I have so many good things to say about you. I would like to call this meeting of the Naraganset Regional School District School Committee to order. We actually do have some special guests here with us tonight um to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I'm not doing it this
evening. So, if all our special guests from Templeton Elementary School who would like to lead us in a pledge would like to come down front here and face the camera or face the flag really um I should say face flag. Um
uh then we will let you all come down and then we will stand up and join you. To the flag of the United States of America and it republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible
with liberty and justice for all. >> Very well done. Very nicely spoken. Very clear excellence. our Templeton Elementary School friends will be joining us a little bit later and we'll do some intro questions for
another agenda item. Um but until then I will get us through the rest of the agenda. So first of all reminder this meeting is being livereamed and recorded and will be posted to YouTube. Um and we have some meeting minutes to get
um so we will start with our October meeting minutes. I would entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes of October 16th, 2025 as written. So move >> motion by Danielle, second by Bill. Any questions or comments about those?
Seeing none, all in favor? Opposed? Abstained. And I say yes. So that is unanimous. I would further entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes of November 6, 2025 is written. >> Motion by Danielle.
>> Second. Second by Peter. Any questions or comments on those minutes? >> Seeing none, all in favor? >> Opposed? And I say yes. So that is unanimous. This evening we do have bills of
payroll. Those are attached for anyone who wants to review them. I would entertain a motion to accept those bills and payroll warrants as presented. >> Second. >> Motion by Danielle. Second by Bill. Any questions or comments on those bills in favor? Seeing none, all in favor?
Opposed? Abstained. And I say yes. So that is unanimous. Now we have our student rep here this evening and we've actually had a little bit of a change. Um Dr. C, can I let you introduce Kelly Taylor?
>> I would be honored to introduce Miss Kelly Taylor. and I'm going to read a lot of political things about her and she would like me not to do that but I'm going to anyway. So, Kelly Taylor is a junior here in Regional High School who loves social studies, history and
English um this year. there. Uh, Kelly has enrolled in AP European history, AP English language, AP biology, and pre-calculus honors this year and has previously taken previously taken project lead the way intro to engineering and principles of uh,
engineering and principles of engineering courses. Needless to say, Kelly is working extremely hard while making time to engra uh, to engage in a great deal of civic service. And Kelly is our project 351 ambassador class of 23
and is active in the Worcester County Sheriff Lou Evangelist uh warm warmer winter coat drive for multiple years running. That was your project, wasn't it, Kelly when you in 23 was the coats was it ranked for your project 351? >> No, I think that one was separate.
>> Oh, okay. Um you may have seen Kelly's work if you passed by the one library as you pay tribute each year to both the heroes and the victims of 911. Kelly is also active in yearly food drive uh in yearly food drives and has worked with the organization Cradles to Crayons.
Most recently, two proud accomplishments uh are reaching the level of cadet in the Girl Scouts and of course securing her license this past June. Kelly was elected to this role by her peers for her civic service and track record um as
a narc school advisor council member. So, chair and board, I formally introduce proudly introduce Miss Kelly Dig. >> Welcome. We're very excited to have you here. And actually, Peter, who sits on my left, used to sit in that seat and um
then was later elected to sit up here at the table votes. Um so, great things to come. Can't wait to hear what you have to share with us tonight. For the middle school, grade 5 welcomed our local veterans on 117 for a Veterans
Day program. Students made card for cards for them and shared in class recitations of several patriotic poems and they gave them some of their Halloween candy. I'm sure very willingly. Students are in the second round of creating academic goals for quarter 2
and they're also working on their attendance goal with an attendance rate of 96.3% for quarter 1. Upcoming events are a pep rally, a student of the month assembly, a perfect attendance for quarter 1 assembly, and fall sports
recognition on November 26th, a grade 6 movie night on December 4th, and a grade 5 holiday social on December 5th. For the high school, 204 high school students, grades 8 to 12, were on principal's list or honor roll for their report cards.
Um, NEAS visited last week New England Association of School and Colleges. They were here on 11:13 and 11:14. And during their time, they spoke to administrators, teachers, students, and parents. Fall sports are winding down or
completed, and the football team has been performing great continues to move on. The student council has been running a food drive for the Templeton food pantry, and it wraps up tomorrow. In powderpuff football, on November 18th, we held the annual fundraising powder puff football game. The seniors
beat the juniors 24 to9 and the boys cheerleading put on a great show. And Dr. Casm asked me to mention he was a wonderful referee. >> You weren't supposed to mention that. >> For upcoming events, parent teacher conferences will be held next Monday and
Tuesday from 11:30 to 2:15 and then 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday night. And then also on Monday night, the counseling department will be putting on their FAFSA night for students and parents. There'll be a Thanksgiving pep rally on Wednesday, November 26th, and the
theater group will be putting on a performance of The Play That Goes Wrong on December 13th. Um, today Mr. Young asked me to mention that I went to a meeting for Central Mass Regional Student Advisory Council. He said that nobody's been in a few years, so I should mention it. This is a
subdivision of the state's advisory council which empowers students and gives them a voice in the betterment of schools. I attended today to create our plan for the year and my group's goal will be to better student mental health and improve student teacher engagement. >> Thank you so much for your really
looking forward to it. And just so that you're aware, we're happy if you can stay. We understand if you can't because we know that students have lots of commitments. And of course, if you stay, if there's something that is particularly interesting to you, you feel like you'd like to give a super perspective on, we always welcome that.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you for coming. >> All right, moving on to our next introduction. Dr. C, I will hand it back over to you again, >> Madam Chair. Uh, of course, we have our wonderful guests guest and the wonderful
Missy who's the principal elementary school. I have absolutely no idea what the new mascot is going to be. So I I wait with you with bait breath to see who which of those wonderful choices we
have we have we have chosen we have voted. So might leave it to have all current student council representings from your paper. Right. So it is that way because we're just so
I am thrilled to introduce you all tonight to our student council, our newly appointed student council. council representatives from third and fourth grade. Just going to go ahead and um say their names so they can give a wave so that you all know who they are. So uh
first up we have Bryce, James, Kaden, Austin, Ben, Jonathan, and Candy. We are here today to share some really
exciting news with our community. So, we'll start with Bryce. Go ahead. >> Good evening, members of school committee. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share some special news tonight. >> This year, our fourth grade art class
has completed a project to design a brand new mascot for Thomas Elementary School. Every fourth grader created an original matchbox. TS staff helped to pick the top 20
designs and the student council voted to select the top five all students in grades pre the prek through four
the chance to vote for their favorite mascot. Every student had one vote and we reached 100% participation.
We love seeing a creative fourth graders. Some mess with some were silly. We love truly need but every design school pride. >> Once closed, business
loads. There was lots of excitement as we waited to build themselves. >> And tonight we are proud to officially be announced the winner of the mask with 46% of the votes. >> Let's see evil.
The ego represents strength, courage, and confidence. Qualities we see every day in students at Templeton Elementary School. Along with our new mascot, we also selected a brand new school slogan that represents
who we are and what we believe. >> Go ahead, Kenny. >> Our new school logo is we fly high. We fly high in our learning, our friendship, and our school pride. >> Excellent job, everybody.
>> This is the count. I mean, >> so this one, so I will say this one won by about 10%. like the the next closest was like in the >> B. I understand it looks like you understood that.
>> We're also we're currently working with DW designs to um create t-shirts based on the um the design that was created by one of our fourth graders and we'll be selling those shirts. >> Thank you for having us. We love us. Yes. And we especially love
to have guests that are students. We really appreciate you coming out tonight. We and we appreciate the parents for providing all of the rides. Thanks everyone. You're more than welcome to stay, but anybody or there is dinner and other things to get home to.
So, we'll give you all just a moment to gather things and I always like the hospital. That will be >> not our mascot.
>> It's not our masculine. >> Thank you everyone for your patience as we let them uh exit the room. Um it's always a little bit off. >> Um so that there's no one from the public tonight. the right math input.
>> Um, and NDEA did not make good this evening. Um, so we'll look forward to their update uh later on. >> NSBA project update. Um, the roof that we are living and breathing and I would
I have special requests from u a certain uh child to let you know they saw you on the roof today. Well, my best only the first time is everything on the road. Um, yes. Uh, so I'll say that the last
um so since we've last met um in session we Templeton had their uh their fall town meeting. Uh so that passed at the meeting. Okay. So, on to the ballot, which I'll I'll get to try to go wrong
order here. Got a lot of water. Um, in the let's see, it'll be on December 3rd that Philips will um take up the uh the roof project uh for special town meeting
as well. It appears that they will not need um a ballot vote given that they have plans to when I say fund it out of pocket, they they they're not going to need to um do a debt exclusion or something to that to
that effect. Again, I think that'll be worked out at the >> the town meeting, but we don't have food. There's no been no discussion about setting up a a ballot code or So what so what we've been doing a lot
of is is speaking with the town of Templeton because the ballot vote um needs to happen. one, two, and it needs it needs to pass to then initiate all the paperwork that
goes with proving to the MSBA that all of these things have happened in the correct order with the correct language and we have until the end of January 27th or 29th uh to um send in all the required documentation to really just
kind of pick. So in between all those um all those little tidbits what we've what we've done is well we've met with the TDS PTO going to give LP back to the
points an FAQ that we have completed this will be messaged out to in all the appropriate ways um to the public we're already in contact with
again Templeton. We want to talk to TCTV about how exactly can we get this type of information not only on TCTV but on the U cable um affiliate I guess in Philips as well. Um why I was on the
roof um was the fact that we were we did a we did a video um not a a funny video or snow day video. It was actually kind of scary up there, wasn't it? So, um, but just to, uh, show folks, I guess, in
real time some of the issues that were reported in the in the report. So the flashing um people being non-existent, defective or just, you know, falling off, the scaling of the brick, you know,
the leaking inside of the building the membrane or the roof membrane which is separating. Well, actually, no, it's the insulation that has sunk because it's now defective because water is, you know, seeping. But we were able to show the cooling all
over ponding ponding um throughout the roof and it was actually being being up there. It's one thing to hear about the ponding issue but it's a whole it's very different when you're up there and you're able to see the entire say the
entire scale of a roof and you see these ponds of water that have been up there. the last time it rained 3 days ago and water is only by code supposedly only supposed to pull up there pond no more than 24 hours. Well, I there's one part
where I'm standing in about an inch of water and it's 3 days later. So, we just wanted to highlight some of the easy things to point out about this is what they're talking about in the sport and we are planning to roll that out hopefully to TCTV
etc. to kind of well to show them the actual issues that were important. Short and fast and again I'll look to Ann Marie. Um you know we've been in touch with bond council making sure that
the the language that that we have fits of course bond council's um definition of what it should say. We of course we've been we've been in a lot of contact with both towns and the MSBA and our so a lot we probably have done
nothing >> but we've honestly this since town meeting quite frankly we have it's been all it's been all all the time trying to work through some of these
>> we did have a request from Pillston to they asked us if it was possible to pay their portion of funds Um, nobody seems to be able to give a straight answer. When I asked bond council if that was something he had heard of, he said it's been coming up a
lot, but we refer us to our regional agreement to however it is spelled out in the agent of agreement that I like how you should move forward. If it doesn't say to pay up front, he suggested you could get into an
agreement with both towns to do something differently. Um, that's still all kind of >> Yeah, relatively. Just to add to that, I know that another thing that was stated is that for for capital improvements for
the middle school and high school buildings specifically, it does say that the split is dependent on the student ratios for any given year. And so while that is typically 8515, one of the challenges with
accepting the payment upfront is if those ratios were supposed to change yeartoyear and there's an ongoing loan to pay back that that complicates how that happens. So that was the bond agent's concern was that specific
statement in the 1977 regional agreement which is the one that we default to >> the language in the 1977 uh version in terms of capital projects and how they are funded.
I think almost word for word but but for the most part to be the 2004 in truth was valid. So onward um it really is about the next
step which is next week um in Philips then we we'll go on to the next step which is then to make sure that we set up the the ballot vote and we're looking probably just they're talk they're going to talk
about they're going to talk about this uh the date and arranging all of that at their next select board meeting but Monday night, which we may we may actually be uh paying attention to. Um
but right now tentatively it looks Tuesday, January 6th looks like a day that would fit. Um no basketball games. Um so we can't move it from gyms because that's a whole process with your voting
center even though it's in the same building. So we we're working around a few of those things. We did talk to them. >> There's some time tables that the temple tend they have to follow in order to meet the requirements that they need. So that was tentative. So hopefully it will
get finalized. >> Would that provide sufficient time if the BO decides to get the paperwork in MSP? >> Yes, because we technically have until the 27 whichever one is day. Um obviously the
OPM would like it sooner than later because people kind of waiting on hold to proceed with the work that needs to be done. Um but we'll take what we can get. >> It has to be certified by the town
process with that. But it's it's not something that it's uh shakenly hard or difficult to do. is able to get on it right off the right off the bat. Any other questions about MSBA roof?
And I have a quick question where the board of selectment and finance committee is meeting next week in Phillips stem um and the uncertainties of the the capital
projects and regional agreement and things like that because we don't know exactly what we're going to do. I mean, they're going to meet and and discuss things, but um should someone go to that meeting to educate them on
what you just talked about with the bonds and that that's already been shared with them. >> Okay, good. >> Um so, we Amar has been in active communication with um Adam Montine um to let him know what the situation is. Part of the
challenge is that we can get our information from our bond advisor, but they also have to get their information from their town council. And so it's a little, you know, so certainly if they want us there or if that's helpful, we can figure out what that looks like. Um,
and at the same time, we will be repeating the information that has already been provided because we are certainly not experts on >> any of that >> any of that. So yeah, so that's the challenge is >> some good news that good news that uh
the OPM through the OPM the language that they have on the Warner Phillips um was exactly the language that the MSDA required. So I think we know what that that price >> uh by 26 nothing really it is just another 20
year so you know it just things and one day at a time >> day at a time okay business managers before too I told those together quick. Um
been mostly roof. Um probably the only things to update is all of our grants are finally approved. Now we can start spending them and our rural aid number did come in. Um I'll call I don't have the exact number. I
think it was $276,000 which is about $100,000 less than last year, but we'll take it. We're going to just keep loving way at our projects and our repairs that are needed, especially at the middle school. Um, and we'll go
from there with it. >> Yeah. And I did see an email come out from NASC today asking for coordinated effort across the school committees in Massachusetts to push for rural rural aid to be fully funded because it's so
important for schools to be able to I mean rural aid is part of what helps us to address capital improvements um without having to go to the fountain. Yes, we have to just chip away at them slowly as as anyone have to do. they are
taking care of their own home. But um not having the funding of rural rural aid definitely impacts what we what we can but yeah questions on the board or branch or rural or I cannot say rural.
Okay, moving along. Miss Super Chair, I will hand it over to you for our curriculum and instruction and thank you for joining us here. You're welcome. Thank you. Um, three things to update the committee on tonight. The first um attached in your
um in your packet is an updated version of our district's um curriculum review and management plan. Um this is a six-year cycle that's been in place in the district and so we have neared the end of that cycle and that plan. Um and
so working with our administrative team and our teacher leader team um on getting some feedback and input, we've revised and reviewed reviewed and revised that plan. Um what you'll see is that that six-year cycle um starts off with, you know, data analysis,
evaluation, and sort of setting a stage to plan anytime we're uh either selecting or reviewing or revising curriculum. Um, we've also worked this six-year cycle out in Marie and I have talked quite a bit about making sure that our major curriculum purchases are
not all falling in the same year. So, we've also staggered some of our contracts in the last few years so that our new cycle would support um the financial aspect of purchasing or renewing subscriptions for curriculum as well. Um and then lastly, one of the
things that we did update in this plan is in the implementation, reflection and revising um phases, we embedded some resources that our district's acne committee had worked on last year around bias review um for instructional
materials including texts, um videos, things like that. Um and so we feel strongly have a strong plan in place. We have a lot of work ahead of us when it comes to um curriculum review and curriculum management. Um but we have a strong team and we feel like this plan will help us to do that in a really
strategic um and um outlined plan. Any questions about that? Great. Um, so moving on, the next thing I wanted to provide information to the committee on and an update on is our district learning walkthroughs. And so I
I think it was the end of last year, we talked about this this process, but essentially our learning walkthroughs um are a process that we go through as a district three times a year. Um it's an opportunity for teachers and administrators to team up and to walk
through classrooms to collect data on instructional practice trends that we see. Uh we do this in relation to a focus of inquiry that we set each year. Um that focus of inquiry is directly tied to our district strategic initiatives um and our professional
development plan as well. And so when we look at this here's focus of inquiry um it is around standardsbased instruction that is universally designed and makes content accessible and engaging to all students. And so what you'll see here is
a thread with the work we did in the previous year around universal design for learning across our system and also an intentional focus for accessibility and engagement for all students which is part of our new strategic plan. Um we have six indicators that we um look at
when we go into classrooms. We look for evidence that exists around the use of learning targets and success criteria which is an instructional practice we use districtwide to really focus on how we communicate learning expectations with students. Um we also focus on
flexibility in instructional materials, flexibility of instructional practices, um diversity and below practices to support uh learner variability in classrooms, student ownership, which includes voice of choice for students in the instructional process, and then the
use of formative assessments and feedback. Um and so we do have a rubric that outlines specifically what that looks like um for each of those indicators. And so teams of teachers go through and they're collecting data based on what they're hearing or seeing for the time they're in classroom. It's
a non-evaluative process. It's very much about data collection. Um that data is then brought back and teams go through a process to kind of distill that down um for let's say they go through 12 or 14 classrooms over the course of learning walk process. Um and so when we distill
that data down, we do a focus on these indicators and we create patterns or trends um that we're seeing in classrooms and then we use that to also say, you know, what are our celebration points and then what are some focus areas specific to this building or our district um as a result. So we do those
in each of the three schools. Um, one thing that's great about that process is it really supports collective teacher advocacy and teachers getting together and really seeing and talking about teaching and learning um, unique to our district. Uh, it's also an opportunity
um for teachers to engage in sort of in intentional planning for instructional next steps in their building. Um, and it's not always teachers in the same building. So for example, when we have a learning walk at walk through at tees, sometimes middle or high school teachers participate. Likewise, when we're at
middle or high school, teachers from other buildings participate. So it's really meant to build um you know, consistency across the district around instructional practice as well. So with all of that said, I wanted to share um some highlights from our data with you so you can get a sense of some of the
great work that's happening in our classrooms and some of the areas that we're leaning into to strengthen as well. Um so at tees our top two trends that we saw in classrooms rooms were related to the use of learning targets and success
criteria and the use of formative assessments in classrooms. And so we saw a lot of teachers who were not only posting and um stating learning targets at the beginning of the lesson but they were engaging students and utilizing them throughout the lessons in the
classroom. Um, additionally, there were focus walls that were helping to build essential learning um, and conceptual understanding as students went through a unit or a period of time um, where they're focusing on one concept or content uh, area. And then additionally,
there were a lot of exit tickets being utilized and a lot of teachers providing ongoing feedback to students through either individualized or small group uh, check-ins throughout classrooms. Um, a focus area that TEES is leaning into moving forward is opportunities to provide more studentto student
discourse. So, opportunities for students to talk with each other to help develop conceptual understanding. Um, they're using very um like they have a a menu of of protocols they're using to help teachers embed practices in their classrooms. They're doing things like um
turn-in talks, faith pair shares, which are structured opportunities for students to engage in conversation uh one-on-one or in a small group. Um they're utilizing four corners activities, and there's there's a whole list of them with some fun catchy names for the littles. Um our middle school is
seeing strengths around the use of instructional materials and tasks that are directly lined to their lessons. And they're also seeing strength in terms of learning targets and success criteria tied to standards. Um at the middle school, one of their focus areas is
leading into the use of formative assessments. Um and so this is actually going to be driving the professional development that they're they're holding for their teachers in December. They're going to be focusing on the design and formative assessments, the use of them, and then our action plan to um address
individual needs or patterns and trends across class. And that in at our high school, we saw a lot of strength in the flexibility of instructional materials for students. We saw a lot of graphic organizers. We saw a lot of scaffolded notes to support
note-taking strategies. And we also saw a lot of practices that honor the barrier building really had students be able to bring their own experiences into their classrooms um and or hear from the experiences of other students. the high school overachievers here. They have two
focus barriers that their team's leaning into after our learning walk. The first is um wanting to strengthen the use and be more consistent with the use of learning targets and success criteria. And the second, similar to tees, is leaning into opportunities for student discourse. And they're using the catchphrase less teacher talk, more
student talk um to sort of focus more on having students do the heavy lifting in classrooms um and really be processing um some of the concepts of We are going to be doing our learning ops as we have in the past three times a year. We just uh did them in October.
We're going to do them again in December and then in March. Um we like to do them a little bit earlier than we do our benchmark assessment windows because it gives us time to plan for them professional development or focuses for um staff meetings or teacher leader meetings kind of meetings. Um, and so we
do do those a little bit earlier in the year because we want to have the time to plan and see the impact from those. We've been strengthening our data practices to be able to also look at our trends yeartoear to see where we've had some strength um in growth as well.
>> Is the data presented a pretty consistent record or is it or >> yes and no. >> Okay. Um it's it's pretty consistent in our high school. We're seeing similar patterns year uh year in our high
school. We have had the same focus of inquiry for the past two years around universal design for learning and access. Um and so in the other buildings no where we've been seeing some strength um that's been sustained and then what we're seeing for
areas of growth vary a little bit. Um so for example maybe three years ago um at Templeton we were focusing a lot on instruction materials and instructional routines and now we're seeing those fairly strong and now we're focusing
more um on student discourse as you saw. So we've seen some shift in some variation um but it's not consistent across the district. It varies school to school. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Great. Thank you so much for that
update. You're welcome. >> Um last update more data because you know that data. >> It's not about those refreshing bra. >> Um so this last one is is um sort of an
external data set but it applies to internal data. So, um the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the state um has just earlier this week started releasing publicly staff data for school and districts. And so, I want to notify the committee
because if you hear buzz about this, um it is brand new and um we've been working through this as an administrative team to kind of unpack our preliminary data to see what was going to be reported and we've notified um our NDA folks as well. Um and so
essentially what's being reported at the state level um is information at the district level and then at the individual school level broken down into three categories of data. As you can see on the screen data is reported for all staff,
administrators and teachers. All staff includes administrators, teachers, support staff or educators, administrative assistants, yada yada. Um there's two reporting categories that the state is reporting out on. Um the first is as you can see on the screen
the attendance rate that's being reported out as the percent present over the course of the year. Um and then the second is the average number of absences again over the course of the year. So the data that's released right now is for the 2425 school year. This is now
going to become an annual report that DESA will publish when accountability data for school districts comes out. um they're reporting it out of um a ongoing push to have transparency um and their data collection processing also because
there is a statewide push around attendance right now. You've probably heard TV commercials or radio commercials about your uh presence is powerful. That's the slogan uh for the state right now or attendance. Um and so this is a step towards also giving
transparency around staff data since we already do that. Now there's student data. What the state is not reporting and previously they were going to report but I'm getting feedback uh from multiple folks. They pulled back and they are not reporting out any staff data for chronic absenteeism of staff
which is 10 days or more. Um and they are not reporting out on any disagregated data for staff. they're not disagregating for any specific subgroups of staff. Um the if you were to go on our district for on our public u profile
page and look at this information and sort it by school, you will not see data released for administrators at the school level because the state is not reporting to any group that has fewer than six staff. And so for us, we have
two staff members uh two administrators, excuse me, in each of our schools. that's not a reportable category. Um, one thing I do want to make a note of because there is an air there's one error in our data that was publicly released. We do we did not last year have 15 administrators. We actually had
14 administrators. Um, but when um when Miss Altezic left, we had a reporting error where her attendance continued to get collected for a few weeks. So she was it didn't impact our attendance rate or our absences but she did get counted in the attendance count. We fixed the
error on our end but it did end up in the state report. So that is one error that we do have here. So people look at this and say 15 administrators we actually had 14 last year >> and this is the record this year we have 13. So I just want to make sure I we go
through that because sometimes that gets lost in the in the wash. So, >> um, based on the average number of absences, are they, am I making a correct assumption that they are not that they're considering any absence,
including like an FMLA or a paternity leave or a maternity leave? Yes. And no. So, yes, all of those ones that you mentioned are counted in absentee. So, anyone out on FMLA or on maternity leave, the only number that is not
counted in that count are are contracted vacation days of which administrators have um teachers and other staff do not. So, anything that administrator takes a week off in the summer as vacation days, for example, that is not counted in the absences because those are not counted as contracted work days because they're
part of family. And I say that because it, you know, with the average number of absences between being 14 or 15, what that's not accounting for is that if someone is out for maternity leave for anywhere between, was it 3 to 6 months now? Um, that's going to skew that to a
higher number. So it should not be a conclusion from looking at this data that most of our staff are out 15 days in a year, but that rather that those FMLA, maternity leave, paternity leave are going to naturally skew those numbers higher.
>> And so that makes it difficult to see what is real absenteeism versus >> Yeah. >> A couple points. Um, one absolutely the there was an article I believe if it wasn't in the globe, it was the Herald
this morning about push back on that. Um, exactly in terms of FMLA leaves for your for family member or yourself. Um but the other part of it which is I
think I'm not as wildly known is that staff members attendance is public record and whether whether or not they were in and the time that they took. So if they were on FMLA
leave it would say simply FMLA. That's not a that's not a hyper doesn't explain why. if it's sacred or personal, whatever, it would if someone were to request that and show. But we've had um over the gosh, the 10 years that I've
been here, we've had one or two public record requests um for my actually interesting, but um but that is public record. Um >> you know, that's if you read the article, it's some kind of back and
forth right now. the commissioner is taking a let's see what this what this looks like. Um that's what he said in the actual article. They're not making any judgments. They're not making any decisions. They just want to see okay here's this information. Let's let's talk about it. Let's see what it what it
>> I think it's a bad metric to look at. I just think it's a confusing metric to look at if you're making a conclusion that the you know average staff member has 15 plus days asset. Right. So, I think I think knowing that it includes
folks that are out for an extended period is helpful. So, >> our team's big question, which we we can um have not yet been we didn't dive into yet, is what is the state's average? Because we know this is our data um but we are really eager to pull and and look
at that now in relation to what the state average is for all of those categories and those two metrics and how we compare to the state average the same way we do. Absolutely. Any other questions around this new metric?
Thank you so much. All right, we do have some surplus items this evening. Susan, is this is this you? >> Sure. >> Uh we have some uh textbooks. Speaking of curriculum review, uh we have some
textbooks specific to um our health curriculum that are quite outdated um that include um you know some outdated nutritional information um and meal planning that we are looking to get a vote for discard. Okay.
>> Excellent. So I would entertain a motion to accept the listed items as surplus. There are 94 various outdated high school books and various IT materials and the list is available for your perusal should you like.
>> Motion by Danielle. Second. Second by Peter. Any questions or comments about those 92 94 surplus items? Seeing none, all in favorain. And I say yes. So that is unanimous.
Um, we do also have our second um, review of the IKF graduation requirements. Um, no no changes from last time. Um, so I'll get a motion on the table and if there's anything further to discuss on this, we'll bring
it up. So I'd entertain a motion to accept the following for second reading as presented. IKF graduation requirements. >> So moved. >> Motion by Danielle. >> Second. second by Bill. Okay. Any questions or comments on those? I know
we had the first reading um during our LA during our October meeting. Um so it's been a minute and I don't believe that there were any further needs or changes discussed during the latest policy or operations meeting. >> Okay.
So seeing no questions, all in favor? >> Opposed? Abstained and I say yes. So that is unanimous and we will adopt the policy and get our get our the policy manual updated.
>> Words hard sometimes. Okay. So we do have a donation to discuss today and I two donations to discuss today. Um who can introduce those to us and give some background?
Well, okay. Sure. >> So, the narrator is at cheer booster club. It has made a donation of 18 full game/competition uniforms and 25 warm-up jackets. They are valued at uh 4,492 for
the uniforms and 1930 for the jackets. >> So, we'll do these one at a time. I would entertain a motion to accept the donation from the Derrick Gas and Cheer Booster Club of 18 full game competition uniforms valued at $4,492
and 25 warm-up jackets valued at $1,930. >> Motion by Danielle. >> Second. >> Second by Bill. Any questions or comments about that donation? >> Big thank you. >> Yes. Huge thank you. >> All in favor? opposed
abstained and I say yes. So that is unanimous. And our next donation next was from our formal former fourth grade teacher Christine um Budro. Uh she made two separate donations to
the Templeton Elementary School. One of them is $1,000 in memory of Curtis Emma for the direct purpose of replenishing the current project lead program at the Templeton Elementary School and also to accept a donation of $1,000 for the
express purpose of purchasing laminating film rolls for the laminating machines on the third floor in Templeton. >> Very specific. >> That's very suicide information. >> Someone does. I would entertain a motion
to accept Mrs. Budro's uh donation of $1,000 in memory of Curtis Emma for the direct purpose of replenishing the current Project Lead the Way program at the Temp Templeton Elementary School and to accept the her further donation of
$1,000 for the express purpose of purchasing laminating film rolls for the third floor laminating machine. >> Second motion by Danielle, second by Bill. Any question or comments about the donation? >> No, but thank you there. Thank you very much. >> Absolutely.
>> All in favor? >> Oppose? Abstained. And I say yes. And if you can please extend a heart, the school committee's collective thanks and and a note to both of those groups. We we deeply appreciate the work and the energy and thoughtfulness that into
those donations. And we are out of state field trip Washington DC. >> Yes, Madam Chair. So this, you know, this comes up every year. It does >> obviously the days have changed though if you notice. Um it's just a little
it's inside of June uh by a week or so. It's traditionally it's been around Memorial Day weekend if if memory serves and it's and it's just has caused some scheduling issues with parents graduations and such. So
all the information all the information is there for for your review. That's the only notable change that that I can see. I know Miss Lance is behind. So moving into June not only uh helped us locally
but it will it helped with reservations um because a lot of the southern schools are out by then and then um they cut down a little bit of price. >> That's and am I recalling correctly that last year we used a different company
for the first time? did and um because I I've taken on a role for the advisorship this year um I talked to the former advisor and she wasn't exactly thrilled with the company and she suggested that I go with this
company this year if if it was feasible. Um nothing specific that was of you know concern. She just you know they weren't thrilled with all a couple of things. >> They preferred the other program. >> Yeah. So, um, I love Bob Rogers. I've
worked with Bob Rogers before. They're fantastic. They're very accommodating. And this year they introduced a new tab on their um site where they can have people donate to their trip directly to
students. Like, so come e, you know, an eighth grader, what do you get? Auntie, you know, auntie Sue, what are you going to get them for Christmas? and they don't know, donate to the trip and they can go right on to this site, donate for the trip, which is why I'm kind of trying to get it passed tonight so they
have that time. >> Have that. Yeah. Especially with the holidays coming up, this is perfect. >> So, it's really a nice opportunity. >> It's excellent. Thank you so much for noticing that and engaging with that, making sure that this got in front of us.
So I would entertain a motion to approve the 8th grade out of state field trip to Washington DC for the proposed dates of June 8th to June 11th 2026 as presented. >> So moved by Danielle, second by Alder this time. Um any questions or comments
about this field trip? Seeing none, all in favor? >> Opposed? Stained and I say yes. So that is unanimous. It's really exciting. Thank you so much for organizing that. I I'm already eagerly anticipating last year.
I'm not being creating back the dinner and we're getting into ports theater. >> So which they so that's going to be >> something new and fun. Yeah. Yeah. >> Excellent. >> All right. Dr. C, superintendent's
report. >> I'm not going to bring it to the roof. um at all. So, uh I just think honestly a couple things I will bring up. Um I really do appreciate the folks who did show up at the special time meeting. Um it it you
know there wasn't there wasn't a lot the folks I I guess who attended I think 60 some odd >> was it okay >> it was 67 I think was the total >> close to 70 but the folks who did show up at the support of school it was
almost almost a year so so I just wanted to make sure we thank folks who did come out and had some really great honestly a lot of great support for the I just want to make sure I said that for Um, honestly, really a couple things.
Our cheerleaders, if they haven't won everything already, they're not root to win all again. They're off to states this Saturday. It's the Saturday. Um, I will be there.
I've I shared a mug just um doesn't go with so but good luck to uh to them. They they've done a fantastic three week through the process so far. So I think
we have a better chance um from the the district perspective. We we're going to obvious we're going to show this to the finance facilities um subcommittee but our finance web page for the
is a final I guess it's a page on our website um that really highlights and we talked about this I think was last spring I think mostly about where can we put every bit of financial information that we created um
so folks can review it we about it. Um, but I'm going to have Molly talk a little bit about how we've integrated. >> So, in addition to the budget information that Dr. Ste mentioned, um, as I mentioned in the committee last year and through various subcommittees,
we adopted as a district a district-wide platform for data analysis called analytic view. We have more data than you can imagine in that platform. They have worked with us to customize a public access dashboard that includes budget information. So you can look at
our budget in really easy to read spreadsheets and graphs longitudinally. I think we included the last five or six years um of budget information there. You could toggle between a budget dashboard and a demographics dashboard where we're also um providing public
access to all of our enrollment data um including enrollment by grade enrollment by school. Um we're including a couple of specialized populations that impact budget, special education populations, e populations. Um and it's it's
interactive so people can scroll through and look at that. um it is fixed so as we add data on our end it will automatically update but people aren't able to adjust or modify it on their end um so it's a view only dashboard and at the top people like I said earlier can toggle between budget data and
enrollment data over time we're hoping to add more data points to this for public access to increase transparency and data access for our community but right now we are sticking with just budget data um and enrollment data as it's taken us a while to work with our company to design the layout um and
ensure that our data is accurate as we're pushing this out to folks. >> Yeah. I want to make sure that, you know, shout out to both Jared and Molly. It really works. >> It was, you know, it was quite a process working with the company to get all this information kind of the way and we're still working. We're still kind of
tweaking this and, you know, literally colors and display to make sure that things make sense. So, um, I think it's a great step forward and if we get a one-stop shopping, uh, place for all of our financial information, I think it
goes back almost 10 years, I believe. Um, you know, it'll it'll certainly benefit folks who want information, but too won't get a lot of information. Um, and we do generally around budget time, we that's when we receive probably most of our, you know, requests for
information. So having it all in one spot would just simply be, you know, just a matter of just pointing them to uh to that website. Um >> I have Ann Marie's >> incredible
data collection over the past years made the development so much easier because she had it all in these hand calculated spreadsheets she had built and been working off of. So I just want to make sure credit's given there, too. >> Want to just pull it up real quick? >> I'm happy to. They're kind of >> you should get out of that.
>> It is really honestly it's for you for the elementary. >> Yeah. >> Gold stars all around. >> Can we Can we 17? >> I admittedly need glasses and don't want
equipment and I need glasses. Um so I'm going to actually show folks how to get there right from our website itself. So, if you're if you're on the homepage of our website and you click on menu and go down to school committee, under that information, you'll see budget
information. If you click on budget information, what you'll see here is our updated budget page, which includes um a drop down to all of the information Dr. Cassid mentioned, publicly accessible. Um, and at the top, you'll find a button
to access public data. Um when you click on the button, it will open up a new page. It'll bring you to our public dashboard for analytic view. It defaults to budget. And so what you'll see here um is big picture, an overview of our budget history from um fiscal year 17 to
our current budget season. Um and then if you go down further, you'll see a breakdown by accounts um over the last 1 2 3 4 5 years. Um then you'll see a breakdown. I apologize. I'm going quickly. I know people are probably like, "No, wait. I want to read all this
data." You'll just have to go back and read it on your own time frame. For now, we're going to go 36. I know it's not just me, but I know. I know. I'm They shared a slump. Um you'll see information about our um spending and receiving and the differential, our school choice funding um sending
receiving differential um information over the years. Uh we added information about our federal and state grants. So, if you're interested in seeing the grant funds that come into the district over the years, you can see um grant funding. You can also see um state and local
income sources over the years and how those have adjusted or shifted. Um and then that's also broken down at the town level. And then if you're interested in looking at the other dashboard, if you click at
the top here where it says budget, you can toggle and switch to enrollment and demographics. And it does take just a minute to load. And here you'll see um historic information and current information around our um our enrollment and our demographics. So here's our overall
enrollment as a district over the years. Um here's our current breakdown in enrollment by grade. this gets busy, you going to definitely want to dig into this at home and really really um you know, you've extended a cup of coffee to your couch. uh you'll
see below >> you'll see um you know enrollment by grade historically over various years um and by grade these are all interactive and so what I mean by that is if you hover over these bars you'll get um specific numbers if you want to look at
a graph by just this graph you can enlarge it here and you can download it here as well um so you have options on how if you want to download it and then interact and adjust it in a spreadsheet version, you have options to do that as well. Um, and then we went by school.
And then I'm going to give you whiplash for just a minute. Um, and then you can see how our populations for our our two major student groups that we um are including in our strategic plan, but also that impact budgeting the most, our EL population and our students with
disabilities population. So, you can see how those numbers have shifted and changed. >> Have no notes. This is amazing. We want to eventually add a tab like you know we've talked about long-term adding a tab where we provide um you know
public a public dashboard for academic data a public dashboard for our athletics our enrollment in athletics and and sports >> and so on and so on. >> But first things first you know that we're you know moving into budget season
so obviously we wanted to make sure this information was up and running. Um and again it actually kind of it does not kind of it corresponds with when we get to superintendent goals in a minute but you know when we're again kind of
circling around what is communication and how do we communicate where where can folks find information just in general not just about finance you know the web you know our our page is really you know needs to be focus point
especially with information. So, this was a lot of, you know, a lot of hard work. We we still want to add we're still, you know, we're still tweaking some things how things look. Um, but if as folks
have maybe suggestion or an idea, um, we're open. We're going to put contracts up here if they're not already up there. I were talking about this a couple weeks ago about putting all the contracts, you know, whether they be individuals or, you know, >> in the budget page. Yeah. I know they're on the website.
>> They're on the website, but we might again, we're looking where other things are just kind of where they're at. And we again, we're >> we're playing with it a little bit. You know, we don't want to make it so big that it's unwillingly. But >> in any event, um it's a great
>> wonderful. Thank you so much, Emory. I I know the types of files that you keep and that definitely made this possible. So, thank you very much. this in addition to all the other jobs you've hold is much appreciated. >> So we're in that transition. Um
somebody can pull this up too. >> Yeah. >> Um so to that um 10 years ago honestly when we became a board there was a lot of information but no one knew where it was or um how to access it. This this by
the way that's not Emory has always got outstanding you know spreadsheets etc. But that web page and we'll get into the here in a minute but what that what that site really does it it ensures that that this information it by some you know act
of God you know will will be around. So you know the newspaper you know the hospital will have all of its information is locked up and you know in terms of you know some type of cyber issue uh obviously the web page is a cyber you know it's a worldwide web but
we don't want to have where information only really resides you know in one location especially when it comes to finance so or a lot of other things. So the last at least the last seven years we've really been working hard to make sure that it's been more more public in
in multiple places and that people actually know where it's fun. So when we start talking about goals, you know, what we've traditionally done probably the last oh boy at least seven or eight years is that we're really tied them to whether it be the DIP or this
improvement plan over the years because those, you know, the goals that move the district really are superintendent and the assistant superintendent's focus. >> So Dip for those of us who are new to that actually. Thank you. You're
welcome. >> Right. So, um >> the district's uh schools strategic >> strategic improvement plan. Thank you. I was like I'm going to get this one wrong. >> So, thank you. I was going to I was add that it's on the acronym page which
we'll reshare folks. Um so, we're looking at you know much of this none of it should be a surprise. These are things that we have been actively working on through the planning process. Um We've we've reported out on multiple
occasions in regards to the DSP whether there should be improvement plan wherever it may be. But um actually going to have to pull this up so I can see. Um so in terms of the uh you know the
student learning goal by June 27 will identify and address student needs across the academic social emotional domains to ensure equitable educational opportunities for all students to increase percent students at grade level ELA and math file 5%
on the district benchmark assessments. Um I I I I won't bore you with of course what the focus indicators are, but they're they're there. Um it is a link if you want to go check out other focus indicators from those
from those areas. Um our second or my second student learning goal would be by June 27 will narrow the achieve gap between students with disabilities and all students on district benchmark assessment. Um this was this is something that we've
we've carried over from you know from the last plan. We've been working on this while we really didn't hit the mark. Um and we you know so we we are keeping it as one of my goals or because we need to improve there, you know, and
so that's that's that is something that folks or the school committee should definitely have you know be familiar with. if been here long enough to see at least two little sites. Um so the district improvement goal by June the 27 will
develop rule out districtwide warrior outlining the skills, knowledge and values a community holds for all graduates. Um and so this is this will be you know this will be actually a great thing to accomplish once we have
this um completed. What does it what does one of our graduates already look like? You know, what what what what skills and where have they been and where are they going? Um and so, uh it's more commonly known as a portrait of
graduate. You've heard I'm sure you've you've heard that at least. Um if you haven't, it's very it's a it's a very common thing. most districts do have, you know, those and so we are embarking on creating that one and
parallel to the conversation that you just saw um with the web page the finance web page but continue to strengthen timely responsive collaborative and inclusive internal and external communication. Molly and I talked for about an hour about this this
goal because it's been one of it's been a it's been a point of frustration um only from the sense that we believe that we've we've made a lot of gains in this area
given any point in time in the past. So, you know, if I were say 10 years ago, we wouldn't have a web account, but you can't go too far back, but we're constantly trying to figure out to improve the way we communicate, but to
really almost I don't want to use the word force, that's that's a bad word, but we want we certainly want to make it easier and we we really need to get our our community um more engaged in what we're doing. It may be anything. Sure.
Finances, but of course the educational piece, athletics, literally the arts and we're, you know, we've leaned on Facebook, you know, we've we've done YouTubeish type things in terms of, you know, whether it be videos and does a
fantastic job with running the page about just all of the wonderful things that we do, all the events, whether it be on the sign outside, you know, or or in the lobbies. if you're again if you're you're here you see them on our TV screens but you know Facebook has
been um one of the primary ways that we're we are broadcasting to the to the greater community. Of course all of the building principles have their own you know letter principal's letter they send out weekly um that they of course send
out to their their schools. But we're we're we're looking for better and more efficient ways to do that. And so we decided to keep this goal because we don't think that we don't think that it it hit the mark with some of the
feedback that we that I received last June. I think it's May or June. We talked about that. So we're we're going to delve into this a little bit more. So that's one example. Two, the video about the roof. Uh again, it's not a funny
video. It's I don't know anything about folks. Um but when we were with our uh you know with our facilities director with Keith and you know he brought us around and and I should say Susan who also climbed up on the roof um as well to do the video. Um but you know it was
important for us to see you know what some of these issues but we're pointing them out. We're going to blast that out. We're going to ask for TCTV's you know assistance in that to see what what we need to make that happen. to the cable uh folks out uh actually I don't even
it's still some cable but talk you know get that out there so we can just really saturate um the community with the information that we need to get out there. Um we sent a letter through the um the newsletter about the roof project
through the newsletter in Philipston. We've we've we've put information in there before we in general I wouldn't be looking for their support. So that's what we're going to that's we're going to embark on some different things this year completely different see if if
you know information is reaching um the community in a more efficient and more efficient way. Now, I think I'm glad that you brought that up because um I think that is a frustrating goal because I it's one of
those targets, right? I think it'll be a constantly moving target because you'll you'll improve one area of communication or methods of communication will change over time because I mean, was Facebook the dominant
mechanism for reporting news x number of years ago? Probably not. And so on and so forth. So, it's I I a recognize the struggle, that constant moving target, and b appreciate that we're keeping it on there. Um because it is important
that we learn how to reach folks because um when I was at the uh Templeton um town meeting um I I we were definitely dinged the fact that the pe the of the 67 people that showed up there
we I am estimating I did not count maybe seven to 10 of them were parents. So we really didn't have a showing of the parents of kids in the district. Now
being fair, fall town meeting, I think has less knowledge about it than spring. Um, you know, it's it is a difficult time to accommodate for being at 6:00 p.m. Um, and you know, I was quite
honest that as a school committee member, I am I am bound by law. um the ways that I can engage and try to get parents to do things. Um but that doesn't mean that we can't that we stop being creative and stop looking for new
ways. So I think as a whole yeah I agree we need to find I I think the key is how do we find that tipping point of not just communicating but also getting people engaged and and that is that is a tipping point
challenge. So it's one thing to know information but another thing to get people to come to the event or to you know come to their town meeting or etc etc and I think it's a common problem across towns. I don't think it is specific to us that there are certain
generations of people that know about and understand and go and consistently support town meeting and then there are other generations of folks that either don't know which is legitimate. There's a lot of people who don't know or understand town meetings or can't
find a way to accommodate it or think their vote doesn't count for some reason. So, >> it's intimidating and we've heard that plan and that the town meeting is an intimidating process if you've never been through >> a difference though. the clickers. I was
just going to say the clickers >> in Templeton, they have invested in voting clickers. So, you no longer have to stand up and say yes or no. You have a clicker and you click yes or you click
no. And so, your vote is anonymous instead of having to declare I'm voting this way. and a lot a lot a lot of um sensitive votes. I have absolutely seen a significant
number of people in that room just decide to vote nothing >> because they're afraid to stand up and say they vote one way or another. So, I think that was a great investment um by Templeton because the
comfort level of voting being in I mean when you go to ballots and not when you go to town meeting you're like I vote this way on this very sensitive topic and that's hard especially when you have to stand up and they have to count you so >> and count.
No, that was really the county which I've been has had clickers for a while and I will say that uh so I've experienced it now say four or five years and it's made not only it makes the meeting go quicker because recounts aren't necessarily needed although I
suppose someone could recount quicker vote I guess but I'm sure they could but it it's pretty it's pretty we moved it so >> you don't have to subjectively tell whether or not it was two of the volume of housing.
>> Yep. >> So, coming back to goals specifically, um this is not something we need to take an action on at this time or we do. >> Um typically the school committee does vote to approve I believe that we have
passed. Um but not sure if they wanted to do that this evening with a piece of information >> in general uses or you can move it to an extra month. I mean again It it doesn't have voted today. You know, if you need time to review and to, you know, to to think about it,
obviously, it doesn't >> I will say that I did not put it on as a vote. So, in honor of how the agenda is set up, we'll vote on it next month. However, in terms of they're very much in alignment with how we need to move forward. So, um, we will do an official
vote in December, but know that, um, I'm not seeing anyone not speak up and see the experience. So, um, excited to and I know that, um, the super chief, we've been working to make these furniture.
So, on D. So, thank you for that. Okay. Uh there's nothing that we did not anticipate for this meeting. Uh school committee comments. Um I just wanted to share that um in the
middle school um my son has been doing a a book club. Um and never in all the years that he has been um he he's read many books with school but never in all those years has
he tried to engage me in talking about the book and I will tell you I have not read the outsiders in a very long time but every night he's been asking me do you remember this or do you remember that and I was like I am so impressed
with how he's come home not Not only are they engaging with each other, not not every student is reading the Outsiders, let's just be clear. Um, but that has been really exciting and impressive because as every parent at this table knows, the answer you usually get when you say, "How was your day?" Fine. Did
anything interesting happen? Nothing. Um, and speaking about books is my love language. So, I'm just delighted as a parent. Impressive. You still get full words at least. >> I know. I get
>> so what is this book called? Do they have it in >> they're separate? Yeah, they have it in class. They're separated into groups. They're expected to read, I guess. I I don't know the full mechanism of it, but they're expected to read a certain amount and then they have to share and discuss what they read in their small
groups in their classroom. and he is very engaged with reading this particular book in part I think because of that set. Um like I said he's read other books and I I've never gotten to discuss them as much as I've gotten to
discuss the outsiders. Although I do not remember anything about Hony Boy or I was like I know that was the name. I remember reading the book. I saw the movie. So I will have to study I think I've got enough.
So I just wanted to say how delightful that was and how great it is to hear about different types of learning being incorporated and very well fit in your walk through. So all right subcommittee and committee reports unless someone else has a
comment. We're tired. We're tired. Um so we had our finance and facilities meeting uh last week. Um major highlights would be uh we did discuss
the uh delightful new project outside of the middle school entryway. Um being that uh there seems to be a sinkhole um and so that entryway is closed off uh for now and so we're waiting to I guess
that's going to be worked on next week. week. Okay. So, fingers crossed everyone. Um, that one doesn't come in too high, but or all the things. Um, and we also
discussed that, oh gosh, what's the name of the insurance cooperative that um came in? >> Mass strategic. Master Strategic asked to come in and speak with they they led the meeting to um and asked specifically
to speak with the district in Templeton etc. and Winston they want to form a smaller JPA within >> the mass strategic group they they're they're aiming for four small groups within the bigger group and they've
already done one that's down Webster direction. So now they're kind of considering this like the north central one. Um, and basically
they want you to be a group of like a thousand or more in members. >> Um, so as a group in mass strategic each like we negotiate our prices from their hands directly with them. Templeton does
theirs and and it's it's all over the place, which isn't a bad thing, but your claims, if you have really bad claims, those are all yours. By forming these little groups, the claims kind of get spread out and eventually
you will work towards the same plan design, the same weight. And hopefully in the future by doing this, maybe we can see rate increases that are not double digits in the future, but it's not going to happen right away. But that
would be like the goal to get that something that's like around the 5% mark. And then uh I'm trying to pull it up so I can get the information correct, but we additionally discussed the
increases that have been confirmed. Um for the I don't like the way Google does this to me. >> It's for the UFCW retirees. Yes. Standard 63% increase rates are going up.
>> Thank you. I sure just ask. >> Yeah. So 633% rate increase and that is that is going to hurt. So, you know, budget season should be >> just to put it into perspective, we have
about 25 of those retirees because the UFCW, if you don't know, is the custodians, the cafeteria, Paris, secretary. So, there isn't as many retirees in that group as the teacher group,
>> but it still helps. >> Strict operations. Um so was that at the very beginning of November. Um Dr. C let us know that he is working through he's completing the area admin
salary survey that he does every couple of years. Um hopefully the next meeting we'll have I think you had almost everything maybe still missing quad but you are getting pretty close to finishing that so we could take a look at it. We also talked about the UFCW
um 16% increase. Um Dr. C gave us an update or report out from the all chairs meeting. Um that was the first one for this year which is nice that we're we're able to do that
again and bring together all the uh the chairs of the um town um agencies to start talking about all these important things as we head into budget and season so that there are no surprises. Um we had we looked at the
the competency determination policy again because we knew it was coming back to full committee for a second reading. Um we decided to leave the cell phone a cell phone policy as like an open item for discussion um because we um we don't
know what is going to happen yet in the state from the state. So um just sort of to be able to touch base if anything new has come about. Um, I did put on our agenda to to take a look at um the MASC
recommended a um adjustment to the KBB relations with parent boosters organization policy and we actually didn't have a policy that had much to do with our boosters. We have some fundraising policies and so um we'll continue to talk about that. Um
Molly gave us an update on where we are in terms of the NEAS accreditation process or admit process um last year started with orientation and this year they're working through all of the um conferences that did they start they did
start you did you told us that already um and so they're working through that process also the early college program is in review Um and Molly told us about the the um air AIRIR um organization that Desi's partnered
with and that they're going to come in and do the um to do the review labor management committee. Um we did have a work environment um meeting can't remember the end of last month. Um
and uh good meeting uh three of the four groups represented there had come so it was nice to connect with everyone and talk. Um big focus there is how do we get the UFCW contract is up for renewal.
Um and so working diligently to try to get some traction on that and UFCW members are I want to be clear very much pushing to get that going. just hoping to burn me some calendars. Um there
nothing with the uh nothing with this time. Uh CP >> nothing to report. Okay. Um PTO Sean's not here this time. Um student advisory council. >> Nothing new.
>> Nothing new. Okay. And legislative. Oh, let's see. Um the Trump administration has decided that they are going to um start assigning some of the roles of the Department of Education to
other um agencies. And so um see the K basically everything K through 12 is going to be assigned to the uh office of labor relations. What is it? Management. Hold on. Where's my little cheat sheet here?
Um, Department of Labor, sorry. And um, so and they'll be overseeing all of the entitlement grants like Title One. Um, so doesn't sound like there'll be any interruption, but it will be paid out of a different um, department or agency. Um,
what else? So, it sounds like IDA and um the Department of Special Education um is going to or the Office of Special Education is stayed with the Department of Education for now, but the plan is to transfer that to health and human
services, which is unfortunate because students with disabilities have nothing to do with insurance. That's just my take. Um and we'll see what happens as everything becomes dismantled and education as we know changes. Yeah, there's a lot there's a lot of
nervousness in our towns as well about how things are going to be probably major federal grants are going to be funded because um special education um is a very big line item and making sure that that continues to be well funded but also that there is advocacy
for those students and ensuring those students continue to have that equal access to education. So there's a lot of nervousness in the education community around what do these changes mean and what does this mean for our access to those experts and those resources? Um
and most importantly what does this mean for those kids that are benefiting from that access and those resources. So um this this is a question we get a lot around what happens if title one goes away or what happens if IDA goes away
and so so forth. So um lots of lots of unknowns, lots of uncertainty, emotions of discomfort, lots of questions. >> As notable respondents this evening, um our next meeting date is Thursday, December 18th.
Um, we do not need executive session this evening. Um, and so I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion by N. >> Second, >> second by Bill. Um, all in favor.
>> Thank you everyone. We appreciate your time this evening.