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 Norfolk 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, Anger Lardy, >> Katie Young. >> Next on the agenda is public comment.
Does anyone wish to speak tonight? Nope. 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 >> Oh, maybe I just wasn't paying it. >> I'm not sure. I'll check.
>> Yeah, just wondering. >> I think I've seen it before. >> Yeah, we might have done it been under just vision and >> Oh, maybe maybe. Yeah. >> Okay. Any further discussion on this? Thank you to our 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 counsel 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 will 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 the next item on the agenda is a fundraiser request from the PTO. They are looking to co-sponsor a new fundraiser with the
Norfolk 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, do 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 prof 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 Mador 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 profofessional 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. He 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 then
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 >> Okay, 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 Broadier 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 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 Norfolk 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 is 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. Miam 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 reclass some administrative expenses to
to the stack 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 high 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 were 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 sickly 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 uh 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. 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 expending 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 LT teacher or pair of professional over and in 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 sitting 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 extended 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 for 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 scholarships, 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. 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. >> I have a 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 Great. We will send this out to families because I know some families are looking for this cuz 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 Plainville 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 expect 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. It's 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 Rentthm, 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 packet. 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 stand to the 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. >> So, 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. 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. And again, all four puberty lessons. I expect we will put the lessons and supplement 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. Exactly. 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. 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. It's really like that like just even >> we have it 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's 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 HealthSmart curriculum to pilot
throughout the spring. >> I move to approve the HealthSmart 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 tonight and it is on the field trips. We reviewed this and this was really um separating the
permission slip 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 to 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. Y >> 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 and that >> so any other 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 solitations to staff. >> Okay. Gifts and solicitation to staff are on exhibit 10. It's the same exact
sentences I just read. >> It's a little more in depth, but it's the same law 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. All right. Buildings and grounds. 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 DCA 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 >> and 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 new policy. So, it'll be your first read. I mean, this um not up for a vote tonight, just a 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. Right. Um, sorry. We've voted on the gifts to solicitations 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 MAF 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 you were 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. Okay. >> 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 thousand 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 >> pieces 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 had tenatively for school committee. >> Okay. So, >> y >> no unless Ingred 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 items to the next meeting. So um I'll have something at the next meeting. >> All right, moving on to liaison reports. So Madori usually gives the update for the PTO. Mary Kate Pelar who leads our
PTO is uh here tonight. So she can give 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 should be as fun. So, thank you. Awesome. Thank you. I had a call with Kayla 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 the post-pandemic world. So that's February 24th here in the FK cafeteria. Um they are hoping to come speak to us
next meeting is 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 it's a
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. And we have two weeks till our next meeting. Two weeks.
Sounds good. >> Yeah. Looking for a motion to move. >> I'll second discussion. Nope. All those in. We're very efficient. Wow.