ready. I'm going to open up the regular meeting of the Nisha Regional School Committee at 6:30 p.m. tonight on June 10th, 2026. This is our organizational meeting. It's actually the first meeting of the next session. Um and we will be introducing new members shortly. But
before we do that, uh please join me for the pledge of 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.
Probably the second time for most people today. Okay. So, uh, moving on. Uh, we are going to our agenda. Basically, the way that it's going to work is that we need to do our reorganization first. There's no telling how this will, um,
how long this will take, but we'll do our best to move swiftly. So, just because we have new members, um, what I would like to do first is just give them a moment to introduce themselves. We have three to four new members actually. Um, and so we'll start over here. just
introduce ourselves yourself, tell us where you're from and and anything else that comes to your mind, but don't feel free, you know, feel compelled to go on and on. >> Okay, perfect. Hi, I'm Lexi Fton. Um I'm from Lancaster. I have kids that are five and eight um in uh Mary Rollinsson
and I'm excited to be here. >> Uh okay. Hi, I'm Lenny Goldner. I'm from Stow. Um, I've lived in Stow for more years than I can even remember. I've been on other town boards, but this is my first foray into the school committee.
>> Welcome. >> Hi everyone. I'm Joel McCarthy. I have uh two kids, a first grader and a fourth grader here at Florence Sawyer. >> And we do have a new student representative who we're going to talk with a little bit later, but just a quick introduction. >> Hi everyone. Um, I'm Libby. I am from
Bolton and I'm going to be your new junior representative. Uh, yeah. Okay. So, just so that everybody knows who's here in the room, we do have new members. Um, so what we're going to do next is we're going to use this fancy tool
that Alita has hopefully given all of the voting members. So, um, the first, uh, position that we are going to nominate and elect is the chairperson. The regional agreement does call for the previous chair to run this operation at first. That's why I'm
talking. Um, the next position that we will vote on is the vice chair and then we will vote on the secretary. And the job of the secretary, just so everybody knows, is to basically manage our executive session minutes. Um, historically, we have tried to have the
leadership of the school committee represent the three towns. This is probably good practice, but it is not necessarily mandatory. It is not in our bylaws. because it's not required by law. It is just a practice that we tried to abide by. We thought it was
good practice. It's not mandatory. Just want to put that up there. So, when we vote, we are going to vote by secret ballot just to avoid any kind of um uh I don't know convincing your neighbor to vote a certain way. So, we vote by secret ballot. But it is very important
that you put your name on the ballot. Everybody understand what I mean? Because after we are done voting, we will send the votes to Alita. Is that okay, Alita? Um, we're going to send the votes to Alita. Alita will announce who
uh won, but she also has to announce who we all voted for. So, uh, the way that this works is we can take nominations and we will take the nomination of as many people as need be. So it doesn't
have to go one at a time. And so um nominations for chair are now open. >> So I I'll nominate Leah Vivarito to be chair first again. >> I accept. Thank you. >> Do you need a second? >> You do not. Thank you.
>> Uh any other nominations? Feel awkward asking. >> Okay. Well, going once, going twice. So, at this point, you guys can vote. Make sure you write your name and the person you're voting for.
>> And then you can pack them to your right or left depending on where it is for you. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah, take you can take your time.
voted for Leah. Leah voted for Leah. Joel voted for Leah. Lenny voted for Leah. Lindsay voted for Leah. Scott voted for Leah. Jillian voted for
Leah. Shant voted for Leah. Lexi voted for Leah. Sharon voted for Leah. to count. >> All right. Thanks, guys. I will continue to work for you and for everyone. Best I can. So, uh, next we will open up nominations
for vice chair. Matt. >> No. So, Matt would then have to accept. >> Um, >> you don't have to. >> Uh, no. I'm okay. Thank you, Mr. Appreciate Lindsay.
>> So, I'd like to nominate Jillian Shuda for vice chair. >> I would accept. >> Okay. Any other nominations? >> Nominate Scott Powell. >> I was also going to nominate Scott Powell. I was very flattered that Scott Powell was going to nominate me.
>> That was very like it's truly an honor to be nominated. So, thank you. >> I'm open to it. >> Yes. Okay. Any other nominations? >> Uh, may I may I now present my acceptance if you wish? >> Only because I really feel like I feel like Scott I think Scott. All right.
Maybe next year though. >> Any other nominations? All right. So, super ballot. I know it's ridiculous, but go right now. And then pass on down when you're ready. Thank you.
Lenny voted for Scott. Scott voted for Scott. Jillian voted for Scott. Leah voted for Scott. Lindsay Scott. Matt for Scott. Sharon for Scott.
Shawn Dart for Scott. Lexi for Scott for Scott. All votes are counted. >> Wonderful. Congratulations. Thank you for taking up the mantle. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Um, okay. So, the last position is secretary and I'll open up nominations
now. And I'm going to nominate Shondor to be secretary. Shandra, do you accept? >> Sure. >> Thank you so much. Are there any other nominations? >> Going once, twice. Okay, here we go. So, go ahead and place your votes.
controversial. >> I do appreciate Alita giving us many ballots. Maybe >> we would need those. >> They were run off. >> Exactly. There was one year. >> Oh, really? Secretary Leah for
Lenny for Shandor. Joel for Shandor. Lindsay for Shandor. Shandor. Sharon for Shandor. Lexi for Shandor. Jillian for Shandor. Shandor for Shandor.
Scott for Shandor. And Matt for Shandor. all. >> All right, congratulations on uh the committee leadership is now in place for the next year. So the three of us will
take the lead, but you guys are equal and very important powerful members. So um always remember that uh I think of myself as kind of the organizer and chief. That's just like my job is that I organize. So anytime you guys need anything, you know where to go. Um so
moving the agenda now to the next item. As you guys can see, uh, it is public comment. I understand that we have some friends in the gallery. If the camera cannot see it, we have quite a few people, maybe 30 people. I'm not counting, but, um, it might feel like we have a lot of people to speak, but I
think that we've narrowed it down to just a couple or maybe three. So, if you guys want to come up each of you at a time and feel free to take up your three minutes, um, explain to us whatever you want to know. And um I don't like to cut you off. So if you're at like 3:20, I
won't. But if you're at like 6, I'll have you. Um so the other rule of our policy is that if you if you begin repeating information um for no particular reason, that's where we try to ask you to just move the agenda to the next person. Um but I'm sure you're
very organized and well prepared. So I'll turn it over to you guys. Whoever wants to be first can feel free to step up, state your name and the town that you're from. >> Okay. Hello. >> Hi. Hi. >> Um, thank you all for having us. I am uh Ruth Merrick. I am from Lancaster. I
live in Lancaster with my husband and our three children. Um, as of next year, my next year, I'll have one at Marie, one at Luther Burbank, and one at the high school. So, um, I am also the cook for Luther B and Mary. Yeah, Mary and
Luther. So, um, tonight there are a few points that, um, we just wanted to address and call your attention to, um, about the RFP and, um, the witness proposal. So, um, the cafeteria is
currently running at a surplus. Um it um what they're trying to do is um we made $2.1 million in um the school district makes $2.1 million in revenue and we spent about $1.8 million.
uh the profit that they're proposing of saving from the cafeteria is onetenth of 1% of the school budget of going full wetins if we all stay in the positions
we're in. Um we currently the food service staff um majority of us are made up of community members. Um those that are not living directly in one of the three towns live in one of the surrounding towns who have
served in our kitchens for 25 30 plus years. We are we love this community. We are part of this community. We are parents. We're retirees in town. We know your children. We know what they like, what they don't
like. We work with community. We work with teachers. We work with staff for friends kids who need special accommodations or special things. Things that Witson's isn't going to know or isn't going to understand. You ask a
Wson's employee when they are just a revolving door. What does the bird lady coming mean for the second graders mean? They know nothing of what that means for the kitchen staff that we have to shut the doors and be quiet and we try to be respectful of what's going on. They don't know that kind of stuff. They
don't know what's happening when we say, "Oh, hey, reminder. There's the great birth festival going on. We need to accommodate less meals for less kids." So, those are some things that we are
when you pluck out part of the community and you turn it over to a company. We're not a company. We're a school and we are part of the school community. And I thank all the support of the teachers, the unit A members, unit C members who
have come to show that we're one community and that we are here all for the same purpose, to serve the kids we love, to feed the kids we love, and having this company come in that pays less for their employees. They pay their
employees $15 an hour. We're already the lowest paid employees in the district, the kitchen staff. And so when you're looking at trying to save onetenth of 1% of the budget based off of the food
service department and you're bringing in people who aren't going to know any of the things that we know in this community and they're not going to they care about the money, they care about the dollar. we care about the kids and
about the community and the things that are going on. Um, so it's immoral to me that we're saving money at the expense of our future employees. Somebody asked me, "What does it mean if
um like how does it look different if we're hybrid? You all get to keep your job, but the new employees don't get the benefits that we get. the new employees aren't going to be part of the union. That could become a revolving door. It
could become like they're and also you're breaking the divide of the food service being part of the community of the staff like and we are no longer members and we get emails from parents
that of special you know accommodations that their kids need. They mail Lori right now in our school. Other schools they email the managers. Well, Witson takes over. They that's broken. They email Witson. Anything needed gets emailed to them. And so, just when you
consider this, I just wanted you to see a face and know that we're all here and we want to serve our community. So, thank you for your time. Um, good evening. My name is Tiana Nelson. I live in Lancaster and I have
two kids in the district, one of Mr. Burbank and one MRE. I am also one of the food service employees at the high school and I've been following this discussion of privatizing our jobs with a lot of concern and honestly confusion. Um, I was told originally that the impetus for this move was to try to save
money. Um, in the last meeting that I was here about, the superintendent said this was the putting out the RFP was due diligence to make sure that the district is saving money where we can. And I get it. I too have to budget. It's expensive to be around here these days. Since that
time, as Ruth mentioned, um, I've heard that we are actually making money. We are not a drain on the school district. We are a um we're members of the community who care about our schools and our kids and want to make sure that they have fuel to get through their days. Um many of us
are parents who have or have had children in the district. And we're not doing it for the money. We're doing it for our kids and our community. And we would like to continue to work for our kids and our community and not a for-profit company whose biggest concern is by nature the bottom line. Um that's
not who I want in my kids cafeteria. Um, additionally going through with this plan is going to create an inequality indications. New employees, again, as Ruth mentioned, will have lower wages, worse benefits, and no rights or support to bargain for better. Um, starting wages at Witson's are the state minimum
wage. We can do better in fast food right now, and our new colleagues deserve to be on the same footing as the rest of us. We should be raising everybody up, not creating a second class of employees who have to give up more to get even less. Um, finally, this does honestly feel
retaliatory and anti- labor and honestly petty. Um, the RFP was issued after the NRA filed for arbitration on our behalf and the district is not living up to its responsibility to bargain. It's telling us that we're not bargaining even though we're going to the meetings and not
getting information back. Um, we're at this asking for concessions from the lowest paid employees in order to scrape a few extra dollars into an already existing surplus. This is not who I want to be as a district. We can and should do better. Um, as a parent and community
member and lunch lady, I am opposed to this very much. >> Good evening, members of school committee. uh newly reelected chairperson Vivivero, Superintendent Downing. Um my name is Kevin Keveny. I
am president of the NREA which is the collecting bargaining um unit A and C. I'm also resident of Bolton. Um two of my children have come through Sawyer Emerson and the high school and they are now paying taxes
um and uh taking good care of themselves thanks to the education they got in this district. Um, as the final piece, um, the final comment, I I I just have some points to bring out about what we've been dealing with and going through. Um, you've heard from Ruth and Tiana about
the situation, about them working in the district. I would like to address from a union perspective what we've been dealing with. Um, and the first sentence that came to my mind is I don't get it. What game is the district playing with food services? We sent a letter, the
NREA sent a letter to demand a bargain over changes in working conditions to food services and extended day on December 1st, 2025. And the district lawyer um legal counsel, Mr. Mike Macaro, reached out to meet us to for a meeting on May 12th, 2026.
That's 6 months after our initial um letter sent to the chair of the school committee. On February 9th, the extended staff are no longer to be going to be outsourced for an email from Superintendent Downey. The school committee was scheduled to vote on the outsourcing of food services
on May 13th, 2026, but the vote was postponed by the superintendent to avoid the unfair labor practice charge deadline imposed by the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations um of May 14th. The reasoning was since the school committee had not voted to outsource food services at the time of the
investigatory meeting, the investigator decided that the OP hinged upon the vote of May 13th. On May 12th, our MTA representative Travis Bab was contacted by Mike Macaro to discuss the situation with food services. As a result, the
school committee vote was postponed May 13th because we were now in discussions. With no vote by the school committee, the unfair labor practice complaint expired on May 14th. Tonight, the superintendent will introduce a measure to outsource food services, making it necessary for you,
the school committee, to create an extra meeting to vote on this issue once the school year is over. This creates an extra demand on your time to vote and decide the fate of food services. Early this afternoon at 12:48 p.m. the district lawyer emailed um me and Travis
and claimed that the NRA and the district were at impass. We responded to the district's initial proposal. They asked for concessions on June 2nd. Yet there have been no formal proposal. There was no there's been no formal proposal by the district except that the current UNCC food services staff can
remain and through attrition will all become Witson's employees. Food service is one of five units within the entire UNCC contract. Pulling them out would take deep negotiations that would have ramifications on the secretaries, custodians, instructional assistants,
and extended day providers. These are all games. It is clear that superintendent wants to outsource food services for what reason? To increase profits that are already up at 127,000. Food services consists of employees who
live in our communities and contribute to all our school communities. They know the students and their dietary needs. Under Witson's, they would become at employees who would be placed anywhere in the district or even outside the district. Look around the room. Look at the people who come to support our food
service employees. We are truly a community and we are colleagues committed to caring for our students. It doesn't add up that the motivation of the district is to squeeze a larger profit than $127,000. um to um out of by outsourcing food
services. The RFP allows for Witson to replace our UNCC employees with their own employees who will not be part of our community. They will come in at their appointed start time, do their work at less pay, and punch out at the end of their shift. Is this the kind of school committee you want to support? So
we and others strongly urge you to vote against the RFP with Witson's and the ultimate outsourcing of our food services staff. Thank you for your time tonight. Sorry. So, I just want to let you know that
we're at 15 almost at 15 minutes, but I'm going to give you the floor, sir. So, just introduce yourself, but please keep it to 15 minutes if you don't mind. So, you can keep the not the meeting. >> Sure. Thank uh my name is Ross Wolski. I'm a parent
from Lancaster. Uh, I came to the meeting tonight to speak about the food services contract. That's item six on your agenda tonight. I've been following the request for proposal process and I'm very concerned about how it was conducted. As you know, there's only a single proposal from a single vendor and
it's from the same vendor that's been providing the limited cafeteria services for the past few years. When your board authorized issuing this RFP on November 5th, you were told that the RFP would be drafted, reviewed by the dees, and posted before the end of
2025. That did not happen. I contacted the DS dees and obtained their records. The dees was only starting its review in January and continued through March 5th. During the review, the dees raised a number of concerns about the drafts.
They were concerned about the requirements that preferred vendors with existing contracts and about the length of time the district was allowing for vendors to develop proposals. Still, in the finalized RFP, the district allowed only one month for vendors to respond to
the RFP, which is the minimum allowed by the TESSE. Though it took more than five months for the district to prepare and release the RFP, vendors were allowed only a single month to become aware of the RFP, to review the RFP, to ask
questions, and to make a proposal for managing the cafeterias in four buildings across three towns for 5 years. The RFP was released on Combi's website on a Friday night at 700 p.m. Hopefully, vendors found it very quickly because
any vendor who wanted to respond was required to attend a mandatory conference at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday. There was no reason for the mandatory conference to be three business days after the RFP was posted. And this isn't typical. When the district posted an RFP for the before and after school
programming in January, they allowed two weeks between the posting and the meeting instead of three business days. If vendors had any questions again about operating four cafeterias across three towns for 5 years, vendors had just 5
days to ask them and then just two more weeks to finalize and submit the proposals. This extremely condensed timeline favored just one vendor, Witson's, who as you know was already providing services to Nishoba. They were certainly aware that the RFP was coming
that they had access to data on the district that no other applicant did and they had the inside track to preparing a proposal. As you know, Witson's was the only vendor who responded. They surely were quite certain that their proposal would be the only one in front of you.
No other vendor had time to drop the proposal and anyone who cared to try knew that Whitson's had the inside track. I'm going to assume that you're going to closely review the track record of this vendor and you'll hear some things that will be concerning. Just two
years ago, the Boston Public Schools chose not to renew their contract with Witson. Their concerns are about food quality and freshness. Just last year, Burlington Public Schools ended its contract with Witson. They chose to terminate their contract
after just two years and go back to in-house cafeteria services this spring in Melver, New York, because if you haven't been told, Witson's is not headquartered in Massachusetts. They're headquartered 200 miles away in Hot Rod, New York. In Melbour, New York,
they met with parents to to discuss a survey regarding food concerns. According to their local paper, the surveys results included complaints about spoiled milk, inconsistent food tastes and quality in the different buildings, as well as a lack of vegan
options and a desire for friendlier food service. Remember, this is going to be a 5-year contract for the only cafeteria option our children will have 180 days a year. Finally, you'll surely be told about an incident at Long Meadow High School. The
head coach hired by Woodsons was charged with sexual mis misconduct on the job in the school's cafeteria. When asked about the incident by a local paper, the administr administration pointed out that it's Witson's job to handle that employee.
It took 5 months to draft an RFP. Vendors were allowed just 30 days to respond. And you may tonight just be given seven days even to make a decision. We'll all be stuck with that decision for 5 years. As you consider this new contract, you're simultaneously reviewing a settlement between the
district and its food services and extended day staff regarding unpaid overtime. Do you think that the workers as individual Witson's employees would have successfully litigated that settlement or do you think they'd be out of luck? Members of the school
committee, please ask yourself. Are you making a decision on a food services provider because it's best for the staff? Because looking behind me, I don't think they're here to be fans to me. I don't get the impression that they're here to tell you that. Are you considering this contract because you
think the individual towns asked the district to consider this? That is what you were told on November 5th. It was suggested that this came out of conversations with the towns. >> So, I'm going to call time. >> I have literally three three paragraphs left. Can I >> You're at six.
>> All right. >> We understand though. We appreciate you. We appreciate your POINT OF VIEW. EMAIL OR COMMENTS, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DO THAT if you'd like to enter them into the record. That's another way for us to hear everything that you had to say. Um, but we appreciate everything that was brought to the table and we understand.
Um, I do want to let you guys know that from an agenda perspective, we are going to move to the student representative report. Then we have to move into executive session for other matters and then we're going to come back and hear the presentation about the food services
contract. You are definitely welcome to come back into the room at that point in time, but during executive session, everybody just has to leave. So, I just I wanted to give you a little process update. Okay. Um, we expect that executive sessions could wrap up around 8:00 PM at the latest.
Okay, so thank you for that everyone. Um, till later. Uh, and interesting news over here. We have our student representatives and Maria, I'm going to let you give us your report if you have anything to share other than introducing your new partner.
>> Everything to share about what just happened >> or just like >> you can give your you can give your reporting. >> I don't know. I don't know if you want to map into this. >> Um, so >> your report is your report. >> Hi everyone.
>> So unfortunately unfortunately or fortunately for some of us school is almost over and I don't have much to share besides finals is coming next week starts on Friday and it's Thursday next week. So good luck to everyone. We're
all tired. We all um so obviously just introduce herself. Olivia gonna be the upcoming junior representative and do you have anything to say or I'm just really excited for summer? >> We have a lot of teachers in the room so
they agree. >> I haven't started your essay so So, um, just so that you guys know, at this point, we normally open it to the floor for the school committee to ask the school the student representatives about anything kind of within our purview, anything that you would want
more elaboration on. And I'm going to start to set a good example or hopefully uh you said you're entering finals. >> Yes. We I believe implemented a new system that happened during midterms and now you're seeing through finals I
think. Have you started yet? >> Uh no, it starts on Friday. >> Friday. >> Um how are you feeling about the new schedule change on that? I personally do not like it and I don't I've we've talked about this with the superintendent and within our student
advisory group and I just I mean >> can you difference Maria? Oh yes, of course. So, normally our old schedule, old schedule, we would have the morning off and we would start around, actually, I don't know what time we started. Start
>> 9:40. >> 94. >> 9:40. Thank you, Miss Hara. Um 9:40 and then we would have a period of our exam and then after a period of just review. And now we starting in the morning at 7:40 and we end at 11:00. So, we're
having an early release. And in my personal opinion, I just think there's more um cons and pros of the new schedule. I would understand why some people would like it. I just I just can't I I just think um me and Olivia are actually talking about this. Um a
lot of kids do study until late night and then waking up early and having to go straight to an exam is it's just not the best. And also I personally study better in the morning. So going into school early and having that time to
study, like it just helped me so much. And you can't do that now. I can't go in early and study. Nor can people sleep in till later. So, you know, there's Do you do you have anything to >> Yeah. Um I also I really appreciated
last year coming in as a freshman. Um I remember I went to see Dr. Tollson the morning before my physics exam because I was very confused on our velocity unit. And so it gave a really good opportunity because the school library would be open in the morning like in the morning. So if I needed assistance for any like from
any of my teachers, they would be there and they would be available for the help. So I could feel my like my best and most confident in that moment. Um, I also don't I don't want to draw any conclusions, but I do also know that a lot of students will draw more towards energy drinks and more artificial
caffeine um as a stimulus for themselves during exams. Um, cuz I know like me personally, I agree. I'm 100% a late night studier. I like that's when I'm most active. And if I have to wake up early to go and study before like a quick review period and then go to my exams, I'm going to get a lot more like
groggy and just not fully awake enough to take a a very important exam. Um, so I know I personally have asked my dad to provide me with energy drinks to get through these days. Um, and I know how awful they are for everybody. And I I feel like having a later schedule might
provide the students a with better confidence in their abilities as well as access to a healthier body during their exams. >> I appreciate that answer. I would tell everybody or just remind everybody that this not something that the school committee is in charge of. It's like an operational matter, but um we do
interface with the school uh student council. So maybe this is something that you guys can put on your agenda for September to talk with the student body and see if there and Dr. Buon obviously to see if there are ways to improve the
deficits that you see. >> Do you guys have any other questions for them? >> Madam Chair, >> yeah, >> Maria, I believe we're already doing that >> from our advisory meeting last time. We talked about that. Going to bring it to the student council first meeting. >> Excellent.
>> Yay. Um, anything else that you guys want to talk about or ask or wonder for next year? All right. So, remember that they're a resource for you all? They are here pretty um consistently which we really
appreciate and they do normally provide um a pretty comprehensive report as it going on at the high school and the district and we appreciate that. So, if there are no other questions for the students, when we move to executive session, you guys will step out and you do not need to come back unless you
really want to. That is an allowance to love having you here at the full meeting, but they go along. So, it's always up to you if you can stay or if you just need to go. That's great. All right, everybody. Um, so I am
actually going to move us into executive session and Alicia sent me the motion and I just want to get it absolutely right. So bear with me. >> Um, all right guys. So, next agenda item requires that I move us into executive
session at 7:07 p.m. pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30A section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect in the bargaining or litigating position of the public body of the chair
players which I do. This will be for both unit A and unit C. collective bargaining uh executive session will include the school committee, superintendent Downing, assistant superintendent Ross Malcurren, assistant superintendent friend, director of student services, director of human
services Jessica Murdoch, and district legal counsel Mike Mccurro. This meeting uh or executive session will return to open session at the conclusion of that. Do I have a second? >> Hi, Matt. Got it. Um any discussion on
the motion? All those in favor, you can just raise your hand. >> Oh, helping the veteran here figure it out. Joel, >> yes. >> Matt, >> yes. >> Lenny, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. >> Scott, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. Sharon, yes. Shandra,
>> yes. >> Jillian, yes. And yes. >> All right, we are in executive session. All right, we ready to practice. >> We're going to rock and roll any. All right, here we go, guys. So, welcome back everybody. We are going
to move the agenda now. Obviously about an hour behind schedule. Sorry for that. Um we have our finance and operations report. And what we're going to be looking at next is the food services management contract and rock has a presentation for
us. >> I just did that. All right. So, Ros, your presentation is being pulled up. >> Yep. >> And I'll just let you >> Sure. Are we all set with Nikki? >> Yeah.
>> Okay. >> Um, so, Billy, last fall we shared our intent to issue a request for proposals for food services. Our primary goal is to explore potential costs of new town assessments. At that time, committee members raised important questions about
the impact on our staff and the wellbeing. So now we're here to review the RFP results and discuss how potential uh contracts affect our current employees, our budget, and our towns. They help uh guide us, our legal counsel, Mike Macaro. Attorney Mike Maro
is here with us tonight and has been involved with us throughout this entire process. Uh we appreciate your guidance attorney Marorrow as you're with us. So I will turn it over to assistant assistant superintendent Karen to share an update with you at this time. >> Thank you and thank you to the school
committee uh for your time. Uh so within this presentation we'll be providing important need to know I am not >> Did you turn it on the side? >> What would we do without it?
So with the assistance however so thank you. Uh so within the presentation we'll be going through uh the important need to knows for the school committee about the status of the RFP um and the potential uh benefit to the district uh
based on the response. So just as a uh review of the process. So our process began with notice to the district community about the RFP. So in December uh through February, we used the state's mandated template to build our RFP which was posted at the
beginning of March uh right after we received approval from DESIE. There's back and forth on evaluative criteria um and other things that we were adding into the RFP in addition to the template that is pro that is mandated uh by the state. So after that we did have our
pre-proposal conference. I'll talk about that a little bit more in the site tours. Um and then proposals were due in April and they were evaluated. So um currently and last month uh there's ongoing NREA bargaining meetings with our legal council and then currently
we're here in June uh for an update. So uh we had four potential uh submitters attend the pre-proposal conference in tours. uh one food service company submitted a proposal that was Woodson's
um so the non-pric proposal so it's just as a review for the committee at the RFP you're going to get a non-pric proposal on qualitative and then you're going to get a price proposal and uh the way that the uh desi template and process works
um is if you have more than one rated as highly advantageous across the board uh you then have to look at the price proposal So price proposal is stated as a fiscal guaranteed return and the guaranteed return is essentially what the expected
revenues are less the expenses that are based within the RFP and data and information available uh to the submitter. The guaranteed return is for life of contract which is a three-year contract. You have to go out every 3 years. Uh you can't extend beyond that
uh with the state. Superintendent D. >> So when we talk about what the impact is on the employees based on the terms of the contract, um employees have the choice to remain employees of the show regional school district. So no employees will be at
risk for losing their current services positions with the NOA Regional School District. Um those employees do have uh the choice to work for Witson's and the programs for which are outlined in the RFP. um and Witson's will have the right and
the responsibility for the new hires uh due to attrition as part of the RFP contract. So going back to what the guaranteed return is. So a logical question at this point is what happens with that identified uh maximum return?
uh those dollars have to stay within food services and our investigation of how other districts mostly regional school districts use these funds. They've shared some methodologies uh for charging utilities or the hours a custodial position assigned to the
cafeteria um as examples. So we provided some of those examples here um based on that 375 maximum there's a potential of uh food service utilities and custodial staff. We would have to use those methodologies
to be more specific. um as we open the books on FY27. Um but obviously that still allows for approximately 125,000 to be applied to equipment repairs, annual maintenance um to avoid that those costs end up in the
operating budget. So again, as we said, brief update and we're ready for questions and clarifications that may come. >> Thanks, Ross. Ecker, >> uh, what questions do we have about this
proposal? Go ahead, Julian. >> So, we as a school committee have not actually seen the contract, but that will be made available to us. >> Yes. So, we will, right? So, as to not get ahead of ourselves, right? Um, so a draft contract would have to be generated on the DESIE website.
>> Okay. >> That will be provided to you all uh for review and then prior to questions or whatever the process may be based on the chair's agenda >> and then we could ask questions. Yes, >> that would be I don't want to say yes. Uh Mr.
>> That would be up to the chair. Correct. >> Thank you. >> Question. So the savings the $375,000 savings would that all have to stay within service? >> Right. So for example, uh Mr. Mr.
Golder, we could not say use that to offset the cost of our bus contract. >> Any other questions? >> I have just one more. Keep going. Feel free. >> Um, so the $375,000
guaranteed return. Um, I feel like I've heard like maximums and minimums. So, is this this is a flat number guaranteed return or >> correct? Okay. >> When we say return, that's right. So that's based off of expected revenues
>> and the the the presentation of what our costs are within the district and their application of what they know about food services within schools, right? So they have to build their assumptions, >> but they say guaranteed 375. Where we end up applying that over the costs that
we identified in the RFP are up to us. It just has to stay within food services. >> Okay. I have I probably just one more question. Do not apologize. >> So, we only received one bid, >> correct?
>> Is that typical? Do we know why the other companies who came to do the tours opted not to bid? >> Um, I don't know cuz that wouldn't be something I would ask them. I wouldn't seek that information. I think there's some
uh procurement gray area there to reach out to somebody and say, "Why didn't you Um, so I would say that I don't I I don't know why they they would not have. I mean, we're >> okay. My concern and the reason I ask is
with a single bid, I just wonder how much insight we really get into sort of is that fair market rate? How advantageous is that really? You know, we don't have another vendor to compare it to. So, how are you assessing that? So I would say it's close to our
previous guaranteed return. Now our previous guaranteed return was built off of sort of assumptions long ago as we were self off. So we also expanded our schedule. So our our part of that is our staff were were were paid more and
taking on new processes. They were allowed to to use more time. So that's now changed. Um and that's built into the RFP now. So I think it's still a fair number. >> Okay. Um, yeah, if I felt like it wasn't a fair number, I would say so.
>> Okay. I have other questions, but after I think a lot of them would be maybe answered having the contract. So, I pulled off, but I guess for now >> because the contract has not yet been written it if and that would but that would be negotiated by you, Ross.
>> So, the two there's a two-part, right? So I would take the information in the RFP response, put it into the Desi template system. It would generate a draft contract. You would see that contract.
We would follow a similar process as last time if the the committee so chooses in which you would be authorizing the school uh the superintendent with legal counsel to enter into contract finalization.
And can you talk just a minute about timelines at all? >> So typically you would want the contract to be done by July 1 because that's the start date. Um that that's typically the start date. Y >> okay. Um so
I obviously can see the date on my computer right now. Um you know we have an obligation. We have a multi-tiered obligation here that the school committee is responsible for >> to look at this from every angle. So
that's ongoing um in various forms. >> If we weren't to hit the July one deadline, is it like what does that mean? >> So I've already notified Jesse um school nutrition that we're not there yet. Um I
didn't hear a response. I would do the same thing to say here's our next timeline. Let me know if this is an issue and I would certainly communicate it back to Superintendent Downey who would share it with you uh as the chair. >> But we're trying to move at a at a fair rate nonetheless.
>> Any other questions? I know I do have one last question. If you know I think about um sort of busing for example as you know a vogue toward outsourcing this you know when I was growing up all that stuff was done
you know in house and we can move it out. We've obviously seen transportation prices um really deeply impact our budget. It's hard to bring it back in house once you've taken it out. I wonder if you have an idea or a plan if this didn't go
well, how do we exit if we've, you know, we have heard of other districts. I also did that research and saw that other districts have ultimately decided that it's not a good fit. >> Um, >> so if there was ever a concern with any contract, I would reach out to legal counsel to discuss. Most legal count uh
contract things you can work out within >> I guess >> with the provider with the vendor but I'm talking about contracts that might be about for software licensing or you know other things. I I think in this case we'd reach directly out to >> I think my question is more
philosophical in the sense if we can look at the three-year budget and say we get this guaranteed return that's wonderful. Is there a risk in the longer term fiscally if we you know cease getting guaranteed returns but we've lost the institutional knowledge to continue offering those services inhouse
do you know what I mean and we've become sort of beholden to our vendor particularly if we only have you know a single big procurement we don't have other vendors who really want to come in it might be hard to say well you know uh Aramark wants to come in and take this
with him so you better be doing a good Without speculating, >> I would say um that you know for the reasons identified and and spoken to by Superintendent Downing that we did not execute an optional year on the current
one, right, in favor of producing something different. >> We would want that to go the full three years and then put that out. Maybe that was a factor in why there was only one. uh and we would see a different result. I think typically and I could maybe follow this question up at the next
meeting uh by talking to other school districts. Typically on a three-year full cycle, you'll see more. >> Oh, that's good. >> I promise that wasn't my last. >> Oh. Um what I've heard you say, Ross, and I've heard you say it a couple of
times, is that adopting this contract would not require any of our employees to leave. >> Correct. So, Superintendent Downing covered that uh slide. So, yes. So, I'll
put it back up. So, they're not at risk for losing their food service position. Obviously, uh they would stay NHOA employees uh under the unit C contract. the the RFP is stated and therefore the contract
would be stated that new employees um would be hired by Witson's and work for Witson's. >> How um how usual is this? So I don't know if uh Miss Murdoch has the sort of
return on or the the the total number but um we do have a significant amount of employees that have been with us for a while but we've also seen that on the low on the less experienced end we've seen more turnover. So I think about
I don't want to quote exact numbers but I would say 30 to 40% of our people have been with us for five or six years or less. >> Yeah. And I think about a quarter have been with us for two years or less in food services. >> And how many districts are moving in this direction in our area like our
comparable districts? Is this kind of a methodology that many districts are using or >> so comparables is hard uh because size location budget. I will say regionally um around us Harvard, Berlin, Boilston and
Northro, Southborangquin have all within the last 5 years moved to uh a contract specifically whether they've kept their employees or not uh or done an attrition model. I don't know the nature of their contracts, but >> those are available on
>> what's that? >> Those are available those contracts. >> Yes. It' be easier just for me to ask though. >> Yeah. Y >> okay. Um yeah, I mean I think that that anecdotal information might be useful. >> Y I I do know that GR and Dunville made this change the way we're proposing
within the RFP six or seven years ago. Um maybe a little bit less and they do still have a handful of employees that still work for the school district. >> Interesting. Y and and to follow up on Leia's question about you know the um
status of the employees that are you know with the town would that in any way affect their salaries benefits union uh protection any of those things >> if they stay with the region school district if they stay in the employees
they're still under the unit city collective bargaining agreement >> and any and any iterations of that moving forward y >> until retirement or they decide to leave >> or they're no longer Yeah. >> So there's no like expiration date at
this moment in this contract that doesn't expire by virtue of this RFP. >> No, because our No employees that are covered by the UNC collective bargaining agreement would stay covered by the Yes. >> So this is an important um first look
especially because some of us are brand new but um this was helpful. I'm sure you guys still have questions. If if something percolates, as always, send them to me. I'll compile them and bring them to Kirk so that he can get
answers for you in the interim. Um, but obviously, this is something that we're going to continue to discuss and and that the nature of this will require us to have additional meetings into the summer. Okay? So, I'll be communicating with you guys about that.
Just want to ask attorney Maro if you wouldn't mind sharing sort of next steps. >> Good evening. Yeah. Uh so next steps right now uh as you've heard um we have been meeting with the NREA uh members of the UNCC. Uh we've shared with them the
information about the RFP uh what the response was. We've had a few meetings with them already. Um, as you heard from some of the members of public comment. Uh, there's communication uh today to try to schedule uh further meetings. So, uh, those are ongoing discussions. Uh, I
imagine we'll be scheduling those. Um, and there's a group of us that have been meeting with them and we'll continue those negotiations. Um, as they proceed, we'll dictate, you know, where we come back and what we share with you. So, >> so how hard to pin it down and and that's appropriate. >> Yeah. I can't can't give you a time
frame right now. I don't think we have a date scheduled yet, but uh we're talking with the union about uh another date. >> All right. Thank you for your presentation. We appreciate it. It's good information for all of us. Um so guys, we're going to move the
agenda now to just some housekeeping. Um we have the school committee kind of um calendars and subcommittee assignment surveys, stuff like that. Let me start with the meeting calendar first. So I think Alita has produced as
she always does a draft of that for us. Um she asked me to look it over and I did. I think that there was just one change and that was in the month of November. Um so what that would do is again put a
meeting um while you're at the conference the superintendent conference. >> Yes. Yes. And there were the restrictions was around like Veterans Day was preventing it from any other way. >> Yeah. And what I am
in court is the mask conference is going to be in Devon I think this year. don't have to go to hyenas. So, so um I have um I have been um selected
to be on the NASS executive board next year and so we have executive board meetings. Yeah. So we have executive board meeting on that evening of the conference. It's always the annual executive board meeting is always that
evening of but since it's in Devon who knows maybe there's a way to >> I think it's rejected it's in >> Oh dang >> Danver was it still not as far as Hayana >> sorry >> I was hoping for evidence I was
>> I'm more fixated on the on the fact that you were chosen to be on the executive committee. Well, Madam Chair, and and I have been uh as of this morning, selected president of the Worcester County Superintendent. >> All right, Kirk. Congrats. >> We'll be doing some good work with
Worcester County and engaging with our our state leaders through that network as well. >> Wonderful. So, hopefully that allows you to still attend our meeting. >> Yes. Yes. But but that November uh meeting uh I may not be in attendance, but we have two amazing assistant
superintendents that can certainly set my place for that one meeting. >> Um so guys, just glancing at this calendar. Um I did look it over. It looked good to me, but do you guys see any issues? So I just want to make sure the reason we're doing the we're swapping the
virtual and live meeting in November is because of the >> um because we have two backtoback virtual meetings. Yes. >> Right. Normally we do the live one first and the virtual which is swapped in because >> but I when I learn of my obligation to
that one >> we can inform you and you can shift it back at the beginning of the year as you see fit. So, the governor's order does still allow public bodies to meet virtually. While that is still allowed, this is the method that we're using. I
think it probably works best for us busy people. Uh, but this is something that we could discuss at the workshop in August as well. >> If I may point out for our new members, uh, after January 1st, it or meetings, we we pick up the rhythm a little bit.
So, our workshop on the 13th, followed by the 27th, the 10th, and then the 24th. Then there's the public hearing for the budget on the 3rd, and then the next school committee meeting to vote the budget on the 10th. So, it's a condensed
time. And so, I'm just forecasting that for you um on the calendar. >> All right. So, this can always be changed, but we want to try to move it or do I am I at liberty to just establish it?
>> So, be it. >> All right. So, um, now we can move the agenda again to talk about subcommittee assignments. So, I'm going to send you guys all a survey by email. I'm the only one who has
access to the spreadsheet. you can identify your top choices for subcommittees. I will also in that survey attach the subcommittee explanations so that you can try to use your skill set and your interest level to put
yourself strategically on two of the subcommittees. That's kind of where we're at right now. So, we normally serve two functions outside of the regular meeting. Subcommittees meet once a month and so they're and they're all virtual. And so you would then it would then put you on a one week one meeting
per week schedule. So that survey will come by email. Please be on the lookout for it. You want to fill it out because in August you'll be you'll be kind of alerted to what subcommittees you're on. All right. So that's up. And then the planning calendar. So
Alita, do you have that? You could pull up. So we have this really fabulous tool that actually some of the subcommittees have adopted as well. Um and even um I feel like the student council we talked to them about adopting it as well. So this planning
calendar is is very useful. It projects out what we have scheduled um across all of the meetings and then because there are some things that are statutoily required or just things that we normally do at a certain time already baked in
because Alita just does this great copy. And then we have this parking lot on the left where we can kind of register the things that we don't want to forget about, but we're not totally sure where they should go. So Alita, if you scroll down a little bit, you can uh show the committee this document. And Alita, I
think, has has this publicly shared. It's on the website on our school committee website because it's not just for us. It's also for the public. And we add to this Kirk and I do it our weekly Wednesday meetings. anytime you guys want something on the C on the on an
agenda. Um, every single uh meeting always has an agenda item that says items for next agenda. So, you can bring it up at a meeting or if it just comes to you or you talk to a constituent and they have something that you that they want to add or have you talk about,
reach out to me. And I normally just put it on the planning calendar either in the parking lot or I'll say, "Oh, that could totally fit in the April meeting because um if it's something that's outside of our purview, then we'll have that conversation so that you understand why it might not be appropriate." Um and
that's basically the planning calendar. Any questions? >> I think uh this year planning calendar is linked on the website, not that one. >> Yeah, the next one is >> we shall fix. >> No, yeah, I didn't put on until last. Yeah,
>> you're the first to know. Alita will fix the link and then the new one will be up there. The old one's also useful. Do you want to bookmark? Um, we're almost done. Can I get another 8 minutes or so out of my committee here? Thumbs up. Everybody's okay with
that? Okay, great. At 9:00, we have a norm that we'll just take. Some people actually vote to leave and do leave and that's fair. Um, but I like I love what you say. So, that is kind of school committee management. uh my email and my cell phone are always available to you. So just let me know
over this next um few days if you have questions. Next item here is the consent agenda and I'm going to make a motion to approve. I'm going to move to approve the consent agenda of June 10th, 2026. Do I have a second?
>> Second. Any discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor? Any opposed? Abstain. >> Did you vote, Lenny? >> Yeah. Um, can I vote? Was I Was I?
>> Yeah, you can actually vote. Even though the consent agenda is addressing things from meetings prior to your joining, you can still vote. If you reviewed the materials and you feel confident, you can also abstain. >> I'm not sure what's in the consent. >> No, that's okay. >> So, maybe I should just let you play it
safe and I >> Fair. Okay. >> Yeah. So, the consent agenda materials, I think Alita will put them the the meeting minutes, the draft meeting minutes will always be in the materials, but some of the other things you might not be aware of, like the adopted rubric for classroom teacher
evaluation that was at the previous meeting. So, we adopted a procedure to just tuck everything into the consent agenda that's not controversial that we can just do a blanket approval at the following meeting. Uh, anything, by the way, that you want to ever pull out of the consent agenda
because you think it is the controversial item, all you have to do is ask for something to be removed, we'll pull it out and then we can approve the consent agenda without it and then we can have a separate vote on that more controversial thing. All right. So guys, I have no further update. We do have one small new
business item which we're happy to bring to you and that is the audit advisory presentation. Um, and and is that a good characterization? Sure. >> Very exciting. >> This is by the way mandatory in the by the regional agreement that we have this
committee this advisory that Scott Ket is in charge of. He has members from the public who join to help us and it basically is an oversight element to make sure that our auditing processes processes are up to date and being managed. >> Have specified obligations in the
regional agreement that spells out what we're supposed to be doing. And um so on May 27th, the audit advisory meeting met for the fifth and final time in fiscal year 2026 where our um ad auditor Mr. Tony Rosselli, the head of Rosselli Clark, uh provided information to us
about our audits and based on that meeting, I developed a statement which the other members of the committee have approved. The statement goes as such. The audit advisory committee has reviewed the required elements of the public financial health report including
audit results, auditor performance, cost trends, and overall financial stability. We confirmed that recent audit findings were appropriate, recommend continuing with Roseli and Clark for the upcoming cycle, and endorse a $50,000 audit
budget for fiscal year 27. Based on multi-year data, the district's financial health remains stable. >> Well done. >> Thank you. Audit advisory committee and the chair >> presentation of the year. >> Yes. >> While
um are there any questions from the audit advisory uh audit advisory? >> Okay. So again, the audit advisory is another one of those subcommittees that if this is something you're fascinated about, one time we had an auditor who sat on the committee and that person was
very well suited to it. Scott has picked up the mantle and is doing a fabulous job. Um, so if anybody else is looking to take it over, you could wrestle away from Scott, but just make him do it. >> He's doing a great job. Thanks, Scott.
Um, so we have no unfinished business, so I'm going to move to adjourn. Do I have a second? >> Second. All those in favor. >> All right, guys. You made it your first meeting. Well done.