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[Music] made available for viewing on the methan public schools website secretary would you please call the role ryano presid
member danovan here member Keegan here member Maxwell member shabila here member wette yeah mayor Boran here all members are present except for one we need a motion in a second to accept the agenda the amended agenda excuse me for February 10 2025 is presented so moved second member um um motion from Member uh daglio second from the vice chair discussion I'd like to make a motion to move the
MHS 2526 program of studies approval from new business C uh to what will be the new staff reports a and adjust accordingly so we're going to move uh the motion will be to move 6 C and essentially make it the new 4A correct all right you got it we have a second second motion from Member shabus second from member wette to make that Amendment all those in favor say I I
opposed the eyes have it we need a motion to accept uh the agenda again as amended so moved second motion from Member shilia second from the vice chair any further discussion if not we'll vote all those in favor I I opposed the eyes have it superintendent would you please introduce our student for tonight's flag salute I would be honored so I think we have
looking around sorry Gustavo here yet oh there he is perfect so I'd like to call up Gustavo seales and principal Aon McKay if she's in the room and Mr reev who is walking in right now he was here earlier but you want to read it or he's
so I know there she is I was going out the last time okay does she have a copy or she does okay good evening everyone I'm eron Mackey I'm the lower excuse me lower school associate principal at the timy I
am proud to present Gustavo fer zos to lead the Pledge of Allegiance Gustavo has attended the timy grammar school since pre kindergarten and is currently a fourth grade student in Mrs demmer's class his favorite subject is history on a breath is history yes there's a lot of stairs there uh because learning about historic topics like the Civil War and other uh and other things his favorite thing about the timy is the people because they are nice when asked about
Gustavo as a student Mrs deur had the following wonderful words to share Gustavo is kind and respectful to peers and his teachers he shows patience and support when working with classmates he always has a positive attitude and is willing to help out whenever asked he lives with his mom and his dad and his brother Carlos and sister Dani in his free time he loves to relax and talk with his friends after he does his homework and plays outside I like that
his priorities are straight he enjoys playing soccer he aspires to be an author specifically non-fiction focusing on points of view of other people is it a pleasure to have Gustavo represent our school in leading the Pledge of Allegiance a pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Applause] excellent for
conations than
next on oops yep next on the agenda is the introduction of our sore award students I'd like to call up Cheryl Mancini our supervisor of Fine Arts for methu public schools we actually have two sore Award winners this evening that we would like to present you with and there is a SL show that's going to hopefully appear momentarily so you could see the work of
our students that was not included in the packet good evening mayor good evening school committee Dr Quang assistant superintendent golovsky toi um I'd like to start out by saying that this is one of my favorite nights out in the school Community um it is with pride and pleasure to celebrate our talented fine art students at methan high school we have Sergio orz and Cassandra Pratt um the reason why I'm picking two is because I have
reading glasses on so I can't see ahead that's why I'm like I got to take them up um the reason why I'm picking two is because in the Fine Arts Visual Art and music are two completely separate things a lot of times we have a student that shines in all across all you know Music Theater but this year we have two exceptional students um Sergio Rees who um he auditioned for um senior district and was chosen as the uh
pianist out of all the cities you know Methuen Andover havil he was the choice um he auditioned they get scored and he was the top rated student um so I will start with Sergio um the fine arts department would like to highlight Sergio Reyes for the sore award our highest achieving students in music possess different and distinct skill sets from other academic and non academic classes it is important to acknowledge that excelling in any music discipline to the advanced level is no small feat and it often means that
students typically Focus intensely on one area when they get to their senior year in preparation for college Sergio ores is an excellent musician performing for us both on clarinet and piano he is a type of student who shows leadership by example he made the junior District jasan as a freshman and the senior District concert band as a junior both on piano at last year's jazz concert he had also played piano with the pro jazz band he has taken just about every music class we offer band jazz band music
technology music theory and is planning on pursuing a music career you know sometimes our students who are quiet often show leadership without being you know outgoing and Sergio is one of those students who just shows his leadership through example and modeling um so I'd like to invite up his family
excuse us we have two so we're trying to figure that out so I'd like to invite Sergio to come say a few words um thank you for this award it's very exciting to play the piano I I like music a lot um I'd like to thank my my family and the and and the teachers at at the school for um supporting me thank
you so now we'll try this again Sergio's Family come up and take a picture e
I also got the pleasure of teaching his sister when I was teaching at withu high school so this is a joy for me to see the sister and the brother
together okay are you ready yeah awesome okay so there is a slideshow presentation that I put together um that they'll share with you later on um with the work that Cassandra has done and some of the photos and a music clip of Sergio playing in the jazz band uh at the district level um the fine arts department would like to highlight Cassandra Pratt for the sore award our high again our highest achieving students in art possess a different and distinct skill set from other academic and non-academic
classes um it is important to acknowledge that excelling in any visual art discipline to the advanced level is most no small feat and often means that students typically Focus intensely on one area they get to their senior year in preparation for college so that's the same idea um with the visual arts Cassandra Pratt is a student deeply involved in the visual arts she's currently enrolled in photo 2 and Ceramics independent study she has taken visual art classes every year and she has also taken music
theory she active actively participates in stage door 22 and works on lighting for the shows and other events at methan high school she also actively participates in the yearbook and has volunteered many hours to take photos for various clubs and activities including band performances she is an engaging student in the classroom who thinks deeply about her work she has spent years at MHS making personally meaningful artwork and developed a clear voice as a young artist she is also a great student outside the Fine Arts realm and a National Honor Society
member Cassie plants double majoring college and one of her Majors will be Ceramics hi um I'm Cassie I will say a few words now um um I've it's over the course of my years here in methu and High um the fine arts department along with all the other teachers here have been incredible people I've loved watching the arts department grow and change over these past years I love being involved in the Arts here and
um especially this year Mr cret has done a lot to provide for the arts program which I'm really appreciated of um but I really want to emphasize how important the teachers are to my work not only as an artist but my growth as a human and I know that um there's an upcoming union meeting on Thursday and I just want to know make sure everybody knows that the students notice um when the teachers are frustrated with the programs that are happening so I
encourage um you all to take the teachers seriously as I know you're already doing but um yeah okay that's all say nice things it's okay I did say nice things and now I'd like to invite up the family to take a photo e
do we have any updates from our student representative no I would like to pass it on to the student council
Representatives hi I'm teny Mahmud I'm a junior at methu and high good evening my name is Leonardo fora philu and I'm a freshman in in methu high so the 39th Annual methu High science fair was held in the in the dining Halls on Monday February 3rd from 8:15 to 10:15 and from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00
p.m. with Awards immediately following the MHS science fa showcased 90 projects from which 150 students participated who engag in scientific inquiry to learn about science and the world AR around us pending An approved individual research plan the following students will proudly represent methu high at the Region 4 science fair which will be held on March 7th 2025 the tubs University Region 4 science participants were Milo ISAC Alias Castillo Anthony saski Harry MC
hashar deir and un following students won first place in the following areas Lana nul for outstanding biology project Khloe goggin for outstanding environmental science project Crystal Castro and onward Mambu for outstanding chemistry project slone FAL for outstanding engineering project so IIA Ferrera for outstanding research project jacn Mastro for outstanding laboratory project yasine breida for first place at
the individual science project and last but not least Ty oal who's present the room right now and Thomas Lee for first place team science project this year Port TR MHS Champion is senior Isabella sbone Isabella made an impressive performance at MHS semifinals and will move to State semifinals in Newber port on March 8th
we wish her all the best in the next round the M ta girls hockey team is currently sitting undefeated at 1 152 they are on fifth place in the division one state rankings and now hold MVC title under their belt there are graduating four seniors that have been playing since eth grade and they're determined to make it to TJ Garden to for the state
championship they have their annual Memorial Briana McCarthy tournament next week on Monday at 5: and Wednesday the time is to be announced either three or five they would love to have you there to support the time the team as they wrap up on a reg regular season the TR credit for Life Fair the love the and apparent ship with Mirch Valley Credit Union will be held on on the morning of Friday February 14 2025 in the kisma
Memorial Field House through their participation in the fair senior students will be presented with real life scenarios as they experience the success and the challenges of managing this personal B budet thank you that's all thank you for the [Applause] updates any other updates no no we're
good great move on to public participation no one is there anyone in the room who would like to share public participation if not we'll move on and at this point I'll close that portion of the meeting if you are not able to make a meeting in person for public participation in the future you you can send an email to Martha sroy at M ois meu. K12 ma. us before 3 p.m. on
the day of the school committee meeting at this point we're going to move on to the approval of minutes we need a motion in a second to approve the minutes of January 13 2025 so move second motion is from Member shabila second is from the vice chair discussion there's no discussion we'll vote all those in favor I I opposed the eyes have it we need a motion in a second now to approve the minutes from January 27 2025 so move second motion is
from Member shilia the second is under the vice chair discussion all those in favor I I opposed the eyes have it excuse me mayor yes just so we give her a chance to vote I believe uh member Maxwell has joined the meeting via Zoom so what we'll do going forward as we'll need a roll call vote for all other items on the agenda we need a in a second to approve the minutes from the facilities building subcommittee from January 27 2025 so
moved second motion is from Member shilia the second is from the vice chair discussion there's no discussion roll call Kristen's gone she's gone okay so she's not present via Zoom so we will take a Voice vote all those in favor I opposed the guys have it we need a motion in a second to approve the minutes from the Transportation sub commmittee January 31st 2025 so I moved second motion is from Member shilia the second is from the vice chair
discussion all those in favor I opposed the eyes have it we're now on to staff reports uh as amended on the agenda we'll have uh the MHS 2526 program of studies approval need a motion in a second so mov second motion is from Member daglio the second is from the vice shair discussion as you can see we have some
High School staff here Mr KET is up here for you I'm going to give him my microphone if you have questions uh hopefully we'll be able to answer those uh we can pull up the folks who are with us tonight as well uh to help answer any questions you might have before you actually approve that those changes oh scen good evening uh so before I I mentioned the program of studies I just want to give a couple of shoutouts uh Cassandra
beat me to it when I saw she was winning a Sor award tonight I was going to give her a shout out um outside of just being a fantastic you know student uh both academically and and with with what she enjoys in in the fine arts department she's also uh my personal me mental health Guru uh she frequently checks in on me and just make sure that I'm doing okay especially in the new position uh she's been fantastic anytime she sees me she she she checks on me and and builds
me up so uh something that that I really appreciate and I'm just uh taking a back by that that you know that our students have that awareness in them to even to even check in on the adults who most I think presume are are are doing okay so that's Cassandra right there fantastic um so the the other shout out is is to the administrative team uh they put a lot of time and effort into going over the program of studies and and looking at it and trying to refine it in a way that we can just um continuously make it
better um I do have several staff members here with me tonight if you have any specific questions in particular with um some of the bigger changes that we're proposing in the program of studies I'll just kind of quickly highlight those um so first um with our CT Department uh we're looking to add an um a uh an exploration uh student expor um exploration of Career and Technical education course um and that's in alignment with um our our chapter 74
funding that we're hoping to get through a designation of of adding a fifth Pathway to our CTE program um with that we're also proposing moving uh media production from Fine Arts into the CTE Department which would give us again that fifth pathway um another big another one of the bigger changes in The Proposal is um to try and level out um some course offerings in our health department uh
after getting some feedback from students adding a we're proposing adding a Sports Nutrition course uh so we currently have three electives that are that are mainly running with within our health department um the fourth course uh just we had low student interest and it wasn't able to run this year so by adding the Sports Nutrition course that would that would help level out that elective course which is a quarterly course and essentially giving uh kids more options for for cour work to take
and then the other big um uh proposal that we're we're looking to add to our our program of studies for next year is adding African-American studies AP African African-American studies uh to our our courses as well um and in the memo that we provided there's some pretty good data in there in terms of um this course being uh offered uh in other schools uh the the interest that at the interest level that they were able to uh get with with um more students um
looking to take AP courses so but again any questions that that anybody from the committee specifically has be happy to answer them and or get the staff members up here to provide uh clarification on on some of our proposals you have a question from Member shilia and the timer started all right I just have one quick question for you uh it says here the math class on page 70 which was supplemental math C is being removed due to the lack of mcast requirement now I I
guess I want to understand because in my mind I read that as math C was a kind of a the folks who weren't excelling in math previously that was why that was a prep class specifically targeted at the test I assume is there something that's replacing that for the kids I mean just because the test is no no longer there we still need to learn the math yep so um our math department chair
isn't here uh Lisa can certainly build on my response but um uh essentially uh we offer three different supplemental math courses a B and C A is for uh freshmen and then B and C are for sophomore students um supplemental B typically happens first seme semester um and then supplemental C historically was offered second semester and that course was specifically geared towards um test
taking strategies that were predominantly uh geared towards um uh taking and being successful on the math mcass I'm not sure if there's any you want to add least sure I'll just add um there's a number of math classes that are meant to support students who who need the support um in addition the academic support lab um is a class that students can be scheduled for where they are with um a certified teacher and get that one-on-one or small group uh
support that they need to cross the finish line I think supplemental A and B were the more populated math courses anyway um so subc just frees up uh a teacher to teach a different section of something thank you same with Biology supplemental bio I believe was in in there as well yeah just it I I wasn't questioning that one because it said it hasn't run for several years due the Staffing so that
one was kind of an easy m j thank you um Mr Mayor so um I want to thank everybody for doing these studies it's it's great I know Mr lyest um my teacher from freshman year I think he was um him and his Department it's amazing I went over the coursework they honestly I wish I was in school back when I was we had some of these classes
um the question I have though because we had this conversation when the mcast requirement was gone away that we were all discussing it when we vote on this tonight these these are not going over the questions that we had when the mcast went away and we were talking about how we were going to structure our CL like grades and Etc is there more more of a conversation coming in the future for that I'm not I'm not sure I fully
understand the question but but this is the pro so so we know mcast isn't going away kids are still taking the mcast but remember when I said to you well with grading for example and you said we could go over those questions down the road when we have those because I said instead of having a d requirement to passing this is not that conversation this is about courses and the program a study so kids can select their courses next year in the coming weeks perfect um
second all I I don't know if I can discuss it during this part um after dark which is one of my prize uh bringing to bethu in public schools the question is is that used for just kids that because the question I want is kids that are struggling um could or deciding not to go to college are they allowed into that program short answer yes okay um there's
a probably a longer answer to that but over the past this is our third year of after dark yeah uh we probably have a little more than a dozen students now that are participating is that am my close yes that's accurate um there there are some qualifications that students need to have in order to be accepted um in terms of attendance and behavior um and also credits they have to have a certain number of credits in order to be
considered for the program um but it is open and it's growing a little bit each year that we can continue to sustain so financially so when the first time we brought that and I don't know if this is the discussion to talk about it but just while it's appropriate as far as this courses at the high school so so the question I have I think because I've talked to other school committees and when me and Frank Cilla put it together one of the things especially with the chronic absentees that were
that des's looking for I think this is one of the requirements that we need to look at and say to a student that is having a chronic absence say listen you come to school you can probably pick up a trade so but you have to come to school and do well I think that's one of the things we need to look at with attendance saying maybe this could be the initiative to bring that student from being a chronic absent by saying to him obviously you're not because a
different schedule there's it might be more suitable for that student because we don't know what's happening at home um but I think that's something we need to look at at that requirement to maybe attract more people and I think I I from our initial conversation about this right we had two students the first year uh and now we've grown that to a dozen maybe a few more um so and we also have to keep in mind there is a financial cost to the operating budget of this
program there is a financial cost we get to claim the students for CTE with a foundation budget but we actually have to pay greater Lawrence an invoice of the difference of tuition so so in the spring uh I have to make sure I budget for it this year for next year's kids coming into after dark so we have to have that amount of money so there's a sustainability part here we're keeping our eye on and we know we can sustain this uh at this time right so there's we
are keeping track of that piece as well uh to make sure that we have the ability to keep this going and also for greater Lawrence to continue to have the seats for us in the various options right they they have I think they started with two options as a trade and now there's four options as a trade for after dark so they're doing their due diligence to at least open those options up to our students um where the first year we did it we only had two I think the kids only
had two options to go into that first year so it was limited so I think as the years continue it will grow but we do we absolutely have a financial obligation that we are writing a check to Greater Lawrence uh in the spring I don't remember when we get the invoice from them it's it's some yeah we they send us an invoice we actually have to pay that of our operating budget and again we get to claim the kids as CTE in October 1st for enrollment uh but we have to pay the difference in tuition
for them right so just we're again we're just keeping track of that but it is growing so we do have a good number of kids miss Tatro uh gets all the kudos for the conversations she's having with these kids and making it work and the scheduling and just making that program work for our kids I think is is is happening perfect thank you you're welcome Vice chair um I first want to say I'm super disappointed to see um sign language
come out of this because I started advocating for it five years ago before I was on the school committee um for the special ed kids to be able to take that as a foreign language so I'm super disappointed to see it come out I understand that we can't get a teacher so I understand why it has to come out but I I'm just I have to say that I'm super disappointed to see that come out um but my question is I'm I'm looking at this and I'm not seeing the strides classes in here for math English History or science and I'm
wondering where those are in the course of studies or have they been removed they haven't been removed um if they are not in there [Music] um I am not exactly sure why and we can look to having them added um we did uh catch an an oversight with regards to our unified health class that uh We've we've since you know updated the program of studies for um but I'd
have to look very specifically at the programing studies just to confirm that um they're not in there but it's not a course that we're it's not a those AR aren't courses that we're removing okay all right as long as they're not yeah as a point of clarification okay thank you m Willette thank you Mr Mr chairman just a piggyback on the what the vice chair was indicating what was the interest for the sign language program I know it was a
staff limitation issue what was the interest unfortunately it was high it was high like okay so I thought and we can maybe explore it further I thought Neco provided those courses we we initially and correct me if I'm wrong Dr glavy we we initially contracted with a teacher from Neco the first year we did this that was the only person we could actually find to to
teach this uh and then I don't think that we didn't we didn't work full-time it was hard to find a fulltime we had full-time interest we definitely had enough kids to have a full-time position but we've we were excited about this we opened to this we thought we were going to be able to keep this sustain it um there are literally no teachers uh in this area who are certified who can teach High School who were not pulling from a
college Center and that that switch we haven't we haven't hooked anybody enough to to make that switch to public you know High School secondary instead of postsecondary so it was Neco and that wasn't successful we did yeah it was I I believe it was the person couldn't commit we only had like two courses that we could run because of that person schedule right so it was more of a we're paying the person to teach those two courses when they could fit into their Neco schedule it was it got too
complicated and just didn't work for us to be able to carry on now what the whole point of having a fulltime staff would be to grow it right you have kids in the first year you have kids in the second year and can continue on that path only being able to offer one or two courses a year it just wasn't going to give the kids who were interested the pathway that we needed because it's such a marketable skill it is uh yep except there's nobody in the market that wants to teach it that's unbelievable it's I I would be on a level of uh translators
yeah interpreters I mean we've kept it in for the past three years to Hopeful and we posted it again last year I mean I I just I don't want we don't want to continue to give people a false sense of hope for this because there is an interest but it's just not working for us right now and this isn't a similar you know this is a similar story in high schools as well and where is it the nearest like um college preparatory school or private
school that would be uh deaf and hot a hearing um that maybe we could reach out to them as well is there anybody local in the immediate vicinity that Beverly School for the Deaf is the only one I can think of right is it I mean boac and learning center for the deaf in Framingham Framingham Framingham and Beverly are the only two we know of am I right on the Beverly because i' would love to have this continue to be on our radar screen and
try to exhaust the Outreach but if it's not there um it's unfortunate and then just to um follow up on member daglia with the after do program do we know offand what the breakdown of the cost for the 12 students would be is something that could be provided to us for the last couple years it's been about 5,500 per student ibly go up a couple hundred dollars um it's the difference between a regular ed student
and the the cost for a vocational student so it's just the difference set by the state it's not a number that we so the CTE there's a funding amount that's matched to the student and this would be the added amount for the invoice corre okay so it' be like about 5,000 time 12 and that would be okay is there a waiting list for that program that we know of or we just incrementally increased it okay we in incrementally
increase it and we do it by students who are interested okay yep all right and then obviously I just you know Kudos is on the um the AP African uh I think it's African history African studies I absolutely I love the backup on it uh I think it's um an enti ment for um underprivileged students and um I absolutely in favor of it 100% um and I
just want to say that for the record thank you member Donovan thank you thank you principal corre just real quick um the CTE the multimedia production and broadcast could you just I'm just intrigued so the introductory course is unweighted and then subsequent courses will be honors level could I could you just expl PL the theory behind that sure so um the idea behind it is to give kids a risk-free opportunity to take a course
maybe uh step outside of their uh level of comfort um and then if it's a course that they um enjoy um they can continue on and and and the you know the the the next level of courses uh do get more challenging and with that you know we do want to wait it um appropriately as an honors level course so if I were senior and and I was looking back at my GPA it would kind of balance out having an
unweighted class and then having the opportunity to do honors if I'm looking back at my career four years from now is that the some of the reasoning because I know that's important to some students yeah I mean it's there's I mean I'll just let doctors I'm just intrigued sure and our teacher leader for CTE Morin melanson's here as well um so that's in line with the other course offerings is that unweighted introductory level and we found a few years ago students who are concerned about their GPA were avoiding those classes because they were
rated as College Prep courses um and there's certainly enough riger to argue that they should be of honors weight um and so since we've made the switch we've had a lot more success in retaining students who opt for the pathway is there anything totally explains where where I was looking I was just a little confused about I will say also that the higher levels the students get into more Hands-On career focused material they also have the opportunity to earn um certificates and degrees which would be
appropriate for that as well that they can put on their LinkedIn their resume perfect thank you for that um and I know the state came out with all the new standards for health we're all good now we we're meeting all okay thank you yes so we we have a grant um from Dy that we applied for and were awarded that gave us professional development throughout the entire year and enough funding for curriculum work so Liz folks is our teacher leader for health who's
here tonight um and she's been organizing the curriculum team working with Lighthouse who's our vendor for PD um to make sure that we're in alignment with the standards okay so we're good to go on that and finally the um unified Health course now the course is currently CGH taught so it it's now officially in okay I I just want to commend I think that is a a meaningful purposeful course where everyone can benefit and learn so I appreciate that
addition formally we do offer it both in Fen and and foreign Arts as well and then for just whatever reason um it wasn't in the program of study so uh we noted that and made sure to get in there I think it's a wonderfully inclusive class so thank you for that quick followup from the vice chair um I know we probably don't have an answer to this question but um do any of our health classes risk losing Federal funding based on the new
administration's um dictates I'm GNA hold that question so that when I give my update on the funding and then an update on sort of recent happenings that can be included in that response if that's okay thank you uh so at this point we need to vote all those in favor I I opposed the eyes have it so that's been adopted next
on the agenda is so much yes thank you uh we're going to have the update now on the fiscal year 26 State education uh Aid so I included in your packet today uh just an update I did this last year as well we have a wonderful Rel relationship with Roger hatch who uh is part of des's finance office and uh he gives us superintendent an update every
year on the budget and what it means um this is an overview so this is a general summary and then unfortunately the little part that that pertains to methan is the image on the other page that I tried to capture in a very long spreadsheet but I hope that it captures it because you can see the number um but basically what we have here is another year where the inflation rate is not set and matches the inflation rate the real inflation rate so we have a
1.93 uh% inflation rate which is not what we wanted um so we're seeing a foundation budget that uh because of that inflation rate is part of the formula um is much lower than we wanted and much like last year where we had the 1.5% inflation rate uh which poses a significant uh number of challenges um for us and for many so some of the things that are um befuddling to us so I'm going to
use that word tonight um is the fact that uh our increase over last year is $2.4 million here in Methuen so you can see that on that the little image that I did capture um the far right side in the blue it says change and Aid to 2.47 that's our change in aid over last year now that number that you see is similar to the number that we've seen
previous it's actually lower than the first the year before s SOA uh came into play so what what we're not experiencing is what we were promised which was a 7-year gradual increase in Aid with the student Opportunity Act in urban settings with higher numbers of low income uh English Learners and special education students High need students um so we are befuddled by this because our
numbers uh that went into the foundation budget were checked and double checked so everybody was accounted for appropriately um so simply the way that this formula was uh completed uh is here's the product um so that's what we're dealing with right now the um City contribution uh for this I don't think it's actually in this oh yes it is um so
if you look at where in the middle right there it says minimum contribution do you see where it says 47 million and now it says 49 million so that's the minimum contribution increase for the local all right so our Chapter 70 increase was 2.4 and our uh City contribution increase is 2.5 so I with I mean just this if we
just pause for a minute if there are questions uh regarding this I do want to answer member keegans and then I have a couple of other things I want to say about recent events member shilia uh I don't know if it's for Ian or Gina but have the special ed 257 rates were they published along with the governor's budget do we know what that increase is going to be the the special ed rates I can answer that so um I think I
can answer it let me try because you asked both of them I'll ask anybody anybody who's got the answer I'll pay I'm swimming in this right now uh the you said added District tuition rates right yeah yeah so um we we are assuming the OSD actually allowed uh out a district schools to raise their rates 3.67% uh this year so that's what we're calculating uh they will up two so they can go up two so when we're calculating our budget right now that's what we're going up to as an increase uh because
they won't that is they won't send us their actual tuition they send it to us in a letter form when they get to it and it'll be June but I'm saying like we budget for like because they I don't know if we've seen them budget less than what they can go up to uh they don't typically budget less than what they're allowed to go up to as an increase so we will expect most of those schools to actually have a 3.67 increase um the collaboratives are also
starting to come out with their increases as well so I do have Crest collaborative I don't have the other collaboratives where our kids are at just yet those are starting to be voted on right now uh within the member districts and at the board meetings but those are all things that we're calculating this week like right now and dran I just add that for the private placements that OSD sets those rates there are some placements that also put in for special circumstances so
we could see a larger increase than the 3.67 so when I'm looking at all of that if they're highlighted because I know that they're seeking a special circumstance I increase it a little bit more in my projection anticipating that at some point during next fiscal year we're going to see that increase and ballpark do we know what that swing is going to be is that going to be a $2.4 million increase you're you're probably really
close that's what I was worried about don't write that down no I know and I know it's it's ballpark it's estimate write that down yeah it's it's going to be significant enough that between just that increase Alone um and um some other contractual obligations uh that $2.4 million is already income is gone so I guess without getting in and beating the dead horse because we've been talking about this now for a while and the governor's budget has been
perpetually trashed I would it make sense for us to maybe expedite our budget session and get our twice annual meeting scheduled with the council so we can have this conversation with them because I am willing to bet when they see or hear or realize that we're now starting the conversation at 4 49.5 that uh there's there's going to be a lot of hurt feelings at that table Yeah so I
think on the mayor we're trying to schedule that meeting in March uh I would also say that for our team uh we are going to be we're we're moving up our um preliminary proposal meeting to the March Workshop instead of the April business meeting so typically we've done the first presentation in April uh I have alerted this team that we're moving that up to March 24th they're so happy um March 24th I believe it is but see the joy On's face
yeah for obvious reasons I mean we need to our team needs to really uh everybody's crunching numbers right now and making sure that we have what we need to present um but also it's going to have an impact um so yes and yes so we're going to up that I think it's important I think it's important when we meet with the city council that we have a conversation about what we're going to be up against but what's more important
is that the school department budget is presented to all of you first that makes sense I'm not saying the meetings can't happen but I'm not going to present the school department budget to the city council in our joint meeting that would be that would be odd um right and unnecessary but the conversation about what we're going to be up against in that meeting which will likely happen before March 24th absolutely I think this needs to be the
conversation about what we're up against all right that's good because I my concern was coming into tonight that it would be sort of business as usual the council wouldn't see our budget until June when they do their budget sessions no and also know that uh Ian's office uh we have been since I've been superintendent we've been putting together the same budget book that you get for every city council member every single year I've been superintendent and they me they read it I'm just saying I
have provided that uh usually in May before our public hearing is when we provide it to all the city councelors as well so they have ample time to look through details before any public hearing um so they do they do get the detail but they don't have the the authority to have that conversation about the details but I think it's important that they see what's in our budget um so they will I will continue that practice I have no reason not to
this year but absolutely I would imagine the meeting that we're going to have with them again hopefully in March um will be about the budget again that's the in the intent of those joint meetings are supposed to be about the budget that's again why that policy was created uh seven years ago was to make sure that there was open lines of communication about our Cent current budget right so the the topics are very simple where are we in fy2 right which we will share out with the whole group and then where are we
going in 26 and what are we looking at thank you m wette thank you Mr chairman what I've noticed over the last four years is that we approved casinos the voters approved the millionaires tax and we escalated to a record rainy day fund and we added sports betting uh four years ago we had an $8 million increase in Chapter 70 the
following year it was a $8 million increase then we went down to 3.8 million and we've gone down to 2.4 million right in the universe of casinos millionaires tax rainy day fund sports betting so I've said it repeatedly it's not a revenue problem it's a spending priority Problem and we have students
I've said it repeatedly um English language Learners profoundly disabled individuals uh high-risk individuals uh students that are entitled to education regardless of the Dynamics of the the federal and state um they're entitled to an education but we're not receiving the resources at the local level and I don't know what the message that could resonate with the legislative
delegation I believe havil still in the same boat as methan and other communities I I hate to cast aspersions to a neighboring City but Methuen has a certain student population and the neighboring city is just slightly over two times the student population they're roughly about 4.5 times the Chapter 70 allocation so there's a massive
disparity that I don't feel has been corrected by the student Opportunity Act so someone would have to explain the number to me and also the fact that we do not have a catch-up provision to account for inflation 1.93% is below the colif Social Security recipients is below the CPI and if you looked at milk and eggs and food prices and fuel prices right all those factors
and again as you indicated we will have cost related to the special education population and they're entitled to services and I will fight for those services but it's definitely a revenue problem and unfortunately I only had the senator resp respond to me and not the other members of the legislative delegation on my letter so we will have an opportunity to meet with the city council and I will emphasize
again probably the 10th time we are not a topheavy Administration if you look at Malden versus methan and the Pioneer Institute that does a yearly study malen spends well over $3 million we're closer to $2 million and we make cut backs to the administration and some of the cutbacks I was against but we had to balance a budget and we had to push forward something uh secretar is a
pushed to the max we're going to have to add maybe a couple of custodians um The Crisis Intervention and then also the the stem supervisors that we want to have that's going to promote something for these kids in terms of their future it were not given the tools to operate R the the circuit breaker I think is the right approach with the added funding and also the the CTE I welcome that but it's I'm mostly
critical of the budget because I'm seeing a massive disconnect and I've said it year after year to go from 8 million to 8 million down to 3.8 million to 2.4 we're not going to function as a school district correct we're going to have massive class sizes right and it's not fair to the students because how do you measure if you had 20 kids to a classroom and you give it a few years then you can measure the test scores if you go from 20 kids to a classroom the regular Ed then you
go up to 25 28 how are you measuring scores and how are you providing services to those kids you're not so I mean it's a really it's a tragic situation that we're not getting the funding you get all those uh funding resources out there thank you Vice chair um just to PE back off what member wette saying would it be in our best interest to invite the state delegation to our joint meeting with the
city council so they understand what we're up against we certainly we certainly could um we certainly could I I don't know what the response will be but we there's no reason no harm in in asking I can work with the mayor to make sure they get invited um I would also say uh just so you're aware uh we are as a maror valley superintendent group Our Round Table we are meeting with our delegations so we have invited it's a
legislative breakfast uh we have invited all of our legislators who represent all of our marac Valley communities to come in mid-march so that will probably be right between meeting with city council and our budget presentation um and uh we're deciding at this point the topic that we're going to be focusing on that really affects all the districts because we're not all the same right but we are affected in very
similar Ways by certain things like special education costs things like that so um the four officers I am the secretary for that group the four officers we trying to decide what really we want to Target when we have that conversation uh because this this time is absolutely dire that we need them to hear uh what the actual effects of what's happening right now because uh I did include last year in my budg budget presentation and I'm sure I'll include
it again this year just because it sets a point that those of us who've been having this conversation know but uh s SOA was a was a linear upward slope uh that we were expected and we were told by sort of all parties when it was presented to us what it would mean how it would change the formula how it make things more stable in urban centers and so for us to uh you know we really started to change things with the additional funds those two
years um and add things that we had lost over so many years to only then be back in the place that we were prior to SOA even coming aboard and and that's a challenge and uh I did laugh today uh just because we need to have some humor to this a little bit um I I was sent today so it was Dr golovsky the um the report from desie that said hey report on your s SOA plan and how
everything's going and how you're making Headway on all these things with your additional funding so I did I might have chuckled in my office by myself for a moment um because the timing was kind of impeccable um you know hearing about this information and then like I'm not sure why what uh Miracles we're supposed to produce at this point right so we have this requirement that we have to have this plan for SOA we love our plan
uh don't get me wrong we love our plan it's it's solid it aligns with our strategy for improvement plan but um it's really going to come down to our resources right how much resources do we have to be able to achieve this plan uh that's what our team does and that's what we'll continue to do to present to all of you uh and work with the mayor and the cafo and the city council it's just it's going to be a lot of conversation a lot of work but I I will I have a couple more
things I'd like to add if people don't have questions about this to answer member Keegan's question about Federal funding where we might stand uh and then a couple other things but I don't want to interrupt if there are questions more about funding or yeah member Donan yeah um kind of relates to member Keegan but with the concern about what will happen with the Department of Education um as you create the
budget are you looking at the monies we get from yeah so let's just go there because they are related yeah I do so let's just go there and and uh we'll talk about that and then we'll talk about some a couple of other things just so that we're in mind so uh we currently right now as you can imagine as you're part of it but imagine us also on the information that we're receiving on a daily sometimes multiple
times a day basis uh we're getting information we're getting alerts we're getting advisories we're getting do this don't do this do this don't do this don't okay so so this is the place that we're living in right now and I think uh you know I want to share with all of you that a lot has happened in the past two and a half weeks and a lot I mean the directives the the advisories the um just all of it uh what
to think about what might happen what might not happen uh it's been a lot for our team to process for all schools in the state and the country to process um so uh I want to share with you that I I believe I've learned this over time in my position but I've also learned it over time just in life uh a lot is coming our way and it is changing very quickly so we are I am taking the approach of I need to sit and process uh
we aren't going to react every time we get a new directive new thing um we had a really really uh I would say powerful meeting last Friday that was the urban superintendent Network group uh and that group is just it's all of us right same we were in similar environments getting it from all different angles um and like what are you doing what are you doing and we just
had some really good uh conversation and dialogue and some advice if you would about uh you know everybody needs to take everything and sort of Let It settle before we react and and that's what I'm doing and that's what we're doing so there there has been a lot on our plate about immigration there has been a lot on our plate about Federal funding and there's been a lot on our plate now about the lgbtq community those three things are coming at us uh Fast and Furious and so um you
know we are we want we support all of our students we have really strong policies and laws in place to support our students uh in in situations regardless of who's at the door if it's an ice agent if it's a police officer if it's anybody we have things in place that are going to protect our kids from me just making sure somebody has access to our
kids that's what furpa is right so we have laws in place that are going to make sure that information isn't given to whoever asks for it parents have to have consent right so we have all those things in place right we've looked at all of those pieces there's no reason for us to recreate anything new uh our policies are strong um we are uh one of the things that we are gathering right now and again Dr golovsky specifically
and I are really again being strategic about our messaging and support for our families who are looking for that we are getting inquiries from families who who don't know what all this means right they're fearful they don't know what it means we don't have a ton of resources right now to direct them towards so we're Gathering those resources um some of you may be familiar with the know your rights uh campaign that's happening right now that's coming
out of a lot of different uh offices and organizations the AG's office the ACLU uh the immigration office right they're they're doing a know your rights so people have questions I don't know all the answers to their questions it goes far beyond a school walls right um so I know uh we just received uh today some information um from Senator Pano's office is going to sponsor a virtual know your rights uh this week so we're we're trying to gather all those things
to make sure that we have that information to give to our families that is right accurate appropriate um uh we're also working with our adult ed director and the nans library to potentially host a know your rights virtual or I mean the list the line for that right now is long right the waiting list for that is long cuz everybody's asking for it cuz we're not the experts um so I think that's the hardest part is we need to make sure that we're sharing with our families I don't I can't answer all your
questions you know here's a place that can help you um so we're Gathering all of that we're we're going to be messaging our families we're supporting our families that are calling us right now uh with the information we have and so um it's a lot right so we're getting we're getting different kinds of phone calls right now about all three of those topics the federal funding the lgbtq some questions about funding for certain courses or certain textbooks certain
topics so we're not doing anything or changing anything uh until we know we have to do it and I don't know if that'll ever come right and so I have really taken a pause on understanding wrapping my mind around everything that's coming our way way because it is a lot and I'm telling you if there coming from legal advisories our legal councel des's legal council Mass's legal councel right the AG's office I mean
it's coming from all different angles right now um but you know the bottom line is we're going to support all of our students like we always do and always will and if they need support we have people in place to help them uh we hope that we have more resources collected to be able to um seek you know uh to be able to provide those resources outside of school for for students and families who have questions about these things so I thought that it was important for me to say that to all of
you that uh there are a ton I mean every day something is coming at us and we're just you know we need to all wrap our minds around it a little bit and not be too reactive to everything um so that's the approach we're taking so I want to share that with you um and then the second thing uh is so I don't know if that answered your question but right now I don't know right like I don't know because there's again so many different
people coming with different this executive order but now it's getting you know it's he doesn't have the authority to do it but he does I mean it's all of that we're going to let everybody work it out before somebody says hey this is what it actually means for us here in Massachusetts for public schools right and so that's uh and we've got some good advice to do just that because it's it's going to eat us all up if we're sending out advisories every day it's going to confuse people it's going to upset people you know I don't think we need to
do that uh right now um the second thing is that for as far as the federal funding goes um you know we did have the scare with the federal freeze that was a little chaotic uh because everybody we all thought that was very real um it still could be very real but again that was just a perfect example of it's going to freeze at 5:30 tonight we had a few moments during that day because we have about $5 million of salaries in federal
grants right now um and then it was lifted right removed no freeze so we are expecting some changes and we're going to prepare for those changes and unfortunately what that means is we're going to prepare a budget that uh won't include the full amount of entitlement grants Title 1 2 3 and four and the idea grants are all federal entitlement grants that's what is being discussed right now so when you're talking about
how it impacts us we have $1.6 million in Title One funds that is all salaries we have about $1.7 million in idea that is all salaries all but a chunk of CH you know a small chunk of change um and then we have titles 2 three and four uh majority salaries uh and so it's it's you're looking at over3 million $3.5 million
doar just like that in the grants I just said that are in our salaries so we always remove those from the op right they're in as far as positions uh but we remove that from the financial dollar amount uh I think this year we're going to have to include all of them in the dollar amount and and backfill right so whatever we get from title one maybe title two title three we start
then taking off salaries from that from what we get now we never we never get that final amount until July I don't know what to expect this spring right but I want to I don't know how else to prepare a budget for you to see the real part of what we're dealing dealing with uh so that's uh we have we have all settled on that that we are going to pull out uh all the staff that are paid currently on idea title one so
you could see it you're going to have to see it uh what that looks like th those we're we're we are a schoolwide title one supported District so it's not Target assistance so we have staff regular Ed staff that is uh being supported in all five of our schools under title the title grants um we have specialized support staff some of our s teachers and ESL teachers are in uh some of the title grants and then we have a
wide array of special education staff uh related service providers resource froms you know ASD teachers uh and such in the idea Grant so when I have the information that I believe is the final information you will have it um I just I don't know when we're actually going to get that information so it's very unsettling but we're going to prepare and plan the best we can for for what potentially is ahead
of us this is not the year to make any assumptions right typically we make an assumption that we're going to get the same amount and we move forward we get that amount in July that's how it's been for the 20 years I've been in a system uh I'm not sure that's how that's going to work this year so I will definitely make sure that's part of the process as we go through it Vice chair just a quick question um what about the lunch program is that federally
funded it is I think it is so how does that if we don't have federal funds for the lunch program what sort of impact will that have so I don't know the answer to that either uh but it's federally funded but it's also State it's got a it's got a dual uh category right now so it's probably more complicated um but there's our federal component to it there's also a state component to it so again we're unsure
how that's going to be affected because the state of Massachusetts has subsidized it we would get subsidized Anyway by the federal government so I'm not sure is that I'll recognize student representative so you mentioned the possibility of an ice agent coming to our school um that one I was particularly had some questions about I was a bit concerned about because of the implications it has on like the student body overall and um the
last meeting I had with some Desi Representatives we were informed that districts received um procedure on how to like handle that situation were to happen I was wondering if our school has a certain approach that they have worked out tab that's a great question um so yes so the procedure is very very simple uh if an ice agent or any other agent looking for students from any other agency somebody's looking for a
student um that person people are going to be directed to my office so the secretaries the principals they all know we're going to welcome people figure out what they want um which is what we do now uh and then if they need further information review if they have documentation uh they will be directed to my office for that review because there are there are reasons why some people may have to get into buildings and have access to
students um but it's a review of that documentation to make sure it's the right documentation that you need for that purpose yeah that follows um I learned that like it they should not be allowed unless they like show warrants and that sort of thing yeah a Judicial warrant is what is is being expected at this point from a judge to to allow them in the building and that's something that my office would review with with our attorneys right to make sure it's right
doc not documents we see every every day and just for the membership to keep in mind the agenda item is focusing on uh education Aid just want to be cognizant of that for our discussion uh on school committee side yeah the box has been open but I'm going to close the Box because because the item on the agenda is for Education Aid remember doog that you have a statement or question to make about education Aid well then I would like um for future to
bring up this immigration thing because I think it's going down a wrong path um and I have education Aid we can have yeah but I would like to add that to Future agenda because I I don't like where this conversation went so I would like to bring it up so there's fact ual information to be provided not just to everybody but to the public dly noted I just want to make sure that we're adhering to the open meeting law y any other questions about State education Aid member
Donovan you to DET if this is appropriate as a point of information masc this week H held a fabulous seminar for what school committee members need to know I attended it was online I believe it may be taped it may be something everyone would want to watch but it describes exactly what the laws are and the role of the school committee which is basically to know these things um and I would recommend if um very
respectfully it's certainly worth watching it I I will find out if it was taped it was terrific thank you any other questions about State education Aid member wette I know you got a ro order but we're a sanctuary state that that's has to be emphasized you Commonwealth versus Lun decision of 2017 we should be all on the same page we are a sanctuary State the legislature
hasn't corrected that the governor hasn't corrected that they don't honor detainers for criminal convicted illegal aliens so once we're on the same page right we provide a service to the students just like we provide a service at emergency rooms under federal law I just want to make sure we're adhering to the open meeting law it's not yeah because we've had that we've had conversations that were brought up about
regulations and about ice and about the budget and I didn't bring those up other people did okay so we can have it as an agenda item and I'll bring up the same concerns I had before the governor says we're not a sanctuary state Conwell versus L decision of 2017 would beg to differ with her and she's the governor she was a former Attorney General she should know that
the current attorney general should know that the legislature was going to be empowered to make the change and every single time they put up the safe communities act which would codify Sanctuary cities in a sanctuary State and I don't think the vast majority of Americans are in favor of that in terms of regulations I remember voting against the Biden regulations on Title Nine and
I'm consistent I would vote against the Trump regulations of Title 9 because it didn't originate from an act of Congress so it's nice how to have the flip side of an issue Biden title9 regulations absolutely let's approve it and I voted against it respectfully the Trump regulations no let's hold off on it I'm consistent on that because it did not originate from an act of Congress thirdly there should be a hold harmless provision from the
State House of any reductions in state funding that results because of Federal Aid we should take that into account but also realize this talk of block grants not throwing out the baby with the bath water not eliminating all the resources es to the states they want to do block grants so there should be a balancing act to the conversation now if they totally reject block grants and they totally eliminate
all that funding I'll be on the front lines in strong opposition but I think exactly what the superintendent indicated let's not jump to conclusions she presents a budget of her wish list of items that's we can support but we don't have the the resour excuse me resources for it the same thing can apply with the cutbacks if she wants to put that in a in a package for us I don't have a problem with that but
let's not rush to conclusions on these issues they're complex issues they're worthy of conversation and constructive respectful debate thank you and thank you for circling back to finances so just to reiterate um we're having a I think a productive conversation uh but just as a note for the membership housekeeping item the superintendent is not subject to the open meeting law the student representative is not subject to the open meeting law though a subject may come uh to the floor uh in terms of
discussion from other uh individuals we here as members of the body we are subject to that so I just want to reiterate that uh do we have other questions comments concerns regarding uh the education Aid update if not we will move on to uh the uh report from the assistant superintendent of student
services we have a presentation or any questions memb shilia microphone so I just I want to just point out for anybody watching at home or sitting around the table or hanging out in the back of the room here that last month we increased our year toate expense for transportation under mckin vento by
$176,000 in one month am I reading that right you're reading that correctly but that's really based on when the invoices come yeah but but $176,000 so to year to date for just invoices that have shown up yet almost $34,000 correct of homeless transportation that is not part of our regular Transportation program which we're going to discuss later which comes with its
own ugly line item amount um but getting beyond that I was looking at the residency report and I know that it's a Hot Topic and I know that member Donovan is on the Crusade which I 1 million per support to streamline this package it but I have some questions on this this chart mhm 23 kids have been withdrawn from the district for one reason or another under this
program so by by my math and using just easy number of 15K for population uh spend per pupil I know it's not 15K but easy math $345,000 were those kids counted in the last October numbers or do we they were so this is this is saving us money but I know the answer to that is no it's not because as these kids go out other kids are coming in so is it improving class size as we
lose people probably negligible at this point because those 23 kids are spread out over prek through 12 um and so no so no I it's negligible because you and the kids coming every Monday we get the report from F FRC of the new kids enrolling so I don't think it's a it's a you know 23 out 23 in but it's it's a constant in coming in the district so I guess I'm sorry and those are not including the kids who TP who are
withdrawing right these are residency withdraws but we're talking about other kids that might be withdrawing because they they're moving or whatever other Yeah Yeah Yeah from the our process right so there's added numbers to this as well at the same time there's added numbers to kids coming into the district so I guess it's also a fair statement to say that the effort here in the 23 withdrawn are not freeing up staff to do other necessary activities no it's not making busing more efficient no it's not I mean are these are these kids with
discipline issues uh High needs is it I'd have to look at each profile I mean I I guess in going back to the conversation we had last week I right I I I feel to see the benefit to this I know that everyone's going to get all bent out of shape because how dare I question residency but it sounds like we're doing a lot of work we're already sh on staff and there's not any identifiable benefit on the questions I just asked to what this is doing yeah
but the good news is oh I love good news lay it on me that that member Donovan and I did meet last week to start talking about a different way to present all right this information what information would be the most beneficial based on some of the conversation from all you last time uh some additional conversation from us going through it so I think we have some ideas uh of how to make this information more beneficial so that you can see and
you kind of asked the question already of like of the 23 what are the profile what did that do for us right what was the impact to the school what's the impact of the kids coming into the district right that's information that would be very helpful for you all to have so uh we had that conversation ready I have some sketches on my desk of sort of what that could look like and what information so I anticipate bringing that to you guys in the March business meeting uh to see if this is the kind of template that would be more
useful I support that I mean if you could come to me and say listen residency produced this benefit I'm good with it but if this is an exercise and futility because we need to make some people feel good this is a waste of time and I don't support it so thank you member uh member jaago oh point in clarification from U member shilia so you don't believe that we should be checking residency no sorry I don't that's not what I said I said you should
show a benefit and if you can't show a benefit let's have our time be worthwhile instead of Chasing Ghosts so I'm so confused the way the residency is set up we check to see if residency is existent so it is a benefit because if people don't belong in our district they should be out of our district but where is the benefit if those kids were counted in the October numbers so it's about because they're not residents and if class sizes are going to go up but they're not but they
might but they're not but they might we need order please I'll keep going if we have to cut teachers and add class sizes because of the governor's budget I don't want a kid that doesn't belong in our district in our district but M daglio the superintendent just said that we're not imp improving classes but things could change with Federal funding and when they do we can address it oh so we'll wa down the road okay may make a comment um so I think uh we're not
saying so this is a policy that we would have to continue to follow I think what I'm hearing and this is what I heard from the committee last time which is why we had the conversation was the information and the reporting the way it's presented isn't as useful as it can be so it's not that we're not going to stop doing this it's a policy we have to continue with our residency checks and our policy so it's not that it's not happening but how are we going to present it to all of you that makes sense so this information might be part
of a larger uh piece of information that is more useful like how many students have withdrawn why have they withdrawn what were their service delivery needs how many students have enrolled in the month of January what were their service needs and so you can see when I actually say to all of you uh right the needs of our students are changing if I were to compare what our students were in 1920 to what they are today or what they are today to 20910 they're different right so this
number this is the chart that M Donovan and I were trying to map out a little bit right so this might be incorporated into something that might be you know these narratives might be in a chart that just makes a little more sense to everybody for what is within your purview for when we talk about budget needs positions things like that so nobody's saying that it's not important and we would still have to do it I think what I'm hearing and please correct me if I'm wrong is the way it's being
reported out and not- making any unnecessary extra work to report something out that isn't useful for all of you to think about to act on to see the impact agre okay Vice chair um the comment about the days in closing mhm um I would like to know and I know that we don't know right now but the financial impact of it closing because it's going to escalate our
transportation costs um it's it's going to actually increase a lot of our costs as opposed to decrease our costs so I would like those that tracked as best as possible and reported to us of what the impact of it closing is going to be on us Us and how that number is going to go up because it unfortunately it's going to impact our budget with an increase not a decrease um yes so there's there's
potential for it to increase there's also potential for it to decrease we don't know where the families are actually going to end up if they end up in permanent housing it decreases for us right so we really I mean we we are having uh frequent meetings with uh Sean from CT uh so we're all kind of getting information at the same time the mayor got it maybe this an hour before I got it from Jessie that same day uh so we're this is all in just real time we're
getting information uh he's on actually on site and doesn't have probably as much information as the mayor and I and he's on site with the families so I just I think as it uh progresses to where the families end up is how we're going to just look at each individual family and what that situation is uh I think the hope is that they do get permanent housing and again that changes the dynamic for us uh but we'll see because if they all don't get permanent housing then there is a cost factor that we have to consider and that we'll know I don't
know if we'll know that uh by the time we're presenting the budget to you at the end of March that could be an ongoing fluid uh number and dollar amount that we're just going to have to project you know an estimated projection right now and see where we land come July and then my qu my second question is um Just for information um when a student is on the McKinley vento act how
many years can they claim McKinley vento like is it endless or is there a at some point there's a cut off and say all right you know what you you've lived on this couch for three years you're done there is no expiration date or timeline so it depends until their status changes thank you you're welcome other questions Mr chairman member Willette so I'm familiar with
that system so the section eight Voucher Program even on an emergency basis it will take years for someone to get into permanent housing now I'm not sure about bypassing current applicants that's a discussion for the state house but some communities will have what's called a choice voucher under Section 8 so my impression is that there's no other shelter in methan it was located at the
day end they will relocate those families and what my original premise was is that we have to spread the obligation Statewide I know there was a certain Community they welcomed the group for one day and they sent them to a military base okay how that's Humane I don't know I know the neighboring community of Andover had five homeless where at one
point we had a hundred at one location and we had multiple multiple deficiencies and violations and inspections that uh kept on reoccurring uh to me it's like a a slum Lord mentality over there I'm glad it's closing I don't buy into the premise that automatically it's going to cost this District because if you look at the Section 8 voucher program it's years of
a waiting list some communities will entertain a choice voucher under Section 8 so my impression is they're going to disperse and not um similar to what they did in Ohio of clustering um but at the same time too the State House is already putting up uh a doormat of saying no no more admittance um and that's something that the state house should have been doing two or three years ago so we're playing catchup on the criminal um element that
should be removed and we're not welcome that anymore because we have limited resources and I can't imagine someone from 2.5 billion to5 billion doar saying that that was a cost savings to school districts and localities versus what closing the days in and other hotels and motels was somehow going to cost us more I don't buy into that premise the Eagle
Tribune should have done some followup on that so that's my two Sense on that any other discussion if not we'll keep moving uh we have next the report from the Director of Human Resources any questions regarding that report shilia I like the layout and how we can see back to September looking at the unit c positions in September we were at 36 and there has been a steady decline
to close January being only 13 which in my mind I think wow that's awesome we've brought in what 23 new Pas but then my question becomes we continuously hear how they're are are no bodies does that mean we hired 23 new people and there are 23 positions that were open that are now filled yes but it doesn't necessar it means it's by either a hired meth Public
School employee or the contractors or the contractors right because we removed if it's contract or employee we removed them from the sheet on the back all right so I have I have legitimately 13 positions that do not have anybody in them right now that we're you know kind of muddling the the schedules along with people filling those holes yeah in the building uh and then looking at the unit a nurses B's and the RBT
one 16 so September to October was a a good good month good month and then we uh we we we hopped on the uh the slippery slide there does this is this there's no my my my words are escaping me there's no uh contractors in this group is there there are a few contractors in this group is that what accounts here in
the the swing because it looks like we hired seven people and then we scared them away like that's that that's what these numbers look like so yeah it's hard to it's hard to um capture that but that that's we've we've had some swing in the nursing staff right over the whole course of the whole year I think as of today for the good for the good but I'm
saying like we've had like openings you know like just kind of over it but we have them at this point filled um so that's been very trying um we have positions that people are resigning for now uh that same thing is still happening where somebody's given us a one we notice or a two we notice and they're gone um that has been happening pretty steadily one here one there all the way through the school year and all different buildings um and different
positions so like I'm I'm I don't have a lot of like Rhyme or Reason to some of those positions um so with re that are leaving especially the folks leaving in mid school calendar year yep how often are we able to get those folks to do an exit interview and I see Colleen sitting in the back so I don't know if you have the answer maybe we have to get it from her
you looking you're looking straight through me well I well I I see her and I saw her as I was asking the question um I would say that all the principles do uh a a very decent job of doing an exit interview with all of the staff uh sometimes we don't uh get they don't we don't get that feedback that we're looking for um I know Gina's gotten good feedback and done some exit interviews with staff on the why and the how um I've done some myself to to uh see what I can do to
figure out why people don't want to be here and what I can do to help them stay I've had some of those conversations myself this year so I think we're all uh probably more than just fill out this Google survey then yeah really in tune to the onetoone have a conversation and really figure out what's going on with folks and what we can do and sometimes it has worked we've had some really positive conversations with staff um about the reasons why and we've been able to work
through through some things and kind of fix those reasons right uh and make things better for folks uh that decided not to leave um so I get that a lot of it comes down to money it does I me that's the Perpetual elephant in our room not all of it but lot of it good chunk yeah good chunk um but I guess I would I would like to see us i' I've done my own exit interviews in the past I've been on both sides of that table and sometimes they're superficial it's a
pat on the head and you're out the door regardless of what side of the table you're on uh I would just I would hope that as the revolving door continues to move which it always will that will never stop ever no matter how much we pay or how good the district is or anything else that we see what we can do to capture even more information to continue to learn from what's going on that's my y kind of my hope and dream there thank you we agree any other questions regarding the
HR report if not we'll keep moving uh onto the facilities report any questions member Willette thank you Mr chairman we are making progress uh it's still a work in progress I am grateful for the report I'm also grateful that I think the mash boiler was the most pressing out of the schools to be replaced so that being on the
capital Improvement uh list I think is is very worthy um and I think we're making uh Headway on talking about removing carpets and and dealing with other uh issues I would like to still have this continue in in future meetings until we get some stabilization in in the system um but I like U the reports that we are receiving thank you member thank you um again I'm I'm happy
with the the reports but again like I I've said I wish these issues were brought up in the past um and I continue uh to want to know why we got to this point um and I'm yeah that I'm just happy that we're we're we're making progress but I every time I look at this report and I continue to look at it I continue to wonder why didn't we have these lists or
have these tens of urgencies back when for the last five years that I've been on school committee and like I said I've taken accountability for it but it should have been brought to our attention so that's all any other questions discussion if not uh superintendent I'll invite you to start the discussion regarding of Health oh excuse me uh member Maxwell do
you have a question um I just wanted to say like I I to comment on the schools I think that the deep cleaning um of the timy was great um I I hope that it doesn't remain to be superficial and you know kind of go back to its old ways um and I noticed that the um what was the other school um the Tenny I actually went back for a kind of a tour after the
last meeting on the facilities report see completed items and um you know we noticed a few things that maybe needed some more work and I I can honestly say that those have been addressed nicely and um so I like to see the progression in that I do want to say that like to say that things haven't been mentioned over the last five years um that's just untrue I mean I know as a parent I've mentioned things for the past five
years so I'd like to you know just make it like things happen things get out of control it it's being you know it's being handled right now and hopefully it doesn't just go to the Wayside and disappear because um we need to address it and we need to stick consistent and I hope that that's what we continue to do thank you thank you member Maxwell superintendent we have the board of health update so um which one are you looking for mayor
the timony one or the or they both are timy just going down the agenda we have the facilities and then so we yeah so both of them are included here I included on the back sheet uh some updates that the Board of Health uh came to the timy on the 28th so I included that um that was a communication between um the Board of Health here in methan and the mayor and myself so I included that um I also uh I think I included it
on the front page but we are having the State Department of Public Health uh did which I'm grateful for worked with me to come to the timy to do the same air quality testing that they did at the marsh before Christmas break so they'll be there with a nice team of folks hopefully not be there as long because they're bringing more people with them um but we will inform the staff and the families ahead of time because they will have to be in classrooms while they're
occupied so it was a little it's a little awkward but we will make sure when we come back from vacation that all families are informed that there will be adults walking around the building they're going to be with us uh as well we'll divide and conquer like we did at the marsh so everybody knows where they're going but um we expect that I think it took them about 3 weeks to give us was like a 3 week turnaround time for their the reporting to come back um which also was available on the website so um we will continue the continue
working with everybody at this point and thank you and and I just want to agree uh I I didn't get to comment but on member Maxwell's we are definitely this isn't going to go by the way side I think we have some solid plans in place uh we're even working on some different ways for that accountability and checking it and looking at it on a daily basis weekly monthly uh reporting what systems can we put in place that are a little different for accountability so we're looking through all those things so thank you any other questions if I
could just make one more com comment me thank you um I I would just like to um kind of touch again on on my you know my feedback on the reports I I think that it's fair to acknowledge the custodians and the efforts that they have gone into with these um reports because it's been some pretty high demanding stuff so I think that we deserve they deserve that
recognition awesome thank you agreed member Willet thank you Mr chairman is there a plan in place to have the Department of Public Health visit the remaining schools beyond the the marsh and the timoy at some point I know the CGS really didn't have that many problems and the high school is a is a new structure um but obviously if we can have that opportunity just to get
some feedback I think at a local level we can make those plans but we cannot the state actually uh he is uh the gentleman from the Department of Public Health the State Department of Public Health came in and said that they do not uh typically go to all the schools and I kind of said would you please please please uh come back to one school just so we have two different reports so our community can see that uh so it is not typical for them to come
into all five schools not something we can dictate uh they did this because we asked them to uh and again I'm also doing them a little bit of a favor they're doing some training that day while they're at the timy so the gentleman has been phenomenal to even come back to do this uh I'm trying to work with them and bring back a whole team you want to train to do air quality testing that's why they're bringing more people uh you know we want some feedback as well on on these things but we can't dictate that they come in uh it's not something that
they typically do and they did share that with us when they came to the marsh even like in rotating years if we on a annual basis just we'll certainly keep in touch with been wonderful so because the I want to say the report I reviewed from the state I think was phenomenal and the recommendations and I think we're going to hopefully Implement many of those recommendations but if that's the template if we had like one designated school every year on a rot we can talk to when he comes back in in February and see what the what the
process is to keep it going but it's not something that they will do annually and they won't do all schools at once and I understand it's not a mandatory nature we can't just demand them we just it's we're asking them to come in on a rotating basis y we can talk to them and thankfully too the local level we have our local inspectors who um you know we brought them back to the timoy we're going to bring them back for reinspection at the other schools and we're going to keep up with that regimen of uh just checking in and uh we'll at least have access to more information at
the local level excellent thank you Mr M M to um just going off of um the custodians one of the things um that we need to also I've been talking to custodians one of the things they are worried about the deep cleaning that this will become a permanent thing where we're having outside people coming and do those cleanings and they're worried about privatization I just want to make sure that we do not do that to our custodians
they were under Manpower for so many years and the fact that they end up privatizing and ruining like I said we've had these conversations prior I just want to make sure that we're not trying to do that to them of of course not yeah the whole objective of this has been to help get all of the schools up to speed going forward you know we have tremendous custodial staff at each of our schools and uh you know if anything we need to continue to expand and invest
in our custodians not do less so and the mayor and I met with them together the custodial Union the mayor and I met with them together in my office to actually discuss this and to move forward about what this means for this year yeah just may I the members just to build on that in your app Point remember doag so there was a side letter am I correct where the custodians as a union agreed yes so that was done cleaning I
just again that was the the mayor and I were in the room with the custodial Union thank you for reminding me okay thank you um clarification and and I remember the side letter but and I might might have not word it right but it was for just like the timney or was it say all we have updated s side letter okay that's what we met with them with together so I was gonna save it until the other business section but I guess
my request is for our next regular meeting if there could be something planned for a discussion on how we plan to maintain after we spend all of the city's wonderful money on these deep cleans because to member Maxwell's point I think to everyone's General well-being I don't think we want to be doing this on a yearly basis any more than the custodian wants us doing this on an annual basis but given the budget
implications coming quickly Over the Horizon and the fact that I don't foresee us fully Staffing that department by any stretch of anyone's imagination we we have to come up with some kind of a plan good bad or ugly we need a plan and we don't I not privy to one yet and I would really really like to be so that's the purpose of the task force and we're going to continue to meet and work on that over time okay not not much else we could do but
you know keep on it and do we can of plan I think part of that task force is my role has to be to present to all of you during the budget presentation what our plan is so that has to be presented to you all and we have to have that when we're presenting that to you because if that's including staff what does that mean why am I asking for more staff or different staff or a different structure what does that mean uh we need time that's something that we have to work
out as we prepare that to share both at the task force meeting and then to share as part of the actual package for you guys and I think we have a really strong road map in terms of addressing these issues going forward you know right around the time of Thanksgiving and in the leadup to the holiday break uh the reports of for instance Road and activity at the timoy was just off the charts and in the time
since we've had the deep clean there's been expanded effort on the part of the custodial staff to really bring everything up to speed there addressing the issues in the inspector's reports uh additional exclusion efforts taking place to keep uh you know Critters out of the building you know at this point we had during recent discussion with some teachers who were involved with the task force one of the teachers on the timy indicated that teachers will submit a report whenever they see you know
rodent and we had that I think uh significant activity uh before the holidays and now according to this most recent report from this teacher uh citings of rodents at the timy virtually non-existent at this point I can't speak to the last week but in recent weeks uh it's plummeted in terms of uh sighting so clearly that to me that indicates that what we did worked and I think that
provides us with a solid blueprint going forward to ensure that we're keeping up with this and ensuring that the schools are clean agre remember Willet and again I understand what uh member is is saying from a c standpoint and I've never been critical of the custodians on the front lines what happened was there was a a gap in coverage some custodians are on uh medical leave uh some are sick
some go on vacation breaks so the idea was to supplement at the hight trffic schools and I think the timy and the Tenny would designate as hight trffic schools because of the activ activities at both schools because of the nature of the architecture of the both schools they have unique features was that to do a deep cleaning at at both of those schools so the things I'm concerned
about is things that would be outside the perview necessarily of custodians is the ventilation systems um what the mayor is talking about the latest high-tech with pest end that would be outside the perview of custodians so I think we're trying to not supplant the custodians we're trying to supplement uh because there's gaps now I talked to Mr Goin if it's coming from the rental fees and if we need to reexamine the rental
fees and also working in partnership with the mayor and as member Donovan has indicated I think this has been the strongest partnership the school department has ever had with an incumbent mayor of realizing an emergency situation and again you could say okay festering for years but my mentality has always been once an issue arises we have to correct it now we could talk about the boiler the the MH and debate but the
boiler is on the front lines are being taken care of this this carpet issues and also the cabinets and the bookcases and that's outside the purview of the custodians um but if we're not tackling the egress issues and they have a way of going into the buildings the rodents we're not that's just not going to solve the situation and you ask for reports and I ask for reports and I think it's
important to just have like a hybrid approach but also the the governor's budget might limit Us in that um I might want to add custodians but then I'm talking about class sizes so maybe it's something we could look at the rental fees uh but I think there has to be some component of deep cleaning and ventilation work and things that were outside the purview of the custodians and it was never my interpretation of
and I'll mentioned Doug it it the timy was phenomenal and I know remember Maxwell and I visited with him and he had a gho approach and I know for myself I come here like an hour or two early at the meeting sometimes and I see the custodians working and I go through the schools and I went through them at though in high school before the meetings just to see and they're constantly working now you might have some derel workers but I think that's very un imagins and we'll follow up on
that but in terms of privatization to me was never going to be entertained and I'm a very conservative person so I just want to lay your feelers on that I I I want to be cognizant of time it's almost 8 o'clock and we're still on staff reports so got to keep moving do you have one quick I just one quick really quick so that was a concern uh like I I had all trust that this committee would not want to prioritize it was a concern by custodians that I've
talked to they were worried that they would be losing shifts and stuff like that because of privatization so it's good that I have another member that believes the same way yeah uh we're going to move on now to uh the School suspensions and disciplinary actions report any questions from the Committee Member wette I don't know if I'm noticing a little Spike with the the cell phone violations at the high school I mean it's not like astronomical but is that
something we we're talking about they're getting detention and I don't know if it's working with a certain group of students if it's repeat repeat offenders um if it's just isolated um something that again obviously is a we would have to explore additions to the policy I'm not interested in confiscating the phones I don't think that's the right approach but as the pouch might work or I was just concerned all of a sudden was like a little bit of a spike on that
I Mr gr was still here but um I I think from my perspective and I don't know the actual answer to this but if you are asking for my opinion I think uh Dr golovsky and I have both seen after break I think the kids need a little reminder about the rules um I think that's safe to say yeah so after they came back from the winter break I think there was probably a little uptick uh from folks and the staff and
administration just needed to continuously remind them we'll do that again after February break we that's a typical behavior that we see uh in schools sometimes they need that reminder every few months and this break uh I know when we walked through through the high school after the the winter break we acknowledged that the kids might need a little reminder about the policy and the head phones and such so uh I think that hopefully we won't see any more upticks but it makes sense that
there was an uptick after the break but I don't know if they are from the same student you know I don't know the details of what the makeup of that 29 is yeah Vice chair um but for the high school it's headphones not cell phones correct so it's the kids with headphones on headphones okay yep they just need the reminder about that keeping their ear airpods in and their headphones on and Y just seeing more of that any other questions
discussion tayab has a good one yeah I think it's pretty cool because I get to see firsthand um the effectiveness of the pouches um for the record I believe in my seven pretty rigorous class uh schedules I've seen a lot a huge decrease in the monophone usage and I think um in regard to the pouch's effectiveness most of my teachers if not all of them actually do not um actively like use the poaches but I think it
stands as like a symbol and as a reminder for students and it still is really really effective um in those advanced classes thank you that's great thank You tab other questions all right we'll move on Old business and other pending matters not on the agenda we're on a new business we need a motion in a second to award the fiscal year 26 School transportation bid to nrt 27 Katrina Road chelsford Massachusetts in the amount of uh brace yourselves 10 million
$794,000 yes if he's still there Richard you still present all right I'm that that was awesome uh that you got to view the first two hours of my our meeting um so we're on to Transportation so if you
just want to share with the committee the memo that's in front the process that we went through Mr gosin will add anything so will I and anybody else from the Transportation subcommittee that feels so inclined thank you well let me start with uh we is a bid dated in at the end of October October 30th uh we opened in January 3rd uh and between the uh issuance of the bids and the bid opening we wrote seven addendums
uh we as answered everyone's questions uh by written addendum so it was a Level Playing Field everyone was working from the same data uh we sent big pack packages to 76 76 people representing 64 different potential biders across the country uh at the biders meeting we had nine companies uh show up and when it came time to open bids we actually had bids from four different biders uh two
of them were uh basically uh van companies uh when we went through our due diligence uh they we found that they were not responsive and responsible they were only bidding on certain portions of the of the contract uh and uh we ended up with nrt bus and first student uh we looked at uh uh nrt because they were the apparent low bidder uh there was approximately uh $4 million difference
between the nrt bid and the first student bid uh and uh as I said we went through our due diligence with regard to the the other two companies and in the letter you have uh the reasons why we uh found them to be non-responsive and not responsible uh we did spend a lot of time reviewing nrt uh primarily because of the issues last year and the issues at the beginning of this year uh and uh what we found uh is that uh uh their
references varied from satisfactory to good uh we checked references from 19 different school districts uh across the state where they have contracts so we spent a a lot of time on the phone with people uh and we found that their average rating uh was between uh satisfactory and good and most people qualified their uh uh their responses to
our uh our our questions by saying that uh things were very good uh most recently uh but they did recognize that there were some issues last year and there were some issues at the start of this school year for some of the districts uh and so given all of that that uh we found nrt to be the lowest responsive and responsible bidder uh however uh we uh uh were told originally that uh the original bid price of 11
million 11,515 391 was beyond what the district could budget uh and uh as you uh may be aware under Mass General law 30b you can negotiate reductions uh with your bidder and only with your low bidder uh but only to the ex extent that they do not Prejudice another bidder or they do not substantially change a bid specification or to pre Prejudice the process um after
negotiation with uh with Beacon Mobility uh and nrt uh they agreed to reduce their their budget by $721,000 over subsequent years uh to reduce the uh the initial impact um uh I will call your attention to the fact that in the bid we document itself we built in five additional single tier buses in the
afternoon because of the problems that we had at the end of last year and at the start of this year with regard to late buses in the afternoon primarily uh so given all of that uh the recommendation is to award well there's three recommendations one is to uh reject uh the bid from SLA Logistics on the basis of there being non-responsive and not responsible to reject the B the bid from uh RG Services of Middleboro on
the basis of their being non-responsive and responsible uh and that the bid entitled School transportation dated October 30th be awarded the nrt bus of chelsford for the five years at the total first year cost of 10 million 794 084 for those roots and transportation categories identified and that is inclus inclusive of their performance bond and on the
Bas Rich we lost you I don't know if you can hand me oh hope he can't uh it's a it's a high number in of the increase but I must call your attention to the fact that you're coming off of a very low number uh this year uh$ 417,000 uh $417 per bus per day is a very low rate uh when you go to the 43370 uh that's a marginal increase on your regular Transportation so most of
the increases were in your in District special ed and your out of District special ed Transportation member shilia so when this went out to bid there was a lot of thought that went into how it can be split how we can maybe have buses for the high school in the lower school and have a different one for the middle school to see if we could diversify the bitter pool um
nobody wanted to see more diversification in the bitter pool than I did and I think I drove certain folks Crazy by pushing it I know Ian won't say I did but I I know I did and I'm okay with it um there is the reality is there's just there's not enough people out there driving owning bus companies it's it came down to two bids and we don't have the other four million in change to bring in for a student it's just not a reality for us when we're
already worried about cutting folks um I do have one question though for you rich earlier in our meeting I'm sure you got the pleasure of listening to the mckin Vint stuff where we talked about the busing on this list I just want to make sure these numbers are right for the Foster the homeless Foster line there's a $336,500 number uh we're about halfway through
the year and we've already racked up a little over almost 304,000 so I just I don't know how these numbers align if I could if I could answer that uh a lot of the homeless and Foster transportation is rolled into your out of District special ed transportation where there's cost sharing of Vans uh and when you look at your reimbursement for mcken vento uh you you pull those numbers out from the special ed Transportation pieces so a lot of that is is is I won't say buried into the out
of District special ed but they use those vehicles and those drivers for both special ed out of district and for mckin vento students thank you so I think looking at this there's oh can I just expand on that CU that's not entirely true um so if a student is special education requires Transportation as part of their IEP and also homeless then it pulls from those out of District numbers but you have to
understand that nrt this year could not accommodate all of our homeless requests so we had to go out to bid for other providers so we're paying other contracts right now with different transportation companies or agencies that have smaller fleets um and able to do that on top of the invoices that we get charged from other districts in which we CA share I remember we did a I think it was a big lose or something like that there's a couple yep big it's
just a name I won't forget so so how do so Gina how do you feel about that 36k number does that make sense to you because I don't know what this split is when I look at the year-to dat on the homeless versus this it will depend like I can project the best I can on the kids that we have now but that will change come the
fall okay that's hard it's homeless is it's hard to project I know that there's a lot of moving Parts big feelings as member Donovan likes to say when it comes to RT um I get it between their app and their General customer service and the presentation clown show they put up here at the podium that time but I think the unfortunate reality is we are kind of
over a barrel and that's where we're at remember jaag um so this uh going over this and again I have a strong feeling about nrt for the last five five years the question I have and and again we don't need to talk about it today but from the fire station up to lurel Street that's Tenny if I'm correct um because yeah if I'm because
my friend Rich lives at the corner of low street right before Forest Street and his kids go to Tenny if I'm correct okay how many buses go over to that side that transports to Tenny do we know the number I can look that number up but that has nothing to do with no no no I'm just saying to keep cost down in the future because it's based off of buses
right so I think everybody's about to hear this idea is redistricting this I I know that word and I've mentioned this about three years ago and everybody was but if we redistrict that area to go to the marsh instead of the Tenny cuz fourth streets right there they could go all the way up to fourth street they're at the marsh how many buses would that save us because we could shift those kids to the
marsh down the road that's I think that's the yeah what seriously I I think that would be the best suggestion of actually cutting bus rots down and cost down and also maybe we leave some I don't know how many kids go to the Tenny in the marsh but off the
top of my head but I think that would be a reduction from the Tenny and free up classroom spaces in those two we might increase classroom sizes at the marsh a little bit but it would relieve some of those class sizes is at the Tenny but that's another conversation but I think when we look at the bus company section of town you're talking about right now yeah no child is walking from that section to either the marsh or the tent no no no taking a bus they're taking a
bus they got to take a bus one way or the other yeah but you could also if we expand it but it might be easier for a parent to drop their kid off at the March what yeah I think what member doag was trying to say I can give you a perfect example my old house on L Street was Tenny you went down L Street and took the right onto Oakland A that was Marsh you literally had to drive by my house to get to the marsh but yet I my kids would have gone to the teny I think what he's suggesting is not a full
redistrict because I know that gives AA to everybody but a a look at the map to see where we can realign our districts to give a more efficient flow where I Know Rich has come out the gate hard with the belt schedules which I mean that's that's up to the superintendent and team but I think that looking at how we align our routes based off geography which has undoubtedly changed since those lines were
drawn could only benefit the city and I know North Andover just not just but recently hired a consultant to do that work for them and I know when you use the CW now you're talking money and that gets ugly too but but there there there may be efficiencies there that we could gain and I think not to speak for him but I think that's what member doaga was getting in absolutely because I've always wondered from the fire station up low Street and pelum Street where remember
shabil would say and my friend Rich he literally passes Forest Street which he could take a left and go all the way down he has to drive through the center or the fire station to drop his kid off the Tenny where he could literally take 2 minutes take a left and go down four Street and be at the MCH I think that just and again I don't know redistricting but just partial redistricting from the fire station up could just be a beneficial and again I know it's hotter
than to say but that's just always been my thought of process so I think that's actually a thought that we need to do especially with this budget season coming to think about I'm not going to say before September but if we can to think about to cutting cost down that's my suggestion but thank you membership for clarifying thank you just to keep in mind just to keep in mind just for membership we are talking about
the bid for nrt not about any other topic so let's just keep on it any other discussion about nrt uh we have yes Kristen and then member Donovan um so that was actually my question if we were talking about the um the contract and and I'm concerned because we keep talking about contracts and we get to a point where we're at kind of a standstill where we like oh well we have no other option and we have to find
another option if there is another option because we're promised these little things that seem minuscule in in the grand scheme of things but kids are still getting home at 4: 4:30 and we don't have the the buses or the drivers to get them there there are still problems on buses that aren't being reported to the schools or to parents and I think that like those are the things that we need to really focus on I mean those things seem really simple in in the planning
and you know those are just basic things I and I can speak from experience myself I my son doesn't get home until 4:00 right now and we live within a half a mile of the school so um um I think that we need to find a way if we can um to explore our options and if we can't then we need to find a way to negotiate the contract with nrt to make sure that we have the right staff and the right
busing because it it's kind of getting out of control with the app and the discip not the discipline the um the behavior on the bus not being reported and the bus stops and there there are multiple issues that seem to be very very simple fixes that just aren't being looked at that's my input you know I just I just want to stop saying because we have to or because we have no other option that's just that's not how I feel and I
want to kind of get away from that thought just a mayor if I may oh sorry go ahead you were on the member donov yeah just a quick question for the team is there any recourse when for instance the cameras on the buses don't work because I know that was a con was that ever part of that contract language like there's a fine or something because I know that was always a big issue when you're trying to deal with a discipline concern and the cameras are supposed to
wear that was a big discussion a couple years ago where are we with that and that might speak to what member Maxwell says I believe a lot in Rich can probably pick in the language in this contract would be a lot lot more stringent and it would be able to hold their feet to the fire um a lot more readily than we could under the last contract and what would that look like though how holding their feet to the fire what would that look like to us there'd be language in this so so this is the bid Award right and then the next step after if this is awarded then now the contract is created
based on the bid okay requirements right so there are a lot of things that this committee wanted in the RFP yeah for to hold them accountable and so this the contract that we would be moving forward with RT is going to hold them accountable so things have to work or I mean it's it's all going to come down to money right like so if you miss the route we're not going to pay you uh if if they don't work for a certain amount of time there's money loss right like so I
think all of that is going to be built into the contract development based on what we is that stuff not worked into the contract now I'm sorry to interrupt I just didn't want to I wanted to make sure that was answered it's not oh our our contract now uh is is very minimal and has left us with um just not a lot of room to hold them accountable on their performance which is why when when Rich helped us write this bid uh that
list was much lengthier about what we want in this contract to hold them accountable so they're aware of the changes that need to be in place to be able to hold them accountable so that will that process happens after tonight if this bid is approved as from the school committee that you will award the bid to nrt then the next step is now we're going to have to develop the contract and that contract then has to
come before you all appr am I wrong did I get that right Mr member will so I think that that answered a lot of my my questions is going to be a multifaceted process the impression I got from the bid discussion was some of the bid is did not furnish information but nrt beyond a mathematical computation
error that was corrected my concern with nit and it might still be in place is that the institutional culture wasn't the greatest uh to say diplomatically and when they appeared here they were very uh disjointed in their answers or they were incorrect in their answers or even defiant in their answers um in terms of
the thing I was talking in meetings past of having some type of employee handbook or on boarding the impression I got by reading this is that the other bid um vendors did not provide a driver handbook did nit update its policy of doing a handbook or employee handbook I if I could answer that yes
there was an employee handbook uh is as part of the bid specifications of their bid submission okay and then if we decide to do upgrades in terms of of Sav again I represent One Voice one vote I know that there's a state law that would allow cameras to be attached to the the extended stop sign electronic stop sign and that could be recorded and that's
something that would probably be up by discussion of the school committee and the the city council uh because it's epidemic of people going through the extended uh electronic stop sign on school buses um we do those type of contracts and also converting from the Corey system to strictly FBI database are those things that are going to still be included as part of the contract discussions like again uh making sure
the cameras are in place um if they're not working they're penalized upgrading from the the false security of the Corey check to FBI database making sure that the individual special education buses or Vans can be can be tracked and I don't think we have a system like that making sure that we have uh relative compliance on the on the app and reporting to the the parents um those
are the things that I still have uh concerns about um again it was the institutional culture it was the the safety issues and making sure that um we're doing uh a full dashboard so to speak to the parents uh in terms of accountability and I think what we did it internally with the text and the emails but sometimes some of the parents are saying they're not receiving the
text and the emails and that's something we might have to explore further but if they're doing an employee handbook and we can explore the public safety issues and there's an improvement in the institutional culture and we're going to improve the app and work with the I would say um the glaring um blind spots of the system of tracking and I think there was other districts that had issues with the special ad Vans and
buses in terms of tracking those buses and vans those will probably be an ongoing conversation but I don't want that put by the wayside but I mean it's it's going to be a cost savings to us compared to the other uh bidder um obviously I still had reservations about NR um I commend the consultant I commend the subcommittee um they are constantly trying to achieve savings um but they'll be in
accountability measures that were not in the prior contract uh thank you Member shilia One clarifying comment um for M Maxwell I understand your apprehension I echoed it during every conversation the subcommittee had but the unfortunate reality is while it's super fun to say we should find a solution there are not 36 buses hiding
behind a bush somewhere in an alley there are no other bus companies out there that can do this it's not like they are waiting for us somewhere it's it's not that we want nrt or that it's the Ultimate Reality is they are the only company we can afford because we don't
have the extra four and a halfish million dollars to do for a student and I think suggesting that we find one is a dangerous concept because that would imply that they are out there and the fact is they aren't it's it's not a gray area it's not a question there are not 36 extra buses somewhere waiting for methan to
come knocking and if someone wants to start a bus company and can pay me enough I will drive the damn bus but here we are with nrt trying to make the best of the situation we have all right I think we're ready for a vote roll call member daglio yes member dunan yes member Keegan yes member
Maxwell no member shilia yes member wette yes mayor borad yes passes six yes one no next on the agenda member Donovan we have the discussion regarding the behavioral students support positions I he doesn't want to stay you don't want to stay Rich you we're only gonna be here for another two more hours sir feel free to hang out if You' like
you're kind of miss all the good parts I'm recovering from covid so that's why I that's why I've been all the best thank you Rich I'll be in touch mayor if I could just provide just a reminder for myself as well um last year we approved just a handful of new positions among them were um these people who would work addressing some Behavior mental health concerns in our grammar schools I thought it would
be important to look at the efficacy of our decision and that's why I asked Dr Quang um to provide us with some data so as we move forward was it worth it are we getting our money's worth because it's a good chunk of change um I believe all the positions we approved last year but one and that may be a PA have been filled so um and I appreciate the work going into this and I know you're going to run us through this
correct uh yes Okie doie gonna run you through this so um so yes per member Donovan and requests from others um we provided an update here the and I say we the principals provided this information with their staff uh I know Mr Crocker is here as well Who provided some support and information with data Gathering so if there are questions there sure he'd be happy to come and answer those questions um but we have uh the three uh
different two positions that that are mentioned here amongst the four schools and then a program pilot at the CGS the bright program so uh that one's a little bit different uh but similar in the uh support student support Arena to make sure that um our kids are getting what they need so the timony grammar school and the Tenny grammar school both requested the um risk coordinator so uh
this is the a person looking to support students uh looking to provide collaborative problem solving with students uh the number of both of these schools last year just to refresh everybody's memory um had an an um unequal amount of students being sent to the upper school offices a lot because of their size uh compared to the CGS and the marsh uh upper schools and uh the
aps are one person and so was you know students need to be seen they need to be spoken to how is one person when they're dealing with maybe one situation you know a conflict between two students that could take multiple hours and yet there are seven other students who really need to be removed or seen uh it it is um definitely a challenge that's where this was um born from I guess and so um Mr reev provided
uh you can see there some really detailed information uh really working with I think the risk coordinator there hit the ground running with upper school right away and uh going into working with uh students there's some of the numbers that even I was um you know surprised to see just the sheer number of students that this person is actually meeting with and the correlation that uh
undoubtedly speaking with Miss dery and Mr reev uh is happening between the number of suspensions and uh the number of students who are working with the risk coordinator so that relationship building is key um the collaborative problem solving and the training that that person is getting they both are um I think have been just Paramount to the work that's being done in that school um I did go through again there's a lot of information here um but I did go through this with Mr Reef so if there
are specific questions it might be better to just allow you the opportunity to ask those uh by school I would say um than me going through it but I did go through it with him just because he had a lot here um that was that was a little different so we can do that the Tenny risk program uh started a little differently I think one of the things that uh the challenge that the Tenny was met with and has been met with in other uh previous years is
that we have students that come into kindergarten and first grade who um we don't have a lot of information about and who may not be school ready and what I mean by that is you know the teachers are trying to figure out uh the different behaviors uh their responses may not be typical um and this year we we had a good handful of students who needed some uh serious uh support and our teachers needed some additional support so the risk coordinator uh spent
a little more time in the lower school in the beginning of the year to support those teachers and those students who needed that level of support and has since moved um after the winter break to working with the upper school associate principal so the data for the Tenny just looks different not to say that the person and the position hasn't been really effective and the person who was in that position has an incredible
background on um student Support Services crisis management therapeutic management uh she has a really uh vast and interesting background to be able to toggle between sort of supporting these five-year-olds coming into school and not you know their escalating disregulated behaviors and working with them and the teachers but now also kind of going into the realm of working with our 13 and 14 year olds and uh working
through some cor collaborative problem solving and keeping them out of trouble so um so it does look very different and that's why I think the context to that is very important um and then at the CGS and the marsh um you can see there the CGS the first uh one that she's reporting on is the crisis intervention this and then there's some data there about the bright program again that that John has been intimately involved with um and I did go
through this with Miss proti as well just because there was some additional data I wanted to make sure that if there were questions I could report out the marshes uh is pretty self-explanatory uh some inform on total numbers there on a weekly basis of what that person is responding to and meetings and Etc and again I think um you know I don't I don't think this comes as a shock but these positions uh when I asked the principles
to do this um there was a resounding yes because they have made some incredible differences in the school and the culture of the school um and the teachers feeling like there is a place and a time and support um and that is resounding and you don't get that very often that uh what all four principles were looking for to support the students in their schools uh has been met with the people who can actually fit uh the
need so that was pretty remarkable that we were able to accomplish that um and all four principles and teams uh speak so highly of these four individuals who are doing this work uh to support the students uh and the staff in the schools so I say that as my sort of introduction so you know the differences uh if there are specific questions I happy to take it and if I
can't answer it I'm happy to bring that back to the principles to bring back at a future date remember done it any questions member do Zago yeah thank you Mr may I have one question because um I actually got this from a um teachers um and again you could just clarify they say why at the T Tim um they are limited uh um to third and fourth but not access to K through2 is there a reason why it's only
for 5 to8 we limitated third and fourth but K and2 doesn't have access at all mostly because of the shared numbers shared numbers so the the the idea originated that it would be a support for upper school mostly when we presented it last year because of the shear numbers that both of those upper school offices were seeing on a daily basis and that the upper school teachers were
experiencing yeah sheer numbers the volume that was happening there's really no other quick question uh one uh so if just say lower school starting increasing numbers would you guys have the Manpower as yeah I I do know I mean Mr re definitely explained to me that it's its focus is 5'8 most of this data is 5'8 there's some there's some interaction with some
three four students who need some of that support that the risk coordinator does interact with again it's just the you know how many hours are in a day and what we're talking about one person as well right so it's the it's the sheer volume of what this person is actually doing on a daily basis on who they can see but that it it truly doesn't go really beyond that I Chris did say there's a there's some students that he's seeing you know some students that
are um becoming uh students that are going to the office too frequently as third and fourth graders that the risk coordinator has taken on to try to build that relationship with and build those skills that's about I mean would you no I would I would agree for sure it's and it's certainly not the case that those students aren't able to access risks um it's it's simply the case that this is how the data has fallen out in terms of students who have required that support that's really it okay
perfect good question member wette thank you Mr chairman are any of these positions Grant eligible because I know this is this the this current uh fiscal year this is the first time we've implemented this okay I mean have we explored that or even presented it to the legislative delegation because the report that you guys presented was phenomenal and it justifies my vote on the budget and that was I drew a line in
this hand I said we're going to make some painful Cuts because of the governor's budget but the crisis intervention was was necessary and I'm a person I love to review the data and like member Donovan had indicated and I know you gave us some testimonials and some horror stories that justified the The Crisis Intervention but then we had to quantify right the results of the implementation of the The Crisis
Intervention positions um obviously that's going to be first on my list is the preservation of these positions and I think it's taking prior to that was taking away from uh teach te time counselor time administrator time and we have and also too I think the out of school suspensions because of the nature of some of the homes um wasn't conducive to the child um and
obviously some of the the crisis intervention with the students the fact that some of the students were saying that that's the only person that's trustworthy is an adult it's kind of heartbreaking and the holistic approach that your team is taking of working with the families and working with the home front um so I appreciate that uh but maybe something as a school district is something they they offer amendments all the time uh in
the budget cycle and I know we're going to be competing with different uh elements but something just to maybe explore but it's a it's a perfect use for title four funds uh however we don't know if we're going to get those and those already those already are used by salaries but this is the kind of position that a title for Grant would would be able to support and I know it's very difficult with you can't like co-mingle funds you have different silos and that we've already
paid for it with the operating budget now would eliminate some of the federal opportunities that we would have okay so there's some rules but not that we wouldn't continue to keep looking anyway which we are for a lot of different positions at this point yeah but just for the the record I mean obviously I'm going to try to help with the custodians as best I can but the budget is very sombering from the governor um but this is something I just going to say for the record I I cannot support a budget that would cut these positions I just that's
a Line in the Sand I'm going to have again I did it for the prior I'll make the difficult Cuts but I can I cannot cut these positions I thank you for the presentation thank you Mr chairman so we'll hear from Member shilia and then we'll follow up from m Donovan so I was pleasantly surprised because as you know John I was skeptical which I have a habit of being just generally across the board um I'm I'm thrilled to see that it's working I'm
thrilled to see it's having a positive impact in in the classroom I guess my my first question is what separates this Riz coordinator or behavioral interventionist or whatever their their title is from our regular guidance folks like what is the difference in person training all that stuff I would say probably the biggest
difference that I would point to because there's often a fair amount of overlap between the background as we can see from the position at the Tenny um the biggest uh difference in my mind is really that we're talking about case load carrying folks that have a lot of students on their case load compared to a much more specialized role that is focused on specific incidents specific pieces of the service array so it's that's that I would point to as as probably the largest difference is just
the you know what we're pointing these staff members at in terms of their responsibilities and um you know for one of those big responsibilities is uh Special Education Service delivery that has to be offered that has to be scheduled so these scheduled Services uh do lock people in at times to UH responsibilities that they can't walk away from or it's difficult to walk away from those things so I think the addition of these positions has created a situation where they're still
definitely responding to crisis but they're not having to walk away from Services wholesale and that's that's a pretty huge piece because if we don't get to invest in the preventative Services then we are simply in this hamster wheel of of responding to crisis all day long I would add to that because in my conversations with all the principles regarding this that message was echoed like I don't know what I would do without this person right on awae at lunch knowing these kids knowing
their names there's a there's a different level of um interact ability that all four of these people I believe have with the students but also one thing that Mr Crocker didn't say is the risk coordinators especially there's a level of discipline that is involved with their position that a guidance counselor would not be involved in right so that the these coordinators are also talking to students about their behaviors right thinking through those
skills of the behaviors not that a guidance counselor wouldn't do that but they're also acting as that timeout space right the the preventative time that that students need to be somewhere before there we call the pre supension time right like there's a there's a discipline piece to that that I would never ask a counselor to sit with a student for two hours as an in school suspension opportunity or a a space to cool off right um is a better way to kind of I I hope that's a better way to say
it to you that just that level of uh daytoday their day-to-day schedule is not going to look like a guidance counselors who do have that sort of scheduled student service delivery that they may have um so just all around right they're not getting pulled for crisis and again I think all four of the principles were like I don't know what I would have done without this person um for a for a variety of reasons um it's just amazing how all four of them were
happy to put this together to say this is something we've needed we need it we have the numbers to prove it this is why we need these programs for our kids um so I hope I can I I told all of them I hope I could convey their um their passion and their appreciation and their uh wanting this to continue because it has made such an impact on sort of all pieces uh that hopefully is conveyed here to all of you it's awesome um building off of that and I
know that I've I think it's been discussed in our tenure and I've listened to it as a conversation from previous members of different School committees is the in school suspension are we doing it at every school now or is this something just our risk coordinators are doing so our risk coordinators are doing it by structure what does that mean that means that that was part of the job description is that was going to be some in school suspension opportunities um I would say our crisis
interventionists are doing some of that uh we did not include that as part of their job description but I think there is I I can tell you that there is some of that happening for opportunities where kids need that not as widespread as what's happening with the wrist so there is that piece that is a little different between the schools the CGS and the marsh don't have a structured I can send this student here for half a day or a day for in school suspension to
do the work to be supervised to not be at home not knowing what that child is doing we would much rather have them in school we do not have that structure at the marsh and the CGS at this time and that's that's the part that makes me a little uneasy I just I don't understand how I mean this the program sounds fantastic and I'm thrilled and like me will at said I hope that we can expand it but how do we
do how do we implement the in school suspension in the Riz program more holistically I guess that's that's the task John and you got to do it with no money so Lu I'm on it uh no I I mean I think it's a point well taken that I think even from the beginning of this year there's an appreciation for how these positions have come to um support buildings and support kids so that continued line of thinking where we have to be ready for the next steps in
this Innovative process are necessary so my you know I I think it's it's going to be an important Reflection Point here and then for the next several months around like where what is next around these positions um so that's a piece that I think has to be a part of the ongoing conversation thank you Donovan yeah um thank you to you and your team for doing this I think it's an important exercise for us to say we made a decision was it a good one and I think for the most part
we're seeing that um what we didn't discuss is obviously there's an impact on the students who are directly involved with these staff members think about the students in the classrooms who aren't really that direct contact but have don't have the disruptions and the distractions that they may have had to experience because of students having a really bad time of it so I appreciate that there was also a comment in the report that now um common planning time
with administrators is uninterrupted no one's being called out so they can focus on what we really need good you know discussions about teaching and learning so I appreciate that very much and I'd like to give a shout out and I would hope that down the road we revisit this as we as just to help inform us a little more like how we could build on this what appears to be a success I think Mr ree did a really great job they all did
but his information showed me how it works really dramatically in one school and the fact that from this admin and I believe it's Mr reev is now doing a basketball morning thing yes with these students which tells me the administrators uh have bought into this um so I think this was terrific um you know I know we have some real challenges ahead but this is the
type of position that impacts every student not the ones who need that extra attention right it's it's a fair point and it really is indirect of course right um I want to Echo when this first came about I I think I was pretty clear I have strong feelings about in school suspensions if it's often in one school and all because it's a wonderful thing to do if we can do it I feel very strongly every child in this community
should if he has if he does something that warrants it should have the opportunity to be in a safe place where he can continue his work and be supported if it's appropriate so I'm going to say it again I really hope hope we can expand the in school suspension piece so all that St all students have access to that at the um gramas to be continued yes that's very important to me but thank you thanks for doing this yep my pleasure any other questions or
discussion thank you Mr Crocker thank you just a quick time check we are now almost three hours in it's almost 9:00 p.m. we have 11 more items on the agenda plus an executive session just encourage us to be just Tad more cognizant of time enter entertain a motion to order a pizza at any point so moved excuse me Maya did you want to do a vote now to extend past N9 o'clock probably a good idea so so move second all right motion
from Member shilia second from the vice chair to extend past N9 o' roll call member daglio yes member Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shabila yes member wette yes mayor Boron yes going past nine at this point we're going to move on to uh the health reporting proposals part of the agenda member shilia member
wette uh pass it off to you perhaps you want to start uh real quick The Proposal that I put forward which I don't know which one came first in the packet but the one with the the Bold headings um was a repurpose of what member had put forward a few meetings back uh the intention I thought was positive it was to capture what is happening in real time
so we don't have surprises going forward um the problem with the document as presented was it was requiring people like the state to do things at our demand and well that doesn't work um so offered to help rework that and this is the product I came up with uh initially called it a policy I know that Dr Quang had done it and I had called masc as well and it's not a policy it's going to be a it's going to be a procedure ad Min admin of the school committee to
Administration to provide to you on a monthly or regular basis right so what I did is I stopped I took a step back and I said okay we already have a state mandate state law that requires our kitchens to be inspected annually um those reports by what I am suggesting would be provided to us following any any report that comes out of the school would be provided to us in the following meeting packet uh there's also a request in here that annually we
make a formal request through the mayor for Department of Health to do a inspection of our schools um this was uh said to be done at the end I think is what I originally proposed but the timing of that inspection could go either way it could be at the beginning of the year so we have time to fix it it could be at the end of the year so we have the summer to fix it I don't think the timing is the important part I think it's the the ask and the
product that stems from that because I think it accomplishes what everybody here is trying to accomplish and it gets us a formal submission of in information not vague book and other ambiguous statements that may come or sometimes not so ambiguous that just don't come through formal channels so it's hard to act upon uh so that was the intent here and I mean I I assume that member wets
had a very similar intent and I but I won't I won't speak for you on that one thank you Mr chairman and memb shilia I always uh wanted to work in a collaborative fashion with the school committee as a whole and subcommittee on an individual basis I would be remiss if I didn't offer some suggestions and I think some of the suggestions are
already in in place um some of the suggestions resonated from reports from the state some are items that we could maybe have the administration look at Point Point by point and do a follow-up report to us to see if we're doing it or not um again it's something that um my intention is just to be on record to have it reviewed by the school committee um the framework that member
shabil had I I'm in Conant with that I think it's a good starting point if it's something that um we would just want to have it referred to the subcommittee but the subcommittee in is involved in in policy so if we're talking about just a recommendation or a sense of the committee to the administration if the administration wanted to respond to it point point by point I just wanted to make sure we're
on recet of either having a dashboard uh set up or having some type of reporting mechanism for us um making sure certain things are not uh lingering or fing are not attended to from the past so I think as a committee we have to make sure that we're Vigilant in receiving reports and following up on inspections uh and ensuring that the energy of the the schools is at the
highest efficiency that we don't have uh rodents and pests in our schools that the ventilation systems are tended to on a regular basis the temperature G ages and a whole list of items water uh infiltration so that was just my sense of things I wanted to present to the committee and maybe the the superintendent can follow up on a report on it but um that was just my it's late
in the hour so that's why I just want to present to the committee thank you thank you any questions discussion if not we'll move on uh the expenditure report any questions from the committee regarding the expenditure report I do just want to point out that I did add a column to this for Miss Donovan um it does include FY 24 year to date and any of you were here last year at that time I don't know if you remember Unice I put a little note there
it does kick in it comes up to date next month so it'll be more accurate so last year with the start of Unice we're having trouble posting payroll um right around March one we were able to post it more consistently um so next month you'll see that those fy2 24 numbers will be more similar to The fy2 Numbers just wanted to point that out I did add that because you did ask me I did I did thank you thank you I hope that's
suffice yes any other questions about that um report okay thank you I don't have have any questions but along those lines so uh Teddy from the Tribune is in the audience hi real quick you just mentioned munus I completely forgot to respond to your text we're in the process of getting the fiscal year 25 information on the website we have a new dashboard it's me.gov transparency
fiscal year 24 is on there 25 is in the works Teddy I I was going to forget to respond so here I am right now responding to that message yeah article any any other uh questions about the expenditure report all right we'll move on uh regarding the revolving funds report any questions regarding revolving funds grants questions from the
committee regarding the grants report one com yes sir 4,583 355 is the total federal aid for FY 2 that is on here just food for thought given the uncertainty that's the that's the number that is our starting point which is a little scary any other questions
comments uh Student Activity accounts any questions comments regarding the Student Activity accounts report we have lastly under reports Food Services report any questions or comments from the committee contract approval is next on the agenda we have none notifications of appointments and other Personnel matters uh we have none uh business from the committee other business from the Committee Member shilia invite you to
give an update regarding the Transportation subcommittee uh I feel like we covered this already during our nrt contract discussion um that's the update on that one uh members sh also we have an update regarding the policy review subcommittee um I am currently trying to coordinate with masc the first meeting for the policy subcommittee uh to go over the first
pass at some policies that they have reviewed and will be providing feedback on um Unfortunately they are not the easiest when you have so many people trying to coordinate schedules it kind of stinks so we're it's it's a moving Target but we're going to get it on and hopefully by our next meeting we will have some product of that uh next we have an update regarding the audit the audit is underway uh we had an initial meeting um audit
subcommittee uh with um well actually I had I had that meeting with the uh folks from ciz but then the audit subcommittee membership uh went through uh got to together and had the opportunity to start putting together a list of individuals to be interviewed as part of the audit so that's going to be pretty widespread representative objective list uh so that is in the works and will continue to provide updates as that uh continues along but uh we're really just
getting started nothing new to update there uh any other business from the committee in general member doag real quick um two things um we didn't go over a realign re um oh my God what's the word I'm looking for reapplying to our subcommittees every year we're supposed to reestablish the subcommittees so I would recommend we put that on the agenda item also um as I was talking with member
dunan um we need to uh propose our first training um for the school committee um so there's a few on the list that we've been talking teamwork if you want to suggest any of that I see all the smiles right now no okay well it'll be fun so we have to put that on the agenda for the next meeting so we can have that done sure thank you can I just make a comment though on
the can I make a comment on what he said um as far as the subcommittees it's my we asked that question because I think member shilia asked me um and um Martha and uh we double checked that if we have subcommittees that are currently existing and ongoing we don't have to reestablish them that's how it was explained to us right from masc so we we currently have a
transportation subcommittee a policy subcommittee and the facility building subcommittee there haven't been any changes in membership and it's ongoing so uh they they expressed to us that there was no reason to put on an agenda to reestablish so unless they misinformed us well that's just oh sorry well that's just been a common practice since I've been on school committee that's why am just every year we did
that yeah did I miss I'm sorry may I just speak I believe if the committee changes and people either don't run again or are not elected or your time is up then at that point you would have to reestablish new members on the subcommittee that's how it was explain with the organization meeting with the organization otherwise they stay the same until this body
changes any other business from the committee if not we will uh actually uh before we do that before I just adjourn us I we have an executive session uh so with no further business to discuss we need a motion in a second to adjourn this business session of the methan school committee for February 10 2025 and enter into executive session so moved second motion from Member daglio second from the vice chair uh pursuing 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 or litigating pos position of the public body and the chair so declares I'll make that declaration now this is regarding units A and C we will not reconvene into the Open session at the conclusion of the executive session so we'll take a roll call vote on entering executive session member daglio yes member Donovan member Keegan yes member
Maxwell yes member shabila yes member wette yes member Bard yes oh sorry yes uh so uh we've taken that vote to enter executive session the Open session is adjourned at 9:05 p.m. and we will enter into executive session good night methon
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