##VIDEO ID:tQw_1rehVCI## e e e e e e e e e e e e I would now like to call this meeting the naret Regional School District school committee school committee to order if you could all rise for the pledge I Alle to the of the United States of America and to the repu for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all this meeting is being live stream and recorded and it's available to watch on YouTube and um we will start with the approval of the meeting minutes for October 17 20124 I would entertain a motion as such so move second motion by Heather second by Shan any questions or comments about those minutes seeing none all in favor oose OS abstained and I say yes so that's unanimous next we have our bills and payroll and I would recommend a motion to accept the bills and payroll warrants as presented don't motion by Sean second by Heather any questions or comments about those bills in payall seeing none all in favor I opposed abstained and I say yes so that is also unanimous and we have our student rep here with us tonight um what would you like to share with us um the high school sports have all almost come to an end besides football and cross country the cheer team uh with Central Champions which is good and then we have a couple new things for clubs we have ski clubs starting soon and then um a lot of like y societies are looking for stuff to do and have stuff on their way um some events coming up we have FAS night on the 2 bit which is next Monday and then the class of 2025 had a very successful turkey rifle um parent teacher conferences our next week and then on November 15th we had a very successful John and avigail Adams scholarship breakfast and volunteer fol was able to work with gardener CAC by organizing and delivering toys to the church and Gardener um also now juniors are selling coffee for a fundraiser um in the Middle School all the fall Sports have come to a close um student council is sponsoring a food drive for the Templeton and bville food pantry and then the Leo Club is holding a toy drive through SE uh December 10th also the fifth grade has an assembly on Monday and they get to listen to uh veterans and their experiences that was organized by Miss standard all wonderful thank you so much for your update okay and next we have a couple of special guests this evening from the high school principal and the vice principle and we are very excited for a presentation this evening great all right we're ready we're ready before we begin I just I was prous Michelle are you cold oh it's so cold you are cold is anyone else cold just m are you C you know it's funny I'm usually running pretty warm but freezing so cold what is happening I and you're wondering what is happening oh you'll see don't worry told you there would be grass of D on here see if we can get it going Sor technology will cooperate it's so cold just is e raise your hands your hand should with our but also capture some of the fun that our students are out of high school high schoolers this year so let just see if we got that so the there we go awesome okay so what I'll do in case the zoom is getting in the way there y there we go so Michelle's going so we're going to start just by talking about how we're addressing our school Improvement plan and some of the programs and supports we have in place for students that we're super proud of this year um so when we're talking about improving um academic outcomes for students we have implemented the teacher assistant teams um and pre teer assistant teams we started last year was the first year that we reconstructed the teacher assistant team to work a little bit better for our our students and for our teachers our three assistant teams are meetings that we have each month great level teams where teachers are sitting around and they are you having data driven conversation around students who are struggling either academically social emotionally or behaviorally um we use analytic view um to to use that data that we're going to dve those conversations with and teachers um Implement tier one support So supports that they're all going to agree they're going to try classrooms their student to see if we can improve their academic outcomes and then we meet back um the next month they discuss those academic outcomes again and if they need further support with teachers and students we move on to a teacher assistance team and that involves guidance counselors the teachers myself and more most importantly the parents so that's when we pull parents into these meetings to try to sit around the table again looking at that data and coming up with supports that students need to be successful um so we started like I said last year um and by November last year we had seven we call them T meetings teacher assistant team meetings we have seven meetings um in this year already um by the date today we had 16 meetings so what we're really trying to do is to try to be proactive at the beginning of the year and any students that teachers are seeing that are really struggling right now we really trying to be early in the year so that we can put these supports in place so they can be successful so we're really proud um of that academic support that we have in place we do still have our academic coaching program when did that program start that program started three years ago we initially had two blocks you may remember because some of you were you know here for the Inception of that program so we're incredibly proud and you have support of you know our teacher leaders and The Wider school to carve out sections to create you know more of these blocks throughout the day so right now what we actually run is we run five blocks of academic coaching support so these are not I services but they are similar to you know some supports that students might have if they're on I in the sense that they have help with executive functioning organization work completion strategies that they can use and so um you know now that's you know those five blocks and of course you're well aware of our Thrive program so you know we have sort of an upstream core strategies where we're trying to support students early on and get to them if we notice that they're struggling and then we have a program to support students that if that's not working we can catch them in that program and provide them with support right and then on the professional development front um you know Miss L will talk about that yes but back acemic coaching for which it goes along with our teacher assistant team so one of the criteria for being in an academic coaching class is if you are failing multiple classes so that is one of the tier two supports that we also use for our teacher assistants um yes M was talking about Universal Design for Learning um that is also that's our our initiative this school year for professional development um for people who are unaware of Universal Design for Learning it's a framework um for the design delivery of curriculum instruction and what it does is it helps teachers identify or try to identify students who have barriers so again students who are struggling students in a particular content area who have barriers and the the Universal Design for Learning framework is embedded with supports and considerations that help teachers to break down those barriers so all students can be successful so we're um we're really we're in the you know stages of our professional development for udl um teachers are comfortable now with the framework and have begun to use those udl Frameworks and the supports and strategies within there to do lesson planning so really looking at each individual class thinking about the barriers that those students may have and then embed those supports within their lesson planning um so that they can reach all students so that's that we're actually very proud of this year so you know we've got the structure of the of the uh tap meeting we've got the academic coaching program we've got what the day-to-day instruction um and you know the research on student achievement is that really nothing beats having a strong teacher that is removing barriers for students right so the professional development that you know we partnered obviously in the central office to roll out the last couple years has been incredibly helpful we're going to show you some data in a minute but the last item that we've had is really making difference um in our eighth grade this year is human capital um the school committee and State have been tremendously helpful so since the over the last couple years um we have added a couple key positions so you're well aware that we added the eighth grade Spanish teacher position and that has really had a multiplier effect right because not only now can bri the two schools the programming which we're going to do over time Middle School Spanish programming and the high school Spanish programming to give potential for acceleration of you know students that want to go higher up and their Spanish studies and so on and so forth but it has had a multiplier effect in the sense that now our eighth grade class sizes are significantly more manageable um so you know last year around this time we would have been running classes of anywhere from 28 to 30 at in the eth grade and now our class sizes you know are larger we have a lot at 26 um which is much more manageable for the teachers much more manageable when PA professionals are and helping support students um so we are deeply deeply apprecia from the support from the school committee and the community um you know the budgetary support bringing that um teacher award um additionally and this has really come largely from the state um we have added two counselors so Nar an IT historically the high school had three counselors and nowadays you know students are the world is a complex place and so um through our Thrive program we've added a Thrive counselor and then we've added the Early College in career um counselor and internship you know counselor um which is a coordinator position but there is overlap with counseling department so what our team of five can do in terms of supporting students and help them earlier on in their careers and if they do experience turbulence um when they're learning or Str struggling in any way um that is immensely powerful especially considering that our population when um was looking at the Sim state from 475 to 501 um we sit at 501 in high school next year so the population increase is being handled by the fact that we have these conss so if we can go to the next slide this is sort of what you what what what we're seeing as a result of this work Mich so you know that's we put in all this work we have all these supports and then we ask ourselves you know is it working are we seeing any difference are we seeing an increase in student achievement are we seeing a decrease in student failure well the answer is yes we have so that's that's exciting news um if you look at the pandemic levels of the students who are on the ineligibility list it's at 17% which is not surprising you think of that but as we know like our road back to getting down back to pre pandemic numbers is a struggle right it's a struggle for student failures it's a struggle for attendance um but we are making some gains so if you see from 2022 23 school year we were at 9% of students on that ineligibility list now we are at 5% so we are showing gains we are we are moving in the right direction um like like you know the in the reading and in the math for the prepandemic levels we still have a lot of work to do but we are moving in the right direction and if I could go back to that slide for a second that's controlled for ter two so that you know that that is an Apples to Apples comparison and you know the in elig ineligibility list why we really wanted to seize on this with you all is because if a student isn't ineligible they're not in that Viral Tik Tok video having fun right they cannot attend events so it is incredibly important to us that students have the academic success in a sense like we want students to be in a position that they can take their education for granted and what I mean by that is when they're adults you know when you're an adult you're not remembering with your friends from 30 years ago the the the math or algebra class but you are relying on those skills essentially in your job what you're Reminiscing on with your friends is I was at the game I was at the dance I was at that so for us that ineligibility list to bring that number as low as possible is super important because we want the kids to rely on their education but then also have those memories so it was the great miss Lions who's behind the camera who said our job part of our job as a high school is to help students make these memories that they're have with them for the rest of the months so we'll talk a little bit more about our events later so um our programs uh so here are just a few numbers uh right cognitive B hopefully we're we're we're striking here so our early college students if you remember we started off early college program around nine students so right now as we sit here there are 41 early college students and they average 24 credits upon graduation from nans high school so that's 984 credits that nagan in the early college program are providing to students at no charge for them that's a that's a lot of Education that's a lot of money we're able to to to bring to families and save students um and you know they're also getting that exposure so we really appreciate everyone's support of this program um staff faculty that's kind of an update of uh you know where we are we could overfill this program but the university will only take so many seats right um so we're in great shape we're we're basically just about at Max Capacity um this year we will have uh students take 137 AP exams in 2024 Okay so we've added a couple courses over the last couple years AP site being one AB world history is new to us that's an effort that our staff had to get more students into the AP pipeline early on so they can establish hey I'm you know I see myself as an AP student right if they don't want to that's fine and now um but you know it's available to them and we have all Juniors taking the PSA now so now 100% of our students unless of family decides to opt out and very few do they're going to take this psnt because sometimes what happens is student might not think that they are you know you know should take that next step all we want is exposure to the opportunity we're not trying to sway students one way or the other we just want exposure to the opportunity and of course Juniors can qualify for a merit scholarship and we're going full war with our um computer science engineering and biomedical Pathways uh we have more students um than we've had in the past that are going to um by the time they matriculate um will go through three years um in our pltw program because we really want them to and to to sort of highlight our monachus vocational partnership or the MVP programing this one we really need to to celebrate a lot of folks so starting with Mr perie and Dr cassan they really spearheaded wanting students and wanting to serve the community on this the logistics being what they are the high school had some concerns but we obviously wanted the program to to move ahead um and you know we will someday encounter some challenges but as of right now and this is huge credit to the people doing the work we filled 12 of 12 slots um so we maxed out our program this year and um we've had feedback from the folks at um the mdp campus that the Naran students are super engaged incredibly respectful and we have students that truly are cutting across all aspects of sort of our student body so we have students from our Thrive program uh we have students from the typical general education setting and then we have students you know that you know are our inclusion right so ons and 504s and they really you know and they've been leaders themselves so Mr Eric Supple a teacher who's new to us uh but not new to teaching is doing a phenomenal job um aligning his curriculum to our program and studies and Miss medin um and this is some of the feedback that we that we have this is a parent he looks forward to school um and it has helped with his confidence and attitude so much we're grateful I was introduced to the MVP program by my teacher Mr Whitman this is a student here who has always been a good supporter to me he helped me get my grades up over the year and I had straight A for three4 of the year and I became more confident in my future and upon getting in I now have a path to take so every single student in that program has written a comment like that I'm already longwinded enough as you all know so we're not going to read them all I know the the cane to P me off stage is going to be here in a second but I I got to say this is really like you know this is how we want a school to work teacher Mentor a student encourages finds the right fit so all these programs it's about finding the right fit so students can participate and have a great time in high school that's really what we want but here are a couple hard data points of the difference this stuff so in addition to the um supports that we already talked about um we have attendance meetings that we really feel um that has made some difference in our attendance data if you want to look you could look down um on the left hand side that is the eighth grade data and on the Box on the right hand side that is 9 through 12 this is our accountability data from M from last year and we received a four out of four for chronic adism so that's the highest score that you can get um so we have made some improvements on our attendance and our chronic absenteeism by meeting with parents we um have a new um relationship with um The Family Resource Center in in Gardener who has um is we're now working with them along with the courts to try to um have parents reach out to this Resource Center to provide them the supports they need to help in students to school um our charting rate we have also um we have also decreased over the past three years we attribute that to two things primarily we have opened the building at 7:15 now um to allow that traffic out front to uh get everyone in on time um and we have gone back to the prepandemic um rules of tardies um if so many of them equal detentions and students like that so that we think also attributed to our um charting rate going down so as you can see from 2022 23 um to present day we have made some great strides um in the amount of students who are being who are coming T to schort so we're really proud of those um a couple of other supports that we didn't mention um bass screener that is our social emotional um screener that we do three times a year so that is another sport for students for social and identifying any social emotional needs needs that students may have um and we work very closely with guidance as far as that um so we seized on this number uh because you know it does look good you can see we've got work to do that as people get a little bit more comfortable those tares pick up a little bit so you know if you if you follow that to the right um we'll continue to work on that but again the fit with the programs um we really feel like if we can get every student connected with a program and a mentor uh we're going to be in good shape we underlined this though because when you have the key driscal Administration when you have the state running ads on TV that your presence is powerful this is a major major problem that schools across the state and the country are facing is we need students in school so when we are able to pull off that sort of that Max rating um you know we feel like we're we're we're making some some stries here all right and again to to what Miss Miss lion sort of referenced that they called out before this is just a snippet of what we do this slide are you know a handful of events um that that we put on um and you know if we're honoring um you know through reads Across America or our spirit days we have an underground staff Spirit day going on right now next week there will be a spirit day that haunted hallways um senior give back you know you know we highlight a few things you know uh Kelly Taylor and a gr are participating in the you know the sheriff Lou's coats through project 351 um Character Breakfast fundraiser where kids are going to get to meet their favorite you know Cartoon Heroes you know these are things we're tremendously tremendously proud of um we feel like they bring the school together and again we want those students eligible so they can not only participate in this but lead it I do want to highlight a couple things that are one of the some of the work that we have to do is we're great on the book ends of the Year ton of ton of events in the fall ton in the spring um we really are trying to look at the winter months where things kind of slow down and focus on those months to really have a positive outlet for students so we'll have a winter skate this year there'll be a winter wonderland dance um and something to be aware of that's coming up that is really um amazing is our unified um sports team you're aware that this is the third year U of that team and coming up at our Thanksgiving pep rally they play an exhibition game in front of the school and between that and the the holiday uh parade and the activities um you know we just redid the gym Flor so there'll be no skateboards across the Flor um you know um you know we want students to have great memories so in a nutshell you know that's kind of it um there's one thing we did want to give you an outro um but if you look on the left you might remember this video the one on the upper left that's the national champion team from last year we can pause that they're busy they couldn't record for you this year because they were busy winning Central Mass championships so we did have another group of cheerleaders that wanted to say thanks nobody gets [Music] so thank you very much everybody and is there one more sorry it's just so exciting my apologies thanks for bearing with my slide sharing my apologies my apologies questions for our team e e honestly phenomenal the energy that they bring and you know obviously the staff are the that's the that's the real gravity right in the room um so we just get to present it so appreciate it thank you so much all right um you're welcome to stay you're welcome to go however you would like to do that thanks so much all right so we're moving into budget conversation so who should we look at for the fy5 budget update this we're still in a budget free um we'll look at things as we down all export um as I've said before reasion for it are because of some staffing shortages and having to hire contracted companies are a lot more money than actual staff um so our position are still supposed hope that we could get bodies in them um so we're just looking at it on a daily monthly basis to see what we need and making sure we're on track all right um so I did I put FY 26 budget cycle in here just to remind everyone that that's coming coming close um and remind everyone of important dates um January 30th is the night that we'll take a preliminary look um here at what Dr C and team are and the fin um team are planning in terms of the budget presentation it likely will not be complete in that moment but it will give everyone an idea of what we're planning to present at the February February 6 2025 which is um the date that we've put out as the multiboard meeting um Susan has sent um an email to the towns um uh several times now just making asking them to confirm they have the meeting on their calendar I I don't know that we've heard back yet but um we're we're hopeful that that is go um and that everything is all set for those meetings um so keeping an eye out to make sure that those get posted um March 6 is when we expect our preliminary budget he hearing that's when we expect all the numbers to be in and um we have that official preliminary hearing and March 20th um will be the official budget hearing um so just make sure that those are on your calendars those are meetings where um you know I know that things come up but any effort that um school committee members can make to be there here on those particular nights those are those are the big ones um so um looking forward to having everyone participate in that um and you know hoping to have have some more information coming in the nexts right and an Marie I will hand this back to you for business manager's report so one thing I want to bring to everyone's attention is like if you happen to look at the grant report that I put on there you'll see at the bottom like it's always in the red it works on a reimbursement basis in order to get the money from state so that's why you see it in R depending on the time know um sometimes I have the request put in so it doesn't look as bad and other times like to it the requests have to go after the meeting um so that's why it's in red it's it it all equals out in the end of year but you have to doing to their rules right and next we have our bu contract bid um we're going to spend some time reviewing quotes um and likely conclude with a vote um but uh am are you to talk us through this one so we um our current contract ends on June 30th 2025 so we put our transportation bid out to bid last month um at our pre- bid meeting we had three contractors and a Salesman come um to ask questions nobody asked any questions um so two weeks after that we had our V do I had two contractors show up only one submitted a bid which is the same company that we've been using for the last five years I asked the other company why she didn't submit a bid she told me she wasn't able to get the equipment that she would need to service us in a timely fashion in order to put a bid in um so we have a bid from JP McCarney out of um the brook they have their local office where our house losses our house is in hubon so their bid it's attached and I attached the last one too um so their current pricing is a total of 6,795 th000 over the five years from FY 26 to fy3 the prior Bill like prior bid that we had was preco me just say that um quite a big jump in pricing the price for that bid it was3 million n so it jumped up a lot I I can tell you um the companies that had us during covid did not make any money off of us um um and I think that this is trending like just talking to other business managers these prices aren't unusual in their worlds either um so it is pretty high but it's only bit I got yeah and I will say that uh at the masc conference there were a number of school committies having this exact conversation that their bus bids were coming in at Double what their previous one was pretty pretty close to that um and yeah so they were a lot of folks were talking about yeah it's due to them trying to recoup costs that they' lost over covid though I don't see it trending back down after they recoup those costs either um this is definitely going to play into what we talk about for um quite since um so any questions for Amory about the process the Bed Company um I know this is a really big increase and yet also the only bid received mam chair I would also add um that there is no competition I certainly am not going to suggest that folks have already Divi up the state in terms of buses and contracts that would be inappropriate for me to do so um I would say that when six pluss companies show up in the initial meeting or whatever how many showed up and only one show up the bid that would suggest right that that maybe that they have this involve to out this is not unusual in this area um quite frankly and I'm actually not thankful that we actually got a in um and R and I have both been around long enough to actually have experienced no bids which some towns we actually dealing with right now so if you ask me what's worse no bid or um this bit I don't know it's a tie but uh it is you know it's a problem with the state it's a problem across the state um and so that's I think we experienced that this time Although our bus compan is very very good they're very responsible we're very lucky to have them they've done good by us um we never have to wait for a bus we don't ever have to we never have we have not been stuck without a bus Which some districts have literally not had buses so um we have an issue with a driver they're right on top of it they don't they're not like second guessing us they honor our requests it does feel like a good partnership and it really is they they're yeah the price you know certainly is is I thought but their responsiveness to us on every level been great all right any any question then I would entertain a motion to accept the bid by JP McCarthy and Suns at 6, 795,000 for a period of 5 years beginning July 1st 2025 motion by Hank second second by Heather one last call for questions I I I guess and and I'm listen I'm not oppose I I guess it does bother me that we have nothing we no bid to M against like does it need to be voted on tonight is this a tonight problem very good is this as quickly as possible usually I like to compare bids but I mean if it's tonight problem then I I'll I'll take the bid we're not on the same cycle as a lot of the other tents some we are some are not the other issue is that uh that I know what you're saying about comparing um again I think Ash West is up I think they are gner was two years ago so it would be Apples to Apples so I I certainly can get get those bids but they're other comp so but they didn't bid on us so that's just did the other companies didn't even put in a put in a u bid offering so that's that's what makes it difficult as as appreciated you're 100% right it's mov because really it's you know we couldn't play hard ball if we wanted to other words it's like well let's go we'll go out together actually afraid to go out well it was born it was I I think I asked more from the Curiosity point of you know I would be I would I would like to know like is it at least close because even if it was close I would still go with the company that has been treating his SP you know I'm not going to argue semantics over you know X or a small interval of dollars I'm just is it close yeah we can actually we can get that information I can I can pull the again I don't know where everyone is on on in this process but I can ask and although there might be less or more buses depending on the district that responds but the price per bus will be interesting to see price per bus or the average increase over the prre well you know just in case there's Community conversations about it and stuff like that that you know at least we have that information yeah privy that we can say listen you know there was one bid here's why we took it you know based on this needed to go through now but that being said based on This research you know these these BS and these things are still identical compared to District even though they weren't that's a good point looking at that presentation coming up for Budget like these are those are probably good pieces of information to there's also in this current bid there's two more buses in this bid versus the last just because of our growing we have to figure out how to normalize the data but yes we can still find some place to people may yeah guarante guar okay just a thought any other questions okay seeing none all in favor I opposed abstained and I say yes so that you can moving on to our next piece of business here um so we were very excited during our last meeting to welcome Chrissy um as our newest School Committee Member unfortunately um cat fule had to Tender her resignation um for personal reasons um so we are once again down a school Committee Member not just in philipson but also in Templeton um so I know I've been reaching out to to contacts I know a bunch of people that have that were really eager to fill those those seats um it's not just important for reasons like forum and things but it's also important because these are the voices representing our towns um if we don't have the full representation from our towns and we are not fully representing um the folks in our district um so really hoping that we can get those bills um I also understand that you know uh putting yourself out there to join the school committee can be really intimidating I think anyone at this table will be willing to answer questions about what that looks like what the commitment is ETC um as well as central office um so you know just putting it out there that you know we'd love to hear from folks who are interested in joining us um so next on the agenda is um masc conference um Danielle Heather and myself were all able to attend this year along with new super cheet um and it was it was an interesting conference um but I we had had an intention to do a resolutions recap but we were just talking before if you just want to give everyone a quick note of where we are um they did attend their and cast our vote at the uh delegate assembly for MC's resolutions I would like to to beg beg to hold off on the report just because I want to compare it to my notes which are nine pages long I want to not going to read them all to you don't worry but i' like to I want one chance to compare against um MC does put a report out and they always miss this meeting it'll be it'll come out usually before our next meeting um there were some um amendments on the table and it's hard to type as fast as everything is moving to capture the language of those and that's usually in there report um than was not as long of meeting as last year and I did learn that my favorite paragraphics rules over it are is the motion to move the question it's a great way when sometimes discussion just circles the drain and circles and circles um that was used quite effectively I will say it this e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e access to digital languages through hearing my voice six times I'm so sorry uh we're here we have access to text for text for our classrooms now in varied languages as well um and we're exploring additional software features such as how do we already have features in Google that we can use to help students have realtime translation um on on their devices since we're one to one um we we've been really digging into a lot of resources our our new pupil service director uh Mr Rogers has been really Innovative when thinking about what the needs of our students around this population are and how we might bring new software systems in to support them as well some of which are free so don't hear that we have we're accessing a lot of those because they're built into systems we already know um additionally we are doing work around our El curriculum or ESL curriculum um we have a team that is participating in a cohort with the state um to learn more about what resources exist at the state level to develop support and or assess your curriculum um for ESL and that's where U Mr Young and I were just in that cwork before we popped in here tonight every other Thursday evening um what's exciting about that is there's a hybrid it's sort of a hybrid of these online um self-paced classes that we that we take and then 12 times over the course of the next few months we engage with with folks from the state as well as other districts across the state who are in a similar position we're in where they are taking a look at and either building or analyzing their curriculum so we have had such a great opportunity to connect with folks from Brockton um South Hadley and a variety of other districts where we're just exchanging ideas um and it's been really excuse me incredibly valuable and helpful to build those connections and also just hear what's working what's not working in other systems so that's been very positive um and we as an outcome of that are starting to really take a look at our curriculum and dive in we are starting this work around curriculum analysis and development for e in in our first grade um and we are doing that because our first grade currently has the largest by far largest um number of el students when we look at grade level based um data um so say that to say uh this has been kind of an increased need for us because our population is Shifting um it's also been an increased Focus for us because um through the tiered Focus monitoring review from desie we've had a light shined on some areas where we really um could better be serving this population of students um and then of course in addition to that um we are um we know we're seeing the ongoing increase um in this population so it's not it's well it's immediate we also are seeing trends that tell us that this is um probably going to be something that we are going to face moving forward so for example you know Staffing is something we are really going to have to talk about when we talk about this population of students because while we have added a position to really increase Services I'm going to be frank we are not um fully meeting compliance with what we need to provide for services for students and so as we approach next year's budget um this will be one one piece of of the conversation that engage in a little bit further um but I will say we have two teachers right now who are um you know all hands on deck really focusing on providing students with every support they can um and are both in this cohort with us on Thursday evenings learning and collaborating with other districts and are super dedicated um to our students students and to supporting our classroom teachers the best they can as well um so I'm happy to see we have such a great team doing the work um but we're a small team doing a lot of work so U any questions about either the population where we are with our continuous Improvement plan um or our needs I just still know what to point five teachers oh thank you so much so when we talk about um position sometimes we'll say a 1.0 or 0.5 it means 1.0 would be a full-time position .5 half time okay so the the teacher who we've historically had in the district who does el services that person's position is full-time and half of their position 0.5 has been to serve El 0 five has been to serve special education and so this poor person is sort of in this position where our special education needs are extreme our El needs are extreme and so they're juggling um you know halftime to serve both populations thank you thanks for asking um so I the the number of families that um that are coming into the district um with children who are e and most likely families who are not are having challenges possibly communicating with the school what are we doing to support that ongoing communication with families if English is their first language and can they communicate with us their prefer language and the way that it works that's great question so we we part of us um switching from using Google Translate to using this printer for translation the printer provides us with a wider range of um languages to be able to translate and from what I'm told I'm not an expert in this so please bear with me but what I'm told is it also is a more of an aligned translation um that Google has been in the past um so one thing is we have the ability to now translate things a lot easier we can we can put any like flyers which we don't have in a Google form we can put them in our printer and we can translate so we do have increased translation we also have a translation service so if we need if we need to have a translator come to a parent teacher conference um or other event we do have a service that we use for translators to come in and supp for um and the other thing that our El teacher has historically been doing is really get into no families and get into know what their needs are so we can do the best we can to try to match those um so I think that's an area we definitely are going to need to explore further um as we as our population grows our needs grow um but the best thing we can do is is to get to know families and what their needs are and then if we need to adjust practice or we need resources we don't have we start to look for opportunities for those um but we've had translators come into par teacher conferences or school events I'm thinking in terms of even something as simple as the nurse having to reach out been having a conversation or even an attendance call and how you respond to an attendance call yeah at our next uh our next professional development that um our PPS director and our El teacher are um collaborating together to put on they're going to they are revisiting what exists for translation support and services um because that has actually recently come up from a few teachers as a need um and our nurses and our um guidance counseling staff will be there as well thank you thanks for asking that we we probably need to dig a Little Deeper there too um building on that the I have a question about the printer because printer to me means physical copies but I know that vast majority of our communication actually happens online newsletters I know riant I am well for those so does the printer helped with those as well or is it only specific to hard physical copies yes no yes yes both you can take the school committee agenda we can put it in the printer select the language and it's going to create digital PM copy for us that we can then send out we can also print if we wanted to it's been really helpful with textbooks where we um so I've reached out to multiple publishing companies this year that have told me we don't publish this in the languages you need um and if we don't have online access to those books that's been really challenging so we have an opportunity now to be able to if we need to um so for example student workbook we can break a binding uh The Binding off we can send that through and now have a digital copy for we copy for students so it's really given us a lot of access where in the past we've had to rely on having digital access only but now we can create from you know hard copy to digital access for students and so and so yeah thank you thanks for asking one more thing opinion then I I heard about this um program and I just had to go back and look at it it's called talking points have you ever heard of it and it is it's a free program that will allow a or any organization to communicate with a family in their preferred language and they can actually communicate back to you in their preferred language and it's translated to English so I wonder if we can look into something like that add list right now thank you I actually that came up in our ccal cohort um I think bar brought that to the table I was mentioning it so we don't currently use it that I'm we have a long list of things that we're looking into for example Mr Young was on the me with us this afternoon we were talking about a student who's um new to us very language um um has has a lower level of language acquisition right now with the fa school student look participate on the sports team and is having a hard time hearing the coach at times and so they were just sharing with us about this device where it's an earbud system connected to an app on your phone where your phone will pick up with the you know in any situation at after school situation will pick up and trans translate um the information in real time so we we we are learning and we are you know exploring a lot of opportunities to make sure that students have access um and to make sure students are well supported so I appreciate that we do I see you have a question Sean or were you just stretching no well first of all I'm just impressed there exists a device you just put a sheet of paper'll just keep do math I me I was I all I I mean I guess my only comment would be is I think this is you know I mean obviously it's a it's a Desy problem and um you know we're going to have a budgetary issue try to fin so I that needs to at least be not only vocalized with all the parties in the room that are in control of that but that's going to be a thing so I hope we're looking into how we're going to be putting that piece of the puzzle in well it it's it came up with the finance and Facilities meeting just you know yeah and if we continue in this direction and me if we continue to grow at this rate in terms of our e so that's not what was presenting about today but we're seeing a lot large case load increasing special I mean so as a followup EXC my is the state vitam support for you know this additional so CU you know if if our numbers are increasing and we have to be you know which I'm I'm fine with I think I think everybody deserves not equal opportunity to wear in and and if we have to provide this instruction then I would I I would thought maybe suggest well financially through chapter 7 you have to grid and as you know the special education students elll students um they have basically a u you know multiplier to them so you know we don't know we have not received our preliminary Chapter 70 information um we would think that we're we would see an increase in Chapter 70 but that would require us not to be held harmless so again I don't mean to kind of like go down that Rabbid hole of you know that's great it's going to show a larger number but we're not going to receive all that all that because we most likely will be like four students you or so or whatever it is it just that's the that is the um the other part the the math issue um you know in regards to money thanks great questions and great engagement on that topic and really appreciate you pulling together the presentation so we can better understand the circumstances because I know that was an ass coming out of finan facilities and um really was very informative so thank you for that um okay um professional development um is next I don't know if you have any other updates Molly I I sort of weaved it in it was about the Desy Pro board that we're participating in um I'm happy to speak further but okay on to new business um so we don't have any surplus items tonight we just confirmed that um but we do have some first reading of some additional policies um so we'll hand it over to our policy friends over here um we have two policies on the docket the first one is bhe use electronic messaging by school committee members um the update um that you'll see in the PDFs attached um removes outdated language regarding the the need the archival electronic communications use Google Gmail it is archived in there so it just kind of cleans that one up and removes that language it's not necessary anymore um and the second one was was J LCD um administering Med medicines to students um we were missing a legal reference that needed to be added it was the reference to M General 94c any questions from folks about every one of those policies you want to move together we usually move them together but if there you're seeing okay uh as such I would entertain a motion to accept the following for first reading as presented bhe the use of electronic messaging by school committee members and jlc the administering of medicines to students motion by Sean second by Hank one last go for any questions or comments seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous um so in terms of this next item we were anticipating to have all the information um for the upcoming senior trip um but it they didn't quite have everything pulled together and so that will be postponed to December which still leave some plenty of time um I'm looking forward to learning more about their trip to New York City and Hershey Pennsylvania um and I will now hand it over to Dr C for the super rep thank you very much um a few Recaps just great few very Recaps um our veterans came by uh this week you be honored by the fifth grade just we' got some things that we will put up um it was just the fth year I think um started right around 2020 so every year the fifth grade there something little new they surprise um the veterans who come in to be honored and um it's always just it's great and it's very well received and kids love it and of course the Vets love it and it's just it's just a really great time it just shows the commitment that we have um to our veterans to the military and General District has always been very very supportive of that so it was great I it was to be a part of [Music] um so we met with the capital Improvement committee templeton's pardon me Capital Improvement committee and we outlined three projects uh that we you know would like to see accepted into their program or at least on for they're all um they're all projects that have to do with Elementary School which is their building um so again we we've over the years that's all we've presented to the um C Improvement committee so right now I guess somewhere in the in the cube is we have bird problem um where their Expansion Joints around the school about gay we go in about six maybe four or five inches and then they're for expansion for ETC birds like to get small birds like to get there and nest and um the police department was having trouble with Birds um in it in its um it its cardboard so they did whatever they did so theyve moved over in force um and um what's happening is okay you know what birds do so that's that's that's a problem especially if it comes down to with they getting the equipment dirty prek K Mar but the real concern as I as I expressed is bats first come Birds then come bats if bats come we have a much much bigger issue uh because they are a protected species um you just don't radicate bats um so that's first the second uh was the um um our software that manages the entire hbac system is end of life now we're we're good now we're good right now but it will not be able to be updated or serviced or you know Etc um you know these things change of course and you know there was discussed that and the last one which is a much bigger issue quite frankly but we wanted to put it on the town's radar uh Mr Mason might be the and of course and Mar and I probably the only ones here who remember when we were going through the building committee you know the process of building the school the there was a um a part of it was to make the plate area what I will call asur but um a different a play surface that would would would be a lot like a u a football field Tye of surface we we steered away from that for two reasons money because we wanted to keep the cost down but also at that time there were some reports coming out about whether or not how healthy you know these artifici Services would be so we went with grass well you have 500 kids in recess for 180 straight days um what happens to Grass as it goes away very quickly and it becomes mud um or dirt okay we've all we're all we all remember where to play you know back in the day that's not a problem but unfortunately they're wearing the ground down to the point that the sprinkler heads um and the drainage th sits up above the ground because 500 kids times 2 times 180 um running all around is is been problem so um that is a much bigger it's it's a bigger issue that we're going to need to look at um because simply you just can't put more grass down because the same thing is going to happen it's a very small limited space we understand um but we'll we'll need to address that at some point so those were the three um items that we presented to the to the committee last year's um were and we still are looking into the bulletproof glass where if you go if you go into Elementary School um where the secretary said for whatever reason they very you know it's very thin glass that should be buet that should be Absolute Glass but what required today you have to reframe that is not you just buy bullets with glass glass you have to reframe that entire pie it I don't know how or it just was never spe out before that I think you know as we got into the building this isn't this isn't right so that would be the next bigger thing that was something that we presented last year as well so I'm just updating the committee that we've put these we put these projects forward um according to the our lease and the I guess uh the existing or um Regional agreement you know it falls above the price point that the town should at least consider you know paying for those items um that's what we've presented over the last couple years and I'll keep you updated I don't know what the results will be for this year but I'll keep you updated um so you know the high school I it's not lost on me thinking looking at this um at the power point I I hope it's not lost on whoever's watching tonight in the committee we offer a lot at the high school that was not always the case um kids have more options now than they ever had um they have viable options good options you know uh whether it be College um whether it be vocational whether it be work whether whatever it is we are able to offer them something um a path or some experience that is an incredible incredible fruit um which really uh all the credit goes to the hardworking folks of the high school um they've made a lot of things happen and and I'll tell you the um the spirit in the high school and middle school but High School especially is is phenomenal um there's always somebody new wearing blue and you know and very happy about whatever is going on um that doesn't just happen it's a it's a skill and and the the folks who run not only run the high school but work in the high school Etc should be accepted in I'm proud of them um we we offer an outstanding um opport bun of opportunities for our kids and I'm hopeful that the the public is is just as you know happy and impressed with that because um we've got some great teachers here too and I'm just proud about I'm proud of them and I like to brag about them as much as I possibly can um you know so you've heard very very eloquently here tonight about elll you're going to hear a lot about special education this should not come as any surprise to anyone who's listening today tomorrow tonight or whatever the case is um these are issues that have been identified we're growing we are far more diverse the issues that we need to service are becoming uh greater in number um and they they have to be addressed they have to be addressed when I say that that's not some type of you know throwing down the gauntlet or whatever the case is we're talking about two federally mandated programs that you must address period and and so these are the things that we have been speaking about for the last couple years with both towns we've been of course with the Committees um I said last year the bill came due it's still it's still it's still current these services are going to have to be covered one way or another and there's just no way around that and we're having trouble hiring special education teachers like a lot of places but again we're going to have to be more competitive and and so those are the themes that will start bringing more true as we get you know into uh of course budget times and season and and how we how we manage all of these things but it's getting to the point now where we literally must there is no Well's see if we can no the answer is no we cannot we have been in cited by the department of De in two varas special education y 11 and so that's what we're working through and much of that has to do with the lack of appropriate staff um in terms of you know all good from C and any here right so soon um our involment continues to be solid um we're around, 1460 students we gained in the month of November in start overa seven seven students at the elementary um I don't know seven students and so here they you know they're just they keep coming so um I I uh I so I just will say that our numbers are very solid um and we we haven't seen seven kids in November in a long time um so it's uh it's you know kids are moving as we know houses are being built and people are moving in um but we're currently at yet 14 I'm sorry 1456 my my apologies um and they it'll probably be a little bit higher next month because I think six of those kids were not were not on the roles when we we did this um we ran this report and that's it any questions for Dr SE so we don't have any unanticipated um items um so we will move on to school committee comments is there anything anyone all to share yeah yeah um and Dr see I think you were mixed up in this too shout out to Rick Bolton and that crew because I he actually took me for a tour around campus and let me tell you something they did a phenomenal job if you have not had the opportunity on on a tight button so if you had not had the opportunity to do that you should do that so Dr I let me go into some of the things I mean the field looks beautiful around around the track um the work that they've done with the drainage out here is is phenomenal yeah we're working with the um uh you community president for both towns um to complete the softball field slash practice field a lot of work's been done there thanks to the Don of tum for the artor money the drainage all of that's been fixed it looks really great our field I will you know I don't know if anybody here it's just you know enamored by just a good lawn I can tell you that I me there's nothing prettier to me than I just perfect long let to say that um when you if you remember the field as it was and now you see it again it's honestly amazing we've had the perfect growing weather for grass um and it is just perfect down there they did a great job there's more to do right they've got to do first cut and all this stuff and we'll be able to use it next fall um for for athletics um but um it it they did a Fant they really did everyone's done a great job um especially just in keeping this place clean and looking appropriate is important um it's very important and um they put great pride in that the the crews that we have so yeah thank you I'm Coos to all of that thank you and then I think my follow be uh anything on the track Dr s yeah um kind of in a roundabout way in in a roundabout way so um we we've had companies come out they given us you know the gentleman's quotes right because they can't actually do anything um we know that it's anywhere again it's a ballpark but anywhere between you know five and $800,000 to redo the track and depending on what you're going to do okay so that was actually that's actually gun down then when we first got it call you know years ago um you know we're looking for we're looking for revenue streams right we're looking for like where can we go out to to fix this trap and oddly enough then again it would be up to the town to the towns but we we found projects that were actually covered by CPC for tracks which was not which was something that we had not which we had not thought was possible just mostly it's it falls under Recreation and so we were I was surprised to I did a quick search and found some things so I'm GNA we're going to approach we we have a have a rank order we've got to take care of the you know we're halfway done the I'd like to talk to them more about what we Ken done if anything um with matching funds again not the entire thing you'd always have to kind of work you know with the CC you're they're probably not going to take the entire um cost on but that's something that I'm I'm we're going to look into quite frankly because I I had no idea that that was either you know possibility but so in a roundabout way yes thank you I just know that people have been asking oh gosh they ask ask all thank you thank you anyone else right so we will move on in our agenda to um subcommittee reports especially since we skipped last time um so some of the things have come up um for finance and Facilities already um you know the only other thing I'd share is that the high school gymnasium floor is being redone um the last time it was redone was about 10 years ago is what we sharing with us um the center of the court now has a basketball with a new logo in it and the side courts will now be marked out um so we were showing some pictures and it looks beautiful I'm really excited to see the finished product um and then I know Amry had submitted end D um last week and it actually just came back oh yesterday CI 632,000 so great we know what we have to work with great good update how about rural Aid any updates there yeah no updates yeah so we don't have R this is later last year right later later than last year yeah um and then we do we are starting those conversations around FY 26 so of course the Anda negotiations um are underway um you know lots of discussion around those you know what we're going to need in order to get back into compliance for special education and e um insurance is also something that's on our radar now buessing as well um because Insurance Alone um is about $200,000 over the anticipated spend for FY 25 du membership so um insurance is one of those tricky things that always comes in and throws us for a loop and I know that Amry and your initial discussions rates um for the upcoming year we're expecting some solid increases that's the C I go thrown all our R who was suggesting ways that I might want to look into like percentages have people pay more he was offering all these things so I got a sense that when the time comes in January February that they will be increased yeah so I have I anticipate a very rich discussion around FY 26 um with lots of details though again you know that in that benefit of going to masc conference these are challenges that are being battled in districts schools across the the state and everyone is feeling this pressure and you know as much as we want to save you know our towns from experiencing too this too much there's going to be a lot of discussions around all those increasing costs um that's I don't did I miss anything for finan and Facilities no okay uh District Operations we covered the policies anything else we wanted to go over um no we just let you know we took our first stat looking at an Exemplar for a handbook and generating some just you know initial brainstorming questions and things we like to see com yeah so looking forward to getting that done so that we can better support our new members so that they have somewhere to go to when have questions they trying to figure out what to do um Labor Management committee um so that's the meetings um LMC meeting with ndea and wc so LMC meetings with ndea are on pause at the moment um because we are in negotiations so we're focused on those activities um we did just have our WC meeting this week and was continue to be you know positive conversations you know bring a lot of shared conversations to make sure that everyone is getting the support that they need um and that you know we're getting questions answered um are the aison to um CPAC and PG um those were previously filled by our members who have recently departed so we're still looking to backfill those um but um Le on to student advisory Council Shan have you had a chance to connect with no okay um and any legislation of St um yes let's see the question two has asked and so I believe the way it works as I have 30 days to do something and if nothing is done then it becomes law and um and the cast is a graduation requirement no longer is a thing um at our conference we had we heard uh some discussing some discussion around what could potentially um happen from des's perspective we will see if you up of mass core who knows um and then obviously with our new Administration we may see some changes in um how education is funded to the federal level all right um there's no correspondence this evening and our next meeting is Thursday December 19th um do we need Executive session this evening I do not excellent then I would entertain a motion to adjourn second motion by hand a second all in favor we don't