##VIDEO ID:gTiB7vQL2ew## e e e e e e e e e sh te good evening everybody and um welcome to the Milton school committee meeting for December 4th 2024 I will call this meeting to order and start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the pl of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands na God indivisible withy and justice for all so um in approving our agenda for this evening does anybody know of any changes or um things that we have here that we won't be talking about this evening okay the only change I'm aware of um which we can talk further about when we get to it is um that we are not planning to actually take a vote on this evening's discussion of the calendar we'll discuss that and then um we'll aim to uh bring that vote at our next meeting in two weeks um but other than that if there are no other changes then we can move into public comment which is our first main agenda item um so typically with public comment we welcome members of the community to join and share their perspectives with us um they can do that either online or in person um I believe we have uh someone in person who intends to participate in public comment do we have anybody online if you're online and would like to participate can you please raise your hand at this time okay um don't see any hands raised on um online for public comment um so in that case we can begin with our guest um in the audience here tonight RBI Benjamin thank you for coming good evening um Fred Benjamin I live at 29 Winthrop Street here in Milton since 2007 and um I'm happen to also be the rabbi of congregation balom of the Blue Hills I want to thank the representatives of the school committee who came today to meet with all of the Milton Interfaith clergy Association where I happen to also be the treasurer and um it was a very open and honest and uh as we said we don't envy you at all um but there are a few things that after that meeting I just wanted to share there's really two things the first um is the desire to be very transparent about how the calendar actually is right now and I think it's fair to say that if you really take a look at the calendar and Selena if I can call you that uh first name sure um right now and in the past years there are three holidays that are observed during the calendar year if they fall on school days that are taken off the first is Christmas day now of course Christmas is also a national holiday so it gets both and we do know that you know George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas day but I doubt that anyone uses that as the national reason for the holiday um the other day uh that's observed is Good Friday and the last one I want to mention is December 24th and as Selena mentioned December 24th is a very important Holiday from a spiritual point of view which I think is wonderful to get ready for Christmas Eve because Christmas Eve is a really important religious experience so just want to be very upfront to say right now there are three days now granted as I said Christmas is double dipping but still um its Origins are for religious reasons so that's my my first point the second is I'd like to just say something about Thanksgiving which all of us I hope had the chance to enjoy with family so I'm sure like many of you I went traveled and visited family and at that wonderful dinner we had the traditional Fair we had a turkey we had stuffing we had delicious uh cranberry relish um ARS was a to a kosher Turkey um but that menu doesn't work for for everyone because we have members of our families who are um allergic to gluten we have people who are allergic to nuts soy we have people who are vegetarian sometimes there are two turkeys right there's a kosher turkey and there's an regular turkey that you get in the store so there's this reality that we have people who have different needs and when the hosts accommodate for that we know that inconvenient to do it it's absolutely inconvenient to make these adjustments but we make them because we want those people to be welcomed at the table we want them to know that we care for them and so these accommodations these are let's face it they're annoying right they're not fun to do but we go out of our way because we care and we care about them because we want to show our love for them and so I really think that when we're considering this particular issue is we want to be able to say that you too are welcome at the table and we're going to show that by accepting the idea of being inconvenienced by embracing the idea that I'm ready to be inconvenienced to show that you're there who you are as who you are matters and we care about you because we want you at the table thank you thank you thank you for coming and sharing that and it it helps inform the discussion that we're going to have um that we have been having that we'll continue to have this evening um so thank you I'm just making sure there's um no one else online who would like to participate in public comment I don't see any hands raised okay so um we will be able to proceed um then in our agenda and the next item is the superintendent report great so we've only had about a week of school since we last met because we had a break in between so I just have two things tonight to share um one is a little bit more information on our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning higher um so our structure for that is going to be an initial screening committee and then we're going to have a second kind of final Group which is going to be me and and Katie and Lizzy which I thought made sense as the kind of like the second tier of this process part of the screening committee we'll have one school Committee Member so that's something for you all to decide in terms of who would like to to be on the screening committee that is being led by Danielle and by Regina um so we have sent something out we're starting to collect names on a Google form it's probably easier um and you can speak to this with the committee in terms of how how you want to go about selecting a member to be on that screening committee um it closes on the second there's going to be one meeting prior to break to talk through kind of the the vision for the position um do some anti-bias training and um kind of be ready when it closes to to get right at it instead of having a meeting in January to do all that kind of prep so um it will probably be four or five meetings I think in total in terms of a commitment um are those dates already for the committee meetings I was going to say they're tentatively set yeah when is the the December date the last week yes the last last week before break so if there would if it would be possible I mean one thing I'm thinking about would just be if we could maybe if um if if we could get the dates that have been tentatively set that may help like people deter decide whether they want to to be available and considered to be on that committee um and so maybe if you can send the dates to us you want to send then anybody who sees those dates and says yes I would be available for those meetings and I am interested in serving can you just maybe let me know and if there's more than one person we will figure out what to do with that but does that make sense yeah that's great um okay so that's the first thing and um I shared previously in our last meeting that this position is not the combined position it's just the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning not the HR combined with it um second thing I wanted to share is uh we are two out of six um through our teaching and learning sessions we had our second one at the high school on Monday um which was was great it's been really nice to bring people in who are and not like present at people but to have conversation um it's it's I think an opportunity for principles that they normally don't have because it it seems like the the thing that's most important for us to talk about we don't talk about which is teaching and learning we we tend to get more into an operational mindset we talk about like you first do this then do this here's here's a here's our course selection if you're a High School parent so you're you're constantly getting information but there really aren't that many opportunities to as a parent I think to engage around teaching and learning so um that's just something I've been reflecting on that's been pretty cool about this U we have as I mentioned we' we've done two um next Monday at Pierce and then um in January our k cut lever and Cunningham those are my two updates thank you any questions for Peter all right so um uh next is chair's report and I'm going to share one update um which is mainly for the community since we were we were all there um um but it's about our governance Retreat that took place prior to Thanksgiving I don't know if it was one or two week I don't know when it was it was was November 25th nine days ago okay um and so it was another really great uh Retreat we um have been doing these about quarterly um and they're an opportunity for us to take a step back um consider our work as a committee our um ongoing collaboration with uh Dr burrow and your team um we always start our Retreats by just having dinner together and have building community that way and taking time to just catch up on each other's lives Etc um in terms of the actual dis uh substance of our gance Retreat just I'll share some of the key takeaways um for folks to know what it is we use that time to do um the first thing we did was um just did some reflection and discussion on um the progress we see ourselves making toward the goals for this year that we developed over the summer and approved as a school committee in um September and we identified that a number of these goals are like on track and we're making good progress and uh specifically the ones that we um think are going well and on track include maintaining a collaborative relationship with the superintendent um that we are holding these quarterly governance focused uh discussion meetings um that include checking in on our goals to reflect on progress we're on track because that's what we were doing um uh we're on track for completing successful renegotiation of contracts with our collective bargaining units because that process is just uh beginning to get underway but um we are on track with that at this point in the year um one of our goals will be to conduct evaluation of the superintendent that's something that will be uh more of a focus for us as we approach the midpoint of the year and go into the next few months um the goal of securing financial and physical space resources as identified by the superintendent that are needed um to fully execute the implementation plan and strategic plan uh we have been making progress towards those goals um and you know a number of them are obviously still pending at this point point in the year so we were sort of not noting that um we also were thinking about um some of our goals that do require further attention and these are things that we're going to um be intentional about focusing on in the weeks and months ahead uh those include um our goals around um sort of monitoring data um the ongoing academic outcomes of historically underperforming groups within the system um we disc had some good discussion about you know our our processes as school committee members for identifying data requesting data uh that is something we're going to continue to refine in our um governance discussions as we go forward um and thinking about setting a learning agenda for ourselves as school committee members that will allow us to um meet that goal um as well as supporting the enhancement of a effective instructional practices by implementing regular reviews of relevant student data so uh those are um those are making progress and we're going to continue focusing on sort of how to um actualize those goals for ourselves um we um identified good progress in terms of our partnership with other leaders in town um especially uh a strong so far in our partnership with the warrant committee and you know U beginning the process of working with the select board as well um which is in process um we talked a little bit about working with the superintendent to develop a school Community communication and Community engagement strategy that supports the district priorities we feel like we have done some good work in this area um you know the calendar process has been a focus of this work for us so far this fall um but we all we know we still need to focus on this in general um the budget will be another opportunity an important topic for us to engage with the community around um so that is um something that we'll be focusing on obviously um and then you know we also continued to think about um sort of tactics we can use how we can um be more proactive about sharing updates in the district Communications that go out to uh the community and so on so that was a good discussion um the last part of the retreat we did some good brainstorming around ideas for increasing uh transparency um which is something we've been we've talked about and share a goal of doing that um we talked about uh we have discussed this of course in the in the uh lengthy conversation around recording of subcommittee uh whether or not to do that uh we did talk about um a sort of moving towards a more standardized process and uh template for minute taking um for our subcommittees which I think will be good to have more consistency um and you know clarity about what model minutes you know include um we're going to sort of do some further research on that and and work on that we talked about um posting our minutes for subcommittees um as well as uh the supplemental documents for subcommittee meetings um and those are both uh taking steps that we we are not currently doing um these are all open records that are available for people to request but to be more proactively transparent we are going to move towards posting those on the website we will need some time to sort of transition to that and um you know put that into practice but that was that was a good discussion leading to a shared understanding that we hope to move in that direction um and then we also talked about our subcommittee work in general um and uh sort of how to ensure that our subcommittees are operating like in the most efficient but really effective manner in a way that like feeds up into our full school committee work um and so that was I think a good discussion as well um and I just feel really thankful for our like shared investment in this governance work because I'm I'm beginning to really see how valuable it is for helping us um just do our work most effectively and really appreciate everyone's thoughtful participation in that so in in terms of rounding out that like update for the community um is there anything anyone wants to add to that okay um [Music] so in that case um we can transition into the next item under my report which is the calendar community outreach discussion um and as I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting um um in um in sort of processing the information that we have to consider this evening through this discussion and you know recognizing that there probably are still a few additional pieces of information that would be helpful for us to be able to consider um in talking with Peter and Selena we've decided uh not to aim to vote tonight on this issue um we do need we put it on there in case you know we would be ready to vote because obviously we can always take it off but we can't add a vote if we haven't had it on our agenda we're not going to take a vote tonight um we're going to give ourselves one more two week period before our our next meeting and I do think that um for the purpose of our Tim table like um in calendar development it would be important that we can arrive at like our recommendations to weeks from now at our next meeting um uh but just to put that out there um this is going to be a discussion we'll all sort of share out what information we have um from what we have each participated in um I'll uh be able to share a little bit more um Rabbi B referenced the meeting we had with Micah this morning which was really fruitful uh kind of let share a little bit about that um and share a little bit about uh preliminary findings from the survey that we got from the community um and I guess I'll just um start with opening up a debrief of our school-based listening sessions so as everybody knows so we won't do the survey piece until a little later yeah thanks Mark um I think we should start by just sharing out from the listening sessions because we all kind of spread out to to do those and we haven't yet had the opportunity to share with one another like what how they went what like what we heard um and so I thought that would be a good place to start and just for anyone who's listening that doesn't know we did um set up a series of six Community listening sessions at our six different schools um people were invited to attend any session that worked for them with their schedule um not um um what am I trying to say they didn't have to go to the one at the school they attend and also by the way we actually had two at the high school because we had a morning and an evening in case in evening time would work better for anybody um and definitely really appreciate all of you for that we we split up in pairs of school committee members so there were two members at each of these sessions um and appreciate all the members of the community who did take time to come out and and join those and I think like you were saying about the teaching and learning conversations it's really nice to be in a different a different type of less formal um space to meet with folks and and hear from them so that was I think positive but um I'd like to just open up like can I don't know should we go one by one like um I know various of us have notes um from the sessions that we attended some were much more like um more people came to than others we did have a couple that nobody came to um which was which was fine um but we had others that a number of people did attend so I'll stop there and just let people share what they heard at the different sessions I'm happy to jump in uh I went to was it the Tucker and then the Cunningham cicott uh joint session um there were three uh you were with me at Tucker but there were three individuals who showed up at Tucker to talk about um honestly most of the conversation there we started talking about like other things that they were interested in talking about we talked a little bit about calendar honestly like some slight disagreement across those three uh folks in terms of June dates versus August days um but I think there was General agreement that like creating consistency in terms of how the the uh kind of holidays were being treated uh the ones that are currently kind of getting getting um days off and ones that are not that that was not the way forward and that we should adjust that to make that more uh Equitable across those different um practices so that was Tucker then kic Cott Cunningham Selen and I were at together there were about 15 people there yeah it was a that was had a much stronger turnout uh that we talked solely about the calendar there was a lot of great uh back and forth a lot a lot of kind of different details but I'd say overwhelmingly the the feedback I heard from them was uh PR preference more to remove days rather than add days similar to Tucker of that like we need to do something like full recognition that like this current status quo is not um is not treating everybody kind of equitably U but then when we talked about okay like what what are the options here um vast majority if not all of them were in favor of kind of airing on the side of removing days from the calendar rather than adding additional days the only thing I would add to that is moving so less so more inclined to remove because of the fear of extending the calendar the year the school year so I don't think it was just removing because for the sake of REM for the sake of removing but it was more of like if we add more it's going to extend the school year and so there was a lot of um I think concern around extending the school year and what that meant on many different levels right the impact on families and sort of that quality time right before camps begin and that opportunity for families and then also in terms of the buildings our buildings don't have AC and so the longer the school year goes the more uncomfortable it gets so there was concern about that um so I I think definitely um there was an openness to removing um if it meant keeping the school calendar you know finishing more in the middle of the of the of the June of June rather than towards the end of June thanks so I can speak to Glover sure yeah so um Lizzie and I went to Glover and um that one was well attended as well I think we had about maybe 10 to 12 folks in the in the room which was great um and there we um heard a lot about um then the desire for Education um that not so much about whether to add or remove uh days but all but you know what are we doing to make sure that our students understand why um my peer may not be at school in on this day and why is that an important day for them um there was also a lot of mentioning around consistency like they would like to see consistency around um professional um learning days like when is that happening so and the impact that adding would have on professional learning Etc so definitely that come that came up um there was a lot of concern about um and we've named it before in terms of practices within the different schools um even if sort of the messaging from Administration is that students are excused if they need to take a day and that they should um not be um not be punished in any way um but that that's not necessarily the way it's playing out for students in their experience that if I miss practice they might be a repercussion um that I because I Mis practice and I and that students also for some of them they U are torn um when it comes to that making that decision of whether I'm taking that day or not because I'm not being part of the team so how can we change practices so that um students don't have that experience um that was very much um stated um and uh I think um and how do we not miss out on learning time I think that's also sort of understanding that if we add more days off how are we going to make sure that uh students get the learning time that they need don't know what else you would add um Lizzie from the conversation there yeah I think um that that was good I think that it just speaks to this which seems to be like a theme and certainly at the two that I was part of um folks looking at this question like a little bit holistically um that the religious and cultural holiday is our one element of the calendar which has various moving Parts obviously that impact both learn student learning as well as fam's experiences of um the calendar and how that impacts their lives so um yeah that a lot of those pieces were coming up for sure um and questions about professional learning time and um the other holidays that we have contractually um which are not religious or cultural holidays but which are um the before Labor Day and Wednesday before Thanksgiving for main examples so yeah thanks I can start I don't have all my notes so um we had three people at the top at um Pierce and I would say that the opinions ranged some wanted some didn't mind it because they would want a longer school year others disagreed and said they wanted a shorter school year I mean it was a very it was a great discussion um there was similarly things around um you know if we're choosing Jewish holidays are we choosing the appropriate Jewish holidays so it felt a little bit like we're giving one but not the other and sometimes it I think it's based on when the calendar Falls because I think they're 10 days apart so one would be on a weekend but it sort of felt like um it didn't feel well thought out necessarily as to how the Jewish holidays were being given um there was all similar talk about education in the sense of um is there the opportunity for schools to talk about why certain holiday you know what the holidays are why they exist you know and are there opportunities for kids to talk about that at school schools to talk about them um I'm trying to think if there's anything much different than yeah we talk uh I think there was a little bit like you know if we were to take away like for instance like Good Friday like would there be like would a lot of people be out that day so it's like does it make sense you know like do they come to expect it um I think you covered most of it uh we did have there only three people and we did have a member of the uh staff and U Dr fish as well which was really helpful just to kind of get their point of view and it was like it was the shorter school day I mean SC a shorter school year was what the preference was but they we definitely talked about some of the pushbacks that we could get you know depending on certain days um we also talked about like ways where um as Amanda mentioned like you know how can we incorporate in like you know the um the emails that are sent out like do we you know we touch on some of the holidays and what it means and you know we talked about like you know like students represented in the building you know like from different parts of the world and like how do we kind of acknowledge that in small ways right um so um you know we just kind of brainstormed some of those ideas but it was kind of an interesting mix like we had um both side both point of views on it so that was that was really interesting um yeah I mean it was a great discussion and it was actually nice that it was a small group but uh um so it was just more um just conversational good thanks so um as as has been mentioned another important um sort of meeting in this um initiative was the meeting that we were able to have this morning with members of Micah and it was a really um great great discussion opportunity to meet with a variety of the clergy and representatives of different Faith um and religious communi in town um it did include uh two representatives from Milton Muslim neighbors um who although they there is no mosque in Milton participate in Micah and you know as we all know this you know we have had the opportunity to be in conversation with um some representatives of Milton Muslim neighbors through this process it was a good opportunity to hear from some of the other um communities and you know thank you again um Rabbi i for being here tonight and and for this morning um so I guess I'll just share like a couple takeaways that I had from the meeting um mainly you know Anna Mark and Amanda um for you to hear and then Peter and Selena can add on to that but um I think um something that really was reinforced for me through the conversation was just the importance of this process that we are in this uh importance of doing this community engagement of gathering input from stakeholders um you know because of um the complexity of this discussion and that was something that surfaced in the conversation was just a recognition that as and we have known this um but I think it has only become more clear to me through this process of community engagement um that no matter what we do like despite our best intentions of course we will not there is no one decision we'll be able to arrive at that um will make everybody happy or feeling included in this community um and indeed we realize that um no matter what we do there will be members of our community who are disappointed with that the decision um who might even feel um angry about changes we make or don't make um and there will be people who through this process end up not feeling included or valued even though that is like the stated purpose of this undertaking um in the first place was to increase our sense of um inclusion and representation um of our calendar um um you know I think along the way that leads to another a takeaway for me not so much of the Micah meeting but just this process thus far which is to recognize just how messy our calendar is um and has become over time and how and and the experience of families um and and some employees and staff of the sort of disjointed nature of our calendar has I think created a lot of like feelings around our calendar that may have actually little or nothing to do with the religious and cultural holiday aspect of it but which are now things that we are needing to kind of address through this process as well so that that is something I was thinking about but in terms of the Micah discussion I think we discussed various benefits and challenges of different approaches um and it was good to hear particulars from different um from different leaders sort of how they imagin some changes might impact their particular um Community um we talked about um the value and importance of whatever happens with days off of being able to learn about to do this like educational piece this um definitely need to do even better around making accommodations and uh careful planning and foresight uh to avoid conflicts and accommodate people like as best as possible with our calendar even you referenced Athletics from our listening session even if it's a school day for example extracurriculars we recognize have bring a lot of um additional considerations that are important so uh whether it's going to be a day off not a day off there's a lot of work for us to do it was identified in the meeting that there are some things going well with this like we are building on some success um in terms of like ways that our district is already accommodating students or care planning carefully um in some cases and then other places where we can keep doing better with that so that was a really good discussion but I think we all shared the rec the appreciation of the value of like celebrating the different um religious and cultural Traditions that we're lucky to have represented in our community and um so we we were able to kind of just say that we're going to keep working together with Micah to um make sure that like the systems we end up building the um practices that we want to cultivate that that we can do that in an informed way like with our colleagues um in Micah so that was really great um so what would you either of you add to that I think I would um emphasize sort of the point of this is a difficult decision right it's a difficult process and that by no means are we going to arrive at that decision that's perfect for all and but we must keep in mind sort of the purpose of this is to try to be more inclusive keeping in mind our core sort of purpose for being which is really the education of our students and so how do we make sure we don't lose sight of that um and um the desire to really collaborate I think in around this piece of educating our students um around the diversity the richness that we have in the town and how can we um make sure we we do more of that in the more um standardized way across all all schools that it doesn't depend it's not by school right if you go to this school you might get this but this one you don't but really how it regardless of what school that our students are getting a very similar experience um in that you know there could be um some some learning that we could do by looking at other districts which I know we have in some way but it might not hurt for us to look at others again and see um how they're approaching um this you know this desire to be more inclusive um that's what I would say I don't know if you would have anything else yeah I mean I think what struck me was one um just like the the energy of everybody wanting to work together to solve this and I think it it's a challenge because it's not the kind of thing that you're designing from the ground up right like we have a history of you know hundreds of years of of breaks and times that have already been they're established in like every school district in this country um and that's where we're starting from right so it we're not like sitting down and and constructing something with a blank piece of paper um and I think there's great complexity in trying to figure out how all these pieces fit together and then as as you both mentioned as came up today in the conversation like what's the what's the educational impact uh both in terms of the understanding of the diversity we are um the acknowledgment um the impact on people in the community um you know and then there's also the the side of like consistent weeks and the realities of our classrooms getting hot and hotter Year bye and like that's a reality we have to to face too so I I think it's there's a some issues are balancing between like two things this is a an issue that I think we're balancing many many different things and and impacts a lot of people so I think it's I I commend um the entire Community that's engaging on this and and bringing really kind of thoughtful conversation to it and um I feel I feel confident that you all will make the right decision that was a joke I was like I'm I'm with you yeah I'm with you yeah and like the and and based on what you just said out just closing out this P this like summary of some of the Micah conversation themes it is we are we don't exist in a vacuum it's not just Milton Public Schools like calendar Legacies of calendar discussions past that we are building on but it is this it is our um you know our culture and Society in the United States and in public education in the United States which as I think Rabbi be you were sort of me acknowledging is uh really shaped through a lens that centers Christianity um and so you know that is a reality that is just much larger than our town uh our school district obviously um so you know that felt kind of important to even just acknowledging that piece um and we will be able to do what we can do through this process to make our calendar like the best it can be for the res of our community um and you know with that I guess we can transition to look a little bit at what we can learn from the survey data um and like from there just open up the conversation uh you know to see where we're at and most importantly like what more if we have one more chance here to like fold in the information that will support us to make this important decision uh what would that look like so I want to really name a big disclaimer with this presentation um which is titled um in the title of the document but I'm going to add it on the title slide draft okay now listen I um I did my my best okay over Thanksgiving week to try to like consolid compile some preliminary findings from our data I didn't include the new District logo on my slides because I couldn't figure out how to find it the slides are very um dead to me the slides are very unappealing visually and they're not branded and also and but more is there anything good about them more importantly more importantly what I really need to emphasize is that what we can do here is share some highlevel takeaways with the community of the quantitative like summary of the data which is important um we also however know that it anytime you're looking at data it matters how you're slicing it like what you learn from the data is really driven by like how you're choosing to analyze and interpret the data and I was able to do a preliminary not thorough job with this so please know that and please know that we all have access to all this data okay um and so like I really invite all of us to pull out new findings you know that go beyond what I have been able to start us out with here um okay so on the First on slide two hold on I can screen share um thank you oh thanks okay so would really um want to begin by really like thanking the community again because we had um 947 people respond to this survey which was um a Google form and that's actually like a lot of responses to um like in hindsight I think had had we realized we would be so lucky to have that many responses I might have pushed to like take the survey through qualtrix or something that would make it even easier to like um slice the data in different ways but it's just great that we got that much of a response from the community and here you can just see generally speaking like who responded to the community I mean to the survey um about 55% of the respondents were identifying as parents or guardians of Milton public school students we had a 6% an additional 6% were both parents and Guardians as well as faculty and staff of the district we had 26% of the uh respondents were faculty and staff we appreciated um The mea's Help in sharing that survey so that faculty and staff would be able to participate if they chose we had 8% of students um and also appreciate the student Representatives at the high school's help with making students aware of the survey and 5% um other people F filled out the survey um 423 of those who who responded did open response questions which is really really impressive you know um that that was all the questions were optional so people took the extra time to share perspectives with us through that um moving on to the next slide um that oh sorry that just kind of tells you what I was just um talking about a little more broad Strokes um can you okay this is showing us uh the school affiliations of the respondents for the survey so we can see um you know a pretty um good range of course a broader range than like um among our four elementary schools um you know a little variety in who was responding to the survey um not proportional to the population size of those schools um and then Pierce and the high school this is just a couple of slides of the demographics of those who filled out the survey um and so uh we had noted that you know this is doesn't totally align with um what we know to be the racial ethnic makeup of our district however we also do have this like almost 20% of people who prefer not to disclose so that we don't actually know like it I guess it could be that the results are closer to representative um we just have no way of knowing that um because for folks who were choosing that um category okay this is the religious identity um and I just I kind of summed it up on the left hand side since the right the graphic on the right is so hard to read um it was good to learn about additional categories that um people shared comments wished would have been included as among the options so that was really that was good to learn about um Desi we do not uh Desi does not collect this data um about our students to know like whether or not they these um this breakdown is representative of our district um um and here is where uh we're I'm just sharing like headlines of the two main multiple choice questions that were shared so uh the first this was just the statement Milton public school should acknowledge religious and cultural holidays celebrated by members of our community with a day off from school even if that results in a longer school year um you can see that the vast majority of respondents um like strongly disagreed with that um especially when you combine that with disagreed um that's you know a pretty clear um preference um with that statement and then the the next slide thank you Mark so this we kind of wanted to present the question in these couple of different ways um and just a reminder that this these options we have been considering have been shaped by the cons the what we've learned from other school districts as like approaches that have been taken um so this is a very similar question but it's just sort of worded um differently and and a similar response emerges which is that the that uh the majority of people um strongly agree and or agree that um we should reduce the number of days off um and what that says is while allowing for excused absences that got shortened from the text of the uh while allowing for excused absences for those who do celebrate a given holiday I wanted to um share here some PR preliminary observations that I have made in digging further into the responses um sort of respondent by respondent and trying to sort the data just in some different ways that I was curious about given what I had heard coming into this you know process um and also in some of the listening sessions that I was able to to attend in the past few weeks I think um it is important to note and I started in this analysis by just um investigating um you know what the data would look like if I really focused on um some different groups within the larger respondent pool um and you know what that reveals is that within the some of the groups um in our community you know that dat that trend of strongly like feeling a certain way strongly being ready to let go of holidays um rather than extend the school year that that actually doesn't um play out the same way if you are looking at that data Broken Out by these couple of groups um um Jewish respondents uh Muslim respondents um who actually feel differently in those couple of cases about those questions um I also investigated like how faculty and staff were feeling about the question to just understand if that mapped onto a similar Trend and um um I they actually um have a lower um um there they're they're like right about the same um but actually a little bit less than the like the respondents as a whole um in terms of agreeing or strongly agreeing with that um statement um and I I did notice that um however the the trend of one's religious identity in the case of these two groups that I started exploring you know that that but that actually um plays out for those faculty and staff as well um and they are then more likely to um feel differently than the majority um open response themes I'm just going to kind of we'll put this rest of this out there and then you know uh open up for what else you all are seeing what questions you have this is this is in order of so I went through and sort of um crudely tried to code the open responses all 400 plus responses just to identify like what are the things that were most often coming up in those responses so this is the top six most common things and I'm sort of summing up what the themes were if you go through and read them the most common thing or things that were coming up was um highlighting the importance of providing excused absences for holidays and avoiding important conflicts so I think that's built on an assumption that of perhaps not having days off for the holid is that people were agreeing with that P um approach like if it's accompanied by um a strong attempt at at doing this piece so that I wanted to make sure that kind of came across um there were a lot of people who put a version of the school year is already too long compared to other districts and I think as you talked about um and as came up in the listening sessions like that is a clear message that I think we're hearing um and so if we're looking at adding additional days off within the year I think we really have to like take a hard look at how we are a able to make other internal changes to the calendar that um don't result in a really prolonged year um there was are a lot of requests in the open responses for more consistent timing for PD days which came up in our listening sessions as well including early dismissal days um referencing other districts that you know have like one part one first Wednesday of the month or something of that nature where um families would be able to plan around it better there was concern about the amount of time that students are already out of school for the variety of uh ways that that um is already happening there were enough specific requests and open responses to add half days before Thanksgiving Andor Labor Day that I think I think it was important to note because um that was just a lot of people specifically named that so I know we've already talked about it but that was interesting and then um this idea um highlighting the importance of acknowledging and learning about in about important holidays in school whether their days off or not there's this um recognition that that would be valuable um and that again just reinforces things we heard in the mic discussion as well as the listening session that we've seen I organized some representative like sample open responses on the last three slides and these are going to be hard to read they're a little bit small um but this first slide 11 um is Raising common themes and just providing some open response quotes that um voice the you know some of the themes that were most uh coming up the most um and so kind of let you just read through some of those and I put this that's my bold language around the high classroom temperatures in June because that was um something that a number of faculty and staff raised in open responses um as a cons um the next two slides focus on um responses that I selected here uh for one of two reasons I either chose to highlight it here because it was representative of like a number of similar responses or because it was a kind of unique response but a reminder of like a piece that maybe hasn't really been considered yet um and I think that you know I wanted to just share people's actual words with us here because it also helps these are like real people who are sharing really important information with us um and it also shows um that we have like a variety of perspectives so then finally these were open responses because as I said there were many people who weren't speaking to religious or cultural holidays but took the opportunity to share feedback um in General on the calendar and I thought again there like this is only a sample there are a lot of good feedback um here provides a gist of like the wealth of input that we've that we've been receiving here which is really good it's what we wanted and it contributes to to this challenge that you know that we have here um which is to kind of respond as best we can to this wide range of feedback um and I will say I didn't choose to like document this in the slide but in case you do want to explore the open responses just to you my colleagues I wanted to point out that a number of people you know I don't know know what would count as a significant number but like there were people that did include heartfelt thanks um to us not just for seeking input but for the work that we do serving on school committee so it was always nice to come across one of [Music] those all right so thank you Mark for sharing that and I guess um oh what wow I don't that was like the vortex oh my gosh okay interesting so um what do you think oh last before two two weeks one thing we did identify um as an next step is that one for our next meeting we're going to develop some scenarios actually calendars look next year for example and like what could be some uh ways to like take these different options and have it map onto an actual calendar of 25 26 so we can make we can actually make a recommendation that's grounded in like the we've we've had so many abstract discussions about this um so let's actually look at what it would mean to do that and some of it will be obviously like contingent on bargaining because there are some of the dates that um are currently in our Cal in our in our contracts so that is one thing that we're going to do what other things do you want to talk about Andor um like feel would be supportive as we kind of close in on um arriving at some type of decisions around this and just one thing to add relative to bargaining and contracts we won't know the outcome of that during this deliberation so right that will be pending pending you know what the decision is around all of the days in the calendar it may be a while before right yep that's yeah so I guess to that point I was going to ask I know this conversation I think started did start last year like this wasn't the end so has there been any have there been any presentations or anything around you would referenced other districts like what are you know kind of what districts are doing like because there are a lot of comments on we start later and we finish we start earlier and finish later but I don't know like how we compare to other districts and then I think the other question I had which you just referenced is as we're thinking about it um understanding contractually where the obligations are so you know that had come up before about I think the day before Thanksgiving we sort of like well it's not really a holiday I mean I understand people want to travel but but then recognizing oh is that part of their contract or before Labor Day or PD days like I think having this sort of must at least as far as right now there musthaves that we wouldn't be able to affect next year would be really helpful to know because the if there are those those are like set days already that we have to account for I think that that would be helpful to I can just answer that okay so the two days the day before the Friday before Labor Day and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving are in the contract okay for unit a all units so um those would have to be bargained through contract negotiations most likely we also have in the unit D contract and our asme contract for custodians we have um I believe they have eight holidays in total and Good Friday and um are on are are noted in as one of their holidays those would be easier those could be anou where we we could meet and say you have eight holidays these are you know these Warrior a holidays now we're going to treat it differently so that's a slightly different issue than the other two which in my understanding um historically when the calendar was shifted earlier to prior to Labor Day one of the concessions was we'll move earlier but we'll extend and add that Friday and I don't know what year that was but that's what I heard how that happened and I don't know when the Wednesday was added there was a time when we did have a half day right okay and then what about as far as PD is that so PD we we're required to have 180 days which we have student days we have 184 days total in our calendar um we have two days at the beginning of the year and then two full day PD days during the year so so it's 180 student days and 184 days for staff currently y um so we're going to I mean unless we reduced our contract with staff we're going to have 184 days you could potentially I mean I don't think right right now staff are coming back on a Monday so it would be hard to move more PD days to the beginning of the year that could be one thing you could do to shorten the year but then you'd have staff coming back on the Friday before I not sure how far we'd get with that um it's possible um or moving both professional development days and having them all at the beginning of the year so you'd come back Thursday and Friday and of course the benefit for staff would be you know like the calendar would be shorter the challenge of that for us is for professional development frontloading all of it and then not having time with staff later on to develop and build is is problematic um only having half days yeah only having half days and with our with the realities of Transportation are as you all know ending times aren't the same in schools so getting all staff together in a half day is is it herculan would you say close to it car it's very challenging it's very challenging and then you have like a really short window so that that's one just looking at the calendar from an educational standpoint um I mean it would be great to have four days at the beginning and a couple days in in the year and then to your question about other districts we can share that actually yeah prior to when you joined school committee we had a folder uh that included sample I calendars I think from other districts so we can find that and share that with you um and that was sort of in an effort to learn about other districts that had taken the path of adding additional days off uh that was sort of what brought us to the recog that while we began this iteration of the discussion focused on the request from community members to add a day off for Eid uh we we realized that when other districts had taken that step most often they had done that as a part of an initiative to add addition Beyond Eid also Lunar New Year and devali were the two um sort of other holidays that we noticed being added um and that was sort of coming that that those were the questions that we left off with I guess last spring um and which is why we're still having this conversation thank you any any other thoughts that people want to put out there now um before we kind of continue digesting this or are there other things you would like us to like gather or you know other for example questions we want to look into our survey data for ETC well I just want to say thank you for putting this together over Thanksgiving break it's a lot um I appreciate you doing this for us um it's really helpful and thank you also for the process that you took in this whole calendar initiative with the forums and the discussions and the surveys I think it really spoke volumes to the type of leader you are so I appreciate that and um you know and I think our efforts as a school committee to be more inclusive and also you know know bringing community members and various stakeholders into the conversation so thank you thanks this this has been a good example of I think how we've been working as a team um and appreciated that a lot so I think that the cut of the data by sort of your preliminary observations around um you know sort of by I sort of where people identify in terms of their religious uh faith and sort of the difference um from just looking at the full sample uh versus looking by religious affiliation or identification I think it's it's one to consider right to think about because um it is a very big difference um and it would right if we look at the data just by slide seven it would seem like our decision is pretty um simple straightforward um but I think the minute we start looking at U more carefully at the data I think you see the fact that um not so not so not so much and that we do need to consider sort of um the impact um that just removing um sort of you know holidays that are observed that are not ferally recognized um would impact a subset um and you know I would push us to think about I think the image of the dinner table and how can we think about that right as complicated as it is and hard to um try to be as inclusive as possible to continue thinking through that lens as we make our decision uh where wherever we arrive um I think that's what the the data for me it points it reminds me of that and how important that is thanks Selena anybody else and bow obviously is way so so she's also I think that's another advantage of course built into the um taking a little more time for processing this information and arriving somewhere is um that obviously allows B to participate in that in that next piece only other two things I I was quickly slicing the data um just uh which you probably maybe saw Catholics anybody who identified at all Catholic obviously on the opposite end of uh wanting to remove the 84% to like just under 10% uh in terms of favorability of removing so again I know that's as we're talking about potentially if we move towards removing something one of the two would be good Friday so I just wanted to yeah look at that and thought that was interesting um other was just I just pulled like any other stated religion Beyond kind of the three uh primary ones uh that seem to be kind of affected by our discussion being kind of uh or I should say the a uh abrahamic thank you uh religions Catholic Jewish Muslim um so any of the other ones it's like um 80 20 or I'm sorry 71 to 20% difference in favor of removing so again just trying to slice the data as you were of like looking at these other subgroups to see what what is the general feeling and response we getting back but again definitely appreciate all the work you've done to help organize this and C this and I think having the extra time to look through this will be very helpful yeah thank you okay thank you everybody so we'll keep going at this um and um sorry it's 8:24 we're moving to finance great uh I'm Echo you here um Finance update uh we had a meeting we're going to go over the presentation so I don't think there's much of an update I've not reviewed and signed yet uh the vendor warrants so we will strike that from this okay but otherwise I'll and I'm going to remind us at the end of the meeting too about the vendor warrant yeah yeah you got just in case just in case walk over there sign it um so I'll hand it over to you you want me to pop up the slides sure I go a screen share first so I am just going to start the presentation tonight just with an overall um recap of the level service information that we discussed at our last full school committee meeting um towards the end of November so just as a um reminder for everyone here and for those that may be listening tonight that didn't have an opportunity to um listen to the last meeting the proposed fiscal year 26 level service budget um is a 9.44% increase increase over fiscal year 25 and again I think it's just important um just to provide that additional context that the level service budget is the amount of money that we would need next year to provide the same level of services that we're providing in this fiscal year so the increase of 99.44% um reflects several different factors that we we had discussed at our last meeting but just as a reminder the increase reflects the following um Step increases in cost of living adjustments for all of our employees so those salary increases that we see year over year an adjustment to the substitute employee budget to reflect um updated rates so the current rates and also historical usage out of District special education tuition rate increases and also um increases to Transportation costs inflationary and contractual increases to many goods and services and that includes our curriculum subscriptions our yellow bus transportation or the IND District transportation that we provide instructional materials and some of the contracted Services um that we utilize throughout the school school district and then another important piece in the level service budget presentation um was a reduction in the circuit breaker so circuit breaker being the special education tuition reimbursement funding that we received from the state and so we had proposed a reduction in the utilization of circuit breaker from um the levels in fiscal year 25 of 2.8 million to A reduced level of 2 million in fiscal year 26 and that was just giving us the opportunity to reestablish the circuit breaker reserves um that we had had previously that we don't currently have this year and so that will give us the opportunity to reestablish those reserves in an iterative um it iterative way moving forward so if you go to the next slide um and so in saying all of that the level service budget does not include um any of the additional buses to accommodate demand for transportation at the secondary level so we did have some conversation during Finance subcommittee talking about our current transportation in District transportation and how um we do H still have an active weight list so we are not able to accommodate all of the students that register for transportation at the secondary level we are making sure that we are um providing transportation to the students that we are mandated to do so by the state um but there are a number of families and students that would like to utilize transportation that we simply don't have the capacity to do so with our current Fleet given the current funding levels um the level service budget also does not include funding for curriculum materials that are currently Grant funded or funded by outside organizations such as the um parent teacher organizations and some of our Sports boosters um and so with the grant funding if um it's a competitive Grant it's not um we we're not guaranteed that we'll receive that funding in the next fiscal year and so if we would like to be able to provide that consistent curriculum materials or that consistent curriculum resource um to our students into the district we would like the opportunity or um that funding is not currently in the level service budget so that's just another consideration um level service does not include funding for additional staff to address class size or over enrollment and it does not include any additional teaching staff as recommended in previous budget presentations and so we've talked a little bit about um I know in previous years there's been recommendations for some additions above level service um which have not been funded and so just as a reminder um just because funding is not secured doesn't mean that um the need for those positions go away and so um those needs in many instances still exist um even though that funding is not available so I'm going to take us through the needs based additions um I think we talked about this previously at least at finance subcommittee that we've been working with our principles and uh leadership team as a whole to really kind of try to look at this both from the building level and and think at the building level and also as a team think at the district level so I think we're getting better at this year by year um we are building this needs-based and level service budget around the implementation plan some of that is is visioning and and really kind of thinking about um we don't quite have enough information yet because we haven't built some of these we're in the process of building some these systems so we don't um as an example with some of our things that we've moved to year two we're we're not yet sure what where we're going to land in terms of the model and what it's going to look like so we don't yet know what the Exact Staffing will be um it's certainly a consideration as we work with the the town and we look at the roughly level services around 6 million is that accurate mhm over 6 million yeah so we look at that number and we look at thinking about you know if if um an override is um set in motion we we have to be thinking about year one year two year three and and we are trying to to be thoughtful about multi-year planning as opposed to just like how much money do we have this year and what can we get what do we need to get rid of because we end up in this Push Pull where we we don't really we let go of our vision and our structure and we just like grab at needs and we we are trying to move out of that um so on to the next um slide so this is our list of needs based editions in year one um and I'm going to talk about them we have separate slides for each of these with like a a bit more information and rationale around them I don't see any readers coming out put okay okay on to slide six where I'll start digging into these so in Prior one academic Excellence U we've talked about the need for both um increases in Staffing for our English Learners U that program continues to grow um case case loads are quite high right now so there's an addition here um just moving 2.8 positions to 1.0 positions so that's an increase of 04 and um down below you'll see also an addition in terms of leadership of of el which has been um I think it's it's one of our highest identified needs going into next year and it's a kind of Kick the Can down the road type of situation where we've pieced things together for a while and we just I think everybody on the team recognizes we have to take a step forward and and solve that issue um elementary teacher this is uh a a class-size issue where um kindergartens started this year quite large we heard um at the central office from principles all four of our elementary principles that wow like that was the response we heard from them about the class size we were I I think we were at a point at the beginning of the year where we were wondering if we needed to add an additional kindergarten class we kind of squeaked through and this is responding to um to that need and then um the elementary team chair is bringing up so currently um Tucker has A6 team chair which um is not enough um for the needs that Tucker and um doesn't match our staffing at at other schools so we want to bring that position from A6 up to a 1.0 um on to the next slide um so last year we um we added two positions at Pierce Middle School to make that that sixth grade team Hole uh there was a you'll see on your two requests we we've moved a requests for two exploratory teachers at Pierce but because we got those two positions at Pierce we felt like it was important to um kind of address some of the the asks at the high school that we've seen for a number of years I think you all probably saw them before I was here um one is a the business teacher that's a a perennial ask U one is addressing class size and PE and health and the third position here is and there's like a little addition of a point2 French FTE to respond to a need um a one point0 College and Career Readiness teacher counselor to someone who's really focused on postsecondary and um both take some of that work away from the counselors who have a a pretty significant um counseling load um among them and and someone who also is able to really kind of think differently around around helping students develop a vision so it's not just someone whose main focus is getting every student into an Ivy League school it's someone who's working with every student at the high school and helping them to develop a vision and making connections in the community and building out internships and I mean it's it's a position that could do a lot and I think be pretty impactful it is a position that I started in Vermont and saw that grow and and really take off so i' I've seen that happen in real time um curriculum professional learning and collaboration time um we talked earlier about about our calendar and the the lack of time we have to really develop um all the systems that we're working on so this is is resp responding to a need with all of the action teamw work this year going into the summer this can't just be carried by the central office nothing will happen right so we need to be bringing staff together who are the experts to be both guiding learning leading together with us so so this is um funding to support work happening over the summer and into the year as well um so that would be bringing staff together together Beyond contracted hours for example um to continue some of this work and and really ground it so we're not like fighting for five minutes or 10 minutes in an early release day to to try to get something done that really is going to take three hours of thoughtful work with um a group of people um curriculum um moving on to slide eight um so there are a number of uh curriculum resources that we um have included in the needs-based budget here um these are um both related toal to uh reading and to uh French uh reading assessment we are working right now and something that Katie and I are doing together with with our principles and with our pto's and MF Etc is we would like to fix the inequities that are currently at play where excuse me you know that there's a a bit of a lack of clarity sometimes around what PTO support what MF supports and what the district supports and we don't want um we want every student to have similar access so this funding would would also allow us to make sure that if if some things are happening at one school and for example a PTO may not have the funds at another school we'd be able to like make sure that we're aligned and then ultimately what we'd like where we're headed is like real Clarity around what the general fund is carrying so we don't have to there's no backfilling that's happening but we're we're basically like putting all of that resource into every one of our schools um in a way that's that every kid is having kind of similar access to experience and learning um curricular materials so we've talked about last year uh M were you here for cat's presentation was that okay it was I think it was last spring but it might have been before like April maybe or something so so cat Ro who is our currently our K8 literacy director um presented on the work she's done to adopt a new curriculum for ELA so it's a really big long um process there were I mean even I I remember right when I was hired two years ago there were a lot of questions the Boston Globe I just come out with a piece on approved reading curricula and ours was kind of semi approved for a few different reasons we we've we've addressed that in different ways but we are now positioned I think and and Kat has done a lot of work working with both internally and with the Southshore Consortium literacy Consortium that she's a part of U to to be in we're we're kind of in line right now to to make this happen and I think um very important that we do that um a committee is starting to form so the there's a snowball rolling down the hill right now so if we we need to I want to get run over by that snowball so this is this is important um and I think would be supported well by our community too um the next slide so the first thing here is um assistant director of student services so this would essentially be someone who would take on guidance of kind of we're thinking primarily eel but also we're recognizing that in student services there is so much like paperwork and communication and we are we we recognize that we're understaff there um and for us to really do the work that we want to do we need to have enough people people to to both set the vision and be able to execute it um so this this position would would both lead our our e program but would also support other areas of student services as well to to create like a real needed depth in that department um the additional statements for extracurricular activities uh one of the things I I mentioned here development of focused tutoring where data supports its need I I'd like to to be able and we're kind of working through and we're kind of starting with a pilot at Tucker right now of thinking about what kind of model would best fit some of the learning needs of our students especially as we kind of went through the data recently and and talked about some of the things how we're responding to that U I'd like to to start working on a a focused tutoring program districtwide um potentially starting like as I mentioned with a pilot of Tucker that's spreading that um across the district so this funding would support that work prior area three um I've mentioned this Human Resources Director um in our last meeting and talking about splitting the position uh this is I think goes without saying the the backbone of a a healthy organization is a strong human resources department um our history here has been Human Resources shared among lots of people um and it it I think it has shown in in in I think some of the parts of our culture that we're working to improve and um to make this like the most um welcoming professional um supportive organization it can be so this this position I believe is um is is really really important um we've had a custodial um shortage at Cunningham and cicott for some time um both of our principles there have reminded us of this a few times right it's like a weekly topic a few times since I've started so I had I had to put this on I had no choice and um the two additional yellow buses we talked about this last year I I really feel that educationally you know we are so close to full capacity for transportation we added an additional bus in into the this current budget which helped we still have a weight list we still have families who are who live in East Milton who kids have to try to figure out a way to get to school um I I think it's a real impact on parents who don't have the Leisure of time and maybe are working two jobs and like so it it does impact a subset of our population more than than others and I've had Direct conversations with li families cuz they when they get frustrated they want to talk to me um because they are hoping I can do something and change the situation uh and I I just think I think it will have an impact on students being on time it will have an impact on their education I I think it's the right thing to do and I I don't think it's a it's we're going to get some funding back for this too so we also are looking at our fees and that will be a topic we're bringing to finance subcommittee soon and then um that will be coming here I think in January so um we will be getting how much would we get back on those two Katie 26,000 26,000 okay that's at the current fee correct yeah so if we raise it by five times go that was a joke that a joke everybody that was a joke not that was a joke okay um so year two uh I mentioned the the two Pi six Batory teachers thinking about that in year two um as a kind of placeholder this is a conceptual placeholder for teaching and learning coaches as we build our instructional framework we need to sustain it if we don't have coaches working with with our our teachers to sustain that that system it's going to be very hard for us just through the evaluation process which is really a has a different impact it's an important one but it's different than coaches who are unit a position so they're their fellow teachers it's a very different conversation when a teacher comes in and works with you and there's there's no fear about being evaluated in terms of what's happening it's just very different um and has you know and data supports the the use of Co of coaches to to impact um student outcomes um director of communications we are currently at a point. five this was on our um needs based request last year uh Stephany does an awesome job but it's it's a0 five position and um really bringing that to one point .0 given our size and our our needs around communication it's one of our um strategic priorities in our implementation plan so that um I'm thinking in year two U some administrative assistance um some of these are in special ed um to support the significant amount of paperwork and um some of these could be potentially cost neutral is that maybe maybe um the addition of a school psychologist adjustment counselor um and two instructional assistants at Pierce um so that that is some of our thinking around your too I think that will change but just wanted to to kind of let you all know that we're we're kind of thinking a little bit here in stages in terms of um needs requests and I I think the the big part of year two is that that are those teaching and learning coaches in terms of the implementation plan and that teaching and learning systems were developing that's it questions so the teaching and learning coaches would they be shared across the district among all six schools yeah okay part of what as we figure out and that number of FTE could change too depending on the model and that's why we we put four in here as a kind of a placeholder in our thinking um because they could operate in different ways and one of the things that there are different kinds of coaches you could have a coach that's an instructional coach not necessarily in a subject era you could also have subject area specific coaches so you could have a you know a math coach literacy coach um we have to determine how they work with curriculum directors with principles who lead that work too with the central office and um with like our grade level facilitators which is teachers who receive a stipend to to kind of lead their grade at their school so we we've got a lot of kind of pieces we have to figure out and determine um how they would be best utilized but as as we develop our instructional framework and make decisions around all those different components th this will be clear in terms of okay what this Mak sense like we'll have you know two working in elementary and and this would be kind of how coverage would happen and here's in terms of roles and responsibilities they'll cover this kind of work and maybe curriculum directors will do this and like so that that's a a yet to be determined so when ter just see on the slide with the process and sort of where we're at with it so we're having this conversation now um our budget hearing is not until our second meeting in January is that still sort of the what we're aiming towards and so that means we have like two more meetings next week next time one more December meeting and then a first January meeting um are we still aiming to take a vote on this FY 26 budget request at our next meeting or how is that going to kind of play out over these because this is this what you've just presented here like this is the request that we have at as of now right like we're not looking to add to this we have last last time level service requests no we're not and we have this request okay all right y I think the question is you know we've got joint on Friday right Finance on Friday so okay I think there's some coordination probably with the town to determine some of this yeah we wouldn't officially vote on this until after we go through the full process which is again talking to the Town Administrator to see at what point is he going to be fine with what whatever 12 point uh whatever percent uh is he going to try and ask us to cut that down a little bit in order to keep an override if he's supportive of an override and then like so those things will iterate this I assume in some ways similar in terms of conversation with the warrant committee they might have some feedback or Insight that again informs this process and then changes kind of what uh Peter and the team want to then bring back to us and then kind of after that uh process then which kind of the final version is presented to us which we'd vote on and then then we'd take that back to the full warrant committee as like that's the budget we're going to stand by and we want to take towards to the town meeting so I do have a couple of thoughts um first I really like the explanation for each of the positions y um and so it's very well well explained um I also like that we are addressing the ELA curriculum um and I know that's been kind of been brought up for years so I appreciate that it's being prioritized um and what I am though a little I'm looking at the positions for year one and you mentioned that since Pierce got the two teachers last year we're not we're going to look at you know getting some additional teachers for Pierce next in year two um which makes sense but I have to say I mean as a parent it's my third year at Pierce and the feedback that I receive on a daily basis like anytime I'm out is not great you know I like it's constantly kids aren't my kid doesn't feel challenged they're not ready for high school and I've gotten a lot of feedback from parents who are ninth grade parents who whose student kids aren't ready for nth grade right so I'm a little like I'm curious as we kind of develop this and Pierce I feel like is kind of this three years that is kind of a blur right like it there's it's it's a little bit of a mess and I'm going to say like from my own experience that my third year is a lot better than my first year but it's not that great overall so I'm curious how we're prioritizing or we just kind of going to wait and address it again look at it next year you know and I feel like that school because all four elementary schools kind of join there from an equitable standpoint it does make sense to address some of those issues there uh and make sure that those kids are then prepared to go into ninth grade you know I know a few years ago I think before I was on um the you know we talked about removing um the level of classes and so on and so forth but I would really like to know what we have in place is that better is it working you know is it getting the results that we want and I just want to like kind of understand and we talked about it a little bit at our um at our governance r what I would really like to see is not like I want to know what each School needs to be successful right that's what I want to know and then we can go from there in terms of what makes sense and what doesn't but like you know it's like oh it would be great to have a 0.5 here or3 here like I want to know like what is their goal and how can we help them get there because that's how we get community Buy in because we're right here this is where we want to be here's a plan to get there and this is how long it's going to take us to get there if we have these resources and I would like to see that yeah and I just feel like this is just like hey this is we're trying to be very sensitive we get it it's a lot of money and I I just don't know if that is I don't I don't know I'm just I'm just struggling with that yeah I mean the the requests for the two exploratory teachers are not I don't know if those NE tie to what you're talking about in terms of um if you're talking about rigor or you're talking about like some of the things essentially that are articulated in the implementation plan around the instructional framework so I think you know sometimes we think it's like it's resources that people need but it's not actually resources that we need I mean I think a lot of what we need is we need to do the work that we're doing which is looking at our teaching and learning systems developing coherence looking to see like kind of across all of our classrooms like where are we kind of like tight where are we loose like that is that is the work that I think and and that's something that we should be sharing with the community as we talk about the budget the these items here are a distillation of all of our conversations around all of those things we've put out as a vision of these are the things we want to attain and these are the things we think we need to do to get there um so yeah I don't I think with with Pierce the the addition of those two exploratory teachers is to address to provide more choice for students so it's it's certainly like we see a need for those um but in terms of what you're talking about it's it's kind of more integral to like the curriculum that we have how we're addressing when students are are falling behind how are we addressing when students are bored and can do more and and how are we flexible in terms of our our curriculum so that a student in that those three years that you kind of remember and kind of don't um that they're feeling really challenged and having fun and and are you know are prepared and and excited and all those things so um so like for example the and I mean this is something that can come out further as this continues to get presented and like discussed but like to you know thank you for raising that an to the uh like curriculum professional learning collaboration time like that justification is so important so good like for members of our community who are not Educators who actually don't know what professional learning consists of like it could as we move forward it could be helpful to to drill down a little bit to say like for example the kinds of things that we could fund with that resource could include like address like looking at student data to identify when students need like accelerated you know um enrichment and providing them with that like so I feel like even though that doesn't mention Pierce at all when I'm looking at that I'm hoping that that would be like one place that that would have impact but you're you're you're pointing out that like as this goes forward that further like level of detail could be helpful so folks will see that what this is presenting actually will directly address some of the things it's just it's not really like named I think that would be really important because I think I think people are looking for kind of what is the plan right like what is and what are the steps to get there and it's not and I know a lot of these are kind of districtwide and they kind of you know where the need is it kind of shifts and changes and you're creating systems I understand all of that but I think I think really to sell to kind of say hey this is this is what we need and this is how it's going to help all our schools is so important to State because just looking at this it's like okay we we have you know like we these are the things that these positions are going to help do is improve you know like finding gaps in our curriculum that needs needs to be strengthened um and all of that because that is so important to be communicated out there because I think that's how you get support right for for something like this and it's a I mean it's a big ask and I think like overall it's a big ask like I don't see like for um year one and year two being big ass but like overall I think it's a lot and so I think what is what is the narrative and how are we framing this for for the community is so important because I think when we start looking at like you know we have a teacher here for here and like this and that it's like how are we making sure that all our schools like we are working towards a goal of getting there and like the individual schools have their school Improvement plans and like um you know what what can we as a committee do to make sure that each of our schools is successful yeah I was just you made me think U Anna that I think one of the key things is to see to the budget request in the context of the implementation plan and it's hard because not everyone's wrapped their head around it right uh but to know that these are just additional resources but it doesn't mean that the other work that's there yeah is not moving Us in the direction that I think we all want to see us going well I think that's one of the the um I think people have the thought that when they look at a budget and I think it's probably happened here historically we have a problem and we're going to fill it with a position and there are times when that works really well but we actually have to change the system we can't add like adding more people won't change understand anything um we have to so that's like a that's a good point to to make like how how are we kind of like tying these things together and reminding people of well this isn't the work the work we're doing is not this this is these are the these are the needs based budget items but this isn't the work like it's almost like this is going know help the fire right stay right it's supporting but it's not in of itself because without the larger vision and plan then it is just you know we could add more folks sort of going in different directions but that's not that's not what we want and and at the same time you've identified that's the like high leverage positions like the Human Resources Director which can catalyze a lot of these pieces that we're trying to to like accelerate too yeah so I think that's also going to be important I feel like we've talked about that without success in previous years because it's been perceived as just sort of like not a transformational position but just like a further like you know um adding to the bureaucracy of the district or something like that which is the last that's the furthest thing from it it's actually trying to like yeah catalyze a total shift in in increasing our capacity with the folks we already have here and also like getting good people still coming and staying so and diversifying our staff and like these goals that we've set that we I need someone we need like a person working on those things yeah and I do appreciate like especially through the academic Excellence priority areas seeing responding to needs that have been emerging like you know and I think that's um it feels timely in that sense um and I do I mean I notice like there aren't addition the past several years we've had the approach of adding intervention interventionists I don't see more interventionists here what I see is more investment in like strengthening the capacity of the folks we have and the coaching of model as not to we're not taking away the intervention as we currently have but we're like layering in a new kind of support for our Educators I think that's I'm appreciating that um and I'll just also say like I appreciated what you said about the buses the transportation like I think that is a decision for us here but as a town also to like I'm glad that you're choosing to move us in that direction um I think that is good to do too so yeah I also really appreciate the effort of looking forward we haven't done that before nothing since right looking Beyond year the next year um and starting to to look ahead I know this is not comprehensive of everything you know but I do think it starts to highlight the priorities as we look forward um I think one thing I would really like to thank you guys for doing is historically I feel like the way the budget's been presented has been very siloed and often times it's like and I know this is I know it's my thing I'm sorry but it's like special ed funding and then there's all this you know and it winds up being when you're looking at a budget if you pull all of that out then people are like H like all that money towards special ed but when you look at it it it's you haven't pulled any of that out in any way it's it's within academic Excellence or it's within in different areas yes there's a component of it but it's one of many things things that that need to be addressed which which I like I can't tell you how much I appreciate that um especially because I think in the Press lately there's been a lot of focus on special education funding and it kind of has made it's made things very difficult for a lot of families um but the um the other thing too is I think there are other things that are done that will support all kids but also um maybe prevent the need for more special ed services like that tutoring piece which you mentioned which I think is huge and I you know I I'm hoping that we're looking at that as time that you know if it's tutoring that it's either maybe opportunities for before or after school for kids that they can take advantage of that um the that's what we are thinking is it yeah because that's I think that's the part where it gets you know you you can't do it during the day how do you make it accessible um the team chair piece I think is really important I mean I know like every District when we're looking looking at the number of kids on IEPs by school that's a lot of kids for 8.6 to to do um but just other things that I think would support it um but then I think finally one theme as you know when you were just talking about the buses and then our earlier conversation about the calendar I I like that we're beginning to talk more about different family dynamics that how a lot of the decisions we make impact people so to your point of you know not everybody has leure the the the ability if they're on in East Milton to drive their kids to the high school you know if they're both working or similarly you know um when we're looking at the days off for people who are working full-time and do we need that you know that that there's impact on people so having that conversation in a more holistic way and recognizing that everybody's fin family Dynamics are different and that our decisions impact them I think is is um it's nice to see that level of discussion on it and that that's a consideration as we're looking at the budget so thank you for doing that yeah I appreciate all the work um looking forward to more conversations about this and hearing from other stakeholders about this I think as a initial ask and kind of starting place I think this is uh again very helpful I to put in context like as much as you know the vast majority of the ask we are making for next next year is the level service budget right 9.44 is by far like the 1 Point under 1.4 million is a 2% ask for a needs-based budget if you do both years it's 3.26 this is going to be like our like probably crack at this for the next five years if not more so like that's still that's not honestly as much like additional resource uh in terms of like additional programming and support as I would to see although I certainly understand that when you put that in context of like a 12.7% like there's just a cap on what we're going to be able to ask to town and so like I think that's another piece that we're we're battling is just what's a as much as we'd like to do you know there's so many ideas I'm sure all of us have around the table um just like what is going to be reasonable what is actually going to get ped because zero dollars not getting any of this is way worse than getting some of this um and so what what's that line so again I think the the conversation will be good I I appreciate this I appreciate the um part of the framing around like we know our the places in which our students have struggled the most and I think uh you know you discussed that a bit Within These around like support specific things directed towards Tucker I completely agree with you that like a budget alone does not solve everything like it's it's about systems and improving practice um but I think a little bit to your point like that we you were able to talk a little little bit about that I think as we go forward like talking about Pierce as well getting that's kind of the other place in which we've seen more historical struggles of like you know if we're asking for an influx of Financial Resources like obvious those are two places and so like what what is the maybe it's not Financial but like what's the messaging around this I think that's a fantastic point I think you know my concern like and where I'm coming from is like we've looked at so much data as we've mentioned over the like you know in my third year here I've seen so many data presentations and there's still so many gaps right like how do we how do we make bigger leaps I think that's where I'm coming at it from and if it's you know and I get your point about it from like hey we have to improve the systems it's not just about putting bodies but I think it's taken so long for change to happen and I think it's like everyone's kind of waiting right and so it's like what can we do to kind of move so we're not looking at the same data next year and I get it like 12.5% or whatever is huge but at the same time I think you know if it's something that's beneficial for All Families right um in our district and community members I think there would be more support for it and I think it's really about how you message that you know it's not just necessarily about how much you're spending on pupils but this is what our goal is where this is what we would like to see happen and this is where we need your help and I think that messaging is so so important because it it you know it's like is you you know we we can only do so much you know it's like oh you know it's like um one under 1.4 for next year and then the following year is you know under 900k you know like so it's just like I I feel like there we're trying to be very strategic about it but at the same time it's like the longer we wait on things the longer takes for change to happen and it's like and it's been like we we have to do something you know and I think I think that's really like if we're discussing overrides and so on and so forth It's like we we need to present it with like here's how we're going to get there and this is what we need from you versus like what we'll pass I don't know so would you suggest moving things in year two to year one I mean I don't think it's a big difference and I I think also it would be nice to see like a five-year plan right like what are you going to need you know it's I know it's hard just yet to do because we're so early in the implementation plan but I think it would be nice to kind of see like how we're going to get there and what what are the needs that we're looking at down the road and yeah I mean I think it's easier to foresee it's almost better to understand Market Trends as the years go by in terms of costs then like in year four we're going to need it's really hard to say like in year four we're going to need an admin assist right no or we're going to need an additional teacher or like that's hard to predict I think thinking about where our population is going and so maybe looking at like we expect we're going to need due to kind of like class taking patterns and enrollment we'll need an additional three positions we'll need you know we could probably do that um it's easier for us in thinking ahead Beyond you know like three years four years five years to think about maybe the kinds of programming we might be engaging you know we kind of got everything figured out last year yeah or at least we got close to figuring out and this year we're we're kind of starting to build so um but yeah we could we could definitely you know think about that in terms of how you have any experience with like a five-year um not necessarily with positions but I do think that as we in looking at instructural framework and looking at the curriculum review cycle and we did talk about this a little bit when we um met with the town manager and the town finance director and looking at even just making an addition to be able to fund the ELA curriculum materials when we build that funding into the operating budget that funding could potentially you we could have a multi-year expense that we need to make for the ELA curriculum materials or it could potentially be a one-year expense that for the next year if we do have a curriculum review cycle that would allow us we're essentially establishing that curriculum funding that we could then invest that into math curriculum materials in the next year and then and just going through each one of the content areas and so I think that yes some of these expenses that we're adding as additions to level service would be where occurring costs but I do think for some of the curriculum materials it just gives us that opportunity to provide funding in the operating budget that we can utilize in different ways and future years as we see the needs kind of arise as student needs change as curriculum needs change and then we can address and we'll be able to adjust it kind of within this framework and we won't necessarily need to every year say okay now we need an additional 250 I think that's really smart to do honestly because I think that allows you know as I mentioned you know we talked about um like the the peer curriculums that were introduced like it would be nice to see how are they working are they successful like are they doing what they're meant to do uh and be able to have that um have the funds to kind of explore those right and see you know and look at other curriculums as well like you know so it would be nice because I think we can always improve on things but I don't want it to be like oh well we can't look at it because we don't have the money to look at it you know maybe we can ask down the road so I think it's like just kind of having those processes in place I think would really help for sure and I think just in addition to that having the curriculum materials but then also having the funding for the summer work curriculum development and professional learning so we talk a lot about not only just buying the materials but making sure that Educators that are actually using the materials feel like they are comfortable with the materials and ready to actually implement it in the classroom and so for us making sure that that those kind of two pockets of funding go hand in hand because again it doesn't always need to be for ELA curriculum it can be for any content area but just making sure that we have that reoccurring funding that's built into the budget that regardless of what what kind of like specific area that we're looking at we know that the teachers have kind of the time and we have the funding that we can invest into their work really digging into that whatever needs to happen outside of even just kind of the the course of the school year and the school day um so that they feel prepared that when we do make these pretty significant and really important purchases that we're not just buying something and then it's not being implemented with Fidelity that they're actually ready to to teach and to teach well so hopefully those two pieces kind of go hand like framing that also in our context yes with peer districts I think this is an important piece for us to help educate folks on as well which is that I mean I work with districts like all over many of them ones we want to compare ourselves with this is built in to the infrastructure the culture you know and it sustains excellent practice and we just haven't had it here um because we are so lean and that comes at a cost yes to our students and our outcomes so I think helping people think about it that way it's not like Milton with this request is trying to invent something that like has never been been done no it's this is happening in other like really successful districts like this is how they reach those outcomes is through up you know through investing in these ways I think so I think that's helpful and and by having a new assistant superintendent by the way that's like focused on curriculum and instruction solely that is part of this too because that will drive the leadership and accountability for results for these Investments right I wonder if you know we would love to think that everybody read the implementation plan was well versed in it but I think kind of a little bit of what you when we're talking about this is framing it in that way do you know what I mean so it's not about yes it's about the positions but even talking about the curriculum the superintendent assistant superintendent curriculum is very framing it that way as opposed to saying it was a shared position and now they're focused on this but but to what like because a lot of people don't know even what the roles are or what they're doing I mean it's it's very inside baseball on some of it and so if there's a way to kind of take a step back because I do think we've never really told a story like it's always like every time the budget comes up it kind of feels a little bit like wacka all like oh something popped up we have to address it's very it was very tactical as opposed too thoughtful or felt thoughtful I'm sure there was thoughtful behind it but it's never been presented with that view of like to your point if it was academic excellence and then what it means and here's the goal and here's how we're supporting it I mean I know it's storytelling but I do feel like that storytelling piece is important for people as opposed to um adding up all the FTE and this and do you know you know I mean mean it's probably easier just to you know and we kind of wanted to get to need space tonight but it it it because the the positions that we're requesting in each priority area are don't really speak to the full you you can't say that if you look at the positions we need that they're necessarily in terms of like that area that area has like all this work happening it doesn't need any resource it just needs work we need these positions in this area to support some of that not all of it right so maybe spending time to just you know essentially like you said review the review the work that we're doing like to enhance it to Andel here's how you know here's how here's how resources help to to to feed that work in the coming year I think it both current resources and right yeah I think also like us being proactive in terms of how we phrase that is also important versus like you know um for instance like with like the ELA I've seen so many emails like float around about the ELA curriculum like other than like community members bringing to our attention like we're constantly reviewing this right like we're ahead of it we understand we've noticed the gaps we're fixing it this is what we're looking at it and having those resources and systems in place to automatically do that versus waiting and saying oh yeah we'll look at it next year it wasn't in our budget this year maybe next year or the year after and so on and so forth I think again that it creates a lot of frustration in the community and not necessarily support so I think framing all of these ass you know and hey if it helps to have teaching and learning coaches in for this year versus waiting for next year you know I think it's worth asking like if that helps accelerate some of the work that you're going to do in year one you know and that's where it's like I don't want to like have to wait till next year like because it's another year and you know when I think about kids and you made a really good point a couple of meetings ago about the kids that were in elementary school over covid are always going to be behind you know because of how like because of all the loss that they went through and that's something that like like I'm just like I want to fix like you know it's like so whatever it takes to make those kids on par with where they need to be like you know so it's just like how do we accelerate that learning you know and how do we how do we make up for that lost time lost time they coming into Pierce next year right exactly yeah and some of those kids are already there so it's like what do we need to do and I think that's really where I'm like I think for me as a school Committee Member it's just like I see that I I hear from parents all the time about that and it's really really just it's like I feel helpless and in a way like that's why I'm like you know just like hey let's do and same thing let's hucker like you hear it all you see it all the time right like how do we help those kiddos right like so that they're successful by the time that they get to pier and had the same experience that everybody else had you know I mean I I identify with those kids like I was a first generation coming to uh in America like I my parents didn't speak the language like I didn't have the resources um so I get it like you know so what can we do there so it's just I think it's so so important like like whatever we need to do and I think really like what is what do we share with the community and what is it it's not just like oh here's a list of PHS and you're been on warrant and you get your budget book and you look at all the lists and it's like okay but really what is the message that we share with the community what are we trying to do it's not necessarily about you know per pupil spending is low but it's really about how are we supporting all these students to be successful sucessful in their own way you know and how are we providing them the resources that they need that they might not have and how do we make it Equitable for everyone so but this is great thank you so much for for all of this but I do wonder I mean you're making me think of like really the question that's thrown back to you um you know like are there items and year two that you would pull and move to Year One or you know are or is it really this thinking of well we ask for as much as we think we could get well I mean I guess is it part of right I mean I think as Mark alluded to it's 9.44 so like there is some we're trying to bring we were trying to bring some realism as well just in thinking about what we I I understand but I feel like last year we went with a very small budget and it was very like here's our list of positions that we need and I was like oh well we can wait till next year to do that and it's like but I think here we have an opportunity really yeah to because having you here for a year and now you have this vision and we're all here supporting the work that you were doing right like we're all Messengers out into the community um and really just how how do we how do we sell this because we're here in service of the the students in our schools so what can we do yeah I feel like it to that point um it could be interesting to have some type of like a key um for folks that color codes or something like this is a previous ask like this is a need that has gone un has been requested and gone unfulfilled in some in some cases for multiple years and when we've been asked by the warrant committee to prioritize we have done that M and we have left needs like on The Cutting Room floor so if there's a way to make sure especially for new warrant committee members I'm thinking imagining or new select board members who may not have been tracking like oh they've actually been asking for this and we've they've not gotten it and then need has just like compounded as a result so that as distinct from new like new needs like new requests for things that have been identified specifically through this process of the implementation plan you know as like um they haven't been requested before but they're not coming out of left field they're coming through that thoughtful implementation plan development process which is why we didn't request them previously because that that was the process that occurred over the past year do you know what I'm saying so either way though there's there's like a way to make those requests somewhat com even more compelling by like T um tagging them as like how they've come to be in this request and I think it would be really helpful if there was a previous request that was put off for several years and what that has kind of snowballed into now right like because we didn't hire this one position now we need like four to make up for because of all the you know like it would be interesting to kind of look at that and see because there are thing you know like we understand it because of our work here but Community out there might not be as close to this as we are right so it's just when they're looking at numbers it might not like oh well do you really need that that's another you know where can we cut but like really to understand like these are not just positions to fill bodies in the schools but they they're actually working towards something together and all of these are really important for various reasons and it is fiscally responsible in that way because there are places where you're not adding you're not proposing just FTE you're proposing like resources to be used in other ways that will like have bank for the book yeah sort of so that's you made a really interesting point that there's no interventionists on this list this is the first year I'm seeing a budget list without interventionist because all our schools have one they have and every presentation that I've seen so far is the difference it's they've all stated how important it is having their own interventionists right that's huge and not one has said oh well we were fine we don't need it they're all I every presentation I've seen they make it a point to highlight that so and it's good because otherwise we would still be asking for more interventionists right because we didn't get them when we needed them yes sorry I think this is all good and again I'm I'm interested we're having the meeting with Town Administrator on Friday uh and select board Finance so we'll get that again I I'd love to ask for more and maybe again we're not quite nailing the the ask how I I love I love your your positivity uh and go get them this uh I I just think like ultimately even if it's not warrant committee and select board that we get through like ultimately we have to go in front of the town as a whole right and if the town votes down the override budget right because we overshot it that's a hugely disastrously impactful because then we don't have the money for the LA curriculum right we don't have the money for the HR Director and we don't have the money for year two of the coaches any of that stuff so I think the the math we'll be cutting level service basically yeah and and if we need an override just to cover the 9.4 we're actually cutting services a great point so like I I think the the challenge is that we have we are trying to both overcome an incredibly uh tight budget that we've been living with for years that uh Katie is working to right size within just the level service at the same time also looking to gather needs needed to implement the implementation plan and address all the the challenges that the team is seeing and and building coherence toward solving and and then you have the just political reality of we we're going to have to get 51% of uh voters to pass it and and like again not to say that the exact request here that they put out for us kind of in this first strap is the right one exactly but I think like that that is the calculation this we will need to make as a committee before pushing that off before voting and then taking that out and advocating that for Warrant say like is this is this the right are we pushing it and I think that's also something that again Nick Milano will have a lot of feelings about I think because that will it will impact not just us but it will impact all Town Services um both from their needs and their level service so um it's it's bigger than us meeting you'll be updating us on that conversation can I ask a question though so so say it was said I'm getting confused about something say it an over so I don't how to ask this if we are we have the level service and then the needs based the if we are going if we're asking the needs based aren't we essentially asking for an over wouldn't it be an override or we just saying we want to be where I'm getting where I'm getting stuck is the year one year two M so if we're looking for needs based we're calling it when those roles would be implemented but aren't we asking for the budget like you'd still be asking for both of those within the override right exactly so but so it's really a matter of when those are implemented when you're looking at a year one year two aren't you yeah you're going to still need the money you're still going to need the money so I'm just thinking about your question like your you could expedite it or am I incorrect thinking of that cuz you know this is sort of I think where I was I think sort of wanting to look ahead because as I think about the O the override um we need to be Thinking Beyond two years right so it needs to be you know even further out right so in some ways part of me is like you know do we really you know now that you said it in that way right talk about instead of year one priority list one year one priority list two because really this is this is the need that would inform the immediate need for the override but knowing that in order to sustain that we have to then Build That Into You Know future budgets plus obviously incremental increases as we think about anything else that's in the implementation plan so in that sense our first bite at making the case for of course we need an override is sort of the full amount right not we're not we one yeah right right right but it's framing it in terms of obviously if we have to choose then this would be sort of our big ask for FY 26 and this is the ask for FY 27 um but I'm just trying to you know understand sort of the override top because I haven't lived through one yet right so for if for our 99.44% would we need an override get that we don't we don't know okay or that hasn't been clearly stated by the Town Administrator okay at this point to our finance committee okay yeah because that's what I was thinking too like we would have to plan like how long if we're doing an override that's going to last us for five years we almost kind of need the funds or we know and then my other question is is are when you kind of look at our level service budget for next year right like not this budget cycle but the next one are you going to look like is it going to be a similar increase of like 9% type like I don't believe so it shouldn't be okay no but again it definitely um looking at the budget drivers if we um do continue to have a reduction in offset then we're going to see a continued larger increase for level Services if we do if the state is mandating they go back and say okay now we need to go back to we had a 14% inflationary increase we bumped it down to three but now we need to go back up to 8% right then we'll have so it it kind of like those factors right I don't have a good sense but it truly is not uncommon to see level service increase in the range of 4 to 6% year over a year kind of depending on those fluctuations um nine is is higher but it's also addressing some of the kind of um issues or not issues but some of the um elements of the utilities substitute budget those areas that I think we we are right sizing in the level ofice budget my understanding of the way that again it works is that and you don't you would not get all of your needs in year one because that's just poor financial planning because if something were to happen where again just some other need sh shoots up like you don't have any buffer within the next five years and so you have you have needs kind of broken out a little bit over time you put more in the you still ask for the whole ask though within the over ride right and then you take the the buffer amount that you were going to you're going to need for year two but you don't technically need it for year one and you put that money in your contingency areas right um so you're not using that towards salaries and then slowly you kind of Whittle that down in terms like what you're pointing to your contingency um accounts and so like it might start at 3 million 4 million within the first year and then as you get to year five similar what we did last year like we put nothing else into the um last year into the kind of extra contingency budgets and so that's usually how that that works uh just to build some protection within for the town's budget so I mean I think I don't know I'm just kind of like just thinking like Community member like if we go let's say we go for a $6.5 million override for school and then that only covers our lcal service budget we would be forced to then go for another override pretty quickly right to make up for to cover some of these costs from the implementation plan and any other increases and so on and so forth so like I think also like just to I mean if we do go for an override like to kind of phrase it that hey this should last us for this many years you know versus like doing another one in two years or less you know like because I think that's like the repetitive overrides it's like it kind of like it's like poor planning a little bit on our part just like perception um and I know we're trying to be sensitive to like the number but at the same time it's like it's better for us to have a clear plan and get more support that way I mean I'm trying to stay optimistic yeah no I mean totally there's there's no way in which you're we're going to we're going to get a second override in two years it's just not you're just at that point going to have to cut services or not implement the implementation plan right that's just that is the reality you're going to be in so okay well I think also I mean I'm glad you're guys are doing the the the teaching and learning sessions I want to go to the Pierce one I mean it's nice to like be able to hear you know just Community feedback and like uh parent Guardian feedback on like what's working what's not what they'd like to see I mean and just kind of have that feedback in as we're going through this process too this is great thank you anything else that's it for finance committee okay thanks yeah what about the warrants funny okay so policy all right um so I have I think wait let me go back sorry apologize 13 in December yeah we have a motion yes I know um okay so I have I'm going to make a motion to approve the second reading of the Milton school committee policy manual section I we had our first reading at our last meeting um and so do I have a second second thank you um all in favor thank you that's it I do at some point need to do a facili advisory update from a couple weeks ago still not on my gosh that's okay but that's fine we didn't we didn't have much to share so oh yeah because we we did talk about it and we're looking at the calendar if if a group met as we talked about at the government if a group met between meetings it's on here unless otherwise identified through a group may not have met but there needs to be a report we can add that too if we that that I think is how we landed just leave it as a default it just so I think we looked between the last meeting and this meeting but I know I'm just saying because we missed it the time before right I'm so sorry that's okay not really but I'm just letting you know like that we're doing that from now on I'm gonna okay I have facilities right didn't use the logo thank you that's it school building committee you took the last one I can take it uh all right uh School building committee we met uh the presentation of the the big thing was the presentation of the updated cost estimate uh schematic design had moved forward obviously from the last cost estimate we got was in July so they've done more design work has has been uh shared a little bit with yall from Sean when he presented um and so we got an updated cost estimate which I also shared with yall and was discussed at that meeting but ultimately the construction cost uh was adjusted down from the one in July was estimated at uh 133133 million 133.5 the new one is just under19 million that's just construction costs you then add the 30% for design costs that's what gets the 133 up to the 173 and that gets the 129 up to 168 uh 167 it's about like a55 million doar difference um really most of that came out of contingency so again like in earlier designs you hold more in contingency in case things change and just because of unknowns and so as Things become more known you just need less held in contingency so essentially that means that I feel like the construction hasn't changed significantly from the July to the November enough that the cost went up there were again some slight changes on certain line items and things like that but when you look at it holistically it's pretty pretty flat so the building itself is not necessarily costing less but again you just need that contingency um can be cut down so that that's where that comes from essentially uh but that was uh the primary discussion the other thing uh that we talked about a little bit further was just the msba which we thought we were going to hear back end of November that's what they told us in the site walkth through they lied to us because we've not heard back um and so they have a a board meeting in December I think it's December 12th um is when their board meeting is so we 100% will have to know by that meeting because that's a public meeting where they'll announce it they told us we'll know before that meeting but um maybe maybe we're wrong so uh talked a little bit about that timeline talked a little bit about I think I shared previously the opms are doing some assessment that the committee has asked for around just um msba escalation like what is the cost of if we get accepted with msba and going with them with the rebates of the funding we get from the state versus not going with msba just to have that information make sure we are sharing that uh given that is a decision the town will need to make um and so talked about a little bit gave some feedback to the opms um nothing else really to share on that uh and then again we are out of design funding uh Aeros stre has done all that they said they would do they taken a stos schematic I got any updated so there's really not going to be any further update on the design of the project until we achieve further funding for to push that design forward anything I missed oh you got it other other districts haven't heard yet as well at least one other District that's in the running hasn't heard yet so I think that's good news right on track with everyone else right now waiting to hear and so at our next meeting in two weeks time we will have school building committee with a vote on our agenda most likely because we are whatever happens with msba like we're we're moving toward needing to take a vote as recommendations on the warrant articles for the February town meeting to register our opinions on those articles so hopefully we'll have more clarity we will have more clarity but it will potentially make that another like more complicated set of decisions um so so would that be at our next meeting yes okay so we would vote okay I believe so I mean right yeah I mean it just depends on what happens with MBA and if that somehow changes what school building committee chooses to do right the might um choose to take a different vote on some different warant articles and then School building committee meeting early that week of the still trying to figure out the exact time because again we were expecting to have heard from them yeah for more informally all right we'll just have to stay on top of that so we know what we need to do at at what time over here yeah okay thank you so uh approval of minutes we have minutes from our governance Retreat um so if people have had a chance to check those I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the mton school committee governance Retreat held on November 25th 2024 is there a second second are there any edits or changes okay all in favor okay great thank you next meeting we have a bunch we've got a Milton High School site Council what has been on on the list of things maybe they can like really work toward a nice conscise like Council presentation there's always so much there's always so much from them uh I mean not from them from from all of our site councils that we really value and want to hear about and we're going to have the calendar again we're going to vote on that as we've discussed we're going to have school building depending on what happens there we may have a lot to discuss a those we'll see what happens we'll have a policy uh report facil fac first reading of the next two facilities updates and we'll have facilities for sure and we'll have finance and we'll hear about what's happening with the um your joint meeting and whatnot anything else as of now okay that will be a nice you know it's we're going to close this out before 10:00 at you know that's we used to try to end before 9:00 we're trying to end before 10 o00 now and we've had some meaty topics though I think next week's going to be a long one bring some coffee we'll just yeah okay um is there a motion to adjourn make the motion okay second second okay Selena seconds all in favor okay thank you everybody e for