##VIDEO ID:QadW-iikbQU## anybody else in waiting no okay all right so good evening everyone it is 6:30 for school community meeting um October 10th and so we're going to start off by actually going into executive session I'll read a quick verbage um and then we'll enter in I'll Reserve all the larger content for later when we return you have to roll call to open the meeting yeah exactly I'm just not going to go the whole like meeting material public yeah public comments all that other stuff I'll wait till later so um as chair of this meeting I need to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present can hear me school members when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Mary brandley yes Mar Hogan she's here yes okay um Alexis fishon yes okay and Hillary gripitz is absent uh staff when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Colleen andr yes Brian hus yes um and we had Heather Newman yes okay we also have detective mccan this evening yes okay and some of our um guests Jerry culbert yes chrisal block yep Bill Palumbo yes okay and Brian uh do we have anybody else from staff um Wayne Liz Keith or Chuck or Charles that will be um several of them will join us at seven okay got it um this uh this open meeting of the Mard school committee is being conducted as remote meeting as Allowed by chapter 2 of the act of 2023 signed into law by Governor healing on March 29 2023 this act continues to exempt certain provisions of the open meeting law uh regarding remote meetings and Public Access until March 31st 2022 2025 sorry um we going to go ahead and call the meeting to order at 6:32 and oh I need to do a roll call to do that Mary yes Maro yes um Alexis yes and Natasha yes all right and now we will move to enter into executive session under purpose for mgl chapter 30A section 21 A4 to discuss the deployment of security devices or strategies with respect to thereof um as it pertains to Green Meadow building school committee will return to open session at 7 o'clock and now we will enter into executive session via roll call again Mary branley yes Mara Hogan yes Alexis Fishburn yes I I made up your name just now sorry um okay I've heard worse you're apparently all right I'll get it better later on in the meeting of haris uh and Natasha rera yes um so Colleen fishbone yes oh wait oh oh okay I'm sorry sorry my dad called okay Lexis yep okay Hillary yes Maro yes and Natasha yes all right so we are returning into Open Session We've Ended executive session thank you so much all right and thank you for having me thank you thank you guys thank you folks have a good night have a good night okay thank you all for your patience as we had our executive session ran a we over appreciate it um so we are now returning from executive session into our Open Session um it's 7:14 I'm going to go ahead and proceed back to the additional verbiage from the the script uh for all the other stuff that I didn't do earlier let me go back okay so this committee is convening via Zoom as posted on the district's website while an option for remote attendance participation is being provided as a courtesy the meeting will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt please not that this meeting is being recorded accordingly be aware that other folks FKS may be able to see you and take care not to screen share your computer anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording which is audible too and viewable by the public if you plan to record or broadcast this meeting please use the raise your hand function now and notify the chairs required by law um okay I do not see any hands raised um just to confirm do we have um the student reps that's the only thing I wanted to we have Kaylee oh oh there we go Harper nice to see you can you hear us okay yeah I can okay wonderful thank you so much for joining us this evening um so tonight's meeting materials and the agenda posted on the district's website under the folder 2024 2025 agendas under the school committee tab the public is encouraged to follow along using the posted uh agenda and documents unless the chair notes otherwise the public comments agenda item is devoted time for the school committee to hear from the public as such its structure primarily supports a unidirectional recording of public comments rather than a bidirectional conversation here are the general ground rules for public comment period any person wishing to speak and make a comment during the virtual meeting May do so by uh signing up and speaking signing up to speak publicly in advance up until the public comment agenda item um using the the link provided on the agenda please have your Zoom name match so that we be able to uh unmute you to speak all public comments are limited to 3 minutes to ensure that everyone who who wishes to comment has the opportunity to be heard no person may comment more than once without permission of the chair as time allows the chair could consider allowing a person to comment a second time especially if it is related to a topic that has not yet been brought up any person wishing to submit written comments to be read by the chair may may do so by emailing comments in advance up until the public comment agenda item to comments for SC meeting at mayor. k12.us the subject line must state public comments please include your first and last name in your town to ensure your comments are read comments will be read for only 3 minutes if the submitted comments are longer they'll be suspended at the 3 minute Mark to ensure all comments can be read in their entirety suggested that you keep them to approximately 350 words however submitted comments longer than 350 words will be included in the public record in their entirety anyone wishing to submit comments for the public record after the public comment agenda item has passed can do so by emailing comments for SC meeting at manor. K12 us up until the end of the meeting specifically stating their desire to have these comments included um ground rules before we go on sorry I'm like under attack with bug here U before we go on to the first item on the agenda please permit me to cover some ground rules for Effective and clear conduct of our meeting um to ensure accurate meeting minutes I will introduce each speaker on the agenda after they conclude I will ask each member if they have any comments or questions or motions they would like to make I will go through the members for additional comments or questions if time if time allows please hold off speaking until your name is called remember to speak clearly in a way that helps generate accurate minutes if members wish to engage with other members please do so through the chair and take care not to interrupt anyone of speaking finally each vote tonight um will be taken via roll call since all members are not in person and now since we've already opened the meeting and done our executive session now we will move on to public comments um I didn't see any email Colleen for public comments but I just want to I don't see any hands raised from our audience um we didn't have anything anyone submit a request did we on the link okay all right so we will move on from there um to Urgent business uh superintendent hos any urgent business uh no urgent business today great okay okay and now we will move on to the student representative report and Harper uh the floor is yours I just read the entire report I haven't done this before yet yeah so this is our this is your time to share yes share your report that you've Consolidated a report back and then what you can expect is after the report I'll go through and introduce each member to you and to see if anyone has any questions or comments about what you're reporting back and and then we just have some dialogue there and feedback and so sometimes there's information you might want to take note to bring back to the sac um sometimes there just some elaboration on on different aspects that you provided okay all right wonderful and welcome to your first meeting with us yes thank you okay so go ahead let give us your updates okay I will start with the highlights so far all of our fall sports teams are having a good season and senior night for field hockey and golf both went very well and field hockey is now 13 and0 pretty exciting there was a safety assembly and our first alist which all went very well there weren't many concerns with that I don't think any of that and then we also had our first home football game which there are some concerns which I will discuss in a second we had a morning tailgate which there was two and the second one there was a bigger audience which I think was because we made pancakes and so many people wanted pancakes and then the MHS open house for middle school students was a very big success with over 50 people in attendance and then many of the sa members were there as tour guides which was good and helpful for a lot of students and then also the senior privilege started so that kind of helped with how big second lunch was and now there's a lot of good issues that were ironed out by that and then progress ports came out and grades and attendance are definitely higher than last year so so as a reward for that the entire School gets a reward on Friday the 25th which to be determined what that is um the wavm reports and the telephon leadership positions are in place radio shows have started and coverage of sports and town meetings have also started and are going well those are all the highlights I have so far and then for the concerns our first concern was the temperature it was very cold in a lot of the classrooms due to pull pooling of too much air conditioning so as a solution sa met up with our head Tony and he helped switch over to heat soon and also he tried to Iron Out The Kinks ahead of time so rooms were not super hot and they weren't also super cold and also teachers have started providing blankets and students also wear hoodies in order to stay warm the phone policy students are finding places where the original p wording doesn't actually cover some situations that we've had recently so the principles have decided to review that with students and faculty um one of the student concerns is that some teachers allow students to get packed up before the Bell students think the phone should be allowed at that time and because they won't be distrupt in class since class was already dismissed and teachers feel that because it is still class time phone should be away and then with locker rooms the admin was not aware that some students use locker rooms as a place to hang out between the end of the school day and practice they would do things such as eat and do homework and hang out and one of the issues with that was um it was made so the locker rooms were locked at the end of the day so students couldn't do that and then they would unlock them when the coaches arrived but with the girls on the soccer team the coaches are both men and they can't get they get there until 4 so there was no supervision for them so that is an issue and then we came up with the idea that people could just hang out in the cafeteria instead because that way it's an open space and there is enough supervision around and one of the big issues about coming across and locking the locker rooms was the way that it was handled when we were asked to leave the locker rooms was not in the best Manner and it definitely upset some students but as of right now there are no necessar like necessary solutions that we have made but the cafeteria after 3:15 and when open gym ends we have to figure that out um currently people hang out in the cafeteria after 3:15 and locker rooms are available between 25 and 315 when open gym is happening and then at our football game we had our first home game which we won over Auburn Administration was concerned about a few loud fans harassing and opposing the team on the sideline the opposing team on the sideline which is right in front of our temporary bleachers students had fun but were concerned about the video Sur surveillance that needed to be taken of these poor fan behavior that was occurring involving hate speech and other things Mr Aria came to SAC to talk about possible solutions to the location of fans behind the visiting team he didn't have any Immediate Solutions but we will he will return to sa to discuss this further because many felt that the reason why these harmful speech was occurring was because it's so easy to do since we are right in behind the opposing team but there's not a necessary solution for that yet um Mr Aria also came to discuss the bleacher project with Sac the students are disappointed that they won't have homeside bleachers in the timeline that was planned but Mr Aria will keep students involved in any strategies moving forward if there are any created and some upcoming events that we have is that there is a pep rally tomorrow at the end of school and there's also a long weekend for indigenous people's day and that is all I have in the report as of right now awesome John thank you so much you rocked it um so now what I'll do is I'll go around to each School Committee Member and just um see if they have any questions or um clarifications from what you've shared um and before I I do that I also wanted to let you know that once this part of the agenda is is done um you're always welcome to stay you are a rep for um for the committee we actually will be talking about the bleachers later on in the agenda not too far on so I would welcome the opportunity for you to kind of listen and maybe report back um and if you have certain thoughts you'd want to share might you know look to you at some point maybe to if we have any questions so um but just just for consideration moving forward as you join you're you're um you're you're essentially our our rep and you're always welcome to stay through the agenda so just feel free to look over the agenda and see if there's things that you know are relevant to maybe student updates that you want to hear or if you have questions and um you can hang out as long as you want okay yeah thank you welcome all right so uh Mary I'll go to you any questions welcome Hara hi great to have you um so just one question you may not be able to answer so don't worry if you can't but with the locker room situation is that new this year is that a new policy or the policy of locking the locker rooms during out the day throughout the day from what I know I think that is new I just started playing a sport this year so it hadn't really affected me in the past but from what I know the process of locking the locker rooms throughout the whole day and then waiting until I think the original rule was until 3:15 when Sports start I think that is new okay all right that'll be interested um Brian I guess in hearing some feedback on that but no everything else is great you did a great great great job very very thorough thank you very much forward to having you and um just on that topic I don't know if Liz I know that you're here this evening as well do you have any um feedback on if that take Mary's question if that's a new this year I know in like two years ago they started to secure more the afternoon and I um and I thought that that was part of the locker room as well but I don't I I couldn't say for certain if that was part of that securing the afternoon so you have students who are not unsupervised on campus yes so um we got um actually Mr H and I got guidance from our associations two years ago now that there had been some issues with liability in locker rooms that were unsupervised after school so we decided together to put in more oversight which is one of the reasons that we have the open gym monitor every day just to make sure students are supervised in those spots where students sometimes get injured uh namely the gym the wait room and the locker rooms but we did not realize that that um this group of girls who wait for late-coming coaches had really set up housekeeping and not in any bad way in a in a very nice way they were even cleaning the space to make it more pleasant um but when uh female staff started going through the locker rooms they realized that you know the students were staying there after open gym and just waiting another 45 minutes for their coaches it was a timing pretty much a timing issue and um and just maybe more of a communication alignment when and until we had female staff working open gym we never knew okay so uh it sounds like maybe just with the with with Mike and just coordinating with staff obviously because I don't I would hate to hear like it's just the students who are the girl students that are impacted by this you know disproportionately than than the guys teams go out at 3:15 right so it's just one team and so we have this compromise now as Harper explained that at 3:15 they move they finish their locker room time and they move to the calf for about half an hour 45 minutes and that's only on practice days and as the season winds down there are fewer and fewer practice days and more game days thank you for clarifying compromise yeah okay Mary anything else nope I am good okay marrow I don't have anything great job Harper I'm happy to see your face thank you Alexis oh you're muted well that was good thing it wasn't recorded um so welcome um to your first school committee meeting thank you so much you did a great job um I do have a question about the football game and you might be able to answer it you might not but principal York might be able to answer it um the fans that used hate speech um against the opposing team um I'm curious what steps might have been taken um with those fans in particular if they were parents or a part of community members and what was taken with them and also with the um the opposing team and whether or not there was communication with the coaches from mayard staff um to discuss what happened um and to find a solution because we certainly don't want that happening to any of our community members um so we certainly don't want to act that way to others outside of our own community so I'm just sort of curious what next steps might have happened after that yeah I'm sure miss York has a much better answer than me because she is involved in the situation but from what I know she scheduled some meetings to discuss it with them she can chime in right after but yeah it was definitely an issue because we don't want that to be the kind of what people think of when they come to mayard to play football games we always want to be seen as a good team to play and a good place to be so I think that Miss York definitely took some serious steps in order to make sure that this doesn't happen again which she can go into detail what they were you got it perfectly Harper it was all just conversations um we followed the procedures that we always follow as a first step it was all private confidential conversations with um students with their families Mr Aria did talk to the other team and then there's been a lot of conversation about you know the proximity of our you know Crazy Tiger super fans to members of the opposing team as they're running off the field it just creates a situation where you know people who are over excited sometimes say things they don't mean and would never say when they weren't so excited and with all their friends so we're working on it thank you thanks and was um was the other I guess the other school receptive to I know this has been kind of it feels like a very more frequent occurrence not necessarily mayor doing but other schools you know uh students in general Spectators student Spectators um almost feels like the norm in in some way unfortunately that we're seeing a lot more of this and um yes it luckily it wasn't um I don't know how to delicate there was no um there was no race-based hate speech okay and I'm very grateful for that yeah it was more um gendered okay and um yes they were very receptive I guess they have some female athletic trainers that interact with the boys on the sidelines and um comments were inappropriate apologies were made but I don't think anyone was you know too badly shocked or damaged um as far as Mr Aria was able to figure out we would have um made more steps to repair if it had been worse luckily I was standing right there so it was instantly stopped Mary yeah no I just had a question um do we ever have those students like in a situation like this actually apologize to the the people that they hurt um because it seems like we're missing an opportunity if they aren't asked to actually you know face them or or even just you know apologize to them directly versus a third hand yes okay yes that's a regular part of our practice is to have the actual students apologize okay thank you um Hillary um well thank you for joining us Harper and sharing um I love the specifically with the field hockey that you guys actually had everybody um on the team go the hence scored go in to have the chance that one game that was like really awesome how inclusive you all were yeah um I love that and then um I my one quick question is what areas of the school are open between two and four like what are the choices for where people can go um there so the cafeteria is open and there's also a good area near the athletic entrance the gym it closes maybe open gym closes at 3:15 I think that's what Miss York said yeah but there's also a bunch of tables that a lot of people like there's stacks of tables that are actually really like comfortable to sit in for doing homework and then there's that carpeted area in front of the athletic entrance and the gym that people will sit in if they're waiting and I think the cafeteria is a big part it's really helpful if people have school work to do they can sit in there but once the locker rooms are locked it's mostly the cafeteria in that open area I think okay where is Homework Club located it's in I think it's in a pair of professionals room it's in Miss J's room and that ends at 3:15 as well okay um and then most of the school is open until 3:15 and that's when um the academic Wing sort of shuts down except for wavm and then it's mostly Athletics and in the fall the Athletics are you know three quarters of the time they're all out of the building yeah thank you um and then what has what have the students been mostly thinking about as far as the bleachers and hearing that um the new bleachers weren't approved um you know if people are talking about it are they saying like they should really blah blah blah or what like overall commenting um from what I've heard a lot of students are pretty sad that it's not happening because the it's very crammed the student section in the bleachers that we have at the moment and the whole concept of being on the opposite side of our team and of the band it's a little bit kind of not as a fun exper obviously it's always fun but being behind our own team and being able to cheer them on from behind them would definitely be lot more fun and a lot of people they've never experienced what it's like to be on those bleachers so I think we're kind of just like oh I wish we could use those bleachers instead of these ones thank you um and did I did I get everybody tomorrow I did I did yes okay um Harper um two things one thank you for sharing I know that this time of year is really difficult for weather adjusting because it's like you know what layers do I wear do I not it looks like at least now we it's being it's a little bit cooler it's steady cool so we don't so maybe keeping those hoodies close by are probably going to be like the norm now um uh the phone policy I this is interesting feedback I know that we spoken with principal York extensively when when the handbooks were were going through and I I know you weren't there but I wanted to just share with you um principal York heavily advocated the students position to be more self-regulating of you know trying to like you know give the ownership to the students like hey let's you can reasonably or responsibly ABY by you know the policy the school committee at the time really wanted to come down a lot harsher with um access to phones not being in the classroom so I would say just my thought as one member and I see some head shaking that um I think it is a reasonable approach to keep the phones in in the bags if it has if the policy is probably going to change it's not going to be less um more lenient I would say so just want to make sure no one's getting setting themsel up for sadness with that um the Fowler policy is a lot more restrictive um but I think that I'm really really excited that everyone's trying their best and and and working and it's really hard what I think I would worry about for teachers is you know I want the teachers to be teaching you know and and not have to worry about like are they packed up is their phone out you know and checking minute per minute that would be my first thought as a as a you know School commit member coming to mind is the teachers probably don't want to be you know worrying about that kind of stuff as well and it it can probably cause more disruption so um so anyway as your conversations evolve and and um principal York I know that you at some point are going to be reporting back to us with you know an update it would be um maybe you can we can hear how how things might evolve or um tweak as much as possible so okay and I don't know if you had any other thoughts on that the policy or if there was a lot yeah just in my personal opinion I this is probably not popular among my classmates but I think allowing for that last little like thre minute place at the end of class it just it can be confusing I think because the whole concept of just not being able to use your phone in class you can use it in passing period and you can use it during lunch that is very clear and then if you open it up to you can also use it for the last three minutes of school it's just it's gonna I think it'll just end up being a fight between student and teacher and it's maybe not necessarily necessary because they can just wait three more minutes and that is what we're trying to do too is to really help the teachers and you're right because then it it sets it goes down a slippery slope well then it's five minutes well then it's 10 minutes and then we're backtracking it which is really like Natasha said you know this you guys all you know put together the policy that worked for you we were all thinking in terms of making it much more Str um strong much stronger so it will go the other way it won't go back to being yeah I know maybe share that with with the students that they're fortunate right now yeah yeah know and I'm really excited that it's been it sounds like there's just some small adjustments but I think you know to Mary's point it is worthwhile taking back that um there probably would be less flexibility beyond what the current policy is if anything um you know I think the school committee would be wholeheartedly you know behind the teachers and making sure that the teachers don't have to really monitor minutes of the end of the class and stuff of who has their phone out for how long I think that's just yeah I don't want the students and the teachers to feel like they're combating like that's not the relationship we want you to have with your teachers is over that so if we have to be the meanies and be like you know the school committee don't want it then so be it um but and then the other part too I guess we'll um it sounds like the the the locker room situation though that is it's resolved if I'm understanding like there's the option has been okay great so that's there's nothing that needs to be figured out it's it's it's all working out now okay great all right well thank you so much um like I said we do have on the agenda later on we will be talking about bleachers and um and I think it might be helpful for you to hang out if you're able to or just sign on in a few minutes you have to step away but um thank you so much for for joining us this evening yeah thank you for having me thank you Harper thanks Harper okay and um now superintendent hos the floor is yours great thanks everybody um good to be here Harper great job glad to have you here uh my report you've all read it already I'll sort of summarize some of the key Parts Green Meadow School building update they've clearly started blasting this week which is exciting on one way and I think for some people maybe anticlimactic it's not quite the big um Booms that people had anticipated it's a a solid Shake um and they send out emails if you requested to be on that list you can get notified 10 minutes before each blast um the Administration has done a great job of informing the community of when those will start if and when they get cancelled they do occasionally just not they're not able to do it the second time within a given day they communicate that as well um our meetings have continued the building committee meetings there's at least one if not two every week um in addition to the nighttime meetings um with the building committee so there's a lot of communication around the building project um and they colar and mvg as you saw earlier tonight very thorough um very good communicators um so that's been fabulous I'm gonna hold on the two the next two things in the report I'm going to have principal yor speak to the kneas letter and AP um honors and actually and the middle the mayard High School open house for Middle School families that Harper mentioned that that was successful she talk about that as well um and one thing we thought of actually where's Colleen she's like hiding behind not showing her face but she did find something on a list that was a pretty interesting idea that other some schools do not all but I think we should um consider it I would bring it for your you know if you're if the school committee is willing to provide a certificate of recognition to our student Representatives we can decide on exact wording um something to the effect of and recognition of your participation and contribution to the mayard school committee for the 24 25 school year da da da da um because I think it's exciting it's great to have student voice at our meetings and then it's kind of nice I think if I'm the recipient I get this nice certificate that I get to put on my college application packet or whatever I get to frame it put on my wall I don't know what I'm doing love the idea but no I think that's there's actual a lot of process and there's a board and there's you know training and stuff that goes into it so I think I maybe falsely assumed that there was some type of certificate anyway so if there isn't absolutely let's um we could raise the level to make it come from the superintendent and the school committee itself so yes it is a lot is a huge contribution to the community actually so thank you so much for for that I got a wave by the way and nobody else did that was to me okay just letting you all know um so principal York if you want to just update on the ask and the AP and either you or Harper on the openhouse middle school for families feel free well I'm thrilled to let you all know officially from me that the high school received three prestigious honors in the past couple of weeks you've already heard that we were recognized by desie we are now a school of recognition which is a Statewide honor for the excellent performance of our students on last year's mcast uh we had been steadily getting scores that were pretty equal to the state and this year's mcast the last year's freshman and last year's sophomores really moved from needs Improvement to proficient and from provis to Advanced in a way that the state recognized we still have a lot of work to do but it is wonderful everything they measure from um different subgroups doing better attendance is up graduation rate is improved I really feel like we've rebounded from the pandemic and we're really back to school and getting it right now so I'm hoping to report many more mcast triumphs in the upcoming years we received our oh no congratulations that's it sorry thank you we received our official letter of accreditation for the next 10 years from nas so the good news of our report continues with our official accreditation and our um Nas follow-up committees started meeting in May of last year I always like to have one follow-up meeting in the year of the visit and then they will meet regularly and there are three committees uh devoted to our three followup steps one is to keep tightening up our vision of The Graduate number two is to continue working on Curriculum maps so that they stay living breathing documents and that they're tied to the vision of The Graduate and the third is instruction for all trying to make sure that we are narrowing those achievement gaps in every way we possibly can with great instruction in the classroom and that so that was honor number two and now honor number three is uh second year in a row on College board's AP honor role we got silver status this year because out of the class of 24 2024 seniors 61% took an AP out of those students 54% of them got three and above on their examination and 25 of those students those graduating seniors took five APS or more while in high school each one of those factors increases the like hood that a student will go to college persist in college and graduate from college and reduces the cost of college attendance at many schools which accept A3 or higher for credit so the students who took five or more and some of them were AP Scholars with distinction who got three or higher on all the AP exams they took if they they matriculated to a college that takes those credits may have had more than a full semester of credit to start them off that will let them take extra electives go deeper into their curriculum or graduate early all of which saves significant money wow so these are pretty amazing honors we're definitely moving in the right direction but we still have a lot of work to do as you know my work this year is all about instruction in the classroom and really trying to narrow those achievement gaps so that everyone is included when we celebrate next year fantastic thank you so much um I had a couple questions and I'll go around to the school committee um as well after um so the AP I know there's been some offline conversations about like our approach with AP classes and and whatnot do we envision that will be something that we would be able to clarify in in the handbook for the high school as far as the opportunities of when um students can take AP classes um or when so we can make sure it's more equitably known um within the community if it's more nth grade 10th grade or when those recommended classes are starting well we do have it very clear in the program of studies right now but um I think maybe you're referring to an exception to that that was asked for yeah I'm just referring to there's like differences and I think it's just alignment and like in the handbook and the the program of studies I think in some areas so um if we are able to offer a ninth grade AP um and it you know potentially I don't know what that looked like or if that is recommend it would be great to hear about um what that looks like because some schools do and some schools don't um but again I don't know the resources involved in that so it' be something that I think come down to a lot of other factors as well um something I'm glad to um discuss in depth you know with my team and with leadership and perhaps we could prepare a report about the future of AP at a future meeting whether we're foreseeing changes you know I think that the state is really encouraging us to um make more dual enrollment yes question I students I was gonna ask about that as well is the um aside from AP as well I know that there are a lot of high schools that have Partnerships with community colleges um marel and what not they have these like college Pathways that they can do and they you can get credits back so um as your your you're meeting with the leadership team um I would love to hear something about you know maybe that opportunity in particular I'm thinking about students that um maybe are looking that don't you know fit the four-year College you know mold um I from hearing from students who go look at like assabet in particular the votek school the um opportunity is very appealing for them to work towards some type of you know life or you know accreditation that they might be able to get into the job market um in a in a way and I know we'll never meet that standard but if we you know can somehow expand the Pathways in some way that might make you know staying in mannered a little bit more appealing um so that we are able to meet a little bit more of those less um traditional College Bound four-year College Bound students um I I couldn't have said it better myself and then the question becomes how do we do what's best for most when we can't do everything in such a small school yeah and and and that is also yes that is also the challenge is how do we how do we meet the needs of of most and provide the opportunities um and also be cognizant of like School retention student retention as well we do have a meeting planned for the pathways coordinators uh G lebel who's our school to Career coordinator and myself with middle sex Community College oh wonderful in mid November and the discussion will be about students in the pathways earning college credit which as you probably know our Pathways grants pay for yes so it would not be at any cost to the families that that would be fantastic to hear more about we have to figure out some Logistics before I make any announce ments no please keep us updated that sounds very exciting work um thank you and yeah no and also just congratulations to you and the team and everybody just for all the um um things to celebrate that you've outlined I mean it's light the just set it all up it's the students who do the work and achieve this greatness for us thank you um Mary I know that you had some yeah no I just um yeah congratulations on all these great Awards and don't under sell yourself or the teachers because it it takes the the entire group in order to to make this work um and again how do we share all of these incredible um you know um accolades with the general public is I we just don't seem to be able to do that enough so any thoughts that anybody's got I know that we've got an Instagram you know we've got I'm just wondering if the students could put it out there on Instagram it seems to be more prevalent than like Facebook or that but just uh we don't have the beacon anymore I know we've got that mayor Advantage which we can take advantage of but it doesn't have a huge following yet um but any thoughts on and maybe this is maybe it's a challenge to the students to say help us get the word out to you know to the world of all the great things that are going on yeah I mean that could be a great opportunity I agree Mary you know it's maybe it's like a a video or promo like hey this is you know and because a lot of people subscribe to w M and and you get those alerts and you know people to watch the meetings so um yeah maybe you know we could even put it I'm I'm thinking now um the um there not a huge general population but our our February meeting that we have with all the boards the town boards we could have like a short you know if the kids put together a a short video um you know just any opportunity that we've got uh even Springtown wouldn't it be great to have it at Springtown meeting just to have a little video at the beginning um so but we really do we need to start really thinking about how to um how to tell everybody how terrific things things are um so that was one and the um going back to the KN ask so when is our next time meeting with them to to talk about the three areas of improvement do we have a time we submit reports now okay for the next nine years okay until our next site visit okay although um the steering committee and I will occasionally be invited to conferences to check in perfect excellent somewhat the honor System with with copious report writing okay all right terrific and then um lastly we have had various times where we have collaborated with um Community Schools so it it just we just need to make it stick you know we did it with LEL at one point we did it I think I thought we did it with middle sex but we just need to find a way to really make that stick because it has been tried in the past so good good challenge for you thank you yeah and Mary there are like actually I was looking at um yesterday um there's some Community College who actually have links to like again the like Gardener or like marble like to the schools themselves so it's it's really great if we could kind of formalize something Ong those lines but I do agree it's resources and and time and how do we figure out you know how do we have opportunities for for most um with what we have so thank you um Alexis I don't have any questions marrow good I just wanted to say thanks and congratulations on all the accolades this is really fantastic and I was going to basically bring up the same thing as Mary about marketing these things I think that you know having um you know the kids the kids really do a great job at sending stuff out on Instagram um so I think that if we could get some of those those kids to do the same thing for for this kind of stuff I mean there's tons and tons of stuff about you know soccer and football and those types of things like we we should be able to get them to also be super excited about you know marketing their school for this type of stuff um I think definitely the mainor advantage there are a number of other um uh individuals in town that have their own other little kind of news type of um articles that they put out um I think that we could you know really kind of try and see if we can get them on board um you know because a lot of people do read those um and then there are a number of community members that also just post things about um meetings and things that are happening in town and we could if if we just had somebody that would then just send those people um on Facebook or Instagram to be able to then put that out to the to the community I think that that would really help too but great job thank you Hillary um I just love this this was so so much exciting news I really like the bulleted list in the email um in the letter from nas because I feel like that really touches on all the things that make mayard special and I love that half of the list is about um the environment and the culture and being inclusive and the social emotional side and um I feel like it's a great represent representation of what is special um and along the lines of the advertising the school I wonder if um like we could even do a press release to the Boston Globe where they do those different features on schools when they do their rankings and stuff um and maybe spin it like you know you guys said that Maynard was one of the best schools for bang for your buck like if you want to learn more about mayard and um you never know what they'll pick up on a slower news day um but it's just an idea um right I think that is it for and Brian I I did want to Circle back to other parts of your um superintendent report just to about the blasting um a little bit if that's okay U before we move on so um I had some questions about do do we or these are questions that I got from different people in the community but I wanted to clarify so we used to have and I believe we still have at the Green Meadow um air purifiers is that that's correct okay we have them in every room and they changed the filters okay so those are still um just so I can make sure I I operational they're still being in used um all the time as of now and and the filters that are that were being used before I know we had they were um they're the same type of filters that they were like the increase I forget the the type that were being used um so I think you're talking about the filters like MV 11 MV 13 for the HVAC systems at the other buildings oh that's right that's different that's just these are smaller units they're yeah yeah okay but we do have those running and we do change the filters as okay okay uh definitely on top of that okay the questions that I had which I'll I'll forward to you in an email but I just wanted to share just from what what I um had received differently was about um is there uh testing for uh the air quality that's happening um intermittently at some point in the classrooms or in the building uh because I guess there have been parents maybe who have seen um particles that are just kind of getting into the building I don't know I haven't seen that but that is feedback that was shared so um I can talk to Phil about that I mean I haven't seen that when I've walked around right and I don't know if it's been in like when exactly it's happened but um that is some questions that um some maybe we would want to have some answers for just um is about um air quality test in in the building if there's you know is there any type of monitoring through that for that and then also um the kids they go outside for For Recess um how is the space outside where they're at is there air quality hasn't changed oh do you mean in terms of dust yes yes exactly with the particles is there any type of air quality test in the outdoor space that might be again I don't know about this but this is just some questions for people are wondering that just the wind might you know take it a particular day it's fall um and then maybe if there's things that get on their clothes and they bring it inside you know all the things to consider so I hav't heard about that yet I um I haven't seen it but this is this is I think some just some questions that we you know might need to flush out to make sure that everyone's understanding the protocols that are in place um and yeah if they want to email us that would be great we certainly can answer those questions I will forward you a couple of e questions that I received and then maybe if you can include that in your um next time the superintendent report um that might be helpful or however you feel like the best way to communicate that if it's um maybe Karen as well if there's some I don't know if there's some FAQs that are going out to the Green Meadow families in particular um but just to be helpful so that they they understand that like obviously there's there's air quality test this is what's happening or no or whatever that might be um that was it that I had for other than that I think everyone did a great job managing I think it was kind of like a I think some kids were excited when they heard the you know absolutely uh so I think it's just more parent worry obviously um and and I think we're we're in good hands though so thank you so much agree absolutely that okay anybody else have any questions for Brian on any any other aspects of the superintendent report just more for Elizabeth unfortunately haer left I would have loved to have heard her response about the open house but I think she left maybe if Elizabeth could maybe give us a quick oh it was really fun it's all um you know the stations are all set up for the eth graders to try activities at different departments and the um then they hear the jazz band play they talk to a panel of students and then we all sit down for dinner together and really start to get to know each other it's one of my favorite events of the year right after mayard Fest which I think is my favorite great so grateful that it's now that it's happening in October it's um yeah really good good time of the year in the past we've done it much too late so the fact that we've um you know put it earlier in the school year is terrific so thank you and really all credit goes to I mean a ton of helpers but miss drov has pushed and worked so hard to create these events for our eighth graders that's that's amazing really it's very difficult to get up and running in a school year and then start to have promotional events right away but she manages it somehow excellent yeah thank you um you know actually Mary you reminded me on along those lines so I just wanted to share some feedback that I've heard from kids about um visiting aset so um I know that they the eighth graders this week also had the chance to go visit asit and um the feedback that I've heard from a couple of kids is um and of course an eighth grade um language but is um it's they have free busing home after sports sports are free it is cool because they do more more Hands-On projects so I just took a couple of notes from things that I've heard from different kids that had you know had the opportunity to go they also you know did go to the eighth grade you know uh one and and I say this um in the sense that there's such an inequity I feel that we are mayard are paying for that we can't even have um free buses for our own District let alone busing in after bus that goes to bring people home um or free sports so um you know I think we're as we talk about you know budgeting and planning um I think this is something that we need to really as a school committee and Brian as well figure out how do we maybe advocate in some way to I don't know if it's with um Jamie and Kate our Representatives but along with what's later on on the agenda about am enrollment um expanding and you know coupled with the fact that now it looks like we're not as a town deciding to really invest much more in our Athletic program or Alumni field um I really worry about student retention as a whole because um these are all the things that people take into consideration you know cost um you know value into different things when they think of where their kids are going so I just wanted to share feedback because that was the other aspect um that you know kids are able to go to Asen this is what they're told when they're there like hey you know you can come you can play any sports you don't have to try out you can you know it's just you know they're really laying on the marketing very thick and to the kids and um and so how do we how do we counter that in in those particular ways I don't I don't know what we can do but that is just what I struggle with Hillary yeah I was thinking too um after the town meeting in the spring when aset asked for I don't remember what it was called but basically a savings account for Capital Improvement things um a lot of people in town have asked me about why the school committee didn't vote for it and when I explained about how there's this discrepancy between how their funding works and how our funding works and how when they need something they ask for it and they get it and we need it we ask for it we don't get it and then how that plays out um a lot of people in the town that were saying to me like why doesn't anybody know this and um so I wonder if that's something we need to share just with the community as a whole so when they're when they um are comparing they know that it's the town funding and the difference in that structure and everything because if people are just thinking you know we're not choosing to do the things that asid's choosing to do and they it might help for them to understand that we don't get to choose how much money we get the way aset does yeah I mean I don't want to take up too much time on this issue I just was thinking more and I agree there needs to be a deeper conversation it might be more for the quad board as well um because you know there's only so much we can do as we're not you know there's a separate school committee member who Liaisons from mayard to asit um but it was just more in the context that we put all this work and and Liz and team you know to really promote mayard and then the things that we are are being compared to are things that are out of our control that we can't change um because we can't afford to but apparently we're paying for it elsewhere to happen um which feels a little like I don't know how you even solve for that so anyway just something that I think we need to brainstorm on a little bit more um as well yeah it's definitely bigger than us we definitely have to bring in Kate and uh Jamie on this because it's the inequity is so it's becoming so dramatic you know between amsa as we're talking about you know wanting to add students and the money that comes out and nothing against these different you know entities I mean we we collaborate with asit it's just it's inequitable it is absolutely inequitable and we're our kids that stay here are the ones that um that suffer for it so we need to you know get the big guns going because it's not working even with that quad Board needs to be a bigger conversation so yeah and and aset is must so lucky that they're getting their athletic director as well this year too on top of that trainer yeah yeah they trainer yes must be nice um so all right I'll I'll keep my bitter thoughts from myself for now but I think uh Brian is there anything else in your superintendent report I think we touched on everything I think we covered it okay so um the alumni bleacher project update um everyone we know bleacher didn't pass so I think what um we as a school committee need to really discuss is um the what everyone's feeling the priority is I I I think it would be demoing what we have now and um I just wanted to make sure we have alignment um so we can give you know Brian Direction um clearly from everybody on you know what I mean this is um absent funding so this is just like we don't have any funding but what ideally and we'll have our our quad board meeting as well so I I I don't think this is something that we as a school school department would be assuming that we would need to fund I mean it was a town vote not to fund the project um which the demo was part of so I think it's a town decision to figure out how do we then fund the aspects to um to demo what we have so just real quick oh yeah sorry Mary yeah just a quick question aren't we better off leaving them up because they're fenced in now so they're safe and don't we won't we lose the opportunity of having wavm um use the Press Box if we demo or it'll be additional costs because then we have to create um a Mobile Press Box I guess that's the kind of conversation we need to have yeah yeah that's what yeah um so um my thought as one person is I think that they are more of a risk even though they're fenced in I think there's their a liability um you know people have gotten hurt on them and I think the my I woulded to tear them down last year you know and um because I think um they're remin they're just a reminder of inaction um and that we're not able to really do much but I would have more peace of mind knowing that they at least the that the safety aspect is you know is not we're not controlling that we can't control the bleachers being created but we can control mitigating the risk of the safety and technically I don't feel comfortable even with our staff going up to the Press Box um and at that point as well but I don't know how everyone else feels I don't know marrow I'll kind of go around oh Brian sorry I see you have your your hand raised I don't know what you're yeah I can just I have a meeting set up with Mike basil and Mike Arian next week to talk about options if they um aren't accessible just so we can have a little more information but right so so maybe the cost of demoing which I think we sort of know and the cost of creating a Mobile Press Box so that it doesn't hurt that maybe those maybe those dollar amounts are already available but just so we can have that conversation yeah I think there's that's well I want to make sure first if everyone is an agreement that you know aside from the wavm consideration just the the the do does everyone feel that the the bleachers should be demoed uh as a priority um assuming we can secure funding someplace um or does anyone feel that we should leave it um marrow I don't know what your thoughts were um I think it depends on on you know what what happens with wavm uh Press Box um I think you know depending on if we can get a you know some sort of rental option um and how much that is and what that means for the electricity um all of that stuff um you know maybe we bring in the the um the inspector and see you know is is it okay for them to be using to go up no we already did that we already asked we already asked if they can get like a a um an exception to just for access to that was okay and so he says no yes he previously said no so right now we're at our own RIS by by doing that yeah we did ask that before all right so so then is there a way that we could have if we do tear them down the the bleachers and leave the Press Box is there a way that we can create access to the Press Box or is it attached and so we can't it's it was all coming down it it'll be like an all or nothing I think Brian I I think that's how we've talked about it before it's just figuring out where we reroute electrical stuff because they have electrical that goes into the Press Box right and so without a Press Box we'll need figure that part out I think as well um like how to I anyway I just want to I think that's where I've heard the conversations but sounds like more to come when he meets but yeah so I think you know depending on the answers about that will depend on um you know kind of where I where I'm at I I would love for them to be able to still have that option to use the Press Box um but if it's not not if they're not able to then you know yes we should tear it down um so I guess just to clarify are you thinking that there would be a scenario that you would want to keep them up if that means the Press Box is because I think the Press Box would be demoed um so there would be no press box but I don't know about the other like alternative options for w it would be no Press Box if we demo um so what is that like with that in mind like it could maybe be rental I'm not sure but just the bleachers themselves demoing them right yeah now I understand understand that um yeah I I guess I'm just kind of torn because you know I'd like them to to still be able to have that um so if I can so Chris Huntress had said that they have had projects before where they did have a mobile granted it was only supposed to be interim but they did have a Mobile Press Box I forget how how we boarded it is that not an option if we take down what we've got um I think we probably need that would be a funding conversation so I guess question is how much is that GNA cost you know the thing that they use at the softball games it's like the big platform up in the air like is that a Mobile Press Box or is that something different that's a parent um device it's a camera that records that goes like on the field you mean or no no it's like students are up on it at the end of the field like they they set it up and climb up it and sit on there during the softball games to record [Music] um I have no idea I've never seen that before okay I sort of figured that was like a Mobile Press Box and that's what they would use if we tore down the bleachers I've seen them they use like a platform before if that's what you're yeah it's like a big platform that's up high yeah I think that's a um like we don't have that's not what we would have an extra cost like an extra like pricing that out so maybe we don't already have it for softball and other sports no I don't think we have anything like that I'm not sure that I've I don't know maybe Mike Mike can clarify what we have but I don't know of anything that we SE with that um I think I kind of feel the opposite of Maro in that I I don't particularly feel about taking the bleachers down right now um if they're protect if people are like if people aren't going to get hurt because their F off but I don't like people going up there to use the Press Box if the if it's not safe um so I sort of feel the opposite where I don't really care about taking down a Bach right now because I think to some extent let people see what they look like um but I don't want people at risk by climbing up there for wavm or for the games but as long as they're erected they would potentially be used for for that so I think that would be a why why would they NE like why can't we like who how are they getting up there right now if there's a fence because they have they have access like limited staff have access to it a door what right we have we have a door like we intentionally have a gate on the fence so that wavm can access it for their purposes only no no body else can go in or out so it's that's what I'm saying like we could stop that if it's not safe you know yes right I think that's what what he was going to meet because it's equipment like there's the equipment and considerations with all of that like not using the the Press Box uh that would need to be figured out I get that I just I get my con I have um more significant concern with people using the Press Box currently than I do with bleachers that are fenced off and not being used okay sounds Alex yeah it sounds like more info too Alexis what are your thoughts I'm sort of torn um you know I sort of want the bleachers gone um because they're an eyesore and I want people to see guess what you know this is what it looks like without anything this is what the world's going to be now um and no money to tear them down yeah right right this is what we would be asking for that the quad board Like A Conversation Piece but I but before we go in and ask I want to make sure that we are of the position that we want to pursue that as a need that we we do that we can't obviously do it ourselves this is where we need some alignment as a as a board that um you know bleachers come down we don't need to rent the fence anymore we don't need to um we won't have a press box we might be able to somewhere I don't know I think any of those ad hoc alternatives for wavm a platform or whatever would have to be a secondary consideration um we' probably have to put an RFP out for demoing because I'm guessing it could be 50 plus 50 plus thousand doll so um but before we go through all that we need to make sure we that's what we want to pursue because it's not going to it's it'll take time and bidding for that um and I I'll let you finish sorry Alexis I didn't want to cut you off but I just wanted to clarify um I mean my concern is we've told everybody that the bleachers and that entire area that structure is completely unsafe and nobody should be on it whether they're in the bleachers or the Press Box and if that's what we've told people that it is completely unsafe I'm not comfortable sending students and staff into a space where we've told the town nobody should be um and so from that perspective and I know we'd have to come up with solutions for games and for wavm but I feel as though if that's what we're telling everybody then we can't be doing it ourselves right you know it's not like monkey see monkey not do I we can't we can't be allowing that to happen ah but if that's the only it's all or nothing I think at this point it's all or nothing if that's the only access to like turning on the lights or you know all that kind of stuff somebody has to go up there no that's where they would have to make like electrical they would have to move the electrical that be part of the demo process is figuring like you know rerouting um whatever is coming through there um so if it's access to plugin equipment or whatever you know that's part of that electrician would have to be that's why with RFP would come out right they come out look at the this is what you need I definitely think we should stop paying for rented bleachers right because if the town doesn't want to pay for bleachers let's not pay for bleachers I do I care I would prefer to pay for an alternative for wavm in the student programming than I care about paying for community members to sit in bleachers that they don't want to pay for I'm totally with you y I think also it gives a false perception that those are okay and they're not like they're not actually an option so it is at this point they were only meant to be interim until the project started but now that we know that that's not happening um so does it sound like I just want to make sure the takeaways I'm hearing the majority of folks um that are access to the wavm no one's really comfortable with that we the bleachers are not access so we we want to Brian um kind of unwind that that process of utilizing the the Press Box up there um and so work with Mike I guess to figure out how to that part and then once that is solved for that means nobody would be using it are we then comfortable then saying let's you know proceed with demoing um at that point um and then while SE separately I guess explore and then also no rental so were we saying like no rental after football season right what's our contract for the rentals like when have we rented them through think it's just the season right Brian is it like so after I can confirm with Mike it's either season by season um yeah we'll go through the fall season which takes us through the Thanksgiving game yeah I think whenever the the contract is up we're done okay so then Brian just a takeaways sounds like you know whatever we've contractually obligated to pay for the bleachers we would not want to extend that um so if it's just this season um then um no bleacher rental after this season which would mean no fence rental as well um and maybe we can think about um I think the money wait a minute the fence and the bleachers are two separate things because the fence you don't want to take the fence down yet cuz that's what surrounds the bleachers well I mean I mean after the demo sorry after after the demo yeah yeah so there's demo in between I'm sorry I'll meet with Mike and Mike okay and then I'll be able to provide more answers to this discussion lots of good questions I just don't happen to know all the answers about them yeah no no no I just alternatives for the Press Box absolutely rental yep and I I think the the other piece is that and it came up at at town meeting the other night is that we are most likely going to be looking for an operating override and so for us to be paying for bleacher or for playing paying for the the you know the bleachers and um you know and all of that we can't afford it we just can't afford it anymore so um we we need to focus on what's most important so yeah I feel like whatever we have to pay to rent an alternative to the Press Box can be included in the operational override and stressed to the residents you didn't want to pay for bleachers so now we're paying for this because it's part of the programming we can yeah we can figure all that out and um and and there's also just to clarify as well because I've gotten a lot of questions about the bleacher project about fundraising and what you know why we not fundraise and and what so just for general public awareness um mayard Public Schools is not a 503c so directly we cannot do fundraising the school committee cannot do fundraising however if any member of the public would love to step forward and create um a 503c that wants to begin fundraising for um collecting I don't think you're going to get anyone on the school committee the school department to object to that type of initiative um I know that there's boosters that are out there and there's other clubs but um they they have their own chart of what they can collect for um what they've claimed and um I have heard just um antidot that none are really willing to take on that larger you know changing their their their Charter uh for their program to to this so I just wanted to clarify that however separately um Brian and way um and Wayne and Mike ARA have explored grant opportunities as much as we were able to the CPC that was a huge effort to try to get Grant opportunity from there that did not come through um there was a grant opportunity from um oh not Verizon oh T-Mobile about Friday Night Lights there was work that was put into submitt application there um our high school was not chosen there was an application for BJs that was giving out some small in um projects for schools we did not get chosen for that there was um there I have looked into the NFL they do uh grants as well for um school projects um there are certain Target communities that you need to be part of and Maynard isn't isn't one of those Target community that is eligible um for the New England Patriots so they have different teams they have different Target communities within there and part of the New England Patriots would be um is we we're not part of their that Target group it's more of the urban communities that would be eligible for projects that they can do so if anybody else is aware of anything else um please forward over we've tried but we're not grant writers and but we have still tried to find funding opportunities to to um supplement what we can do um and thinking about the bleacher rental Brian uh I know that we had um at the annual town meeting in the spring um funds that were dedicated I think it was only to rental so we might need to maybe at the next Spring Town Meeting um maybe amend the wording so if it's for like wavm rentals or whatever whatever not using on rental bleacher rentals maybe we expand it for you know whatever need we reassess what that need might be whatever the balance is for that um okay to consider and um another idea just for the school committee that I had thought of um is you know we could potentially explore um creating um a stabilization or um revolving account specifically for the project and you know maybe we ask that free cash every town meeting gets put a little bit in there you know and that maybe you know that could be you know I don't know after a year or whatever that can some amount offset whatever we need to bond for so I mean like there's you know it's make we need to see progress um and that's kind of some things that I've been thinking about but I don't know how um how that all transes first I want to make sure we're aligned with what we want to prioritize at this point so it sounds like um no access to the Press Box and figuring that part out and then demoing um that and we can talk at the quad board about what that funding need would be to do that anybody else have any thoughts or questions on that no all righty wonderful now moving on thank you everybody um also just everybody thank you for all the hard work I know this was a lot of years of discussions and um and Brian you and the team and and Wayne and everybody and if I if I can I I'll probably get hit by eggs tomorrow but there's an awful lot of Monday Monday morning quarterbacks out there saying you know we should have done this we should have done that it's like where were you when we were you know going through this process it's very easy after the fact so yeah just uh very very discouraging but anyway I think some of those folks would be great candidates for creating a fundraising committee and fixing the problem themselves it would yeah Colleen just a time check we're 35 minutes over yeah thank thank you okay all right now so now we're moving on to the um next item on the agenda is the FY 25 uh budget um the only thing we really need to do here is really just allocate that 76,000 that um was was um additional money that was funded to Manor education and um and move it to the cost center 4,000 which relates to the facilities plant facilities and maintenance um Wayne I just want to confirm I see that you're on I just want to confirm that you are still good with that that sounds like the best approach still we have no questions concerns regarding that yes if they think that it should go to operate excuse me our operating budget as opposed to uh in the past they would keep it at at their level and it is kind of like a capital Grant if you will that we tap into if they don't want to do that then because you know um they usually once the operating budget is set there's not any addition but it can be done I think this is a little bit different because it it went into our general fund and I I I know that when we talked about it in our budget subcommittee meeting with uh um Jeff we had originally thought maybe it can go into our our facilities revolve they said it couldn't it would just go into the general operating so then we said okay in that case we'll put it into the cost center so they got reassurances that it would be spent on you know maintenance expenses and whatnot so that um which is I think what the select board was wanting to make sure it didn't get um I think they're mixing apples and oranges they're trying to avoid what happened um before with uh the money that they gave us we put in a circuit breaker and they had to move it back out what I'm saying is they keep it at their level it's just like uh they approve some type of capital like all the other Capital Money they've given us they keep at their level and I put on the appropriate account number so that it gets the money gets charged to that account as opposed to trying to add it to the oper op project it's already been it's already been approved that way though at town meeting well it it went to manard education like it wasn't like a like C free cash right that would be kind of like it gets its own Line This was just added to the mayard education operating um I think that was the challenge is how do we yeah I think what I suggest would have been a cleaner solution uh than trying to add it to operating budget but it sound like it's already done if they've already voted it to the um the school's operating budget then it's a done deal yeah they did they added it to the original allocation so it was a total hold on let me look at the number that they added sorry no while you're doing that isn't aren't we better off having it as part of the operating budget because then it becomes part of our base for next year for the 2 and a half% increase well I don't think they want that so I'm sure they'll remind us that that amount is um that was a given if it goes into that then no I think that was the worry is that it is going to come in as general operating and that we shouldn't assume to build that in in subsequent years but the reassurance that's what they did at at the town meeting then isn't it on them there's no other way to give us the we needed $76,000 and it was only coming it wasn't coming through through free cash this is the only way for us to get the money that we need need to towards that second HVAC and so this was how I guess a compromise is okay they will they supported the effort as long as they we they knew we weren't going to be you know using it towards other operating expenses um or counting on it in subsequent years and so this is I guess I don't know if I'm representing it wrong but this is kind of the way that we we got the support to Greg's recommendation and he was able to have the select Board sign off on it um so I again this is this is all I'm just relaying the messenger so at this point I look at it as just money that we've gotten just like we normally do at our budget it goes in our operating and we just allocate it and um into the budget for the cost line however we'll figure out next year we got a lot of work on that that front anyway um so does that sound okay still Wayne I don't disagree but I don't I don't know they already voted on it that way so if I could just get a copy of the the vote yeah allocating because I would feel more comfortable because you know things in the town don't trickle down sometimes and I'd like to absolutely absolutely it's actually in the it was in the warrant let me um and it has the total amount like it added um um with that line um so I'll send that to you afterwards Wayne just to like with the 76,000 they added it wasn't just us like they added into their different you know um General um general fund as well okay we have to do we have to vote on it then yeah yeah we're just going to do so I I sent an email afterward just uh clarifying that we're just so I if everyone okay with that still or under any other questions I'm just going to go ahead and make a motion that we um allocate the additional $76,000 approved at special town meeting um in October 2024 to cost center 4,000 for plan operations and maintenance for fy2 yeah okay yep for fy2 Budget all right Mary seconds any other discussion okay Hillary yes Alexis yes Maro yes Mary yes Natasha yes all right Wayne I will send over um the warrant that shows what was um presented at town meeting and um so you have that in your pocket as well okay thank you so much for that then the money is available immediately since they voted on it exactly that's exact that's all we that's why I wanted want us to get it allocated so that we can you know spend it wherever we need so they voted at town it's in our operating budget now we've allocated to maintenance and so that's where the money is for um once once you up update that information okay thank you oh thank you um Al righty then now we're moving on to the Charter Amendment request for amsa I know Brian you had shared um a lot of information and I'll just kind of pivot to you to just kind of speak on this a little bit more yeah there's just I think there's concern amongst several of the towns that have students attend ampsa Hudson Marboro mayard um when you look at their statistics of what who they accept it's so we look at the state average then we look at what maor numbers are and then we look at what amsa numbers are so without going through all the sheets that are in the the folder just high level categories would be the percentage of el students um for amsa is significantly lower than it is in mayard which may in fact be lower than the state just because the state includes big cities um same same numbers if you will in terms of a lower percentage exist for uh students with disabilities for economically disadvantaged so what does that really mean mean that the kids that we retain are the most expensive to educate and they're taking if you will um they're cherry-picking so that's the concern they're not what they're asking for is not a huge number um I think it's 36 students they're at N9 n something um but every student at this point matters back in the day one or two students really didn't have such a significant impact we they I think we have 74 students attending Charter Schools or maybe 74 attending ampsa um and it's about a million five a million and a half dollars it Dro that goes to them little bit but not like I think we're g it's a temporary like La I think they for the budget estimates it looked like it went a little bit down maybe like 100 right but I think the bigger concern is what Mary mentioned that the type of student that they're accepting versus not accepting and how that works um it but is it that they're accepting or because it it they mentioned something about that they do a lottery so I don't think it's that they're accepting I think that they accept without knowing through the lottery I think that historically amsa has tried to counsel kids out that have special needs but they got in trouble so they know that they're not supposed to and they don't necessarily anymore um but that doesn't necessarily carry out like there's counseling kids out and then there's like truly welcoming I just look at the numbers so I I don't know behind the scenes how that happens just looking at the numbers that's what I can report to you to like a a child that isn't doing well in school probably thinks they're not cut out for math advanc math and science school and then they don't apply so I don't know that it's that they're not accepting so much as they're not encouraging and but the outcome is the same in terms of the cost like we have the more expensive kids right so what wait I just want to make sure Maro you get to finish your your point well basically that's what I was saying was that it's more it's not that they're not accepting them it's that those types of of students aren't going or aren't trying to go to amsa and so because they don't get the lottery or put their name in the lottery then they obviously aren't picked to go to amsa and so it's not I think it's more not the fact that they aren't accepting those students is it's more that those students aren't trying to go there and so we end up not stuck but like we we end up having to make sure that we are doing the whole all the children where whereas Ansa really only has you know a much smaller percentage of those types of students that we that they have to end up paying for um but who who actually is making this determination a yes or a no on whether or not their amendment is GNA go through the Board of Education okay so are we able to send a letter to them and say AB Ely not you can do all for that yeah this is the this is the public comment portion which is why I brought it to your attention can can you remind when the deadlines that that's where I I kept like I got lost on when the public comments period was and I thought there was something I read somewhere and there was a lot of documents I think it's December 13th December 13th yeah got there was was there also like a super like a separate like they were they solicited the school committee or the superintendent again to respond which I thought was SE I don't know if that was separate um so December 13th is what you you said y okay um so just as a um this is gonna we're gonna I'm gonna have I spoke with Jeff a little bit about this yesterday in our leadership meeting so he's aware um and so I think there's going to be appetite for um other board feedback back on it so maybe fincom or the selectboard as well to weigh in so I don't think we we as a as a school committee we would have to go it on our own I think um but I think Brian there are also other school committees um maybe Hudson um who yeah I can talk with Brian Brian rean the superintendent of Hudson we've played phone tag a little or a email tag today got it so I'll have a little more information from him next week yeah his I saw your note um Natasha and so I I checked their their minutes and his comment was the contrast is pretty stock so they're pretty as far as you know what what's happening so um I think tomorrow I I think there's a couple of things so it's not maybe an all or none just to make sure I so that yes they have the lottery I think to Hillary's Point um I think some they have subtly counseled maybe sometimes not so subtly counseled out um and I think also um when there's no clearly no um marketing towards like you know we we teach differently that are like like aset alternatively right is that we teach more Hands-On and you know which might you know um be more uh you know suitable for certain you know certain type of Learners um as amsa does does not do that and there are there is a particular formula that I I haven't had a chance this week to look at but talks about like there there's a cap um as well that you have to hit um or not mayard the only time I know at one point mayard because our our status was not great um we were exempt from the cap so we were more students were able to go to amsa um we've then it's like I think it's like the top 10 or the the lowest performing 10 districts or something to that effect of depending on what your score is we're we're not in that category anymore but I want to go back to make sure and see like what how much we add these additional room like how many kids what does that cap look like for us and I don't know if maybe part of the conversation should be if they're talking about amending their Charter um maybe we should look at their Charter as a whole and maybe advocate for other parts of the charter to be um you know considered for amending um that you know like I look at what whether it's the how they get a SAS or whatever that might be you know I don't know I know not all charters are the same so you know is there language in other charters for other um charter schools that maybe we might want to you know see if we can have includ I don't know I'm just kind of you know thinking out loud for some of the the aspects and um Heather I know that I sent you and and Wayne just some information about thank you for for joining about that those enrollment concerns um that we have so Brian do you have or Heather do you have some like dat main specific data about um what and again I don't want to not not to personalize it but just on a high level like what our numbers what our numbers are Manor for like the high needs and um an e like those population and then and then what that comparative is it's in the folder but I can tell you okay sorry I'm maybe I missed that one sorry that's all right I mean like English language learners for example the 2023 data has manard at 7% and it has 1.4 for economically disadvantaged it has mannered at 27.8 the state average is 42 and amps is 16 right and it's similar for students with disabilities mayor's at 19.1 the state's at 19.4 so we finally got a little bit below that um and amps is at 6.8 so you can see the numbers are not very close I know what I put in there is a it didn't copy well no no no that's what I was trying to look at I think the one yeah you have to open it and then the yeah see this is where Mary she has like the notebook she prints everything fashion she is um so in thinking about that and you know I don't know if there's a strategy to even think like hey if we want to tie it like to numbers like for reimbursement or ask about that you know like if we're having to support more High needs in El students and they don't you know I maybe that's something Mary we could talk to Jamie on you know like why isn't that a factor in our Charter School reimbursement you know um because you know our net School spending will continue to be higher if that's the case for per student so okay yeah and just um it so it sounds like so Hudson obviously is on this we're going to be on this how about Clinton and Malboro I mean if we could get all four of us collectively I don't know Haven don't know about Clinton marble I think three or four I think one wasn't they didn't have the appetite right now okay and I forget if it was maror or Clinton so I don't want to yeah I think marbor um got capped they hit a cap recently because and so they I think are kind of like they won't it wouldn't impact them this oh so it's G to impact the other three of us then yeah before last year maror wasn't allowed to S anybody new yeah it's it changes period like every year depends on like their enrollment and some other they they cap out pretty they hit that cap um that the state has pretty pretty regularly um because also their students because they're in marel and amsa is in marel like they don't have to pay transportation for their students they fall under like a different set of rules so that it is more appealing for Manor I mean marble students to um to go there so I guess I guess my concern then is that 36 divided by three communities we could be looking at additional 12 students yeah we can't do that we can't do that so anyway okay yeah yeah and that's about like 15,000 a student right uh on top of what we're paying extra here for this the student so um so next steps Mary I'd like to hear what what Heather was gonna say oh sorry no it was kind of upet already I was just going to say that when I was reading the article that was shared it looked like Marell was capped out at 50 and so I think the big concern was is how it was going to impact the other three towns which really was what was being said while my hand was raided so I'm like oh I don't have to repeat myself sorry we were all thinking the same thing yeah we were um so thinking about next steps um Brian you'll Circle back to superintendence and see you I'll by midweek next week or in my memo I should have more information next week for you after talking with Heather and talking with other superintendents y okay and then um I know we're gonna uh Mary I did I did ask Jeff to put it on our budget subcommittee meeting on the 23rd on that um so we'll maybe have an opportunity there to share more information um and so the next school committee meeting on the 24th maybe we should plan on um just having it on the agenda again just talk about strategy and by then we maybe can reach out to Jamie and Kate and um between that and the the assabet um thing I think that's a lot maybe we can see about them coming to one of our meetings absolutely in the near future as well once we kind of raise some concerns so um anybody are we actually gonna have to vote on something on this if we want to provide like a sign on to a letter um you know advocating yes we would want to I think it's a more about um you know how how are we doing that with with other groups and um and the timeline looks like we have until early December it sounds like to to get to get all that done okay so strategizing so I guess I'll just keep it on the agenda until Mary if I could um so knowing how busy Kate and Jamie are in December 13th is right around the corner actually should we ask them for maybe the not the next meeting but maybe the the maybe two meetings away to come and we'd have enough time to plan between now and then yeah so you're thinking like in November um if we want them to help at all I think sooner versus later yeah yeah let me put that as a takeaway um then just to because I can reach out to them tomorrow if you can you do that in just CC me um as and you know maybe just leave it maybe look at our schedule and see what dates and just proposed like not the next meeting but maybe after say see what would work for them um and then maybe we can just um meet a little bit give them a you know preliminary offline just a couple of things so that they can have information to share with us um prepared when they meet good great Mary thank you um anything else on this at this moment okay so we'll keep it on our agenda until um for discussion then all right um moving on to the next item on the agenda the 40b project School recommendation um Mary thank you very much I know that you did a lot of work putting something together for us in the folder um one thing I just wanted to to say and I started adding a note but then I I don't know if it actually made any sense um without context um the uh Jeff and the select board I guess they want to make sure that the recommendations that we're providing aren't saying that we you know we don't want growth or that we're opposed to growth at all it is more of the accelerated pace of growth that this particular development would impact the school um without you know like um and we did we did you know uh Brian and I when we spoke with him um we did convey that you know like adding more than two like two students in a Grade you know um we do have school choice open but beyond that it can get really tight because then you're talking about 20 um you know 20 plus kids in a classroom um so I just wanted to kind of convey that part is that the impact on Transportation staff resources um but not saying we would be opposed to growth because that's going to happen anyway it's just maybe the impact of significant growth at once and knowing that we can't fund right now we're already short um so I don't know Mary if you want to speak to what you yeah so do you just want me to add something along those lines that we're not opposed because yeah even in my personal one I I wrote not opposed to you know future growth so do we want to just add something like that I was thinking adding something about like the rate of growth is the really the larger concern of you know with this project because it's so large um and that is um and not being able to respond with staffing needs um budgetary concerns all of that but I think it's more the rate of growth that would be right let me let me do some adjusting and then I'll send it off to you guys for your thoughts yeah but I want to make sure that everyone else so um looking in the margins uh tomorrow looks like you had some stuff about how many kids currently enrolled yeah I was just wondering about the you know the comparative of how many apartments Hallstead has compared to how many apartments this will have is this does this one have more 40b which means maybe more children um that that kind of stuff and whether or not we could potentially try and figure out how many students we would actually be getting um and you know whether or not that would help us um you know by comparing comparing in this so okay so yeah so when I went to meet with Hallstead um to get their numbers to get you know the different parameters of the units in that they were pretty protective about the information understandably so not sure if we're going to get anything more and plus it's it's a little um you know Trent with with them you know as far as um people moving in and moving out right right um um question Brian you and Colleen I know that the estimates that we get for um enrollment trends that we have forecasting are not really aligned with what we were seeing um can we have them like ask them what data that you're using and like re like give them like look this is what we're we're seeing this like why are you guys off like what are they using because clearly there's like um I don't know it's reliable data and I would love to have data from them that is more reflective of what's actually but it seems like every year they're off um so when I reach out to them this year I can mention that okay I don't know what formula they have a set formula they use I don't know yeah because Jeff asked that in the selectboard and we're going to get asked that question you know as well is about our enrollment Trends but it's hard because we do have it but I don't want to provide it because what we show as actuals is totally different than what we're they're projecting so it feels like something's off in their formula um we had the same problem with the high school yeah so yeah I I don't know just and I know some of it's co impact but I think it's been it's a lot of years that they're off we're gaining back from covid though right and they show us losing like over the years like they're complet they don't even show growth at all they show losing and we're showing growth so it's like total different direction which I am wondering you know and which I I'm I'm grateful that we're seeing different but it's hard to rely on their data for any type of actual use yeah we can reach out to them and see what they use and if they can adjust or if they can't what they're using the they getting yeah um yeah that would be helpful to start off like what what how are they doing that okay great um and then um so are we comfortable approving what like I I really honestly would F be fine approving what we have and then giving Mary the authority to adjust um or I'd rather I'd rather just send it to you guys can I just yeah we we need to send it to them tomorrow that's right okay so that's why you know um I I think you have a I'm looking at what you put together I think you have a good grasp on on what needs to happen um but I don't I don't think we have a lot of time for a lot of back and forth unfortunately so that's my my was my thought process is and so I should send this directly to the select board then if um yeah I I have a yeah I'll give you the emails Jeff uh Greg I think had provided so I'll I'll send it you um because we would want to send it to Greg's on vacation this week but um he had um Bill ner and there was somebody else um as well who's consolidating all the stuff for the select board and the select board will be um okay yeah putting their final so I'll send that to you um tonight so you can have that and then tomorrow um you can maybe send it in NCC um great um so is everyone um have any questions on what was put together and what Mary's any other thoughts to include or not include um Alexis anything for you um I was just wondering if there was any more data that we could put in here not just about Green Meadow because it's really it's heavily skewed towards Green Meadow which I completely understand since we're building a brand new building um and using you know data um as to what we need for that new building but any type of influx would also impact Fowler and the high school as well um and so I'm wondering if we just need to add something about where we are enrollment wise with those schools and the impact that it could also potentially have um I mean I know there's a bullet in there about sizable increase in students in any grade level um will result in you know additional classes Staffing that whole thing however you get very specific with um kindergarten through third grade and I'm wondering if there are any specifics um maybe um I wonder we we can look at um just thinking out loud what we approved for school choice like because that's kind of looking at that like what is available for the class each year like how many students we could accommodate for each grade and so Mary I don't know if that would be just say generally this is the amount like you know we are able to without increasing staff right um these you know fy2 were able we're able to add this much which is in line proportionately what we're usually average able to do beyond that it would like trigger additional St you know additional staff that maybe I don't know if that might be a good reference data because we approve that every year um right but it varies year um grade to grade to grade so I'm not GNA like right you know I don't think you need to put I think yeah you can maybe look at what we did for this year right and just say this year for fi25 this is what we you know Based on data this is what we felt we could accept without having to increase but anything beyond that would require the hiring of additional staff and support yes and I can even do it by school because I know it varies y yeah yeah and that has high school as well in there as well so um and the only other thing uh anything else Alexis no that was really the only thing you think that you think it' be okay with that just looking at that as a data reference okay yeah I know that there's a lot of work that goes into that with the leadership team to figure that out so I figure that maybe is better than our thank you Colleen yeah she just sent it than you saves me from that damn Google Google Drive take me three hours to find it uh Maro anything for you on no I I don't have anything more and I'm perfectly fine with you know approving and having Mary make any changes to send it along uh Hillary anything um I'm good um what Mary has okay and any changes okay um and yeah and then the only thing was yeah um Mary the the transportation fees I know you caught that in that that last bullet right um um yeah I think it would be yeah adding one or more buses um would is would be minimally required because it would be I think that's what happens right now currently at like deer um deer Ron like they have almost have to have a dedicated for the amount of kids that they have there so I mean there are enough problems right now with the buses and too many students yeah so um do we have um Colleen a number like an estimate of what one I can get that to Mary tomorrow okay because we would need a fifth bus yeah yeah so like just an estimate like as of FY 25 adding one bus you know for two runs it might might be what that cost would be um so that would be an increase as well great and I think that's it so Mary I I have that that's I think you've captured everything well um so if everyone's okay everybody the final but yeah but I will to them before I'll just go ahead and um yeah I'll go ahead and make a motion that we approve the um proposed um recommendation provided by Mary for the 40b project with edits and authorize Mary to amend um as suggested on behalf of the school committee second okay any further discussion all right roll call Mary yes Alexis yes marrow yes Hillary yes Natasha yes all right Mary wonderful thank you I'll get you those emails and um and then you'll be good you can send that tomorrow whenever you whenever you have a chance um all right now oh is this a chair report I just actually closed my agenda damn um yes here we go okay uh chair report the we talked enough about special town meeting um question about meeting our meetings are we looking to keep them remote or does anyone have appetite to go back hybrid um I just wanted to kind of it out there I've received questions from some folks and I just wanted to make sure it wasn't I think the elements of illness kind of have passed but I don't think that's been the only reason why we've done it I just want to make sure if there are any concerns with um considering hybrid at some point in the near future um for our meetings and then you know work out we need to make sure we work with Brian and Colleen to give them enough time and for planning for when we would want to start that as well but just wanted to throw it out there because it was asked um Mary any any particular thoughts no I'm happy happy to do either okay all right and I know that one of the issues was we had the technology with hearing people when we were you know remote when we were in person we probably won't have the fan issue anymore because it's a little bit on the cooler side so um so it's just more about you know is everything all the other set up we can you know get work and and make sure we have enough lead time um and that's if we folks are feeling you know um going back to a hybrid it would be a good approach um marrow I'd like to go back to hybrid okay um Hillary um I there's things I really like about being remote only um and there's also some things I like about being in person um okay I'm kind of open okay um did I miss anybody Alexa did I say you no sorry I feel like I missed like this my screen I'm sorry I mean I'm I'm good either way um I think if we're going to show up for special town meeting in person um with everybody else I don't see why we don't um and if it's a hybrid option and we need to not be there in person then we as school committee members have that as an option as well and just for awareness sake obviously right now we are only approved until uh March 2025 anyway I mean I'm sure it'll come down to the wire before they figure out what to do next um so um I'll um Brian you know you and Colleen I'll talk with you guys on when we can figure like what the best way to do that and start you know doing a hybrid um um when we can you know comfortably feel reasonably to get all that done and what the Miss meeting to start doing that um Colleen oh just just so you know the first meeting in November I am on the cape and I don't know what um technology-wise what you guys want to do because I will not be here in person all right and I'm not sure what my internet capability will be and and since we can't clone you um I think that will be an important consideration so just that meaning yeah um okay so let's good to know we'll um we'll work again offline a little bit more but uh I think there's the idea that some people feel like in person we we can collaborate a little bit more um when we have but I think you know recognizing there is a flexibility if we need any of us need to be remote for whatever reason we're all know parents at some level um or you have things going on we have that option as well so um all right more to come on that and then uh let's see what other notes I had I think that was really it's oh October 16th next week I just wanted to make sure is that Wednesday Mary I was does that work okay with you 6:30 does that work0 works great yep I Alexis yep that works okay marrow yep you were good yes okay um did I lo where did Hillary go did I lose Hillary oh we did lose Hillary no we did lose her yeah man I can't get an answer from Okay so so um Colleen I'm going to assume Hillary is a yes and I'm going to send an agenda over for our workshop for next Wednesday the 16th because I know I have to do it um because the town Town o closes um at 11 and Monday's a holiday so um so I'm going to send that over to you if you could block um we're going to do that in person so I think the conference room uh for our uh school committee workshop and we'll be having conversation about goals um so Brian we will have on our next school committee meeting um your goals and be ready to have some um discussions about that and approving sound good yes okay great um and I will make sure that Hillary hears this because I didn't realize she we lost her um all right and that's um really just thank you everyone for your work for the special town meeting I know there's a lot of things behind the scene and preparing um for that meeting and we looking forward to um moving forward with the work for Budget there is some budgetary um there's a couple budget updates that I wanted to just share so um we have and I don't know if everyone's aware of this and I wish is on because I don't know if she is but so we have um I think Brian and Wayne correct we have one HVAC that is going to be um repair is it this weekend um that we'll have one the Fowler one which is yay um there there is another HVAC that that's that second one that we were going to repair but now it has to be replaced um and so that 76,000 will be put towards that um the Nexus from what was approved at last like last year's special town meeting um will be you know left over that was going to be put for repairs actually going to be put towards it and then we discussed at our school school budget subcommittee um the difference um Wayne and may was it like was it 60,000 um is that right and so we're going to um you know we absorb 30,000 of that and then we're going to um seek the other 30,000 through a request to fincom through their um Reserve fund transfer so just for everyone's awareness that's the the plan um oh Hillary said she had to go so um so I will update her later on that um so that's the plan I will work on putting um the required information together I think Brian you and Wayne were working on getting an estimate from train on that um secondary unit because that's what we're going to need to to show um part of our ask and when we have that together then we can as a school committee we can vote on that request and then I can go to fincom um we need to secure the funds before we can actually order it so that's um the next step to get that done so that's that update um there is some updates I'll email everyone separately but in December just trying to the budget calendar um usually that's that that end of November SE December things might we move a little bit so I'm going to I'll send an email around um just to confirm like what we may have some date changes for school committee meetings um there and um and again that's just to accommodate um that one we we get to hear everybody like the schools that they can come and have time to present to us and two that we get to hear the presentation give feedback give that back to Wayne and and and Brian and then at the subsequent meeting vote on the ask um which has to be done before the end of December before we all leave um so Greg can have that number because he'll be waiting um anxiously to get we're always the last but we're hey it's in line with what the charter requires so um any questions on that besides the dates I don't have the dates right now but I'll send that the email about what those proposed dates are that we'll be looking to update the our school committee um calendar that that time anything else Mary might think forgetting so the 12th of December we actually have a meeting that was the first one then we were projecting um the following week December 19th just just for people to think about the nth was it the nth was it Tuesday no it's it's another Thursday why did I think there was a Tuesday for some reason okay I had it done as that Thursday but anyway so just yeah you can just send it out yeah okay yeah all right so that sounds good but yeah so just everyone to think about that um it's essentially just moving them adding adting um and I think maybe moving another one just because also people go on holiday so we wanted to you know doing it too late by the 20 whatever that was was seemed a little bit um well too late so all right and I think that's all that I had Brian we haven't heard anything from just from I'm thinking about personel but like from the the the union about negotiation or they haven't nothing yet okay all right so um all right so then we'll we'll still waiting for that um and then um November 12th is the quad board meeting that is scheduled for everybody so um um it will be looks like I think 6:30 and it will be a hybrid meeting so I think most people Mary I I did see that you you know you have to scoot out a bit early so you'll be joining online um and I'll again Circle back with Hillary just to check her availability Brian and and Wayne um you know I I don't know I'm guessing this will be heavy bleacher budget talk um priorities so um if you're available please that'd be great um um and we can you know plan a little bit more about what what we our conversation but we we may want to also at some at that point I don't know if we're going to be ready to have like what our what our number will be of that Nexus of what we'll be looking for we probably should be prepared to at least give a high level and and that would be without school committee actually having a presentation on it so I think that's what we would want to frame it as it will be somewhere in this still in progress you know rough estimate um but you know looking at a ballpark of what that short that shortage will be looking like for an override so okay um Mary any updates from you um just thank you to Wayne and everybody that put together the the fourth quarter for the financial report um did another amazing amazing job so just thank you thank you for that and I just had a question about it um Wayne and I guess Brian too as far as with all of the ongoing grants you know me with always thinking okay get the people out of it and so if we change Personnel on that can we put a schedule of what Grant because there are certain grants that we apply for every single year like I'm thinking the the myap one that Denise hatch you know started at the middle school and that just so that irrespective of the people that are in position to have you know this is the GR that we apply for every year this is when we usually apply for it and this is the person that is you know responsible for it could we put something or do we have something like that we have that we already do like child we has it right or just yeah so that it's not really it's pretty well between Charles and Wayne it's pretty well organized between the entitlement grants and the grants that we apply for and Heather I mean she's part of you know the special grants and whatnot so we kind of have that laid out meet monthly to go over it so that we track it pretty tightly perfect so we're not going to lose any opportunity because we've worked really hard to to Really apply for everything so um so that's that's great thank you and then um Saturday at at May Fest it came up again about and I know I've mentioned this a couple of times and I think Chuck was going to follow up with the middle school also and Keith isn't here anymore but the bridges program that we used to have at the Fowler I spoke to two incredibly amazing people that grew up in Maynard that are probably in their 80s and they had so much to offer and I can only imagine you know how great it would be to get them in front of our kids and um and that kind of thing so I I just want to put the push out again to see if we can put that program together I think it was the fifth grade that did it when we did it before covid and it meant the it meant the teacher kind of taking it on if I remember correctly but um it just you know just talking to these people again it just really re um reiterated that um how great a program it was and how much the kids learned and how much you know the seniors enjoyed doing it so Mary I know a teacher who could take it on oh yeah there you go okay that would be amazing I just want somebody to take it on because it was so great um and then the other piece and it talks about buses again we were we had talked about um talking in the fall about doing an RFP in January for the bus um we were going to because we had already gotten into the negotiations with dbus for the the regular contract but we talked about doing that so I want us to um to revisit that and that was it but didn't we say we were going to do a survey were we gonna okay so even that if I do remember a survey like of like what the needs were um where people felt the most need and time and all that days I just don't want that to go by the Wayside and us not because we keep talking about that late bus also thanks right Maro um I don't really have anything I I did have just a just a comment about um the vote on Monday um about the bleachers and just wondering and this is just kind of putting it out there um wondering what the people that didn't vote for the bleachers and are kind of ex still expecting us to maybe keep on providing um you know some sort of bleachers even though they're temporary where they think that that money is coming from um and now that you know we have no we have no funding for any of that what what did what did they expect us to do so um probably nobody's going to even read you know see this but that's you know I mean I think we were clear like in the in the warrant article like there's no funding you know and I don't know what people retain like you know well but considering that nobody hardly anybody at least some of the people that got up and spoke didn't read all the things that we put in there the sponsor comments because they were asking questions that the in information was right in there so um it's just you know really disappointing so it might be worthwhile um just thinking that we have um you know after the quad board meeting maybe we have like a form you know once we get a plan about what's happening with the bleachers now but that we just have like a public form about like you know conversation and questions and maybe a Q&A that we can talk about like what people I mean people have to have to engage there is a level of effort people have to want to actually join or come to vote I mean like there's um there's only so much we can do um you know we provide forms we we've talked about it at our school committee meetings almost every meeting there's a a bleacher update um that we've we've gone over so it's not like happening you know quietly um but aside from making it happen people if they want if they have a view on it they need to really engage at some level um that's my thoughts on it but I maybe we we could say like hey we can do like a a public form like a remote when people can log in I don't know Q&A ask your question send your questions we'll be here to answer you know I don't know um so that was one um the other thing was um just a reminder that if anybody could or everyone just could um email me about the policies that they're interested in us um going over um so that Hillary and I can start working on those and that's all I've got thank you great great Alexis did I I think we've talked about everything okay so I'm not going to add on tonight okay all right um Wayne and Brian just for our next budget subcommittee meeting um just because I I was asked recently by a parent about um how we are maybe pivoting to using School bucks for as a means to collect for other payments now like field trips and stuff I just want to make sure that now that we have gone through like one year and we have certain things is do we have opportunities to expand it for um more efficiencies because I know that we're still collecting check and cash for a lot of different stuff and um um so I just wanted to maybe have a conversation about like what that what do we look at for the next vision of can you know relying on the the use um for other areas like could have like for field trips I know like um one of the things like Nature's Classroom you know that's one that there's a lot of cash check um back and forth I think there's like class dues that happen at the high school you know so just wanted to kind of think about that how we're you know yeah we can look into that and see what the options are doesn't School bucks charge a fee yeah so I mean that for me I hate fees so like I would much rather write out a check so I don't have to pay a fee to use that I hear you on that but also the risk of having cash transactions I mean the loss of you know things get missing I mean you're losing you know I think I think it's like kind of almost a wash in some way you know you have kids who things in their pocket parents who don't want to send their middle school with 300 bucks in cash you know um or you know maybe they don't use checks at home anymore um so I just you know I don't know there's a oneway answer I know that it is more broadly used for a lot of other things and like club sign-ins and and whatnot and I I don't know um maybe understanding what that fee is and if it's worth you know is that an acceptable risk or acceptable considering the efficiency that we might gain you have you can post invoices to you know people's accounts and then they just pay it you know for for stuff so anyway just a conversation for um to explore since it's um newish we've that there are a number of people that feel that moral do so we do some of our cash and checks that we get are people that say I can come in and walk in and not pay a fee they they they have voice that um so that's part of it I don't percentage wise what's the reason behind that or I can't tell you you know it's 50% 40% but um there are a number of people that have shared that with us that they don't want to do that that's not to say we can't look into it but I'm just saying that that exists oh you you just got muted I don't know um yeah no and I I think not eliminating that for people who that is the preferred method I think right now it's only in some instance only cash or check and then people who would rather just pay online or whatever maybe they're a single parent they can't make it to the before the school closes all the time and they don't want to send cash might be um a card so I think it's more the flexibility the option that we're just right now in some cases only accepting cash or check for some of these events and um that's not doesn't work for everyone so I think if we would want to that would still be available potentially but how do we with people we can um you know do otherwise open it up but Natasha the one thing that I would want with which I I would assume it's possible but I don't know in being able to send cash or a check and I know this from you know all the field trips that I send money in for that there's the option of helping to pay for a child who cannot afford it um and sending additional money as a part of that so you fill it out on the form I wouldn't want to lose that as a part of going to some online payment op as an option for people who you know want that quick it'll take me two minutes to make the payment I don't want to lose that as an option for those families um because I think it's important that they have the option to donate additional money to help other students within the community no that's a that's a good point so I I think that's a important consideration as well so yeah I don't know the answer to it I just wanted to kind of put it out there because I've heard feedback on both sides and I don't know what is being explored or not um with that so more to come sounds like anyway um all right anything else before we move on to accepting oh um the warrants and I saw Colleen you had sent the email about the warrants for tonight um so without objection I will move that we accept the approved warrant 2517 018 019 020 and [Music] 021 all right they are accepted and I think that's it right we don't have any minutes I it's any minutes okay um thank you all uh I will make a motion that we adjourn second okay roll call Mary yes marrow yes Alexis yes Natasha yes Carol good night thank you for hanging on thank you all Chuck thanks for joining us than you thank you Wayne