going to call to order the regular meeting of the Nohoba Regional School Committee uh at 6 p.m. on April 30th, 2025. If you would please mute, you can rise if you'd like to do the pledge of allegiance.
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. Thank you all. So, moving the agenda forward, we
have citizens comments next. And I've received no notification for citizens comments. So, we're going to move right beyond that. And the next item on the agenda is to move into executive session. And I'll lean on Amy for that motion. Okay.
I move to enter into executive session at 601 p.m. pursuant to MGL chapter 3A section 21A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel or to conduct
collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel for salary ranges if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect. Think we lost Amy or did you lose me?
No, Amy froze and the chair so declares. Um, hi Amy. You cut out in the middle of your motion. Can you hear me now? Yeah. All right. I'm going to go ahead and make the motion everyone because her connection is unstable. So I move to
enter into executive session at 6:02 p.m. pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30A section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-UN personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union
personnel. Salary ranges if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body and the chair. or so declares. The chair does so declare. Uh, executive session will include the school committee, Superintendent Downing, Director of
Human Resources, Jessica Murdoch. The committee will reconvene to open session at the conclusion of executive session. Do I have a second? Alita, did was it John? Maybe. Did you say Shawn? Oh, Shawn. Sorry,
Shawn. Shandor second. Yeah. Also, I copied that executive session from a previous meeting. It's not about salary ranges. That's my mistake. So, I am going to extricate that portion of the motion salary ranges. And if
Shondor does not mind, do not object. Okay. Thanks, Alita. So, um, let's take the roll call vote or let's see. Shandor, yes. Myself, yes. Sharon,
yes. Amy Vessels, she said yes. Robin, yes. John, yes. Lindsay, yes. Scott, yes. And Amy Cohen, yes. Sorry about that. Yeah, I'm sorry, Amy. You got you got frozen up. Okay.
All right, everybody. We are in session and we are now back in regular session. And so I'm just getting my agenda. So the next item on the agenda is to open up the school choice hearing.
And I would ask Amy for a motion. I move to open up the 2025206 school choice hearing at 6:48 p.m. I second that. Let's do the roll call vote. Shandor, yes. Myself, yes. Sharon,
yes. Amy Vessels, yes. John, yes. Scott, yes. Jackie, yes. Amy Cohen, yes. Robin, yes. Lindsay, yes. and
my screen. Did I get everybody? I think so. All right, everybody. So, this is the school choice hearing where we are hoping to hear from the public on the presentation that was heard at our last school committee meeting regarding opening school choice on a in a limited
fashion as outlined by the superintendent. Kirk, would you like to um say anything before the public weighs in or ask questions? Uh yeah, I'll just do a quick run through the slides to review with the committee and then we'll go from there. Madam Chair, I see we have a a participant here with that is a
phone number. Uh does that person need to declare or turn camera on? I'm not sure the protocol there. Yeah. So, hi Eva. Hi. Oh, it's Ava. It's Oh, it's Ava. I'm driving on that. Ava, do not worry,
Eva. Don't worry. Don't worry. I knew it was going to look weird. Okay. Glad you glad you make it. Uh so, Madam Chair, thank you very much. Um I gave a thorough presentation to the committee on enrollment and school choice at our last meeting and so I've
truncated it down to just the uh school choice public hearing portion. So, I'll share my screen now and we can begin. Okay, this is the 202526 NRSD school choice public
hearing. Uh, some important notes about school choice. Excuse me while I move my taskbar. Um, school choice is automatically open if the school district does not vote to close up by June 1st of each year. Uh the school district can limit the number of students accepted as well as the
locations will be assigned. If there are more applicants than available, a lottery will be conducted. Employees may enroll their children uh through school choice. They're subject to the same rules as anyone else. And once accepted, NRS is obligated to provide the student with a free and appropriate education
until graduation from high school. Siblings of enrolled school choice students will be given preference prior to a lottery. technology snafuss. Um, this is the historical uh receiving sending trend for the school district. And you can see
that since we last uh since we decided to open up school choice again, those numbers have been increasing steadily. The impact of that budgetarily over time was there was a day where we were receiving tuitions at a much greater rate than we were sending. And so that
created a surplus in school choice that uh in 2009 began to be a deficit as our students aged out of the system. And in our efforts in recent years, that deficit has been declining. So our total enrollment of
school choice students last year, FY25, you can see here for each of the schools totaled uh um 39 students. Um and then we opened up a couple of of seats later when we realized that we had
some availability. Uh in the end, this chart shows the locations and the grades of those seats that were filled ultimately with a total of 19 students filling the 42 seats that were available at that time. My keyboard isn't working, so I'm
using my mouse to negotiate this. Okay. So, in managing the recommendations uh that we shouldn't uh my recommendation is we do not open school choice in grades kindergarten through two as we are learning about our youngest students in those early years.
No more than 22 students per class to enroll school choice students. Our class sizes in grades three and up is 24. That ensures we have a buffer that does not push us into needing to add additional staff. Uh we do not want to have more than 220 total students in a grade level
in the show regional high school and no more than 260 across the district in grades K to 8. That will impact us in the fourth grade. for grades uh three to five um that we do not open school choice if the
enrollment was within that number of students at the class floor and no more than four students per grade level per school should be considered and we'll prioritize lower class sizes to keep balance. This is uh just a simple table
that summarizes the points from the previous slide. So when we look at school choice for the Nohoba Regional School District, you can see the total number of seats uh potentially available, you'll notice that grade four has a four in front of
it because they currently um would have 200 the third grade is 256 students. Four more students would uh bring it to 260. So the the recommendation at Nohoba Regional High School is to add four students at grades 10, 11, and 12 to
close grade nine because grade 9 exceeds 220 students. For Florence Sawyer School, we would add four students at third grade, one at fourth grade, four at sixth grade, one at seventh grade, and four at eighth grade.
We would open four seats at fourth grade at Mary Rollinsson Elementary. At Luther Burbank, we would have space to add four students at sixth, seventh, and eighth. At center school, we would have availability to open two seats at fourth
grade. At Hill Middle School, we would have availability to open grades six and eight. Seven would be closed because it uh is within that bandwidth where we would not add students. So uh those recommendations are
summarized u here is that we clo at Florence Sawyer School we close grades kindergarten 1 2 and five. Mary Rollson Elementary, grades kindergarten 1, two, three, and five. Center school, grades kindergarten 1, two, three, and five.
Hail Middle School, grade seven. Noa Regional High School, grade nine. The remaining uh you'll see the grade level and parenthetically is the number of students that was summarized in the slides that I just gave to you. Note the last slide. Grade four will be capped to
accept only four students for the entire district. Currently, you would see four uh fourth graders at Mary Rollinsson, one at Florence Sawyer, and then um two at center is a total of seven,
but we cap it at four so as not to exceed 260 students. And so, uh that language is captured here in the motion. So, option one is to partially open the school choice program. So you you move to
withdraw from the areas uh grade levels I recommend we close and move to participate in the areas presented here and you can simply make that motion to approve uh opening school choice as presented this evening to simplify that.
Uh if the committee's wish is not to participate in school choice at all, uh you would do option two to withdraw entirely from the school choice program. And that shall uh conclude. Uh I will say that if uh approved,
applications will be uh uh opened uh beginning this Friday, May 2nd. The deadline for submission would be May 29th uh by 12:00. A public lottery, if necessary, will be held Friday, May 30th, uh at
10:00 a.m. in the school committee room at 50 Mechanic Street in Bolton. Um any applications received after the lottery deadline will be filed on a first come first- serve basis if available. In other words, if somebody applies uh say
at the beginning of June and those seats were not filled, we would take that applicant. However, no applicants will be accepted after June 26th, 2025 so that we can begin planning for the next school year.
And madam chair, that shall conclude the presentation. Thank you so much for that, Kirk. Appreciate it. All right, so [Music] um I just saw a question pop up in the
chat. Do I see that person in the Zoom meeting? Oh yeah. So I think um is it Mr. Sinabria? Are you able to come off or rather unmute and just ask a
question? Okay. I'm not uh I'm not seeing anybody else from the community in the in the Zoom, so we'll just wait a second. Oh, that's okay. You know, you know what? Let me read your question out loud
so that just for the record, you typed into the chat, um, I am new to this. What do I need to do to transfer my daughter into the school choice program? And so, Kirk, could you just elaborate a little bit here on what a parent would need to do?
That's right. So, this will be posted and we will have a popup on our website beginning this Friday. So, if you simply go to nrsd.net um on this Friday, you'll see the opening popup on the front page. um Miss Mastersonson uh will make sure that
that's there and it'll take you directly to the uh school choice application which you would fill that out and then submit it uh to our office and uh then Miss Masterson will follow up with a confirmation email or phone call. All
right. So, it starts on our website and Kirk, please forgive me for asking this, but we we are starting at fifth grade this year. Uh fourth grade. Oh, there are a couple of fourth grade slots. Yeah. Yeah. There's um four slots for fourth grade. We have seven seats
available across the three schools, but we will only fill four of them to ensure we save the 260 threshold. All right. So, Mr. Sinabria, I hope I am saying that correctly. Um there are the it starts in fourth
grade if the motion were to proceed as the superintendent is recommending. And so, I hope that helps. I'm back. I'm back. Hi. So, I I missed everything because my phone went out. So, I I heard that you have four seats
for sixth grade. So, for fourth grade and up. Oh, okay. So, I didn't I didn't check. Do you have any availability for sixth grade? Yes. Right, Kirk? Sixth grade is open. There are open seats in sixth grade. So,
what do I need to do? This is new for me. Just go to nrsd.net this Friday and there'll be a popup on the home screen. Simply click on the popup and it'll take you straight to the home school page. Okay, that that easy. That is it.
Perfect. There's an application there. Okay, perfect. Enjoy those burgers. I'm sorry. Don't apologize. We're all hungry. We are hungry. Been a long day today.
Thank you. All right. So, good luck with that. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, everybody. I'm not seeing any other members of the community here. So, I assume assume nothing, but we are now going to look
for a motion to close the school choice hearing. The vote will be taken in the regular meeting. Uh Amy, you want to do the honors? Move to close the school choice hearing at 7:01 p.m. I'll second that. Let's
take a vote. I vote yes. Shandor, yes. Amy Vessels, yes. Scott, yes. Jackie, yes. Amy Cohen, yes. Lindsay, yes.
Sharon, yes. Robin, yes. John, yes. All right, everybody. We are back in regular session. Uh, which is great news. Uh, forgive me for one second. Weird. Um, all right. So, we're
going to move on now to the consent agenda. And, um, Mr. Snabria, you can leave the meeting at this point if you don't mind and you can watch us on YouTube, which is a very popular thing to do at dinnertime. Leah. Leah. Leah, I removed him. Oh, you
did? Okay. Thank you, Alita. appreciate it. Um, all right. So, the consent agenda is up. It's quite full. Amy, why don't you give us a motion? I move to approve the consent agenda of April 30th, 2025.
I'll second that. Is there any discussion on the consent agenda? Anything you want pulled out? Go ahead, Sharon. Um, I have still some questions
about policy JH. Can I ask those questions now or? Yes. Okay. So, um I am still confused about absences because it the way this reads
um parents will provide a written explanation for the absence or tardiness of their child. So does that I think when I asked this question last time does that excuse the absence the answer to that was no that
is not an excused absence and I'm I is the problem that I I'm sorry I don't mean to be obtuse about this and I don't want to hold up the committee on it. I just don't understand. Is it is it the word excuse that is getting in the way? Like
what am I doing when I'm calling in and saying my child will not be here today because they are sick? Well, a the first thing you're doing is you're notifying the school so that a uh operationally uh we know that. B in the event that you weren't home, we don't send a well check
to the home to check on the student if they don't arrive to school. So operationally that's a good reason to call into the school always and and check in there. Um in terms you are right in that the word excuse isn't always well defined. Um and so the fact
of the matter is it's absences that count whether they're excused or not excused when you're not there. Uh those absences count. So that's why we were talking about the notification protocols that we're notifying folks once they get to that 10th day uh within the the 5-day
period. Our practice has been to do that monthly and we're going to work with principles on how we tighten that up. But in in terms of whether it's excused or not at the 10th the 10th absence is the 10th absence. It doesn't remove any
requirement that we have to give for notification. So again, I I'm not I'm really trying to understand this and not belavor the point. If my child is absent
um so I'll use a real example. Um in the at the end of the um first semester, Alyssa had been absent too many times and she was she had to do something that
came through the dean, I think, um because she had been absent from school too many times. And then we realized that that was because she had been absent. She had
the flu. She had been out for a week, but we hadn't gotten the medical note to excuse that absence. So then when she got the medical note saying she was out for these 5 days
because she had the flu, then that excused the absence. So now it was not she hadn't exceeded her number of absences. I think you're speaking to an operational matter of how that was handled. Now we take that question
directly to that administration group. In terms of notifications of the policy, we're just saying this is the standard in the policy of which we communicate with families around the absentee requirements. I think that there are two things acting
on parents right now. the policy. Yes. And this is really about kind of um extraordinary absenteeism, but then there's the handbook absenteeism policy that impacts kids grades and makeup work
and zeros in power school, things like that. So, how does this dovetail with the handbooks, Kirk? Or does it? Should it? Well, it doesn't, but you're going to have an opportunity to ask those questions on May 28th when we bring the Nuroba Regional High School Handbook to
this committee. And so I think Sharon that the questions you're asking are really about the kids experience in the class and not necessarily our reporting to Desi about truency. Okay. And I think that the handbook
polices does probably need some questioning. Okay. So that th this about absences is having to do with reporting to DESIE around truency. This is these these are around those things of what our requirements are
essentially saying for students to learn they need to be in school and Okay. May I ask one more? It matches the regulations. Yeah. Go ahead. May I ask one more question? I'm sorry. Um now this um the section about dropout
prevention and a student that's been absent from school for more than 10 consecutive days. Again it says of unexcused absence which again is that confusing piece. Um is that does that have a standalone
policy as well? Because I remember this coming up also as part of that of a conversation. I but I don't remember it being part of this policy. Is it in another policy or is this the only place where it is? This is the place where it is. This is the place where it is. What
what I'll say about that is it helps differentiate where excuse helps differentiate is when we're talking about um school refusal issues related to IEPs about medical needs where a student is is out of school for a
significant time. Mr. Manch I think spoke to that at the last meeting as well. Okay. Um, so this but again this dropout thing is related to how it is reported to DESIE and not how it is
managed by the district. I'm not quite sure what you're asking there, Miss Pac. Um we are required to report absenteeism to uh desi. We don't report whether it's an excused whether
it's a not excused. We report absences. But the regulations say, Sharon, that when a kid is absent on the 10th consecutive day, that the school is supposed to remove them, unenroll them, which for kids who are um struggling,
that needs to be dealt with far more delicately than just a terrifying email to a parent who's dealing with a kid who's struggling in their own home. And so I think that's where Rowan got involved. At the last meeting, I asked the question, you know, if you have a kid who's engaged in kind of this school
refusal routine and the parent is like struggling to get their child to go to school, they shouldn't get a cold email from the school saying your child is being removed. And Rowan said definitely not. That is something that we are going
to work on and continue to be sensitive about. However, the regulations I think Kirk say that on the 10th consecutive day the child should be removed because I know in some schools we just have kids who decide to go to work or move and
therefore there needs to be a cut off moment where the school takes that kid off the rolls. Right. So are what is what you're saying that this is
falling now into operational. So, it's not something that we have purview over or I I just I'm feeling really uncomfortable with the way this is written. I just I am really
uncomfortable for with um you know, a child who's been absent from school for 10 consecutive days can be unenrolled. If that were implemented as it is written, two of my children would have been unenrolled from the district. That
but the sorry Jackie. So this came up in conversation with a few things, right? So, Sharon, the way that I I think collectively the policy subcommittee thinks about policy versus
the values, the mission and also the operational spirit of Nishoba as a district that the operational part, the values and the mission are separate from the policy to some degree
because policy is just making sure that we're meeting the gu like the guidelines and the expectations whereas like the everyday activities you can't really capture that in a policy I guess is a really not very
articulate way of saying it but I understand your concern and I also know that in talking to policy subcommittee and then when we've asked these questions before when you talk about what are the actions that have to happen
when you need to do what this policy would ex would ask any administrator to do that there is a an internal process that happened in the example that you
gave right so like it was you have absences okay now I can do these things and then now these are excused because they are medical absences so Kirk Is there an internal
process that marries this policy to the spirit of our mission? Absolutely. Yeah, we haven't just we haven't unenrolled anyone for their absences. As a matter of fact, we do the opposite. We try to figure out what are the pathways uh to get in there. Um each each scenario is
unique and different and you know, we are going to continue to to work with our families and be dynamic um to to ensure that students are in school and getting their education. So, and sometimes we're in scenarios where stu students are getting home education
services because there's something out of their control that requires that and that's through those other processes that Mr. Deans described last week. So Sharon, um I hear what you're saying about still not feeling comfortable
because there's nothing that would require a future administrative team to do this thing that is the middle ground. Do you want to pull this out of the consent agenda and keep talking it through and maybe add an asterisk here?
I I guess I I don't want to hold up the committee from passing this. If if the committee is comfortable with it as it is, I will accept that. I I just
um this is a point where I feel like you know with many many things we strive to be exemplars and this is something that could could be written better. Um so let me ask this. Can I get a thumbs up if you all would support pulling this one
piece out to for like just a little bit more consideration? I would. All right, guys. I'm What do you think, Jackie? No, I think it's a I think it's the same
the times that we've come to conversations about this. It's this it is it's a it feels like a bigger conversation than than just this one policy. What I will say is this policy memorializes the regulations whether we voted or not. We
have to follow the regulations. Correct. So I just have one question. Yeah. In the redline version of this, there's notes that talk about Desi's minimum requirements for policies and
protocols, but is that but that's not reflected in the cleaner version or whatever. So, like I'm just confused as to why those are there or if that is what we should be paying attention to
when we're looking at the handbook. And perhaps that's what addresses Sharon's concerns. Amy Vessels, can you speak to that note at the bottom of this red line? I can share it. I have it up if that's easier. Okay.
I think this would bring us back to the conversation when we get to the handbook about crosswalking and making sure that what things like Amy and and Sharon are illuminating right now that these are spelled out very clearly. Can you
guys see this? Yep. So these notes here, I just I haven't seen something like this on other policies that we've reviewed. And so I didn't know if that was the policy committee's attempt to
No. What are the those are notes that MASC included in the redline version. And this happens from time to time, but it's not common. And so it just is referencing. I think to our point there's the desi minimum requirements
but then there's also this operational and also you know just care and concern for our students that our handbooks are effectively speaking to this. Yes. I mean to me this reads as this is what you should be thinking about for
the handbook. These are the things that you can be should be considering for the how it should be um handled operationally to be implemented because it says the following items which are most appropriate for inclusion in student handbooks.
Yep. Shandor. Yeah. Um I'd like to separate this out so we can remove the notes because they shouldn't be part of the policy. Well, when you go down here, they're not. I think this is the this is the version that doesn't that doesn't show
the red lines, right? But this is the final version. So, they're not actually on there. So, Sharon, would you I'm going to ask you one more time. Would you feel more comfortable pulling this out of the consent agenda? We can discuss it maybe on the same at the same time as the
handbook discussion or do you want to push the policy forward and then just make sure that the handbook discussion reflects some of these notes? I am I'm okay with pushing letting it go forward um and recognizing that this policy is
um meeting the the minimum requirements I guess of of what is expected. Um, and I just I guess would like to state clearly that I think that we can do better than just that. Um, and I
would and I know that we do, but I would like to see it um encoded somewhere. Um, okay. Got it. All right, everybody. So, any further discussion on the consent agenda then? All right, seeing none, let's take
the vote on the consent agenda. Amy Vessels, yes. Myself, yes. Scott, yes. Amy Cohen, yes. Jackie, yes. Uh, Sharon,
yes. And Robin, yes. John, yes. Shandor, yes. And Lindsay, yes. All right, everybody. Thank you for that. Uh it's good conversation. Thanks Sharon. Uh moving on, uh we have our school committee chairperson update and I only have just one announcement for our
school committee and for our broader community. I wanted to let you all know if you are not already aware that attorney Joe Gleason has tendered his resignation from the school committee just a little bit sooner than the end of his term. And so I wanted to let you all know that that is why he's not here this
evening. and he um will not be joining us uh for the next couple of meetings. That said, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to Joe for his uh just about six years of service, especially uh serving on the school building committee. And um we are very
appreciative of all the time and energy that he spent in the various ways that he served the school committee. So, I just wanted to let you all know that. Okay. U Leah, related to that, what's the process for
um was he was is already up for reelection? So, yeah, nothing needs to be done. Yeah. And so, the town of Lancaster can manage that at the um at the voting booth. All right.
Um, so moving on in the agenda here, we have our student representative report and Ava and Ryan are with us. So, hi guys. What can you tell us? Hello. So, um, robotics team was at the world championships last week and they,
um, uh, had an amazing performance. Um, a lot of our some of our students are at participating in the French exchange program right now and are currently over in France. I know I have a couple kids in my world language class going over and I hear they're having a great time.
The showca is at the international competition. We have AP testing coming up and then kind of later in the month um math MCCAST for the sophomores. Um, and then we had, I'm sure you guys know, but a couple
representatives from NEAS came in and I gave them a tour of the building this morning and then sat with the like a couple of kids on the advisory council, a group of people with them to kind of talk over a few things and answer any questions they had for us. NA.
And then coming up on May 2nd to the 4th is the Wolves of Nishoba Festival, which is um sorry, the Symph Symphonic Band Festival. That'll be really fun. And then tomorrow, because May is mental
health awareness, a lot of the students will be wearing green. And we're also hosting Threads of Hope workshops from 1:30 to 2:20. So, that'll be really nice. Um, we have the art, uh, sorry,
excuse me, I'm in the car. We have the art show coming up on May 6th. U, so you'll get to see a bunch of art that a lot of the students have made. Um, everyone at school is actually really, really talented. I love going through the hallways and seeing all the art that
everyone puts up. Um, yeah. And then on May 12th, we have Mishoba versus Clinton for the baseball game. The tickets are $5 and all students and children under five are free at Polar
Park. And yeah, that's what we have. But also to add on to the NEASK meeting, there were five volunteers from a bunch of different schools and they kind of just came to talk to us about questions they had like what school environment is like
um like what are our thoughts on learning styles and the way that teachers teach and what do we think can be improved. And I honestly think that it was a really great meeting because it's all pretty much all students talking with
adults and everyone was just really honest and I think that what came out of that conversation was really helpful especially for all of the other adults that were there to kind of bring into their schools as well. And yeah, I just really liked how it worked. Just want to
add add one more thing. Um Ava Ava and I as part of our Massachusetts Association of Student Representatives on May 3rd, there's like another another kind of assembly. Um it's not finalized whether that'll be over Zoom or at Framingham High School, but um we've been kind of
working with other people on different workshops for um that day and presentation. Awesome. Good luck with that. Thank you, Eva. Gosh, correct me if I'm wrong here. I'm going out on a limb, but when you went to the state house, I think that
the next meeting we had, Ryan was with us, but you weren't with us. Did you share out about that experience yet? Oh, I don't think so. Um, guys, I So, can you just explain to us a little bit? Yeah, tell us a little bit about what that all was. Maybe people don't know what it was. Uh, remind us and then how
did it go? Yeah, of course. So, it was student government day. myself and Winston Zhao, another senior who's on school council with me, we both went and he was my alternative. So, he got to do kind of like his own thing and then I sat in
this big chamber. It was so cool. It was like I don't know. It felt so professional and I was kind of quote unquote roleplaying as Senator Senator Kilcoin or Representative Kilcoin and I had my special seat where she sits and
we got to hear from like the president. It was another student um who's also on Mazer with us from Framingham High and we had like vice president all of them. They all spoke. We got to hear from a judge who talked about her side of the legislative branch and then I actually
got to debate on a law that I actually wasn't expecting to debate. I almost didn't write a speech. I wrote it the day before and the law was on the use of technology in schools and it was kind of proposing safe use. So, a bunch of
people got up and they debated whether they were for the law or against the law. And it was really interesting to hear from other students in their other opinions. And then we all got to vote on like how they do in real life. And it was really awesome. And it was just such
a great learning experience just to learn about government and see how it works. And yeah, it was awesome. It was actually really awesome. I think that that opportunity should be open to everybody. I really hope Ryan gets to do it next year because I think he's gonna
love it. And shout out to Mr. Kaiser. I think he was the one who chaperoned you that day. He loved it, too. Awesome. So, we really appreciate as always all the different um programs
that you guys are engaging in to elevate student voice around uh Noba, but also around Central Mass and the state. Yay. Good job, guys. So fun. and you're setting such a good example for the all the kids who are going to come behind you. So, thank you, Lindsay.
Lindsay, what do you think? I think it's amazing. What an incredible opportunity. I don't remember that being something that we had growing up. Um I know we did some small things like within our classes, but um no, I think that that is amazing and I hope someday I will see my daughter up in that same
position. So, very very well done. Thank you. Any other questions for the student report? All right, guys. So, as always, we thank you for keeping us up to date and remember to bring us anything that the students need or want and uh good
luck on AP exams. I'm sure both of you guys have one or two scheduled. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um so, keeping on moving here. We have the superintendent to report and I'll pass it off to Kirk. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the committee for the opportunity
tonight. Um, we're happy to report we've had a robust field of applicants for the center school principal position with 27 applicants, and we sent invitations to 16 to come in for their initial screening interviews, which I'll be hosting tomorrow uh with my team. Uh, we
look to advance five to seven of those folks to our panel interviews. Uh, we'll have our community uh uh school visits and community opportunities on May 12th and 13th. and I hope to make an announcement by Friday, May 23rd, pending negotiations. Um, I do want to
throw a shout out to the center school committee community. Uh, we had a number of people that uh filled out the survey information around core values and wants and dreams about their principal and we had about 10 of those people show interest in wanting to participate on
the committee of which of course we can't have every excuse me everyone participate. Um but uh we were able to get some feedback from our school council. They reviewed the information uh that was submitted from the community and the school council put forward two names. One
school council member and one community member at large to join that pool. Um I'm holding back on the names at the moment because I don't know if they have been given their notification officially yet. Uh so forgive me for that. Uh but for those um who put their names forward
that um uh uh would not be able to participate, please stay engaged in the process as you'll have an opportunity to see the candidates when they have their open forms uh via Zoom on on the 13th. Um the next piece is always an eagerly anticipated announcement that's
rather quick. Uh now that we're within 45 days of the last day of school, we can announce that Monday, uh June 16th, 2025 will be the final day of school for students. Graduating students will finish their courses on Friday, May
23rd, just before the break with graduation, uh scheduled for Sunday, June 8th. And with that, uh, tonight, um, uh, we've invited Miss Mariah Zwicker to come in, uh, to help with a portion of
the, uh, presentation tonight around the district's business contract. So, I will turn it over to Miss Wicker. Thank you, Superintendent Downing, and thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I believe you have a um, copy of the contract that
Dr. Russell Coleman um, from West West Fit. No, excuse me. From pediatric, excuse me, from the office of the pediatrics. He's been our um physician for as long as I've been here. Um and
then I believe a few years before that as well. Um his salary was budgeted in the health and wellness budget of this year and he has agreed and is eager to join us again. Um, personally speaking, he has been
wonderful, very attentive, very speedy, uh, to work with. And, um, I'd like to open it up to the committee if there's any questions regarding the contract uh, for Dr. Russell Coleman. Madam Chair, if I could just add one piece is that several years back there was uh, a
question around uh, the stipen that's given to Dr. Coleman of $5,000. And so, annually, we check if that's the appropriate amount, and Dr. Coleman has confirmed that. Oh, great. Uh, did you want to take questions on that, Mariah? Sure.
Uh, go ahead, Shandra. Uh, this contract says 6,000. I was just going to say that I I didn't want to cut anybody off, but um, this year we had budgeted um for $6,000. Pardon me for misspeaking. Yeah,
that um that's what he agreed to and and I feel as though that is um fair and appreciative of his services for us. Thank you for that, Shandor. Thank you, Shander. I got ahead of myself. Any other questions on the school
position contract? All right, we can keep it going. U madam chair, we will put um the physician contract into the consent agenda for next month, next meeting. Very good. Thank you.
Thanks, Maria. Okay, at this point, uh you know, because Ross and I, you know, we like to present budget information as a as a tandem. So, we'll start with uh finance and operations director Ross McCarron. Good evening everyone. Thank you, Superintendent Downing, and thank you to
the school committee. Um, so some positive news uh from our state aid uh numbers that were updated through the House Ways and Means um committee. So before April vacation, the Commonwealth's uh House and Ways House
Ways and Means Committee released its version of the FY26 budget. So, this is part of that annual process that starts with the governor's proposed budget that we use during the uh fiscal planning season um as that is the only budget available um during that time and this
goes through a few different iterations before a final um conference committee budget which is released at the end of the summer and that becomes the final FY26 budget. So among the updates to the district state aid estimates, the House Ways and Means Committee did result in increases to chapter 70 and regional
transportation reimbursement. So as of today, the net impact from the governor's proposed budget to today uh is $297,795 for the NHoba Regional School District. Uh again, that's in the positive direction. However, um you
know, as we will be uh transparent and conservative here, uh there's no guarantee this will be the final budget. So, if you look over the last several years, these budget numbers do fluctuate between each iteration of the budget process at the state level with regards to state aid. So, we'll continue to
update the school committee as the Senate releases its FY26 budget um in the next few weeks and the final figures that will be released at the end of the summer uh will be presented to the school committee as well. Um, I think it it's it's important to note and I put it in the update, you know, as the
committee is aware, there's been a significant amount of advocacy uh for students across the Commonwealth this spring from superintendent, um, from business officials, from assistant superintendent, from teachers. Um, so this is this has really made an impact
and we hope that the result stays all the way through the budgeting process at the state level and we continue to share positive news with you and our communities um, moving forward. And then uh Mr. Mo, let's move into the insurance update. Sure, absolutely. So
um the insurance advisory committee um which is part of the unit A and unit C contracts recently met to discuss the need to consider alternate options uh for our health insurance plans in the future. Obviously, you know, this became quite aware uh to us during the budget
season when we received that significant increase on our healthcare uh insurance uh premiums. Um so all representative representatives at committee, so our unit A, unit C, Mr. Powell is there representing school committee, myself and Jess Murdoch, uh director of human
resources is on the committee. Um, so we all recognize uh that there's a need to look at next steps in future options to mitigate future budget increases and costs. Uh, the current short-term projection in sort of information um is that we do have some some good news to
share here as well. So, sort of last sort of minute close to when we need to confirm um and sign our our rates for next year, I did reach out to our representative and said, "What options do we still have?" like is there anything possible that we can do here?
Um and you know certainly pressed our relationship. You know we're we're timely with our payments. We're we're good customers. Um and and you know we have we have staff that you know uh now have to encumber these costs themselves as well. It's not just the district budget. So, there became two programs
available to us that we're going to pilot um and be part of that will help us reduce our insurance increase from 19.92% to 16.32% for active employee plans. Um we're also uh letting you know tonight
that we are beginning an insurance opt out program. Um that will be part of our open enrollment. So, individuals who've been our district insurance, if they'd like to pursue a different insurance method, whether it's through a spouse, a partner, um, or whatever may whatever
else may be available to them, um, they can do that and receive an incentive for the school district for doing so. The net result for the district obviously gets turned back to us. Um, becomes a cost savings, um, and reduces our our our base level for planning in FY27.
Um, so this is a a sort of a a short-term and a long-term move here uh to help the district with its health care costs. We've seen this be very successful in neighboring districts. Actton Boxboro, uh we were in contact with them this week to see, you know, what was the result of their work. Um
they have 40 some odd uh employees taking advantage of this and the net result for them has been a decrease um in their cost of just over $600,000. They're on different plans. Uh they have a different number of employees. However, I think what it shares and shows is that there's a
willingness on the employee side and we can see that there's a benefit on the district side as well. So, thank you for allowing me the time to update you on these two important uh financial matters this evening. So, I'll parlay that into relating that
to personnel. As you know, I've been talking ever since uh we we put it out there. If you remember when we got the increased insurance rates and we went down our priority list, that brought us into the area where we reduced the deans in our school and we've been working
hard to do that. So, as we define more of this, I'll be coming back to the committee on May 14th to show you a plan we have uh for for reinstatement. But until that time, we're doing some work uh in the school district. Um and uh one
of the decisions that we have made is to in prioritizing uh those roles is to reduce the freshman study position at Nshoba Regional High School to free up some staffing as we've learned the priority exists in other arenas as well.
So, we will be coming to you um on May 14th with uh an outline explanation of the if you will shifting of the deck chairs that we're going to make as to meet the needs of our students based upon the parameters and the framework of
the budget that's been voted and that will be going in front of our um uh uh residents in the next week. So, we'll pause right there before we go on to our updates on strategic work. Very good. I see Amy Cohen's hand.
So, I guess can you just remind me how this works since we've already voted on an approved budget and now we've learned about changes to um revenue sources from the state. How how does this work? because
that number has now the budget that the school committee approved is already has already been shared with the towns and we all have town meetings coming up like within the next week. So if the school district does receive more money than
anticipated um yeah can you just walk us through what what happens? Yeah, I I will Miss Cohen. Um the budget number that is in front of the towns is the budget number. We can't change that. If we change that budget number at all, then we will find ourselves in having to call another town
meeting with potential going into a 112th budget scenario. So there's no mechanism currently that you would change the budget for that. Um the decrease the the insurance benefits that Mr. Moar talked about would be a decrease in estimated benefit costs. Um
and then when we talk about chapter 70 potential chapter 70 increases those will come back to us from the state next year and fall into the general ledger. And when they fall into the general ledger as Ross gives uh updates to budget warrant subcommittee on the
operations you would see reflections throughout the year uh on those return funds. Is that really just going to end up um increasing our END balance at the end of the day essentially. I'll let Mr. Mo
Karen speak to that specifically. What I would say is as of today, April 30th, there's no guarantee on any of the state aid numbers that have changed. We build our budget based off the governor's proposed budget. Um, and things will
change uh with the Senate release and the final conference committee. Um, there's no guarantee on anything for our FY26 budget at this point other than the budget that we've built. So, um, all fair, uh, points and questions.
Um, Miss Cohen, what I I I would reiterate is there's this is updated information, but not final information, and that's why we'll continue to update the committee. Um, and then obviously the the the citizens of our member towns can continue to watch school committee or look at the materials to get the
updates on that information. I will say that uh Senator Kennedy has engaged has been engaged with the school system in terms of um uh bringing this uh into committee as she is a member of joint ways of means and the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Um so we should be
hearing about the Senate budget shortly of which once the Senate puts their budget out, they go into conference committee, they haggle their different budgets and we ultimately get a budget number in July. I bet Ava could really do a great job in
that seat, too. She could roleplay that. Um, I just want to I I'm recognizing a couple of things that you said, Kirk. Thing one, I want to say thank you to our legislators because they are working hard to increase local aid that we so desperately need. So, I do hope that
that comes through, although I recognize it may not. Um, the other thing that I recognize is that you're saying that if we are to acquire a little bit more money for the next fiscal year, the budget that we have before the towns, that you could potentially bring one or
more of the deans back into their pos like in we could realize those positions back into our schools. So, chapter 70, any state aid doesn't really have an impact on that because that's not something that we can necessarily
um count on a solid number today. What we can count on is where we are looking internally in the district to look at positions that we could potentially shift or change as well as the insurance the reduction in insurance costs we can
apply towards the return of those dean positions. uh because as we reduced those positions, it was because of the increased costs and health benefits that that brought those positions below the priority line. And so it's my position that if we're going to realize some
savings in benefits that should return to that degree those positions and we'll come with an explanation on that on May 14th as Mr. McCair and I need to crunch the numbers on that. Any other
questions? And so I I just want to make it super clear for everyone who is heading to town meeting before May 14th that the number that is being presented to them, this is the number that we believe we need to run the public
schools uh for Nishoba if there were to be increased. I mean, the other thing that I want to point out and remind everybody of is that every single year we borrow from END to make our ends meet. And so when we if we get an extra dollar at the end of the year, which
we're on track to get a few dollars back at the end of this fiscal year, we re we repay ourselves and you know, maybe we don't have enough to repay ourselves completely and that diminishes the END fund. So that's that
hamster wheel we always talk about. And so anytime the school district has an extra dollar, it can go back into that fund that we borrowed from. And so, you know, this is not us asking for more money than we need at the town
meetings. I hope that's clear. That's correct. Okay. Thank you everybody and thanks Ross for um trying to continue to find additional dollars. Thank you. On to strategic work. Yeah,
I'll bring forward assistant superintendent friend to talk to us about some exciting strategic work going on. Uh Miss Friend, thank you, Superintendent Downing, and thank you to the committee. Um we are pleased tonight to provide an update about our innovation pathways
programming uh that is in place at our high school. So, we're we're very pleased to provide the committee with an update tonight directly relates to our teaching and learning uh objective and our strategic plan specifically around increasing authentic experiential
opportunities for our students with relevant realworld application of what they're learning in the classroom. But I'm pleased to welcome Miss Hanigan um to the committee to present this update. As you know, Miss Hanigan serves two
roles in the district. She serves as our innovation pathways coordinator and as communications specialist. She does both of those those roles really really well. Tonight, she's going to put on her innovation pathways coordinator hat and provide this update. So, I'm going to
turn it over to Miss Hanigan. Thank you. Um, I'm I'm really happy to be here and I appreciate getting the opportunity to give an update on where we are as we close in on the beginning of our first year. Um, as you know, we currently offer two pathways, advanced engineering, manufacturing, and business
and finance. This school year, with the support of our guidance office, administrative team, and pathways teachers, we submitted and were approved for two dual enrollment courses through Middle Sex Community College, product development for entrepreneurs, which applies to both of our existing pathways, and tech essentials for the modern world, one and two, which applies
to our business and finance pathway. Uh we have submitted several other courses for consideration and are waiting to hear back. And we're also excited to begin offering um engineering essentials at the beginning of next year, which is a project lead the way course. These courses are super hands-on, give students the opportunity to jump in and
get a lot of transferable skills right at the start of their pathways program, and more importantly, they offer a really good array of advanced level coursework for our students, so that no matter what your schedule looks like, you're able to fit these programs in. Um, the program has seen growing interest with our current pathways
increasing student enrollment over the course of this school year. At present, each of our pathways can accommodate up to 20 students per graduating class. So, so far this capacity has been totally sufficient. We've been able to accept all students who have applied and opted
into both of our pathways. Um, as well as additional students over the course of this school year that have determined that they're interested after kind of even just entering those courses as part of their elective process. Um, at the beginning of the school year, we began the process of applying for our third
designation in information technology. This expansion would allow us to include opportunities for students related to digital creation like graphic design, data and computer science, and even media production. We're still waiting on formal designation, but are hopeful to hear back in the coming weeks. And we'll keep the community updated through the
common and our monthly pathways newsletter. Um, if approved, the information technology pathway would be able to accommodate an additional 20 students per graduating class, which would expand our total capacity across all three pathways to 60 students per graduating class. Um, and finally to put
on my communications hat and my pathways hat. We've been gathering feedback through parent meetings, student meetings, uh, guidance meetings since the start of the school year. And we recently launched our updated innovation pathways website. The goal with this update was really to create an easier
easier access for families of enrolled students and interested students to understand the application expectations, process, graduation requirements, industry partnerships that we have secured and other course offerings and listings. Um, so that's a a big summation of a full year's worth of
work, but happy to field any questions that anyone has. That's awesome. Thank you so much, Bridget, for being here and for giving us that great update. Thank you. I think we can open it up for questions if
anybody has any on the strategic work. All right, Kirk, I'm not seeing any. Is that the conclusion of the superintendent's report? Yes, that shall conclude the report. Thank you to everyone who came out tonight to join in that presentation. Yeah, thanks Bridget. Thanks,
Laura. All right, everybody. We're going to move on to new business and uh that starts with the DearJ advisory volunteer calling and I wonder Jackie, do you want to potentially um cue this up and make the announcement?
Yes, absolutely. So for newer uh school committee members um and our community. So the school committee has a resource that is really an amazing
resource. Um and that is in our dear J advisory board. Um because it is an appointed advisory board, we need to identify um interested members uh to participate and putting the call out now
ahead of our upcoming June meetings when we would identify and vote in uh Darj members for the 2025 2026 academic school year. Thanks Jackie. So um if anyone is interested
they can reach out to me, send me an email and uh we can take it from there. Okay. Uh, so next up we Oh, actually before I advance that, uh, the last time that
Jackie and I met with DearJ, we did uh, make mention of how Kirk, we would really appreciate it if by the protocol you could identify a staff member who could join DearJ. You bet. I'll put that on my notes. Great. I recognize everybody's busy, but
if there's somebody who has the capacity or is um, interested in doing the work, we would really appreciate a staff member. and frankly a student member too if there are any students who would like to join. Um I know I will have an advisory meeting at the high school with my high
school students here in a couple of weeks and I'll ask that group. Great. Okay everybody. So, the next uh item on under new business here is the superintendent formative evaluation
training. And Alita, did we send that to you for posting? Is Alita here? No. No, you did not send it. Oh, thanks, Alita. Okay, no worries. So, I have it up here and I am going to share
it if that's okay. So everyone uh please forgive me as my sharing skills are a little rusty. Can everybody see the Google slideshow? Awesome. So whenever I do this I can I really lose a
lot of your faces. So forgive me if I don't see your yellow hand up. just yell out and I will and you can feel free to participate. So, uh I'm just going to cue this up and then Sharon is going to kick this off for us. But, um the personnel subcommittee, one of our goals is to make sure that the school
committee is completely versed and feels comfortable in taking part in the assessment or the formative assessment of our superintendent as he seeks to meet the goals that he laid out at the beginning of the school year. At the mid
point of the two-year cycle, the superintendent will provide us with an update on his progress toward meeting his goals. And we then give a uh there's a a session where we can provide him with all of our verbal feedback. And
it's a rather informal conversation where we just kind of um take advantage of that presentation to say to our superintendent, you know, ask him questions or provide him some feedback. uh redirect even if if the committee thinks it's necessary. So this
presentation is meant to just make sure that the committee understands what the evaluation cycle is all about and uh Sharon I think you begin so please take it away. Okay so um as Leah was saying we are at
now the midpoint of the evaluation cycle. It's called the formative assessment at the middle point. Um and it is our opportunity to for a formal check-in on progress towards the superintendent's goals to provide
feedback um and that course correction if it's necessary. So what we have put together is um the slides are a training. They're intended to be a resource and hopefully to promote full participation of the committee in the
evaluation process. Um can you move to the next slide? Okay. So um here's the visual. We are um at that midway step the formative
assessment. And I thought we had actually removed the uh dates from that. I guess we didn't. Um so so if everybody could just be patient with me for one moment. Sharon, I don't think that this is the most up-to-date one. Okay, so hang on
one as I toggle between all of my accounts. I think I might have the most updated one, Leah. I'll have it. I think I have it right here, but you guys tell me if I'm wrong. April. There you go. Well, this has today's date on it, so
that it's promising. All right. Um so just as a reminder um the work of the school committee falls into four main buckets or areas of responsibility. The first one being to oversee and um approve the the annual
district budget. The second one being uh conducting negotiations between the staff and the district. Third being establishing district policy. And then the fourth being to hire and evaluate the superintendent's performance or hire
the superintendent and re and evaluate his performance. Um, next slide. Um, and so the evaluation process is the way to ensure or or a way to ensure continuing progress towards the overarching goal of improving student
outcomes and student experience. So in this visual format um you're bu we're building from the bottom of the pyramid which is the strategic plan forming the basis for all of the work and all of the initiatives. Um the implementation of
the plan begins with the goals set by the superintendent and then also through school committee goals and through um the school improvement plans and then the superintendent's goals going up the pyramid.
um inform the administration goals, inform teacher goals with the ultimate goal being um to work everyone working together towards student achievement. Um and this is an
ongoing process where you will never reach the end or be finished with this. We're always learning. We're always changing. We're always growing um in service to our children. Um and Leah, I think I'm going to pass it now to you
for the next slide. Uh so you guys perhaps know that um this is a fivestep evaluation cycle. The cycle of inquiry for all educators including our superintendent
um starts with setting goals and eventually we will assess uh to what extent our superintendent has met those goals. Kirk always jokes that he is he feels privileged to be the only one in the school district who gets to be evaluated completely
publicly. Uh but you are an excellent sport Kirk and um we appreciate that. So, right now it says we are here. Um the formative assessment happens at the end of the first year because Kirk is now an experienced superintendent. He's in a two-year cycle. And then the
summitative evaluation which is the final um point of this particular cycle will happen in May of 2026. Uh so you guys uh this is just review. You remember that in I think October K or the beginning of November Kirk brought his goals to us and we
approved them. Uh he has a professional practice goal. He actually has one professional practice goal. He has one student learning goal and then he has four district improvement goals. And all of this is lifted from the strategic plan and into his goal
setting. This is an articulation of those but we won't go through it. This is just a reminder of all the things you've already approved. These are the things that Kirk and his entire team have been working on all year long. And during each superintendent report, he provides us with evidence of how he's
making progress toward these things. And over to you, Robin. Excellent. So in addition to those goals, he also is um he must show progress towards meeting
uh six to eight focus indicators um within the four DESI standards. And so you'll see below the four DESI standards and then from my understanding during the school committee workshop it was discussed and agreed upon what those um
focuses would be. And for all the newbies that are um just looking at this for the first time, if you go on to I think it's on uh page 11 of this slide, there is a a link that is for the DESIE educator evaluation site. You can click
in there and get a better understanding of what all of these mean. And I did it um myself and it is very very helpful to kind of do a deeper dive on on what Kirk's striving for. Over to you, Lindsay. All right,
bringing up the caboose here, but no less important. Uh, so step four, this is the formative portion of the evaluation cycle. So, this is the midcycle step. This is the opportunity for us to make sure that everything is on track and we are working in the right
direction and also for the school committee to provide some feedback. Uh so in this step the superintendent's role is to present the progress made towards those goals. The presentation will be made and available in that public meeting uh that M chairwoman
mentioned in May of 2026. Our role is to develop an understanding of what the progress has made on each goal along with the four standards and then provide verbal feedback uh if there are any adjustments that need to be made uh during the public meeting. And then here is where we have
our feedback survey. So this is where you can provide feedback to the personnel subcommittee. Um here we go. Uh so this is where you can provide feedback to let us know if we this was helpful, if we did a good job uh with this training, uh what
additional information we can provide for any next uh actually I guess two years from now. Uh but you know as we move forward with this process and then I think the last slide is the one with our resources. Um, so this is also just a helpful summary of
the different resources you can use as part of this process. Uh, I especially found the last one, examples of common types of evidence by indicator very helpful. Uh, so definitely worth checking out for anybody who is new as Robin mentioned like myself.
So guys, that was a very quick snapshot of uh what is expected of you as school committee members to engage in this superintendent evaluation. Kirk is going to be giving that presentation at the May 28th meeting. It's on the planning
calendar. Um, if you would can you guys all go into the chat and I think the link that I just dropped is the connection to the survey. That survey is going to give you an opportunity to tell policy or excuse me
to tell the personnel subcommittee members what might still be confusing to you. Um how what else you might need to know before May 28th so that we can help you be as prepared as possible so that whatever feedback you
give to Kirk is helpful and useful ultimately pushing us all toward that common goal of student achievement. Uh, do you did you guys all get the survey? Did that link work? Great. And we'll send that presentation to Alita so that she can
put it in the meeting materials in case you lose the link. But if you could fill that out for us within the next week, that would be great. Personnel is going to meet before on the 26th, I think, Sharon. Is that right? I think it's on Monday the 19th that
we're meeting. Very good. So Monday the 19th, we'll meet. We'll take all of the results of that survey and make sure that you guys are feeling comfortable and confident to enter into this process, whether it be for the first time or the seventh time. Are there any questions on
formative evaluation for the superintendent? Kirk? Yeah, I believe we have May 28th earmarked as the day of my presentation. Correct. Excellent. That's what I have too. Great. All right, I don't think I see any other
hands. All right, thank you to the personnel subcommittee for pulling that together and getting it ready. I know that two members of the personnel subcommittee are on that learning curve, too. So, I really appreciate you guys digging in on that and helping. Um, so moving on, guys, we're going to talk a little bit about the
communication subcommittee survey discussion. and they have created a survey that they want to share with the committee, get your approval, and then send out to the community. This is about how the school committee can better communicate with the public. I'll send it to our chairperson, Amy. All right.
Thank you. So, one of the goals that the communication subcommittee set for itself this year was to um review the accessibility of information on the school district the school committee's website and ensure it's up to date. um and to survey the
community to determine which information the community members are most likely to look for and then use that information to develop recommendations for how we could improve our website. So we spent a
few meetings developing we took a survey that the communication subcommittee developed um last year or the year before that and modified it to fit these goals. So, the link has been shared with all of you. And Leah, do you want me to share my screen and go through it or
uh Yeah, that would be fine. Okay. And can you all see my screen? Hold on. Yes. Okay. So, this briefly explains the
purpose that I just shared with you. Um, and it tells respondents that the survey should take about five minutes to complete. I actually think it will take less than that, but just in case somebody puts a lot of effort into it, could be a whole five minutes.
Um the first section we typically in previous surveys have collected information about which town respondents are from just so we can make sure that we're getting a representative sample what school the person's children apply uh attend. And
in these instructions up here we've asked families to complete one survey per family even for families with multiple children in the district. So respondents can check more than one
school. Um this is this question. Are you able to receive regular communication from the district in your preferred language is really just to collect some some data on how accessible um information on the website is in
English. And this is a question that we asked in prior years about what mode you prefer to consume information. Read, listen, and watch. And this may have been what prompted um the podcasts to be something that was under consideration by the
district. Section two is about improve specifically about improving the school committee's website. Um, we start by asking whether the person taking the survey has actually ever visited our website and
how frequently. Um, then we ask for a rating of how easily the information is to find on the school committee website. Um, and then we're trying to get an idea
of how often folks are visiting the district website to find this different types of information. And I will say that when you actually take the survey, you can read all of these descriptors, but in this view, they are
not showing up. And Leah, I don't know if you know a technical fix for that other than to actually take the survey. Amy, do you see that eyeball um almost directly like to the right? Yep. Click it. Oh, figure. Okay. Thank you. That
might be better. Yeah. Let's see if that fixed that. I think I'm going to have to take the survey. Oh, dang. Sorry. Okay. We'll just we'll just click some things here. Okay, so now we can see all of these categories for how often do you visit
the district website to find the following school committee information. And we tried to be very intentional about using the survey to educate respondents on what type of information is available on the school committee
website. So this is kind of serving two purposes. um and also think about ways that we would like the school committee website to be used. So you can hear see here that we've touched on a lot of the
information that's already existing um to see what people are accessing and then we tried to kind of ask the question differently in an effort to inform the possible reorganization of school committee website. Please let us
know what information would be of most interest to you. We gave three choices. Very little value, valuable, or extremely valuable. Um, I think I'm going to have to check something up here to to be able to to be
able to advance through. Hold on. I'm just going to quickly Okay. And so you can see that um the choices are different than the question above, but also trying to envision what
information we might think would be of value to people on the school committee website that doesn't um is not highlighted at this moment in time. Some of them are and some of them aren't. So I'm going to fill this out so
we can get to the next questions. You can just scroll. There's there's no more pages. Oh, okay. Well, too late. Um, then what is one thing that you wish was easier to access? How can
we make it easier for you to find information you're seeking? And then if offered, would you be interested in an option to sign up for an email subscription service from the school committee that provides automated updates on any of the following items: meeting agendas, meeting recordings,
minutes, hearing dates, open school committee seats, or other? And then if other, please explain. Um, how do you gather information about school committee meetings? And is there any other feedback that you'd like to share with the school
committee as we consider making changes to our website or communications for our school committee? So, I see I'm gonna stop sharing my Well, actually, maybe I'll leave it up, but I do see Shandor's hand up, so go ahead. Yeah, go for it, Shandor. Uh, I think it's excellent uh
idea. I have a concern and I realize it's a little ironic that the survey itself isn't accessible in in particular Google form tables don't work with screen readers
and the it's only in English and the reading level in some of these questions is pretty sophisticated. So if you uh struggle with written in English it could be very hard to follow the form. So I'm wondering if there was any cons
consideration given to other ways to reach people that can't complete this survey uh to include them in the feedback. Good question. And I know that what the I know in earlier discussions like in earlier years on the school committee
there was discussion on how to survey and I think we landed on Google forms because it's a free platform already available to the school district but that that's something we hadn't really considered.
I think isn't Google forms doesn't isn't there a translate button? There might be. I there must be. So maybe just double check on that and if there is a translate button just like a any web page can be translated by double
clicking or two finger touching. Yeah, I I I would suggest maybe having an alternate pathway to provide feedback like you have a phone call or something because the form doesn't work if you're blind. The screen readers
aren't capable of parsing these tables. It's a known challenge with them and I I don't think there's a native translation capability on this uh form because I've I've tried to do it before. Okay, when
you send out surveys, do you tr do you get things translated? [Music] Um yes, we subscribe to a service called Lexicet that helps with that. Um I'm not sure in
this particular foreman that that would be helpful. I I would ask assistant superintendent friend if that is helpful in this regard. That's a very high cost um solution. However,
assistant superintendent, what do you think on this? I mean this the the challenge um is real. We do work to translate all of our surveys into our family's identified language. It's time consuming.
Um, so we either use Google Translate and then create the survey after using Google Translate to translate all of the questions and all of the potential responses or we use the service that Superintendent Downing had mentioned
which is Lexi um which in an ideal form is the preferred service because it's translated by native speakers. Um so um there is a cost associated with using Lexi but it would definitely be an
option. We can certainly provide the committee with the spoken languages of our families. We have that information. I see I'll have to follow up with you guys after this on on and the chairperson and
explore that further. Um I see Jackie's hand. Go ahead, Jackie. I also wanted to ask about the accessibility. I know with the S'more updates, it's really nice because there is a translate button that automatically
flips things. So, I know that the right questions have been asked. The the only other thing that I wanted to just maybe recommend is on the first page. Um, you want me to
share my screen again? No, it's fine. Um, so preferred is a funny word and so I would just recommend maybe that moving from preferred language to in an accessible language
because that just feels more inclusive and appropriate. Um, and then the last question is what mode do you prefer to consume information? it. You can only choose one. And I just would want to capture as someone who reads and
listens. Um that some people may want all three or one. That makes sense to me, too. Yeah, I I think I can figure that one out. Okay. So, and if not, I'll I'll go to I mean, it sounds like we might be modifying the
way this form is set up anyway, but me. I wonder if we could um before the survey goes live if we could translate into so have the survey
translated into the languages that we know um are spoken in the district. So people can select to survey in their the the language that they're most comfortable with. Um and it and
then if the language if if their preferred or their what the way they would like to receive the survey isn't translated yet, an option to ask for that. Um it does
not address the accessibility for people who are blind. Yeah. Um well Shandra had a good suggestion which is to offer an alternate
um method for providing feedback which was maybe could just be as simple as like providing my email address and you know then I could follow up with that person individually. But um Sean Sharon I
didn't mean to cut you off. Is that No, I was just saying that maybe um there might be some ways if we think about that that we can address those things proactively before the survey goes live
um that don't involve cost. I don't know how to do it yet, but um okay, we can figure that out. Shandra, did you have another suggestion? Yeah, I I just wanted to s
clarify maybe my suggestion. I I don't necessarily think we need to go to the expense of having the survey itself translated, but presumably we're sending out communication about the survey. If
that communication is translated and alternate ways of giving us feedback are provided, I think that handles everything, you know, like for all I know, we don't have a single
blind constituent, you know, and worrying about solving for that when we don't have it um seems seems kind of pointless. So just as long as as we provide people some other mechanism to give us the
feedback that we're not communicating with them well uh that would meet my concerns at least. Well Leah would would if the school committee approves the survey then is that something that would get pushed out
through perks common? Yeah, that's ideal. I I we'd work with Bridget on getting that pushed out using our tools. Okay. And so that message is already because it's in a platform that
allows for translation that would solve the issue that Shandra Shandra was just Yeah. I I think my recommendation the points have been heard. Let's workshop it offline and
and to solve some of those things. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at the Google form right now and I was able to two-finger touch and get translate and I I can get it in any language and so I think that there are ways to do this just through Google Suite and I'm not even logged in and I
can show you what I did Amy so maybe we can talk about it offline. Perfect. So that's that's the survey that is making progress towards one of the goals that communication subcommittee sets itself this year. And then I guess if this does get approved
by the school committee, we would take the information and use it to do our work for the next year of working towards coming up with some recommendations for revamping or improving the school committee's website.
Are there any other um is there any other feedback for the communication subcommittee? All right, I think that's pretty great. Thank you, Amy. Thank you everybody for your comments. Um Amy, do you want guys would you feel comfortable
providing Amy with the go-ahad here? We can I don't know that we need to make a motion to initiate this, but can you give me a thumbs up if if um if we take care of the accessibility stuff? Are you good to go with this? All right. Well done, communication
subcommittee. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, guys. on to finance and operations updates. So, I think Ross is going to give us just a little bit more information here. Yep. Um just so our standard monthly operating report brought to you uh this is the end of March. Uh even though
we're at the end of April. Um so no significant changes. Uh I will note um what I noted to to the budget warrant subcommittee who has seen this report and discussed it with me. Um that we'll start to see an increase in that projected year end of year balance. um
for certainly the schools um anything that's not expended um at this point we do have to have serious discussion uh we don't want to necessarily pre-by anything for FY26 with FY25 um if that's not expended that would be returned back to the budget surplus and
if there's additional revenue um within our FY25 again school committee is aware that that's part of the formula that that gets calculated with our auditors that ultimately is potential excess and defic efficiency balance. So, we don't um u anticipate any major sort of
purchases, but you know, we we will buy what is necessary for FY25, but we don't start to buy pens and pencils and things like that for FY26 until we have the FY26 budget ready to go in our system after our town meetings. All right. Anybody want to ask a
question about that? Doesn't look like it. So, Ross, we can move on to the next item. Yeah, I know that um I believe Miss Mastersonson has shared uh motion language with you, but this is an annual process um with regards to ensuring the school committee
appoints a treasurer. Um I do um you know want to share sort of my um accolades um with you all uh for the work that Victoria Chartier who is our treasurer does for the school district.
Many of you know that Miss Chartier used to work in our HR office as well um and then did the treasurer work in addition to her HR role. She's now in another school district but continues as our treasurer. um she is not just great at her job daytoday and month-to-month and
working uh with me on all of the banking end of things. Um but she's obviously a valuable partner in our bonding for the new high school um as well as um a valuable partner in um just vetting um
and and understanding sort of financial positions and working with our auditors um at different times of the year. but certainly during our uh excess and deficiency submission and part of our regular audit procedures as well. So, um you know, I know that you have the
motion, but I I feel obligated uh to share um my experience working with her as as the district treasurer. Thanks for that, Ross. Amy, would you like to put forth a motion? Sure. I move to appoint Victoria
Chartier as district treasurer for fiscal year 26. I second that. Any discussion? Seeing none, we will take the vote. Myself, yes. Amy Vessels, yes. Scott,
yes. Sharon, yes. Jackie, yes. Amy Cohen, yes. Robin, yes. John, yes. Lindsay, yes. And Shandor, yes. Very good. Motion passes. Thank you for that,
Ross. Thank you. Happy to have or keep Victoria on board. All right, everybody. Um, the last item here into unfinished business is the school choice vote. Um, so before we uh lay forward a
motion, Kirk, you said that there are two options here. We can either just vote to withdraw from the school choice program, opt out from it entirely, or we can move to accept the recommendation as presented by the superintendent this evening. Correct.
So I am going to move to accept the superintendent's recommendation on opening school choice in the Shoba public schools as presented and in the limited fashion that he explained. Do I have a second? I'll
second that. Oh, I think Amy beat you, Sharon. Good job, Amy Cohen. Uh, is there any uh discussion on the school choice motion? Seeing none, we'll take the vote. I vote yes. Amy Cohen, yes. Amy Vessels, yes.
Scott, yes. Sharon, yes. Jackie, yes. Robin, yes. John, yes. Lindsay, yes. And Shondor, yes. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for all that work, Kirk. I know that
that vote was quick for probably many many hours of work and thought. Well, we put many uh hours into that several years back to think of a responsible strategy and I think that strategy is proving true that'd be beneficial to us.
Yeah. Yeah. Uh all right everybody. So the next piece here is items for next agenda. I do have the planning calendar up somewhere here and I'm at I will share it really quickly just so that we're all on the same page so you guys can still see the
um parking lot is here. Oh, one thing that I wanted to mention is that we did have the NEAS update here in the parking lot which um Ryan and Ava spoke about in their student report. The NAS update was moved from the parking lot
to where did we put it, Kirk? You just had it there. You just had it. Right here. Yeah. 14th. So, we will hear from Kirk on that. Um just FYI. But this is what we
have planned for our next two meetings. These are the last two meetings of the regular uh school committee year. The regional agreement says that May 28th will be the last meeting for current members and anybody who is elected in the next or rather in the town elections
that are coming up in middle May. Their first meeting will be here June 11th, the organizational meeting. And then school committee always has the summer off until the um workshop which is in the end of August. Just FYI, anything that you want me to add to the planning calendar or something
that's missing policy, you said that you're going to bring uh just a couple more things, couple final things forth. All right, so that means that we probably need a second reading here on the 28th, Amy.
Yes, it's just one policy. Excellent. I don't know if that's going to work. Anything else, guys? Um Oh, you're kidding me. So, wait, Leah, could you show the dates of the meetings again because Yep. Okay. May 14th, May 28th,
and then the last meeting is June 11th. So, well, that's the first meeting of the next school committee. But we're we're you know it's just the next meeting for most of us. But Okay. What do you want? What do you think? Should we follow up online on the
timeline for the communication survey? Because I would I would really like to try to get that on one of these agendas before this school year ends. I agree. Yep. Let's chat about that and and probably
wrapping Kirk on that strategy. Okay. Thank you. I can't see any of you, so just jump in if you have anything to say. All right. I think um it's pretty full. Kirk, I know that on the 14th, aren't you going to be zooming in?
Yes, I will. So, we'll make sure the Zoom setup is in the school committee room. So, I'll be in there for my reports and I know assistant superintendent friend will be right there with you. Madam Chair, uh, and so I'll take direction from you both that evening. Great. Um, I do walk up to the
parking lot just for a second. Yeah. Hang on one second though before I lose this. The school committee goals check-in everybody. This is to the subcommittee chairs. You guys are going to need to provide a little share out on May 14th of your school committee rather
of the goals that your subcommittee is in charge of. I know that some subcommittees have created that together. You guys can also do it on the fly if you're not going to be able to meet between now and then. You can just do your report on the progress you're making toward the goal on the fly and I
will type it as we're sitting in the meeting. You don't need to prepare anything in advance for that. Unless you want to prepare something on a piece of paper to then share with the committee. Okay. So, parking lot. You can take off the communication subcommittee.
Excellent. I think this was specific to the high school, but that is actually going to be wrapped into a presentation that Dr. Buon is going to give at um I think the 14th. on the 14th. Yeah, this unenrollment protocol with
the 10-day absence, that's something we marked here so that we can put that in push that into the handbook discussion also when Dr. Buon is here. The warrant signature protocol is still as we decided it to be last time. I am signing the warrants although you guys are all technically still
responsible for reviewing them. Uh if you guys ever want or if budget and warrant ever wants to bring forth a suggestion to change that protocol, please feel free. Um this school council school improvement plan timelines piece was the that's that policy that we pulled out
because it's something that Kirk is still kind of discussing with his team. So we'll leave that there for now. And while we're discussing school improvement plans, uh, we're advising our principles that they'll come give an
FY25 update on May 28th. Got it. And the only other thing that was left on there was a guidance update. Was that end up ending? [Music] Um, Kirk, I know that we talked about
this that it wasn't necessarily a guidance presentation, but what Kirk and I talked about at one of our meetings in trying to get at the spirit of what you were requesting, Amy, was about how can
we or or when can We integrate some sort of presentation or notification or some sort of family university touchstone where we can help parents understand what how kids transition from level to
level, how kids choose their classes, what kinds of classes kids should be choosing, what are the complexities of the schedules, and um Kirk thought that that would better be an operational practice that he could work at this summer with
his team. Do you want to talk more about that, Kirk? Yeah. Well, as we saw in the forward evaluation, this committee has the responsibility of the four buckets, and that is something that actually doesn't fit in one of those buckets, but I think that is something to be working with um the high school on, particularly
through their council. Uh and I think it's a great idea. So, uh I think that would be the appropriate arena to take it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that what what Amy, you were I think it's important for us to recognize that there
are certain things that are operational and that are not up to the school committee, but there are things that we can recommend that the superintendent pay attention to because it's something that parents are struggling with or, you know, there's a gap there that the professionals perhaps
don't experience, but the families do. And so in my conversation with Kirk, we we talk that through and he's really going to be um he I feel like you are like, "Oh, that's a great idea. That's such that's so smart." Um and just trying to build out, for example, the
pathways piece and how that is such an amazing public relations thing, this awesome thing that our high school is doing. How can we leverage that to help toot our horn and say, "Well, all the great things that are happening and make them available and accessible to all kids."
Yeah. That sounds that does sound amazing. It's totally different than what that parking light line parking lot line was about. I was just more like in previous years we've gotten a report from Jodie Spect on
um kind of like the presentation she gives to the rising juniors. But I think what you're suggesting is a better way to incorporate that information. So I'm I'm willing to I'm satisfied. I just kind of wanted to know where that ended up going. It really wasn't an
operational thing. It was just asking if we're going to get that presentation that we've gotten in prior years. That's all. Yeah, I think we we were kind of wrestling with whether or not that's a good use of Jod's time and and if that's useful to the school committee, especially considering that presentation
is very similar to what's happening at the junior college planning night. You know, how can we how can we best use our time to get our families what they need and not bog down our business meetings with
things that don't really belong here. So, more to come on that though. And I know Kirk put that on his list of summer planning stuff. All right, guys. I Yeah, I'm thinking that I'm going to
stop sharing that. Anything else for the good of the order? All right, managing all the tabs is epic. Um, just making sure we're good to go. The only thing left here is to adjurnn. And I will move to adjourn now. Do I have a second? Second.
Good job, Jackie. Uh, let's do the roll call. Myself, yes. Jackie, yes. Amy Vessels, yes. Scott, yes. Sharon, yes. Amy Cohen, yes.
Robin, yes. John, yes. Lindsay, yes. And did I Shander had to step out because he had to leave the room that he was in. Okay, so that's it, guys. We're adjourned. Thank you so much for your
time and energy. Good night. Good night, everyone.