##VIDEO ID:iVCD6Y6tixE## good evening and welcome to the Tuesday January 28th 2025 meeting of the long mow school committee School committees and other public bodies may continue to hold remote meetings through March 31st 2025 under legislation enacted on March 29th 2023 the statute chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 extends Quorum reductions for remote meetings all votes whether is remote participation must be made by roll call vote this meeting is being recorded and aired live by lctv we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America to the rep stands liy and justice for all we'll begin with correspondents Jamie yep uh emails from the following people regarding the long meal High School hockey teams Mr Kevin Watney one on 17 of 2025 Mr John Rosio 17 of 2025 Mr Jeff sullivan8 of 20 25 that's typo on there yep so uh Mr Michael southernland 18 2025 Mr Raphael Hernandez 1 n of 2025 Mr Mrs Miss Cara Downey 110 of 2025 all right great thank you moving on to approval of minutes we have a possible recommended motion I move the school committee to approve the minutes to the January 14th 2025 school committee meeting as presented we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Jamie yes Julie yes Michaela yes yes Adam yes Zach yes Estelle yes and yes for me as well thank you um public speak we have a moment if there any members of the public who would like to come forward and speak I don't see anyone online and I don't see anyone here so I guess we're good uh we're moving into business with guests and we're going to go slightly out of order and start with the presentation of the FY 26 school budget we'll turn that over to you guys all right thank you so much um what's that yeah just making sure that copies of oh got you all right okay all right share my screen here and um get us rolling full screen all right just want to make sure I can see Folks at too in I have to go have a hand raised at some point have to get on a full screen then sorry all right have the technology set um appreciate the opportunity to share with the school committee and the community uh administrative recommendation for the FY 26 budget and um assemble today is the entire administrative team so I appreciate their attendance tonight um this budget is a reflection of our shared priorities uh Mr Ma and I had an opportunity to meet with each of the administrators to kind of understand what the opportunities and challenges are in terms of the uh upcoming budget and so uh we appreciated their input throughout uh so we come to you tonight as a team and uh come to you prepared to answer any questions that you might have relative to the FY 26 budget uh to begin um I want to extend thanks to uh Tom Maza our assistant superintendent for finance and operations for uh his diligent preparation of the FY 26 budget documents uh Tom has a masterful handle on the budget and he's worked closely with Finance sub he's worked closely with the town manager's office uh to understand um the fiscal context for the presentation tonight so um while I get to provide the overview Tom has furnished you with all the detailed budget documents uh in your meeting packet this is another step I'm sorry you've got something waiting to come in to Sor sorry about that there we go um so we have uh this is another um milestone for us in the development of the FY 26 budget it actually started back in November when um we began conversations with the town and the school committee had an opportunity to have a joint budget meeting with the select board so that I think both parties sort of understood what the uh what the challenges were as we looked ahead to the 25 26 school year so um you'll see the milestones picked on this slide tonight January 28th the initial budget recommendation the school committee will host a public hearing on February 4th and if we're in a position to do so um we would seek a school committee vote on February 11th so we have some time to gather school committee feedback tonight make adjustments uh to the the presentation gather additional information or frankly make adjustments to the uh to the uh recommendation so uh that kicks off the town's involvement with our budget we would present the budget potentially to the select board on March 3D and then from there the town manager works with the select board to arrive at a budget that would be considered at the annual town meeting on May 13th uh the budget is very much driven by our strategic goals and uh the Ms that we're able to make and even some of the Investments that we wish we could make are are tied to the goals that are depicted on this slide and I was thinking about this slide uh earlier today and it occurred to me that so many of the objectives here are objectives that uh really are recent in the history of public education and you know these are a reflection of the complexity of uh the work of our administrators and our teachers and the entire staff uh it's a reflection of trying to ensure that we're addressing the needs of the whole child so at a very high level the the most high level slide that we can offer you tonight and we can come back to this later on is the FY 26 budget recommendation you'll note that it recommends an increase uh contribution from the town's general fund by $1.28 7 million over F1 y25 so the uh the general fund contribution that would be associated with this recommendation is 41,47 [Music] [Music] 5,743 377 million in special revenue for a total FY 26 budget recommendation of 44,8 52,000 uh $852 879 so uh to I'll back up a little bit and begin with uh a bit of an explanation of the building blocks of a school budget um I think it's important to understand the building blocks to to really appreciate the the full context and really some of this systemic challenges the fiscal um challenges that we face in putting together a budget for FY 26 so essentially a school budget is made up of chapter 78 that's the state's main source of uh Public Funding of public education uh the state defines each community's minimum local contribution it's essentially based on a community's ability to pay those two factors taken together represent uh required net School spending it's what the state essentially says is the minimum amount that communities need to spend to provide uh to create an adequate public education above and beyond that are contributions that the town makes uh above what is minimally required and additionally we receive uh grants and we have other sources of revenue that we use to fund uh education here in Long uh and so that that required net School spending for the purposes of our discussion tonight it really represents the foundation budget it's it's again it's the budget that the state would say is minimally required to provide an adequate public education to students in the Commonwealth and these calculations are made up uh by first determining the foundation budget the there a complex formula that I can share a spreadsheet um depicting uh showing enrollment programming the demographic characteristics of students and from that calculation a foundation budget is derived for each School District in the Commonwealth and then from there each town is assigned a minimum local contribution essentially again based on uh Town's ability to pay local income property taxes essentially the relative wealth of each municipality and from that uh state aid is calculated and so that required local contribution plus chapter 78 represents a District's net School spending requirement and if you really want to get wonky and uh dive into the details of the foundation budget this is a doc that is very much available uh to the public I wouldn't expect the community or the committee to see the details here but essentially what the foundation budget calculation does is it identifies an enrollment across grade levels it identifies students who uh require specialized support in the form of special education or English language learner programs or vocational instruction it also identifies a number of students who uh are designated as lowincome by the state and so in each of those categories there's an there's an allocation uh that is set aside to establish that Foundation budget so I just want to point out a couple of things here that that drive the calculation of this Foundation budget and so one is uh up in the top right corner here is um you'll see the the low income number the state has uh determined that there are 403 of our students who are uh defined as um as coming from low-income families and I point that out because that's a number that we have seen increase in recent years and I'll I can show you uh where we were uh going back 10 years but that number drives up the foundation budget and generally students uh in these categories require additional support um and so the foundation budget for FY 26 is 35,5 188,189 and so again that that is the the amount that the state would say is minimally required to to educate students here in Long Meadow of course our the town's contributions go well beyond that uh but for our purposes it will help sort of set Baseline for the challenges that we Face fiscally so this is the um a depiction of the selected populations I mentioned a moment ago you'll see that uh in uh 2014 2015 uh there were 5.9% of our students were identified as economically disadvantaged in 2223 and this is information that was pulled from the from the Department of education's Public site 11.7% of our students were designated as uh coming from low income families and so uh these are factors that um Drive the necessary supports that are needed in our schools but it also drives the creation of that of that Foundation budget so the our history with the with the foundation budget excuse me uh you'll see that um as that calculation has changed uh and as the state has defined what an adequate minimum Foundation budget is uh it's increased significantly so uh from FY 25 to FY 26 the state would say that foundationally we would need an additional $1.3 million and that's just the foundation budget that we generally go beyond and so tie that back now to chapter 78 this is the the source of Aid that drives public education in Massachusetts the governor just released uh the house one budget a couple of weeks ago and you'll see that our chapter 7 Aid increase is only $246 so that represents the the minimum amount that we could receive under the state's funding formula this year we are a hold harmless District uh subject by the governor's budget to receive $75 per student so I guess I would encourage everyone to compare that increase in chapter 78 to the uh increase that we saw represented here on the foundation budget and to put those two num numbers uh together you'll see that based on the current projections based on the current theer Governor's budget chapter 78 would increase by 2.77% the foundation budget would increase by 4% putting pressure on Long Meadow to fund the difference and again we go beyond the the minimum local requirements we go beyond the foundation budget here in Long Meadow as do most other communities but it's a good Benchmark it's a good reference point to basically tell us show us that the cost of doing business in public education has increased significantly the foundation budget is a reflection of that shared consensus that it costs more to educate children nowadays given the complexity of our work given the demands uh given the needs of students in 2025 so I guess I would present this to the committee and the community as a systemic challenge that we face that as costs rise as the complexity of our work increases it makes me wonder if if chapter 78 is in fact uh mirroring that and you know I think across the Commonwealth communities are are feeling the the burden of rising costs and Flat state aid um we are of the 350 some odd communities districts in Massachusetts we one of 200 or so I can get the exact numbers who are scheduled to receive the minimum amount in state aid the $75 per student so it really presents um you know some challenges for us as we develop a budget that uh is reflective of of our needs and hopes here in Long Meadow another way of looking at it is that increasing gap between the foundation budget and chapter 78 chapter 78 to the credit of the state has increased in recent years uh but I would say again the foundation budget aka the cost of doing business has increased at a greater rate and so it It ultimately puts pressure on local communities like Long Meadow uh to to catch up and to and to keep pace so I wanted to present that as just sort of the The Wider context for the budget recommendation that we have for you tonight so uh to get into some of the local detail sales uh this is a um slide that depicts the various sources of revenue that drive the long meow Public Schools budget you'll see that we are uh largely dependent on the general fund we largely dependent on um the residents uh the taxpayers of Long Meadow 92.5% of our budget uh is attributed comes from the general fund circuit breaker is a state uh source of state aid that helps offset um special education placements that uh really go beyond a local community's ability to afford uh metco were anticipating a slight increase a slight increase in the amount of school choice Revenue that we can apply to the budget um you'll see that uh regular education grants actually I'm not sure if I updated this slide here Tom is that the updated version I'll have to pull that so um can you speak to that where we are with that line grants we're anticipating about a $29,000 or so increase um hoping for a 29,000 or so net increase in our regular Ed grants I think specifically we're looking at Title One based on some preliminary information if you recall last year we we're talking about possible reduction in Title One Support Services because the state had kind of given us a notice that we'd be receiving less funding now they're telling us that there's a bit of a jump in the number of eligible students so although they haven't put a dollar amount to it yet but we're hoping that we'll be able to at least maintain Staffing and services to the level we have in FY 25 thank you some history here on uh where we've been with the general fund increases over the years will see that the this request this evening would represent a 3.2% general fund increase uh it sort of Falls in line with uh recent requests it it goes below where we were uh in FY 25 and so I think that that 3% increase again I I would tie it back to um I'll jump back to this slide where we see that the state has said that foundationally the budgets would um tie back to a 4% increase so it creates a strain and it creates a gap for us when at the state level they're recognizing that the cost of doing business has increased but um tying it back to you know the fiscal position of the Town puts us in a puts us in a challenging spot um so the historical general fund increases and you'll see how that uh also how it ties back to the the total budget increase when all funds are considered and accounted for so the budget that we are bringing to you this evening is essentially a level service budget um it maintains existing Staffing it maintains existing services and existing programs the adjustments that I'll share with you now uh really relate to um some of the the changing needs of students so I guess I I I can confidently say at this stage that uh the budget would allow us to maintain our existing level of service so I'll start with some of the uh reductions on the leftand side um attrition refers to uh retirement we're anticipating uh a small number of retirees and generally we're able to hire L lower on the pay scale uh as employees move on to retirement we are anticipating uh a reduction in kindergarten enrollment and so that would allow for the reduction of one section uh at the kindergarten level currently we have 10 uh sections at the kindergarten level we're projecting that we will only need nine and that would still um allow us to create favorable class size so that reduction is enrollment related and and it shouldn't be seen as a uh a reduction in service there are two positions tied to that section reduction uh one being the classroom teacher the other being the classroom assistant um special education transition support we have built up a great part partnership with uh institutions of higher education and they have been providing some critical transition support for uh Long Meadow students and and next year we had assigned Personnel to that function in the past next year that work will be able to be taken on uh by the institution so that is a a favorable development for us um the teacher of the DEA Services um the again U the the need needs of students requiring these Services as has changed and so we're able to uh uh realize that savings without a reduction in service to any child and then some um miscellaneous supplies and services tied to the grants that Tom described earlier on the on the other side of the Ledger are some in additions and increases that we must anticipate uh the biggest number there is contractual obligations uh we uh need to make sure that we meet our projected obligations tied to collective bargaining agreements uh and that we're in a position to you know continue to attract and retain the finest Educators and administrators and staff around so uh that number uh is a reflection of of Meeting those obligations and ensuring that uh we're well positioned in terms of Staffing next year year uh transportation we have seen uh increases we received news of increases from the Lower pioner Valley educational collaborative this is the collaborative that we belong to that provides our transportation services um but transportation services for regular education students special education students um students who take the bus over to Career Tech the The Vocational program and even students who um access busing tied to our metco program uh in each of those areas we have to uh project plan for increases tied to uh transportation out of District tuitions we're anticipating an increase to ensure that we're serving the individual needs the students whose needs cannot be met here in Long Meadow vocational tuitions uh this relates to um children attending Career Tech the cost of those tuitions is increased and addition we have students that access a Career Tech program a teched program outside of uh the lpvec that we have to account for as well uh some reductions associated with uh computer software and services on both the town and the school side uh uh pair of professional uh requests came from our administrative team that we feel we have to honor uh utilities we're in a better position with utilities than we were last year you'll call that that was a a variable number last year that we um were trying to incorporate and plan for but uh utilities a more modest increase in FY 26 so uh all in all out we're looking at a total increase of $1.42 million and we're happy to talk through uh the implications of any of those lines with you um just to one of the data points that the school committee and even the select board has asked for in the past is to sort of provide some information on um Staffing and you'll see here that really this proposes almost a an even amount of Staffing the Staffing levels where we are right now compared to what we're projecting for FY 26 it's a a nearly ident iCal uh level of Staffing we had uh added some positions once the budget was Set uh once the FY 25 budget was set but with the additions and increases that we discussed current Staffing next year's Staffing will match uh our current Staffing levels projected Elementary class size under this recommendation I think again it it positions us well um lmow has long had a commitment to really manageable reasonable uh class siiz numbers and so we're pleased that we're able to bring you a recommendation that creates some uh favorable class size at the elementary level and if you have any if you wants to come back to this um when we get to questions we certainly can at the middle level similarly um these are are much more of a projection than uh what I had shown you at the elementary level The Numbers Never precisely break down uh the way they're depicted here these are these would be averages across all the sections there is some variability at the seventh and eighth grade because based on the math that students choose or the world language that students choose so those are averages that we're anticipating at Glenbrook and Williams um High School enrollment uh will be steady next year uh based on the number of students that are graduating and the number of students that will be joining the high school next year in recent years we've seen a a drop off in enrollment at the high school and it's allowed for some staffing adjustments uh we're not anticipating that next year we're anticipating that High School enrollment will uh be more or less consistent when compared to this year so that's our this is our current uh enrollment projection I think it's we'll we'll wrap it up um and this is where the slide I think um certainly reflects some of the conversations that we've had with our administrative team this budget is not finalized this budget is a recommendation uh even after the school committee votes the budget some of the very variables on the right uh are unknown and become clearer so uh on the leftand side are some areas where there could be room for potential investment were we in a position uh I think at the top of the list is investments in the Continuum of Behavioral supports that are articulated in our mtss framework I'd say each administrator we spoke with talked about the need to uh provide uh critical behavioral supports to our students mental health supports seal supports we continue to be interested in making Investments on that side of the mtss triangle uh in the past we've talked about this as student support centers we've had some success with the creation of student support centers at some of our schools and it it appears to be a model that we could replicate in all schools if we had the opportunity um other areas for potential investment include um substitute teaching uh probably at a point where we need to continue to evaluate The Substitute Teacher rates to be sure that we are attracting and retaining qualified substitutes for our Educators when they need to be out fully funding Athletics this has been a conversation um that has been held at Finance subcommitte committee uh to think about how this budget could uh how a budget could fully fund Athletics in a manner that might take the pressure off of parents uh in terms of the fees that they're uh that they're required to pay for their children to participate in sports supplies I want I want to mention that this budget um it really assumes uh level funding in in a lot of key Supply areas and we all know that you know with inflation costs continue to rise so when when supplies are Level funded it really for supplies it would have the effect of of reducing uh what we can secure and acquire for our classrooms so again this budget assumes uh level uh funding for supplies support staff ensuring that we have uh appropriate support staff in terms of PA professionals clerical staff technical um technology staff you know these are the people that uh work so closely with Educators and administrators to make it all work for kids and for teachers and so we know that there's some areas that uh we would like to uh invest in if we had that opportunity instructional coaching uh regular and special education our our admin administrators that are with us tonight uh they're a busy group and um I know that um you know we feel collectively that uh we could achieve even greater results if we had um even a stronger more robust uh commitment in terms of instructional coaching it's it's that layer of of leadership uh below the principles uh that is really working side by side with teachers uh to support instruction and support uh planning fully funding curriculum renewal and adoption um we're eager to ensure that we are we have an articulated curriculum plan um Dr Nelson has done a really nice job of laying out our current and future needs in terms of curriculum renewal replacement and adoption uh but truth is is that you know this budget and past budgets have not fully funded those renewal plans and I know that's something that that the school committee uh has made some critical investments in and I know the committee would share our interest in in in funding that to a on a more regular um consistent basis full day preschool um so I think we've begun to hear from parents in the community that uh they would benefit from full day preschool right now we have six half day sections at the preschool level um what we would be interested in is is creating a full day section at the preschool level and you know it right now you know the students who attend our preschool it's it's a very short day and it creates some Child Care challenges for our families they have increasingly been uh inquiring about the possibility of a full day section of preschool and then finally um this last bullet in District special education programming maybe it belongs on the other side of the Ledger here but we always want to explore opportunities to create in District special education programming for our neediest students um that's good for kids and it's good for budgets if we're able to do that and so we need to be nimble we need to be responsive we need to be able to uh create those programs to ensure that kids get to attend uh School in their Hometown the variables the these are these are unknowns and and many of them will not be known for uh weeks months perhaps even into the summer the town's fiscal position we still need to be sensitive to the to the fiscal context here in Long Meadow uh we want to put forth a budget that is is manageable it's reasonable it's efficient it's responsible uh and so it's important that we continue to stay in touch with the town manager's office and the select board and really understand what the town's uh position is and and what they can support what that in terms of our ask collective bargaining agreements we're actively working with uh our partners in the Lea uh to reach agreements that again help us attract and conin great people final state aid levels won't be known for months it will probably be into July uh when we really know what the the final state aid levels are I'd add a bullet up there that you know probably would be hot off the presses federal aid levels um lots of conversation even today about what federal aid will look like um we're still trying to understand that here in the administrative offices kindergarten class size we think with nine sections we think the projection will hold uh but we've seen in the past we've seen enrollment surprises that we have to be responsive to utilities final the final uh projections for utilities again we feel like that's not as variable as it had been in the past but worth noting long metal high class signups fee Based Services um busing preschool Athletics all of those provide Revenue that that fuel the budget and so we want to make sure that we're uh responsive uh and planful with those febas Services um spring and summer enrollment again uh we have to watch the patterns um between now and September uh to ensure that we're creating manageable class size if there are some registrations between now and September and then uh also planning for final school choice in metco participation numbers so uh this is our initial recommendation you can see that there are some unknown still you can see that there's a a long budget Road still in front of us and we're happy to answer any questions you might have take any feedback make any adjustments bring back any additional information that would be helpful and our admin team is is here as well if uh if you have any questions of them so appreciate the chance to the recommendation all right thank you to Dr OA and Mr Maza and all of our administrators I know this has been a lot to look at over the last several weeks and we appreciate the time and energy that went into it um and know we're early on in the process um and there's still some potential for changeability um but I'll open to questions and or discussion from anyone either here in the room or at home Julie Julie well Mar can I just wanted to ask you mentioned this a little bit on your last slide but in last year we saw like a pretty significant difference right between the governor's proposal for Chapter 70 and then what actually landed can you just talk about how we accommodate those changes as we move forward on the budget process yeah thank you um great question last year this time we were projecting a $30 per student increase and so it was going to be somewhere around 80 something, a really modest modest is generous a really skimpy increase in chapter 78 and then ultimately as you pointed out Julie turned out to be over $100 per student $110 I think per student and so uh at that point we trying to recall Tom if you can help me out whether the budget requires to be revoted or it's simply some adjustments that we can make yeah I mean because that that aid number really didn't get finalized until the budget was adopted which was late spring early summer I think it was July actually before it was finalized the additional Revenue was an incorporated until the fall town meeting when there was an amendment to the budget that town meeting approved and subsequently school committee um approved some changes to the general fund budget back in the fall incorporating 125,000 additional dollars into the fy2 budget so it's really dependent upon the timing Julie as to whether or not they can get incorporated into the projected budget we submit and what the town uh submits to the select board so it does a change like that you know I don't know what we'll see this year and I know the Govern budget is a little different this time around than it was last time but like um would that would a change like that allow us to have the flexibility if we see like kindergarten enrollment and higher than what we expected or some of the some of the places where we had to make adjustments it's an option assuming that there's some consensus about how that additional funding will be used whether it's going to come to the school department or reside with the town I think the net amount of increase was 250,000 and 125 was added to the school budget and 25 went to the DPW budget was my best recollection so again I mean there's a lot of variables it's not uncommon that the final Aid numbers from the state are different than what is projected in the budget that gets adopted along with even local receipts usually that is then part of the Fall town meeting put funding that's moved into the operational stabilization account or part part of free cash and then appropriated for projects through town meeting does that answer everything Julie yeah all right other questions or thoughts I'm wondering oh Jamie yeah one question just on uh slide 23 there all so full day preschool yeah is there a like is there a cost associated with this or is this just an additional service that they would pay for a full day so if right now we run six half day sections MH if you if you if it resulted in um five sections where one of them is full day and the other four remain half day okay then it wouldn't necess necessarily change your costs but the question is whether or not if we ran a full day section if it would increase need or registrations enrollment that kind of thing okay so any additional context on yeah we might also consider what that fee is for a full day program versus the current structure with is which is a half day program so we would want to look at that um I think to Marty's point if enrollment exceeds the number of seats available in those five sections are we then looking at requirements at another half day so that's where you would see that in those incurred costs that weren't planned for potentially again in 25 our preschool enrollment I think is down by 7 six or so from from the previous year um it's probably the first time that's happened and we've been seeing a bit of a steady increase in preschool enrollment I know um ni Cole Paris cron I've talked and most certainly is a high interest in full day slots but one we're really tight on space at Wolf Swamp um second obviously is the financial commitment to being able to support the program got it and I guess the only other thing on these particular this list here obviously they're all a bit concerning but the two I would kind of want to see and kind of just vet out because it doesn't look like there's a ton of changes from the overall budgets kind of status quo is if we fully funded the curriculum what does that look like you do that what are you changing in your budget you obviously have to reduce somewhere right to make that work um I would love to see kind of what cuz we're choosing something and I don't even know what we're choosing would I do fully fund this or would I do something else what is that something else for that and then for you know it doesn't sound like the preschool might not be a huge hurdle I mean depending on how it shakes out obviously you're taking a chance and then the Athletics funding too I would want to know what am I choosing right now over over doing those especially the curriculum I mean so with curriculum you're kind of heading right into the exact question I was going to ask next which is I don't see any sort of big moves in this budget right now and I know that we're kind of in the process of scheduling a new curriculum sub and and I was just curious where we sort of are at this point is there anything that's coming up in the FY 26 or are we sort of in pre-planning mode for FY 27 as Beth get settled I my my first quick reaction is and I would want everyone to know that there's no uh major adoption that we're pushing off or delay as a as a result of this budget but regular upkeep I'm assuming is obviously already Incorporated but sure um so there's regular upkeep digital subscriptions right now to maintain textbooks are hovering between 70 to like 78,000 a year depending on when those subscriptions come up we have many that were on multi-year subscriptions that we were able to do during some covid era uh Essa funding um Esser funding and so just trying to get a hold on all of that but it's between 70 to 78 over the next couple of years that I'm predicting um that I'm estimating will be running for um and then to maintain the CK and the bridges we have um already money allocated for those annual expenses um so to main to do it it's we do have a curriculum review cycle now so um we need more time to see you know for are there going to be other large curriculum adoptions we don't see that in the next two or three years right now with what we have um we the elementary math seems very happy with Bridges so when that curriculum review cycle comes up for Bridges which would be in the 272 26 27 28 school year um there's a newer addition of bridges out now we wouldn't be doing a full adoption we might be looking just to enhance what we have to complement that newer addition which right now pricing is about $30,000 so in about 3 years like my brain is thinking maybe we need to think about $30,000 just to have the latest edition of our math Elementary curriculum um I know several years ago middle school math came um that doesn't seem to be as urgent right now they seem to be very happy with what they do have um the standards haven't changed and we haven't seen those new reports from Ed reports and curate which um was what the holdup was several years ago so there's not an urgent need to replace that curriculum at in in the present moment okay and and I'd add you know I think Beth has shared with me that you know certainly there are requests for um curriculum supplies or software um that come to us regularly that you know sometimes we're not able to honor because of the the funds that are available to us but I guess those types of things would be potentially we'd be in a better position to meet those requests if we were if we had the fully funded curriculum or no adoption plan but I I want to credit this school committee for increasing the commitment to this line item in recent years I mean we you have certainly stepped up the um allocation towards regular curriculum renewal and adoption and so I think it's just just this is an ongoing need that we want to continue to address so we appreciate the chance to even talk about it yeah we appreciate the work you've put into kind of developing a a renewal cycle that gives us a little bit of time to project is either of you able to just for anybody who might be listening talk a little bit maybe about sometime sometimes the challenges that might be associated with a full adoption because I know there are some uh sticky points when it comes to like we can't say okay this is going to cost $800,000 so we'll put aside 200 this year and 200 next year and sort of work our way towards it you want to address how that can sometimes be a little bit trickier to plan fully for I mean ideally the curriculum adoption cycle would happen where it's almost a year and a half in advance of the actual purchase where when we're developing the budget that will take effect on a July 1st we know at least at least a year and a half ahead of what that cost will be I mean when we look at what previous adoptions the range of the adoptions could have cost I mean it was anywhere from 800,000 to 250 for the elementary um Ela adoption so and to the point of we we don't have a mechanism municipalities school districts don't have the ability to kind of set money aside in a savings account and build it up towards to reach a threshold or a dollar amount for a potential purchase it would either be through the line item within the budget an appropriation from the town which is what happened in fy2 um or you know some other means we were fortunate the state had some funding attached to the bridges adoption so the cost there was not as high as it could have been um we weren't as fortunate with the CK adoption so I don't know if that answ question that does and that it also speaks well to how important that um renewal cycle and planning is so just again appreciation for the work that's gone into that for planning to make it easier for Budget times one of the things like that if if you're piloting or field testing a a curriculum and you complete that field test or that pilot in May let's say that's the point where you figure out what the cost the associated cost would be of an adoption but it's after your budget has already been voted and so that's where you know Tom's talking about that year and a half it it does require that long-term planning so yeah um I do agree I think we're in a you know we're well positioned right now to kind of have an idea of what's around the bend curriculum wise and again we're we're appreciate the conversation but there's no adoption that's being delayed as a result of this budget we feel like you know we're able to maintain our you know commitment to CK and bridges and other other key curriculum areas so wonderful thank you appreciate it other questions yeah yeah so just so just no it's perfect um so so we don't we feel like we're budgeted well enough in that in that particular line item I would just say that on these other ones um I would mind just looking at kind of what the spend is like the first one sounds like a good idea to me how much are we talking about we talking 50 Grand so I'm going to spend 50 Grand there what am I going to get rid of for 50 Grand and just so I can see what I'm choosing I don't like not knowing what I'm choosing so on these I think these are all really good ideas some of them are pretty small kind of spends I would assume supplies I mean how much I I don't know how much that could be but just to know I mean some of these are pretty big spends I would assume the Athletics ones at least qu $ million you know fully funding it something like that right so you that would be a big change in the other budget but I wouldn't mind seeing because some of these look I would say even in instructional coaching and then kind of just look at it and kind of go just so we know what we're choosing we may leave this completely as it is because it looks like a pretty darn good budget from what you've did and I just like some of these are pretty especially the preschool one that seems like a really good investment I mean my opinion but like I wonder how much it cost like an idea I you have to have a guess so at least if we know if we're going to throw 50 Grand at that what are we going to get rid of for 50 Grand or take a chance with utilities and under budgeted or something like that so um that would just be my thing is just if there's ones on here which ones would you really say would be a big bang for our buck yeah the the the list I'm glad you asked that question it really is in no particular order but I would highlight the first bullet on the left I would highlight our interest in ensuring that we're meeting you know the social emotional needs of students their behavioral needs uh their mental health needs that that seems to uh be a that was probably the um most frequently heard feedback that we heard from our administrative team when we we did our budget rounds that would be one of my like the first one the last one kind of going I mean but how much like what are we talking if we're talking five grand then that's one thing but if it's 50 or 100 at least I mean I would be in support of a lot of that stuff up there and kind of I just wanted to know really create a like a student Support Center at each school you're really talking how many schools do we have that at right now right now we have it at Wolf Swamp and glennbrook okay and um and the other schools sort of are doing their best with existing staff to try and create those kind of a mirror of those supports that exist at Glenbrook and and wol swamp and I know a few years ago um principal you were looking to um build a stronger student support center do you feel like that's kind of in the place you'd like it to be now is that sort of the model of what we'd be looking to recreate in other buildings so I'd say that I think we're still building on that what we have done this year though is able we didn't know what we were going to have for Title One funds this year to be able to have a person in there so the whole time we were planning it it was to have that fully supervised so the the teacher that's in there right now is working with kids that are assigned to him um you know through mtss um the process but we also have an option where if kids need a break or they you they go in there they sign in they grab a timer they put it on for five minutes we have different ways that they could take a break and then they end up going back to class so it's it's a great place for drop-ins as well and we also want to start we also wanted to start to use it with our guidance Department um for what they need because what we have set up in our buildings right now the sweet that we have in guidance is not really conducive to getting some of those kids so we have a lot of the kids that are in there on bike desks so they're biking while they're on a desk there's a lot of standup desks there's a lot of fidget toys there's different Furniture so kids really have a lot of opportunities in there to be in different spaces and there are a lot of kids that do just need a break uh they go for a walk or if they want to go in there for a minute but they do log in they're tracked there's a timer and stuff like that too and the and worth mentioning and and Nicole's comments reminding me of this that um the reason that those exists at Wolf Swamp in Glenbrook is because of the title one funding that that um supports those programs and had we not had that funding then it wouldn't be we'd have all this stuff that we had ordered and had for a room but we'd have nobody to kind of be in there to run it in a way yeah so we are finding it beneficial we're finding a higher need for for more students to be able to utilize that space as well so and do other schools have any kind of component that they feel as particularly I'm guessing that we're also similar situation with Staffing um from Principal Matas yeah we are slightly different than what Glenbrook has I wouldn't really call it a student support center um students are more identified through the mtss process and then uh you know we provide with our student support Specialists Title One funded um behavioral supports that way so it's not as much of a drop in as um principal Allen talked about where students can drop it for four or five minutes um it's more about identifying them through that mtss process so we have both sorry I no okay and I'm guessing from the others watching this would also be something of interest in their buildings as well Andor useful in their spaces yeah seeing nodding heads okay um so maybe we can um to support what Jamie was saying kind of come up with what some costs specifically might be related to those supports if there are other supports that might work better in different buildings what that could look like um so that we have some yeah and more I agree I think this an awesome budget I mean the fact that we're where we are already obviously there's some really massive variables that are still work to be worked out I'm just saying challenging we're spending 44 million do are we spending it exactly the way you want CU I I think a lot of people would support that it's just a matter of we can't do those without adjusting something else I don't know if I don't know so I you know I just look at those and those are very interesting topics so take a look at them and see if we need to adjust because I'd be willing to adjust if we if you thought we should if not your budget's off I mean bud is pretty darn good and I like that it was only 23 slides 23 that's a alltime low for me about n more times got listen to it sorry I had to throw um Mr R would you be able to tell us based on interest and you said you've had families reaching out related to full day preschool do you using that interest as kind of a barometer would your guesstimate be sort of a one section would be the most logical or do you think it would be more sections might have to defer to miss Paris Crow on this as she kind of handles overseas the preschool program it I think and I don't want to speak for her but it sounds like we'd like to at least start with one I also think we're very challenged with space at the current location so um there's not only the financial Commitment if we are if we were to go down this this path and add one full day section and we are in a position of needing to add another half day the current location would be uh very challenging yes very challenging to to identify a space that could accommodate a half day section but I'll let Nicole address your question about interest yeah so we have um been getting a lot of interest from families um about the one day um sorry the full day preschool and so I think for this 25 26 school year trying it with one section and hopefully maybe not having to add an additional half day section is a good place to start sort of gauge and gather some data on um enrollment on increased interest and our projected preschool enrollment numbers think is a good place to start I I think that we'll be headed in to over the next years um adding more sections full day sections okay I think that that is probably what will end up happening happening based on um families based on um the interest and based on the enrollment preschool enrollments going to be increasing the increase over the next couple few years and with that one step forward if we were to move that way in 2526 the spacing is is good for that step it's good for that step but like Mr Maza said and I'm sure Mr mates can attest it gets challenging after that the space is pretty is pretty limited okay all right so that's something we're going to have to be mindful of moving forward as we continue to grow okay and while we're while have you here um the bottom um bullet point about in District special education programming are there any spaces um that you see based on sort of current needs that might be do you see a space for more special education programming in District anything that jumps out as sort of this would be a great yeah like a specific programing specific programming that might be particularly beneficial for our students that we don't currently have yeah so um a life skills programming at our Middle School level um we're always is mindful of any potential social emotional or more therapeutic in District programming um you know just being mindful of the the type of mental health support students need students that have been determined eligible already for special education so that is always a possibility of more of a therapeutic type of programming or behavioral programming but certainly um on the near future Horizon is a life skills program all right Middle School level wonderful thank you welcome for which space is being planned at the yes at the new Middle School the physical yes we have some wonderful programming spaces uh in the new Middle School it's really exciting thank you sure any other questions feedback anyone at home who's looking to ask anything all right this is our first run and as Jamie mentioned we'll see this about nine more times in the next several weeks so also feel free to reach out with questions and or feedback thank you very much to our admin team for joining us this evening principal Landers we'll hang on to you for a little bit longer so that we can dive into our next agenda item which is the long medal high school program of studies come on up good evening everybody I'm here tonight to propose two changes two updates to the LHS program of studies our educational opportunities booklet um one is a new class and one is a prerequisite adjustment so I'll start with a new class um we are proposing another halfe communications class it would be it would be titled Communications 2 but we ran Communications um for the first time in the fall of 24 it's popular um we had students who EXP interested in continuing that um we have some other courses that we brought you last year that are also running for the first time this year um so we are excited it would allow for more um Hands-On experiential learning it would allow for us those students to continue to work with lctv we could theoretically on signups the class could run by itself or it could run in conjunction you know Communications one and Communications 2 students could theoretically be in in the same class um at the same time working on more advanced projects uh and playing more uh in-depth roles taking on leadership roles Etc but it's it's a course we're excited about I think it makes sense the last few years we've had a commitment to making creating more uh experiential learning kind of culminating experiences learning by doing and it fits into that um into that effort that we've tried so that's the course we're asking for you to consider and the second is um uh the science department has been thinking about this for a couple years and they came forward with it debated it we talked about this at department chair Council DCC um and it is a proposal and ask to consider how a student does in biology in 9th grade in addition to how they do in Algebra 1 the the Nuance is in chemistry honors um right now we consider their algebra one grade for about 90% of the students who are asking to take chemistry honors they've taken the algebra one class in 8th grade so you're uh the biology teacher is making a recommendation only on math and they're not even considering anything they did in the biology class that year it the thought is that it's going to give a wider context more information more data we don't think that this will change uh access to that class I've sat down with Mr Roseman the U department chair for School counseling we've crunched some numbers for the last few years but the thought is that it's it's a wider you know uh data set and you can take into consideration the students work habits um and skill sets that set them up for success for sophomore year which they would take chemistry Hors all right open that for questions Andor discussion did you just reiterate for I think it's a good idea oh thank you Adam sorry I didn't see either um can you reiterate just for the sake of making sure that we're all aware of sort of the process here sure um the recommendation that a teacher makes goes into power school that is what students can sign up for themselves during sign up process correct if they choose to sign up for something they're not recommended for so say a student is not recommended for chemistry honors but they would like to take chemistry honors anyway there's a form that they get from guidance they take home get a parent to sign off on yep and then they can still opt in there are there are actually two they could go to the department chair have a conversation the department chair can simply say yes and then any student can wave in about a hundred waivers a year which is pretty significant about 11% of the of the overall um signups so they can wave in it's not the it's not closed if they're not recommended but we recommend to try to set students up for success and based on things and based on what teachers know is kind of the pacing of the class Etc yeah which makes sense um I ask because I'm partly a fan of the question not always being can I take this but will I take this am I am I ready to say like I want to tackle a new challenge in this topic I'm interested in but sounds like there are plenty of spaces to allow that to happen if a student at the end of the day we believe in allowing the student and the parent to make the final Choice absolutely agree perfect um really excited to hear about the communications to class I'm guessing that will be well enrolled it sounds like it was a big hit yeah we we would obviously we would so many of our students who took it not all but so many of our students who took it this year are seniors so they won't do this but this could run um we would hopefully if this is successful tonight we would plan this for um we would we would advertise this and sign up would be kind of semester 2 so students who enjoyed it semester 1 could go into it if they wanted to stay and there are other options we got the Capstone running for the first time this year it's running right now we have pretty robust internship program that's in its um third year third fourth year but third year of of kind of on a larger scale so trying to create more opportunities yeah just take a moment to say that I have loved watching that that grow over the last several years um I really think the high school has done an incredibly impressive job um at expanding offerings out into more real world experiential Project based um opportunities for students so just to your whole staff a big Applause that very yeah it's important it's we're we're synthesis of learning is important learning by doing and um we've created a lot of opportunities we've re rebooted some existing opportunities and and we're going to do bring you more in the years to come love that questions or comments from anyone else at home um just as someone who's I'm taking the senior Capstone right now and I'm really enjoying it so far and I couldn't recommend more Us increasing these experiment experimental learning courses just because I think we hear a lot about out in the public um as well as from graduates that some students feel like they're being thrown in either to a specific major in college or a job after high school and I think it's really critical for us to help make sure that we're helping students find what they want to do what they're interested in in exploring it deeper in high school and giving more of a space for that so yeah I just couldn't recommend more what we're doing here very well set in kudos to miss gross who taught both Communications and is teaching the Capstone um so she's uh championing both it's been it's been uh kudos to her yeah she's awesome she's really excited to dive deeper into these topics with us it's wonderful thank you all right uh any other questions yep no iation welcome a motion so I move on the recommendation of the superintendent the school committee approved the 2025 2026 Long Meadow high school program of studies as presented we have a motion do we have a second second thank you I think that was Adam right yes okay um thank you um any further discussion seeing none we'll go to a votee Jamie yes Michaela Adam y Zach yes Estelle yes Julie yes and yes for me as well thank you very much much have a lovely rest of the evening thank you all right moving into reports um I do not have any report tonight other than to say um quick reminders so we'll see everybody again for budget stuff next week um any other school committee announcements and recognitions see none superintendent report anything else from your end couple quick things um we had a a day half day of professional development on January 17th uh Dr Nelson planned districtwide uh vertical planning for teachers in grades prek through 8 uh it was a a great opportunity for educators to cor connect with um the educ Educators that they're that they're sending students to in in the higher grades so uh thank you to Dr Nelson for planning that out uh two new employees that sort of work at a community level or at least a district level that I want to mention to the committee uh we have identified a new coordinator of for the uh close the uh Community prevention Coalition Nanda Lennox will be joining us on February 10 10th uh she is in that role over in West Springfield and we're excited to have her sustain the great prevention work that goes on here in Long Meadow she'll work closely with Shelley Warren or substance uh use response coordinator here at the high school so um we'll welcome her on February 10th and then uh we as you know uh we're in the process of hiring another a new director of technology for long metal public schools in the town and so we've identified a familiar face uh Nick George formerly worked with us here in Long Meadow and he's going to return as our director of Technology beginning February 17th I think 18th 18th Monday's a holiday all right 18th uh so we're looking forward to welcoming Nanda and Nick all right all right that's it thank you student representative report right thank you um so just a reminder to start to seniors and Senior parents to please turn in um your senior dues um from now until Friday you can do this before school in front of the library um and then if you already turned yours in I believe it was back in May then you don't have to worry about this and they've also had this going for a few days so you turned yours and then that's all good and then I realized for to put the price so more information on that is available um either in the class Google classroom or the class of 2025 Instagram and then um last Friday um a few of us from student council um traveled to Murdoch High School to participate in the masc uh unified bot tournament uh we participated yeah it was really awesome with three teams I felt like this was a really good way for us to grow our student council community and it was just a really fun night um with pizza and we each each team participated in three rounds there was a really fun opening and closing ceremony and yeah it was just a really fun Friday night for all of us um and then next Friday February 7th students will attend the masc Round Table in Northampton at the Blue Bonnet Diner um where we'll have a chance to sort of hear different perspectives from all around the region on how to better um run our student councils and just sort of hear different ideas on front raisers Etc and then just a good luck to all of our athletes um has Western M tournament to begin all right great thank you other reports um lpbc Zach no report thank you I did have a question is now the time for questions absolutely sorry what was that yes absolutely is it a question for student rep or for Z no on lvp lpbc yep yeah um I got an email from them about uh authorizing payments is that something we do it might be it depends on what it is um can you send it to Dr Shay and myself maybe ccsn we sure yeah peek at it we we'll we'll support just before I sign anything I figured be govern we we'll support you with that Zack or Adam whenever uh feel free to reach out or forward us whatever communication you got okay thanks yep um energy and sustainability Estelle none all right seal Mela the next uh seal meeting is on February 12th at 700 p.m. and it's um in collaboration with the Federation of children with special needs about bullying and that is you can um log in register on Zoom all right wonderful thank you subcommittee reports Finance subcommittee um which of you would like to tackle this one sure I'll start Finance sub met on Friday uh January 24th and uh there are a couple items on your agenda for consideration tonight um there are so a few items also that were discussed but uh are not requiring action of school committee one is um discussion of athletic program both um followup from the previous Finance sub and regards to the FY 24 program uh Financial operation and looking at some data especially related to Transportation uh the the committee the subcommittee also discussed uh the emails that were received regarding the fees related to the JV hockey program um and asked for some additional information to be brought back for uh additional conversation and then also uh we discussed a survey that went out to booster programs looking for some information in about the support they provide to High School athletics uh so those items were discussed no action uh for school committee tonight um the two items that are on your agenda the first is related to building use requests so there are four requests that are part of a consent agenda and I will quickly run through them the first is from The longto High School boys basketball booster club for an end of year Year award ceremony looking for use of the high school cafeteria on Wednesday March 5th from 5:30 to 900 p.m. um the second request is from the L metal parks and recck department for a Coe head basketball clinic on Friday February 21st uh requesting use of the high school gym from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. the third request is from the M Meadow music Italy tour um looking for approval to use the high school parking lot for the uh drop off and pickup of students traveling abroad uh drop off on Friday February 14th and pick up on Saturday February 22nd and the fourth item is from the wol swan PTO for the uh Valentine's Bingo event uh Wolf Swamp Elementary School in the gym on Friday February 7th from 4:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and SW acknowledge La metal youth basketball uh revising their building use for uh this event to use that space since they had already had it permitted so they accommodated this request so those are the four building use requests uh presented tonight that Finance sub reviewed and recommended all right perfect we have a POS possible motion related to those I move on the recommendation of the finance subcommittee that the school committee approve the consent agenda for the January 28th 2025 school committee as presented we have a motion do we have a second second thank you Michaela a quick reminder that there is no discussion of items on a consent agenda so if a Committee Member would like to remove one or more of these items on the agenda for further discussion we will vote to remove that is there any one who would like to request one of these be removed from the consent agenda all right seeing none we will move to a vote on the entire um consent agenda um Jimmy yes Michaela yes Adam yay Zach yes pastelle yes Julie yes and yes for me as well we have one more possible motion our second item in on your agenda is consideration for approval of the fy2 Grant and special revenues revision number one um just for members of the finance sub this is an updated version from the copy that was in our finance subcommittee discussion so this is uh recognizing revisions to the grants and special revenues um the current budget amount was the amount that was adopted when the FY 25 budget was developed so about a year ago um not really knowing exactly what the award amounts would be the um this revision will now update our budget to reflect the actual award amount and I will just quickly highlight the the um fund amount so the Ida Grant would be reduced by $582 n98 title 2A Grant would be reduced by $10,400 the uh special ed Early Childhood Grant would be increased by $662 title one would be redu would be increased by $7,295 218 Title One is being increased by $565 the med C Grant has an increase of $ 38,2 N7 a total increase of $3 35,9 542 which would be an addition to the overall FY 25 budget all right thank you any questions Andor possible motions related to this I move on the recommendation of the finance subcommittee that the school committee approved the fy2 grants and special revenues revisions dated 124 2025 as presented we have a motion do we have a second let's second that all right any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Jamie yes Michaela yes Adam yes Zach yes Estelle yes Julie yes and yes for me as well that brings us to um other subcommittees no reports at the time ongoing business Middle School building project uh briefly um schematic design is still uh underway we had a meeting with the design team the leader our leadership team had a meeting with the design team on Wednesday uh so we continue to provide feedback uh to the design team to uh get them to a place where they can complete that schematic design by the spring uh and additionally um we have begun to meet with some advisory groups we've met recently with um some folks from youth uh Sports in Long Meadow to get some feedback on the outdoor athletic fields associated with the middle school so um we're off and running still all right fantastic um seeing other no other business we have one final possible recommended motion yep I move that the school committee meet in executive session persu to Mass General law section 3A S21 a purpose two to conduct a strategy session in preparation with collective bargaining with units A B C D E F and H and purpose seven consideration of release of executive session minutes meeting minutes not to reconvene into Open Session do you have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing n we'll move to a vote Jamie yes Michaela yes Adam yes Zach yes Estelle yes Julie yes and yes for me as well we are officially adjourned we will see everyone next week have a good night