Welcome to the Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 meeting of the Long School Committee. Mass general law allows for remote participation at public meetings until June 30th, 2027. All votes while there is remote participation must be
made by roll call vote. This meeting is being recorded and aired live on LCTV. School committee members, when I call your name, please say here for the record. Kate >> here. >> Adam,
>> yes. >> Adam, >> yay. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Emily, >> here. >> And I'm here, too. >> Okay. Pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Next is correspondence. >> Um correspondence received as follows.
Email dated January 11th, 2026 from Cara Downey. Email dated January 22nd, 2026 from Christine Kronage. Email dated January 23rd, 26, 2026. From Steve JRo,
email dated January 25th, 2026 from Cara Downey. Email dated January 28th, 2026 from Cara Downey. Email dated January 29th, 2026. From Cara Downey. Email dated January 30th, 2026 [snorts]
from Cara Downey. Email dated January 30th, 2026 from Karen Morren and Doug Min. >> Thank you. Next is approval of minutes. And um we have two different school committee meetings from January 6 with
minutes and from January 27th. >> We have a a motion. Uh, I move that the school committee approve the minutes from January 6th and January 27th. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> And now we'll vote. Emily,
>> yes. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Kate, >> yes. >> Adam, >> yes. >> And a yes for me, too. So, next we have public speak. Do we have anyone here tonight for public speak
or online just >> Okay. Next we have business with guests. >> All right. Well, thank you u appreciate the the opportunity to uh showcase some of our social emotional learning walks. So we'll have the team come on up. Na maybe you want to start and then the
others can can come up after you provide an initial presentation. So Dr. Nilda Rosari, our director of student family support. uh Nilda um orchestrated and catalyzed a series of SEAL learning walks uh across the district and they
were wellreceived, well organized, impressive, a good inventory of some amazing practices that are happening in our schools and so we wanted to share with you that project and uh we have some friends from center school in Williams to join us as well. So uh
Nilda, you can kick it off and I'll I'll pull up your slide deck as you're getting started. Great. Thank you. Um, good evening. I'm Nilda Rosari. I'm the director of student and family support. Part of my role is to support social emotional learning um, in our district. When um, the school committee approved
for us to have um, SEAL coordinators and with the support of Superintendent O'Shea, I was so excited to have a team that was really housed in every building. And when I met with our SEAL coordinators, the first thing they said
is why don't we take an inventory of what best practices we see in classrooms, curate those best practices and share them out with our faculty. Um so the best way to do that was to conduct a learning walk. Um and we
decided to make it educator and studentled um with a focus on our ruler work. Um so what is a learning walk? It's a collaborative classroom visit and we took the model from instructional rounds in education and the premise is those
that are closest to the instruction should be observing the instruction and offering feedback. So while I am a central office administrator and I love going to classrooms, I don't have my own classroom. Um so if I observe a really great practice, I can't turn key it to
another um class because I don't have a group of students. So educators need to be observing other educators. When they observe a best practice in real time, they can implement it the following day. And our students who are uh the most important part of our instructional
system should be observing teachers and offering feedback on what best practices work for them. Um these are non-evaluative. Um non-evaluative because no administrator is attending the learning walk. It's really colleague to colleague, student to student, staff
member to colleague. Um, so we're not um out to give judgment on teachers lessons. We're out to curate what are some of the best practices across the school and we identify those patterns and uplift all the great work that we see. Um, it's guided by a shared inquiry
question. The question could be framed in any way that the building principal or the inquiry team wants. In this case, it was social emotional learning, but you could have a learning walk on an inquiry question about academic rigor. And your question might be, to what
extent are students challenged in their own learning, and then you gather your team and let's see all of the different ways that students are engaged in productive struggle. Um, and you would take some notes on that and then share out with faculty what you might see. It's focused on a slice of instruction.
So, the visiting teams are in the classroom for about 10 to 15 minutes. um they write down notes of all they see and our coordinators did a great job and they said well why don't we leave educators a little note um just a positive shout out before we leave the
room so they get that immediate feedback of what we saw and what we really wanted to highlight and uplift. So there were so many teachers that were happy that they received a little note either from a student or a colleague. Um, it gathers observable evidence, not opinions. So,
what that sounds like is two students were collaborating on a problem together. So, it's very objective. We're not adding judgment into it. We're just saying we see collaboration as a routine in all classrooms. Um, it identifies
patterns and best practices, which I've already um talked a little bit about. So the structure of a learning walk um it's focused on an inquiry question. Our inquiry question was to what extent do classroom practices observed provide students with to develop their social,
emotional and relational skills alongside academic learning. There's often this misconception that social emotional learning and academic learning are two separate things. Um and they're not. You could have a rigorous learning environment that has the foundation of an inclusive learning environment that
has social emotional learning. Um I don't know of any team that functions well together without the foundation of social emotional learning and character building. Um so groups of teams of three visit classrooms. Each team had one classroom teacher, one student and one
support staff member. So that might be an interventionist, an instructional coach, an a par or a paraprofessional. Um what was nice is we saw all of the different lenses that educators bring that students bring and that team sort of created this like 360 view of our
instructional practices. Um teams of four visit classroom, four different or teams of three visit four different classrooms for 15 minutes each collecting assetbased evidence related to the inquiry question. Um and then they come back to the room where I am
and we start engaging in a structured and facilitated debrief. Our seal coordinators were um great in organizing the entire schedule and facilitating the structured debrief. Um it was important to our coordinators that the entire
school would be given feedback before the end of the day. Um so our team if you click on the feedback um our [clears throat] team it looks like a lot um because it is a lot. Our team wanted to make sure that the entire
school faculty received a letter or a notice of what was observed and we tried to provide specific examples um in our feedback to the entire school. So if you take a quick peek it says we noticed affirmations that you belong here. It's
okay to make mistakes. Everyone voice everyone's voice matters. These are statements that our students received throughout the school day and it's important that we just capture them um because this is the growth mindset that we want to see present in all classrooms. They noticed classroom
charters, mood meters, and then everyone sort of received what was it that we saw that constitutes social emotional learning? What what does an inclusive learning environment include? we had now tangible examples of that. Um so this is the logistics and uh it's
really important that I highlight Amanda Eric Colola, Arlene Mleen, Chelsea Fertini, um Sarah Fontaine and Danielle Stratton. These are the coordinators that created this complex schedule. I can't understate how hard this is
logistically to plan. You need coverage for the teachers that are participating on the learning walk. You need to have educators that are ready and willing to accept a visiting team. So, the climate and culture of the building has to be open and inviting to allow those
practices um to come to allow those visitors to come into the classroom. We're deprivizing instructional practice and we're ensuring that we have open doors um throughout our schools. Um, so we had 16 classroom teachers participate, 16 staff members, and over um 17 students participate. We have two
schools that we still have to visit and do the learning walks for. Um, but if Marty, if you could click on um one of the samples, so [clears throat] you get your schedule and then if you look um to the visiting teams, you see how many teams are involved. You get
your teacher, your student, and then if you scroll down, each group gets to visit a variety of classrooms. A group isn't visiting just first grade classrooms. You get to see a special. You get to see a speech classroom. You get to see a third grade classroom or
kindergarten classroom. And we included um all different classrooms so that students could see what learning looks like across their building. um in the debrief um we found patterns and students and um their educators had to display their learning in a visual
way. So after they received all of these postits and patterns, they created their own um concept maps or um infographics of what that meant to them. So you see center school with the cardinal way. They have an excellent um school theme
about following the cardinal way embedded with ruler tools and they highlighted some different things that made their school great and and so they have collaborative environments and then they have post-its around the tree to just demonstrate um some of the
practices. um, Wolf Swamp, we had someone create a puzzle of safe and supportive learning. And I love all of the different puzzle pieces. And you see the different handwriting because every group member contributed, but I love that the power of yet is in the center.
Um, and that really is what social emotional learning is all about. That students enter classrooms and they say, "You may not have it now, but soon you will." And um it's that stretching that allows students to believe that um high expectations, high goals are possible.
And then we have the flower um from Williams um and the students created like what they thought would be the ideal environment to allow the flower to grow so positively promoting deeper thinking and reflection and they sort of created the conditions that can create
deeper um thinking. Here are some of the images of the day. And um what I really want you to observe is just how on um an equal level colleagues are with each other and students are with each other. Everyone
is contributing post-its identifying some of the patterns for the day. Um and this is deeply intensive work to sit down and sort of try to come up with big picture thematic observations. Um so now we have the people that
participated in um the learning walks. We have an SEAL coordinator with us, Amanda Ericolo, and then we'll hear from a student who participated in the learning walk. And then uh Teddy Craft and then we'll hear from um a parent who's also an educator who also was
visited by a learning team um a visiting team, Aaron Craft. So we'll start. Danica, can we have you move over one seat and then we'll have enough seats for uh for the whole team to come on up? >> Thank you. >> Thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. >> Thank you for having us.
>> Quick introductions once again for the committee and anybody that might be watching at home. So, >> hi, I'm Teddy Craft. I'm a eighth grade student at Williams and I was participating in the learning walk. >> I'm Aaron Craft. I'm Teddy's mom and I'm also a third grade teacher at Center
School. >> And I'm Amanda Eracolo. I'm um Center School's SEAL coordinator for kindergarten, first and second grade. I'm also a second grade teacher at Center School. >> Yes. So, thank you so much for having us. And I would be remiss if I didn't
say how integral this work is that Neil is putting so much time intensive effort into. Um and under her expertise and thoughtful leadership the structure of the learning walk was centered around clear objectives that allowed teachers to lean into different um look fors that
the um coordinators and the teams developed prior to going in. Um and these encompassed the five um pillars of castle competencies as well. Um the points of reference that served as glows and grows for teachers and students to
help us celebrate and share out both anecdotally and as Dr. Rosario had mentioned um through the infographics were um paramount in helping us highlight all the ways that we're glowing as educators in the school and
ways that we can continue to grow. Um and it was just I'm really hopeful that we continue with these learning walks because the feedback that I got from my colleagues and even from students after they were asking you know how can we get involved in that and it just seemed very
refreshing. Um it was extremely constructive and vindicating as well. Um we were able to affirm and reaffirm things that we're doing really nicely at the classroom level that are helping students find success in their social emotional intelligence.
>> Um I think it's important to give a student point of view on the positives that teachers are doing not just the teachers point of view. This helps teachers to know what students appreciate and like more about different teachings. so that they can incorporate more of these into their lessons. The thing I liked most about the learning
walk was being able to talk with another teacher I knew well as we were in the class taking notes. I liked the part when we made a poster containing all the topics that we were looking for. When I was on the learning walk, I learned that teachers do a lot more than just teach and there's just and there's more purpose to all their actions that what I
thought before the learning walk. Teachers need to make lesson plans that will be engaging for many students and they need to include everyone. They also need to encourage the students. >> It's funny. I had to send him on a learning walk for him to understand and
appreciate. >> I had to say it. Um, so I was just going to talk about sort of how this experience was meaningful for Teddy's leadership and advocacy. Um, I was really happy to have Teddy participate in the learning walks. Um, it gave him a
chance to practice his leadership and advocacy skills, especially in the debrief with peers and um, teachers. We talked a little bit about how it kind of almost like evens the playing field because they're all at the same table sharing ideas. I liked that. Um, I was told, I think, by NA, but that he was a
leader in those discussions and of course, so as a mom, that's a wonderful thing to hear. Um, so I was very proud. Um, I thought it gave him a chance to shine in an area where maybe he just hadn't had a lot of opportunity yet. Um, during the walks, he was able to observe
teachers [snorts] and classrooms through a different lens and appreciation. Um, and serving in that different capacity to help enhance teaching and learning was really valuable for him. Um, and as you've already, you know, learned as a side note, I'm not just a parent. I'm a
teacher at center school. So, I participated on the flip side. So, um, I was being observed. Um, actually you were on one of the in the group that was in my room, I think. >> Um, [clears throat] and since it was the first time we had ever done these learning walks, I was a little unsure
myself. Um, but I did find it to be really rewarding um, to receive that feedback about my teaching. Um, having others observe your classroom just encourages that self-reflection. >> And I think it motivates you. it motivates you to be your best uh you
know do your best teaching and to kind of look at it um with a different lens. Um and I think it's important to hear from the students um in this piece as well because they are our audience. Um they're the key ingredient in the recipe, right? So um hearing students
unique views can only help teachers to see areas where we are reaching students well or perhaps some areas where we can grow to better reach them. So, I thought it was great >> and I'm thankful for each of you. Um, we had, you know, students had to give up
their day of learning to participate in the learning walk. We had teachers to arrange sub plans and coverage and um, so I think everyone, it was a collaborative effort um, to really pull this off and to have all of the schools participate. Um, so I'm I'm just excited that we did it. Our hope is that it
becomes a routine that we can continue to practice a few times of year in each school building. >> I appreciate your leadership on this. Um it it really was energizing. I had a chance to go to some of the debriefs and um there was so much positive energy from the students and the teachers and
and um every student I asked what'd you learn and I think every one of them said that teachers work really really hard. So it was it was fun to hear. Um and so um a a really great opportunity is for us to kind of take inventory and collect the best best practices and then share
them out and and we talk a lot that you know the best PD is it's authentic. It's job embedded. It's peer-to-peer and this is a good example of that. So um appreciate the support of the school committee to um uh allow us the opportunity to um hire great
coordinators like Amanda. Uh it's made a meaningful difference for us this year. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, oh, I feel like I could talk for like an hour right now. Um, I really loved everything [clears throat] that you said. I don't even know where to start. I think I'll
start with depriva, what did you say again? >> Uh, dep privatizing classroom teaching. >> Deprivatizing classroom instruction techniques, right? I just love that because that's really so important for so in so many ways. And I think it's
also really helpful for the social and emotional well-being of teachers because I think you know at the beginning you said sometimes you don't know how it's going to go because you don't know what the culture is like the relationships at the school but I have participated in
many learning walks myself and I feel like I did it as a younger educator and it helped empower me. Um, so I think they're just the best thing ever and I'm glad you're doing them. I know that it's a lot of work and I'm really thankful
that you're all doing them and I'm super thankful for you stepping up as a student because student voice is the most important thing. And what else did I want to say? Oh, um, I I wanted to say that Nilda, I'm so impressed with how you empower teachers
voices too and teachers strengths. It's very clear that you're really good at doing that and it shows. Thank you. Does anybody else >> Oh, yeah. Now I write some of that down. Um I thank you all for coming to speak. This was fantastic. Um I I really love
that you're involving all of the schools. It really kind of underscores that this is a community that really cares about its students. No matter which schools they're going to, we want to make sure that everybody has access to the same best practices. Really underscoring that equity and accessibility. So I I love that. Um, I I
really appreciate that students were involved and this was so peer oriented. Um, the real-time feedback and encouragement is so powerful. It's really rare to get that and and being able to have something in the moment that you go take away is um, really impactful. So, I loved that. Um, and
yeah, just fantastic work. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Anybody else have any other comments? >> I would just echo much the same. Really cool and really exciting to see that. um collaboration across classrooms. Nice
job. >> Thank you. >> I just have one um final plug to Long Meadow. Um every student that we tapped to participate, all of them said yes and rose to the occasion. They came in whether they were in fifth grade or
eighth grade, they came in dressed up, ready to go. And um it just reminds me that when you tap someone on the shoulder and say, "Hey, I see leadership in you." They rise to the occasion. And every parent I called that um and asked um if their child could participate um
they obviously were over the moon excited that their child was selected um and we had our teachers select the students that would participate in the first learning walk. So even the selection of the student was a collaborative um effort but it's a great
district and great people. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay, I actually have one more thing to say. Sorry, I just looked down quickly. It's just that I really love when, you know, it would be really cool if you could just take all of us on a learning walk, too, but obviously that's way too
much. Um, and not our job. Um, but I just love getting the visual evidence of what's like what like seeing the pictures like seeing that that the student and the teacher were on the same level at the table. >> Yes. >> Working and collaborating together. I
love seeing those visuals as evidence when being presented to. I just love it. Thank you. >> Are those visuals like the posters, are they going to be displayed anywhere so others can see them kind of have any time or what's happening with those? >> Um those were all sent out to the um
entire school that um received them. So at the end of the experience, they received an email with some of the findings and the patterns. We created a list of best practices for social emotional learning under the castle competencies and then the entire school
received each of the images um to take a peek at and to delve at and they hang in the um teachers room at center school. I can only speak for Centry School and I know that people, you know, when they're coming in and out of there busy on their lunch break, they're perusing the comments and the highlights and looking
um as they have time to continue their learning and implementing and highlighting and just really acknowledging all of the the hard work that everyone did. So, >> and I remember um Amy Bridges um who's over at she like said, "I went into all
of these classrooms, stole ideas, and then just implemented them right away um into my classroom." And I heard that from so many other teachers that just watching like one or two things, they just turned keyed it the next day.
>> Thank you, team. >> Thank you. Okay, now we have our student representative report. >> Hi. So, um, recently we ended quarter 3 and, um, we're beginning semester 2, so
that's really exciting to really just switch into a new gear. Um, and then the senior class play has also been casted. We're doing MMA Mia and um rehearsals started yesterday. We had another one today. It's going really great so far.
Um and then robotics is also in the middle of their build season. So this is when they're really like building their robots and machines. Um which I think is really cool, too. And then on February 5th, there will be the vocal pops concert. And then February 11th, the
instrumental pops concert. And that's about it. >> Thank you. [snorts] Are you in the play, Donica? >> Yeah, I'm just ensemble though. >> Oh, that's still fun. >> No small. >> Thank you very much.
>> Does anybody else have any questions for you? >> All right, school committee announcements and recognitions. I feel like I already said I I have I don't want to say anything else. That was that's my ter part is that was just
I love seeing that there's learning mocks and it's such so nice to see so refreshing. >> That's it. >> Excellent. Um I just have a few items. Um I'll start by uh sort of the the the headline news from Long Meadow Public Schools in
recent weeks is the uh uh principal Donna Hutton had publicly announced her intention to retire at the conclusion of the school year. Um Donna has been an amazing uh trusted friend and colleague to all of us. Uh 17 her 17th year as principal uh in Long Me public schools
at center school and uh she will be greatly missed and we'll seek out an opportunity to honor her I'm sure um at one of our our future school committee meeting and um uh our intention is to pursue a a really robust process to find
a great replacement for a great principal. I expect that we'll have that position posted probably before February break. Um and it will the whole process will take about a month and a half for us to to you know engage stakeholders go through the interview process and fully
vet the next principal of center school. So um so that's one item. Um I want to also announce that um as we as we um wish Principal Hutton um good luck as she prepares for her retirement. Long time to go. Um, we're also in the
process of welcoming in the class of I think it's 2039 maybe. Um, Tammy, welcome. Your assistant has uh just released an online registration uh approach, brand new, was a heavy lift for administrators, for tech staff uh
for clerical staff. And I want to thank Tammy for spearheading that um and really taking that project on. She's been great about um finding ways for us to improve on a lot of great practices and um so our future kindergarten
families are uh are able to register beginning today. So that's exciting. Uh we tomorrow morning we have the Ginspoon Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Award Breakfast. It's an opportunity for us to recognize all the nominees for the Ginspoon Award and all the nominators.
So that starts at 7 o'clock. If the committee is available, we'd we'd love to have you. Um and then today uh participated in a meeting with the MSBA on the center school roof project. So that is hitting all the milestones. We
expect that at the May town meeting residents will have an opportunity to support or not support I suppose uh the um replacement of the roof at center school. So it's an ambitious project uh but a needed project as we try to
tighten up the envelope to that great old school. Um, so that's it. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Now we're on to other reports. Um there's no updates from any of the other reports, but I'll just plug again that
the next SEAL meeting is on February 11th um via Zoom and it's presented by the um Federation of Children with Special Needs and they always put on really really informative presentations and I I believe this one is on
transitions. Um, so it's February 11th and usually the Zoom links emailed out by the principles where to find it >> for sure. >> Um, I don't think there's any subcommittee reports.
>> Uh, there shouldn't be. Finance subcommittee has met, but that will be incorporated into the budget presentation. >> Okay. Then we're on to new business. So, we're uh pleased to present uh to the school committee an administrative
recommendation for the FY27 uh school budget 27 school year. So, we'll just take a second and pull up that slide deck. I [snorts] could. All right. So, as I kick us off, I want to
acknowledge uh our central office admin team is with us. are kind of hiding behind Mr. Maza back there. Uh but I'm grateful to their participation in uh building this budget recommendation. Uh the principles will be available to the
full school committee at the February 10th budget hearing if necessary. But I want to highlight uh the work that Mr. Maza has done to put us in a position to bring this recommendation to you. As you know, Tom is a a great shepherd of the
budget. um he keeps us on our toes and um uh does a great job sort of identifying uh potential costs, revenue, does a great job forecasting for future uh fiscal years. So uh I thank Tom for that. I thank the um input we've
received from the town manager and the finance director as well. So as we often say this is a journey. We're at the early stages of this budget journey. We are here to provide an initial budget recommendation. Uh it's only been a
handful of days since the governor's budget was released. Next week we will hold a public hearing as required by uh state law and local charter. Uh and so that'll be another opportunity to um perhaps provide some clarification on
the budget or respond to any questions that the committee might have tonight. that will lead us towards the school committee voting and del deliberating and voting on the budget on February 24th and ultimately uh we will make our way to the annual town meeting on May
12th where the um town and school budget would be potentially approved by residents. So uh early stages of process and certainly uh lots of known
but many unknowns in terms of uh cost and expenditures and potential revenue. So at um at the highest level this is a summary of the FY27 budget recommendation. So, this recommendation
would uh have a 1,252,389 increase in the G from the general fund over FY26. Total budget uh is slightly more than that due to um special revenues that we receive in the form of uh entitlement
grants and competitive grants. Uh for those of you who think more in terms of percentages, this would be a 3% just over 3% increase from the general fund and a 2.86 increase in our overall operating budget. Uh we'll come back to
this as we kind of wrap up the presentation, but just wanted to provide that that highlevel overview before we step back and provide some context to the school committee and to the community as they think about uh this budget recommendation. Um, I want to
begin by providing some context around how this budget is aligned with our strategic priorities. How I hope uh we are able tonight and always to um convey that we are trying to be good stewards of the budget that is generously uh put
together for us and provided by the residents [snorts] of Long Meadow. And I'd also say that um as an administrative team uh we're always looking for ways to operate more efficiently. We say we want to work um smarter uh always and find opportunities
for savings and um more effective use of the resources we have. So it begins with our strategic priorities and this budget is a reflection of those strategic priorities. It is a reflection of how we use our professional development,
staffing resources, the curriculum review cycle. Uh all of those things are reflected by the allocations in the FY27 budget and our hope is that we're bringing forward a budget that will uh
support our pursuit of these strategic initiatives. I should back up to say that tonight uh we're presenting a level service budget, meaning it's a budget that will help us sustain existing programming uh and existing services to
students here in Long Meadow. Our hope is that these strategic priorities are aligned across all schools and that they are aligned from top to bottom in this organization. meaning that our educator goals are aligned with school goals which are aligned with district goals
which are in turn aligned with school committee goals and I think we're in a good place right now in terms of the alignment of goals across all of those levels. Um, when I think I won't go through each of these individually, but when I think of
uh the efficiencies that we pursue and our attempts to um work smart, I think of the uh opportunities that we've had to pursue non-entitlement grants. I think about the ways that we have tried to drive uh educational efficiency. This
committee in particular has uh asked us to be sure that we have uh in place a multi-year curriculum review cycle. We've talked to the committee about the introduction of Panorama which is a tool that helps us um use data more wisely. It centralizes data and helps with uh
educator and admin workflow uh and ultimately student support. Um I want to credit Dr. Dr. Nelson, our curriculum director, for uh really keeping a close eye on the educational software tools that are used in our schools and in our
classrooms. And uh Beth has done a really great job of ensuring that we're we're really leaning into uh high lever software tools. Um when COVID hit um sort of all bets were off for a little while and we were adopting um out of
necessity um software tools um without abandon and we we've kind of brought that back in line to ensure that the software tools we have in place right now really drive our educational priorities and are lined up with and
tracked by the uh the school budget. Um, staffing is, uh, we're always trying to respond to various enrollment patterns, whether that's the the demographic of our student body or the size of cohorts as they make their way through our
schools, but our staffing will shift in response to those enrollment patterns. I also want to um recognize the work of our special educators under the leadership of Nicole Paris Crow uh for regularly thinking about how we can
introduce in district special education services and programming. Um it's a powerful way to support student learning but also a powerful way to ensure that we're using uh making good use of the tax dollars that are provided to us. Um,
and you'll see as we get further on in the budget that um, we actually have achieved some savings uh, this year as we prepare for FY27 because of the uh, our ability to serve students here in Long Meadow. Um, operational efficiency.
Um, always thinking about ways to employ technology in the pursuit of operational efficiency. Uh, we've got a great technology team in place right now. their staffing levels haven't changed since I've been here. Um, but they are organizing their work more effectively
every day. And so an online help desk has been introduced in recent years and improved upon in recent years. And they really do a nice job of of organizing workflow and and responding to the literally thousands of devices that they that they manage across the district. U
we are remotely managing uh student and staff devices. We are mentioned earlier that we uh just introduced an online approach to student registration. We're really excited about that. And Tom as I have been working
closely with the DPW uh on their introduction of a cloud-based work order system and our administrator's use of that tool. So we're making progress there. We're always looking for outside partnerships.
Beth, Nilda, Nicole, Paris Grow, all three of them are coordinating partnerships with Bait Path University um in their respective areas that they that they lead for us here in Long Meadow Public Schools. And then ultimately looking ahead to um a
combined middle school and and I think that will further us in terms of making sure that we are staffing efficiently and that we are operating efficiently and cost effectively. So when the new middle school comes online in the 2829
school year, I know that's going to bring with it many, many operational advantages, of course, the educational advantages that we've talked about. Um, some additional context. I just want to spend a little time thinking about uh the revenue and expenditures, the
revenue that's available to us and the expenditures that we make and then hopefully shine a light on uh the ROI, the return on [snorts] investment. Um, I think it's important that we look at our performance relative to the investments that we make here in Long Meadow Public
Schools. A familiar slide, I'd say, to the committee, um, at least to those who've been with us for a few years. This is the basic building blocks of a a school public school budget in Massachusetts. It begins with chapter
78. This is the aid, the main source of aid we receive from the state. On top of that, districts are expected to uh make a minimum contribution to the education of students. And those two things combined establish what's called the
foundation budget. And that's the state's calculation of how much a district needs to minimally spend to provide an adequate education to students across the state. And so on top of that though, uh, Long Meadow, like
nearly every district in Massachusetts, goes above above and beyond that minimum local requirement. And on top of that, our grants, um, user fees, um, the educational endowment that we
receive from LEAF, for example, anything that drives the work of teachers and students in Long Public Schools. So those are the the basic building blocks and take a look at sort of what that looks
like here in Long Meadow. So you'll see in the orange is chapter 78 and I brought this up to FY25. Notice this doesn't go into FY27 because we're in the middle of FY26 so expenditures
aren't fully known yet. And then of course FY27 is just a projection. So, this brings us to the the last four sort of fully complete fiscal years. Um, chapter 78 a we've um had some the the
benefit of seeing increased levels of support from chapter 70, although that's starting to to taper off and you'll see that shortly. And then in the yellow is the amount that Long Meadow spends above
what is minimally required. Um, excuse me. The yellow represents the minimum local contribution, the the absolute minimum that districts need to spend. What I want to call your attention to is the green bars. And this is what Long Meadow spends above what is minimally
required. And you'll see that that has started to flatten out in recent years. And I think it's something that we should watch. That doesn't mean that um it you know part of this is a function of what is minimally required but that amount that that Long Meadow spends
above what is minimally required has started to flatten out a little bit. And I I would say as superintendent that it's it's in that amount that above minimum amount that's where you're able to really drive excellence. And so that's something I think that we should
kind of keep our eye on. Uh is Long Meadow's ability to spend beyond what is minimally required. In fairness, what is what is minimally required has been increasing um significantly in recent
years. This is sort of looking at it in a in a different way. Um, going back to FY22, Long Meadow spent 47.81% beyond what was minimally required. In
FY25, the last complete fiscal year really where we have numbers. Long Meadow spent 41.8% above what was minimally required. Again, this this is an effort. this effort, this above minimum effort far
exceeds what we see from other communities across the state. So, we're grateful and we're fortunate that Long Meadow is in a position to spend that much beyond what is minimally required, but again, that that amount has started to flatten out. And so, that's something
I think that we should kind of continue to keep our eyes on. Chapter 70. Um, we do know that, um, I'm going to call your attention to the far right. Uh, the governor's budget that
was released on the 28th of January announced a 2.58% increase in chapter 78 to Long Meadow. Um, that increase, bottom line, is it does not keep pace with our overall
expenditures and you'll you'll see that shortly. So, um, it was candidly disappointing to see that Long Meadow was only expected to receive an additional $200,850
in Chapter 78 beyond last year. Um, we're early in the budget season and it's possible that that amount could be increased by the legislature as they move through their own budget season. Um, but that's a that's a modest
increase. It represents the minimum amount that any district can receive from the state. That two thou $200,850 figure is $75 per student. So that's the increase in chapter 78 that Long Meadow
received uh is expected to receive, projected to receive for FY27. The last slide showed the increase. This this slide shows the total. Um again you'll see chapter 78 has increased in
recent years but so has the cost of doing business and and you know the the expectations have increased as well. So um revenue keeping pace with expenditures uh is a challenge and then revenue
frankly keeping pace with expectations is also uh a challenge for us. I thought this might be interesting to the committee and to the community. I know this is something that um has come up in uh meetings with the select board in recent years and that is our
performance relative to a cohort of districts that are recognized as having a similar wealth factor, a comparable wealth factor to Long Meadow, I guess I would say. And and this is so this is not a cohort that um that I
conceived. This is a cohort that we are assigned into by the state and our performance relative to uh districts of similar wealth I would say is great. Um we compare favorably to the communities
that are listed here on the left. And then when we compare performance and spending uh relative to area districts, these are all of the districts of the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative and then several more.
Again, I would say that our performance obviously uh compared to local districts is is excellent. Also notable is that our pupil expenditures are are uh in most cases significantly lower. Um, you
know, in fairness, the other districts listed on the left may have, you know, uh, greater need. Uh, they may have greater number of students who receive, uh, English language learner services. They may have a
greater number of students who are deemed to be um, uh, low income. So, um, that has to be thought about, but again, I'd say the return on investment, um, I hope you would agree that the return on
investment is is positive. It's good. Uh, that the results relative to per pupil expenditures, the results relative to other districts with similar economic socioeconomic um, traits is is is
good. And then finally, last context I want to provide is before we really get into the presentation is uh relates to enrollment in class size. Um historic enrollment, you'll see going back to 2015, 2016,
2,850 students in 2025, 2,638 students. A little fuzzy, my apologies. We'll see if I can get you a clear image on that. Um, so our enrollment has started to tick down. I would say, you
know, this is a uh certainly a statewide trend. It's a regional trend. Um, our enrollment drop off has not been as dramatic as the enrollment drop offs in other communities in the greater Springfield and Western Mass area, but
we are seeing a decrease in student enrollment. I would note this does not include our prek students. It comes from the uh recent New England school development uh council report [clears throat] and projected um
you know the projections get a little fuzzier uh the further out you go. But uh for at least five years out you can really look at um existing births and really get a handle on what our enrollment might be. Uh so we're not
expecting any dramatic upturn. It will be relatively stable. Uh maybe drop off a little bit at least according to the New England School Development Council in the next 10 to 15 years. We [clears throat] can come back to any
of this information. Um so current enrollment you know just notable here to see the size of the cohorts in the in the sort of 7 8 9 10 11 12 grades and then relative to the size of the cohorts in the earlier grades. So that this is sort
of reflective of that of that enrollment downturn that um I showed you a minute ago. Again, not a dramatic downturn. And we do see again in fairness that the cohorts do grow over time. So that K
cohort, which is only 166 students, generally the trend in Long Meadow is that those cohorts grow as they move through elementary, middle, middle, and into high school. Um, and this does not include any students who are placed out
of district. always a a slide that gets um for good reason um important attention, a lot of attention as we bring our budget presentation to the school committee. And that is uh what we are projecting for elementary class size
based on this based on this budget tonight. And you'll see that we have uh class size numbers that I would say are are favorable and advantageous. I would say that it has long been a strategic
priority of ours to maintain the advantageous class size that you're seeing here at the elementary level. Again, these these are class size based on the budget that is being proposed tonight. If the budget were to be
revised in any way, the numbers there might change. So, on to the budget recommendation. Once again, at a high level, uh we're proposing a total budget of 46,247,249.
Uh that's uh a little over a million2 over FY26. Percentage-wise, 3% increase uh being sought from the town's general fund, a 2.86% total budget increase because we're
seeing uh special revenue increase at a a much slower rate than the uh amount that of revenue that we would anticipate from the general fund. Uh I'm going to skip right to this slide here. um the where we've been
historically in terms of the percentage increase from the general fund to Long Meadow Public Schools. So you'll see that the three just over 3% increase that's being sought with this recommendation sort of falls in line with uh where we've been in recent years
probably uh reflective of um the average at least over the last five or 10 years. the uh the funding sources for the for the budget uh recommendation. You'll see that we are very reliant on local
contributions, the town's general fund that that included in that is chapter 78. Of course, um our circuit breaker, which is a an account that uh funds, um special
education placements and services and programs uh that go beyond what we ordinarily expend on a per pupil basis. Uh circuit breaker account is uh we're able to apply an additional $99,882
with this recommendation. Uh we have we're anticipating a modest increase in METCO grant school choice. We're anticipating simply um replacing the number of choice students who are with us this year with a comparable number
next year. Um and then other regular education grants. We're expecting a downturn. Mr. Maza can speak to any of the figures that uh are represented on this slide. Now the adjustments uh again I would say
that this recommendation uh is reflective of a provision of level services over the uh compared to the 2526 school year. I'd call your attention to the top right
on this slide. And this is where the we're seeing, you know, the the greatest explanation of the budget increase is fulfilling the contractual obligations that we have to our employees. We're anticipating
uh just over $1.3 million to meet those contractual obligations. Tom can speak to you about a very significant increase in utilities. We all know uh how much it is to heat and cool uh and light up our homes and we're
experiencing the same thing here in Long Meadow Public Schools. So um the increase attributable to utility bills is significant. Uh we expect FY27 uh
on board uh important software tools and services on the town side and the school side. I just want to remind the community, I know the committee knows this, that um information technology services are housed here in Long Meadow
Public Schools, but software services serve both town and school. Uh and then you'll see some other increases that we are expecting in a variety of line items. On the left is where we're
anticipating some reductions. attrition um is a shorthand way of of describing the savings that we would expect from the retirement of teachers who've been with us for a long
are on our salary schedule anticipating that they would be replaced by less senior teachers who are uh lower on the salary schedule. So attrition is essentially retirement related savings. uh transportation. Uh we're expecting, believe it or not, a a slight reduction
in regular and special education transportation services. Uh out of district tuitions. Again, credit to our special educators. uh, Director Nicole Paris Crow for managing out of district tuitions and ensuring that um, we're
serving students appropriately, what they need morally, ethically, legally, but also ensuring that we're doing it in ways that are coste effective. We based on student plans, based on student needs and student enrollment
patterns, we are able to uh, reduce two existing academic tutors. Again, I want to I want to emphasize that this is to reflect a reduction in uh service levels, but rather a reflection of the individual needs of some individual
students. And then uh a PT assistant uh is again based on some student needs, we're able to achieve a reduction in that area. And so you'll see that the pluses and minuses amount to an increase
of just over $1.2 million projected for FY27. Different way of thinking about where the money goes. Uh what are our biggest cost centers? We are in the people business. Uh you'll see that um our
salaries constitute nearly 80% of our costs. And so when we look to achieve efficiencies, when we look to uh if we ever in a position where we had to make reductions, you're really looking at the big blue slice of that pie. The
utilities wedge has grown. um special education. Again, I think we're we're seeing um some stabilization there uh as we again make sure that we're providing services appropriate to student needs,
technology, and then um the green slice represents supplies, travel, and some other cost centers that that Tom I'm sure could explain. But thought this was a good way of just thinking kind of visualizing where the biggest cost points are in in the budget
utilities. Um again FY27 proposed budget compare it to the FY26 budget. Um you'll see the increase that we were talking about. that slice of the of the pie of the cost pie has been
growing um regularly in recent years. Our experience mirrors the experience of other school districts, mirrors what's happening at the homeowner level as well. Um and then again the adjustments. Um this budget
the the short bottom line of this complicated slide is to show that we're not anticipating any increases in staffing uh beyond the revised FY26
budget. So we started FY26 with 452 positions. We've made a couple reductions midyear this year. Those reductions will carry over to FY27. Again, staffing has to be responsive to
enrollment. As enrollment has fallen off, you'll see that um staffing has responded accordingly. So, in FY24 or go back to FY23, 470 positions in Long Meadow Public
Schools. uh FY27 we're projecting 449 positions FTEES full-time equivalents uh next school year. So staffing responding to enrollment and then finally just wrap it up with
the uh overall uh FY27 budget recommendation summary. As we are at the beginning early stages of this budget journey, I just want to really really emphasize that there are many many unknowns and variables that
are still in front of us. Top left on this slide. Health insurance. Um we are anticipating that health insurance will come in beyond what was anticipated.
It may be that our budget will have to respond to that next week when we come back to you. We'll have better numbers on health insurance. And it's possible that we'll have to revise this presentation. Frankly, it's possible that this presentation that the
recommendation could be revised um even after the school committee votes the budget because you know final state aid numbers aren't known until May, June or July. um final costs aren't always clear. And
then there are many variables that we encounter between now and the time we open school in September. Um evolving enrollment patterns. We could have um a significant number of students move in at a particular grade level that we have
to respond to. We have um some collective bargaining agreements that we need to settle. Budget might need to be responsive to that. Federal grants unknown. A lot of uncertainty. Uh shocking news at the federal level. Uh but that's something we're tracking as
well. Special education services always have to be responsive to students individual needs. Final state aid numbers, fees, busing, preschool, athletics um are fees that we need to establish with the school committee.
Those have a modest impact on the budget as well. school choice and METCO. The number of students that we take in via those programs has a modest impact on the budget as well. On the right, um I would say these are some of the things
that are, for lack of a better way of saying it, sort of left on the table, right? You know, if we were in a position, what are some of the uh potential targets for investment? And you can see
the list on the right. These are some of the things that come up in conversation with our administrators and with the school committee when we think about some of the places some of the unmet needs um here in Long Meadow Public Schools.
So there's certainly plenty of ways we could continue to invest in MTSS fully funding athletics. It's it's largely a feebased program. A lot of discussion uh by this school committee about that. um Nicole Paris Crow and our
whole administrative team, we often talk about the teacher pipeline and are there ways to grow that teacher pipeline by investing professional development and and career potential of our pair of professionals. Um fully funding the curriculum renewal and
uh and curriculum supplies. Dr. Nelson can speak to that if you have any questions. Instructional coaching, you saw the value of sort of peer-to-peer work earlier in your meeting. uh onboarding new staff. Are we investing in new staff appropriately? And then
substitute teaching. We want to stay competitive with substitute teaching rates uh compared to other area schools. It's a cost center that has grown as this committee knows. It's a cost center that has grown for us in recent years.
So, um, these are all things that I think should we should all keep in the back of our mind as we travel down the budget road. Again, early stages. We'll be back at it again next week and then again in three
weeks. Uh, and we'll continue to pay attention to it throughout the spring. So, that's a lot. Appreciate your patience with record number of slides. My my team's always trying to get me to trim it down, but can't help myself. Um, it honestly
it it reflects much um I [clears throat] value uh the work of our educators and the work of our administrators. And I I really want to take time during the hearing to represent that because I'm proud of uh I'm proud of the team. I'm proud of our educators. And I'm proud of the results
that we get year in year out. and I'm proud of the commitment that this community has to uh to our students. So, happy to answer any questions you might have. Um and our central office admin team is here as well if you have any questions about their areas of
leadership. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I just want to say thank you to the whole administrative team because I know it takes a lot of work and you all work together and I know um, basically I've been this is my third year on the school
committee and you you I've seen you just all do such great work and get even better at it. um especially when it comes to the budget and alignment of things like hearing that the things that are priorities in classrooms are also priorities in the budget is something
that um makes me proud too. So does anyone have any questions or >> I would I would say much the same. I really appreciate the thought and energy that goes into all of this. I know budget building is often akin to building the plane while flying it. Um and that is no small feat. Um so
appreciate um everything that's gone into getting us to this stage. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> If there is uh it's a lot to take in. Uh there's detailed uh budget documents in your packet. If the committee has any
questions or there's anything you'd like to see us bring back February 3rd, we're we're happy to do that. Um, and um, you know, we'll be sure to push this information out to the community. Final, you know, I've said it, but
again, worth repeating that early stages, lots of unknowns. The recommendation could change based on information that we receive in the days, weeks, months ahead. So, >> thank you.
>> Thank you. All right. Next we have new No, we're done. Are we done with Is that all the new You said all that. That's >> That's it. Yeah. Yeah. That's >> So now we have building use requests.
>> Good evening. Uh on your agenda tonight is a consent agenda consisting of three building use requests. The first is submitted uh on behalf of Champion City Springfield requesting use of the high
school auditorium on Saturday, March 21st uh for a choir rehearsal. Uh the second request is from uh the Blueberry Hill PTO for uh the Blueberry
uh talent show, which is they're requesting use of the high school auditorium and some multi-purpose space on uh Tuesday, March 24th and Saturday, March 28th for various times for that event. And the third request is
submitted on behalf of Wolf Swamp PTO for Wolf Swamp PTO Bingo night on Friday, March 20th from 4 to 8:30 at the Wolf Swamp School in the gymnasium. So, those are the three building use
requests that are uh presented to you tonight for consideration under the consent agenda. >> Okay. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions or comments about the consent agenda or want to take an item out? Seeing none, we can move to a vote. >> I move that the school committee
approved the consent agenda for the February 3rd, 2026 school committee meeting as presented. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Emily, >> yes. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Kate, >> yes.
>> Adam, >> and a yes for me, too. So now we just >> are we staying in the executive session? >> Uh we will not need to come out of executive session. >> So we just have one final motion. I move
that the school committee meet in executive session pursuant to mass general law 308a section 21A purpose two to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for collective bargaining session with unit B and D three to discuss strategy with respect to
collective bargaining or litigation seven approval of minutes and will not reconvene into open session. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Now we'll vote. Emily, >> yes. >> Zach, >> yes.
>> Adam, >> yes. >> Kate, >> yes. >> And a yes for me, too. Have a good evening, everyone.