e e e e World um welcome everybody we're going to call the meeting of the M Regional school committee to order at 6:30 p.m. and we're going to begin with the Pledge of Allegiance so everybody can join us
uh stand and recite if You' like I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands Nation God indivisible withy and justice for all
all right guys so uh the first me U matter on our agenda is public comment and I think that we do have a public comment um somebody who would like to come forth and speak so all you need to do is just have feel free to have a seat if you would like or you can stand it's up to you um
I'll Stand just let us know what your name is and who uh who you are basically and just note that all public comments have a 3 minute um limitation so do my best I have time to myself and okay I'm Cecilia Sullivan um I live
in Sterling but I work at Luther Burbank Middle School in Lancaster dear school committee members as District Educators we are concerned with the administrative decision that would eliminate the 8th grade Spanish World language program and reconstructed as a related arts and science specials course in this model sixth 7th and e8th
grade um six 7th and eth will meet twice a week for instruction whereas under the current practice students in the 8th grade meet every day for a full period without a dedicated ful year eighth grade course the students will lose the opportunity to learn how to balance a five course academic load similar to
similar to what they will get at the high school preparation for apiece coursework in their senior year the opportunity to achieve the Seal of biliteracy due to less exposure to Spanish an intensive language course that reinforces grammar and vocabulary skills and the daily practice that is required to learn a
language this change also adversely impacts the ability of students to achieve the competencies out outlined in the portrait of an aova graduate studying Spanish helps students become culturally competent Global Citizens by developing students understanding and appreciation for other cultures
supporting our district goals around equity and celebrating the diversity of cultures represented in our district increasing students exposure to a diverse cultural experience in a mainly White Community encouraging a learner's mindset sparking innovative ideas and
problem solving strategies and helping students overcome obstacles such as language barriers and cultural differences beyond the classroom this action would also increase class sizes in the eth grade which is a significant year in preparing students for the trans transition to high school as freshmen
students must transition to a new school new friends and an increase in academic expectations Spanish as a COR subject is the in the e8th grade help students prepare for the increased demand of five or more academics at the Freshman in their freshman year although some
students will enter Spanish in their freshman year they will have a foundational knowledge of language and language structures that will help reinforce and grow their skills and help them become more proficient um although the new the new program would have students Expos
exposed to Spanish in sixth grade the daily consistency and practice will be missing which is essential to language learning with four academics the class size will be less manageable as behaviors behavioral issues in the middle school can be very challenging the current 8th grade curriculum is rigorous and prepares many students to
be successful in Spanish at the high school level if the continuity and frequency of class time changes to two times per week it would be more difficult for students to retain the information and all students will begin Spanish one at the high school level Spanish is currently the fifth academic
course subject so to a parent of a middle middle school student it appears that 20% of the academic program would be missing in addition to weakening the language department and students understanding of Spanish eliminating the eighth grade course course of Spanish will make the towns and the district
less appealing as families weigh the new and varied options for their students education thank you for allowing me the time and considering our request thank you so much should I leave this here or bring it to you oh I'll take
that this is for the public record yes and there's signatures in you don't mind is there another public comment yes please okay and just as part of our protocol as well I wanted to let you know that we want to look to have new
information presented with each public comment so as long as you're not completely repeating it should be and um my letter is probably longer than the 3 minutes so you'll be receiving an electronic copy of the full text thank
you um my name is Maria Davis I'm a Spanish teacher and World Language department head at the high school dear members of the nooba regional school committee we are writing to express our strong concern regarding the proposal to phase out the German
program at the high school as members of the nooba school community and advocates for providing our students with globally competitive education we believe it is important to emphasize the significant value of the German language not just for individual students but for the broader community and the world they
will engage in after graduation the German language is invaluable not only for students pursuing stem careers but also for those interested in international business music history among other fields uh by maintaining a robust German program at nooba we are opening doors
for our students by providing them with an inside track to these and other fields we offer countless opportunities to noova students through our German program the German Honor Society offers accolades and Scholar scholarships as well as an opportunity for high
schoolers to volunteer as they have done with the spark program the free bilingual after school stem program at the middle schools similarly nishoba students have participated in National German exam earning medals Awards and full travel scholarships to Germany all
of these offerings and opportunities enhance their academic experience providing students with additional ways to excel gain recognition for their hard work and build their resumés as they become GR graduates of our school the German program at noova is
more than just an academic offering German has been part of the academic program since the Inception of our high school and over the years has formed strong ties within the communities through our long-standing Exchange program with valheim students gain firsthand experience not only of another
language but another culture forging Global friendships and promoting International understanding these cross-cultural uh interactions Foster a sense of global awareness and empathy that extends beyond the classroom by engaging with students from another
country both our German students and their peers develop a deeper understanding of the world and bring those perspectives back to their homes schools and future workplaces the German program at nishoba provides our students with invaluable academic and career advantages opens
doors to prestigious fields and universities and fosters an environment of global engagement and cultural understanding reducing language offerings at nooba would limit access to these opportunities and undermine our efforts to develop culturally competent Global Citizens who are prepared for
success in an interconnected world we urge you to reconsider the proposed phasing out of the German program it is not only a vital academic resource for our students but an integral part of our school's mission to prepare students for the future thank you for your time and consideration and we are hopeful that
noova will continue to offer this indispens indispensable language program for the benefit of all our students thank you any other public comments all right I'm not seeing any others so I think we're going to move
the agenda thank you everybody in the gallery um I would highly recommend that everybody try to stay for the budget conversation but I I understand it's like they ask so you can catch the rest of the meeting online or you can stay to you guys um so next item guys we're
going to move the consent agenda and I'm going to turn to can I um no there's M oh I'm mistaken do oh hold on let's do the motion first okay sorry I I I realized to talk about public com that's
oh no no this is about this cons sorry sorry um okay you canap back if you later um all right so let's move the consent agenda I moved to approve the consent agenda of February 12 2025 have a second thank Sharon any
discussion sorry um jih I forgot to tell you to leave that off we're still working on that which one jih the rest of it's fine but that one should be struck yeah jih we're still working on that I forgot to my that want to
amend yeah are there any others can just move to strike um Joe no on a consent agenda we can I'll I'll do I'll I'll do it so thank you I will requ and I would have to request it anyways because we had I
didn't but um I would move to request that we remove uh G from the consent agenda need to v no no the request does not require a vote so what we'll do is um we'll move
it out of the consent agenda it will then fall back into the the regular agenda we can address it immediately after this and then I we can move to table to the next y meeting thanks CH anything else that anybody wants pulled out of the consent agenda to be set voted on
separately all right is there any other debate or discussion on the consent agenda seeing none all those in favor any post hi thanks everyone um so the consent agenda has passed but um um
let's talk about policy jih and Joel I'll turn to you yeah I I'll move to uh table any further discussion on jih to our next meeting at which time the policy subcommittee we'll hopefully come back with some further recommendations on that policy I second that any discussion all right all those in
favor any opposed thank goodness for Joe and thank you to the policy subit sorry I caught it and I was like that perfect thought it was me from no it was it was my I was doing late Sunday night am I allowed to comment on that on
J just we're waiting for guide okay that's why we're T yeah um okay so next item is the chairperson's update and I have nothing beyond the actual agenda items here and so we're going to move the agenda right to the student representative report so to Ava and Ryan
hi guys hi all right so our junior class is doing a little fundraising U mostly the money is going to prom but we're doing a set an online store pop-up shop so it has a bunch of different sweatshirts and shirts and things like that um like they kind of highlight of that was they have like kind of a sketch
outline of the nooba building and so as my class is going to be the last schedule to be the last graduate out of that so that was kind of like the thought behind that so our stuco is planning a lip dub for April um the Green Team submitted their documentary
to NASA which will be then combined with 24 other schools around the country and then post it onto their YouTube channel and then so uh a little bit about our like student representative thing for Massachusetts um AA is going to Clark
University for um like a communication survey and we're also doing a a nescac um like different Representatives come in to work on their own workshops so aa's working on her Workshop right now for communications which you can tell you a little bit about and uh my kind of
job is to build all of the re workshops into one kind of main presentation which their own so just to start with the maer on March 7th I'm going to Clark for the nas Communications conference where I'm currently working on a workshop for
advocacy and using your voice so that'll be really exciting I'm also working with nsv to kind of help um students like us on school committees to get voting rights maybe and also see how we can improve how like students experiences on
their school boards or their school committees Deca has the states on February 28th and there are two Deca students both seniors Emily Barrett and Rihanna bhari who are collecting board games during February for Northstar family homeless shelter and lemonster
the games can be gently used and there will be a donation bin in the lobby and for sports updates all the winter teams are doing really well last week the swim team competed in sectionals in Springfield 26 members of the boys and girls track teams are competing in the
MIAA D3 state championship on Friday the wrestling team heads to wurn on Saturday to compete in D2 sectionals and I just want to say that I think in my four years of being on the wrestling team this year was our best year and I'm just
really grateful to like have a team like that and then the boys and girls basketball teams hockey teams the Alpine ski team and gymnastics team will all be competing in the MIAA state tournament beginning after break and that's all we have fantastic
thank you a lot that is a lot and we're not surprised do you want anything from us on like the foreign language or like the public comments are we allowed to talk about that at all or is that this is your time Ryan so you have something you want to voice please do um in so in eth grade I had three different Spanish
teachers and like one of them was kind of a part-time just in between um like our two Spanish teachers and I think like just that smaller Gap um it kind of hurt me academically in like Spanish I'm taking the seal bi literacy this year and then AP Spanish next year and I
think like a lot of what I learned um comes from like those earlier years of Spanish and like the consistency so like even over the summer with that with that kind of break and inconsistencies I think it makes it a lot harder to build off of where I um was before so that's
about that any questions from the committee on the student report all right so Ryan I know you're getting back to Deca right now a do do Deca as well no I don't okay well um as always guys you're free to stay free to
also go about your business I'm sure you have lots of homework anyway so thanks thank you thank you all right guys next item up is the superintendent's report so I'm going to turny to over mam chair thank you for that recognition thank you committee for
being here tonight and for everyone listening and everyone in our Gallery um a couple of things we want to bring out in the superintendent report are some announcements that I uh need to share with our committee so I'm going to do
what I usually don't do in that is read from the report to make sure that um our residents at home can hear of the contents of this letter as world this was sent to the noober community on January 31st today I want to address the rights and protections of individuals within our school community in the world
that school districts play in Immigration enforcement in light of recent federal policy changes our commitment to our core values as both an educational institution and a district remains unwavering at nooba we see the value in each and every person who lives
and works in schools School communities they are daily mission to ensure those individuals get what they need in a safe and caring environment the information provid you today is simply to point out how under state law and District policy we protect individuals and their information accordingly it's important
for our community to know that the school district does not permit any level of law enforcement to enter the school buildings without proper court order documentation to arrest detain or interrogate individuals students or staff regarding immigration status I will pause there to say one of the
reasons we have paused on policy G for the reference from legal councel um the following information was developed through close collaboration with our district administrators the chiefs of police of our three towns our district legal council and the Office of the Attorney General I did speak with
all three of our Chiefs regarding uh the content of this letter and have their full support along with our existing policies and the Sha's legal council Murphy s t Lan has provided guidance they will use to navigate these up these updated Department of Homeland Security policies this guidance is available at
our community on their website and covers ice physic of school school records and student privacy and procedures regarding records and personally identifiable information we can't advise individuals regarding immigration the Massachusetts Attorney General has provided us with information
and resources to share with our families additionally our district has reviewed and maintain our communication policies and protocols with school Personnel in the event that immigration officials arrive at the schools state and federal law ensures equal access to education for all students regardless of race
color sex gender identity religion national origin sexual orientation disability or immigration status more importantly we believe that the true foundation of Education lies in celebrating the University and uniqueness of every student and ensuring that all have access to the supportive
and inclusive environment they need to succeed we will continue to provide this to our students coupling that is uh another piece that was a crafted conjunction with some fellow colleagues superintendents and other districts um
as we look to uh in response to the executive Grant's executive order titled ending radical indoctrination in K2 schooling I want to take this opportunity to clarify the eo's implications for the Nisha Regional School District the federal executive branch has limited authority over local
public school districts its role is primarily to ensure compliance with federal laws passed by Congress and re related regulations such as those protecting civil rights decisions regarding curriculum and educational policies are made at the state and local levels in Massachusetts there are
established legal and procedural safeguards that prevent the Federal Executive Branch from unilaterally moving funding from local school districts Thea Regional School District is required to follow Massachusetts state law and policies and educating and supporting all students within our communities and I will just cite the
policies Massachusetts General La chapter 76 Section 5 Massachusetts state regulations 603 CMR 26.00 and guidance from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and secondary education Mela Regional School District
remains steadfast in upholding federal education laws including the individuals with Disabilities Act the federal civil rights law as well as the Massachusetts state laws Desi regulations and school committee policies the issuance of this EO does not alter those obligations as always in partnership
with the nooba regional school committee the district will carefully review any necessary adjustments and response to the EO however our Focus remains unchanged ensuring an inclusive high quality education for all students we will continue to pursue the goals outlined in our strategic plan
emphasizing our core values and the portrait of graduate which are more vital than ever I'm going to pause there before we uh talk about the crison grant to LIT any questions or comments from the committee I have a question um could you
scroll just scroll back just a little bit I don't know if this or not yeah like um let me see oh yeah um it says in Massachusetts there are established legal and procedural safeguards that front the Federal
Executive Branch from unilaterally removing funding from local school districts um can you explain that well this I guess my I'm sorry I guess my question is say Federal
Executive procedural safeguards the Federal Executive Branch from unilateral funding from loal school districts are we talking federal funds or are we talking correct fedal so okay as the EO was issued that's a statement to say the
EO does not have Authority for such positions in terms of um the point sided here they can't pull back the funding correct those those are that's the authority of Congress oh okay all right that's okay
but it says in Massachusetts there established legal procedural saf guyss so what is it maybe it's just a question of the way it's crafted but I and again I'm just trying to learn here how sure if you don't know to say we're in the Commonwealth would we
have authority to prevent Federal Executive Branch from removing funds from local school districts they just don't have that appropriation to down by Congress so we follow these Massachusetts general laws in terms of
how we address those points any other questions on those two stat Nots yeah sh um I would just like to say thank you and I had the opportunity to meet with dear J and I share this with them as well
um as someone who works in schools and has colleagues in schools I just want to say thank you to the administration for taking a clear stance and providing the guidance that I shared with colleagues and and
pushing out that information to people in a time when there is confusion is is extremely important so thank you all right move to the next item the prison Grant yes so I'm going to turn this over to assistant superintendent talk about the prison Grant there will be implications when we we talk about
the budget uh later in the agenda uh but assistant superintendent thank you superintendent now just a bit of an update um not a super detailed update but a little bit more information as time has progressed since the last meeting so as the committee is aware um
Melle was super excited that we were one of 15 districts to receive um engagement with the prism Grant opportunity through the Commonwealth literacy launch initiative as indicated in the consent agenda materials and the the request to
receive the the initial grant funding for $330,000 to help support planning for that um a little bit more information that we've learned since then um curriculum director Laura Padington and I have attended three meetings since the last school committee
meeting one was the prism launch um with the commissioner and the Secretary of Education and then two followup meetings one with um the Desi leaders of the prison Grant as well as the professional development um Partners which is
tntp um so all of those groups have reiterated that the grant is outline will provide substantial funding and support to participating school districts through FY 29 once fully engaged the district will
engage in bi-weekly meetings with the Desi Partners um through tntp that's the Intensive support there um including professional development and coaching to focus again on k to3 early literacy specific Next Step for us as it
relates to the work with a planning Grant and our work with the coach include this year a liter literacy systems scan focused on K to3 and an mtss action plan like focused in targeted needs identified through the
scan tntp will be working directly with us and and really engaging us an objective Analyst at looking at our data um so more to come to share with the committee and our our faculty and sta at the end of this school year moving
forward because of our acceptance into prism we will be able to apply for continuation funding through FY 29 this this is Ain to their Innovation Pathways Grant continuation funding the school committee is aware of the grant would
support three different areas including professional development materials and assessments such as our Universal screener for to three including additional screening measures and for targeted tier 2 and intervention materials for tier three
again focused on pay to three as well as salary support so um in terms of timeline we're still waiting on specific timelines around the posting of the continuation
Grant and when we will learn about the funding received from the next portion of the grant partnership yes thank you wonderful thanks Laura any questions on the prism Grant I know what you said Laura that we're waiting to understand that second
phase and what that substantial funding will look like any idea when that will be yeah this is what's tricky so as we learned these programs with Destin we participated the structure and function of it similar to The Innovation Pathways
and how that structured annual applications to continue in the grant process so while this has been earmarked in the governor's budget for this year um and Miss friend looked it up today somewhere to the tune of $25 million that bucket has not been appropriated we
anticipate it's going to be appropriated late spring possibly this summer so understanding those Appropriations in terms of potential budgetary offsets for us don't apply at this time with the except the we'll talk about a little bit about
that we feel more confident in the non-salary items than we do in the salary offsets that we might be able to get from that Grant but we're going to have to learn about that this spring not to the governor's budget no this is in the current budget but they haven't
appropriated that those earmarked funds so that will come as uh so as we're in the first phase here we got the $30,000 Grant to do that study phase in the application Phase it's the result of that work that will tell us what our funding is for the grant because they will appropriate it
based upon the size of school systems and the need to those school systems and just to be clear you said that that money will drop into our hands during this fiscal year FY 26 oh is for next 26 okay the planning Grant will be for this fiscal year the next iteration
substantive funding will be for f 26 any other questions all right everybody so thanks for that we're goingon to continue to keep on it doing all that we need to do to make sure that um we're eligible to receive the continuation
funding all right everybody so we're going to move now to uh new business we have a couple of um items relative to Dear J and I'm going to turn it over to Jackie if you don't mind Jackie to walk us through those and I'm actually sending Alita a copy of the decision
making tool so that can be add to the materials um so Dej had the opportunity to meet um since our last meeting and I'm pleased to share that of course all the people who had stepped forward um bringing up the current number of Dej
members to 10 uh we also had another individual uh resident from the town of Bolton interested and and shadowed and viewed the last meeting um so I'll be moving back around with her as well um structurally I think that dear J had
made the decision to um take on new members which was really exciting and if this last person um is interested then that would bring them up to their full 11 appointed members so I may have another name to bring forward to the committee at a
later date um the other thing that I want do you want me to do you not want to are we not appointing that person to I did not have that I do name as confirmed so I trust I
follow out of respect for that person I want to make sure that I not say yes on their behalf so I will reach out to them um please did something something shut off yeah did you want me to show the
decision- making tool um do you want me to send it to aita so she can bring it up yeah yeah my email out there I'll que it up while Jackie emailing it to Alita um and you can
maybe email it to the entire committee so everybody dear J is really excited that some hard work that they've been digging in on for a couple of rotations has finally come through to fruition and that is the decision the
Equitable decision-making tool this is something that the equity audit it also suggested we should employ as a school committee and that and then the school committee thought this might be something that we could use in the subcommittee convers
conversations so um I don't necessarily think you need to look at the decision making tool right now I think that what we're trying to do is ask your permission to have one of the subcommittees pilot it yeah and I guess just to get a tiny bit more context this
is it's kind of a joke but it's version 0.0 and the intentionality around that is that this is a working document um it's one thing to have a tool piloted and
then you know with feedback in open meeting kind of talk about whether or not this is working um and make further versions so that would be a future iteration of 1.0 2.0 ET Etc but I think
it's just to make sure that we're keeping this tool um relevant to the work that we're doing at the time and then also that there's some level of a of a fe back loop with dear J Around implementation um and the decision
making Equity Tool uh subcommittee they've worked on this on and off for the past two years so this is very exciting for them to bring to us and I just want to say thank you to you all of the committee members that participated in this development because it's it's
not only visually beautiful I really appreciate that but I think content Wise It's really um will be very meaningful I think to our work and so uh the pilot we're looking to Pilot it in which subcommittee
policy and I think Amy you guys had a little conversation about the possibility of this and Amy's on board is the chair of policy yep yeah we talked about April and so I really just want to get the temperature of the committee can you give me a thumbs up if you're okay with policy piloting
this all right um does anybody have any questions about this or is there more below yes there yep Alita will put it in the materials if you guys want to give it a deep dive yeah it's five pages so would
and policy will not only kind of use it in as they proceed with their important work and I think we thought policy was a good place to put it because there's so much that is relevant to matters of equity in our policy manual and also
that you guys are so you're kind of really busy and doing uh the line share of the subcommittee work right now so it would be a good place to to put it um also Amy is a sucker for hard work so she's looking to yeah thanks guys and Jackie too and of
course everybody else on poliy so I got a thumbs up any other questions on the tool all right so they're not only going to use it to do the work they're also going to vet it and a dear J member is going to also be in attendance at policy just to be a sounding board and then
anything that we see that is a glitch of any kind then we'll bring it back to Dear J and then dear J can advise us further on how to revise it the 1.0 the 2.0 fantastic so thank you Jackie thank you thank you Dej yep really good
job all right everybody uh so let's move now uh to the next item and that is the district calendar presentation thank you madam chair um in our intens of focus recently on trying to solve our budget challenges I
neglected to forward the link to the budget to the count to for posting so that's being emailed to you right now we're putting in the meeting materials and it's presented on the screen so uh please offer me some Grace in that uh that air there you been doing other
things it's been real busy um so at this time I want to uh introduce uh our director of Human Resources Miss Jessica Murdoch and she's going to walk you through uh the proposed calendar for next year Madame chair this is an informational uh piece tonight and will
be included in the consent agenda at the next me great well thank you chairperson Vio members of the school committee and superintendent Downing um I'd also like to thank uh the Committee Member Sharon p for her participation and guidance on
the committee it was very helpful as being new to uh nrsd so thank you Sharon um I'm pleased to share for consideration the academic calendar for 2526 and I will point out some of the
edits and then if there's anything else I can answer please let me know um so the calendar Review Committee met we reviewed the calendar and made some edits to the 2526 calendar so some notations we've added the first days of school for kindergarten in prek on
August 28th and August 29th to the calendar um the committee had also recommended an adjustment for November I just bring it up because I wanted to make sure that we were all on the same page that they were looking to change the dates for early release and full day
parent teacher conferences to occur on November 24th and 25th however due to early literacy screening those assessments have to be to the parents within 30 days of that assessment occurring so unfortunately if we moved those dates it would create multiple
more meetings for K through 2 and then it wouldn't meet the requirements of the 30 days so we did leave it on the November 6th and 7th date the high school requested early release days for midterms and final exams rather than a late start date
which I believe is new to the um District the rational for the changes are as follows principal Boon shared that the current exam blocks are intermingled with regular class periods which make things very confusing and also creates inequitable time for
classes with exams at the beginning of the week versus the end of the week they continue to also see an increase of student dismissals when they do not have any exam block um even after the messaging that attendance counts and is considered the schedule would be more
predictable and less confusing for the students and for faculty and staff and then there will be no need to have a lunch block um to serve hot lunches it would just be a grab andgo option for the students at that time and lastly the changes will maintain the required time on learning hours so they verified that
with the guidance C at the high school and then you'll know on January 20th through January 23rd of 26 and June 9th through June 11th of 26 are the dates and I've uh highlighted those in red uh professional development days will continue to be offered on Fridays
that was the consensus of the committee we've also added March 20th 2026 to the calendar to notate the incoming kindergarten screening so that means the current kindergarten students would not have school that day uh We've also added the K through 8th grade
trimesters and then we've also left a reminder for faculty should um not have quizzes tests projects or assignments for students on their religious holidays and the students absences will not incur any penalties when observing those religious holidays and then I believe those were
all the immediate changes if there's any questions that's very very good so let's uh I I do want to give you guys a minute or two to digest this not looking to rush you um but shanor maybe can question while all look um it's a question about
holidays uh I recall on the current calendar we don't actually specify what the holidays are we do here is is that an intentional change I I think that was unintentional Mr Simon and so as we're reviewing that just today yes we're
taking that off um so it's consistent with previous calendars awesome because we'll inevitably leave up something is your concern no no no no no it's just we didn't specify like Christmas break
or something we just said holiday so that was a recommendation actually came in partnership with our DJ Dej a couple of years ago we want to be consistent with that so I think that was just an administrative era our behalf and we'll fix that so when this is included in the meeting materials for
the next meeting you'll see that um as it'll be in the consent agenda for a so just to be clear you can leave the two textual paragraphs you're just going to eliminate the specific holiday any
um I actually like having them listed on there yeah I just think it brings awareness like it makes it easier for people to remember where they are um I think that uh the I I I know that there
has been discussion on this in previous years and and um I think an easy way to solve you know the issue of leaving one off versus you know excluding a holiday that might be celebrated by somebody in our communi is just ask our community
would you have a a holiday that you're collect some information and if somebody writes back and says this is a holiday they'd like to be listed on here we listed there's been some pretty extensive research done there was a calendar subcommittee for dear J in
previous years and there were recommendations that were made I can certainly bring this back to Dear J for conversation and consideration I will say though that one thing that has stood out to me in looking at the calendar cuz
I had actually linked the old calendar in for the whole year and then I was like I actually have to be here in person so thank you for that email but we on our district website we have a disability calendar and so I wonder if there would be a a nice way to like
synthesize all of that information into one District calendar that's on the website or something to I think to meet everybody's need any other comments um yeah just a question separate question but not about that not
related to the holiday piece yes hang on go ahead yep I will say that I think the counter argument I don't necessarily have um taking a side I'm just trying to present the counter arguments that have come before the committee before on this
issue and that is that the calendar is a tool to show the days we are not in school it's not meant to be a value statement and that this document here should be as plain as it can be however
creating other tools to help the educators of our district know or maybe try to anticipate when rashash will be next year is useful and so we have talked in the past about creating side card documents for really that are maybe just
internal and so do those exist yes that's exactly right so it would be a link to that cite card exactly yeah and I just call to your attention that the bottom of this document it actually does list some additional holidays those are the recomendation
from before yeah with a link to an AVL website and I my concern after that we kind of um that was the decision of the committee and once that be kind te the new practice I guess my concern is that it
makes it it's just like another step removed from just getting to a date that exists that's out there that would make it easier to bring awareness but you know I'm whatever the will of the committee
is that's just my feeling as somebody who um observes one these holidays and finds that it's not on the Forefront of most people's minds does does the side car include more than the one holiday I
would have to go back and look at the document that was produced by dear J I'm looking at that so T to answer on the spot at a moment but that would be think L I was working on it the side car
included many holidays yeah that's right yeah AA um just clarifying are you looking to make the calendar like more simple or more inclusive of holidays so what I was saying is that the council argument that has kept the
calendar from listing holidays wasn't an effort to simplify it and eliminate any kind of value structure that people could interpret into it or out of it but then the the need for educators
to be aware of why certain students are out and how they can assist in providing them excused absences needs to be somewhere yeah I will say as a teacher myself I look at this very rarely from
my district this is not the tool I would go to to ask myself what do I need to do for my students I think it actually needs to be a different method so the Educators can be more effective right this this thing shouldn't be the thing
it helps Educators know what to do um I don't think that's fair to just put it on a list and then say all you teachers need to figure it out yeah we have a lot of really great tools already on the district website thank you it
wouldn't ass we need to live here CU this is to your point for ease of use and access it's just the days the schools not operating so I I want to put that to the committee that that's what I would support is to kind of to use one of your favorite
words SC scrub this calendar of all those pieces and then encourage our Administration to create other methods for our kids to get what they need on those days build awareness so for clarity in terms of
preparing this for the next meeting we will proceed forward with the calendar under the contuct consistency to how this current calendar was produced yeah okay do that um okay may I ask the question so then for all of
the days that the school is closed for federal holidays will it should we specify then I I don't remember what's on the this year's calendar does it specify federal holiday or state holiday no these
list so does the but on the calendar then would it does it say uh September I'm reading off of this one now but September 1st no School Federal holiday excuse me does it say holiday holiday I'm on the calendar
right now it says holiday it says you would eliminate Christmas eliminate those words and just say holiday right so like President's Day would be holiday yes correct I think that simplifies that was a recommendation we received from DJ
several years ago um I guess what I'm wondering is would it be beneficial to specify the school closing is for a Federal holiday um and then we're getting away
from what we're talking about is in the um needing to name all of the additional holidays that are um you know like some of these that are uh listed below
that the school is not closed for I'm not sure I'm asking question closed on Good Friday oh no no I'm just Kidd you guys have SCH on Good Friday um so you wanted to just say holiday because some of them are State some of them are
federal I was just asking the question yeah that's kind of how it is right now just list it as a holiday and the previous version of this calendar didn't have any of these religious observances on it but I I think that we need to solve the problem of how to make the the dates of
the religious observances more accessible for um faculty so that they can observe the policies we have around quizes test homework and then I'll be
Satisfied we just make this an agenda itos to come next time okay very good all right so um we had other questions Rob probably a very obvious question one that's probably been asked a million times before but why do we start the
school year 3 days before a holiday weekend like a lot of other towns that I obviously know people they start the 2nd of September actually the vast majority start before now okay yeah there really are I'll tell you one big school system
that's moving to that next year that would be the Newton schools um so um the three school systems I've worked in in Massachusetts all started the Wednesday before the holiday lots of reasons it comes to we need to get 180 days of schooling before
the end of the year when you start after the holiday depending sometimes you can be starting as late as September 8th so if you're starting at September 8th you have five snow days there if you have anything past that you're running risk
of going across July 1 which you cannot do because you're cost in fiscal years so moving before and that is the school system's been pressed up against that in recent years okay so interesting okay yeah am thank you um I think that I I
just noticed that it's still there's still category here for elate starts at the high school but I think what you've said is that those are being replaced by early releases at the high school yes I didn't change that until we had the meeting to determine whether or not that
was um acceptable to the school committee I think teenagers won't like this idea but it for all the reasons you said it makes a lot of sense from The District's perspective like I know that my high schoolers really really
appreciate chance to sleep in during mid midterms because it's they are very intense can you can you explain again um should hear from our student when you did when you came to this conclusion who were the stakeholders who weighed in and thought
it was a better idea so the calender committee was made up with several representatives from the Middle School System the high school and Elementary um the high school representatives were C and our principal uh Jody Speck our guidance
counselor and I'm trying to think there was another member but I believe that was those those two from the high school um principal Boon had brought it to who her faculty was my understanding but also had conversations with the administrators at the high school and
then based on the facts happy to repeat those they decided or felt that it would be more appropriate to do the early release due to the the challenges that they were facing related to the classes the exam periods the attendance and that so they so it was a recommendation that
they ask that they bring forward to the committee great and so Ava put you on the spot here do you want to weigh in this I mean I personally you're a senior so this is not going to um I like the late starts it I mean I also leave school when I don't have a
midterm which I know not supposed to but I I just think it works better especially especially with preparing for midterms cuz we only have three during midterm week we only have three classes a day and they're really really long so
like to have the extra time to sleep in in the morning I mean I think every high schooler prefers that too I don't really see why we would get rid of them I don't think I understand what early release would do I don't know would they eliminate the
classes and it would just be exams and then students would go home that's the that's my expectation that's what we that that was how I how I assumed that um so you would have two 90minut BL Bo thereabouts maybe a break in between and
then dismiss the kids I assume before the buses have to roll at you know where they have to go but um we do that we do this at our school the kids probably would prefer to sleep a little later but they don't complain about actually I don't know if there's no there's no they
don't know any different they haven't so they don't know but I will say from I don't know if any of you guys want to weigh in on what your high schooler does with the late starts but my kids's not waking up early to study and so may yeah mine doesn't I don't know
that the kids leaving at 11: go home and study either and use that additional time but I will say that the way it's structured right now what they do is they go to a midterm and then they go to a regular class and prep and it's and it's time on learning that is like that
sometimes it's prep it's really halfhazard it's not a halfhazard on purpose but like it's a weird schedule I think for educators to manage especially as they're assessing all of the stuff and Grading and it's really I think it would be more effective to hit pause on
everything else and just assess and so I'm kind of I stand with the faculty to Sor though um and like forcing the kids to get up earlier and just like go take your test and then leave for three or 4 days yeah and that's all they're focused on there's not there isn't this weird
lunch period in the middle of the day that that that nobody knows really what to do with and then you go take another exam well I'll be honest too the way we do it is nice too when kids need longer for the test yeah cuz the day is over they just stay and I have kids just stay
and they continue testing if they need extra time so it's very convenient for that as well or get extra help they can get extra help all right so any other points or questions on the calendar all right so we'll pick this up as a regular agenda
item next time around but thank you so much thank you you everyone presenting we're going to move on all right so the next item on the agenda is um policy ikf and Kirk is going to talk to us a little bit about what our competency
determination is uh or could be in the coming not necessarily this year but in coming years cor thank you yes um while policy ikf is written twice on the agenda under the next B of policy first readings as well I wanted to just take a
moment to point out a recommendation that I'm making in policy ikf and that recommendation is to remove the encast requirement from our local policy and so as we talked about this I gave the committee notice of this at a previous
meeting um and looking more uh our association has done some surveying across Massachusetts and to say it's inconsistent would be uh a compliment because it's it's very challenging what we looked at is while
it was reported that our students are not at risk of of for this year of meeting competency deter requirements for graduation we do have students in added District clats that are subject to noa's graduation requirements based upon
their individual education plans and we found that there would be some discrepancies and possibly differentiation to treat the students um in those placements so I think due to the complexities I'm recommending that we strike that Clause out of our policy
while the governor works with State associations and boards on developing the new competency determinations um all the bills are filed already for this year that will be considered with this um uh legislative year and so it will be
over the next year that um the governor's office will be working working with um uh school and Community leaders across the state to get a recommended um uh statute put before and
filed next filing season that would forecast an enactment in the state for possibly FY 27 so in the meantime I think it's wise of us to strike our line of the mcast
requirement as we work on that we have a welldeveloped policy our graduation requirements are based on the mass core requirements and as you can see so students are still taking that that rigorous course nothing has changed
about that so to align ourselves to what the intention was of Voters with question two in the fall and uh so as to to set the table for what local will be coming that's my recommendation uh first question is
that all said our kids would still take all of the mcast tests I'm so happy to said that thank you yes this is a message we sent out to families last year mcast is a requirement all students are expected to take the mcast there is
no opt out provision for the mcast it doesn't exist and so with that we still are expected to them to hold them to the Department of Education for such things School accountability reports being a major factor to that so we still are
required to administer the incast any other questions yeah is that in this document I feel like I just I read that today I feel like was is it in this document now this document is just the policy on our
graduation requirements okay which you can interpret right now as our competency determination and it simply has the line that says and successful a passing score on the C I'm recommending we just strike that line but the part
about that every student still must take the M pass and there's no exemption from that we wouldn't put that in a policy on graduation requirements um do you Happ to know was it in something that was in the meeing
materials like the requirement I think it's just from federal law or is it every every child succeed yeah it's Massachusetts St stent succeed act it doesn't matter I read it today I think I my question is or my thought is
that that information we need to make sure that we are sending that information out when mcast is coming around which is pre soon um so that it is still very clear to parents
that yeah kids have to take the incast and that it's it's important um would you mind recognizing Miss friend Miss friend perhaps You' like to weigh in on this I I I heard what Miss P said but um my hearing is
completed so I I caught half of it but in terms of school noticing their communities right and and certainly teaching and learning learning will um share communication with our families to articulate the participation is required I know Dr Boyen also has articulated
that in the program of studies for each of those core competent core competency areas where MC is required as well principles will also follow up with messages to their as well mcast provides us with good
information about curriculum and instruction and student needs so we do see the information from mcast as helpful to us um as well as to teaching and thank you in that aspect uh let's go Scott or no actually Scott do you mind
if I hear from AA cuz she might inform what you're going to say go ahead well I just had a question cuz I'm on school council as well and we're working on the handbook is mcast and how there's no option to opt out be specified in the handbook are you asking if it can be or
if it is if it should be should yeah I think that is a question AA I would encourage you to take that straight to Dr boyon make that recommendation and we can make it clear there yeah okay great suggestion I know I I can tell you right
now Dr Boon is listening to this meeting and is already taken that note down she's actually she's on the handbook doc right now she all right Scott is there any data with respect to like any Studies have been done with respect to the student performance on standardized CH
tests when there are are not ramifications for T taking it because having been a parent of a student who had a very Lazer attitude toward standardized test I wonder how you know do students perform better when they need it to achieve a milestone versus m
I can't say is I'm aware of a study right now I I would suspect there might be some done you just nailed our number one concern when this was voted down in the fall and it was why I was against that uh position and so the competency
determination work that is going to be done at the state level now it's going to be focused on the massach Frameworks in in really looking at what are the courses that we expect our high school students to graduate with and to be able to show their Proficiency in and that's
going to be sort of the spirit in which this is guided to ensure that there's some sort of standard across the state in terms of graduation requirements so you don't have graduation requirements that vary from town to town to town to town that's actually not what I was trying to get at you were talking about
using the test results as a means of determining student achievement and comparing across schools and stuff like that and if students aren't doing their best work on the test is it really telling you what you want to know about how well I believe what I said is it's used to calculate our accountability
reports okay in terms of the validity of the effort that a student puts into the test I can't say as I can guarantee that yeah I think you're asking a political question Scott and it's like a a grave concern really but I mean I
think that we can't really bother ourselves with that because these are things that are beyond our control I think it'll be interesting to see if they invent like a new mcast and just call something else and then Force us all to do that um so we shall see I think I will say our educators are
outstanding at creating a culture and a climate that is that brings a level of importance to it so the students we observe and see them giving their absolute best effort when they aren't taking so we are in a new climate where that requirement isn't there in anymore
and and so it would be interesting like the third grader isn't thinking about the graduation requirement but the 10th grader might be so it'll be interesting to see any questions yeah could you just help me I know that this came up a few
years ago while I was on the school committee but um why is it that we have a minimum total for 90 credits to graduate but every student is expected to enroll on a minimum of 25 credits each year if they don't add up if they
take 25 credits each year that that adds up to 100 credits but if you have a student who is a senior who has 89 credits they're still because of the statement required to enroll in 25
credits per year can you help us understand that would be hard for me to understand why the Crafters in the policy wrote it that way but um M Bren I might ask you if you have any hisorical knowledge on that I think we have to so I do know that we want to keep students
engaged and keep them in school and so by requiring 25 credits you students are expected to be in school um because we have to ensure that for including saf but this also goes back to a blip in
our history when we dro the credit total by year to better match with the 90 and what ended up happening with our oldest is that kids were able to only by their senior year they're only taking four classes and then they weren't meeting the time on learning requirements by the
state so we had to bump it back up it also allows for kids to who fail classes y to kind of not have to do credit recovery programs which are a nightmare and and that's probably very few kids I don't know maybe it's tons of kids I don't know but um it's just another
safety net I was just going to add to that it's kind of a safety net cuz you really really only need 22 23 to meet that 90 but they they make you take 25 so if you do like you said fail a class you still
have those credits like the extra credits all right any other questions on that so um can I ask you a process question um it looks like you've already redlined it did policy weigh in on this
at all we looked at it together yes okay and so will this be in the consent agenda next time around yeah we have to fix one other thing Scott caught that we there was um under the applied arts or something it just says year but it should say one year it's down page
two middle page right there yeah yep business technology and applied Arts doesn't tell how many years you need oh okay yep so we're going to fix that but other than that I oh look at the policy she hasn't it just say year
oh as opposed to one year yeah yep and one of those has to have a technology designation yep okay we'll correct that and so do you think that are there any other comments I'm wondering if you guys feel like you're going to be ready to vote on this next time around that was the only change uh made that one red
line right two and then there were two two and then we also have to put a period at the end of that statement but other than that it going to need a third reading now can I ask a question about that um
so for if you go up just a little bit so each of the academic courses are four credit courses yes not all not all of them year long are four except for science that might be
more six and labs are waited as well right um I guess what I'm wondering is so but Wellness you have to take four years of Wellness but that's only eight credits because Wellness is a one
semester class yes so would it be right two credits here but um for example you can't take 4 years of English for eight credits and 16 credits
like do would it be beneficial to specify what the number of credits is no because it depends on what courses you choose so certain certain courses have more credit right the science some of the science classes have more credits
I will say too Sharon that when you look at the handbook for wellness two credits is the only option they're all two credit classes except for senior year here is split and each one is one oh but cuz you can choose yeah no
you have to take both and in a sequence I would say it's I think where the complexity should lie is not in the policy but in the uh program of study because that will depending on the year it could change but this is like the
spirit of what is required for graduation okay excellent any other questions all right not see any other questions going to move this item and this might be ready to fall into the consent agenda next time okay um next item here I see
is the policy the a variety of policies here that are going to be our first reading well except for ecaf we threw that in there because it went to the lawyers and um there was a good bit of change so I threw it in there for people to look closely at a
restart yep restart yep so guys you have the spreadsheet that is in the meeting materials um you also have the versions all listed there because Alita is awesome um so I'm going to let Amy kind of drive the bus here and you guys can
provide to her any of the concerns that you have on this list of policies anything that you want policy to reconsider there I see yeah we didn't have anything particular we wanted to call out other than just say that ecaf was up there
again for that reason was there anything that jumped out at you guys when you were reviewing Jo yeah we talk about the first reading policies yeah all right um I'm just going to make a comment and I'm going to kind of use um policy
kba to kind of uh dub tail with the ever popular um was a jih for searches interrogations um I would ask that the policy subcommittee take a really uh
close look at the language of the second paragraph of um kba um while I'm not P enamored most of anything that the masc puts out I find that the language in the second paragraph is significantly more
power than the suggestion under jih that schools have legal cust of children uh During the period of time in which they are in school um without getting too much on the tangent Madam chairman um I spent the last two weeks uh pounding my head against the wall trying to figure
out where the Nexus was between the term legal custody and uh the policies that are prolongated by the NSC the only definition I can find the only one I have knew is under chapter two the general laws which is the divorce statute which talks about legal
custody shared legal custody sold custody what have you uh I did reach out to Tracy novic and I asked her if she could articulate for me where the MC creates the Nexus between the term legal custody and
um what what the schools have with regards to Children During the period that they're in school or in extracurricular so with that in mind Madam chair I would just ask the policy subcommittee take a look at this language under kba comparing contrast to J I think that
this is significantly representative of the dynamic of the relationship between parents and Educators than the language in J so Jo just for clarity my my helpers in today but the second poll which was
which one J J yeah jih yeah jih infers that schools have legal custody of children and I I know as a matter of course course that legal custody is a term that we use with regards to chapter two away to General law which is the
divorce statute parents are granted when they're separated shared legal custody so legal custody what have you and again I asked the masc to kind of bridge that gap for me where do you could where do you come off using that term with regards of schools and I'm just pointing
out to the policy subcommittee that I I think that this language in the second paragraph is significantly more representative of the dynamic the relationship between students parents and school Educators thank if I could just go down this Rabbit Hole just for a
second longer okay so is the suggestion that instead of us having custody when they're with this we have temporary guardianship I think it says tempor it says Child Care yeah Services of child care for students during the time when
they are under the supervision of school personnel and in ji age it says as oppos they have legal custody of students so that's the concern with Joe as far as that's not appropriate but I'm saying is the AL is the correct alternative we have temporary Guardians no I think you
would be that would be new that would be new language so that's a possibility that policy could consider um Amy can you remind me uh jih is still hanging out there yeah that's the one that we're still waiting on guidance from okay so maybe that will
solve itself when Mr mararo gets add it to my followup to get that back chall have you had any occasion to reach out to misovic by email and what's the time frame on her response you know
Tracy is not the one that we reach out to actually so she's she's fine but she's more the budget expert um we actually do have a new Dorothy presser I thought it was Tracy not Trac no Dorothy retired and so we have a new liaison at
masc and Amy if you I mean I guess I can email you all her contact information you all do have the right or the ability the Lancy to call or email that person whenever you need guidance on any matter like if I were being a tyrant and you
were you were looking to like get some help with your Tyrant chair any one of you could reach out to her and get some advice on how to manage anything that's happening so it's not just my conversation with her and Amy's been in contact with her yeah she's been really
good about so maybe I'll email that contact information out one more time so everybody has it it's been a while she's relatively new maybe a year out uh any other questions about the policies all right guys I'm moving the agenda to
um what we might consider the main event and we are I would like the record to show we are 10 minutes ahead of schedule um and so well I would be fine if this matter took 10 additional minutes because I think it is very very important so um the first thing that
we're going to do is look at the bond of sale um which Ross is going to manage for us but I'll turn over to Kirk to que it up Madam chair I will immediately direct it to finance and operation director of Ross Ken thank you thank you
for the opportunity to share this uh good news uh this evening so in um sort of line with the strategy the bond Advisory Group set set a couple of summers ago into the school year of that that time uh we are bonding in stages for the high school project so this
recent sale was a 75 million Bond um the details of which you can see here and with the attached documents uh one thing that I want to make sure is clear um is that because the premium size and how everything works out with the math uh
the average interest cost on this is just over 4% which is great because that's right in the bottom range of the modeling that we did during the building project uh information sharing uh and further good news on that uh the payment uh for the first year which is next year in FY 26 is lower than the original
estimate from um our financial advisor so that the towns will see that information as well um which is good news um so you'll see the attached vote of the school committee of the Thea Regional School District attached uh instead of reading the entirety of the vote document our legal Bond Council has
recommended the following motion language um which Mr Cohen has and and at this point I can take any questions if necessary and go from there yeah before the motion um hits the floor why don't we ask questions if we have them I'd actually make a motion oh you
want to go no no no I'm going to make a procedural motion okay so it make me sleep better at night okay uh I'd like to move that um the actual language of the motion that Bond Council had prepared be at least uh put up on the
screen here by m Masterson um because I don't think that we we got the vote the prop the uh the vote vote to be certified uh in our packet but I don't I didn't see the actual second page that's the
votee materials Jo so instead of the word voted it will just say no no what I'm what I'm saying to you is this is we're we're voting to adopt that language but we haven't voted
anything but I'm it's forgive me for being belt and suspenders here all I'm asking is that we we the motion is madam chair that we include the motion language in the meeting materials and we display it right up here so that I can
refer to that and say I move as presented here before the committee and then I can then certify that vote which I have right here I second the motion thank you any further discussion so I sorry on his motion on his
motion all those in favor of projecting all right any opposed okay I'm sorry I didn't mean to steal your thunder Mr Mo but totally fine okay all right and so we going I trashed it so now I'm digging it back out oh Sor all
right I didn't think it was needed uh question while we're waiting yeah I mean so first of all great job getting this here so where we're at a point we can vote wrote on this and know it's a very thorough package and looks like it's well thought through and I really appreciate that so thank you um the one question I have is having to do
with it talks about Bond component then term one and term two I don't want you to get into that now because it's very technical but if I wanted to learn more about that as can you point me in some to something that I could read up on that kind of stuff I would have to ask our financial advisers perhaps provide some
educational materials around that so I'd appreciate that yeah think it's is that it yeah that's it yeah so I I just wanted that displayed and then we could add that into the meeting materials and then when I make the motion I would just refer to that as presented but I can
certify it again I shess yeah it's a stupid question but um in the letter you at the start of this you list an average interest rate of
4.13 and then in the table in the actual the numers seem bigger than correct so because the because the bond sale was for 75 million it actually sold at
7339 and the rest is a premium that is not repaid so the actual size of what is needing to be prayed as as the quote unquote principle is less than that 75 so there's that that's involved and then the the rates within the the individual bonds that make up the entirety of the
bond package which is why we have so many additional signatures this evening as well so thank you for clarify thanks Shan would it be accurate to say that the method you pursued to separate the borrowing into multiple rounds hoping
the interest rates would settle and come down was a good move I think it was a good move and credit to the bond Advisory Group and thank you Mr pal again for being on that group and to the the rest of the folks that were involved from the town um and it's also timing is also part of
a conversation we have with our town administrators for what they're hearing about market conditions to the municipal side which we're not as tied into as a school district necessarily so that's also very helpful in a partnership um but yeah I think it was it was the right move um you know we were a little higher
on our first sale which luckily that was a smaller portion to do the cash flow for the first approximate year so we're we're I think we're in good shape the that uh our fin advisors feel good about the sale um and we'll go from there and to I just want to follow up on Mr Simon's point is that the math on the
average interest rate is done by the financial advisers that's not by me so um Ross one last question uh this is not the last Bond we will take out it is not so without getting into too much
detail the the last Bond timing amount relative to the end of the pro it it it takes a little bit more finessing I think it might need more discussion just depending upon where we're at with with timing and things like that so we've already had conversations um when we
were at The Joint conference with uh Joe back in November I talked to a couple of the school dist about how they bonded their projects again just continuing to spread our net on on strategy and understanding so yeah it it may or may not be just one more um there may be some short-term note stuff there that's
Complicated by how the project Trails off until you're finally closed and done with the msba and but the the last of it will be taken out in the next in the construction period correct it has to be done during the construction period and so I just want everybody to be aware that whatever
hits their tax bills in January is not the last increase correct and I would also direct them to their Town officials to understand their tax bills I don't want to make assumptions there either because all the towns will do it differently correct we do have more bonding to do to
make up our share of the project um you know as stipulated by the Project funding agreement with msba any other questions just one last question so it's been 16 months I think think since we issued the first Bond
approximately when do you expect the third trch to hit so approximately a year and I'm going to say approximately knowing that there's news about about tariffs further inflation we're going into our steel
suit our our not escalation of construction but the way our um our cash flow is is modeled out is that we are starting to get we're going to start getting significant bills monthly because the ramping up of
construction of the high school more material more construction more progress month by month so it's approximately a year and I say approximately because of the way our final GMP may come in because of other those other those factors it may be a little bit less it
maybe a little bit more I think our conversations with Town administrators about when these these things come in relative to their tax assessments and when new bills go out and things like that is is part of the important conversation at that time
thank you all right everybody uh thanks Ross for all of that really appreciate it let's move the agenda now to theang I got excited sorry um all right so we have the procedural motion out of the way but now
we're going to move to the actual motion Joe would you like to make it or I'll make the motion um I i' move uh that the district approve the issuance of notes and bonds as presented in the proposed motion by Bond Council and as included
in the meeting materials I have a second second thanks any further discussion um does it matter that the exact language doesn't match what's in the meeting materials of this motion just
asking if I were to be asked the only other piece that I would potentially add into the motion is February 2025 sale so it's specific to this sale language that um it's long as Scots amenable to it you can alter the motion Joe what's I'm
sorry what was the the initial language on the motion uh was adopt the vote prepared by Bond Council in connection with the sale and approval of the district's February 2025 bond issue oh I'm sorry adding the date I
think is significant I'm sorry I think adding the date May Be significant I don't want to assume it's not and I don't think adding it in uh May material change anything apologize I didn't yeah I didn't see that yet so yeah we can add in the February 2025 bond issue okay and Scott okay with that I'm okay with that
thank you guys okay so any further discussion all those in favor there it is any opposed all right everybody thank you and thank you everyone all right now we can move on I think to the next item and that is the
next budget update update number two thank you madam chair yes here we are uh for our second budget update and multiple portions of our annual Workshop process to ultimately get to a vote that we bring to our
towns um I'm coming to you night humbled um by the experiences we've had the last couple of weeks as we presented our budget to you on January 29th uh we knew that we had some significant work to do in
identifying the sectors of our organization that we needed to reduce in order to get to a budget number that is um a digestible number for our towns in order to pass at Town meetings so we've had a challenge in front of us like the nooba
Regional School District has never had before for all the reasons we explained in the previous two budget meetings um so some of the things that we're going to present to you tonight um these are difficult things uh but they are the
truth and the situation that we have to address just know that in this process we've been collaborating with Town officials Mr mcaren and I have um we had a a meeting with the Bolton advisory
chair U just yesterday morning um and we've been working with the leadership of our associations both Unit A and Unit C as long as well as the association leadership team we will have
another meeting with them tomorrow afternoon as we problem solve our way uh around the challenges we have in front of us um so I think uh the the most the most um challenging part of
this was this particular week our our leaders um including myself have spoke with key employees where these reductions are most likely to impact them but I will remind the committee that we are in a process so as always these are subject to change
as we grow develop and understand other elements um in the process and so it's in that spirit that we present this to you tonight and so the recommendations that we have in front of you are the recommendations that we have today on
February 12th and based upon our interactions and the conversations that we have regarding our budget and what we need to execute a highquality educational program um is is subject to updating so I share that with you uh as
we dive into this and it's at this point I'd like to turn once again to our finance and operations director who uh Mr moar and I have gotten to know each other really really well these past two weeks and um I I think both of our
significant others recognize we spend more time with each other than we do with them but it's all for a good cause and it's it's in the interest of what we do for our students so Mr mcaren can you take us uh through the open of the presentation please absolutely uh thank
you for the opportunity and I I do want to reiterate uh superintendent downing's sentiment that you know you know as a former teacher and uh School principal it's not lost on me as your finance and operation director that there is impact
and we are walking um a line of understanding the impact in conjunction with our assistant superintendent and all those involved so I I just felt obligated to to reiterate and and speak to that so our objectives this evening
are to do a quick revisit of the budget update from the last school committee meeting on the 29th of January uh and then spend the majority of our time updating the committee and the public on our current budget uh conditions so as always uh at the beginning of a presentation on the
budget we talk about sort of the here we are uh on February 12th uh just a quick note that Mr Powell reminded me uh of that we are not meeting tomorrow for a couple of different reasons for the budget warrant subcommittee but we're attempting to meet shortly right after
uh the February break prior to um the next uh update to the school committee uh we do have the fincom meeting coming up uh with uh The Joint fincom meeting with um the the Lancaster and sto income and the bothin advisory uh and then
again the remainder of the budget season ahead so as we finished our meeting uh two weeks ago we left our work at a proposed budget of uh just under 70 million 69.9 million with a 5.15%
increase in our operating budget over fy2 um and you can see the impact uh to the town assessments at that point you'll recall uh that we got there by proposing the 18 unspecified reductions
uh in our our um our district as well as what we believe would be our potential Insurance reduction uh if those staff members um and those positions were not within the district uh obviously we will have the same counts in our insurance and that was what we believed at the
time would be a good faith estimate on what the impact um to the insurance would be so so that total Target reduction um of the of the work ahead between two weeks ago and tonight was approximately 1.9 million we ended our last meeting also
uh with discussing what the uh unresolved factors were ahead uh for the last 14 days uh a major piece of that was obviously our insurance and benefits rates we did receive those um just in line with our our mid-February Target
our excess and efficiency uh balance has been certified and obviously superint assistant superintendent friend has provided some information on the prism Grant uh I want to stress and I will stress it again a little bit at this point we can only estimate and predict non-salary support we don't know the
level of potential um support for personnel within that Grant and also to the timeline uh that the assistant superintendent spoke of it does not really Factor majorly into the budget um and as uh a a Personnel uh look at this
point so our excess and deficiency balance certification came back from the Department Revenue at uh 2,476 526 I do want to thank um the the roselli and Clark um auditing firm which really helped us this year do some
adjustments and cleaning of of how it was presented in a number of previous years um so that all felt really good um based on the fact that this is essentially only a $30,000 increase on our excess and deficiency balance um it does put us uh in a place where we are
continuing as the administration to recommend a appropriation of 1.4 million we have not changed um our our proposed appropriation uh in either direction we have left it where it is um
at this point so at that point I'm just going to pause on the excess and deficiency if it's okay and taking any questions about the certification and there any questions on em all right thank
you so I'm going to speak to the non-salary reductions and offsets um we did this at the last meeting we we always look to our non-salary and see what we might be able to do for offsets and I appreciate the school committee's patience over the next 60 seconds or so
as I explain um the the first two So based on what we understand about the prism Grant right now now today and what we predict about the non-salary impact we think there's about $125,000 that may come in to help our
non-salary um support assessment curriculum materials supplies those types of things we had already applied a $100,000 offset from the extended and learning balance to our assessment protocol system um so with the prism
Grant taking that over leaving that $100,000 in there did not make any sense because now the prison Grant is taken care of that in then some so that offset from Extended Learning has now been moved to the technology department to
reduce the impact of the Chromebook purchases for students um within the hardware line um so the real impact on the entire budget is that 22,000 um essentially
um for the teaching and learning budget then the offset to technology uh Mr feswick sat and we went through all of his priorities relative to scheduled maintenance um you know credit to Mr feswick he wanted to really push the
envelope on some things and I I had to temper it and say if we don't address this under maintenance we have to remember that there could be a problem down the road Capital wise let's leave some things in and not not overcommit uh to reductions but again I think again
it's a $60,000 approximately uh reduction to the facilities uh Department Athletics um we did look at where our athletic revolving is right now just like we did last year at this time last year I believe we put a $30,000 offset to the transportation
we've increased it to 45,000 based on where things are at and how that offset's looking this year um and how we can predict it out so essentially the operating budget therefore then gets reduced by approximately $226,000 at this point um so I'll turn
it back over to the superintendent unless there's any questions relative to non- salary yeah let's ask some non- salary questions go ahead so it looks like you're using the prism Grant as a partial offset to some of our budget challenges correct it it is that is that
permitted by the grant so what's permitted by the grant relative to early literacy We Believe looking at it that it would be approximately $125,000 that we could use to commit to the grant it it's not an offset but it
continues to support the early literacy work and the work that's being done through the department of teaching learning within the buildings so yes um what happens with the prism Grant from our understanding is that it's a faded approach almost like the innovation Pathways so that there will be so for FY
26 there's the set amount FY 27 that will come down a little bit and then FY 28 it comes down a little bit more so it's a multi-year commitment from from Prism essentially um and we believe it can pay for some of the work that we're being done that's being done and then
expanding some of the work also that teaching and learning is doing but we're going to have to find the money somewhere else next year not to the same extent because if the prism Grant does fade we don't know the exact calculation on it but that's an excellent point um you know it's the
the ever cautious thought about not using onetime funds to pay for ongoing costs um so at at this point we feel comfortable with where we are but you're absolutely correct that it it will have to be looked at year to year Mr M just made the point I was
going to make um I'll just amplify that by saying we have to take some calculated risks that's just the fact of where we are we are going to have to take calculated risks and we're going to have to make
sacrifice there is no methodology around that so we're trying to be very measured and thoughtful about our approach as we go through this would it be accurate to say too I think that we're some of us are wondering why certain things are being prioritized but just as a reminder
the early literacy piece is based upon evidence that is showing us that our K3 kids are struggling with literacy right now and that this is something that if we don't manage it now and like build that capacity up we're going to have some major long-term
problems I I I want to emphasize the grant is not pointed out there because our students are struggling with literacy but we're having to do a whole overhaul right now this is the the support of the grant is there is because we have demonstrated to desie that we
are a system committed to early literacy instruction and we have spent the last 3 years building an infrastructure that is ready to receive their support so it's not because of performance of our students that we receive that grant that
would be a misstatement it's because we are primed and ready to be a model school district for the rest of Massachusetts as they look to expand this program and it's because of the work and the investment that we put into our literacy model these past three years years that made us attractive to
that Grant award and that uh how many schools 15 yeah okay any other questions Joe did you no on the non- salary okay so let's move on okay so let's talk about Personnel
reductions and we're going to go through this uh the approach that we took here is these first few slides are that metaphor of of of sort of tearing off the Band-Aid and then we will go through the schools and I'll be able to show you what the impact in our schools uh what
the impact is in our schools as we move through so on the first slide you're going to see uh it has the new requests that were presented in the original Budget on January 15th as being pulled back out of the budget I won't go over those because those are not positions
that we currently employ in our school district however the administrative reductions that we made soon after that our current employees um our curriculum director in the 0% increase for administrators which is equivalent to
another employee and just to be clear the 0% increase for administrators isn't talking about individuals it's talking about those people committing to taking no salary increase correct it is the administrative the leadership team committing to taking a zero for no
salary increase with the caveat that they will have the numerical increase relative to increase in Insurance costs we don't want them because there's increase insurance cost to have to take a salary cut they will get just the
increase to cover whatever the increase in benefits are moving next so the approach we're taking here is starting uh outside the classroom and working our way back and so when we begin we look at our stiens for
extracurricular activities in the budget there are $277,000 in uh cror stiens budgeted for this year we would cap that at 225 and we would work with our principles and together with our
association to develop the methodology on how we would make decisions about those activities that are there um I don't want to talk over this too fast because this is not a small move these are extracurricular activities that our students participate in outside
of the school Bay um but what we are obligated to pay for first are our mandates and activities outside of that school Bay are not mandates those are the activities we provide because they're good for our kids and there
things we want them to GR in and and have arenas for them uh to grow and and have those connected adults but they're not mandates like other things and I just want to be clear about that we're committed to extracurriculars but from a budgetary
standpoint we're reducing 52,000 in our extracurricular stien budget in order to protect Staffing in the classroom so moving on uh we're looking at Unit A this time I'd like to invite
Mr Manch to the table um in our unit a we're going to reduce an evaluation team chair and then also reduced to occupational therapy assistance that reduction is coupled with the addition of an occupational
therapist the therapist assistants work with students and can work through the methods they need but the OT actually is a person that can work with develop IEPs participate in those processes and I asked Miss uh demand to speak to uh
these two Reds thank you um so I know that it can be challenging when we talk about student services with the um requirements that are obligated around um the IEP process in servicing
students um but I really want you to look at these two positions more as a reorganization um we will be looking to engage the department chair at the high school level to um be more of a party in
the team process at the high SCH School level and there'll be a reorganization of the highly qualified current sitting team chairs so that every team meeting in this um district will continue to run with the staff that are trained for that
process and um and also along with my um three Department uh administrative assistants who are very in tune with the work that needs to happen we don't see that they with this reorganization that any team meeting um
will be left um unshared or um not addressed um and then as superintendent Downing said the two Koda positions um right now so aota is a certified um occupational therapy
assistance they can only provide direct service they can't do any testing and they shouldn't really be presenting at Team meetings so this is really a re organization to support the department in um doing additional testing that keeps coming up at this
time um I'll just remind the committee that these employees that are listed in the unit a while they may uh if they participate in school level assignments they are district level employees and they work under the direction of Mr
Manch um so that's why we think of of that group of employees as a team as we often deploy them to other locations in the district uh to provide team meeting leadership so um I thank Mr Manch for looking at some creative ways about how
we can still meet those all the requirements within the team meeting process and what we need to do and address the needs of our students and families so moving on um in our facilities Department we examin our models and we can see we can reduce the
facilities Department by two custodians by implementing a team model along with an assignment model they currently have and so Mr Fook will be working with his team on what that model will look like for the future um so next slide canit
pause on District level questions without question I got quick so Jackie so I I'm trying to wrap my brain around this and how it will look in real time
um the extracurricular stiens was interesting to me because there was the initial budget that was presented and we have three middle schools so my question is their request for stiens is diff is substantially
different so then for based on this reduction would there be a redistribution of those stiens or a combination of programming I just want to understand I think a little bit better about where those reductions are
going to come from and how like how if I know that this is version yeah we're going to use this as an opportunity for us to kind of look at what the core values of our school of environments are and how we support those but also build some alignment across our schools in terms of types of activities that we're
offering across the schools um so um I think one of those activities that we know is vibrant in all three environments is um the drama program for instance so we're going to continue to work on that and look look at those off at our across our schools uh because we
want to make sure we're not going to do everybody takes its percentage cut it's going to be how do we balance the offerings at our locations to give students opportunities we also are planning to do some survey work with that to find out what student interest
is to to understand um uh the activities that are the most desirable for students to move forward with question it's along the same lines like I was just trying to understand if um I'm
looking at this si in schedule in the contract right now because I was wondering if that $52,000 includes intramural sports or if it's just extracurricular activities and all
of it including Sports all of it so that's go ahead Mr M no I I don't be not trying to step on anybody's words so the totality of the intramurals that are offered through the out department is about $28,000 so it's not at this point it's
not inclusive of that this is just the extracurriculars that lie within the buildings specifically not within the athletic department so these are nonathletic these are nonathletic cu the only athletic ones would be the
intramural type ones in the out yeah unless it's something like the weightlifting club right which does fall under the building so again to superintendent downing's point I think it's a time to level set you know as we look at it so um yeah I I think um I think there will
be a lot of questions around where that comes from um but because we when you cap the budget it's then up to the principles to decide side and it will be a very clear process
for everyone that which stiens will be or which extracurriculars will get to run and maybe it'll be a rotating basis this year that year just Equitable and just like their their supply line right that's Theirs to do their work I think what we're hearing though is that there
needs to be um some sort of level setting as part of the process not trying to put definition to that tonight but it sound to ensure sure that there's some of that um you know to to the point about the middle schools you know are the are the same are the same offerings being offered it brings out that
discussion could there be shared offerings brings out that discussion so okay um yeah is there any possibility to have fees for extracurricular stuff to bridge the gap or so we currently have those fees they did not yield um
the the number that we were hoping for um a lot of our clubs are non fee based um because they are uh service human Orient type clubs um that that are lying to our strategic work but also are there
to support students um and we're not going to students need to be supported we're not going to charge them for that um so we're all those questions are on the table and we're going to be working closely um uh with our our team to make
those decisions um but we know ultimately in the end that uh the authority of running clubs lies with the principal of each School based upon the budget they're allotted to to fund the clubs with but we will be looking at Equity uh
for funding across our schools to to ensure that we're being F go I saw Sharon's hand but go ahead Jackie Shar so to the unit a just two follow-up questions so currently the two
Co T um the occupational therapy assistants are doing direct service with the reduction in those pieces the OT addition would be responsible for the increasing amounts
of evaluations as well as the 2.0 FTE of direct service now we have additional occupational therapists in the district so that would be shared across that Shar not specifically to the one so my question
was is also around that unit a it's a twers reduction but an a one person addition yes looks like they're going to reallocate responsibility across
multiple are you have to understand that a lot of the occupational therapy time is um caught up in evaluating and testing so when you bring in another occupational therapist that testing can then be divied out and
then the occupational therapist time can be freed up to do more direct service time I I guess I'm just I'm having a hard time it's confusing to me because it's it's not really a reduction of two staff
it's a reduction of one so I'm wondering why it's presented as a reduction of two with an addition of one is it just because of the trading is that why you were saying it's a simp to help you track it in the budget okay we're
reducing two kodas but we just want to provide you with the reassurance of what those students are getting they're going to have their needs met because we're adding the occupational therapist sharing the workload across the team so that's just a mechanism to help you
track it the two reductions well there would be some Financial impact there too because the qualifications are different yeah so you can see the net is and and the net is going to be about our our
placeholder for a full-time uh position which is around the 81,000 I have another question I guess it would be more for you so the the unit a evaluation team shair that would be reduced would then require like
reallocation of the high school person to oversee additional programming or is it yes it would be a reorganization within the team chair Department okay yeah and we'd be working additionally with our high school department head to chair those
meetings as well so currently our high school department has not chairing meetings in the future the high school department and we'll be a part of that team that will be cheering meetings okay everybody uh let's move on to the thanks C let's move on to the
school level Staffing reduction okay all right so when we look at un a employees uh the first item is mentioned here 3.0 Middle School related arts teachers this is an impact due to looking at our
eighth grade enrollment and recognizing the class size as the eighth grade and making a shift of Spanish from solely 8th grade in a 5-day week model it would shift Spanish to grades 67 and8 in a two-day week model um the total number
of days over those three deers would be a minimum of 26 days uh is currently we have 180 days and as as we heard tonight the tradeoff of that is 5 days a week versus two up to three days a week uh
potentially uh in more grades in a longer time span uh so the displacement of that model would mean that the current related arts offerings that we have in our middle schools would be impacted uh but they will not be removed
we will look at a model where we look at the time that is dedicated to those curriculum areas uh because it's very important that our students have um a variety of experiences in the Middle School model related to to their related
arts offerings I'm going to ask assistant superintendent to add some color to this being a longtime Middle School principal she can uh inform the committee and middle school teacher and middle school teacher yeah um right I
mean the develop all of this is hard it's just the reality and so we're working to make the best decisions that we can to still maintain a really quality program for our students and it's hard it's yes and
ad um the developmental phase of our Adolescence in middle school is all about exploration and Discovery and exposure so Our intention as we explore um the next iteration of our Middle School model we'll maintain that at the
Forefront is wanting to make sure that our students are still exposed to and have opportunity to explore the related arts offerings that we currently have the time is going to be impacted um because of the reduction but we still
believe all of the content areas as it exists in our related arts program are important for our students so we're working with our principles um and our leadership team and exploring options for the best way to optimize time to
still meet um the goals we have around exposure and Discovery for our adolescence um and and that's where we're at at the space and time thank you so moving on we would look to our high school where we' reduce a total of
3.4 teachers at the high school I'll talk in more depth about that when we get to that slide um we also want our guidance team um also um functions in a way that is is supportive districtwide we often have to shift these employees
based upon demand and need uh but we'll be reducing uh one of those positions uh M third grade is an area as well as the nrsd math coaches we currently have three full-time math
coaches that work with students k to8 um we would be shifting to a model where we would still keep those three employees but they be reduced to a 6 contract working with grades 3 to
5 looking at our unit c employees at the school level uh you can see there would be a reduction to the m Regional High School secretary position as well as our three Middle School library assistants and so let's um begin walking
through the schools and we can kind of show what the impact um of this is did I miss one R okay so as we look at Mary rollinson I've given you this time these are the actual enrollment numbers in our schools
as of uh uh Monday this week so when you look at the actual enrollment you can see that uh third grade at Mary rollinson would show 68 students across three sections and with a section of
third grade there uh we would reduce that section you would also notice that a first grade um currently there's 63 which would warrant three sections by our class side standards our annual
growth estimates from kindergarten first are larger than any other grade in the system as you might naturally expect and so we're holding that fourth section at M as a placeholder today and included in
our budget um and by doing that that section is on watch if throughout the spring um and into the end of the year we see that that number doesn't actualize uh to cross our 22 per
classroom threshold that position would then be redeployed either within Mary rolinson as you can see fifth grade would be a location for redeployment of that position potentially or it could be
reployer class siiz numbers uh included this is just the updated flow charts uh but I I would like you to see and the community to see that when we look in this our Administration in our elementary schools is two people and those two people have
the responsibility of the safety and care of all the employees and and students um in those buildings and so you can see the breakdown of of our um ft is a result
there moving into Luther Burbank uh we discussed excuse me I'm probably pause a few thoughts take your time that's okay as I get a dry throat here thank you as you can see this
expresses what I was discussing for about earlier about the reduction in 8th grade at Luther Burbank uh that would bring class sizes to 20 and 21 which is right within a very healthy range of our
24 to1 ratio so those class sizes are very reasonable class sizes for our eighth grade students and those sizes are actually lower than many of our Elementary classrooms in grades K through 5 moving to the next um we can pass through you can see
that's the expression oh I do want to pause here on this slide uh for Luther Burbank Middle School I think it's important to note for our community that it in this model as it's expressed on this slide um there is one ad
administrator in the school and that is the principle there are no other administrators at Luther Burbank Middle School um you can see uh the dean is on here but we will be talking about uh reductions in the dean element towards
the end of the presentation as we're trying to tell you the story of how we came to that conclusion so shifting over to Florence Sawyer um these are the common methodology so I don't need to go into
as much depth as I did on the first two pages uh you would see the e8th grade reduction similar to uh Luther Burbank School you already knew about the need at first grade and fifth grade from a previous meeting and the reduction at second grade from the previous meeting
uh you'll notice that the K box is in yellow and shows a zero that's to show you the same methodology we looked at Mary rollinson for first grade currently we are are tracking at uh 63 students um I do know in that number there are a
couple of May um and uh Kristen Ryan our director of Early Childhood has done an incredible job of working with or building administrative assistance to do the kindergarten round up and these
numbers are solid in terms of what we have today doesn't mean they will change we do experience sort of a trickle effect if you will uh that could potentially happen so it's important to keep that fourth position of K right now
but that is another position that is potentially a position that could be redeployed once our kindergarten uh numbers actualize you'll also see here the reduction in the library assistant um as mentioned
previously and the flow chart um here at Florence Sawyer School I want to bring your attention to the administrative box as well here you'll see there are three administrators at Florence lawyer school um that is for anyone our community that does a no
Florence Sawyer school is a k to8 school and so as a k to8 school they are balanced with the other two towns in terms of the number of Administrators K to 8 but in this model there is one principle and two assistant
principles and then you can see the breakdown of our Educators in the other units moving on to Center School uh you can see looking at our numbers at Central School uh that grade
three continues to sit right on the limit of 24 per classroom um as does the three fifth grade sections at Center School this is an interesting phenomenon that is really new for us at Center
School we' done a thorough Gathering of the students in STO to date this is the smallest c number we've had at this point since I've been here and so like the other two areas that fourth kindergarten Position will continue to
be held in a band uh with an opportunity for redeployment depending on how those kindergarten class sizes um actualize I think it's also important to recognize that that our kindergarten classrooms are also staffed with a full-time
instructional assistant and that instructional assistant if that does not materialize would also be redeployed to support center school's U structure is identical uh to Center School mr's
school structure so there's nothing new to share there ni clarify question uh sure really quick um there they have there's more there's an administrative assistant and a secretary but that's not in the other two school we'll be coming
to that okay we'll be coming to that yes they are also they are at this point can you clarify just for anyone who's following along at home that there were mention of certain numbers of guidance counselors but that at lbms there was
only one but where that other person may be allocated to yeah and that structure in terms of where the person will be allocated to is not determined that is going to be based on it but the way we staff our buildings for guidance counselors is based upon um
the National Organization recommendation of one guidance counselor per 250 students so we also know that our guidance counselors do some work for students that are on IEPs and then we also have school adjustment counsel responsibilities and also social worker
responsibilities we're looking at all those employees looking at the demand and the requirements as mandated in IEPs to address those needs to develop that redeployment model okay those people are not on the school
level spreadsheets those are on the district level the the guidance counselors are on the district level are on the school level spreadsheets however we manage them thinking in a districtwide approach based on that 250 50 to1 model and what
the needs are based upon how there are some matches with IP so there are some employees that function as part guidance part social worker or part guidance part School adjustment and so we have some
reorganization to do around all those sectors to come up with our next strategy I don't know if Mr Manch wanted to speak to this element as well or if I explained it well I and just for everybody's Effy here we're going to hold questions until the end so that we
can get let Kirk get through the presentation and then we can eer away so just hang tight guys write them down if you're afraid you're going to forget yeah so with hail Middle School you can see it replicates uh Luther Burbank as well you
would see that with four sections we would still be maintaining remarkably small class sizes at hail of 15 and 16 students per classroom as that is a small sector of students that are moving through the school district excuse me you would see in the following year
there would be 92 students coming so a difference of of of 29 students of course HSE similar to um Luther Burbank has one administrator in that building and moving into the high school
where frankly it's just a little more complicated and it's a little more complicated because it's based on course selection so you're it you're not uh cohorts of students that are in sections of classes it's mixed and matched in all sorts of different courses and so in
looking at the analysis of the class siiz report class size reports and working with Dr Boon um we're looking at a reduction of 3.4 Unit A FTE across the Departments listed here physical
education social studies math ruled language we already have reduced in the science department uh there are some methodologies we might be able to recognize there as well I think what's important to note is that we will be able to make these reductions and
maintain the 24 class size limit at the high school we will not be exceeding the 24 per class section unless of course there's a variance given for a course uh depending on the content of that course but when you think of say your say
standard geometry of course we would be able to maintain that level and so looking at that I think it's important to note in terms of World Language and as we look at our class sizes um we do recognize that offering
three languages at the high school does sort of dissipate it it disperses your students across those languages and then you think about the sustainability of those languages through the years as we have a 2-year language requirement but
we offer languages up to year four and including AP and this is where we're seeing some low class sizes in that program we are forecasted uh to be reducing in our high school in the next 3 to four years of an
additional 50 to 60 students so the reductions that we're going to be seeing in enrollment at the high school will continue to be a challenge in in terms of how we staff the building and so we got to start looking forward with what are the sacrifices that we have to make
to maintain our fiscal responsibilities and educational programming I want to keep it all I want to be clear with the committee clear with our community clear with our teachers I want to keep it all this is not my recommendation for what I
think is the best educational program for our students I'm bringing forward to you the Stark reality of what we're faced with in a budgetary crisis and we have to make hard decisions sometimes we have to make brutal
decisions to get through these moments uh because the alternative um is just not palatable and I'll speak to that at this moment we have to manage and build the
budget in a way that is going to be palatable for our towns so that they pass at their town meeting if any budget number you vote on uh March 12th is changed a town
meeting it voids the budget and we're forced into a 112th scenario or if two of our three towns were to vote down our budget we go to a 112th scenario and I'll describe to you
what that looks like a 112th scenario looks like a $66 million budget that we currently are in for fy2 and it's segmented into 12ths you get that funding essentially one month at a time to carry you through a period
of time while your towns are able to come to an agreement on a new fiscal budget if we are forced into a 112 budget scenario because our budget fails that means we will be laying off an
additional 40 teachers letting them go beyond this Beyond this an additional 40 teachers across the school system Beyond this and I say that as an equivalency we would have to look at all of our buckets but
I'm just trying to give you what an equivalency is based upon the $81,000 metric and we would have to lay off an additional 40 employees if this budget fails wait for summertime Town meetings to
happen to bring that together then once we have that we can begin H highbacks but once you reduce those employees what do you think they're going to go do find jobs so then you're forced into a
situation where you're reinforcing your staff at the levels that were then eventually met in a in a new budget but you're doing it at a time of year where the best teachers and the best employees out there are hired up by other school
systems I have to tell you in my career I have actually benefited greatly from towns that were in those scenarios because I was able to scoop them up in the districts where I was working and we don't want to be pushing ourselves into a scenario where that is
a risk so when I present these these reductions here to you not presenting this because I want to do this it's the exact opposite I want to avoid all of it
you saw the original budget asks what we want includes all those things at the very first presentation to bring more educational opportunity to our school system but we are faced with the the
dark reality that we have to make what are coming as very draon cut store system in order to keep the doors open and running for our students and that is going to put on pause important strategic work it's
going to put a shift to the work that our administrators have to do and this is going to be a challenge now what I've shared with you up to this point is all the information that we have you'll see the high school um flowchart after
that but what you'll see here is uh the budget summary based upon what we shared with you tonight up to yesterday afternoon I'll ask Mr M Kon to summarize yeah so I presented the non-salary reductions and offsets um are
Insurance placeholder on you know the potential um unspecified positions that we talked about now that they're specific it's more around the uh level of 217,000 um and then the sapping reductions of 1.4 million so the total
is 1,968 125 our Target number at the end of the last meeting um to get the budget to that 5.15% operating increase was uh 1,
93,9 60 so we're within that Target by about $3,000 um so uh to reiterate you know superintendent Dow's point this is not what we want to do uh but being tasked to do it this is what we put together so this
takes us to a point I I want to get to the next level so you can see the verality of that because the questions staing I just not yet we we'll do that all in a package yeah just the next slide I just want to point out so we're essentially where we were targeted to be
um based on the proposal of uh the unspecified positions the insurance placeholder and obviously we've made some other moves um with offsets and reductions um but we're essentially right where we targeted to be at the end of the last last
meeting so that took us up to about 3:00 yesterday and so Mr mcaren along with our hug resources department met with our uh Insurance Group uh with Maya and we received some very difficult news and
that we've been holding a 12 per perc placeholder in our budget for health insurance increases and our increases coming in at 19.9 2% which means in the last 24 hours
we've had to address how are we going to continue to address now a budget in order to hit those targets a budget gap of another $528,000 and I'm going to turn it over to Mr mcaren uh to speak about some of
that detail so if you remember back at the budget Workshop we talked about this 12% budget assumption it was the highest at least in in my time that I said it um and I set it at 12% knowing that over the last several years we've gotten the range for
the insurance trust 12% has been on the high end knowing market conditions and some information that we you know um we're not going to have the same sort of almost level of insurance because we
made the deductible addition last year I modeled it at 12% uh we came in at the high end of the range if you remember from last uh meeting the range that was produced by Mayo was the 9.92 to 19.9 to so a couple
of things that we want to point out in anybody with health insurance uh the health insurance Market is impacted by Rising health care costs and Rising prescription usage those are just the facts the other piece that we have to understand is that within the Maya trust
um you have a target of using 88% of your premiums paid for health insurance cost so for the way to think about it is if our total premiums paid between our employee 30% and the district 70% was 10
million Maya's Target would be for us to use about 8.8 million in that in cost we were at 97% uh based on our premiums paid over the last uh approximately calendar year um
so this was obviously very difficult news to hear um but it is the way that the the methodology and being part of the trust Works um another thing that I would point out of the 35 accounts that our
representative has uh 10 we at the top of the Range Five are brand new which means they fall right in the middle um that's just the the contract with the trust um and the rest were sort of smattering all over um I am not hearing
from a significant amount of my colleagues in the area that less than 10% is really what's happening right now so um again to superintendent Downey's point we assumed 12 we were thinking okay what happens at
15% and yesterday was a significant situation there's nothing we can do at this point tonight to change the number that we were presented just 24 hours ago so we've had 24 hours to process and understand and problem solve and this is
where we are today so as we look further at that I just so therefore increasing the operating budget by that just over $500,000 would increase the operating
budget to almost 6% Inc uh uh over for last year and obviously increases Our Town share uh as well um based on uh from the the previous where we set the operating at 5.15% this obviously has impact for them
so to get back to our Target increases that we've been discussing and working with the count officials on we would have to look at some additional reductions and this is where we would look at the reduction of the .5
secretary position at Center School that was noted on the Center School flowchart as well as all four of our Deans at the three middle schools and the high school um Mr
mcaren yep so you know talked a little bit about calculated risk uh tonight so it's part of our Revenue um lines uh we have investment income which has been very good to the school district in recent years so in
fy2 we noted and and put in an estimate of uh $200,000 in revenue from our investment income this is not investment income Rel relative to the building project which I know sometimes comes up this is strictly what we hold in the
Massachusetts Municipal uh depository trust which is when we get in our our um assessments from the town or other Revenue if it's there before we use it for expenses it can get gain interest and that's paying very strongly right now so um it's a calculated risk uh
right now um of the $200,000 that we built in as an estimate for fy2 we've exceeded that as of today so we've gone beyond that by about 20,000 so we've already met our threshold for this year we feel
comfortable with putting it forward for 300,000 next year it's a calculated risk we have to watch all of our expenses and all of our revenues throughout the school year however what this does is we will reduce the budget by that
432,000 that's not the full impact of the health insurance um cost by adding an additional Revenue we don't reduce our budget by the full 500,000 but what happens is there's a net impact to the assessments for our
member towns that you can see here so while the total operating budget is higher then that proposal uh that gets us to 5.15% our member Town increases for the operating budget uh so Bolton for
example at 5.24 um the previous one had them at 5.25 Lancaster was at 7.48 they're now at 7.47 and so was just about the same by the way the where the you know the the
placeholder Falls so we didn't reduce the operating budget by that full impact of the health insurance we reduced it partially uh most of the way and the other way to make that up and uh produce a budget to the towns and assessments to the towns that falls in the window that
they're comfortable with as we know today uh is to increase that leverage of the investment income Revenue so and looking at what that means in terms of of our
employees I want you all to take a look at this graph that in my first year as a superintendent the budget that I assumed coming in we have 510 total FTE employees there may be some part-time employees combin them that the budget
proposal we're showing you today is 463.3339 our total employees in the school district nearly 10% we have only reduced an enrollment 3% and so I share that with you to compat a narrative that enrollments are
declining yet the school systems continue to add positions that is just blatantly false we have not been adding positions as you can see in this graph here as we have established our class size standards we established our admin admin ministrative standards our
counseling standards we redeployed positions based on those standards to places where we could um uh support students in our Equity model uh to provide them what they need for their education and then we also have had some
reductions there as you know in previous budgets so I just want the committee to be clear about this because this is an important talking point for our community to understand that we don't want to be in this place and this is not to blame anyone we do not blame any of
our local officials in our town not certainly blame our tax payers we will never blame our Educators or administrators we are stuck in a scenario of structures of fundamental
systems that are coming together at a time for the nooba Regional School District that is a perfect storm and that is the challenge that we have to overcome um next slide have
it Mr moar um so the increase from FY 25 voted budget to today um is approximately 3.5 million um again the impact the towns is with
within where we believe and understand them they need to be um but just to give the committee a sort of updated view of what what are the significant factors that are are contributing to the the still remaining increase um we've talked about special education services
insurance and benefits and we know that we had assigned increases to to Charter and school choice um so again significant impact from those um really non-negotiable factors for for different
reasons are moral and ethical obligation around special education um where we landed with our insurance increase um and what we are obligated by master and lot of payout in school choice and Charter School tuitions um so this is this again this is where we are today
and I think it paints a picture of you know what what is still driving the increase uh you know to superintendent intendent downings point about what a 0% increase would look like this is the essentially the majority of the Delta between a 0% and
you know 25% increase so I'm seeing that it's 858 I just need a thumbs up from everybody that you're willing to give us a little bit more time to just ask a couple of questions here on this all right we got two slides y so I'm going to do my best to because
of the hour explain these next two slides in short order but it's a visual impact so our health insurance costs over the last uh several years again we're still within our voted budget right now so um but you can see how the
cost has increased in total for active employee health insurance we've continued to try to apply offsets but I would just draw your attention to the FY 25 voted to FY 26 proposed so the stacking of those two
bar graphs together there is that that increase we've already applied more offsets in the yellow and you can still see the Delta on that blue operating impact to operating impact with regards to the special education I'm looking only here at the special education out of District
placement costs and the specialized Transportation costs we have contracted Services we have other things that go into that budget that's non- salary but this just looks at those two big factors for a couple of different reasons number one we've talked about the circuit breaker reimbursement phenomenon and we
also know that our Ida Grant while it still provides a healthy dose of of support to the the district it's based on headcount of student and that doesn't necessarily change significantly over time so we typically put that $700,000 in So within
the graph you can see an orange which is a combination of that red circuit breaker Revenue that comes in and reimbursement and the IDE IDE Grant that's really a sign that we can use for transportation we use it for other things beyond that 700,000 but it's not
significant as the cost of placements and transportation has gone up you can see the impact most notably is the fact that if you look at the difference between circuit breaker reimbursement that we received in
fy22 as compared to FY 24 and now fy2 well it goes up a little bit from 24 to 25 please remember that the the transportation piece of this placements we get 75% back on those high costs over the thresh old
transportation we used to get 75% back last year it was 58 this year we received 44% obviously there's advocacy at play but we really truly don't know we know based on the fact that our costs are going up this year that we're comfortable with a possible $2 million
reimbursement next year that we're already utilizing all of it in the FY 26 budget so I'm going to pause there before I talk about next step superintendent Downing yeah I think we we outlin the next steps pretty well in our map and I
think everybody understands those next steps well so I think we'll just pause at this moment and take any questions from the committee I know everybody's exhausted and this is not great and uplifting news so can you conjure any important
questions here that you just need clarified um first you know I appreciate all of the thoughtfulness that went into these recomend commendations I know it was a difficult task and we've got the best interests of the
community um in mind given the circumstances um I just wanted to clarify that with the changes that you're proposing at the middle school level um it sounds I just want to want to I guess clarification or confirmation
that the current offerings of specials at the middle schools will be preserved it's just a matter of the amount of time each student will be experiencing those specials so it's not as if any particular program is being eliminated
as a result of these changes that is correct okay um like the I guess kind of a follow up on that the library um I saw that there's an instructional assistant that's um one of
the positions that's proposed to be eliminated is that the same as forgive my ignorance here is that the same as the librarian no the librarian is a unit a position so we will still be staffed with Librarians
at Center School at Mary wison Elementary and at Florence laer School however we will not have Librarians at Hill Middle School or lur Burbank School okay but you will maintain the instructional assistance in those
libraries no we're reducing the instructional assistance in those libraries and so who will be in charge of those libraries that is the strategy that we have to develop locally each of those buildings all right is that it um just one more question about um
German at the high school um I'm assuming that that decision is based on enrollment numbers within correct German classes could you just give us some more context on how enrollment in the German classes compares to the other World
Language offerings yeah I don't have all those class siiz numbers in front of me now but what I can tell you is that um it starts at a level that ranges depending on the year from 15 to 20 students and by the time they're after that second year it wains down to 10 or
less uh students so there's a little variance from year to year but it just doesn't have sustainability and what ends up happening is we're not able to execute a model of distribution of students across our class sizes and so
it's it's inefficient in how we deploy our staffing so when we look at what our Command is in this budget we have to look for those efficiencies and that's where those efficiency that's where those moments of sacrifice come with
those efficiencies keeping the programs I want to clear be bluntly clear with this we want to keep it we are being posed with a fiscal challenge right now that this
option particularly knowing that we're going to be declining even further at enrollment in our high school um due to just basic population decreases um I think is the responsible step to take we will continue to still be
engaged in the conversations and listen we're going to we're going to we need to get to a budget number on March 12th we're going to be talking about educational programming up to March 12th and after March 12th in terms of what
are the moves that we can make these are the best options I can present to you today on February 12th all right I had a question about that too so we have students then at the high school who have always taking German that will suddenly be taking a different foreign language is that correct I'm so glad you
asked that question so let me explain in terms of sunsetting German they would we would continue the Staffing to allow them to those who are already in the program to extend the program to the level that they want to extend it to sunsetting would mean that we would not
be offering the German one course anticipating what our enrollment demands are going to be in future years so those students currently taking that course would continue to take the courses in future years I a go ahead my other question was
um so now in it's about the healthcare piece so in Pre in in upcoming years then are we now going to be cuz I seem that's going to continue to be a big budget driver I mean it's gone up it's been going up but it went up significantly this year are we now going
to be budgeting for like a 20% is that sort of how we're going to go forward like for the next you know what I'm saying it's a great question Ken health insurance based on our conversation with our representative yesterday this is a
multi-year impact to the extent I I don't know and I say I don't know because I need to understand how this shakes out over the next essentially 12 months until we start budget planning for FY 27 um I certainly would present if I was
asked today what would my assumption be for health insurance for FY 27 it'd be higher than 12% how much High I I how are I I don't know I don't know and I want to get more input from the rep um you know we meet with them over the summer to check our
utilization we knew it was High which is part of the reason I added uh up to 12% um but just the impact is is not necessarily known so one of the things so as you asked the question about Futures planning one of the things that we're discussing uh regarding health
insurance is that it's there's a lever that many municipalities and school systems use and that there there's an incentive opt out program so if you were somebody that currently carries your insurance and they opt out of the insurance they can receive receive an
additional um monetary amount to their salary as long as they remain off of it and that mechanism has been a useful mechanism to help drive down those costs we can't use that mechanism right now because we would not know what type of application it would have what usage it
would have um but for future years this is something that we need to discuss and have some decisions made on this spring um so that we can have that tool out for the future and that's where the there may be more impact for FY 27 or Beyond
is to understand how that that transpires but we wouldn't be able to do any of that modeling until we're through open enrollment yeah uh and know what that looks like as far as head count on insurance plans um I don't want to keep everyone and I know you probably don't really know the answer to this but when you cut
down time on languages in middle school how are you going to prevent like a decrease in language proficiency and how they're going to be prepared for high school because language is not really like gym class or something that you can
do twice a week it's like harder to learn something when you're only doing it twice a week and then you have that break cuz like how would they go up in levels and then in high school where would they start a it's a great question and so the way we look at is we've done
some surveying with other school districts and we know this is a model that exists in other school systems as well so we would look to their expert expertise to that as long as well as looking at what a proficiency model of language development would look like because it would be our goal to design a
program that when our students are leaving 8ighth grade they will be leaving with a skill set around Spanish language that is comparable to what they exit with today so this is where it's going to take some deep work this is where we're going to work with our colleagues that have had this experience
and have developed some very effective models that are based on a three-year um uh rotational model thank you great question John thank you for the the work you guys put into this um was there any
overhead Cuts or proposed cuts to to budget that the overhead that wasn't employee expense yeah those are all the non-salary expenses that are that are outlined in in this presentation the previous presentation so we've made many
reductions in that regard that was in this presentation yeah so whenever you see the salaries that are in marked non salary those are those overhead costs but didn't you make some of those in the last budget update too like you removed the vehicle and you moved to a leasing
option exactly there was some technology reduction which is in the last budget update yeah is that did that help there's some numbers I didn't understand like a telephone was 144,000 I think which again I don't have the
drill down details for that but that just sounded very high same thing for for office equipment Le yeah those those are preset contracts that we have for those types of things so there isn't uh you know in and with our phone systems those are things like they have to
function there's no option to to you know reduce in that sort of way um so we have to look to to other variables so that's where we have really sort of scoured the revolving accounts offsets to and every time we do
that you have to know we're giving ourselves less room for the future every time we de delve into our revolving accounts whether it's a facilities offset or an Extended Learning offset what whatever it may
be uh Joe yeah thank you m CH I I do not have a question um Madam chair superintendent but I did receive a question from a resident of Lancaster this morning and let me just qualify this question by saying that the nature and import of
this question hearkens back to the budget Workshop so um apologies for not understood sending this question to you in advance so you had Advanced noses if you can't answer it yeah um I understand um I'll read it verbatim um it's one question in two
parts uh where is the line item for witson and what is the additional cost for bringing them in versus one nutrition services director is that the $900,000 increase on page 73 of the uh budget Workshop um budget Mr M and again
as I said if you're not prepared either you or Mr M I I will certainly put it in writing and send it to you as I'm going into my budget document Mr gleon um that is the beginning of our food services revolving accounts so there's no impact
to the operating budget except for the fact that we are able to utilize some lovers within Food Service to support the operating in the sense that our employees within that are obviously paid from that but also their health insurance can be paid from that other
things cannot be that might feel like they should be such as utilities if you step into that territory you step into a I would say is a a hornets nest of what's called indirect cost rate and direct cost rate and if you start to apply those to that
account then we're talking about our Essa grants we're talking about Ida grants so the way it was explained to me when I made contact with the school Nutrition department last year was to sort of try to avoid those things in the future because again you step into a Hance Nest relative to the question of
the increase I just want to take a quick look page 73 under contract and services yes so when we built the budget last year we built the budget based on not having a Food Service uh contract because it was
prior to the the contract coming in we pay witson on a monthly basis um for their contract their contract includes all of the procurement for all of our food and some of the supplies that go into our
kitchens so at the end of it there'll be a decrease and I just want to check our lines here uh that there should be a decrease if you look at it under Provisions Provisions dropped from 664 000 to zero so that money is allocated and
shifted to the wion's contract because they run all of our supply and procurement for provisions and and some additional stuff so thank you super and I again apologize for not submitting that in writing Advance have to do our best
here who's got a question beyond that I all right here we go thank you um my I guess my last question is if you could just speak a little bit about the role
of the middle school dean or the dean position and what purpose why we added that position a few years ago and what impact it will have to remove those positions from
our our structures thank you for your question um I'm thinking deeply about this right now the reduction of the dean's position is it's a deep cut to the overall fabric of the
school there is a misconception that the dean is an administrator and in fact the dean is a un employee just like all of our classroom teachers are the focus of the
dean is frontf facing student interface and helping and working with students on all the complexities that are involved D when you have 230 Souls walk into your middle school so in that way with the reduction
of the Deans positions and the responsibilities they have with our advisory teams with code of conduct with uh social and support groups with covering for teachers in situations um the reduction of those
principles those responsibilities are going to fall on the shoulder of our principles with the reduction of the D and as a result the principles will be spending more time in those activities and less time on the educational leadership um that we really need in our
schools so when I say that we're making some deep sacrifices that's a great example of one that is being made and it's not something we want to do I am putting it out there as a temporary step I'm putting all of this out there as temporary um to help us work through
this difficult time um um but yes those we view those as critical positions to the district and we got to that point because if we went another Direction then we're
compromising um our intervention model that would compromise our qualification for the prism Grant and the supports we're going to get there or uh we eliminate more classroom teachers and increase our class side standards to higher numbers 26 28
so we made that very difficult decision based upon protecting the classroom and um like I said it is February 12th and ideas are going to
come in tomorrow and ideas are going to come in over vacation and after that they might even be coming in post budget vote um once they come and post post budget vote we have to operate within the constructs of what that bottom line number is in the budget but we're going
to continue to be relentless problem solvers in how we address these challenges I want to recognize how much work you've done and how much effort you've all put in you've probably been not sleeping much I know you're not
sleeping much you told me that um you're not seeing your significant others uh so here's here's a couple of things I want to lay on the table and this isn't really for this Rance for the record um Lita can you go to slide 32 or
Ross it's like it's the one with the most recent percentage increase 5.28 right here yeah okay so um I think that this is happening across the state
this is happening in almost every municipality this is not a result of something nishoba has done wrong or that we have mismanaged anything or that the towns are not doing their job this is happening Statewide it's happening everywhere I think that there's a record
number of overrides that are being requested this spring uh one of our towns is likely in that situation and that is Bolton so even if we had come to Bolton with a 0% increase they would have needed an override just for their operational
costs um increases and so I want to put on the table that this is something significant it is something that the state needs to manage and do something about and we all need to get active and lobbying and having all of our voices heard at the state
level um because there is revenue to be shared and our schools are the most important thing that this state can offer the natee test just came out and showed that Massachusetts is providing excellent education we don't want to see that slide back um Bolton however is
heading toward an over override Lancaster you can see that their increase 7.47 is probably not what they want to see stow's rate of increase is lower but stow's number is still the highest and so these numbers are hard
and we need to be responsible and not just our leadership but everyone every single one of us right down to the last staff member meanss to recognize that our communities can only give so much
and I feel very strongly about that so um if we ask too much we will see these budget votes fail in May and if the budget votes fail in two of the towns and I have heard prominent members of
one of our a couple of our communities over time seek to actively make them fail if if these budget votes fail and people do not attend T meetings and support these budgets we will head into the 112 scenario that Kirk identified
and it will be of Epic Proportions okay so what we're experiencing right now you can double it if our budgets fail so not to be Hellfire and brimstone here but um I
think we are striking a balance here tonight by saying we need to make deep sacrifices because the town's people are building a brand new high school for everyone and it is an important investment and we need to keep that in mind that this
budget needs to remain manageable while also providing an excellent education which I think you guys have threaded the needle here and if all things go the way that you are predicting and you're pretty good at this I think that this is the right
solution so please just keep in mind if you're listening to this that this is incredibly complex and I hope nobody tries to boil it down to anything simple because it's not is there anything
templated that you could share with this group to be active in social media versus all of us coming up with our own messaging and and maybe you do this already and I just don't know but like is there kind of a format you could give us to so we're all kind of communicating
the same message something we can tweak on our own to make it more passionate but can reach are social people are going to think we game plan that question what people are going to think we game plan that question so because I think it's an important way to wrap the meeting um and currently during this
meeting our communication specialist um Miss Bridget Hanigan is taking notes watching things she has these presentations uh I will be working I will be going to the Worcester County uh legislative meeting tomorrow uh where we will have 15 of our state
representatives at that meeting um upon my return her and I are sitting down to build that exact tool and so I'll be Distributing that tool to our committee members I will continue to share my advocacy letters with you um as I share them with our state representatives and
when I share them with you that means they are open to share um and we just have to continue to work the problem we got to work the problem we got to work the problem um so yes we will get to those tools um we're coming up on school vacation week Ione
to have a happy school vacation week by the way and I have one announcement before we we close tonight um but we will make sure you get what you need to carry the message all is understanding the hour I'm going to maybe push the agenda I need to make one
last announ announcement item on my agenda but huh I have one more item on my agenda but maybe at the tail end I'll let it add y um so guys no unfinished business uh tonight but there are there is um a spot for subcommittee reports so is there anything that any of the
subcommittee chairs want to add to the record here okay so one final announcement yeah the final announcement is a weather announcement so we are watching the freeze line very very
carefully right now uh there will be a call going out at 5:30 in the morning only if we have a delay if there's no delay delay there will be no call school we'll start on time uh but the key here is uh Mr fros and I have a 43 meeting
scheduled 4:30 a.m. meeting scheduled to discuss road conditions he will be on site in Thea at 3:30 a.m. if roads are drivable will have school so uh it all depends on the timing of that freeze line and 8:00 yeah there's very is it
are you're seeing 8:00 now I've seen it Wiggle from 3:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. so if the freeze line is coming later we will clearly have a delayed start tomorrow but stay tuned uh a call will go out at 5:30 if that's the case all right B
thank you so much for your time I'm going to move to adjourn do I have a second nice job Cohen all those in favor any opposed I doubt it good night everyone e