all right it's 7 o'clock and I'd like to call together the February 6 2025 school committee meeting we are officially in session tonight's meeting is zoom only due to the inclement weather um typically we would start with Pledge of Allegiance we don't have a flag this evening so we're going to go right into our consent agenda which was posted along with the uh minute to the February 20 sorry to the January 23rd 2025 meeting as well as the oath to bills and payroll Elaine had reached out about a a discrepancy in the packet so
typically what asked for a motion to accept before I do that lane did you just want to provide the committee an explanation yeah the um version of the minutes that were in the packet was not the version that I approved as clerk so I would like to approve can I interrupt I'm sorry the minutes were fine it was just the date on the agenda yeah no the minutes the minutes are not I because some of the things that I had um corrected did not not corrected in the
version that's in the packet oh you had Corrections on your yeah I always make some edits for clarity okay I'm sorry I didn't yeah and so the edits that I had made were not reflected in this version okay so um so I would like to approve those minutes at the next meeting so we'll end up approving the minutes from two meetings at the next okay no worries thanks for bringing that to our attention so with that knowledge is it
all right if everybody uh we just don't accept a we don't make a motion for tonight and we'll visit revisit those next meeting yeah but should we still make a motion to accept the oath to bills and payroll we should y so I move that we accept the oath to bills and payroll motion made by Lane and second that second St so roll call VES since virtual this evening Stacy uh Stacy Scott
yes Janine Janine wood yes elain elain sandlan yes and Ben you're on mute go Ben Patel yes and Justin McCarthy yes as well all right this is our first opportunity for interested citizens so if there's anybody with us this evening that would like to speak before the school committee it's your first shot there be a second shot at the end of the meeting we do not have any all right we will now move to our recognition portion of the evening Raquel thank you for joining us this
evening student representative Raquel Rodriguez we'll give a report of events for each school thank you for having me and I hope everyone had a good day off so for Shaker Lane online registration for the 2025 26 kindergarten school year is open and families are encouraged to register as soon as possible and then next Wednesday Shaker Lane will celebrate global global play day where it is an event that encourages students to play without screens and structured games for Russell Street Andrew Green
from potato Hill poetry will work will be in the school to work with fourth graders so thank you to the PTA for supporting this partnership and RSS is happy to bring back the staff and student basketball game so mark your calendars for February 25th the Middle School took their map testing this yesterday and their Ela testing last Wednesday and I was very successful and then they will have the 7eventh and eighth grade Valentine's Day dance on Fe on Friday from 6: to 8 p.m.
finally for the high school Saturday students will be participating in the rise against hunger meal packaging event it's from 10: to 12 and then finally on the 11th the guidance office will be hosting a junior class College Planning night at 6 p.m. in the auditorium for all Juniors and the parents Raquel Raquel I may have lost
you I was uh having internet issues there did did you wrap up yes okay I've lost everybody visually as well um except for you raal uh superintendent Kelly clenchy is there anything else you wish to report in terms of recognition before we move on um into our presentations y you bet uh I sent the school committee a clip from WBZ uh covering our uh our hydroponic Farm uh nice to get some coverage out there and what's really
powerful about this uh addition to to our district is that our students uh are involved in planting the seedlings and we've been using uh lettuce in our cafeteria for a few months now growing through the hyd hydroponic farm so like to uh thank uh our Food Services director uh Leah Bako again for her Innovation and creativeness uh within our food service program have some exciting news uh second exciting news uh
we were contacted by desie this week uh actually yesterday and every year the uh board or the national uh Department of Education uh sends us uh or sends the state more correct ly uh an opportunity for the state to nominate schools to obtain Blue Ribbon status uh Blue Ribbon status for a school is one of the highest Honors
that you could ever have and I'm happy to report that uh we've been encouraged uh to uh submit an application for Middle School and uh we'll get receed more information about what that uh application entails next week decisions will be made in the fall of uh 2025 live uh for all of us uh this is a real celebration most superintendant uh never ever see a blue Urban School in their District this would be the second one for me so you know and working in a
district that uh is is doing whatever they can to be the best that that we can be so stay tuned for that and and the only unknown at this point in time I hate to say this we we all have a lot of trepidation out there but I'm hoping the Department of Education will exist in the fall of 2025 uh for my readings I'm not an expert but it is written into law and it would have to be debated uh through Congress so I'm hoping that uh
it's still around for us to perhaps be one of the successful recipients of that award third recognition uh last weekend uh Middle School uh drama club uh had the uh Newsies Junior's uh present or play musical and I have to tell you the the quality of the the singing the acting the uh you know video props that they were using it was it was an
incredible performance one of the best I've ever seen in in my career and I know Janine was there Friday night I had the opportunity to run into Janine so Janine might want to comment as well but our drama program or musical programs in at the middle school and high school are so strong I was talking to a few parents that night and and they were telling me that that we're now having students uh Choice into our school district to just be part of our drama program and music
program so kudos to everybody involved in making that happen Tracy O'Neal Works tirelessly with that Middle School play to make sure that uh you know things go well and and we had over 50 50 students take part in in the musical so it's a great a great great evening I I will Echo that Kelly it it was such a good production the friend that I took several times just looked at me and said I love this this is we had the friend I took we had a great time and watching 57 students come
together work collaboratively we had just talked about how we um how the school district had worked to make the the high school available to the Middle School drama and that night I'm like I'm so glad we did that this paid off in Spades because you know there's just nothing like having that kind of experience in your school experience and and 57 students together working on that
you know there were bonds made that there's no other way we could have made that happen so thank you so much and that's it for my acknowledgements good good thank you so much all we're going to move into the presentation portion of the evening we've got uh four presentations planned before we kick that off I'll just um bring your attention to the uh the highlight of the blue box on tonight's agenda so I'd like to read these so we can um if if allowed peray uh pay
particular attention to these topics uh we're visiting um standard four and standard one they're out of order but I'm going to read them in this order anyways um so alignment to the district strategic plan standard four climate and culture Foster respective and responsive culture that provides a safe secure and um safe secure uh learning and work environment the essential question for this evening is how can the district build upon past deib initiatives to
involve more stakeholders and create a district-wide action plan uh second essential question how does our financial planning reflect the district strategic plan core values Mission and beliefs and then there's a additional standard one here which will apply to uh the first presentation I believe which is standard one curriculum instruction and assessment align and enhance curriculum instruction and assessment to continually improve student achievement essential question
how does the new competency determination align with the district standards of offering a rigorous high school program of studies to all students so moving into our first presentation this evening Littleton Public Schools competency determination director of teaching and learning Elizabeth steel will give a presentation on that topic we've got you slotted for 15 minutes take it away perfect thank you very much good evening everyone um the competency determination I feel like we've been
hearing it's been in the news um we've heard about it since November um or pre- November the election as it was on the ballot as a question for the state of Massachusetts and so we've had to work quickly um but effectively to be able to bring this presentation and this proposal to you this evening so the next slide please um thank you so this is the new language that's in the statute the first half of this is the same um where the change comes in is where it said it
used to say previously as measured by the assessment instruments described in section one which was mcass and now that has changed um for the language that you see here in red text and underlined and so it is satisfactory satisfa Al completing coursework certified by the district demonstrating Mastery in the knowledge and the skill sets that are put forth in the Frameworks that were previously assessed by the mcast and
they're saying that mcast that was administered in 2023 so what that means for us as a district is that we have to look at and certify coursework taken by students in the following topic areas English language arts at the 10th grade level mathematics including Algebra 1 and geometry because those were the two types of maths that were assessed on the 2023 math mcast and then science um is either biology chemistry introductory physics or Technology and
Engineering so what that means with regards to mcast um next slide please thank you Steve or Dorothy I don't know which one is on so thank you to whoever is managing the slides this evening um what that means directly to mcast just to be clear right is that um MC is required under Ed reform law so it's required federally so we have to maintain the facilitation and administration of mcass so we are still required as a district to administer the
mcast assessments participation is required by all students to participate in mcast assessment the performance as well as the participation of our students is still connected to the accountability system um from the state level and then performance on the high school mcast is still connected to scholarships and seal of biliteracy so there's still interest
um from students to perform and do well in order to receive either or both scholarships as well as the Seal of biliteracy demonstrating Proficiency in their um in in a of their own first language as well as a secondary language so to reiterate and make very clear the ballot question that was passed in November by the Massachusetts voters was to take mcass away as a matter of comp competency determination
as it relates to high school graduation it did not take away the assessment as a whole so as shown on this slide we are still required to facilitate and administer and participate in the mcast assessments next slide please what this means um is that in order to graduate from a Massachusetts public high school students must complete two distinct but many times related or
overrated tasks the first is a competency determination what we're really talking about this evening oftentimes abbreviated just by CD and the second is local graduation requirements and so the competency determination was previously it was designated by desie at the state level and it was through mcast and so students at the high school had to reach a certain level on the mcast and they would receive their their
CD and then by this the um Local District we had set graduation requirements such as um credits and amount of coursework um community service and anything set at the local level that students would have to also have to complete successfully if a student completed both of these things they then were able to earn a diploma at graduation as of January this is because of the ballot change um or the ballot question excuse me and the vote as of January
2025 the competency determination now has to be designated by local districts and so now it is on us as a local District to determine what is the CD and how do students earn it as well as continuing on with our local graduation requirements so on the next slide we see how this relates to policy and so our policy ikf is graduation requirements is our policy on graduation
requirements and so we are going to need to update the policy to include the CD language that we um agree upon and then the second thing to be very clear is that at this point in time we are not looking to change any local graduation requirements at the this time so everything related to local graduation requirements can and will stay the same as of right now on the next slide you will see our proposed CD
language and so um it's there on the screen for you and normally I wouldn't do this to you but I'm going to read it out loud so we all have it and can take a moment to process it so the proposed language that LPS is putting forth for CD is the satisfactory completion by earning a passing grade of the cours work listed below will serve as the students CD as defined by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and secondary education English 10 or equivalent or
higher and algebra one and geometry or equivalent or higher and biology or physics or chemistry or Technology and Engineering or equivalent or higher achieving CD means satisfactory completing coursework that has been certified by Littleton Public School as showing Mastery of the skills competencies and knowledge contained in the State academic standards and curriculum Frameworks this to get to this while seemingly brief statement um was a lot
of collaborative work by the LPS administrators as well as other districts because all districts in the state have to be working on this and so there were a lot of conversations happening across districts and while um many are very similar there was a lot of question conversation of what are you including and why are you including such things in creating our CD we ran through many different scenarios to ensure that our CD remains rigorous but also
accessible to all students and we believe that as it stands right now on the screen in front of you that it does do this and it does allow graduation Pathways to all students in Littleton and with that I'm happy to um answer any questions that you may have related to the CD I'm actually seeing a silver lining with this with regarding High School science because when the science mcast
at 10th grade was the graduation requirement um many districts were focusing heavily on biology as the thing that needed to be passed in order to graduate from high school to the point where Des was cons I don't know I forget if this actually happened but they were getting rid of the chemistry test because so few districts were adopting that one there wasn't a technology or engineering mcast so it forced districts
to really double down on biology as the science that was the focus in high school so now with this new competency determination all of the different domains of science are equally valued so I see that as a real win yeah ele it's interesting that you say that because they um were intentional in going back to the mcast of 2023 which included chemistry because in 2024 that was not an offering so it they did go
back an extra years so that way excuse me it was a bit more inclusive um of other Sciences good quick question um is there any work towards and I I appreciate all the work done here and this is a great start but is there any any work towards including civics or history in any kind of our our competency determinations uh so that our students you know leave leave leave school knowing there are three branches of government little
things like that sorry that was too sarcastic apologize no that's a that's a good question um so it's interesting that you bring that up because there is a lot of conversation around this um at the state level and across the different districts so as of right now the way the statue is written is that those are the assessments that we have to um certify the course work in right so the English the math and the science however this the actual regulation does say that at
some point the state can have us um have to certify competency in history and social sciences as well as World Language so the language is built into the regulation but the state is not requiring anything further at this point in time um at a recent Bessie which is the the board um that oversees desie um they did have a conversation about this and some of the immediate feedback was like let's let's transition and get ourselves kind of set up and then
re-evaluate what areas we are doing and if we want to add more areas and so um that was reaffirmed at a conversation today at the state level that the state does have the right to add other content areas in such as history and social sciences and World Language specifically um but at this point in time they are leaving it as we have written with the three content areas right now but that doesn't mean to staging that in the future that that is not an area that will be included I appreciate that and
and and I would encourage us to to be part of the the movement that that helps make that happen if there's if there needs to be it's I just think that's so important any other questions for Miss steel or comments from school committee members hearing none we'd like a motion to accept the competency determination plan as
presented I move to accept the competency determination plan as presented Mo by Janine seconded by Elaine it's funny I'm having to go off of uh verbal uh cues here because I can't see everybody so if I get it wrong let me know so motion made by Janine second by Lane this will be a roll call vote Janine Janine would yes elain elain sandlan yes Ben B Patel yes Stacy Stacy
Scott yes Justin McCarthy votes yes as well motion carries 550 perfect thank you very much our second presentation this evening is uh de uh sorry deib update director of student services Lyn snow and school Committee Member elain stelan will give an update on the EI sure thank you thank you Justin I'll actually um since my presentations are back to back
elen if if you'd like to start I'll hand it over to you and then I'll I'll jump in okay is your are your slides about the de the deib team meeting or is it about a different aspect of deib the meeting that we had last week it'll be a yes an overall kind of recap look back look forward look ahead yeah why don't you go first because then I'll just build on what you say all right yeah absolutely so um I don't have
slides this is just really wanting to give everybody a little bit of a kind of a recap a midpoint a reflection back and so just to reemphasize that um our goal is through that through our Collective efforts we're going to continue to strive towards a system that's Equitable for all and that we will work to ensure that this is embedded and practiced for all of our school community members and stakeholders in order to feel a sense of belonging and so for the 2425 school year our focus is on supporting the
efforts at each school and meeting quarterly to discuss and strategize and collaborate on how best to support these efforts um so reflecting back on now that we're at the midpoint of the year um I definitely want to emphas emphasiz the positive momentum that we've built over the past 5 years and so just to give you a quick look back um about how we started the year our first meeting in November was very well attended it
featured a productive Roundtable discussion where each of the principles shared their initiatives taking place at the schools and then during the session we encouraged participants to identify ways that they could contribute to supporting these initiatives we also emphas the importance of following up with the principles to offer assistance on projects that were of interest to them and that the time between meetings now is dedicated to into turning these discussions into meaningful action last year we talked a bit about senseless
acts of equity and this year marks the continued evolution of that work building on the foundation we've laid and and wanting to expand our impact so then we met um at the end of January and provided everybody with an opportunity to share how they've supported the respective schools in advancing the deib initiatives a couple of highlights were um the support that we've provided to parks and wreck as they've launched an offering of adoptive Sports of course
our continued participation in Playbook initiative um this is a quick aside an exciting evolution of that program is that this year uh all the districts are partnered up with another school district so we'll be taking our show on the road and bringing the students and trainers out to another District um next week and then we're in the midst of planning for a cross District Special Olympics day of games in May so there's been several meetings in between November and the end of January related to that and then our next steps are to
continue on this path um with a focus of on service so as we continue to advance our District's e Equity efforts I think it's essential to recognize that um true Equity is not only about the initiatives that we implement but also how we hold hold ourselves accountable to the students we serve and accountability is crucial to ensuring that our work has a meaningful impact um and so that will kind of tie into my presentation on the integrated monitoring review process
that I'll be educating everybody about um next but that's really all I I think I had um to share and then I'll just pass it over uh to you elain yeah thank you um yes so we met as a team the deib team last week and as Lynn was saying each each leader shared what was happening in their respective building regarding deib and it was a a wide AR range of different
initiatives um what was happening at Shaker Lane and russle Street mostly fell under the category of belonging which makes sense for that grade span um a lot of talk about the The Playbook initiative at the middle school and the high school um there were some one thing of interest to me was the um at the Russell Street talking about the essential questions for the Whitten and wisdom program which I thought were uh very thought-provoking so I'll share
them here so grade three is how to stories help us understand immigrants experiences so I think that's very important for viewing uh history through multiple perspectives grade four is why is it important to understand all sides of a story and five is how did the Civil War impact people so again it's it's telling the the history through all of the different people that were impacted by it so I think that's a really important um way
to uh an entry point for deib initiatives um but one thing I wanted to talk about it it did seem from my perspective that uh the schools were working on individual ini iives that didn't seem connected under a coherent plan everybody's following through on things with very good intentions and trying to build upon the training that they've received but for us as a
district to really be committed to deib I would love to see a more integrated plan with goals that we're working toward you know I looked at our vision statement which talks about evolv in toward a more diverse community and um I think that's that's wonderful language but it doesn't point us toward a certain goal so it made me think about the presentation I think it was at the
last school committee meeting about the the portrait of a learner and all of that work that's going on across the community between you know there's you've got teachers involved you got leaders involved I think you've got students involved too right um but you you You' already got the infrastructure set up where you're involving a cross-section of the community and I would love to see as part of that work to integrate more deib um initiatives that are articulated
across the grade spans and so at every school we're working on um smaller parts of a whole um so I and I know that the portrait of a learner is being integrated with the Strategic plan so I looked at the Strategic plan to see what the through lines were and part of our vision with the Strategic plan is promote an inclusive culture and climate that honors diversity and Equity models
respect responsibility integrity and accountability so that would be a great thing to align with uh one of our core beliefs is that everyone has the right to learn in a safe and secure environment that links to belonging and then um more specifically uh go standard three I mean I'm sorry stand standard four goal two ensure the district and schools are free from
discrimination and harassment and support student wellness so since all of that work with portrait of a learner is digging into the Strategic plan and trying to align it um I would like to propose that deib also be a focus point in that work so I wanted to throw that out and see what the rest of the folks thought sure thank you both for sharing uh Stacy you're back Stacy you have your
hand up I just wanted to recognize you if you had something to say yes thank you sorry I was just plugging in my computer um so I appreciate the work that you guys are doing and I just wanted to address maybe the elephant in the room in regards to kind of like the political climate in regards to Dei and I just wanted to maybe name or at least discuss that our district has not changed our perception in regards to
Dei um regardless of whatever political climate is out there um because this is a very important topic especially right now and it seems like you guys have done a lot of work in the past we've done a lot of work as a district and I just wanted to name the fact that that has not changed um that our our focus is still to make sure that all the kids feel safe and included and all of our families in the town um are are welcome and and are
safe in our district and I just wanted to at least name that or just call that out and just say that we know that things have changed but um in our district here at Littleton things remain the same and that we're here to protect the kids and their safety and their integrity and their comfort level here um so just wanted to name that thank you
for saying that Stacy I 100% agree well said Stacy thank you and sty I think that ties in so well to the work that we're doing this year and the focus of our efforts this year is because we really are moving into theory of action we are we are really taking the the conversations into to at the building level really taking the time and acting on those so that we can support and grow and evolve all of these
initiatives that are happening across all of the schools in so many different ways and and Stacey thank you apprciate that too because I as a community we have to protect that as a small community there's a lot of things going on in the world but as a small community I think our our everyone in this town like depends on us to keep that integrity and those a lot of those values protected and safe regardless of what's going on outside of
our little bubble um so I just I really appreciate that we continue with these efforts um and we have a stron holds on these efforts and that that those aren't changed or that there's no waiver in how strong that we are strongly that we are going to be like pursuing some of these things to just make sure that all the kids are kids and families are feeling safe and included we we are committed to to the safety and well-being of all schools or all students in all of our schools we're
not going to wave off that and this is who we are as an organization and and everything we do is is is tied into those areas we want every student to feel safe and supported in all of our schools that that's one of one of the the the key mandates that we have and it's really not a mandate it's a belief uh you know I'm thinking about the Deb and and and you know I've been in education long enough to know how in
acronyms are are created and often replace things that are already done in schools and and I'm going to go back 30 years and 30 years ago it wasn't called dib but good schools effective schools took care of all students all students were welcome uh we had an effective School movement then we had a a community school movement so these Concepts were alive and wow we didn't call it dib uh having said that though dib is is
interwoven into seal it's interwoven into our curriculum and I I I I really want to emphasize the the fact that it has to be a component in everything we we do I don't want dib compartmentalized in a box it needs to be within the the bigger circle of everything that we do within
our schools and I I do appreciate the the uh conversation elain about aligning it better with our strategic plan I I think it should be I think we can do that quite easily uh the new teacher rubric uh does what I've just said i' I've been we've been meeting with our Lea to negotiate the new teacher rubric and it is dispersed throughout the rubric there is no box that says deiv it it's it's
applied to to every aspect of of what good teaching is and what good schools are so I guess on that note maybe I can I can segue into into something similar that's interrelated you know we we have been in inundated with executive orders uh with with the new uh presidency and with that has has come a lot of uh discussion and and U training
for for superintendents and leaders throughout this state heavily relying on our lawmakers and our lawyers to interpret what these executive orders actually mean can they be implemented how far can they be implemented where is Congress in all of this and I mentioned that at the beginning of this meeting uh the Department of Education really needs to to be involved in in
uh determining with Congress what the next steps are it's written into law I don't believe that one individual can just eradicate a department that's written into law but having said that we're we're in new territory here and we're all trying to figure it out we have a very active AG's office we've met with them a number of times with the uh executive order that that pertains to uh new immigration laws and enforcement
of immigration laws uh our lawyers uh had a set of protocols for us to use prior to the executive order that uh came into place the protocols are designed to protect all students and that's what we're we're doing the AG's office uh 3 days later released some protocols uh to all school districts and guidelines that we're using uh all of those those protocols and guidelines uh have uh been given to our administrators we've we've talked to
them trained them our front-end staff all have those guidelines and protocols as well so I don't want anybody to think out there that if we ever did get a visit by Ice that they would have free access to our schools that's not the case there are protocols in place that have to be followed uh any anybody who wants to interview a child that pertains to immigration would not be entering the
school they would be sent to central office and dealing with uh either myself Beth Or Lynn and those protocols would be put in place at that time uh personal information personal student information by a third party we don't disclose that kind of information unless uh we have written permission from a parent so I just want everybody out there to to realize that that we do have have protocols uh and guidelines in place to to deal with the the new
executive order and we rely very heavily on the AG's office and and all the lawyers that are trying to interpret uh the Whirlwind of other executive orders that are out there and these things don't happen overnight I wish they did but there there's a lot of new things going on and and part of the challenge that that we're all facing is what is the process in terms of how these executive orders come into play and how are they debated and how are they implemented so
I think for the time being we're we're going to have to just just keep keep moving along and and relying on the expertise that we have in our field to uh help us maneuver uh whatever executive orders that are coming across the table that may or may not affect communities and schools so I just wanted to put that out there um it seems to be a topic of conversation uh ever since we we've had a change in in presidency and and uh has
taken a lot of everybody's time up as well thank you superintendent clenchy Stacy your hand is up would you wish to speak again uh yes so I like I I appreciate you I think giving us a little bit of comfort in knowing what the procedures and the protocols are in the schools in regards to like what your staff has been trained to do given a lot of the changes that we have going on um I think my only question for you
is do we have kind of like a secondary backup for understanding if if the LPD involved in if we have someone at the school who is maybe not following our protocols legally yes like what are like there's a buffer there's like a there's a very gray area of like our procedures
and our protocols versus maybe federal or state procedures and protocols and and how do we protect the kids while we figure that out without I think izing the kids is kind of what I'm asking is like do you have any relationship with LPD like how are we how are we dealing with that great question and yes we do they have been given all the protocols as well and uh our you know my
expectation as a superintendent of schools is that you know these Protocols are what we're using in our district so we would you know we've we've asked for their support if uh we do end up in a situation where where we do need their support and and and you have to these people that that may be coming into our schools are are well versed in the laws and it's our job to make sure that that that the laws are enforced the way they should be enforced and and so i' I've had a
conversation uh with the chief and and definitely on board with with what we're doing so I'm glad that you brought that up good Stacy yeah yeah as long as long as the staff feels supported and like understanding like they can defer to someone who has some validity or like something that gives them some rooting and like yes or no I just I want to make
sure that they they feel confident that they have someone to back them up when they say like you have to wait until so and so gets here and they can kind of stand strong and knowing and feeling comfortable with that without feeling threatened that's our other staff have have already uh had conversations with their administrators and they are to refer anybody to the office and that and at that time the office would refer them to central
office so have we have clear procedures in place we we don't want anybody uh dealing with with a third party in our schools uh without knowing the protocols and and and those protocols have to come from from the Administration or the front-end staff and then that and then it directly comes to central office so we we have we have a set of expectations Stacy I think that's what you're asking and people are well versed in those and and that's the thir first
thing we were thinking about is you know our schools have around 80 staff in each school and we have to make sure that the staff know what's expected of them in these situations so we've gone over that with them yes yes so I I want to make sure that like if somewh someone were to come up to Dorothy's desk and say I have a badge to do this that she could she could comfortably say no you have to I have the support of our town
LPD you cannot do that that's that's all I just want to make sure that our staff they understand they not only understand the protocol but feel supported by being able to like stand by that protocol and not just be like uh I don't know I this makes me feel really uncomfortable that's the only thing to make sure that they no it's pretty black and white and and uh I mean there there are so many different avenues that that we have to be well versed in in this area so
it's not just a matter of showing up it's what they show up with and and that will ascertain our next moves so I feel good about the protocols uh I don't think anybody would would feel that they wouldn't be backed up at this point in time uh Litton Police Department would be involved if if uh somebody was not doing what was expected of them within the within the framework of the law so elen yeah thanks um Stacy thank you for
elevating that that was something that was on my mind too um the other thing I wanted to highlight is um sort of the other aspect of deib where there's a there's a lot of toxic Lang language coming from the current Administration and it's swirling around in social media and it's sort of infiltrating our culture right now um and which is why
deib has has become more of a concern something that I'm thinking about with our school district almost as a way to strengthen our ability to um highlight our core values with our students so that if they do do start hearing um you know some racist or bigoted or exclusionary language that they will be have a strong enough grounding through the
deib um initiatives in our district that they will feel like they can make good decisions and push back that that this um toxic stew that's that we're sort of simmering in right now will you know we'll we'll be a little more immune from it if we really Elevate our actions in the district and make sure that students understand our core values and are supported in actions that they take to
implement those so that's why I was thinking about how can we Elevate our deib initiatives how can we integrate it more into all of the things that we're doing so that it it really um strengthens our students abilities to push back when they know something's not right that's a great point and and I mean the work that we do every day exemplifies exactly what you're talking about and and I I agree that that we
need a perhaps maybe even a heightened awareness of we all know what's happening it's pretty hard not to and and we will work with our students continue to work with our students so that they feel comfortable uh addressing those situations The Playbook initiative is a prime example of student engagement in action and you know having that should bring great comfort to all of us because this isn't nature oriented this is this is student student uh
Grassroots initiatives that that focus on dib so we're definitely headed in the right direction but as as you all know uh we have a a set of values uh that we live by within our school district those values are shared by the majority of the community but I would I would uh not make the statement that those values are shared by all of our community so there there is an
opportunity to have a disagreement in in in terms of values in certain areas uh we're cognizant of that and that that's that was in existence far before what we're doing dealing with uh now so the key is to to give our students the skill sets and and the critical thinking skills to be able to uh Advocate and treat everybody with respect and and I think we're doing we are doing a good job of that but that's
something that we we we just can't take for granted it needs it needs continual work as we move forward good thank you um I'd like to offer my two cents if that's okay um and I don't want to reiterate a lot of points made and go round and round but um I think it's an important topic obviously Stacy thank you for calling this out and I think we did a pretty good job of um talking about littleton's culture and how this is important um to us it's a core value
we tried to stay away from the politics the best we can um I heard us talk about students should feel safe I feel like that's um pretty low on the totem pole that's sort of like in a if you don't feel safe how could you possibly be in a learning environment so I think um striving to celebrate diversity within the community working towards um all our students feeling included a sense of belonging that only just that only elevates our students
opportunity for Success so um we're not talking about how government contracts get signed and um offices employment takes place we're talking about taking care of our 13 1400 students and putting them in the best environment to become exceptional Global Citizens so I think you're right elain it probably is the time to sort of double down on our efforts to just say doesn't matter what's happening outside inside Littleton Public Schools we want to make
sure that this remains a focus so that we can all take care of one another um if for some crazy reason like we weren't able to use deib anymore as an acronym the core values are still going to remain there so we would just like you were saying Kelly it used to be called the sense of community or whatever it was that's going to take place um that needs to take place and I feel confident as a school committee member with the central office and the um Administration and staff that we have
in place that we're doing a darn good job with it but it's never ending work because every year uh a third or a quarter of the student population changes out of the building and there's just new stuff popping up on social media every day and um it's tireless work but it's it's really it's really really important work so we need to uh continue with these efforts make sure that the curriculum that we choose um to
administer has this built in and it's interwoven throughout um day-to-day Concepts and that we welcome opportunity for student voices to be heard um and a in an environment where people are willing to listen and if we feel that there's a situation where that's you know um boiling up or there's Behavior or language that's inappropriate we need
to take Swift action that that's what I would say to the administration is like Swift action please just get to the bottom of it um we're all we all have best intentions and sometimes um what are we where educating a lot like 5year olds 18 year olds you know they're they're learning themselves they're um they're they're doing the best they can and sometimes they need to be redirected or steered in the right direction so I um thank you for everyone's words
you know happy to hear from you if you have anything to add to the conversation if not that's quite all right and we can move on to the next topic I don't know that there's much I can add I really appreciate the conversation and what everyone has and the commitment to the work um versus the letters themselves and I think that's such a good point is it's the actual work and the actions that we're doing um and I think that's a really important distinction in this day and age and
that's what the commitment is sort of resounding and resonating here um so really appreciate that and I think Kelly to the this um roller coaster of a ride in terms of funding uh because I know certainly in the nonprofit World there was a minute where we all thought we had lost all our funding and then we didn't and so I think there is still more uh conversation to be had there and preparation and I appreciate Littleton especially just being so fiscally
responsible that we are um but also to keep us updated and keep an eye on on the evolvement of that hopefully there is none but I I'm just I just think we should be prepared thank you V all right I'm seeing some noddings of the nodding heads are we good with this one all right great all right we'll move on to our third presentation which is uh tiered Focus monitoring and integrated
monitoring review uh OA civil rights F director of student services ly snow will give a review on the tiered Focus monitoring and integrated monitoring process thank you Justin and I actually think you really set the stage for this because I think you know our initiatives need to be embedded into everything that we do um and you know Jesse loves to change acronyms all the time we'll talk about this now they've done done that many times and so to me I don't care
what we call it it's what we do and I think this I hope is um being able to shift the focus to a critical aspect of the work that we do um and that's Department of Ed's program review on on civil rights special education and English language Learners we're entering a review cycle in all three of these areas this year into next year accountability reviews are such an integral part of um a District's
commitment to equity and they help us assess how effectively we're meeting the needs of all students especially those from historically marginalized groups they provide us with the opportunity to reflect adjust and ensure that every student has equal access to the high quality education they they deserve so um you know some of this sometimes gets a little bit boring but it's it's exciting work for me because it really does demonstrate or help us to demonstrate how we do what we do and
then show us areas where we need to continue to grow our learning edges that we always expect that we will have but it helps us kind of drive that take that path forward um so Steve if you could bring up the slides I will shift us over to that okay I see the slides I don't know if anyone else yep I can yeah I was
gonna say they should be up can everybody see them yep yep I think you're on my second slide okay well that's okay um so oh okay there we go so um this is uh surprisingly well maybe not surprisingly my 27th year in working in public schools in Massachusetts desie has revamped the process of District reviews a number of times um you know I
like to think that they just want to keep things exciting and new for us so we don't get bored um so we'll go into oh and the striketh through is intentional we are moving away from teered Focus monitoring into targeted and focused monitoring and an integrated monitoring review process I'll talk about that as we go on so um you can move to the next slide please thanks Steve um we'll go over I'll go over the Department's Department of the Ed's division of public school monitoring and
then provide a process overview of the targeted and focused monitoring in the a areas of English learner education as well as the process of the integrated monitoring review in the areas of civil rights and special education next slide and I'll also talk about the timeline of of these processes so um the role of PSM so in Massachusetts the role of public school monitoring is within a unit of the Department of
Elementary and secondary Ed desie and it involves overseeing the performance and compliance of public schools across the state so they're responsible for ensuring that schools meet state and federal education standards implementing policies evaluating the effectiveness of educational programs the monitoring includes conducting assessments reviewing school reports ensuring Equitable access to Quality education and then providing support for
improvement where needed the goal is to maintain High educational standards and ensure that schools are providing a safe effective and inclusive learning environment for all students next slide so why IMR and not TFM desie made the transition from tiered Focus monitoring to integrated monitoring reviews this was in response to the need to fully align with the office of special education programs oeps requirements under the individuals with
disabilities Education Act ID known as idea so the change aimed to ensure that the state's monitoring processes were more comprehensive streamlined and focused on outcomes for all students particularly those with disabilities um well just as a quick aside this year is going to be idea's 50th birthday uh which is which is exciting but it's also important to know it is um it has been amended and reauthorized reauthor
reauthorized multiple times um but is Still Still Remains um and so back to talking about how the transition was made so oap creates very clear guidelines as far as how States need to Monitor and support the implementation of special education services Desi shift to integrated monitoring aim to meet those Federal requirements by aligning monitoring activities related to special education with broader educational and
and accountability systems so the integration ensures that uh both academic and special education compliance are part of the same review process that's the integrated piece in line with ep's emphasis on improving results for students with disabilities so previously desie conducted separate monitoring processes for different aspects of school performance such as student outcomes special education services and overall School accountability the tiered Focus
monitoring system involve different levels of scrutiny based on a school's performance in specific areas but with the integrated monitoring views Desi Consolidated these processes and their intention is to eliminate re hopefully redundancy in making the overall system more efficient I'm hopeful and cautiously optimistic and I'll certainly update you once um we've go through the full cycle and have had the experience with the new integrated monitoring review process so just as another aside
prior to the tiered Focus monitoring which is previously known as TFM we had what was called the coordinated program review and we are essentially kind of moving back into U more of a coordinated review approach and that combines multiple as aspects of school performance and other key performance indicators in one cohesive process so the integrated review process emphasizes the identifications of strengths and areas for improvement ensuring that Desi can provide targeted technical
assistance to schools the process the focus on continuous Improvement directly supports ep's goal of increasing outcomes for students with disabilities and promoting um systemic changes that benefit all students and to better align with their focus on stakeholder engagement desie worked to incorporate feedback from various stakeholders including School leaders teachers families advocacy groups into the integrated monitoring process and this feedback is to help Desi identify priorities and ensure that the monitoring process addresses the
needs of all students particularly those with disabilities so just to summarize the shift from integrated monitoring reviews by Desi it was a strategic move to streamline the oversight processes enhance coordination across educational areas I'll talk about that in a bit and then fully comply with ep's guidelines for improving outcomes for students with disabilities while ensuring accountability for all students um in massachusett schools you can move to the next slide so this emphasis reflects um des's
ongoing commitment to ensuring Equitable access to Quality education and meeting federal and state mandates and improving student outcomes in particular key areas so one highlight of the 2526 reviews will be looking at mcast alt so generally speaking that means that they're looking to ensure that districts don't have a significantly disproportionate number of students that are placed on the alternative assessment another um highlight of the review would be looking at the child
requirement under idea which mandates that school districts identify locate and evaluate children with disabilities who are in need of special education services including those who are not yet enrolled in school and so focusing on District child find helps ensure that all students who require special education and related services are identified early and then also um another highlight will be the inter looking at the integration of cross-unit collaboration particularly between problem the problem resolution system
and the office of language acquisition which I referred as PRS and OA acronyms highlighting des's commitment to addressing complex issues more more holistically PRS is just to give you a quick snapshot they're responsible for resolving disputes related to special ed including um complaints mediation anything that's due process effective collaboration with PRS ensures that problems related to special ed services such as those impacting students with disabilities they're quickly identified and
addressed and then OA focuses on supporting our English language Learners and ensuring that they receive Equitable access to educational opportunities so many English Learners also have disabilities so that cross-unit collaboration helps to ensure that these students receive the appropriate Services under both special education and under English language acquisition Frameworks and so the emphasis on mcast Al District child find and cross-role abor during the 2526 integrated mon
reviews it reflects des's focus on ensuring that all students receive appropriate services and aims to improve improve educational outcomes promoting equity and also ensuring compliance with state and federal regulations move to the next slide and so with regard to the process there's a large scale document um upload related to three special education indicators to des's um new online platform called champ so um there'll be
a very large document upload related to indicator um 11 which is a school district's response to a parental request for IND for um for educational evaluation um the frequen of reevaluation and then also looking at progress reports and content so this year we're group a and so there's a pre-review checklist for special education um Jesse calls it a checklist but that checklist is a 60 Page Long document that helps guide districts
through the pre-review process because there's no longer a self- assessment component for special education that has been eliminated um and then there's a student record review that looks at 30 31 different Criterion that are reviewed with regard to the IEP kind of process and compliance and then there's a a very large document review where they're looking at 13 different um Criterion so you can move into the next slide so the integrated monitoring
process it is inclusive of a discovery phase an engagement phase and then a closeout phase the discovery phase includes data collection and indicator submissions the engagement phase involves upload and review of our procedural manual an on-site visit a record review and then desie prepares a report um which then is followed by the closeout phase and that incorporates a corrective action plan for any areas of finding that the department um
issues and go to the next slide just to give you an idea of how the process unfolds temporally um I'll just walk you through the timeline so from February to May of of this school Year we will conduct our civil rights self assessment because even though there's no self assessment in the area of special ed there is still remain there's still is a self assessment for our civil rights and then we'll be uploading um our documents for
indicators 11 12 and 13 and that due date is May 15th and then throughout the spring and and throughout the summer it's a very busy time because we'll be doing um the Lea which is the school district we'll be doing our uploads um desie will be doing data review and then there's ongoing communication so there's a lot of back and forth where Des is looking at uploads they're coming back they might have comments they might ask for more they might say we need X Y and Z so it's a very kind of interactive process at that point and then um moving
into February of 2026 they're going to look at our special education policies and procedures and then they're going to be looking um they're going to be doing their review for compliance and then in March of 2026 they'll do an on-site record review they'll come in they'll do observation site visits and then they'll do a whole series of of interviews next slide and so then that from there that's when desie does their internal review
they work on um produce Drafting and producing the report through April 2026 they will issue the report by May of 2026 and then beyond that for a year's time there could be a corrective action plan um timeline and then if if there are corrective actions then there's Pro progress reporting that's associated with that so that's the whole kind of cycle of of this review it's it's a very um it's very comprehensive and it's very
in-depth next slide so with regard to these three specific indicators um it looks at um special at 11 looks at school district's response to a parental request for evaluation and this this indicator establishes compliance with child find requirements and it ensures that children are evaluated in a timely fashion indicator 12 establishes compliance with part C to Part B transition requirements is outlined in
idea and that means the part C to Part B transition refers to the process in um idea where a child who has been receiving early intervention services under what's called part c um for infant and to toddlers birth to age three transitions to the special education services provided under Part B of idea so the it's we call it our turning three transition um and so then the transition process is when a child turns two years
old in nine months and so that gives us time for evaluations planning coordination to ensure a smooth shift in Services because um we are required to be ready to deliver and serve um students at B at their third birthday and then indicator 13 is related to transition planning and services and that's um for students aged 14 to 22 and so those also um ensure that we're conforming to the
requirements of state and federal law and so that's indicator 13 is defined as the percentage of students age 14 and above it's during the the IEP year where they turn 14 um that have an IEP and that's when we start to include appropriate measurable annually updated postsecondary goals based on um age appropriate assessments transition services that will reasonbly reasonably enable students to U meet those post-secondary goals based on their
vision and then evidence that the student was also invited to the IEP team meetings because once they're age 14 they become um a member of the IEP team um and that if appropriate a represent resentative of any participating agency whether it be um DDS D um dmh or um mass rehab Adult Services that they were also invited to participate in these in these meetings and so um that kind of gives
the a little bit of a snapshot of of those three indicators so you can move to the next slide and so for the Civil Rights component because group a is focused on identification IEP develop programming and our Support Services there's three document review criteria and items related to civil um civil rights so the Civil Rights Criterion three that's related to ensuring equal access to education this addresses the
availability of information and academic counseling about about both General curricular options and occupational and Vocational opportunities for students and so this Criterion is designed to make sure that all students regardless of back background or disability status have access to information and guidance to make an informed decision about their education and future career paths and so this means that schools have to provide students with information about various academic subjects with regard to the general curriculum as well as vocational
and Career Training options it includes making students aware of the full range of educational opportunities available including different academic tracks honors AP courses and vocational training programs for instance job Readiness program technical courses um students need to have access to comprehensive counseling services that help them understand their educational options and how to succeed academically and that includes um counseling that helps students choose courses plan their
academic path and makes make decisions that align with their future goals whether those include future academic Pursuits or entering the workforce and so um there is uh another part that ensures that students are informed about vocational education career Pathways that may be available such as technical training programs apprenticeships and other career focused options and not just a college preparatory pathway and this ensures that students particularly those interested or needing vocational education are aware of programs that can
prepare them for careers after school and help them gain relevant schools so um just to summarize that it's about in um Criterion 3 is about ensuring equal access to the important educational information and guidance that help students make informed decisions about about their academic education and career Pathways and so it ensures that no student is left without access to the resources and supports necessary to prepare for Life After School whether through college or direct entry into the workforce Criterion 14 ensures that
counseling services and counseling materials are free from bias and stereotypes so this Criterion is designed to promote fairness and equality in how students are advised and supported in their academic and career planning and to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed regardless of their background or identity um so Counseling Services need to be provided without discrimination based on characteristics such as race gender disability socioeconomic status or cultural background counselors need
to offer guidance that's individualized focusing on a student's interest strengths and goals rather than assumptions based on stereotypes for instance assuming a girl won't be interested in science or technology or that a certain race group is more suited for specific careers counseling materials free from bias and stereotypes so this means our counseling materials could incl which could include like books handouts websites videos must also be free from bias and stereotypes um for examples U materials shouldn't s
shouldn't S suggest that certain groups are suited for specific academic or career paths um or that um for for instance suggesting that women are only are are more well sued suited for like teaching or nursing or that certain ethnic groups are more likely to work in manual labor materials should be inclusive and represent a wide range of roles professions and achievements that reflect the diversity of the student body and this is really important because this promotes equality it ensures that students are not unfairly
steered into certain academic paths um and it encourages diverse opportunities because by removing bias and and stereotypes students are empowered to explore a full range of academic and Vocational opportunities it's supports inclusion it helps Foster an inclusive environment where all students feel respective respected so um in essence the Civil Rights Criterion 14 ensures that both the counseling process and the materials used are Equitable inclusive and free from any form of
discrimination and for um for the Criterion 18 the review is going to focus not exclusively but we'll focus on our early literacy screening whether the school district has procedures demonstrating that at least twice per year the district assesses reading ability and progress in literac literacy skills for all students in kindergarten through at least third grade using a valid developmentally appropriate screening instrument approved by the department it looks at whether the procedures ensure that when uh a student
is determined to be significantly below relevant benchmarks for age typical development in specific literacy skills that the school determines which actions within the general education program will meet the students needs incl including differentiated or supplement supplementary evidence-based reading instruction and ongoing monitoring of progress and it also looked that whether the procedures ensure that when there is a screening result that is significantly below the relevant benchmarks that the school informs the students parents and
guardian of the screening results as well as the school's response and offers them the opportunity for a follow-up discussion okay next slide so the El TFM review process is um a targeted Focus monitoring review process and so that we do have a district self assessment on in that area and so we'll do um a record review and submission there will be a document review and submission and um we do
completion of the castenada test which looks and ensures it's a three-prong test that looks at at our curriculum ensures that it meets all of the standards and then um OA does a a desk review which reviews our district and school self ass assessments they review our um data specific to student outcomes to and looks at equal access they review our student record documents and they identify um different review activities and so there's a range of on-site or virtual review activities because we're
a lowi incidence District we will have um a a virtual review there won't be an on-site review um and then they do also provide a report um and then they disseminate that and then there is a continuous monitoring um an improvement plan and appro approval similar to the special ed in civil rights review process um and then there's progress reports associated with that as well go to the next slide so um for the
self assessment we perform the following activities we select a sample of Student Records it will likely be the majority of our records given our size they review each individual student record we enter individual student results into an online system and then um there summary responses and then they Desi will conduct the El document review but we also conduct a um an El document review because it's a self assessment process next
Slide the review Focus areas are going to look at our English Learners our former our Fels which is our former English Learners are opt outs opt outs are students um whose par have opted them out of the the program and then they also look at um our translation and interpretation to ensure that we are providing access to um all correspondents in um a family's home language and we Al they're also going to
be looking at our English Learners with disabilities and so um when they review our records it's just important that the records um have a proportional representation across all of the focus areas next slide and so the data for the OA reviews are going to look at growth in English language acquisition the number and percentage of English Learners who are making progress towards achieving their English um their English learner proficiency and so um that and that
looks at Exit criteria support monitoring and this helps um Educators track the progress of students who have um transitioned out of the program they'll also look at additional indicators so they'll look at our Fel and ever fail performance on mcast as compared to non-l performance on mcast and they're doing that to look at um disproportionality to just ensure that there's um that there's not a discrepancy between they're going to look at dropout rate graduation rate for our English Learners and the proportion
of identification of English learners for special ed so they want to ensure that um that the right number of English Learners are identified with um disabilities and that there's not a significant disproportion disproportionality there but also on the flip side making sure that we're not inadvertently overidentifying a second language learner need as a disability um and then they also look at suspension rates are are English Learners more likely to be suspended than non-english
Learners next slide and so uh that takes us through the Journey of compliance and accountability reviews in the areas of special Special Education civil rights and um office of language acquisition thank you very much Miss Snow questions or
comments everyone's just blown away see oh Ela has her hand up okay thanks Ela it's nice having the the hand function so I don't feel like I'm just buding in um but it thank you for that really comprehensive explanation I'm so grateful that we have you in our district Lynn with your Mastery of the ins and outs of this process um it it sounds like you've got a lot of work on your plate coming up um going through this this whole process so I'm uh thank
you in advance for what you're about to go through um how it's a team effort everybody is involed team um how how often does this come up does every District um fall into a cycle with these evaluations these review three Cycles so this is so so our our on-site year is technically 25 26 and so this is like the preparation but this is document upload that Civil Right self
assessment piece um the pre-review so that's this year next year will be our on-site and then the third year of that cycle is if there's you know if there's corrective actions or there's a plan that's the progress reporting phase do you I'm just curious with all of this information that you need to pull together for desie do you feel that there's a beneficial aspect to you in the district and in uh having me in the district I hope so no no no no I mean this process oh of course there's no the
the process of going through this review like do you find that there's I mean is this does this feel like just reporting to you or do you feel like there are beneficial aspects to you know things learn about the district so I've been through coordinated program review process I've been through um tiered Focus monitoring this will be you know everybody's first go as an integrated monitoring review which from my experience um seems more commenor it
with the coordinated program review um the integrated the I mean the tiered Focus monitoring our last cycle it's an it's an iterative process for sure there's back and forth It's a supportive process um I believe the same to be true going forward it's it is a you know it is a lot of work there are depends on when you ask me there's certainly times where you're like I'm just uploading like hundreds of documents are they reading them are they you know um but to me I'm
I'm a big fan of compliance and accountability I think that it's important for us to be self assessing I think it's important for us to be reviewing our policies and procedures and and and ensure that we're living them and that they're not just you know static documents that are on a website and the the the review process helps ensure that by showing evidence um to to show how we're living it these these policies and regulations that we that
all districts have great thank you Kelly thank you Justin I I actually used the raised hand awesome uh Ela I'm glad you said that because that there is some Merit having somebody come in and and look at your process uh your recordkeeping your documentation as we
all know IEP is IEPs within a district uh are are complex at times and in the recordkeeping and and retrieval of data is so important so when they come in and and just pull files it's it's a good way to to test our skills in terms of making sure that that everything uh is in compliance and the reflective component of it is is huge but I have to say all all these
additional expectations and accountability come without added staff and when we're we're spending a lot of time in that domain because there's something every year uh uh it does at times take away our ability to be more visible within within the district and the schools and there's no easy answer to it I mean it's we we can't just go out and start hiring staff because uh you know we need staff to upload data and on and on and on uh we
try to make sure that if we're going to spend money uh the money we spend is going to touch the classroom I me our focus is to make sure that we improve opportunities for students and perhaps sometimes we we uh need to review that and and and we'll see how this goes there may be come there may come a point in time where we do need additional help I know Lynn has uh the the ability and has taken taken that offer up to bring
uh somebody in to help her upload data Etc we are fortunate to have a retired superintendent to was also a school committee chair for many years uh she's retired now and and uh you know likes to keep busy every now and again so she's been a huge help in some of these reviews with us oh you
muted Justin I think you're muted you you couldn't read my lips that was a funny face like we almost got through the meeting without somebody doing that um I was saying another example of the many hats that you wear within the district so thank you for all the hard work that you do for sure it's definitely a learning process we we learn a lot but we're also doing self- audits um continually because we know these these reviews are
coming so you know the goal is for us to be well positioned for them they're time consuming but um The Hope is that if we're always going through cycles of of self-review self assessment self-reflection then we're in a better position and we're we're more we're more ready for those big cumbersome timec consuming document uploads because you know we know what's coming we're prepared perfect any other comments
questions seeing none we'll move on to our fourth presentation for the evening which I bet is gonna be a quick one uh Financial update business manager Steve Mark will provide an update says five minutes but I bet you the over Ender is two but take your time there we go I was muted sorry about that um so good evening everyone um financial report is in your packet it's
on the screen I'll start with this um there's there's no major area of concern at this point in time uh we have a couple of areas that I'll talk about a couple of minor things that when you put them together together kind of add up um but um there's no uh major concerns at this point in time uh budget wise uh we we do have some areas of interest that we're um keeping an eye on um our natural gas um utility bills um
are uh more than we anticipated at this point in time for a couple of factors uh we've had some uh very uh unusually below zero cold nights that we've been dealing with with um that's part of one of the items that we can't control uh that in combination with uh the N national g uh National Grid um has put some price increases in on the supply side of things uh you probably notice in your own home natural gas bills that
those prices have significantly gone up uh we're experiencing the same thing uh in the schools so um we're keeping an eye on it again we're not overly concerned at this point in time but wise but it is an area that we're keeping an eye on um we've also had some uh equipment failures in uh some of the C in some of the kitchens uh we had uh an equipment failure at the Shaker Lane School uh and and some an equipment
failure at the Middle School uh the shakan one um we uh repaired it at this point in time we're watching it um we don't want to make a major investment into a piece of equipment at the um cholane school at this point in time we believe the repair is going to get us through for a couple of years um but um we're watching that um the Middle School uh we had a major piece of uh kitchen equipment uh fail about a month ago and
we've been analyzing and determining what's the best route for that um and that's uh still kind of in process we're going to make a decision next week and and move forward on that but um those were the the shakol lane was the dishwasher to replace that dishwasher was about $40,000 uh to repair it was um I think around seven uh so we opted to repair it and uh the technician says it should be
good for a couple more years so we're hoping that'll last um through whatever the new building project is so th so that's an area of concern um again all of these all of these individually are are are small um issues but when you when you put them together uh they can add up um Road Sal or or sidew salt um honestly we're having a hard time getting it it's all been um kind of sucked up from the south and all the storms they've had and so
when we can get it the prices are up um if we can get it sometimes we'll limit it on how much we can buy at a time um so we're we're seeking alternate uh sources um Supply sources on that and and um searching for lower prices on that too but um believe it or not the price of eggs is way up you've seen at home um so our kitchen staff and Leah botco is is uh constantly um doing their best to keep
the prices down uh for um the supplies that they need to to buy um but we got quoted a price for eggs the other day 15 dozen eggs for $300 yes that's $20 a dozen um so um Leia botco is is making menu adjustments around some of those increased prices uh for supply and demand and things like that so um again it there areas of interest and concern
we're not concerned financially really in the budget at this point in time but those are our areas that we're keeping an eye on so um I know they seem again kind minor uh when you take them individually but when you put them all together um it can be some significant dollars that we have to make up within our budget this year so um that's all I have for tonight I'd be glad to answer any questions questions for
Steve Steve could you just touch on the capital projects that we looked to uh take care of this year and if what's still outstanding or are they all wrapped up uh so we have um a number of capital projects that we planning this summer um there are three rooftop units at the high school that were uh went out to bid on um their units are being
ordered those are scheduled to be installed by the contractor over the summer as soon as school gets out uh we're looking to replace um and we're working now with the engineer on the bid documents we're looking to replace three unit three rooftop units at the middle school um these are units that provide air conditioning and heating in certain areas and then uh there's two units that provide heat for the gymn the middle
school gymnasium and the locker rooms uh those are there's two units there they're redundant to each other uh they're both original to the building uh require quite a bit of Maintenance lately so we're going to try to replace one of them uh this summer um we're doing some sidewalk repairs at the Russell Street School we are doing um some flooring replacement at the high school um the
the main hallway at the high school we're going to take up and replace the VCT tiles um they're showing their age and deteriorating and things like that so that needs to be done so uh those those are the biggest projects we have some little minor things we're doing uh as well um some screen replacement at the Russell Street School a couple of doors need to be uh replaced and adjusted but um those are the the big projects that we're dealing with thank you all right thank you
everyone can I just ask for clarification do you say $20 a dozen for that's what we got quoted for Price $20 a dozen for eggs yes that's but don't we get like Federal like doesn't the don't the schools get like some type of nothing $20 a dozen yeah we we we declined we not we didn't do it but that's the the the price of eggs has gone ridiculous as everybody knows so yeah I just want to make sure I heard
that yeah you heard correctly I questioned that too but that's yeah we declined that we declined to place that order so we're looking elsewhere so all right thank you I know it's crazy isn't it yeah it is crazy I saw the the lettuce uh the hydroponic lettuce experiment maybe we need to become chicken Farmers as well make a couple
bucks um or just go vegan not gonna help with that but we have plenty of fields that probably need some some picking all right uh we've got one order of old business here so including everyone's packet tonight the financial policies working group discussion um I've been asked to pick this topic up again to get us to move forward with it potential motion this evening to accept in the packet I just want to clarify or ask for a clarification looks like there's two copies in here I think maybe the first copy was um some suggested edits to the
document and potentially some uh edits that c resulted from the conversation we had the first time and then is the second copy the clean copy that was presented to us yes okay so if you folks remember um we visited this topic I don't know four or five meetings ago uh there was a financial policies working group formed that did some work over the summer I was a um school committee representative it was a 10,000 foot view
as to how um Town finances should operate um the idea there is boards change over people come and go um this document should live with the town and and be updated as needed but uh it's a great place for select board members finance committee members school committee members to start so they get an understanding of um how the town's looking to uh use our resources there were a couple areas in particular that
um were school committee school department focused and um I wanted you know revisit them shed some more light on them Janine and I have essentially along with the help of Kelly and Steve of course lived this document as we've gone through the budgetary cycle and we've had a lot of conversations with finance committee members uh select board members and um formally presented our budgetary as for
2526 fiscal year so My Hope Is that we can talk through this this evening and um my my true intention is to um talk through through the changes that were discussed and actually hopefully receive a motion on the clean version that was presented to us from the financial policies working group if we feel strongly that we need to make an edit we can uh vote that through this evening and then it'll have to go back to the select board and finance committee for
them to then approve the document with our edit as well and um and then all three boards will be in unison as to uh how this should work but um kind of taking this from the top Justin if you want these on the minut yeah why don't you throw up the uh why don't start with the edited version so page one of
this if you see it okay there we go all right shows up kind of small um and I'm little literally trying to move it with my finger on my screen but it's your screen so the uh section 25 in particular relates to the school department the first paragraph basically is stating that we a large portion of the budget it's uh imperative that we would maintain a close working relationship with the select board and
finance committee there were no suggest yet it's there I think everybody's in agreement the um second paragraph here is the school department shall follow the budgetary guidelines is outlined that annual budgetary message or budget message we added to the extent such guidelines are not in conflict with applicable law or school committee policy budget timelines and current practices I will say that that is a um that's an assumption on behalf of the
select board and finance committee as well um so that L that isn't impli that's implied within that statement there what they're asking us to do is when they formulate when we formulate our budget we should do so with the understanding of where town finances are and of course they want us or they need us to comply with certainly um state law and uh timelines as it relates to Desi and all that stuff um we've gone ahead
and amended our budget presentation for the select board and finance committee already um as presented um at the Joint meeting to include ude the data um as as written here um in this document so we presented prior Year's um budgeted numbers versus actual and then showed uh the budgeted current year and what our budget is for the following
year um we added the word town finance director again I believe I think that's also implied [Music] um we the third the last paragraph on this page um applies to um revolving funds which was also part of the presentation so not only are we to um think about disclose discuss uh the appropriate the appropriated funds
but um in in order you know to provide transparency um during that presentation we should disclose the levels of our revolving funds the historical use of revolving funds and the anticipated balances um so there were no issues with that if we flip to the next page there's a section here on school choice which all of the school committee members are pretty familiar with um we
have school choice seats we're a school choice District we collect Revenue um from the students that choose to participate in our school district we've worked hard um at maintaining those seats and offering them and we are the beneficiary of students coming into the district school choice funds um are there for a reason they're predominantly there to help offset extraordinary expenses that might um arise due to uh out of District spends or special
needs cases the um where we're all in agreement that uh we should carry at least a minimum 5% balance of our budget within school choice and that uh the target budget should there should be about 10% so there were no no changes there um there's some language there about instances and onetime spends which there wasn't any issue prepayment of expenses I can add some clarification here in speaking with
the um finance committee so one of the expenses that we are legally allowed to prepay for um is is the wording in here um it just says certain costs but it's um is it specifically out of District um tuition or is it uh special education cost Steve it's special education out of
District tuition okay both of them or one in the same so um the they felt like we've in the event that we are uh able to we have it puts us in a better better shape financially for the following year because it gives us a little bit of a cushion the point that they're trying to make here is don't not spend them like once you start that pattern the fear from the the town side was don't take a year off and then
fold that money into your operating budget like don't spend it elsewhere and I and I kind of looked at them um a bit surprised that they would think that that was something that we would entertain because that automatically um inflates our budget without notifying anybody and I was like no no no like if we were ever in a situation where we felt like we were tight we just wouldn't prepay and then we would pay the following year um out of those dedicated dollars and they were like oh our fear was that you were actually gonna use
that money elsewhere so um having talked that through um I don't have any concerns about the language um as it was initially presented to us because um um I understand the context of it now and they understand um our context the big hot button here I think was the chapter 75 um and Janine you can certainly hop in on this as well and I try to think of a couple of analogies here and hopefully they don't bomb but um the way that we
present our budget to the town is we ask for total dollars to achieve um all of the programming and the success that we we wish to have for the following year and the town signs off on that there are a number of funding sources that are going to help us uh achieve our goals and it's not going to add up to uh the total amount of dollars that we need so then the town says okay we'll fund you at a you know
but for example we'll fund you at a 100% of what you're asking for so the town's making up the difference and in the event that when all of the money ultimately comes in it's extra money comes in there was a thought that it's school money so the school should receive the money but the town is saying that well wait a minute we already agreed to fund you at like we all came to an agreement that we're going to fund you at this level yes the money came in for schools but um we
needed to make a conser we needed to make a conservative um estimate here we couldn't have it be the other way where uh we used we picked a number for Chapter 70 funds and we were um shorted that money because then we would have to run back to the town and ask for additional money to pay all of our bills so we try to do our best with what we think this is um where this money is going to be but it's better to be
conservative and get a little bit um get a nice surprise versus not have enough money so the analogy here that I came up with is like trying to pay for college tuition freshman year you and your parents decide where you're going to go it comes with a big price tag and there's eight or scholarships or offsets or whatever and your parents say okay we'll pick up the difference or we'll pick up the difference through loans or however the case may be and you go to the buser's office with your check
um that that you may have borrowed money for who knows and uh and the verser says oh good news like there's actually extra financial aid and they cut a check back to you or they say do you want do you wish to upgrade your meal plan or do you wish to upgrade your housing or do you wish to take an extra course or pay for additional tutoring no you you basically bring that check back to your parents and say it actually costs a little bit less um than we thought and the good news is I received more Aid than we intended so it's costing us less or you
send your kid in for um to pick up the takeout food and you give him 40 bucks and you ask for the change back that you know your child doesn't just keep the change so the town's basically say here look we're going to when we agree to fund you at X level in the event that uh there's a little bit of money left over it needs to come back to the town because the town the town is not always going to give us exactly what we want but at the end of the day we're all going to be at the table and we're all going to say
okay this is what we have to live live with and um we can't just keep the extra money in the rare event that the extra money is substantial I mean a couple times more often than not it's um pretty close to what we budgeted or it's um not worth fighting over but that's the town stance um as a school Committee Member I'm in agreement with the town's stance uh as a member of the financial policy working group certainly wish to open that up for
discussion I'll go through these last these last couple paragraphs don't have any edits but that was the that was the sticky point for us um I believe there was a year where the money was you know it seemed substantial couple years ago um and uh whether it's substantial or not substantial um the towns agreeing to
fund us at a level that we feel is um accomplishes our goals and we've gota we got we've all got to get on the same page somehow so Janine's got hand up so um I I thought that I'll tell you why I took a deep breath and was okay I mean because I you know I'm still a little um not super clear and not completely content with there has have been funds
that the state has designated for schools they've come into Littleton and the town seems to think that's theirs um and that was that's a discussion we're still having um but um what what is calming me down is the town is also talking to us about the uh Capital expenditures we're going we are going to need both in The Fairly near
future and in the and the in in you know and in then when with building the school so um you know like it while while it sounds it it kind of irks me like you know like if someone has a grant for schools that the town is going this however when we are going to the town and asking for several million for millions of dollars for new Rubes for
the schools and saying we can't come up with that money our own on our own in our school budget which is legitimate and and and you know like how could we we actually have really an operating budget here going on so we do need to cooperate with the town to raise the money for our our Capital funds and I kind of feel like this language and what's going on with um you know being cooperative with with the funds that are coming into the town what comes to the
schools when we need it it comes to the schools if we don't need it it goes to the town because we know the town is going to help us out with our new GRS we're going to have a conversation about the schools and we're going to get support and we're going to work with the town on building new schools so that's where um I actually felt justification and and I felt like this was a working relationship um but I kind of wanted to put it out there
because if we don't get cooperation with our Capital with our Capital budgets should we talk about this some more so maybe we just like revisit that later but right now the town is very very open to working with us does that make sense yeah made sense to me Janine thank you for sharing um I'll fill in a couple more details here I see ela's got her hand up you
know I think historically the school committee has worked closely with the town administrator's office the finance director's office the select board and the finance committee I believe there's been a greater emphasis on that um due to the Shaker Lane building um and the huge need for Capital associated with that project um if Chapter 70 money comes in in the you know in the near future the Shaker Lane's like the biggest project
littleton's ever seen and the idea is to try to get some free cash to fall to the bottom line so ultimately we can borrow less money as a town but fast forward 10 years I mean that might buy a fire truck or a police car or provide renovations to another building in town um this is also a document that is not going to get you know bookshelf and become letter of
the law like this is something that can be Revisited and reopened um the suggested language was essentially that if Chapter 70 money comes in in excess of anticipation that the school department would be notified and then the school committee would have an opportunity to discuss those SS with the select board and while that all seems good and dandy what ends up happening there is extra money comes in we make a case for it we say it's you know was to fund the schools and it's for the kids and um it's like how how do
you how do you deny that the school the uh select board didn't want to be in a put in a position to have to say no to the schools after they had already said yes like we have we're we're unan you know hopefully unanimous support of your budget and then extra money comes in and you want to spend that that elsewhere when the town has a number of needs as well so
um Elaine you have your hand up and we'll talk then we'll visit with Stacy yeah I'm I I think this problem originates because because the money is delayed right so we we need to budget it and spend it before we know how much it's going to be and so then the town is sort of backfilling us correct and corre and approving a budget for the school before they really know how much
Chapter 70 money is going to come in but they're saying whatever it is we got you right correct and um but what about the scenario when we have a belt tightening year and we're asked to really cut back on what we think we need to run an effective school system and we do the belt tightening and we cut our budget to a point where we're beyond the level
where we think we need to be but we're making sacrifices and then all of a sudden a bunch of Chapter 70 money comes in do we then we but we don't then get an opportunity to say hey but you know we cut all this stuff can we have that money now it's um you know what would so what would the outcome be in a scenario like that so we could always revisit this topic um if we
were and I said this I think I said this at one of the finance committees or um maybe it was the joint meeting um I said I talked about our budgetary process and way we were coming in and all that good stuff and you know heads were nodding and we all an agreement working together and I said you know let me be very clear like we the school department school committee would have a very different stance on this if we felt like we were significantly underfunded or if year after year we were coming in with you
know eight or 10% increases to try to get to the funding level needed to have a successful school system and we're always getting beaten down um that's not the case in my opinion is that um the amount of money that the schools receive from the town allows us to accomplish and provide a great education the top performing districts
in the state um and yes staff has a tremendous amount to do with that but you need money to have good staff and you need money to have good programming and all and all that good stuff so Elaine your question is a valid one you know in the event that um a couple years down the road we're not getting the funding that we receive or we feel that perhaps there's intentional under budgeting for some of these variable uh
Revenue sources um we could always revisit this I mean we could always approach them to say hey look we asked for a you know nominal 3% uh increase to our our budget and you folks told us we're only able to approve a a 3% cut um and then all of a sudden we find out that extra money comes in or they change the state funding calculation in the 11th Hour um we can always approach and just just by saying yes to this today doesn't mean that we
lose that opportunity we get a chance to talk about our budget every year and what our needs are and what the town finances are those conversations take place all year long so I guess what I'm wondering then like what you know if that's the case that we can revisit this this can be flexible why are they opposed to putting that language in saying we would like for it to be flexible because it's likely that nearly every year the amount budgeted is not going to match the
actual so in the event that we budget a million bucks for this line item and it's a million dollar 15,000 they don't want us knocking on the door every year for the $155,000 um it's it's it's very likely that every year there's going to be a discrepancy and they don't want to put it into practice that every year they notify us to say I mean they don't need
to notify us the information I believe is public like once it comes in we can see it in the reporting but they just didn't want to put into practice that like put the burden on them oh we budgeted this amount for Chapter 70 it was actually this we'd like to put you on the agenda here for you to make your case as to where this extra money should go that's that doesn't work for them because then they're actually promising twice they're they're promising they're funding us at a level
that we've all agreed is fine and then they're setting themselves up to say if anything extra comes in here it's just for the schools when they backfilled as somebody said earlier they backfilled our budget for us does that make sense uh yeah I guess the part that it still concerns me is you know you articulated their concern that if there was a discussion
about the school wanted X number of dollars out of the Chapter 70 money that they were worried our our argument would be more compelling because we're talking about kids you know it it um I just wish I wish that the language could um it sounds like there's not a lot of trust built into the language um that's what concerns me that there's
not yeah I think there's a I think there's a high level of trust and transparency among the three boards the the way that we propose it is almost like we get our cake and need it too so it's you're going to fund us not not that you're going to fund us but we've agreed on a certain funding level and hey if extra money comes in it's for the schools yeah um so we're like winwin because we got what I want we got what we wanted and then we're like okay we'll
back burner this additional thing that we wish to pay for and if and when the money comes in we'll put that into place um and that that amount could change every year so if we put a reoccurring expense into the budget with money that came in one year and it's not there the following year what do we do cut the program ask the town for more money the next year so you know it's common practice the Chapter 70 funds when they come in we
can all look them up um Steve Kelly like they have the ability to find out what that was we should certainly make that part of the budgetary process so that when we're planning the following Year we're looking at historical data so we have an anticipation we have an anticipated amount as to what it could be for the for the next year and we have a sense for what how much we're asking the town to backfill um it's it's almost like for me the language as presented works the changes
that we were asking kind of puts them in the hot seat okay Steve you had your hand up before um I think you answered the question I was just going to reiterate the fact that um the town the Littleton Public Schools and the town of Littleton the town of Littleton funds the Littleton Public Schools way in excess of the required net School spending that
the state requires us to spend so there's a formula out there in Chapter 70 that says Littleton Public Schools has to spend X number of dollars on education every year the town of Littleton funds the schools well in excess of what that net requirement is and so any additional Chapter 70 money while it's fairly negligible is not going to have that big of an impact really on what that budget
is historically that's what's happened with the exception of student Opportunity Act funding that's a different conversation but typically typically Chapter 70 funding goes up by a relatively small amount and it's over the over the years it it might have increased by 15 or $20,000 for the year over what the town anticipated um receipts for Chapter 70
being so we're not talking hundreds of typically again with the exception of the student Opportunity Act funding typically we're not talking hundreds of thousands of dollars here we're talking a minimal amount of funding that might be available to come back to the school department and we have in years gone back and asked the town for for some of that money if it was a budget year we had where we had to cut something out of our budget request and the Chapter 70 money came in higher we have had years
where we've gone back requested that chapter additional Chapter 70 money and the town goes and amends our budget at fall time meeting and increases our appro budget for that amount so there is some history where that's happened and I'll just add one thing there's a couple hands up but it just wanted to to make the point that the language we were that we proposed was in the event um that chapter fund uh Chapter 70 funds are received in excess
of the amount placed if we were to ask for this the rebuttal would be well what if the funds are less than than anticipated so then the select board would be looking to come to a school committee meeting and asking us to write a check back to them so well this language worked well for us in reality it it um we would then be sort of accepting some of the liability in the event that we um we had under budgeted for Chapter
70 funds that what if what if we were wrong in the negative so by not talking about it and uh by not specifying the the uh amounts in excess we're basically saying when the town approves our budget we get to we get to use the budget as as presented and we're going to do all these wonderful things and if the Chapter 70 funds are less the towns on on the hook they're gonna we're going to receive our
funding Kelly uh thanks Justin I I agree with with what you're saying Justin the the languages written was was really a result of the SOA funding that that wasn't transparent at the state level uh that that's train this train is gone and uh the Chapter 70 funding is stabilized again and we're not getting that much more a year and and you have a
very valid point would there be an occasion that maybe we budgeted uh too much for Chapter 70 we've been very conservative I I don't remember that happening in the 14 years that I've been here but we really have developed a good and we obvious had a good relationship with with the other two boards and and my comfort level is is uh has certainly uh continues to increase and and when we established the school building
revolving fund the town has has come to the plate already and contributed money to that fund to uh help with the Shaker Lane project so this document is something that's not written in stone it can be revised if there are issues and and they have they have acknowledge that you know in your discussions in my discussions with Steve Boni so I think we're at a different time than when we we inserted that
Clause so I I feel comfortable with with you know moving forward without it okay Stacy muted Stacy you muted there we go there you go um so I had one question so Steve had mentioned so I don't know what what amount of money we're talking about here Steve had mentioned it's not hundreds of thousands of dollars but is it tens of thousands of dollars is this salaries for teachers
that we could have at our like in the district like what what's the amount of money that we're talking about here that ESS Steve do you know the most recent example Chapter 70 vers I I don't know the recent the most recent data but typically it hasn't been more than $10 to $1,000 it's not like we're funding again with the exception of the student Opportunity Act money typically the the town does a good job estimating what
Chapter 70 receipts are going to be and then the state legislature and a governor adjust those in the final state budget process and typically I think the most we've ever seen that increase additional chap of money come in if I recall it's about $15,000 it's not like it's it's not like it's 8090 $100,000 it's going to fund a position it's a relatively small amount okay that's that that was just an important thing for me to like just kind of
understand like the scale of which we're talking about like yeah it's not as significant and don't get me $15,000 is a lot of money and we can do a lot of things with you know can buy materials and things like that but it's it's not significant where it's going to make a position in funding a position or not funding a position typically okay all right do you know what the um what the typical SOA funding would be because that that last conference I went to at the that conference in November that Jus and I went to they said that SOA was a
new name for Chapter 70 that it was all one and the same so if you're thinking of it as two different things like what what would the typical amount of the SOA money be uh the S SOA money was what Kelly couple hundred, if I recall yes it was and that program I think is ended so it it will be ending uh I think next year so I guess to to piggy back on Steve for
for many many years the the increase in in Chapter 70 funding with what we budgeted was was 15,000 or less when the SOA funding came out I think that's where the confusion arised and and we're getting you know a couple hundred thousand more uh Without Really knowing it uh at that and and it finally we we discovered it when we were looking at at the Chapter 70 funding again it was the state law that decided to blend it
rather than Target it and and that created a a lot of confusion for a while but we were we were able to meet the SOA uh demands for lack of a better word with the money that we had so because we fill out we fill out a report every year and uh we have to show how we're fulfilling the SOA requirements with the funding that we have and we're able to do that without additional funding so we're we're fine with that and again I don't know what the future is going to bring but I certainly in the near future don't
anticipate any huge injections of of Chapter 70 money I think we're fine for for a while and as I said we can we can revisit it at a later date the the net school funding I just wanted to make a comment about that because I've dealt with net school funding for many years the net school funding number is derived simply with the amount of money they have at the state level to divvy up to school districts it has nothing to do with the money needed to uh run a
successful School District so to be over net school funding is is it's natural it's not something that's special and I just wanted to to add that to to the the conversation but there are some urban districts um I reviewed that list there are some and I don't want to say just Urban but there are some districts that fund their school department just at that level I mean it's common for it's common for some
districts that are overachievers um not overachievers that I don't know I don't know how you know that uh place a greater emphasis on education where they fund well excess of 100 Littleton being one of them but there certainly are some municipalities where they might be having Financial struggles or there's less emphasis on um the education and they they do simply just fund out a 100 so one of it's you know it's probably one of the reasons why we all live here is uh the school system so and those districts are often
districts that are high percentage receivers of Chapter 70 funds correct yes they are so um the easiest thing to do here is um you know path Stacy your hands up again uh yeah well yes I think I just just so I have a total understanding or just uh maybe naming the concern is that we want to make sure that if funding is
coming in for the school just for the school that that funding is going towards the school without having to maybe have to negotiate it back from the town so transparency is needed in regards to like how much the town is actually getting specifically for the school is that do I have that right regardless of the number it's just it's more transparency of like how much is Littleton getting to support the school regardless of where it is in the piggy
bank yeah correct so it's all it's all in open finance or munice I mean maybe it's not munice but I think through open finance that the number is available Steve is that right yes open finance with the town um budgeted numbers are in there you can also go to um desie um and look at Chapter 70 funding uh formulas uh town
by town on the so no one's hiding the money's not the money's not hidden right St add that to like our budget whatever budget line that we're looking at can can you I mean obviously no one's like no one's going into Dey to like search for this information but can somehow can we have that as a line item in our budget or somewhere that is seen by the school committee to understand or to know the fluidity of that budget that's coming into the town just so that we we have a number there I think that
transparency is helpful to know it's in the town it's in the town budget number okay yeah so logistically the way that this works is we have our budget and we ask the town to fund our budget and then the town thinks about how are we going to pay for this and they pay for this through various sources State money and then local money
and if we were to say hey in the event that state money comes in in excess of budgeted we would then need to be like negotiating how the town's going to pay for this we're in the position right now where we ask for our budget they approve it and then the burden is on them to get it funded if we were to try to move forward with language because we wanted to get involved in the funding sources and keep the extra money now we've got to try to negotiate with them how they're paying for it um and we got to try to negotiate
what that number might be so we're right now we're the beneficiaries of saying hey in the you know th this is what we got let's go and and they have to worry about it yeah but if we were to start to peel the onion back um we there's there's more to lose here than there is to gain so the easiest path path forward here um would be to think about the
document that was shared uh it's the clean version that was presented to us we I talked through the red lining um in my opinion I don't believe that any of the edits are are actually necessary we spent a ton of time talking about Chapter 70 so we're all pretty clear on that but the UN other redlining um was mostly implied language it would simply just cause them to go back and revisit this topic again um I guess I'll ask for
a motion to accept the financial policies working document um as presented without the without the red lines should we talk about the graduation requirement section on it um is that part of the document we're voting on that's not part of the document that we're voting on okay that's that's policy we're going to get there next oh okay that was a fake out because it would looked very similar to
the one we're voting on no so this is a two-page document okay um there's a Redline version which was our edit our discussion and then there's a clean copy the clean copy is the copy that's that's been accepted by the select board and the finance committee already um I've asked for a motion I haven't heard one yet I'll pause a little longer um I move we accept the financial policy as as presented
tonight motion made by Janine I just want to clarify that I presented the redline document and talked through the edits but um is it my understanding that you're motioning to approve the version that was um approved by the select board and the finance committee that was your recommend is your recommendation to not not to approve it slightly different than the way it did you say without the red lines correct I'm not trying to force the a
motion one way or another we'll do this as a group yep what I was trying to do here was explain uh um explain the red lines and uh add some background as to why I feel that they might not be necessary because some of it's implied language and then the whole Chapter 70 conversation and the easiest path forward here for the town select board
and finance committee would be for us to approve the clean version which is the second version in the packet because that is the version the select board and the finance commit has already approved if as a committee here we want to approve something other than that such as the copy with the red lines or another edit that's fine we will then need to notify the select board and the finance committee that we approved something other than what they approved and they will need to work with their board to try to get our language approved so I
just wanted to ask a wanted to offer that and just wanted to make sure I understood your motion um I I am comfortable making a motion to accept the policy as it was presented to us um from the select board and finance committee and therefore be in compliance with the other boards in the town I am
open absolutely obviously we should have conversation if there's other thoughts okay that's that's clear to me so motion made by Janine is there a second I second that seconded by Beno is there any further discussion hearing none I'll call for a roll call vote Janine Janine would yes Beno Ben Patel yes Stacy SC yes Elaine Elaine sandlan
yes and Justin McCarthy votes yes as well thank you very much for that discussion and for that vote that carries a 5 all right so we will now pause for our second opportunity for interested citizens I don't know if anybody's still hanging with us I do okay sorry pull it up on the thing right you
know why watch us live when you can watch us on tape um we'll roll through our subcommittee reports pnbc um I will I'll just get right into Shaker Lane and be as quick as possible but I know Kelly probably can always like add more more for us but last week we met with um msba specifically the FAS feeding which was facil facilities assessment manage facilities assessment what is
it Acron facilities assessment subcommittee sub sorry anyway sorry there's so many there's so many um different acronyms for everything but essentially it was H it was a it was a meeting with our uh building committee meeting with msba on pretty much the design of the building that we had as well as I think it was as it related to our educational plan so presenting kind of what that plan was in regards to what we had
Incorporated from our educational plan for the design as well as kind of the finances of the whole project it seemed like they gave some really good feedback we got really positive feedback from them um in regards to like what we presented for the design of the school they gave us some good feedback I think um at it as it related to different projects that they had been involved with um some good suggestions for Studio G to look maybe to look forward to like
exploring um and then I think is I think it's on February 29th we have another meeting with msba on another review for the design I'm not quite sure as to like what that specifically is for whether it's like a vote to move forward um Stacy it is a a vote to move forward with the full board so the subcommittee will present their findings to the the full board and then they'll take a vote to uh move us forward into
the design phase of the project and it's on February 26 26 okay um I think you guys had a tour of the school yesterday was it during the early release yesterday we we did we had some of our uh Council on Aging members uh come to Shaker Lane school and uh we did a tour with them and answered any questions that they they
had and uh successful tour we had about eight or nine I believe uh come through the tour with us and uh had some some good feedback I mean there's still obviously some uh concerns about how much will this cost and and uh we we do have a a good plan with uh using a debt exclusion to support that project uh Steve vui redid the calculation that uh changes that first year number it uh I
can't remember the the price of the house it was $600 something th000 the initial assessment would be would have been about $1,800 with this new plan and and putting money away every year until we we take out the the bond it would bring those taxes down to anywhere between $1,000 $1,100 tax uh calculator is activated and it will be placed on the uh Shaker Lane building website uh as well as the
town website so our our community can now put their assess number in for their their house and uh figure out what the taxation might be that first year that went out today on email because I got it in my email box tax tax calculator perfect and kudos to to Stephen udy I mean that was uh certainly a heavy lift and he he did a fantastic job of of of putting that through and you know in
terms of uh the three boards working together the the product that we have are a result of those of all of us working together to find a way to for that uh tax bill for for that project for the Shaker Lan project so personally I'm thrilled that we we found a solution and the plan that we have is is certainly doable it's conservative and and I think that's what we're all looking for I had the uh pleasure of touring
Florence roach uh Elementary School in Gren yesterday and that was a Studio G project as well it was nice to to tour the school with the students and staff there and I was very impressed with the design of of of the elementary school it uh made it really special to be able to talk to teachers and students uh about how they how they felt about you know moving into a new school in September a lot of excitement and and uh very beautiful school so it was nice to be able to have the opportunity to tour one
of their schools that they've designed and I think uh I think that's that's all I have Stacy anything else I think that was those are our major things since the past since our last last meeting so good progress we got a good review so that's good they didn't they didn't tell us it was trash and to start over again so very positive very good very good very impr with the with the entire plan so that was nice to I think I think get
a little validation after all of that work so good thank you I'll just add um as we go about our day-to-day uh there are people out there that don't realize that this project is um taking place or that uh wheels are in motion so as you talk to um your neighbors fellow Littleton citizens just you know find a way to bring this into conversation you can talk about your school committee efforts
how exciting this is um you don't have to give them a ton of detail you just need to let them know this is happening so that they then um do some you know just so that they're aware because it's it's mind-blowing to me that there are people out there in Littleton that perhaps know that don't know that this is that all this work's being done and they're going to get surprised um at next town meeting when we offer hopefully an information session or the following town meeting when they're asked to vote on it so we
um we need everybody walking into the room as educated as we possibly can um budget subcommittee um next so buget subcommittee presented to select board and finance committee what was that a couple weeks ago um great discussion we presented a um a budget with a 3.55% increase which had some newer type strategies um offsetting some salaries with some Revenue sources um adding a couple positions uh
increasing some funding in a couple areas where we felt like we were underfunded um continuing with that three-year plan for the Transportation uh shift from the three routes to the two routes and at the end of that conversation a lot of head nodding a lot of thank yous um so it appears that uh the finance committee and the select board um are in support of the presented budget uh at this point in time we will
um Janine and I will formally present the budget to the school committee at a meeting in March well that's when we'll um make it official and then it'll be voted in um or passed by the town at town meeting May so I'll also share that just so that you folks are all aware um Janine alluded to it a little bit earlier um all the Committees working together and
a commitment towards the capital project so the school department um has agreed to U bearing any unforeseen um extraordinary expenses that we are going to submit a um capital projects request in the amount of Zer to the town for fiscal year 26 fiscal year 27 we have gone ahead and outlined um I'll say approximately $450,000 worth of capital projects in
the next couple of years that we plan to fund ourselves through school choice this town then is going to to acknowledge um roughly $900,000 of money that they don't need to contribute towards school projects and fund the Shaker lane or the Shaker Lane project with those dollars so it's we're literally pinching pennies to try to get everything we possibly can into this account so that when we need to um raise money through a
bond where uh the dollar amount uh felt by this taxpayers as small as possible anything to add there Janine um there was also discussion about the the the high school roof and Middle School roof and that's and that's that that's what we're talking about funding are are are working towards I when you you said you said we were going to come back for it for the Shaker Lane I I thought some of
that was really for the roofing projects you know like we're we're we're funding we're funding all our Capital our small capital projects yep for the next two years correct and and working on um working on what we're going to be doing and then um when we need these roof projects we're the town is going to work very closely with us to to to help us make sure that they got that's how I that's how I I read you're absolutely right so we've agreed we've agreed to self-fund smaller projects to the tune
of about $900,000 over the next two uh fiscal years there are some larger ticket items on the horizon which um we won't be able to fund ourselves we there are uh msba programs for um roofs and boilers and we are going to apply in those programs as soon as we are eligible we realize that we might not be accepted in year one uh the thought
process there is to just get on the radar um hope that the roofs and the boilers can make it um to the point where we are accepted so we can get some funding God forbid um they fail and we don't have any state funding the problem just becomes larger for the town to try to um solve but yes the larger items we will not be able to sell fund we'll need the town's help and we hope to use the msba program as well policy
subcommittee nothing well no we have something in the agenda in okay sorry yes so uh we updated the graduation requirements policy ikf to align with our competency determination that was approved this evening this is a first reading of the policy and the changes are are indicative of of insertion of the the CD determination that we voted on
tonight I want to point out that the uh revised date uh would be February 27th uh 2025 rather than February 6th as a first reading of a policy does anybody have any questions I don't these were all of the this was all of the information covered in the previous presentation that's correct any questions from any committee members as you read through that or did
the presentation answer any questions you might have had good could I receive a motion for the the first reading of um ikf it's is the motion that you're looking for to approve the first reading to accept the first reading accept the all right I move that we accept the first reading of the graduation requirements policy ikf motion made by
Elaine second seconded by benol this will be a roll call vote Elaine Ela man yes Beno Ben Patel yes Janine Janine wood yes Stacy Stacy Scott yes we're keeping you up Justin mcy votes yes as well all right we um already talked about shakan building committee so I don't think there's any further updates there um before we look to adjourn I'll just
announce that our next school committee meeting is February 27th 2025 we hope to be back in person police station that meeting would be about a month um after the meeting where we our last week's our last meeting where we talked about um turn time on assignments and things like that so the school committee would look for some sort of update um if that could be on the agenda as well as our typical business um that
would be appreciated any other items that the school committee wishes to discuss before we look to adjourn heing n all ask for a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn motion made by Stacy seconded by Janine this will be a roll call vote Stacy Scott yes Janine Janine wood yes Ben Ben Patel yes Elaine Lan sandlan yes Justin mcarthy votes yes as well thank
you very much everybody thank you Justin thanks have a good night good job everybody