I would like to call this meeting of the Marans Regional School District School Comm. If you would all please rise to the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands
under indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> As a reminder, this meeting is being live streamed and recorded is available to watch on YouTube. Moving into our regular business, I would entertain a motion to approve the
meeting minutes of March 30th, 2026 as written. So move >> motion by Sean, second by Heather. Um, any questions or comments? >> Seeing none. All in favor? >> Opposed?
Obstained. And I say yes. So that is unanimous. Um, I would additionally entertain a motion to accept the bills and payroll warrants as presented. >> So moved. Motion by Sean. Second. >> Second by Heather. Any questions or comments.
Seeing none. All in favor? >> Opposed? Abstained. I say yes. So that is unanimous. Um we do not have our student rep here this evening. I'm sure she is very busy
with little things. It's the end of uh the year starts to get closer. Um so we will we will look forward to when she can join us and is there any public input this evening. Okay.
Um who would like to speak first? Just you know the name of town. Hi, Tim toe speaking as a citizen Tom Templeton citizen taxpayer. I was a little uh disenchanted on Easter
Sunday with you, Madam Chair, when you posted some slides on Facebook and I know we all have our first amendment rights. We can do that. I believe the slides came out of your April 2nd school committee meeting. There was some information may or may not have been
proper to share some interesting content and then there was some interesting follow-up information that some individuals deleted afterwards. That's fine. That's their choices. Two of the things that struck Horde with me very deeply. if the a $2 million
override and the town gives the school a million, very presumptive on your part. But if it didn't happen and we would start cutting and it was all elementary school teachers, that's what really got me fired up. So, I went and did some
quick research as of 10:30 this morning off the desi website. Very interesting. the MCCAST scores, third grade, ELA. Templeton doesn't do all that great. The orange Paulo is the underperforming
third grade students in ELA. I was like, huh? Partially meeting expectations, 55 students out of the level. You want to cut the third grade teachers? I don't think that's a really great idea.
Although I I will give you credit. 2% are exceeding expectations. Um, another 3% are meeting expectations. That was awesome. But it's like, is this really where you want to go? Seriously.
And if I had students in the elementary school, I would be jumping up and down all over the place. As for the rest of it, if anybody paid attention at the end of March and on April 6th and again on April 10th, the select board hadn't even
finalized if they were going forward with the overwrite. So again, it was rather presumptive of this board to sit and say, "Oh, here's what's going to go on." It was pie in the sky, folks. Please remember that. Pie in the sky.
That's all I have. Good day, Nate. Uh, thank you for the time, Madam Chair. Uh, Jeff Bennett. I live in Templeton. Uh, I have two things I'd like to comment on. First one is today, uh, I received from the Division
of Local Services, uh, the House Ways and Means Budget, uh, the town. Uh the house one was the governor's budget was 1,779245
for unrestricted general government aid. The house ways and means lowered that to 1,749,68. I don't know how they think that works. uh for now regional school district chapter 70. The governor's uh house one
bill was had chapter 70 at 13,137592. The house ways and means has it 13,237,592. Uh as most people know or at least members of school committee uh and myself as a
as a member of the select board in Templeton. Uh these are not final numbers. It's a it's a guess thing, but it's what we have to deal with. Uh it's bad to see the town go down. Uh because the town is responsible for
paying an assessment bill to the to the school. Uh but it's good to see that the state aid bumped up even though not nearly enough. Uh my other my second thing would be I
would uh echo what Mr. Th said about first grade teachers and the students but I will do it in uh my own little cuz I'm just a simple little guy from Templeton. You get a
puppy and his early years his early time when you have him that's when you train him. You get him where he knows where to go, what not to touch, what to do. Go to the door to do his business. You train up to about a year old. That's it. That's the time you have to spend time
with him and be constant looking at him and working with. When he gets older, he pretty much figures it out and he knows what to do, what not to touch, this. I'm an old guy, but I still remember when I was in school in the first and
second and third grades. We got that attention from our first, second, third grade teacher who we were run room with all day. You learn how to write letters. You learn how to do numbers. Then you put letters to make words. You take numbers
and you add them or subtract them. So when I see the first attempt at a budget reduction, how do you cut this or that? And I see first grade teachers being cut when my thought is
11th and 12th graders, they're they're getting ready to leave this place, go out and into the reality. Uh those are the students that could get along with one less teacher. It's not the best best thing to have to get rid
of anyone, but if you're going to remove teachers, the first and second and third grades is the place should not touch. Those teachers should be there cuz it's the most important time in that little kid's life when they walk into the school
building. the older kids. If you pile 35 kids in a class and you know they have one less teacher, uh, again, it's not perfect. It's it's not good. But if you have to make you
have two bad choices, then you got to pick one. Pick the higher grade teachers and and let the little kids have their teachers with they're the ones that need the most attention. They need it the most. And uh
I understand the process and I get it and it uh it's not easy to do. But that is uh my opinion and that's what I would hope the school committee uh looking at their budget uh being the
situation with an override and I don't really think it's going to pass. So, we'll be here uh talking about the school budget, town budget uh a number of times, but I would hope that you would consider um if you have to make budget cuts, don't do it at the first,
second grade, third grade level. Do it at the high grades. The little kids need it the most and they deserve it the most. Thank you for your time, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. Okay, moving into FY26 and FY27 metric
dates. Amory, Dr. C. Um, the only thing I have for FY26 is to finalize the loan, the temporary borrowing for the roof. So, that involves that with the interesting sent to them tomorrow. Um, just letting
know what the real number is because the other ones just been placeholders. Um, in terms of FY27, obviously there's a lot going on all at the same time, you know, in terms of whatever.
So, you know, we're we're slogging through it and so we'll get to can we'll get to where we're going to get get to. Um, we just got to make sure it's right. Um I will say one thing we were asked to
speak about this evening um in our chair's meeting on Monday was to talk more broadly about um the impacts of the town as a whole. Um and I promised I would do that. I know that something I have said on repeat in every single one of our budget meetings is that it's
important to sit down with our with our town with folks from our towns to understand the total uh financial pressures that our towns are facing and to understand what the impact of those are. Um, you know, it's not just about the school. You know, there's safety,
police, fire, there's, um, essential services like the senior center, um, library, etc. Um, and so, you know, if that has not been abundantly clear as I talk about needing to partner with our towns and make sure that we're having
open, you know, honest conversations with one another, um, I want to make sure that that comes out in this time right now. Um because you know these the conversations around overrides aren't just about protecting the school and the school's budget. It's about protecting
the services that you know the extended services that folks in our towns are interacting on. Um and I can promise I would make sure that that was getting voice as well because there's important services for our seniors. There's important services um for you know members of the community who don't have
kids in schools here because they need those police and fire services just like everybody else. Um and so you know having these conversations and facing these financial pressures it's important for us to be reflective of the total impact um and to be considering you know
what happens to these folks if the library shuts down or the senior center shuts down as a result of the financial pressures that towns are facing. You know I think there was broad recognition in our chair's meeting that Templeton is not alone is not alone um in facing
these pressures. lots of towns having the exact same conversations we are. Um there's articles in the newspapers about it. Um it's it's broadly recognized. We don't see the action we would want to at the state. Um you know, Mr. Bennov is
just sharing those numbers. Um there's certainly other things we would like to see that the state is doing and and yet um I don't know that's going to happen in time this particular budget season. So, you know, we continue to advocate through our MASC, through MASS. Um,
those are conversations that are heavily had at the school, you know, across school committees, etc. Um, so I just wanted to make sure that that was stated. Business management last time. Ah, okay. That's right. I
forgot about that. program of studies. Is there an attachment? >> I'm I believe you move my >> It locked me out. >> While you're logging in, would you like me to speak to what the >> Yes, please.
>> Thank you. Um the first attachment is a single page and it is an overview of the changes that you'll see in the program of studies document. Um, and then the second document, I believe they're in that order. I'm not quite quite sure, but the second document is an actual draft um, redline version of our program
of studies since we have other way around. Thank you. Um, for the upcoming school year um, and so as you'll see on the draft um, any changes that involve um, the deletion of any information, you'll see um, lines through and then you'll see red text where we are
proposing any changes. Um, so there's some minor tracking changes um that you'll see. Um, you'll see the insertion of in reference to um, my cap on page 10. Um, my CAP stands for my career and academic plan and it's a long-term
planning um, tool that is used by grade students in grades 8 through 12 to support college and career planning as they go through our high school. It's been used and in practice for many years. We just realized it was omitted in our program of study. So we've just added the reference to it so that it
aligns with practice. Um you'll see the majority of changes in our social sciences or social studies history department. Um interestingly this aligns with our curriculum review and management plan. We are in a cycle of review this year to be reviewing our um social sciences or history social
studies curriculum. Um our high school team has been doing a really diligent job reviewing the curriculum frameworks both the content frameworks and the practice frameworks. um otherwise known as the standards. And so they've been revising their curriculum and making
sure that their curriculum is in alignment and they've been putting a real strong emphasis on transfer skills in each of the units that they uh that they are teaching for students. So what you'll see there's no changes to courses or pathways. There's just been changes to the descriptions as they are
tightening up and revising their curriculum maps um for those courses. You'll see one additional art class added. you'll see um mosaic arc. It's on page 34. Um this course is being added to support. We're not planning to run
this course currently unless we need to with budget cuts. So we are planning this course as an additional elective option so that if we have cuts in other departments of the high school, we would be able to put another elective in place and not have to bring you a revised program of studies down the road. So, we
are proactively putting this class in place as a placeholder should we need to support an additional um art class for an elective. It's a it's part of our scheduling um I was going to say nightmare sometimes, but uh puzzle, we'll say
puzzle. Um so, um and then you'll see a little bit of updates to our description for our academic coaching program. Um I think we we've updated this in the last few years. We're always tweaking and revising um this program to best meet the needs of our students. Uh and then
lastly, you will see um updates to physical education. Uh our PE and health team has been working this year to realign their curriculum. Um and one of the things that we are doing to ensure that students over the course of their high school experience have access
to a wide range of frameworks is we are running courses on an A year or a B year. So when students are assigned to 910 health and then the next year they're assigned to 910 health or 910 PE and then 910 PE
the next year. We want to make sure that the content that they're having um varies in that 2-year cycle. So we have put in an A year and a B year because we're small. We don't have the ability to put all of those in place for students um without combining grades. And so in order to do that we're doing
an alternating year. And then the other thing which I'm so sorry I don't see I don't I think I just forgot to put it on the form um is uh we are adding plumbing to our MVP program for next year
and I'm just realizing those didn't make it here. So I will I will I I will pending this I will get you an updated version of this for our next meeting. Um, but what you should have on here, and I apologize, it just dawned on me now as I was talking through this, we will also be looking to
add um the course descriptions for plumbing for students when they have their on-site um technical education on at Monty Tech for those onoff weeks. So, there'll be a essentially a um plumbing 11 and a
plumbing 12. And my apologies, that was my mistake for not um putting these on there. Those are that's the summary of the changes. >> Do you want us to suspend voting until next time or does it help you approve it as it is now and then knowing that we're going to vote again once you added the
lines? >> It would actually be helpful if you would vote now because we uh are already in process for scheduling for next year. So, it would be helpful to be able to get course numbers for a few of these courses and then I could bring the revisions. Um I can just give you the
revisions. It's less than a half page. >> Okay. Thank you. So, we'll get a motion on the table and then we'll open it up for discussion. Um, I would like I would entertain a motion to approve the 2026 to 2027 program of studies as presented. >> So, moved. >> Motion by Sean. >> Second.
>> Second by Heather. Any questions or comments? >> Sean. Um, first and foremost, uh, thank you for putting all the work in to write all those course descriptions as I know uh how much fun uh that can be. So uh my
question is is this uh director of pupil personnel? Is this a new position? Is there renaming of a position? Where is that position coming from? >> Absolutely. So first I would like to say I can't take all the credit. Um our teacher leaders and our high school administration did the bulk of the
revisions here. So I'll extend the thank you to them. Um and then no our PPS director has position has been here forever. Um it is uh currently it is um it was Yeah, thank you. Um, she's she's been in
the role for about a year now and prior to that it was Cory Rod which part of that was Matt Holloway. Um, so no, the position is not a new position. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. It's essentially our special ed director. >> Yes. No, I I just just for clarifications because we shouldn't be looking for these positions right now.
So, I appreciate it. Thank you. Um, don't be too hard on yourself on the plumbing because um, I've been to many meetings and u, Marty Tech wasn't sure if plumbing was going to be available to the students. So, it sounds like it is
and that's really great to hear. I can speak to that. Yeah, we um, if that's okay, Madam Chair. >> Yep. No breaks. Um, so yes, we are still in the application process. We've submitted portion A, we've submitted portion B. The last step in the process is an on-site visit. Um, the on-site
visit is going to happen in May. And when I say on-site, they're actually not coming here to Naragansit. They are going to Monty Tech to the MVP Academy building. They need to go through and look at the space that was designated and built for plumbing and assess the space and make sure it's um appropriate
for the Vtech education. And so once that happens, we should be getting approval. Um the state has essentially said to us, we're on track to be approved. Go ahead and enroll students. Um, and so once that happens and we receive the designation, then we are
eligible to apply for what's called the implementation grant, which is a one-year grant to help support costs to get the program up and running. The reason that's important is because you'll see on some of our um scenario situations for budget that one of the
cuts is our MVP teacher. And so while that position is going to be cut from the general fund, we anticipate being able to fund that position for for one year under the implementation grant. Implementation grant is good for one year. So we have a one-year plan to keep
that position in place. Additionally, the state is approving enrollment for juniors only and not seniors, which is ironic because they did approve us enrolling seniors the first year for electrical and house carpentry. but they are saying that they are not going to
approve plumbing because the students won't have the opportunity to go through the full two years of the vocational technical training. So our partnership program user Fitchburg and Monty Tech got together we are going to enroll students for better seniors anyways and
we are going to write the cost of the students enrolling into our implementation grant um which the state has given us essentially the okay to do. So, we are still going to provide that opportunity to seniors. We actually um 5:00 this evening, parents received
letters for the outcome of the lottery because we do run a lottery to enroll students. We had um we had nine junior seats open for enrollment for next year. um three of those in carpentry, three in electrical, three in plumbing, and we had three senior seats, which is unusual
for us, but because we are starting a new program, we um had three seats for plumbing for seniors, we had 17 applicants. So, we do not have enough space to support all of the student interest. Um and so, per the policy the school committee approved last year, we
did go through a lottery process. Um and those letters were being sent out at 5:00 this evening to the families and students who were um through the lottery process accepted into this program. Students who were not chosen to be in the program are on a wait list and
should spaces become available, we we essentially go break down that list. So we kept going with the lottery system. So we have um a list coming of students that um may be interested but didn't get in this round. >> Thank you. >> Oops. Oh, this is a follow-up question.
Uh, so with enrolling those seniors, uh, is that in place of some of the juniors or is that on top of some of the juniors? And the question is, does Mont Tech have the bandwidth to handle all that selection? >> Yes. So, the tricky part about if we were to only enroll juniors is that we
can't. So, we have, let's just talk plumbing. We have slots for six students. Three juniors, three seniors. If we were to enroll six juniors, the following year, we have no spots to enroll juniors again. So, we have to keep the balance of juniors and seniors
to keep the two-year flow. And Monty Tech was very encouraging for us to enroll seniors because they have to hire a full-time staff member either way. And with the model that we've put in place, our juniors spend a week on campus, then they're here. Our seniors spend a week on their campus, then they're here. So
if we didn't sound seniors, then they have a staff member that only is halftime and that doesn't really work with the model that that we've all agreed on and put in place and then Desi supports. So it's kind of a quirky situation for us, but we across the board, the full team wants seniors and we want to get the opportunity. So
>> understood. I'm sorry to put you on the block. >> Great. I could talk about this all day, but I love this program so much. It is um are the three seniors that we are going to enroll are they going to be adequ adequately equipped with the correct enough knowledge to leave there or is there a plan for any foundational
support for those individuals that technically would be a year box? >> Yeah. Yes and no. So they won't have the full 900 hours of vocational technical training. They will have about half of that and they will have an opportunity. So money's going to offer a night program. So, should they want to go get
that full credential, there'll be an opportunity for them to do that. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Yeah, we had a similar situation when we kicked off the MVP program because we had to enroll both juniors and seniors. So, the seniors that are golden that time only got that one year. >> Yeah. No, I just don't want I just don't want to see anybody in a position where,
you know, we've gone halfway through and we're not setting these students up for success when they leave here. So, that's that's where my questions came from. >> Yeah. No, that's great. And I will say on a side note but related um we had our first student placed from MAP Academy into a I want to say an internship but
it's called apprenticeship. Thank you. Co-op. Yeah, co-op is what they're calling it. I know you know just throw all the terms out right. Um, and so our student Drew has a apprenticeship. And it's interesting the reason he received the apprenticeship or co-op um, or
internship, you know, um, is because one of our seniors who graduated from the program last year works at the company and was good friends with Drew and gave him a reference. And so, uh, we're excited to start that process. One of the things we're going to be putting out to the community pretty quickly, uh,
Katie Donnelly, our our program coordinator, is working on flyers. We're going to be reaching out to the community to um see if we have anyone who is in the electrical field, carpentry field or plumbing field who holds the correct credentials to hold
host a student through co-op or yeah co-op um and would be interested so that we can start creating um a list of resources with community partners um or extended community partners that could host some of our students. So we're excited to start developing that part of
the program and supporting them as well. I keep going. I'm so excited. >> Oh, no. I'm gonna >> I think this is the most conversation we've ever had about the program. Is there anything else? >> All right. No. Excellent. So, we have a motion on the table. Um, so, um, seeing
no further questions or comments, all in favor? >> I opposed. Abstain. And I say yes. So, that is unanimous and we look forward to materials as they come. >> Bring those back. >> All right. Perfect. We do have
a donation this evening. Do you want to speak to that, Susan? >> So, this is a donation she's gotten probably the last six or so years from Don Bashar, who happens to be a former employee. Um, she holds every year a comedy show and with proceeds from that
comedy show, she donates to local Special Olympics teams and districts. Uh, this year has been Garner and us. So this year she donated $2,000 towards our special team slashprogram and she's very thankful for that. She's
a good year. So it's been great. So excellent. Um please extend our thanks because this is this is an amazing thing and I know it's an amazing event too. So, I would entertain a motion to accept a donation of $2,000 from Donna Bushar
to be used towards any expenses related to the NRSD Special Olympics team or program. >> So, moved. >> Motion by Sean. >> Second. >> Second by Hank. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, all in favor? >> Opposed?
And I say yes. So, that is unanimous >> superintendent report. Madam Chair, um just giving the time I don't we personally gave my report last time, but we've um well,
let's see. I'm in my 10th year. Um and so I will say that this budget process that uh that we're undertaking this year is probably without a doubt most difficult than here. um and actually prom any of my experiences as business
manager in the district um before that. I think what's been different this time is that interestingly there's been more conversation about this budget than there's ever been before.
And for I I don't I don't know the reason why. I I truly do not. But there's been more contention about the communication than the actual budget. So how it's always worked in the past is
that in in essence the district is is given a number and district then tries to meet that number. Okay. Um with with wavering success or or not depending on on who you are, right? So the the
numbers are so large at this point that um that we really haven't had a number in which to hit. Now in a quick scan of Facebook prior to me coming into the meeting, um there's a lot of going on as
you could probably imagine in Facebook. Um, but what what I what I can say to you is that the numbers that we have been using to kind of guide us to where we're
going to end up have all been absolutely they have been um I I'm not going to use the word fictitious, but they they've been they've been an exercise um because because we we have to have a direction
um And it because I have an I have a responsibility to staff. I I need to let staff know that they potentially may be cut not cut and when I have these conversations I do them in person union representation etc. So what's
what's unfortunate is that it's the communication process that is being labeled as dirt. And I personally don't think that that's that's correct. What I what I understand
is that people are talking about overrides. No one said anything that I don't I don't know if there's going to be an override. I've only seen one override vote here and it it it died miserably at the box um by 300 some odd
votes. We are trying to prepare what that means. So what does it mean? If you're preparing for an overwrite, you have to prepare for that if it even happens. You don't know how much you're going to get, of course, but you have to try to figure that out. You have to figure out just 2 and 12% over last
year, which is, you know, we've talked about how devastating that would be for everybody, not again for the town, school, for everyone, for the town of Tong period. And so I think that what uh what we're going through are some
growing pains in terms of communication. Um I will say openly now because I've already emailed emailed my entire staff as you know. Um a lot of criticism has been that you know only certain people are going to be cut and and that is just
bad you know bad pool or you know it's a tactic that you're going to cut the you know these teachers and not administrators. My email to the staff and to others as you know lay out the fact that there is absolutely going to get out to
administrator. The problem is and it's not a problem. The right way to do it is to make sure that everything is everything is done correctly. So when someone comes to you and says I have been offered a job and you say that's
fantastic or whatever you said that doesn't that doesn't end. They have to, especially administrators, they have to negotiate a new contract which takes time. Then they have to sign the contract. Then they have to get the contract signed by the school committee
or whomever the entity is who's hiring them. It could be just the superintendent. And then that letter has to come back. For those looking for a pound of flesh, absolutely. From almost the very beginning, there has been an
administrative cut. I have not brought it up. Why? Because it wasn't appropriate to bring up. Matter of fact, in some ways, you could say it's not, and I know it's not legal, but it's not appropriate to bring up a cut that you don't know is absolutely going to
happen. Now that we have more conversation, I will tell you that those cuts are listed, but I still don't have enough. But I have to prepare as if there are. there is an equal and equitable amount of cuts across the
board. The problem is that the number is so large that I can't just save the elementary. I can't save the middle school whatever whatever whatever wants to be saved. These are
very large numbers and they're going to of course cut across the board. Absolutely. and it's going to cut across the board for the town of Temple. So, I want to do this right regardless of
what people are saying on Facebook. I am still committed to this process. I have been open. I have been I have been at every meeting that's I've been requested. Again, I'm not defending myself. I I I don't need to I am open to the I need the number. I need to
understand when I'm cutting. I do have an obligation contractually then to tell the people who are in fact on the list. So I need a number whether it's two and a half I can give that I can give you you know not this
minute of course but I can tell you something like 25 staff. If you're going to ask me who those 25 staff are right now, that's impossible because they involve and everybody has different certifications. And so I have to figure out that just because Ann Marie was
hired in 1996, she has four licenses. So she can she's going to be bumped. Oh no, wait. Because somebody was hired in 1998 doesn't have a sp. It is very complicated stuff. It also is affecting people personally
and their families. So when I have this meeting and I tell them that they're not g they potentially I think I don't know may not have a job but the very best thing I can do is give you some time to go find a job in case it doesn't happen or if it does happen I don't know I'm
going to stand by that 100%. So what I'm going to say to the school committee is that you need to advocate for a number. You need to give me the number. about you. I need to know the number. If it's two and a half, I'll present it the very next time. There
will be plenty of blood spilled. I promise across the board because that's the only thing that I have been dealing with for 3 weeks. Other administrators, yes. Are they
going to be multiple? Probably. Are they going to be high school teachers? Yes. Are there going to be middle school teachers? Yes. Custodians? Yes. Cafeteria? Yes. Central offices?
Yes. Elementary? You bet. It's going to be across the board. So, before we have World War I on Facebook, let's calm down for a minute. Let's go ahead and all agree that this
is horrible for Tumblr. I'm supposed to go talk to the our our delegation here in 20 minutes about chapter 70. One of them is no longer even part of our delegation because he's given his resignation. So
that should be great. But I'm going to go and I'm prepared with notes as I've been asked. I am all in. But I what I want is everybody to stop with the Facebook. How about give me a call.
I'll tell you what I can, but I don't know until I have what the number I am trying to hit. It is impossible not to consider the override or the potential of an override. If it's going to be an override, I understand
Mr. Bennett explains it better than anybody I've ever met. Not just pumping his tires. I don't know what if if we get a penny of the the two and a half of the two of 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, whatever it ends up being. I could get zero. I can give you that. And if I'm only going to get 500,000, I have to figure that out.
But I need to know this information so I can put out factual information. But I don't even I got to tell you, if you're asking me or if you care what is my priority, it's the people who work for me. I need to let them know. It is April. Every town around us has cut bad.
I want to give my people as much opportunity to find a job as humanly possible. So, I don't think I'm asking for a love, okay? I I I remain very committed to this process. I promised and I'm going to
keep my promise. I would just like someone to just get up, pick up the phone, and let's have a conversation. I will answer anything I can within balance. And I need the school committee's support to do that.
That's all I got. We don't have any items now. I'm reasonably anticipated and so I would open up the floor public committee comments. >> Um I'm chair would be all right if I addressed two comments that were made during public comments. I'm fine with
that although it cannot become an exchange just to remind everyone it is not a conversation but would be to just provide some additional information so that anyone watching or meeting would have a better context of having >> okay um so
for I actually have a comment for both of the um the citizens who showed up for public comment tonight. I appreciate both of you coming and presenting your information. Um, that's so important because the Facebook commentary.
Um, Mr. Toad, I really appreciate you going on to the Desi website to get the data. Um, as far as the third grade um, but you're missing some pieces that are really important, especially for anyone who's listening at home. Um, so if you
are presenting the third grade MCAST data from last year, that is the first time a student is taking an assessment. if you've seen the assessment is incredibly complicated and we typically will see third graders struggle with using the platform. Um I think a better
use or a better set of data would be the data that um our assistant superintendent presented at the uh February 26th meeting which is our benchmark data or our star assessment because that's a comparison of students nationally and 75% of that particular
group you're talking about the third graders are proficient. They're proficient readers. Um and that is a credit to the third grade teachers and to Mr. Perchie and and the teacher leaders and administration. Um those students are used to taking that
assessment. They take it from kindergarten on. And so that is a better measure of the of progress and of achievement for that particular grade. Um, I agree that we want to provide as much as we humanly
possibly can uh for all of our elementary classrooms. Um, and we will we this committee fought for additional support staff in that building. Um, we would love to protect all of the teaching positions in that building
because that is where all of the hard work is done. Um, Mr. Bennett, I wholeheartedly agree that we need to ensure that we have as small
class sizes in the middle school, uh, as small as possible, um, elementary school, sorry. Um, I think that, um, the idea that we can cut, we can't cut in the middle school, but we can cut in
the upper grades, the 11th through 12th graders, that isn't how high school works. Uh, we don't have 11th grade teachers, we don't have 12th grade teachers. We have teachers that teach content areas. Um, we have to meet math core requirements. We have to meet competency determination requirements.
Uh, we have to provide certain number of electives. um for students to be competitive if they leave here. And so cutting 11th or 12th grader or the upper grade is not something that is needed to do. Um
in addition, if we start to cut high school teachers as part of the proposal, we had two high school teachers cut. We had enough we we couldn't touch the middle school, but we touched everywhere else. Um, and that's just a proposal, a shot in the dark because we don't have a
number. Trying to decide, trying to assess where we could if we absolutely have to. Um, if we plan on trying to avoid more students choicing out, eliminating anything
anywhere is not ideal. uh but certainly not in play school whereas the surrounding towns have electives and opportunities um running that would entice other students to go there. Um, and so
I would encourage the public after listening to the comments that were made to make sure they go back to the February 26th meeting and look at the data that was presented to the school committee. Um, and uh, as well as our
last meeting where we looked at potential for cuts, seeing that it wasn't just the middle school or elementary school. Do it again. um that we looked at various areas and thank you to our third grade
teachers for doing amazing job. >> Any other comments? >> Yeah. Uh I'm just going to second uh a couple of things that Danielle said. Uh I also feel the same way that a data point from last year is not a great data point to look at. Uh I also want to say
that I agree with Mr. Bennett as well uh in terms of you know it's it's just a tough problem you know across the board. Uh but you know that puppy story is is where I stand with that. Uh my question to you
madam chair is uh just so everybody understands uh about this magical number. How do we um advocate to get that number? That would be my question to you because I actually agree with a lot of things that Dr. C said too is is he's trying to cut to something that doesn't really
exist. So how do we advocate >> um >> to get to that? >> We've had we've had multiple chairs meetings um to indicate you know that this is something that we need to work on together and we need to work towards together. Um
every meeting is a little bit different. Um at this last meeting, um I was told that we should be planning to only get our 2 and a half% and that's all. Um that was absent the understanding that
we would be out of compliance because at that point we have to cut so many positions that we can no longer meet the standards that it takes to effectively run our schools. Um, so I don't know what to do with some of that feedback that I've received um from some folks.
Um, it, you know, I know that Dr. Cassand talks to the town administrator at almost every day. Um, and I can share that, you know, this, you know, we're we're certainly advocating in every space that's available to us for that.
um if I need to send additional if I need to send emails if I need to you know I I would be happy to do that but unfortunately you know we have the board from Philipsson is that they would like us to hit a 2 and a half% as I will
repeat again we cannot run the district and be compliant at that percentage um and so that is not a number that we can work with um and so that is where we sort of end up in this very circular
conversation. Um, and so we are we are looking at every available scenario as the town is also doing also looking at those. I can I what I can say is I know that um Templeton put up a veryformational
um web page around um you know what are some of the scenarios they're looking at what happens if the override uh doesn't pass. And I know that the district is planning to do the same. >> Can I just follow up? So if the school committee and the towns don't come to an
agreement on what this is, isn't two and a half the number that 110? >> No, we go into 12. >> I was going to say it's a 112 budget. That's based on that's based on last year's budget. >> That's based on last year's budget. >> Very good. combinations of >> but regardless even if we did we even if
we do put forward a number it's still contingent upon the towns to pass it regardless of exactly which percentage we go >> thank you >> um I post on Facebook very often
it's very very selective I don't enjoy it um I don't enjoy the back and forth that I have to engage in I certainly don't enjoy losing the time with my family that I spend uh responding to notes. Um however when I do I always
share information that has already been shared in art school committee meetings and it is always because I have been made aware of significant amounts of misinformation being posted on Facebook
and in this particular instance I was additionally made aware that a teacher was effectively being bullied on her post where she was promoting and defending her school district and her job and the
jobs of her peers. And so to deflect that and to make sure that correct information was shared, yes, I did post on Facebook and every single piece of information I posted came from our
school committees. They were not my opinions. They were factual information that was shared. I certainly welcome folks to take issue with that. I also take issue with folks in position of power engaging with our
teachers in a way that can be perceived as bully. I additionally take issue with people in positions of power posting information that they assume is correct instead of checking it with either Dr. Cavan or myself.
I will end it there because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this. I will keep most of them to myself. However, you will only see me on Facebook posting and taking away that time from my family when it is because I
have been alerted to incorrect information being sharp. Moving on. Finance and facilities was cancelled because we have had a tremendous number of um meetings about budget and we do
not have any additional information to talk about in those meetings and so we are suspending those for right now until we have new topics to actually uh district operations. any updates? They didn't expect
>> uh labor management committee. Um my only update is that UFCW um contract negotiations remain ongoing. Um but no further commentary there. Um when we're ready to discuss that further, we will plan an executive
session. Uh Bill was our leazison to CPAC and he is not here this evening. Um, so we will move to PTO. Any updates from PTO? >> Okay. >> Um, Peter was our latest student advisory council. That's still an open position that we're looking to replace.
And any legislative updates? >> We do have a new piece of legislation that's pretty exciting. Um, we are heading into a new school year where it was quite possible that we will have a no cell phone policy from Bell & Bell and some limits on social media for
students. been talking about that possibly coming for a while. Our next meeting is May 7th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. We do not need executive session and so I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Before we adjourn,
could I um I see that the next meeting for the school committee is May 7th. The town of Philipsson is having their elections on May 6th. So my understanding is um this school
committee will be losing two members. >> You're and Shin isn't until May 18th. >> Town meeting is May 6th. >> Do I have it backwards? >> Oh, I guess I do. >> We used to do it the other way and we
changed it. >> Yeah. Hold together. Yes. One more like you're thinking this is it. >> But I I will share one quick thing though. I have to say that um this has
been a great experience. Um Madame Chair, you are very professional. Um I know you're true to your word because I've communicated with you many many times. I've attended many school committee
meetings before becoming member and the reason why I chose to be here till the end of the term is because of you and this committee. Um these people work very hard and they do a very good job.
They're doing the best they can with what they have. I also want to share that um I would have questions and I would communicate that with Susan Barney and she was always there to answer my questions and Amarie anything to do with
budgets amarie was there for me too. So I want to end with that that I'm very grateful and I think anyone that would want to be on this committee would be very welcomed and supported and it's a good committee to be on. >> Thank you. We're so thankful that you
were here for this year. >> Thank you. >> We really appreciate it. >> On that note, >> I want to entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So second motion by Sean, second by H. All in favor? I
>> no one is supposed to abstain. I'm allowed to be