p.m. So, I'm going to call to order the regular meeting of the Nohoba Regional School Committee at 6:30 p.m. on 12:17 2025. Uh, if you wouldn't mind, we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. You can join me if you like.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Hi everybody. Uh so we'll start off with
public comments tonight and I have not received any public comments from the community. So, uh, we're going to move over to the consent agenda. And I wonder, Amy, do you have a motion for us? >> Yes. I move to approve the consent
agenda of December 17th, 2025. >> I'll second that. Is there any discussion? All right, guys. We're going to do the roll call vote. I vote yes. Amy, >> yes. >> Scott,
>> yes. Matt, >> yes. >> Robin, >> yes. >> Jillian, >> yes. >> Shandor, >> yes. >> Sharon, >> yes. >> Uh, Lindsay, >> yes. >> And Jackie,
>> yes. Right. So, that's the consent agenda. Thank you, everyone. Uh, the chairperson has no updates beyond the agenda itself. So, we'll keep on motoring through over to our student representative report. And I do see Ryan. Hi, Ryan.
>> Take it away, my friend. >> Cool. Um, is Maria here? Is Maria in here, too? Do you see her? >> I don't see Maria yet. >> She's in the document, so she might hop in now. >> Um, anyways, I'll get started. Um, so a couple representatives from the school
committee came down and talked to our student council. Um, I know Leah, Mrs. Vivivero was one of them. Um, so that was cool. StuCo is going to start looking into sort of the handbook um and I can definitely bring forward some of
that information as well as um uh Miss Vivido and others are going to keep coming in and check in with the student and council. Um also the pep rally um kind of makeup thing
we're doing on December 23rd is a student versus faculty volleyball game. Um, and there's like kind of different events that we are going to run.
Um, the student advisory council went on the tour of a new building. I was taking a test during that period, so unfortunately I wasn't involved. Um, and then I know the superintendent came down and also talked about um, sort of the snow day situation to get some feedback
and input from the student council as well. So, that's another thing to that. That's that's what we got here. Does anyone have any questions or anything? >> All right. And I saw Maria jump in. Hi, Maria. >> Hi, guys. >> I'm so sorry. We're like speeding
through the agenda. We cut you. >> Maria could probably talk about Did you go on the tour of the new building? >> I did. I did. >> You want to talk? >> Oh, yeah. It was It was really fun. And we all like took a lot of pictures and um the structure itself I think we all
just were not visualizing as well because the not all the walls are put up but it just looks huge like it just just so much space and we were all like this is huge like this building is going to be passing period needs to be at least 10 minutes long or else we're not going
to get anywhere. And um I mean me the superintendent and Bella a friend of mine. We all took a picture with some of the people that responsible for um the building stuff. So that was that was fun. It was a really fun tour. Like it
it was fun. And then I and then we are doing um our pepper pepper rally. like it's not really a pep rally, but it's kind of a pep rally on December 23rd. And we're having fun games like student versus
teachers volleyball game and then potato potato sack race and just fun activities like that like p teacher and we having our raffle ticket signups during lunch. So that's fun and we're all really excited for it.
>> All right, sounds great. You guys are cruising into the holiday break. >> Yep. Uh, does anybody have any questions for our student reps? >> Yeah, Jackie. Um, Ryan and Maria, I know we have a few
policy related uh agenda items later this evening, and I was just wondering if you got any feedback or info um from students. I know that you have been checking in with uh different people. So, I was just curious if there was any feedback for us as we head into that
later in the um in the meeting. Um I had I know nothing that any student um kind of came to me to talk about. Um so I guess that's that's really I have for that. >> Yeah, I don't have anything either. >> Okay, great. Thank you both.
All right, so no news is good news I think on that front. I also didn't get any feedback from the communities after reaching out a little bit. So um we'll get to that unfinished business a little bit later on graduation requirements. All right, guys. As always, thank you so
much for um your report. I also want to just thank you, student council, and Mr. Kaiser and Superintendent Downing for hosting Miss Cohen and I at the student council meeting the other day. It was it's always a great opportunity for us to get to talk with you guys. And I know
um we discussed you kind of digging into the student handbook and helping us as we move forward to approving that um this spring. So, we look forward to any feedback you have there and let us know if you need anything. Awesome. All right. Uh, so guys, we're moving right along
with the agenda. We're going to head over to the superintendent's report now, and I'm going to hand it over to Superintendent Shing. >> Madam Chair, thank you for that recognition. It's my pleasure to bring our report to you tonight. Uh, I have a couple of items and then I'm gonna, uh, invite Miss Hanigan, our communication
specialist, to speak. uh to the survey trends uh from fall conferences. So with that um there's an announcement here uh that I'm bringing to you from our uh director of uh nursing and wellness uh Mariah Zwicker and that is uh we have an
opening for a school committee member on the district wellness committee. This is a committee that is required under the regulations uh in Mass General that excuse me under CMR 105 CMR 215 and it's basically this is the wellness committee
to ensure uh that we are leaisoning between uh the committee the superintendent the community uh around uh health and wellness and the school district. Uh ideally the committee should consist of a school committee member of any other town that is
represented. So in regional school committees that means uh it's best to have a representative in each town. However, the regulations do speak to you know making a genuine effort in doing your due diligence. So as we have traditionally had one school committee
member I think we've met the spirit of that regulation. So, Madame Chair, uh this is um in the regulations to state that the superintendent is to appoint that school committee member. So, I am putting a call out to our school committee members right now uh to reach
out to me that if you're interested in participating on that committee as it says in the memo, they meet four times per year as led uh by Miss Wicker. And please reach out to me if you can volunteer to be on that wellness committee. It's not a big lift. Uh there's no homework or anything to do
outside of the meeting. It's just simply the meeting itself. And it's typically held during the day on Zoom. Dr. Reinard, is that correct? >> Yeah, it's I think it's every once a month uh a few times a year at 3M. >> Yeah. So for those
>> It's not it's not heavy lift at all. >> So if you're one of those folks, please reach out to me uh and the chair. I I would appreciate that. Um, and next in your uh packet is a memo, very brief memo about our clerical substitute rate.
Um, sometimes we do have clerical subs in our school district. And madam chair, you might remember a few years ago we came with a few positions that had dropped below the minimum wage when the minimum wage was increased. This is one we missed uh because it is a position
that actually isn't utilized too terribly much. Um, and so when this was brought forward to me, I said yes, I'll bring it before the committee by raising the daily rate from $100 to $125 per day. That brings us over this the the minimum wage requirements of the state
of Massachusetts. So, I put that in front of you and ask for your approval uh next week as we can include it in next meeting as we can include it in the consent agenda. So before we move on to the to the conference survey trends, are there any
questions? >> I see Amy's hand. Go ahead, Amy. >> Can you just remind the committee how the clerical sub rate will compare to the other sub rate that's out there right now?
>> That's a good question, Miss Cohen, and I don't have that in front of me, so forgive me. Um, but it is not the same rate. Mr. Karen, do you know our rate off hand there? >> I'm pulling it up right now. Superintendent Downey. We did adjust the
uh teacher uh substitute rate a few years ago. We also put into that uh I'll call it like a supersep where if you substitute uh more than 60 days, it increases. So, it's 125 per day. Uh, and
then it goes to 150 per day. Uh, once you've hit 60 days of substituting, uh, in the school district, >> we're just we're making it equitable like regardless of what you're subbing for. Is is that kind of what's
>> I'm sorry, I didn't hear the question, M. >> Um, so it's the same as the teacher sub rate. Yeah, we we went to the 125 rate because we needed to get over the $15 an hour threshold. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I mean, Amy, if you want to
reconsider the substitute teacher rate, we can certainly put that on the planning calendar. If you think it should be higher, we just, you know, just let us know if you if you want to throw that on to a future agenda. >> Um, I think it should be reviewed. I don't
know how other people deal, but yes. >> Got it. Okay. So, uh, as always guys, we'll put that um up for vote at the next meeting. Are there any other questions about that portion of the superintendent report, wellness committee or sub rate for
clerical? All right. So, we're going to move on to strategic work updates. >> Thank you. At this time, I'll bring forward our communication specialist and innovation pathways coordinator, Miss Hanigan. Miss Bridget Hanigan, uh, to speak about some survey trends we
learned from our fall conference surveys. Miss Hanigan, the floor is yours. >> Thank you, Superintendent Downing. Um, the results from our fall 2025 conference survey were overwhelmingly positive across all six of our schools. Overall satisfaction levels ranged from
91 to 100% and families consistently uh told us they felt well informed about their child's academic progress. At the same time, the survey helped us identify a few areas that we could continue to improve upon. These include conference scheduling flexibility, re-examining conference links by grade level and
content area, addressing connection issues with virtual formats, um, and continuing to refine the language we use so that families have a clear understanding of what we're talking about when we say student learning profiles. Uh both the district-wide trends and the individual school results were reviewed at a recent principal
meeting and principles will be following up with their school communities to share school specific insights. Linked in the superintendence report you will find um an infographic that kind of highlights all of the major things that we pulled away from uh the district
level survey results. >> Thank you, Miss Hanigan. I'll add on to that as we think about our survey strategy. This particular survey was to answer some curiosities we had around some parent feedback with conferences. The feedback was overwhelmingly strong.
And so as we think about our annual strategy, this may not be a question we go back to next year because I think we've in general been answered uh how how the conferences are going. But I just thought I would share that. >> And that concludes our report, Madam
Chair. >> Excellent. Um, does anybody have any questions for um, Bridget or Superintendent D about the conferences? I see Amy. >> Yeah. Um, my question is whether or not the survey assessed how many parents
participated in the conferences. Um, I was just kind of curious because it it sounds like the people who did were very pleased with the experience, but I'm just wondering about what
population of our parent community takes advantage of the opportunity to touch base with parents. >> I think I can speak generally to that. The overwhelmingly our parents participate, Miss K. I think it would be hard for us to extrapolate an exact number as we can only respond to how
many people actually responded to the survey. So, Miss Hanigan, how many people responded to the survey? >> Um, it's broken down individually. So, I actually think I have that reported on that infographic. Um, I would be happy to also cross-check that with the amount of families we had sign up for
conferences generally, and I can come back with a more clear number. As you would expect, committee members, uh, our conferences at the elementary level are attended rather highly to near 100% levels and then it waines over the
years into high school. Uh, where I would probably suspect our seniors have the least amount of participation in parent conferences. >> Yep. That would be really good piece of information to to get to just put this all in context. So, thank you very much.
Yeah, I agree. Any other comments or questions? I I had a little bit of feedback for this just as a person who participates annually in these and um including from my senior which um I did wonder if it
was necessary but I went anyway. Uh and I had a very very good experience. I saw that it said at the bottom here um this little bullet uh one of the areas to investigate is requests for more student work samples to present at conferences.
And I know that one of the initiatives that I think Laura spoken to in the past etc is setting up kind of a protocol for conferences and and how teachers should handle it. I think that for elementary school teachers and middle school teachers, especially with the STAR
assessment um feedback that they were able to share, it's like really uh useful as a parent for me to talk with those teachers because they do have those work samples. I think that it gets harder into the high school because it's so
disperate across the disciplines. And so I think especially for the high school bullet might be, you know, it's not disagregated by by level, but I imagine that that is probably more
necessary for the high school because um in all of my conferences, I didn't see any work samples, which even as a high school teacher, I don't think I bring work samples either. Um so just something to think about there, especially as it relates to high school people.
Yeah, Jackie, >> I really appreciate that. I I actually did get to see a work sample and I was excited because it was something that I don't think that my student would have just shown me. Um so I really appreciated that um from one of the
French teachers. I felt like uh you know navigating that role of both a parent and a school committee member is always really interesting and I really appreciated how prepared everybody was for the parent teacher conferences. I will say one of the things that struck
me and it was part of the takeaway that I had after doing some research around professional development, the half days um and just looking at the scheduling is the utility of high school level conferences and
that some districts have thought about integrating student participation in those. And I actually would have really loved seeing something like that because sometimes these conversations are
happening in silos and so being able to have students represent themselves knowing that a lot of the uh communication is funneled directly to students at the high school level. Um but I really appreciated how energized everybody was knowing how late it is. um
you know some of those teachers are staying really late for some of these times and then having to come in the next day. So I think collectively everyone that I saw especially at the high school and the middle school were very happy and pleased with the content that they were being exposed to that maybe their students aren't sharing for
themselves. Any other questions or comments? I really appreciate this um from Bridget and from Superintendent Downing. Thank you so much for kind of closing the loop on this and bringing us these survey results. It's all very informative. So,
thanks. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. We appreciate it. >> All right, everybody. We're going to move the agenda now to some new business. Uh so, we uh tabled this at the last meeting just because we had a
couple of we actually had several people not able to attend the last school committee meeting. So, we thought to do the OPED recommendation review at this meeting might be more useful. And so, our budget and warrant well subcommittee chair who uh
formulated an advisory um how long ago now, Scott? >> About two years ago. >> Um so, OMAC was formed to kind of build out this recommendation on how we should manage our OPED liability. And so Scott thought it would be a good idea to review it as we head into a budget
season. So I hope I teed that up enough for you Scott, but please feel free to um begin your presentation and help the committee understand what's going on here. >> It was great. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um so yeah just to provide a little bit of context I am going to um inform the
committee that as Ms. Bivarito um advised that there this is based on an advisory committee that the school committee put together a couple years ago and that committee came forward with several documents and recommendations that were presented at the November 29th
2023 meeting. So I would encourage you if you were not on the committee at that time to reference the m meeting materials from that date. Um and there are several documents there. I think the one that succinctly helps frame this
issue and help you understand what's going on here is the document titled OPED memo final. It's just two pages of reading that will kind of help you get grounded in terms of what this situation is and um what the committee recommended
we do going forward. Um, so with that in mind, I will attempt to share my screen and go over the handful of slides prepared for this conversation.
Um so OPAB um is it's an accounting um construct that um for the for the organization in this case the school committee to recognize some future liabilities that the school
district has. Um in the case of Nishoba OPED stands for other post-employment benefits. That's what it stands for for everybody. And in our case, they're mostly related to life insurance and health insurance payments that the district is obligated to make after
teachers retire, but before they're eligible for federal government assistance. Um, there are some Massachusetts laws that govern it and some accounting standards that dictate how to recognize the liabilities. Um, at the end of the day, what the liability
represents is a present value of those expected future payments that the district will need to make. And it's an estimate that an actuary calculates every year based on what some assumptions that are prescribed for them.
Um so at the time a couple years ago when the committee came up with a recommendation um the key takeaway from the recommendation was that the school committee should continue to contribute an incalition $25,000
each year to the um asset account that we have to offset that expected future liability. and by until until it reaches a $650,000 year amount. Um, if we continue to follow that guidance, that would mean
that we would be putting $125,000 towards that asset account in the fiscal 27. Um, in fiscal 26, the current year we're in, we're actually contributing $100,000. We we actually contributed $100,000 to that fund. Um, and then there's some additional
recommendations once we reach that $650,000 per year level on what to do thereafter and some other guidance or future um considerations about what to do about this. But, you know, those are kind of outlined in steps um three and
three and thereafter. Um, but we're far away from needing to make those considerations at this point. So, like I said, where we are b relative to where we were a few years ago when we first started this, we've already increased from at the time we were only
contributing $50,000 a year. In fiscal 26, we're contributing $100,000 a year towards the asset account, which means that our our balance as of June 30th, 2025, we had a whopping $1.2 million in the asset account, which is going to try
to offset a $54 million liability. So, just wanted to bring this to the committee's attention, refresh people that were on the committee at the time, introduce the concept to people that might not have been in the committee at the time, and um, you know, keep the momentum going as far as making regular
contributions to this account. Does anyone have any questions? >> Jillian, go ahead. >> I noticed in I think your screen's gone. I should bring it back up, but I looked like in maybe 2019 there was a much higher contribution. I
was just curious um how it went from I think it was over 300K down to 50k or whatever it was. >> I wasn't on the committee at that time. I'm not sure exactly how we got there. I think before 2019 the balance was zero
and so that was like the initial contribution. >> Right, Mr. Karen, um, when did the OPE requirement come out of the legislature? Do you know the answer to that off the top of your head? >> Uh, the Gazsby standard didn't come in till the early 2000s. Mr. Powell, I
think that's in the documentation, the the the deeper documentation. So, it's been in place for a long time. Uh, at when that initial uh trust was set up, I think the district had already been uh guided uh by auditors at that point to really this needs to be addressed as
soon as possible. Um again in any fiscal year it's difficult to create money when there isn't uh some earmarked for it. So yes the initial contribution I be I believe came from a surplus operating uh situation. Uh
>> and you know we now have a plan we now have a recommendation that we follow. Um to Mr. Pal's point uh there's also further materials on our finance and operations site which is just under the finance page. um people can see the
information uh that Mr. Pal's group put together uh in more detail um as well as all of our valuation points if you really want to spend some time uh digging deep into OPED. Um but yes, so it's been in place for a long time. Uh the district was addressing it, but this
is now strategically addressing it and putting in into place something that can just be followed uh every year. >> Yeah. Gatsby first came out in 2004. um Massachusetts um legislated that districts need to start recognizing the
liability in 2009. So like you say that's that is um captured in the documentation that's on the in the um presentation from 2023, November 2023. Um and one other thing I did want to bring up that's in one of those
recommendations is you know considerations for funds to put towards OPED if possible. So, one situation that I think we might have missed an opportunity was when we had that additional chapter 70 money. You know, one of the options that should
have been on the table, although we might not have done it at that time, should have been to put the money into the OPED trust. But, you know, just keep that in mind for future considerations if we ever have another situation like that. that again one of the options in addition to putting it into um the END
should also be contributing it to OPAD. >> Any other questions on this recommendation? >> And again, this is just a review of something that we all kind of recognized a couple years ago. So Scott thought it would be a great idea just to give us a little refresher that this is something
that we committed to. It's not a policy. It's not mandatory. It's a practice that we think is in the best interest of the district long term. So, as we go as uh Kirk and Ross and their team go to set up the budget, we will be seeing that OPED line and Scott, if we are following
the recommendation of OMAC, we should see a line item of 125 this coming year. Right, Scott? >> Correct. >> Okay. All right. So, Scott, thanks for that. We really appreciate you keeping us
honest and true on all of our uh recommendations. Appreciate it. Um all right, so here's another really interesting uh presentation that we're going to hear from the communication subcommittee. It is a survey that they
put out around how the school committee is communicating with the communities. and I'm going to turn it over to the chair, Miss Cohen, to tee this up and let us know what's happening here. >> Thank you, Chair Vivido. Um, I've got the presentation up on my screen, so I'm
just going to share it. Can you all >> It's there. >> Got it. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. So, the communication subcommittee um was tasked with
assessing the use of the school committee's website and like Leah said, you know, um assessing our communication with the community. So, we put out we developed a survey and it was issued the end of the last academic year in June 2025. And so we're going to share out
some of the findings and our recommendations um which is one of the goals that we have as a subcommittee um for these two years. Um so the survey is linked within this presentation for anybody who's curious wants to go back and look at what we
actually asked. Um, our goals were in addition to assessing the accessibility of the information on the school committee website, we wanted to get insight into what information was really the most valuable and important to our community members and then use
that information to possibly reorganize our school committee website so that it becomes a more useful tool um, and something that people are looking to use. Um this is just a quick snapshot of showing that we had representation from
all three towns. Um and we had a representation from all three well all six schools. Um and we had 119 responses. So it was a small sample size but enough to give us some
some data to work with. Um so first we thought that we should just for people who are watching from home and may not be as familiar with the website as we all are that inform people that yes the school committee does have its own website and this is where it lives and
when you click there it brings you to this landing page and you can see that it's by meeting date primarily is where you're going to find most of the information that you're looking for in their meeting date and subcommittee.
Um, so we asked respondents had they ever visited the school committee's website and the majority of the respondents, 64 out of 119 said that they had not. Um, that was really the first piece of information that was
useful to know. Um, we also asked them how easy it was to find information on the school committee website. And on this scale, one was not easily and five was very easily. And you can see that most of um the respondents, whoops,
sorry, were answering that it was not easy to find information on the school committee's website. Um, we also asked an open-ended question about what was one thing you wish was easier to access on the website and then
we dumped all that data into a tool that spit out this word cloud as kind of a useful visual to take away some key um trends or ideas. You can see that the meeting is one of the main reasons
people are looking to access the website is find out when our meetings are. Um they're looking for a calendar. They're looking for the YouTube videos. Um they want to know what decisions we're making, recaps of the meeting. Um and I
um if we look at this question another way, I just took a screenshot from the survey data itself just to get so you could all see some of the answers that we got from respondents and
it comes across pretty clearly that people are saying that they haven't used it. They honestly didn't know that there was a school committee website. Um, and that was one of the the big takeaways is that not only were people not accessing
it, but they weren't aware of it. We also asked how could we make it easier to find information on our school committee website. And one of the ideas that emerged was to perhaps start a newsletter from the school committee that's embedded in the superintendent's
uh common email that's sent out on a weekly basis. um to include highlights of what's going on or what's going to be discussed at meetings. Um but email updates was a common theme
people of what people are looking for. So we asked that if a email subscription service was offered um that gave you automated updates on school committee activities, which topics would you be most interested in?
And this slide is showing that of the topics that were listed and there were probably 10 to 12 that these the major this is ranked by percentage of respondents. So meeting agendas was top of the list along with meeting minutes followed by hearing dates, meeting
recordings and open school committee seats. Um this is just you know for some little break in the the uh presentation here. So then we kind of asked the question
differently. If we were going to revisit how the school committee's website was organized, what information would be most valuable to folks? And we gave them this list of topics that's listed along the bottom of the screen. And we we asked them to rank it as in
terms of value. Three being extremely valuable, one being very little value. And you can see that the top the things that were viewed to be most valuable, the budget, school committee agendas and meeting minutes, the planning calendar,
policies, and maybe a widget where people could click a button and ask a question of the school committee, hearing dates, school committee member information, and there were two more that make it above the the two mark up
here to being valuable. um superintendent goals and evaluation and curriculum work. So we tried to take all of the information from this survey and we said okay this is what we currently have showing on the left here the current design and we
looked around those the no um website and saw that some of the pages had been redesigned with this format where you have a graphic a topic and some subtopics. we're like, okay, this could be a model for what we do with the school committee's website and kind of
build on an initiative that's already taken place. Um, so this is what the communication committee spent some time discussing this proposed reorganization. Um, and it's conceptual at this point,
but you'll see that we've taken the data from the survey in terms of what information people are most interested in and put the the buckets or the the topic names above these graphics. So, meetings with some sub um topics like
the planning calendar, the minutes, the meeting materials, the agendas, there's a budget bucket policies. We're adding one here. We're proposing to add one called questions where you would be able to click on this widget that somebody could submit a question and it would go
to the entire school committee. We used a model like this during the building project and it was it worked well. Um hearings. So you could just click on this and see when the dates of the school choice of the budget hearings were. Um the whoops the curriculum
bucket would have the five-year strategic plan, the curriculum guides, the equity report, superintendent evaluations, and then other things where we could, you know, um post our goals, open seats, press releases, or whatever else the school committee thought was of
value. Um to summarize, we came up with some recommendations for consideration and they kind of fell into two categories, a push or a pull strategy. In terms of pushing information out to people, um
there was definitely a a desire from the community to have an email subscription service, but it's something that needs further exploration because the platform that we're using right now isn't um equipped to deliver that type of
service, but it it's made it into our recommendations as something to consider. Um, the other thing that we discussed with the superintendent was adding a super uh school committee corner to the superintendent common emails that are already going out. And this would be a place where we could
highlight upcoming topics that are coming up in future meetings with the meeting dates and um a link to where you could find the agenda and the YouTube link. And then another idea that was discussed in with the superintendent at
our last um subcommittee meeting was leveraging existing communication channels that our towns are already using um and you know working with them to share our upcoming meeting dates so that they can push those out to
residents. In terms of poll strategies, we've talked about the possible reorganization of the website by topic area instead of by meeting date and subcommittee. Adding this widget for um submitting a question
to the school committee. And then as a final thought for consideration using some of our existing opportunities like open houses, conferences and family universities to highlight how this has been, you know, reorganized and making
people aware that the school committee's website exists. So with that, I can take any questions or feedback that the school committee has. >> I'll just start by saying thank you so much to the communication subcommittee. That was pretty authentic work and I
think really necessary. It really targets our goals. So, thanks for that Amy and crew. And Amy, can you just uh remind everybody who is on the subcommittee with you who's working with you on this? >> Yes. Um John, Shandor, and Lindsay.
>> Nice guys. >> Yeah, it was >> we're glad to check this off our list. Yeah, it's a lot of work and I know that it's been um over a long period of time. So, thanks for that. >> Uh Kirk, >> uh thank you, Madam Chair. Uh I I also
want to thank the committee and Miss Cohen, I think it was a great job. Thank you for the hard work you put in. Miss Hanigan and I had a chance to talk about that this week. Um, Bridget, I think we discussed possibly the June 28th meeting
as being an opportunity to come out and show you sort of behind this the before we launch it uh how that page can look and Miss Hanigan can work on that. Uh, do Bridget, how do you feel about that? >> Yeah, I think January 28th is a totally realistic deadline. Um, and I can reach
out to the subcommittee too with some drafts to get feedback before we get there as well. >> That would be amazing. That's much more um fast than I thought you'd be able to turn this around. So, that would be great. Thank you.
>> So, I know we we have our typical protocols, Miss Cohen, but given we've all made that decision here, Miss Hanigan will work directly with you. >> Look forward to it. Thanks. I have a quick question for you, Amy, or maybe it's for Bridget or Kirk. A lot of the
things that you're uh proposing we create links to. Would that just be kind of links to pre-existing pages? Like um I want I don't think we need to have like multiple versions of one thing. So,
Bridget, is that something that you would just do like a lot of cross-linking? >> Yes, 100%. um we already have most of those resources. This is just about making them more accessible and you know to have the page make more sense as to how to find them.
>> Awesome. Any other questions? Yeah, Robin. >> Um I really love the new look uh that you put together. I think it's very clean and and kind of sharper to look at uh easier to navigate. But in terms of
um putting out, you know, something in tandem or attached to the superintendent updates for the school committee, you know, who's going to be in charge of um sending out that, you know, putting together that school committee updates?
That seems like a a steady stream of work considering it's done on a regular basis. Um, I don't know if that's a question for me, but I know we did ask that question. We we discussed this during our last subcommittee meeting where we
were sharing this presentation with um, Superintendent Downing. And I think that what the answer was was that it would be Well, Kirk, I don't know. Do you want to take this? I mean, that was
a question we had. I think it was that between you and and um Bridget, it would be a simple addition to the comment that kind of pointed to some upcoming agenda items, but it wouldn't link directly to our
agendas because they had they would not have been posted yet. Is that fair to say? Yeah, I I I honestly think and I and I hear what you're saying, Robin. I think we can just simply add on weeks coming up to a school committee meeting a look ahead of what we'll be discussing. It doesn't have to be in
depth. It's just to point people to the to what is going to be discussed and then after a meeting uh we would just uh have an opportunity to share what happened at the meeting uh just briefly. um when necessary. Frankly, uh it just
so happens that this Friday uh I'll be sharing uh the work that we did in the last meeting regarding calendar. So that's an example of that. >> Yeah. So maybe it's just far less involved than we imagine. It's not going to be like a grand newsletter like Kirks. It would just be a
>> a small corner of it where there is an alert almost so that it reminds people that the committee has done a couple of things or is about to do a couple of things. >> Yeah. So, Miss Hanigan and I will kind of play around with uh what that looks like. So, when we come back to discuss
this topic again on the 28th and and Madam Chair, maybe we should just put that on the planning calendar uh to come back and talk about that on the 28th and we'll show you what we come up with. >> Like a draft, you mean? Yeah. >> All right, we'll do. I see Scott's hand.
>> Yes. Um, so I also just wanted to add that, you know, I appreciate the work you guys put into this and like the, um, accessibility, the fact you're making it more accessible. I just encourage you, Bridget, and administration as you move forward with the form of redesign. Um, keep in mind how it's going to look on
mobile devices because you know a lot of people access this kind of stuff mobile devices and you know what you guys showed looked great on a computer desktop. I don't know how well that's going to translate to a small phone screen. So just keep that in mind as you move forward with the redesign.
>> Thank you. Thank you for that. >> Yeah, I think that was a problem at the very beginning but a lot it has come so far. I want to say too, just a very quick shout out to Bridget and Kirk and the whole team that works on this because the current website is like
light years ahead of where it once was a few years back. And the whole design that Amy is keying into, I think was your brainchild, Bridget. And it's just super user friendly. It draws people in. You want to click on stuff, or at least I do. Uh, it's very clickable, very
userfriendly. So, I'm excited for that. And I think that the mobile version of it has definitely come a long way over the last year or so. And I know you guys paid attention to that. >> I can say I've tested the way that those icons look with the titles. So, as long
as we use that format, it should be pretty minor with any changes to keep it looking good for um mobile. >> Yeah, it's a good point. I I just want to take a quick moment to thank um Kirk and Bridget for their
collaboration and um you know willingness to to take the feedback from the community and act on it because I think this is something that we've been hearing about for as long as I've been on the school committee um or longer. And so I I am
just really grateful that we can work towards the solution and and build upon the work that's already being done. So thank you. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions from anybody or feedback. >> Okay. So I put it in the planning
calendar for January 28th. We look forward to that draft. Um thank you Bridget. Thanks Kirk. >> Thank you Miss Hanigan. Thank you Madam Chair. All right, guys. That was it for new business. We're going to move the agenda now to the ever popular finance and
operations update. Over to Ross, I believe. >> Yes. Uh thank you. And uh good evening to the school committee. I see that we're about 14 minutes ahead of schedule and I intend to keep us that way through our our section this evening. Um Alita
will be pulling up the November operations report. Uh I just want to let everybody know that obviously this was presented to uh budget warrant subcommittee already this month. We talked about it. There's no major changes uh to our projections and how
things are going at this point. Uh obviously facilities uh to early in the year uh at the end of November still to predict what's happening there with regards to any sort of heating and electricity also with those big pieces with uh snow and ice removal. Um, again,
substitutes, it's still a little bit early. You know, we continue to learn about people who may be taking long-term substitute needs this year. And then obviously special education, we're keeping a close watch on, but we know that we're we're likely going to spend down that account even after offsets and grant use. So, um, and also with
athletics, you know, just finishing the the fall season, it's a little bit too early predict to predict there as well. Um we'll talk certainly more about the insurance and benefits during uh the upcoming budget season. Budget and Warren is going to dive a little bit deeper and ask to talk about what are
our rates and what are our headcounts at the next meeting which is actually prior to the budget and workshop and sets us up nicely um to be able to present that during the budget workshop as well. Um so again uh we're tracking similar to last month and I'll take any questions.
I'm not seeing any golden hands. >> Okay, >> keep it going. >> Great. Uh, so Zali is pulling up the slides. Uh, just want to let everybody know I gave Succi, our tech manager, the the night off. He only had one small piece and we've talked about it before. Um, so I'll cover his portion. Um, but
Rob Freezewick is here uh for his last 5-year capital plan presentation. Um, and we'll have Mr. Freezwick do a lot of the driving this evening. Uh but as Alita is pulling that up, I'm just going to kind of get into the first couple of slides. Uh just as far as we'll do um a
review of the capital process, we'll talk about during this presentation previous requests where those are at the entirety of the 5-year capital plan is obviously posted as well. Uh today is focused on the FY27 requests. Um
I think Alita was just pulling that up. And Ross, this is something that we do annually because it's required in the regional agreement. >> Yes. Uh we love doing it, but it's also required obviously. So the the Thank you for that, uh Madam Chair. The regional
agreement does call for us to uh notify the towns of our of our five-year capital plans, which would obviously include FY27, uh which we're mostly talk about this evening, um and certainly presenting it to you as well. So Alina, you can skip
ahead to the essentials of capital process and I'll start there. Um so uh we are always assessing our capital needs. Uh the director of facilities position obviously has a lot to do with this. Um we learn most of our needs
through our preventative maintenance and Rob can talk a little bit about that if necessary. Um I do want to highlight uh what we've done this month uh relative to the capital process because it's new. Uh I want to thank our representatives and liaison to the capital process. Um
so chairperson Vivivero uh Representative Palma and Representative Ward uh Reinard who have helped us and been part of these capital walks. Also a gigantic thank you uh to our town administrators, members of capital planning groups, members of advisory
boards, FINCcoms and select boards. We've had a great representation uh with this new process this year and really been able to talk more in depth about these before they even come forward through their capital request process. Uh there's been good back and forth questions and a lot of discussion around
prioritization. Um we know that we can't do everything at once every single year. Uh so it's been good to have the back and forth conversation already about what are our priorities and why are we saying our priorities are our priorities uh relative to the needs of our buildings. So, uh, this evening we're
presenting the capital, uh, plan to you. It'll go forward to the member towns by the end of this month and then, uh, things move forward. Each of our three member towns have different processes of receiving and and going through our capital requests, which is why it's helpful to have the school committee liaison. This year we're going to do a
really good job of updating the school committee and keeping our liaison uh tightly updated on what's happening with our requests uh so that they can not only be advocates but also be informed as school committee members as to what's happening with our with our buildings. Uh Alita, if you could go to the next
slide. Uh this is where I turn it over to Mr. Freezewick uh who can start walking through our previous requests and then our current requests uh for each of our buildings. And Rob, really quickly before you jump in, I just want to make it super clear
to our members, but also community members who are watching. >> These capital requests are for the buildings that we don't own. >> And so school district does not own these buildings. The towns do. And so in the regional agreement, we have this agreement that we will warn them um at
this point in the process that these are the things we think the buildings need and that we would like to see on the town warrants when we go to vote at town meeting. Um that does not mean that every single one of these will make it
to the warrant will will get approval from capital planning or be approved by the voters. But this is just the first stage in the process of us saying, "Hey, towns, this is what we think the buildings need you to do in order to provide the service that we provide to
our children." >> Yeah, I would and and uh if I if I can, Madam Chair, just I would I would elevate the language to a lot of these are necessary. uh they're they are uh critical uh not only to the uh the buildings that our
students are learning in, but we're being good members or good partners with our town our member towns and letting them know this needs to be addressed now otherwise it will be a bigger cost item down the road. So at that at that point I'll turn it over to Mr. Freezwick.
>> Thank you Ross. Uh thanks Madam Chair and school committee. Um glad to be here tonight although a bit bittersweet. Um uh you know over the past 7 years I've really enjoyed this process um going through the capital um you know and trying to provide the best learning
environment for um you know the students and staff here at Nishoba. Um the f first few slides we're going to review some previous requests um you know in each town. Uh we'll start with Bolton. Um you can see here in the Emerson
building um we last year we submitted to replace the flooring in the Emerson building. The VCT tile and the carpeting within the classrooms. Um the Emerson exterior doors um are you know there's a need to be replaced as there's a lot of
rot um and there's a lot of issues with the doors closing and securing properly. Um obviously that can lead to some safety concerns there. Uh over the summer we were able to um replace the well pump and the controls for the well. Um there's one well that services the
entire FSS campus. Um so you know that well I think was 12 to 16 years old. So we thought it was good time to replace that on our terms um instead of it failing and we end up in a bad situation where we don't have any water. Um, one of the other previous requests was the
net network switch replacements. Um, and that we'll be resubmitting again for FY27. Security camera server replacement uh is in process. They are formatting um the new servers. Uh, and hopefully we'll have that live pretty soon.
Next slide. Lancaster. Um, you can see there's a lot of redundancy in some of these requests. Um, security server replacement. Um again that's in process. Uh the network switch replacement we're resubmitting for FY27. Um the uh Luther Burbank Middle School.
Um there's some masonary repairs that need to happen. Um but we've deferred that work and I'll get into that um in in the next slides coming up. Um, one of the other requests was, and this came from the existing conditions assessment that we had done two summers ago, um,
where we had a company come in and do performance diagnostics on the units in the classrooms, um, to see what deficiencies we had so we could make repairs to make sure that, uh, those units were running properly. And that that's complete. Next slide.
in Stow. Um we were able to replace the auditorium carpeting. Um the domestic storage tank um that that is incomplete at this po at this point. Um it needs to be done. Um you can see the camera servers and the network switches. Um
again the camera servers are in process and we're going to be resubmitting for the network switch replacements. Next slide. um building the capital plan um Bolton and Stow um you know identify issues and deficiencies through maintenance you
know ongoing review of useful life um we use our uh house doctor architect uh engineering firm vendors and contractors to help build price estimates Lancaster um like I just mentioned we we use the spreadsheet that the architect
engineering firm um put together based off of the existing uh conditions assessment that we had done a couple summers ago. Um you can see here that you know an engineer team was on site for multiple days used industry expert uh expertise in uh each segment of the
systems um and reports um provides priority listings of projects and cost including soft cost and escalations. Next slide. We'll move into the FY27 request. Uh starting with the town of Bolton. Um you
can see here the Emerson school like I uh touched base on on the previous request um we're looking to um take out all the old carpeting and VCT tiling. It's at the end of its life. Um you know in our walkthrough today um you know the members could see that the carpeting is
in pretty bad shape. Um you know it's it's adding or beyond its you use useful life. Um you know we've got a project estimate cost of $255,000 for that. the network switch replacement. Um, it's it's a it's a shared project between both the Emerson
central office and the Sawyer building. Um, again, you know, the network switches are are aged and you know, we need to replace them before they fail. Um, and the project cost there is 173,200. Um, >> Mr. Fraser, can I just jump in real
quick? Uh, so just to refresh the committee for those who were on last year, uh, we deferred this in, uh, partnership with the towns. uh due to the the financial uh pressures that they were under and it absolutely needs to happen uh moving forward. So the
lifespan of a network switch is about 7 years and we're at over 10. Um so the the upgrades uh can no we we can no longer handle certain upgrades uh which puts our system at risk. Um also parts are not available. So, as things break
down or need to be replaced, uh there's no guarantee that we can keep the network up and running the way it needs to run uh without fully replacing the the network switch uh component uh of of our uh technology program. So, I'm just
covering that now. It's it's in each of the three uh town requests. Um but just want to let you all know about that. >> Um moving on to the Emerson exterior doors. Um the doors are, you know, in various states of disrepair. Um a lot of
the thresholds, the the door jambs are starting to rot. Um and we're, you know, we're seeing a lot of issues where doors securing properly, which you know, obviously could lead to safety concerns if people are coming and going, you know, when the doors aren't closing and securing, um you know, being left the jar. So, you know, that's pretty high
priority. Um same thing at the Sawyer building. um you know, the Emerson building, we're looking at just over $100,000 for, you know, replacing all the exterior doors and looking at $170,000 for the uh Sawyer building. Um,
another item that we have on here, um, is the Sawyer gym floor. Uh, has over 20 years of poly polyurethane that needs to be removed. Um, that process would sand the the gym floors down to bare wood. We would repaint all the lines. Um, we
could add additional lines like pickle ball, things like that. Um, you know, when we get into the winter months and the the students are inside. Um, and then, uh, reapplying the polyurethane after that. Next slide. We're going to move into um, I guess if
you want to go back a slide if anybody has any questions before we move on to future requests. >> I'm not seeing any hands pop to the front. Let's see. Think you can keep going, Rob. >> All right, next slide. In the future request, um you're going
to see some some pretty big numbers here. Um you know, a lot of our buildings across the district minus center school. Um you know, are you know, closing in on 30 years of either renovation or construction. Um you know, so we're coming up at the end of life on
a lot of these major major systems. Um, you can see, you know, in the next couple years, two to three years, we're going to need a new roof on the Sawyer building. Um, you know, it we stay on top anytime we have roof leaks. You know, we have a company come out to take care of them. Um, you know, we're we're
seeing more and more roof leaks at this point. Um, so, you know, we're we're definitely at the time we need to start the process of, um, you know, looking at replacement there. Um, industry, you know, numbers, um, you know, we're looking at 3.6 6 million um you know for
replacement of the Sawyer building roof. Um Sawyer fire alarm system, same thing. Um you know that's original system to when they did that building. Um you know and as those systems age parts are becoming hard to find for repairs. So that's something that we're going to
have to look into in in the future. Um, anybody that travels the the FSS Emerson parking lot and roadways, um, you know, can definitely tell that the, you know, the pavement is starting to deteriorate. Um, you know, and that's going to have to be replaced. Um, you know, we, you know, we're will work with the town of
Bolton, um, you know, for cost-saving measures. Um, you know, to try to package that in with with road paving projects that they have going on. Um here at the Emerson building um we had a company actually come out to do a it's very high level analysis of both the
Sawyer roof and the Emerson roof. Um, and that's where these cost estimates came from. And they said, you know, with the condition of the Emerson roof that instead of a complete replacement, um, there might be, uh, an opportunity to do a roof restoration project, um, that,
you know, could gain, you know, that that would come with a 15-year warranty or 15-year lifespan, um, with a warranty with that, um, you know, which obviously would be less money. And we're looking at, you know, $1.5 million for that. >> Any questions? I see Amy's hand.
>> Yeah, thank you. Um, two questions really. The first is that I I recall from previous capital requests for Bolton that air conditioning was on this list
um for this for Florence Sawyer and I think Emerson too and it was like $2 million. and I don't see it on the list anymore, but I'm wondering if it's because there's these other big ticket items that have joined the list. Could do you
have an answer or >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's you that I did take it off the list. Um, one to your point, you know, we've you've got the roof replacement coming up. Um, you know, which is obviously a significant cost. Um, and I think moving forward because we're doing this in Stow right
now. We're working with the green communities. Um, I I think that's a a better pathway to potentially get air conditioning within the Sawyer building. Um, working with the planning board and because Bolton is a green community. Um, you know, to to get some grant funding
to to try to do that. Um, >> okay. >> So, you know, it's definitely something that needs to get done. Um, but I think there needs to be a partnership with the town of Bolton there um to try to get as much grant funding to to do that project. >> Okay, that makes sense. Um the second
question was is there any process within our regional agreement or the way that this system works to set aside money for these big ticket items so that they're not something that
has to be funded within one fiscal year. you know, like if you know that the roof needs to be replaced and it's is there any process for that? Could can anybody speak to that? >> Ross, do you want to take that?
>> Miss Co, I'm just want to paraphrase your question asking if there's any process or procedure or mechanism on our end uh to essentially build up the ability for these to be paid for. Am I
>> Yeah. power to work with the towns to set aside money for these types of known capital expenses or is this have to be handled on a year-by-year basis where they vote to fund it and and not >> so I think the best that we can do is
provide good and accurate five-year capital plans and then as obviously things come up rep prioritize which years those go in so that they can sort of they can have a fiveyear look ahead on on what needs are coming up. Um I think all towns through these
walkthroughs are recognizing uh some of these bigger ticket items that they need to consider uh that are now now in front of them. Um you know uh Sawyer you know the ME LBMS campus and hail are approximately 30 years old. So we're
seeing similar things with roofs. So um I think it's something that they're they're understanding and considering. There's no mechanism for us to do anything fiscally on our end other than be good partners and be available and answer questions and and provide information and and continue to have
these these good conversations. >> I will say that on the walkth through one of the things that we talked about was how no town has $3.6 million to, you know, slap on a roof. And so these are projects that I mean you guys have all
gone to town meeting. It's either you're going to pay for it out of your free cash, right? It's like $20,000 and you can just vote. The people will vote if we want to use free cash to pay for a small thing. Um or you bond it. And so
for these roofs, the towns would probably have to take out loans to do it ultimately. Uh Sharon first and then we'll go to Jackie. >> Thank you. Um I'm wondering
the so in I think in both the Bolton buildings but also in the buildings in Lancaster there were door replacements and and you spoke about the doors that they don't latch properly. So then we're
stepping into safety concerns there. what what um you know if that goes to town meeting and it the funding for that is is not approved then what is the
fallback isn't the right word but you know what do we do with that um given that it's becoming a safety issue at that point >> I think Kirk has an idea >> yeah madam chair if I can just jump in I I do know that perhaps The best way to
address general questions like that is to allow Mr. Freeze to show Lancaster and Stow because that way there's some like kind things going on and we can sort of address the questions that are specific to each town and then take general questions at the end.
>> Yeah. So Sharon, hold on to that because it is actually across all the three towns. >> Okay. Uh Jackie, >> I can wait. Okay, thanks. All right, so anything more um specific to Bolton?
All right, Rob, uh let's keep the train rolling. >> All right, next slide. Uh moving on to Lancaster. Um one of the it's the highest priority uh in Lancaster. Um we are having an issue with the uh dry fire
suppression system which is in the attic area over the MRE section of the building. um the you know the piping is you know closing in again you know at 25 to 30 years old um where that system is is not holding pressure. Um the way that
that system works is air there's an air compressor that supplies u pressurized air to that system and if there was ever a fire um it would you know you know initiate one of the fire suppression heads and then flood the system. um over
the years because um you know that the that piping is not in a conditioned space. So between heating and cooling um you know just from the the heating of the day and cooling um uh corrosion is built up in the pipes because of condensation. Um and like I said that
the system is not holding air pressure at this time. Um, so we actually went out to bid um and the the bid numbers that we got back was just under $900,000 to replace all those main lines. Um,
we've had, you know, conversations with the town administrator, the fire department. Um, but that is, you know, ultimately the highest priority as far as the FY27 request for Lancaster. Um, as you can see the the network
switches um that you know it's uh you know across all three towns you know we're looking at $120,000 for that. Um the heating tank the the f heating fuel tank um it has one it has a fault in it. Um so that um tank monitoring system
needs to be replaced. Um, anybody that is from Lancaster or goes to the Lancaster building, um, pro has probably noticed the LED reader board on the marquee sign hasn't been operational for quite some time. Um, we did have a company come out this summer to look at
that. Um, you, you know, through some conversations, we wouldn't have to replace the entire marquee sign. We could actually just replace the reader board um on the on the lower part of the sign. Um so that way, you know, we can get more uh communication out to the
community. Um you know, and the town could, you know, use it as well for, you know, things going on on their end. Um and we're looking at $30,000 for that. Um both the MRE and LBMS U gym scoreboards are um pretty beat up. Uh anybody that was, you know, went through
the walkthrough, you know, we we could definitely see that. Um you know, we could reduce that number. um you know I was unaware at the time but I guess the the MRE scoreboard doesn't really get used um at the at the younger grade level. So um you know we could certainly
you know look at deferring that one. Um but I think it's important that the the LBMS uh schoolboard gets replaced. Next slide. Uh so future capital request um the asphalt shingle roof um it's at you know
nearing or at the end of its life um that's over the ME section of that building and we're looking at $2.5 to $3 million for that project. Um, some other items, the ME LBMS gym floor. Um, just like in Bolton, you know, it's, you
know, 25, 30 years of polyurethane has built up, uh, needs to be sanded down to bare wood, repainted, and new polyurethane installed. Um, there's two sections of roof. Uh, one is over the gym and the other is over the cafeteria. Um, the type of roof that is on there,
um, doesn't need to be re replaced. Um, but we could recote that roof and extend the life of that roof um with a significant warranty with that. Um, and that's $350,000. Um, to replace those two sections of roof, we would probably be in that
$800,000 range. Um, as you can see here, the masonary repairs, window, door, and sealant replacement, that was um the the deferred project um in the um previous request. Um we push that off obviously because of the the dry pipe system that
needs to be replaced. Um again anybody that you know navigates the parking lots and roadways down in Lancaster um you know you can see a lot of deterioration in that asphalt. Um and again you know we'd work you know with the town of Lancaster to try to piggyback on their
roadway projects um for cost savings there. Moving on to Stow. Um at the center school, we've um we have a boiler boiler project that we're currently uh in the process of of replacing right now. We
have lost uh one of the condensing boilers. The heat exchanger has failed on it. Um the company, the manufacturer, the all all four of those boilers in that building have gone out of business. Uh there is no availability for parts for replacements for any of those
boilers there. Um, so we have um signed a contract with a mechanical rep um and also purchased a new boiler so we can start that process. Um, we're going to go from four boilers to two boilers with with those two boilers. We will still
have the same BTU output. Um, but we will be do reducing the amount of equipment that's inside that boiler room. Um, right now there's four primary hot water pumps um that are hanging from the ceiling. um that will not come into play anymore.
The primary hot water pumps are actually built into the new boilers that will be at ground level. Um so if there's ever an issue with that, um you know, it's an easy replacement. Uh we have had to replace one of those primary hot water pumps that are existing now. Um and it's
in between 8 and $10,000 to replace one of those primary pumps. So by, you know, removing or taking that out of the equation, you know, maintenance down the road, um, would come down or be a lot easier to take care of. Um, up at Hail,
the fire alarm control panel is at the end of its life, um, and we're going to be, you know, requesting um, to upgrade that. And you can see that up to, you know, potentially up to $100,000 um, for that replacement. That would be the fire alarm control panel, all the addressable
devices, uh the horn strobes, um and all the various parts that go along with that. Over at center school, um there's water system, uh upgrades that need to be made, um for D compliance, um both uh
disinfection and corrosion control. Um so that's something that you know is going to be a request to the town of Stow. Um, one one thing with that request is we potentially could reduce the cost of that if DP will grant us uh
a different type of disinfection method and also corrosion control. Um, which would be less money to install and also less money to operate long term. And you can see the network switch replacement. Uh, again, you know, that's for center
and hail at 205 uh 2055 for that. Um, hail scoreboard, same thing. It's it's at the end of its life. It's it's pretty beat up. Um so that's one thing that we're going to be looking to push forward for as a capital request at 15,500. Next slide.
You can see here um future capital request for for Stow uh hail roof um you know in the near future needs to be replaced. Um we the I had a company come out to do that high level um analysis of that roof and
then also um I actually had an engineering uh firm come out to do a more indepth uh look at that um roof and the roof structure. Uh they took core samples um to see what the insulation was like uh under the roof membrane um
and also give some um you know more defined pathway on what we need to do to you know replace that roof. Um you know in cost estimates there we're looking at $3.7 million at hail the classroom hallway office
space uh flooring needs to be replaced. Um the BCT flooring throughout the building is nearing the end of its life. Um the ground level floor um you know is showing some moisture intrusion. Uh so moisture mitigation should be done prior to flooring install. Um so you know to
re re you know re reinstall or you know do that flooring project. We're looking at you know $800,000 for that building. Um down the road you know that back uh parking lot at hail that's going to have to be resurfaced. Um and we're looking at $300,000 for that. Um hail boil
replacement. Um this is going to be a project that's going to be in tandem with um the town of Stow and their green community um liaison Mr. Epstein. He's done Omen's work um in the past probably three to
four months um engaging with various stakeholders um and we actually were able to through Eversource do a comprehensive building analysis um and they've come up with some really good ideas to upgrade the um
heating system at hail um with a lot of good um incentive programs and rebates with that. So, um, I, you know, I have this in here at $225,000 as a placeholder, um, because I don't know how long is that process is going to take. Um, and I want to make sure
that, you know, people are aware that, you know, if that is a a long-term project, you know, we might have to replace at least one of those boilers to to make sure we maintain heat in that building. and future requests for the high school. Um,
we are at the end of life with the track uh with the with the track in the turf carpeting. Um, we had Gail Associates come out this fall to give us some budgetary numbers. Um, and we're looking at $1.8 million um to
for the replacement of the turf and track services. Um, in the five-year capital plan, I actually have that broken down. Um, so you can see what, you know, each each part of that is going to cost and I will take any questions. I'm going to jump in real quick. Uh,
Madam Chair, if it's okay. Just uh resources are available. Uh, the capital plan uh is posted with the meeting materials. Obviously, the regional agreement has information as well about how the capital process works and we're going to continue to update the committee and update our liaison on this
work. Um, I just want to add a note because some people may be asking uh and thinking about the MSBA uh and what is available. So, there is an accelerated repair program. Uh, they're not accepting any more statements of interest until January of
27. So some of these things um that uh are here and avail you know if the the towns want to do a statement of interest more than willing uh but nothing is uh able to be submitted until um a full calendar year plus from today.
>> I have a quick question for you Ross. Don't we have a stabilization fund for the turf that we're building every year? >> We do. We do. Um we do not. Um, it was partially spent down if not I have to get the figures on it. We looked at this
at budget warrant a few years ago. Uh, it was spent down in 2021 or FY21. So maybe summer of 20 or 21 uh to resurface the recoat the track um and what we've been putting in there, you know, had it
match what previous estimates on replacing the turf would be. Um, but that is that is now a bigger project. So, we're going to review that as part of the budget um and talk about whether we want to put more money into uh the stabilization fund to accelerate the
ability to replace that that turf field. Um so, something that that's that's an obvious need that we need to talk about. Um as it's as a stadium is not part of the the new building project. >> I see Amy's hand.
>> Yeah, it's also about the the turf. um replacement. Um what's the lifetime on you know replacing? So if we were to if this were to get funded at $1.825
million for that project like how long does that turf is expected to last? So talking with different, you know, industry professionals, you know, everybody says, you know, around that 10 year. You can get 10 year um a good 10 years out of a a turf carpet. Um I
believe that was installed in 2012. Um you know, so we've definitely gotten our life out of it. Um anybody that we've had look at that carpet says that for the age of that carpet, um they're surprised on how well it's actually held up. Um, you know, and that's a
testament, you know, to the grounds crew. Um, you know, doing the maintenance tasks that they need to do. Um, you know, where, you know, we we top dress it with the crumb rubber when we have to. Um, you know, and they're they're keeping up with the maintenance on that. Um, but again, you know, it
does come to end of life. It's, you know, the actual fibers themselves are are worn down to the point where we can't even top dress it anymore because the the length of the fibers is so short that the kids would just be running on crub rubber and, you know, the footing their footing would be compromised at that point.
>> Okay. >> Yep. >> So, we we have uh well, at the end of this year, including the FY26 contribution, the track and field stabilization fund will have just under half a million dollars.
Yeah. And the idea is that the stabilization fund is supposed to pay it. So are were we just undershooting and like the cost is escalated? >> Well, I think at the initiation of the the stabilization fund, I think at the time um it may have been on track for a
turf replacement. Um but because uh the track was resurfaced, some of that money was obviously spent. Um so we just have to recalculate and sort of just re readjust and and you know chart a different
course forward so that can all be part of the discussion. >> And my last question on the turf is that I'm surprised to see a high school capital item. I mean wouldn't that just be money that we bond and then we assess the towns? How does that work, Russ? >> Well, if you're going to take debt, uh
you would have to approve that as a school committee. Uh and then you'd have to notify the three towns and they would have their statutory process to hold a town meeting uh to if you remember this from the building project. It it feels reverse. They they can hold the town
meeting to uh not uh approve the debt. Um they don't have to approve the debt. If they have no town meeting, they automatically approve it. uh they also have a process to consider exclusion of the debt um on their tax rate. So uh it's a little bit more complicated. We
can't just take out debt and pay for it. Uh there's some processes there. Um the uh the other component of this too is looking at um you know doing this in stages and if we do it in stages then
how do we accelerate the stabilization fund contribution to make sure um we can pay for the next thing. So, if we do the turf first and then we want to do the track, um splitting those may work. Uh but you're talking about increasing the operating budget if you're increasing
the track and field stabilization uh contribution each year. >> Uh what would happen if one town approved it and two towns didn't? Uh, let me double check that. But I think you're going to have to have all three towns uh approve that debt. Uh, be
Yeah. >> Which is why it might be more advantageous for us to take the debt and then have them just like we do with the high school construction. >> Uh, even if we still take the debt, all three towns have to approve uh the the
debt essentially through that that process. So, um, it's not a it's not a slam dunk. We can't take that out on our own. Uh for that that there's that those protections and and the gatekeeping uh put in place through through regional uh
school district uh stat statutes. >> I I don't know about you guys, but I feel a bit stunned by these numbers. I'm sure anybody else watching this does as well. So, I really appreciate Rob and Ross putting this on the table. It's
bitter, but we need to know it. I think the roofs are the biggest deal, but perhaps we can go back to Sharon's question about the doors because we're maybe con I think Sharon, the essence of your question is that you're concerned about the meantime. >> Yeah, I I can I can answer that and I'll
have Mr. Freeze with jump in. Um, you know, from a safety lens, uh, anytime there's an issue with a door, we try to have number one, our facilities team address it as soon as possible. Um there's always on doors that may be more finicky. And also remember, you know, in
buildings where there's newer doors, uh if the frost heaves the wrong way, we might have a door that feels a little stuck or it may not close and it needs to be addressed. Um so anything anytime something comes up, we're putting out notices in our buildings to say, you know, ensure that this door is pulled
shut or pushed shut all the way. um reminding staff uh through the building communications that come up, but we try to adjust it best we can and as immediately as we can through our facilities team. We will also sometimes use a vendor to do minor repairs that our team cannot uh to make sure that the
the doors are functional. The request that you're seeing though is that we're running out of uh availability in our bag of tricks to address the needs in those doors. Um, and again, what you don't want to do is end up with a critical failure of a door where something falls off the hinges or
whatever it may be. Uh, and then we're dealing with issues of available egress or or those types of things. So, um, again, these need to be addressed from a safety and security lens um before there's a, you know, critical failure of a door.
And to to Ross's point, if oh, sorry, to Ross' point, if a door does get to the point where, you know, the minor repairs are not working, um, we we'll replace a door. We we have done that. Um, because, you know, obviously student and staff safety is the most important priority.
So, if there is an egress, you know, that that we can't repair, we just, you know, out of operating, we'll just replace that door. U, we're not going to try to bandaid it. Um, it it's that's just not an approach that we take. So, if it gets to that point, um, the door
will be replaced. >> Sharon, does that help answer your question? >> Yeah, >> it Yes. Um, it answers so the immediate question about safety, right? That
answers that question. Um, and then the more long-term question, which is some of those numbers are really big for the towns to swallow. Um,
and you cannot defer some of this work forever. You can't defer any of this work forever. You reach a point where it's a critical problem. So, I guess I I'm asking a question maybe that doesn't
have an answer yet, right? Um, what happens if the towns don't approve and we have a critical failure? >> That that's I'd say that's the, you know, the con the the concern of the of
of any capital uh whether it's a roof or or or a door uh HVAC system. uh at some point it impacts student life and the ability for students to attend. Um you know we certainly don't want to have any sort of uh you know I'll call it
catastrophic event. Um but I don't think our towns my impression is that they are very much understanding of the need and they need to process as their own entities how are they going to address this uh at some
point. Um I'm not hearing from anyone through these capital walks that this is not possible. We are having great conversations around prioritization around partnership uh to get some of these things addressed. Um, you know, again, this year I'm going to do a
better job of updating the committee on the status of capital requests and that's why it's also helpful to have the school committee liaison um, working with us with our towns. >> Jackie, is that what you were going to is that what you were going to say?
>> Yeah, I just wanted to just from a process perspective, Sharon, like it was very reassuring to go through and sit down and listen to what Mr. Friez had to share to be able to have our um town administrator and um
select board and finance committee representatives participate in those conversations because it's very clear that they all have our our kids' best interests at heart. And they were asking really good questions about how
and what input the district is giving in terms of the prioritization of some of these projects which is which is great. And we also had that assessment to be able to to speak to some of those numbers which is re is reassuring at least in part for Lancaster.
The things that I that are important too is that we have these critical highlevel highcost big ticket items and that there are still these ongoing smaller. Yes, they could be looked at as nice to
haves, but when you think about the just our communities and how important these buildings are to our communities, so to have our our um select board members and our finance committee members being in
those spaces and us being able to share and highlight like here's an opportunity for you to understand like how important our um auditorium is and the lighting system and like so some of these things that they are really costly and they
unlike like a fire system or a roof like you can't capture that in a number. So that was really useful I think for our our community to see. Um, and I just wanted to thank everyone for that opportunity because I think this was a really nice,
really, uh, informative process for the school committee, but also for our communities. >> Yeah, thanks, Jackie. I see maybe Amy Cohen has a question. I keep calling you Amy Cohen as if there are two Amies. Sorry, Amy.
>> There used to be two Amy's. No, I um I just want to say I appreciate the capital plan being presented in the Excel spreadsheet with like one tab per school and broken out by year. I think that's really helpful and provides a lot
of clarification. One one question I had while I was looking at this is well what did we request last year? you know, and like I know that in the presentation you've highlighted what was funded and what wasn't, but I
something to consider for next year when this is presented. Maybe you could just show the trailing like you know this is what was what we asked for the previous year and kind of show um what so we can see that it in in this view too that it
didn't get funded or what did get funded um >> or what got knocked off >> what dropped off the list and then the other thought I had was like is there a tab somewhere in here that shows the total um requests from the districts
across all three towns. Um, >> no, it's all separated out by town. >> Yeah, I was wondering if there's any value in that number, if it doesn't really matter because it's going to each town anyway. But, >> yeah, I I I I would say I understand your thinking on that. Um, I I think
what we can see is we have threads of the the roofing across the district. Like I said earlier, these are all buildings that are essentially the same amount of, you know, uh, years old. Um, they're hitting that about 30 years. So, we see similar threads there. Um, you
know, as far as a total across, you know, all three towns. I mean, we could put that together. Um, but it wouldn't be necessarily something uh that the towns could use because they need to address their own individual needs and working with us on on those items. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> All right, guys. I am not seeing any more questions. The last thing that I wanted to do is one more time thank Rob Freezwick for his amazing leadership in this district. Rob, we are going to miss you endlessly.
So, thank you so much for everything. You have been an enormous asset and you have been instrumental in the high school building project and I know I probably speak for everybody here just to say thank you and we're going to miss you. No, >> I appreciate that. Um, you know, it's
like I said, it's bittersweet. Um, I never thought when I started here in 2014 I would have been awarded the opportunity to to move into the facilities director's role. Um, you know, I've I've grown, you know, both professionally and and and personally,
um, you know, over the years. Um, and none of that would have been possible without the outstanding team, you know, the facilities team, um, custodians, head custodians, um, Jim, Todd, Pam. Um nothing nothing happens without all their efforts. Um
you know the head custodians have really stepped up over the past couple years since the you know the high school project has started you know and I really want to thank them for for all their efforts. Um you know and kind of taking taking the the bull by the horns um you know especially in the summertime
with the summertime cleaning and things like that. Um like I said nothing nothing short of amazing with the facilities team um across the board. So, I appreciate all of their hard work. Um, you know, they're here morning, noon, and night. Um, you know, a lot of stuff
happens behind the scenes. Um, you know, and I know it doesn't go unnoticed, you know, by everybody. So, um, I appreciate all the support from, you know, from this committee, uh, the towns, town administrators, the different, you know, the various boards, um, you know,
especially Ross, Kirk. Um, you guys, you get the brunt of my bad days, uh, when I go to your office. um you know being being on the facility side of things, you know, it's it's everything's an emergency all the time. Um you know, so they they get the brunt of of you know,
what I have to bring to the table. So, but again, I appreciate everybody's support. Uh it's been a great ride. Um and you know, I look forward to uh you know, seeing the obviously in a different role, but seeing the high school, you know, you know, come to come to the end of the road. So, but again, I
appreciate everybody's support. Um, and I wish everybody a happy holidays. >> Thanks, Rob. Good luck. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Rob. >> Madam Chair, if I may have a word. >> Yeah, please.
>> Um, so we're going to be um interviewing candidates uh for this position. And there's no doubt that we're going to find candidates that understand the systems and and the buildings and those types of things. Uh what differentiated Mr. freeze book I think from a lot of
people I've seen in facilities is he cares about the people inside the buildings and that's number one. So, we know as we search for the next person that that is an ideal we're not going to compromise. And I just want to personally thank you, Rob, for all your
hard work and for for caring for everybody that walked through those doors because any frustration or any conversation we've had in my office isn't because of anything that you wanted everyone in our school system to be safe and to feel safe. So, I thank
you. >> Thank you. All right, guys. So, on that little bit of a sad note, we're gonna keep the finance and operations update going because we have rate reviews to re to
review. So, uh Ross, keep keep uh presenting here. >> You know, nothing improves the social emotional temperature of a room like talking about rates and share. Uh so this evening I will uh uh briefly walk
through the proposed rates um and annually we bring these things forward. Why this is important uh now uh for your consideration at vote at the next meeting uh is essentially because some of these things are used within the budgetary process. Uh so our extended
learning we take offsets out of there uh to help out with utilities uh and uh with preschool that um uh in part pays for some of the salaries within our preschool program uh and um obviously facilities helps offset some things uh
within that. So I'll just briefly step through these. So um Aaliyah if you could just go to the next slide. So the first two slides are just the extended learning proposed rate increases. Uh they're both three and a half%. Uh few years ago we did a full market adjustment by looking at other programs.
Uh we saw where we were um in some places very much um uh under the market uh and other places where we didn't need to adjust as much. So over the last couple of years these are now just going up by uh the same amount depending upon the number of days
that families sign up for. Alita, if you just go to the next slide for the afterchool. Uh, so you see the same rate increase percentage here as well. Uh, madam chair, I'm going to go through all the slides and then stop at the end for questions if that's okay instead of stopping after each. Okay, >> that's fine. >> Uh, yep. On the next slide, we have our
preschool monthly tuition rates uh proposed. Uh this is also important not only because uh it helps us understand uh our budgetary figure for uh what salaries we can pay out of our preschool tuitions um but also we need to let our families know uh they'll be getting
paperwork at the end of next month so it's important to have these rates approved and again this is going up by 3 and a half%. um thinking big picture about both extended learning and preschool. Um you know my my hope is that leaving it
at this approximate rate uh you know we'll work within the window of the 3 and a half% likely over the next several years is that uh over time just smooths out the increase so that when we do look at market adjustments uh we're not making major changes that will catch families offguard. Um, if you go to the
next slide, Alita, facilities rentals are going up 5%. Again, I'm going to say now and sort of put a a stake in the ground that during the next uh fiscal year during FY27, uh, we need to have a a significant conversation about rental of the new
high school. Um, and about what are those spaces, what are the needs, what personnel do we need on hand for the auditorium, what personnel do we need to have on hand for the gymnasium. We're opening up a a state-of-the-art facility that is not available anywhere else in
these three towns and is not necessarily available in any of these surrounding communities as well. Uh so we're going to have to have a significant conversation about what that looks like and how the rates will apply uh in the different spaces because not only is this fantastic for our students, but we also know that this is a a beacon of the
communities um and we want to make sure that it's being well cared for um and that we have the appropriate rates uh and the appropriate staffing available when people want to use that building uh through the facilities rental. Uh Alita, the next slide, please. So, a few years ago, we did a market
adjustment for athletics. Um, we introduced uh extracurricular. Um, we also updated parking fees at the high school. All three of those will be reviewed next year um for an FY28 rate change. We've left them where they are.
Um, we had done the athletics um, you know, two years ago and it I think it had been six or seven years since it had been reviewed. So, at that point, we we established a three-year uh renewal cycle to look at those rates. Food services, you actually don't need to do anything today about that. We can
revisit that in the spring as the uh school year ends and is getting closer. Um, so that's the entirety of the rate proposals. Uh, I know those will be be up for vote uh next month. So, I'm happy to answer any questions at this point. >> Yeah. So, you're just going to ask us to
vote on this at the next meeting, which is in January, right, Ross? >> Yep. Correct. So then we can get those into the registration packets for both preschool and extended learning. >> All right. Any questions or feedback? >> Ross, I know that the extended learning
>> Y >> is our largest one. Why is it that we feel the need to raise um the tuition if if it's if that program is operating in the black? >> So, you always want to consider having
um a a sort of like a surplus within that. um you don't want to spend it down all the way because if for some reason um let's just use the example of a a there becomes a private um entity in
town that opens and students are going there instead and our enrollment drops or over time our enrollment in general is dropping and we can't keep up uh with our planned offsets. that no longer becomes an option to support the operating budget the way it exists right
now. Um, and again, you want to have a little bit of a balance in there. I like to use the idea of the three-month rule, which comes from the Desi uh food and nutrition guidelines on how much surplus you're really supposed to carry. We know we're spending our ours down in food services. Um, but you want to have that available plus you want to have your
offsets available as well. And we also have to keep pace with the increase in staffing and salary needs and those kinds of things. And do you think that the changes we might approve? I know that we are investigating.
>> Correct. I'm >> Yeah, I'm operating as there's no change. Uh because as of today, there is no change and we can't wait on that uh to think about uh new rates. We want to make sure that we're well prepared and we can continue as planned moving
forward. >> Any other questions, guys, on the rates? All right. I'm not seeing. Thank you very much for that, Ross. And I think there's one more element here to your presentation. >> Yes, there is.
>> Yep. Uh so, uh last year or maybe it was the year before, we began presenting the capital debt um as an overview outside of the operating budget. We know that you see the figures in the operating budget, but they're technically not part of the operating assessment, but you
still see them. Uh it's important for the committee and the public and our town uh partners to understand what the capital debt payments are going to look like for FY27. Um you know, separate from the operating budget. So, Alita, next slide, please.
Um so, again, I just want to uh go over these so that uh everyone's aware of what these look like. Um, we'll talk about what the debt payments for FY27 are, uh, relative to the high school enrollment, about how that impacts the assessments that we'll see. Uh, and then
I'll talk about what the potential next stage of building, uh, construction borrowing is going to look like for us. Uh, Alita, next slide, please. So, here's an overview of all of our capital debt that we'll need to make payments on next year. the high school
track and field um that's getting near the end of its um uh uh bond payments. So FY28, so two more years on that. Um the Leechfield and storage uh the fuel storage, the ban, that's a bond
anticipatory note. So um you know, a several years ago that those projects needed to happen that the school district took out a ban uh for $480,000. you have to pay at least $48,000 or 10% on that ban every year plus interest. Um, and we resell that every single
year. Uh, so there's very little left on that as well. Um, and then you see the two construction bonds. Number one was a uh bond for 30 million and bond two was for 75 million. We have a little bit of an athletic revolving offset to help offset that track and field debt that
comes from our gate receipts. um and just use the same number that was in there for FY26 and planning for FY27 uh at this point. But again, this is the entirety of the debt um that we'll be paying uh in during FY27.
I'll lead the next slide, please. So, in looking at the high school enrollment on October 1 of this year, in considering the calculation for the percentage of debt assessments for FY27, you can see what our enrollment is. Uh if you add up those numbers, you may say
that's actually less than the enrollment at the high school. What's going on? Please remember that school choice students are not included in this. Obviously, it's just residents of the town that are uh attending the high school. Uh and again, there's the language from the regional agreement. Alita, next slide, please.
So using those percentages up against the entirety of our capital debt payments for next year, you can see the assessments to each town um as they are um planned for FY27. Uh Alita, next slide, please. So just a little bit more in depth here.
So uh you those of you been on the committee may recall the process of taking on new debt. Obviously, the debt was approved um back in the fall of 23 through the the voting process and the debt exclusions. Um but we are taking
out new debt at different stages as we planned with our uh our our bonding uh group. We met with uh members of our town boards and and town administrators and town offices a few summers ago and came up with the the process of looking at staging out the uh debt for the new
high school. So recently I got the updated cash flow from our OPM team which breaks down our monthly expenses projected for the project. Provided that to Hilltop Securities who's our financial planner who helps us sell our debt. Um and then in tandem with them um
also reviewed what's remaining on our proceeds from the last bond and the MSBA reimbursements that we have on hand. So, as of today, um there's no D new debt expected that would hit the assessments for FY27 because we're still going to be spending
down that $75 million bond that we took out uh in February of 25 and we're going to start using the MSBA reimbursements that we've collected so far. People may be wondering, why haven't we used our MSBA reimbursements yet? So, as
as you may know, the uh reimbursements come in as we spend. We are really in the throws of construction now and have been for a little while. So, our monthly uh return from the MSBA has been increased and we've built up a good balance there. Uh and we're ready to move forward with using that. And then
we'll likely borrow in late 26 or early 27 and we'll just continue to monitor our outflows and inflows on this um not only with our OPM but also with our financial uh adviserss at Hilltop. So, at this point, I can take any questions on any of the debt um that I've
presented uh that will be assessed in FY27, as well as any questions on the future of bonding uh for the remainder of the high school project. >> Go ahead, Scott. >> Thanks for the bond information. Um, so I know it's still a little early in the
process, but is there any risk that um, we need to spend money on the high school late in the construction that we don't have because part of the financing for the project is dependent on MSBA reimbursements. >> Uh, I I understand your premise. Um,
what I would say is we would obviously work with our OPM uh, and our financial adviserss. It's likely that our next stage of borrowing for the high school will be a ban uh which will be a short-term note um that will carry us through the end of the project and then
once all the calculations are done with the full MSBA reimbursement including their end of uh project cycle audit, we'll know our final number and then we'll do a final bond on that amount. So, we will do a short-term borrower to
cover ourselves and then whatever the actual number we need is will get bonded over that 30-year life. Well, it'll be less than 30 because if you take out a ban and you pay two years on that ban, you can only take out 28-year uh debt because your total can no can be no
longer than 30 years. But, Mr. Powell, that's essentially the plan is that we do short-term borrowing to ensure project completion. Uh and then we would bond the final and exact amount uh at the end of the project. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep.
>> Any other questions? >> And so what I what I see you saying, Ross, is that all of the C because you pull out the assessment for the operational budget and you tell each town what they owe for the operation of the school system. And then there's the
other line item is and then this is the capital assessment which is um they were able to make sure that they could it's a two and a half override right so like that is precluded from that um two and a half
>> yeah I can't speak for any of the towns but all three towns pass a debt exclusion uh thank you know what's I think what's more important for us is that when we're presenting the operating budget that we separate out the capital uh the debt assessment because it's so high now and it's going to be and this
is new territory. In 10 years from now it might just be standard procedure that they know that that's in there. Uh but right now this is new. We we just want to make sure we're really clear about it. Um you know so I I I think we've done a really good job of presenting not only with you all but to our towns about
the difference between here's your operating assessment and the change and here's your debt assessment. Um because again it is it is uh it is more significant obviously than it has been in in most people's time in the towns uh because of the new high school.
>> So I appreciate you wrapping all of the um capital items together so that they have that number. Why are you using the athletic sale as an offset here as opposed to say putting it into the um turf stabilization fund? So the the gate
receipts um so part of this is past practice uh madam chair also you know there's an understanding within the towns at the time of that project uh that the that at least portions of the revenue generated by the new stadium
would be used to help offset the debt. Does it probably need a little bit more investigation to get the exact language on that or where or when it was said? Um no. But that's been said to me a couple of different times uh recently um especially when we're talking about the
high school even though the high school stadium is is is not part of the project but that's come up before. So um we continue that. Yep. >> That's the rational. Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions, guys? >> All right. Very useful information.
Thanks so much, Ross. >> Yeah. And I apologize. We did go over our time and I'd love to say I can make it up to you next time, but it's the budget workshop and there's no way I'm going to do that. Yeah, that's totally fine. Super important information and we needed to hear it. So, thank you. >> Thank you.
>> So, guys, we're going to move the agenda now to unfinished business. And what we have here is um >> chair if I may. >> Yes. >> This is the point where you wanted to talk about the monthly finance report. >> That's right. Thank you, Kirk, for reminding me. So, before I move on to
unfinished business, just a small little um process question for the committee. uh budget and warrant member Cohen um thought it might be useful for us to take elements of Ross's month um report
in particular the operations update things like or the operating budget report etc and putting them into the consent agenda so that they are a part of the meeting materials but that they are not formally presented
to the committee because these things are presented in detail at the budget and warrant subcommittee meetings and it is a bit redundant to do it again for the full committee and so I asked I said maybe we could run it past the committee
and see if we want to switch this up a little bit. Certainly the things that Ross feels should be brought to the committee will still be brought to the committee in earnest, but the things that are presented embedded at budget and warrant like the warrants could just
go into the consent agenda. You guys knowing that you can pull it out of the consent agenda if you'd like to discuss it at any point in time. Um, but it's just one more way to make us more efficient. So, any thoughts on that?
I know I ran this past Scott, too, so I wanted to give Scott, who's our chair of budget warrant, an opportunity to weigh in. >> Yeah, I wish I had a black and white answer for you. Um, but you know, it's it's not obvious to me. I guess one of the procedural questions I would have
would be how would we decide what gets put into the consent agenda and what doesn't? Does would budget and warrants have that discussion as part of our meeting or would the uh administration make that decision? How would that get decided? >> I think it's a great uh suggestion so
that when you're at your budget and warrant meeting, if you feel like something can just be talked into the consent agenda because it's so uncontroversial. So maybe that would be the chair um in combination with Ross deciding this is something that we're going to put in the
consent agenda. Um and then of course the chair and the super at the monthly meeting or uh weekly agenda planning they can also make these decisions to remove them from the consent agenda and then members of the committee have
the power to remove anything from the consent agenda in the formal meeting. And so there's lots of kind of checks and balances on the process. So, can I get um a thumbs up or a thumbs down procedure?
I'm seeing Sharon, what do you say? I'm seeing all thumbs up. All right, so let's give it a whirl. I'll let budget and warrant manage that and then Kirk and I will also Ross can kind of communicate that to Kirk and then Kirk and I as we're making the
agenda we'll formulate that appropriately see how it works and if it doesn't work we'll change it because that's what we do. All right, guys. Unfinished business. Uh, we're going to be talking about the graduation requirements, which was pretty um pretty
much covered and we there was no controversy there, but the competency determination second reading. I know that Kirk and Jackie have um revised it a bit and um Jackie, can I turn it over to you and and maybe you can work with Kirk just to help the committee understand what we're looking at at this
second reading? >> Yep. So basically at our last meeting um there was I think a really useful conversation um and from there uh assistant superintendent friend reached
out and along with superintendent Downing just getting some clarification on some of these key questions that the committee had. Um, and so what you're seeing here is a revised version um that I'm going to
just turn over to Superintendent Downey to talk through with us. >> Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Reinert, and and thank you to Assistant Superintendent Friend for reaching out to Desessie. Lauri, you're going to jump in when when if I miss something.
>> I got it. I'm right here. Um, so I think uh I I I want to amplify what Dr. Ryan said in that the discussion we had from last meeting actually surface some good questions we were able to investigate. So thank you to the committee for your thoroughess. Um so what you see is we
struck out redundant language. Uh the first thing I want to show is to show mastery the three components. This is based on Desi guidance on how to write the policy and going back and cross-checking this against the regulations and also checking in uh with
DESIE. Uh indeed it it moved beyond what the regulations say to do. So we do not advise keeping it in the policy. It's important to remember uh to for the committee and the community to remember that this competency determination policy is really a short-term policy for
us to cover this bridge time from when question ballot question two was voted to when uh the state will come out with their new regulations. So I think in this policy it's important to note that the experience of our students will not
change and that's critically important to know. And the competency determination and the graduation requirements you can think of it as a as a two-prong approach to graduating. The competency determination in itself
doesn't mean you've demonstrated the competencies to graduate. it is just the terminology that has been used in the state of Massachusetts to demonstrate that you've met a certain level of competency in those minimum um uh
standards in math uh reading and the identified sciences. So in that way uh you can see the language was struck out. We struck out some uh then some redundant language as well. Kept the table in to show particularly in science that while we
have multiple courses listed below, it's only one of those courses that you have to meet the uh competency determination. Uh we rem uh struck out the leveling because the leveling is not relevant. Uh it's irrelevant because the college prep
courses meet the minimum competency determination requirements. So then all other courses would as well. Uh and then of course the uh redundant language that defined in each one of those sections. So I think what we have here is a
cleaner policy in my view that meets um uh both uh the spirit of of what is asking us to do as well as uh the regulations here. So with that, Madam Chair, I would uh recommend that we vote approval of this policy.
I'll jump in and say that the revisions to me seem adequate and so I thank you for all of that work and getting it there. Does anybody have any other questions or comments? Yeah, Scott. >> So, I just like to say I I also really appreciate the striking out of language.
I think the new version is much improved and easier to understand. And um but the one thing I still struggle with is the course requirements. you know, it talks about you need one year each each year of English to graduate in math and science.
And then down below, it only lists two English classes and a couple math classes, etc. And I feel like those are sample lists rather than exhaustive lists. So like, shouldn't those list either be all or none? like all the courses that you can take should be there or none of the courses should be
there just because as it is now I'm not sure what we're trying to say as far as these are some of the courses you can take or you must take these courses plus others what's the messaging here >> Mr. uh Mr. Pal, are you speaking to the graduation requirements or the
competency determination? >> I'm on IKF, so the competency. >> Okay. So, the table itself outlines the competency coursework and then it's labeled aligned courses as well to say these are the courses that align to what
is defined in the table. >> But are they all the courses that are aligned or are they some of them? That's where I'm struggling. >> Yeah. So in English language arts for instance, it says the equivalent of two years of high school English language arts. So freshman English, sophomore
English are those two years. In mathematics, it cites uh algebra and geometry as being requirements. So then those courses are listed. Now to your point, Mr. Pal, and then in science, it says one of these sciences. Uh Mr. Pal
where I agree with you where it it isn't abundantly clear and I think that's a design of Nishoba that we can live with right now is in history. Currently we offer US history 1, US history 2 as semesterbased courses in our future uh
and you're going to learn about this when the course uh uh uh books come out uh later this year is that we're going to be moving and it happens in the junior year. We're going to be moving US history to the sophomore year as a year-long course. So at that point in
time, the sophomore US history course will be the course for competency determination. We have to write it this way now because some students take US history 1 one semester, US history 2 the second
semester. Other students take US history one one semester and then AP US history the second semester. So we have to have all three courses on there to provide for those two different tracks that kids go on. In the future there will be just
one track sophomore year year-long US history course. >> Yeah. So I'd say I definitely am comfortable approving this version of it whereas last month I was more concerned. But I'm also going to say that I accept this as a work in progress and hopefully
an improved version will come in the not too distant future. >> Yeah. Um agreed. Anyway, that's not that's an effect of Desi just not really having their act together yet. And so we're this bridge document I
think is as good as we're going to get. And I know that Jackie, >> I'll remind the committee that um the state has advised us that they will be coming out with their recommendation to the governor and the legislature in June of 26.
And Jackie, you did a lot of leg work in looking at um policies that have already been approved and what you're presenting here is much more in line with those versions. So I appreciate that too. >> Any other comments? >> Oh yeah. I I think that's the piece that
I do really appreciate it is it's much cleaner and clearer where I think some of the policies that have already been approved school committees were tackling the same challenge that we had where we're really trying to
really capture as much as possible and I think that there are some benefits to that but I think that this cleaner more simplifi not simplified but really more just like clear version is really useful for our current needs.
>> Yeah. Amy Cohen, >> is there um are we voting on this redline version tonight or is there a clean version of this too? I didn't see one in the meeting materials. >> I didn't create Sorry.
>> No, I misspoke. Dr. I didn't create a clean copy because there there were changes here that I wanted the team to really be able to see in real time. And then also knowing that there could be the potential for changes
in this meeting. So I I just did not send um Alita a clean copy this time. >> Okay. I just want to make sure I wasn't missing a clean version somewhere. Thanks. >> Yeah. So, I think that you guys can all understand that the stuff that's not
crossed out is what will be in the clean version. So, thanks for that clarification. All right. Well, um I think Amy, we have motions for this and we're looking to potentially do them separately. So, um I don't think it
matters which order you go in. So, do you want to make a motion, Amy, for one or the other? >> Yes. I move to approve policy IKFE competency determination as presented tonight. >> I'll second that. Any further debate?
>> All right, we'll go for the roll call. Amy, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. Jackie, >> yes. Scott, >> yes. >> Matt, uh, Lindsay? >> Yes. Robin,
I missed you, Robin. Oh, I hear you. She says yes. Sharon, >> yes. >> Jillian, >> yes. >> Shandor, >> yes. >> It is approved. Yay. Great job, policy. We did it. And
thank you to Laura and all of your team for assisting us through that. Um, let's move on to the graduation requirements. Amy, >> uh, I move to approve policy IKF, graduation requirements, as presented in
the meeting materials. >> I'll second that. Any further discussion? All right. So, Amy, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. Jackie, yes. Scott, >> yes. >> Matt, >> yes. >> Lindsay,
>> yes. >> Uh, Robin, >> yes. Sharon, >> yes. >> Jillian, >> yes. >> And Shondor, >> yes. >> All right. Well done, guys. We have the bridge we need. Um, all right. So, let's move the agenda
to uh the almost the last thing, subcommittee report outs. Anything that I'm actually going to let Kirk start because I know that we have a building committee meeting tomorrow night. Any What can you share with us, Kirk? Anything? No new update from the last meeting, but we will be assembling. Uh remind any committee members that are
going. I think we may have seven members going here. Um at the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Sakansky will be briefing the group that uh on while we're on the tour. Um that we are not uh uh assembled as a as a body at that time. We are
going as citizens on a tour. So we should refrain from deliberation uh of your of the work um while on the tour. Uh and then the school building committee will gather in the library of uh the high school at 7 o'clock for the
formal meeting. >> Excellent. Closed toe shoes. Closed toe shoes. Don't forget your waiver. >> Oh yeah. >> 5:45 at the trailer. >> Yeah. Don't Don't wear great shoes. Don't wear your best shoes. I'll tell you now.
All right. Uh any other subcommittee shareouts? Yes, Matt. >> Um so last night, uh Dearj Matt and uh one thing that they have been tasked with is creating a an equity decision-making tool. Um it has been
looked at, revamped, gone through, and last night it was uh voted to have it approved um unanimously. And so Dearj has asked me as the liaison um to again let the school committee know that that tool is going to be available. They're going to have it updated onto the DearJ
website. You can click on that to access the tool. I've also asked um me to bring that tool into our policy subcommittee meeting moving forward to use it as almost a uh as a pilot um and kind of look it through the lens of like just like three different like touch points
of what's working. Um it's a living and breathing document. So things will be changed um accordingly, but they wanted me to let uh again the school committee know that it is there and ready to uh to be used um uh based on kind of what they were tasked with from the equity audit.
>> Fantastic. Uh so I look forward to hearing how that pilot goes maybe at your January meeting. I know you had a couple of policies coming down the pike that weren't as pressing, but you can kind of pilot it there. I know Matt at the Darj meeting that I attended a while ago, the
hope was to make the tool as user friendly as possible and even like pair it down a little bit so that it wouldn't be too cumbersome. >> Yes. So it is extremely paired down. Um it's colorcoded as well which is fantastic. Uh it's like a almost a fronttoback document um that goes to
with checklist with very specific questioning for anyone using the tool. Um one of the aspects we're going to look at is is it userfriendly? Um and also in terms of of the tool are there things that again having some background knowledge because it was recognized that
not everyone's at different points um in their their journey around equity um and what have you. So the question in the back of of their minds is would it be be um would it be helpful for them to create some sort of like video that could be accessed at any point in terms
of like hey here's the tool here's how it could be used um just to kind of give people it background knowledge if needed. >> Awesome. Thank you for that. We appreciate that work and dear Jay's uh perseverance in create in creating the
best tool possible. So thanks Matt. Any other subcommittee sheriffs? All right, not seeing any. I am going to move to the um planning calendar and I'm just going to project it here myself.
Um so hopefully you guys can see that we are in December 17th now and now we're moving over to January 14th. January 14th will serve as our annual budget workshop and so we do try to keep the agenda light otherwise.
Uh we will vote on the we'll uh what is that capital submitt update Kirk? Do you know >> Ross capital submitt update? >> Uh just updating the committee just updating the committee on the submitt of the capital items. I mean it won't be
significant uh because there's you know between now and then there's very little time between the time I submit them and the actual budget workshop considering the holiday. >> Got it. >> Anything that um anybody thinks is very
pressing and can't wait until the 28th? >> Yeah, Sharon, >> this isn't a pressing thing. It's a question. Um the 14th is the budget workshop. Yes. >> Yes. >> So is that in the past we've done the
budget workshop as remote and switch the order of the meetings. Is that going to be the same or are we going to do the budget workshop in person? So my understanding is that both meetings of January are remote. Alita is that correct?
I think I saw that on the calendar, like the school committee meeting calendar. >> Okay. So, on this one, it it says um it's in the conference room. It just didn't get updated there. >> I think that's I think that's right.
>> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I think that's right. But we'll we'll double. I know for a fact that the budget warrant the budget workshop is remote. The question on the table is, is the 28th remote? I believe it is, but I will update you guys ASAP on that.
So, the 14th you guys can mark it as remote and I will do the same right here. Um, Leah, I'm looking at the meeting calendar. Yes. >> And it's not clear actually. I thought it was I thought it was going to say
it's showing it as in person, but it's actually like a light green color which is reserved just for the budget workshop. So, >> yeah. >> Yeah. So, it doesn't say either way, but Kirk, isn't it true that we like to do the workshop remotely because it is actually not to make not to um you know
disparage your presentation at all, but it is a bit taxing and so to have everybody in the comfort of their home that was kind of the logic. Yeah, it's actually worked quite well in terms of just efficiency and and asking a questions. And so, Madame Chair, you have the authority to determine location
of the meeting. So, all you need to do is declare that it's a remote meeting and and then we will schedule it as such. >> Guys, I love seeing you so much in person. But I am going to make an executive decision that both January meetings considering potential weather
problems too will be remote unless there is significant objection. Hearing none, let's uh move forward on that. No, I'm just kidding. If you have an objection, let me know. Um Amy, what did we want to put in the
parking lot? A rate review for substitute teachers. >> Yes. Good memory. Yes. >> Okay. Anything else, guys, for the parking lot or otherwise? All right.
Oops. Um. All right. That is all I'm showing for this evening. So, I'm going to move to adjourn. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Jackie. Uh, there's no discussion for this one, so we're just
going to vote. Jackie, >> yes. Myself, yes. Scott, >> yes. >> Matt, >> yes. >> Lindsay, >> yes. Shandor, >> yes. >> Jillian, >> yes. Sharon, >> yes.
>> Robin, >> and Amy, >> yes. >> All right, guys. I hope you all have a great holiday, whatever holiday you celebrate. Be restful. Be peaceful.