Speaker 1: So let's call this meeting to order. Sorry, I'm having a little bit of agenda in middle window there. Recording in progress. Okay. Do we have the announcement about recording this? So I guess I'll just make an announcement that we're recording this meeting. Meeting on Zoom. Speaker 2: Pegasus is on. Sorry, Liz. Speaker 1: Okay. Pegasus is on as well. It's, yep. Awesome. Okay, super. All right. So we'll do roll call as I see people on the screen. Ms. Blathers present, Speaker 2: Participating remotely. Speaker 1: Ms. Brunell present,
participating remotely, Mr. Brand present and participating remotely. Mr. Patel present and participating remotely. Dr. Fuman present and participating remote. Ms. Gomes present participating remotely. And do we, is Ms. Collins online? No, I, Speaker 2: I have not seen Speaker 1: Her, no. Okay. And I am present and participating remotely. Okay. So let's do the Pledge of Allegiance. So we'll stand for the Pledge
of Allegiance in a moment of silence. So please orient yourself to your nearest American flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag, the United States of America, one Nation. Take that moment of silence to honor our troops who are serving domestically and abroad. Okay. Any announcements? Speaker 2: I actually have one. Speaker 1: Okay, Speaker 2: Let me just pull it up. Speaker 1: So this Speaker 2: Came from Erin Miller who attended last night, the Natick Unified track field team who were honored at Boston Red Sox game last night in
celebration of their 2025 state championship victory. About 50 athletes, partners and coaches, including Coach D Antonio, no surprise. And Coach Harris joined the team on the field at Fenway Park right next to the iconic green monster. Many families, friends, and Natick educators were in the stands to cheer them on and to watch the Red Sox to defeat the Kansas City Royals. This year's championship marks an incredible three-peat for the program with three state titles in the past three years. I have goosebumps. It was unforgettable evening, celebrating our athletes' hard work and success
and I just wanna commend the coaches for their work with these teams. And it's just a great, great bright spot for Natick. Speaker 1: Wonderful, wonderful. Was it televised or was it before they started the actual televised part of the game? Speaker 2: I don't know that because I'm not like a watcher of baseball. I can, Speaker 1: I don't know. But yeah, that's, that's very cool. Any other announcements? Okay. So we'll move to public speak. 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 the responsibility of the school committee. All remarks will be addressed through the school committee chair. Public speed is not speak is not a time for debate or response to comments by the school committee. So I did not receive any requests by email. Is there anybody online who would like to do public speak? If so, please raise your hand Right last chance. Okay. All right. So we will now close public speak and when we'll move on to our agenda, is there a motion for the consent agenda?
Motion to approve. Second. Second. Okay. And then we'll have to do a roll call. Vote. Are you having trouble, Matt? Brand? Speaker 3: No, I'm switching back to my laptop. Okay. So if Linda, Linda, can you just co-host me again on the other one? I'm gonna switch over to that. Speaker 1: Okay. So we'll start a roll call. Vote again as I see people on the screen. Ms. Flats? Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: Mr. Patel? Yes. Ms. Brunell? Yes. Mr. Brand? Yes. Dr. Fiman.
Speaker 4: Oh yes. Sorry. Just, just got calls, right? Speaker 1: No, no problem. I am a yes. So I think that's a 6 0 0 vote on the consent agenda. Okay. Alright, so we'll move into our meeting agenda items. So I think we've got one on the school committee calendar, so we need to pick a new date. I think that was Linda, that's why you added this to the agenda, right? Because it's 2nd of September. Yeah, Speaker 5: September. Speaker 1: Yeah. So yeah,
so with the exception of that date, and I think we need to coordinate with the select board. We can't just pick another Monday because they're here every other Monday. So yeah, we, I think we need, just need to put an As around that one because I don't think we have another date yet for that. I thought the select board was on Wednesdays. I thought they alternated Mondays with us. I Speaker 2: Thinks. No, just Wednesdays now. Speaker 1: They're Wednesdays. Oh, okay. Well that is, that is good. Alright, so can we see then if the 29th or the 15th are available for the school city room?
Speaker 5: Sure. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 5: I'll look now. Speaker 1: Okay. Do you want us to come back to this then? Speaker 5: Yeah, if you want to. I'll take a quick look. Speaker 1: Okay, sure. Does anyone have an issue with either of those dates? 15th or the 29th Speaker 4: Of which month? Speaker 1: September, I think the 22nd. Is that it's the day off school, right? Is that, Speaker 4: Yes. So the ones that you're, we're considering our 15th or 20? No, which one? 29th. 29th. Speaker 5: So both dates, the school committee room available. Speaker 1: Okay. Whichever Speaker 5: You choose Speaker 4: Works for me.
Speaker 1: Okay. Should we do the 29th then? Anyone have a problem with the 29th? Okay. Super. So I think then we can post this on the website. Do we need to vote this? I don't think we do, do we? No. Okay. All right. So thank you Linda. And go ahead. Speaker 5: All Speaker 1: Alright and then moving on, I'll hand over to Dr. Stash for our MSBA topics. Speaker 2: Sure. Let me just share screen. Okay. So the first page here, you've seen before with a few updates.
I wanna just report that we did submit by August 1st, the maintenance and capital planning. So that's all set. If there's any questions or process type questions around that, Matt can certainly answer that. And this, this meeting really, and thank you for scheduling it, is to kind of just make sure we're ready to submit materials to the select board and the town administrator related to the Warrant town, the fall annual town meeting warrant. But again, just to remind you where we are in the process, hang on. Okay. I showed this slide before so I don't wanna be too repetitive,
but it's worth just kind of recentering. The warrant language is specific and provided by the MSBA. There's a link there for the template language. It's due to the town administrator by the 21st. We hope to do it really by the end of next week. The MSBA has to review and approve the vote language. I have it just in this morning. The approval of both the warrant and the motion language that we've drafted, which is good town meeting vote, must be submitted to the MSBA. I talked about that by the end of the eligibility period. And right now we're still waiting on approval from them on an extension.
We don't have an update for you on that. Let's see. And I think that's really it. This language, we, I don't believe we voted for this yet as a school committee since it's being sponsored by the school committee. I think it's important you weigh in on the, and vote on the language of it. But this was based on the MSBA template and this language has been approved by the MSBA in a later slide. I actually have the link to all of those emails and that would be something that I would submit to be put into the bud the fin com book just for evidence of kind of the process.
But this is the language and it's templated. This is the template language for the motion. And again, this was approved. I received an email this morning. So those, both of those, it doesn't mean we can't go back and change it. Especially, it's possible that once the legal counsel for the town takes a look, they might have some tweaks and that's fine. But because we are not meeting again that I know of until August, I believe believe after August 21st or August 26th is our next retreat date. I believe it might be smart to vote this language in now so that we've had it done.
Since you're sponsoring the article, we talked about this last week that the, we recommended the school committee sponsor this. I think there was agreement on that. The recommendations we have for the consideration, they're simply just our recommendations would be that this committee vote to approve the word article language that the MSBA has already approved. That we vote to approve the motion language with the understanding that if the town has some suggestions on some slight adjustments, we would pass this through the process. Again, we have a draft letter of support from the school committee that the suggestion is
to sign it on behalf of both myself and Elise on behalf of this committee and behalf of the school district. We have a draft of that here for your consideration. And then I think, you know, there might be a consideration of this committee to vote to authorize the school committee to make a recommendation around a, using the 2.6 million from the Kennedy Middle School project surplus to fund this. We did meet with the town administration today and I think there's agreement on this process. And so the technicalities of how it gets included in a motion is still to be determined for, because the MSBA language doesn't
really write that piece out. So whether we do one motion or two, that all has to be decided and we have time for that. That does not have to be in right away. It can be in after the submission of the warrant language. I'm gonna pause for a second because I said a lot. Are there questions so far? Okay, the next steps one, oh, go ahead. Speaker 1: So I was just looking to see if anyone had their hands up. I don't see anyone I I just wanted to remind us that we actually agreed that the whole school committee would sign the letter. Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Okay. So however you do it in the motion, we'll make sure it gets ki it gets kind of handled that way. Yep. These are really just meant to be prompts
for discussion and thought and then your motions was our intention after this, depending on how the team votes, we would submit that warrant in motion language that the proper authorities, we are hoping by the end of next week just to get it off our desk and have people have time to kind of talk to us if needed. We are anticipating including kind of a packet for this that would eventually go to the fin com. That would include those emails between myself and the MSBA showing that their legal counsel has approved the language, any of the school committee minutes with the motions to approve language. The school committee, school building committee last night
unanimously voted to sign, have the chair of the committee sign a letter of support and that is linked here and completed your letter should you choose to do it. It's in draft form right now would be included in this packet as well as any recommendation regarding how to fund it. And then we'll continue some coordination with MSBA on a timeline extension request. And that's it. Speaker 1: Okay. Alright. Does anyone have any questions on the, the warrant article or the motion or any changes
that you might wanna make? So I see Catherine, Speaker 6: I just was double checking on our town charter. It says that the, the warrant articles are due to the select board. So I just wanna make sure we're, we're, I think you said the town administrator, so we Yeah, we should be submitting more article to the, to select board. Yep. Is that, I don't know. You're Speaker 2: Right. Jamie Speaker 6: Should be addressed to the Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right. Jamie and I talked about this. I'm a little bit new to that process, but I did talk to Jamie today and he said the same exact thing. Speaker 6: Okay, perfect. I just, and then the ward, I know you had it, it, it was approved. It says the language has like vote to approve.
I don't have it in front of me. Sorry. But the town, could you pull that Speaker 2: Up? Yep. I've gotta get to it. Speaker 6: Okay. I was just wondering why it didn't say town meeting to approve. Speaker 2: Well right now we're approved you as the sponsors of this article, I'm asking you to consider the school committee agreeing on the language we, we actually submit to the town. Speaker 1: Can we see the warrant article though? Because I think it was in there. Yeah, town will approve. I Speaker 6: Just thought, my thought was that the town meeting would be approving it,
but maybe that's the same thing. I'll be honest, I haven't written a warrant article, but I Speaker 2: So let's go to the template language. See this warrant language is specific and provided this is the language provided by the MSBA. Can you see that document? Speaker 6: Yeah. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 6: Okay. Speaker 2: So you can kind of see our plugins are really just the italicized things in bracket. Speaker 6: Yeah, I guess when, just like I, when I read that, I thought this, that made me think that this was going to the voters, but this actually is going to town meeting and so maybe in that context, the capital T town there means
town meeting because they're a representative body. Is that how the MSBA? Speaker 2: I mean I can't speak because I know some, if that makes sense. Speaker 1: Yeah, I hear what you're saying. I'm trying to see if I have a warrant article, like a warrant book. I do Speaker 3: Do I just looked it up. Speaker 1: Does someone else have one? Yeah, Speaker 3: I just, I just looked it up. I'm looking at like the 2023 spring annual town meeting and all of the articles to see if the town will vote to see if the town to see what sum of money the town will vote. Speaker 1: Okay, Speaker 6: Perfect. Okay, that's, here you Speaker 1: Go. Speaker 6: Thank you. Thank Speaker 1: You. Okay, any other questions?
And is anyone interested in making a motion? Speaker 3: I'd move to approve the MSBA warrant article as shown on the screen Speaker 1: Second. Okay. Any discussion about that? Any questions? Any debate? Okay, so we'll vote as I see people on the screen. Mr. Brand? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 1: Ms. Brunell? Speaker 6: Yes. Speaker 1: Mr. Patel? Yes. Ms. Flas? Yes. Dr. Mann? Yes. And I am a Yes.
So that is 6 0 0 on that motion. And then we have another motion for the, so can back to your action item list. Dr. Staff? Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm getting stuck in the sharing. Let me just re-share from the Speaker 1: Oh, no problem. Sorry. Speaker 2: I can't see where I can Speaker 1: Open it too. Speaker 2: Yeah, well no, I, I'm happy to do that but I'm just bouncing around too much. I'm so sorry. I'm making you dizzy. Not my strength is this piece, it's like not showing me anymore the how to move it ahead. Linda, can you share this please?
Speaker 5: Hold on. I'll have to put it into, Speaker 2: Nevermind. I'll get it. Speaker 7: Should we go ahead with a motion to start? Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 7: Move approval of motion language for submission to the town administrator as specified in the agenda materials. Speaker 2: Here we go. Second. Speaker 1: Okay. Any debate about that? Speaker 6: Well, would you take a friendly amendment to a, to the select board? Speaker 3: The seconder would. Speaker 7: Sure. Speaker 1: Hand raised. Sorry. Speaker 5: Ms. Vickers has her hand raised.
Speaker 1: I see that. Yes, Ms. Vickers, I'll recognize you. Speaker 5: All right, let me, okay. Speaker 8: Hi. Thank you so much for recognizing me from the Vickers Precinct eight and town meeting member. And I am just curious if there's gonna be any type of a con conversation or information about how the amount of 2,600,000 was reached that's going in this motion. I'm sure that's probably gonna come up at town meeting and so I didn't know if maybe there was a little bit of a conversation about that beforehand before you guys voted. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Okay, so Dr. Stash, I think we, is that, can you remind us where that figure comes from? Sure. Mr. Gillis member. Speaker 2: Sure. And I'm gonna have Mr. Gillis weigh in as well. This was actually discussed in our school building committee as well and I appreciate the question. So this is in our meetings where we are have been learning about the process through the MSBA and our meetings kind of giving us guidance on this, where they said typically now the going rate for these feasibility programs can run anywhere from 2 million to 2.6 to 2.8 million is the range.
And that this was based on the project at hand, the recommended amount that went through the SBC and kind of that conversation there, but also directly from the MSBA guidance. But Matt, if you wanna add to that feel free. Speaker 9: Yeah. MSBA was, you know, sort of the main source. The way it generally works is, you know, in round numbers architect's fee is gonna be about 10% of the construction cost. So if it were a hundred million dollars project, you know, the architect's fee would be 10 million. In the feasibility study phase,
they're gonna look at multiple options and then come up with a design that is about 20 to 25% complete enough for rendering a floor plan. So we know where the program's gonna go and enough for an early cost estimate to bring to the voters. So the, the bulk of the money will go to the architects toll be some money for owners project management and some other money for studies of things like, you know, whether or not geothermal's going to work. So, which you don't really know until you drill some holes on the site and, and see what you have. Hope that helps explain where we
better got them better came up with the estimate for Speaker 1: Yeah, that, that, thank you for that. I think that's very helpful. Ms. Vickers, did that answer your question? We'll come, come back to you. I see Ms. Brunell. Speaker 6: Yes. Thank you. Ms. Vickers may not have been able to unmute herself. I'm just wondering about that. But if, if the, my question is if Oh, go ahead, Brinley. Speaker 8: Sorry. Thank you. I, or saying that Ms. Brunel, I was now just able to reconnect, unmute myself.
My question about that is, in those inclusions, is geothermal the only sustainable options that will be looked at? Or will there also be other concerns done or lead certification? And will we include other sustainability? Just not just geothermal? Thank you. Speaker 1: See Mr. Gillis looking like he's ready to give an answer there. Speaker 9: Yeah. Not to get too far ahead of the committee, but, but typically, yes, but like, well drilling is, is not something that has historically done. And you know, in my experience
just a few years ago in Brookline, the test, well to get the equipment out and to get it done was about a hundred thousand dollars for just, you know, one Well 'cause you don't have any economy of scale and it's, it's not like the equipment is really mobile, it's not like an hourly rental or anything like that. So I, I expect the committee, especially since sustainability seems to be a, a pretty solid priority in Natick, that we will explore a plethora of options. I just, I'm not gonna get into all of them, but I, you know, I'd say photovoltaic panels seems
to be one since it's been in most of the other schools. One incentives are out there. I mean, we have designers, we have a, a school building committee to ask those types of questions and to funnel questions to those members so that they can be asked. But to try to get the best new memorial for Natick, I think there'll be a lot of questions and a lot of answers that go into the study and then to select an option. Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Gillis. And then back to you Ms. Brunell. Speaker 6: Okay. My question is, if the feasibility access that was appropriated
Speaker 1: We're losing you. I can't, I can't hear you Ms. Brune. Speaker 6: Lemme try again. Can you hear me better now? Yeah, Speaker 1: It's cutting out a little bit, but go ahead, give it a try. Speaker 6: Okay, I'll try one more time. If $2.6 million, what would happen to the money that was appropriated? Speaker 2: I didn't hear the whole question, but I'm thinking you asked that if we didn't spend the whole 2.6 million, what would happen to any excess? Matt, can you answer that Speaker 6: Please? Speaker 2: Is that right? Speaker 6: That right? Yep. Speaker 9: Yeah, so, and, and you know, it's assuming the project goes forward, the the money
that's unspent rolls into the, the, the de the rest of the design of the project. If the project doesn't go forward, it, it remains unspent until the town pre appropriates the, the funds or returns them to the taxpayer since the funds are already on hand. Speaker 6: And then we just did not appropriate enough for the feasibility study what would happen if Speaker 1: It wasn't enough. So if it was 2.8 million instead of 2.6, that situation. I think that was the question Mr. Gil.
Speaker 9: So I can say I've never actually had that happen, but if we needed to go back to the taxpayers for more money, I suppose we could do that. Probably be the same pool as a transfer from the Kennedy project. But for the most part, I, you know, we're optimistic we can make that work. And you know, every, everybody understands that when you have a budget you can't say yes to everything. You have to make some choices to be responsible with, with the taxpayer's funds. So hopefully, you know, I'm optimistic we could make that work. Speaker 1: Thank you. And Mr. Patel,
you no longer have your hand up. Yeah, Speaker 10: That's gonna be my question too. What happens if it goes to 2.8? Speaker 1: Okay, great. Any other questions? When you're ready to vote? Okay. All right. Again, in order as I see people on the screen to the people looking around Mr. Patel? Yes. Mr. Brands? Yes. Ms. Laers? Speaker 7: Yes. Speaker 1: Dr. Esman? Yes. Ms. Brunell Brunell? Yes. And I am a yes. So that is 6 0 0. And then the other part is the
letter to be included in the, in the book for Tom meeting meeting. Does anyone want any discussion about that or make any changes to it? I see Ms. Laers, Speaker 7: I'll keep my remark brief, I just wanna comment I still, it's in there. I always, when I read through the limitations, hinder the district's ability to meet the needs of all learners and provide equitable access to programs in the student's own neighborhood school. I'm absolutely enthusiastic to sign this to move forward to the feasibility study. That's a lot of money. The MSBA puts on the table for us to do development through our town.
But as I've mentioned a few times that there are inec similar inequities that are listed here that are the most egregious at Memorial by everyone's admission exist at schools like Loja and Brown with, with pro services occurring in hallways like that to maybe a lesser extent, but I have heard from many parents that that happens. And so while it makes great sense to move forward the feasibility study, I feel like in parallel we need to be looking at our overall plan for all
of our elementary schools and make sure that that even as a new building is built, that you know, there is equity across the, across the town. Even if that includes needing to also mo move forward with investment in those schools and however that looks like. But it has to be a holistic plan. Otherwise I'll be hard pressed to move forward with, you know, just a single school without addressing that. But I do think we should, should move. We need to aggressively move forward on this opportunity. Speaker 1: Thank you Ms. Laers. Anybody else? Do we have a motion
Speaker 3: Move approval of the draft letter or the, no, it's not a draft. The letter of support from the school committee. Do you have a second? Speaker 1: Second for Mr. Patel. Speaker 3: Do you want, sorry, do you want me to Linda do you want me to use the language that's in the recommendation? I can, I can write it out as such. Okay. Is Speaker 2: Can I make a friendly request? Speaker 3: Yes, Speaker 2: I'm happy for that to come directly only from the school committee. But if you would like me to co-sign it. Does it need to be part of Speaker 3: The motion? Yes. Yeah. So if I may adjust my motion to
move approval to approve the, to authorize the school committee to sign a joint letter of support for the Memorial Elementary School feasibility study along with the superintendent. Speaker 1: Second. Any debate on the matter? Feel like the administrator. Okay, so we'll vote that again in order as I see people on the screen. Mr. Brand? Yes. Mr. Catel? Yes. Ms. Brunell. Ms. Brunell? Yes. Ms. Flas? Yes. Dr. Fuman? Yes. And I'm a yes. So that's 6 0 0.
So then the other matter is whether or not we want to do it make any recommendation right now about the source of the funding potentially coming from the surplus for the Kennedy Middle School. So I have a question, Dr. Stash, was this part of the discussion today and was there any ha has there been any work on the town side to assess if this is within the scope of how these funds could be used? Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't, thanks for the question Matt was, Mr.
Gillis was there with me when we met with Mr. Erickson and we met with Mr. Townsend today. It was a good meeting and we actually shared this thought and where we were coming from and the fact that we were gonna kind of talk about it as a school committee tonight and there was no resistance whatsoever. I think, I think this is their idea too. I would not wanna speak for them. But what I'm saying is that there was no pushback, no different options on the table. I think this was is also the path forward. I actually said to them, if you would like to submit another letter of support to our packet to say
that you are of that mind also that'd be amazing. And you know, we'll see where that goes. So I believe that this is their plan as well. I think the think the media part of the conversation was how the fin comm will develop the motion. Whether it'll be like merged with our motion to say how they get that money or whether it'll be two separate motions. I hope it's two separate because the MSBA language is pretty prescriptive. So Matt, would you add or change anything I just said? Speaker 9: No, just one addition that, that John Townsend mentioned that the Kennedy project feasibility study was
funded either partially or in full from the balance of the high school project. So we're not setting a, a new precedent in town with the ask. And I think that's, you know, whether it was their idea to do it this way or our idea doesn't matter, it seems seems we're both in accord to use existing funds to start the the feasibility study process. Speaker 2: Thanks Matt. That was an important add. Speaker 1: Okay, Ms La Speaker 7: I just wanna voice support for this. I mean we met in budget subcommittee last week, talked about this pretty extensively
about what options exist. This definitely seems like the best option. Sounds like there's agreement on that. We ran outta time that meeting to actually draft the memo. So that's where the motion comes from to be in agreement. The options on the table are, you know, we do the memo and then it gets approved or as a committee, which is my preferred option, we, we rec, we approve recommendation of the $2.6 million and then authorize the budget subcommittee just to draft the language of the memo that goes along with it to that same end. Speaker 1: And just for my clarification, next, next week, write.
Okay, thank you for my clarification. Is the memo again to town meeting or is it to the select board who's, who's receiving the memo Speaker 7: Go? It's going with the packet. Speaker 1: With the packet. So to town meeting, Speaker 2: That would be my recommendation. But many of you are on town meeting and I would happily take feedback on that thinking. Speaker 6: I agree. I think it should go to town meeting Speaker 7: And it can cc, they can cc the select board as well Speaker 6: And yeah. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: Can I add another little something? We're imagining that that memo could have two attachments.
One would be a printout from the general ledger for the account called New Kennedy Fund. I believe that started back when they did Kennedy. So we'd literally show the closing the balance in there, which is like 4.8 million in change. And then it would also show we'd include in that as an attachment to that memo, the final letter from the MSBA closing out the grant and what the, so it's very clear how much money is left in that account and that it's a closed cycle on Kennedy. Speaker 1: Any other questions on Ms. Platy?
Speaker 7: I think the only piece that remains here is the wording. If, if, unless there's real disagreement is the wording of the motion of whether or not this is a memo that's just signed. It is just from the budget subcommittee or whether it's on behalf of the school committee as a whole, or whether we want to be signed by the school committee feel sufficient that one or two feel sufficient. 'cause I don't know as we want to reconvene to review the draft, but I don't know whether I'm wrong about the options that exist. Speaker 1: So Go ahead. Oh yeah, no, go ahead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was only gonna, I think Kate kinda referred to it, but this is literally due by the 21st and we don't have a meeting till the 26th and so we'd have to reconvene if it was something to review again. Speaker 1: Yeah, Mr Brand, Speaker 3: I, I lean towards having it be from the budget subcommittee, the group that discussed it in, in a meeting. It, it doesn't come off to me as being overly prescriptive that way. Like it's a, a special group of people who specifically look at money and budget things making a
recommendation and perhaps doesn't, the full school committee comes off to me a little bit as we are telling you what to do with money as opposed like, it's ultimately up to town meeting to make that decision. So I, I like the idea of the, the whole school committee signing the joint letter in support and then the budget subcommittee saying, and there's one other thing it, and it just, it, it feels to me like a better
holistic approach. Speaker 7: And I that feels, that feels fine to me too. And I think to your point Matt, if the whole school committee was gonna do it, then we probably should go through that discussion in full. And so I think, you know, as, as written here, that was the intent is it's, as it's authored here, is would you have a motion to authorize the school committee budget subcommittee to submit a memo recommending the 2.6 million if everyone feels comfortable with that And then we do have a meeting scheduled for next week where we can review and wordsmith the draft and, and get it out before the 21st. Speaker 1: Yeah. Point points well taken.
Yeah, and I think the two supporting piece of information about the showing the, the funds and the closure of the grant I think will be helpful too to show that this is a recommendation based on that too. So yeah. Any other thoughts before we ask for a motion? Mr. Patel? Speaker 10: I slightly disagree with Mr. Brand. I think it would look better for the town meeting if everyone from the school committee as a whole signed it. But that's just, you know, take a grain of salt, I suppose. It's my opinion.
Speaker 1: Okay. Ms. Lathers Speaker 7: Only response that jam I would've agreed with you. It's, except that now we're getting very positive from signals from the town that they also agree that this is where it could come from. So it feels, you know, if it sounds like everyone's kind of in agreement, so this is saying that, you know, the the budget arm of the school committees in agreement, the administration, the town, but I don't know that that's, again, it's always better if there's full discussion, but I think we wanna lean into using our subcommittees to get more work done, which is, you know, delegating some more of that work would be helpful.
So I can go either way. Yep. Speaker 1: Yeah, no, and I, I agree. I think the substance of what we're voting on, we're voting on in the motion and then it's really the details, the language of the memo with the subcommittee work on. That's, that's my thought. Dr. Stash, Speaker 2: I was just thinking the, there could be some wording in the memo that refers to this discussion that with the whole committee, which would kind of show that it's not in in isolation. It was informed by this, the will of this committee and the discussion of this committee. Speaker 1: Yeah, Dr. Stein, Speaker 4: I like the idea of basically saying the letter comes from
the budget subcommittee that says that the full per our meeting of August 5th, the entire committee is supporting us the budget subcommittee in submitting this letter. So something along the lines that there's the budget subcommittee committee submitting the letter, but it, but it's with support of the full committee. Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that too. I think that's, I think that's a good addition. Yeah. Ms. Brunell, Speaker 6: I mean, just by nature of our committee makeup, we never act as we, we always only act as a unit.
Can you guys hear me? Sorry, I'm still driving from Medfield. Speaker 1: You're cutting out a little bit. I didn't actually hear you actually hear you. Speaker 6: Okay. We, we only ever act as a unit, the school c the school committee only acts as the school committee. So we actually can't act in any way. You, we could have a budget subcommittee write a letter on behalf of the school committee, but that means that the school committee endorses what this budget subcommittee does. We only ever act as a school committee.
Speaker 1: Right. Hence making the motion at the school committee on the substance of the memo and authorizing them to write it. Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean that's fine. I'm just saying the, anything that's a yes. Any, any opinion the school committee has, it's on behalf of the entire school committee. Speaker 1: I think we're in agreement there. Did you have your hand up, Mr. Gillis? Speaker 9: So, yeah, I, Catherine it's only a suggestion, but sometimes if you turn off the, the camera, the, the transmission for the, for the audio works more consistently and we'd hear you without the breaking up stuff.
Just, that's all. Speaker 1: All right. Do we have a motion? It sounds like we wanna modify it a little bit from what was recommended. Speaker 3: I, I could make a motion but it might be better Ms. Lathers to if you or somebody who knows exactly what the changes should be. Speaker 7: Yep. I guess one question is, do you guys, before we do it, do you want, there is a working draft that hasn't been even reviewed by the full budget subcommittee. Do you wanna hear any of it? If, 'cause it sounds like we wanna make sure that this is, that the motion implies the entire committee is,
is approving the recommendation to 2.6, but leaving kind of the wordsmithing to the budget subcommittee of the memo is, that's kind of what I'm hearing from everyone. Speaker 1: Sure. If you have a working draft, yeah, Speaker 7: You can bring it up. No. Who has, do you, I don't have share. Do you wanna share the working, do you wanna share it? So some people that can read and read aloud and I, there's a couple of edits that I would make to it based on the feedback that we got here. I don't think it includes, yeah. Speaker 1: Do you want me to share it Speaker 7: Kate? Yeah, you can share. That'd be fine. Can people read it?
Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 7: Is it big enough? Speaker 1: Can I always make it bigger for me? But that's, that's great. Thank you. Speaker 11: Something like, Speaker 1: I see Ms. Brunes hand. Speaker 6: Okay. So just in reading the language in the letter, I would, I would think that the budget subcommittee would make recommendations to the full committee and that it would be, I, we've just never done this where the, like for example, the policy subcommittee makes a recommendation to another entity in Natick.
So I know that when we, if somebody were to put a motion on town meeting floor for example, that it has money involved in it, you always have to have a source of the funding. I, again, I don't have the warrant or the previous town meeting books in front of me. I actually don't know who usually names the funding source for things that are developed before town meeting. So I don't, I just don't wanna like go outside of anyone's lane here and I don't wanna make anyone upset if the school committee
is naming a funding source, even though it does sound like we're all on agreement. But I definitely do not think the recommendation should come from a budget subcommittee. One more point, while the warrant is due on the 21st, not all of the materials for the fin com need to be in on the 21st. So we would have time to figure this stuff out. Budget subcommittee meet, meeting happens and then on the 26th, the school committee, or even September 5th, whenever we meet for the first time, we could put
that on our agenda because when the fin com takes each warrant article up, that's when all the information really needs to be due then Speaker 1: Dr. Stash. Speaker 2: Yeah. The recommendation when we spoke with Jamie today was that any materials and package we often, this is from the few times I've done this so far here, get an email from the chair of the fin com asking us for such materials and the recommendation is to send it the Monday after the warrant is due for, for what it's worth.
Speaker 1: Okay. So we don't need to have this ready for the 21st? No, probably we'd have a few more Speaker 7: Days. Yeah. Speaker 1: So yeah, I, I mean we've never done this before. This is a first time for us making, making this sort of recommendation coming from the school committee. And at least in my limited experience in the last few years, I, I feel like I'd like to get a little bit more information to ensure that this recommendation should come from the school committee alone. 'cause really we got the information from
from from school administration, right? Like that's when we heard that this money was available. So I almost feel like this should be more informational. Like, you know, we have confirmed that this, these grants have been closed out, that this amount of money is there. I don't know if we could make such a strong recommendation. I see Mr. Gillis and then Ms. Fathers and that's a wonder, not a, Speaker 9: I'll defer to Kate. You can go first. Speaker 7: I guess my feeling is, I mean I guess we could change the word. Oh you stopped sharing. Oh, sorry. I wasn't sure we were Got it. I, okay. I have it up here too. I mean it's, I'm looking at the wording.
I guess it's just more, it's this confirmation inform of, I don't know, I guess I guess I'm trying to figure out procedurally, how, how would this come to the floor? Like the, the annual budget comes with in math, I guess is the question directed to you? This is, this is something we're asking taming to approve. They're approving the funding source. So all we're really doing is confirming that these funds available
to our knowledge have not been allocated anywhere else. That we agree that this is, you know, the right and appropriate source of funds so we don't have to go to the will. Others, someone could disagree presumably, but this is what we strongly recommend. And I guess the, like are there questions within the committee that, that is not what we recommend? 'cause we had finished having that conversation, but these are funds that we know are available that seem appropriate based on previous historical precedent. And we are writing as a committee to say, you know,
even based on the precedent of using the high school surplus for Kennedy, using the Kennedy surplus for Memorial is, you know, seems appropriate. And we're sending our support for that. And I guess that's where we're asking in the wordsmithing, we feel like it should come from the entire subcommittee, the entire committee then you know, it's kind of like the letter for you Elise. Elise you're gonna sign it, but we voted that we agree that the language is right or we could take the past 'cause we just voted that you are going to draft it.
It's draft, we saw the draft, something could change, but it's gonna go through DocuSign to every member of the committee presumably, and we'll all sign it. I mean we could do it that way too. If we finish up this, up this draft that is effectively what it says here. But obviously talking about what the decision that we made tonight and sent it around to the entire committee. But I'm not sure it's meaningfully different. Speaker 1: I mean, I'm, I'm fine if we, if we go with this recommendation to have the budget subcommittee drafted, I would like to have a conversation with the select board chair just
about sort of the mechanics of doing this and perhaps even the town administrator just to sort of have that input on, on really what is the, what is the right way to frame this, you know, to communicate what we want to do. So I I would like to do that before we finalize it. That's my only thought. Speaker 7: And why anyway, go ahead. Speaker 1: Because I I I just wanna make sure that we do it correctly and sort of, and, and, and correctly and,
and according to, to precedent about how these, these types of recommendations are made so that we aren't making a misstep that then is going to be distracting. I think that, so we gonna make this recommend Sorry, sorry, sorry. Speaker 4: I was gonna sorry, I thought you were done. I didn't mean to interrupt. I said that I think that's wise. Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Just to make sure that, you know, writing it from the right group to the right people, characterizing it in the right way so that we don't then spend an hour in front of income discussing the fact that we wrote the memo incorrectly or something. You know what I'm saying? So that's the only thing I'd like,
like us to do, Mr. Catel. Speaker 10: Thanks. So I'm just curious are, are we debating whether or not the memo should be just from the subcommittee or should if it should be from the full committee? Because if it is, if that's the question, then I would think it makes more sense to do it through it through the full, full school committee as the motion and the article is from the full school committee, right? Just to be consistent. Is that, is that what we're debating? Speaker 1: So we're doing, talking about a couple things. That's one of them. Yes. Like should the memo be signed by the budget subcommittee or the full committee?
And it sounds like there's some people who think both things, some people who feel comfortable having the budget subcommittee sign it. Some people who thinks that the budget subcommittee should be doing on behalf of the full committee. Right. And that we would be then in our motion today authorizing the budget subcommittee to drop a memo memo on behalf of the full committee and to finalize it since they have a meeting next week. Speaker 10: Okay. Alright. Just as a town meeting member, I, I know some of Speaker 1: People, no one's made a motion yet though. Alright. We're discussing what the motion might be, right?
Speaker 10: I think, I think there's a chance that if only a few of the school committee members sign it, it may give off the impression that the other school committee members don't support it potentially. Which is why I would think it would be better if everyone's name's on it no matter who drafts the actual memo. Speaker 1: So do I I, I looking, looking for some confirmation here, but I'm hearing what I think I'm hearing from perhaps the majority of people is that we would like this memo to come from the full committee or potentially be signed by the full committee, but that we're comfortable having the budget
subcommittee draft it. Am I on the right track there? I'm seeing a nod, but Speaker 7: If we end up feeling like it should be in by the 21st, does that mean we schedule another one of these one-offs? Speaker 1: I mean we could just send it through DocuSign to get it signed Speaker 7: Just Speaker 1: Right. I mean we're agreeing on the substance of what's going into the memo here Speaker 7: And Elise, you'll have a conversation and let me know if any procedural things Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah, I can reach out to the town administrator tomorrow and to the select board chair as well just to get some advice. Yeah, if Ms. Collins was here, I would ask her
because she's written a million articles and I've read a million memos in the, in the budget book. Right. So I just feel like she could provide us some advice too. Speaker 7: And she will, well hope. We'll Speaker 1: I'll try to She's on your committee, right? So she can Yeah. Speaker 7: Yeah, but she's, it's been difficult scheduling, but I will try to get in contact with her. Okay. Speaker 1: What I'm Speaker 7: Hearing is that it would be, the memo should sub subsequently be what this is here, but make sure it also includes that it's, it is from the school committee, so it's from the school committee as if you know,
so it's just the wordsmithing that it is the entire entire school committee. And then it would be just routed through DocuSign and would be to the members of town meeting. And if we need this before the 21st, that might involve scheduling another meeting if there's concerns with signing of it. And if it does not need, and there's concerns with routing it through signatures, we would wait till the 26th and discuss it. Does that sound correct? Speaker 1: Yes. So then I think
we need a motion. Do you wanna turn that into motion, Ms. Flatters? Speaker 7: Ooh, Speaker 1: I try. Speaker 7: Let's see, what do we have the, so move to authorize this goal committee budget subcommittee to finalize a memo recommending that 2.6 million from the Kennedy Middle School project surplus be used to fund the memorial feasibility study and route and the chair of the budget subcommittee will route the memo,
the final version of the memo through DocuSign to all school committee members. Speaker 2: Second, Speaker 1: Any discussion of the motion? Okay. All right. Seeing no hands up, we'll vote on this in the order. I see people on the screen on Mr. Patel. Yes. Ms. Laers? Yes. Dr. Fon? Speaker 7: Yes. Speaker 1: Mr. Brand? Yes. Ms. Brunell? Yes. And I am a yes. So that is 6 0 0. Okay, great. Super.
And I will, I'll get back to Ms. Laers and what I hear from Ms. Coughlin and also the town administrator. Speaker 12: Can I suggest you talk to the town moderator as well? Speaker 1: Oh, sorry, I meant moderator. Okay. Did I say administrator? Sorry, I meant town moderator. Okay. Every retract. Jamie, you're listening. Not gonna come to you for any of this. I'll go straight to the town moderator. So sorry. Okay Miss. So yeah. Okay. Alright. Last agenda item. Speaker 2: Would you like me to move there? Speaker 1: Yes please. Speaker 2: Great.
So last week we actually reported out on this to the school building committee last night. So we're gonna kind of do the same thing. We had Tracy come and present just as they, as she presented to this group a little bit ago. And that was kind of at the end of the meeting. But we met with, we had our enrollment meeting with the MSBA, I believe it was July 30th. That went very well. Matt's been to a few of these and his takeaway was that it was one of the, if not the better meeting that he'd had. I wanna emphasize and we should make sure it's listed on the, yeah, it says it initial not final draft.
So this report here that has been shared is not a final final draft. It's kind of that first and then we're gonna resubmit, Matt will resubmit a few items that they ask for and he'll go over that in a second probably by tomorrow. And then we'll wait for a turnaround, which we anticipate those numbers for enrollment to increase a bit. So I'm gonna let him summarize the process because he did that yesterday for the SBC and then to go a little bit about the items that he is submitting to the MSBA based on their request. And then we can of course take any questions. Speaker 9: Yep. So thank you. You know, the meeting on the 30th
with MSBA was sort of to go over their enrollment report with us. You know, initially they sent us the 10 page slide presentation and we got a little time to review it and they did incorporate some of our factual information from where we were at with actual enrollment from April when we shared that information with them just just before the May deadline. And they also took into account some information from future think the school committees independent enrollment consultant I think was also helpful in, in supporting our, our case.
And they, they were open to that. We, we had some back and forth. They have taken into account, you know, looking at a three year model, three year trend instead of a five or 10 year trends like they have in the past because of COVID and the way that skews things. They also took into account or want to take into account some more of our projected growth and requested updated permit numbers from us to, you know, sort of help support our case where our numbers different from theirs.
And, and so did future things to see if we can reconcile that. We learned that they do not count modular classrooms as part of the full, full space. Whenever you're doing a school, at least recently, they tend to look at all the schools in the district and see what your capacity is and then see how many spaces you have and how many students you have and, and if there's a way to sort of get the most bang for the buck. So pull that together. We have 87 current designed classrooms from K
through four size rooms and we have 12 modular classrooms, six at Lilja and six at Brown. They're not gonna count the modular classrooms 'cause they don't have, you know, what I'll call 50 year expected useful life. We're in, I think year eight of 20 on, on the modular classrooms for their expected useful life. So that means that with using our existing student count, which as of today it looks like we're gonna be at 365 kindergartners and we still have a little time before school starts for any, any new ones to come in.
But there are some in the application process, excuse me, sorry. So we, we'll have more existing students factored into the enrollment. We'll have more students, more square footage because we'll have fewer classrooms to factor in. And so that, that'll get us more students from the Memorial School, which equals more allowable square footage to build and essentially more money from the state to help right size memorial to better fit Natick as a whole. You know, we, we did open the, the process and when we started talking about projections,
we pointed out that the high school has been overcrowded since day one. They recognized it, apologized and then pointed out that the, the Kennedy Middle School was designed for a thousand students. And you've got nine 17 and you know, we agree we're off to a good start. The, the middle schools sort of sized appropriately. High school's tight and it's probably gonna be tight for a little while longer. But you know, we, we didn't want to have the same experience with Memorial with the high school and neither did they. So we we're gonna submit some more information to them. I've got two out of three things in hand
and then hopefully tomorrow I'll have the rest and then we will get what we believe is gonna be a revised number that that's a little bit more helpful for everyone in town. That doesn't mean that we're making a bigger school per se, but if they said, well, you know, based on our calculations, we're only gonna give you money for 300 students, even though you, you think you're gonna have 450 students in there for the better part of the next 10 years or longer, then you know, we probably still have to take it and, and make up the difference.
So, you know, I'm viewing this as a positive help and, and again, the study options, what's the best new memorial for Natick Will, will, will be decided when we get to the study phase. But this is the only chance to get the number of allowable pupils and square footage. So we're, we're, we're, I'm pleased with where we're at and how things have worked out to this point. 'cause it for all my other projects, it hasn't been as smooth as this one so far.
Knock on all wood, cross all appendages. Speaker 1: Thank you Mr. Gillis. I see Ms. Brunell hands. Speaker 12: Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you to Dr. Bash and Mr. Gillis for their work on this with MSPA and the enrollment projections. I think the enrollment study was really good. I guess I'm patting ourselves on the back too. 'cause I know that that's something that the committee had asked for for more than three years and Dr. Stash and Mr. Gillis, you acted on that and I think that that was probably huge in your meeting
with, with the MSBA, I appreciate everything you said tonight. I, I am curious about preschool classrooms. Do they count those too? Is that part of the projection given that it was in our SOI, Speaker 9: So it is not part of the enrollment projection that they use, but they recognize them and we'll, we'll see how it comes out because they've accepted preschool classrooms in Dedham and Brookline and, and other places. They even, you know, verbally said that it's usually fewer preschool classrooms than the number of sections per grade. So, you know,
we could be looking at four preschool classrooms if we were to do a five section school as an example. Speaker 2: Can I add to that? So in the meeting, I mean Matt, you know the process better than I having gone through it several times and I agree with everything you just said, but what I also heard in addition to them not formally including them inside the enrollment, but making a piece, including them ultimately in the plan, they did really clarify that they were looking this at this as neighborhood preschool classrooms. That was their parameter and caveat.
And that's a really important point because even though they're very aware of the swing space that we're using, that's, I don't think that's gonna be compelling based on my read and listen, even though it was in the SOI to fund or consider in the funding formula an entire preschool or even all of east. So correct me if I'm wrong, Matt, but that's what I heard in that meeting. Speaker 9: No, you, you, you nailed it. They did say neighborhood preschool for, you know, whatever the memorial zone is and I say whatever it is
because it, it could change, you know, the site hasn't been fully vetted or, or finalized as part of the study options. You know, I, I don't want to be too wishy-washy about it, but like I just don't wanna get too far ahead of the committee. You know, we have to, once we get invited in and we get approval from town meeting to start the, the process there, there's a lot of things that go on the list and then we discuss them and vet them and then like I said, try to pick the best memorial for best new memorial for Natick. Speaker 2: Just to kind of one more addition
or extension of this conversation, it doesn't make me nervous. I mean the MSBA has the rules they have, they're trying to develop what they're going to fund and ultimately the town and this committee, well first this committee, we're gonna be determining what school we want to build and whether we're going to, you know, ask for the funding of, there's a lot of analytical and database scenarios I would wanna put in front of the committee and in front of the, ultimately in front of the town that said, if we just take this funding formula and we only make it a neighborhood preschool, it looks like this.
If we add on just east, it looks like this and we have to pay this much more. And if we add all of it, it makes some more space over at the high school. It costs this and have some equanimity around that analysis. And let the people, which you are also, the people, kind of weigh in and decide. So the m SBA is gonna have their rules, they're gonna have the ways that they, kind of, their algorithm for calculating what they're going to fund. And then we have a lot of voice in what we choose to build. That's, that's how I'm seeing it. It's a dance. Speaker 1: Thank you. Any other questions from the committee?
I have just a curiosity question. So you said that they don't count the modulars. So does that mean that a school that has like a lot of modulars is sort of a prime project for MSBA to replace modulars with a more permanent school building? It's just curious. 'cause you had said that Speaker 9: I suppose it, it, it could be, but again, like they're gonna look at all the schools in town To try to figure out what you really need and what you, what you may not need.
And so when we had our, our pretty steady growth there for a little more than a decade and wound up adding modular classrooms on two schools where we could add them, you know, they take that into account that at some point those classrooms, either a, aren't gonna be there or they're gonna require a, another replacement of one kind or another. So they like to see the state's tax dollars be stretched appropriately to maximize value. So they take that into account.
You know, if, if you had an old school that had some modular classrooms, you know, they would view that as as temporary the same way they would see it sounds like across everywhere. Across everywhere else. Speaker 1: I see. Okay. Thank you. No, just curious. Any other questions from anybody? Okay, well thank you so much for that update. It sounds like that was a really, really productive and successful meeting. So thank you guys. All right. So I think we just have one agenda item left. One motion. Motion to adjourn. Second. Okay.
And I'll take people in order. Ms. Brunell? Yes. Dr. Esman? Yes. Ms. Lathers? Yes. Mr. Patel? Yes. Mr. Brand? Yes. Oh Matt, that's so fancy. And I am a yes. So we are adjourned.