i pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for
Oh I'm going to take a picture i'm going to stay up here i'm going to take a picture i'm just going to grab my phone peace nicely done Samantha uh we're going to move on to um participation by others our Soore award
student was not available this evening so their award will be given at the next business meeting uh I'll invite now uh the student representative to share any updates he's he's not here okay
okay all right yeah we can we can hear from the student council sounds good yes that's okay um okay so my name is Eliia my name is Mah and the few things that happened throughout the school the past week is Wintergard the Mthu and
Wintergard won first place at NSSBA finals sorry okay at NSBA finals and this was a huge accomplishment for the team the team had an undefeated season with getting first for finals the Mthuan Wintergard also
placed third place at a WGI Winter Guard International with a placement of fourth in the country in their division the first place finals win was their first in about 20 years this resulted in the team getting moved up a division
next up was junior prom so on Thursday April 10th junior prom at took b place at Castleton in Woodham New Hampshire the theme was enchanted garden it was an exciting event which all juniors who attended enjoyed the variety of food was
really enjoyable and delicious the favorite was the chicken Alfredo among all students and students were also given desserts which was ice cream and brownies the students danced and sung all throughout prom and made dance
circles hyping everyone up the song choices were also great and it resulted in a lot of fun which allowed for 30 extra minutes of prom before it ended um our next one is MA science um
engineer fair congratul Oh sorry congratulations to senior scholars Thomas Lee and junior scholar Ya Yasmine Bria who represented Mthuan High at the Massachusetts Science Plus Engineering Fair at Gilelet Stadium on Friday April
4th 20125 so my voice advisory board finalist so on April 4th MHS had welcomed members of the Madun Youth Community Center to speak with potential future members of the My Voice Advisory Board students learned about
the young youth and the challenges that also came with creating a young center and their vision for the youth center if selected advisory board members will play an integral ro role in the creation development and implementation of
programming at the Muan Youth Community Center and then our last one for today is our multi multicultural showcase April 17th on Thursday April 17th MHS will hold the inschool multicultural showcase students will have the
opportunity to present their culture with staff and students throughout arts craft dance music clothing cultural objects and more and that is all that we have for today thank you thank you very much yeah
so we're we're getting word that uh right now um folks who are watching I believe on either TV or however this is being uh put out to the public uh that nobody can hear sound uh so obviously
we're here in an open meeting this is sufficient for open meeting law meeting I know is being recorded uh but uh we just got that word and member Shabilia uh mentioned that too they were working on it she said it should be fixed now okay great uh we'll move on now to uh
the introduction of our outstanding MHS athletes superintendent it's all yours yes thank you so much i'd like to call up uh interim athletic director Mr tom Ryan uh he has a few coaches with him today and some teams that we want to
recognize uh from the winter sports that have continued uh I will say another group that we do plan on bringing in front of the school committee uh is the girls hockey team who made it to the state uh the state final eight um and we
had done that in the past tonight they could not all be here with the coach tonight so we hope to bring them at another time but we have some outstanding athletes that have done some remarkable things to represent Mthoon High School and we want to recognize those students tonight abs absolutely so
we will start with the wrestlers uh first so I'd like to introduce you to Janessa Santiago who became the first female New England champion in Mthuan High School history uh here are some other accolades throughout the year 24-0
record uh Framing Firmingham Holiday Tournament Champion George Bossy Low Holiday Champion if you go to Low Holidays that's one of the premier tournaments in the country uh the Division One North champion Division One State Champion Mass All State Champion
Boston Globe All Scholastic Boston Herald All Scholastic and the NVC Female Wrestler of the Year and of course like I mentioned the first New England champion female wrestler in Maduran High School history she's good uh Janessa Santiago the coach is with them right
now d would you like to say anything we have coach John Shagru is here uh with his brother Coach Paul Shagruz the Shagru are one of the wrestling dynasties of Muan High School do you want to say anything coach uh sure i didn't prepare i did not prepare anything uh we luckily
had Janessa this is her her first year at MDU High School and um we first met her there was rumors just kind of circling throughout the throughout the school that we had this girl who had some experience um so we finally had a chance to meet Janessa and we said "Hey you going to wrestle this year?" And at
the time she was "I don't really know i'm not really sure if I want to." And so we kind of went into our sales pitch and eventually we got her to join and it was probably the best thing that happened to Mun Wrestling uh for her and and for us so I wish we had a few more years together unfortunately we just had
one year but we made the most of it um I couldn't I couldn't speak more highly of her she's going to be very successful and and whatever she does with her work ethic and how she fit right into the team was was amazing so congratulations Vanessa check this out
all right um so we kind of move right along we're going to do the track athlete so we have an individual performer and we have a relay that the individual is actually on in the the relay here so first uh this indoor season junior Lauren Quam competed at
the highest level in the 55 meter finishing her season at the New Balance Nationals during the season she became a threetime MVC champion in the 55 going undefeated in the event she ended her season as a division one state champion the runner up at all states and bested
her third place ranking at the New England meet uh from last year by placing second in a time of 6.97 seconds breaking the 7-second barrier for the second time in her career lauren is also part of the 4x200 relay team which I'll talk about right
now the 4x2 on a relay girls team of junior Alicia Santana Sosa senior Bella Fiori senior Kiara Fitzpatrick and junior Lauren Quam were perfect this indoor season they became the first girls 4x200 relay team in school history to win the NBC championship they
continued their dominance at the state level and became the division one state relay the division one state and all state champions at the New England meet the girls were the top team in Massachusetts and placed fourth with their hard work dedication and overall
team chemistry these four girls continued to get faster and faster as the season progressed breaking their own school record four times finishing their season at the new New Balance Nationals meet so I'd like to call up junior Alicia Santona Sosa um Santana Sosa
senior Bella Fury senior Kiara Fitzpatrick and junior Lauren Quam and the Oh I forgot to mention they are with tonight britney Caprio is the head coach of the indoor track team she also was the head coach of our outdoor track
team miss Caprio would probably going to say something really long so long um these girls had the benefit of competing together last year as a group so it's disappointing that we lose two of them this year because I think they really
came together as a group but we do have two returning so hopefully there's still a lot to come in the future but these girls really outperformed I think their own expectations and um they represent our program to the best of their abilities i'm truly honored that I got to have all four of them compete for me
um they're wonderful young women no lauren would you like to speak okay maybe next lauren saving that for next year she says next year is a big one hey all right next we're Congratulations
next we're on to uh public participation we have uh four students who have signed up uh to take part in public participation tonight we have Nathan Leah Sophia and Lacy feel free to approach the podium um hello my name is Nathan Touch this is
Lea Sophia Cerillo and Lisa Clutier we are eighth grade students from the Fusco Mrs defusco civics class at the Mars GMA School we're here to talk about the lack of access to free feminine hygiene products in our schools period poverty is the lack of access to safe and hygienic menstrual products throughout
the school year we have researched the negative effects this has on female students this affects upper school students hygiene mental health attendance and confidence one in four students have missed school due to lack of access to feminine hygiene products moreover 96% of March school students
reported that it would be beneficial to add free feminine hygiene products to the bathrooms not having access to hygiene products in the bathroom can negatively impact a student's education when female students need a feminine hygiene product they have to ask to go to the bathroom sign out of the room realize they have
their period go back to class ask for a pass to the nurse and explain why they need to go to the nurse go down to the nurse wait for the nurse to get a pad and or tampon go back to the bathroom and then return to class we timed this entire process and it took 6 minutes and
40 seconds this is a lot of class time to miss not having these products can negatively impact a student's education having access to free products in the bathroom would lead to less time consumption also 40% of March upper school students reported feeling uncomfortable asking a teacher for a
pass to go to the nurse for hygiene products the lack of easy access to feminine hygiene products is a big problem in our school and we are here to share an idea to help solve the problem one solution is a website called goontflow.com where you can purchase
dispensers and period products go on flow uses highquality products with no toxic chemicals or dyes to ensure that females can access monthly necessities this website gives discounts to schools and is cheaper than other suppliers also Goant flow dispensers do not require
students to pay for the use of the products all products in the dispenser are free to students the current dispensers are never filled and require students to carry quarters when we surveyed students 86% said that they do not carry quarters also when we ask
custodial staff about access to the dispensers they reported not having keys to unlock them therefore they are unable to stock the current dispensers this is a problem we would love to get GoFlow feminine hygiene dispensers in the upper school bathrooms we price dispensers and
products on goflow.com three Model E dispensers would be a onetime cost of $1,023 or $341 each the Model E is a wall-mounted dispenser that holds both pads and tampons goant Flow recommends 15 products per female student per
school year to fill the dispensers for one year it would cost roughly $1,458 for 4,500 pads and tampons putting dispensers in the bathroom will ensure students will miss less class time and will improve their mental health we would appreciate any help you
can provide thank you for listening and for your consideration on this important topic that affects a large portion of the population in Methuan public schools thank you for addressing those concerns that's something that I can work on addressing thank you um we would also
like to give you these posters that we have made that um kind of explain it a little bit more is that all right with you thank you very much is there anybody in the room who would like to speak who did not sign up for public participation if not uh we do have some
written comments that the vice chair will read into the record this is from Wanda Foley 12 Lynwood AB good evening Superintendent Huang and school committee members i have three children that have participated in the fine arts program such as chorus band
and drama club over the last few years in the Mthun public schools not to mention the very many friends of my kids who also participate it is such an awesome opportunity to watch them partake in these events it has opened up their brains and bodies to challenge
themselves to learn and do something more than just academics or athletics my son came home last week and said they had been told that next year they might not have drama band or chorus he said some kids were so upset and crying when they heard the news please look
elsewhere to find the funds to not allow this to be the area to take the fall for the budget i can imagine the difficulty in planning a well- balanced budget and figuring out where to make cuts that are needed if
more funding is not avail not an option this is not the right choice for our community it is not the right choice for the students or faculty i have children that do well in athletics but what about the all the students that the arts is their only way of expression and joy we shouldn't let them think it it is
dismissible for part of the methan of their for part of their methan education the time and effort that teachers and staff pour into organizing these events is admirable and appreciated i am sure my letter or at least I am hoping that the anger and disappointment that I read
on Facebook groups from parents and community members translates to more participation letters or people willing to read them out loud themselves about the same the same topic we need to do better for Mthuan i am also unclear as to why students still need Chromebooks
if this was an option for remote COVID days and that is long gone why are we unable to return to paper and books just curious what is the difference in the budget for those comparisons thank you for your time and attention regarding these matters wonderfully
that's all we have for uh public participation that was submitted in writing uh if you were unable to make a meeting in person for public participation you can send an email to Martha S so at massir oys
mthuan.k12.mma us before 3 p.m on the day of the school committee meeting uh next is the approval of minutes we need a motion and a second to approve the pol policy subcommittee minutes from March 6 2025 so moved motion is from the vice
chair the second is from member Daglio any discussion all those in favor i opposed the eyes have it we need a motion in a second now to approve the minutes of March 10th 2025 so moved second second motion from the vice chair
second is from member Shabilia any discussion all is in favor i opposed the eyes have it uh we need a motion and a second to approve the minutes from March 24th 2025 so moved second motion from the vice chair second is remember Daglio
any discussion all those in favor i opposed the eyes have it lastly we need a motion and a second to approve the minutes of March 31st 2025 second motion is from the member Daglio second is from the vice chair any
discussion all those in favor i opposed the eyes have it uh next we're on the staff reports uh superintendent I'll invite you to begin your fiscal year 26 budget update
um thank you uh mayor so I don't have a there's no memo or anything of that nature just on here so that we can share with the public sort of where we are in the process and our meeting on Wednesday that will be a budget workshop uh the slides presentation for that meeting
have been posted you also have an updated version as well um so I think a few things uh there was a incredibly productive meeting today in the mayor's office between my team and the mayor and the cafo uh and I think
that those conversations will continue over the coming weeks uh everybody is well aware that this is going to be a very challenging budget cycle and a very challenging situation for the city and that's us and everybody else and so uh
we have work to do um but again I think everybody around the table is going to put our heads together and do the best work we can it does not mean we're going to get everything that we believe we need uh that you know it's that is a
challenge uh and will continue to be a challenge for us and for us as a committee uh working towards the best that we uh can provide for our students so uh I know there was a lot of conversation over the past four days uh
not so much directly with me but uh around me about conversations had with staff uh you know we always have tried to be very transparent with our staff if they're going to see their positions on
a chart in public uh that is what we did and unfortunately that just got uh to a place that we couldn't uh re back in uh and there was no ill intent of that at all that we were doing um so
unfortunately I think there's just a lot of different narratives out there right now about what's happening why when um but I think if everybody uh could uh take a deep breath with us and you know watch on Wednesday and just continue to
have the conversations that we're having with us uh I think that would be very beneficial um in the process so I leave it a little bit at that and mayor if you want to say i'll just I'll just uh reiterate that so um you know I
heard all weekend uh from folks uh within the school uh department uh top to bottom especially uh folks who are uh teaching in our schools um indications already that positions have
been cut the school committee has not taken a single vote on the fiscal year 2026 budget as of right now nothing has been touched um the fine arts department at the high school is not going anywhere
um I just want to state that right at the outset so there's a lot of uh I think assumptions that have been made i don't know if it's been due to uh language that's been used or what i I can't speak to any of that uh but all I can say is this school committee has not
voted on a single uh line item or any aspect of the budget whatsoever uh and so any discussion regarding specific cuts uh are it's it's all extremely uh premature as we discussed today uh so I
just want to state that uh for folks who are watching um in in the fine arts department of high school just one example it's not going anywhere um and I'll leave it at that and we'll have more to say on Wednesday uh we'll move on to uh the
student enrollment data report uh I'll invite uh questions discussion uh from the committee regarding uh that report member Shabilia so with all this talk of money which is
everyone's favorite topic right now the question was posed to me by one of our friends on the city council as to how our budget was prepared and how we managed to cover the additional 110
12ish kids especially the high needs on the sheet i was hoping I mean I have a general idea and I think it goes back to circuit breaker but I was hoping you could explain it so everyone can understand so I think it's it's twofold so yes
there is some uh money under circuit breaker that has supported some of our students coming in with needs that were unexpected with special education there's also a level of with our English language learners we have case loads that might have started at 29 this year that are now at 54 um so when you're
talking about what what one person is actually able to service those numbers just keep rising right so we're not able to provide students with the amount of service necessarily they would be getting if they had less uh if they had a staff member who had less of a case load so that's typically what we would
see in the English learner category as those numbers rise and we weren't expecting those students in September uh those case loads just grow right we we've had a couple of we haven't this year last year we did have to ask for an additional ESL teacher in the middle of
the year because we were over 60 at one of the schools with case loads and we we we just we couldn't even we could not provide the students with what they needed with one person um and splitting the kids amongst multiple so we did have to do that not this year but last year I
believe we did that for the Timony when we saw exponential growth in August to September and October uh I think we requested a new ESL staff somewhere in early fall um so so it's a it's a challenge because we're yes we're we're
providing we have to provide students with the services i would say over the course of the year uh we've had uh onetoone nurses that have been needed for special education kids onetoone program assistants they're all in temporary positions until we vote a new
budget right we've added those as full-time positions um so all of those things do we have to provide those services so it is coming that particular group of students particularly is coming from circuit breaker thank you you're welcome any other
questions from the committee member will and just to emphasize through the chair to the superintendent once we go past that October 1st date any new students we don't even get a prrated amount from the state is that do not it was we take the full vote at the local level right
okay now does that apply also to special education students all of it so October one uh by regulation is the only date of enrollment that the state will take our enrollment and set the foundation budget for the following year they there's no
second chance if you would I asked uh is there any opportunity with the March 1 because we do the same thing in March uh we do a SIMS up state reporting and the answer was no by state regulation it is the October one enrollment now as I
think I stated before you also get a removal right so sometimes there's a year where you have more students in October than you do the following September and yes you still get those funds so this is unfortunately what we're seeing is that opposite
effect where we have more students enrolling now during the same school year uh than we had for the October 1st enrollment that doesn't happen as often at least that I've experienced in my tenure okay and there's no legislation that
you're aware of at Beacon Hill that prrated or people do tuition statements that are quarterly just to be able to map out the expenses but if once we go past October 1st we take the full boat as a local community on these students
now you try to balance out we might have some withdrawals and we even it out as best we can but any students that come into the system we local take full responsibility yes okay that's a big issue yeah thank you yep any other
questions regarding the student enrollment report if not we'll move on to uh the report from the assistant superintendent of student services any questions or concerns from the committee going once going twice yep member
Maxwell um where is the information for these specific dates posted is it shared through talking points email like the supporting friendship presentation for families yep so the CPAC shares out the information with the CPAC yep it's the
CPAC presentations you're welcome member Shabilia the transportation under Mckin Vento is that also rolled into our non-net because it's transportation or because it's
associated so yeah yeah it's nonet okay thank you any other questions if not we'll move on to the HR report any questions or concerns discussion from the committee
member shel for these positions the ones that have been vacant all year i guess I'd like to be able to know which one which which of the perpetually vacant positions are
required by I don't know by statute by 504 by whatever the requiring mechanism is see which ones of these which I'm sure your team has already gone through which ones can be removed and which ones we we need to find that magical unicorn
to fill yes we have done that and at this point I'm I can't didn't bring my glasses um the majority of these speech and language school psychologists
um there's a lot of psychologists on there oneto ones RBTs those are definitely being at this point either parcled out and we're paying staff an additional hourly rate to support uh or we're contracting out on a a smaller
scale than we would having a full-time contracted service provider under contracted services so for example I don't have two full-time speech and language therapists that a contracted provider can give me they're not out there so I'd have to parcel out
to whoever they can give me if I have evaluations or I have additional uh students that sta our current staff have to see i have to pay them hourly over any time that they work outside of their contractual time with additional students and that's basically what's
happening right now especially with the school psychologists okay thank you vice chair um I have a question the the beginning says that um
stipens mean that we're paying a unit a staff stipen to cover additional classrooms per side letter of the agreement but I don't see any a stipen on here and there are a couple of positions that seem to me should be labeled as stipen and not vacant and so
I'm wondering if um how many or can you go through this at some point and and figure out whether or not there are actually stipen positions in there because what you said is if the one-on-one is being parcled out then that should be labeled here as
a stipen not as a vacant yes I will go through it all again i think the this the difference is that the stipens were going to cover a full FTE and right now we don't have like a person or thing covering a full FTE
i see so like the math teacher if it was vacant we had I think on here at one point it was stipened because other teachers took a section of that math and now it was completely covered mhm so we've considered that stipened and we were paying that stipen for each of
those teachers for the remainder of the school year um but I can definitely go through this again with um Colleen and Gina and look through and see if we have some other places that would make more sense or even just redefine it okay so what I just said we just redefine that a
little differently that this is being handled by multiple people not all the time as needed something of that nature okay okay does that make sense is that Yes okay um yeah my my concern is that some of these positions are going to be
costing us compensatory services um and some of them are actually being covered and aren't costing us compensatory services and I'd like to know that any other questions if not we'll move on to the facilities report this concludes the Timony air
quality assessment any questions discussion from the committee member Wlette u Thank you Mr chairman and again I have to give you uh massive credit uh since you've uh entered into the mayor's office of working with the
school department i'm seeing a lot of common themes in these reports and I think we're going to need during the summer months assistance again uh we're going to be limited with our budget um but there's like recommendations that
should be tackled i know it was at the marsh and also at the Timn um and something that uh hopefully it can be done over the summer even on emergency basis because if we're going to be limited with personnel
um these are issues that need to be tackled i know uh member Maxwell and myself we went to the Tim U and I highlighted some of the issues and reinforced in the report um the only thing I had a question about cuz again
it was common themes between the Timony and Amar and it's an ongoing thing to remediation and u the capital improvement plan and approaching the state and green energy and all these different programs with the radon have
we ever done testing in our schools for the radon that is that something we've ever done it would be the winter months you have to do it when you're heating that's something again that's a common theme thing that we might have to map out um
to do yeah and again I'm I'm sure we'll have a I know one of the neighboring states and I think might be Connecticut it's by law that the schools have to do regular radon testing but that was something I
know with the Marsh report and this report is that to do the radon testing and I don't have a problem with you know saying "Okay do the testing and we'll have like the clear results." But they have the problem is it's like we don't do it in down the line that's you know something we all
wanted a lot of our exhaust fans on the roof belts are broken motors are broken etc um I believe I forget the number because they did a bunch at they're doing it at all the schools but at the uh Timmy I want to say they've already replaced 20 22 exhaust fans which will
draw in more fresh air and take out the stale air so hopefully that will help with the air quality and I and I think also too is debris and barrier is blocking the access to the ventilation which I think it's just it's it's just common recommendations that can be
accomplished during the summer when we have a lot of times it's just reminding some staff that make sure a lot of times if you explain how it works that the air gets sucked in and blowed out you and they know that that's just the path they keep an eye on it but a lot of times
that goes you know it's just not their expertise you know it's not there it's not their thing so how you know why would they even think of that so uh I think it's a lot of education or just reminding of staff just to make sure you keep those things clear yeah and and by no means is not a criticism of anybody
employed it's just when we have recommendations through reports I think we just need to follow up on those things i know with the exterior we we have major issues that need to be accomplished and I think the the radon was a common theme that was through between the Timmy and the Marsh and I
was just if we can check it uh price it out and maybe have it prepared for the winter if we are able to have it financially uh obtainable thank you thank you member Maxwell um I have a few questions but I don't know do you want me to just shoot them
all off or go one by one um whatever is best for you so one of my I'll do my best one of my questions is um I know it says that we're going to begin the process of switching over to cooling correct heats off when is that happening um we're in the process i just don't know which
schools have been done and which ones haven't okay um I did get a text from uh Mr wlette I believe today that the high school was a little cold i do have to check to see if they're in the process of that change okay um today was probably better cuz it was cuz it was probably a little warmer but Okay um
what is what is the BO board of Health board of health um in the March it says that the boilers are going to be replaced over the summer the anticipated start date is June 16th and the bid is open for April 16th yep
do we do we have someone that does that in-house now i thought I took that from our last conversation that they were No this is a major major major project the uh boilers are coming in from Italy um it's it's a huge project so we're trying to get that that bid done the bid
opening and get those people on board ASAP okay so it can be done over the summer i know that um in the Timony well I'll go to the air quality report in a second but the there's no um playground request for the Timony i noticed there
was for another um school uh and the Timy's playground for the upper school area there's a few broken parts a bridge is broken there's some broken parts to the playground and so if we could find a way to revamp that be great we'll have
it inspected and uh fixed it needs to get fixed yeah um and then the last my last things were just about the ongoing air quality report was they was an air quality report done at all of the schools or just the Timn tim and the Marsh tim and the Marsh the
Tim a lot of the classrooms are above that um carbon dioxide ppm um I I I could have sworn that someone had said that if we just opened the windows more it may solve that
problem i mean is that it's a matter of fresh air that's why we went up and changed the exhaust fans right away cuz that that takes out the stale air and draws in draws in fresh air are teachers allowed to open their windows they are i mean that would be the
easiest way to during cooling season we don't recommend it cuz it brings well it brings in more moisture then it's tough to keep the room cool the AC when when it's air conditioning oh okay but during heating season it's
and then my last question on the air quality report there's an abbreviation NC um and I don't know what the NC is in all of the remarks and a lot of the remarks that are written here are
similar to the remarks on the board of health report that we got a while back and when uh member will and I toured the timony a lot of these things were on that report and I just want to make sure that we're not just painting over water stains and we're actually addressing the
issue behind the water stains um but yeah the only other question I have is what's NC i don't know what NC is everything else has an abbreviation i'll have to look into that because I don't recall I don't recall it off the top of my head but everything else has a has a
key but just not that one feel like it's the most important only because I don't know what it is we'll get that for you yeah that's all we'll hear from member Willlette and the member Daglio ju just a quick note cuz I was going through the uh facilities
report the installation of the LED lights do we get reimbursement that for the state or do we for which ones i don't any of them because we have mass program ones at the high school I believe we got a
um a rebate essentially it comes off the price of it so we don't pay full cost national grid gives us a rebate uh for energy savings do we participate as a school system at all in Massave um we do do projects with Mass Save um I know
some of our our EMS or energy management systems that we've been we've been doing and um doing on built we do it through national grid that's tied into Mass Save as well because we're talking about a $5 billion program that a lot a lot of people are upset about because the
utility bills went through the roof through the roof yeah and then we had um I think only about a $50 million program to deal with green energy and that would be municipality and the schools like you know fighting for those resources and I know the mayor has been focusing on the
school front it's just to me it's a shame that we have LED lights and all these things that we could upgrade like windows and we don't have the resources uh from the state on this um and then the only thing else the metallic
barriers that was recommended by by pest right are we have we covered all the schools with those metallic barriers the exterior was that still go ongoing with the peace meal the high school and the marsh are pretty much all set we had installed some at the tim and they were
the wrong ones they got eaten through um so those have now been replaced we replaced all all the ones at the tenny as well i do have to order some for well they've been ordered for the CGS but at the CGS I believe it's six doors um it's it's just the front and just the back
door okay um but it's it's like a triple door you know so um are we could we be uh certain by return of the kids in September that those metallic barriers would be placed across school system that was a major thing that was in
addition with the high-tech pest and items that was the things that were really repelling entry along with pruning the trees and clean up the leaves and debris so that was something to because if it's um wood or any rubber they were eating through it so it was I
think the metallic was the best thing under the sun to be able to repel so if we could have a follow-up report before the kids go back uh in September okay i will uh I will have those doors sweeps on by the end of April vacation all right okay thank you Mr chairman
member Daglio thank you Mr chair so um a quick question over are we planning on because I saw the report when do we plan on doing all the landscaping especially with cutting the trees and um clean up the leaves because
like I remember Wlette said that is a major problem when it comes to the mice in the sense they stay in that area speaking specifically about the timony tim and the trees inside the courtyards yes yes um July soon as we have a new budget and we can uh pay a tree company
or to come in and do it all right um also the hardest part is getting those trees out of there I don't know who thought that was a good idea um also do you remember me uh vice chair um the water damage under the sink
is that the same one that was on the health inspection report that was like a couple of Cuz I I feel like the sink has been around with the water damage or is that a totally different sink no it's the same one which which room which room
the one right here that I feel like that's I feel like I've seen this before does it say what room i No it just says picture 20 i just feel like this this has
been been here on like a picture wise before or it's just a common thing i don't know well it it's common that where there's water they'll end up leaking and you'll get a little bit of dry and crusting as long as it's not continuing to leak um it's not that much
of an issue um we do try to cut those boards out and replace them with new ones um the board of health did look at a couple over at the marsh um and they test them for moisture and you know took a good look at them and they said there's no moisture in them at this point at all so they're not dangerous
they're not harboring anything they're not nothing's growing um but they just they look nasty they look dirty um and cracked so um we're we're trying to replace them as quick as we can just we're trying to do a lot of stuff as quick as we can and and one more um Mr
chair so another concern that I had was the dusty vents um where who is that custodians cleaning those or do we have a company coming in to clean those vents making sure they're all filtering properly are you talking about the
ceiling vents yeah the uh when we had the deep clean they came in and and cleaned and vacuumed all those those vents i'm not sure exactly which vents you're speaking of but those were all pretty deep clean during uh during the deep clean of the Tim and the marsh
yeah the ones we had them do just the vents and um some of the return vents from the marsh over Christmas so it's a marsh at the marsh they focused on the vents um yeah not Tim because from the Tim Yeah it was not in the scope i'm sorry excuse
me it was not in the scope of their services at the Tim however they did the marsh okay oh all right so the quick question I have is who's cleaning them now we'll have the custodians dust them and vacuum oh yeah it's just with probably
have to do a vacation week okay because we we'll need more than just a second shift to do it exactly all right all right thank you so we'll hear from member Donovan then we have a follow from member Maxwell okay just very quickly uh the one thing that really popped out on me to me is uh
right on the executive summary that the pediatric asthma rate for the school is lower than the state rate so I found that very reassuring um to follow um to follow up though Mr goslin taking that
tree out of the school that is in the school out and I hope we're all invited to see that we're not did you say no i believe it's already gone oh it is gone okay oh wow thanks for bringing attention to it that's great
he puts a tree in a school that is We saw it we were like what 25 it was a pretty solid tree it was a It was absolute survival mode but it has been removed it has been okay because the last time I was there it was still two
actually in the boat a tree grows in the Timony it could be a title for a book that said okay that's wonderful news because it's cited in here um is there a plan in place and I know I always bring up the landscaping and what can we do together is there a plan in place to
regularly do some of that landscaping around all of the schools i mean you hear about the ivy growing on one school i mean I is is there a schedule to do this on a regular basis well we have we have a company that will come in and do a cleanup yeah yeah clean up in the
spring clean up in the fall mow weed whack blow the blow the stuff away i'm not sure if you're talking about We also do have our custodians go and do mulch buy the mulch spread the mulch you know weed stuff um usually right before school starts i'm not sure if that's
what you're talking about or is it something but it seems like it's more hardcore significant pruning removal of the ivy on the buildings cutting back some of the trees where we might need a tree service maybe we can work with the the mayor who might have more resources
for pruning yeah one of the things and this is just an internal discussion and we're actually early in these discussions you know we're trying to possibly rethink the way that we manage our municipal buildings
you know on both the city side and also seeing if there's opportunity to better assist on the school side as well but from the perspective of the city so you know we don't have a formal plan in place yet but that's just an ongoing but
early uh discussion uh point of discussion that we're uh exploring in the building here thank you uh and just one more thing this this study is pretty interesting when you get into it especially some of the things that are done in the classrooms and I'm sure
there'll be education for the teachers i mean just the mention of the tennis balls that teachers put on the bottom of the chairs to kind of dull the noise um the air fresheners that were found that could could spark perhaps some
respiratory issues the rugs i know we hate to bring up the those beautiful rugs we bought a while ago but I'm sure there'll be lots of conversations with staff about what works what needs to be done and and accommodate everybody it's a great report
thank you Member Maxwell um I just had a follow-up question regarding the trees i know when we toured um one of the schools last year we were told that for every tree that's removed two more need to be planted is that something that can
be exempt with schools bec like where where are we going to put another tree can we just remove it and not replace it with two trees i'm concerned that's my first um ask and then my second question is um
regarding the vents and all of that i know that when we toured the Timony we had mentioned the vents back then and it was a very long process for the custodians to clean out the vents because the marsh was done by a company but when they're cleaned they're also
painted so I want to make sure that we're cleaning all of them um I know that the head custodian that was at the chimney has since moved on to a different position within the district he's maybe the head of HVAC i don't know
he does he's a maintenance He's a maintenance you know I I just I'm concerned with that because this report has been growing over the years and it's all HVAC related um so now you know we have serious concerns with the HVAC and
the ventilation and all of that at the Tim and now I just don't want to see that pour over to the entire district so that's all I have to say just really about the trees too maybe yeah so uh that tree resolution that was uh written
by former council Finnaro i actually was on the council at the time and joined her as a co-sponsor i don't think there are any exemptions built into that but you know certainly uh we can look into what options may exist especially since we're talking about you know broader
pest related issues um membersh so focusing first on the standard report there are 13 bullets on here that are actually informative the rest is a
weekly email that tells me you did your job and I invite anybody to disagree we've talked about how we want to make this better and usable but we we haven't actually done anything with it yet
i would love to see this become something that's informative and not in a sense where you know at a boy you did your work this week but okay this is what we as a school committee need to be focused on this is what you know next time I
talk to Representative Hamilton or one of his counterparts this is what I'm going to bring up this says they clean the bathrooms at a boy good job it it it's it's it's it's fluff this is the stuff we see on the news about
sending an email that you did a good you did your job and you get to come back next week um but as for the bullets that I flagged that were actually informative there was one about a playground the playground at the marsh and they're
ballparking or you guys are ballparking at about 230K would that be extraordinary maintenance do we have to budget for that that that would be above extraordinary maintenance i thought it was 250 is it 150 150
so that's something we need to go well that's a long-term plan or find another funding source because I know that you guys have all three of those running for what seems like almost three hours while the kids are at recess during lunches and whatnot so that was
just a a concern that I raised for myself and then there was another one here that said there were 60 penetrations found in the roof of the high school correct what caused 60 penetrations my gut we can talk about ice etc etc but
we can also talk about shoveling the roofs in the past not a big fan of shoveling roofs sh rubber and you you nick it if I I'll always I always lry about putting um putting panels on a roof cuz then
when we get four 4 ft of snow on top of the panels I always worry about that extra load um but so I'd say it would be a gentle blend between weather and um a massive crew of shovelers and then
there's one at the Tim oh go ahead it was just it was the it was things that I've learned right because I don't I learn a lot about different things in this position but even with new leaks arriving right in different buildings
when we had some new leaks at the marsh this spring it was very clear there was ice melt ice and even the roofer who we contract with said "I'm not going up there and chiseling ice right because I'm going to create more holes." So
until it's gone it's it's this like you kind of have to figure this out to let it all leave right which causes us right i had to displace a classroom or two and um it just th those are struggles and you know it just adds to the like the
shoveling and the chipping won't go up there and shovel more because they're going to ruin more of the roof right so this season in particular I think that the ice was more challenging the freezing and the thawing of the ice caused some pretty Yeah some pretty
remarkable tears uh in those seams to open kind of all right um at the Tim this one is flagged that apparently the state red tagged the boiler and it now can't be used until we replace it we've already got two on the
the docket not the whole boiler i believe it's a um it's a piece of the boiler that needs to be uh between chamber one and two of boiler two so it needs to be brazed or or fixed we're hoping we can fix it um we may have to
replace a part but it's not an a full boiler replacement correct not a full boiler replacement no all right um transitioning to this wonderful packet which I mean I was partnered up
with Mr reeves and we walked through this building just like you guys did and it was it was a lot and I mean to remember Maxwell's comment earlier that you know we're above on some of the was it carbon monoxide carbon dioxide I
don't remember which one it was most I can tell you that 80 to 90% of the rooms we went into the intake was blocked so the air was not being sucked out there was a bookcase shoved up against it was packed in front of with Rubbermaid bins almost
every single room and some of the rooms that weren't blocked the thing the the thing wasn't sucking cuz apparently the fans were broken i think that that requires a bit of a culture change we we need to be more aware of
what we're stacking in front of these things um my big takeaway from this report was that we need to be better about how we handle the water damage after it occurs i think historically it's kind of been the
lipstick on the pig you just you know we dry it out we paint it we move on but you don't know what's going on behind it and to the point where this guy the DPH guy made this point 4,000 times in the 5 hours we were
with him if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a duck anything that's gross and on a surface is instantly mold whether it's mold or not and that's the narrative that's going to be played out in the community they saw the pictures from underneath these sinks
it's mold dph said it wasn't but the community is going to say it's mold and you're never going to tell them they're wrong they say it wasn't until we test it they didn't say it wasn't so don't don't most of they said that they didn't
you can't do it yeah and most of the places that like that with the sinks that we cuz I was there that whole day too it was dry right so they have the relative humidity meter and there's no water so it can't live right so it looks awful right it was kind of what happened
at the marsh with the panel on the media center like it's it definitely wasn't good didn't have a good life uh it needs to be replaced but again it's what is our priority for we're talking about a lot of things here everything that we've just said has dollar signs attached to
it and time right so time whether it's our own people time or time versus contracted time and there's dollar signs attached to that no matter what so it is it is a lengthy conversation about our priorities and how we do it and if it's
you know right a a an ugly sink board that is not problematic or wet is not going to be the priority right it's going to be let's do the vents let's do the things that the kids are sitting in the rugs let's get those rugs replaced right so that's this is what makes this
really challenging it's cuz we would all love to do all of it uh but that's just not going to be I think in the cards uh so we just have to figure out what those things are what's going to happen over the VA and again then you have certain things can happen when kids are in the building and certain things cannot
happen when kids are in the building so do you save everything for the vacations which are usually four week four days because there's always a holiday in our school vacations right um so it's just there's just lots of challenges to planning but you know I
know I've said it nobody's ignoring any of these things we're trying really hard to address all of it it's a lot right and again our priority was the mice which is in they're good now not in
the buildings uh as far as we know so that has been successful um but you know there is a lot of work to do outside the buildings inside we recognize that it's just the time the space and the like to contract uh for folks to come and do
bush removal and the ivy and the landscaping that is not cheap in the size of the buildings we have with six school buildings so again it's we can do it people will do that for us again it's just time and money that we have to kind of figure out how to balance those
things what are the most important things for us first which are going to be the things that impact the humans what do we do next right because we want to fix the buildings and the sinks and the backboards that are just rotting and old because the buildings are old um so th those are the conversations we have
and my purpose of that is to keep at top of everybody's mind we're about to have a conversation on Wednesday where undoubtedly our uh extraordinary maintenance is going to come up and everything you just listed mo most of it if not all of it is
going to come out of that bucket of money so I just I much of it I know that we want to focus on CIP which is amazing because the schools have been wholly neglected as far as CIP goes for forever this not for for as long as I've
been in the city since 2015 i I can tell you in the last 5 years we we've gotten a lot more than we ever did prior to that um you know we have absolutely I I don't want to say that we it's been neglected in the last five years anyways we've got roofs that we've never had
we've got parking lots we We've got Did blow off though tim Roof did any roof did blow off but the CGS was replaced i mean there are there are a lot of things in the past 5 years that have been successful it's just when you have so many years previous to that right you
know the we're eking all along the lifespan of so many things right now and that's where the lifespan of the roofs of the boilers of the chillers right they're all coming to an end and and you guys asked about like what our staff can
do we can fix some things and put the band-aids on the boilers to get them to stop leaking but actually replacing and and making it work um consistently you know that's that's the big stuff right that's the big stuff so there's there's
that there's a lot more to do yes member Daglio will follow up thank you thank you Mr chair so I'm hearing all this and I totally get the dollar signs and everything that that's why I continue to advocate that maybe unless there's laws
that I don't know about that we need to partnership with trade schools Essex Aggie all them and having them come in for because I know those schools do things like build houses and stuff like that i don't know how it works for
school districts but I'm at the point where I'm like if it's going to help kids earn their apprenticeship or ours and it's going to save us money at the same time of giving back to the community this is a good opportunity of
having those kids come in and start working on the schools that most of them went to and I feel like they would put a lot of effort into it because they might have a brother they might have a sister nephew or their mom works there or something so they're going to have
more more um investment when they're building and making sure everything is correct to that standards having that now again unless there's things that I don't know about that they can't do those things we we need to find a
solution i'm presenting unless someone has a better one i think those are the avenues that we need to take to start making sure these things get done so that's just my thing
any other questions or comments oh I'm sorry Vice Chair um member um why am I blanking um Chibilia kind of touched on what I wanted to say but you know we have a budget to do the
maintenance in our buildings that we've always done and we don't have a whole lot more going into this next budget cycle so what are we going to do differently that we can afford
and like we need a realistic picture of you know we've done all this maintenance this year to you know above and beyond what our budget had well we can't do that next year because it wasn't in our budget this year so it's definitely not going to be in our budget next year
because we don't have the money so what are we going to be doing differently realistically um to to maintain what we have now because what we were doing before wasn't maintaining what we have now so how are
we going to do that with no more money you know so like I just at some point we need a realistic you know dose of reality of what can we actually do with the money that we have i'm going to continue to make those
investments and uh inject those resources from the city that's my plan member Wlette i I just I I can't understand the criticism for a monthly facilities report that gives people in the community an update about the board
of health recommendations and followup on it that gives updates on the community the uh capital improvement uh plan uh for instance with the Marsh boiler I know there were parents that approached me about replacing the marsh
uh boiler and it's going to be uh done uh this year and that's off the list so beyond the scope of talking about uh cleaning bathrooms or installing light bulbs if people went into the actual
report it's following up on board of health recommendations it's following up on cabinet repair it's talking about replacing the carpets it's talking about replacing the boilers it's talking about the the Timony roof
replacement on the other page here for fiscal year 27 is going to cost $3.7 million that's something that we'll advocate for and we'll uh again I'm not understanding the criticism of the monthly facilities report it's an
ongoing fluid uh process and we have to work with the administration and the city council the extraordinary maintenance and the capital improvement plan that's going to have to come a lot of that from the city side and we have a commitment from the current mayor on
that so just wanted to add that thank you i expected to answer that we're not gonna All right um I'll quickly wrap up um so uh as was referenced in the report
I had joined um assistant superintendent uh Gosselin as well as u folks on the board of health uh at visits to the tenny the CGS and the high school the tenny uh report is online and I'm sure
we can include that as part of the next uh update in the facilities report uh but for anyone who wants to check that out it's at mthun.gov/schoolsafety the latest report regarding the tenny the progress that uh was noted at the tenny uh since the time
when the inspectors came late last year uh just before uh the holidays and now is uh quite literally remarkable uh so uh the work that's being done there uh has been uh great we have to keep it up
uh that report as I mentioned is out now uh the CGS uh one thing that was uh interesting that came up uh then was uh the supervising principal Mueti uh mentioned to me that she's heard from parents who have asked her you know why
hasn't the CGS been included in the deep cleans and there's been some concern about that from parents and the response to that I know that she's provided to uh parents who have questioned and I'll reiterate that here uh the CGS in terms of basic cleanliness is where it needs
to be and it's been that way uh since uh the onset of these issues late last year so they frankly just haven't needed that uh type of uh assistance in terms of getting up to speed um and so that report uh as well as the high school
report will be available uh shortly the inspectors are working on finishing those up so I wanted to just add some context uh to that uh next on the agenda we're going to move on to old business and other pending matters we have none uh new business we need a motion and a
second to approve uh actually I'm so sorry excuse me i skipped over the out of school suspensions and other disciplinary actions report do we have any questions regarding that member Maxwell um just a quick question on the out of school
suspensions um there's a lower number at the Tim versus all of the other schools and my question is I know that we continuously say that like there's the um Oh someone help me the program there
that helps yes um is that why we're seeing such a low number of incidents of out of school suspension or is it just due to reporting differently because they have
a different um setup for behavioral issues or just curious on why that one's so low versus the other schools i would say um without a doubt little bit maybe 99.9% positive that it's because of the
risk program because of the uh the data that Mr ree shared with us a few month months back i can certainly ask for sort of an update on where they are now sort of a year to date but it was really clear to me uh in what he presented to
this committee and what our conversations were that that risk coordinator spent most of the time if not all of the time at the upper school um preventing repeat incidences and building those relationships with kids
that were counting uh for those multiple out of school suspensions so they might have got an inschool suspension they might have got a 2 hours you're going to be down here to cool off uh so we have that opportunity and they really have that program off the ground um so I do
think that again I would confidently say that that is a huge piece of why the out of school suspensions at the chimney are lower than the other schools and I would just add that the tenny also has the risk
coordinator right and so they're working through that that risk coordinator uh which we did present to you when we had that update spent a little more time at the beginning of the year in crisis management with some of our younger
students than uh getting that risk coordinator in the upper school which now has transitioned since then so it might look a little different uh but intent is fully the same yep
any other questions all right we'll move on we under new business we need a motion and a second to approve June 16th 2025 as the last day of school so moved second motion from member Daglio second from
member Donovan any discussion all right uh we'll take a vote all those in favor i I opposed the eyes have it uh next uh we have 6B on the agenda we remove 6C i think it was
just a redundancy but 6B we have uh the approval of the 2025 2026 school year calendar we need a motion and a second so moved second motions from the vice chair seconds from member Donovan discussion member Maxwell oh I was just
going to try to explain something on here that's very different and then you all can have the floor um so the one thing that is different here and it is something that uh we were trying to take into consideration and has been a
challenge in the schools that have voting um is that you'll see here September 16th is the primary election that is the day we're looking we're proposing here to have that be a day of
professional development for our staff and then the November election day will just be a day off for our right it's a day off for the kids already and our teachers we have struggled with uh that uh over the years especially when there
are higher you know numbers of of folks coming for the elections some of our schools the kids get completely kicked out of the cafeteria for the day there's it become it becomes really challenging when there are kids in the building so we didn't want to forget that with the school calendar um so we are proposing
that that is a difference than what we've ever presented but I felt it needed some explanation and understanding um and again it it it's incredibly it's a it's civics that we need to have our buildings open for the
the voting but it can be incredibly disrupting to the school day for students and the doors are open parents are nervous that the buildings are open and unlocked the police are always great but um that is the change that is a change i've we've never
presented that before and again this has come up year after year uh as a potential like can we think about it and although it's not at all of our school buildings it's at half of them and it's enough to you know warrant maybe a little bit of thought behind that so it
looks a little different and parents might be like "They were just in school now they have a day off." Right so it might feel that way but we're doing it somewhat purposely for our community so that it makes sense for everybody and people would know ahead of time everything else is pretty much what you
would see by date and progress reports and report cards and parent conferences member Maxwell um so just looking over the calendar I would I don't know if I have to make a motion or if I can just make a suggestion maybe
um on Labor Day starting the Tuesday after Labor Day rather than the week before that would only extend the school year um one day there and then on December 22nd and
um coming back on January 5th that that would give the full two weeks which would also only extend the year three dates if we did it that way so we would be looking at a um we would be looking at the if we start after Labor Day and give those two
days on the two weeks break we would get out of school June 18th rather than the 15th so two things um it's contractual uh so that the everybody comes back before Labor Day that was something that we agreed to um many years ago uh so that
we wouldn't be in late June with snow days um but I did also forget to mention uh this year if you would look we are actually giving the kindergarten four days for screening and class list making typically we've done three uh our
kindergarten teachers are working with us on sort of a different process to screen and do the class list for kindergarten so you'll see that here and again they don't they don't have any of the um regulations that the grades 1 through
12 have so we're okay by doing the four days at the beginning of the year we used to do I think four or five at the end of the year uh previous I know when I was at the CGS the kindergarten would get out a week early they would do screening but we just don't have parents enrolling for kindergarten now in time
uh to do any kind of screening and class lists at the end of June uh so we're going to move that to September so that I apologize that's also a change you might see here um but yeah so I mean it's the that one is a little bit more challenging the Labor Day move I'm
confused with the Labor Day move being contractual and having it be an issue because the first day of school on this suggested calendar would be Wednesday August 27th which would only put the kids in school August 27th and
28th so that's only two days before Labor Day so maybe the teachers could come in the 27th and the open houses could be the 28th and then we could start school the the 2nd and then you know we didn't we
didn't talk about the 22nd i mean just to have the kids come into school on Monday the 22nd of December and then have two weeks off and then come return for one more day when they return it's just so those three so remember to that June 19th is a holiday so we would
actually be looking at the last day june 18th to add three more days june 19th is the holiday so we're not talking about June 19th june 18th would put us out at our last day if we add without snow days right we haven't had snow days in
years i'm just saying it's I I just I would I hope that we can take that into consideration because that's a I know that that's a huge feedback I get from parents just after Labor Day and maybe given the full two weeks for Christmas break or sorry holiday
break i don't know the right words for that i don't I don't know what I'm supposed to do here am I supposed to make a motion or am I just supposed to make a friendly amendment like I don't know how this works so I I would say at this point I don't know how the before Labor Day is going to work because it's contractually for staff they have to
report before Labor Day and have those four days to work what four days of three days i'm sorry tuesday Wednesday Thursday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday are part of their 182 days i mean we did just talk for B and A and C
member will thank you Mr chairman i understand where member Maxwell is coming from when I when I grew up and I think a lot of my colleagues when they grew up it was schools started after Labor Day that was the tradition i think I don't know what the time frame was we
started to go before Labor Day i think New Hampshire might be the same process some communities they might be after Labor Day um but I think most of the communities they would go before Labor Day have their Labor Day break and then return correct so I think in terms of
continuity uh because people make long-term plans I would be uh adverse to making any changes to the calendar i think if you go back to when I grew up it was like you had Labor Day weekend and then oh my god Charlie Brown and the whole gang has
to go back to school so that was the thing that but it's the reverse now is people go to school a little bit before Labor Day get acclimated have their Labor Day uh weekend and then return back to school and I think just in terms of continuity I mean I understand where
she's coming from but I just can't support that motion at that stage uh thank you Vice Chair um I have two issues um as I bring up every year um I do not agree with us giving Good Friday off um it is the only
religious holiday that we give off and if we're not going to give off the holidays for the Jewish people and the Muslim people and any other people um even the Eastern Orthodox Christians we're only giving the Roman Christians
their holiday i find it offensive um to everyone other than the Roman uh Christians so I have a huge issue with Good Friday i say it every year um it is what it is um my second thing is I would
like to strongly recommend that the city move elections from the elementary schools and put them in the fieldhouse of the of the high school so that we do not have to close school for elections because it makes no sense to have them in the elementary schools when we have
an entire fieldhouse that we can just close gym for a day for the high school kids which okay yes that's a lot of kids but you know what the high school kids are a little more resilient and we can completely close that off it has its own entrance we would not have to close school for that and it's a very large
area we could fit both buildings worth of elections into one space and not disrupt school so I would like to strongly recommend that the city consider that and get the elections out of our elementary schools thank you member Daglio
um I mean um I know member Keegan says this every year i'm always the opposite of this and she knows this and out of respect for her um the majority of the community is Christians um we also give if Passover
Jewish holidays we they have allowed that is true that is true majority of the town is is mostly Christians i can we're not any day of the week we're we're we're going to have a discussion regarding the school calendar
let's not let's not do that um so it will always be it will to me will always be Passover oh and Good Friday i understand Passover for the Jewish I think we should they also could
take the day off as an excuse along as everything else so second thing is um that was brought up um I actually agree with MAC uh member Maxwell with the December I understand uh member Wlette
um I had two weeks off this year for and it was awesome um I think that would also be beneficial for people going away um just having that one day back just give them the two weeks um so I would support that motion for the December one
i still remember Wlette's position for Labor Day um and then the third thing with the elections I feel like because the community is so used to the the elementary schools I feel like that
would be absolute chaos for elections um but that's just my opinion if the if the rest of the committee feels differently I would I would I would respect that but I feel like it would be chaotic for
changing it's not us yeah well city well if we member Shabilia so I I agree with me Keegan and I know we had briefly discussed this during collective bargaining and it was brought
to my attention that getting rid of that day as a day off would have rolling impacts mhm that being said I I understand the the sentiment i
I would support at least evaluating it and getting it i don't think we do it for this calendar year because I think it's we've got enough going on right now but if it's a conversation we could have looking towards the future I think that's worthwhile i do agree with member
Maxwell on the December break and adding in that Monday and Friday i think the impact on the end of our school year versus the impact on having one Monday nine days off and then one Friday i can only imagine what teachers have to deal
with right oh I missed the green i mean how much are they learning i guess for me the sentiment doesn't change having that just be a vacation
week and having those days tacked to the end i think for me as both a school committee member and a parent who would have to be home those days and entertain children I I think the value is there
and I think that from both a planning perspective for parents and because I can only imagine what goes on in a classroom on those days because I can it's got to be utter chaos that it it it's something we should consider i'd be curious to know
Dr kuang from your perspective what the impact of that would be on a broader scale and then maybe even member Dunovan as someone who has lived it oh so much i'd be curious to know what you guys see there
i I would say that if um the committee chooses to do the two full weeks at winter break um pushing it to June it it just becomes late those those weeks become challenging and we don't have just keep in mind we do not have AC in all
buildings um so the shorter amount of time that we're in buildings that we get into the summer can also be trying um the CGS does not have AC in their class all their classrooms right so that can be challenging um and then if there is snow days we're just going into the last
week of June i mean that's the implication it's just going into the last week of knowing that we absolutely could go into the last week of June if there's one snowstorm few snow days it's in there it's built in the calendar but it can happen
well member D the vice chair um I just have a question for Dr kang you mentioned earlier can we have some contractual obligations could you please explain that to all of us one more time with the before Labor Day yeah so the um the teachers unit and the program
assisting unit has language in their contract that they start before Labor Day so that there's always consistency to when we start school the language used to be uh depending on the date of Labor Day okay is when we would start so
if the date was like September 1 2 3 we would start after Labor Day if it was 456 or later we would start it was a little It was just hard for planning uh I don't remember exactly when that changed that changed before me becoming
superintendent i believe the the before Labor Day so that everybody could plan parents knew teachers knew we knew we were coming back the Tuesday before um Labor Day and a lot of it had to do with there were a few years in a row that were really challenging with the
weather and pushing us far into June uh that a lot of districts around here did the same thing mhm again I don't remember the year but it's probably a good 8 to 10 years ago that we made that switch to just make it consistent and if I remember correctly a lot of
families this is it's a no-win i mean if we if we could forecast the weather we'd all be rich but a lot of families start planning their vacations second I mean third week in June so we'll never know i do I do am
thrilled that we will not have people in our building on election days i think that is a huge safety concern it's a terrible stressor for the teachers and the kids who have to eat those bag lunches um because they can't access the cafeteria so I would hope though I think
your idea is fabulous is there any way so we wouldn't interrupt learning perhaps some sort of task force i know we love a good task force but maybe some investigation with our clerk i don't know if there's enough room but I think it's a great idea for not this year
obviously but down the road thank you i'm sorry i do have one more implication just so that everybody's aware if if the two weeks happen I would have to move the high school the the calendar would have to be adjusted in June i just have to adjust the calendar
in June a little bit the high school graduation would have to get moved to what it says here it would have to meet be moved back vice Chair I have another question um if we were to do that would that also mean
that the Friday before would have to be a half day based on the contract is that correct the half day before a vacation so would we have to make that Friday a half day uh I believe so you mean the last day of school no no no
i'm talking about the the Friday before Yeah the before vacation would have to be a half day so we wouldn't need because it's Christmas it's the It's the half day before the Christmas vacation and it's the half day before Thanksgiving correct so so we'd have to have a half day on that day um and also
it would bring us to the 18th of June if we had one snow day we would end up having to go to the 20th because the 19th is the if we were to go let's just we're just talking about the winter break right now
right if we focus on the winter break we'd be adding two days to this calendar so last I'd have to just shift this over so the last day would be the 17th so if we were to have snow days it would be the 18th and yes you're right the 19th
the schools would be closed we'd have to come back the whatever those five days I'd have to play with after that but that shift for the the winter break would bring us to the 17th and the high school graduation i would have to move it and it you might even be looking at
like a Wednesday graduation instead of a Friday i'd have to move the graduation if you if if the committee chose not to do the 22nd and 23rd oh no actually it's only one day never mind it would be the 16th because the 23 is already in there as a
half day so it's really adding one day to the calendar if you want to make the the winter break two weeks which I will say and I think we debated this a little bit last year a lot of the districts debated it i think I knew then what everybody chose i unfortunately I didn't
ask my colleagues is is do you know are you guys doing the two weeks again in Lawrence so I think Andover North Andover did not they did what we did last year i think Lawrence did the two it just depends on what the school districts want for those two this is like the two or three years
in a row that it could happen this way that there's not too many days on one end or the other that you could add or delete the two days on the end so I'm sorry Maxwell's right you're just we're just adding one full day so it would be Tuesday the 16th would be the last day
if you wanted to do two weeks so do we have a motion to amend the calendar i'd like to motion to amend the calendar can you just specify by taking Oh no i'm sorry it is two days it It is two days i'm so sorry
it's Monday and Tuesday yeah so if you take away I'm so sorry if you take away Monday and Tuesday you have to add the two days so it would be 16 17 would be a half day so thank you motion would be to add the
22nd and 23rd of vacation and the last day of school would be June 17th i have a second second all right we have a motion to amend the calendar second from member
Daglio other discussion member Shabelia i like the idea i just wish we had some time to hear from the community from the people we talked to as to what their opinion is on it i I want to vote yes
because quite frankly and personally it improves my Christmas break but I don't know how the people at large feel about it because I know when you have kids home people have to worry about child care and a million other things
get that for one day so here can I share just to guide the discussion we have a long agenda so you know perhaps I know we're discussing the proposed amendment the count uh the I was going to say the council the committee could vote on uh the amendment and we could always
uh proceed to table the actual calendar pending further discussion i don't think we're necessarily in a rush to get this done um so that's an option i'm just trying to move the meeting along so vice chair do you have something to add um my
only concern is for the special needs kids um the consistency having two full weeks off of services especially for your subsparate kids is a huge issue the other issue is is that the kids who
depend on us for lunches are low-income families which is more than 50% of our district some of the our kids these are the only meals they get you know during the day so we're giving them two full weeks of no lunches no it's going to be two full
weeks now instead of a broken up we'd have stuff in that week so those are issues that are real um and I just want to throw them out there to be considered so at this point we'll vote on the proposed amendment and then we'll return
back to the main motion uh all those in favor of the amendment all right roll call that'd be good member Daglio yes member Donovan yes i'm sorry yes member Keegan
no member Maxwell yes member Shabilia yes member Wlette no mayor Borod yes so the amendment uh is approved i would recommend at this point a motion to
table motion to table motion from member Shabilia the second is from member Daglio all those in favor of the table i post the eyes have it so we can continue this discussion at the next meeting uh we need a motion in a second now uh to
ratify the unit A CBA so moved second motion from member Shabilia second from the vice chair discussion member Daglio um I'm going to obviously support this but the quick question is I want um just
people talking in the community can you give um a percentage or the amount that this contract is going to increase the budget of this year like people I I already have it financial impact yeah the
financial impact that it's going to have on the budget yep so um we did a fouryear we did a one year and a three-year contract and the for unit A and the um the first year which is this current year we're in 2425 oh the first
year that we in 2425 is was a 2% 1% split uh and then for the three years it was a 3 3.25 253% uh the Yes that's the only one we're talking about right now right
any other discussion member Shabil was there a fiscal impact done by like I know usually a half a dozen for the council so uh Colleen McCarthy had sent along to the uh committee a a breakdown on an annual
basis of the financial impact would you be able to read that into the record year by year you're going to have to give me a second i know we discussed it at Nauseium but I just Yes and and uh also please know that
along the whole way that we did this and this particular um sheet that the mayor is referencing was done and spoken to with the capo and the mayor the whole time I I am very much aware I was in to
make sure that we had the right numbers collective bargain meeting but I think it's worthwhile to have out loud it's just going to take me a minute to find the actual document we'll return to that just to keep the conversation moving member Maxwell and
then we'll return to superintendent um I would like to say that I am going to support this um however I had some reservations um just I think uh I think our
teachers do a lot um I think I think that we um I think they deserve more but I also think that um adding time maybe to the beginning i know that wasn't talked about this cycle but maybe to the next cycle we can kind of bring up to
teachers bringing back 15 minutes before school and after school just to give a little bit more time for um kids that need the extra help or maybe playing in the playground before school again or parent drop off you get to walk your kids to school again um I'd like to see that i'd also like to see more
extracurricular activities um offered in their contract to kind of inspire them to want to do that and do the after school programs i know our neighboring districts have I know uh one of our neighboring districts has 27
after school um enrichment programs and we are struggling to come up with one so if we could consider that maybe for the next contract cycle I'd like that but other than that I will support it because the teachers are happy with it i'll return to the superintendent not
yet okay any other discussion sorry I'm trying yeah vice chair um I just want to point out that I mean I'm definitely supporting this contract and I want to point out that I definitely even though we're in a very tight budget
situation it is not because of the contract and I just want to make that very clear to people that this contract has nothing to do with our budget crisis our budget crisis exists because of state funding and the teachers deserve what we're offering
them able to find it so here's the deal i'm going to break my cell phone rule i'm taking out my city phone yeah Miss McCarthy is trying to find it for me and I'm going to forward I have the uh the message so worst case scenario we could do this
Wednesday if we don't have it available now for just to read into the record we can do this we can certainly do it on Wednesday however uh here's the thing though we would have to have it added to the agenda for Wednesday so we'd have to amend the agenda okay
i mean they could be just a question I asked during budget time i can add it to the agenda and we just do it first it's doesn't change my vote so it doesn't put information alone putting um information it wouldn't
that wouldn't need to be added to the agenda because it is considered budget related no has to be added to the the agenda okay i have the email i saw it today but I'm trying to find it myself anyway um what we could do
is we could uh simply just a sec okay we could simply um we have it on uh for discussion now we could uh move to simply we have to do something at this point as it relates to parliamentary procedure we could table it before Wednesday we have to do
something it's on the agenda right now good we'd be if if it if it pleases the committee that's fine and if I if I do if I do get it in the while we're still here tonight we'll state it into the record this morning we'll state it into the record this evening i'm just
publicly that I received that message i trying to find it on my city email on the fly uh but we do have that information we'll read into the record as we uh are able to share the specific numbers very specific data year by year so we want to get it right just for the public disclosure all righty so at that
point uh any other discussion okay we'll proceed to a vote roll call member Daglio yes member Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member Shabilia yes member Wlette yes
mayor Boride yes unanimous uh next is the U ratification of the unit CC CBA we need a motion and a second for that so moved second motion from member Shabilia second from the vice chair discussion so I'll do the same thing that member
Jaglio asked all right so uh this contract was done uh very differently than unit A in the sense of there's not just a cola added it was a wage adjustment each year so it's also a 4-year contract uh 2425 is a one-year and then we have a three-year to follow
uh this was a wage adjustment long overdue I think that we would all agree with for our program assistance uh it's not the highest in the area uh and we're not the lowest anymore in the area which is really we don't want to be that um
we're really hoping that um this contract will attract uh people to these jobs and we won't have all of these openings is really what we are hoping for uh and at the end of the four years it puts us in a much more competitive spot to continue going
forward and that's on the same sheet that we're looking for member Maxwell um I just have a quick question um on number two it says no program assistant will be assigned duties without current appropriate training certification is that not
um the case now is are all of our I guess my question is is do we have some PAs that are not appropriately trained and certified no I'm not i'm trying to I know I don't have it in front of
me copy of that what page are you looking at just the first page uh number two and then also in that it says that there's there are side letters attached to theou i just don't know what those look like so those aren't attached
previously existing side okay that predates us okay just want to make sure I wasn't missing something i honestly would have to look in my notes on that exact language okay i was just curious what was the
second thing you asked um actually Dan answered it i just asked about it says that in thisou will be um attached side letters but he answered me so told you they were existing prior and they're just reinccorporated by reference right some
of that is housekeeping that we have to write that way that they there were side letters that talked about certain days things like that that were part of the existing three-year contract we just have to get them into the language of the new contract okay i just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something no
okay other discussion regarding unit C member will I just wanted to uh emphasize what the vice chair had indicated our actions tonight are not reflected
um in a budget that will be out of balance the out of balance due to the budget will be because of state funding and going from $8 million a few years ago at the zenith down to $2.4 million
in chapter $70 we still have an obligation to work with our respective unions if anybody did a look back period of of 10 years there were a lot of zeros and ones and twos and again what the
superintendent emphasized is that we need to get at least the middle part of parody for the paraprofessionals because we're going to be losing these individuals and their poverty wages right now for the
paraprofessionals um even community college professors are poverty wages so it's not something that we worked in in concert and with Maggie and yourself our actions tonight are not going to bust
the budget what will bust the budget is that we're not receiving sufficient chapter 70 monies and that's something that I'm glad the vice chair brought it up i also want to give um credit to all the members of the school committee that
served on negotiating teams that did countless hours of working um some of them they received backlash in the community that was unwarranted i I I'm sorry about that they worked through um
evenings and weekends and countless hours of meetings in order to what I perceive is a very reasonable package as compared to other communities um so I don't want to have that anybody come back to me and say by the way the reason
why we have a out of balance budget is because of the union contracts that we approved tonight that is far from the case i just wanted to emphasize that thank you thank you member Wulette um anyone else wish to discuss okay last
thing I I'll mention regarding the model of cost that the committee received it'd be good if we posted that online as well just for the sake of uh transparency um anything else all right we'll take a roll call vote randy found it
i I found it do you want to take a roll call vote and then I'll Actually you know we're in the midst of discussion let's read it into the record okay so we're reading into uh FY26 3% how do you want me to read this
uh percentages and dollar amounts so um Oh wait hold on so close i think I have the right sheet i make sure I have the right nervous to say the numbers so that's not it
hold on shall we vote i just want to reiterate to anyone who's watching the committee has received this information and we have the uh comfort level to take the vote this is will be disclosed online and we'll read it uh as the superintendent receives it so we can
take the vote member Daglio happily yes member Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member Shabilia yes member Wlette yes mayor Boragott yes unanimous we need a motion in a second to approve
the Crest Collaborative Articles of Agreement amendments so move second motion from member Shibilius second from the vice chair discussion so I I'll just sh this is a matter of uh formality so the board uh the 16 member
board already voted to approve the amendments to this so by function of each school superintendent who sits on the board has to bring this to their school committee to also vote by April 30th then the crest director has to give that to the state to say that he's done
all of those pieces on the board plus each individual school committee has seen it so again a little bit more of a our group has looked at it with a fine tooth comb and has approved this these changes just so you it's and we haven't
done this in my tenure so this is the first time these have been actually amended in a while discussion all those in favor i opposed you have it need a motion and a second to approve the Ranger club increases for
the school for upcoming school year uh 2526 and summer 2025 so moved motion from the vice chair do we have a second second second from member Shabilia discussion member Shabilia are
these costneutral programs at these rates yes so what we're hoping for is right now it is going to be challenging to compete with the rates that we are approving um so and we have not increased the cost on an annual basis
for Ranger summer camp or Ranger club during the school year um so to keep up with the cost for staffing this is what we're proposing at this point is the 10% did I answer your question but yes this will allow us to stay in the black
so is there is there revenue generated from this somewhere or is it Yes so the revolving account the community programs is a revolving account so they they are self- sustaining i'm sorry is that what you're asking me so there is Yes the Ranger program is not part of our operating budget they are self-
sustaining with the tuitions um pays for all of their staffing all the supplies i think one of the thing and Jennifer's apologized she couldn't come tonight to answer questions so I hope I can answer the questions you have but one of the things that they have noticed has has uh
dipped into their um accounts more than they anticipated was the cost of supplies and I think we could all understand that over the past two years they do a lot of consumable uh supplies they do a lot of you know they actually purchase snacks and things for the kids so those costs are also rising and again
we haven't increased the cost and you can see we're still our hope is to still keep this at a reasonable cost um compared to a you know somebody going to a private after school care or something in their own school they don't have to be transported somewhere and can be
picked up at those two different times i can say from personal experience because both of my kids are in the extended rangers day at the mark it's a phenomenal program and there is not a single opportunity out there that you're
going to get at this cost and they do arts and crafts they do all sorts of things and they come home happy every day and we've done Rers Camp we've done for for February vacation we're looking at it again for summer vac like it's
phenomenal and you're not going to beat it and they love it my only complaint and Carol will tell you we need to be able to get that website to auto run those charges every month because no matter how many times I change that email from not spam it goes to spam and
I don't remember to log in and make the payment gotcha even though my credit card's in the system and I know I'm not the only one because she told me she is always chasing people down so no taken it's it's a phenomenal program and I think that people who need it are not going to
find a better option out elsewhere maxwell um so I agree with Dan um this the pricing on this is just you're not going to find it anywhere else um my only question is I know
in I know in the contracts it says that we um do allow our staff to bring our their kids to our schools if they're coming to the before and after schools we're giving them we're also giving them
a discount for that mhm my concern with that is that it you know we in in the contracts it says we will take on the child as long as there are no additional costs and I'm just confused as to why we
would give a discount um when it's an optional program one and two it's it is an additional cost whatever we're giving for a discount could be used towards those extra supplies those extra snacks it's completely contractual so if there
are staff in Mthome public schools and their children are in the program it would be the discount so I can also say to you we don't have a whole lot of staff that do not live in Methuan that bring their kids to school and have them in Ranger Camp i could probably get you
a number and I could probably count on two hands if if that in the entire district we don't have a ton of of staff that live outside of We have them and we want to keep them so we want to say yes to them being able to bring their students um but not many of them are
number one younger and number two in the Ranger camp i could actually get a list if you were if you would like so if my I guess my only question is if they're bringing their child to school um and bringing them to the before
school program they get Oh um so they they would get a discount because obviously they can't have their child sitting in their room with them correct okay and same with the after school so there's really no option other than Right if their child is in upper school then they can't have kids coming
to their I gotcha yeah sorry thank you you're welcome any other discussion if not we'll vote all those in favor i I opposed the eyes have it uh superintendent I'll invite you to begin the discussion regarding the strategy
plan uh quarterly review yeah so we are going to share with you uh and we do apologize that it's tonight but we had such a long uh budget meeting the last time we didn't want to have both of these things on the same night um so and we didn't want to get too far
behind in our quarterly reporting because then it just won't mean as much uh in between the report outs so we do have the quarter 3 report out for you tonight you have all the slides in your packet uh we will
have Dr golabski uh get set up okay we'll have her get set up yeah it did work remotely last time it was wonderful in here but somehow that's not working tonight rose will help us
128 yeah so I think she was just looking at how many count i'll turn it right over to Dr gabsky okay good evening everyone um so I'm starting with just an overview of our strategy
for district improvement plan with the three main objectives which should be um pretty familiar at this point the first to accelerate literacy development and language acquisition across all subject areas the second to reduce opportunity and achievement gaps between student
groups to improve outcomes and the third to enhance partnerships with students and families for the purpose of increasing connectivity engagement and belonging so to remind you of our priorities for objective one uh we're focused on
building account a culture of accountability for all leaders and educators to uphold our vision of literacy instruction and language development to support teachers in delivering standards align instruction um and then utilizing our
screening and progress monitoring to track student growth and adjust instruction um and to ensure high quality core instructional materials are used effectively so in the first two quarters um I shared on some different topics and
again this is not all-encompassing of all of our efforts just choosing to highlight a few of the actions that have been taken um and at this point the scores you're going to hear about um were the result of testing that occurred
in January because as Dr kuang mentioned we're a little behind in this quarterly report um so soon you'll hear from our quarter 4 report which will have more recent scores to go through but I'm going to talk about those scores and also um the results of our learning
acceleration network walkthrough data um and finally inform you and update you on our K through 4 ELA pilot which is exciting so since our fall benchmark scores I just included this information to give you um a little bit of an
insight into what's been going on in the world of K4 ELA and likewise 58 ELA um and these are just some of the highlights that the humanities supervisors asked me to convey um in that they're they're really focused on using multiple data points so what I'm
sharing with you is just the single screener data point but we're also considering um a host of other um assessments to to garner understanding of the student um and we're really thinking about how we're strategically using smallroup instruction
um and aligning that data with that instruction progress monitoring um I've had the opportunity to look at the supervisor's spreadsheets um which are pretty intricate and color-coded um and I was pretty impressed with the handle they had on each student and their needs
um also regularly checking in on that moni monitoring data providing support and feedback um using CP time which is the time with teachers during the school day um that administrators have to engage in data protocols or discuss progress or to
review instructional expectations um and then 5 through 8 again the fall benchmark was it feels like light years ago um since then they've received their uh analysis of MCCAST data and laid it um against their
screener scores created intervention plans um CGS in particular has been really focused on this um this is an idea of um principal prieti of looking at those students who are at the cusp of um meeting or exceeding expectations on
MCCAST and really targeting that group um so we're using that data to see if her efforts um garner the results that she hopes and then we could extend it throughout the district um ongoing TSS for students well below grade level and
those that don't appear to be making pro progress and finally looking at the use of win uh for reading and writing reinforcement so this slide shows the scores from fall and these would be the
percentage of students reading at or above grade level or being at or above grade level um and I will point out that um as a reminder we don't test the kindergarten students until November we give them um a little bit of time to get
used to doing school uh and then the winter scores those are all from January so that's the aggregate across the district grade by grade um and then I prepared this slide um which I thought it might be
interesting for you to see by cohort meaning this is the same group of students how they tested last winter or last January against how they tested this January um and so again there's a few differences there one being at grade
level in the year prior is far different than being at grade level in the subsequent year that's one um but I also pointed out um and I marked them by class so the class of 2033 which would be current grade four
students last year that score would have reflected their score in dibbles and this year their score is reflected on the dream box inside assessment because that's the year where we switch so it's not a perfect parody but it's to give you an idea um and so I was I was happy
to see the growth by cohort in terms of the number of students or percentage of students um reading at or above grade level um I also remarked in the notes there that the class of 2033 and 2032
um Desi has um communicated to us as well those are groups that um are slightly lower than others um because they were in kindergarten and grade 1 at the onset of the pandemic so we're still recovering a little bit there um and
lots of focus on trying to accelerate that growth and this slide here shows comparison from last winter to this winter by grade so different students but how did the grade three for instance students last year compare to the grade
three students this year um so on the whole we see some growth grade two was actually strangely similar from last year to this year um and then four a very slight dip but um I think kindergarten was particularly
impressive in terms of the growth and then in case you were curious um I broke down by school and these would just be the winter benchmarks scores so that would be the January scores um so this is kinder through
grade four and I could say on this slide and on the following slide which is five through five through eight there are some cells that stand out um and usually there's a story there um and I'm finding that some of those stories pertain to um
the way the test was potentially administered um so maybe some variation because the administrator was different from the fall to the winter so we're looking at um the Amplify system Dibbles has another product that takes some of
that human element out of it um and so we would be able to rely on the scores a little bit more there um we're looking into that and also I wanted to point out that particularly students in grade four at that switch from Dibbles to Dreambox
Insight if they test below grade level the supervisors retest them with the dibbles to see if they're finding the same um outcome and it varies from school to school but for instance um
grade four at the marsh I know um when Jen Connelly who's a supervisor there retested students with dibbles 12% were shown to be at or above using that assessment so it could have been a lack of familiarity with the assessment as
well and here's the 5 through eight scores there are also some cells that stand out um in a positive way and I just wanted to point out too um in the prior quarterly or I think it was the first of the year actually I
mentioned this strange finding that there were um quite a few students who were flagged by Dreambox for one of the items that's bulleted there so um re receiving a score that was four levels lower than their previous one or a score
as 0.5 um higher than 2.0 on their previous or below.5 which is below kindergarten and so um in talking with uh Dreambox reading plus they said they're flagging those students because something went
wrong perhaps it was an effort or clicking through at a different rate um and we found that in the winter benchmark there were substantially fewer that had done that so again with the exception of grade four um students new to the assessment uh more more students
gave it um it appears to be um a solid effort or an effort so we're proud of that so since those winter scores came out in January which was a while ago um here are some things that uh have been done and again these were just aspects
that um certain schools asked me to highlight not that there's not much more beyond this um but the marsh in grade two increasing time and text regrouping the um reading intervention blocks
reading success um you can see in grade three there are some particular skills that were targeted there were some themes there across the grade um and then in CGS the progress monitoring data is really important we're finding that
teachers that progress monitor or track with foundations and heard and their progress through those are having greater success in their literacy scores so we're really following up on that um there are some teachers in grade levels across the district who instead of
switching for reading enhancement and taking a group that's all focused on one skill wanted to give it a shot keeping the home room in front of them and using small group um and we found that to be very successful um in the grade levels at the tenny that tried that and the
same thing in in K and one their teachers primarily keep students and really um focus on small groupoup instruction um we're using as a uh an intervention so there's lots going on
there and in 5 through 8 um we're finding that um we need to focus a little bit on the pacing of the EEL education curriculum to make sure students are getting to all standards we've continued with the LAN walkthroughs which I'll tell you about
in a moment um the ongoing TSS process um and Windblock as well so I'll pause after objective one is done in case there's remarks there i just have a couple more items unless would you like me to pause now i see some hands
we can stop now for some questions well member Shabilia then member Maxwell so where does Lexia fit into all this cuz that's a reading program too right sure yeah it's a supplementary program um and there's a couple different
versions of Lexia so originally Lexia um we used the rapid test for assessment prior to Dibbles from Lexia and we used kind of the whole wheelhouse so now there's um a couple programs to support uh mostly K4 and some foundational
skills and the upper grades but that would be um similar to also the reading plus lessons that are available to students a tool that they can use to hone their skills so I see that used in the wind block i see that used at home um sometimes in reading success too um
but I'd say by and large um people are generally fans of Lexia some of the ELA programs that we're piloting that I'll talk to in a bit have versions of Lexia that also come with it but it's a supplement to help with reading instruction so I know from experience
that when you go in for the parent teacher conferences the scores that they're showing us I don't know what other folks have experienced is the Lexia scores for reading mhm so I don't I guess how does that score rating
compare to Dibbles and Dreambox they're probably showing you that cuz it's more recent than when the screening data occurred so that could be um considered in some ways a progress monitoring um step for them to see or
another data point even to cross so outside of the screeners there's no other assessments through the Dreambox Insight unless the student logs on and does the lessons on their own then there are some questions that come up um and
then the same thing with our other tools but we're really looking at everything so um the Lexia is a good indicator i know there's different levels and some students get really motivated to to get that next um printout or certificate um and so yeah I've seen students sit down
and and move through that and then go on to the subsequent program alexia stuff gets cutthroat they take that serious yeah it's pretty ser and some teachers do a great job celebrating that um I've seen teachers hand out the certificates and everyone's clapping or hang them on
the wall and so it's motivational too um so just a few questions um in the first slide for benchmark one it says that grades 5 through 8 were they were created an intervention plan for students on the cusp of grade level proficiency what about the kids that are
not at or near grade level is there is there an intervention plan for them right so so certainly for students that are brought up to TSS so the students who haven't been making progress there's the whole MTSS process for that and then we also know who the students are who
are applying far above grade level um and so the the cusp students are the ones that just need that little push might not require a very long intervention maybe it's just a certain skill um so sometimes I'm thinking about
a couple students I was looking at that they seem to get every type of question wrong um so it might not in in a certain area so it's not pervasive across all the tests it's just one little skill that needs to be fixed um and so that's
a whole thing the CGS is doing um to try to get people above that threshold but certainly every student we're tracking and monitoring that was just one um new new initiative I wanted to highlight from CGS and then last year when we had
this data shared it was separated by school grade EL nonl um and another one for students with disabilities we were also provided the MCCAST student growth and none of that is in here i also asked at the last
meeting if there was an update on why the scores differentiated so much between the chimney versus the rest of the districts um and you know we haven't got an answer on that yeah I actually um I remember you and I so I pulled up the
slides to to create the rationale and um what I was actually um excited to see was that the timony in most grades I have on the the screen now 5 through eight but this isn't separated by EL non-ELL so out of 986 students last year
51% were not at grade level we can't do that with this chart here because you didn't separate by e students with disabilities you didn't separate it out so you would like those groups excluded is that what you're looking at not excluded just separated like you did
last year so that we can have I'm happy to do that and I think that would actually fit better under um objective two as well when we're talking about students with disabilities and English learners um so I think that would probably be make sense for the quarter 4
update i just know that last year it was included in this quarter i mean so I I would just like to maybe keep the evaluations that we're looking at or the scoring or the percentages or whatever we're grading our or I mean whatever we're looking at to monitor their
benchmarks I'd like it to look relatively the same year by year so that we can go back um my other concern is the Dibbles assessment and I know that K through four is still getting the dibbles and the um dream box is that right four grade four if they're if
they're scoring below grade level on the insight then the dibbles so I guess my concern with that is the Dreambox or the Insight goes down to kindergarten so we realistically could use that districtwide the problem I have with the
dibbles is that dibbles administrators are supposed to be trained in dibbles and the evaluation of dibbles and all of the teachers are doing that by hand now so they are testing 24 students in their class and they are going through a
dibbles assessment i'm assuming that's timeconuming um I mean 24 students going through a dibbles assessment it's got to be at least 10 minutes each student yeah the time consuming part doesn't come with the assessment it's the manual logging of the different scores and
coming up with the overall scores which is why we'd be interested in having that next level um but I will just point out too although we do give the dibbles to students that are below grade level in Dreambox I didn't include that here right so what you're seeing is just the
Dream Box yeah um and then I I would just be really interested to see the Dreambox assessment results themselves because they do this for you um you can separate it by school by grade you can do it by year you can group five years
together i mean all of the statistics are done for you so I just don't know where these statistics are coming from i just take them off the screen and put it in here so it's neat um because the dibbles I if you is concerning to me because I thought it was the will of the
committee to have it the same every quarter which is why I just kept it similar um the dibbles is concerning to me because all of the teachers have to be trained in that it is it is a trained program yeah we we did train um the teachers every teacher in our district
is trained in Dibbles assessments i'm sorry every teacher in our district K through four is trained in Dibbles assessments yes the humanities supervisors trained the teachers at the onset of the dibbles because if you remember we had to change midstream from the rapid assessment to dibbles so that
was part of the whole training and there is training available um for teachers too i know there is a training process there is a training process for dibbles and it requires certain credentials and certain Yes yes we work so all of our teachers are certified amplify is the company
that produces dibbles and so we work I can show you the um the invoice for the training module if you need to see that they were trained and then we also um use what they call as the fancier version of a um spreadsheet we have the
most basic version of storing the data um and so a lot of districts have moved on to that um the one that's more computerized and less prone to human error which is of course more more costly um so much to the case that Amplify might do away with the version
we have and move to the other um but I think it's for that reason too with teachers in I think that we're putting a lot on our teachers with the Dibbles assessment especially just having to monitor them and input the results i think if we can computerize them I think
that would be Yeah well of course too and then the next um echelon of that program for again another additional cost will tell you'll group the students for you so that's something the supervisors are doing by hand which takes a ton of time um we'll group
students but then also tell the teacher how what best to do with those students to help them grow so there's lots of options that we're pricing out um but I think we're in the same vein in terms of how we think could be a little bit smoother a process and focus on instruction instead of testing i just
have one last question okay um have we compared these assessments with and I'm not educated in it so I'm really counting on you with the MAP testing um I've just been told that that kind of evaluates
kids at at state standard um rather than just a targeted um this is where we want to get you so let's see if we can match that number whereas the map is just like this is where we expect you to be as the state
where are you and then it's targeted focus on how can we help you get there um just curious is Yeah I think Dr quan might be able to speak to that too i think that was prior to when I came on that that was also discussed as an option i think the main barrier there is
it's pretty costly and it offers not much beyond the assessment so when we pay for reading plus all the students have access to practice any of these lessons anytime they want vocab reading comprehension and we can also do the
benchmarks so it was a little bit more um for what we were getting and um I think at the time we felt comfortable with this data point coupled with everything else we have to give us a good a view of what's happening that's all thank you
we're going to hear from the vice chair member Wlette and member Daglio i'm going to be really quick and a little bit off topic um so one thing that I consistently bring up is that this testing all stops in 8th grade and I would really like to know the
statistic of how many students we are graduating that are literate and I don't know what literate is defined as per the state so whatever that is is there any way we can be testing our high school kids so that we know what our literacy
rate is when we graduate the kids so yes we um we have been using common benchmarking assessment at the high school which is rooted in um a Pearson curriculum Pearson software which we don't typically use very much so we'd
have to go in and manipulate the assessment and communicate to all the teachers what the assessment was so one thing um Miss Dumont who's the English chair at the high school asked for this year um was through um it's called Common Lit which is a company which does text and questions they have
benchmarking assessment for high schools um which is fairly inexpensive and pretty reputable so again more to state standard than just reading at um but we are going to go forward with that um so that group's going to be looking at um
coming up with their assessment calendar so we'll be able to to look at that thank you thank you Mr chairman uh we had a a testing model that was discontinued that was no fault of our own what was that
again lexia Rapid okay lexia i think that it was actually state recommended and then we did it because of that okay and then um the the dibbles according to the chart I'm looking at is going to be converted to
insight um the the dibbles we're using for grades K through three and then four through eight we use the um reading plus which then changed their name to Dreambox and the assessment that goes
with that is called Insight Assessment so I usually say all of them in case someone's familiar but it's dreambox reading reading plus insight assessment and that's simply because doubles doesn't extend all the way through grade 8 so we have to move to something else
okay so K through eight would be what would be the predominant uh testing model dibbles and then reading drink and insight would be when I'm sorry what would one would be insight grade four is
the is the transition okay so we don't have anything from K through 8 in terms of one testing model no so we're going to go two separate testing models on the same cohort and we're going to try to study them from
kindergarten to grade 8 and we have two testing models Yeah there's there's not a lot on the market that goes beyond um most most districts start middle school at grade six so they'll have something K5 K4ish there's not much that goes K8 that's
reputable um especially at the time of this onset so that's why to date that one cohort that I mentioned the transition or the switch um you can see that but when they've lived in that same test for a while it's a little bit more
consistent and what is the interjection of the dream box what does that involve is that a backup testing model if you you have issues with the testing of the kids and then you say "Okay we want to do a further testing." What is dreambox so so Dreambox it's entirely
different um students are presented with a passage and then questions and depending on how they respond the program generates a text that's higher or lower and then they work their way up and eventually they answer so many questions that the
program places them at a certain level so that gauges um vocabulary reading comprehension um eye rate so the speed at which students uh are moving through a text motivation is another students ask very
honestly answer some questions about their motivation for reading and if they're enjoying it um in the program that students can use in the interim they can pick their own topics they can pick their own selections um they can choose whether they're working on vocabulary reading comprehension
typically students have a harder time with the reading comprehension um and Dreambox um encourages students to use their program frequently in the interim between testing because they say more time in the program improves reading and
therefore um improves benchmarks we also hear the same from our all of our other programs that we use okay so like I think you mentioned that dibbles was a better diagnostic tool for us as a opposed to the previous system
right so dibbles is like the lower grades and then insight will kick in demarcation line will be grade what five through eight K through four would be uh dibbles four they four we test them in dream box and then if they're kids who
are are on the cusp that we're trying to figure out is it because they're new to the test and they're not sure how to navigate this assessment or are these true um areas where they're lacking so we'll also give the dibbles to see a little bit more information on where
we're at so we do have kids that yes in both might be below grade level or we have some that when we go back and do the dibbles we can see a certain area they need extra support so outside of the um those areas that I mentioned for the Dreambox reading plus um assessment
it doesn't get into all of the the nitty-gritty of of phonics and reading like Dibbles does because that's considered more in the lower grades so that's what the information we're trying to get when we go and see my biggest concern is when you go you take the SAT
versus ACT to go into the college or you have the MCCAST which has been discontinued as a requirement to graduate in Massachusetts and we had a discontinuation no fault of our own of a previous testing model and then we have
two separate testing models and then you expect to do a longitudinal stud study of two testing models long term it's it's difficult to it should be like K through 8 at least in the grammar school
of having one testing model and if you ever need a backup or something might be the dream box just to do a further analysis of these kids but it's hard to like when you're talking about testing models you go through K through uh grade
four and then five through eight you're talking about two separate testing models yeah it's Can I pop do you know the problems I'm having with that no yeah no I understand and I think the superintendent wanted to weigh into I think and when the kids are first literally learning to read and
then reading to learn that that shift happens and so the skills that we're asking a student to demonstrate in eight are far different than K there's a lot of companies that do that that's what I just wanted to reiterate that piece that while it makes sense to have a K most school districts are in K through eight
so there is that right we are unique but K through three we're actually assessing their ability to read starting in grade four we're looking more at their ability to read and comprehend right so there's a little bit of both but it it does assess different things alexia did the
same thing right the Lexia is really looking at can the students decode and code words right and then we're moving into now can they put the words together and comprehend what they're reading and that gets takes more skill and obviously gets more challenging as the kids get
older so even when we had the Lexia 5 uh core assessment it the state did recommend it uh the previous assistant superintendent got a substantial state grant to do our literacy work and that was the recommendation by the state to
use that program uh unfortunately they only had it available for 2 years which is why we had to make that switch we were already using uh reading plus at that same time too because it was only for elementary yeah it's the only goal
i mean the most important thing is that dibbles is evidence-based and where I'm not creating it and so is reading plus right so anything that we're using with the inside assessment I'm not creating it right we're not reinventing the the questions right that it's evidence-based
and reading plus actually came to us years ago as a secondary assessment because it was one of the few uh programs that would assess and keep adolescent interest in the assessment and when I say adolescence we used it at
the high school that's how we were introduced way back when um to reading plus initially so it you know it's transitioned but it it is an adaptive reading program so it actually meets kids where they are and helps them to practice and grow
um Yeah um so my my few questions is um especially your wind blocks so according my program that I have so we see what the students are missing out on like it could be like a student failed three
lessons that was just vocabulary so what we do is we'll go in and switch the domain out but also what we do when we pull them into small groups we can print out worksheets where it capitalizes on their struggles and we pull those groups
in and we work on just what they're struggling with is that similar to the wing groups that we're doing in our schools right now do do you use reading plus two we read I Ready yeah okay so uh it does have that that function and that feature where they can the teachers can
go in and find the weakness and then it gives them like a what next step okay um so like Dr kuang said "When I saw it working really well at the high school um we had a reading enhancement class and the teacher would use it often and get a lot of data because kids would be
in it and then she'd pull small groups while kids were still working and the small group would be based on which skill they were lacking and they'd share the focus and go back and then we'd keep going." So it's the same idea um yeah and in the wind blocks same except um
it's it's open to subjects beyond ELA so sometimes we have to be a little artful when we're getting kids exposure to what they need extra help in when it might be more than just ELA um but I know writing has been a real focus of a lot of the the upper grades too
so far um so the so yeah so but the problem that what we've done this year and we realized that when kids are on the electronics the entire time they what they do is they'll just keep clicking the button but then they could redo the lesson like I don't know how it
works on this but they can get the same lesson it might be like a couple of times around they'll go back and it'll be the same story but they've learned like after instead of A B and C they know how to click D at the end oh no yeah no these are different stories and
if they're going too fast the program will freeze and lock them out and the teacher has to come over and reset um and that would also like on the screener that would be something that would be starred to me or flagged um but I like to look at reading rate for that too um
because some kids that think when they're taking assessment they're being really careful and moving through it slowly um reading plus doesn't work that way it thinks that they take a long time to get through a text which might um hinder their score so we encourage them just to
read in your normal pace so we can get like a most accurate read um but sometimes by grade 8 they've been in the program for a while um and it's not as exciting which is why at the high school when it started the high school was great and then as the kids came up through um the upper school and had used
it for a while they're a little frustrated by having that that program again so we're we're trying to spice it up a little bit um in the reading support class and that's why we're going to Common Lit for their assessment too and that the the reason why I say that is because when we print out worksheets
for them like from the I Ready toolbox it's called the I Ready toolbox i've realized that the kids do better when they're reading on a worksheet than they are on the computer so they're like they'll get it from doing the worksheet but then they'll go back to the computer
and they'll fail the same like different assessment of the same like subject like it could be like vocabulary or reading comprehension and they'll fail it but when they print it out it so it goes back to the whole mindset of it's better
reading it on a piece of paper do those wing groups do that like they print out worksheets i see a lot of um pen and paperwork being a lot of our digital tools do have that print option for teachers even even in our ELA program even though we have a platform with
slides and everyone has access it also has printable features um and so I see teachers mixing it up a lot oh and the last thing is um I would like to see on this data because it it shows like what
the above um grade level is but then obviously there's 34% of eighth graders um at the CGS is not meeting grade level i would love to see what grade level they're on meaning like I I will tell you this I have a student that's a sixth
grader he's reading on a second grade level and that to me is where it's concerning is in the two years because in certain school districts they care about the growth but if a kid goes from second grade to fourth grade but he's a
sixth grader they say well he moved up two levels well in my mindset yeah he moved up two grade levels but he's still behind and that's I think that's the problem not just in Methuan and other district it's the a commonwealth problem which we just saw in the news the other
day 60% of fourth graders in the Commonwealth cannot read on grade level and it's because these tests will say well there's people meeting grade level but they don't show what grade level the other side is on and it's disturbing
when a eighth grader is reading on a third grade level about to go into high school and he's reading on a third grade level so I would like to see that data where where these kids are not meeting grade level where are they falling and
is it consistent because if they are consistently on that third grade level what are we doing for that individual to make sure he's improving because if he's in eighth grade he's going to freshman year even if he's a
freshman and he gets up to sixth grade he's still going sophomore year on a sixth grade level that to me is really worth about how he's passing high school like if you can't read so that's why I I also brought up a
few months ago why we should move the grade the passing grade to a C is because times have changed since when we were in high school where we're going to summer school if we can't read or we're doing extra classes etc
but I think I've yield my time just want to keep in mind we've been meeting since 4:30 it's almost 9:00 uh we're still not through this presentation we just took a breather here for some comments member Maxwell has a a very brief follow-up and
then we can move on my my follow-up question just is I know that Dibbles is offered and I did just find out the teachers are administering the test so I don't want to push this but Dibbles is offered through 8th grade K through eight
no it isn't um is that just in our district or in general because on the website it does say that we off it is offered K through eight it's K through six um it's really not appropriate i mean we have kids in
8th grade we have kids in fifth grade um who are reading beyond high school so that would tell us nothing about them um cuz it it would just kind of cease like they're at this this fifth fourth grade level but we don't know how to help
further so our goal is to have all the students grow not just to reach this threshold and kind of take a breath um so it it doesn't give us what we're looking for because um it would be a lot simpler to have one one for no doubt about that um but we're just trying to
have accurate reads on the kids real quick we're about 10 minutes to nine we actually need to take a vote to extend the meeting second motion for member Willlette second for member Shabilia uh all those in favor i opposed all right we're going
past nine okay all right so to continue with objective one learning acceleration network um walkthrough snapshots um so this is the TNTP and that is the name of the company it used to be called the new teacher project
it's not anymore it's TNTP we met them through our Gleam grant and they helped us um implement EL education um in grades um eventually 5 through eight and they also helped us with some um work in
our lower schools they um they are our partner for LAN and so our consultant comes through and visits the district a few times a year it's not to the extent that it was with Gleam we don't go through every single room it's not as in-depth a rubric it's just a snapshot
uh the core actions are the same so what we're looking at are kids focused on high quality text does the lesson employ questions and tasks which integrate the depth of the standards and I I underline depth because um all the lessons we've
seen have been and subject area aligned and related to the standards but it's really being very particular in the depth of the standard um and then in our action three are students responsible for doing the thinking so we're we're we pretty much have the
high quality text thing down when we go into a class the text that students have is of high quality some of the rooms we went through um were prepping for MCCAST or doing presentations listening to their classmates they didn't happen to have a text out but all the texts we saw
high quality um the depth of the standard is something that we want to continue to explore more we're getting closer um but we what we want to make sure is that that students are growing year-toear um and really understanding
um all the aspects and there's some um just very particular wording in the standards that we want to make sure they're getting to um and then our students responsible for doing the thinking so from September when 15% of the classrooms were rated as doing so
now in the most recent visit 55% were related to doing so so that would be walk into a room and it's not necessarily the teacher doing what I'm doing now but the students um working together in groups problem solving puzzling through things and the teacher
kind of moving as facilitator um and students creating a product in a lot of circumstances so we're pleased with that um and then finally I want to talk about our ELA program exploration and pilot so our agreement with Wonders
which is our current ELA program comes to an end this year we were in it for six years um and so we're considering where to go next and these are the three programs that we had narrowed it to so Wonders has a new version
2023 um the EL education for K4 which is that's the one we have for upper school now um and then Amplify who's the company that creates Dibbles amplify CKLA their new version
3E which starts in 2025 so those were all highly rated on curate ed reports um for standards alignment teacher usability a lot of neighboring districts use them um so we had narrowed it down to focus on those
three um and so in November I introduced those programs to all the K4 teachers and then we asked if anyone would be interested in piloting so we asked all K4 teachers um anyone that raised their hand had the opportunity and so we've
actually had teachers um from various grade levels living in each of the new programs with their students to see how it goes um and so that's been really interesting to see um in March we had at our PD time I had
the publishers come in to talk and present their product to K4 teachers and they rotated through in a workshop style so that those who weren't piloting learned um directly from the source about the program um I surveyed teachers to get a sense of their impressions what
were strengths and weaknesses what are they worried about um there was some e additional support provided to piloting teachers um we've been going through classrooms of piloting teachers just to see what the landscape looks like um trying to
see if if the vision of learning that the instruction material is suggesting aligns with ours watching students response to the lessons um and then um on April 7th um we went to Dr kuang's office with all
the piloting teachers um and heard from them directly they reviewed the the surveys that all the teachers had filled out and said whether they thought the concerns were valid in terms of what their experiences were what their strengths were um we provided them some
updates and on Thursday of this week we have another PD time so we're going to have the panels of of piloting teachers um share their experiences with their colleagues i have some information from other districts who do use the materials
um and eventually we need to arrive at the decision of where we're going forward um and so I think we're in a we're in a good spot um there were a lot of opinion shared at our u most recent convening with Dr kuang the teachers are really excited um if anything I think
it's we have a lot of teachers are excited about what they're piloting and their kids are really responding so um we've gotten emails from some parents um through teachers that have said you know my child came home talking about the content that they're working on um in
the book and wanted me to to write a book with them or wanted to talk about this and these are kids from kindergarten all the way up through grade four so a lot of the newer programs are really focused on content so what are the topics that we're covering while we're doing the reading
things um and really becoming very interesting to children so we've seen a lot of kids having neat discussions um and the teachers have been pretty responsive so um we're looking forward to this Thursday okay oh yeah here's some photos
okay so this is when we had the rotations of the publishers doing their presentations um and then the piloting teachers um had committed to trying the program for at least 7 weeks to give it a good go and if they wish to continue
through the end of the school year if they thought they were better for their students to not interrupt them we they can certainly do that um I just listed out um PD that's related to objective one throughout the year and I'll keep going for the sake of
time um unless there's questions on anything I've just said we can have questions at the end okay I'll go I'll go through them all just want to take a note okay okay objective two reduce um the opportunity and
achievement gaps between student groups so this would be the the strengthening co-eing co-planning implementing supports and interventions um making sure leaders and educators are using culturally linguistically um
sustaining practices targeting um utilization of supports so here's what I've covered the first two quarters uh for this quarter I wanted to highlight um the CSST update which is the comprehensive student support team want
to give you an update on the blue engine um co-eing inclusive teaching model at the high school um and then I wanted to highlight the promotion of college and career opportunities for MHS students because a big part of this objective is we want to make sure all of our students
are aware of pathways and opportunities that are available to them not just the ones who are very familiar with our system or families who know how to um navigate it um so for the CSST um the comprehensive student support
team um the uh we've worked with DESIE to complete the needs assessment and engage in action planning um in association with the SEAL and mental health grant so John Crocker's been leading a lot of this work um so the team's currently engaged in the work to
develop an action plan ne based on their needs assessment um Liz Folks who's our uh teacher leader for health um has also been working with Mr crocker she attended a conference with him um to talk about how we we could see what's
being done in classrooms and on the counseling side um to address student needs blue Engine that's the group that helps us um with our model or vision of co-eing at the high school remember we have the three target pairs we've been
working with special education general education or English learner education general education um the pairs have been going really well they've been going through full coaching cycles um our consultants come out and walk through classes and doesn't just leave it at
that then meets with the groups and talks through how they can improve teachers have been very receptive to that in our pairs um we're hoping for a train the trainer sort of model where they take their expertise and can help us spread that throughout the district the consultant has also offered
professional development for any co-eing pairs who want to sign up together on um prior professional development days so we've had we've had about a dozen um pairs take part in that and they've done some really cool gallery walk activities um has kind of broke the ice of how to
work together all the while um the high school's been creating a a guiding vision for co-eing and co-planning guiding documents and really kind to trying to parse out what is the role of a program assistant as a CLA in a classroom versus the role of teachers in
a co-taught setting what does that look like what are the responsibilities um and so it's been really nice to be able to have time to delineate that here's some quick data from Blue Engine um and again it's just the three pairs i know the font's small at the top
that's the rubric um are the levels that that um blue engine rates on so from beginning development developing achieving and expanding so the pathways that the high school chose to focus on is pathway one teachers use daily mastery data to determine and
effectively lead differentiated small groups um so you can see at the start of our work um teachers were between a one and a two so beginning and a and a developing so we found teachers were using data but more after like a big
benchmark not daily data that they're gathering from students observations of students or how they're completing work right in front of them they would wait to make a big shift so we're encouraging teachers to make a shift in real time so if you notice kids need something group them right there get couple them up and
have different plans for different levels of instruction um and at this point um this was a couple months ago we had finished um pathway one our observations of that teachers had progressed to um moving closer to
achieving on a consistent basis which is really good growth in a very short amount of time the first time we've really worked on this um and then pathway four teachers will be able to maximize collaborative planning time so that it leads to results for all students so um the high school was
intentional about creating that time for teachers where they would be aligned and be able to meet and work together and this it was easy to do with the pair of three it would be more complicated to do across the board but we we are going to be thinking about that um and we really
were helpful I think um through Blue Engine of giving teachers a structure of not just to sit together and not know where to take it but to give them common language to make their discussions um really um impactful so again there was some growth there and we're not finished
um in that pathway so um our consultants still working on that one with our teachers this year okay and these are the opportunities I wanted to highlight um offered to our students in Mthuan High School um and I wanted to um to give
kudos to the counseling department who spearheads a lot of this work um so Mthuan High School I don't know if you're aware hosts its own college and career fair in the fall so this past October um these are just some of the colleges universities
um career and armed forces representatives who attended and had booths and so the students can go and move through get information um ask questions um but I think it's really nice that we come um we have people come to the school um early in the fall to to
meet with our our seniors um in March we had the vocational technical trade community college and career fair um so again here's just some of the representatives that attended so students in grade 12 um can have access to the fair to learn
about um post-secary plans that they think may suit them or just to ask questions or to figure out how do I get from A to Z if this is what I want to do um the end of March um grade 11 students um had the opportunity to go to
the Boston National College Fair um and so that that is four-year two-year technical business um all types of schools there uh and there's also some workshops um the kids can take part in to learn about um schools that are out
there opportunities that are available and then finally uh Miss Tetro has been really excited about this this has always been a long-standing um event at the high school where there there's a table outside of the cafeteria and as students come and go on the way to lunch
there'll be a representative there from a college trade or career um in case someone wants to stop by and ask questions or the armed forces um and they've really worked hard this was a growing list this is not comprehensive um but I think they yeah they had Yale
there the other day and a bunch of different types of schools are coming and kids are asking like what is this about um and so I'm really happy to have those opportunities available to kids too um and then here's just some PD that relates to our um reducing achievement
and opportunity gaps objective three um this is enhancing the partnerships with students and families um so we're thinking about empowering student voice improving uh chronic absenteeism rates increasing communication targeted mental health
supports so I'm just going to talk briefly um give some updates um here we go okay so the Mthuan Parent and Student Advisory Council um had identified an area focus um at
their most recent meeting Mr crocker asked me to share with you um and so the members will work to develop parent guardian resources um that are based in trails which is our wellness curriculum which is delivered through lower school health and classrooms uh general ed
classrooms um and so this will be a complement um to help parents and guardians guide their students through these topics at home that aligns with common language from what they're hearing in school which makes a lot of sense um and then vision of the graduate is a phrase you you're going to be
hearing a lot of um so from our NES accreditation uh the collaborative conference we and they agreed that we need to start our vision of the graduate process which I think we've talked about for a long time and now we're ready to go so this is the articulated
um vision K12 and communitywide of what we would like Methuan High School students to embody and be able to do when they say "I'm a graduate of Methuan High School and I'm a proud graduate of Mthuan High School." So what skills do we believe are important um and so most
recently I went to um a NASC educator showcase i had previously been a chair of the NAS accreditation at the high school um I was accompanied by um the high school principal Mr caret um Miss Dumont um is a chair as well and Miss
Moore was there and we sat in on some of the uh the sessions learning how other schools did it and made it fun um it's really engaging for students um you all parents teachers there's a lot of steps that we need to go through but the whole
idea is to really um foster students education and to make sure everyone's prepared so it's kind of exciting so that'll be coming up and then our Methuan village partnership um so Ashley Gonzalez who's the village enriched life director had
reached out and said "I would love to do something with the schools." Um because I see that there's a lot of residents here who have stories they want to share and want to impact people's lives um so I enlisted um Cheryl Mancini who has
helped with this and so I just wrote out the events um or offerings that our students have provided for Mthuan um village residents and I think it's been a really great partnership for both parties um I didn't include that here because I didn't think it would be appropriate but they interviewed
residents and made really neat videos there were um there's all kind of art workshops um and so it's been a really great experience um and so thank you Ashley for reaching out about that and for Cheryl for organizing um and then just some of our
our highlighted um events there's been um lots going on in terms of um schools offering their literacy nights um and also another standing event that we added consistent across all schools is the English learner student showcase
where parents are invited in um to see the progress of their students language development um and students present their work to their parents um so each school has been doing it in a slightly different way but we've had excellent attendance um and so we look forward to
having that be one of our standing items as well as a lot of grade level offerings that we've seen um and then the credit for life fair at Methuan High School so again an event that we host in collaboration with Mary Valley Credit
Union um so the students select a job what they might want to be when they grow up and they have a spreadsheet on their iPad which then um gives them all different budgets depending on what their job is and they need to move
through each booth for instance um housing transportation um clothing all the things that adults need to consider and they need to make choices and as they make choices their spreadsheet goes in the red or in the black and then they go to the spin the
wheel and they could have a traumatic life event and all their money's gone or they they have something positive but the kids get really into it um and they they learn as they go so we have a lot of community members who volunteer their time um at each station and are are
specialists in those areas and um that's always a great event for us this year we had Socrates de la Cruz who's a community member lawyer and businessman give the keynote address so all the kids loved it um and and heard him talk and then they went off and made their their
choices about credit um and then finally this was in um one of our key actions we were interested in learning about because we didn't gather data on this prior how many grade nine students is what we're
looking at specifically are involved in extracurriculars at the high school so by doing that uh we are using Infinite Campus collecting rosters from um club adviserss or coaches loading them into Infinite Campus um and then running
reports and I was curious to see how many were um involved in at least one or two or more so to date we have 75 activities in here and we don't have them all so um for the next quarterly my
plan is we have just a handful left um add in the others because there's some that are tied to courses that I need to get the rosters for for instance like marching band isn't in here yet um and then I want to delineate that by our
student groups for objective two so we're thinking about English learners think about students with disabilities all students group um and then we can talk about potential goals for next year for involvement or then even furthermore I'm interested in inquiring about the students who didn't participate what
were their barriers to participation and how can we get them involved so is it they're not interested in something do they not not know about it is it transportation because we have a lot of guesses but we haven't asked specifically so these are the numbers as they stand now but they're still growing
okay that concludes quarter three thank you very much questions comments member Maxwell um when it comes to objective three I love objective three um I know that in
the beginning of my school committee journey I met with um Dr wang and we sat down and discussed how we could bring parents back into school and could have more student engagement so I love seeing all of these numbers cuz I think this is
so important and parents love being back in schools so I I love this i think you're doing a great job with that um and as far as objective two I was just curious with the pilot programs is there like one in each school is it um just one
particular teacher so the the programs looking at at K are K through four we have at least one teacher piloting every grade in every program with the exception of in one program we don't have a kindergarten teacher um but
they're primarily at the CGS because those are the teachers that um raise their hand to do it we do have sprinklings in other schools too and so we've been really deliberate about going out and seeing all the the different um classrooms and how it looks and that's why we're offering so many um
opportunities for people to learn from their colleagues and work together because there are some people that might not have seen their neighbor using one or another but I'm happy to have e even representation between the three to keep it fair do you have an idea of which program teachers are preferring or
liking better than the others or yeah I have some hunches but um I think after Thursday we're gonna ask them um we like to do like the exit ticket at the end where they if they had to pick right now what would they pick um but there's lots of components to consider and a lot of
bells and whistles and and things too so yeah we're vice chair um speaking of the pilots did you by any chance test kids before you started the pilot and then test it at the end so we could see how much
progress was made with each different program so that we knew which one was actually more effective for the kids um no because I they're effective in different ways so a lot of them are really good about fostering discourse and collaboration between students which
might be hard to measure off the cuff um a lot of them build content knowledge over time so if you stay in the program like you're you're evolving that that development um and that also some of the piloting teachers because the routines are really new in the new programs
started with mod module one to build in those routines whereas in other curriculum they're in different pieces um but they have different offerings in terms of um the number of materials the teacher needs to sort through how easy is it for them to use how many how many
decisions do they need to make in an instructional period is there a lot of planning that goes in ahead or not um and is that good or not as good and so um yeah we're interested to see to see the results okay thank you and my other
um just a comment and I've spoken to Martha Tedro about this so this won't come as a shock to her um that the high school offerings for like the the career fairs and the lunch things is not really accessible to our special needs
population because there are lots of kids who can't go up to a table and ask or you know th that population and I'd like to see it Um I'd like people to start thinking about how do we make it more accessible
to our special needs population especially our subsearate kids that um could benefit from some of those options um and they're not having that opportunity and their families don't know about it so there's no way for the families to even inquire with the
students okay so um I just want to throw that out there okay thank you other questions can I just make one comment uh if I could because this is probably on all your minds and so I'm going from the awesome work that we're doing to how do
we make it happen um financially and so uh most of you are aware in our budget we try to uh lease as much as we can so that we have a consistent line item year after year that was something that Sean Cronin really taught Ian and I like you
the more you can do that the more beneficial it will be because you have a stagnant line item and you can plan for it so one of the things that we did is we did that six years ago we actually bundled the entire new wonders program uh and costed out for six years and we
leased it so we had the same uh you know cost in our budget year over year so that we could plan for it um and we are 100% going to do the same thing regard regardless of what plan we're doing here we're looking at the cost of what is the cost over six years what's that bundle
how do I go out for leasing so that we have the same cost over six years um it's it's we're not a district that can just buy a whole new English program uh for so many kids and classroom teachers in one year some smaller districts can do that uh so we have found that that is
going to be the best way to move forward uh so we already have line items in place in the current budget that this new will replace and we're we're doing our best right now to account for that not sure exactly the final product but uh Dr gowski and Mr gazen have worked to
make sure that we have a really good estimate in the money that we're looking at right now of what that would be each year for the next six years so just so everybody understands how that would work um moving forward any other questions i've been under the weather
for the past week and I'm losing my voice so I apologize thank you very much uh we're going to move on to finance and operations uh the expenditure report any questions from the committee regarding the expenditure report anything okay uh we need a motion
and a second to approve the transfer of fiscal year 25 funds to contracted services second motion from the vice chair second from member Shabilia discussion take a roll call member Daglio yes member Dunovan yes
member Keegan yes member Maxwell member Shabilia yes member Wlette mayor Bor yes 61 61 pass and next on the agenda we have the revolving funds report any questions or
concerns from the committee question member Shibilia the lost books Chromebook repair um and this goes back to the question I asked about the leases which we'll we'll get to and the liquidation of the old asset
where is this 45ish,000 and then the 57,000 that's received where is that money coming from for Chromebooks so when students uh break
lose we collect 57 grand year to date well some of that you asked what we do with the old old like iPads um so what we've done it two ways we've we've gone through a company and gone out and asked for um
it's like an auction okay and they go out and we say we have x number of devices and we'll get companies come in and say we'll give you x number of dollars um we've done that in the past this this past year we we went out and we got three companies that we know
that's what they do and we asked them for their best price they came in and they looked at them they got the best price we used that money that money went in here um and we use that to offset some of our insurance on devices so we
pay for insurance so that when they accidentally break it's not necessarily you know malicious Apple Care whatever the equivalent is so that's that's how we sell them we don't
do a lot with Chromebooks yet because quite frankly at the end of four years they're in rough condition um we're hoping this year we can we can sell some of them um but we do keep some keep a lot for loaners for to keep inhouse or
for testing all right that'll I'll I'll save the rest of that until we get to the lease portion thank you y any other questions regarding council um member Daglio
um just want to quick update with the parking lot revolving fund um just questions of what we're planning on doing with that revolving fund well I had a conversation uh we do have a quote for cameras and lights um out here in
the parking lot to the tune of $120,000 um not out here at the high school oh sorry yeah I keep picking up at the high school anyways you knew what I meant yeah so um we have 60 of it i I got to find the
other 60 um I'm looking at other pockets seeing if I can either scr up the 120 through revolving accounts or whatever to get it done right away or if it makes sense to do it in phases you know have all the lights done and then second phase when I
get another 60 do all the cameras um so we're in those discussions right now okay thank you Willlette hey man this is goes back to last year is it possible to do a peace meal i talked about it was the dumping
issues along the trail i don't know if that's a reoccurring issue if that's been resolved dumping signs strategic cameras lighting just in that area is obviously if people are dumping they might be doing other activities and we don't want them on our campus especially
overnight um so if that's something again I want to telegraph something it'd be great to get it all done at once but if we did it peacemail I'd want to start at the lower half okay where darkest and it's been an ongoing concern i don't you know I don't know if the DPW's going
over there and cleaning up on a regular basis or we've resolve the dumping issue but I know that was something that was brought to my attention so that was the only thing I have an ongoing concern with so maybe get an update and see if there's any signage or you know a strategy until we get the other money to
do everything right um I mean I would rather have that even a little peace meal of that but that's just my opinion thank you other questions if not move on to the grants report any questions from the committee
move on uh student activity reports any questions from the committee member Maxwell I know um that we have an approval in here to kind of change some accounts but
um is there a way to make it more um so they all have the same type of accounts so like the marsh for instance has upper level events and like that's not on the tenny you know or the tenny has end of
year activities whereas the march doesn't you know those are almost they're almost the identical just name different okay yeah so I mean I I can streamline the names if that make it I think it's just easier to like see but also there are some there are like some
schools who have for some reason 4,000 bowlers and and other schools can't get anyone to bowl so it doesn't make sense to have a bowling club i didn't even know we had a bowling club so there you go some schools do and one school is looking to remove it because they haven't had
interest in the last four years any other questions all right we need to move on to uh the student activity account reauthorization we need a motion in a second to approve that so moved motion
from the vice chair secure Donovan any discussion there's no discussion we'll vote all those in favor i opposed the eyes have it thank you we're going to move on to the food services report any questions from the committee is this cooler that's going out for bid
going to be extraordinary maintenance or is that going to be CIP what what's something like that that's going to be food services food services they also are self-contained they we we don't pay anything towards food services they bring in their own money and they spend it even better thank you
and that's one of those big items like Canada talked about us upgrading our equipment etc and using some of the those funds we have any other questions move on to contracts we need a motion and a second to approve the Apple iPad
lease so moved motion's from the vice chair the second from member Donovan discussion member Maxwell i only have a concern with the price um with everything that's coming up on Wednesday i just I worry about
leasing technology stuff when we're going to have to lay off some stuff so um is there a way to bring back more pencil and paper so that maybe we could avoid having to bring in computers or is
it just kind of a wash anyway because we're going to be spending the money on supplies and so it is a wash uh two things uh we would at this point most companies actually aren't selling textbooks to us anymore um they are all licensed software
licenses um so that's one piece of it they're really marketing to the license not necessarily the textbook um and for us to go back to textbooks would be really really challenging uh and very expensive because every one kid has you
know a 70 $75 textbook um so again this this is the iPad uh program at the high school has been the most successful that we've had over the course of 10 to 12 years um the kids are using it they use
it better than most adults are using it with a different you know everything i mean again my daughter was prep that's what she uses in in college is the iPad because of what she had exposed to in high school so
um I just I would not uh recommend at all that we get rid of the iPads or the Chromebooks at this point i just don't know how we would do it and why the difference between iPads versus Chromebooks why not just all iPads or all Chromebooks another great question
um the iPads actually happened first and the iPads have more um I want to say diversity but Dr dr gowski that's probably not the right word but they have more opportunity uh educational opportunity for the the different kinds
of classes and learning and courses at the high school level than a Chromebook has um and the Chromebooks uh we're really using the Chromebooks as like that uh little less I'm I'm not going to say it right cuz it's almost 10 having run and rolled
out a program very similar your your iPad has a much more diverse operating system that the Chromebook can't handle it just it does allow for more opportunities so that we we're not scrambling in when somebody's taking an AP class versus somebody's taking the world language Italian class it the
operating system works for all of our kids and all of our courses regardless of whether it's a primary source whether it's a textbook software they're accessing whether it's um math related apps uh they just they have that ability to access the iPad allows us to do that
but maybe the Chromebooks you don't you don't see the need for K through eight no we don't see the need for K through8 if if anything an iPad would be productive in like a K or one potentially instead of a Chromebook
which we you know we go back and forth with all the time of do you bring the iPads down and have kindergarters on the iPad to do Lexia just cuz it's an easier device but they learn it pretty quickly and that's what we've you know they're not taking it home anymore those first K
and first graders aren't taking it home so um it's just a different world the publishing world is not they're not selling textbooks anymore good yeah it's really moved to a different place remember so with the iPads and I guess same for
the Chromebooks to come have we considered an option for folks to to buy them out because the documents you sent over that I requested earlier we're getting less than $100 an iPad
which I mean if you go on Craigslist right now or Best Buy's website a used iPad even a I don't know I'm not an Apple person but like the four models ago is still worth a couple hundred bucks on a resale market so letting
people buy them for say $150 versus selling it to a wholesaler who's going to either refurbish them and sell them or scrap them it it may be win-win for everybody so that cuz that's what a lot of the companies I've worked for have done when our tech refreshes we have the
opportunity to buy them out i'm going to say this and I hope I'd have to go back and look so maybe I shouldn't but um I know that in the past we looked to do that and it actually cost us more if we purchased them to purchase at the
end i'd have to go back and look i believe that was with Mr lucier when we were looking at different opportunities with iPads there was something about that when we wanted the kids to potentially buy it at the end i'm looking at you guys but I'd have to go back and look at our There was a reason
why we didn't do that fairly certain i saw a $1 buyout line item and I don't remember which one it was that was on the Chromebook it was Chromebooks chromebooks um I'm not I'd have to look at the legality of it um because with 30B
everything has to be competitive so if we just set the price and sell off taxpayer taxpayer bought materials I don't know the legality like what the state would Right well I mean if if the market is bearing 50 bucks a unit and
we're getting 150 bucks a unit right i know 30b is a little bit of a messed up procurement law but Well maybe that's the answer we go out and get three get see what best we can and then price it above that right and I think that's win-win kid a kid's going to get an iPad
for 150 bucks that they they know they can use and it's theirs versus us getting $50 from it from the guy who's going to scrap the chips so I'd say two things i'd say yes we can look into that for next year timing of
this is a little bit critical yeah to to actually move this because this has to go to city council uh because it's a lease and it's debt so this has to get to city council and then they're chomping at the bit already to get the order so that we actually get them in the summer to prepare them for the kids
so we are up against a little bit of a time crunch to get this moving to city council yeah and apples and a quarter is coming too so but I think all of those things are things we can look at for next year to see what is the best opportunity and look into the law it gives us that time to do that um we
would be happy to do that any other questions all those in favor i I opposed you guys have it we need a motion and a second to approve the Chromebook please move so moved motion from the vice chair second
from member Daglio any discussion all those in favor i opposed the eyes have it next on the agenda is notifications of appointments and other personnel matters we have none other business from the committee i'll invite member Dunovan yes to begin the discussion regarding the school
committee training session selection um Alicia from MASC is available to come and speak with us um at our June business meeting which I believe I don't have my phone out is June 23rd um I'm wondering how that works it
would be a workshop we could give her some more ideas but we initially when we talked about it it would be about how we can improve our procedure and therefore improve our governance um I'm wondering if that is a convenient night for everybody i'm not sure what's on the
hopefully our budget will be done we'll be celebrating our teachers of the year um you say it has to be done i'm wondering is shall I book her yes that'd be great okay I will email her tomorrow
uh next member Dunovan as well the letter and I'm wondering what the pleasure of the committee is at this late hour but um I passed around a letter um I've been inspired by councelor Ferrett's interest and research on the greater Lawrence
Technical School budget our contribution to their budget um and I think because it's hard to get some answers and understanding of the formula that is being used to tell sending communities
and towns um why we owe what we owe i think it would be a wonderful opportunity if we joined with our friends at the council who are considering something similar but asking our state delegation to look into how um
for a formal review of how that funding formula is used um I have a letter I don't know if you want me to read it into the record i think it would be really wonderful at perhaps our next meeting we could take a vote and decide
whether or not we all wanted to sign this because this is a huge impact on our budget um as the letter says and I really hope you read it i want it read into the record either tonight or when we meet in April we will be paying an
addition up $700,000 in the next fiscal year for a total of uh $5.4 $4 million um to for the 456 students who will be attending there are four communities
that send to the VO which is a great school um we are the highest contributors because of the way the funding is figured out um according to the um VOKE's budget book they're going
to use that money to quote "Reduce studenttoteer ratios optimize instructional schedules and hire additional teachers to support curriculum development and new programs." The budget is proposing to hire 13 additional teachers and
administrators expand academic interventions especially in literacy this year and increase professional staff development everything we are afraid of losing um so obviously I think this is
something it's um the other piece is it would I think at some point we need to ask for transparency or accountability in what non- studententf facing positions are being paid for instance the superintendent at the Voke his
salary it'll be a $10,000 raise this year bringing his salary to $340,000 he is supervising 1,800 students superintendent of Boston public schools who has um 54,000 students
across 175 schools make lists and if you look at the superintendent's office which consists of the superintendent the assistant superintendent and the executive assistant to the superintendent the total salaries paid
for fiscal year 26 for those three positions $630,000 while we if you I know it'll be coming up the proposal for our superintendent's office next year and in order to save money um will not be
filling the executive assistant to the superintendent which I don't know how we could function but um at a time when all the local schools all schools are being asked to do a lot less a lot more with a lot less I think it's um time to really
just look into this decide if we are paying and fairly um it's no reflection on the expertise and the value of the people who work there the expertise and the talents of the superintendent and the board but I think
Missuan I think we need to make sure we're providing equity and safe and the best education possible for all of our students so I ask you to read this um I'm not sure of the procedure mayor but perhaps if everyone reads this and we
could take a vote to an at our next meeting if you'd like to read into the record that's fine tonight or next time it's up to you you up to it i'm up for anything right now i'll go quickly okay i Okay and I appreciate
this um and again um tip of the hat to uh Joel Ferrett who kind of got this started we are writing um dear members of the Methuan legislative delegation we are writing to respectfully request your support in advocating for a formal review of the current funding formula
used to calculate municipal assessments for the greater Lawrence Technical School over the past several months city councelor Joel Ferretta and chief administrative and financial officer Maggie Dup prey have worked together to gather information from the from DESIE and Greater Lawrence Technical School to
better understand how the tuition formula is calculated and how it reflects the financial obligations of each municipality despite their efforts they have not received clear or satisfactory answers it's unclear when the when the current formula was last
reviewed and we believe it may no longer reflect the evolving demographics and financial realities of our communities in fiscal year 2026 Mthuan's assessment to GTS will increase by almost 700,000 totaling over 5.4 million a significant
and growing obligation that the city continues to meet in full while Mthuan students make up 25% of the student population with 456 students enrolled for the 2025 2026 school year Mthuan contributes the largest share among the
four sending communities Lawrence North Andover and Andover according to the fiscal year 26 GTLTS budget book money will be used to reduce studenttoteer ratios optimize instructional schedules and hire additional teachers to support
curriculum development in new programs the budget proposes the hiring of 13 new teachers and administrators expanded academic interventions especially in literacy and increased professional staff development meanwhile Mthuan public schools like many districts across Massachusetts face a budget
crisis that could result in the loss of dozens of staff positions larger class sizes and the reduction of essential student services as you are aware much of this crisis is fueled by a chapter 70 formula that is not has not adequately
accounted for inflation in determining state support this disparity raises serious concerns about equity and resource allocation and our shared responsibility to support all Mthuan students we are also concerned about how Mthuan taxpayer dollars are being
allocated within the GTS budget particularly with regard to administrative salaries this year the GLTS superintendent will receive a $10,000 raise bringing his salary to 340,000 making him the highest paid superintendent in the state despite
overseeing fewer than 1,800 students on one campus by comparison the superintendent of Boston public schools who oversees 54,000 students across 175 schools earns 300,000 according to the GTLS budget
book the combined salaries of the superintendent's office which includes the assistant and the executive assistant will total $630,000 at a time when local schools are being asked to do more with less it is difficult to justify continued increases in our assessment without
greater transparency and accountability and how these funds are spent in non- studententf facing positions we are proud of the opportunities GTLS provides to many Mthuan students and want to see these opportunities continue no member of our board is questioning the value of
the school the expertise of its leadership or its elected board however it is essential to ensure that all Mthuan students whether attending Mthuan or public schools or GLTS have access to safe wellstaffed schools and robust educational programming we respectfully
urge you to advocate for a formal review of the funding formula and its impact on sending districts like Mthoan a fair transparent and updated approach will help us ensure that every public dollar is used effectively to support student success thank you for your continued partnership and advocacy on behalf of
Mthune students you're welcome if anyone wants to edit this um you know provide additional information or have concerns it's fantastic well so maybe at the next meeting we can have
that as an agenda uh anything any other comments or discussion uh other business from the committee all right uh at this point with no other further uh business mayor I'm so sorry
i'm just looking at the time and people's faces um and I don't mean that in a I know like we're all about I just a little push from Mr goslin and a little push from Mr goslin um I'd be I we're totally
we can move the executive session to Wednesday night and just amend the agenda on the website for I don't want to be the bear of bad news oh well we can't do that we can keep going that's fine okay because we got 15 minutes so I just I'm looking at the time
so time and people's energy okay but keep going we're not at high school it's the policy that we're done by 10 so I think regardless of where we are so if we have to carry it forward we'll carry it forward that's fine yeah all
right so let me finish reading this me uh so excuse me okay with no further business to discuss we need a motion and a second to adjourn the business session uh tonight and enter into executive session so move second motion's for member Shabilia the second for member
Donovan uh pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws chapter 38 section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation litigating position of the public body
and the chair so declares unit B and also pursuant to Massachusetts general laws chapter 38 section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-UN personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions
or contract negotiations with non-UN personnel unaffiliated uh we would not reconvene into open session at the conclusion of the executive session so we'll take a roll call Zaglio Yeah member Dunovan yes member Keegan yes
member Maxwell member Shabilia what member Wlette mayor Borg yes unanimous the time is 9:45 p.m and our open session is adjourned and we'll enter executive session good night