Good evening everybody. Uh we'll call to order the school committee Milton school committee meeting for this evening, December 17th, 2025. And we'll start with pledge of >> allegiance. Ice 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. >> So um Chair Serio is unable to be here this evening. So I'm just stepping in um
to help run the meeting. And the first thing is to approve the agenda for this evening. Does anyone have any changes to the agenda? The only thing I noticed was uh possibly postponing the approval of minutes um to our next meeting. Anything else
that we want to change or postpone? >> Okay. Um we did have a school building committee Maybe we can add >> we need to wait till the next meeting. That's fine. >> Yeah. Um
I'll make a note of that and we can add that when we talk about next meeting agenda items. >> All right. So the first item uh will be our public comment. the portion of our meeting we set aside to hear from members of the community who would like to share their
perspective with us for our policy. We set aside up to 15 minutes to hear from members of the community for up to three minutes at a time and people can join us either in person or by Zoom. I think we have a couple student representatives
here who will be introduced momentarily. Uh, I don't see anyone else in person for public comment. Are either of you hoping to speak to public comment? We'll hear from your report shortly. Okay. Is there anyone online? If you're online and would like to speak, uh, can
you raise your hand, please? >> Okay. Going once. going twice. Okay. Don't see any hands raised online, so we can move right into our superintendent report. Mr. Balen, thanks. >> Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Um,
the first order of business tonight is to recognize our student representatives. Uh, so I'd like to introduce Adam Cheers and Elias Caros to the table. Uh, while they're approaching the table, I'd like to let you know that Adam Cheers is a junior serving his third term as a representative to the
school committee at Milton High. Besides this role, he is involved in debate, writes for the school news paper and plays tennis in the spring. Hold on to Adam. And Elias is a senior who is serving his fourth term as a student representative to the school committee for Milton High School and he is in the
class of 2026. In addition to his role, he is involved in the tri music honor society, plays violin as a concert master of the school orchestra, and as an officer of the Latin club. So gentlemen, welcome.
You're welcome. >> So, um, first I would like to discuss our recent events in our music department. Um, recently we've had um, two concerts.
um one with our big ensembles, you know, our big um orchestra, our uh concert band and jazz band and our chorus. And then we also had the extracurricular
concert um the week before and those events saw turnout we could have never um imagined. the community is so enthusiastic about
um the arts and music especially around the time of the holidays and it was so wonderful to perform there you know as I'm involved with um the orchestra and um to see the joy on everyone's faces um
everyone was just so delighted with you know um our music um And that was um so great to see. And then um in addition um
we have this week and going on into early next week uh for these final last few days we have at school um ensembles are performing in the foyer of Hilton High School um in the lobby of the
auditorium. Um we did um the chamber um orchestra which I'm also a part of um did it this morning um and and that of course um spreads all a lot of holiday cheer um to the members of our community
and and our high school and our district. um everyone, you know, were standing there um sort of um watching us um and appreciating um all of our hard work. Um
it brought a smile to all their faces and um I think it's a such a great reminder of, you know, the community that the arts um particularly in our district creates. Um, and I think it's such a special thing and I'm so grateful
that we have it. >> Thank you, Elias. Um, in addition to that, the student government has been hosting events to promote a positive school spirit. Um, this included our spirit week at the end of November and the pep rally that uh, welcomed in the
Thanksgiving break. Shout out to Elizabeth May, our senior class president, and the football captain, John Glly, for MCing the event. Um, students enjoyed the pep rally, which had events like tugof-war and a relay race. Um, and also on Thanksgiving Day,
Milton won its 105year-old tra uh tradition of playing Brainree uh 31 to zero. So, go Milton Wildcats. Um, some things uh on the radar. The student government is hosting a sweetheart dance
in February that will bring together all four of our grades. This is the first time we're doing something like this and it will be a gigantic fundraising opportunity um as we look forward to the spring. >> Wonderful. And then um just last Friday
um we had a great conversation um in our monthly meetings as um school committee reps along with um principal um superintendent Failen um and member um Bao. Um it was
we discussed you know the graduation requirements um there is now a question about you know the world language um should that be a requirement or not the um the state legislature um you know of course then passed the bill about the
cell phone policy. Um so um we are now back to discussing and researching um the solutions um to the problem that other districts have implemented and um we are looking forward to getting some
student um feedback from our own peers and from staff and from um parents and um we are very excited to report back and to make some positive change. Very good. Very good. >> Awesome. And finally, in this uh season
of gift giving, I wanted to share with you the latest edition of The Elephant in the Room, which is our student newspaper. Um, so this will make its way around the table, and I think this shows some of the uh the ambition uh the diverse talents of the Milton High
School uh uh student body. So, we hope you enjoy that and we'd welcome any questions you have or anything you'd like to put on our radar to share back with the uh larger um student government.
>> Thank you both so much. >> I just had a question on the like process for the cell phone bill as you said passed the Senate, it's going to the House. looks like it will pass the house as the current estimation and I think they're looking for implementation for next
school year just wondering like what time based upon that timeline like I think it would be great for us this body to have feedback from students and from high school staff
as well on what could this look like some running room but we might that might run out pretty soon and everybody gets very busy as we approach the end of the year. So anyway, just generally wondering if y'all had a sense of um timeline for kind of discussing or I
think y'all did a survey last year that and was there other kind of that type of engagement that y'all are looking at doing? >> Yeah, we have um sort of creative um a schedule for our own monthly meetings um for the spring um and for second
semester. And um we will continue our conversations. We will continue our research and um hopefully as soon as possible we will um begin talking to our peers and we will um discuss you know
the feedback and um the results we um obtain and we will report back soon. >> Yeah and um thank you for the question. I think as you know student elected representatives we hope to prioritize the student perspective and deliver that
as best as we can. Um and we know that the you know cell phone ban conversation is like particularly challenging for students. Um uh so ideally we're going to look at a way to make it fair and um also responsible.
>> Yeah. I guess my my feedback on just any I think previously we've asked them like if they would like a ban or not I think it's been a little more open. I think at this point seems like the hand for Milton is going to be forced by the state legislature. So I think even just the framing of the conversation of going
to be a ban what what are the options I guess within that kind of range of what the limited range of possibilities um and what to your point of like fairness what feels fair or not within that type of kind of belltoell ban of cell phones and what are the allowable exceptions
I'm not obviously I'm not sure what the legislation allows for in those scenarios but just that that framing and feedback would be would be great. So I appreciate you taking >> Thank you. We will look into that. >> Those are great suggestions and we'll definitely talk about that in our
schools. We also talked about um uh we want to make sure that we first see the law what actually gets passed because it might not be very important whatever the legislation is to help the roll out uh talk about what is important to students, what's
important to families and be the leazison to that conversation about how how it could be implemented in a way that's fair and and clear for folks and get some student voice there. Um, and the other item we talked a little bit about was uh the new graduation requirements and having the group come
to uh discuss that when we get into our um curriculum review uh group to discuss the next program of study. So, we'll be inviting this team to that as well to get some student voice in that meeting as well. >> Thank you very much.
Thank you for the music. Good morning. It creates a great way to start our day when we hear you guys playing in the morning. >> Happy holiday. >> Bye. >> So, I want to continue with the superintendent's update. A few things that I would just like to announce and uh to the viewing public and to the
school committee. First of all, we did not meet on December 3rd. uh we moved the meeting uh to here tonight at December 17. So we really haven't welcomed folks back from Thanksgiving. Uh and we are in the holiday season after meeting with several of our guidance folks. I just want to say out
loud that the community uh of families and the community of uh of our staff and faculty do an incredible job raising money uh to support families uh of the students of our school. Uh we have uh private donations that we receive. Uh we
have gift cards that were raised um from certain student clubs. Every single school is generating uh dollars and gift cards and presents for families that are in need. We've identified certain families interacted with them. Um, and
I'd say somewhere we have uh we're giving out over $5,000 worth of gift cards, gifts, and also uh potentially making a donation to the um grade 8 trip to DC in order to support families who may not have enough money to do that.
So, uh I can't thank the community enough. These funds come to us anonymously from folks who may have a get together and pass a hat and come in and we received $3,500 uh in that way from a from a family who had a get together. So I can't thank the community
enough and also I want to thank our faculty and staff because they're also chipping in and in and uh contributing to that as well. Um so thank you to the community. Um getting into buildings has been a big part of our work and I want to thank Kakosa since Thanksgiving we've
been into the Tucker, the Glover, the Cunningham and just today we were at the middle school uh walking through classroom seeing good education happening, teaching and learning happening, following the criteria of what we're looking for related to our five priorities. Um, and I can only say
and continue to say that we're seeing excellent things related to tier one instruction, people using data to inform their decisions related to teaching and learning, uh, rigor, uh, supporting students. Uh, we've been in a lot of very very well-run uh, classrooms over the last few weeks since our last
meeting. So excited to to continue that work this year. Um, I also want to ensure families uh are on safety. There's been a couple of safety issues related uh to the Brown University and what happened in Australia. Um want to
make sure the community knows that we've already had all of our stay put drills this fall. We've already had our fire drills this fall. We will continue with our safety meetings with the police and fire departments. We'll resume that in January. Um and I just want to remind our families and our staff that we do
work on those drills. We do have conversations about safety. uh we usually don't celebrate it and put it out in front of everybody. We do these drills and we have these conversations uh in order to be prepared. Um but this being in the news every night, uh I want to assure our community that we do have
those meetings and we'll continue to lean on our safety and first responders in the town who have been incredible partners uh with the Milton public schools. Um on January 16th, we'll have that safety and security meeting um with the police
and the fire department. Um I have recently completed all of my community coffee hours with the community. We had four sessions uh morning, afternoon, and at night. I've also had coffee hours at every single building. That was my round two of meeting with our staff. Uh and
for the viewing public and our staff, I will do that round of coffee hours again after February break. And that will be my third round after February vacation. Uh in January, please look for uh and mark your calendars for January 8, which is our preschool information night for
all of our preschool families. That is a virtual meeting because I think it supports the families with young children at home to be able to do it virtually. Our kindergarten information night will be done virtually as well and that will be on January 15 and these will be all on the website. And our grade one information night, which will
be in person at Milton High School, will be March 12th. Um, and lastly, I would like to say thank you very much this holiday season. Uh, and I hope everybody has a wonderful uh next few weeks as we prepare to end the calendar year. So, thank you very much.
>> Thank you very much, Mr. And um the next item looks like the 20 2425 annual report which we've previously reviewed but we will now be taking a vote to approve it. >> I'll make a motion to approve the 2024
2025 annual report. >> Thank you. Is there a second? All in favor? >> Thank you. >> Um and so the last item under the superintendent's report this evening will be the
discussion of the draft um calendar for next year. >> Thank you uh very much uh Chair Carol. Um so with the policy um voted last year by the school committee uh the calendar
the holidays that repres that are represented on the school calendar rotate each year. Um so this year we uh recognize Good Friday in Yongor and the next school year in the 2627 calendar
for the per the policy we will be recognizing um Luna New Year and Eid. Um the reason why we wanted to get this information out to our families now as we begin this conversation about what
the full calendar impact will be in terms of when the professional days will be the first and last day of school etc. is that this is the first year of the of the shift and we just wanted to make sure that we were proactively communicating with our community that the holidays that we had traditionally
uh had days off from school will shift uh next school year. um the days that we will uh one of the Saturday. Um so we would want to uh reach out uh bow to maybe someone in the community that could give us guidance on
if it's a Saturday, do we have the Friday off or do we celebrate the holiday on the calendar whether it has a day off from school or not. So we don't have to answer that question tonight, but we really want to be respectful of the community of folks who uh represent that event in that time. Um and the
second holiday is on March 9 and that's recognizing Eid. Um so those will be the two holidays which means we will not be recognizing any other holidays with days off just those holidays that are federal holidays. So Luna New Year is usually celebrated
on New Year's Eve which is similar to Christmas Eve which means Christmas the day itself is the celebration day but the dinner is happen the night before right so the 24th and the 25th are the two days that
you usually get together and it's a a nighttime celebration um on the newest day we usually do some kind of um worshiing of the ancestors or gods or Buddha or Buddha Sappha and depends on
Dowism or Buddhism. So yeah, that that's why when I look at this calendar, Luna New is on a Saturday. So if it's not actually making any impact if you
give Luna New Year off on the on the next school year. So, I did have it I just have it bolded, but that's what I was I wanted to check with you first before designating either the 5th, Friday the 5th or Monday the 8th. I just wanted to
make sure that we were doing it appropriately. So, >> it should be the fifth. Okay. Yeah. I'll make that change. >> I guess the only other option there would be to just >> swap it with Exactly. >> Dewali if Diwali doesn't fall on a weekend. I'm not sure what
>> Yeah, that's how I was thinking too. Um >> yeah because those the guidance around the outities one year to the next is not set in stone. I think we were just that was attempting to sort of provide a road map
that would let us imagine how in the course of a fiveyear period each holiday would be recognized as two times I guess. Um and so if that becomes something that makes more sense
that that is not I don't believe that's like codified within the policy like >> okay >> which two would be next year or the year after that. Um if it makes sense to do that swap I think that would
>> How long is the valley celebrated for? So we have also as part of the calendar uh we've been continuing to contribute to a full list of all holidays that we want to make sure that every community member in school community member is aware of which will go on the back of the calendar
>> and be connected to the uh online uh school calendar as well. Uh our goal is to make sure that if your your religious holiday is not being represented by a day off that you always have the right to go into school and say I will be out of school celebrating or recognizing uh
my religious holiday and therefore our staff will be able to accommodate the workload around that >> absence. So, we will be checking with the um different sources we have in order to make a list that you have in your packet that is pretty extensive uh to make sure that we represent any one
of those and that will be given to staff and to families. It's really helpful for the staff to have it so when a child comes up and says I won't be here on Thursday, they can, you know, make sure that they're recognizing that holiday and respecting that that wish as well.
The the other part of this uh connected to holidays which we can talk about as we get through the uh the next month or so when we certified is that uh our families should note that Labor Day is late next year. It's the latest it can be. So we are starting school late but
in the same way which is students would arrive to school on the Wednesday and Thursday prior to Labor Day uh with no school on the Friday and then uh school would resume on the Tuesday after Labor Day with that late start results with a
late finish which means that the last day of school without any snow days would be June 23rd and we would actually uh add the five days per DESIE policy to the end of that. So, which means with the snow days potentially being had, so
we have to connect that to our calendar holiday calendar schedule that the last day of school with snow days would be June 30th. And I don't think we've ever really gone that late uh in a long time. So, that is a function of when Labor Day falls. Um, we will be also talking to,
uh, if the holidays remain the same, uh, given the conversations we have, uh, we will be talking to our, uh, looking at through our contracts to make sure we're aligned with any contractual language for all of our working um, staff to make sure that we are in alignment with their
contract and the calendar uh, prior to expos. So, we'll continue to look at revision drafts of the calendar over the next coming weeks. And >> I think this should be on the agenda every week, every meeting for the next
few meetings so we can certify it. >> And I just have days for 2030 and 2031 just highlighted just so we have five, >> you know, as we just kind of Thank you, Anna, for creating this.
>> Thank you. >> Yeah, the thoughts on the calendar. >> Um, I just I do um appreciate the election day in November being the PD date. I know we had received feedback from the community about um specifically the Tucker
community about concerns regarding voting on um school days and various implications. So I think that that makes sense especially on a um you know there will be more
things on the ballot next November than there were this November for example. So, makes sense that that's a good plan. >> Yeah, it's a safety issue. And we also will run the other days by our leadership team like the principles and the and our leadership team would like to to not revisit but make sure that
they review the early release days and make sure that they're lined up in a way that makes sense for the uh teaching and learning sequencing that we want to put in place for next year. So, uh we'll that there may be some changes around that as well. Uh we are checking that is the that is November 3rd is the voting
day was checking on that. Thank you. >> November is very choppy next year because there's no four weeks of class, >> right? It's tricky with Veterans Day and um Thanksgiving.
Um, so it might actually be fine to just leave lunard here because then you're adding another day off to November when >> Voli is in November. Yeah, I think that actually I think that's why we had originally not
slotted it in for next year was recognizing that that would be a lot. When we had that conversation last year, we discussed, you know, wanting to stay focused on the student learning experience. um in making the decisions one year to
the next. So, thank you for >> your work on that so far. >> Thank you. Thank Roach for all that work. >> Okay, so on the next portion of the agenda is the chair's report and um I
want to begin with a really um exciting update on the superintendent's contract. So last week on December 10th, the school committee met in an executive session and then voted in an open session to extend interim superintendent Valen's contract through June 30th of
2027. And I think uh we discussed then, but it's worth reiterating that we're very grateful for to you, Mr. Failen, um for being willing to stay for one additional year. We are grateful for the stability
that this will provide for our district. and you've already made a really positive impact um in many ways over the first half of this year since you joined us. Um we look forward to that continuing through next year. So, thank you for being willing to see us
continuing through this um transition time for for Milton Public Schools. Um, as announced in the email that went out last week to both staff and um, the community of Milton Public Schools, the school committee will be launching a full search for Milton's next
superintendent next fall of 2026. And we will be keeping both the community and staff informed about that process and um, seeking input from all stakeholders in the district. Um and in the meantime, we're thankful to be in
your capable hands. So, thanks again. >> Well, thank you. Um starting in May and June and and meeting with Assistant Superintendent Katie Blake and partnering with her over the summer, uh really felt like a good match to be back in Milton. So, I'm thankful for her partnership and thankful for all the
work of the leaders in the district. uh and then uh being able to have uh Kakosa join us at the in the cabinet as well. The the team of educators and leaders in the district and the teachers and faculty, the families and the students uh have been a joy to work with. So,
this is a great place to be and I think that any uh search that we have next year will yield a great result. It's a great district to be in. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um the next topic that we have um on the
agenda here is community engagement discussion. And um I believe Amanda added this to the agenda just this being one of our school committee goals for this year and recognizing that you know the benefit of
returning to it um sort of every so often to just check in. Um this as we discussed with our goals, it's something we want to think creatively about this year and just continue um doing our best to
um engage the community in conversations about and information about what we're doing here. Um one of the ideas that Amanda had wanted to open discussion on tonight um was the idea of school committee members um attending PTO
meetings. um to stay connected with what's happening, the work our uh parent volunteers are doing in our schools. Um just as a way to be informed and then to be able to share that knowledge back to the school committee and to the
community that way. Um we do have six schools and six school committee members. So I think there was um the idea of you know potentially dividing up among us the schools. Um
I certainly I think if anyone has ideas about that uh we could discuss it now. Um we won't make an actual solidify a plan until at least our next meeting u when Amanda is back. But um just want to
open that up for prelim preliminary discussion if anyone has any thoughts. I I was at the MFE meeting this Monday with John and when I was sitting there I was thinking about this MF that Milton Foundation for Education is like the
district PTO group right it would be nice if there's one parent volunteer who attend who are PTO members at their individual school to join that meeting and be able to bring back what they had discussed so that it's not always fall
on the six of us, you know, cuz we do have other subcommittee meetings to attend as well. So if if the the parent parent volunteers for the individual classroom, some of them are also PTO members, they attend the PTO meetings
and they will know what's exactly going on in that PTO meeting and they can bring back to the MF group which is a districtwide PTO group and me and John are also there as well. So we we also can hear from them what is happening in
different schools. So I feel like that if that kind of hierarchy is established then we don't have to always diluting the school committee members energy. It's just a suggestion but I'm not sure how it will work.
>> So just my my um Wendy New who is the president of the MF does attend the PTO president's meetings. So I host quarterly meetings with the PTO presidents and when he comes and that's that's where we get that connection between MF and and the PTO presidents which we just had I think last week or
this this Monday. Um and to your point it is a very good exchange of ideas and making sure that their both groups are aligned in how they do their fundraising and how they serve our constituencies and schools so that there's been a very good conversation between the MF and the
PTO presidents uh through that mechanism. So we have we have a quarterly meeting and uh we have some work that we do in between meetings to ensure that we're communicating well around grants and what's happening at the school level versus what's happening at the the MF level for uh for our
staff. So um there is a little bit of that already happening just as an FYI. >> Okay. So do you feel do everyone feel like we need a school committee member at each PTO meeting? How often do PTO's meet?
>> Once a month. I think they meet monthly. And I mean um it's also the kind of thing that we could sort of try out. You know, we don't have to do like an all or nothing thing. Um it might not
need to be that school committee members attend every PTO meeting for a given school, but maybe you know try to go a few times a year or something like that. I really hear your I mean it's true like school committee members already attend a lot of
meetings. So that's definitely um that's a real aspect of it. I think I think one of the thoughts was if every if each school committee member was a liaison to a school PTO >> that you didn't have to go to every
meeting, but if they had a question they could call their school committee leaison or if they had an important meeting that they would like to have a school committee member representative at you might end up only going to one meeting across the course of the year but you would be their contact and sometimes the school committee might be
distributed maybe I I have a high school or I have a Glover student I have you might already have that kind of assignment by the fact that your children are already in that school. Uh but just so they they have they may enjoy and I haven't talked about this with the PTO's but they may enjoy
knowing that they can always call our liaison is Lizzy you know Tucker calls Lizzy or the high school calls Anna or the middle school calls um just so they know they have a contact in a in a direct connection and it may not require people to go to every meeting or maybe even not any but just to be connected to
a school as a communication channel. It's a good way to think about it. That makes sense. Um, well, we can keep discussing this at the next meeting. Um, so we're not deciding anything right now, but just want to sort of put the
idea out there. Um, >> should we take our schools while Amanda's not here and then we can >> um Well, let me add one more thing is that other than the PTO group meeting, there's also DIB meetings. So like how
do we choose and pick right and is that's why I I I I really like that John is you're already doing um the meetings with the PTO presidents so that you know what's going on with different schools. So when we are meeting with MF or um
right here you you are the person who knows all the information >> and maybe that would be you know maybe that's a reason to make it a little bit it's a leazison to a school more so than like
committee and PTO >> right chairs like they they know that they can contact you or they can flag for you if there's if something has come up that they could really use support around or
I mean I think the goal was to just create a little bit more connection um between the schools >> and like the conversations that are happening here. Um >> so I think that makes sense. I mean, I
already am part of the Pierce DIB committee, so um yeah, and we meet like once a month, so I'm not sure how often their PTO meets, but um but yeah, like that totally makes sense because some of the members overlap, but you know, it's
always different people and different kind of visions. But it's also kind of a good way to be part of both of those committees because at some point it's good like there are efforts made here but then there's a disconnect different efforts but it would be nice to have that kind of conversation and look at it
holistically. So yeah >> makes sense of the idea. I think it's a good one. I think um it could be um you know each of us are connected to different schools by virtue of the fact
that our kids have gone there. I think it could be useful to to be a liaison to a school you don't know as well. >> Yeah. >> Um might actually make the role of your being a school committee member liaison easier.
um versus like if I'm at if I'm the liaison to Kyle Cod that that feels complicated actually hat. >> Yeah. Um >> and then the other you know I just recall the last time we talked about this um we talked about also using
community engagement this year as a way to um accelerate or get get some early thinking on the superintendent search for next year. um which could also bring um a little bit more purpose to these as
well. I'm going to I mean every time you meet with the PTO that you're assigned to, you have to talk about this topic, but if if there could be um if we if we had a chance like if we each had a couple of conversations with each of the PTOs we were assigned to,
that would be, you know, 12 conversations with seven people over the course of the next few months, which would be really informative as we hit August next year and start launching that search. um where it will include a big community engagement
piece but we will have already done quite a bit of homework just through engaging PTO's which are an important constituents for that very much agree >> so we can keep talking about this next time um move toward maybe finding a plan
that feels comfortable for everybody um the only other topic under the community engagement a discussion that um I just wanted to sort of acknowledge. Um I think we're still ironing out the process for
creating the updates at the school committee meetings to be included in the um school and district emails. Um so that is something that we had agreed to do before and then we we've done it um
in some different ways. um working Stephanie O'Keefe as we all know is great and so helpful. Um but I was talking with Amanda about I think we we're still like refining the actual process of like who's doing what by
when, you know, to make sure that those summaries are are being generated and that we all feel comfortable with what they include. Um, so I just wanted to, you know, name that because I think
we're making good effort and good progress on it and it's um something that hopefully we can lock in a little bit more as a routine in January. Um, does anyone have any other thoughts on the topic of community engagement
that you want to put out there now? Again, we'll be coming back to it. Um, but I think these are, you know, circuit ideas and actionable things that we can keep working on.
So, if we're ready to move on to the next topic, it would be the finance subcommittee report. >> It may be a short one. Um, not really. Uh, all right. FY27 budgets. First thing we talked about that today um we got
some additional information which I sent out to members uh from the town administrator on the town's financial um expense and revenue forecasts. You've not had the opportunity as a committee to talk with the town administrator
since October when uh we had the initial meeting. Uh so this information is kind of new provides um some more concerning is the right word but some more modest revenue uh forecast increases which could have implications
for the school department budget. So we haven't shared kind of the level service budget with some of the school department's reallocation ideas uh to keep us to kind of within the level service number of 5.2%. Uh they did talk about this at select board last night.
Um and so there appears to be some additional work that the town administrator is doing to kind of finalize some revenue forecasts, finalize some expense forecast, specifically also health insurance. Uh and then some stuff we need to do to just understand more what those
forecasts are and what the implications are for our budget. So we have not moved to you know if you look at the FY27 budget timeline that was shared previously, we were right now at the place of having around to budget. We do not have that because we just don't have
enough information. Um we the town administrators expressed kind of being open and working to schedule a meeting the first week back in January either that 6 or the 7th. So we'll share that out once that's finalized. I hope to get some more information there. And then the finance committee is meeting again
on the 14th where hopefully we can take some of that information. Katie, John, the team can um bring back then on the 14th some um adjustments to the school budget, FY27 school budget that is in line the town administrator's updated
forecasts are are looking like kind of drivers outside of the school department's control, which is how we uh coordinate with the town given we are still one budget. Um, other notes, Katie or John like to add to that?
>> I I would like to thank Katie for providing the overview and um I think back in November uh creating the budget uh at the high level at the 5.2% and going through it uh cost center by cost center uh with the original direction
from town hall. Um, so thank you Katie for preparing that in advance and now whatever shifts that we need to make moving forward. We already have a foundational document that we can move on from uh moving forward and we look forward to partnering with uh Nick Milano and Navy Texture uh Katie and I
will be meeting with them on Monday to uh take another look at the numbers and and we'll be reporting back to the school committee with that as well. >> Yes. Always thank >> goes without saying should be said. Um, any questions members have on FY27
budget? >> I think there's even after I watched the select board meeting today, I still just I question. So, there's there's more information we need and really um can't get that till we talk to the town administrator a little bit more and it seems like again there's still work he's
doing that department. So, more to come. Um, let's see. use >> uh FY26 budget realignment. So, at two finance meetings ago, I think it was um we this was a discussion uh school department brought up wanting to do some
additional budget realignment work similar to what they brought to us in October, October, September um about just adjusting some things to um save some funding and um you know, not feel positions to provide them some
flexibility. kind of in a similar vein um identified some other places where they wanted to realign budget. One of those being some of the requests that we heard at the last school committee me meeting around some Tucker uh initiatives. Uh another piece being around um trying to expand time that
Carla can provide the district given the important work she's doing within teaching and learning. Uh and you know having her five days a week would be um fantastic. not u kind of a standard expectation for most districts and
unfortunately we haven't had that. Um and so that was discussed at the finance committee. Uh generally we the school department asked for us to vote to just kind of give general agreement that this was direction we approved which we did
voted for unanimously. It says vote on here. So is that the we're not right now at the quarter two place where so in quarter two Katie will present an updated kind of budget that shows these realignments and we will vote on them formally during the quarter two process but right now is the idea kind of to
share that same direction. Did we share out the actual information because I didn't see the materials today just on >> I don't remember if I forwarded after we voted on >> No, the the uh the total cost uh is
roughly $37,000 uh $600 for adding a siphon for the uh a music educator who will be taking the lead on uh the fine and performing arts department which lost its director due
to uh going to another district. and we did not fill that position. We let some time go by to find out, you know, what service delivery pieces are essential that need to happen for those staff and those students that do music and art. And um and after watching and assessing
and meeting with the uh staff or targeted members of the staff, we realized that we just needed someone to lead that work. And so that that's a very small stipen that would do the work for the remainder of the year. And it quite frankly could be a pilot for if in fact next year we would want to continue with a lead teacher versus having a full
administrator. So that has a dual purpose. Um the that $37,000 also includes funds for assistance superintendent Kakosa to go from 3 days a week to 5 days a week. And to Mark's point, um this is our work. This
position is the workhorse of the of the teaching and learning side of the uh school department. So, we thought it was essential to have that be filled and for the public to know when they say, "Well, where are they getting that money? How does that work?" We did work really hard in August to not fill certain positions
that we felt we could go one year without in order to create flexibility for the year and meet the needs of the district um in different areas if we needed to. And so these are two examples of us assessing what the needs are um and using some of the funds that we saved in August during fiscal 26 and
expending them in a different way to support the district. Um and maybe one more lead teacher like position that we might come back to the group for. We've been doing the same assessment for our educational technology role. Uh AJ Millansen was in that role for about five years. uh did a lot of good work
for all of our teacher and student facing technology work and also um all the AI work and we had a tech committee that was contributing to that. Um we're really discovering as the year goes by that there's service delivery pieces of
that work that needs to be uh monitored, supervised and led. Uh some of the work is just being distributed naturally across the teachers and the folks that do that but we need someone to be in charge of a certain part of that work. So, we we have already had a couple of meetings and we're trying to figure out what that targeted work would look like.
Uh, but it would similarly be a lead teacher role that could be uh roughly $5,000 for the remainder of the year. It's more about uh respect for the work being done by folks who are taking on extra work more so than the actual dollars. $5,000 is not that much money,
but the amount of work that whoever takes that role on would put in. So, um, so that would be one that would be maybe coming down the road. We're still doing the assessment. Uh, but what we presented to you was about about $37,000 for finding performing arts lead and 5 days a week for our assistant
superintendent and that will be in the Q2 and voted in the Q2 and the second quarter closes on December 31st. Any >> questions members have about that direction? Uh if not, I don't have this language in
motion, so I'll try it here. Uh I'll make a motion to um for the school committee to support the direction of the school department in realigning budget uh to address the priorities as discussed here tonight by the superintendent.
Is there a second? Thank you. Further discussion. All in favor? Thank you for your work for >> us. Um
uh item C is community schools summer program fees. This is also something we discussed at a the last school comm uh finance meeting trying to school department is trying to get this information out a little bit earlier than other fees given kind of
the registration for the school or the summer program uh happens sooner than kind of the rest of the fees for next school year. Um the are there materials within the fuller?
Yes, that works. Yeah. Um so they uploaded a copy of kind of the presentation that the director of the community schools program kind of walked us through highlighting some of the financial gaps within the program from last year with the um expansion of Camp
Tucker and um some other things. And essentially the goal here is to adjust the fees in order to have them align with uh expenses. So it is a self-run program. Um and you know at this point it has been but it has pulled from the
kind of reserves in the community schools more than we would have liked it to um based on the operations last summer. And so raising the fees helped stress that and ensures that it's not um something that will continue uh into the future. And then there is information uh
that nice enough to provide on just comparison of costs for built-in uh community schools programs versus other summer camp programs and you know how we how we rank within there and how the fee
proposal still has us in line and it's very competitive further to share that. >> I I I I don't want to share the the finance side of it. I I could leave that to Katie if she would like to comment on
the fee increase, but uh Martha Sandival is a uh true professional. She runs the Milton Community Schools at a very very high level. Uh I'm very impressed with her attention to detail uh care for the students and the staff and the programming and the quality of the programming that she provides. uh she
has worked closely with Katie to really go through the exercise of making sure that the fees that we're charging are are not only um as low as we can do for our families but high enough to make the programs work. So uh this past year, the summer of 2025 was the first year of our
Tucker Community School programming which is an expansion from the traditional Cunningham collod site that has been operating for years. Um and they got the word out a little late. So her request to get the fee increased in December in order to get the word out to
the Tucker community uh starting already through January. Uh she believes even with a slight increase in the fee, but the advanced notice for folks to be able to choose uh the program and sign up early and secure a spot will increase the enrollment uh between the enrollment
increase and the slight fee increase. We think it will come back to a more reasonable cash flow perspective uh for community schools to offer programming over the summer at both Cunningham Valley and at Tucker. So uh again, thank you for Katie for supporting Martha and Martha does a terrific job for the after
schools in the summer programming. >> Just a couple things and I know sorry I missed the finance committee meeting where this was discussed. Um are are do fee increases typically happen every year or is it sort of does
it happen as as needed? >> I think it's been um from my understanding it's been a combination of both. I think because of the balance
in the accounts, there were periods of time where the fees were increased. Um, and then there were also years where we did increase the fees moderately even though we did have a surplus in that account. So, I
think it's kind of been a combination of um where we were and what we felt was appropriate in that year. That's just based off of the history that I've learned from Martha. >> Got it. Okay.
>> I think it would be um some experience running summer camps. Um, and I know that big fee increases um can often drive down enrollment. Um,
and so even if you're increasing your fees to to try to break even, it's not even quite breaking even. Um, it can actually impact the number of families who end up enrolling because there's sticker shock. And so I think moving to thinking about just an annual increase
every year of whatever it is, something that can be smoothed out because some years your costs might not go up very much and some years they might go up 6%. Um, so you know, a 3% increase or 4% increase every year is something that families can
absorb um and are less likely to drive down enrollment. So just maybe something for for you and Martha to consider. Um and then um does the do the camps have a have an
obligation to run at break even or they can run at a loss? they can run they can operate at a loss um and that's what they've done in previous years but it's just been offset by um because there was a balance in the account because we were
operating at a surplus throughout the school year program and so that would offset the loss that we were incurring during the summer. >> Yeah. But because of um over the course of the last several years, we increased
the um salary rates pretty significantly and we worked really hard to try to in increase the capacity of the program by hiring more staff. The balance in that account has really been depleted to the
point where we really felt like it was necessary to increase the fees so that each aspect of the program is self- sustaining because we don't this is the intent of this program. The structure of the program is that it's a self-
sustaining program and that it's not funded by the operating budget in any way. And so we just want to ensure that that continues to be the case. Um a piece of what we looked at although it is a 10% increase which seems
significant is also doing um some analysis and I say we it's Martha. Martha does a tremendous job um researching and doing the work at looking at the other summer camps and
other programs. And we are still um even with a 10% increase, we're still comparable to some of the other programs, if not lower um based off of some of the programs that are around us. Um, and so that's
why we the enrollment is really strong at Cunningham. We truly feel like the enrollment will will be strong at Tucker. We just wanted to our our f we wanted to give our families enough time to be able to prepare for the summer.
So, we figured it was better to get this in front of you all now and then Martha can move forward with posting this and then we'll come back um in January or February and talk about the fee structure for the rest of the program.
>> Thank you. Um just to your question last time I think based upon the fee schedule that we updated the summer camp was FY24 increased by $10 $20 something $10.
Yeah, but the fee schedule I just want to highlight something that uh Katie mentioned that we will be coming back right now. We're targeting the focus what the school year program
schools uh again to Katie's point uh the we treat the community schools almost like a nonprofit where they need to have at least so many months of payroll expenses um in hand in order to make sure that they're solvent throughout the year. And right now we're not working at that level. So, these fee increases will
be needed in order to make sure that there's always at least a three-month balance in the accounts for payroll, etc. Uh, there have been years where we've had more than that in there, and there's years that we've had less than that in there. Right now, we're on the less than side. So, for all the reasons
that Katie pointed out, a fee increases. Any other questions? members. Uh, so this does require a vote of the school committee. Um, so I'll make a motion to approve the increase in fees to the community school summer program.
Is there a second? >> Any further discussion? Not. All in favor? Uh last piece is the approval of the vendor warrants. I have signed this number is not right in the motions.
So now I need to figure out share. I can do 22 as well. We have uh vendor 23 and 24 that I just signed tonight. Give me a second. I'm sorry. I don't we don't need y'all to um vote anymore, but
I do need to just share the numbers. We already did 22 last time, but apologies. Uh, all right. Um, I signed vendor warrant 24 dated 1218 2025 in the amount of
$73,547. That was shared out with everybody. I signed vendor warrant 23 and uh dated 1211 2025 in the amount of $423,24.36 that was shared with everybody
just to be safe. Um, vendor warrant 22 dated 124205 in the amount of $472,231. That was also shared. That one we might have missed because of the last committee meeting we had.
>> Thank you, Mark. >> Of course. Next we have policy subcommittee Anna. Okay. Um so policy did not is not meeting for December. So we will have our next meeting in January.
Unfortunately we just had some scheduling complex. Uh but you do have a um the draft version and the final version of policy I am AMD which is the wellness policy in your folders. The
draft version shows just the uh um red line version um towards the bottom of the policy. Um so just a few minor weight wording changes before we submit this. Um
so um and obviously it's a second reading and a final and a vote for tonight. So final policy is also in your folder. Everyone's good. I can go ahead and make a motion to approve the second reading
of policy IH AMD, the office policy. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you, Anna. We will to facilities advisory committee.
>> All right. So, facilities um advisory met yesterday. It was a very short meeting. Uh unfortunately, Tom could not be part of it. He's a big part of our meetings. Um so, we did uh and a couple of members could not be there as well. So, we did have a quorum. So we
decided to meet um and uh we basically went approved a couple of minutes from September and October past meetings um as well as um we did have the Tucker playground update on our agenda. So we did I did take them through the
presentation that was shared by the Tucker PTO a couple weeks ago. So, which was very exciting and they were, you know, just kind of um to kind of bring them up to speed on what's been done and what the steps are and kind of where we are right now and you know what's kind
of our goal and uh I think we would like to do is for the facilities committee to get kind of work hand inand with all the different schools as these types of projects come about and how we can partner with them and help them out. So,
um, that was kind of the gist of our meeting yesterday. Thank you. >> Question. This is not necessarily related to what you shared, but, uh, have you all heard any update on the construction uh, Cunningham?
Couple things came up just because again, my daughter happens to be in those classes. I guess sorry. So um the meetings for the summer of 27 work are starting to take place remotely uh with the uh owner project manager. Um we have
been asked uh by the owner project manager as part of the project to clear out the attic of the cuttingham which will be the new library. Uh so uh Katie and I and others uh Tom McCathi Mayheu
um and um any Milton public school uh coordinator or person who has items in that library have we went up about a month and a half ago to identify tag um items to either be thrown out or stored uh or in preparation stored to come back
to the school in September when we reopen the library or stored permanently offsite because we have records and payroll records that need to be kept for a longer period of time. Um, with that said, the library will be empty, the attic will be emptied in order to do some preliminary work over winter break
uh for just a few days. Um, then there will be some work done in the February break for a few days and then there'll be some work done over April break. Um these uh these work sessions will allow the company to set themselves up for
success. So when the summer starts, they can really have a couple uh maybe you know 8 to nine days of work already uh completed and hit the ground running because we have a short summer to complete a good amount of work in the summer of 27 summer of 26. Um, we have a
lot of confidence in the contractor who came in on budget uh and on time for the first phase and uh we're working with them. I want to thank John Redden for going to every single meeting on uh now they're happening on every other Wednesday. Uh Tom McCarthy and Bob Mahu and John Mir who's a custodial senior
custodian at the at the Cunningham collide. Um so we uh we will be in the schools over those three breaks getting work done. They will be in the schools over those breaks. The only folks in the building at that time will be our community schools folks. We have two
days of community schools over the winter recess because it's the way the holiday falls. It's not that it's the Friday and the Monday and Tuesday. So there's three days of community schools. Um and there'll be community schools uh in the building on uh the February and April break. But just like we did last
summer, we will coordinate off, create drop off pickup space and uh coordinate between Milton Community Schools and the construction folks for the work being done in a safe and orderly manner. >> Yeah. The head of the Cunningham Community School said it went great for the summer.
>> Yeah. So that was great. Uh question I had was actually more on the the punch list for the work that happened last summer because it seemed like the lights right the construction lights were are still in uh not the permanent lights that they don't have cubbies or lights
but they're coat bags or even temporary places for those things. >> So just like what is that? >> So uh we've had two sets of cubbies arrive at the Cunningham school and two sets of cubbies sent back from the Cunningham school back to the vendors. Uh the third uh version of the cubbies
arrived today. All nine sets will go uh uh and be um installed uh probably in the next two weeks. Uh the students and the staff have waited a long time for those to be put in place. Uh Principal Redden again has been very very uh you
know very much the advocate of making sure that's been done in an orderly way. The first two were not not um not appropriate cubbies. I don't know what's an appropriate cubby and what's not an appropriate cubby, but uh we did not get what we had ordered. So, we wanted to make sure we we got what we had paid
for. So, uh the lights are supposed to be remedied and I don't have a timeline for that. Uh for folks who don't know, they do feel like a construction light cuz they are hanging down in a way that they're not recessed into the ceiling in the way that we would want them in a classroom. Um it's certainly okay for a
limited amount of time. Uh but when you have, you know, young students at the elementary level with something hanging over them, it becomes a little distracting and potentially something that we would uh prefer it to be temporary and moved into the permanent lighting situation. I don't have a timeline on that, but I can get one to you.
>> So, the last update that I had received was that the um the materials were in and the electrician was planning on completing the work this past weekend. And so we just need to confirm that that work was completed. But it hopefully
it's it's complete by now. >> Is there any other beyond the cubbies and lights is the only time I'm aware of any other punch list? >> No other. >> Thank you. You're welcome. and and just uh in the thank you department, uh Nick Milano, Katie, uh
Tom McCathi, Bob Mayhew, John Mureer, all those folks in the facility side of the work and the business side of the work have really worked hard and um they've been very helpful with also with furniture and different things that were needed as we began to see what the the spaces needed in order to operate
effectively and all those things were secured and put in place. So, with these last two things being tied up, that floor will be done. It'll be really exciting to see the library in place uh after December 26. >> Okay, thank you. So, next we have um
MF you sort of spoke to this a little bit. Is there anything else to share from the Foundation for Education? >> Yes, MF celebrating their 30th anniversary. So, you should have received an email from them um about the $30 for 30 years campaign. Of course,
you're welcome to donate more than 30 bucks, but we hope to have a lot of people contribute. Um and you should also receive that information in the uh in the principles weekly emails as well. Um there's a little section in the email
about the the campaign and um obviously they just closed uh a very successful year of Monster Dash and they are looking forward to host the end of the year derby race um that is going to be celebrating the teacher of the
year uh on May 2nd 5 to 7:00 p.m. at the Blue Hill Country Club. So uh you're welcome to attend as well and they would love to have your attendance. Um they they are continuing to looking for more volunteer to join their team as members but especially as a treacher. So if you
have anyone listening or watching uh who have financial experience please consider um they are also busy in January. Um uh the the the application for grants is
closing on December 30th or 31st. Um currently they have received 22 applications but um and from all six schools. However, they haven't received any application from Tucker and Glover. So we like to shout out to um to the teachers at these two schools and try to
put your applications in before the deadline. Um, and that's pretty much all we had discussed about. John, do you have anything to add? >> Yeah, the grants we uh after that meeting, I sent an email to all the principles with all the grant uh
application information uh that they turned around and sent to their staff. Um, so we're hoping to increase the amount of grants across all six schools, but make sure all schools are represented. And uh it's very um impressive that the MF can continue to
support the classroom in school buildings through their grant process. Uh teachers get really exciting things and we're like we're working with the PTO and the MF jointly. Uh what what we really want to do or what I'm what I'm proposing that the school department
needs to do is really take a look at what their funding and make sure that whatever their funding that should be purchased within our budget that we take that on and do so because the MF is should be enhancing uh the program uh in Milton public schools and each
individual PTO should be enhancing what's going on in those schools not supplanting but things like textbooks and things that should be taken out of our budget. I think that they are relieved to hear that because they're really struggling to make sure that they do the things that would be nice to do
and not wanting to expend those dollars and things that maybe the budget should take care of. So, uh Katie and I will be working over the next several years to bring back some of those things into the budget so they can then have money freed up to uh to provide the exciting things
and enhancing things. So, to Bob's point earlier, the MF is like the district's PTO. they are looking for ideas, wanting to support teachers in the classroom and our PTO's are doing the same things in the building. So, it's been great to work with both parties to line the work
up for them so we're working in concert with each other and not, you know, uh unknowingly maybe crossing lines a little bit. and the MF continues to be um I think I've been involved in the Milton schools for 28 of the 30 years that they have been in existence and
being a high functioning group for 30 years is amazing and it's all volunteer work. Uh and going to the meetings like we do such an impressive group of people and they're dedicated so we can't thank them enough and they're going to be doing the appeal. So absolutely the 30
for30 it could be $30, it could be $300, it could be $30,000. done. Don't limit yourself to 30. It can be 30 and more. So, uh, all that money goes directly back to the classroom. So, if you get that mailing, uh, at home and you're a community member, please, uh, donate
generously. They, all those dollars go right back into your public schools. >> Thank you. >> Um, the next topic on the agenda is the capital improvement planning committee. So, I can give a quick report on this. Um, we have had a couple of meetings. We
met on December 4th and December 11th. Um, I would like to thank Amy Dexter for all her work coordinating our committee. Um, we're chaired again this year by Richard Wells. Um,
on December 4th, we had Tom McCarthy, um, director of consolidated facilities for the town, come and present his priorities for the town side. um departments. And so the way that this committee is set up starting around
early December, uh we start to have meetings where different department heads come and share their capital um requests. Um and he kicked off by sharing some of the top priorities for the town. Um that
included learning about um the windows at town hall needing to be replaced, for example. There was some discussion of the Athetherton fire station uh need for renovations of the bathroom there. However, um that will be impacted
potentially by the timeline of the full renovation of that fire station which I know is under discussion. So, uh that was something that was discussed and also the need for some upgrades at the library. Um so as we all know um Tom in addition to managing the capital request
for the town um also manages the request for the schools and uh he will be sort of separately going in depth presenting the schools facilities requests at a future meeting. Um the next meeting on December 11th, we had uh Department of
Public Works Director Marina Fernandez came in um along with the civil engineer Sky Bar and they presented the priorities uh for capital requests for DPW. Um that included need uh needed
equipment, road and sidewalk construction and maintenance like they do every year. um she ex gave a really in-depth explanation of um sort of where we are in relation to state aid
specifically for uh that item. Um but also sort of the need to catch up as a town around being proactive with our uh maintenance because the more you defer it, the more expensive and um disruptive
it becomes to maintain the roads. So that was a good conversation. Also tree planting um and then presented separate requests pertaining to storm water. So that was that conversation. Um we're still as you mentioned under finance,
you know, waiting for more clarity from um Nick Milano and just in general um to understand what the FY27 budget is looking like that impacts the discussion about capital requests as well. Traditionally,
uh we've been using about a million dollars of free cash each year to support um capital requests and that's As of our last conversation, that was sort of still an expectation that was put forward for FY27, but obviously
things are fluid. Um, so we'll continue to learn more about that. Um, the capital improvement plan committee will keep meeting with different departments, um, learning more about their requests and that just helps us make informed decisions ultimately to prioritize the
highest needs for the town. Um and just to flag at this early stage, you know, we already have discussed and we know um that there will once again be a lot of important needs on the capital side that we'll have to defer um to future years.
that's um just based on what we can see about the general financial picture and um that's challenging, but it's also our opportunity to make sure we're careful and diligent in identifying the most important needs to fund um for next
year. So, um at this point, we were supposed to meet tomorrow, uh but we're no longer meeting. We will, I think, resume the meetings in January, and I'll just keep you posted. Um I don't know exactly when Tom is coming to present the schools. Um
sometimes um the superintendent will attend that meeting as well to answer questions. Um so I'll definitely let you know if I learn anything more about that. Uh any questions?
Okay. Um, so the final committee update we have is the student advisory committee. Is there anything more beyond what the students shared at the top of the meeting? That was a great update from them. And I just would like to say I'm really appreciating the consistency of
having the student representatives attend to share those updates from their perspectives. It's really a nice way to begin the meetings. Uh, was there anything else that you wanted to share? Um I think there's one extra thing other than the cell phone
policy, the graduation requirement discussion is um we talk about the curriculum subcommittee and we talk about how we will have the um the students input and the teachers input as well but we haven't have any schedule meeting.
>> So um perhaps we we should start looking into scheduling those meetings in January. The sooner the better. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, I've I've met with Karen Cahill, principal of the high school. We will meet with her internally first to find out what she's looking to
do, review it internally, and then we'll post the first meeting of the the curriculum review committee and we'll invite the students as well. And it'll probably usually takes one or two meetings of the curriculum review to kind of ask questions and have Karen or team go back and um review, add
anything, change anything, and bring it back to the group. So, that is January work. We were hoping to do our internal work before the winter recess, but we were unable to meet. So, we will do that in the in the targeted area right now is the graduation requirements. >> And when we do schedule those, we can
crossost that meeting, right? Because I know >> Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. All subcommittee should be cross. Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Great. Thank you. Um so that just brings us to
uh next meeting draft agenda items. So from this discussion we have under chair's report we'll continue engagement conversation um committee reports we will have school building committee um
we we will have finance >> we will have finance and we will have uh an update on school calendar as well. Okay. >> And uh just so the committee just to remind the committee, this is a shared doc that I add all the different topics
for the year and we make sure people are aware I do share it. Uh it's in your drive. Um I actively just change this every week and add things like tonight I'll add different pieces that we want to put on. Uh some of the upcoming items that we want to just foreshadow a little
bit. Uh Dr. FA Shavers uh received a grant from Desessie connected to uh diversifying our our staff. Um and so she's been working with Katie to uh get the financial pieces in order to uh support our work to diversify our
workforce. So I would like to have her come present on that. Uh we're thinking about having uh Danielle Wetmore, our director of student service services come present on what she's working on and also her interactions with CPAC as well. Um and we will have later in the
month of January and February uh a literacy update from uh Katar Ro as well as a data update our second big data drop uh is in late January. So we'll have Brian Selig and uh Katar Ro coming the first meeting in February. Uh so
they'll give you a presentation of the data. Uh and we are also working uh on our presentations that we will be asking individual principles to have and come to the table as well. So that's all after the first of the year coming forward. >> Okay,
>> great. Well, that's a lot to look forward to. In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys a welldeserved break, especially three of you. Um, and all of our teachers and staff throughout the
district. Um and yeah, just wish everyone happy holidays. >> Absolutely. Enjoy the time and thank you very much for your support. We appreciate it very much. Thank you, >> Katie and to. Okay. Thank you, Mark. Is there a
second? Oh, okay. All in favor. >> Thanks everyone. Have a good night. Thanks.