Good evening. Calling the January 27th Norfolk School Committee meeting to order. Begin this meeting as we begin all our meetings by reading the mission statement. The Norffor public schools offers a safe, joyful, and challenging learning environment that meets the needs of our diverse students. Through school, family, and community partnerships, we provide an education
that inspires lifelong learners and cultivates caring and productive citizens of our everchanging world. Have a roll call, please. Lauren Divas, Grace Lockhead, >> Lisa Sheldon, Ingret Lardy, >> Katie Young. >> Next on the agenda is public comment.
Does anyone wish to speak tonight? No. Moving on to correspondence, which there is none. Going on to the chair report, the first thing we have is a vote on a on two gifts. One from Vision Inc. DBA
Okconor Studios, which is our photographer. Um, and that is in the amount of $3,5745. That will go to the FK student activity account to offset field trip costs. And the next one is from the Norfol PTO in the amount of $800. And that is HOD
staff payments for active kids session one at HOD. Looking for a motion to approve the gifts as stated. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Further discussion. >> Um, just a question. And I've never seen a donation from the OK Conor Studios. Is
that >> So it's part of the profit that we make for for school photos. Um I'm not sure. I'd have to look back in past uh records why they haven't come through, but generally >> maybe I just wasn't paying attention. >> No, I'm not sure. I'll check.
>> Yeah, just wondering. >> I think I've seen it before. >> Yeah, it might have gone been under just vision. >> Oh, maybe maybe. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Any further discussion on this? >> No. Oh, thank you to Conor Studios and the Norfolk PTO and active kids. My kids loved it. Uh the gym morning session. So
all those in favor? >> I I right para profofessional negotiations update. We have reached a preliminary agreement and so uh our legal council and their union representative are finalizing the contract now I believe. Yep.
>> They'll craft a a memo of agreement that outlines the the terms that we agreed to. And then next school committee meeting in February, we'll have that for you all and we can all formally vote on it. So that would be great. >> And I think once it's complete, their members will vote to ratify it first and
then it'll come to the committee. But hopefully within that time frame, they will have time to do that. So and the next item on the agenda is a fundraiser request from the PTO. They are looking to co-sponsor a new fundraiser with the
Norfol Small Business Association. The proposed fundraiser is a comedy night scheduled for May 2nd. The proceeds will help offset the cost of educational enrichments and community programming supported by the PTO. The event will be promoted to families and the school community through PTO communication
channels. NSBA will assume all financial risk and responsibility for planning and running the event. The PTO's role will be limited to promotion and ticket sales, leveraging our community reach. And in the packet you can see they filled out our questionnaire that we put together and that is complete and a
little bit more about the event. So does anyone have any questions on that? All right. Looking for a motion to approve the new fundraiser as written. >> I'll second. >> Further discussion.
>> All those in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> All right. Next is we have a vote on the teacher negotiation team. So, we had voted on this back in the fall and then Madora and I went through the negotiation process with the PAR professionals and we built a good
relationship with U members of the working group, the union representative. So, we're thinking would it make more sense just we have this relationship, let's continue building it. Um you had spoken with Madora and she was >> I spoke with Madora and I spoke with
Peter. Um Peter was uh originally elected to serve on the teacher part of the negotiations. Um and as Lisa said, I think the negotiations for the PAR professional contract went a little faster than expected. Um and we've reached a preliminary settlement and plan to transition right into the
teacher negotiations. Um we did build a good working relationship and felt as a negotiating team it might make sense to keep the same team members. Um Madora felt that because we're starting a little bit earlier um rather than later in the spring that she would be able to continue on in that capacity as long as
we were able to schedule out at least a month ahead um for other commitments. I spoke with Peter. said that he certainly was ready to to continue with the teacher negotiations. Um but that he felt that if the team felt it was made more sense to keep the current team than
he would step down and uh graciously express appreciation to Madora for continuing on. So both parties were comfortable with that and Madora said it was okay to vote her in in her absence tonight if the committee chose to.
So, I'd be looking for a motion to vote in myself again and then replace Peter with Madora for the teacher negotiation team for this year. >> Okay. Um, I will move to make that change.
>> Uh, I'll second. Okay. Any further discussion on that? >> No. Thanks to Madora. I I understood she was not able to make it work, so I'm sure she had to >> work some magic on her side. >> Right. All those in favor? >> I I >> Great. Handing it off to you. All right.
So, school and district highlights. All kinds of things happened since our last meeting. So, I'll try to be brief, but just pull out a few things. Um, obviously, we were excited to welcome our students back after the December break uh to the start of the new year. Um, looks like it's going to be a snowy
one as we had our first snow day today. And, uh, I've already been getting updates about another storm coming Sunday night. So, so stay tuned. Stay tuned. Um, we did hire a new teacher for physical education classes at the Freeman Kennedy School. Uh, Miss
Kelly Pereira will be retiring at the end of January and we hired Marissa Broader um as her replacement. She will be starting and uh spend a couple of days transitioning with Miss Pereira before the end of the month. Um, so we are excited to welcome her um and thank
all the staff members that served on the interview team. Um, I think it was a great process and I think she's going to be a great fit. We also welcome two new paraprofessional staff members to our team. Shaina Bordeaux, uh, who will work at the H. Olive Day School and Emma Ruskin, who's going to join the Freeman
Kennedy staff. Um, lastly, at the district level, Dr. Anna Tupper, our director of student services, has announced her intent to retire at the end of this school year after 20 years in Norfolk, 15 as the director of student services, and five as a team chair. um her dedication and commitment
to building specialized programs, expanding the preschool, and ensuring the district continues to provide the best possible education to all Norfolk children has truly set her apart, and she will certainly be missed. Um I will provide an update at the next school committee meeting on the plans for uh
the search for a new special education director and the director of students. Um at the HOD, December was very successful with their school hat mitten drive and season of giving. Um they are in the beginning stages of working with their school council to develop a new
three-year school improvement plan which will be coming to the school committee in June. Um the IARE program launched through CPAC uh which is a program that relies heavily on parent volunteers and parent readers to read stories to children um that talk about different
experiences and differing abilities and promote acceptance and inclusion. Grade 2 has started skating units in anticipation of their annual skating trip to the Norfol Arena. Uh, Active Kids, which was funded by the PTO, and you accepted a gift earlier to pay the
staff, has begun. Um, uh, high levels of excitement and participation in that program. So, we're grateful to the PTO. Kindergarten registration has opened. Um, we had quite a few students. We're up to about 130 registered so far after 3 weeks of being open. We're monitoring
that. Um, prek information night is coming up on January 22nd and Unified Champion Schools classroom partners um have completed two school activities uh classroom games and gym games um between uh uh some of our classes. We are
looking forward um uh they they were happy to uh see such high interest and attendance at the heritage night on January 23rd. um over 350 families uh and uh individuals participated. So that was a great response. Um FK has had also
a successful season of giving schoolwide assemblies for earning students met their target for earning sores feathers. They had a hot shot basketball game in grades three and four with all students participating and another in grades five and six. A fabulous winter conference uh
successful conferences and book fair. The FK student council is working to develop again uh a site school council is working on their new three-year school improvement plan. Um and DARE has begun um active kids again has also become at the FK and they also have
launched an FK homework club. Um PTO is supporting that uh getting up and off the ground and um we it is free for students in grades five and six. So a little bit about what's going on around the district. Any questions? kindergarten tracking to plan you would
say are you surprised by the numbers or >> um I'm not surprised it's trending high um for where we uh typically are at this point in the year uh it's aligned a little we're closer to where we were in 23 and 24 when we had 170 students in kindergarten um I don't think we're
going to hit that that high a benchmark um but we had slightly lower enrollment this year I think some families held their kids out another year um we had some families that are returning from from private kindergartens and entering. So, um to be seen, I I'm not surprised.
We kind of expected this would be a higher higher enrollment year. Um but I I I think we're going to fall somewhere between average and and somewhere probably in the 150s, 160s. Not quite as high as 23 24, but higher than our
typical. All right. Um budget update. Miam is uh a lot of people are stuck in places. Madora is stuck somewhere. Miriam stuck with somewhere with travel. Um, but she prepared a budget update. Overall on the front, you've seen this format before. So, our budgets divided by categories
that we report out to the Department of Education. Our total budget allocation is 16,234,378. That's all in and it's uh broken up to categories for administration, instructional services which is the mass uh uh the largest portion of our budget,
student services, operations, fixed charges, and then out of district uh tuitions. Walking through that budget uh overview, you'll see currently we are trending uh expecting a deficit in uh the 1000 series, which is district
administration. Um we are intending to recclass some administrative expenses to to the sack revolving account to cover part of the salary of the director which we typically do. So we expect that that will uh close that budget gap in that category.
Under instructional services um we did add a new classroom teacher to grade two based on uh expected um or our current enrollment uh higher enrollment than expected. Um we do are currently tracking expecting a balance in
instructional services of 81,000. That's primarily we have a couple of open positions that we've been struggling to fill. We had added that.5 tech support and we have not been able to fill that position as of yet. Um looking at possibly partnering with the town around something there. Um we also have a
couple of um instructional assistants who resigned that we are also trying to replace. So, we have some and then we had a few people that were in different places than anticipated on the salary schedule. So, we have some savings there. Um, you'll see in the next line
under student services, uh, we have had to add a licensed practical nurse. We're still looking to fill that position in order to meet uh, the needs of some of our students. Um, so we are projecting a deficit in that category of about 25,000 primarily related to that unexpected
position. Operation and maintenance, we're pretty much on target. Again, some of these expenses for custodial services that are provided to the SAC program will be reclassed to help us offset that deficit. Um, it's still, again, we're projecting where we are based on this point in the
year. Um, the snow uh snow, salt, those things are variable. um heating costs, things like that. So, we will update as we progress through the year. Um fixed charges is primarily uh contractual benefits such as sick leave
buyback, things that are uh contract driven. We're expecting a balance of 13,000 this year. Um we do have quite a few staff members that are retiring this year. Those fixed charges are paid out of next year's budget after July 1. So, um that's why it's not appearing here.
Programs with other districts. This is the area that we are um uh uh monitoring closely. We are projecting a deficit of $312,949 there. Um first of all, the FY6 26 budget did approve the use of 75,000 of
special education reserve funds to offset that. Um we have not used those as of yet. Um but that would be available if we need it. Additionally, we have a state reimbursement 253,122 from circuit breaker that will be applied to offset that def deficit
leaving us with about 100,000. Um, we had an unexpected out of district placement which is not uncommon. Uh, I will speak to our plan for how we're going to uh approach that deficit a little bit later in as we walk through the next few slides. Okay. So if you look at the overall
picture of our finances, we are currently projecting a total operational deficit of 223,000 um or expanding 101.38% of the budget allocation. As you know, last year when we had students that were placed at the Bay State shelter, we received reimbursement
of $104.99 a day per child per day they attended the district. which means that in August we received a payment from the state of $533,435. Um that is one-time funds that do have some parameters around how they can be
used. We had some uh Mckin Vento transportation costs directly related to the shelter that weren't fully reimbured. So we need to pay those expenses that the town incurred. Um we also this year to part of the reason we have some savings in instructional
salaries is we are targeting using some of the shelter funds to cover the cost of an L teacher salary and some par professionals related with the L program. Um that was a strategy to pro to allow us to add that additional second grade teacher and to manage the bud budget into this year. We project in
20 thou 26 we'll be spending about 375,000 of that total budget um uh onetime funds and then project to use the balance in FY27 um potentially carrying an L teacher or par profofessional over and and to help us close our anticipated budget gap into
2027 or potentially um it could help us manage that uh the the gap in out of district placements and special ed if needed um at the end of this year to prevent having to draw down uh stabilization funds. Papers are sticking together. I
apologize. Um on the next page, you can see the balance in revolving accounts. School lunch, music, revolving, preschool. Um again, those programs we take in tuition for and that tuition is then used to pay the cost of staffing. So, um they're not all expended to date,
but they will be uh we're only halfway through the year, but we will be paying those um balances down. You can see the federal and state grants that we received that are also part of our budget allocation. Um special revenue funds as I talked about circuit breaker
and stabilization. We anticipate applying uh most of the circuit breaker that's available for this year to offset the 253,122 to offset the the gap in special education this year. Um the town uh
placed an additional appropriation into our special stabilization account at the fall town meeting. So 43,000 that was additional revenue that they took in through chapter 1 um uh chapter 70 funds were applied to the special ed stabilization. So you see that balance
in the stabilization increasing. Again we have not drawn down the 75,000 allocated to this year bud budget as of yet. Uh again, the emergency key takeaways emergency shelter funds were one-time funds. We have a limited ability to roll
some funds over into FY27 to offset um and help us balance our budget knowing that the town revenue is tight for next year. Um we hope not to have to use the 75,000 allocated from stabilization. Um and then any any available funds
remaining at the end of the year we could potentially use to make a second payment. we have uh we only paid for half of the math adoption this year and we were going to carry a h 100,000 in. We may be able to apply to that or uh potentially to prepay tuition or things like that again to help us offset and
manage the um budget deficit going into 27. And the last page you see the the gift account. Um these are the gifts that will go up by whatever you accepted today um and are used for a variety of different things. Camp, scholarship, special events, field day.
Happy to take any questions on the budget. >> The circuit breaker funds, can those be carried over year to year or >> uh certain percentages? Okay. Um I'll I'll have Miam speak to that a little bit more uh at the next Well, it's a year it's a reimbursement that comes a
year after you incur the costs. So once we receive them, they can be applied to the next fiscal year. >> Okay, great. That makes sense. All right. Next in your packet, um we have the draft school calendar for uh the 26 27th school year. It's very
similar to the calendar for this year. Um Labor Day is a little bit later next year. So we are anticipating that the 31st of August would be the first day for students. Our staff will come back for two days of professional development the week prior. Uh no school on um let
me see. no school on Friday the 4th, which is the Friday prior to Labor Day. Uh the one big difference you'll see is we are recommending moving parent teacher conferences up early into the school year um into November. We've had a lot of feedback from parents that December is really late to get to meet
your child's teacher for the first time. Um so we're recommending moving them up into November. Um other than that we have anticipate one shared professional development day with the other uh regional districts which would be the November 3rd. Um so we have the
opportunity to share some professional development costs and programming. Last day of school would be projected to be the 15th. Um and then the 18th to the 23rd would be uh uh snow projected potential snow days.
So, we are looking for a vote to approve the calendar. >> Um, I'll second. Any further discussion or questions? >> I like not having that wonky short like two days at the beginning of the year. >> Yeah. >> It's kind of nice to have almost a full
week. Yeah. >> Yeah. Get them into the swing of things. >> Right. All those in favor? I >> I Great. We will send this out to families because I know some families are looking for this because summer camps are booking now. So, we try to get that out as early as we can.
All right. Next in your packet, comprehensive uh health and physical education curriculum review. So, as you know, last year we started the process of reviewing our health and and physical education programs. Um we did this as part of a regional review. So, we worked
with um Rentham and with Planeville and with KP. What we were really working to do was to align the the scope and sequence so that all students because all of our students enter seventh grade and they have health class um we wanted to make sure they were coming in with
some common experiences and common um shared knowledge. Um so we worked through the new state uh health frameworks and we identified what we consider to be the power standards or the most critical standards so that all students um leave the grade knowing and
and understanding the and mastering the standards that are identified as critical. Um so what we each of the three districts has a slightly different model for how health education is taught. In Norfolk we don't have a health class or a health teacher. And so
what we decided to do was to separate out the health standards. And we focused for this year on the standards involving nutrition and balanced eating, physical activity and fitness, physical health and hygiene and some of the standards under personal safety which we felt were
appropriate to be taught in the physical education um classes. uh within that the model that we are going to follow is similar to what we had done um when we reviewed the program several years ago and at the younger
grade levels K to2 one class a month will be dedicated to health education everybody's looking around wonder if I'm missing something so one class a month so our students do have PE twice a week other in some other districts it's only
once a week and then they have health so because our students have um PE twice a week they'll have uh one class a month uh at cater to dedicated to health and the remaining will be physical activity and fitness at the upper grades because the content is a little bit deeper it makes sense to have one week a month of
health instruction so and and to they're recommending starting that between November and May so at every grade level it's about 12 lessons at the upper grades they'll have two lessons in one week so that they can carry over um and address the content that way um there are two specialized units that are part
of the curriculum for um growth and development. At fifth grade, we have taught human growth and development and there's a unit that um students uh participate in that talks about puberty and changes to the body during puberty. That's in fifth grade. Um prior to that
unit, because that is it's it's not really a sexual health unit, but because it aligns with that topic, we always send parental notice out that that unit is coming up. Parents have the right to opt out of that if they choose to not participate in it. is about three to four lessons. Um, and they also have the
right to come in and review all the material prior to making a decision. Moving forward with that unit, we have the new curriculum website page. Um, and we intend for those four lessons to be available for parents to view. Um, when we hope when we send the letter out, we'll be able to put a link and parents
can go right to the uh, lessons to review the content. Additionally, we have the standards that talk about drug awareness and uh drug prevention are covered in our DARE program that we've had for many many years in partnership with the Norfol police. Um so that is not taught in PE classes that is taught
in classrooms with the DARE officer. All right. Other than that, what we are currently using, so in your packet you'll see under each grade level um the regional standards we identified as the power standards. So the expectation is whether you're in Norfolk or in
Planeville or in in rent them, these core skills will be covered by that grade level. Um these documents that show the standards will also go on the curriculum pages by uh content area so parents can see what the standards are um for the health curriculum. Currently
we are using uh a a curriculum program called HLC um and it's the HLC behavioral health uh curriculum by Spark PE because we don't have a full health class. We are not recommending adopting a whole curriculum. We right now are
using select lessons. I mean the HLC program covers everything under the sun. We're teaching about 10 lessons. Um additionally there's some lessons that the teachers have developed on their own to meet a standard. Um but our materials are a little bit dated. We have through the process of the review identified
another curriculum that DESIE has recommended as a researchbased program uh and it is called health smart PE and what we would like to do is pilot that program. The lessons are very similar however they're a little bit more current. They have more current
references. They have some digital tools for the teachers, powerpoints, um things that align the what we'd like to do is pilot those. We're not and and then when you look at the standards in the 12 10 to 12 recommended lessons, we might try a HLC lesson or we might try one from
Spark PE uh from HealthSmart to see which resonates better with our students and which is more engaging and and um effective in in addressing that learning standard. So, what we are looking for tonight is a vote from the school committee to allow us to pilot the spark
um I keep confusing the two programs. The health smart um resources, we are not looking to adopt the curriculum as a whole, but to use that as a resource to teach the identified standards. Um the cost of piloting that is uh in the back
of your package. It's 20 2,155. that allows us each teacher to get a license um that will allow them access to the digital materials and resources at the upper grades because we have two teachers that teach at Freeman County, it would be two licenses per classroom.
Um Katie, do you have anything you want to add to that? >> No. Um just that if we were to adopt it once we get that far, if that's what we recommend, um the cost would be similar. It's it's not this isn't um it's not it's not going to be different than what
you have there. >> Yes. It might just change based on the year. You know, sometimes they have slight increases. >> Yeah. But we're not recommending adopting student materials, student workbooks, the full curriculum. We just are looking for the teacher license so they can pull the particular lessons that they are interested in using.
>> Is there a list of the um specific lessons that we would be piloting? I think I saw those. >> Yep. By grade level. So the uh if you look at the kindergarten, it identifies all of the standards that will be addressed in the kindergarten program. And then at the end of that document,
you can see the list of of lessons. Um there's nutrition, lesson on variety, uh my plate, food groups, healthy body, goal setting, street safety. So the individual lesson topics are listed below. Now again, we may choose to look at
>> Yeah, those are the lessons and see how some say HLC. Okay, that's the current healthy lifestyle choices and the um at the HOD they are still using they'd like to continue using a lot of the um HLC
but they want to try some others and at uh Freeman Kennedy >> they suggested trying some and they're part of that list so you can see what some of the uh Freeman Kennedy >> Okay. And and so the lessons that are being piloted isn't kind of an open
access to that curriculum that can be pulled anything. >> Look at the lessons on variet nutritional variety in the um >> they would specifically >> they would standard to these standards. Okay. >> If you look at the bottom there you can see some of them say um health HS that's
health smart >> H. Oh okay. Okay. >> So those are the lessons. >> Gotcha. So okay at the upper grades they've already already identified the lesson pilot at the lower grades they want to be able to compare the two but it would be tied to the standards that are identified in these documents.
>> Okay. And I think on the um like the attachments you sent there were some like sample lessons as well. >> We attached one lesson for each grade level just to kind of get an idea of what the lessons entail. um you can you
can get a feel for the vibe and um you know just what your students would be experiencing. >> Okay. >> And we downloaded and put them in the shared file because we haven't purchased this program. We don't have unlimited access to it. We have a pilot access license. So we were able to pull down
some lessons for you guys to see. But we can't just share the like we have limited numbers until we actually purchase it. >> Right. Gotcha. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah. Uh this might I don't know if you can answer this yet, but just how it's going to work with the PE teachers teaching
this. Will it be you know the kids sitting in the gym or will the PE teacher go to the classroom? Like cuz kids learn in different >> So this when we did the health review about 7 years ago, this is the model we went with. So we we were teaching um one lesson a month at HOD and most of the
HOD lessons were in the gym. Okay. the kids, you know, they they did a little runaround warm-up. They did a 20-minute lesson and then they did something, you know, to leave. >> At the Freeman, sometimes where the content was more um richer or more um
just more advanced, there were times that the phys teacher went to the classroom and taught the lesson in the class. Still, most were taught in the in the PE space. >> Okay. >> Interesting. >> Yep. I see in um grade five the standards or
or one of the potential for the the piloting lessons is is one on puberty and new responsibilities. Would that be included in in like the information that parents could review prior? >> Yes. Um uh I had a similar question from Peter. Um uh he wanted to make sure that
those lessons were transparent and people could access them. Again, all four puberty lessons. I expect we will put the lessons in supplementary materials available on the website for parents. >> Again, currently we send a letter and let parents know if they want to come in and see them um because we have hard
copies and parents do come in and they look at all the materials. >> Okay. I just could be added in later that like >> no those lessons would be available um and on the website. Okay. >> The one that they are thinking about piloting that's in there is is the lesson that was included in the folder
that was shared. But if it is something once we um once we send out the information for parents um about the puberty lessons, it will also be included in the website. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And that lesson, Katie, I I think when you looked at the lessons we currently have, we're recommending
keeping the three that we already have been using for a long time, but that lesson really talks more about changes in friendships and changes in um that happen during puberty, which we didn't feel was addressed in the current lessons that we have. >> Okay. I did like looking at that lesson that
there was like a parent send home letter that said this is what we talked about this is how you can carry it over at home using the same terminology just bringing that across from school to home. I thought >> that's one of the things we liked in the health smart is it does have those family connection letters that we could potentially use to send home so parents
could follow up the conversation at home. I really like that like just even >> we have an program and it's nice >> being able to understand like what was talked about with your child so you can >> I can't remember if every lesson has it or if it's based on units but what I
will do if and when you know we start using it is I can I can list the um the parent letters just like I do for math and ELA I can list them in the health uh document that I'll be sharing as well. >> Okay. I think it'd be really helpful for for families to at least know general
themes of what's being discussed. And >> and that one in particular, I saw there was a survey kind of get um thoughts from students about how they feel. Will that be >> all the supplementary? Yeah, all >> it will all be there. It's less of a survey. It was more of a reflection piece. Um I don't believe it even gets
collected. I think it's just for the student to kind of do some reflecting. Um because puberty is different for every person. Any other questions? >> All right. So, we're looking for a motion to approve the purchase of the
Health Smart curriculum to pilot throughout the spring. >> I move to approve the Health Smart curriculum to pilot >> for PE and health. >> Perfect. I'll second.
>> Further discussion? >> All those in favor? I The last thing in your packet, and I won't walk through um in depth, but we are part of the BICO collaborative. Um as members of the collaborative, BICO provides specialized programming for students who we may not be able to meet
their needs within the district. Um and as a collaborative, they have a responsibility to update the member districts on a quarterly basis. Um you can see the number of student placements they've had, uh the student assessments they've done, um uh the number of referrals they've had from member
districts. So it's just sort of a report. They offer a lot of shared professional development that's open to our teachers and staff. Um right now they are tracking uh in a healthy way as far as the budget goes. Um the BICO director um has recently indicated that
she is retiring and BICO is in the middle of a search for a new executive director. Um and that process is ongoing. Um but uh I think things are going well from the perspective of the collaborative. Happy to answer any questions people
might have. All right, that's all I have tonight. All right, moving on to the committee and liaison reports. First from policy. Peter normally does this, but I'm going to try. The first policy we have in front of you is up for a vote tonight and it is on the field trips. We
reviewed this and this was really um separating the permissions list from the policy so it can be updated accordingly and just um cleaning up the language and putting it on the superintendent to
establish the regulations and getting rid of language that doesn't really apply to us like uh tournaments and competitions because that is not done at the lower level. I'd be looking for a motion to approve the new field trip
policy as written. >> So moved. >> Further discussion? >> Yeah. Can I just ask a clarifying question? So um what we're doing here is taking the permission slip out so that we can modify it.
>> Yeah. So typically forms and things like that are not attached to policy because uh the modifications we need you can pay in different ways than you could when this policy was adopted. There's online payments and things like that. When it's attached to policy anytime we want to change a form it would have to come back
to go through three readings for the committee. Yep. >> Um and it just doesn't make sense to do that. So most policies and this policy was uh adopted quite a while ago. um most policies uh identify who's responsible for for
developing the guidelines and overseeing those and then the the forms are not necessarily attached. So that's what we're trying to separate out and it is specifically because we want to change the way people can pay for field trips much. >> So
any further questions? >> All those in favor? >> I highlighting didn't come through. It's the last two sentences. >> Right. The the next one is just an incidental change due to new laws around and regulations around raffles. So it's
just adding so this policy is compliant to the last sentence. Students and student groups are barred by state law and regulation from organizing raffles or games of chance participating in sales of or purchasing tickets of such games. So just adding that so we're in compliance with the law.
So we're looking for a motion to approve the student fundraising activities policy JJ as written. >> Some move. >> I'll second. >> Further discussion. All those in favor? I >> if you want to take um number 10 next.
It's the same thing. It's the gifts and solicitations to staff. >> Okay. Gifts and solicitations of staff. We're on exhibit 10. It's the same exact sentences I just read. >> It's a little more in depth, but it's the same chance section.
>> Um so that is the only addition to this exhibit. So I'd be looking for a motion to approve the gifts to and solicitations by staff. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Further discussion. >> All those in favor? >> I buildings and grounds.
This one is separated out. We had three policies that were overlapping and redundant and MASC recommended separating them out and just uh having one policy for security, one for access and one for visitors and volunteers instead of having the same components in
all three. >> Um so you saw we took a bunch of language out and then that would be the new ECA B. Um, so we consider that change as
incidental. >> Yep. >> So I'd be looking for a motion to approve the buildings and ground security policy ECA as basically we're just taking out all the guidelines for visitors that are
embedded in that policy that really aren't about um grounds and building security. >> Yeah. So moved. >> Second. Any further discussion? >> No. All those in favor I a new policy so it'll be a first read. I
mean this um not up for a vote tonight just in new policy we're working on. Um this is kind of the one we separated out. So it's who's welcome into the school. So if you have any questions on it if not it's coming back for another
read in a couple weeks. >> Great. Um, sorry. We've voted on the gifts to unsolicitations by staff, but it says it's the first read in here. I assume that's just a typo, but >> no. Um, I was just looking at that. So, that policy, we reorganized the
language. So, we might have to go back to that, Lisa. We added the language required for compliance, the raffles and games of chance, but we like, even though the content is the same, we like the way MAFC organized the categories better. So it would be it it would be a
first reading. Sorry. >> Do we want to >> So we'll just bring it back next time. >> Nullify. >> Undo the >> nullify the We'll bring it back. >> Um All right. Budget subcommittee. >> Any update?
>> Yeah. Um so gosh, it's been a couple weeks since we had our last We're just kind of finalizing the budget projections for fiscal year 27. Um, we have a meeting in about a week and a half again. Um, just to kind of iron out
the details. Um, I know we've said it every year for a while. Um, it's going to be a tough budget year. It's not it doesn't seem as bad as the previous years, but but it's still um, you know, we're not adding thing in anything in. We're still looking at making cuts. Um, but I think
our target is going to be around 4% >> um, for an increase. And then um we're tentatively scheduling like the public hearing the beginning of March. Um >> and I think we're hoping to vote uh or hoping to reach agreement on a date um for the March. We would like to keep the
regularly scheduled school committee date which is the second Tuesday in March if that's okay with everybody and we'll that'll be our our public hearing. >> Yeah, that should be fine. And I think we were very fortunate this year because we are anticipating being able to use the shelter money to balance
the budget and to offset some I mean we started with over a half a million dollar deficit that we were cutting, but we're looking at applying hopefully a couple hundred,000 into uh offset costs for next year. Um and some of the money we applied this year that might generate some savings will help us take maybe the
math curriculum review part out or or the second part of the math program. So, we're still working through that, but >> little silver lining. >> He is some some retirements and such and moving parts. So, um I have it. Yeah. For the March 10th. I don't know if you
guys want to discuss the exact date, but that's what we discuss tenatively for school committee. >> Okay. March 10th. >> Y. >> No. Unless Ingrid has something, but >> No. >> KP. Uh KP was supposed to be last night
so we were snowed out and we will not be rescheduling but moving the um just moving the agenda item to the next meeting. So um I'll have something at the next meeting. >> Right. Moving on to liaison reports. So Madori she'll give the update for the
PTO. Mary Kate Palser who leads our PTO is uh here tonight. So she can give up for us. >> Thank you. Um PTO is going very well. We had a great December. As you mentioned, the book fairs were very successful, raising close to $7,000 for the schools.
Family heritage night on Friday was a ton of fun. Almost 400 people there. A wonderful free event for the community, so we're happy to be able to do that. Um, and hopefully continue to grow it. This month in February, we've got Ziti
with my sweetie coming up for second graders. And March is full of trivia. So there's a lot of stuff to to look forward to registering for coming up which is fun. So thank you. Awesome. Epaya and Mike. Um as Ingred mentioned the
IARE program is in full swing and off to a good start. They are offering a workshop later this month um rethinking social development in a post-pandemic world. That's February 24th here in the FK cafeteria.
Um they are hoping to come speak to us next meeting to give us a little more on who they are, what they do, all the great events they put on. They are always looking for more people to get involved and more volunteers as CPAC
leadership has kids who are moving through the school session. So and it's a great organization if people are interested. Any others? >> I don't have any. >> Okay. This month. >> All right. And then there is a set of
meeting uh minutes in your packet from December 15th. Looking for a motion to approve the December 15th, 2025 minutes as written. >> Second. Second, questions or comments? Further discussion? No. >> All those in favor? I
>> I have two weeks till our next meeting. Two weeks. Sounds good for everyone. >> Y looking for a motion to reserve. So >> I'll second discussion. Nope. All those
in. We're very official. Wow.