WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=Od5GikzXJ-0

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: Od5GikzXJ-0):
- 00:04:28: Call to Order, Roll Call, Agenda Approval
- 00:05:17: Student Flag Salute: Introducing Sophia Madano
- 00:09:29: Moment of Silence Remembering Dr. Philfield
- 00:12:02: Superintendent's SOAR Award Presentation Postponed
- 00:12:20: Student Council Representative Updates on School Events
- 00:14:47: Recognition: Red Rangers Girls Ice Hockey Team
- 00:23:58: Public Participation: Valley Patriot Scholarship Presentation
- 00:32:37: Public Comment: Valley Patriot Scholarships Thank You
- 00:33:27: Public Comment: Appreciation for Valley Patriot Process
- 00:34:36: Public Comment: Mthuan Cultural Council Grant Awards
- 00:35:40: Approval of Minutes from Previous Meetings
- 00:37:24: Staff Reports: Achievement Initiative and Career Advancement
- 00:43:46: Maintenance and Custodial Updates: Building Cleanups
- 00:52:27: Reports: Enrollment, Student Services, HR Discussion
- 01:01:39: Updates: Finance, Policy Subcommittees, ADF Wellness
- 01:07:36: Second Read: Revision of Policy JICFB Discussion
- 01:09:13: Approval of Last Day of School and Calendar
- 01:22:08: Meeting Calendar and Superintendent Search Approval
- 01:23:20: Reports: Expenditures, Grants, Student Activity Discussion
- 01:32:14: Awards, Appointments, Acting Superintendent Appointment
- 01:43:23: Backpack Program, Scholarship Fund and Health Insurance
- 01:48:04: Executive Session: Negotiations and Bargaining


Part: 1

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April 13, 2026 will now come to order. This meeting is being recorded and will be made available for viewing on the Mthuan Public Schools website. Member Donovan, I'll ask you to call the role. >> Vice Chair Daglio. >> Member Donovan Grassi, present. Member

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Bayz, >> present. >> Member Keegan, >> present. Member McCarthy Soy present. Member Wlette >> here. >> And mayor Bogard >> here. All are present with the exception of the vice chair. Uh we need a motion and a second to accept tonight's agenda

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as presented. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Motion's for member Bayz. The second is from member Royce. Any discussion? There's no discussion. We'll vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. The eyes have it. Uh, at this

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point I'll invite the superintendent to introduce our student for tonight's flag salute. >> Thank you. Our flag salute student tonight is Sophia Madano from the Tenny Grammar School and Miss Amanda Goyette Langis will come up and share some

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information with us about Sophia. >> Thanks. >> Good evening. Sophia Mano is a fourth grade student in Mrs. Lage's class at the Tenny Grammar School. Soph Sophia lives with her mother, her father, her younger brother Max, and her younger

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sister who are here with us tonight. Both Sophia and her mom stated that as a family, they like to visit new places and see and do new things. Sophia said one of the best places she visited with her family was the American Dream Mall in New Jersey. She said it was a unique

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experience because there is a roller coaster inside the mall. She also likes to play outdoors and play games with her younger siblings. Sophia says she enjoys her father's cooking, especially steak. Sophia's favorite subject is math. She likes to learn new concepts like

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division. She said division was difficult at first. However, she kept trying and kept going and now she feels like she has mastered division. Sophia also likes fourth grade science class. She enjoys learning about the human body and found learning about the parts of

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the eye very interesting. Sophia stated that the tenny is a kind place. She stated every morning when she gets off the bus at the lower school entrance, someone is there to greet her. She said every day there is a staff member at the door saying good morning to the students entering the building.

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She really likes that her day at the tenny starts with an act of kindness. Mrs. Netter, her guidance counselor, states, "Sophia is a wonderful girl. She always gives her best at school with her classwork and assignments. She shows kindness to her classmates, respect to

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her teachers, and a willingness to help anyone who needs it. Sophia reminds us that being awesome in school means working hard, staying positive, and treating others well. She sets an example for everyone around her, and because of that, she makes the Tenny a

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better place. Mrs. Lage, her home room teacher, says Sophia is a kind-hearted person with the biggest heart and drive to learn. Sophia is an exemplary student for others to follow. She is a great friend with a big smile. She always treats others with respect and her love

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and passion for Taekwondo is seen through her mindfulness and presence while learning. She is always pushing herself to learn from her mistakes and wants to show improvement by learning from her mistakes. With resilience and perseverance, Sophia will not give up on

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herself when learning new challenges and supporting her classmates and friendships with the same devotion. During our conversation, Sophia shared that taekwondo is a big part of her life. She has been attending Chang's Taekwondo of America since she was three

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years old. Currently, she is a secondderee back black belt on the junior leadership team. She attends class six days a week and she enjoys practicing and demonstrating kicks and flips. And most importantly, she says taekwondo makes her feel powerful

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because she has learned defense, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and indomitable spirit. Sophia's mother says, "I'm proud of Sophia because she is a good role model and she is kind. She is always willing to help others. In the future, I hope

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she accomplishes her dreams of becoming a doctor or engineer." Sophia, your kindness combined with your commitment to learning in and out of school makes you unstoppable. We are all so proud of what you have accomplished so far and will accomplish in the future. Please

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stand for the pledge. You want to put this here? You can. I pledge 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

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justice for all. >> Nicely done. And if we could remain uh standing and pause for a moment of silence, we'd like to do so uh to remember Dr. Philfield, longtime superintendent of the Mthuan public schools, served for 20 years in that

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role. He helped shape the Mthuan public schools in significant ways. Working alongside then mayor Dennis Daglio, he built four state-of-the-art elementary schools and laid the foundation for the high school renovation, creating spaces

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that offered equity, safety, and opportunity for staff and students. Just as importantly, he nurtured a cohort model that supported teachers who wanted to become educational leaders. With Salem State University, he helped dozens

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of area teachers received their KAG certifications. So, at this time, we'll pause for a moment of silence and remembrance of Dr. Littlefield. Thank you. And well done. Yes. >> Take a picture.

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At this point, I'll invite the superintendent to present the SOAR award. >> Thank you. Um Pierre is actually on the volleyball team and they have a game tonight. So, we'll be recognizing our Soore award recipient next meeting. >> Sounds good. Uh, next we have an update

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from the student council representative. I don't think we'll be having that tonight, unless I'm mistaken. Otherwise, we'll uh wait until the next meeting. >> I believe we do have a representative here. >> Oh, great. Right. So I just start talking about

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that. So this is some of the stuff that's happening around the school. So from Thursday from last Thursday, April 9th through last Saturday, April 11th, um stage 22, which is Matthuan High School's theater program, presented Mean

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Girls, the musical for the annual spring musical. Mean Girls is an extravagant performance including catchy songs, organized choreography, and great themes, all brought down to a high school level. The cast included junior Emma Seed Seed as Katie, senior Matthew Antunes as Damen, junior Adriana Haunt

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as Regina, and more roles played by students at MHS. The show was directed by math teacher at MHS and stage 22 director Angelo Picoli, which marks his musical directing debut at Methuan High School. As well as that, the Eagle Tribune and

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the Blue and White, the newspaper program here, worked together and published a fullprint newspaper. Newspapers were given out for free to staff and students and highlighted many important events at MHS and included MHS alumni with their yearbook futures pictures.

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And as well as that, on Thursday, April 2nd, Junior Prom took place at the Castleton in Windham, New Hampshire from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30. Junior prom was planned out by the class of 2027 officers with the theme being the Great Gatsby. Prom was a success and had

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positive feedback from the attendees. And the final thing talking about is the Winterguard 2026 season wrap-up. The Wintergard season has come to an end on April 4th after a long competitive season throughout the month of March. The show is based on the Barbie movie and is considered a fan favorite amongst the Wintergard community. The team

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received many compliments and shoutouts from many different teams, including international groups. And that is it. >> Thank you for the update. Nicely done. >> Next, I'll invite up athletic director Tom Ryan to present tonight's

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recognition uh to the Red Rangers girls ice hockey team. >> Uh good evening. Uh nice to be here. We were here this time last year with these girls as well when they went to the Final Four. uh this year they were able to kind of go all the way and bring home the championship. Tremendous

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accomplishment. I'm actually going to call up, you don't want to hear from me, you want to hear from them. Uh really quickly, coach Shehi, uh who was named Boston Globe coach of the year, uh lower son coach of the year for an undefeated state champion. That doesn't come along that often. Uh undefeated state

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champion, any state champion. Uh we have had very few in the history of our school. Uh some people have had the opportunity to to have them. Uh it's it is a rarity and these girls did an unbelievable thing. Uh what a ride it was. So coach Shehi is going to give you

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a little recap of the season. So the Boston Globe Coach of the Year, Low Sun Coach of the Year, Coach Ryan Shehy. Thank you everyone. Uh the girls hockey team this year was the undefeated division 1 state champions. They had a regular season

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record of 180 and2 and finished the season 230 and2. The team was an incredible team in every sense of the word. They bonded well off the ice as well as on the ice. As the coach, one of the best moments of the season was when the girls hosted the movement family

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skate night at our rink. Many of many of the movement members had never skated before and the girls were quick to help them on skates, put put on skates and teach the group how to skate. Another great moment was the player-led teacher appreciation game. Each girl took a picture with a teacher that inspired

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them over the years and then invited them to that game. The amount of teachers that came out in support of the team was incredible. In terms of on the ice, this team was known for its elite goalending, tremendous defense, and unselfish offensive players. This team only let up

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12 goals all season. They only they only let up one goal in the third period and only one goal in the second period for the entire season, which is 25 games. This has to be one of the all-time most dominant teams in the history of Massachusetts high school girls hockey.

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This team had many memorable moments on the on the ice as well in the regular season. Some of them were the comeback win in the last 30 seconds against Winchester which was a two to1 win and the complete domination one zero win over HPNA and as well as winning the

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Dave O'Harn Brianna McCarthy Memorial Tournament over Arlington Catholic. The postseason was highlighted by the overtime win of a 22-1 Algangquin team and an overtime win over St. Mary's in the final four and of course the two win over Archbishop Williams at the Boston Garden.

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Ella Duffy's tears of joy as she skated down and put the puck put the puck into the empty net to seal the championship will be an all-time Red Rangers memory. Goalie Lydia Barnes, forward Sammy Ryan, and defenseman Llaya Chapman were recognized by by the Boston Papers as all Scholastics. We had several other

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members of the team get recognized by the Eagle Eagle Tribune and the Lola Sun for their all-star teams. Additionally, we had a few girls play in the all-star games as well. To the honorable methan public school committee members, I introduce you to some of the finest young ladies you will ever meet. The girls the girls hockey

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division one state champion Red Rangers. >> Hi everyone. For you those of you that don't know me, I am Ella Duffy. I am a senior captain for this wonderful group of girls. Um, playing with these girls was the best experience I've ever had in my entire life. We're all fighting not just to win, but we fought to have the

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opportunity to play with each other as long as possible. That's just how close we are and how much we love each other. Though this team is insanely superstitious, as many of you know from the many times I've forced a lot of you to knock on wood, um, this season was never about luck.

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Every win was welld deserved. We fought so hard and persevered through injuries, sickness, and a plaguing grief. Adjusting to play without coach Dave was an extremely difficult task. He was an amazing person and coach. Not only did the returning players lose lose coach Dave, but a few of the younger girls

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lost their beloved club coach, Scott Dunnit. We all had our person to play for and all understood each other's mental battles. All of the loss ultimately brought us closer. These girls all pushed through the hardest moments as one unit of supporting and

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loving teammates. Not only did we have the highest level of motivation, talent, and effort, but we had absolutely amazing coaching. Thanks to coach Brena Green, we always have film on other teams and and on ourselves to watch and also a fantastic defensive zone. Again,

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only letting up 12 goals the entire season. Um, she was quick to become close with all of us and get to know all of our quirks and personalities. If you're if you were to watch her interact with us this year, you'd think we'd known her our entire lives. That is the

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best kind of person. And of course, Coach Ryan, absolutely amazing. He was the most involved yet most balanced coach I have ever had. He knows exactly what we need to hear and what tone is needed always. His hockey knowledge is through the roof and I've

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learned so much from him. We are all extremely lucky to have had the privilege to play by each other's sides. This state championship showed the integrity of our players and specifically female athletes as well as Dave O'Harn's impact and the talent of our coaches. I will always miss this

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program forever. Thank you Red Rangers for the best four years and all that have cheered us on and contributed to our success. >> Thank you. I just wanted to take a moment to say it was such a joy to watch you girls play and you really stood out from other

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teams because you didn't take one second off. You skated hard the entire game. So, you brought a lot of joy and pride to our community. So, congratulations and thank you so much for sharing that with us. >> Thank you. We have certificates from the committee

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here by name. >> So we can maybe do a photo op. >> I just wanted to mention too that um Mr. Ryan is very humble and he has two daughters on the state championship team. Sarah

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>> and Brena Green. I believe Brena Green is she might be the only person in the history of Mthuan High School to win a state champion in 2019 and to coach a state champion. >> And I had her in legal studies class there.

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Congratulations again. Nicely done. And and now we're on to public participation. Uh we have only uh one uh group signed up uh for public participation at this point. Uh we have uh representatives from the Valley

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Patriot. I know Martha Tetro uh is here uh from the school. Okay. And um we have several residents as well uh to share a presentation. Members of the school committee,

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thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Um, unfortunately, Kellen St. Marie, the recipient of this scholarship, uh, didn't come tonight with his parents because they didn't see it on the agenda. So, we tried we told them um that we were doing this and they looked on the

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agenda. We tried to get it on the agenda. We were told it couldn't go on the agenda. So, we signed up for public participation. So, given that they're not here, what I'd like to do is I'd just like to talk for a few minutes about Kellen and the

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uh scholarship. And then if if the chairman will allow it, we'd like to present the chairman with the big check on behalf of Kellen St. Marie as you are chairman of the school committee and he is one of your students. Um the Valley Patriots celebrated our 22nd anniversary

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um two Fridays ago on March 27th. Um this is an event that we do every year. We started it off just to kind of celebrate our anniversary and over the years it's grown to be a scholarship and award night. Um this uh the first year that we did

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this we raised $100 and we thought we were changing the world. We gave it to a kid from Lawrence High School who used it for an application fee and we thought we had done something good. And little did we know that 22 years later we we

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would be presenting $102,916 in scholarships to 10 kids throughout the Marine Mack Valley. Havville High School, Whittier, the Greater Lawrence Tech, Lawrence High School, Mthuan High School, um Salem High School. Um Kellen

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St. Marie is one of your high school seniors and he qualified was nominated by Martha Rouatro, one of your guidance counselors who every year helps us along with Ryan Daglio to go through some of the kids here at Mthuan High School to

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see which kid needs it and which kid deserves it. Uh Kellen St. Marie has um had some challenges uh of his own with an IEP and has struggled through that and through that struggle has become an honor student and

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is going to go on next year to study to be a special needs teacher to help other kids who are also struggling with such issues. Because of that and because of his very lengthy bio of volunteering here at the school, volunteering in the community,

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we um decided to give him the Phil Glendai special needs scholarship. Phil Glendai was a Lawrence High School teacher, not a Mthuan High School teacher, who was a special needs teacher that ran the Special Olympics for the entire Mary Valley every year at the Lawrence Memorial Stadium. And so when he passed, he was somebody that came to

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our event every year and donated to the kids. And so when he passed, we decided to start a scholarship in his name for a student who was either a special needs student or a student going into special needs to teach special needs kids. Um this uh scholarship effort that we do is

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100% funded by donors. Um people in the community once we pick a kid, we post a bio online. Um we explain who they are and why we picked them. And then readers of the Valley Patriot can donate to each specific kid. So the kid at Lawrence

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High School is a junior ROTC um student and that's that scholarship specific to a special to a junior ROC kid. This one is for a special needs kid or a kid going into special needs. And Phil Glendai um I think would be very proud

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of Kellen St. Marie. He is an amazing kid. And so the amount of money that we raised, this is a uh certainly a record for us and for this scholarship. We raised $12,300 in 66 days to help Kellen St. Marie pay

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for college. Among some of the donors, and I'm not going to read them all because there are 84 of them, is um your chairman U. Mayor Boragard, Alejandro Bayz, um Ken Wlette, some of the people here with me, Maria and Christian and

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Martha. And who else is with us? I know Ryan Daglio also donated to this scholarship. Um, I also want to thank um, city council chairman Nelly Sodto, city councelor Patricia Valley, state representative Estella Ray, and state

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representative Francisco Pino who all attended a bingo night specifically to raise money for Kellen. And you have another Mthuan student on our scholarship from the Great Alliance Tech. Um, her name is Isabelle Dupa. So they ran a scholarship night. They

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raised over $2,400 in one night and they split the money among the two Mthuan kids. So, I was really hoping that Kellen and his family would be here tonight because we presented the big check in the room the night of the bash and I appreciate the mayor coming and of course Alejandro um and everybody who

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came. Uh but we wanted to do this at the school committee because you know there's a lot of politics that goes on um in politics right in school committees and elections and everything and um it's always nice at the beginning of the meeting when I'm watching as we just saw with the students that were up

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here being honored earlier um that we put the politics aside at the beginning of the meeting to say nice things and to do nice things for nice people. Kellen St. Marie is definitely one of those kids. And his parents, by the way, I've met them twice. really incredible people. It was such a pleasure to meet

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them. So, I was hoping that um they would be here tonight because we didn't give them the actual physical check. You know, we said the big check, we didn't give them the physical check. So, um I'm going to turn this over to Kristen Maxwell who helped us uh with this this year. And I'm going to have her present it. But um if the if the if the mayor

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would be so inclined, we would love to have you come up and do a picture with us with the big check with um Alejandro and any member that would like to. >> So in in celebration of uh Kellen and of course uh I should mention that there are 85 I think other students as well

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who've received scholarships this year which is just great. >> Um you know I think in celebration of Kellen and his family, his father is a Mthuan firefighter. uh you know I I would certainly welcome that opportunity for us to celebrate Kellen and of course

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um you know any other students of at the over the course of the next couple of weeks who want to be recognized for similar uh recognition. So uh we would certainly uh be happy to accept this check on behalf of Kellen. >> Great. Thank you.

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>> I come over for the photo. Great. And by the way, Ken, look at me when I'm talking to you. >> Joe, >> I'll invite anybody who would like to come up. Yeah. >> Oh, is it is it up here? You want Martha just reminded me that Kellen's mother is also a teacher. Wasn't aware

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of that. So, congratulations to the St. Marie family. >> Is there anybody else in the audience who would like to speak? >> I just wanted to say thank you. Um, a lot of planning and um, a lot of

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planning and commitment went into um, the donations and the scholarships and to be able to present tonight. Although Kellen's not here, he was going to come um is is nice because it just it represents that like, you know, all for one and one for all. You know, with

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politics aside, we're all here for the kids and doing it for the kids and that's really all that matters. So, I appreciate your time. I appreciate you letting us come and speak and thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else in the audience who

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wishes to speak? Tada. Um, I just wanted to give a shout out to Tom Dugen and say thank you. I was honored and humbled that he asked me to be a part of this process and to get to meet all the families and the scholarship youth and to see such a big

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community of passionate driven individuals that were really invested in making this the success that it was. So, I do want to say thank you, Tom Dugen, for everything that you did and the bash committee and just introducing me to a great group of amazing people. We do

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appreciate you for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to speak? I I do have some written public participation that I'd like to read from Ellen Baronowski. She's the chair of the Mthuan Cultural Council. She writes,

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"Greetings, members of the Methuan School Committee. On Saturday, March 28, 2026, the Methuan Cultural Council hosted its 2026 grant reception and awards ceremony. This year, the council proudly awarded 26 grants totaling nearly $39,000

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to fund projects and performances that will benefit Mthuan's children, adults, and seniors, enriching the cultural life of our entire community. Specifically, all four K through8 schools in Methuan and Methuan High School received grant

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awards totaling $11,750. We were honored to be supported in this endeavor by school committee members Alejandro Bayz and Martha McCarthy Soy. We sincerely thank them for their attendance and for joining us in celebrating this exciting news for our

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city. It's signed. The Methuan Cultural Council, Ellen Marinowski, chairperson. Uh so that'll do it for public participation. If you are not able to attend the public participation portion of one of our meetings, you can email Susan Shanti at

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snscthuan.k12.mma. us before 3 p.m. on the day of a school committee meeting. Uh next we are on to the approval of minutes. Uh we have the approval of the workshop minutes of February 25th, 2026. I'll invite a

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motion and a second to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion's for member s Royce and the second is for member Donovan. Any discussion? >> There's no discussion. We'll vote. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. The eyes have it. Uh, next on

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the agenda, we have the approval of the special meeting minutes of February 25th, 2026. >> So moved. >> Second. >> We have a motion from member Soy. The second is from member Donovan. Any discussion? >> There's no discussion. We'll vote. All those in favor?

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>> I >> opposed. The eyes have it. Next, we have approval of the business meeting minutes of March 9, 2026. >> Second motions from member Soy, seconds from member Bayz. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll vote. All those in

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favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. The eyes have it. Lastly, we have approval of special meeting minutes of March 9th, 2026. >> So, second. >> Motion to approve is from member Soy. The second is from member Bayz. Any discussion?

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>> If not, we'll vote. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. The eyes have it. Uh, next on the agenda, we have staff reports. I'll invite Dr. Golovski to present her update for us. >> Thank you. I wanted to take a moment to

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talk about the accelerating achievement initiative from DESIE. Uh we have three schools who will be participating in this accelerating achievement program next year. Uh and this essentially means that um the department has committed to

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funneling resources towards these schools, providing a liaison from DESIE to work closely with myself and the principles at the identified schools. Um and there's um some great suggestion that um grant funding will be prioritized for those schools. Um and so

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those schools will be the Tenny Grammar School, the Timny Grammar School, and Methuan High School. Uh this is a brand new program for the department so it's new to everybody. Uh I had my kickoff meeting with um our

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partner from DESIE last week and it did feel very much like a partnership where um throughout the remainder of this school year we'll be completing a self assessment to determine the major areas in which we would need support from DESIE in these schools and areas where

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we think we're doing pretty well. um and we'll have several visits. Uh and so we look forward to that. So I wanted to to let you know it's called accelerating achievement. You may have seen it in the governor's budget. Um it's one of the line items from DESIE where they're

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really hoping over the next three to five years as we're part of this cohort. Desi will gather enough data to determine what it is that schools really need to achieve. Um there's been talk about teacher pipelines that are directed towards schools in this

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initiative or some cohorts of professional development from which we'd be working with neighboring towns who have the same goals. So I'm excited about it. It's a little bit of an extra task at the moment for um the principles and leadership teams, but we're all

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excited for the opportunity. Um, and then the second item I wanted to talk about tonight was the career advancement opportunities for program assistance. You may have remembered that we spoke about some higher ed partnerships at previous meetings,

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whether that be through um, UMass LOL or Mary uh, Northern Essex. We are seeking opportunities for staff members, particularly in the areas of special education or English learner education. opportunities for staff members to

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become certified licensed teachers. Um so it's no secret we've had some difficulty f filling the um posted jobs specifically in the area of special education and we have some very willing competent experienced staff people who

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are working toward lenture. So we had worked with Bayath University a bit last year. Um this idea was getting off the ground. It's an apprenticeship program where a staff member would be able to earn on the job credits toward a bachelor degree and

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then ultimately teacher lensure. And we we liked the idea. At the time there was a cost to the participants until grant funding was secured. There was a cost to the district in terms of providing mentorship to those teachers. So there

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were some pieces that we weren't completely um confident in. Well, in a year's time, Bay Path University has secured the grant funding, and so anyone who is eligible and interested in this program could perhaps have the

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opportunity to enroll um and earn a bachelor's degree in fewer than two years. So, the only cost to the district at this point would be um for the mentor teacher who that person would be paired with while they're working through their

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degree. uh and their classwork would be done online understanding that most of what they're learning and most of their projects and coursework comes from their in the classroom job and experience. Um and so today there was anformational

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session for individuals um who were considering joining. I believe we've heard at the point when I wrote this last Friday, we had heard from 41 staff members who were interested um I think even more to date. And through this survey of interest, we have discovered

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that there are staff members who do have bachelor's degrees in program assistant roles who are wanting to accelerate that path um and become licensed teachers. So, I think it's something that we're all excited about um and are interested

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in getting off the ground for next year. >> Thank you for the update, Dr. Globsky. Any questions from the committee? Member Sroice and the member Wulette. >> I just wanted to ask will that um will is it Bayath Bay Path University will

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they also help them with um passing the tests the exams to to get licensed in Massachusetts? >> The lensure is is part of this program. So they will support and I've been saying program assistance but we have had um some building based educators who

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have expressed interest as well. Um, so it's people that we know have been part of our district and are committed to staying um and learning more about those subject areas. >> That's fantastic. Thank you, >> member Wulette. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's not

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related to the um report, but I appreciate the acting superintendent sending a email to um regarding the Senate proposal for supplemental budget which passed just recently. There is a differential between the Senate and the

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House. So I would be advocating for another letter or email to the legislative delegation on the House side to be advancing the Senate proposal as opposed to the House. There is a differential of about $500 million. The Senate proposal is more favorable to

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circuit breaker funding. That's the biggest uh crux right now. Uh skyrocketing uh circuit breaker costs along with transportation and healthc care. But that's something we can alleviate the situation by advocating for the Senate proposal. So I just I

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appreciate the outreach if we could do that as well, but also maybe just a sense of the committee of an email that's uh respective of the committee that we are supportive of the Senate supplemental budget. Thank you.

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Any other comments, questions? If not, we'll move on. Next on the agenda, we have uh any maintenance and custodial updates from Mr. Goslin. I'll turn it over to him. >> If there's any questions, I'll bump to

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that. I sat down and went through with um Willie Hernandez. Um this is not everything. I mean, this is just a um I don't want to kill you with paper, but um I wanted to at least give you the highlights. Um and we're looking forward to um cleanups around the buildings.

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I've given the okay for uh custodial staff to do overtime to come in over the weekends and do cleanups. Um so that's that's where we're at. We're still in a really really really good place. We didn't really see an uptick with mice when it got cold out. So that was uh

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very favorable. So whatever um things we did at the in the spring worked. So um we're in a good place there. >> Member Bayz and then member Donovan. Um, thank you Mr. Goslin. I just had a

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question about the field at the Tenny. There was uh some concerns over the snow that was put like in the middle >> of the field and I visited and it was when I visited it was mostly already melted but then it became kind of like mud, right? Um >> did you did you guys receive those same

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complaints and were they addressed? >> What was the last part? I couldn't hear you. >> Were the were did you guys receive those complaints as >> Yes, we received those complaints. Um, we may had to make a decision in the middle of the blizzard. Um, we had a lot of snow at the high school, Tim

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specifically, uh, that we had nowhere to put it. So, I believe back in 2014, we did the similar thing and we had it trucked over to the tenny. It's not ideal. Uh, but we got to put it somewhere. And that's really the only

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location in this area that is accessible without driving, you know, to the other side of the city and paying the extra mileage with the 45 ton rock truck. Um, it is all malted as far as I'm concerned. We did work with the DPW and

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asked them to come out. I forget if it was Thursday or Friday. They were working on the field cleaning up any, you know, rock, stone, stuff that might have got dumped there as well. So, it's my understanding that the DPW was working on it the end of last week and I got a text just before I got here that there were kids out there playing on it.

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Um, I don't I don't there's going to be mud. It's going to dry. Um, hopefully we get some sunshine and it dries. Is it ideal? No. But, uh, we did get the complaints. We took them seriously and um, we're addressing them accordingly, I believe. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome.

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And if any additional followup is needed, let me know and I can check in with DPW member Donovan. >> So, so Mr. Goslin, um the elevator here, >> um what was it

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and when the contract is complete, the elevator floor will be repaired. Um >> contract's complete. >> Oh, it is. >> We're just waiting for the purchase order to come through and it's it's being scheduled. >> That's wonderful. Thank you. Um, just curious, are the goats returning? Because I've, uh, there's a few areas

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that I'm sure the goats would enjoy spending some time. Is that a question for you or the mayor? I'm not sure. >> I'm not sure you're referring to So, probably the mayor. >> The goats. >> CGS. >> I I will. >> The goats. >> Oh, goats. I heard goats.

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>> Oh, I'm like I don't know anything about the goats. >> We have plenty of those in this >> central building, maybe. But yeah, >> I will absolutely be bringing the goats back in force. >> I will say when that idea came up at at our meeting, um I really thought it was

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one of the silliest things I'd ever heard in my life. Um I did not take it seriously whatsoever. Uh but seeing the aftermath >> Mhm. >> it was impressive how how well they cleaned up and they got in places no human could ever get. Um, so I am now

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progoat when it comes to uh cleaning up poison ivy. >> There's a sentence I never thought I'd hear uttered at a meeting, but so talk still on the goats. I would just be curious down the road. I know there's a concern and we discussed

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it last year at the tenny lower side, not where kids are, but where there's poison ivy. You'd be where would you be going back? I'm just fascinated by this. Have you identified areas or is this still a little early? >> We'll need to identify the specific

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areas, but I can assure you that the goats will be back. Sorry, I couldn't resist. >> Thank you, >> Willlette. >> Thank you. I had sent an email from a constituent regarding the winter god and

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they had a a event at the Tim Grammar School and I guess there was a section of the bleaches that are broken and out of service and we had an overflow crowd at that school. Um is there a timetable to fix the bleaches? Is that something

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that occurred? And then also the fieldhouse for this group. Um it was multiaceted in terms of the email. I sent it to the superintendent. I sent it again as a followup. So maybe at by the next meeting we could have like some

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clarity as to what's going on because if we're having events, I don't want to have an overflow. I don't want to have a compromise situation. It's a liability. If the bleaches are broken, we should not be having the events. and also trying to work with the fieldhouse

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>> for this group. Um, and there was a side issue regarding the CGS in the cafeteria too that I have a concern about. >> I can speak a little bit about it's the Timony Tim bleaches I believe. >> Yeah. >> Um, when they're closed and people climb

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on top stresses out all the supports and then it breaks and then it makes it tough for them to come out. So over the years of kids climbing up there while they're closed, they're in disrepair. We did call out Hussy, which is the largest repair and

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supplier of bleaches, um to repair them, and um they did do a temporary fix, but told us that they need to be overhauled, uh they gave us a quote for $15,000. Um because it's over 10, I need to get two additional quotes. So, we're trying

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to track down two other companies that actually do it um so that we can we can fix them. My goal is to have those fixed as soon as possible. >> Okay. and and also just maybe to alleviate the concerns of that group because it was a pretty extensive email

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if the fieldhouse is available. Can we reach out to the group like this and make sure because I'm just concerned about going into the future if we have an overflow crowd if something occurs that would be a liability for this school district. >> So, we have to really, you know, scrutinize

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>> if something's available. Um, I want to and again, I don't want to get involved in the day-to-day operations. that's not my forte, but again, there something I thought was a concerning email. >> Yes, thank you for bringing it up. Um I I sent some information in the the

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newsletter last week where it outlined um the dates and times the group had access to the fieldhouse. I believe it was a matter of miscommunication in this sense because the original date for the showcase had been planned. Then there was a rescheduling and I think at the

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time of the rescheduling um it it was misunderstood that it was just a practice site that was needed not that it would be hosting other groups and so that's where um they got stationed at the Timn um because the fieldhouse had been reserved for

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athletic groups in in the case that it was raining in April they weren't able to use the mud fields. So certainly I followed up with the athletic director um the principles Mr. Goslin, we talked all about um how that can not go wrong

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next time. >> And again, on a positive note, um very pleased with zero reports on rodents across our whole school system. So, I think over the last uh couple of years, I think this is the first time we're starting to see light at the end of the

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tunnel because there's been zero reports across all the schools. I think that's what was reflecting the report. So, we're making huge progress. Thank you. Other questions, comments? If not, we'll move on to student

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enrollment reports. Any questions or comments from the committee regarding the student enrollment report? Going once, going twice. All right, we'll move on to the student services report. Any questions for Dr. Bozac?

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Member Donovan. Um, Miss Bozac, under the McKenna Vento section, this is where I always forget the plus 45. Is that for the entire school year? >> That's for the time from the last

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meeting to this meeting. >> I was hoping you'd say the other. Okay. From the last meeting. So, we're talking about a month we've seen. >> But again, um, look at it. It's not that we've had an an substantial increase. It's the timing of when we're receiving

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the invoices from the different >> Okay. >> companies you guys make. >> Yep. I get it. Are the invoices coming in on a timely basis? Now, >> they are now. At the beginning of the year, they weren't, which is why if you go back and look, we were like at zero

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for a little bit and then we had a significant because they they all came in. But at least for my part, they've been coming in pretty consistently and we're not hunting people. >> That's terrific. I'm sure that'll make things easier as we close the school year out. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome.

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>> Other questions for Miss Bozac. Member Wlette. >> Thank you. Uh I witnessed uh Council Daglo in the audience. I know he was big on the residency enforcement issues along with myself and I'm noticing that we're uh redrawing students every month.

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Are we taking advantage of the real estate transactions and matching them up? And are any of those numbers matched up with the real estate transactions as a catch net? >> I would have to go back and check with the enrollment specialist of which ones are, but they are they are doing that as

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part of the check. >> Okay. I appreciate that. Maybe it's just a minor report at the next meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Uh we'll hear from member Keegan, the member. Um along with the um grade level residency checks, are we checking

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students who are out of district along with those? Um because I noticed that you're stating certain um schools, but it we never seem to see those. >> Yeah. So the the um not this current one that we were in with sorry I'm just

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looking at my menu memo the tenny and marsh we did when we did the Timony and CGS we included out of district students at that time so we did we did include them at that point >> great thank you >> you're welcome >> me >> I just wanted to thank you and your

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staff the FC the enrollment specialists the receptionist Nicole they've done a great job doing those residency checks is a big job and >> it takes a lot of patience and they've done a great job. So, thank you. Please thank them.

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>> Yes. And and just to kind of add to that because I know you did ask at the last meeting, so I came with the next numbers. Um for the Tenny and the Marsh, we went through a total of 510 um res grade level residency checks. Um

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we only have eight outstanding. So, eight that we're just in process of trying to fi finish up. Um, and out of the 510 total, we've had two withdrawn um, for residency, but the rest have all proven either had to bring in paperwork or through residency transactions or

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other means we've been able to confirm. >> Thank you for that. >> You're welcome. >> Member Bayas, >> uh, thank you, Mr. PZ. I just was wondering if we track uh evaluation requests for IEPs, whether they come

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from parents or uh educators and if we do track where the requests come from, can we get a report of how many requests are being made by uh educators versus parents? >> Yes. Okay. >> So, the answer to your first part is yes, we do track and um I can bring that information to the next meeting.

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>> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions? If not, we'll move on to the HR report. Any questions from the committee? >> Uh, yeah. I just had a question about uh our Corey checks if we have completed um

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our all the Cy checks. I know we were doing them for all of the staff this year, right? >> Are the specific Corey checks you're referring to? Or usually as we hire people, we do Corey checks. Um, so like I just hired a couple custodians before they started they had to do their Cy

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checks. Is there a certain group you're looking for? >> No, I Well, I was under the understanding that you have to do them every three years and we are supposed uh I was under the understanding that this year we're supposed to do them again or get them all in one kind of >> cluster. Is Colleen here?

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>> Well, Miss McCarthy is here, >> so she can give us the most up-to-date information. If I remember correctly, I just did mine. So, I believe she sends it out through um

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>> front line. Um it's it's it's timed so that whatever period that we have to do. I thought it was two years, but I'll take year three Cory's for people who are already employees. >> Yep. So, um we just switched our HR system to frontline last year. Um Matt

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is tweaking the form. I had gotten a legal opinion from Mike because before we used to always do the paper copy and um the license in person even for our own employees when we were re-uping them and um we can we are allowed to do it um

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electronically now. So um once tech has that mapped properly um it will go out to all employees who are up for their three years. It will also retain a three-year expiration um period in this system so that it will know to send it

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to them in three years. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> And I did just complete mine. Correct. >> Member will >> I'm going to give my speech I normally give every uh year is that we should be aligned with the FBI database. We should

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not be focused exclusively on Corey. Corey is only a matters of state adjudication and we should be doing the FBI database. We do it for uh school bus drivers and we should be doing it for all parties who work in the city of Mthan. That's something if the city

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council wants to take up, but every uh year I bring up that speech because it's a false uh security narrative. You're only looking at uh state matters of adjudication as opposed to nationwide. Um major corporations do the FBI database. We should be doing it as well.

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Thank you. >> Thank you. Member will uh any other >> Yeah, sorry. We do do the national fingerprint through the SAP system at time of hire um when the state put in regulations or we can take a

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determination of suitability if it's been done um within seven years from another Massachusetts school district. Um the state had originally put in something called retracking and it was supposed to look at everybody's fingerprints and then

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send reports back to the district and that has not been done yet through the state. >> So the only thing I add and I've mentioned this in the past and I think our our school attorney has emphasized that there's nothing that prohibits us in state law to adopt FBI database.

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There's nothing in the state law. We could do it comprehensive and do it every three years. Uh because if you're doing it for Corey every three years, that's only state adjudication. So we should be doing FBI database. Uh everyone uh in the city of Mthorne who

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works or volunteers. So >> thank you. Thank you. Member will member >> um Miss McCarthy sorry through you chair to Miss McCarthy. Who pays for the fingerprints when they're hired? >> Um, so for the fingerprints, the person

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pays for them. >> So if we redid them every so many years, they would have to continue to pay for to have their fingerprints. >> No, actually the rule is that if somebody has valid fingerprints and you want to have them refing. So say some say you didn't want to accept a determination of suitability from

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another district, the district has to pay for them. And for for professional staff members, it's $55 a person. And I believe it's $35 a person for a non teaching non-licensed person, non desi licensed person.

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>> So after hire, if we required them to do it again, all our employees, we would pay for that. >> I would have to look at the regulation, but I believe that would be yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions, comments? >> All right, we'll move on. Uh next on the

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agenda, we have old business and other pending matters. Uh we'll begin with an update from member Donovan. uh relative to the finance subcommittee. >> Yes, thank you, mayor. The finance subcommittee um met and then met again

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with uh this city council subcommittee last week in unprecedented in Mthoan's history where members of two bodies sat down to talk about the budget. Um my sincere gratitude to councilors Peshi,

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Yanilda Santos, and John Drew. Um, also in attendance were myself, Miss Keegan, um, Mr. Goslin, Superintendent Golovsky, and Miss Bozac. Um, we just basically kicked around some

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ideas, talked about how we could work together. And to me, um, we will be talking more once the school committee gets some more finite numbers. There were some great questions about special education, about how we could work together in the future to maybe with some more strategic planning. Um, with

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the understanding that sometimes to make a little money, you have to spend a little money. So, um, I look forward, we haven't scheduled our next meeting, but we will. And, um, hopefully we'll have some more progress and best of all, a sense of we're all rowing in the same

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boat, going in the right direction. up and I don't know if Miss Keegan would like to add anything or Okay, >> thank you for the update. Uh, next we have an update from the policy subcommittee. >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Through you,

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the policy subcommittee continues to meet weekly, Wednesday at 12. Uh, we continue to make great progress on one of our more lengthier sections, section I, which is instruction. Um after section I we will continue with sections

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J which are students. Um on tonight's agenda we have a our one is policy that came back to us and very proud that we were able to work through that and finally get it passed on or hopefully get it passed on second read. So we'll see that coming up shortly. But uh I'm very proud of the work that we continue

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to do. I don't know if uh member McCarthy Soy or member Keegan would like to add anything, but we continue to make great progress. >> Thank you. >> Next on the agenda, we have approval of the ADF school district wellness program.

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>> Yeah. I make a motion to accept the changes to policy ADF to implement immediately. >> Second. >> Motion is for member Bayas. The second is from member Donovan. Discussion. >> Yes. Um so before we discuss the the

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policy itself and procedure, we're just might like to make a quick amendment to first uh to paragraph number two um wellness committee. Um in red it says um as wellness pro uh program coordinators,

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food services director. Uh the subcommittee had previously discussed that uh since Mr. Ratty is in that position right now and it's in the job description, we'd put food service director. But for future reference, we had discussed that we just like to uh maintain superintendent designate. So I

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make a motion to amend food service director to uh superintendent designate. >> Second. >> So we have a motion from member Bayz and a second from member Soy uh to adopt the proposed amendment. Uh any discussion

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regarding the amendment itself? If not, we'll vote. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. The eyes have it. Let's now return to the main motion and have a motion to approve as amended. >> Okay. Sorry. Sorry for to keep monopolizing the conversation here.

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>> Sorry. We just we just need a motion to accept as amended now and then a second. We can have further discussion. >> Motion. >> So second. >> Second. Okay. So now we've returned to the main motion. Member Bayas. >> Yeah. Sorry to keep monopolizing the conversation. Um

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so this policy uh went to the committee on first read and came back because there were um two different proposals for the policy. Um but we later came back to the table uh to the in the subcommittee and had discussed with our MASC representative the proper way to

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move forward and a proper way to move forward is with this language with then the wellness committee coming in with recommendations and goals based on this policy. So as you can see there's different bullet points and areas on the

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on the policy where it says the committee shall uh shall approve goals and recommendations based on these list. So the goal of the wellness uh committee is to take this policy derive goals and recommendations and implementation of

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it. You may notice that at at the bottom in the last page there are goals that are in red the last two goals. uh one of them is about recess and the other one is about food. Um I am proud to say that the subcommittee discussed and debated

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these bullet points extensively. So we hope that the wellness committee considers these goals um when when coming to the full committee the this policy has to be passed in this language according to our mask representative

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because then the wellness committee will come back to us and we as a full committee have to approve the goals and recommendations and plan that they have. So I'll leave it at that if anybody else wants to chime in or if I was a little too confusing. >> Any other discussion? This is regarding

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the main motion to accept as amended. If there's no other discussion, we'll vote and this will uh be approved with the amendment. All those in favor? >> I opposed. You guys have it.

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>> Uh next we have uh for second read the revision of policy JICFB. Do we have a motion and a second to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. Motion is from member Soy, a second is from member Keegan.

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Discussion, member bay. >> Uh, so I went back to I wasn't on the committee when this came to first read. So I went back to the January 12th meeting where this was discussed and I understand that this has to be done. Um, I will say that looking at our policy,

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um, I have a feeling that when it comes back to the subcommittee later on, it is going to be, u marked as, uh, procedural. Um, because it does seem like we have a policy and an implementation plan all in one document. And that means that we're changing our bullying policy every two years when

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what we should be having is a bullying policy. And then the superintendent should be creating an implementation plan that is uh changed and approved every two years. Right? So I just would like the uh to make that distinction. Note that this policy will be coming

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back later on. Anyways, though I understand that we need to be in compliance with our with our language. So thank you. >> Any other discussion? If not, we'll vote. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed.

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The eyes have it. Uh next on the agenda we have this is uh relative to the bullying prevention and intervention plan. Uh this is item 5e. Uh regarding JICFB

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that policy uh it's it's listed on the agenda twice. Is is there a clerical issue uh with that perhaps madam superintendent? I the the first I think was just the memo and the second showing the policy

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itself. So clerical. >> Okay. So uh that will have been considered adopted just now. So we'll move on. Uh we have new business now on the agenda. We have approval of the last day of school for the current school

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year. Uh that's Monday, June 22nd, 2026. Do we have a motion and a second to approve? So moved. >> Second. >> Motion's from member Donovan. The second is from member Keegan. Discussion,

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questions, comments. Member Donovan. >> Just for the record, could you please clarify, Dr. Golovsky, the role of the Mar the Marsh School? The Marsh School had lost a school day in February and they were the only

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building in the district to not have school that day and that was um due to the cold temperatures. Some pipes had frozen and burst and so it was an emergency situation where we needed the day to clean the school and make sure it was safe for students. Um and the

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commissioner does offer a a waiver um application or will accept letters from districts. Um, so I did write a letter to the commissioner requesting a waiver for the marsh which he granted um recognizing that opening one building

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for an additional day would come at a cost to the district and we were already meeting the required hours for instruction. So this um that waiver was granted so that all students can conclude on the same day. >> Thank you.

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>> Any other discussion? If not, we'll vote. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. The eyes have it. Uh, next on the agenda, we have approval of the 2026 through 2027 school calendar. >> Need a motion to approve. >> So moved.

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>> Second. >> Motion's for member Bayas. The second for member Soy. Discussion. Member Keegan. >> So I am um very consistent. This will be my fifth year voting no on the school calendar because I strongly object to the fact that we only give one religious

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holiday and not either in my opinion we should be giving everybody's major holidays or we should be giving none but we should not be just choosing some Christians holiday and so therefore I will be a no vote on the school calendar

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for the fifth year in a row. >> Any other discussion? Bayas. >> Thank you through you, Mr. Mayor. Um, is there a methodology that goes into place when I because I don't want to assume

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things on teachers having one day to check their students, you know, IEP letters and kind of uh prepare for that or do they get that in advance before? or like I know they have they get their class list a week before, but I'm just a little concerned that one day to prepare

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for IEP letters and of such it may be too short or again I don't know if that's just common practice but >> it's common practice um because it is um in our MOA um the structure to the start

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of school we do allow access um to classrooms early for teachers classless um as soon as we can and also student documents um and we are cognizant of the fact that it's coming in one day before

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students arrive. There's a lot to take in. So although that is officially a professional development day, we it's hard to deliver heavy professional development on that day when there's so many things to go through and get organized. >> Thank you. And I would just like to note

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that I will also be voting no on on respect to the school calendar based on the fact that we are not uh recognizing all religions. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Mr. Chair >> member Wlette >> um through the chair to the acting

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superintendent in terms of other religion and consideration of other religions. Do we have a policy for excused absences that's already uh codified within the manual >> for staff and students?

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>> Okay. So, if someone wants to take the day off for religious uh observances, they could have as excuse absence. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Um and I think, you know, we'd be hesitant to not um to hold school on

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that date. I don't know if you saw um just recently Medford public schools did hold school and had so many staff members call out on religious day that they weren't able to open um because that is the predominant religion of their staff members. Um it's also a day

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that is um listed in many of our collective bargaining agreements, not the teachers union because they don't have holidays but and and um custodians, secretaries, administrators. So we are respectful of other religions

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to take an excuse absence because I know in Andover they adopted the policy based on a student's concern and I'm not sure if we need to adopt a similar policy or if we already have it within the books that if we already have it in the books

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then we're okay. Thank you. >> If I may um I'm a Muslim and I'm a senior now. So past four years, me and my friends during Eid, which is the celebration concluding Ramadan, um we've all contacted our respected principal and we've all had that day excused. Um

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which has been, you know, very privileged. But um I've worked with an organization known as the Council of American Islamic Relations and we did a project um like gathering research about which schools allow excused absences and what their policy is. So I wonder if more consideration can go into it with

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regard to the growing population of Muslim students in Methuan and some changes can be made. But that's all I got. Thank you. >> Member Bayas. >> Thank you so much for that input. Um I just wanted to ask because I I know that our homework policy is coming up in our

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subcommittee. Um, despite having excused absences, are educators being respectful of homework when there are major religious observances going on? Is that a policy that or at least common practice that that we have?

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>> Um, I would hope that is the case. Um, we do offer um a lot of education for staff or notification when it is a major holiday. um particularly when there's fasting going on, they may need to be um supportive of students. Um I don't know if you'd be better able to speak to

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that. >> So I'm privileged to say that the Methan staff are very caring and very thoughtful of all Muslims here at Methunai and the growing population of it. Um and we've had presentations uh to the teachers about, you know, our Muslim student association uh like what Islam is. We just had the teacher appreciation

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lunch from Methuan u Muslim parents today. So a lot of teachers enjoyed a nice lunch from them through um Muslim parents and you know we uh engaged in a lot of like information education where it comes to we're explaining like what we do as Muslims and um and it it's in

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those conversations that teachers you know gain a sense of understanding of the what it means to be a Muslim um in America and what it means to be a Muslim in the Maduan district. We even have a guide. It says is it's a guide. It's a the title of it is a guide for teachers

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on Muslim students. Um, and in that book there's like a comprehensive understanding of like what Muslims are, but there has to be a clear understanding that we're not asking for exceptions, but rather just simple understanding. So, no, not necessarily asking like, oh, we need more time on homework or we need, you know, like more time on a test, we're just asking for

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your understanding. Um, that if a if a student is like sleeping or uh groggy, like he's fasting, you know. So, um that's a privilege that we have here at High. Yeah. Other questions or discussion? Member

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Donovan? >> I appreciate the concern. Um, and also I think we have to keep in mind the challenges of like for instance if we did take

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Good Friday off the agenda. We've talked about this since I've been in the district and the impact that would have um and trying to provide students who do come to school with a safe learning environment because we know so many people would be out because of their

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religious beliefs. I'm wondering if moving forward from now, we could put together some sort of committee or or have some really purposeful discussions that include our students that include some members of

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the I don't know. I just think it's probably time. I don't know if we can do that right now with this calendar because parents want to know, our teachers, our staff want to know. But I wonder if it's time to really start looking at this a little bit

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differently. But we also always keeping in mind that we're going to have a lot of people who will take certain days off for the religious observations. Um so I think I'm going to be voting yes on this because unless Dr. Golovsky,

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is it possible we have time to look at this again? I don't think so for next year. I hate to put you on the spot like this too, but I think it's time to have a >> disc. I'm always happy to have healthy discussion, especially involving staff, student, >> and involving all our members of our

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community. >> Exactly. Um, however, I do think at this for this particular year, time is of of the essence. Um, I did consult with union leadership um and members of our leadership team about there are some

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changes in this year's proposed calendar from from this existing year. And that's um I just wanted to highlight the parent conferences that are typically held in late December. We moved to October

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um 22nd and 23rd. We felt as though it's a little late in December to be starting a partnership with the parent face tof face talking about um a student's progress and then just one week later everyone's on the winter break and so we

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lose some momentum. So, we would like the opportunity to um have parents in earlier um and we moved the early release day which had been on that October date to um December 11th um to

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to preserve that date. One uh one aspect of this school year's calendar that I think we unanimously enjoyed was um the September full day professional development day for staff. And that worked out well this year because it was

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an election day um where we like to keep um students out of the buildings on those days and that worked well. However, in the 2627 school year, that election day we confirmed with the clerk um is September 1st, which is the first

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day for staff and faculty. There'd be no students in the building anyway. So, it seemed kind of arbitrary to just select a day in September just to have it. Um, so we intend to use the November 3rd day as a full day PD rather than an off day

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that we did this year because as you you might notice if you flip to the back page um the 180th day of school that would be with no snow days would leave us at June 17th and just one snow day

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would put us at June 21st already. Any other questions or comments? If not, we'll take a roll call vote on approval of the calendar. >> No.

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>> No. >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. All right. The calendar has been adopted. Next on the agenda, we have approval of the award for the uh bid regarding the superintendent search. Uh

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the uh successful Oh. >> Oh, I'm so sorry. Excuse me. Uh so, next on the agenda, thank you for pointing that out. We have the 2026 uh through 2027 uh school committee meeting calendar. Do

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we have a motion and a second to approve that? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion's from member Bayz. The second from member Soy. Discussion about the meeting calendar for the next school year. If there's no discussion, we will vote. All those in favor?

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>> Opposed? The eyes have it. Uh next on the agenda, we have approval of the bid uh for the superintendent search. Uh the company uh that was the successful bidder is Zeal. Uh we need a motion and

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a second to approve. >> So moved. >> Do we have a second? >> Motions from member Keegan, seconds for member Bayz. discussion. There's no discussion. We will vote. All those in favor? >> I

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>> I >> opposed. The eyes have it. Uh next on the agenda, we have finance and operations. Uh first on the agenda is the expenditure report. We'll pause at each one of these. Any questions, comments regarding the expenditure report?

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Now we'll move on to the revolving funds report. Questions, comments? Member Soy, >> I apologize. Mayor, I just had a question. I think it goes under the general budget report. How how did we make out with the um gas and electric

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bills and how are we doing with >> We're struggling right now with those. Um I will I was going to come to you with another transfer, but I don't want to do that too often. Um it's not an emergency that I move the funds, but um I'm probably going to come

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to you at the May meeting looking for omnibus in order to um start moving funds to start closing out the year. I just don't want to do that too early. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So other questions?

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We'll move on to the grants report. Any questions about the grants report? I've been mentioning at the past couple of meetings just to uh share with the committee and the public that we had undergone a bidding process for grant writing services uh through the city but

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of course that would be used to support the schools as well and we are uh going through the process of evaluating the responses and my hope is to have uh the contract on if not the next agenda the agenda after that. We're trying to get

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this buttoned up before uh we uh settle on the budget just so we have everything in place for the next year. Uh separately uh we have the bid specs for a federal uh funding consultant uh which

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the city of Haveril has used. Uh this is separate from what we would be utilizing in terms of a grant writing vendor. Uh this is more along the lines of a government relations/lobbying firm to help us chase after uh federal earmarks and the like. Uh it's been quite

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successful in Haveril and so uh we would have that uh for the benefit of the schools as well. Uh so that's a separate process but at the very least we'll be moving forward with having a streamlined grant writing operation uh through this vendor agreement that we'll put before

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the council very soon. Any questions, discussion? Yeah. Move on to the student activity reports. Any questions or comments? Member Keegan. >> Um I just want to make a comment that the CGS is getting dangerously close to that 25,000. Um so they either need to

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move some money or they need to spend it. >> I said um the CGS is getting dangerously close to their 25,000. So they either need to move money or they need to um spend it. >> Yeah. The treasur's office will not move

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money above 25,000. So we're safe. So they must have just done a transfer which put them back up. So they spend and after they spend, we send the the proof of the expenditures to the treasur's office. They do the transfer

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replenishing it. So >> thank you. Any other questions? If not, we'll move on to the food services report. Any questions from the committee?

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If not, we'll move on to warrants. Any questions regarding the warrants report? Now, we'll move on to uh contract awards. We have none on the agenda. Uh we have next acceptance of new fiscal year 26 grant awards. Uh there's a link

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to this on the website for folks who might be following along at home. Uh we need a motion and a second to approve the new awards. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion's from member Bayz. The second is from member sus. Discussion.

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>> Member Dunovan. um the open sed now that money could you please share what the 45,000 over three years what that will be allocated for >> I just want to be clear because I know there were some questions as we spoke

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about about materials >> sure so open sed is um a a science program for students in grades six through eight there is a fifth grade um curriculum available but that's not included in this grant. So, we're

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starting with grades 6 through 8. The Marsh Grammar School was awarded this grant last year. Um, and three teachers at the Tim were also able to take part. The granters were kind enough to support them as well. So, we're happy to bring our other three grammar schools on

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board. And the funding from this grant provides professional development for our teachers. So, there's a 4-day launch professional development um experience that they will all uh have access to. So, there's an

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option in late summer and if they prefer to go during the school year, there's also an option in September. Uh and it's a nice opportunity to connect with other districts within our cohort. Um and hotels and accommodations are provided for teachers and it's a good way to

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launch into the curriculum. Then again in February, they're offered another two-day professional development experience. So those continue over three years. Uh and then also those teachers will receive durable materials for all

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of the units within open sed. So open sed is open source meaning that any of us could open the curriculum and look at it and access it for free. The cost does come in with the materials. So all the durable materials are covered. I did

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find a vendor last year when the marsh was on boarded through which we were able to purchase consumable and durable um goods and equipment at the cost that other vendors were just um charging for durable. So all materials were covered

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um and professional development is covered. The curriculum is free and there's also support for lead teachers and administrators within the buildings to continue that professional growth during the school year in between those formal sessions with with the cohort.

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We look really look forward to that. It's a phenomenon based curriculum where students really drive the learning and think like scientists. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Any other questions or comments? Um, is it all right if I bring up a

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point about the cafeteria? Is that all right? All right. So, I my first question is um the grant I just want to have a better understanding for the grant that was provided um for the school cafeteria refresh um the the money that was allocated towards that and the grant was it limited to

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specifically um the cafeteria environment or was there any other conditions like we could have used it for? You're referring to the the money to redo the calf, right? >> Um that was not a grant. That is um that's money raised by the cafeteria. Uh

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that has to be spent in the cafeteria or on the lunch program. What was the second part of that? >> Um so the second part of it was that was kind of just a statement, but I think I'm not extremely opposed to the the school refresh. I just hope that there would be more student input. So, I'm

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just hoping for future projects like garnering uh student feedback and student um understanding would be possibly more positive for the school environment. >> Yeah, that's a fair point. And especially where he's moving towards he'll be doing the grammar schools next. Yeah, >> that's a good idea that maybe he do

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surveys or have a little um >> you know committee to uh to go over the options and have give the students and maybe some staff some input. >> Sure. Thank you. >> That's a good point. member will >> just want to add to that that um I advocate for the survey of the students

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and I think it's been a wonderful vehicle if we're applying it to the grammar schools and also I think you've been deeply involved in the process as well. So if there's a subcommittee of interested students to work with the food uh service director I think he's

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very amendable to that. So thank you. >> Circling back to the grant awards on the agenda for approval. Any other questions or comments? If not, we will vote. All those in favor? >> I opposed. The eyes have it. Next on the agenda, we have notification of

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appointments and other personal personnel matters. Uh we have tonight on the agenda a discussion and vote on the appointment of uh acting superintendent Dr. Lisa Gowski Tumi to the position of interimm superintendent. This is looking ahead to the 2026 2027 school year. Um,

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we uh need a motion and a second. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion's from member Soy. The second is from member Keegan. Uh we'll entertain a discussion. This is looking ahead to uh the uh end of Dr. Kang's contract. Uh so

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uh we're getting ahead of this uh in terms of the appointment. Member will >> I'm just very concerned that when we amend the agenda it should only be constituted for emergency purposes. So by state or federal law if we have to be

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in compliance and at the last second we have to add an amended agenda I'm amendable to that. But there's not an urgency to this because we can take it up at the next meeting before the conclusion of the contract. Also in

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light of the fact that the vice chair is not present for the discussion, um again I think the superintendent overall has done a fantastic job. I'm not adverse to extending the contract. Obviously I think we're dealing with time

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constraints um with just approving the outside search firm uh tonight. Uh and again the conclusion as you said of the former superintendent um again I think we will likely be

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needing to extend the acting superintendent's uh contract. Whether the terminology is acting or interimm attorney said it's the same process under applicable state law. So if you

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want to say acting versus interimm, all it is really is semantics. But in deference to the vice chair not being here this evening, I will after the discussion has concluded, I will be making a motion to table to the next meeting.

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>> Other discussion member sus. >> Um I I feel there is urg an urgency to this. I think that we have a budget coming up that's going to take most of our time that we're going to be focusing on. Um, we just approved a search committee for a new superintendent and

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they're probably not even going to start till next month. This is going to happen. So, let's just do it now. Get it off our plate and continue on. I understand the the vice chair isn't here tonight. Um, I spoke to him today. I was

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hoping he could zoom in to the meeting and um I I just think we just need to settle this, get it off our plate and move on. >> Thank you. >> Uh member Keegan, >> um I'm in agreement with U. Member Soy.

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Um especially given the budget, we need accurate numbers in our budget. Um and so we need to know what we're looking at. And given that the budget is coming out this week, um I

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feel that there absolutely is an urgency and we need to we need to do that. In addition to that, I think we need to um make sure people know what's happening because June 30th is coming and we have nobody in place at this point. I think it's important that

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people have some stability in this district and I think this is one way to do it. So I feel like um we need to move forward with this vote. Member Bayas. >> Um, I'll preface what I'll say with saying that I have no issues whatsoever in extending the acting superintendent

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as I believe she's doing a fantastic job. My question is to um, member uh, Donovan Grassi through you, Mr. Mayor about procedure. Um, I just want to make sure that everything like we're not supposed to be are we not supposed to be doing this in executive

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session and then coming back to a vote or procedures in general like everything is is being followed correctly. >> Answer that. >> Yeah, thank you. That's that's a very legitimate question because it feels like deja vu all over again from when we um worked on your contract short term

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when Dr. Kong left. So, I consulted with our attorney Friday. We would go into executive session when if and when we approve this and then we would direct someone to work out the contract with Dr. Gowski and that executive session

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would be a discussion about the contract. It wouldn't be tonight. Am I clear? >> That help. >> Thank you. >> Member D. >> Yeah. I would just like to say I think it's time for this district to have a

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real sense of urgency. Um MCCAST is going on. I believe access scores are coming out soon if they haven't already >> next month. >> Next month. That's that's a lot of work. We have a very difficult budget. We need

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to worry about closing the school year. We need to uh worry about having celebrations for our students who are moving on and supporting those students who are struggling. We need to worry about staffing. We need to worry really worry about what we're going to do about

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an assistant superintendent because right now our central office is running on on fumes. And the sooner we get some decisions when we empower Dr. Golovski to make some of those decisions to find

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an assistant superintendent which is probably going to take a while or at least take some real thought and maybe juggling. The sooner we do it the better. I think our staff has felt very um unsteady. The ground has shifted a

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lot in our district and um delaying will not help. I am sorry that uh member Daglio is not here because I certainly enjoy and value his input. However, there could be any meeting someone could be missing at the next meeting and um

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and that we can't operate that way and I know he could be he would be here if he could. So I would um think it would be impactful, purposeful, meaningful and efficient if we could make a decision tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you, Member Donovan. I know member

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Willlette wants to make a motion, but just to close things out in terms of discussion, um I'll share my thought. It it largely uh is in alignment with what member Donovan uh has stated, uh you know, I think that there is a lot of uncertainty. Uh there is a lot of I

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guess perceived instability perhaps by uh any further delay to the decision about the next school year in terms of leadership. Uh I will say that just over the course of the past few weeks since our last meeting uh the acting superintendent has needed to make some

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key personnel changes uh at least on an interimm basis in terms of uh school level leadership and so uh the need to make those decisions and the need for that stability I think is necessary. It's wise uh for us to establish that as

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soon as we can uh especially leading into what uh is a challenging budget season not just in Mthuan but in literally I would imagine every municipality in the Commonwealth and so I think it behooves us to have that stability sooner than later. Uh speaking

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to uh member Bayz's question, um just to reiterate for the public, anyone who might be watching, uh typically when it comes to a vote like this, we have the vote to appoint. Uh the vote on a contract is separate. Uh so this isn't a

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vote on uh say any specific contractual language relative to the next school year. This simply uh is regarding uh the appointment and eliminating that uncertainty. And so with that, I know member Wulette wants to make a motion and so I'll pass the floor off to member

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Wlette. >> Again, just to emphasize, no one here tonight is emphasized with any rationality that this is an emergency consideration. And if it was such an urgency to do this process, it

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should have been part of the original agenda. We we submit for Thursday to be publicized to the public at large. I'm I'm tired of amending the agenda where it does not denote an emergency. This is

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not an emergency situation. And again, in deference to the vice chair, right, we have the ensuing month of May to make this determination. I hope in May it's unanimous. I've had no issues with the acting superintendent.

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And again, more than likely, I've been consistent. I've in favor of continuity as well, but in deference to how we operate as an agenda and also in deference to the vice chair, I'm not seeing how it's warranted. It's not a

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state law we have to be in compliance with. It's not a federal law we have to be in compliance with. What is the sense of urgency other than we're going to rush a decision where it would be the same decision in May and there's nothing that would prohibit that? There's no

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logger jams because we're going to be dealing with the budget separately anyway. So, we're going to have a meeting on uh Thursday with the workshop. It has no relationship whatsoever. That's a red herring. But again, that's how MTON has operated over the years. So, I'm going to make a

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motion to table. It probably failed, but we'll see what happens. I'll make a motion to table. Thank you. Second. >> We have a motion to table from member Wlette. The second is from member Bayz. We'll take a roll call vote on the motion to table.

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>> Chair vice chair. This is a motion to member. >> No. >> No. No. Yes. >> No. The motion to table has failed. We're now back to the main motion. Any

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other discussion? >> If not, we'll take another roll call vote on the main motion. >> Jonathan Graassi. Yes. >> Yes. >> No. >> Yes. Congratulations.

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>> Thank you. Uh, next on the agenda we have congratulations or condolences I guess is the better. >> Um, is there any other business from the committee?

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>> No, just excuse me, chair. Just my usual backpack program looking for donations. School vacation is coming up. So, they're looking for food donations for the students. Thank you. >> I have one member Donovan. Um I just you know let's bookmark tonight's meeting

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with scholarship talk um within scholarship foundation had an incredibly successful tellathon and I'm blanking how much I think it was 90,000 they were up to but the auction is continuing. Um

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so the Mthuan Scholarship Foundation is run by parents and give out dozens of scholarships to our Mthuan High students. There's a bunch of events that they continue to plan a craft fair on May 2nd at Mthuan High. Those are awesome. Music bingo the 16th at the BFW

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community yard sale. That's something new June 13th on Branch Street. And then um all your unused clothes that you want to get rid of, you can drop them off anytime now at Branch Street. There's a big box truck and they'll raise money for that. So u more good news about

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people supporting our students as they continue their education. and you can check it out at Mthuan Scholarship Foundation Facebook page. That felt like an ad. >> Thank you, Member Dunovan. Any other business from the committee? >> Member Wlette. >> Thank you. I I just want to add my voice

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to supporting the GIC and our entry into the GIC. Um I appreciate what the mayor is doing. This is a very uh difficult task that he's undertaking. Um it's not taken lightly. Um I just want to

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emphasize that Malden which is normally compared to us uh as a neighboring uh district in terms of uh various metrics and variables. They will be joining the GIC this year. Haveril, another

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community is adjacent to us. They joined the GIC in 2017. Um, obviously we could produce 5% savings at least by joining the GIC. And I want to mention that uh 460,000

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people are enrolled in the GIC with a variety of uh health insurance plans and we're talking about finite resources and this is an opportunity for us as a community to try to redirect some uh education dollars back into the

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classroom. Thank you. Thank you, member WLET. I just wanted to state for the record that uh no final decisions have been made in the context of health insurance. We are engaging in uh active uh conversations with members

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of uh the negotiating committee referred to here in Mthuan with an acronym the PEC uh and that includes representatives from uh the public sector unions along with uh the retirees. And so we're

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continuing to dialogue with them so that we can achieve a resolution to the health insurance issue that again as I stated regarding the budget is a problem not just in Mthuan. It's a problem in every municipality uh across the

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Commonwealth to an extent in in the private sector as well. the cost of health insurance is skyrocketing. And so we're doing all that we can to evaluate uh all the options out there and ensure that we are providing our employees with the coverage uh that they need, but also

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doing so in a way that makes sense for our taxpayers so that we don't break the budget and struggle as member Wlette alluded to with the issue regarding personnel and trying to avoid layoffs and the like which would not be good. Um, so just want to state that for the

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record. Member Bayz. >> Thank you, Mr. Mr. Mayor. Through you. Um, I just wanted to see if I can make a request. Um, can we get in our disciplines report um kind of a another section on incidents

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that lead to lockdowns in our schools? Is that possible? >> What do you mean by lockdown? Are you referring to any sort of safety measure whether it's whether it's due to student behavior or not? >> Yes.

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>> Sure. Yeah, that sounds like it might be um a different report that I can provide for you. >> Thank you. >> Is there any other business from the committee? >> If not, uh we are now going to be entering into executive session for

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three purposes. These are outlined on the agenda and I'll state them uh for the public. Uh we will be entering executive session pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws chapter 38 section 21A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with

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non-union personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel. Uh this is regarding unaffiliated employees. Uh we will also be exe entering executive session pursuant to Massachusetts general laws

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chapter 38 section 213 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares Mthuan Education Association versus MLAN school

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committee. Uh lastly, uh we will be entering executive session pursuant to Massachusetts general laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation. If an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining

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or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares uh Lithuanian custodian association uh we will not reconvene after the executive sessions. So when we take the vote to enter executive session, that

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will be the conclusion of our uh open and public uh portion of the meeting. Uh so at this point, what I'll do is we will entertain a motion and a second to enter executive session. >> So moved. >> Motion is from member Bayz. The second

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is from member So will take a roll call vote to enter executive session. >> Member Grassi. Yes. Yes. >> Keegan. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes.

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>> Yes. Uh so the time is 7:46 p.m. Uh we are uh ending uh the regular uh portion of the meeting and entering executive session. Have a good night.