stand by thank you all right here we go in five four 3 2 1 good evening and welcome to the Tuesday February 11th meeting of the Long Meadow 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 while is remote participation must be made by roll call vote this meeting is being recorded and aired live on lctv we will
begin with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of aliance to the flag the United States of America to the Republic for stands nation under God indivisible we'll open with correspondence the following
correspondence will be recorded two letters from Miss carara Crandle dated January 29th regarding the library position at the middle thank you moving on to approval of minutes we have a possible recommended motion I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the February 4th
2025 school committee meeting as presented we have a motion do we have a second anyone at home on a second second thank you Julie um any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Michaela yes Adam yes
Julie yes and yes for me as well we'll open to public speak now we don't have anyone here in the room but if there's anyone at home who would like to speak now would be a great opportunity feel free to turn your mic on and or your camera wave a
hand all right seeing none we're going to move into school committee announcements and recognitions um does anyone have any announcements or recognitions for this evening Julie oh sorry Michaela I just wanted to say congratulations to all the
teachers that for one grinspoon award for excellence in teaching um thank you for your good work excellent thank you wonderful any others all right um administrative
reports um we have a student rep report um our student representative is not able to be here this evening but sent a report um for us to read so the um WC Round Table this past Friday February 7th student council members attended the western Mass Association of
school council Roundtable event in Northampton students were given a variety of topics to discuss working with admin how to debrief an event Etc with other members from around Western Massachusetts also um the Pops concert is coming up tomorrow evening music
students will perform tomorrow February 12th at 6:30 p.m. and the class of 2026 will will be hosting a springling dance on May 9th at the Springfield Elks club that's all from our student rep I don't have anything for school committee other than a reminder um that everyone should
have on their calendars that on March 3rd which is Monday we'll be meeting with the um select board to discuss the budget superintendent you have a report tonight uh few things um to build on what Michaela said um we had four Educators who are recognized as part of
the Pioneer Valley excellence and teaching award program so Daniel Stratton he an art teacher at Williams was recognized as a beginning teacher the three veteran Educators that were recognized in the program are Kyle Nan social studies sixth grade at Glenbrook
Mike Roseman a school counselor at the high school and Jill Bader at third grade teacher at Center school so we did the prize Patrol today um balloons some Long Meadow swag lots of Joy lots of Tears lots of laughs lots of smiles um
so it was a great day um they sort of represent I always pitch it as they they sort of represent the Excellence of all of us and and they'll represent us at a a Swanky dinner at The Log Cabin um in early May so looking forward to that um couple items of
Interest beyond that um Pops concert tomorrow evening also tomorrow evening there's a uh presentation that uh the special education Alliance Long Meadow is putting on on bullying what every parent needs to know so that that's tomorrow night a couple of great events
going on um after vacay mark your calendar for 8th grade parent night uh it's an opportunity for eth grade parents to learn more about the high school program um lots of work going on under the direction of Nicole Paris Crow Beth
Nelson our curriculum director and N de rosari director of student and family support we have ruler training happening we have Beth Nelson is working on um a progress report on the student Opportunity Act um Nilda coordinated an
an audit that desie conducted uh in connection with our English language learner program so we got some recommendations back from desie through that audit mostly um some procedures and protocols relating to uh student interventions um team of Educators
heading down for training in the ruler program in March so we're increasing capacity in that area as well um Beth is continuing to work with our uh our coaches on highquality instructional uh
approaches and so she's involved in some ongoing training in that area so lots of capacity building in some in some key areas and uh Ananda Lennox uh the new director of the close Community started uh this week as well uh so we welcomed
her and she has very knowledgeable really understands Community Based prevention work and so uh Ananda met with Tom and I and a few others today and she'll start to reach out to community leaders to expand her work and so welcome to anando that's it all right
wonderful thank you so moving forward um no subcommittee reports tonight and that brings us to the FY 26 budget discussion we are back to talk more about the budget and ultimately vote on sending budget
forward to the um select board and ready to discuss and so um no intention uh to go through the slides that have been previously
presented uh at your last two meetings but I wanted just to pull up the slide deck in case any committee members had any questions on any items or if there's any aspect of the budget recommendation that you'd
like to revisit and and clarify this evening so uh I'll just pop up the highlevel FY 26 budget recommendation summary um and your vote if you took one this evening would be tied to the
increases that are noted in the far right column so um Tom and I are happy to answer any questions you might have Nicole Paris Crower director of special education is here as well uh and has uh is willing to answer any questions you might have if they come up so all right
I'll open for discussion any questions folks might have I'm wondering if you can go to the one where it talked about chapter 78 and expected minimum local contribution in the foundation budget had like a graph of each and at the bottom the funding
source this one or the line graph actually that one works the the chart perfect where you just were yep no I just wanted to highlight um something that was kind of standing out the last few weeks looking at the numbers which is
how big the disparity is right now in the foundation budget and the chapter 78 so I know we talked about this a little bit last week um but that Foundation budget is what the state is expecting we need to not not just expecting but
actually we need to fund our schools um in FY 26 at$ 35,5 188,189 um which is an increase of $1,370 1823 and the Chapter 70 Aid increase is
only an additional so that leaves us with a pretty significant um space between the two um and so just just a note to acknowledge that that Foundation budget from the state
increase is is a weighty part of the budget increase that we ourselves then present to the town um when we go to the town and and have a budget of 1,287 56 $6 increase um that
is very closely connected to that Foundation budget increase and the the Gap that we're seeing there in that chapter 78 um for that increase as well if I could add right I think you you highlight a key um systemic challenge
that that we're facing I mean the that the increase in the foundation budget again that's the minimum amount the state would expect us to to spend but the the rise costs tied to the foundation budget are are not met in a corresponding Way
by increased chapter 78 so um it puts additional pressure on on Long Meadow and this is this story that this slide tells and the story that um is told by the by this line graph is a story that
uh a lot of communities are experiencing right now as they prepare budgets for the 25 26 school year where the rising costs reflected by the the increases in the foundation budget calculation not
being met by um projected increases in chapter 78 so it it it you know it really it's a it presents a systemic challenge for us as we're trying to bring you a recommended budget and as you said puts a significant burden back
on towns and municipalities to fund that uh minimum local contribution that we're seeing go up so significantly as well I wonder if I if I could um we received a I'm just going to stop the share for for a moment sure
um I was sharing with um with Michaela and Nicole before the meeting um this is a document that was uh just released
um by a coalition of parties that have a stake in public education and so you see the signatories to this document and I'll show you the document momentarily but to see any document that has sign off by the mass Association of
school superintendents the mass Association of school committees the MTA and and a you know series of other groups is is significant um it's not every day that um joint position statements are issued by these entities and and so what's
interesting is um I'm sorry oh no I just left that line that was in the very end there in that last paragraph we know that education budgets at the federal state and local levels reflect our commitment to public education we often say what we fund we value if
Massachusetts is committed to remaining a national leader in public education and we are all committed to doing what is right for students we must find creative ways in this difficult fiscal environment to provide schools and districts with the funding to meet the growing needs of students and families and so that this Coalition I think it's
a great thing to highlight and and this Coalition letter again it was just released today so um we haven't really had a full chance to digest it and I know the committee is just seeing it but it it it it's worth at least drawing our attention to it the community's attention to it as we as we prepare to
review the budget and so what's interesting is the the cost f factors that this document identifies reflect the the slides that we had presented over the last couple of weeks number one the that Chapter 70 not keeping Pace
with Rising costs not keeping Pace with inflation uh the challenges associated with providing U out of District special education tuition um I know this committee wrote a letter last year in response to that 14%
uh tuition hike that we experienced and then we're looking at another tuition hike of about 3.7% in out of distri tuitions um even at even that 3.7% number uh is out of line with increases
that we had seen historically so those are you know two years in a row we've been hit with um increases to out of District special education tuition that is out of our control these are these are tuition rates that are set by the
operational Services Division and then the other cost factor that this document identifies is something that this committee discussed last week which is student transportation and the rising costs associated with transporting
students special education students regular education students in and out of District so regular day transportation and so these are these are significant factors and you know they reflect the rise in costs that we've talked about
and so you know we have a we have a budget that you know at its current recommended level would would offer um level services in the 25 26 school year but we know that you know the budget season is early and you know we we still
need to discuss this with with the select board so um I appreciate you letting me share that that letter with you and it's in the school committee's meeting packet and we'll we'll put it up in our on our website with the other budget documents just so everybody I
think it's it's worth everybody reading frankly just to really understand the the fiscal pressures that we're facing so thank you I'll go back to the sign Perfect all right other commentary questions discussion from other folks
Micha um just adding on to what both of you said um I did my due diligence into looking into the circuit breaker funding and making sure that we were utilizing every opportunity in the district to receive funding through the circuit
breaker and I can say with absolute confidence that every single question I asked and um received answers that were thorough and made me very confident that our district is using every funding and
Grant possible to fund the higher cost of all students but most especially with the circuit breaker students with disabilities and I I miss just reading that quickly but I love seeing under the um out of District um cost that it's I just read
at the bottom it said also recognizing the higher cost of IND District students and and that's where my focus was I feel like we have a lot more in District students that are receiving services
and also are being evaluated for services I think it's about triple in recent years of since covid like kids getting evaluated for um services and that that's such a big cost on local districts like you were talking
about Nicole and I just I'm all about with all I'm with all of them like push back on the state and and the funding to make sure every District can fund the subgroups of students in their
District that have a persistent disparity and student outcomes in in our district it's students with disabilities in in the whole state 20 over 20% of our student population are students with disabilities and we need to be funding
their programs and their services more Al thank you Michaela other thoughts and questions related to the budget and or I will entertain a motion if none sorry I move that the school committee
approve the FY 2026 proposed school department budget in the amount of 44,8 52,800 with a general fund allocation of 41,47
15,73 64 and submit this amount to the town manager for inclusion at the annual town meeting on Tuesday May 13th 2025 thank you we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any
discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Michaela yes oh there they go Adam no no you're fine Julie yes and yes for me as well all right thank you um we had new business
that we are tabling and that brings us then to our um motion for an executive session and closes out our public portion of tonight's meeting um we will return to a um public meeting again on
February 25th we after a break wondering it's the bottom of page two oh the cell phones yeah oh where is that we did talk about annotated agenda it's on the bottom of the page to check and see if it's on the posted
agenda Tom can I go find we we had we had the cell phone discussion on I don't see it on I don't see it on here either I'm not sure if it made it on we might till the 25th no no no I have um I go right to
the new business that we're tabling and then executive session we might have left that off we'll Circle back to it on the it's fine not not time sensitive um I suppose upate not on your agenda but worth worth noting that we
want to Circle back and and um share the results of our cell phone survey with the committee and with the community and and and contemplate Next Step so yes all right perfect we'll plan on doing that in more detail on February 25th so I'll will entertain a motion for executive
session oh I move that the school committee meet an executive session pursuant of the Mass General Law chapter 30A section 21A purpose to conduct a strategy session in preparation with
collective bargaining with units A B C D E F and H and the purpose consideration of the release of executive session minutes of previous meetings not to rec reconvene into Open session we have a
motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing that we'll move to a vote Michaela yes Julie yes Adam yeah and yes for me as well we are officially headed into executive session
and we'll see everyone after the February break on the 25th have a good evening