Speaker 1: All right everybody. Welcome. This is the April 7th meeting of the Natick School Committee and we'll call the meeting to order at 6:01 PM We'll do roll call First. Ms. Scott. Present Mr. Patel. Speaker 2: Present Speaker 1: Mr. Brand. Present. Dr. Fugman. Mr. Speaker 2: Present. Speaker 1: And I am present. So we have a quorum. So I would like to make a motion to enter executive session. That's what I do, right? I make motion for two purposes
to discuss strategy with respect to litigation. If an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigation position of the public body and the chair. So declares that I do. And two, to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining. If an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair. So declares And I do Speaker 2: Second. Speaker 1: Okay. And we'll do a roll call. Vote. Mr. Patel. Yes. Mr. Brand? Yes. Dr. Fugman? Yes. And I am a yes. So we'll now enter executive session planning to return at six 30.
Alright, so we are back. So we just returned from executive session. Welcome back to our school committee meeting. We're reconvening at 6:36 PM So we've already done roll call and now we will do a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence to honor our troops who serve us here and abroad. Speaker 3: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One, one Nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Speaker 1: Okay. Any announcements from the committee?
Anything from our student representatives? Yes you did. Yes. Okay. I see something in, okay. Okay. Alright, so we have, Anthony sent us an email and this is what he would like to share. On Wednesday, serve Natick hosted the Natick Impact Collaborative and many students went and learned about how they themselves can impact their communities. Thank you to the speakers and the hosts of the events. I've seen firsthand the preparation, the Serve Natick host, Kabi, Anand, cam Bernard and Fin Rau took an, it resulted in an an impactful event for those who attended. So thank you Anthony for sharing.
And I think some people were at the SE Natick event here. So Speaker 4: It was great. It was awesome. Those students did a ton of work. Really impressive. Like really well organized. Mr was there as well. It just an, I mean I don't, it was awesome. Great speakers. Speaker 5: I'd just add too, it was such a neat partnership between the teachers and the students because the teachers helped get the staff or get the students there by providing extra credit opportunities. And so you really had students that were listening to phenomenal stories like life, life stories of people who have chosen service in in different ways
and yeah, it like often multiple times it was like goosebumps on your skin. So thank you. Speaker 1: Very nice. Very nice. And anything from our teacher representative today? Speaker 5: No, nothing for today. Speaker 1: Okay. Thanks. Thank you. And Ms. Scott, did you have anything from metco? Nothing for this evening, Madam chair. Okay, thank you. Alright, do we have a motion for the consent agenda? Speaker 4: So moved Speaker 5: Second. Speaker 6: Okay. Speaker 1: All in favor of the consent agenda. Oh, we have to roll. Call, roll. 'cause we have Ms. Collins line. No problem.
We'll start with you. Ms. Collins? Yes. Mr. Patel? Speaker 7: Yes. Speaker 1: Ms. Flas? Yes. Mr. Brand? Yes. Dr. Fugman? Yes. Ms. Brunell? Yes. And I am in the S, so the consent agenda has, is approved. So we'll start with the superintendent's report. Speaker 8: Excellent, thank you. Today we have principal blocker who's here to go through really what I'm calling two decks. We normally have the 10 slide rule, but it's kind of two decks and she'll switch gears kind of in the middle. So the entire topic is nat high school graduation
requirements and a piece of this will be on the competency determination and then overall credits and distribution. So welcome and thank you for being here tonight. Speaker 7: Good evening everybody. It's my pleasure to come and talk about Natick High school's graduation requirements. Alright, so just to remind everybody, you know what our goals are for students as we approach graduation. I think it's important to center us in what it is we hope to do by looking at the profile of a native graduate. So our ultimate goal is to provide a rigorous student-centered education
that reaches all learners to educate students in line with the MPS profile of a graduate. And really to allow our kids to be the best versions of themselves, both in, in high school and in post-secondary life. And so we kept these in mind and these centered as we thought about our next steps in terms of progress to graduation. Okay. So tonight we, our goals are to share with you some plans that we have for Natick high school's. Graduation requirements for the class of 2026 and beyond is defined in our handbook. Specifically. We're gonna also talk about a proposal.
We have to outline how Natick proposes to handle the impact of ballot question two and to get your feedback in terms of what these proposals are outlining. All right. So really there are four parts to earning a diploma from Nat Kai. The first is competency Determination. And you'll notice I have that in white because in the past that was the only part of our diploma that was decided by an entity outside Natick. So I'll come back to that in a second. The second is overall credits, meaning the total number of credits that graduates must earn prior to graduation.
And then the third is distribution credits. So they can't be in just anything. You have to take four years of English, four years of math, et cetera. And then the fourth being 30 hours of community service. So tonight we are gonna talk about one, two, and three and we're gonna start with one. So competency determination is really a wonky term that the Department of Education defines. And basically tonight I'm gonna try to take us through an overview of what that November ballot question asked voters and how the voters decided what happens now as a result of
that vote pragmatically in our school district and districts across the commonwealth. And then how this changes Natick right now. All right, so here is the full text of the law. I think it's important for us to just see it up there. This is the ballot initiative. So the ballot initiative said that the law requiring that districts certify that students have mastered the skills, competencies, and knowledge of the state standards as a replacement for the MCAS graduation requirement is hereby amended striking from the first sentence as measured by the assessment instruments,
meaning taking away the MCAS and replacing it with completing coursework that has been certified by the district. Showing mastery of the skills, competencies, knowledge contained in the state academic standards curriculum frameworks in the area measured by the MCAS described and administered in 2023. So to translate that now the state doesn't determine this competency determination we do and we have to do it through coursework and then there and we have to do it in specifically the things they measured in 2023
so we can go forward. So how did the voters decide? So I think it's also important as we think about this that to note that both Natick and the state overall voted for this. So some dis I mentioned that 'cause there are districts that are saying we're gonna use the MCAS anyway. Their school committee voted to have MCM CAS be the determinant in their town. I don't think that would work in Natick. 'cause it's clear that Natick residents also disagree with that approach. So now they've struck that part for the MCAS from our law. And so now we have coursework. So we have to now determine what coursework is gonna meet
that standard of showing mastery of skills, competencies, and knowledge in the standards. All right, so what stays the same? Kids still take the MCAS. So either way they're testing now they're likely to test next year. We don't know what will happen after that. But we are still evaluated as a district and as individual schools based on how kids perform on it. And kids are still earning scholarships for their performance on it. We actually went into every single 10th grade English class before to remind kids that there are still reasons why they have to perform well
and why they should allow their peers to perform well in the test setting. And the kids actually did a really good job. I was impressed with their attitude and how they approached it, given what I feared it might be. So they still do have to do it as of today. They also still have to achieve this competency determination because it is in federal and state law. So there's a lot of the law that is hinged on this competency determination, which used to be a yes no based on your MCA score. So now those things are not connected anymore and we're gonna talk about what our mechanism is,
which they have said specifically, unless your school committee votes that it's MCAS, it can't be MCAS even though you're taking it and that it can't just be you pass our grad requirements as a district. We can't just simply sort of punt to our local requirements. We have to be more specific. Alright, so specifically what was in 2023? The 10th grade ELA standards, the 10th grade math standards, which is a combination of measurement, probability and statistics, algebra one and geometry. And kids had to take and pass one of the following, biology, physics, chemistry
or technology engineering. The good news is all of our courses are already aligned to the state frameworks. So whichever courses we decide and whichever courses we determine address that content will already be aligned to the standards. So we're good to go there. So we have looked at a number of different districts. Many of them are in the same process. We are, they're sort of in progress. So you'll see a few of them say proposed. So Arlington and Brookline, you'll see they've proposed theirs be you pass ninth
and 10th grade English, you pass algebra one and geometry, you pass at least one of those science courses, right? If you look at Brookline, they named the specific courses, they did geometry and algebra two, which is a little bit different than Arlington, but still the same three science courses. They did not include technology or engineering. Arlington did but said they don't have it, which was interesting. So if we go to the next slide, you'll see what Hopkinton proposed. Hopkinton said geometry and algebra one
or two with a passing grade. They also went to ninth and 10th grade English Newton's draft is much more broad. So they said any courses that are taught using standards from the current high school curriculum that's very broad gives them a lot of room because they were also thinking about other states and other other countries. So theirs has much broader language than these other three districts does do. So I think it's also important to note that as we look at this, there's a really changing landscape. I actually got an email about next steps on this two hours
before I was set to come here. So the initiative passed on December 11th. Desi gave us guidelines about you've gotta have a plan for class of 2025, a plan for class of 2026, a plan for class of 2027 and beyond. Then two months after that, or a month after that, governor Healy said, oh we're establishing a graduation council. So then that group is gonna have recommendations in 18 months. So there may be some flex flux. There is. Now, according to the email I just got, there's like an open comment period by the community.
So if you go on the DSI website, you'll see it. There's actually an opportunity for folks to weigh in in the public about what they think it ought to look like. The board of elementary and secondary ed actually discuss changes to the regs and they are in the process of potentially recommending coursework they think should count for various districts. So I mention all this because I'm gonna show you what we're proposing, which won't be dramatically different from what you've seen in other districts, but it's quite possible that we will be back here explaining modifications to that in the near or far future depending on what we hear as this evolves.
Alright, so the reason why we have to be different for the class of 25, 26, 27 is that they're gonna allow us to count kids who've achieved competency determination on or prior to December, 2024. So that means any kids who had appeals en route, if they were adjudicated prior to that or submitted prior to that, rather they count if they pass the November retest in ELA or math, it counts if they pass their MCAS in 10th grade in ninth grade, it counts.
So the good news for us is that in the class of 2025, we had only four kids we were looking at and they were all kids who had come to us from other towns or states or countries. And so we were able to apply this proposal to one child and clearly get her across the finish line. And we were able to discern that one child, their IEP team was actually deciding that he was going to go to the 18 to 22-year-old program. And then two of the others we determined via credits that they actually will be members of the class of 2026.
So class of 2025 is essentially ready to go class of 2026. We'll have slightly fewer kids who are like done, for lack of a better word, with the CD status because they won't have had all the opportunities to do the retests right, as the seniors have. So those will be the kids who passed their first go or during the November retest, they'll still, there'll be a a large chunk of them that are already fine and then possibly a slightly bigger chunk than there was in class of 2025 to consider.
And then once we get to the class of 2027, they haven't taken the ELA or math MCAS as sophomores. So that's a much, much bigger group. All right, so this is our proposal. Our proposal is that they've either passed the MCM CAS and have competency determination or they've passed 10th grade English, 11th grade English, 12th grade English or the equivalent. So we wanted to use or the equivalent because we will have kids that move in from out of state and out of country and we need to be able to look at the standards for the courses they took and make sure that they're in line with what we offer. We wanted to include the higher grades.
'cause if they've met the 11th grade standard, by the time they graduate, they will have met the 10th grade standard. They just might have been a little slower. So we chose upper grades and we're also intending for that or the equivalent to potentially cover credit recovery. So we have a credit recovery system where we use a platform called Edgenuity and we curate the content that the students are behind on if they fail a course and then they make up that content through this platform. And so we wanted to allow that credit recovery process to enable students to make up the credit in the course for math.
We have many of our eighth graders who take algebra one in the eighth grade as do many districts. So for those kids we put algebra two and geometry as their pathway. For the kids who are coming in and doing algebra one, we put algebra one in geometry as their pathway so that you will have passed one of those two pathways and then for science that they will have passed physics, chemistry or biology and again, or the equivalent. And so that is our proposal for competency determination for Natick for the classes of 2025 and 26,
unless the landscape changes and we come back. It's also, I think, notable that we engaged a number of groups when we were talking about this. This wasn't just a one person effort. I have brought this to our school council, to my student principals round table to a number of people on our leadership team to weigh in. We talked about it at the Tri-County superintendents group that Sue and I went to together. And then I also have sent some messaging out to caregivers about how we're approaching this. So there's also been some messaging there too. Alright, so that is the competency determination part.
So I'll pause. Yes. Ms. Brunell, Speaker 1: Did you wanna take questions now or do you want to, Speaker 7: I think it probably makes sense to take questions I on this part now and then we can move on to the other part after. Okay. Speaker 1: Ms. Brunell, Speaker 5: Thank you. I did see that the gen, the Governor's board that and I was like, oh boy, here we go. Right. And the distribution of people there is always interesting too. Is it is. I guess my question is slide four. Yep. When would someone earn a credit and not pass a class?
Like it seems like we're basically saying number one is now number three. Speaker 7: Yeah. So specific, it's specific courses. You have to, for example, pass four years of math to graduate, right? That can include computer science, that can include statistics. It, yes, it can conclude a number of math courses. And so it's quite possible that you're a child who failed geometry and then took a number of other courses that would fulfill that requirement.
That would be a case where a student could potentially have satisfied our local requirements but not the CD status. Speaker 5: Okay. That's a helpful explanation. And then second question, don't hate me for this question, I won't. But has there been a discussion about a portfolio? My understanding is when the MCA first came into the state, there was an alternative process for students to get competency by submitting a portfolio so that it was never, the CD was never supposed to only be a standardized test. Speaker 7: So the, the state actually always had this portfolio MCAS,
ALT for Competency process outlined. It was an extraordinarily rigorous process to, we had to document. So I've submitted a number of them and what you have to do is take work samples for every single standard multiple work samples, satisfy that the child has done it with 75% independence and 75% accuracy, and then submit all of those work samples to the state with somebody signing off that they've test a test that that is accurate for that child. The amount of work that it took to submit one MCAS ALT
for competency was fairly extraordinary. And we did it on a very, very small subset of students in my last district where we knew they were children who in isolation, if we said, can you do square roots? They could knock it out. But if I mix square roots up with exponents, they were dead in the water. They couldn't identify which kind was which. That is the ideal candidate to do an ALT for or a portfolio for. If we were going to try to accomplish that type of rigor, rigorous process, rather documentation, rigorous documentation, it would require a really different
structure in the high school to collect that data. I think if that's the direction the state chooses to go, we will explore it and move forward with it. I think that it's an interesting idea to entertain. I think teachers grade kids on things like portfolio assessments all the time. And so embedded in those course grades is some element of portfolio. It's just the difference of whether or not we're going to have some central group at the high school look through four year portfolios of student work attached to specific standards and then decide whether we're stamping the child is having
attained CD based on them. Sounds complicated. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Speaker 8: Oh yeah, I was gonna add to that, but if you wanna go first. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so the statewide cap for all portfolios is 1% of students across the state. So that was in per district. I have the same story for every school I've ever been a part of. Right now in 20, the latest data in 2022 to 23 is 1.2% all portfolios for English and language, English language arts and math and 1.1% in science. So there was an initiative a while ago to even reduce it,
I think when I was a, don't quote me on this, but it was like two to 3% back then and they've been reducing it. So yeah, it's a great question, but there's a lot of regs around it. Speaker 7: Yep. Speaker 9: Dr. Fon. So my first question, I'm trying to figure out how to articulate it. So there's two ways of interpreting the referendum. This is getting maybe more philosophical than we need to. Yeah. But one is, there's a problem with the MCAS. The MCAS is a tool, isn't is a problem, we need something else statewide. Another way of interpreting the result of referendum is we don't want the state telling local
control what to do. And it sounds like not only Natick but all of us, I mean all districts have basically decided, well, and maybe that is the question in the conversation with other superintendents or in the superintendent, the Tri-County superintendent meeting, was there a conversation about trying to create, not even state, but even a regional set of standards so that we can all, like the Tri-County can say, for example, we all agree 'cause I'm looking at, I mean the, our proposal is great. Yeah, I'm looking at all the other ones.
They're great too, but they're all different. And I'm thinking, you know, think about students moving from one district to another. Think, I mean there's all kinds of the idea that in, you know, here you graduate with a certain classes and you go to Wellesley across the border and there's a different, so I'm wondering, and I did see by the way, the only does the council, they have the written documents. There's also meetings. Apparently there's one in Taunton April type of thing. So this is gonna be a lot. So I'm wondering if that's what this Yeah, council's gonna do. But I'm wondering before we, the state figures out it. So I'm wondering if there's like a way to do this regionally
so that we don't have so many different varieties across districts even within our region. I see you have an answer. So I'm gonna pause and let you answer. Speaker 10: I unfortunately, I don't think that we do have an answer. It was quite interesting for us to sit in that room and listen to all of the superintendents and assistant superintendents talking about the next steps. I think because this came down in December and it was basically the state trying to decide how, how, how are we gonna move forward with this? Okay, we're gonna put it on the districts to try
to figure out and you need to have something in place for the graduating class of 2025 that we were all scrambling. And so when we came together and had the discussion, everyone was sort of scrambling to say, this is what we're gonna do for the current class. How many kids haven't met the CD requirement and how can we get those who haven't met it to graduate? And then we're going to sort of, I think the terminology that was used quite a bit was we're gonna punt it down the road because how much time and energy are you going
to put into creating something knowing that at that point that the state was creating this group that was going to come up with something else. Because if we put a lot of time and energy into creating something, knowing that the state was going to come up with something different, it's a lot of wasted time and energy when our focus needs to be on supporting the kids in front of us and making sure that they are meeting the standards as outlined in the 2023 MCAS. So I think that's been our focus right now of making sure
that those kids meet those standards that we all need to follow. And many of us are coming back to the same thing of the coursework passing that because that's standards aligned and that's where those kids need to be. And holding steady until we know what, what Governor Healy's working group is going to come up with. So Speaker 9: That's what I thought. So this is almost like a temporary, the next two, three years while someone else figures out a statewide solution. And then my other question is, and again this looks great, I have no issue with it.
I'm wondering if there was any analysis like, 'cause my understanding is that what you're trying to do is find coursework that test students the same way the MCA did. If we apply this to previous class and, and maybe there's not analysis we anyone should be doing, but I'm, I'll just ask a theoretically maybe, but like, I'm just curious, theoretically speaking, if we were to use the same standards for students in the past, was there ever a situation where students would fail any of these classes and yet pass the MCAS or vice versa where the courses were easier than the mca?
Yeah. I'm just wondering like is this gonna make it easier or harder? And I'm thinking especially about special ed students, like is this gonna be easier or harder for special ed students? Speaker 7: So that's a great question. So we looked at some of our courses for students who have significant disabilities and there were a number of kids who were not necessarily taking our sort of algebra one general education course and were taking sort of a heavily modified course who did pass MCAS ultimately after a lot of trial. And I think that some of the IEP team conversations
around which courses are most appropriate, are you going for a diploma? So the, the level of disability for the students we're talking about are, are students who would be doing what's called access points. We would be acknowledging in their IEP process that we know that they are accessing their curriculum at like a seventh grade level and that we're meeting them there and trying to move towards the ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th grade level. But there were a number of students who, even though that's where they were in terms of classwork, did well and passed eventually.
So what this may mean for a very, very small subset of kids is that we have those conversations in IEP team meetings or we create an assessment that is included in that or the equivalent or give them some additional coursework that maybe is ahead of where, where they're testing in coursework, but to show that they are hitting that or the equivalent place. But we definitely are committed to not having this be a bigger barrier for kids with IEPs. 'cause my sense is that a lot of the voters voted because they were thinking about students
with IEPs being denied diplomas and the like, awful irony would be if this made it harder. So we're very cognizant of that and working with our special ed department to make sure that doesn't happen. Speaker 10: I think. Great. Thank, just to add to that, one of the other things that Mrs. Blocker and her team have looked at very carefully is the discrepancy when kids get through into geometry and then head off to 11th grade geo algebra and they've lost some of their ninth grade algebra skills because they've had a full year
and algebra is tested on the MC at the end of 10th grade. And that's important that those kids retain those skills so that they're prepared when they get into 11th grade algebra if they are on that track of algebra, geometry, algebra. So the math department has done a lot of work of how can they incorporate those skills through geometry when they're taking it in 10th grade or even when they're taking it in ninth grade in preparation for algebra two and 10th grade. So they've done a lot of that work this year to make sure that they're keeping those skills fresh so
that kids are better prepared. And I think we're gonna see better outcomes for kids as they're going through those courses. So kudos to that math department and, and making that adjustment to their practice as well. Yeah, Speaker 7: That's awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Mr. Patel, Speaker 11: Are we not able to keep the MCM CAS as just one of the ways to achieve competency like forever, not just until 2024, and then add the courses as a alternative way of achieving the same thing? Speaker 7: Yeah, so that's a good question. So competency determination is a term in the law as the,
as department of Ed has it written. And it's sort of tied to a lot of the no child left behind federal mandates and also state mandates. And so they used to just say like, you know, passing MCAS or one of these ALT portfolio appeals or cohort appeals means you get this thing and they would send us spreadsheets. These are the kids on the YES list, these are the kids on the no list. Right? If we were to vote that part of our plan and Natick for determining competency determination was partially the MCAS was like an MAS plus, right?
Then I think that we would really wanna do some careful reflection there because the voters of Natick voted against that. And so in, in talking with what Dr. Fugman was saying in terms of thinking about whether the voters were saying we want a different measurement versus we want the districts to decide, it's hard to know which is which. I've also anecdotally talked to folks who thought that this ballot initiative meant that MCAS went away versus that they were still taking it, but it didn't connect to graduation. And so I think that there's just, there's a number
of complexities at play, but before we decide as a district that we're going to use it, I would, I would want to caution us on that one. Speaker 11: I I I meant more not MAS plus I meant MA or Speaker 7: Got it, got it. Speaker 11: Right. So if all the students that pass MCA, okay, they don't need to worry about whether or not they pass these, but tho those that don't can then worry about, okay, I need to pass the core classes to still meet that educational requirement. Yeah. And I think that would satisfy the voters who yeah, thought the MCAS was just two, like one rubric based
as opposed to having multiple ways to graduate. Speaker 7: So it's an interesting, it's an interesting question. I think that we sort of, we steered away from that largely because the Department of Ed was saying was really cautioning districts against using MCAS. There are a few districts that, that I think their districts voted against the ballot initiative that are voting to keep it, but it would put us really out of line with neighboring districts. So I I I'm trepidatious about it, about doing that.
Speaker 10: The other thing is that right now kids have had a lot of opportunities. So if they don't pass at 10th grade, there are multiple opportunities to retake it. Yep. And because it's no longer considered by DESI a graduation requirement for competency, they are decreasing the number of opportunities you have to retake it. So that would put kids at a great disadvantage if they don't pass it in 10th grade. Speaker 1: Ms. Brunell, Speaker 5: Would this change the way that students enroll in classes? For example, right now, often freshmen take physics.
Would this type of recommendation mean that somebody would come in and maybe not take physics because they don't, they have to get the science credits, but they don't have to take the MCAS for physics? Speaker 7: Right, right. So we, we are not, some districts do the biochem physics sequence, some do the physics first. Natick is in that second camp. We are not considering changing our trajectory. But what it may mean is that we have a little more flexibility with students who are moving into the district. If they, for example, did bio first, right?
Then we can already, we can say, okay, great, you've met your, your, we don't, we don't necessarily need to put you in ninth grade physics because that's the test that that's the course that most of the kids are taking the mc a and we can use your bio. So it might help us a little bit with some of the kids who would be taking something outta sequence Speaker 5: So they could take stay in their peer classes is what you're saying. Speaker 7: Yeah. It might help us a little bit there, but, Speaker 5: Okay. And then why is it that if for ELA, the recommendation is to go all the way to 12th grade whereas science and math stop earlier seemingly?
Speaker 7: Yeah. So we said one of the following with 10th, 11th, or 12th because figuring, however, oh, I see. All the kids have to pass and take and pass ninth, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade English locally anyway. So every kid is gonna have to pass those courses, all three of those courses no matter what. So that one is sort of like the most, in some ways doesn't matter as much, but we just, we felt like if you can show competency at higher grades, then you've clearly met the 10th grade. Okay. Speaker 5: So honestly I misread it. I thought it Speaker 7: Was all free.
Yeah, yeah. No worries. Thank Speaker 5: You. Speaker 12: Okay, Speaker 7: Ms. Collins. Speaker 12: Yeah, so remind me, Josepha, we normally do geometry in 10th grade. Speaker 7: It depends on whether or not the child took algebra one in middle school. So some of the students take pre-algebra in eighth grade and some take algebra. So if you took algebra one in eighth grade, you would take geometry in ninth and then algebra two in 10th, and then if you took pre-algebra and eighth you would take Algebra one and ninth and okay geometry and 10th. Yes.
Speaker 12: I, I realize that geometry is in the standards, but is there something that says you have to pass geometry. Speaker 7: Geometry. And Speaker 12: The reason I ask is this, if I do my upper level math, you know, I, I did enough algebra and I can do calculus or or statistics or whatever, but I just don't get the spatiality of geometry. Is there an alternative for this child? Speaker 7: It's a good question. I think that because geometry is such a core central part of what was tested in 2023, those particular standards,
I don't think there's a way to leave it out. However, kids who don't pass geometry historically have a really hard time doing other math courses afterwards. So we have not seen kids fail geometry and have a lot of success later. I think that what typically happens is that if you fail geometry, you do credit recovery for geometry and then that would count towards your CD requirement. And so if you had an F in geometry, but then on your transcript you did the credit recovery, it would say credit recovery geometry with credit transfer.
And then you would get the competency determination for it. And so we have not seen the sequence around the failing of geometry and I don't think there's a way to get around including that particular course. Speaker 12: Newton's doing it. Speaker 7: Newton's is super broad. Newton's is super broad and Speaker 12: I'm, I'm asking partly from, from my own familial experience. Yeah. I had a brother who could not pass geometry for the life of could shoot pool like nobody's business didn't understand that banking off the, the side was the same as reflecting over a line.
Yeah. Couldn't pass the geometry course. But he could do statistics and odds and, and all sorts of other things that weren't as spatially involved. And I just, I just wanna make sure that whatever we set up and, and I'm less beholden to what happened in the past, that I am about making sense going forward. So if you're telling me that the other classes are not set up to be, you're not set up to be successful until us and until you pass geometry, that
to me is a more persuasive argument than, well because it was in the MA in 2023, quite honestly, I don't give a darn on on the geometry in 2023 and the MCA part. Yeah, Speaker 7: I only mention that part because that's what's in the law that we're, that the law tasks us to do. But yes, I mean that is the whole, that is part of the whole reason why we have that school improvement goal around the algebra and the geometry courses is because what we were seeing is that, you know, the number of failures in algebra one plus the number of failures in in geometry equaled the
failures in algebra two. And that you really had to pass both those courses in earnest to do okay in algebra two and beyond. And so we have not seen a tremendous number of students not pass geometry and then do okay later in math. Speaker 12: Okay. Let me add on to Ms. Pernell's question about sequencing. Yeah. If algebra one and geometry, if I take Algebra one in ninth grade instead of an eighth grade Yes. Or I have to pass algebra two, if I took algebra one in eighth grade, does that going
to dissuade kids from taking algebra one in eighth grade because now they have to pass algebra two? Speaker 7: I think that in high school the vast, vast majority of the kids who are taking Algebra one and middle school are kids who are math science kids. They are, they have no idea about MCAS or competency determination. They're really thinking about STEM careers and wanting to get to calculus and that's their motivation, right? 'cause you need to start that algebra one in eighth grade to get to calculus. So if you are starting algebra one in ninth grade,
you're gonna get to pre-calculus. And so I think that for the students who are taking Algebra one early, they will, there will, there will still be no disincentive to do it because it's part of a different goal. Speaker 12: Good. That's what I was hoping you would say. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. I'm all set. Speaker 7: Okay. Okay. Alright, we ready to continue with the presentation? Okay, awesome. All right, so credits. So my understanding is that Natick at one point had, so we've got those distributions and then we've got the overall credits to graduate.
So my understanding is that a little ways back, Natick was at one 10 for total credits and then we went up to one 30 fairly quickly. Our, we have done some analysis of our DART districts and neighboring districts and one 30 is higher than all of them. The reason this came up and sort of aside from our data team and guidance team bringing it to me was that we had a child this year who is a Boston resident who if we told him to go to Boston for his senior year would get a diploma and if he stayed with us he wouldn't. And that just felt really awful and wrong.
And we've worked a plan out since with this student that's included a lot of different creative thinking and I am really hoping that we're getting a diploma in June. But it made me go and dig a lot of different districts to see what do other districts have for that magic number at the end. And really, if you're gonna do the schedules of the vast majority of kids, they again, just like with the algebra one, the vast majority of our kids aren't counting to one 30. They're taking classes they want to take to fill up their schedule to apply to college, to meet goals
for post-secondary life. They aren't thinking about one 30. It's the few that have had a bump in the road where that number makes a huge difference between diploma and no diploma. And so as we know that this is not a change that's going to impact many kids, but for the ones that it impacts, it's gonna make a big difference. And so that's why we're proposing this change. So these are the ones that have stars or dart districts. The other ones are neighboring districts. You'll see that if you go into programs of studies across the state, every, we have five credits for a full year class that meets in our regular cycle.
Districts have all kinds of things as their sort of like full year English course standard. But we took those numbers and put them into Natick language. So if they had four for an English class that was full year, we turned it into five for the equivalent. And so in Natick equivalents, this is what all of our neighboring districts and darts have. So we looked at the data team, we talked to school council, my round table again guidance department and our leadership team. And the main question I had for the kids involved was, would this change what you take? And they were like, no,
we didn't even know it was one 30 if you asked us. The only kids who really know it's one 30 are the ones who are far behind it. So we are hoping to, we're looking to make this change for the class of 2026 and on because we think it brings us more in line with the districts around us. It continues to maintain a really rigorous curriculum. It continues to put us in a space where we are achieving very close to mass core standards, which is the standard that kids need to get into mass state schools as our grad requirements. And it just means that a kid who has a bump in the road
can potentially graduate in four years as opposed to five. And so that is our proposal for that. Speaker 9: I feel like I should know this, but can you just explain the credit system in general? So what is Yeah, absolutely. So you say students get five credits per, for most classes they get five credits. Speaker 7: So for like for your English class or your bio class, you would get five credits for that course for the year. We award credit midyear, it's a little different than most districts. So kids actually get 2.5 and 2.5. But most students take seven. Actually all students take seven courses out
of the eight blocks with one study hall in ninth grade. So seven times five is 35. Right. And then once they do that in 10th and 11th and then in 12th they're allowed to take only six blocks if they choose. So that might be the 30 instead of the 35. So the vast majority of our kids are gonna hit that one 30 and go over it and be just fine. The kids who fail a class, typically when you're a kid who has a mental health crisis, you're not gonna fail one, you're gonna fail all of them potentially. Or if your family has a really bad hard time
for a little bit, you're gonna tank for a period and everything for a while and then come back up for air. And what we're trying to do is find a way for those kids who maybe couldn't make up every single elective, but who do their distributions and who do a suitable number of electives and who we know meet this competency determination to get a diploma at the one 20. And so like when I, I went back and looked at kids who had not graduated over the last like three years potentially for credits. And there were a bunch, not a bunch 'cause we don't have very many that don't graduate.
But the ones, a lot of the ones that were there were like one 15. And I know a one 15 is a kid with a push who becomes a one 20. But a one 15 needs a really big push to become a one 30. And so if we can, if we lower it down to one 20, I think it's gonna help that small number of kids that are just so close. So Speaker 1: I, I have a question. Yeah. So I mean it's, it's surprising to me that there's such a difference between different districts and number of credits. Yeah. Is that also equating to like number of courses taken?
Like is somebody, I mean a district that does a hundred, are they actually taking fewer courses Speaker 7: Than students here? There's a ton of differences in schedules and rotations. In what kinds of courses? Get one kinds of credits. Like for example, in some districts your science class meets like 1.25 of a cycle. So you get seven credits instead of five, but they've got some eight day rotation, so they slot it in one more time. Right. For some districts they don't require world language for some dis and you'd be surprised which ones those are.
But if you click on that little thing that says the data, you can look at all the specifics. Some districts only require two or three years of math. Some districts only re So there's a wide variety. I think most districts require four years of English. 'cause it's required. You'll see virtually all districts require US history, right? They all require some amount of lab science, but after that it gets real wonky real fast. So a lot of districts do only have the seven slots, but in those districts, many times they don't require the study hall. So in some ways what we have is seven slots
with a required study period. They have seven slots, right? Some districts have eight slots, some have nine, but it's on a seven day rotation. So it's, Yeah. Speaker 1: So then I guess that's, so that's really, that's really interesting. It's been a clearly a long time since I've been in high school. But Is there, is there a value then to looking at like courses taken rather than credits earned? If people are, if like districts are calculated that way, is it, and this is really a question, like a wonder.
Yeah. You know, rather than saying you need to or this many credits, but like three quarters, like a third of them could be in art classes, which is a perfectly valid way of doing things, right? But rather saying that these are actually, there are more core courses that you actually do need to pass. I know there are core courses you have to take. So I guess I'm wondering that like, you know, is there, is there an essential set of core courses that our students should be taking and that all these other districts students are taking, even if they have different numbers of credits? Speaker 7: So one of the things that we did look at was that question. So if you click on the actual data sheet, you'll see
that we did some comparisons with where we were relative to these other districts around their world language and their math and their arts and electives. Because those tend to be the things that are variable. We are on or above pretty much everywhere, with the exception of, I think one thing where there was like one district that might have been ahead of us and one thing, but our, our distribution requirements, like you're saying the specific courses kids have to take make up 90, I think 97 of the 130. So a lot of them are like lockdown required subjects.
The variability is just in the other things that they would be taking. So Speaker 1: Thank you. No, that, that's really helpful. That's really helpful. I'm Speaker 7: Just looking here at my cheat sheet. Speaker 1: Other questions? Oh yes Nathan. Speaker 13: I would, I would just say from a student perspective, like what principal blocker, principal blocker was saying about how kids aren't worried about credits, our guidance counselors are always checking up on us. They're always saying, that's not your issue, that's ours. We have guidance seminar. I start mine tomorrow once every quarter per year where we're all, they're always telling us requirements, stuff like that. Just thought about courses and credits.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you. That's good to know. Thank you. Yeah. Ms. Brunell, Speaker 5: Did you think about bringing it down to one 15 instead of one 20? Speaker 7: I mean, we didn't, we looked at, we didn't want to take like too big of a leap because what I understood happened at one 10, which is why they upped it, was that they were getting more kids wanting to graduate early, like a semester early because they could get one 15 by the end of, and because we give credit midyear because of our semester I system, we were getting, they were getting those requests.
So we wanted to see what one 20 looked like because we didn't wanna create this secondary unintended consequence. But I think one 15 like is possibly like more parallel to some of the other numbers you saw. We were just being cautious about how far we jumped, how fast Speaker 5: And is that more from like a parent standpoint? Like, wait, timeout, I thought my kid had another six months in school. Speaker 7: It's for a lot of reasons. Like when, when I have had kids who come to me and say, I want to graduate early, my question to them is always, are you running to something or from something, if you're running
to something like I'm going into the military and my recruiter will meet with me tomorrow if I'm graduate, awesome, let's do it. My college says I can start now. Great, let's do it. I just don't feel like being here for the next six months and you can gimme a diploma now. Mm. Not so much. Right? Because then you, you become a nerd and then it's hard to get back on the horse six months later. And so we don't want them to, to have that inertia period. If they're running to something and they've achieved it, I'm totally open to that. I just don't wanna create this sort of gulf of
messiness kind of time for kids. So, Speaker 1: And then just a follow up. I see Ms. Collins hand, Speaker 12: Thank you. So I know you, you sort of said it, but I'm wondering if you can do like the elevator pitch for the response when I am in the supermarket and people say, I just gave you a lot more money. Why are you lowering the requirements? Speaker 7: Sure. So the kids are not gonna be in class any less. They are still gonna be taking a full schedule all the time. We will still be using every seat in every classroom all the time. The question is, if some of those children in some
of those seats don't pass those classes, at the end of the day, will we be able to give them a diploma in four years versus five? And so, and will we catch the kids who maybe don't wanna come back in year five or will they just go off in the world without a diploma and it's not very many kids and the vast majority of kids, this won't, this won't even resonate for, I'm talking about a really, really small number of kids for whom this makes a difference. Speaker 12: Thank you. I I kind of knew where I was going with the answer, but I just wanted
You did it very nicely, so thank you. You're Speaker 7: Welcome Ms. Brunell. Speaker 5: So just one more question. Yeah. About the one 15, the difference between one 15 and one 20, would that provide students more opportunities to take an elective? Speaker 7: Yeah, so those, that one 15 to one 20 is one more elective. If they are at Natick High School and they have passed everything, they don't get to then take five classes or four classes as seniors. They still have to have six blocks filled. So, you know, a student who walks into senior year
with 110 credits will still take six courses and they will, besides English and gym, potentially all be electives including math. But that doesn't mean that the electives won't be AP physics or AP Human Geography or one of our, you know, forensic science or some of those other classes that kids take as seniors. It just means that it's not a distribution and that, so that's what I mean by saying like, this won't resonate for most of them. Speaker 5: Yeah. I, I guess what I'm trying to, I don't,
I don't know if this is the difference between one 15 and one 20, but I have had parents come to me about the rigidity of our high school schedule and students don't have the flexibility to take the courses they actually wanna take, especially if they are taking certain aps because they feel like they have to take those aps. So I would, if, if either one of those plans would give some students a little bit more flexibility to take some more classes that they're actually interested in, I think that that's Yeah. Would be beneficial to everyone. Speaker 7: So this is not the vehicle to do that. Okay.
I think that the, I think some of what you may be getting at is the music versus that other AP class that some kids get into. Right. And you know, that's when I have kids who are in 11th and 12th grade who've shown that they handle like a very high workload already and have time. I do allow a very small number of them to go into a seven and a half block schedule where one of them is music, but only in the case where one of them is music or art. I don't let kids take seven majors because that's, that's the overload. But that's that sort of like, like race that's happening
with the kids where they have the perception if my friend is taking, you know, six majors, I have to take six majors and I can't take my music then to in my gym. Right? But that's not a requirement we're putting on them. That's an external requirement that they're feeling or it's coming from somewhere else. So you'll see in a minute when I do distributions what our actual distributions are. And so guidance spends a lot of time with kids talking about who they are, what their interests are, they might be different than their friend. They don't have to sort of make a choice based on what a friend does.
They should choose what aligns with their goals and interests. And I think there's still sort of, you know, a perception about what one has to do versus not Mr. Brand. Speaker 4: So I, what I like about the lower number is that it, everything you said, it creates this bridge for the, for the kids who might be on the margins. Yeah. Can you, as, as a parent who is going through the college process right now, can you, and this might be a little outta scope, but I maybe it's relevant, I think it might be,
can you speak to your sense of the typical high school student who is planning to attend college and their interest in building a rigorous schedule? I keep hearing about it about how colleges want to see the rigor in their schedule. And so I, I wonder for most students who are going down that path, if that is a motivation, like nothing will change for them because it's important for them to always be, to show a, a, a rigorous like transcript at the end of the day. Yep. Is that, yeah,
Speaker 7: I mean that is, that is the $64,000 question, right? That, you know, I think we encourage kids to take a course load that gives them an appropriate challenge, right? To think about what they can handle when they are pushing themselves to learn without going over the edge. Right? And so it's a different bar for every kid. Colleges say, we want you to take the most rigorous course loads you can and do the best you can in it, right? They're, they're of course going to say that and every college is different
and we can't promise, like if you take X, Y, or Z and get x, Y or Z grade, you will go to X college. So it's a really, really hard question to answer. That process has become more complex with every year I'm in education and it's harder and harder to predict. And I think that our kids get into great colleges and go off and become great citizens. And I think that when I'm talking to them, I try to focus on that and become great citizens part because that's what's at the end of that four year process. Right? And so trying to get kids to really think about,
and the colleges have also borne this out, that if you go into college and the application process with a clear sense of purpose for who you are and what you wanna do and your coursework and your extracurriculars and what you do reflects that as opposed to something more generic that people have done to copy one another, those are the kids that get in because the colleges can see who they are. And it feels real, having that sort of sense of self come through and the application is what people tell us afterwards has
resonated with admissions. So. Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah. Speaker 7: All right. So this one's the easiest one by far. These are our distribution requirements. And so this is what we're gonna propose as a small edit. And if we go to the next slide, we'll see the edits. So there is a set of courses called Mass Corps. And Mass Corps is what Massachusetts colleges sort of say is the core academic load that they would like to see all students entering have taken. And one of them is that those science credits are in a lab science. All of our science credits are in a lab science, but
because our grad requirements don't say it, the colleges always ask us if they're lab sciences, so we're just gonna put it in there, make it easy. Ours also said foreign language and I haven't seen anything referred to as foreign language in a really long time. So I wanna update it to world language 'cause there's nothing foreign about them. They're pretty typical languages that people speak. So those are the two things we're gonna update in our distribution requirements. And these are basically as a summary, the the changes we're looking to make. Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah. Speaker 7: Thank you. Speaker 1: Any last questions? Okay, great. No, thank you.
Really appreciate this. Yeah, really I learned a lot. Good. I'm glad. Speaker 8: Thank you as always for really helping kind of tether this to the ground and thank you. Yeah, it, it was very helpful. Good robust conversation to kind of situate this, we're framing it as a proposal as many of you likely know, PO school policy IKF literally reads graduation requirements. In order to obtain a Natick high school diploma, all students need to meet the minimum requirements published in the Natick High School handbook. So while we're framing these as proposals and eager for feedback
and discussion, this would be something that would show up in the handbook, which when we present to you, we usually ask is there anything that kind of would go counter to policy? So it's imp, we brought it here because it's in the wake of the vote, the ballot vote, which also the state of Massachusetts isn't requiring a school committee vote on it. However, it's incredible, incredibly important to us that we're in sync with our committee. And so we're bringing it to you for kind of thoughtful conversation, which I think happened. But we would invite anyone who, who doesn't see eye to eye with our proposals to let us know. Speaker 1: So just one last question.
So this is likely to be published in the next school year handbook? Speaker 8: Yeah, we'll draft it in handbook language now that we've had this conversation here and you'll see it in the handbook. And we will have to draft a communication policy as well to make sure people understand whether there's, I'm assuming there could even be people who want some focus groups or a little bit more. So we're gonna make sure we do the customer service that really explains the why, which I think principal blocker did incredibly well today. And that's what's important. People can digest and accept new procedure, you know, handbook policy
once they understand the whys behind it. Speaker 7: Can I add one other quick thing to that? Yeah. The competency determination piece, we're gonna have to publish in some form to make sure it's either on our school website or that we send it out to families ahead of the class of 2025. 'cause there was that one child that I mentioned who came into us with a wealth of, of knowledge. She was well on her way to getting a diploma. She had already taken the AP version of one of the courses but had not had the opportunity to take an MCAS yet in that subject before the law changed. So we are going to apply that policy to allow, or that proposal to allow her to get a diploma.
And so we will have to share that with the community that that is our current way of thinking about competency. The other piece around credits and distribution changes would be highlighted in the next handbook. Speaker 8: I mean I see us summarizing these changes as recommendation in a memo that we'll send to you to like lock it in and then alongside the plan for kind of timing of communication. Speaker 1: Great, thank you. Speaker 6: Okay. Speaker 14: Do you want me to keep going with our piece or do you want me, do you wanna jump to to one Speaker 8: Thing else in the agenda? Speaker 1: I think I'll do public speak just because we missed it.
Just, just my fault. So public speak is scheduled for a period of 15 minutes. Each speaker will be permitted a maximum of three minutes during which time they can speak about topics within the scope of responsibility of the school committee. All remarks will be addressed through the school committee chair. Public speed is not a time for debate or response to comments by the school committee. Do we have anyone present for public speak? I see no one in the room. Nobody online. Okay. We'll close public speak and return to the superintendent's report. Speaker 8: Okay. The other item I have on my report
is really two pieces. I think we mentioned at our last meeting that we have two forms due to the MSBA on the memorial eligibility phase on May 5th. So today we're going to present the draft of those for discussion and then bring 'em forward to you again to lock them in and finalize on the next meeting on April 28th. So we'll start with the first submission, which is called the EPQ Education Profile questionnaire And assistant superintendent Bel will bring us through that. Speaker 2: There. It's, yeah, if you
Speaker 15: Just wanna pull up this one here. Yep. Okay. Speaker 2: Super. Speaker 15: Thank Speaker 10: You. So this is a questionnaire that's required as part of the process and just scrolling through the first part. Do you Speaker 15: Want to Yeah. Okay. Speaker 10: The first part is specifically asking information about all of the schools in the district. So asking what the building was originally intended to serve in terms of grades, what grades it currently serves, what year it was founded,
any renovations or adjustments to the building or rebuilds. And then the total square footage and then It then asks what the trajectory is for all of our students. So you know, if they attend lilja, where do they go after that, obviously Wilson and then to the high school. So we did that for all four of our elementary schools. I did not put in an any information about the pre-K because students could attend Natick preschool and then they could be there for three years
and then move to any of the four elementary schools. So it didn't make sense to include that information there. The next part is to speak specifically to Memorial and how many classrooms for each grade are used there. So you'll see that there's four grades, four classrooms for kindergarten, first and second. We currently are using five classrooms at third and fourth. Obviously none for five through eight and then for high school. And then we indicated any other spaces that we're using. So we have a literacy and math center that shared three learning centers,
a psychologist office, a speech and language office. We have one art room, one music room, one gymnasium, the library or media center, one dining hall, one nurse's office. And then we have four administration and guidance offices. We then have the auditorium, which is actually will indicate lower, more information about that, that it's actually shared with the cafeteria. They also ask if any of our spaces are used for public works
or chapter 74 spaces or non chapter 74 spaces. So chapter 74 is like a technical school type space. So then underneath we talk about how those spaces are used. So currently our assistant principal space and our special education coordinator space, both of those are used as conference rooms as well. So we need to indicate that those spaces are used for multiple purposes.
We also indicate that our music room is also used for faculty, faculty meetings and curriculum meetings. So library is also used for the afterschool program and professional development. We also indicate that our cafeteria doubles as the auditorium and is also used for the ASAP program. We also, they want us to speak to how classes are structured. So all of our classes there are self-contained at fourth grade they do switch for science and social studies, which we indicated there.
They wanna know if there's clusters. We don't have any cluster teaching. So most of our classrooms tend to be housed near each other for grades. But it's not consistent just because of the way the building is laid out. We don't necessarily have for third and fourth grade five classrooms that are close together. So we can't do it that way. We talk about the technology, so there isn't a separate lab, but we have devices in every classroom. The next moving down, the next orange graph talks about what we are looking for in a new build.
And this is consistent with what was written into the SOI. So we took that information and Mr. Gillis and I filled this in. So looking to add five classrooms for pre-K, thinking about the other buildings that we're using right now for pre-K and wanting to move some of those spaces into Memorial out of the other spaces that we have ideally to put six classrooms for each of the grades that we have there. And then right now we're really sharing a lot
of spaces and we're doing a lot of our intervention and small group work in the hallways. And we wanna make sure that we have spaces for that work to happen where there would be fewer distractions for kids. So that learning can really happen. So literacy small groups and math, small groups. We've also talked a lot about Memorial not having any of our self-contained access programs and they also don't have any EL services. So we wanna make sure that students who need those services can attend their
neighborhood schools. So we put that that in there as well. And if we have more classrooms, it would also mean that we would need more space for art and music because we can't meet for every student to be able to have art and music. Just having one of those rooms in the building. So adding that. And then right now students take, at fourth grade they take instrument lessons. Those instrument lessons are happening in hallways
or in empty classrooms during lunch. That's not really conducive or practical. So adding some practice rooms for that. Matt added some additional pieces in terms of, you know, we do have a full service kitchen and making sure that we maintain that we need a walk-in cooler walk-in freezer and dry storage. So all of those pieces, we do have a staff lunchroom currently it's very small so we would need to make sure that we have a space that's large enough for all of our staff to be able to have lunch. And then making sure that we have conference rooms that
are not shared spaces so that if our assistant principal or if our special ed administrator are having meetings in their office, that there's still a conference room available for meetings to happen outside of that. And that our ot, PT and related service providers also have space to provide their services. Then down below we talk about how we want those spaces to be used. So again, we talked about still maintaining the self-contained classrooms, but also having those access rooms and EL services.
But also to be able to have places where classrooms, multiple classrooms can come together and do some project based learning and some team building activities. Memorial used to have open spaces for that and they've all been closed in to turn into classrooms. So to be able to bring that opportunity back for kids is something that's important. And then we needed to talk about community engagement. So how have we communicated with our, the town? And so, you know, we talked about how we've brought it to the school committee meeting.
You've been a great partner in this work and we've shared that with our community and with the school building committee and their presentations here and the opportunity for community members to participate in that work. And then they're asking for some reports to be attached, which Mr. Gills will attach to this report as well when we're ready to submit it. So pretty straightforward and directly related to the SOI that was submitted. Speaker 9: Okay. Mr. Brand, Speaker 4: I'm curious, did, I don't see anything in here about like outdoor spaces.
So like a playground, is that part of a different, a different stage of the process or fields or like how does that work? They're Speaker 10: Specifically asking for learning spaces. So one thing they asked for was if we have any outdoor learning spaces, which we do not, but they're not asking for field space at this time. Speaker 4: So this is just specifically about places to learn. Correct. That may be outside the building but it had nothing to do with Speaker 10: Correct. Speaker 4: Okay, great. Speaker 9: Okay, Dr. Fuchs then my question might be answered
with the same answer as his, but it is a different question. I do see that in some cases in the proposed areas, we're talking about square feet of certain rooms. I'm curious, did do we have a sense of the general square footage of the building? 'cause I'm looking at the very top where we have all of our buildings square feet. I'm just curious if we have a sense of how big the school will be, but maybe we don't have playgrounds yet, so maybe that's part of the, Speaker 16: So haven't done the math for that. But the, and that'll depend on the enrollment. The enrollment sort of drives the square footage.
MSBA will fund and the square footage then drives a number of classrooms. But they have standards for just about every space that we've listed. So when we kind of know the standard just dropped in the square footage so people would have an idea like what are the small classrooms, small group spaces, what's a typical classroom space? We didn't write it in, but the typical kindergarten classroom or pre-K rooms, 1200 square feet instead of 900 for your typical classroom. So, so we put that in. It's kind of just habit for me from doing
so many other projects and the, the site is something MSBA doesn't reimburse. So 'cause they have no control over, you know, whether there's ledge or how big or how small a space is. So they just factor that out of their equation. If it's under the roof or maybe an outside learning space, they'll include that. But if you want to have six ball fields and four playgrounds or you only have space for one playground and no ball fields, like that's a local decision as far as they're typically concerned. Right. Think of an urban school in Boston versus you know,
more suburban places. So yeah. Speaker 5: Thank you Ms. Brunell. Thank you. The room type and the number of rooms that would roughly work out to over 600 kids. If there's six, I'm thinking 20 kids in a classroom. Six grades per class. Speaker 16: Yep. Speaker 5: So we're looking at a 600 kid elementary school without preschool. Speaker 16: That's without the preschool. And then the preschools, you know, kind of caps at about 15 per classroom. I mean that's kind of a big preschool.
We usually start around 10 11 and by the time the year ends we've got 14 or 15. 'cause they can come in as the year goes on at the pre-K level. Speaker 5: So close to 700 kids in the school Speaker 16: Could, could be. Yeah. So I think, you know, I think some people might be asking why six sections? Well if we've got five sections now in some grades or in many grades and we open a new building, right, we could very easily open and then be over full from the very beginning.
It'd be at least more ideal 'cause we submitted for existing overcrowding to open a section larger than where we're at in memorial today. Or even some of the other schools where we have spaces filled with students that those spaces weren't necessarily designed for the intent that we're using them. And the five pre-K classrooms in the east school is that Oak Street? What street is that on? 90 Oak? 90 Oak. You know, they should ideally be in our elementary schools.
So we can't sort of fit them all in all ne necessarily into all of our buildings all at once when we're already full with other spaces. But this is kind of how we, we get the most bang for the, the buck with MSBA reimbursing it. If they say yes, it kind of leads into the en enrollment part of it where the, the projection kind of drives what, what they'll fund and they have their way of doing it. And then we have ours and we, we try to try to reconcile to get the best school
for both of us for the next 50 years, which is kind of their standard for how long they expect a new building to last. Speaker 17: Okay. Ms. Lathers, Speaker 18: So I'm looking, I'm just looking at get a moment record, Speaker 17: Sorry. We have basically the same number of kids in Benham and Brown and one is 80,000 square feet and one's 55,000 square feet. And when I look at this, this looks to be another, let's say we're holding steady at enrollment.
I mean I don't, I depending, some people say we're enrollment's crashing and other say it's growing. I think we're doing a lot of development natick. I think it's in some ways too soon to tell how post covid patterns of return to work and everything else that's happening will really impact enrollment. But this does a couple things. I mean, it says to me that if, if I look at this and say we're building a school for 600 elementary, we're also building a school that is going to be much larger, I guess I just,
I keep still getting hung up on what is our plan for equity with the two schools that are already sig really overcrowded is the plan that we would then again have redistricting such that we have two large elementary schools and two smaller elementary schools. Because that was one of the justifications for closing Johnson, is that the, it's more equitable if all of the schools are similarly sized. And I don't know how that or that has shifted, but that was one of the things that I heard a lot is equity and to be able to have similar programming is if all
of the schools are similarly sized. And I don't know how that would be achieved even in the next decade. Yeah, Speaker 16: Well when you have four elementary schools or five or six, however many you have right. At any given time, they weren't all built at the same time. So it's really difficult to have them all be exactly equitable. But you try to get the program to be equitable inside the walls of each of the schools. So class sizes are similar and hopefully the learning spaces are as similar as practical. So you, the first thing we would want to do, and this is just my analysis, is we would want to take,
take a new construction and take the, the, the services that we're providing in, in schools that are, I'm gonna say in hallways or in closets and, and be able to fit them into a place, you know, where the, the building isn't an impediment to delivering the curriculum. So there would probably be some discussion about, you know, buffer zones or redistricting at some point if, if the state is willing and, and if the town wants to have sort of a, a, a bigger elementary school and yes, maybe we do get to the point where we're sort
of two bigger elementary schools and two smaller ones. I'm not sure they'd ever be entirely completely equitable because of, usually there's about a 10 year span between when, when a building gets built in in most communities, like they have a project then, you know, it might be time for another one, but it always takes time to, to get a vote passed to get an application approved by the state and all, all those things. So it, it is, it's not just a memorial discussion, it is kind
of looking at it wide. So it, this also sort of leads into the, the memo I shared. I'm not sure if we want to get into it or, or not. Speaker 8: I think if there aren't further questions we could, we Oh, there, yeah Speaker 17: And I just also, I, I just wanna be careful with, I mean there's a lot of extra spaces and just being sensitive to, you know, where we've been with overrides. You know, I don't, my kids all play instruments. You play instruments through high school. Like did they need dedicated practice rooms in fourth grade where I, you know, like I think we need to be really judicious about some of those, like making sure there are some extra spaces
but they can be multipurposed for across some of these needs. And I just, I mean to get through this and what our needs are makes sense and if that says, okay these are needs we have that need to have spaces, but I really wanna encourage the, you know, the building committees we look at to have spaces that are multipurpose so that we're not in even future heating and spaces that are only, that are underutilized. Speaker 8: I appreciate that. I think the way I'm thinking about the CPQ is it's very aligned to the original SOI right, that went through a year ago. And that as we go through time, we're gonna kind
of get more clarity around what will be funded, what will be needed. I think you, you're right to bring up the, the more recent override and being really careful with the funding and what we built. So I do think when we look at the enrollment report, we see a lot of our elementary schools, especially up in the fourth grade pushing up towards that 25 limit in the CBA in the bargaining agreement. Our class sizes can't go over 25. And it's been difficult honestly we're some, we have had some kids where we've had to put in other schools because the, the class sizes were too big.
So redistricting is, to me a very meta word. It's sort of like the whole district. There might be some tweaks we need to do in order to move some over and into that school that might just be needed. So we're, that's down the road. I think it'd be really premature to, to even have conjecture around that right now. But at least right now our fourth grades are really big and seem to be continually pretty big. So I think we have another at bat at what the ultimate educational program and building look like when we get
in that feasibility study. That's where this tighter kind of shaping of it will happen and we'll probably have more clarity around the enrollment that gets sort of accepted as the baseline for MSBA. Like that is the thing that gets decided that then shapes the funding and that whole proposal and feasibility. Speaker 1: Ms. Brunell Speaker 5: Just on that, so this document comes back to us, we'll have this again another meeting. Speaker 8: Yeah, it'll come back on the 28th. I don't think this actually requires a vote from the school committee. I think it's more like wanting to make sure we're tailoring and we're bringing in your feedback to this one.
Okay. But we'll bring it back on May on April 28th and we have to submit it on or before the 5th of May. Okay. Speaker 5: Thank you. Speaker 1: And Mr. Patel, Speaker 11: With regards to the pre-K, it says five rooms. Are we trying to move the pre-K kids from Oak Street to this? Or is it to expand capacity? Speaker 10: It's not to expand capacity, but it is to shift where those kids are attending. E-school isn't the most ideal location for multiple reasons.
From playground space to traffic to the location itself being right on the corner of Route nine. But also having preschoolers in elementary schools is a great structure and system that we find beneficial for those kids. So that's one of one of the reasons we've shifted preschool classrooms around the district multiple times and to be able to have a place where they can be, would be really beneficial. Speaker 6: Okay. Speaker 8: Okay. So Mr. Gillis will proceed with the second report, which is called MSBA enrollment methodology.
And it's, I think I explained last time, it's very much built on spreadsheets and an algorithm that's an online submission that we've kind of printed screens from, I believe. And then Mr. Gillis has some counterweight argument to that algorithm. Speaker 16: So thank you. I mean there's an overview in the top of the memo, but you know, the goal is again really to get the right size new memorial for the next 50 years. And so MSBA first thing they do is look at our enrollment history and that's taken right from our October one reports to the state. So that's copied and put there for you. And then they do a comparison summary
and I highlighted the text blue that's really critical from their document. It says this is only intended to indicate general trends in district enrollment and is not intended on its own to establish enrollment for a proposed school project because they haven't taken into account at this point yet. New growth and development. It's really just been a cohort survival method right off to the right there you can see the Natick K to 12 three year average from my projection and the difference. And I used the three year projection same as last year because of the anomaly of COVID
and the shutdown where it really sort of, a lot of people pulled their kids out of the public school system and homeschooled them or sent them to, to private schools that were open. And then many of them found their way, most of them found their way back, not just in in Natick but in in large parts of the state as well. So there's some notes there. Their tool is looking at enrollment K 12, we look at it pre-K 12, you might have heard me say it before, I live in the town of Dedham. They had a a pre-K K project that was funded by MSBA
because that's the way Dedham breaks out their schools. They got a pre-K k early education and then their one through five and then six through eight and then nine through 12. Lots of people do it differently. But so MSBA does fund pre-K classrooms. They funded some of the classrooms, the pre-K classrooms in Brookline when we, when we did some projects with them there as well. The SOI requested five pre-K rooms. Projection is likely to be reconciled. The K enrollment updates will impact this projection. I'm gonna get into that in in greater detail with in a couple of minutes. And MSBA makes the rules for the process.
As I say, they hold the goal, they make the rules, we do what we can to, to work with them because by and large they're good partners and, and they alleviate a lot of the, the cost or a significant amount of the cost for the, for the taxpayers in town. So they, they tend to use a 10 year history. I didn't like proof their, they're projections, but they, they show you right up front, they're, they're looking back 10 and they're looking forward 10 and their, their numbers were quite, quite different than than ours. And you know, what happened 10 years ago just seems like
so long ago, the world just spins differently and people make decisions for different reasons than they did 10 years ago. So I'm just not so sure it's as relevant. I I I get, I get why they want to have a a long trend, but again, they're, they're leaving out and they recognize it. They're leaving out information for more recent, so new growth and development, new building permits, number of bedrooms, those things matter and we'll probably have some discussions about that. So next we get into like kind of the cohort survival method and they'll mostly be looking at K four, right?
Or pre-K four. And for 25, 26, my first projection I came with three years, came up with 3 44 and you, you see that's less than the other years. And that's largely because we take the, the multiplier and we take that off of live births and then we come up, come up with a historic number average and then we start from there and then we migrate through. And actually that's something I wanna show you and keep in mind that I'm,
that I probably will share with, with the state, right? Not, not to, not to put this too early, but we're, we were at 330 kids on March 26th that had already enrolled from kindergarten. And we're gonna get more kids that that will enroll between how and the first day of school. So we could be right around the, the 360 mark where we've been the last few years. So, you know, MSBA had us at 3 29 with their straight linear 10 year projection. So I'm gonna already say, well initially it's, it's low
'cause we've got more enrolled as of today and we still got, we'll still have a ways to go, you know, but the high school was designed for about 1350, 1400 students and we've been carrying 1600 for quite a while. Like they were open to full to begin with. Kennedy, we didn't fill right away, but now it's full. Right? And maybe Wilson was, was a little cramped and, and now it's not. But I, it is just something to keep in mind as we get into the feasibility study phase. You know, do you really wanna spend the money open the
school and have it be full or over full the day, the day you open the doors, right? It's just something to keep, keep in the back of your head. And then here, for some reason it didn't, it captured everything except for the grades. So Linda, can you do me a favor? Yep. And check, check the printer because the, the thing that's missing, if you look at the five year multiplier, when you, if you're looking at, at the agenda, it cut off the grade. So when you see we've got live births in the column
that starts with 20 19 3 97 school year 2 24, 2 25, you multiply 3 97 times 31.47% and that gives us the projection there at 115 kids, right? And then 92% for 336 kids and so on. So the, the printout somehow cut off the grades. So if, if, if you can grab, grab it off the printer, I printed it while we were in here. Yeah, yeah. Right. And then if you go to the next, the next one
that's a five year average. That's kind of industry standard. But the three year average and I carried things out in the, in the blue, the blue boxes, there's nothing in there. My computer keeps bumping me off the network for the last two days and I have it and has not figured out why. But on, on the one with the yellow three year multiplier, if you look at next year for 25, 26, that's where we get the 3 44. And you can follow across the, the blue, the, the,
the blue shaded cells and you can see the multiplier. So going from K to one, the 344 kids, we get 3 48. And we got there by multiplying that by 1.126% in all, all the way through. So most of the years besides kindergarten, we only have two down years. Natick is is pretty steady in our enrollment projections. Whether you look at the three year or the five year, if you go back 10, you'll, you'll see a, you know, the projection going down a little bit more. But that number that we start with really kind
of makes a difference because if that was 360, then those numbers grow all the way across. So, and the pur the purple numbers down the bottom in purple font, that's the K 12. The total numbers right underneath it are the pre-K 12. But again, somehow that got cut off in, in the print, in the printing of it. Maybe it's just 'cause trying to fit too much information. I apologize for that. We'll we'll get you the, the real, the the whole thing
so you can kinda walk through it. But do any, does anybody have questions on the three year average or the five year average or the 10 year average? Okay. No. So let's scroll back up just a little bit to analysis part two where you see the cohort survival method three year average and then what it works out across. Right. So MSBA is gonna take a look at our K four total and maybe they'll isolate the pre-K classrooms on their own. And then if you divide it by 20 students, that's 94 classrooms K four across the districts.
Or if you divide it by 23 students, that's 81 classrooms. But over time the 94 drops to 84 and or the 81 drops to 73. So the number of classrooms available across the whole district is what MSBA will look at and what they've looked at in the past in my experience with them. And that'll also help shape the decision making. So one of the things for this committee to opine on as we get a little further down in the process is what's our target class size and what are we gonna build for? Because if we're gonna, you know, build for,
are we gonna build for class size of 20 or are we gonna build for class size of 23 or 24? Right? It that determines kind of the size of the room and how much flexibility you may have for how you fit students in in the future. So again, it's a good thing we don't have to submit this right now 'cause we'll have most of our information and an update as we start the school year before we close out the eligibility phase in October. So we'll have our, our real numbers
and hopefully they'll accept them and adjust. That's about all, that's about all that really is, unless somebody wants to really make people sad And we can go through the statistics. Speaker 1: I see Ms. Lather's hand, Speaker 17: Just a quick question. Does is MSBA prescriptive at all in terms of the class sizes and what they'll fund? Speaker 16: A little bit like the, you know the, the general class size square footage range is, is low eight hundreds, like 8 25, 8 30 up to 900 sort of depends on what your class size is gonna be.
So you know, if you say your class size is is 20, they may be on the lower end of, of, of the 800 square feet and it, it's up to you if you wanna, if you want to fund more rooms or more space, then you choose to pay more for that flexibility. Speaker 17: Got it. So when I look at it, we kind of look at it if, based on the projections on your cohort survival table, if you, if you built for 20 students but made sure you had a little extra space in the class that ensures you against, if there wasn't an enrollment decline for the most part
'cause you'd only get up to 22, 23 kids per classroom in those same classes. Is that reading that correctly? Speaker 16: Pretty much. Speaker 17: That's good. Dr. Fugman, Speaker 9: I have a question that is introducing a crazy idea, but I'm gonna do it anyway and people can hate me if they don't like it, but I've noticed that more and more di well I've noticed districts reorganizing elementary schools by, so that kids are going to two different elementary schools within their K through four.
So for example, you have pre-K through second grade in one building and then you move to third through fifth in a different building. So early usually it's upper elementary and lower element or lower elementary and then upper elementary. And I'm wondering is, is that idea, I'm not saying we should do that, but is that idea permissible and is that something, 'cause I was thinking actually about Ms Father's question about, about equity across buildings. If kids, like for example, if you have smaller schools that have the lower elementary, you know, there's just, it gives you a different way of playing around with the numbers in a way that allows formal flexibility.
And I was also thinking the preschool to lower elementary makes sense but I Speaker 16: So you, that's a fairly common question as part of the feasibility stage, right? You, you explore not just what plot of land that you could put the school on, but if you were gonna change grade configurations and MSBA also has to kind of bless that. It it does happen. It's not super common, but the whole K 2 3 5 thing was kind of popular for a little while. Yeah. Especially since you could have an early elementary
without having to deal with MCA tests, right? So, you know, when people, when they, their enrollment grew and then they were gonna build a new building, they did pass them out that way. So there's, there's good value and, and options to explore and consider is what what's the best fit for Natick. It's, that'll be one of the things I I that's not a crazy idea at all. Okay, good. Speaker 1: And just to follow up on that, 'cause I love crazy ideas, but would that be part of a usual discussion with MSBA,
like alternate uses for like if, you know, using a building for fewer grades than are there now, assuming that there might be a reorganization of other school buildings Speaker 16: That would be but sort of more after locally we, we flushed it out as, as an option we wanted to pursue with them. So, okay. You know, we, we might look at five different things or 15 different things, but then we have to pick one. And if we think we're getting really close to that being the one, then we need to engage with them, especially if it, if it deviates from
what we thought our initial plan was gonna be. Because I think MSV a's fairly flexible in the sense where they want it to work well for everybody, but they want make sure that if people are changing their mind, that that's what everybody really believes is, is best and, and voted on by the committee. 'cause so when we get through feasibility and, and we whittle down all the options, we have to pick one to draw sort of a schematic design and itemize all the, all the rooms in there, right? And then come up with a, a cost estimate to bring
to the voters to vote up or down as to whether or not they wanna proceed with the project. So the, the options of where we build or what we build and what grade configuration, you know, all that stuff needs to get taken into consideration in the next phase. Speaker 1: Okay. All right. Thank you. No other questions? Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: Thank you. Appreciate this is a lot of work that went into all of this, so thank everybody who was involved in this? Sorry, Kathy. Oh, Kathy, I missed you Kathy. Speaker 12: That's okay. I I was late actually.
So I, it's not your fault one of our, I like the flexibility of thinking in terms of reorganizing things, but I just want everybody to remain cognizant of the fact that one of our limiting factors in this town is busing the availability of it. The cost of it. So if for example, if you were to take the two smaller elementary schools, assuming Memorial gets built at a, at a larger size, it be Loja and Brown to be the lower elementary. I think that's what Dr. Freesman called it,
making Benham and Memorial, the upper elementary, then we would have to reconfigure all of our bus routes and everybody would be going everywhere. So I just, I'm not against it. I just think that that's one of the things that we need to keep in mind that doesn't show up in an MSBA application. 'cause they don't care how much it costs us to bus. But I think we as a committee need to remember it, that's all. Speaker 1: No, good point. Good point. Okay, thank you very much. So we'll move on to the chairman's report.
And I thought before we go to the subcommittee and liaison updates, let's do the subcommittee and liaison assignment reorganization if everyone's up for that. And I don't know, I, I created a new draft document today that I shared with folks. Did you guys get that? Did you said I can all look at the Speaker 12: Same? No, Speaker 1: No. Okay, let me, let me drop it in drive. Pardon? It's in the drive, it's in the subcommittee drive under 2025 2026 and it says draft subcommittee assignments. Speaker 2: What folder? Speaker 1: It should be in the subcommittee folder.
Let me find it. Sorry. Speaker 2: 25 6. Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And now of course I deleted mine so I didn't delete it. I closed it. I got it. Do you, okay so I penciled in some folks. So ev thank you everybody for sending me. So the process we, we did is everybody reviewed this document and then sent me anything that they wanted to stop doing or committees or representations that they would like to take on. So what I did is that it just slotted that in here.
And so if everyone just wants to take a minute to see if it makes sense, lemme just open mine. Speaker 4: What do the colors mean? Speaker 1: So the colors mean thank you and I hope I pick colors that were different. Did they look different? There's Speaker 4: Two colors, two of the same to me, but doesn't matter. Okay, what do they mean? Speaker 1: So I put in blue, I put people who expressed an interest in a new role Speaker 4: That I can see Speaker 1: And then in orange I put people who expressed an interest in leaving, leaving that assignment behind. Speaker 4: Okay. Yeah. Speaker 1: So I think for,
so if we start with a budget and finance subcommittee, we had four people who expressed an interest in being on that subcommittee. I think there's currently three people on that. Speaker 4: It has to be three, right? Yeah, we can't have it. Speaker 1: It has to be three. Yeah. So I think that's one where we, we need to make, I don't know if somebody wants to withdraw their interest in being on that subcommittee. And then there's for the policy review committee, I will step off that committee and Mr. Patel expressed an interest in joining that committee. He was the only one who did. So if everyone agrees, I think we'll just make that change.
So welcome jamon to the Policy Review Committee subcommittee And then for the liaisons, I had a crazy idea, I was thinking as I was looking through this and wondering how many of these liaison roles really are sort of crucial to the business of what we're doing here on school committee. And I'm wondering if some of them we should just sort of post in a shared calendar as groups, affinity groups of interests that we want to kind of learn from but make it sort of an open opportunity for people to attend some of those organizations as they desire
rather than having official representation. So that was a idea I would just wanna throw out there to see what people thought of it. Mr Brand. Speaker 4: I like that idea. I had a different question so I can read. Speaker 1: Okay. Ms. Lathers, I saw your hand. I mean I was just thinking, I, I, you know, I talked to Jayden about things he would do coming on and I think most, most of the interactions I came on and I did a lot of the community based ones. I feel like I wish we'd done more in the community, senior, senior center and most cases Speaker 17: It's kind of a push in rather than a pull in. I do think there's been value, like I know for CPAC I think it's valuable to the president just
to know someone kind of consistency to reach out for. And a couple of them I, I just think there's, it's not necessarily a huge time commitment, but I think there's value in just knowing that it's something that you think about and especially this year with, I mean take one by one with ELPAC has not been active. We heard earlier that now that we've exceeded the 5% threshold that will become more active. I think that's an important place that, you know, a community to know who they can kind of reach out to. I don't think any of it's particularly, none of them seem particularly exclusive like the CPAC meetings, you know, I make an effort to attend them when I can
and others could attend as well. So I just, I just, I think it's, it's nice there to be a, a little bit of a, I think they can be open but I don't think most of them are very big time commitments. And I had said to Jamie that like, I really like the school health advisory committee. It was like four times a year you spend an hour in the high school and you meet like a whole different cross section of parts of the community. So I don't have strong feelings about it, but I do think there's something nice about it. Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, and I wasn't thinking, I was thinking ELPAC and CPAC for sure, we would keep a liaison because they kind of need direct rep, not direct representation, but we need to have their, their,
their families represented in the work that we do, you know, upfront and center. So I wasn't thinking of those, I was thinking of some of these other, you know, committees where it's, you know, we, we might invite them to come to school committee on a particular topic like net zero for example has, you know, been interested in our fields Bright project. So that's an opportunity to engage on on an area of specific interest but maybe on an ongoing basis there isn't that much overlap between what we do. Yeah. Dr. Fon. Speaker 9: Yeah, I think it depends on the, on the group.
'cause for example with Spark Kindness, I think that makes sense that all of us can connect with Spark Kindness with A 180. The organization itself is a coalition member so they probably want consistent participation. That doesn't mean that school community member who's not on a 180 can participate in a meeting. But I think that having a consistent presence, 'cause that is like a coalition of groups that come together. I'm not sure if PCC would be, would fall under that as well. But I mean I like the idea. I just think some lend themselves to that and and some less so
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I'm bolding the ones that we've kind of talked about as identifying of being of high value. So elpac, Natick 180 CPAC Spark Kindness. Speaker 17: I agree. I, I get more as I look into individual ones I can absolutely see that. Yeah like I can see something like the community senior center liaison. I'll be honest, I haven't, I had one meeting got really excited but then that there are things I would love to see us doing more between schools and like our senior community. But I don't really think it can be driven out of us. Like I feel like that would be more appropriate to figure out how we can, you know, get, make it a,
something we think is important for the schools to do and then see if there's students or other places that it could come from. So I, you know, that one in particular, I think it's important we do. I just dunno how to make it a priority. Yeah, Speaker 4: It might be worth bolding tech as Speaker 1: Well. Tech, yes Tech of course. Yes. And below Speaker 4: The fold. Speaker 1: That's why I didn't see it. Thank you Ms. Brunell, Speaker 5: I appreciate that you're looking at the structure of this when Shai was chair and now again when, now when Elisa's been chair, I have suggested that we do sort of like a big picture.
We pull back and we look at how our comm how our committee works because I have found, like you mentioned some of these liaison positions are just, could be more open like you're saying and and less restrictive smart kindness. I would actually un bold because I think a lot of us go to those events and would be like that's, that's an example of something that I think doesn't need spec one specific person. I, I'm interested in having some sort of review of our school committee work and I think that that would require having a task force
so three of us could work on it together. Sort of like what Matt and I did with the school committee handbook where we just take a big picture, look across other committees and say like, you know, how does the work get done on other school committees and what's best practice. I'm not sure if this is, if there's the bandwidth to do that now, but that's something I'm interested in leading if this committee has an appetite for it. Speaker 1: Can I just put a pause there just for a second? 'cause I was going to invite a discussion about additional activities but I thought maybe we could sort of deal with the ones that were here first. Speaker 5: Okay, well so just to finish this comment,
I would put school health advisory committee actually as one of our subcommittees because it actually functions as a committee E and it's not just a liaison, it's a, that's just Speaker 17: It. Speaker 1: Has that been your experience with Lathers? Speaker 17: It's, it's, I think it's done. I think it's scheduled 'cause there's, it's a mandate to meet four times a year. I feel like it's more of an opportunity for a cross section of both town and schools to talk about matters related to health. It's an interesting conversation. I think it's a, a forum for sharing and I think it's, I think it's great
to have someone from school community there. I've had a few occasions where there's just been interesting comments that, 'cause like we don't, I don't think we've ever had the, the nurses other than out of the pandemic, you know, here talking and so, but there isn't like a voting whereas, I mean I'm actually a voting member of the net zero committee, like appointed in as a voting member. So I do actually think we would need to change something in that charter. I don't know. I see. So you're saying school health advisory is more like Natick 180? Correct. And Natick 180 comes to that. Yeah, like that. That's a nice four times a year. Natick one eighty's there, our district physician, whatever
that role is, the nurses are represented our health curriculum. So conversations around our health curriculum, conversations around vaping in the bathrooms. There's student representatives on there. Like it's, you know, I think it's a good, I think there's some good consistency I've been Speaker 1: Okay so maybe, yep. MR. Brand, Speaker 4: Just the one thing that if we're just administratively, I think the Memorial School building committee should probably be on the list somewhere. Speaker 1: It Speaker 4: Should be at least for this, you know, for the, at least for the next five years. Yeah, sorry if it's voted that right.
Well I'll add that at least for right now we have a, it exists and we have a representative. Yeah and so just so it's on there. Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll add it under liaisons there. Right. Okay. So, alright, so I'm hearing that there's not maybe consensus on what to do with this whole list of liaisons, but there sounds like there's some willingness to sort of look at them and maybe prioritize some of them, which I think we've done by bolding some of them. So then perhaps if some of the ones that are not bolded, if nobody volunteers to fill that position, we just won't worry too much about that this cycle.
Does that seem reasonable? I see nodding. Okay. Alright. And then just before we finalize things, I did want to bring up a couple of new possibilities. So one was, I sent an email out about the fields. So when Ms. McDonough was still here, she was coordinating with Mr. Gillis and the town on having, you know, some meetings about the planning for the new field. And so I did connect with her. She's willing to continue volunteering but thinks that we should also have, you know, somebody to replace her as a school committee member. Would that be welcome Mr. Gillis? I'm sort of putting you on the spot. Yep.
So I think we would add that. And then Dr. Folkman, you had an idea too. Speaker 4: Do we share? Yeah, Speaker 9: So we, we've been talking, well I've been thinking a lot, but we've been talking a little bit about a strategic plan for the next five years just because we had one, a five year plan for eight years now, as I like to say. So it'd be nice to have a working group. I have a lot more thoughts about that, but I'll leave that as is. I mean I think, well, I'll leave it at that. So yeah, it's a working group about strategic plan, developing the strategic plan.
I think it's a, it's a great opportunity to, for real community, for continuous community engagement. Obviously there was a lot of community engagement we did for the superintendent search process. Obviously with the override. This is another one that community engagement would be helpful. And so having a working group to work alongside Dr. Ash and administration, I do think that the, I wanna recognize the, the amazing work that Dr. Sp did with the entry plan, which is like at least halfway there, if not three quarters there in terms
of like getting feedback from the community 'cause so much rich data there. And then translating it to strategic plan would be what the working group could work on. Speaker 1: And would this be something that'd be welcomed at this point? Dr. Stash? Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm imagining this would start probably more next year because I think we need to make the bridge plan into next year, but this is definitely gonna be something that the next step in terms of that entry findings and that it sounds like the district's ready to do so. Yes. Okay. Speaker 1: So then if we added that activity and sort of maybe planned to start it over the summer as we're ramping up for the next school year, does that, I'm seeing nodding.
That seems reasonable. Okay. And then how many, how many representatives would you think one representative, two representatives, a full subcommittee representative? Speaker 8: Seven. Speaker 9: Seven. Well, I don't know. Dr. Sp this is maybe something we can decide later at a different meeting, but like would this be something like a work group of the sub of the school committee that that would work with administration much like the budget subcommittee or would this be a working group that you would want to create with multiple stakeholders, including a representative from the school committee? Again, I put you Speaker 8: Spot.
Great question. Yeah, so my initial thinking is that we are working with ESA Monte Jackson on kind of that bridge plan. And so I think and on, which is part of my goals to deliver sort of the next step in committee or engagement. And so I think once I have a chance to actually meet with her, we're in the process of getting that contract signed. I think I'll have a better answer for you if you and I could certainly do that this spring and I'm open to the summer thing starting. I really respect her work in the district and her work in the state and her work with this committee. So I think she's gonna be a great voice in helping us
to kind of build out that engagement, which is a critical part of any sort of strategic work. So yes. And maybe a little hiatus until we get kind of some time on her calendar and we'll work together to kind of map out a suggested plan. Does that sound good? Yeah. Speaker 1: Okay. Okay. And am I assuming, assuming that you're volunteering for this role as well? Speaker 9: Whatever it looks like. Sure. Okay. Yeah. Speaker 1: Alright. So why don't we, it'll be awesome. Okay. It's, I mean, it's just exciting to have a strategic plan on the horizon again, so, okay.
Alright. Is anyone interested in this field's task force? That was one thing I had not, I did ask people, but I didn't get anyone's response. The high school field, Speaker 4: Is it high school field or the field's task force overall? Speaker 1: The high school. This is the high school field. This is specifically about the new proposed field at the high school. And it sounded from what Julie had said and perhaps you could confirm that really this would probably maybe extend through the fall kind of to town meeting in this, this phase of the, the need for organizing meetings. Yes. Mr. Brand. Sorry Mr. Gillis.
Speaker 4: I was just volunteering to help with that. If no one else wants to do it, I like fields. Okay. You're hired. I mean, okay. Speaker 9: That's the only requirement Speaker 4: I got a daughter who uses one of 'em. Okay. Why not? Speaker 1: Alright, I've slotted you in for that. Anybody else? Did I do that there? Anybody we need to have a lottery? No. Okay. Speaker 4: Are they two different things? Speaker 1: Are they things task force and the high school field planning? 'cause that's, no, I I think you added something under the working groups. Catherine. I'd already added it above. Speaker 4: There we go. That's Speaker 1: Fine. Nope, Speaker 4: I can do both. Speaker 1: You'll do both. Okay. Mr. Brand's just gonna do it all.
Okay. No. So if we look up, it looks like, so for the PCC liaison, Kathy would like to step away from that, but nobody has expressed an interest so we might just leave that open for now since it's not one of our priority activities. Yes. Speaker 9: I'm happy to take on Nitty 180 if Mr. Brown wants to leave that Speaker 4: Sold. Great. Okay. Speaker 1: Alright. Speaker 4: Add one removal Speaker 12: Least just for people's information. The next PCC meeting is on the
16th. They're all virtual. Speaker 1: Okay. Alright, well if somebody gets really excited about PCC let me know and we can add you in there. Yes, Speaker 9: I'm happy to Also, since I didn't offer any suggestions, I'm also happy to put my name under the NEF. That is an another one that is just a contact. They, they don't, I did it before so I'm happy to reach out to the, whoever's leading it now and just to let them know, but Okay.
It's one of those low engagement. Speaker 1: Okay, thanks. Alright. So put you in there. Okay. So then if we go up to the subcommittees policy review committee, we've added Mr. Patel there. So that is done. And so then we really just need to think about the budget and finance committee. 'cause we have four people and we can only have three. Speaker 12: I'm trying to raise my hand there. Speaker 1: Ah, yes, Ms. Collins, Speaker 12: If you wanna take me off budget and finance and put me on curriculum or strategic strategy, that's fine. Speaker 4: I was also going to offer to not be on the budget
and finance 'cause I added the fields thing, so. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 4: Alright. Kathy and I can find about Speaker 1: It. Yeah, so the curriculum review and just, I know we, Dr. Sp, we talked about this briefly, but it sounds like there's not an immediate need for that. Speaker 8: I haven't had a chance to talk to assistant superintendent Bel, who kind of sees this area, but I think we're well underway with a lit audit and that'll extend into next year. So I don't know that if we're looking to maybe have less meetings, that might be one. I don't know if there's a school committee member on that lit. Is there a school committee member on our lit?
I think we'd invite someone to and be happy for, to have somebody join that work of the literacy team, which is a very big team across district with parents, et cetera. But that's the main, that's going to be the main curricular work we do next year. Okay. And the team exists and you're very welcome to have a member on it. Speaker 1: Okay. You look, you look excitements. Lathers. It's a really tempting one. Really tempting. Yeah. Okay. So we have one slot there and I maybe we'll rename it something else. Maybe we'll just leave it her hand up again. Kathy has her hand up. Kathy? Yes. Kathy,
Speaker 4: It may have never gone down from before. Speaker 19: Oh, maybe Speaker 1: Did you have another question or a idea? Kathy? Okay. She did. Speaker 12: Oh, I, I just forgot to lower my hand. My apologies. Classic. Speaker 1: Classic cat. And so Kathy, Mr. Patel had also expressed an interest in the literacy curriculum or the, so Speaker 12: Yeah. Speaker 1: Do you wanna seed to him or is that, are you really excited about that or would you rather stay on budget? Since Matt has offered to step to, he's with Speaker 12: His if, if Matt is stepping down from his budget, then I'll stay on budget.
Okay. Or you can slot me to strategy, whichever is more helpful to you. Speaker 1: Okay. I think we'll just keep, Dr. Curriculum Speaker 20: Has three spots. No. Is that the Speaker 1: One you look at? So we're changing that because it's the literacy curriculum and they've invited one member. Okay. Yeah. So I'm gonna change that. Okay. All right. So Mr. Patel, that looks like you. Great. Thank you. So I think that's it. I think we filled all of our subcommittee slots. Yes. Ms. Brunell, just to Speaker 5: Be explicit, can I continue to chair the budget
and finance or Kate did you or Kathy? Speaker 1: I'm happy to, Speaker 12: Just to be clear, you didn't actually chair it, but I'm fine if you want to. Speaker 1: I, I'm happy to chair either way. I don't care. Okay. I'm flexible. Okay. Alright. Speaker 12: Wish I could say the same. Kate, at least in body. Speaker 17: Catherine, would you rather I chair it or do you wanna chair it? You've got a lot on your plate with five year commitment you've signed up for. Speaker 1: Okay. Happy Speaker 17: To. Speaker 4: Okay. Are we sticking with me?
I assume that's written in the Speaker 1: Yes. Okay. Yeah. So you still willing to chair the policy review Speaker 4: Committee? I am willing. Okay. And now I can schedule some new meetings. Okay. 'cause we have a new member. Speaker 1: Alright, super. Okay, so that is done. So everyone has their new assignments. Enjoy. So the second thing I wanted to, that we have on the, our agenda is to talk about how we're going to appoint our next METCO representative. So I did review the policy and it does say that we should be reviewing a recommendation from our METCO director and superintendent.
So we will, I think if everyone agrees, we'll ask our superintendent to get us a recommendation. And then I think we just need to pick a date at which time we'd like to review recommendations to appoint somebody for July 1st. Yes, Mr. Speaker 4: That's what it was. I think it was, we, the policy, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, was that we had to make the decision prior to June, the end of June or, but, or was it July 1st so that the person could be Yes. In position for retreats during the summer. Yes. Right. So any meeting between now and then.
But we wouldn't actually, the, the new person wouldn't start until after July one. Is that it? Yes. It's for the next school year. Right. Yeah. Speaker 1: Ms. Lathers, Speaker 17: I thought that was swapping now. Speaker 1: So our policy does, so we have a couple of things. Let's, let's just decide how we're gonna pick for the next school year and then let's deal with potential announcement. That sound good? Okay. So then Dr. Spaso, if I could just ask you for a recommendation and then once we know the timeframe that we might receive those, we'll schedule it in an upcoming meeting. Okay.
Speaker 8: Can I just ask, has there in the past been any guidance from the school committee about kind of, or do you wanna just trust us, which we're good with? We did great the first time. Speaker 4: One for one. Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there is a, I don't know if you wanna speak to what's actually written in the policy. I think there's like, oh we can read. We can read that. Yeah. Read the policy. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, there's just a little description of the population of people who can be considered. I'll take a Speaker 8: Look at that. Great. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you Dr. Folks, Speaker 9: Can I make a comment? This is actually, I'd like to offer an apology 'cause I think Ms. Scott and I got overly eager about the change. So there is someone who's interested in the position
and I think we had conversations about it. So just wanna acknowledge that we had that conversation. But well, so, and I apologize if I had done things too quickly before I left my rolls Speaker 1: Chair. Yeah, no Ms. Scott and I spoke about that earlier. So we talked about setting up a process and then Yeah. Proceeding. Yeah. Ms. Lathers Speaker 17: Just outta consideration, I mean I think there could be a ton of value in generally getting a cadence of that that starting with the same with the elections because two one 'cause there's a swap over, that's when things reorganize.
And two, I think it gives a new member a chance to be part of a number of meetings before we get into retreats. So there's actually more of a perspective in the summer on, on at those retreats. Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think we can reconsider that. I think we would have to, yeah, I think we should have some reflections from this first year if everyone agrees of having a representative from metco. And I don't know Ms. Scott, if you want to make an announcement at this time or, Speaker 21: Well, basically I agree with Kate and that was some of my feedback that I had given
because I had sent an email to Dr. SP and to chairwoman eth to basically state that I recently received a promotion in a managerial position at my job and congratulations. Thank you. And so that took effect April 1st, but actually April 15th is when my increased responsibilities and direct reports will come along onto my plate to take up more of my time. So initially I had said that I could go onto the July 1st
piece because I was not aware that it aligned with the parent possibly being in this seat for the school year cycle. So my, that's why I thought when the new person came on for your, your organizational meeting, that we could align it previously with the individual who had been recommended by the current medical director. So with that being said, I don't know what the timeframe will be, but there is a successor possibly appointment in place if needed. So I guess that's gonna be discussed this evening if you want me to make that announcement
or how does that work? Speaker 1: So just no, thank you for sharing. I just wanted everyone to, to be aware of what you had shared with us that, that you would like to leave prior to July 1st. Right. So I think we need to follow our process that we have, which is currently to reappoint someone for the next school year. So maybe at the same time we can have some additional conversation. But yeah, I don't, I think we should stick with our process for now. What would the process be, Mr. Brand, if we wanted to modify our policy Speaker 4: To mod? So the policy is we, the dates that you said
that's when we start, we did not write in the policy was an adjustment to an existing policy, not a new one. And in, in a similar way to how it defines a teacher rep and student rep, I think, so if we wanted to modify the policy, we would do it. Like we would modify any other policy. The policy subcommittee could take it up, propose changes, bring it back to this. And so we can take what we learned this year and just modify the policy either at the pleasure of the committee to adjust the timeline to be either
or and adjust the timeline to match up with local elections in our normal reorg. And also potentially add something about in the event that someone has to depart, you know, has to step down for any reason. What we would do in that situation. Can we, similar to what would happen with an elected member of the school committee can, can the superintendent appoint someone for the remainder of, for all intents, for lack of a better word for the term, and then go through the same process the following time.
I mean, so we can adjust the policy. I don't think it's that complicated. And, and then bring it back for review. Okay. We can do, and I mean we haven't scheduled the next policy subcommittee meeting yet, but we can, I don't think it's a big conversation honestly. And I think we can probably add it to our list for the next meeting and whenever we have it and then bring it back here pretty quickly. Speaker 1: Okay. Then why don't we evaluate when, when we get a recommendation via Dr. Bash, we could evaluate if the availability of whoever is being recommended
and then perhaps we can revisit the policy at that time if needed. That sound okay? Reasonable. Okay. Alright. Speaker 12: Madam Chair. Speaker 1: Oh yes, Ms. Collins. Speaker 12: Thank you. I would just, if we change the, the timing and I'm not against changing the timing and congratulations Ms. Scott. I just wanna make sure that if we are to change the timing that we invite, if away from the school year period, that we invite that individual Ms. Case, Ms. Scott, whoever follows after her for the superintendent evaluation piece.
'cause I think it's an important voice that we added to the committee for a reason and I wouldn't wanna lose it in terms of feedback for the eval, for the superintendent evaluation. Speaker 1: So you're saying that you'd like to invite Ms. Scott to the superintendent evaluation even after Yes. Speaker 12: Whether or not we change the timing, I wanna make sure that Ms. Scott has an as an invitation specific to contribute. Speaker 1: Got it. I hear you for feedback and Ms. Scott, I see your hand up. Speaker 21: I am extremely available to make myself, you know,
for anything that's needed for this committee and I appreciate like all the work and help and learning that has taken place for this. So that is, that is absolutely okay with me. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you so much. We really appreciate that. Okay. Super. Okay, well that's a nice segue into our, so I think we have a plan and then the only, oh, the other thing I wanted to do is have some mechanism for, for getting some feedback on what the experience has been like Ms. Scott for you in serving in this role so
that we can do better next year in terms of including you or including our meco representative. So I'm wondering if we could, we don't have time for that tonight, I don't think, but is the committee willing to, to do this at an upcoming meeting or to have a a, a short retreat meeting to get feedback from, from Ms. Scott as her year of or nine months of being our METCO representative? Or is there another way that you think we could get this feedback that would be useful? I, I was thinking it would be nice to have a conversation
but also don't wanna take people's time and schedule an extra meeting if that's not necessary. Dr. Fugman, Speaker 9: I'm curious to the chair Yeah, if Ms. Scott has any ideas of how you would like Yeah. To provide any feedback to us. I don't know, I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts not to put you on the spot. Speaker 21: Well, my suggestion was not to, I didn't think it was necessary to take like a retreat or take up the committee's time that I could sit down if someone wanted to schedule time and make that arrangement to have the meeting with the Dr.
SP and the chairwoman. So it, it just, it's however anyone wants it to be done. I'm flexible and doing but I too thought that like it, it wasn't necessary to take up everyone's time. Speaker 1: Okay. We can do that. I'm seeing, yeah. Alright, let's do that then we'll schedule a meeting for you and me and Dr. Bash. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Okay, so, and then the last item on the chairman's report is about the superintendent evaluation process. So I think everybody, I sent what we had done two years ago,
which is the last time we conducted a superintendent evaluation. And then I think the important thing that we need to decide is how much time we need to review artifacts prior to the meeting at which we'll have the evaluation. And I would propose that we schedule the evaluation for June 2nd because we have one school committee, school committee meeting following that to which we can review the, the finalized report and vote on it. But if we did that, how far in advance do people feel they need to have artifacts in hand
Speaker 17: And why not June 16th? Speaker 1: So if we do a June 16th then we have to finalize the report that day. Oh. Speaker 17: So Speaker 1: That's our last meeting of the year. We'd have to schedule an additional meeting if we wanted to. Speaker 17: So you mean the initial meeting on the second? Yeah, where we Speaker 1: Would yes, talk through the whole report. Everyone would submit their comments and then the way we had done it last, last time I think is that Dr. Fugman wrote the report based on everyone's contributions and then we had another meeting where we reviewed it, made any changes and finalized it. Ms. Laers,
Speaker 17: I mean I noticed in your email saying you would like the artifacts as late as possible and given how much the team has worked, I feel like we could step up and try to review quickly. Probably not the first, but like maybe like the Thursday before at least giving a number of days. Like a couple of days. But I think we can put in that effort based on the eight hour week you guys have been working. Speaker 1: Yeah. Dr. Fen. Speaker 9: Yeah, I agree and especially if we know those days in advance, like if we know that we have three days, we can block any one of those days. I think like if we know it be in advance, I don't think we need a lot of time. I mean at least that's how I feel.
Speaker 17: And if there's artifacts that naturally come out before as they're done, I mean that also, but I'm happy to crunch it at the end. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: Okay. Does that feel reasonable Dr. Stash? Speaker 8: Definitely. Thank you for the grace. I would suggest based on that, if I may, either the Friday before Memorial Day or the Tuesday after Memorial Day, which is a little before the Thursday, just as a suggestion. Speaker 17: Okay. Speaker 1: Oh Kathy, Speaker 12: Yeah I'd have,
don't have the superintendent's contract in hand but I believe it requires that it be done before the 15th of June like finalized. I'm all for throwing an extra meeting in if all we need to, if all we plan to do is finalize it like after this, the meeting between the second and the 16th. But I just wanna make sure that we're true with the contract that we signed. Speaker 1: Yes, thank you Dr. Stash. Speaker 8: Thank you for that Ms. Collins and I actually have it in front of me and it says the committee will publicly discuss and review the superintendent's job performance with her once annually beginning no later than
June 30 each year. Speaker 1: Okay. No, Speaker 12: I stand corrected. Speaker 8: Well this one just might be different. Maybe I negotiated. Well I don't think so. Speaker 1: Okay, so any preference on, on the Friday before Memorial Day or the Tuesday after? Speaker 17: I'm not gonna be reviewing the materials of Memorial Day. So it depends whether you wanna get them out before. Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I feel the same way. Yeah. Yeah. So should we say the Tuesday after Memorial Day? Okay, thank you. And then we'll schedule the meeting. Okay, great. So let's go back to subcommittee and liaison updates.
I think Mr. Brand, do you have an update? Speaker 4: I always have an update. So in the in Novus you'll see there's an update that we're required to share and we want to, so it's not like a bad requirement about tech's FY 26 budget. So you can click on that the, there's nothing to vote. It's part of the sort of mandate that all the member districts have to share this with their in in public. This sort of highlights, and we've covered this in previous votes, Sharon and King Philip regional districts were added officially at the end of the school year. I believe they start, but they, all the voting happened.
This Year's Tech, the proposed budget is just over 13 million, which is close to 11%, 10.8% increase for a lot of the same reasons, increased enrollment, a lot of it there's, so there's more staff needed, there are more costs associated with all that. So that's all for the update. You can read the budget book, the proposed budget, it's in Novus. So that's the tech update. Speaker 1: Okay, thank you. And then we have two memos that we received about school year 26 fees. I don't know Ms. Flas, if you want you
or Ms. Collins want to speak to that work? Speaker 17: I can or Kathy can or we both can. I mean I think generally speaking we were, we entered into the conversation keeping in line with the override passes recommendations in the budget book. They only had a slight changes that we were making there just to solve for. There was a desire not to raise middle school sports as much as high school sports. They meet less frequently, they have fewer meets. We wanna, and the general idea of wanting to encourage as many middle schoolers as possible to try things. So in order to offset that there was a slightly more than budgeted for well,
and now also using the opportunity to split out football, swimming and diving the same way. We, we split out alpine ski and hockey to kind of align the actual, the actual expenses incurred by those sports, which seems pretty typical across the districts that we were looking at in comparable districts. So those were really, was there any other tweak? Matt was Speaker 16: Not for athletics? No. Speaker 17: 'cause bus fees went up as we predicted by the $25 as predicted and ASAP went up as Speaker 16: Predicted as well. 12% and Speaker 17: 12. Oh, and then the rentals, was this also as predicted
Speaker 16: Pre pretty much, it, it just, I gave a kind of a, a very general summary and then we to the rooms in greater detail and updated the room fee for some, for some things in group one that hadn't necessarily been there. And we updated the overtime rate of pay, which hadn't been updated in quite some time, I think since 2008 six, somewhere around there. It's, it's, Speaker 17: I think the important thing to note in the room fees for,
you know, it was rationalizing based on, it's still less than some of our comparable districts for the tiers, twos and threes, which would be kind of non-profits and, and public and pri pub private organizations. The only one, so one that went up is the high school and you know, Kennedy, the full gym space to actually, that went up, you know, quite a bit. But when we did the math out for the teams that use it, it's a comparable increase by athlete to what we were doing. Increases in athletic fees for our own athletics.
So that felt equitable. Nice. Any questions Speaker 16: Dr. Speaker 9: Fugman? I do, and you interrupt me if this is outside of the scope of this item, but there was a community member who reached out to us about ASAP be not with a concern about the fee, but with a concern about the wait list and, and the staffing. And one of the ideas that she brought up was, can we increase, if we increase the fees of asap, can we increase the pay of the ASAP staff
and maybe through that recruit more staff and then have more spaces. I'm assuming this is just about increasing our fees to increase our budget. It's not about, I guess the question I have is can we, can we by increasing ASAP fees increase the pay for ASEP staff with the idea that that might help recruitment? Speaker 16: I think that's part of it. I mean, one of the goals was to be able to expand the capacity of the program. We've had some discussions about non rep fee increases.
We just haven't finalized that yet. But we, we'll be, we'll be, we'll be bringing that forward because we do want to increase the capacity of asap. 'cause we know families are on the waiting list and if students and parents are a little bit stressed about getting to and from aftercare or finding aftercare or cobbling together aftercare, we wanna make that a little bit easier so the, the kids can focus more on school instead of, okay, now I gotta figure out where I'm going today Speaker 9: After Yeah, soon the kids who stress she the parents,
but I'm just kidding. But, but so this increase will help expand. I is is designed ideally to help. We think Speaker 16: That's gonna be part of it. Yes. Speaker 8: I feel like I need to weigh in here too that I think this is part of the strategic plan work we need to do. It was something we heard from many people, so I appreciate that individual coming forth. But it's complicated. It, it's complicated. Like I have questions like the school, this is a work we need to do in conjunction with the town to make sure we have enough care for our families. It's not only for the school department, I'm just,
that's a Melissa opinion. I worry about, you know, in this budget book we allocated $215,000 of fee increase to cover not having to let go of additional teachers and to make our million four. And so to raise those fee now fees now, or salaries in the context of the collective bargaining agreements we've gone to and things, I think we really need to be mindful that we're in line with those other increases and we have to take the whole context. So I deeply appreciate this individual coming forth. They're not, they're, they're all good ideas, but I think this bears a lot more analysis.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Right? Any more? Yes. Sorry. Oh, Kathy. Kathy. Speaker 12: Oh, Kathy to, yeah, to just follow on Dr. Fuman, this is a necessary but not sufficient step to potentially increasing availability. This is necessary because we had the bees in the budget, but even if we raised them a million dollars, which I'm not suggesting unless, and until we changed non rep salary schedule, it wouldn't go there.
Like it wouldn't, it wouldn't result in better paid staff and potentially more staff. So I just wanna be clear. It's, it's a necessary but not sufficient step here. Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions on either of those two items? Okay. We have two action items. One related to the fees and one related to a collective bargaining agreement. Does anyone have motions for those move approval of the S school year? 26 fees schedule Speaker 12: Second. Speaker 1: Okay. And since let's start with you Ms. Collins,
since you're online roll call. Yes. Mr. Patel? Yes. Ms. Flas? Yes. Mr. Brand? Yes. Dr. Fugman? Yes. And I am a yes. And do we have a motion regarding the collective bargaining agreement? MOU Speaker 12: Move approval of the MOU with the Administrative Assistance Association. Second for the beginning 2025 Speaker 4: Second. Speaker 1: Okay, roll call vote. Ms. Collins? Yes. Mr. Patel? Yes. Ms. Lathers? Yes. Mr. Brand? Yes. Dr. Fugman? Yes. And I am a yes. Okay.
So then the only other action item we have was just to preview upcoming agenda items and with the committee's indulgence, I just wanted to add that as a standing agenda item going forward. So just does anyone have any thoughts about upcoming agendas? We have the rolling document that where we sort of pencil in future agenda items. Does anyone have any thoughts on that? No. Okay. So going forward we'll actually take a look at the agendas and try to flush them out a little bit more fully.
I I see that the ones coming up don't have a lot of items on them yet. So if you have agenda items and you would like to hear them one of our six upcoming meetings, please let me know and we'll pencil them in. And then at the end of every meeting we'll plan to just review that as a committee. Okay. One last motion, move Speaker 4: To adjourn. Second. Speaker 1: Okay. Ms. Collins? Yes. Mr. Patel? Yes. Ms. Lathers? Yes. Mr. Brand? Yes. Dr. Cookman? Yes. And I'm a yes. And we are adjourned.