three two one Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday April 8th 2025 meeting of the Long Meadow School Committee Mass General Law allows for remote participation at public meetings through June 30th 2027 All votes taken while there is remote participation must be made by roll call vote This meeting is
being recorded and aired live on LCTV Um we will begin with the pledge of allegiance allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands One nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all We have no correspondence and we'll skip right ahead to approval of minutes We recommend recommended motion [Music] That one I think is the annotated one
I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the March 25 2025 school committee meeting as presented Thank you We have a motion Do we have a second second Can I second okay
Michaela are you still Oh there you are Hold on I can see your screen turning green but I did not hear you Try one more time Hold on Michaela Sorry Can you guys hear us well okay Hold tight I'm guessing you're
saying yes but for reasons we're not sure of yet we cannot hear you Hang on microphone speaker The hollow looks like it's on They can definitely hear us
Yes we did That was coming out of the owl right yeah it did Yeah Oh now we're in nowhere Check Check Michaela Estelle could you try one more time can you hear me now yay There you are
There we go Okay We have a motion on the floor for approval of minutes from March 25th 2025 Do we have a second second Thank you so much Sorry for the delay All right Um we have a motion Any discussion seeing none we'll move to a
vote Zach yes Michaela yes Estelle yes And yes for me as well We're moving on to public comments We do not have anyone here We do not have anyone online So we'll jump ahead to school committee announcements and recognitions Um the
only note that I will have um for school committee chair report is a reminder that elections are coming up quickly and anyone who is interested in positions should be sure to pick up papers uh nomination papers by no later than Monday April 14th They need to be
returned with signatures by no later than um Tuesday April 15th Um there are three positions open for school committee Two positions that are three-year and one position that is a two-year Other than that any other
committee members have any recognitions or announcements seeing none we'll head on to other reports Superintendent report Sure Uh few items for you tonight uh from the report in your meeting packet Um
uh Nicole Paris Crow our director of special education uh completed the special inte special education integrated uh monitoring u review with the department of elementary and secondary education Uh really thorough review of all aspects of our program Um
it was essentially an audit by Desi Uh the results we anticipate in a month or so and they'll certainly be shared with the school committee and the community Uh it was a very thorough review It included interviews with uh parents administrators uh and um teachers as
well So uh we'll be sure to get back to you on that Um we are already planning for extended uh school year programming for the summer of 25 So uh we're in the process of putting together staffing and programming for students who need that
extended support throughout the summer Uh Naari our director of student and family support is completing her review of your wellness policy and we anticipate that she'll bring some proposed revisions forward um in a week
or two to the uh policy subcommittee Um cell phone review just a followup to keep the committee up to speed have begun meeting with some LHS students in sort of focus group style conversations shared with them some of the survey feedback that we received uh and
anticipate gathering some additional parent feedback next week as well Um had a chance to attend the turf feasibility study presentation at the adult center uh last week Uh it was a interesting
report talking about the feasibility of synthetic turf versus uh versus grass as the proposed solution to the stadium field Um spirited discussion um some some differences of opinion So we'll we'll see where that goes uh in the land
of curriculum Beth Nelson uh as a follow-up to curriculum sub and as part of her focus on vertical integration met with some math leadership at the middle and high school level and uh they have mapped out uh some course options sort of a pathway for students as they
progress from middle school math to high school math And uh I think it's a a helpful planning document We'll make it available to the community and post it up on the curriculum website and our counselors will use it as well I want to thank uh Dr Nelson for completing our
student opportunity act progress report that was submitted to the department of elementary and secondary education on March 26th Uh so that is in response to the um uh chapter 70 revisions that occurred several years ago Uh the state
requires that we submit a report on how we use the additional chapter 70 money that was um put into the foundation budgets across the state Of course we know that that uh though those chapter 70 increases were helpful so much of the
increases were were uh chewed up by inflation and other cost pressures for us So uh but that report was submitted on March 26th and I'll save some comments on the middle school building project for that agenda item later on
All right great Any questions comments or feedback on that All right we are headed into student representative report Andrew thank you Um so just to start off um a huge shout out to everybody on student council cuz as a council we received the
national um association of student councils recognition award which basically just recognizes the council for fulfilling a bunch of parameters including community service different positions on the council and it's just a huge honor for us to receive So we're really grateful for that Um thank you
And then uh tomorrow April 9th the the freshman class of 2020 20 2028 will have a fundraiser at Raising Canes um in Enfield from 5:30 to 9:30 This would be really helpful um if we could have the community come and support the freshman
class Thank you Nice All right Great Thank you Um additional reports LPVC Um nothing terribly substantive other than um we'll be having our annual meeting next week So I should have something more for us um at our next
meeting All right great Thank you Um Seal Michaela hello Can you hear me yep Um so the next SEAL meeting is Wednesday April 16th from 6:30 to 8 And it is a um
coffee and connect meeting So anyone who wants to come connect with some families some administrators that always show up some school committee members that always show up and um build some meaningful relationships
and get some advice Um we'll be there in at the Long High School in room A31 All right Wonderful Thank you And energy and sustainability Estelle Hi Um there was a meeting on March 31st
Um nothing significant to report All right Great Thank you Um we have no subcommittee reports tonight Um ongoing business middle school project update Sure Uh we have a public engagement event scheduled for Thursday April 10th
Uh looking forward to it Uh it will be set up as sort of an open forum where there'll be different stations that attendees can visit to learn more about the project Each station will be um uh sort of an opportunity for folks to meet
members of the building committee the design team the administrative team So that's Thursday April 10th Uh credit to our chair Nicole for sort of coming up with that concept I think it I'm looking forward to the interactive nature of that Um we Tom and I have been engaged
in meetings with our design team in their estimators over the last couple of days uh as they begin to uh pin down the overall uh project budget So uh those two estimating teams uh were engaged in
reconciliation meetings over the last couple of days So it was interesting for Tom and I to uh take part in those meetings and provide feedback whenever necessary And we're expecting that um any biders who are interested in serving as our construction manager at risk on
the project uh will submit by the deadline on Thursday at 1:00 So uh things are moving along We're coming to the end of the schematic design phase of the project that schematic design and the associated budget will be considered
by the building committee at its meeting on April 16th and perhaps voted on April 29th So some key milestones are coming up uh for the building project All right looking forward to that event on Thursday evening 700 p.m at Williams
Middle School Hope to see a lot of the community members out for that All right we have no other new business And that brings us to an executive session Would you like to take that i would Uh I move that the school committee meet in executive session pursuant to MGL
C3A section 21A purpose 2 to conduct a strategy session in preparation with collective bargaining with units A B C D E F and H And to hear an LEA grievance We have a motion Do we have a second
second Thank you I'm going to um amend just to say not to reconvene in open session Can just amend Okay Um so um any further discussion seeing none we'll move to a
roll call vote Zach yes Estelle yes Michaela yes And yes for me as well Thank you and good evening We'll see everyone in a few weeks Thank you Andrew