good evening it is Wednesday April 10th and I would like to bring this meeting of the lunenberg school committee to order we are meeting at the middle school collaborative room it is a hybrid meeting in accordance with the requirements of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being broadcast at a later date over the lunenberg public access Channel um if you wish to join the zoom meeting which if you're not on Zoom I don't know how you're hearing me but I'm going to say it anyways the meeting ID is 865 3049 4155 this meeting once again will be broadcasted a later date through the local access cable channel and on the public access Facebook page and will be found on the lunenberg access YouTube channel within 24 hours after the meeting the agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the open meeting law and as a um matter of information Mr leonin is um participating remotely so I would ask anyone who is able to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance 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 thank you the next item is um public comment the school committee welcomes comments from the public comments addressing topics under the scope and authority of the school committee your welcome please remember this is public comment not discussion and limit your comments to three minutes each public comment section has a maximum of 10 minutes comments about individual students are prohibited by state and federal law so if anyone has a public comment come on up um Peggy Proctor 141 gilr stre um I just wanted to thank the school committee I know that you guys have spent many long nights during this crazy budget time and I think sometimes we forget that all of the Committees in town are voluntary and unpaid so thank you I want to speak a little bit about what I perceive as unintended Quant consequences of not fully funding schools first we're asking people to wear too many hats we lost our business manager and Human Resources person although I can't speak to why I can tell you at the end of his um employment here he was wearing hats that nobody should have to wear the consequence of that is now our superintendent is wearing all of the those hats and her administrative secretaries have also now are working double duty that position is a very difficult one to fill um I don't know um I have a feeling um when people look at the workload and all also pay um that it's difficult and I think that we're pushing administrators toward um burnout the second thing I want to say about um not fully funding is reducing high school sections it's not about class averages so if we have 50 students that sign up for Spanish and we say that's two sections and it'll be 25 each it never works out that way I've had classes of 30 almost every year just the way their schedule goes and it makes sometimes kids have to choose between between I'm sorry I'm very nervous between taking um AP classes and and other electives that um they want to take um 30 kids in a classroom is a lot and I anticipate with cuts at the high school that we're going to see that happen and so one of the other unintended consequences is do we have enough desks and chairs to accommodate um some of these classrooms I know I when I get a class that big basically we put out an all call and say does anybody have any extra deaths um so all of these things are things consequences that I don't think we well maybe you guys have thought about it but I don't necessarily I haven't necessarily um thought about it the last thing and I this is my tricky one um I want to make it very clear that I'm not talking about um the head custodian she is wearing many hats but we do have an issue um with the maintenance of this building I think we have things that have broken and we don't have the money to fix it I find that really shameful um that we built this really beautiful expensive school um and there are things that that need fixing that we don't have the money to fix right now I would also say this is the first time uh in my 25 years here that I've seen the building not be clean um we have teachers sweeping their classrooms we had a teacher when I walked in this morning and I was thinking about it sweeping her neighbor's classroom which is very nice we have guidance running those un electric vacuums over the rugs we have teachers cleaning the toilet in the staff room we have students complaining that there are times where they have no soap for several weeks in the bathroom or no paper towels or that the locker room smells really really badly and so and I say that again because I don't want this to be misinterpreted as a Critic criticism of Renee it absolutely is not it's one of those unintended consequences of asking people to do too many jobs and wear too many hats but I think it's to the point now that you know when we don't wash the stairs after the winter and people are dragging in salt and the salt stays on those vinyl floors forever um that's an issue this is the first these last two years are the first time my classroom floor has never been washed not once if kids spill something it stays there unless I choose to clean it up so I really I wrote a bunch of things down and I I hope I'm not sounding negative I don't mean to be um as a longtime resident um I have so many fond memories of the other High School including some of the electives that we were able to offer um like photography and Woodworking and all these things that we no longer can I'm very proud of the new school and the technology has revolutionized my teaching and I think student learning and I'm very grateful that the town um built this thank you thank you pie we appreciate that and by the way thank you for not having the stand up microphone anymore because I would always have to stand like that you come to town hall and do that you picked the right night what is p teach Spanish okay uh if I could just a point of information we have currently and have had for some period of time open positions for night custodians here in this building that we've been having trouble filling so that is a huge huge imping Factor so yes okay um any other public comments on Zoom I don't see any public comments from the board then we'll just keep right on going um chair's report in the interest of partnering partnering that's not right well well I guess it is in the interest of partnering doesn't sound right with our state legislation we have requested a meeting date is our requested date of May 1st is not workable with the state budget schedule and agenda we will seek another date I would ask the committee members to come prepared um to discuss topics they wish to bring up with the delegation to our next meeting as well as possible meeting dates um I had a lengthy conversation yesterday today with representative Scarsdale and um she explained that the voting on the budget very possibly could be right when we asked them to come and obviously they can't do that um but it would be helpful to her to know what possible um items we wish to discuss so at our next meeting I'd like to have a short discussion of what our goals are for that meeting with the legislators um I don't also like to thank representative kashmar for the opportunity to discuss school funding on his kushar connection FV segment this program is also airing on lunenberg public access and I will also take this opportunity once again to thank Pac for everything they do for Lunenburg it is greatly appreciated and that's what I have um next is to review and approve minutes regular session um February 7th has everyone had a chance to look at those then could I have a discussion or a motion motion to approve I'll second I will abstain I was not at that meeting okay and we have Brian online so I think we can vote on that so could we have a roll call vote please yes Mr Leon yes Mrs BZ yes Mr beard Moore I'm stain Mr SCH yes and Mrs AR yes okay that brings us to the superintendent's report be very brief this evening since it's only been a week since my last report um we have to date received 777 Transportation forms um and I'll take this opportunity to offer a reminder that the deadline is May 1st at 5:00 p.m. for any uh viewing uh members here this evening um to make sure that you get that in we do have our lawn signs out as reminders yes on that approaching deadline um again our extended day registration for uh summer before and after school next year as well as our Early Learning Center registration all will be done online and those dates are approaching all of the dates um um for well the extended day for next school year and the Early Learning Center for next school year registration dates are opening in May however the Monday uh following our school break which is next week is when the summer extended day program registration opens um seems our students all safely uh navigated viewing the eclipse earlier this week um although I will say that we did have an uptick in uh School absences um and early dismissals um which I guess there was a lot of family time spent viewing the Eclipse which is a not a bad thing um again we have reminders our um early release day uh this Friday staff will be participating in professional development on Friday afternoon um and um School offices um and central office as well uh all will be closed on Monday April 15th and that entire week schools are closed for the April vacation week um and again a reminder annual town meeting May 4th 9:00 a.m. in the Middle High School auditorium we have secured student volunteers years for child care wonderful uh so Child Care will be available we'll get more information out to families about that as well and again we we will have bag lunches available uh for sale our uh food service department uh will be prepping uh bag lunches great what will the cost for that be $7 and I'll I'll have what's going to be in the lunch on a B of A menu that I will it's been a while school lunch I did get a question about that the school will not actually be paying for the lunches right um nope our food service director uh naen Lorenzen uh will will organize and uh prepare all those bag lunches um essentially the the they'll be sold at $7 which will will cover our our cost for that so just want to make it clear to the public yes at the school budget is not funding lunches for everyone at to meting and thank you for securing Child Care thank you to the the students who volunteered and a special thank you to um our uh National Honor Society advisor Mrs satini and our student council advisor Mrs Karen uh for you know coordinating through their groups to to secure enough students for for some supervision of children during Town media jic thank you so student representative obviously not present is anyone online I didn't think so no nope all right then we will continue on um old business what we'd like to do is talk about um we said we would have an agenda item for the override each week until town meeting so and hopefully after town meeting um but today we wanted to talk about communication and there's there's a lot of different parts to that what is in our folder is something that Tony drafted um regarding um a statement that we could make that there's certainly it is a draft so we can look through and decide um but any before we dive into that type of thing is there anything anyone else wants to say regarding communication regarding the override on the board um so I I think that we need to be very clear particularly when it comes to positions that are currently funded would be funded by an override not funded at all as a result of Esser funds I think that there does need to be a representation of that in some document or documents depending upon how we go about doing this um I do think that that we need to have something that calls attention to our responsibilities for our facilities and grounds uh and the fact that due to circumstances both within and outside of our control um we do need to make up some ground definitely pardon the P um and the override funding will help us to account for some of that um expense lines I think are are a critical component here um particularly when you know I at least I believe that our staff picks up a lot of expenses out of pocket as it is across the board Bo um and now you know with the with the current budget as it's been approved by this committee um those expense lines are reduced even further um really in my opinion well below any sustainable rate um so those are just some things that that I think you know could be added to this document and I understand that there's a risk of making it too long um I I do think that we do need to go or either tonight or offline we can I think we could we could appoint the chair as the final editor on this document but I do think that there are some wording issues in this document that may be a little bit off Target from an accuracy standpoint um I I think generally speaking it's correct but I think that there are there are some finer points that that I think we need to work on the wording um that I'm not sure I want to spend a lot of time editing tonight but I think that the the general gist of the document in terms of How It's laid out is appropriate and and probably needs to be communicated I would agree with that I had some thoughts um oh I'm sorry I had one other thought go right ahead um and once again like you know there's an editing process that needs to occur here the biggest one is the potential loss of momentum when it comes to achievement that we're facing and I I think that we need to be somehow explain here that you know there was a period a time where from a from a curriculum and achievement perspective we were a bit a drift and enormous efforts have been made not only with curriculum but with very focused attention on our students that is potentially going to be lost as a result of these reductions in staff specifically around some of the the the numbers issues that that right um that that Peggy talked about earlier but you know this this is a this is a budget that is potentially going to cause us to lose momentum and and I think that that momentum in and of itself is something worth investing in okay um before I weigh in did anybody else thought Mr Leighton yeah I think it's a it's a good start I think there's a lot of areas that I would revise but I think it's a working document I do like the idea of like a subcommittee working on this um and even if it's just the chair working with other members to get their their input um yeah I don't know how in depth I want to go but there's I think we want to talk about the how the line items are are Bare Bones I I want to hit up that area I also want to talk about um what the override gets us not so much purchasing I I saw the word purchase I like yeah it's not really purchasing but it's like what are we getting what is the schools going to get with the override and also other side of it what are the schools what are the schools going to be like if we don't pass the override kind of that combo seeing I I want the voters to see what the schools are going to be like if we don't pass this over override and if we do pass the override what the expectation would be I think it should be clear also the increased costs I want to make sure that is very clear um that affected the budget okay and I think the Esser funds uh the U sorry the arpa funds I think that should be clearly articulated as well y just for the record I typed this while we were like at 9:00 at night 9:30 at night when we were closing down I just wanted something so that we could all have a Target to aim at I was not sure about all of the numbers I was like doing this in my head and I know I misspelled arpa but like any critiques I don't like this is not uh something I took pride in I just wanted to get the conversation rolling and I greatly appreciate that because we needed something on paper to work off of that's it was and and you provided that and we appreciate it um so one of so so just two additional thoughts here number one the biggest one is I am mindful of the calendar right so this has I don't think we're meeting again until the 1 this is correct and town meeting is the fourth oh my yes correct tonight so well I don't necessarily think that we have to get into fine editing and vote on this but I think by acclamation having now commun unated our thoughts I think we can turn this back over to the chair and let her land it you know um I lost my other thought that was it I would note that but for the open meeting law we could do this pretty quickly online yes so like we we're going to have to do this like roundabout process because we can't share an email right so that's the real that's that's the problem but we have to work within the I want a question too so can you say send it to one of us and then make some revisions then send it to another we can't no we can't do that no what we could do is is I can put it together and we can give it to the superintendent and then you can send your com your thoughts back to me okay and then you IND she can revise it I can't revise it if if if I can't revise it from there with the open meeting L but Kate would be able to revise it okay okay and then once it's revised we could share it out one more time and you could work with one other person or no at a time no no not at of time because because what happens is if if I work with Brian and and then I go to work with you I know what he said so so that becomes three and and we can't do that and I wouldn't or we could here's the other thing we could do is we could post a subcommittee meeting and with people that can meet at some odd time and it would have to be a public meeting that people could attend and we could do it that way that would be the absolute legal way to do it still be a school committee meeting it would still be a school committee meeting school committee so I would I would prefer the formal to to send everything to Dr Burnham and she can put it together and you know if you thought at some point that we needed to work through some finer points or you wanted want a vote or something we could call a quick zo meting call a quick meeting if we're at an impass and we're not sure how to put it together okay all right we can do that um the other thought is and I don't know what anybody else feels is I was thinking the need for all this information plus some people won't read all this information plus doing maybe maybe what Brian had considered um from what he said if we had a with the override without the override just simple go through check the boxes kind of thing because some people are not going to take the time to read pullets can be good in one page I would say as and other people will want we can take out will want the stuff to read you know people have different styles yeah and I think I think we need to respect their different styles yeah I like charts or you know read and then more context most people it's one page just like res it's like one page enough one p one page and that's enough but for some people they may want more information yeah so I think if we do two kind of two versions I don't know what if we have like uh text document and then a more visual document as like an appendix or related so there's two pages that basically say the same thing one is sort of visual and other the other part is written and that way you're a visual learner you can do that if you're a written learner you can do it the other way but the written stuff would explain what's in the visuals though the visuals wouldn't necessarily need an explanation if they were written concisely enough yeah yeah I think that's what day for something along those lines um so the the other thing that I I I recalled my my lost thought here that I do think is probably worth some committee discussion is this whole topic of future preparedness for lack of a better phrase right there's been discussion at the select board last week I don't know I didn't watch last night so there could have been more for I know but um there's been discussion around this is a short-term stop Gap solution and that there's a larger solution to be had apparently at some point down the road that would include the broader town and you know all of which I support doing by the way like my initial position was this should have been an Allin this should not have been just a school department override but it is what it is here we are we heard commenters last week literally in the same breath say it goes too far and it doesn't go far enough right right and and I I feel as if we've got a kind of level set and be like no this is a FY 25 budget right like this is we don't know what inflation is going to do we are certainly going to participate in next year's budget process or a special sidecar budget process or whatever happens next year we are already willing and able to participate in but this is to maintain momentum in FY 25 it's not to solve FY 26 or Beyond um but I don't this is my opinion right and I I I think that it may be worth some discussion as to whether that's worth articulating or not but I I don't know I think it's important to say this override gets us what we're doing this year it does not buy us anything new it does not introduce new expensive programs it does not introduce a new expensive curriculum it does not introduce we're not buying anything more expensive we're not doing anything additional really really the override is simply to to what we're doing this year right I think um a graphic that shows I mean we are making Cuts even with an over so uh you know side by side column Cuts with an override Cuts without an override because I I think we need to make it clear that the override is necessary just to keep doing what we're doing this year and without an override it's we're going to have a very difficult year next year the kids are going to have a very difficult year and that the override is to get us through fiscal year 25 um do we have a consensus opinion about what Peter's talking about about the need to have like this two-step plan because like I I I agree with what Laura says that like we're the school committee we see a need the parents galvanized quickly and proposed a solution that the finance committee agreed to and the select board agreed to but this override is just for us and there is a very high likelihood that there will be need in the town for another override the year after and so if this passes we will use this money to make education uh as good as we can for the kids next year and we would support a second override when that comes down the pike if this one doesn't pass then the second one that will likely be more townwide more consensus that one will be absolutely critical I will I think it's important to differentiate between uh the two different overrides a future override and I think the second override is more of to get the town adequately funding their positions and so much more all the Departments have these needs I I don't think we should be projecting what the town is going to do next year I think that as we're talking about it I think there is an important point to make which is the first part of what Tony said which is this is an override to sustain the schools through fy2 it does not address broader future needs that are going to be calculated by the town or for that matter for the schools right in future years I like that it does not address the broader future needs this gets us through fisal year 20 and you know perhaps that'll be you know leveraged as a counterargument but it is what it is right I mean I think we need to be somewhat upfront and you know if people are going to criticize us for not planning for FY 26 this year you know I own it I guess I do right but it is what it is given the the circumstances that we are in today which is we have a a you know critical set of needs for next year that that we think need to be addressed well we're also criticized for well we're criticized for all kinds of things also trying to set things up I think comments about what there's no winning what's going to happen next year is frustrating because nobody can break the future otherwise they'd be you know yeah Rich okay so we'll stick to to this particular Arena but I think yeah but I do think a statement a very brief somewhere along the lines of what I you know what Tony and I kind of landed on which was this is to you know we we acknowledge that this is not to address broader Town funding shortages this is specifically for the schools for f 25 I don't think we need to focus on the Esser funds as much in here um I think we can take out some of that yeah that could be brief um just we had planned for the ending of Esser funds yeah the one reason I I put a little more verbage into the Esser fund than I think is necessary is because when I talk to people admittedly this is all anecdotal they're like how did you like even even my wife who hears me complain about this all the time is like what did you guys do with that money I was like if you watched one meeting you would know that as soon as this money was given to us we talked about how it would be sunsetted and so I think that from the outside looking in for people who do not watch every one of our two to three hour meetings they're thinking that the reason we're in this budget shortfall is because we spent the eser money without considering what it would look like when it goes away and so I think it just answers a basic question you have to answer it somehow there's no question about it because it comes up all the time there was a editorial in the um Fitchburg Sentinel I think it was this morning and it wasn't talking about us it was talking about Grant and Dunstable but it was the same thing well it's all Essa funds well I don't think the $5 million override was all Essa funds I'm pretty sure gron did not get $5 million in Essa funds so um but I would like to see that connect with what we did with the funds more like hey the students needed the students had these needs students need are the positions that we hired for those needs and now we have to reduce those now we have to reduce that same position or the same amount of positions that that's right that's a better way to put it I think that's right and and it's yeah it's connecting we are keeping some of those learning loss and student needs during the pandemic and that's what the money was for it wasn't but we need to articulate that computers no that makes sense okay all right so do we think we know what we're doing with this yes so then so I have question yes please so given that our next meeting is not until May 1st and given that the town meeting is just days later right what are your thoughts on a plan I assume there would be a need for a presentation when we get to the override article at the town meeting absolutely there would need to be there would have to be a presentation perhaps a presentation taken off of this you know with more numbers in it yeah um I mean I would think that would be a if I wrote I'd volunteer to do some part of the presentation as long as somebody was more about teaching in numbers than I do Brian teaching in numbers honestly I was the chair numers yeah my numbers have not been reliable lately um but I think I think we can figure out how to tag team this so that um I think it would be necessary to basically go over what's in what we had decided should go out um to be perfectly honest the one that knows the most about these numbers is Peter so um I could tag team the presentation with Peter yeah Brave you can we can all do it together but I think well that's true too that becomes a bit of a circus so so first of all I think that there AR meeting on the first we should think about as a dry Rod okay um and I think Carol and I can work together to figure out how to best encapsulate this put together some slides and then we do a dry run on the first give the public an opportunity to get a preview for what they're going to sit through on Saturday and um we could certainly take pointers at that and adjust Fire based on yeah based on the feedback do we want to a meeting before that say the week before to also go over the the statement or the page I would appre let's see what like do we want to get out early I would appreciate more preparation and I think it makes it easier for the parents if the so I think that I think the document needs to go out go out as so you know my my feeling on the document is we can Kate's heard our feedback Kate and and Carol together can put out a statement on our behalf as is her Duty as chair and and run with it unless there's a obvious point of controversy where Ridiculousness and then we have to very quickly throw Zoom meeting or something we'd have to throw together a meeting because this has to be done soon so let's do that then I I'm okay with that the chair putting out the statement as soon as we as you think it's ready can we Define soon like roughly within the week okay I think yeah I would say before before may I think we should be either next week or no I think I think hopefully next week yeah so when when we say get it out what are the ways in which we want to get this out last email to All Families an automatic posting it on school department Facebook posting it on the school committee I think it needs to go in The Ledger as well well that's what the but I could also put it out more broadly Than The Ledger if you wanted a like a press release type thing that go to just hear me out I don't think that I'm not sure that this is something we we email to families because I there's a political aspect to this that oh you have to be careful I don't think I don't want I don't I don't want to edit ourselves here and not say what we need to say because we're putting this you know through Power School I I I I I I'm a little bit conflicted in terms of should this be something that goes through a email to families but if you view them if you view families as consumers and you are changing the product they're consuming I think you should have I think you have an obligation to tell them regardless of what your political like it we're a nonpartisan group and we want to have this pass the school district is also a nonpartisan group and they want this pass so setting aside the political issue I think there's a notice issue but I also think that like politically speaking like we're not tricking anybody like there people that don't like the schools are are going to not like the schools regardless of what we put in there I understand that I get what you mean but I think factual information that's a fair point I mean everything in here factual information I think is fine I think we can't say show up and vote vote vote for this you have to vote for this that that you can't say a fair factual information I think you can send out and then you could say please take time to vote your conscience on May 1st or just take just or whatever or you could just say this is when the vote is yeah you could just be factual stick to facts then I think we're okay if you start pushing it then you're not okay fair enough I I just I thought it was worth I think it's worth bringing because it's a I've been thinking about it all day it's a it's kind of a tough line but I think as long as it's strictly factual it can go out that way is the concern Pro propriety or legality cuz like people tell people to vote all the time yes but you can't in a school yeah or we don't using the school resources to send out an email telling people how to vote yeah I you guys understand that like senators get free mail yeah but we don't yeah I mean there's allal Senators can't use their email to Senators can't use their state senators cannot use their email federals can do all kinds of but in Massachusetts state senators can't use their email to email constituents and say vote for me right but those rules are I mean people do this all the time everywhere and it's legal I'm just saying like not in not in Massachusetts no no but like the state senators can't but like Elizabeth Warren can't yeah oh yeah does I think we still go fact I I agree that we go fact go fact I agree just trying to figure out what theend out as many places as we can yeah and and I I think if we if we put it in the local papers they will probably charge us for it or at least one of them will but so be it I think it's important I agree you want it posted on the district website it's factual I don't have any problem with that yeah okay if we think we know what we're doing with this I have a very lighter thought as far as publicizing support and you may think I'm crazy but we're trying to figure out how to do this without people spending all kinds of money and taking all kinds of time what if we told people and say no if I'm being crazy if we tell people who wish to support the override to put blue ribbons on their property that's not costing anybody money I can tie blue ribbons in the trees in my yard it it people will know that that's now that you can't put that in the letter but but if we get that word around that would be a very inexpensive way of people showing support just a thought are you out no I think it just went out I think the I just turned it back on I think it's a great idea I uh but I think uh we should have parents push lead the role and that one and it doesn't have to be the school committee yes it would not push but I think it's a efficient way of getting the thought out yeah it would definitely stir some Facebook discussion oh those are fun we're going to do that anyway so there you go and sometimes that's not a bad thing no no no I'm saying that engagement is good engagement is good engage that's what the deal is okay do we have any other thoughts on this communication issue I miss the public commentary kindergarten coner I I would make a motion to move the second public comment to right now well can we just I think we can let I I understand the situation updates my K is outside yep yeah no I I I sympathize with your situation and yes you may you may speak I can do that I don't do it often but you you may do it is this thing on if it says if it's green no nothing push push the button hi Mandy Gilman 186 Reservoir Road um thank you for all your work on this I just want to give a few updates to the public um there's a group of us who are meeting tomorrow night on Zoom to talk about campaign um strategies for uh supporting the override so anyone in a personal capacity who' like to join us at 8:00 it's on our Facebook page um I'm also the vice president of the PTO the PTO has endorse the override so we will be sharing information about the override as well we had a meeting last night um um and I love the Blue Ribbon idea one of the things we are also working on is social media um posts so that people can share their um support of the override via social media so I just wanted to update you on those three things and I appreciate you taking the time my kindergartener performed in a wonderful concert tonight so I'm glad it went well it was all that kindergarten is in the best way so awesome thank you guys all right thank you okay we set on on this topic do we think yes okay then we will move along um next is the 766 School approval and I just wanted to provide you all a brief update um when last we uh talked about this I our director of um special services was going to follow up and get some additional information from Mr Shapiro she's reached out a few times via email and has not uh had a response so I just wanted to let you know that we we have attempted to follow up to get you the information that you need to um take the vote that you need to make um but we we haven't heard anything back okay thank you um superintendent evaluation so just um quickly on on that as a followup uh to last week's conversation um you do have um a subfolder in tonight's folder with the uh strategy action plans with uh updated progress notes which that is really an aside to the evaluation it's not directly connected to the evaluation but typically I give you an update on on progress with the strategy at the same time um as sharing artifacts for evaluation so you have that as a separate um update um I have been working to um provide some um artifacts LinkedIn to the different uh goal documents so each goal document thoroughly outlines all the actions timelines so on and so forth um and I've been working uh with members of my team to to put in links to different artifacts I do have um one more uh go document to drop in here um and please know that right now right now as we speak um there are members of my team that are that are logged in not with their school email to try to see if they can open all of the links to be sure that you all will be able to access every single one of these links and anybody who when we find links that you can't um we're working to address that so it's a work in progress be patient if you click on a link and you can't open it check back in a day because uh we'll be working to make sure that everybody can access everything um and I am still working to finalize the annotated uh version of um the superintendent evaluation rubric um so it's not finished so it's not in your folder just yet I've had a few um few interruptions in the last few days lots of contract bargaining sessions and things are going on right now it's a pretty crazy busy time um but um I'm going to screen share because I know a few of you are uh actually logged on to the zoom um so for those of you who are logged on and you can see I'm you're going to get this copy of the rubric and when I when I say I'm annotating it uh like I showed you last week I'm highlighting any of the uh standards and indicators which the far left column that connect back to goals because that's what you're you're focusing on for the evaluation but then I inserted Fields below that each and every one of those sections of the rubric and put um some notes in to help anchor people when you read the language of the rubric if if this isn't your day-to-day world sometimes you wonder what exactly does that mean and what does that look like and how does that connect back to the goal so uh I've been working to try to give you some context as to what work we're doing that we see connecting back is this folder available to the public or is it only available to us there are the folder is not available to the public however documents that that are in the folder do get posted on the district uh web page because like the link to the communication survey has everyone's email and their responses like I can see everyone's so let me go back in and check that out because not super happy about that I don't that's not public okay that's not public but I can go wipe out that column so that um it's not viewable yeah I can yeah okay so you'll have um the full complement of documents by the end of the week U you still have time because this we're not jumping into this process immediately so the other thing that I would offer um is um I know that we have uh two members of the committee that haven't gone through this process yet um past practice I've always offered to set up one-on-one appointments um to go through and and answer questions or um you know if there's if there's something that you're looking at you're not quite sure what that means or um happy to answer questions IND individually through email as you come across things or happy to set up a time to meet by Zoom or in person uh to walk through um if if that's a preferred way to approach it okay it is very confusing coming through the first time it's a lot it's almost like it is confusing by Design you know like it it's complex it it is a really complex and when you stop to think of the amount of these that the administrators have to do and they're not any less confusing than this it it it's a lot because teachers submit artifacts and sometimes you look at them and you think and you don't know what the connection is yeah so it there is a need for either teachers to provide a lot of explanation or for evaluators of teachers to you know spend time in conversation and try to process through what they're looking at um it it's a cumbersome process so just two things that I I that helped me when I did this the first time aside from bothering Brian and Carol uh the the acronyms part of the school's website was super duper helpful this document that we had so I use that and uh I also consulted um I want to say it's like edutopia or something like that maybe it's a like a nonprofit design to talk about like teacher they do all kinds of Education stuff but they had a specific review of the teacher rubrics for proficient you know the four-part standard and I did not understand how that worked for a long time I was like it's just like a andc you know like that's not it no so that that helped me the other thing is like I really got the sense that this was a horse designed by a committee and therefore for a camel kind of process so like if that's what you're if that's what's bothering you like I think that's that's that means you got it if you don't get it you got it but I I I would say took me like probably 4 hours like that's great like after I asked all the questions did all the research and I like and then sit down and do it hours yeah yeah it takes a while Jo thank you okay all right any other questions about the evaluation all right on to the strategy action plan progress update so which work in progress I know that um we've spent SP a lot of time this year my team and I um working on um budget related things um but that said you know in a conversation with the chair I don't know about a week or so ago or so yeah um I said well we we've actually been focused still on the goals that we set out which do um you know make a good connection back to um the strategy work as well so there has actually been still forward progress on a lot of the work that we outlined one of the action plans um that you'll see and I I just made a simple notation and it's in red um one of the action plans was around um getting down to some core values work revisiting the core values of the district it maybe re refining them or revising them in some way um to be sure that what we identify as core values is actually reflective of the work that we say that we want to be doing and the the vision of the district that we hold um that inv involves a lot of stakeholder input and conversation um and uh what we had envisioned was engaging in this work with the help of um a facilitator somebody that we would contract um who has some uh expertise in this type of work specifically um even more so if they also can make the connection back to the equity lens that we've been focused on and the family engagement lenses that we've been focused on um but uh as you know we we don't we're not in a good position at this time in the current budget or uh in next year's budget potentially uh to to contract somebody to get this work off the ground so there hasn't been any forward progress on that piece of the work that said you know that if I can find grant money that would allow us to make that connection and and start that work up I will absolutely pursue that and get it off the ground but um you know the the financial challenges uh for the current year and for for next potentially are are kind of slowing down some forward progress on that front what if we assume that we're not going to have the money for something like that and came up with a work plan to just do it ourselves we can um the the the challenge that I see there just being honest is if if if there's no override um and again just being honest FY 26 budget planning is going to start at the end of May right it is right right um and I believe that that will also be a very time intensive Endeavor right like right out the gate as soon as this budget is landed at town meeting we see what happens there and then potentially we see what happens May 18th and then we're all in on FY 26 already um like I I I could if I were not occupied doing that yeah heavily with with that work I could work out a plan whereby I could work with my leadership team and we can orchestrate forums uh for staff and faculty meetings students family much like I did with my entry process when I came to the district to get input on on all of these things it is a time consuming process um well I so it's not that we can't do it without the benefit of a facilitator it just is a very timec consuming process and my concern is that the process that we have just gone through for the last five plus months getting the budget for next year sort of f tuned and somewhat landed um we're going to be engaged in that all over again almost immediately like I I kid you not like I will be working on this with my my administrators through the summer so when I said we though I didn't mean you so so just hear me out a little bit we've got good documents already like the the Baseline work has been done it's it's old now but that's not to say that the values that y'all landed on three or four years ago aren't still good values so those values actually were developed about eight before I was before I was on the committee the the when I when I was hired they were just the district was just finishing year one of us fiveyear strategic plan and the core values and the vision and the mission statement were developed as part of that strategic you came in on that yeah so I I came in on the heels of year one that fiveyear and and when I was hired it was we're looking for someone to continue to execute this plan and I morphed it slightly reframed it a bit but there was alignment with all of the priorities that were outlined in that strategic plan I really didn't touch the mission statement the vision statement was more of slightly we added a couple of words to enhance some things but largely the the core Val and the core and there there's a debate and discussion on core values a lot of schools and I think it's more impactful core values as singular words a couple of really powerful singular words this is what we're about right versus core values that are written more like belief statements do you have ideas in mind I have things that I think fit um I wouldn't say that I have a defined framework of what those words should be because the words are they're important and there are words that have very similar meaning but they're different words and then you have to wrestle with but which one of these words really encapsulates all of these sentiments most right it it's a lot of fine-tuning on it um but in my experience districts that can really nail down their core beliefs to three to five singular words like that's pervasive it's in everything that we do we say it's it's the foundation for everything so walk walk me through what the process would look like to get to that like what it's not just us it would be a it would be it would be school committee it would be um parent forums it would be staff forums it would be student forums um you come up with some guiding questions that you put to everyone and you draw out what everybody thinks what those things are what they may we may want to roll mission statement and vision statement work in with the core value work too so um it it's a lot of trying to tease out well is this word that you said is it is it similar to this word that three other people said like there's a lot of fine-tuning discussion dialogue and feeding back like this is what I heard this is what I think you're all saying am I right have you seen this done in a district before have you participated in this process yeah and like I said it's not un like the process that I went through when I came into the district because you're just trying to through a variety of means actual fors actual discussion one-on-one interviews surveys to solicit feedback um but then it's it's trying to pull together what I heard over and over as the most common dominant themes and then trying to find words that articulate what those themes are and then again feeding back to people um this is what I think I I heard and took away did I hit it did I miss it um so it's just it it's just time a lot of time um Tony following on what Peter said what if instead of paying money to have a facilitator do this which if there's a tight budget I prefer not to do yep what if we had a subcommittee of the school committee where no more than two members of the school committee uh some faculty some students and some parents could facilitate these discussions so there would be you know 10 people we use our best active listening skills and go around and then you know have like a summary a summit of document and present it to school committee and it's like a little folksy and maybe a little corny and probably not as fancy as what it would be with a mediator or a facilitator but it would be I think maybe potentially if it's done well more authentic and cheap well here's by the way that's exactly what I kind of had in mind yeah we get like real Pro but here's the here's the question here's the question is is that worth doing right so get all the other things and we're going to have to spend pretty considerable amount of committee time doing budget stuff next year year is going to be but by the way I I'm willing to do both right like if this is worth doing then we should do it if we think that okay our Mission Vision core values are a little long in the tooth we you know are at a point now where we need to start think thinking about another cycle of strategic planning and all like the longer we wait like everything all the other balls keep getting you know kind of sent down the path so is this something that's that we can wait another year or is it something that is worth it's worth bootstrapping this year to kind of get a feeling for okay these are these are the course Corrections that we need to be mindful of you know as we're we're setting the course for for our updated strategic goals I would agree with uh much of what's been said I think it should be internal I think um getting all the stakeholders involved but if the timeline is flexible I think we should be flexible with that timeline uh but have a submit committee uh possibly one school Committee Member even and then multiple admin members reach out to to staff and parents and students and and get a a subcommittee together to start the process but I don't know at what point we need to start the process to I'm okay with being flexible in the timeline I also think that if we if it's done in the way that Dr Burnham envisions it will necessarily bolster the budget discussion because if we have parents and students and admin and faculty all talking about what matters to the school not only will we get a sense of who cares about the school enough to help with the budget but we also get a sense of what matters in the budget right you know like sitting here at as a school Committee Member having never gone into the school except for one day I don't know what the day-to-day operation is like like I I don't even know where they how they get their food in the cafeteria which is like fascinated to get my bag lunch and oh won't look anything like that that but but you know like if we can stage a fight or something yeah yeah like if we're if we're talking about what we see to me the the town of lunenberg is obsessed with music but I know that's not true but like true the kids that come they're all music kids so like if this process of creating a new strategic vision gets you know people engaged we can figure out better what we need to worry about in terms of funding if for no other reason then like we don't want to touch that that would be a hornet's nest right like I I was really dumb and said something at a school committee meeting that touched a hornets nest about the athletic director now I know why he's a very valuable member of the team and so like I would not say that again but I also think that aside from sort of like avoiding political landmines it tells us where to put our you know shrinking set of pennies it tells us what people's priorities are and where their values are I think yeah there's two things there it tells us where where the community and the students and the parents where their values are where their priorities are where we should be focused and it does serve as a marketing tool to make people talk about the things they're proud about in lunenberg schools and the things that they value in lunenberg schools and reminds them of the things they value in the schools um so I think that's a really good point it's it would be a interesting tool to be discussing it with community members um TimeWise I think it would be better to do it next year like September October that's what I was going to say I don't think this year is a good idea I think um I think we're too busy and a little burnt out right now uh I think there's really no time left to no don't once you get this this time of year so I think September October would be a good time to start and have some forums and get people talking about it and then wrap it up going into budget season uh although budget season will be the traditional budget season I know that we are going to be planning far in advance for next year but going into the towns although I'm I'm not sure what they're going to do next year no I really do think that this is going to be a very time intensive it's going to be a long process for FY 26 yeah but I think I do think for all of you as well you know those yeah three nights a week at midnight yeah I'm not good at that Dr Burnham do you have some school systems that you think did a good job are good examples of what you think did a good examples of core values that you could send us or examples of systems districts you think did a good job so here's the thing it it really is a cyclical process um when I came into the district spent that first year on what some people kind of call the listening tour right where you ask the questions and you ask the same questions of every constituency there is right and you start to listen and and here and then Things become pretty clear about what seems to be a priority across the board for people um then you map out a strategic plan right um which they tend to be roughly 5year Cycles um so we're we're getting to that point where I'm winding down the fiveyear window um so you know on the horizon here it would be about time to to start the cycle again is it um so my point is districts everywhere sort of go go through this cyclical process it might not be exactly five years it might be six or seven years it might be four years um you know typically when um a district sees a change in their superintendent um that's a a start point Point like it was here for me with a with a little bit of a caveat right because all of the superintendents that were in the same cohort that I was in which was back at at that time the largest cohort of first year superintendence they had had um everybody else was being guided through a process to start from nothing develop your mission statement your vision statement your core values your strategic plan but when I came in it was it was this is our strategic plan and we need you to commit to executing on it which was fine because honestly everything I heard in my entry process connected back to what was in the plan because just a handful of years prior parents and students and staff all weighed in on it so things hadn't changed much and the couple of years since that initial uh intake of information um but you know five six seven years out you know it's a good time to to go back and revisit that so is this something that should wait until and we renew the Strategic plan potentially okay I mean it to some extent that that process itself could identify the next wave of strategic initiatives um I think that they're kind of connected honestly because like I said had had the district not invested in a consultant to come in and do this process and develop a written document I would have engaged in a process to elicit what what the core values should be um but that work had already been done so you know you're not going to put everybody through that same exercise again when they just engaged in it two years before so that's why I if you go back to some of the first iterations of the Strategic plan that I put together the strategy for improvement um the core value work was always going to be in the out years because I sort of saw that as okay we have all this work to do and then as we get to the end and we're starting to close out on some of this work not that work in all the areas that we've talked about doesn't need to continue it does you can't just we're done you need to nurture and maintain what you've done you need to be attentive to it so that it doesn't fall by the wayside but coming back to revisit the core values conversation at the end of the bulk of that work I really sort of felt was the right timing given what the context was when I got here that that would be connected to the kickoff to the next iteration of strategy for the district so in in what I'm hearing maybe we could pause and see how this all was over the summer and early fall and and and revisit this in September or October and see where we are we'll get a better valuable work to do so I unfortunately I I do I I think we I want to be able to have this conversation irrespective of the budget issues oh right because it's worth the time in investment in my opinion but you just can't ignore the fact that this thing is going to be is going to suck the oxygen out of the room for the next year honestly think about the time that all of you have spent over the last many months it's been crazy uh so so I'm I'm mindful of all of it by the way I also think that the town needs to have a conversation about this special committee and new PR process and all this kind of stuff because I'm not sure how that relates to our Charter to be to be perfectly honest with you and and I I'm a little concerned that I didn't think of that there there's some fast and loose thoughts going on with respect to how we do our budget that do not rhyme with our Charter and so I think that those conversations need to be and I understand that there's a lot of posturing and ideas floating around and all that kind of stuff in the run up to town meeting a lot of that's going to need to be shaken out after May 4th and before August 1st or something along those lines right so I think that there's some things to figure out here and and and don't get me wrong I'm not against participating in some kind of new process I just think that the the town has a lot to work out here with respect to how we're going to rationalize whatever we're going to do next year and but all that being said like I do think this is worth in and I think we should be thoughtful about it right like the documents that we had coming into this meeting I didn't really I hadn't even begun to process right this conversation and I feel like oh well if we're taking this on as a bootstrapping project like somebody's going to have to lead this thing and it's going to be a ton of work right like that that kind yes that's why if you contract with a consultant it's not that we're not all going to engage in the process but somebody else is going to drian organizing it pulling it all together Gathering up the documents you know working to schedule meetings you yet we're all going to be part and parcel of it it's just that's a singular yeah Focus for somebody who's being paid to have that singular or Focus um again not that it can't it can't be done internally by us but it's a little sort of like you got to clear some room on the deck to really dedicate and with teachers is having brand new curriculum and and all that that's a lot too you know pass the batter pass the batteries talk too much I killed it of course can I just say one more thing on this of course I hear what we're saying about the budget but having done work with a bunch of Education institutions in New Hampshire as a lawyer private public the ideas that a mission statement and the core values they really do matter and money matters but culture matters more and we need to set a tone about what takes priority um in terms of like a good version of this and it's kind of cheating because you can just say like well what's the best school in the area the best school in the area is Philips exit Academy in my opinion they have a really good clear concise mission statement they have five core values some of the core values have you know been taken from their seal from 1781 so they haven't changed I I think that like we cannot lose the forest for the trees and get engulfed in budget quite frankly we're not really doing helpful stuff with the budget I feel like you guys are working on the budget the select board is working on the budget we have I think for a whole host of reasons made it more complicated than it needs to be the other thing is I also think that if we do not have a finance director whatever you want to call the position then the that we have such big problems that this is all going to fail right we cannot lose the forest for the trees and focus on the budget over the culture of the schools and we should do less next year than what we did this year because everything that we did this year made it worse we need to have a finance director to do that job okay I would support the work with the consultant but I am definitely concerned about the budget um and I wouldn't I wouldn't support uh the funding of that if we didn't have the override and maybe it is makes sense to budget it in for the following year and then start the process yeah I have to know how much it costs even to yeah um I think probably this is a really good discussion that I didn't expect to come out of this um and I think it's very important that we look at the core values but I don't think there's anything we can do about them right now no so I am going to suggest that we bring this up in September and and make a decision at that point as to wh where we can go with it cuz I I do think it's important I I don't you know depending upon how we're organized and the timeline for next year I would even say if we're going to do like you know operating principles and that sort of thing and kind of do a annual kickoff like we've done historically in late August this is probably something that needs to be on the table for discussion in terms of are we going to do this or not do it and what are the expectations and timeline and that kind of thing yeah I'm okay with that okay um and then um one of the other areas was around uh family engagement and there has been a team working on this um that initial work was around trying to um help Define what family school partnership is and what everybody's role is in terms of um a students's education including what the students role is in their own education um so that team um uh we're planning to have in to do a a brief presentation on on the work that they've been engaged in uh later in May good so you'll get an update there okay anything else on strategy action plans all right then school committee goals and we just have this on here just as a quick check I can get my iPad to go on it went to sleep okay so I think we have talked about this previously um the first goal was budget well we can say we have one kind of but um we get an A for effort I I'll I'll take about that we we definitely had effort um we did collaborate with the superintendent during the budget development making priorities known we did do that when did we write these we wrote those in the fall okay um just feels like a really long time ago I yeah I'm ancient history feels like so long ago no it was in the fall we knew the budget was going to be an issue so um The Benchmark however is passage of a budget that reflects school committee priorities as well as the best possible education opportunities for lunenberg students well we didn't get that we perhaps got the best we could get but we um we definitely did not meet that Benchmark as far as I'm concerned um we do get an A for effort I would agree but all right the second one was policy the goal of the school committee that updated relevant policies will be developed and approved and put into practice in the areas of equity family engagement and athletic head injuries so what have we got for that um so I actually um have had a couple of conversations with both the athletic director and the athletic trainer around um the athletic head injury uh interests of the committee and they were going to be working to see if they could um get one of the Physicians one that they consult with connected to MIAA and so on um uh to be available to attend one of the the remaining meetings for this year just to answer any questions that the committee members might have um they can provide a general overview of their perspective and position around the protocols that are in place right um but I think it goes beyond that I think um my sense was that there was some level of um concern amongst members of the committee you know are we doing the right things in terms of policy and practice to make sure that we're we're doing the best we can uh in the interest of our student athletes and their well-being so um that is a work in progress we're we're trying to um arrange a date I gave the um the ad the the remaining dates for school committee meetings this year and um asked that if they could not find a physician uh to be available even to attend just virtually to answer questions um that if they could find out a few dates that uh a physician might be available to attend and and respond to questions so let me know and then I could coordinate and see if we could schedule a special meeting just for that okay and um relative to that obviously uh no new uh policy language has come forward um at this point um and honestly we haven't had any policy subcommittee meetings in in sometime because we've been out straight trying to nail down yeah I think we stopped 45 different budget versions or so January because the budget became it it really has um the pressing thing yep we did add the whaty language yeah to most of the there was some work done on that no question and um Family engagement policies did we That was supposed to be what was going to come out of the work that happened this work so we'll talk to them when they come yeah I mean it sounds like that's not going to be quite on the timeline that we had in mind in terms of policy development but it is what it is it is what it is yeah okay all right you know I would just like to add so and I I'm also aware because I've had separate conversations with the superintendent that there is a presentation coming around athletic funding and and that that stuff yes we did get um we did have very substantive discussions about Turkey Hill we got funding for um a a design process an assessment process for Turkey Hill on the recommended Capital plan that is up for um approval on May 4th um which is going to assuming that passes kickoff yet another um process that we will probably need to assign a lead or a subcommittee to to engage with because that's going to also be a gigantic time and band would suck I would imagine I would think you're right and the last was communication and transparency which I I guess is what you I didn't flip yeah I'm sorry I didn't flip so I didn't see where you were going with that but now I see where you're going with that um I do think in general we have been quite transparent um we I mean our benchmarks are the minutes taken and our Pack videos which is so nicely done and we appreciate but I think in general I think we've met that for the most part so I think the documentation on the website has been noticeably improved yes over the course of just the last year let alone the last two years so whoever's doing that work I think is doing a a very good job I would love to have our own folder more populated further in advance of our meetings but the good news is is that the relevant documentation is hitting the website in a timely manner which I think is super important for the public to be able to keep up on and there have been on occasion somebody has asked me like hey where is such and such a document and I think nine times out of 10 I've been able to point you know find it on our site Point them to it oh yeah it's there I think there have been one or twoes where something has been referred to that hasn't been posted but but they've been rare um so I think we've done a the administration on our behalf has done a really good job um on on that and I you know I got to say as a member of this committee who was very critical of previous School committees um as Carol and Brian can attest superintendent can attest um and I'll take my fair share of credit for this this committee's come a long way in transparency in open discussion in honest and open disagreement and debate and you know hashing through issues that previously this committee didn't do and I'm not the only one who's noticed like people have commented too me like the school committee has really come a long way over the last couple few years uh to that end and I you know I feel like we are more the communities school committee as a result of that um and you know there're always going to be disagreements and people who um are are critical of us and and what we decide to do but I I don't think anybody's going to accuse us of making you know rash fast unconsidered decisions right undis right right which you know I mean no undiscussed decisions right but but that but there's a lot to be said for that and I know that that's frustrating to some people but but it but I think it's necessary how to government is supposed to work it's how it's supposed to be so I think we've come a long way in that regard okay I if I could you can I think we have done an excellent job at transparency and a poor job at communication it is clear to me when we get the comments and the emails that what we are saying is not clear and succinct and so our message gets muddled and it's really unfortunate because we have this bizarre sort of relationship with other parts of the town and that relationship results in you know some sort of like game of tele phone but there's only two people and somehow the message gets garbled from one place to the other I I think that we could do better with our communication I don't know how we can improve our transparency like literally everything we talk about is out there um I also think that Peter is right that we have a more spirited sense of debate and that like I've had closer votes based on things that like Carol you have said or things that Brian has said points that Laura has made and questions that Peter has asked so I think that like the communication among the school committee is getting better the transparency of the school committee could not be better but our communication to the public to the parents and to other branches of town government has been not just below average but bad and it's not because anyone has a bad idea but because I think that often times we just like what I said about the a minute ago we just do not have the power as an executive board to like go in and do the line byline adjustments that sometimes we're trying to do and I think that by doing that not only sometimes we do do it on the Fly and then there like like the the XL Spreadsheet thing that didn't repopulate and we had to have a special meeting like I don't think anybody did that on purpose but that's a symptom of the fact that we are trying to Tinker with things as an executive board at a non-executive level um in part that's because we don't have a finance director and so Dr Burnham you're doing that and when you present it to us but I think that you know like if you look at how a board of directors sits in relation to a CEO they don't do this they don't do the like eight budget comparison like this cell is not populating this cell like that's not what they do and for some reason instead of acting as an oversight or an executive board with the need for Summit of information we have decided to get into the Weeds about a whole bunch of stuff sorry stuff that is not our purview and that has resulted in bad communication with the public with parents and with other branches of town government we cannot be doing this it also means that our meetings are way too long and I know that I say this every time but it has resulted in noticeable harm to our message and our purpose in terms of speaking on behalf of the children in the schools in lenberg if we want to be effective we need to act within the role of an executive board and not pretend like we're accountants or you know for me an educator or you know like a legislative budget person or a special ed director like we've got to understand that they have a different job and our fundamental problem is we cannot operate within the lane that the structure of of the school committee is set up in we have not done that and it has harmed us and I you know like I think it's something that we could certainly fix but to say that we've done a good job of communication I think completely is you know ostring or ostrich ourselves from reality I think you're looking at different criteria than what we had in mind a year ago and I think you're being overly critical a year ago we didn't really have a problem with how we were going to communicate our budget we hadn't gone through any of the trials that we've gone through this year a year ago I was really concerned about how are the students going to know that the athletic fields are closed in the month of August and September right like I mean like that's the kind of communication that that I was kind of stuck on because at the time I felt as if those Communications were garbled right yeah I I got a text from a friend last week the day that the email and reverse 911 and all the communications went out about the um the busing forms they all went out on roughly April 1st and the text was hey can you let the superintendent know that I got her email because like literally we got you know within about a 30 minute period an email a telephone call a text message a you know and and it was somewhat comical but in my view it was like that's success right I would Rather somebody be annoyed that we interrupted their day a little bit on a on April 1st but get the message that we were trying to communicate out and its importance right and and so I think I understand Tony's barking up a different tree than than the intent of this goal and perhaps has the seed of the goal for next year perhaps yeah I I think it's important to also recognize that when it came to the budget and the communication for the budget it was garbled because it was a complicated process we had to go through those many iterations we we were asked for them we had to consider them and when it came time for the override we knew that every single item in that override was necessary we went over that budget line by line in multiple meetings and we knew where all of that money is going we knew where everything's accounted for and as a board we know where it's being spent so when we picked a dollar amount we picked an exact dollar amount and we know where the money is being spent and we can confidently say that we stand behind that budget and that we are not wasting the taxpayers money that we are asking for an appropriate amount of money not too much not too little which I really do stand by because the criticism from the select board were simultaneously it's too many it's too much money and it's too little money so I'm going to just say we went right down the middle and it's okay so because we went through that process we knew that budget so well and to approach it from an executive level and say okay yep it's great I I think this year especially we needed to know that budget in the very very details of it I mean I'm just going to say this I think that the select board knew that when they asked us for a simple what is the amount and what do we get that we were going to garble it and we did and I think that to a certain extent I agree with Laura that like every time somebody said can you draw us up a new budget and we went through that budget we you know we had to do some due diligence but I also think that there was a lot of stuff that we did that was wasted time and it made it more difficult for us to figure out what we needed and what our position was because again we were lifting up the hood and tinkering with the engine to a certain extent we had to do that because Dr Burnham had to do that because we didn't have a finance director but when we have a finance director next year we should not be doing it to the degree we did because all it did was it forced us to make a misstep every time we spoke no and next year need to be more protective of Dr Burnham's Ste and people emailing and asking for budgets that's going to have to go through us we need to I no no we canot do that the more protective of Dr Burnham's time as far as requests for budgets the the town manager made one budget and when we talked about an override the response was oh no she doesn't have time to make a another budget yet there were requests for her to make multiple budgets so I think we do need to be more protective of her time Brian I think I think the big picture though we see this every year with budget season that the numbers are constantly changing that we constantly get updates and new numbers we saw it when probably about four or five years ago maybe six years ago with the potential cutting of uh foreign languages and it was a big uo because again the numbers the budget was not looking good but numbers came in better again we worked with the town so the it's a budget process it's going to change over time and I think we just got to keep communicating that but it's important that the citizens know this is where the budget stands as of now and as the changes happened we need to update the parents yes it's frustrating that numbers change Bud budgets are changing but it's part of the process and I think the more citizens get used to that and understand it it's a little easier but it's it's definitely still challenging for them was challenging for us yeah and still is okay any other discussion on school committee goals then we're going to go on to new business we have a math adoption yes and um we have our director of teaching and learning uh Mrs Scott on the call tonight um she can outline for you um the process that we've been engaged in in all year really with our Math teachers grades six through eight U piloting different math curriculum um and they have made their their uh selection at the end of this almost Yong process um so she has their recommendation uh for adoption uh for you to uh to vote on tonight um so I'll turn it over over to Mrs Scott um do you do you want to be able to screen share Mrs Scott or do you want me to screen share if I could share that'd be great okay hello everybody hello you should be all set thank you okay so we've gone through this process several times in District now so we we are familiar with the way it works and we pulled a council together of teachers at the middle school um to help select a new high quality math program a couple of points um and I'll I'll get them so the the selection team consisted of myself Amy Resnik our math specialist all of the Math teachers at the middle school and all the special Educators at the middle school we had gone through this process with desie um making a few points about high quality materials how important it is that districts use them um I included a link here to an mtss planning document which is has the key levers for planning support in districts and then the first one is high quality instructional material um which I wanted to point out it provides provides um resources for students and something that um is very important as well is for teachers who are either moving grade levels or coming new to our district for us to be able to provide them with a curriculum that's in place and for students to have commes across teams and grade so what of U materials can do provide a consistency coherence aligned grade level content standards where we're not you know just jumping on to Teachers Pay Teachers we're following a vetted curriculum um enable teachers to provide access they can't teach the standards change the culture um control effective practices add time to your schedule or guarantee outcomes so our timeline started back in September we um we narrow down from a list of programs to to three in order to pilot the teachers completed the pilot process evaluated their feedback and selected program briefly just our selection process we started with um Ed reports and cury Ed reports is more of a national level um review panel and they decide whether or not curriculums meet expectations I provide the report um later in this slideshow Amy and I collected um a list of those programs that received meet expectation ratings on end reports so this is this is a table that we ended up with um you can see that on the left are all the programs that received meet expectations and we we were able to get samples and review online materials for all those programs we narrow it down to three programs um hmh into math which we're currently using K5 Ed gems which we ultimately selected and open up resources when we narrowed down three we met with Publishers from all three of those programs um had a more in-depth walk through where able teachers were able to ask their questions prior to uring the pilot they piloted for um several weeks for each program and unanimously selected Ed gems we are um upon approval hoping to make a purchase um and using primarily GR money of that purchase and we would love to visit another school that we've already contacted in Massachusetts who are currently using Ed gems we did that last year with into reading and into math to get some insights it was incredibly helpful if you want to take a look at the Ed report review um I linked it in here and I did want to note that they reviewed this program in 2018 but we are purchasing an updated 2024 Edition it's not a complete overhaul um everything that met expectations will be at least the same if not improved um but we will get an updated version you can um click on the the full report here on Ed reports if you want to read um extensive information about it because you can click on each um you know focus and coherence for sixth grade where your mathematical practices for sixth grade for example and read the whole report alignment summary there I do find these reports really helpful um for myself for teachers um to explain exactly how the program gets at meeting expectations and then if you're interested in taking a look this is a curriculum preview for Ed JS again it's going to look a little bit different in the 2024 Edition um this is only a preview teachers had full full access full digital access to the program and we received some paper materials when they were piloting so they have um taking a real indepth look but this could provide you with um some sample planning materials and assessment materials um you can go in and take a look for example at the actual unit materials um there are notes of what the teachers really liked um there are slides provided for each unit they really loved the real world connections that these units make um through something like story boards um or performance tasks the Tic Tac toll board provides um differentiated options for students go back um into the if you're interested in reading more about the teacher comments in the materials table are all all their notes on um what they really liked about the program and again as with the other curriculums this is a a core a baseline that we can use um they really liked the the way that um Ed gems allows them to differentiate for students they provide an advanced track they provide challenge materials within the grade level track and again like I said differentiated in um real world applications so I don't know if you have any questions I didn't want to go too long you can feel free to read additional information on Ed reports if you're interested does anyone uh Mrs Bowski um I had a few questions uh we did we pilot the 2018 version or the 2024 version we filed piloted 2018 because the 2024 version isn't even out yet but it should be the the paper material should be printed by the end of April it again we we talked to the rap about what might be updated um and it is not a complete overhaul and we were happy with the 2018 version so that this 2024 should only be approved okay um and I guess that partially answers my other question which is is are there workbooks are there paper materials is it all online only using the Chromebooks are there hand Hands-On parts of it everything is fully online so we could operate fully out of the digital um but we also had the option to either purchase hard cover textbooks for each grade level to use in addition to digital materials or you could purchase um yearly consumables and we decided to go with a a one-time purchase of the hard cover textbooks and they'll be brand new again haven't even come off the publisher yet um in addition to those digital subscriptions we did um and we we kind of talked this L finance committee one night we looked into a threeyear and a six-year subscription so we we decided that um the the best choice right now is going with a three-year digital subscription and hard cover textbooks that way hopefully we'll keep um the majority of middle school math curriculum needs off of the local budget next year and the year after outside of if we get you know an influx of students in a particular grade level or we happen to need additional teacher materials Etc okay and this is the curriculum adoption line in the Middle School um it's it's not a curriculum adoption line in the Middle School per se um as Mrs Scott said um we we have some um Grant funds uh that we had planned for the the purchase of this because we knew last spring that we would would be piloting math uh curriculum so when we planned our our grants we planned uh to be able to purchase okay the the curriculum will we be purchasing workbooks as well I'm happy to hear we're doing the hard cover textbooks will we be purchasing workbooks as well we won't be purchasing the workbooks because anything in a workbook could be can be printed from the online edition and some of the things can be assigned online as well so as they do now with any hard cover textbooks that they use um you could do your math work on paper and refer to the book or a teacher could print out or a sign online um materials that are Avail available digitally so ac across the board the um the Middle School teachers felt like they could they could operate in fact some of them said they could forgo the hard covers I think it's a good idea to to order them for our first purchase so we have a a book in place but we could go online and print whatever we needed okay Mr B orine digitally uh so two questions um one related to the decision- making one related to the budgeting so this is an upfront cost and then a recurring cost is that a is that a correct so these upfront cost to purchase the textbooks um and the recurring cost is pretty it's become pretty standard I mean you heard in the fy2 budget there was a cost for renewal of uh science books and it was a six-year subscription online um we did the analysis there was a there was a six-year option too I think um but but based on the costs that we would have to uh pay upfront now for a six year versus a three-year versus a single year um we really felt The Sweet Spot cost-wise was actually in the in the threeyear subscription so the threeyear subscription is front loaded or it's paid over that threeyear period no it'll end up being front loaded okay that I'm glad I asked the question which takes takes any load off of the budget for the next two years in terms of curriculum that will be captured entirely through the grant or with the grant Plus fy20 FS we're pulling some uh from a couple of different places we've got some money in our curriculum adoption line that uh we will likely uh utilize as well as um monies from I think it was two different grants correct Mrs Scott yep so we have you know the the bulk of the purchases coming from Thea evidence based practices Grant um through which where we hired the co- teer we're going to pay the math specialist next year and we had uh an additional amount there that we could use for curriculum materials so we had slated those for middle school math um we're using a small portion from a special ed Grant and a small portion from curriculum D okay thank you the I also want to point out that the the these curriculums now you know including into reading into math into amplify the three that we purchased in the last few years the the bulk of the curriculum is online for teachers and students um in fact you know the the amount of supplemental or paper materials that teachers are wanting to purchase moving forward with the ones we already did purchases is is slimming slimming down that they really like the online components um I think once we have the hard cover we'll we'll have those but we won't have the recurring cost of purchasing consumable workfor okay and then just a question looking for some additional color in terms of the the selection uh I understand the the criteria and the justification that you outlined um but in terms of the participants you outlined every math teacher in the middle school plus your math specialist plus your special ed teachers was this a consensus decision to select this particular curriculum was this your decision can you explain a little bit in terms of how how the decision came about it was yep we allowed the teachers to make the decision of course um along the way I I I said I I trust Amy resnick's perspective um incredibly and she also agreed with the decision as with the other curriculums that was teacher chosen um we felt comfortable with all of the curriculums we were putting forward because they had been vetted by Ed reports um so there would we really couldn't go wrong in in our opinion um so Amy and I did participate in the the walkthroughs with the Publishers and and um talked with teachers as they were piloting and such but the teachers unanimously decided on this particular gr okay I think that's super important I mean obviously we need to align to state standards and all those sorts of things but I think it's super important that teachers are using the materials that they want to use if you know recognizing the fact that we can only buy one curriculum we want to we want to you know please as many as process as well um for all of the previous adoptions as well uh although we are aware that post selection some teachers have maybe changed their opinion about um being on board with the curriculum that they actually selected so but true to form this is how we have approached every single adoption that we've done fair enough and and I will say we we have some really talented teachers who have some really great lessons in their in their um in their practices right now and we have said this this Ed gem will need to be the core of your teaching we're going to follow the scope and sequence we'll common plan together and use common materials common assessments and such but they can still supplement you know you may see if you have a sixth grader you may see a a sixth grade project or a couple of sixth grade activities that were taking place outside of edun that's fine to connect with the the core materials but this will be our core and it'll be helpful for teachers like I said who are switching grade levels or coming in new to the district we don't want to be handing a teacher a stack of file folders and saying here's the old teachers folders you can figure out what to do no we want to say we have a vetted you know onlevel rigorous curriculum and we have all the materials we need and um we uh have also committed some some paid time for the teachers to work together after school is released in June uh to start planning the early uh the early days and weeks of um the next school year with the new materials great any other questions looks like we are all set I thank you very much for the work on this project and look forward to hearing on how everybody does we need to take a motion to approve this um curricular change motion to approve the curriculum change to the gems curriculum for grades 6 through 8th second all those in favor I all right thank you very much thank you so now we have a donation yes take me just a minute for so um Gail Ogman uh who is our uh guidance department head here at the Middle High School uh was also previously a a guidance uh counselor at the Turkey Hill Elementary School in recent years uh notified us that um she has been invited uh by Sharon Kimbell to attend a service at the United Parish Church in lunberg to receive 10 Comfort blankets the parish has a long history of contributing to families in need in the school community and recently they have produced 10 fleece Comfort blankets to be distributed to the school Community um and she plans to receive those blankets and um distribute them to each of the schools um equitably so that um they can best then uh determine how they will be used so um we we would like to accept this very heartfelt and generous donation oh oh go right ahead I'll make a motion to accept the cfor blankets second with gratitude and we thank them very much for doing so very much appreciate it all those in favor I I okay thank you very much thank you thank you all right we made it to our next public comment section any public comments out there your last one was very brief and there's nobody online I keep saying the bar higher and okay thank you we have committee reports then Mr Leon the finance committee met on April 4th uh they reviewed the they went through the articles uh article 8 they said article 8 was the uh the number for the override $948,000 so that was that was quite quite um commendable so good job wonderful job um we had a budget discussion um there is an incredible amount of testing in the spring particularly at the eighth grade levels the eighth graders had four M castes the I ready and the um National the neep um assessment and awful lot of testing going on in grade 8 uh so they deserve this wonderful DC trip um 94 students are going um to DC and that trip leaves on May 21st and the spring sports teams are busy I think I got these numbers right but don't quote me that 130 on are on students are participating on Middle School spring sports teams and 77 on high school teams um and they are looking for ideas anyone with ideas for ways to spend the remaining funds in the residency program um if people are familiar the um the select board gave the cultural Council Opa funds in the amount I believe of $20,000 um to spend in an arist in Residency program primarily at the high school the person spearheading that um drive has resigned from the cultural Council so the remainder of those funds um the cultural Council now has decided should be spread amongst the schools to be used um in ways to benefit all the students so the art budget Turkey Hill is currently0 the art budget at the primary school for next year is but those funds were for artists to come in it was the artist in residenc program it's artist program so if you knew of a of a wonderful artists that could come in and present to some students and have some students do some Hands-On things actually M Scot is still on the call I think if she hasn't stepped away from her uh computer she's actually um assist she's assisting the different the schools in determining an appropriate artist to come in um I see that she's unmuted so if Mrs Scott if you want to weigh in on and share with the committee um what you're looking at in terms of um the remainder of the Year and that money for artists and residents sure so we have tenative artists booked booked um Karen Giuliani is going in front of the Council on April 10th to get official approval um let me get these names right without having them in front of me one is Brett ban and he has I spoke with him on the phone he's awesome he's been in school districts all over the all over Massachusetts and he shares his art all over the world um he sometimes stays at a school and does a mural for the week he's going to come to Turkey Hill for one day and primary for one day he starts with a presentation about kindness because his ping dings are connected to kindness and then he does a lesson with the students um so we're happy to have him coming um a woman who is going to do a a mosaic for the Middle School um it's coming upon approval and she'll take some art from middle school students to create this Mosaic during the day when she's there she'll get the art in advance from what I understand then finally we have a a hipop um artist I think it's called the hip-hop collaborative I can send share information um with you that we have and he comes in and it and it's a um a social emotional presentation slash dance presentation from what I understand with that one and um getting really good reviews we we were given a website from the the council to take a look at that had hundreds of artists on it and it was so exciting great sounds like thank you for letting me put you on the spot thank you for that information that sounds wonderful and it's getting spread between all the schools now I like that that's nice um so that that was that meeting and then the master plan steering committee met last Friday evening um and there was a lot of discussion regarding possible outdoor Gathering spaces in town and trying to find that um basically it was surrounding the 300th anniversary discussion but um we had um select board chair with us and he recommended using the Northfield Road property owned by the parks department at this point or owned by the town used by the park Department um at this time there's a discussion about the next survey going out from the consultant we asked for a chance to check on the goals prior to publishing what what they're doing at this point is they've gotten to the point where they feel they understand what the goals should be for the town for the master planning and um they wanted to put out the survey and we said no no no we need to see the goals first before you survey for example the S the goal regarding the schools was to um improve upon school um buildings and properties like said I think there's more to the school than that maybe funding sources maybe maybe programmatic things we've been talking about that we haven't been able to afford to do I said I think we need to see the goals before you send out another survey so um so that's what's in the works there they at the next meeting where these goals will be discussed public meeting will be on May 30th at at the Smoke Stack Roasters at 6: p.m. and they also have this huge it's 4 feet by 8 ft map of lunenberg and it it's a street map but it's like um okay my lack of map skills walls in topographical goes up and down is that the right term okay so you can see the hills and you can see you know the lakes and you can all this stuff it's this beautiful beautiful map the Consulting Group made nobody has a clue where it can go in this town when the Consulting Group is done with it so we have this beautiful map they tried to give it to the library but the library really doesn't have that kind of space I mean it's really big somebody said well maybe we could hang it on the wall but then you can't see the top of it so that's not going to work somebody else thought maybe we could find someplace in town where we could recess it in the floor so it wouldn't take up space but we could put like glass over it and we could in the new Turkey Hill Elementary School well see there you go it might be a perfect spot for it you give us a new elementary school we'll build it a room I will make it fit and exchange or make it fit somewhere so anyway so that that was the extent of that meeting so that's what I have from there could I just add one you can so um this came up this morning in coffee conversation with my parents um okay my father is involved in part of the 300th anniversary stuff that the historical society is doing um and they are updating the red book which is the history of lunenberg book that was written back in 1978 um they intend to publish a new version of it uh in a few years and he is looking to interview or consult with somebody who could help to encapsulate the changes that have occurred in the lunenberg school system over the past 50 years and I I was like oh boy I can't imagine imine somebody who would have that span of knowledge and and and perspective um but what about Mrs Whitaker I mean there are so she hasn't been I'm just throwing it out there I think she's been around about 20 but but I maybe a little bit more than that but I think I don't think there's any one person I think we're going to have to stitch together that's going to but in any event I wanted to bring it up not for school committee business but just general public like if You' got had an idea of somebody who could Pro potentially bring that perspective or a good chunk of that time span perspective isn't that interesting um I know a guy who's looking for for some help so anyway we we contribute to the annual Town report there's a whole section on there are reports and those kinds of things I mean but to try to stitch together 50 years of of school department reports is isn't that interesting is a bit of a so anyway it you know like my my initial brainstorming with him was like I think that there's potentially like sort of a government and oversight view where you could perhaps compare or contrast what happened before and after 1993 with respect to education reform and obviously we've got new buildings like there's different lenses that you could potentially put on it but it's a lot it sounds like a student history project assignment Eagle project maybe yeah anyway yeah it sounds like chat GPT can help you maybe maybe so anyway I'm just throwing it out there anybody has any thoughts or ideas and both of your dads are working on the red book I know again yes that's really funny weird see the red book I just got a copy of the red book and now it's going to be out of date already yeah you got to save your money for a new version yeah oh it was given to me so it's all right there we go um topics for future discussion then um oh we have to prove that we're allowing people to eat these lunches in the auditorium we do that every yeah so we need we made a general exception for beverages for beverages we did not make an exception we specifically said no food so to yeah the May 1st date would be fine to make that vote um I think we want as many people as humanly possible there we can let them have lunch but ask them to be careful well the other thing I thought was that we we might be able to put um some folding chairs and tables out in the corridor between the gym and the auditorium so that if somebody wanted to sit just they wouldn't have to come all the way down here the cafeteria I know most people aren't going to want to sit they're going to want to take it back in well and you don't know what the timing is going to be you know and what's we potentially remote some audio out to the C that's been done in the p going to have to just we just in case we talked about that several years ago I don't remember what was the Hot Topic at town meeting that it was a full day long event oh it was very long and I don't remember what the problem was but it was very long but pack and it looked at the possibility of streaming it into the gym and into the cafeteria and for one reason or another they couldn't make it work at that time can we do it over the intercom I don't know then you can I think that's something that we need we should probably talk to the town manager about because you know we've had two local communities that had to move their Town meetings because yeah um too many people showed up so I don't anticipate that but I would like to be able to we should be prepared I mean it's really the time managers issue yeah what do they do for voting if well then you'd have to do it the oldfashioned way in remotes you know we only recently went to the clickers we used to raise our cards and people ran around and counted can do that again we've done it they can do it again I mean that was accurate we have the technology yep we can do it oh I remember my first time me I'm like we vote by shouting well shouting and then if the shouting doesn't work then yes then you had to hold up your card so um all right I'll see what I can find out about and we we hopefully we'll have the athletic report at the next meeting do you think the financial the financial you can get there um there are just some challenges with um access to reports yeah in munice um we had a an upgrade to our munice platform and it was like weeps and Bounds years we hadn't done any upgrades and so it's a very different um looking feeling platform at this point um but that happened with no Finance director at Town Hall um so it it's it's just been a challenge all the way around um not not being able to run reports ourselves to get access to information because we don't have access to do that um and you know just the the time lag for you know getting that kind of information reported back to our uh Finance team too so is that the kind of thing we will get access to when we have a budget director or this is how we're going to be doing things so that's that's probably a conversation that we need to have because this is not an efficient way to it I I'm saying this because um at one time our um accounts payable person in my office and uh Liz Peterson in my office so this is not a strictly uh we don't have our own Finance person right now problem um they they don't have access to certain things um too so um whether that's just a lag in catching up with getting people the access that they need that they used to have um I don't know it's a working proc press they get some bigger fish to fry over there too okay yep like tax but it it it is a hindrance here I I have to be honest this a major problem we should all right we'll keep on that because because I mean that they're playing catchup um so you know things may not be posted as up toate as they might have otherwise been in the past there's a lag there up at Town Hall um and like I say they're new they're still orienting themselves um getting used to munice um any number of challenges it's just that right now honestly it's just the perfect storm um and I hope that we'll work our way to um more efficient access right it would be very helpful to us it's hard because a lot of the time you you're kind of navigating through the dark because you don't have access to truly accurate information well we're also getting it's not just the school committee needing information about Athletics we're getting near end of fiscal year needing to make some agile decision making that we need to be able to make yeah which you know isn't a comfort spot for me to be not knowing exactly where we are right now with everything right I would really like to know exactly where we are with everything so um it it's it's a work in progress um but I I should be able to have enough bigger picture information to provide the kind of context I won't be able necessarily to have it in exact this is exactly what we spent kind of a situation um but certainly we'll be able to map out some things in a in an in an overview of how all of these various funding sources and entities play together um in the big picture thank you and then we'll also have our um mockup presentation of the override okay on that night plus anything else you had already planned yeah there's there's a little bit of a list I'm not going to lie okay so that's what we have for this evening our next um unless anybody else had something no I was going to make a motion to go into executive session at 8:57 p.m and a j following for second second all those in favor I I