Welcome everyone to the North Middle Sex Regional School District School Committee meeting. It is July 21st, 2026. It is 6:02 p.m. In attendance tonight, we have Kenan Francois
>> here. >> Jackie White >> here. >> Michael Abasier >> here. [clears throat] Chris loan >> here >> and myself as a member in administration we have
>> I'm sorry Lisa Lisa Bloom just joined >> in attendance we also have Lisa Bloom Lisa do you want to say yes >> sorry here >> that's okay >> I thought I had turn both on >> that's okay um for administration we
have Dr. Ree, Superintendent Morgan, uh, Principal Smith, uh, business manager Dr. Kier, and executive assistant, uh, Robin Igy. Did I get everyone that's on the screen
for now? I think I got everyone. All right, welcome everybody. Um, and we have the consent agenda. So, um, we can do the we do need to pull the April 14th minutes off.
And do we want to do the payroll warrants separate or it's up to you, Chris. You decide because you are the one that has to abstain. Or would you like to vote on other objects? >> Um, I can just abstain for today.
>> Okay. All right. So I will take a motion from someone for the consent agenda consent agenda minus the April 14th minutes. >> All right. I move that we approve the
consent agenda as presented excluding the April 14th, 2026 minutes. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. So that was Michael Labsier with the motion and Kenan Francois with the
second. It is a roll call vote. Keenan Francois >> yes. >> Jackie White, >> yes. >> Michael Labosier, >> yes. >> Uh Chris Lo, >> abstain. >> And Lisa Bloom,
>> yes. >> Myself, yes. Moving on. Any public communications? None. >> Okay. Seeing no public communications. Chairperson report. I just have two
gentle reminders to the committee. Um please do not reply all on emails. Um, you can only reply all on emails when like setting um office times or um dates to when we
can have meetings. There's not to be any discussion held. All right. And then please make sure that you're indicating um to uh Robin and myself if you are coming to
the meeting or meetings in attendance so we can um consider if there is a quorum or not to attend meetings. >> It looks like him and yeah in the >> Yeah, I see it. I'm
>> okay. Thank you, Robin. I'll let them join and then we will I'll hand it over to the superintendent for his report. Carla and Kim. All right. Um, Superintendent Morgan, you can go ahead and give your report.
I don't have anything until later in the meeting. >> All right. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Ree. >> Good evening, everyone. I do have a couple items. Um the first is just an update regarding our extended day program. As you recall, back in May, the
committee voted to continue with the same tuition rates for the extended day program going into the FY27 school year. I had also made a recommendation at that time that the fee that the my school bucks platform charges uh to families
for when they make payments that we capture that cost as part of the um extended day program um funds and the committee had just asked me to come back and just report on how that process would work. We've reached out to my school bucks. Essentially what they will
do is when they send us some money from the payments that are made, they'll just deduct the costs that the families would have paid um from from our revenue. So that is how it will work going into the next school year and we can use that this year as an opportunity to see how
that you know ensure that we're still running in the as a in a positive um for extended day tuitions. Um the second item, if there was no questions on the extended day, I wanted to just share a
quick presentation on the ADA self-evaluation um and transition plan. Um I'm going to go through it quickly. there all there's a lot of documents that were developed as part of this uh
process that have all been uploaded into the school committee folder and then we will also upload these on the website so that the public has access to all of the documents and work that was done. Um, as you may recall, um, we we received a grant this year for
$60,000 in order to conduct this self assessment and transition plan development through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Um, this slide just shows the variety of tasks that happened over the last three months. um when it was
first awarded to direct act direct access which is a division of matrix design group um and what they did over that time period. One of the tasks was to survey uh staff,
families and the community um just in order to get their feedback and impressions on how we're working towards making sure that our schools are inclusive and accessible. Um they saw a number of strengths um in the district which you will see here. They also identified some areas of development
which really centered around staffing, training and communication as well as some facility needs that impact our ability to be fully inclusive. Um so they take that information and then incorporate that into their full findings report and recommendations for
moving forward. But that's one of the tasks. Um you do have a link to the full uh summary report summary report for the surveys in this document as well as in your folder. Um their next task was to come and actually do an assessment of
the buildings. This slide shows the variety of areas that they looked at in each of the school buildings. uh they came during the month uh during the April vacation week so that they could get into each of the school buildings and really get around without having students in the building during that
time. Um and again, I'll talk about the recommendations that were made, but that's that's one of the tasks. Um the next thing they did was look at our policies um and procedures and they reviewed 270 policies. They made some
recommendations to 97 policies, which is about 36% of the policies that were reviewed. They did make some recommendations for three new policies that are not currently part of our or the school committee policy handbook. Um, so that they they completed that
step. And again, I'll talk about where where I'd recommend we go from here with those moving forward in a subsequent slide. Um some of the key takeaways from the policy is really that there was some strong foundation. We had a lot of policies in place. They did say that
compared to some of the other communities they've been in and done this work, there was less there were less recommendations for changes for us compared to some of the other communities that they've gone in. um they just felt like there was some additional clarity and just some
tweaking that needed to be um looked at from some of the policies really just to as we continue to promote the concept of true inclusive practices for for our students, staff and community members.
Um, from that the next task was to create the self-evaluation report and that's where they culminated all of that information that they received from the surveys, from the site visit, from looking at policies into one document that really identified what what did
they see in terms of strengths as well as in terms of areas of continued work. Um overall they found that the district had many accessible features but there were certain things that uh were repeated barriers that affected safety for individuals with disabilities
independence effective communication and equitable participation. And again within this presentation that you have in your folder there is links to all of the individual reports that kind of link back to the specific tasks that I'm referencing. Um they then
created an ADA transition plan and what that does is it kind of lays out this is what we identified as the needs for the district. Now how do you address those needs in a transition plan? This is a what they presented to us was a 10-year
plan to remedy some of the issues that they've identified um in the evaluation report. So this gives us a roadmap to if you will to move forward with the district. Um again they [clears throat] saw some a lot of good strengths. They
also some some some recurring areas um around the buildings and facilities. similar things across some of the buildings, which some of these things are already being addressed even this summer as we're doing some of the um paving work and but it gives us that
pathway to look at how do we continue to move forward in a responsible uh way financially as well as to ensure we're we're meeting the needs of our of individuals in terms of accessibility. Um then task eight was to really break down
all the specific tasks that they identified as areas of needs. Uh what they've done in this document and they've done it by individual schools is I um they have things highlighted in red, yellow, blue and kind of an orange color in indicating the order of
prioritization high important moderate and low. Some of that is based on really I think what they saw some of the areas that are lowhanging fruit might have gotten up to that high priority or things that we can handle first as well as areas that are
critical safety concerns that that need to take first priority when we look at uh addressing some of these issues. um [clears throat] just to give the school committee and the community a sense of cost. Um what they did was they
took the all of those prioritization of tasks and broke down into three categories of low, high and average. So the low what they've seen in terms of remed remedying some of those areas,
what some of the higher expenses might be as well as what they're seeing trendwise for average costs. So average isn't just taking the low and the high and averaging it together, but really looking at what are they seeing average cost be. So at the low end um all these
um areas were to be around 637,000 up to a high end of about 2.8 million with average ending up around 1.75 1.76 million. And then as part of the transition plan,
they gave us an implementation a proposed implementation schedule which really really looks at a five a four-phase approach of how we can address and support um individuals with disabilities in terms of accessibility uh not just building accessibility but
equitable participation accessibility over the next 10 years. Um so what we'd like to do is um in terms of next steps first we've applied for the next ADA grant which is an improvement grant. So the same grant
program that we were able to get the $60,000 grant funding to do this process. We've now applied for $250,000 to actually implement some of the changes. We anticipate that we applied for that back at the beginning of June,
I believe. Um, and we uh anticipate hearing sometime in the fall. Um, so hopefully that we get that and that can address some of those initial high prior priority areas. I would recommend or ask that the committee kind of move that policy report, the 8 full ADA policy
report, refer that to the policy subcommittee for consideration. Um, as they noted when we had our exit interview, they make recommendations as part of this process, but it's the committee's purview to look at what recommendations they're making and determine what what makes the most sense
for North Middle Sex as a school district. Um, then what we'd like to do is have the district in building leadership really take a closer look and dig into some of those expense remedies and really come up with a proposed 10-year draft plan for addressing some
of those areas and then bring that back to the finance committee for review and consideration for a 10-year ADA capital improvement plan. Um so really get bring it back to the committee for your discussion and input on kind of the
budgetary areas associated with this plan. Um so that's the report. I do want to say you know I certainly um think we got a great team to come out. Uh direct access really was a wonderful um
organization. Um they looked at every corner of the school district. They really got a lot of input from staff, from reaching out to families in the community and working directly with me and Dr. Cormier in terms of just making
sure they were looking under every rock and giving us the most meaningful report and I think the reports that they provided to us are very comprehensive. >> Thank you Dr. Ree. I do have a question for you. Um, taking this to the policy
subcommittee. Is this something that you want us to address at our next policy subcommittee meeting? >> No, I don't believe it needs I you know I I don't believe it needs to be fully addressed at the next committee meeting, but I just think I would I would want
the policy subcommittee to have eyes on that policy report and then determine how you want to >> move forward with it. >> Okay. All right. So, uh, I asked Miss Ivy to put it on our task list for the
policy subcommittee. And then when, uh, for the finance subcommittee, when would they be looking at >> um, the policy? >> Yes. >> Absolutely. Because we need time to uh,
Superintendent Morgan, Dr. Cormier and the building administration, Jeremy Hammond, Dave Amari, to really sit down and evaluate what direct access has proposed as the 10-year capital improvement plan schedule. Make
sure that's in alignment with our goals, as well as looking at, as I said earlier, what are the things that we're already ticking off that >> okay >> happened are happening currently right now and could be happening during this year. um or how do we consolidate some
of the efforts that they've identified um because of what we already know in terms of ongoing projects that might be happening and then we'll bring that to the finance committee for for review and consideration. So, it probably is going to be a few months out um before we
would want to bring anything to the finance committee. >> Okay, sounds good. Sounds good. Does anyone have any questions on the ADA report? All right, moving on. We are going to new business and it is the family
student handbook. Superintendent Morgan. >> Yes, thank you. So, the family and student handbook was has been reviewed by our legal council, both Michael Joyce and Patrick Neans. They went through um both the handbook itself and the
addendum really with a fine tooth comb. I think it's probably the most comprehensive review that we have had in a while. Even though it's reviewed annually, they really went through um every aspect of it. Um so what you have in front of you and it was shared with
the committee I believe on Thursday um you will see a lot of changes and just to try to make sense of it, anything that is in red is is coming from our attorney. Um, anything that is has been strike through was also from our
attorney which is also in red and anything that is highlighted in yellow were recommended changes from the high school. So some of them were accepted some of them were not accepted and if they were accepted in some cases or excuse me if they weren't accepted in some cases they were just fine-tuned
to make them uh comparable and acceptable under um MGL's. So again, this is a handbook we have had um for the past four years. I believe it is the prek to 12, but the majority of the changes that took place were at the high school level um around attendance.
And you will see that there were some significant changes around student records um with the change in the law. So, if you do have any questions, um, Principal Smith is on as well, um, who made some of the recommendations for the high school changes, and I can try to
answer questions as well if you have any, but it has been again fully vetted by both Michael Joyce and Patrick Neans who are our attorneys. >> I do have one update that has to occur and it's the membership of the school committee. Yes,
>> that page needs to be updated, but I'm pretty sure you're aware of that one already. >> Yes. So, so that will certainly be updated and we do have some formatting to do, but before we went into the formatting, we wanted to make sure um that the actual language and the content
was acceptable to the committee. >> All right. Does anyone have any questions? Or Principal Smith, do you have any updates that the committee should be aware of? No, I think it's pretty straightforward. Um, one of the two of the major changes
was to our makeup policy. It was in um the the high school handbook we had a few years ago before we changed to K through 12 handbook. Um, and it was omitted. So, the faculty had asked for it to come back. So, that's back in there. And um the other thing is just
that the cell phones about um not having cell phones at all during during the school day is what the faculty brought forward this past year that we are putting in. >> And the cell phone policy is on tonight for a discussion and approval if the
committee moves forward with that. Right. Any questions on the handbook from anyone? Jackie White. >> Yes, thank you. Um, so I guess the question is how do we separate what we're about to vote on for the handbook versus the cell phone policy?
>> Well, if if the handbook is voted through and the policy does not pass, we'll have to adjust it in the handbook. >> Okay. >> To make it align with the policy. >> Does that make sense? Okay. So Jackie, we may have to take two votes
on that. If that does occur, we'll just come back and revise the handbook and ask the a vote be taken to revise the handbook just to be transparent to everyone. >> Mhm. >> Anyone else? >> It seemed like almost like 17 pages in
the beginning were strike through. Was there something that led to such a big change at once there? >> So the just really trying to clean it up. They they obviously do a lot of handbooks this particular firm. Um and
you know communicating with us around what's best practice. um how can we tighten things up and make things a little bit more clear and also try to um there was some uh cutting out of information that was um deemed unnecessary in many cases um just
because of policy and it being uh duplicitous with some of the policies that were already in existence with um with the school district. So any place that were duplicates, they removed it from the handbook. And then there were again some pretty significant changes in the Mass General laws over the past
couple years that they just had to um clarify. The other piece with that was that we had a different law firm look at our handbook last year. Um and the one that we had look at it this year is our special education law firm. And this is really the area of specialty. and
they're more student focused than I would say the other law firm is, which was more um more of a labor firm, but they they also do the work. Um but there was some changes with this particular law firm this year that seemed like it would be the best decision to move back
in that direction where the handbook was really focused on students. Any more questions? All right, seeing nobody's hands, um I will take a motion to accept the handbook for the 2627 school year.
>> I will move to approve the 2026 2027 North Middle Sex Regional School District family and student handbook as presented. >> That is Kenan with a motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. And that is Michael Labosier with a second. It is a roll call vote. Keenan
Francois. >> Yes. >> Michael Labosier. >> Yes. >> Chris Sloan. >> Yes. >> Lima. >> I abstain. >> Lisa Bloom. >> Yes. >> Jackie White.
>> Yes. >> Uh Kim Craraven. >> Yes. >> And myself. Yes, the handbook is approved for the 26 27th school year. >> Thank you. >> All right, moving on.
Next agenda item is the discussion about the Ashby Elementary playground. Uh, Superintendent Morgan, do you want to give an update on this? >> Sure. So, um, as we're getting ready,
um, to make sure that we we have the building ready, um, for the town, both myself, um, and Dave Amari did a tour of the building a couple weeks ago, just going through looking to see, um, what else needed to be removed from the
building. And one of, I would say probably the biggest issue that we're looking at is looking at how to address the playground. Uh the playground was recently part of an ADA complaint. Um and in order for it
to stay, it is my understanding is that work needs to be done to bring it up to compliance with ADA. And currently um that I know that the town administrator is working on getting a cost for that. She did give somewhat
of a ballpark figure that I did share with the committee uh via email um a couple weeks ago and really it comes down to is this something that we want to explore? Do we want to bring it up to ADA compliance? If we don't bring it up
to ADA compliance, then it does have to be removed because for liability reasons. Um and that was really um you know explained in the email as well. So, it's really determined what has to be determined. And I'm not sure if you saw
the email from the town administrator this afternoon, but um she did ask if we could wait until um she gets final numbers from the firm that she is working with to get an actual um you know, nuts and bolts cost estimate
really um you know, an accurate estimate as to what this is going to cost. And then ultimately um a decision will have to be made by the committee. Is this something that is the responsibility of the school district? Is it something
that is the responsibility of the town? Is it something that should be shared between the school district and the town or should the playground be removed? I know there are plans to potentially um turn Ashby Elementary into um a a charter potentially and would that
entail a new playground? Those are all decisions that that would have to be made, but I know there's obviously a strong connection in the town. It's my understanding that the playground um came about through fundraising um initiatives within the town itself, and I'm sure it's still an area that that
kids like to utilize um at different parts of the day, different parts of the year. So, um, but again, that was the email came from, uh, the town administrator this afternoon asking if we could wait until our next meeting to make a decision, um, until, um, the town
has more concrete numbers that we can discuss or review. >> All right. And I just forwarded the email to everyone that we received this afternoon. and Robin or Miss Ivy, will you make sure that that in is included
in our packet when it's presented out to the public? Um, all right. Any qu Okay, Lisa Bloom. >> Uh, yeah. So, the um playground uh the Ashby playground committee um 100%
funded um the playground for AES and I believe Mary did didn't know this before she wrote the letter. Um and so it's not the district that
[clears throat] owns it. It's uh um it's actually Ashby um that or the Ashby playground committee the the town of Ashby does. So um I'd like
to table this for now. >> Any questions from the committee before we take a motion to table? But Chris has his hand up. >> And Chris has his hand up. Yep. Chris. >> Yeah. I guess I I think Superintendent
Brad is also kind of proposing we table this, but I guess maybe we should just talk through what we would want to know when this comes back up the next time. Like I don't think we're going to vote on this today, but I think uh it would be good to understand who's actually responsible
for this. It seems like no one is really sure. um you know the the Ashb town admin is saying either we pay for it or we pay to remove it but then the Ashb residents are saying that we didn't pay for it to begin with. So I guess is
there an actual contract around who owned the maintenance after the initial funding? Um because you know paying for it and paying for the maintenance are all maybe two separate things. I have not seen anything and I I
definitely don't want to speak out of turn, but I I would assume that if the Ashley playground committee paid for um the playground, I would assume that it was then donated to the school
district or to the school itself um which is owned by the town, but it's a part of the school district. So, it's it's uh I don't think there's I I certainly don't have a clear answer, but generally speaking, when there's a fundraiser of that sort, um it's usually
donated to the school, like if if there's a large purchase that's organized by outside fundraising efforts, but I I don't have the answer. >> Okay. Yeah. I guess my thought would just be I wouldn't feel comfortable voting on it
if we didn't know if we were even allowed to vote on it, basically. Um, >> and then also I think two options were presented which was either the school committee funds it or the school committee funds the removal of it because I don't know if there's other
avenues to explore like if this is a $3,000 expense. I mean maybe we want to do more fundraising or maybe the town wants to take that. Um, but I guess maybe just if there's more than just those two options, we should explore those as well.
So, there's three options, Chris. I'm going to So, either we can remove it or the town can pay for it or we can pay for it. That was what was asked by Mary that we pay for it in her
first initial um message to us. So, those are the three options. At least I see. I don't see, you know, and the it's up to the town if they want somebody to fund raise and do that kind of thing. up to the residents. So when I say town, it could be the town itself
paying for it or you could have a group. >> Those are the avenues that I see. Um I'm going to go with Carla. Lisa, did you have more to add or may I move on? >> Put it down. Sorry, >> Carla. Lima.
>> Yeah. So there seems to be a lot of unknown variables here, right? Um uncertainty. So it makes it really challenging for us to vote. Um, I would say I'm probably a bit biased because I live in the town and my kid is the only playground that he plays in, but I could understand it being a huge concern, you
know, if we need to fund the ADA um, upbringings of it. But I think, you know, as um Chris Loan mentioned, could there be other possibilities of maybe whoever raised the funding to pay for the playground in the first place to
potentially pay to bring it to the ADA compliance once we know what the cost will be around that for for certain? And then will the town want to I don't know own it back um quote unquote and the maintenance. Um, and I guess the other
unknown variable when when we do accept any type of donations, if it was donated to the school district, don't we vote on that? Isn't there like any records of voting to accept the donation um technically? And >> does it mean that we own it forever
after it's donated or is there any type of, you know, um, agreement that was done at that time? I know it's way far back, but just something to think about. I mean, I personally think that all the variables that we have in place, unknown variables, let's put it that way, the
unknown variables, I think makes it almost impossible for us to vote on something that we don't know. And I think we should definitely table it until we have all those answers. Um to go back on you brought something up, Carla, with um maybe so that we
don't have to research through all our records. Maybe we asked the committee, the playground committee in Ashby to when they brought it forward to the school committee. I mean, we could research all of our minutes going back, but I don't think those minutes probably are online
>> to when they probably approved this playground. So, but I think they made updates to it. I don't remember in my history of being on the committee to doing any updates to the playground in Ashby. I remember painting coming forward those
kind of small changes, but none of like putting in equipment. So, but maybe we'll reach out to that committee. And I know that we got an email this afternoon from a Joanne. Was it Joanna or Joanne that I can reach out
to and ask that question to what details they have on it? >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, Michael Abosier. >> Yeah. I just I Well, I I just wanted to to one other piece of information that I would want to make sure of is is it
absolutely certain that we have to bring it up to ADA compliance before control reverts back to Ashb like that. that is a 100% ironclad. We can't punt on that. Basically, like because basically if Ashb, you know, if control reverted back
to Ashb and then Ashby wanted to, you know, through whatever means pay for bringing the the playground into ADA compliance, like that would work too. But I assume that if if we can't wait, then it has to be either we do it or, you know, basically we do it or get
Ashby to help pay to do it or we pay to have the playground removed, which I don't know, my guess would be that would probably be more expensive than just bringing it into compliance anyways. So between those two options, like if those are really the only two options, like we pay for removing it or we pay to bring
it into compliance, bringing it into compliance probably makes more sense both from a cost perspective and from a like doing a nice thing perspective. >> So the only thing I can add to this is um kind of twofold. one is is is
preliminary estimates on our end would be if we were looking at the $3 to $4,000 original estimate that we were given um it would cost the district about half of that to remove um the playground. >> Yeah.
>> So it it would come at a cost but it would be um about half of the $3 to $4,000 in that range. The other piece is as far as bringing up to bringing it up to compliance and it being ironclad. I think the bigger issue now is that the
school is closed and the playground is open. Um so I think there's some liability concerns around the playground being used if it is not um you know up to par um for all
of the children that are using it. Um I I know again Dr. Ree, Dr. Cormier uh has spent a lot of time on the ADA um piece of this. They may have more um information on that, but I do think that there's probably a liability piece
that's at play, whether it happens before the district hands the building over or after the district hands it over. I think that if the playground stays, um it's it will be mandated that something has to be done. I just don't know again when. And it's a difficult
situation right now. And I would just add to that that I think from the district perspective, if we were going to try to remedy some of the ADA issues, I'd want to make sure that we had some type of outside organization that specializes in doing an ADA playground
specific evaluation, not just remedying like concerns that were brought up in terms of the complaint because I'd want to make sure that we're addressing fully addressing any issues that >> um >> including [snorts] ones that may not have been in the complaint. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. I just, you know, if we're going to if we're going to say that we're making it ADA compliant, I'd want to make sure that we truly are doing our due diligence. No. And I'm not saying that we wouldn't do do that, but I just I think I'd want to see some type of like at least input from someone that
specializes in playgrounds. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, I'm going to let Dr. Comeier talk and then I think we'll take a motion to table. Dr. Kamir, >> just have a quick question because I'm trying to go through some of the
archives. Do we know what year this all the the was created or donated or whatever the word we're using is because if I can find an agreement then I have can't find anything and if I knew what year to look in it might be easier. >> I will help you with that. Um I will
contact Joanne who texted it or sent us an email this afternoon. Um Dr. come here and I will work with you on that. >> Yeah. And I'll just throw out the email said 2012. >> 2012. >> Yeah. >> Okay.
>> All right. Those might be paper things I need to look for. I don't think they're on the computer. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Exactly. All right. Um I'm going to take a motion to table this as I think there's more information. Okay. Carla, >> I just have one more question. I'm sorry. And I'm just thinking outside the
box. Um, I know there's a timeline for us to turn over the school back to the town. I don't know if that's October, if I'm remembering correctly. >> October 30th. >> Yeah, >> October 30th. >> So, we do need to take action before that time. There's a deadline on that,
right? Um, yes. We can't just t Okay. The other question, has anyone hypothetically thought about the cost of potentially just fencing in the playground until that turnover and what the cost would be to that and locking it? I'm just thinking outside the box
because that might be the least costly. >> Just thinking from a construction person. Um all of them. >> So again, the ADA compliant report was not issued against the school district. It was issued against the town. So we
don't know what the scope is or anything of that information. >> I'm just from us as a district cuz there were only two choices right now. And I'm just thinking if no one really knows who is responsible or will be responsible and if the district has to make a
decision between the two, can we potentially think of a third as in the district will fence it in, lock it up, and hand it over to the town once the October date comes over? Because that might be less than $1,000 cost. I'm just thinking hypothetically as a
construction person. Again, that's not an exact number by any means, but I'm just trying to give a third option outside the box to, >> you know, just ponder it. >> Something to solve the liability concern without actually having to do anything
to the playground immediately. >> Yeah, >> exactly. >> It's a good idea. >> Right. So, let's take a motion to table this and some more investigative work has to be completed. >> Right. I move that we table the
discussion on the playground at AES for the time being. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second. >> So that is Michael Labosier and Chris Long with a second. It's a roll call vote. Keenan Francois. >> Yes. >> Michael Labosier.
>> Yes. >> Chris Sloan. >> Yes. >> Lima. >> Yes. >> Bloom. >> Yes. >> White. >> Yes. Kim Craraven. Kim Kim. Oh, she's frozen.
>> Yeah, she's frozen. >> And myself. Oh, is she back? >> I I think she just moved a little bit. >> Yes, >> she's moving again. >> Okay, so you're saying yes. Table, just shake your head. And I we're going to put it she abstains. Um
Lisa Martin. Yes. All right. Moving on to the next agenda item. We are in the quory status update. Um just make sure this is just again a gentle reminder. Everyone should be filling out their queries so that you
are able to visit sites. We just we have two that are outstanding still. >> Okay. Um fitness court update. Dr. Reese, that is you. >> Thank you. So, you get to hear from me
one more time this evening. Um so, at the last school committee meeting, we had presented some information about um the outdoor fitness core potential. Um at that time the committee had asked us to go back um and speak with Towns and
Wreck and the town of Townsend. Um uh the one of the committee members had made us aware that um Townsend had gone through this process at some point o in the last recent years um and actually had some of the fitness court material.
Um so since that last meeting we have had the opportunity to um meet with the towns end uh the director from towns and wreck as well as the towns and town manager um and just have some discussions to learn more about what the
town had purchased and what would the needs be and what are their interests as well as what the school interests are and see if there's an opportunity for some collaboration. So our overall project goal hasn't changed. Uh as I presented last month, our goal is overarching goal is to build healthy
communities to provide the school and communities with access to an outdoor learning space that promotes physical fitness and health. Um so that hasn't changed even with the potential for collaboration. Um we did talk with the town and we learned that what they had
purchased and this actually was from um just two years ago that they had made uh were part of the grant program with the national fitness campaign. Um they purchased what was called the fitness uh fitness court side. So if you look at
that top diagram which shows the full fitness court and fitness studio the right side of the picture uh with the different stations that's the fitness court. Um so that's what the town has purchased. They did not purchase the fitness studio side, which would still
be an area of interest for the school district because it provides the opportunity for, as we talked about at the last meeting, expansion of programs. If we if we're able to secure funding and expand into some of our career and technical education programs, this would
provide outdoor space for our public safety and for our construction craft laborer activities outside. It also provides for more functional training activities and things like yoga with our physical education classes as well as
opportunities for other classes to access more of that open area space that's called um again that's the fitness studio side. Um the town just to give you a sense they did purchase um there was selection of the um the uh
bars as well as the base. Um they did go with the lighter blue. So that bottom picture down on the right where you see Fitsburg. That's actually a picture from the fitness studio and fitness court from Fitchburg. That's the color that they had selected. Uh we aren't able to
change the color. It's not the selection that we had initially made. Uh we were looking at um if we did go with this um fitness court, we were looking at a darker blue. Um that's not something we can change. So that would be the color. Uh but what we do have cap cap
capability to change moving forward would be and as you can see it in that where Fishburg is designed that's um some artwork custom artwork we would still have the potential to do custom artwork that's in the colors of the school district. Um and that and then
the picture on the left shows again where we were looking to have that placed. Um our conversations with the town went really positive. Um they saw this as a great opportunity. They've had the fitness uh court um equipment for the past couple years, have not been
able to complete the project. They had selected a site that was less than desirable for the town of Townsend. Um it was behind um the town hall, I believe, and they didn't didn't really see that as the optimal site, but that was the site best site that they had available. They're excited about the
opportunity to have it placed on the school property. they see that as more visible and more accessible for the schools and for the community as a whole. Um, in terms of costs, and this is actually a really positive thing as we've moved
forward with this process, as you can see here, um, we would still want that fitness studio, that left side on that last picture to provide that open classroom space. adding on the fitness studio, adding the custom education art.
Um, we would have to replace the adhesive because the equipment is sat for the last couple years. We'd need to buy new adhesive um before installing that. And the shipping and handling, that's all just around $48,000.
Uh the custom the concrete slab is approximately they estimated around 45,000. I talked about around 50,000 just because we want to make sure we add any handicapped accessibility from one of from the walkways to the court so
that we make sure as we're adding anything new in our schools that we're making sure that we're being fully inclusive and accessible for individuals, all individuals. Um and then the fitness court assembly actually putting it together that's around 40,000
as well which totals around 138,000. Right now the town of Townsen has been has an airmark from Senator Scarisdale of approximately $30,000 which is is directed towards um the concrete slab
installation. Um and we're continuing to work with Senator Cronin around the airmark um which actually is um being proposed at $150,000. So between the two earmarks, this would be a zero cost to the
district and we would have the opportunity to bring in work in collaboration with the town and bring in this fitness court and fitness studio to our communities. Um, we've had conversations with our legal team after
having conversations with the town just to get a better understanding of how that process works. Um and what the legal has suggested is that we need to come up with some draft some language around how the school district would
accept the equipment that Townsend has already has available and then have some language around making sure that it's available to our the residents from our three towns for community use outside of
the school day. Um, so in terms of next steps and to try to stay, you know, we're trying to stay within the goal of getting this done during the summer. Once you move into September and October, it becomes more challenging to do because of setting the concrete,
because of in installation, because of changes in climate and weather. They they don't encourage installation kind of past the end of September. So, we are still shooting for um the for September project. um we would work on the
concrete slab. We would develop um we would just need to do receive quotes. We wouldn't have to do an RFP for the uh for this um concrete slab work as well as for the installation. We would be able to secure some quotes for that. Um, the next steps for the committee to
consider this evening is just a authorizing the superintendent to be able to continue these negotiations and conversations with the town and to work with our legal counsel to draft up that agreement. Once that agreement has been drafted up, it would then be shared
between and we would work in collaboration again with the um town administration. um then it would be shared with the school committee and the town's end select board for a vote and approval of the agreement to to continue
to move forward. So I think it's a positive uh win for both the school as well as the town. Um it gets the the fitness court in with a zero cost for us and um I think it I think it's just a a
a good good success. Um, I would ask, you know, tonight that the school committee just consider that vote to authorize Superintendent Morgan to continue with the conversations with the town. >> Before I take any Oh, Kim. >> Any questions?
>> Okay, so Kim Craraven has a question. >> Go ahead, Kim. >> Um, thanks and sorry I totally froze on the last vote, but I was in favor of tableabling. It's not so much a question, just a comment. Thank you for doing this. I know I was pretty adamant that this
happened at the last meeting. Um, and I thought that we had voted to allow you to move forward, but if we need specific language um, as soon as everyone else has their comments, I'm I'm happy to do that. So, I appreciate the work um, that's gone in and and I was on some of the email strings about you setting the
meeting. So, thank you for getting this done. >> No problem. And I think just the specific vote tonight is the at the last subcommittee at the last committee meeting the committee directed us to move forward with as you know kind of starting to engage and this is really kind of formalizing that and then
getting us because then we'll reach out to our legal for actually developing the agreement >> I'm happy to make that happen. So again I just really appreciate it. I know I know I put the pressure on at the last meeting so I appreciate it.
All right, Jackie, wait. >> Thank you. Um, just a few questions. Um, do we, it sounds like Fishburg is probably the closest district to us that has this installed. Do we have any sense from them of how often it's getting used by um, either students just coming
either off hours to use this base and or during the school day if it's utilized a great deal? >> Is it on a Fitsburg school campus? I don't I don't believe it's on school campus.
>> It's I know Chumsford has one and it's not on a school campus. Um the town had done it. Um >> got >> so I don't have that information. Um, I think there's the I think for the schools because having it onsite, I think there's greater opportunity for
accessibility for our students and programs as well as our athletic programs to be able to do some uh training uh with students during their uh practices. >> And then um two more questions. Can you
just show the map again of where it would be located on our campus? And then can we talk more about the earmarked funds from senators Scarsdale and Cronin? Like what does earmarked mean? Like if we don't use it for this, what else is that money potentially be able
to be used for? >> Sure. So I I did put up that slide. This is directly outside. The location is outside of the gym area. Um, which that space does not have any type of um sprinklers or things like that to impact
um the installation process. So that really in in working with um principal Smith as well as um kind of sharing it with the town that seemed to be a really good good space location for >> Can can I just add something to that
real quick? Um, the other thing that we need to look at also is that because of the color, uh, we do want to make sure that we're cognizant of of the building committee, um, and how what it's going to look like on the
high school campus. I know initially we were looking at like a navy blue. Um, it looks like it's the same color that the Chumsford has and the same color that Fitsburg has, that almost aqua blue. So, is that truly going to be the best place
for it where we don't have the ability now to control the color and just the artwork? I I just think again just just to keep that in mind. Um, you know, I do think we have other potential spaces. I do think that space is the best space, but I also want to keep in mind the people
that were on the building committee for the high school and try to I certainly do not want to um do something that's going to in their eyes take away from the character and design of the building >> because I mean when you do
>> because when you do pull into the campus, this is one of the first sites you see as you go around. >> Yes. I I know there was another section that we were looking at when I was speaking to the Townson um rec director a couple of years ago. Um there could be another
potential location on school grounds. I do think it's very important that this be put on school grounds so that we can maximize the use. And just to answer um the other question around um the earmark funds, it has to be used for capital.
Uh the only downside of the capital funds is that the senator the money that Senator Cronin has secured for uh for the town of Townsend cannot be accessed until likely October. Um so we may have to use funds elsewhere potentially to
cover it until that money comes in. Um but it does not we may get it earlier but it may it may wait until October. Chris Sloan. >> Um, thanks for for taking a second look at this. Appreciate that. Um, I guess one thing I was just going to call out
when we do the the legal write up. I guess maybe um just learning from the discussion we just had tonight, maybe just making it clear who owns maintenance and future ADA and and all those types of things just so we uh don't end up in the same situation 10
years from now as we just went through with the the Ashb. Thanks. >> Good point. Thank you. Um, Chris, I'm going to point out that since we we rented Ashb, we rent Ashb, we own the district, this
um the high school. And so there is some difference there who owns what. So it's a little different than what we went through tonight. >> Okay? >> Cuz there's there's um school owned or districtowned buildings and then there's ones that we rent or
>> Okay. And this statistic [clears throat] is the one left that we rent. >> And just I I I you bring up a good point, Mr. Sloan. And I think um what the attorney our attorney was recommending was really how to craft language of the town of towns in gifting
that what they have purchased to the school district. So then it would ultimately become the school district responsibility for maintaining Okay. >> on ongoing maintenance. >> Thanks. All right. Um, Michael Abosier. Whoops, you're on mute, Michael.
>> Oops, there we go. Just wanted to echo the sentiments that like good work on getting this to, you know, moved forward so much in such a short period of time. Um, I I would actually think that the the lighter blue color from a usability
perspective would actually maybe be a bit better because it'll probably get less hot in the sun on those on like summer days. You know, that that that darker color would absorb the light and produce a lot of heat and those surfaces may get kind of uncomfortable
uh to to touch. Um, but at least they'll get warmer than the lighter blue. So, it may actually be kind of a benefit uh to to have the lighter color. Mhm. Sure. Yeah. >> All right. Uh Kim Craven, >> if there was any
sort of worry about the aesthetics in the future, you know, maybe a few little plantings um in front of the drive up, but it is athletic equipment. I mean, it's student engagement. I don't
think it's offensive looking. You know, I've driven by several of them to check it out, but just a thought, you know, if people are offended, you know, it's sort of like playground equipment. I don't find it offensive, but if somebody does, there would always be that opportunity, I think, you know, for low bushes, not
to hide it, but to just make it incorporated into the scenery. I don't think it's, you know, that drastic of a structure in place um that we can't overcome those kind of worries of integrating it into the scenery there.
>> Thank you, Kim. Uh Carla, >> yeah, just a question and I and this may have already been discussed and I missed it, but I know there's the concrete pour. Is the actual hard top going to be a painted or like a rubberyish type of
material? Um, just curiosity. >> Yep. So, it's a rubbery um materials. It's a specialized material that's part like so it's like that's their part of their equipment >> kind of like a track kind of like rubber, >> right? And those actually come in and it
comes almost like tiles that the in installers when they once the concrete is laid they then place that out. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Seeing no more questions,
may we take a motion, if everyone is okay, to have the superintendent go into discussions with the town of Townsen. >> I'll give you the motion. [clears throat] I move that the school committee
authorize the superintendent to hold discussion with the town of Townsen regarding the terms by which the North Middle Sex Regional School District might acquire and I'd like to add as a gift certain fitness equipment currently owned by the town and report back to the committee.
>> I second. >> That was Kim Craraven with a motion and Lisa Bloom on a second. All right, it's a roll call vote. Kenan Francois, >> yes. >> Michael Labosier, >> yes. >> Crystal,
>> yes. >> Yes. >> Arla Lima, >> yes. >> Craraven, >> yes. >> Lisa Bloom, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. All right. >> Thank you, everyone.
>> Um, I do have another question, Gary or Dr. Luis, sorry. Um, do you want this on the next committee meeting because I mean it's August 14th and you are running into a time. >> Yeah, I think I think that would be good
to put as a place marker because I know I'll I'll be reaching out to our attorney tomorrow to draft some language and he he didn't think it needed to be an extensive agreement. Um, and then I can get that to the town to share with their council and then to the committee.
We may actually just in for timing purposes need to or want to schedule like an intro special session >> a special session just for the purpose of >> reviewing that and stepping that [laughter] vote. But I'll have the timeline once I talk to our attorney
tomorrow >> because there are also finances involved in some of this and so and you're on a timeline so we may have to propose another meeting. >> Yeah. And I think it may have to happen before the August meeting. I apologize.
>> That's okay. That's okay. Um Kim Craven, >> thank you. Um, as part of that, um, and as part of this transactioning gift of the fitness equipment, can we just find out any other additional steps that we might need to take or the bottoman might
need to take in Townsen to ensure that the earmark from Representative Scarsdale allows just any language um, changes for the location. Um, I don't know if it was specific location, but I see Dr. Ree
nodding his head. Yeah, we had >> just check that box. I know that it was in discussion, but that we just don't lose sight of that. Um >> Yeah, and I believe they were they were looking at that um as well. >> Yeah, just in case we have to do anything just maybe we have that on the
next meeting, too. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> And just so that the committee is aware, we just have to post out 48 hours before we have a meeting. So, it could be a quick meeting that comes up. So, please do pay attention to your emails and we
just need a quorum to attend to vote for this. So, just making everyone aware. All right. Um, moving on to the next item on our agenda is conflict of interest disclosure. And I think Alexander Banci
still needs to update. I did not receive anything from um the clerk Bin this afternoon that she had received an update from Alexander. Moving on, we're going to the Ashby Elementary Solar Panels update. Dr.
Cormier, do you have an update? >> Uh I have a brief update in that we do now have the name of the attorney to contact and I believe they've been in contact, but I don't if they've made any progress. >> Okay. But at least we're closer than we were.
>> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Kier. Um and if you receive an update, please send out immediately to us cuz again that's on a time as well. >> Uh tomorrow. >> Okay. Thank you. Um moving on to finance. Moving on to subcommittee
reports. On to finance. >> No, no, no reports. We haven't met. [laughter] >> Okay. Moving on to negotiations. We're still to be decided on information. Um but those will be
starting this fall. Um on to policy. We have two policies in this list that are um to be discussed. We're going to discuss the cell phone policy because it's up for adoption and KF1.
So it's number one and number three. The other two are just placeholders. We don't need any updates to those tonight. Um, first on the cell phone policy, we did not receive any feedback from any
community members or any staff members or and I didn't receive anybody feedback from committee members. So, does anybody have anything or may this be moved to be approved for adoption?
All right. Seeing nobody's hands, um, does somebody want to make a motion? >> Yes, I will in a second. All right. I move that we adopt policy GBF and J also
J ICJ use of cell phones and portable communication devices uh as presented for adoption. >> I second. >> That was Michael Abosier and Lisa Bloom with a second. I'm going to give it one more time. Anybody have any more
questions about this policy? All right, it's a roll call vote. Keenan Francois, >> yes. >> Michael Labosier, >> yes. >> Sloan, >> yes. >> Jackie White, >> no.
>> Carla Lima, >> I abstain. >> Lisa or Kim Craraven, sorry, >> no. >> Uh, Lisa Bloom, >> yes. >> And myself is yes. And I think we had a majority vote.
So it does pass into policy. Um moving on to K KF1 school facilities use rental and personnel fee schedule. We did not receive any feedback from community
members on this one and um or any staff and I talked to Mr. Hammond the afternoon this afternoon who does a lot of the rentals and he had not received feedback from individuals. Kim
Craraven, >> thank you. Um at the last meeting I had discussed um the ability for those renting to go through the process to serve alcohol. I had um asked for the language that was acceptable at the
state level. um for folks to review. Um prior to this meeting, I would like the school committee to consider language. Um I did prepare a a bit of language um that would read and I could share
screen, but alcohol beverages. Alcohol beverages may be served at events conducted by approved nonprofit organizations in accordance with all applicable Massachusetts laws. local licensing requirements and the bylaws, regulations, and permitting requirements
of the host municipality. Any required one-day liquor licenses, permits, insurance, or approvals must be obtained by the renting organization prior to the event. The school district reserves the right to require proof of licensing, insurance, trained service, security
personnel, or other conditions deemed necessary to protect district property and the public. No alcohol may be served at events primarily intended for students or minors. I bring this up to the school committee for consideration because our school is
an amazing venue to host events that could be um marketed by our nonprofits to adults that during breaks um could have champagne toasts or wine tasting or
whiskey dinners, things that I personally with nonprofits that I'm affiliated with have looked for venues. Um, I see different concerts or things happening in the surrounds um that could be renting our school, but because we
don't have that policy available to us, um, we would go elsewhere for renting. Um, and that to be clear, this would not be for studentbased events. This would be for nonprofits renting for adultbased
events. um and not to be having the alcohol in um the performing arts center, but just during intermissions or dinners that would be held in the commons. Um and at the school you require insurance, require tip certified bartenders, require those that have
their 12C license um to try to get facility rentals out. So that is what I would like to add to our rental policy. So I would add in there that I would like for this rental to if they are
serving alcohol that they do have a police officer on site. Is that >> so so the the bylaws for the town when you go to rent the chief actually weighs
in whether the venue needs an officer or not. >> [snorts] >> So, for example, when the venue was being rented for the common that was going to serve alcohol last year, it didn't necessarily need
one, but because there was crossings, I said, "Can we hire a detail?" So, if you are going to do um a wine tasting and people have just the ability to only have the amount of like a glass and a half of wine and that's all they can
get, I would say you probably wouldn't necessarily require one, but you could leave that at the option of the school of what the type of event it is because you're not most times you're not going to have an event where you're doing like
a huge activity. But if you're going to have 300 people coming, that would be something that you're realistically you're going to want an officer helping people come in and out of the venue traffic-wise. So, we might not want to make it
mandatory, but have it in there as conditions. But the there's a clause in the towns and bylaw that I I should have it up right now, but the they work in partnership and the police department
has a say in what happens with the granting of the alcohol license. So by virtue of that, the PD has a hand in saying what happens. >> And would these be events that would have to come through school committee approval to know that the school
committee is really going to rent this or something that we want to be made aware of? Just >> Yeah, because it would have to go through the rental policy and I think we would have to add that to the form like is alcohol going to be served? Is this a 18 plus event?
21 plus events. Sorry, >> I just want to make sure. And for legal, I think does legal have to look at this? Um, our legal council, I mean, Superintendent Morgan or Dr.
Ree, I know you've worked in other schools that may have had this. >> Yeah, I mean, I would say we've all legal to look at it. um coming from the vocational world prior to coming to N&M, these um these types of events were
held. Um they're really held at probably I would say the majority of vocational schools, career and tech schools at this point in time and they they do tend to be I mean they're a little different there. They generally the 501c3 holds them and their fundraisers for the school itself. Um and they're hugely
successful. They usually one large dinner a year. uh but they do rent the schools out uh to other nonprofits as well for similar um types of things. But I would imagine that we probably would want the schools uh school districts legal council just to take a look at it.
But again, other school districts do it successfully. >> All right, I'm going to move on to Chris as he has a question. I guess just with the proposed changes with um the alcohol and all that I guess do we necessarily need to bundle that
into this current update like or would it make sense to we've already put this current update through first reading you know maybe adopt this and then go back just cuz I think people might have more feelings about this new change compared
to the small dollar amount tweaks [snorts] so I don't know if we should necessarily bundle those together versus treat those separately as separate passes. >> I guess that's why I brought it up at the last meeting, too. >> Um because what we can do is approve
what is out here now and then move and have it on the next school committee um to make sure that legal is signed off on it and everything and adopt it from there as well. or leave it out as first
reading again and make sure that the public is aware because it is a substantial change. Or we create a new policy, send it back to um the subcommittee and they create a new policy around alcohol and
facilities. >> So how would the committee to proceed? Were there some dates or deadlines that we were trying to get this first pass through? I I don't know if this was in support of, you know, the new fall >> the fees wanted to be Yeah, the fees
wanted to be approved for the fall as we wanted to start um applying the fees to the rentals. >> I I believe Jeremy wanted it approved so he could move forward. So if the committee felt
comfortable doing that, you can approve it and then we can bring it back. >> Yeah. >> Um do the amended changes and you can adopt it with the the changes or you can send it out for another first reading. >> Yeah. >> But whatever the committee decides at that time.
>> I mean to to to this KF1 is specifically the fee schedule. Like I feel like that a different sub policy of KF could be used for alcohol. Like I think this this this thing that we're about to vote on I
think is it like it is very specifically fees and really not much else in there. I think that this alcohol policy if we want to adopt it I think it could be another sub policy of KF and and its own thing and you know rather than trying to
incorporate it into this one. Well, and then it would directly say school facilities with alcohol use and that would be the name of the policy and people would know where to go. >> Yeah. >> Um Carla Lima,
>> sorry. Um I kind of agree with Michael there. I think we're ready to, you know, determine the the fees, but then adding the alcohol to it. And then I think getting a better understanding how many other schools actually rent this out and what type of a profit does it bring to
the school district to, you know, add the alcohol language to it and have that availability. There's a lot of unknown variables that I think a lot of us, at least I myself, am a little concerned about. I mean personally just my own opinion and everybody else
has a right to their owns. I don't feel comfortable having alcohol even in a facility that is not where students are at the moment but where students you know congregate but that's just my personal feeling. Um, but I think getting a better understanding as if if
if we do decide to add the alcohol language, how much more are we talking about compared to regular rental venues that are non-alcoholic are, you know, we going to generate versus the risk, right? Um, weighing
down both sides, I think is very important for us to understand. >> Ken and Prince Just for Kim, did you have that language um like on a document somewhere um that you could shoot out? >> Yeah. Do you want me to email it to
everybody? >> That'd be wonderful. And um I'm I I think I I missed this part of the discussion at the last meeting. I had to leave early, but I'm I believe what makes sense is what um Michael had proposed just adding the
alcohol endurance sub policy um if that's what the committee so chooses to do. Um I personally I just want to look at the language um and obviously run it through legal counsel first, but I don't necessarily have objection to it on the surface. Um I'd
abstain anyway as I can't even drink, but you know which is probably a good thing. Kenan, we would accept >> that would be that would be fine. >> Yeah. >> How anyone votes is fine.
>> Yeah. Broadly speaking, I'm okay with the idea. I think it's fine. I think that as long as all the proper controls are in place and whatnot, then then there's no, you know, like there presumably whoever is serving the alcohol is not going to be just leaving bottles of whiskey stashed around the
building or anything like that. So you know um you know the everything done by people who are what is it serve safe certified or whatever it is um you know so as long all of that is being done properly then then I don't see any
issues as long with that. >> So I think what I'm hearing from the committee is we will take this back to the subcommittee and develop the take what Kim is proposing and develop that into a policy. check with legal counsel and I
um and we can put it on our next agenda for policy and move forward and then we'll go through the first reading and that gives the public time to look at it and say this is good not good gives our staff and members of the committee to look at it as well. Is everyone in
agreement with that or we'll take a vote on it too I guess. >> Do do we need a vote on it now? No, not a vote on that, but we on the other policy. >> Oh, yeah. >> On the other policy. >> Yes. >> Uh Carla. >> Yeah. I just like to add if possible if
there's any studies or shared, you know, what's the value ad versus not having the alcoholic beverages. I think for me personally, that would make a difference in making that decision. You know, what's the true value ad in having those
alcoholic beverages served versus having events that don't have them. Okay, if we can find some information on that. >> I think Superintendent Morgan said that there are some other schools that highly um have this now. So maybe we can get
some data from them as to, you know, how much more revenue does that bring to them versus events that are non-alcoholic. And I think that gives us some type of a a threshold, right, to compare it to. >> Yeah. So Carla um just
for ones um that when I had looked at it ones that I had found um Newton Brookline, Lexington, Conile, Belmont, Andover, Welssley, Nita, Winchester, Actton, Boxboro, Nic Reading, Sudbury,
Westford, Lincoln, Sudbury regional. Um, so those were just ones that I was finding that were doing it. And it was all sort of like community access to space, fundraisers for nonprofits, fundraisers for the schools. Um, and I
had been watching like the um library in prep as a fundraiser. Um, you know, it's like a really good fundraiser and we just don't have access to a lot of venues in our region. It's like we have this beautiful venue right there and
rather than taking stuff outside of the district, it's like this opportunity to kind of bring kind of some cool events to our communities and give some revenue to the school with rental fees. And I do remember at one time in the
district there was a there was going to be an event held at the high school that was going to allow alcohol. I think it got cancelled way back. This might have been before Superintendent Morgan's time. Um,
but I don't but it just got cancelled not because of interest but there was something that came up and it wasn't due to the alcohol but I know that the school has looked at it before. >> So I'll send Robin a bunch of the research stuff that I had done to send out to everybody.
>> Sounds great, Kim. Thank you. All right, moving back to KFE1, school facility use and rental and personnel fee schedule. Is everyone okay with this policy? >> All right, I will take a motion.
>> All right, I move that we approve policy KFE1, school facilities use rental and personnel fee schedule as presented for adoption. >> A second. That was Michael Labosier with a motion and Lisa Bloom with the second.
Uh Keenan Francois, >> yes. >> Michael Labasier, >> yes. >> Chris Sloan, >> yes. >> Lima, >> yes. >> Craraven, >> yes. >> Uh Jackie White, >> yes. >> Lisa Bloom,
>> yes. >> All right, that is approved. Now moving on to policies for the first reading. >> Mhm. >> Now this whole list of policies is going out for the first reading. That means community
um is able to give us input on what needs to be changed. You guys are able to look at them, give input to us before they are adopted for a second reading. The policy subcommittee did meet before and they did review all of these
policies and a lot of the changes on these policies were adding um editorial small changes maybe school adding pronouns different things to the committee or to the policy.
Um any questions? Uh Kim So maybe I got lost when I went and clicked on these. How come I couldn't find them all? Like when I clicked on the link,
I could not find that entire list. That's >> what link. So when I went to the agenda item, >> yeah, the you should be looking in the in your folder on the Google Drive, not on the agenda.
>> Okay. And then when I look So in my meeting drive, right? I click on that link and I look in all the folders in the meeting drive. I can't find all of those in the meeting drive tonight's meeting. So, it's under
subcommittee reports. Uh the item number seven in the in the folders. Um >> yeah, >> yeah. >> Yep. >> And it's fine, Kim, if you haven't reviewed all of them because they're going out for a first reading. And I
think that's what Michael raised his hand to explain because he explained it earlier in the meeting >> in our policy meeting. >> Might have been when I was on Frozen. [laughter] No, no, no. He he did it in a policy meeting and so I'm going to hand it over to him.
>> Yeah. Ba, basically to to sort of summarize the process that we went through, like we we parcled out a bunch of policies. I think about 10 each to each of the subcommittee members to basically say, okay, look at our current policy and look at the MASC reference policy if it exists. Some of them
there's no reference policy but uh for the most part we would go through m look for changes between the reference policy and our policy if it m it evaluate whether it makes sense to incorporate them which for the most part it did because it was just minor editorial
changes or legal reference updates because the laws have changed um stuff like that. Um there are a few that have some more significant changes. Um so obviously it's a good idea to go through
all of them, you know, and and like read those in more detail, but for the most part you'll be able to just go through this folder and be like, "Yeah, those looks those look good. Those look good. Those look good." Cuz they're very small changes for the most part. And basically, if there is one that
you're in disagreement with, send the feedback to Robin and I and we will pull it from the list for the second reading and we will bring it back to the subcommittee. >> I mean, this is all a process of if if everyone's in agreement. Yeah, and
that's the key is that now everybody should take a look at these policies and if there's any of the changes that look like they need some work or if there's other parts of the policies that that you think need work, then just say it
and then those policies will get moved out and we'll we'll sort of give them a more thorough review. But otherwise, you know, for all of the simple changes that nobody has any objections to, we can just kind of get all those done and we'll have completed the 5-year review
for a bunch of policies and then we can move on to the next batch. >> And some of these are like it's changing chairperson to chair. >> Yeah. >> Or it's a one-s sentence policy. And so some of these will move quickly for looking at what the changes were. And
you'll see the red line copy. >> Yeah. these files have the changes as red lines so you can see what the original policy was and what the changes that were made to get to the new policy. >> So >> yeah, and just so the committee is aware
um we took um these policies the majority of them haven't been updated since 2011. So the committee felt as though uh the governance policies were really important and so that's why we've taken the governance
policies and um as a um as a group >> u because most of them are like we said they're just um they're edits and updating to bringing them up to date with current laws etc. So, and what we've done this time that we hadn't done in the past is um we've kept all the red
line changes and that's what will be posted as a first reading. So, uh staff, administration, you know, the committee and the community at large can see the changes that are proposed and really have an idea um when they're giving us feedback
on what they're giving feedback based on, they can see the change. So, when I look at this one, um, and you all know how much I love Google Drive. Um, so each one of these, now I'm going
to go in. So, BJLB, I'm going to go in and I'm going to save it with a real name, school committee, legislative program after the initials. And I'm just seeing that was added in the red, North Middle
Sex Regional. And then it says updated 2022. >> So they're just make bringing the changes based on what MASC has updated. Once the the um our general practice has
been once the policy is approved for adoption um then I go in and I make all of the um formatting changes. So, you know, it will say updated 2026, but we're not going to to I'm sorry, Mike. Go ahead.
>> Sorry. Sorry. The the updated 2022 is that is when the reference policy provided by MASC was updated. The adopted by M&MsD school committee, that's the section that will have the date that we adopt the new policy. >> Right. Once they're >> But what I'm saying is those are the only two changes you've made in that
policy. >> Correct. >> Nothing else has changed. >> Yeah. So several of these you're going to see just minor editorial changes where we added in North Middle Sex regional or change chair to chairperson or added
districts. It's not and the bigger parts that you will see will be in red and highlighted and some of those policies we may have to pull back and have a further discussion on if committee [clears throat] members want a further discussion.
Makes sense. >> Yeah. It's just I know you guys looked at them all, but it it looks ominous to have to open resave each one with a name because
>> Wait, what? Why do you have to open and resave with a name? >> Confused. [laughter] Um because I unless there's a crosswalk that I'm not seeing, I want to be able to know the names of each one because I can't memorize all the initials. >> You just open it and look at the title,
right? >> Yeah. So, >> if I want to reference one with a name for you all, >> well, what we did is um because the policies are saved in the drive under it will say policy BGD. I'm just throwing that out there. So, um, when
you know, remember each committee member is reviewing theirs and they need to save it as something different because we need to keep a history of all of the policies. So, it's named that way so I can track it, >> right?
>> So, when once the policy is approved, it will be it will be saved as, you know, if it's BGDE, you know, that's how it's saved policy by the acronym. That's how they're listed. >> Yes. I I get that. So, um I just give it a real name so that I can
>> find it quickly. Like if I know I'm looking for use of electronic messaging, >> I'm not going to remember the initials of that. Like if I want to reference it. Um all right. So, because the policy committee has looked at all of these and
you each divided some of them and now we are in one month going to have to look at all of them. In your estimation, are there ones that we should be looking at first that have extensive amount of changes so that we can attend to those?
Right? Cuz this it looks when I'm looking at it, there's a a you know, a couple dozen here [gasps] of policies so that we don't fall short to look at these in the next month. >> Um,
okay. So, [clears throat] Kim, when I did all of these, like to review what people put in for changes today, >> um it took me probably 45 minutes to look at what everyone changed. >> Okay. >> So, it wasn't a
>> Yep. So, it wasn't So, I could read them and be like, "Yep, that makes sense. This is our governance. This has been what MASC recommends. This is what we've had in a policy. We just have a minor change here." I think we came up with a list of two which I can send out to the
committee after that you may want to look at a little deeper. >> Yeah, I think that that Lisa is super helpful to say like, "Hey, plan on looking at this in about an hour." >> Yeah. And perfect rather than us looking
at it and being like, "Oh my god, this is going to take us like five hours." >> It's a It's a long list, but most of the changes are really small and really inconsequential. So you'll be able to knock them out pretty quickly. >> Okay, awesome. >> We would have things. Yeah. And we would
pull things from the list that are going to be take a sub substantial amount of time. >> We know that there are ones that we need to take and really discuss as a committee. So >> Okay. Yeah. And just because I'm looking at all the letters, like I don't I don't know that intuitively because you've
already looked at them. if there's one like that's a really sensitive policy or something just because you've been doing this for years, you know what that those letters mean. Um >> I do not know what those letters mean. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Um then I'm I'm just looking and be
like, you know what? If what if one is like super sensitive and it's going to take us a while, but an hour that's easy. >> Thank you. >> They did not take long. >> Yeah. And and again the if if you look at one and you have like any question at all about it or you think like this may
this I think this requires further discussion then just >> email >> and and say this requires further discussion and then we can pull it out cuz like we really do want the the changes that we kind of batch together in these big groups. We we want them to
be the the simple kind of routine changes that we don't need to give a huge amount of time to. So that way we have more time for all of the ones that require more discussion. And I think we did this group first because it is the governance and
everyone is new to the committee and they should really familiarize their stuff themselves with these this first batch >> and it was a batch that also doing it this time frame because during the school year things get busy and
>> Superintendent [clears throat] Morgan is going to be bringing us policies that he knows that needs to be changes and that have a bigger discussion related to them. Okay, >> if that makes sense. >> Okay. All right. Jackie White has had her hand up for a while. Jackie,
>> so all this to say that I'm I totally agree with everything that we just chatted through. All I was going to suggest was having some type of key so that quickly we look at this list of 40 and we say, "This is highlighted red. I know it's going to take me some more time and brain space to to dedicate to
it cuz same thing as Kim said, I looked at this like, oh my god, this is this is ominous over the next month." Um, and I worry that if people see this, they're just going to blow it off entirely. Like, I know we're all adults, but right, we we want our committee to look
at them, but if we feel like the job is not going to happen, you just say, "Gh, throw your hands up. It's not going to get done." >> It it does go quickly. And I will go through and send out an email tomorrow to everyone. Here's a policy. Do not reply all on it. Here's a policy that
takes some time to look at. take some time to look at this one, >> but most of them some are just one three or three sentences. >> So, and there is feedback that I know Superintendent Morgan has to look at through a list serve that we've already
as a subcommittee decided that we need to take a deeper dive into that. So, I will take that on tomorrow and get an email out to everyone. But honestly, when you do sit down, it does not take a lot of time to go through them. So, don't be scared by the
list. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And it it is nice that we, you know, and this is a a work in progress. We're just we're always trying to get better and be more efficient. Um and I think that it's great uh that we're um listing the red line um versions for um
for everybody to see so it's easy to see what changes were made. um you know and any other suggestions bring them forward. >> I think this is also one area during our monthly meetings where we get a little too ambitious and bite off more than we can chew in our agenda and we end up
going until 10 p.m. instead of earlier. Right? If we could try to put some more thought around how much time we truly think a discussion point is going to take rather than just like a guess, oh this is only going to take 10 minutes and we blow past it in 35. I would just ask us to be more conscientious around
that. >> And I think everybody knowing the process that the subcommittee is doing is a great discussion because now we're all trying to, you know, make the process move a little smoother.
If that makes sense. Chris Long. >> I guess one thing we might try and do for the next time is just if we know we have these couple that we're going to email out that will take longer. Maybe we can work that onto the agenda, too. Cuz I think the problem that's being
described with having to review 40 probably applies to the general public, too. Uh, I think they might have be less likely to review 40, you know, policies for review unless we call out which ones are more important than
the general public as well. >> We have to be careful about that though because what we think is really important might not be what someone else thinks is really important. And if we don't call something out and then someone says, "Hey, why didn't you call that one out specifically? I think that's really important and warrants
further discussion." Now we're in a position where we're deciding what's important and people may disagree with us and if like think we're trying to hide something like oh we didn't specifically call that out as important. We must have done that because we were trying to be sneaky as opposed to just
we're we don't think it's important like you know. So we should be careful there in with any sort of judgments of importance that we communicate out because people will disagree and might make an issue of it. >> Yeah.
>> And I do think Yeah. And I think all of the policies are important. These are the policies that govern us and as an elected official we all should be aware of these policies. I mean this is our job and so
>> yeah I think maybe important is the wrong word. Maybe >> significant changes maybe I guess would be a better way to put that. But again there could be disagreements about whether changes are significant or not based on your opinion. And so it it >> it's one of those things that is well-intentioned but ripe for problems
if people make an issue of it. So we got to be real careful there. All right, seeing no hands and explanation on the policies, these are going out for first reading. It also does include our artificial intelligence
policy which we already know that there may be a bigger discussion. So that next agenda will be pulled out for a bigger discussion >> because we know that we may have some feedback from the public or committee members or staff members
if that makes sense to everyone. All right. So Michael, do you want to read the list or do you want me to read the list? >> No, I can I can read the list. I'm ready for this >> because I'm still recovering from policy. >> Yeah. from at the policy subcommittee
meeting. Yep. All right. So, I [clears throat] move that we approve the following policies as presented for first readings. All right. Uh artificial intelligence policy which is policy I I had the name or I I had the ID earlier
but we'll just say the artificial intelligence policy. Uh BA school committee operational goals. BAA evaluation of school committee operational procedures. BB school committee legal status. BBA school committee powers and duties. BBAA school
committee member authority. BBBABB school committee member qualification oath of office. BBBC school committee member resignation. BBBE unexpired term fulfillment. BCA school committee member ethics. BDA school committee
organizational meeting. BDB school committee officers. BDBA ad hoc chairperson. BDC appointed committee officials. BDD school committee superintendent relationship. BDF advisory committees to the school committee. BDFA school councils. BDG
school attorney. BE school committee meetings. BEC executive sessions. BEA notification of school committee meetings. BEB agenda format. BEB agenda format order. BED rules of order.
BEEDF voting method. BE special procedures for conducting hearings. BG school committee policy development. BGB policy adoptions. BGC policy revision and review. BGD school committee review
of regulations. BGE policy dissemination. BGF suspension of policies. BHC school committee staff communications. BH uh use of electronic messaging by school committee members. BIA new school
committee member orientation. BIBA school committee conferences, conventions and workshops. B school committee member compensation and expenses. BJ school committee legislative program and BK school committee memberships as presented for
first readings. >> I second. So, that was Michael Abosier on the motion and Lisa Bloom on the second. Um, I do want to be clear that there's also two on this list that will
be up for reension. Um, but I again when we send out the list tomorrow, I will explicitly tell you which two those are. And um, just because they're MASC does not have a policy. Um, but it does not mean
we don't need a policy with it. But that will be further discussion for second reading. All right, it's a roll call vote. Kenan Francois, >> yes. >> Uh, Michael Abosier,
>> yes. >> Chris Sloan, >> yes. >> Lima. >> James, uh, you're on mute or >> Yes. >> Kim Craraven, >> yes. Jackie White, >> yes.
>> Lisa Bloom, >> yes. >> Myself, yes. All right. So, that is those are going off to first reading. Um, community outreach towns.
Um, any update from Ashby, Carla, Lima? All right. Um, Pepper update. Alexander is not on tonight, but I have not received any updates from Pil and Towns and Keenan France. We did appoint you last time, Kenan.
>> Yes, I have nothing. >> Okay. Um, does anybody have anything to add to the next agenda or for further discussion next time? All right, seeing no one, um I will take
a motion for to adjurnn. >> I move that we adjourn. >> That is Michael >> and >> and Lisa Bloom with the second. Um it's a roll call vote. Keenan Francois, >> yes.
>> Michael Lassier, >> yes. >> Chris Sloan, >> yes. Yeah. >> Uh Carla Lima. Uh Kim Craraven. >> Yes. Uh Jackie White. >> Yes.
>> Lisa Bloom. >> Yes. >> And myself. Thank you everyone. Have a good night. Enjoy the rest of your summer.