading >> second >> second by Lane. All those in favor to give a saying I I >> that passes we will see them again for a
second reading next meeting. >> Very much moving on to the Shaker Lane building committee update from Sha and Superintendent. I don't think I'm going to go back to >> No, no, not at all. It's funny. I don't know why I said that. Sorry.
>> It's okay. I was one at one time. >> Trying to make it go again. >> Exactly. It helps. >> So, uh, real quick, I think I mentioned this last time, but we are expecting the school at this point to hopefully be completed in August. So, you in August
of 2028, uh, we will have hopefully vote on that at our April 15th meeting. Um, following that vote, I'm going to have uh some from Kilbane and some from the CG from on the podcast radio to discuss it.
>> Great. And we we did check with uh Steve Benoodi to make sure that there was was going to be no change in in how the bonds were going to be issued, the taxation levels, etc. before we we jumped on board. But that's and he's fine with that.
>> The expected amount of free cash for the project. He was he was really comfortable with that. >> Great. So what so that was when we believe the school might be completed. When does that mean we would see construction activity in those back fields? >> Well, they're uh actually
>> geothermal wells like like they've mobilized. >> They're they're still finalizing the plan. So, I would anticipate that the the actual blueprint should be done prior to the end of June.
I would imagine hopefully next fall sometime there would be some actual activity, but we'll have to check. >> Okay. I'm just curious, you know, >> I would love to see a back hole out there. >> Yeah. Security fencing and some construction equipment. >> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That would be great.
Well, it won't start until at least after August. So, >> great. >> Okay. >> Anything else to report? >> Uh, I've been meeting at least once a week with uh the architect and we are moving along uh just checking the the
plans as they are and making sure this is our last opportunity to catch anything that we we feel uh needs to be tweaked. We're also meeting with with various uh groups. I know Steve was going to reach out to you Justin. We have a plan of the gymnasium now going to share it with you and have a
conversation. >> Sure. >> And uh the uh youth baseball as well is slotted great with us. So we're we're doing well. The abutters are still uh in the forefront of of what we do. We're
just not quite ready to have a meeting yet till we know more about when when things are going to start to happen. So >> great, moving right along. Possibly the most exciting topic as a superintendent search update and we're down to three
candidates now. Heather Gante uh made an agreement with another district uh last night. Um we updated all the schedules with central office. Central office actually was on the trip on the uh was up on that a day ago. So they were already on top of things. Um, but we pushed out a message through school now
just explaining to all the different stakeholders when their availability of the forms were and also pushed out the survey link. So, obviously that's not going to be useful until next week, but just wanted us to have it. Um, and wanted to note for people watching that if you can't make it to uh the
interviews on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday because again the Thursday uh interviews are no longer happening because we now have three candidates. They'll go up on LCTV by April 3rd, that Friday. Um district staff forum is going to be at 3 pm at the central office auditorium on Monday, Tuesday, uh
Wednesday. This will hold for all three days. 5:00 pm uh will be community forum at the center on Shadic. Um Elaine uh nicely connected with some students. So we're going to have one student, we're going to have three to four students each night have dinner with the uh
superintendent candidate along with one school member and then at seven we'll have public interview again at Sumic. So look forward to everyone coming out and uh giving back feedback to uh to us to consider before we get a final vote on April 9 month. >> Excellent.
And at this point in time, do we believe it's appropriate to dissolve the superintendent search uh screening committee? >> Yes. >> Yes. So there's really been two committees. So that was the screening committee which was the 19 person uh community member committee and then we
also have the subcommittee. So, I don't know if you want to put that on the next agenda or if you want to um do it tonight, how you want to do that, but there's two committees that would be get dissolved. >> Well, let's take care of the one that's on the agenda,
>> which would just be the screening committee. >> I move to resolve the screening committee. >> Made by Sean, second by Elaine, I think it was. Yes. >> Um all those in favor of the saying I >> I. So that committee uh thank you for your work completely dissolved and then
we'll address our own subcommittee next meeting. We're dotting our eyes and crossing our tees on everything. So no big deal. >> We've been working hard on dotting those eyes and crossing our tees. That's >> and >> a lot of weeds to be in. >> We should really thank the uh screening
committee for the hours that they put in and and the time to uh come up with four finalists. It's not an easy task and uh thank you for your commitment to ensuring that that you you know are
sending now three finalists to the school committee for consideration. So >> it's a lot of time you spent on that and it's greatly appreciated. >> Thank you. >> Very good. And last but not least is the communication section.
>> Yep. Uh so I updated the website with new information based on the fact that you don't have your candidates put a little headline up there just notifying people that we're aware of support that's changed. Um all the resumes of each candidate or redacted resumes are off the website for folks to look at as well along with the schedule I just
outlined for community forums and interviews. So if folks want to check that out uh go for it. I've also been making posts on Facebook trying to get the word out uh and reached out to folks that were involved in the screen committing to try and push out the information as well figuring they all stakeholders from this um push that out.
Um the substack I put out about this actually got like not surprisingly probably three times as much as I usually get reviews. So that's really good. It got like 500 views. So right now >> um and then the uh Yep. And then today, Alex did a great job pushing out in
school now just the schedule to everyone and explaining what's going on. And included in that is the survey link so that folks will know for next week where to go. Um in addition to that, uh he's helping to work with us to get those highway signs up for next week and signs
throughout the the district as well for that. So that'll be good. But please do spread the word. It's really important. Um, as uh Justin previously mentioned, I had the hockey team on uh this this afternoon. It was a great conversation. LCTV did a great job with with hosting us. We had a lot of people on, so it was
a little different from that. Um, and then earlier in the week, I had uh two actresses and Adam Tos come on from MIA. So, that's up there. For those who are interested, please go see the the musical this weekend. I was told to highlight that on Saturday, the matinea,
uh, you should dress accordingly. So, you should be in full Normia carb and and go enjoy yourself. Um, >> that's when I have tickets. >> Can't wait to see what >> Thanks for the heads up. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I'm glad I'm going Friday. Want to
see the selfies? >> Great. >> Okay. I want to thank Sean. He's been doing a fabulous job with uh with the communication efforts thus far. So, hats off. Thank you so much. Okay. >> Uh, that wraps up subcommittee reports. Is there any other new business or old
business before the committee this evening? >> No. But before we adjourn, can we make a note that um what's on our our packet here, this meeting on April 23rd, that's a meeting on April 30.
So, our meetings in April are on the 9th and 30. It's just a typo. >> Oh, yes it is. Catch. >> Glad you said so because I probably would have just read that. I can only do >> Oh, and then also the second has been
cancelled too. >> Right. >> Right. No, what I'm going to say is before I ask promotion on Jiren, just like to announce that our next school committee meeting will take place on March 30th, 31st, and first at center on
Shadic Street at 7:00 for the purposes of final interviews for our three candidates. We will then have a meeting on April 9th at the center on Shadic Street for the purposes of a final vote or discussion and final vote with Mr. Superintendent. And then our next uh
school committee meeting or school committee meeting after that back to regularly scheduled business will not take place during April vacation week. Uh it'll take place April 30th 7:00 back at the police station.
Right. >> I think I caught all those edits. Good work. >> Nicely done. Y's a motion to adjurnn. So move by Sean. Second. Second by Janine. All those in favor by saying I. We have a journ.