It is 6:30 and so I'm going to call to order the regular meeting of the Nshoba Regional School Committee at 6:30 p.m. And if you would like to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, just mute and you can um say it with me if you'd like.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thanks everybody. Uh so the first matter
is public comment. I have received no requests for public comment, so we're just going to go right past that. And um unfortunately Ryan um we are heading into executive session. So we are hoping to be back in
the regular session hopefully by 700 p.m. after the executive session is over. Uh so Amy, do you want to read the motion for the executive session? >> Yeah. Let me unmute and then open my attachment here.
>> Okay. Thanks. Sorry, Leah. Is there a way like are you going to pull me into some type of breakout room separately or should I leave and rejoin later? >> So, you have to leave and then I think when you try to rejoin Alita, does it automatically will it automatically put
people into the waiting room? >> Yes. >> All right. So, Ryan, you could just jump out and then jump back in and we'll leave you in the waiting room. >> Hopefully half half an hour at most. >> Okay. >> Okay.
>> Okay. I enter into executive session at 6:32 p.m. pursuant to MGL chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a
detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares session to include the school committee superintendent Downing assistant super sorry superintendent of finance and operations Ross McCarron and director of student services Rowan
Deanch committee will reconvene to open session at the conclusion of the executive session. >> So, I do declare that it is necessary and I second the motion. So, let's go around the room and take our vote. I will start with Amy.
>> Yes. >> Myself, yes. Scott, >> yes. >> Jillian, >> yes. >> Shandor, >> yes. >> Robin, >> yes. >> Sharon, >> yes. John, >> yes.
>> Jackie, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> And Matt, >> yes. >> I think I got everybody. All right, everybody. So, uh, we are heading into executive session now. Those who We're going to move on to the next item
on our agenda now that we're back in regular session. And that next item is the consent agenda. And I'll turn to Amy for a motion. >> Amy's internet is not being good. Oh, Amy, can you >> can you hear me now? >> Yeah, >> I was muted. I just I just read the
whole thing. Sorry. I move to approve the consent agenda of September 24th, 2025. >> I'll second that. Any discussion on the consent agenda? Okay, let's take the vote. Amy Cohen, >> yes. >> Which I don't actually have to call you
Amy Cohen anymore because >> a you're only Amy. Uh Scott, >> yes. And Jillian, >> yes. >> Shandor, >> yes. >> Robin, >> yes. >> Jackie, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes.
>> Matt, >> yes. >> John, >> yes. >> And Sharon, >> yes. >> All right, so the consent agenda passes. Thank you for that. Uh, we have the school committee chairperson update and I have no uh updates beyond the regular agenda items. So, we're just going to
keep cruising along here. And we have our uh fantastic student representative Ryan Mitro here to give us his report. Hi Ryan. >> Hello. Um I'll give you we do have um another school committee rep who has
been selected. Um she will join us next meeting. So just kind of an informal introduction. Her name is Mar Maria and I'm sure she'll tell you a little more when she joins us. Um, the Massachusetts Association of Student Representatives is having their delegate assembly on
October 18th, and I'll be running a workshop there. So, if there's anything you want me to include or ask questions to other student reps about maybe how they work things, um, feel free to tell me um, now or email me if anything comes
to mind. Um, Google Gemini is live for student use. I know I per I personally use it just the other day to to study for a test um where I was just like quiz me on AP US government um unit one and then it just gave me a bunch of
questions and they had like kind of a conversation like that. So I found it as a useful little study tool. Um athletic updates teams are designating certain games coming up in October for breast cancer awareness and various teams are designing different jerseys and t-shirts
and stuff like that. having a wolf day on October 3. And um our student advisory council to the superintendent principal has also got a a date for their next meeting which is October
23rd. Um so I can um help with the superintendent Downing and we can tell you a little bit more about that as as it kind of happens. That's that's all I got. >> All right, that's awesome. Thanks, Ryan. Uh, what questions does the committee
have for Ryan, if any? >> I am wondering, Ryan, on the conference that you're attending, >> what is the workshop that you're running? Is does it have a title? Is it focused on something specific? >> Um, it's it's kind of entirely up to me.
Um, but what I talked to like a couple other of the directors and sort of the team and mine's just going to be like more or less like a basic kind of lesson um on like different practices of a student representative. So just like how to write the report, how to get your
information, how to reach out to teachers and how to message it, stuff like that. And then so that's kind of like my workshop is more of like a broader kind of scale of things. And then there's others who like one specific for the finances which I'm not running and budgeting stuff like that.
So mine's kind of the more g generalized lesson >> and that's October what did you say? >> Um October 18th. >> Excellent. All right. So good luck at that. Thanks for representing your school and us.
>> We know that you'll be a hit over there at that conference. If anybody has anything that they want Ryan to kind of investigate to perhaps even make our proceed our procedures are pretty good, but we can always get better. So, um, anything you learn, Ryan, we'd love to have you bring it back at the following
meeting. Do you think Maria's going to go with you? >> Um, I'm certainly going to invite her. So, I'll talk to her about that. >> Great. >> Cool. >> All right. Thanks, Ryan. >> Thank you. >> So, keeping it going here, we're going to move on to the superintendent report
and I'll pass it over to Kirk. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to take this opportunity for a moment to share my screen. Um, and confirm that you can see my application. Now, this is our school
district website. Um, and just wanted to point out that we've been work, uh, Bridget uh, Hanigan, our communication specialist, been working on some tools, and I want to bring you specifically, uh, for any community members that are watching us out there to the calendar and events tab at Nshoba.
This is where you can get an aggregate of all the events that are happening in Nishoba. um right there on the page and you can subscribe to the calendars that show you can see the calendars on your web page by selecting uh the check boxes to your
left. Uh but you can also subscribe to calendars by clicking on the follow our events button which will take you to each of the uh schools calendar events that you can subscribe. So autopop populates your own calendar. So this is
something that um Miss Hanigan has been working on and I know this is an important element for our communications subcommittee. So just wanted to take a brief moment to share that all with you uh uh today as a step that we've been
able to take. Um and so coming back into the report I want to talk to you about uh last meeting we signal to you that we would need to make an adjustment based on the change in chapter 70 uh that we've
received once the final budget came in this July. And uh so we have some options in front of us. It's my recommendation we take those options to the uh budget and warrant subcommittee as a place to really drill down on it and then come back to the committee uh with a recommendation with how to
proceed. Uh to talk more about that, I'm going to bring in assistant superintendent finance operations safety Ross McCarron. >> Thank you, Superintendent Downing. Uh I won't read verbatim uh the update, nor will I verbatim read the memo uh that's
been included in your meeting materials. So, sort of summarizing, repeating some of what Superintendent Downing said, uh, at the last meeting, we let you know about our our change in position of total state aid. We're here to focus specifically on chapter 70. You may
recall at that meeting we referenced that the the afternoon before um so within almost 24 hours of that school committee meeting we had been given notice from updated excuse me update notice from DESIE from the regional schools office to say districts regional
districts that received additional chapter 70 needed to follow one of three options uh to bring that forward to their committee with regards to how that gets incorporated into their their budget and what is the impact on assessment and what the legislative process, the statutory process to bring
that forward to the towns. We've identified two options that we are recommending the budget and warrant subcommittee review and then bring back with a final recommendation to the the entire school committee. Um we'll cover that in depth uh with the budget and warrant subcommittee. Uh and again hope
to bring forward that single recommendation. Uh what we found through the process was there was a little bit more to the options that DESIE put out and we sought clarification from Michelle Griffin who works to that regional office at Desi Finance. Um and
it was helpful to have that brief email conversation with her to uh put forward uh the two options that we have included in the memo. And Mr. care and I will add that we also reached out to our contracts attorney with Murphy has tumi leane Peter Melo and he gave us some
guidance there as well. Uh so moving on uh the next item is around uh town representatives for capital requests. Uh madame chair I'm asking you to work with the committee to find a member uh that sits on our school committee for each town that will join
Mr. Mccarron, Mr. Dr. Freezewick and myself as we prepare the capital report not just for December but then also engaging with the towns on those requests. This isn't a typically the school district uh officials led the way on those conversations. We think it is
uh a good move for uh a committee member from each town delegation to join us in those conversations to help facilitate the relationships, gather feedback and offer perspectives. And so we're hoping uh we can have a representative from each town join us. We certainly don't
have to do that those appointments on the spot tonight, Madam Chair, but that's uh your privilege I know as as the chair as well. Um, next I would like to bring assistant superintendent of teaching and learning Laura Friend forward so she can talk about the new MCCAST family portal and
then she'll uh talk about the tiered focus monitoring ESSA grants as and jumping into the strategic work on uh deeper learning implementation. So before we get into that deep meaty work is there any questions around uh the
calendars chapter 70 adjustments or capital? >> Yeah. So, thanks Kirk. I do want to kind of cut this in half so that we when we start talking with Laura, it's kind of a code switch. So, um just to back up to that town representatives for capital requests,
>> uh there, you know, I considered maybe creating a subcommittee for this, but I don't actually think that a subcommittee is necessary. I think all we're looking for, and we've done this before, is to have a liaison from the school committee join our buildings and grounds people to
go and and meet with our select boards. Um, we've leazed with them for various reasons, including the school building committee, etc. And so, if you are interested in helping in this way, I'd like to go I'd like to start first by just having you email me to show your
interest. And if there is an overwhelming level of interest, maybe I'll just draw names from a hat. I know we're all very busy right now. We've all been assigned to to lots of stuff to do with the subcommittees. Um, so I'm looking for volunteers to be these liaison. I'm assuming the commitment
would be what, Kirk? >> Uh, the commitment would be I think we would meet prior to uh presenting the capital uh budget to the this group in December. Uh but there's some follow-ups from that. Do you want to talk to that,
Mr. Mularen? >> Yeah, I'd be happy to jump in. Um you know, I think number one is time commitment. I think we try to minimize that obviously. Um for those who have not maybe been in
their um their designated schools um from their towns in a long time and you've probably never seen the boiler rooms and things like that. We will be scheduling building walkthroughs with town officials and planning board members. Um those folks in the the member towns that are are in charge of
capital requests. Um so that would be something that we'd want them to join on. Um we do review the capital plan with budget and warrant before it goes before uh the school committee in December. So potentially that meeting as well. And then when we are presenting
and following up on capital items, inviting that member to those meetings to help be part of that and um you know advocate and answer questions and problem solve with our town officials on capital. So, you know, when we're not talking
about the high school building and obviously there's not a lot of capital requests for our high school right now because it's about to be torn down, but um the other buildings are all owned by the towns and so they are the ones who decide what kinds of maintenance is done
and they put it on the warrants completely separate from the t from the school budget. And so having a member of the school committee leaz with them is probably um useful and I know that they we did a little of that last year and it it went
well to have you know their neighbors talking to them in addition to our building and grounds experts. So >> yeah and and I would I would just add that each of the three towns handles our requests and followup processes different in each town. So, I think it's helpful for a school committee member to
understand their town's own process for receiving the capital requests and processing them and moving forward to that town that town meeting uh time. >> All right, so everybody just email me on that. Any clarifying questions? All right, hopefully I get three
volunteers. Um let's go keep going up. Any anybody have questions on the chapter 7 um conversation and pushing that to budget and warrants? Scott, what do you think? I just wonder if we could take a straw poll about the um desire or
one of the options requires that the towns hold a special town meeting to approve it. Um I know my personal belief is that's not a good use of time and resources, but I wonder if we could take a straw poll on how other people feel about that option as well before we have
a lengthy discussion about it in BMW. >> Yeah. Um, so I I think the straw poll might be rather uninformed. I get that a special town election is not ideal in the three towns and would be labor intensive, resource
intensive. Um, I'm not sure people could give you proper feedback on that because the options haven't been vetted. But um maybe we can just I would argue that I like the idea of sending it to budget and warrant just so that in a smaller more informal environment we
could kind of pull these two options apart and you guys could develop a recommendation for the committee as opposed to us dismissing one outright. >> Okay. >> Um but can is everybody on board with that? Is that okay? I know I'm adding to budget and warrants agenda, but is that
is that okay that we ask that that subcommittee to do that work? Can I get a thumbs up if you guys are okay with making Scott do this or Scott's group, Amy and and Jillian? Thanks, guys. I know. All right, guys. So, we'll wait for that recommendation.
We do appreciate you guys doing that leg work for us. And Ross, you'll be there to help answer lots of questions. >> Yes, that's correct. >> All right. And then back up. Um I just want to say that the school um and district calendar stuff is amazing. I've already downloaded it to my phone and it
is already working. I'm super happy about this development. I know Amy, this is something that you have >> wanted forever. So, what do you think? >> Well, yeah, you I was hoping to get in there before you so I could be the first to thank Superintendent Downing and his team for making this a reality. And I
think um you've probably made a lot of parents' lives a lot easier. Um, I I tested out that follow, you know, follow our events button and it was just so seamless and easy and um I really have
been wanting this for like eight years. So, thank you. >> You're welcome. And and I'm going to share and point those congratulations and gratitudes to Miss Hanigan for the hard work that she put into making it was a little more complicated than you would imagine it to be. uh but she was
the one that that was able to untie the knots and make that happen. >> Well, I'm very very appreciative as are many parents and I think it's going to help everyone um avoid planning events on the same days, you know, um between the different buildings and parents with
multiple children and all that stuff. So, thank you. >> All right, any other comments or questions? All right, so I think we can jump back down to Laura's presentation on those last few bullets. So Laura, please take it away. >> Sure. Thank you, um, Chair Vibero, and
it's some updates. The first update is relative to a family update. Uh, next Wednesday, October 1st, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will launch a new MCCAST family portal.
The portal will provide families with online access to their child's individual MCCAST scores, including last spring's results and where applicable results from 2024 and 2023. To create an account, families will need
their child's state assigned student identifier. It's called a SASID along with their child's date of birth. So in preparation for the roll out and the um availability of the portal, our plans as
a district for communication include uh providing families with an update this Friday in the common and then our principles will follow up with a communication to their specific school communities on Monday with specific
information about how we are going to communicate with families their students state assigned student IDs. And that process will include uh digital a secure digital document delivery similar to our report card um delivery
that our families are accustomed to. And that uh secure digital document delivery will happen on Tuesday between 3 and 5 in preparation for the opening of the portal on Wednesday. So families should
be on the lookout for um information this Friday in the common and then from their building principles on Monday with the launch on Wednesday from Desi. So that's the first update.
Would you like me to proceed or does any I I turn to you chair? >> Yeah. Why don't we uh give people chance to ask questions because these things are a little different. Anybody have any questions about the portal launch? Lord, does it hold historic data? >> 2023 and 2024.
>> Okay. >> And and Yeah. >> So, all that paper I've been saving is not a waste. >> Still keep it. Yep. >> Okay. Let's keep going. >> Will the >> Oh, Amy has a question. Go ahead, Amy. >> Will the Will parents still receive a printed copy?
>> Yes. Okay. >> Those will those we understand will be distributed by the department this fall. And so we'll follow our similar process of mailing those home to families. >> Great. >> Keep on going.
>> All right. Moving on. Um, thank you, Madam Chair. The second update is relative to two important state monitoring reviews that NHS is engaged in. Both reviews are pretty significant and
they occur every six years. The first is the tiered focused monitoring review through through the office of language acquisition. It's called OLA. Um and um this review looks at how districts are supporting specifically our English learners. It reviews um our
identification processes, our instructional services, lenture of our educators, family engagement and recordkeeping. We completed our self assessment last spring and we are preparing for DESI's verification process currently and um
that will occur the first week in December. That will potentially include specific record reviews from identified students, interviews with um faculty, staff and administrators here at NHSO and potential classroom visits. So that's
the first review. The second review that we are also engaged in is relative to the every student succeeds uh ESSA grant. So you the committee is familiar with our ESSA grants. That's title 1, 2, 3, and four. And this review
um assesses our alignment with federal requirements as they relate to advancing student achievement, equitable access, and well-rounded opportunities. This one's also significant and the documentation that supports this review for us is due in February. So, I'll be
certain to keep the committee updated on both reviews and any pertinent outcomes or findings that come our way and if applicable throughout the school year this year. We wanted to be make the committee aware that both of those reviews are happening. >> That's a lot of work. Do we have any
questions for Laura on that one? Not seeing any. Uh, so let's go to the last piece here. >> The last piece is uh in support of our Oh, Scott, you had a question. Am I frozen?
Because that's always a possibility. I think Scott might be frozen. >> I think Scott's frozen. >> Bummer. All right. Well, hopefully he'll come back. Laura, why don't you keep going and then when he comes back we can ask a question if he has it. >> Sure. Thank you. So the the last update
is in support of our strategic efforts and an announcement and we are pleased to share that NOVA noba has been accepted into the deeper learning implementation network again for this school year. This marks the third year of participation for our regional high
school. We're excited that we will also be joining our middle school participating ELA teams to the work this year, which is also very exciting. The committee will recall that participation over the past year has been impactful for our high school educators and has
particularly supported our curriculum review work and our work towards deepening student learning. Uh as well the committee will likely remember that acceptance into the network has also afforded us financial support through
grant funding um for the past two years. While we are not certain that this will be the case again this year, we remain hopeful. Um, and I, you know, I've provided a little additional information here in the update about the deeper learning
kaleidoscope collective initiative through DESIE, which is intended to strengthen professional learning for educators, strengthen and deepen instructional practices to support student engagement, disciplinary thinking, and classroom discourse. So the work will continue
this year as members of our team work as a school-based cohort and with peer colleagues in neighboring districts um on the on the larger front and we will engage in learning cycles, learning walks with our our desic consultants and
program evaluation. So we're looking once again forward to the work and the progress this year as part of deeper learning. >> Excellent. Thanks so much Laura. Do we have any questions? Scott, we lost you, but you're back.
>> Yeah, sorry about that. Zoom crashed on me right when I had a question regarding the grant reviews, actually. So, I'm going to ask if we can back up one item for a quick quick question. >> Of course. I noticed that both the reviews for two of the programs are being done in this
calendar year and I'm wondering if fact that those are both being done at the same time is at all disruptive for the administration and you know is if so does it is it makes sense to ask that they unsynchronize them so that maybe one of them happens a year earlier next time
that just something I thought about. >> Mr. Pal, I want to invite you to join me at our next meeting with the commissioner. Uh these are compliance requirements that the t the timing laid down against each other. So, uh to we could appeal,
but I'm afraid it would be to no avail. >> No, I'm not suggesting they don't run it, but you know, could one of them be done five years from now so they're not done at the same time again the next time they happen? Um the uh program review is done well what was formerly known as the program review the tiered
focus monitoring must happen every three years. It's on a regular three-year cycle. Um, madam super, assistant superintendent, you want to talk about that as a grant review like how often?
>> Yes, it it it um every every six years and yes, it is a substantive amount of work, Mr. Powell. Um much of that work falls in the department of teaching and learning um and and not on our school administrators. So, we're grateful um
that there's not a significant tax there for our principles and our assistant principles. Um but it really is a review of what we have been doing over the past 5 years. So, it's a lot of pulling um
records, documents, writing narratives, um ensuring compliance. I will say that we engaged in a bulk of the work as it relates to the OLA review for our English learners in the spring. So that lift is off of our plate. Uh and so
we're in the second half of it, which is a little bit lighter. We are in the document uh collection phase for our ESM ESSA um grants right now. So it it is a bit staggered, but they do coincide.
>> Okay. Thank you. as Miss Friend and I like to say, we got to find the opportunity that lies within. And I and I will say with us coming up next year to um rewriting or updating our strategic plan, those will be two anchor documents that support that work.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? I I would just like to to um commend some we have some teachers who are helping and engage with that work. Um and I would just like to commend our teachers for the work
whenever asked. They always produce and are supportive. So we're grateful to our educators always and again for this purpose. Great. All right everybody. So that's it for the superintendent report. Thank you,
Kirk and team. We appreciate you. Uh, on to new business. Um, we do not have our new student representative here with us today as Ryan said, but we look forward to meeting Maria in person next week. That's exciting. Um,
>> just to make sure the community and the committee knows, Maria Almeida is her name. >> Awesome. And she Do you know what town she's from? Oh, I'm gonna hate to say one if I get it wrong. >> Okay, we'll we'll find out. Laura, you
know, >> Lancaster. >> Just want to make sure. >> All right. >> Um, so let's move on to new business everybody. Um, on to letter B here. And that is a quick um shift that our DearJ
advisory committee is looking for us to make for them. As you guys know, our advisories are annually created by the school committee. And last June, we did create DERJ or we did renew DERJ to continue helping us with our equity work
and in and making sure that the school committee's practices and protocols are in line with our equity audit and and our um mission statement. So, um Matt is going to Matt and I are kind of working with DearJ to be their
liaison at this point in time. I will eventually fade out and Matt will take the role full-time. Um so in just brief conversation they have asked that the composition actually be shrunk. So they would like us to um make the advisory a
seven person advisory. Uh we had originally set it at 11 and that number is just um a little bit too unwieldy and um they're they're struggling to get quorum um for all of their meetings. So, we were set to meet
last week, Matt. Right. Yeah. Um and and we did not have enough folks show up to to have quorum, so we had to cancel the meeting. So, we think that part of the um issue might be that we've set the number too high and they
are asking that we set it at 7. And then in addition, once we if we v vote to set it at 7 tonight, um they are also looking for volunteers. So, if we set it to seven, there would still be two seats
that are uh open and um anybody who is interested in helping be a part of our dearj advisory committee and and help with the work of equity through uh school committee practices etc. then they should email me directly at elviverto nrrsd.net
and um I can put you in char in touch with the leaders of dearj. So before I'm going to make a motion, but before I do that, do we have any clarifying questions? All right. So I'm going to move that we changed the deer J composition
to be a seven member advisory. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Oh, I think Matt might have had you even though his voice didn't come through. Matt, did you second that? >> Okay. Uh, so any further discussion?
All right. So, let's take the vote. Matt, you can start. >> Wait, actually, Leah, I have a question. >> Oh, I'm sorry, Amy. Go ahead. >> My my connection is so slow with um that's part of it. But what was there any discussion about like the composition of the SE seven members like
you know like representation across the towns or different types of roles that need to be that would that people would want on that committee? or is it just like any seven people will do?
>> So, um typically when people show or when people email me, they give a brief explanation as to, you know, their interest. Um it is up to my discretion to appoint people to the DearJ advisory.
And so, um it's a fairly straightforward process. If I were to get say 15 applicants, 15 people who are interested in those two seats, then um what we would try to do is get representation across the three towns, which we currently lack. Um we sometimes struggle
to have representation from Lancaster historically. Um Bolton tends to be the lion share, but not always. So I think representation across the three towns is the most important prerequisite. Um and then
you know we would I would just kind of pull from a hat at that point you know bring it to dear J. So we don't we are just the motion is only to bring it down to seven. Um and I just wanted to announce to the community
that we do have two vacancies. Any further questions or discussion? Jackie just a clarification. And so there were eight people appointed in June. So by voting for the seven, we're
reappointing seven of those members. >> Yeah. So this would not affect the five people who are remaining. We've had three. >> Okay. Okay. >> Resignations. Yeah. And so I can I can clarify for you guys at the next meeting the fi the five names who remain. Um, I
could probably find it quick, but I don't think it's necessary. >> Yeah, that's okay. >> Um, so we've had three resignations. People that are just feeling a little overwhelmed and need to step away um because they're busy otherwise. >> I did want to just if it's okay, Leah,
just speak to to Amy's question. There were outreach attempts made over the summer. We we did reach out to people who had expressed some interest and just it just didn't come to fruition unfortunately.
Yeah. So spread the word everybody. Um any other questions? All right. So we're voting on the motion to reduce the composition to seven members. So I'll start with Matt. >> Yes. >> I vote yes. Robin,
>> yes. >> Shandor, >> yes. Jillian, >> yes. >> Jackie, >> yes. Lindsay, >> yes. >> Uh, Sharon, >> yes. >> John, >> yes. >> Amy, >> yes.
>> And Scott, >> yes. >> Excellent. Thanks so much, everybody. So I um Matt perhaps you could alert dear Jay of that development and um let them know that we've put out the call for volunteers but I think that with five members they can now find a quorum
>> and go ahead with that next meeting that I think is schedu guys keeping on moving here uh into the finance and operations update. I think this is for Ross. >> Yeah, we actually covered that in the superintendent report. Madam Chair, forgive my air on the agenda. Oh, so no
new item there. Okay. Sorry. Um All right. And then into unfinished business, we have um a well, yeah, there's a little bit of a goals goal language switch for the budget and warrant subcommittee. At the workshop, we asked budget and warrant to
kind of um wordsmith that goal. And so I'm going to turn it over to Scott. Scott, who's the chair of budget and warrant this year? So at our meeting that was held last Friday, I was selected to be the chair of budgets and warrant for the current fiscal year.
>> Congratulations. >> Thanks. >> Uh so do you want to walk us through your um decision like what you want the new goal to be? >> Yeah. So we discussed what the the goal was um and we felt so there was two thing two we felt there were two
shortcomings effectively. Um, one of which had to do with the fact that the school committee agreed to have us work on a recommendation with respect to the excess and deficient funds and how we should be using them going forward. So, we added a sentence to the goal that
reflects that that's one of our goals for the current year. So, the the added sentence says the subcommittee will develop a recommendation for the use of E and D in school budgets by the end of November. So basically committing us to coming up with a recommendation within
the next two months. The other thing that we um did some additional work on was we felt that the wording that talked about um work develop increasing accessibility
and visibility to the development of the district budget and budget book was insufficient. Um we also thought that the committee's role should include um increased accessibility and visibility to budget drivers and budget variances.
So variances meaning any differences between the amount that was budgeted and the amount that actually gets spent um and budget drivers just being meaning more detail about the the factors that affect the budget. So those are the two
aspects that we felt um more accurately reflected what the budget warrants committee should be doing this year. >> All right. So I'm hoping that I've properly shared the document that budget and warrant came up with. You all can see it, right?
>> Yes. >> Okay. So that is the um edit that they are proposing to the budget and warrant subcommittee goal. Is there any and I cannot see most of you. So, is there any discussion on this? Any questions?
I'm not hearing anybody jump in. All right. So, Scott, do you want to make a motion on this and we can take a vote to adopt? So, I move that the school committee update the objective for the 24 to 26
period for the budget warrants committee to the proposed language that is showing on the screen right now that Miss Vivivero is sharing with us. >> I'll second that. Any further discussion? >> All right. So, it looks like uh
discussion will close and I will take the vote. So, Scott, >> yes. >> Amy, >> yes. >> Jillian, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. Shandor, >> yes. >> Robin, >> yes. >> Matt, >> yes. >> Lindsay,
>> yes. >> Jackie, >> yes. >> Sharon, >> yes. >> And John, >> yes. >> Did I get everybody? I think so. All right, guys. Fantastic. Thanks for doing that work. Um,
could you uh Scott, could you email that to Alita so that she can update the website with that new goal language? >> Yes, >> I'll add it to our matrix so that when we're doing our um self-reflection at the end of the year, we'll be reflecting on the right part the right thing.
>> Okay. >> All right, everybody. So, we're on to the next item on the agenda and that is subcommittee report outs. Is there anything that one of the subcommittees or advisory liaison wanted to share with the committee? >> Yeah, Scott.
>> So, the audit advisory committee was planning to meet in September, but um it turns out we lack sufficient representation. Um we need a Bolton representative. So, we've deferred that meeting to October in the hopes that in the meantime we can get um a
representative from Bolton to join the audit advisory committee. >> Okay, thanks for that. Um have you reached out to the Bolton Select Board to make and or um advisory committee to perhaps get their help? >> I haven't.
That might that might be a good place to go because somebody on the advisory committee might be willing to step in and help. >> Okay. >> Yeah. The advisory committee being the Bolton Fincom. Basically, that's what they call it though.
>> Okay. >> Awesome. Any other subcommittee updates? >> Yeah, Jackie. Uh so policy subcommittee met on the 15th and we're meeting again next week. We should have um
several uh timesensitive first reads um across the month of October and then in November. So just be on the lookout for those. >> Excellent. And are you still finding the spreadsheet that is linked to our materials to be useful to your
committee? So, I was going to actually email you and ask if that was really necessary at this point. I don't think that it is, but I wanted to make sure that um policy discussed that before we brought it to you. >> Uh yeah, I I mean I don't necessarily
think so. It's really a tool that policy found useful. So, if you guys don't think you need it anymore, then you can retire it. >> Okay. We'll talk about it at our next meeting. >> It was pretty awesome while it lasted though. Any other Was that it for policy, Jackie?
Yeah. Okay. Any other subcommittee shout outs? Go ahead to Amy. >> Uh yeah, the communication subcommittee met on September 16th. We uh started reviewing the survey data that was sent out from last year and we're going to be
working on um kind of pulling that together and sharing out with the school committee kind of the key takeaways and some of the recommendations. Um, the other thing that I wanted to bring up is that we need to get a date on the calendar to meet with the student
council. And after hearing um, our student representatives report, I was hopeful that we could meet with the student council before October 18th um, when Ryan's going to his MASC workshop.
um maybe use that as an opportunity to I don't know share learn from the student council about that role or he can explain what he's doing to them and build up that role a little bit. >> So,
>> um Amy, do we agree do we agree to meet with this please remind me the student council twice a year in like kind of at the beginning and in the middle? uh three times, beginning, middle, and end. So we get our first meeting on the on the calendar. >> Can you maybe start an email chain with
Kirk and you can copy me to try so that he can kind of um build that connection across to the high school? >> Sure. Y >> awesome. Thank you. Thanks, Kirk. Any other subcommittee updates? Kirk, do you want to give um a quick building
committee update on the new high school construction, that whole thing? >> Yeah, happy to do it. Um coming up in the October meeting, we will be presented with and voting on the complete uh GMP, the G guaranteed
maximum price. Uh last month, we finalized our final bid package. Bid package 12 uh was approved by the committee and we also discussed the two holds uh that'll be presented in the GMP, which is uh solar and baseball turf
field. Those are two holds because they're options we're holding on to um after the guaranteed maximum price is voted so that we can vet them thoroughly to make sure those are good options. But uh they're not increased uh cost to the
project rather they're within the scope of the project and we'll be taking each one at a time in a future meeting. But our next big step is the October meeting where our sole agenda item will be the guaranteed maximum price. Uh if just a
quick reminder, we have been under a construction management at risk process throughout this um uh building project uh so that we could get rolling. Um there are some financial and uh time benefits to doing that. So this is the moment where the 100% submission will
then be voted on and presented to the MSBA. >> Excellent. And anybody who drives by the site sees that it is just really rocking and rolling. If anybody wants to watch the last um building committee sub building
committee meeting, it's um on YouTube. They actually showed a bunch of drone footage and brought us into the building and showed us all the progress that they're making on the inside and it's like really impressive. You can really start to see what the building is going to look like in the double height space
and it's just really awesome. So check that out. All right, guys. I am not seeing any other subcommittee reports that need to be shared and that's fine by us. Um we are going to do a quick check on items on the next agenda. So if you guys um
haven't found it yet, we have a planning calendar that you all have access to that everybody has access to um that basically shows what I'm going to share it that basically shows what we have planned for um upcoming
things. Just make it a little bigger. Can y'all see it? Yeah. Okay. Uh, so we're going to go down here to the October 8th meeting. This is what is currently on the planning calendar. It's not always super
complete. Um, but these are the things that we definitely know have to happen. Um, this actually just happened. I don't even know what that is. So, I'm going to
delete it. Anything that anybody wants to add? Anything that you want to put even to the parking lot if you don't want it at the next meeting? Okay. So, um if anything comes to you, please email me and then I'll put it on my list of things to talk with Kirk
about at our Wednesday meetings and we can build out that agenda for everybody. All right, everybody. I don't know that it's a record, but it's pretty close. So, I'm going to move to adjourn. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second.
>> Yeah, Jackie. Okay. Um I'm sure there's uh no discussion, but Joe would probably tell me that that's not allowed anyway. I'm going to vote yes. Uh Shandor, >> yes. Robin, I think Robin's holding out. Robin, >> sorry. Yeah, I said yes.
>> Thank you. Uh Jillian, >> yes. And Jackie, >> yes. Lindsay, >> yes. >> Matt, >> yes. >> John, >> yes. >> Sharon, >> yes. >> Amy, >> yes.
>> And Scott, >> yes. >> Awesome. Thanks everybody.