##VIDEO ID:Yq0drDJNGTk## 630 and it call to order the North Middle sex Regional High School school committee meeting it is oh Middle School we are at the high school we just need to eventually talk louder so at 6:30 at 6:30 we're opening the meeting we have members from Zoom that are on is that correct all right and will take a roll call we have will Hackler you want see yes here Patrick MC Phillips present Lisa Bloom here June mcneel here Randy Rous here we want to say our other members or is it just members Brad Morgan is here yes I am Dr um Rees is here Nancy hes is here Ryan dear is here our athletic director and in the audience we have Jeremy Hammond Hammond um Kevin kir and Lisa come on come on and I'm going to ask that we move Ryan Bailey to the top of the agenda because he has to get back to the PCA for a or a comedy show so all right Ryan the floor is yours hi everyone I'm Ryan um I'm a senior here at the high school and last year I did the Civic Action project about paper recycling um and the main mail I used was manad KN paper mills trying to figure out a way to do something called cloop recycling I have a hand a hard copy out for everybody essentially what it is is that if we give our paper to this Mills they'll recycle it and bring it back to us so instead of having to constantly cut down these trees will be able to be using the same supply of paper just refreshed and renewed um I tried emailing them when I did the project and during the summer but unfortunately they said they couldn't give me much information because I wasn't technically supported by the business that I was doing uh so I'm coming here to seeking permission to say that we are potentially interested um and if we don't make decision yet that's perfectly fine um I just want to know so I can start working with them and if we don't approve it we don't have to approve at end the day but I just need to get the information from them for money and stuff um so if we do approve I'll need someone to contact here about budget and papers so don't get anything wrong and um just get info in prices about our current Paper Supply secondary um if we don't want to quite do it yet um we could still set up it's tur to Quarter Two soon uh we want to set up maybe flexes and um advisories where people throw away their paper and collection bins since at the end of the quarter people a bunch of paper they don't need and usually you know I always did a big like burnout at the end of the year with it and I'm like that's just a waste so people can throw it in these and we like to get that maybe started soon so we can experiment with ways so I like to start an environmental Club here that can work with that that can sort through the paper and allow us to use this closed recycling uh we would fundraise for collection bins um these big collection bins we can do during advisory and we like to get individual bins in most of the classrooms um and we'll need to do fundraising that the group can run um and we need a storage area I know that there are some rooms that aren't fully used in the school right now there's some side rooms of uh science classroom that I know is vacant uh we could move it outside at all we'd also need to figure that out um data that I found is that we use seven tons of paper every year um and that's constantly every year that we're cutting down roughly 102 trees worth which is a lot um for a school especially our size um so I'd like to do close zo to minimize amount of oil water we use in our our ecosystem um if anyone has any questions I think the main thing I have you don't have to make a vote on it yet just look on this and see if I can get approval to start um contacting man paper mails to see if they'll be interested in doing it with us and possibly start getting a collection service uh going thank you thank you anyone from the committee have any questions at this time so um in order to start getting um a cost for any of this they just need approval to be able to start working with us there's no monetary um no anything we need to commit to yeah no it's non-binding I said when I emailed them they said sorry we understand that you're a student and we're not sure if your school they don't want to waste time essentially right so if I say oh the school has bit of my backend and mayble they'll be able to give me prices and stuff but now if buy okay how did you come uh come about close loop so um I uh I actually worked in um part Service Learning and went down and they actually had a mill for that down there for almost the whole city which is very impressive and I thought that there's anything in New England that does that and I found that manad is the closest for paper there's one I think 30 minutes away in um Massachusetts that is cardboard if we want to extend to that but start with just paper and Manan KN Mills is a great producer of that recycling that a lot of businesses around here use so I think it'd be cool to put our school into that start making that progress forward were they able to give you any uh schools or businesses that are already using their services uh I can't remember the name of the businesses I didn't find any schools yet but they would consider us as a business per se um but still we can do it R and he had a great presentation at the Civic AC day and so and he talked to me about it and it it's quite interesting yeah so anyone else has any questions it seems like a great project that need a St market research could we move to vote now just to let him press I mean it seems to the committee no har if you guys are good with it you can move to vote all right I'd be happy to work with here at the high school as well just to be this is just at the high school you're doing yes all right does somebody want to make a motion I move uh to give the schools permission um to look into the um the feasibility um for the um full circle or the closed loop recycling program thank you would I quick question I have approval to maybe start working with s for advisory we not want to do that quite yet I Mr Morgan said he would help you figure out who to get in contact with in different place and will you come back and present to us again I will soon so I'm going to take everyone in favor vote I anybody oppos anybody obain who's Patrick all right we have the appr thank you very much you we're going to move back to the consent agenda you can a motion on the agenda so move second June all those in favor I anyone opposed any extensions yes any public Communications I didn't see any I didn't see any all right now we are on to meridith but I'm going to Meredith was um mentioned in an article in the sun L Sun um about her outstanding field hockey career and as a top student so and sent out the article to everyone did everyone have a chance to look at it or it was in in public communication so congratulations M all right now that I put you on the spot you can go ahead and give us the stud report so Natalie you want okay oh and this is n Natalie Natalie okay so we had homecoming September 28th and that would brand smooth the was a big success and then this week council is also starting to sell Halloween candy gr for students comp puras candy and that funds will go towards student council as well as we have SP week for this upcoming week for Halloween um we're also starting to plan for veter Veterans Day and The Faculty year and so together budgetting the Veterans Day celebration is November 7th and school committee members are welcome to what time is the veteran Day program the morning bre and I think everyone got an invitation on it correct and then we have the power puff game upcoming November 19th 5m and it's GNA be grade versus Grade so it's freshman versus sophomores and then Juniors versus seniors and the winners of those two games will go against each other and usually big plan are and that's November 19th yes as for other things in the school NHS inductions for two weeks ago and we're always looking for more service opportunities and as we start to get going our individual Service Groups are being their projects which is this it's just like little groups of students in NHS who are going to do service projects around around the school for sports and as as our H season's winding down many teams are heading into tournament season which I know we're all very excited for but there's also a lot of building excitement around winter sports I know talking to some track and we're all very excited for that to start and just other news U Ro roppa National Society had their inductions as well as the tri National Music Society right does anyone have any questions for the representatives thank you nalie and Meredith if you guys want to go with you are free to go and do do your homework I thank you thanks girls thank you right um my report just some bookkeeping there's some ques that need to be completed and then if everyone would um whenn a the meeting sent out just acknowledge that you got it or if you're coming or not you're climing and I think that is all on that and then superintendent report I don't have anything until we the budg all right and then you are up Mr dear oh perfect um so I just wanted to um come to school committee to request um approval for the North midle sex Regional High School baseball team to do an overnight trip um to mashby uh for it's March uh in March it's Friday March 28th through um Sunday March 30th uh they go down there uh they've done I know they've done in the past they play a couple of scrimmages it's about little less than two weeks into the season um it is something that they've already started um fundraising for um and it's you know a situation where it's it's not only the opportunity to scrimmage um some teams from different parts of the state but it's also an opportunity for them to to uh do some Team U bonding um it's something U that coach borgard has I mean he's done now I know at least for two years the leg work for for all of this and he handles the logistics and he I know he um in my uh at least in the packet had he offered both the itinerary kind of dayto day but then also some of the you know some of the pertinent information hotel location the funding those type of things um he's with that I know there's a fee in there that talks about like $300 a player he's provided um I would say at least four different fundraising opportunities for families um as ways to cut into to that amount um so it's not necessarily a burden in terms of uh for families because it's something he's discussed with them um all along he's also already got the process going with the nurses um he's given them kind of a list of perspective students or or players so that um it is obviously a wide list because they they don't try out till March but he wanted to give them plenty of time to get ahead of that um he has submitted the um the out of state overnight field trip form request as well um that has been looked at by the interim principal here in high school um and has like I said move been moved on to the nurse um and it even you know he kind of goes into um the medical piece of it he traditionally has a parent there that is um either has a nurse or a doctor uh background and they are one of the few teams I would say in Massachusetts that have their own ad that they travel with um it's something they they bought early on in coach Bard's tenure here and they bring practice games everywhere um so they are well equipped in case of um any medical situations there um I also know that he meets with his coaches and chaperon prior to this trip um and goes over kind of the procedures for different scenar Aros um just again so those that those medical concerns are kind of at least the anxiety that may come from those are kind of swashed prior to heading they have a a plan for all those different situations anyone have any questions for running Mr looks like you've covered I will take a moment motion then to approve the I move the school committee approved the North Middle sex Regional High School baseball team's overnight trip to K Cod mil scrimmage games from March 28 2025 to March 30th 2025 second all those in favor it's all approved Ryan thank you we are on to the home school report as the Athletics tier sponsor form has been removed from the agenda and the Washington DC trip is removed as well okay I think you're up for the next three yes thank you uh good evening everyone um as we do each year I just submit the report annual report to not by the committee of the number of families and number of students that are enrolled for homeschool program so each year families have to submit a new application to identify what their curriculum is and their means of assessing uh their children Through The Homeschool program we're continuing to see a decline in the number of families um from um we spiked in 20 the 2021 school year to 215 students and that was kind of postco or midco um so we're continuing to see a decline I don't anticipate we're not back to the pre-co numbers yet I really don't anticipate that we'll ever get back to that level because I think some families who had the opportunity to explore homeschooling when we were in a pandemic period have actually found that that was a more beneficial opportunity um for their children to learn so they've maintained that um but we we are contining to see a decline um it represents now only 4.55% of our students um overall student population and it's a decrease from last year of 8.28% in the number of students that are doing hom school programs what age groups predominantly are being homeschooled at this time it's it's really mixed so the report um you know we see between like 10 to 15 students anywhere for each grade level from grade one up to grade 10 um when we get into grade 11 and 12 it's down to about five students in each grade level and kindergarten we do have five students which we don't kindergarten is not required for families to submit a plan unless their child is turning six prior to January first of the year that they would have been in kindergarten because kindergarten is not a required attendance program and uh do we find um that there's uh an increase decrease or about the same of parents actually asking to be in a particular class like at the high school for a lab class or for supplement no we don't really see a lot of that um I see more of it in terms of families that want to explore or participate in extracurricular activities such as Athletics or even we had one family last year or at the beginning of this year that wanted to make sure that their child could still participate in things like school dances and as long as they work through the the high school administ ation they're still able to attend those programs and as long as they're also complying with roles and expectations any more questions to the professional development planties so just another quick update um so this year we have four um early release late start PD days and what we decided to do for this year was have our staff at the elementary middle and high school level go through a rotation for three of those days where one day they would be receiving professional development um focused in special education topics and that's going to be led by our director of special education Erin Upton uh we're going uh Massachusetts is implementing a new IEP individualized education program this year and that's work that our special education staff need to be aware of but this also impacts for how it looks and how our regular education teachers need what their understanding of the process needs to be so that's going to be one area of focus the second area of focus is around our multi-lingual Learners and last year we had um an outside consultant from Mountaintop Consulting work with our our multilingual teachers they felt they were had very positive feedback and so we're bringing her back to do whole staff training really around strategies and supports for students as they're train as they're working within the general education setting to make sure that were meeting the needs better meeting the needs of all students and the third area there we're providing PD on those days for is around restorative justice restorative practices and restorative practices is really a lot of times when people think it they think just around the discipline piece and making sure that the discipline when a child behaves in a certain way that we wouldn't like that they then are restoring their the sense of Community to whatever they've done so if it's something in the cafeteria what can they do to then restore their ability to be in the cafeteria and not interfere with other kids access to enjoying lunch or things like that but it really at the Bas level restorative practices is really about how do we create a caring and Safe Community that all students understand that and them want to be complying with rules and expectations because is if a child doesn't have that sense of belonging in their classroom and then we're asking them to restore themselves within a behavior in the classroom there's no incentive for them to do that because they don't care about that connection so restorative practices at the base level is first just starting with how do we create that sense of belonging in community that all students feel respected feel safe and want to be part of the community and so we're working with uh suff University's Center for restorative justice and they're going be providing an overview this year and my hope is that it'll be very well received by staff and then we'll continue a model with them into subscreen school years where they provide more specific training on implementing it and working with small groups of teachers so that we can start to do some pockets of um growing that practice um so this really will just be an overview during a two-hour process um and the other thing I just wanted to highlight in terms of professional development we do have our upcoming November 5th PD day and we are collaborating with lunenberg public schools for this PD this is a great opportunity for us to save some money to share um some of our resources and expertise we have a keynote speaker Dr Aaron Nino who's really um has done some work she was a former teacher at king philli um Regional School District and while she was there she did work with students around interrupting harassment speech how how do you interrupt how do you do it in a safe way when you see something happening whether you're a teacher whether you're a student how do you how do you intervene but intervene safely and so there was a structured program she was doing there at um King philli she's now um I forget what college she's at but she's now a college professor and she's continuing that work with at the college level of how do we provide support um so she's going to be our keynote for all staff to hear then she'll be doing some breakout sessions all staff are going to have the opportunity after they see the keynote to self- select between a variety we have probably about 40 to 50 different sessions that will run over three session blocks so teachers will be able to self- select a topic um that's most of interest to them all of the topics are focused around the concept of caring safe inclusive environments so we're we're excited about doing it um I know we did this work with lunenberg I don't know if it was pre-co or right during Co um kind of sharing our PD work together um and we're we're looking forward to doing it again and it'll be hosted here at the high school and you said that's November 5th that's our November 5th any questions after right a and so I'm gonna pass this over to Dr Cormier who um has really been digging into the data and what I will say is you'll see um and we'll try to keep it as concise as possible I know there's a lot we can talk about um but it's not only a focus on our mcast data but it's also what are the other aspects of data that we're collecting because mcast is only one source of information for one perod and we want to make sure that we're continuing to look at all of the sources of data we have to make sure we're making effective progress for students and also making good educational decisions so thanks Dr thank you Dr and so in a little bit of change in the past I'm actually not going to hit you with a lot of numbers I I've linked everything and the relevant data um so you can see the charts and tables if you're into that sort of thing but I really took the time to dig into like what's the story that this data is telling us and how is that going to affect you know the instructional practices and the priorities that that we have bu for um all right so the first thing is there's a districtwide accountability um percentile where do we sit within the state um we we see this from year to year this is only just to kind of show you that this is what the state Trends were um the state is pretty flat and slight defly um overall so I'm going to try and situate us as in relation to Statewide data as well to show where we're sitting where we're outperforming where our sort of uh Focus needs to be in order to bring something up but you see like last year there were 82% of schools that were not requiring the assistance this year it's down to sorry it's down to 83 last year um same with the progress slightly down last year there were 66 schools that received the school recognition uh award for there they um work in this area there's only 50 this year so you can see that already there's a little bit of a drop in you Statewide performance and that's going to be pretty T along the way um what measures that again I'm not going to go through all this the the indicators hyperlink will give you all the percentages and the weights and everything that goes into it but these are what goes into the accountability system currently so it does talk about mcast but it also talks about things like monic gism and at the high school level the ability to access advanced course workor and then things like graduation rate dropout rate and everything has a weight it comes in and then they rank you either as a non- high school or a high school so the high schools are only compared to high schools the non- high schools are compar to nonexclusive so you can't compare them to each other um this year none of our schools are targeted for any sort of assistance and so I bolded Hawthorne because last year Hawthorne did have uh a a finding around um one group of our uh e grade students who did not not enough of them took the mcast so we had a plan to make sure that was something that was addressed it's one of those things where it's a subgroup that does not have a lot of students so every individual student counts more towards a percentage so we actually didn't have to do a lot of work we just had to kind of be vigilant take a look at it and it kind of work out but we did what we needed to do with now States n add um so here's where we end up for our percentiles I'm going to talk a little bit about these so the elementary um again we're about middle of the pat give or take a little bit middle schools are a little bit low we but we'll talk about that a little bit in high school is at the 43rd per out so again somewhere near the middle 40 to 60 is basically the middle you think of it as a bu um so if you're in the 40 to 60 typical so we're not grossly underperforming we're not grossly overperforming we're we're about typical for um but what it comes down to is this so the takway from will that first of all achievement in high school exceeded everything we did in 2023 so we made some growth there which is good especially among students with disabilities and that's something that we went into the year knowing was an issue that we needed to address and so with specific work with some schools and with some departments and we did make some really good gains there so that was good the attendance is the biggest thing that we have to struggle with um we were those low scores on the accountability the buildings particularly Peril got zero L of four points for their chronic absenteeism we just have way too high of a rate of absence duties in in almost all of our schools but particularly in our paral schools so because of the way the waiting system works like it dropped scor significantly but it's one of the things it's an easy F if we get kids to school on a more regular basis those scores come up very quickly so it's not so much about the you know the performance of the instruction and things like it's really about getting kids in the building and from there everything sort of grows on um and then the other thing that's a little troubling is the achievement score updates the growth scores we really do focus more on growth because that's where it again relates to how other students are doing achievement scores will fall and rise from year to year depending on how hard test was or different things but growth is is a constant measure and we want that growth to be like as someone who's into the data I look at growth way more than I look at achievement that tells much more of the story but it is only one year it's not a trend yet but it is something that's kind of take note of it if this happens again if it happens again then that might be something that that us um I yes how do they Define a qu accd uh if you miss 10% or more of the sweet year so 18 and and that's absent like excused or unexcused and before March 1 they're comparing to March 1 data from of Co so for the last four years they're going year to year but they're stopping at March 1 so we have I think we're at 13.6% of our students have missed at least 10% of the school year prior to March 1st so so this is data from the state we just got this a couple weeks ago where they reported out that the achievements gap between students who were chronically absent and not chronically absent has a significant statistical difference so you see in gr 10 27 percentage points lower less likely to reach your meter exceeding on mcast if you weren't weren't here which makes sense if you're not here for the instruction you're not really going to do Sol low on the test right but I I did reach out to to desie um I have a pretty good relationship with their cheap data person the the platform we use to get our own data um does not have this built in at the at the district level yet so I don't have our scores for the discrepancies but they're working on that because people have been asking about it that it's just not available because it's an outside vendor that creates the platform but it is as you can see these are pretty striking numbers and given where we are we're probably in this TR and the other thing too there was a um 50 can did a study about uh from state to state about strengths and weaknesses relative to what parents and families thought Massachusetts as you can expect probably did we did very well we did uh we were above the national average in 13 of the 15 areas these are the two that we weren't as a state again it's not districtwide but if you're thinking about what are we doing to prepare our students the only places that we seem to be falling short is our confidence in postsecondary so when we think about what we do in our high school are we preparing our students I I mean I don't know what our district dat is but a state it's not our strongest we're good at everything else but this is something that as we think about what we're telling our 10th 11th 12 grade ERS and help to prepare them to be mindful that it's it it may need some some work may need some so it comes to the learning results right so how do we measure it we we have the ELA Math and Science ncast exams grade8 Civics will have an incast exam starting this year and something that I I feel like I need to point out because I've had some questions about this I know there's a ballot question regardless of how that vote turns out mcast will continue this year and for the foreseeable future it is a federal mandate and in state law so people are going to think they're voting to get rid of mcast and they're going to be surprised when their kids are still taking in the spring your kids are still taking in the spring regardless of this V so so some people have said well the mcast doesn't matter because it's not going to be around it's going to be around so and I've Linked In all the relevant information for that so just want to correct some of the misinformation that we've been hearing up there we also have our internal ments I ready which is what we use for our early literacy paid free we have a a platform ISL which takes care of the rest of the four to eight grades for ELA and then all of one through eight uh in math we don't do the kindergarteners yet we're trying to find a different version that's more kindergarten friendly um but we don't have anything that happen so EA again let's go through this really quickly because you have all the numbers um the drove scores again 40 to 60 is the good range that's your typic growth as you see schoolwide each of our schools have fallen within the expected reach so our kids are on track Ela every school every grade so we're we're doing all right internally this has been the really interesting thing for us to see because this is a change in our trend is the retention level of the students and by not keeping the back but one of they were retaining over the summer so at the end of last year 70 7% of our grade 3 to 7 students fell at or just below grade 11 we still count just below because of Co 73% began the year at or below grade level or just below grade level which means only about 4% really had that slide over the summer it's been much worse in the past so our kids are remembering stuff over the summer that's a good thing that helps us out that helps teachers out in September and October they're not reteaching as much or they shouldn't have to retach as much as may have been used to doing the past um the same thing we I already because it's a different thing 98% went down to 91% so 91% of kids coming in day one ready to learn at the old grade level they're supposed to that's a big number that's a good number so our early literacy is starting to turn around we have you new curriculum we have new foundational skills programming for the kids it's the data says that that work so takeways again we a little bit lower overall than the state but it's the state was uh low uh declined in every grade uh 3 through eight and 10 when it came to have gas so we did but everybody did um but the second one is the one again the gap between students with disabilities and students without disabilities closed specifically with non-fiction topics and that's been a strug we've had for years about getting kids better with non-fiction our kids have always been strong with fiction because not been strong with non-fiction we're getting there especially with students with disabilities grade 10 students the students out perform the state 27 of the 34 items and we're statistically 75 others that's great St and we have pulled more kids out of the not meeting expectations at lowest level of scoring in mcast um which is good we're raising the floor of where our kids are so all these things are really really good um so we just need to support our mob Learners a little bit better that just comes with more training more exposure this PD day that they're going to get is going to be a big step towards that we just haven't had the population for for teachers to kind of get those reps in and learn how to do this work they'll get there we we just need to provide them that support the skill block assessments that's with early literacy we've been working Le and I this year to to Really strengthen those strengthen the data around those get that back to the teacher so they can make their instructional decisions um and then just again the CH choosing resources right some of the same books that I learned about in high school are still being top I'm turning 50 next year like that shouldn't happen like we should be having new books coming in like stuff's been written it's cool it's good like you can teach the same lessons and values and themes with you know newer material that will engage your students so we're working towards that uh that's same thing the Glo scores were almost all within the range was 39 right outside surrounding error it's basically there um so we we're right on on track of those this is what a newer math most teachers have just finished their second year with it few teachers with their third year um but this is really good to be back in the typical range two years into an implementation you don't see that very often our internal data this is this is the thing that's going to haunt us for a couple more years and there's nothing that anybody's been able to figure out what to do about it I broke down grade levels by which kids have not had any Co Interruption to those who have right so our grade three students last year started postco so they didn't have they they've gotten the appropriate grade level education they should have gotten so far 97% of them were add grade four the ones where they had the the last class to have 2020 disruption also 97% so they're recovery because they didn't lose as much they lost some Kindergarten but that's more easily made up with the way great one and two of structure but you start to see the drop as the kids who missed half a year of foundational skills it's it's compounding over time and I'm in a lot of like group discussions about what to do and no one has this answer everything everyone's tried it's not seem to be working so again we're not alone we just don't have a we don't have an answer yet but we're trying teachers do the best they can but this is something that until that that class of kids Cycles out it's going to be a few more years it's it's going to keep showing up and so as long as we understand that and like and take that into consideration when we've talked about dat stuff again it's we acknowledge it we do the best we can with it but it's it's going to be really hard to completely uh reverse that Trend uh again we made games in gr three through five again our elementary they're they're taking on this new program they're doing really well say only increas in grade three they were down in every other grade um so that was that was a good thing too the second one is the one I like the most because it's the quality of the questions that the students were answering as I went through over the summer of the item analysis data our students are doing much better than the state in questions that are like that second level that make you think the interpret questions like the patterning like those sorts of things that are a little bit more higher level our kids are actually doing really well with us they're struggling quote unquote with like the worksheet questions it's like okay but we can fix that or you know there's reference sheets for that or you know Google will help them with that but the thinking questions they're actually doing pretty well and that's an encouraging sign that that speaks to the way the teachers are engaging with this inre the uh students with disabilities of the high school doubled you know Paul Thompson and I worked on on this beginning last year this was something that we specifically talked about as being the focus he crushed it with the staff went from 9% combined between meeting and and exceeding to 19 right the state is still at like 12 so the high school did a really really good job with those grade 10 student disabilities last year definitely wanted to shout that out there and again we also had fewer students in the not meeting expectation so we're pulling we're pulling up that um as take steps again the MultiLing learn um hitting that data little bit more to drive instruction and then that consistency of experiences progress with the grade levels making sure that every teacher gets kids in front of them who have done the same thing the year before again that's that's come uh science data just quickly five and 10 saw it increase eight decline that's theate um again improvements with student and disabilities and gr 10 scored All Above St all the qualifying sub groups we don't have a high enough population for a couple of them but everyone we did have enough we were better than sa AP exam data uh just this is quick uh interesting and I like this the inj the increase in participation was up 30% the number of tests up 46% the number of tests scoring to be higher fell but it is I I believe a sign that more students felt safe to take the test and take that risk and that's what we want out of our kids right and that's why thinking into the data that second level is important like there's there's an easy World Reon went down five so something's wrong I think it went up five because kids wanted to take that test what is three three so that if you pass the AP test with a three or more you po R six yeah you potentially don't have to take that class as call in college there's thought time but um in in many communities there's sort of a gatekeeping to it's like don't take the test unless you can pass it and there a lot of anxiety that's attached to that here it seems like more students were encouraged to take this test give it your best see what happens I love that that's the kind of attitude we want these students have doesn't that cost money it does how much does that cost but if they pass it you don't have how cost questions or something again if they pass it many there are many colleges that will accept that in lie of a course a college course which we all know a great event yeah I do think there does need to be some work around with and so then I this in to look at the um elementary schools middle schools and high school each identified where their strengths and supports were in what areas they were going to be targeting for this year so that's I won't read through the whole thing um but a lot of it is about sort of the training in the collaboration time between teachers uh the the modeling of effective practices and um paying attention to what groups are in need of nor support and how do we we provide that so that was it thank any questions question you can ask the question if you want go I guess I'll address my other questions together I just wanted to come and say thank you for bringing in the ISL I ready that you gave us that uh workshop on and bringing that to this data thank you a to to me that's a better indication of our kids are doing because they more ties to what they're doing every day than you know something that happens no the year's not done yet yeah but it's still something that the school committee never had site into so thank you I know my kids come home and tell me they were on I ready or ex so they are good tools all right anyone else have more questions or on to the FY 2024 final general fund expense report in excess and deficiency nans please good evening I'll be I'll be quick um but I did want to provide the full committee with last year's activity for the the budget including the certification of the excess and efficiency which has happened actually it happened pretty early for us normally we get that sometime in January February after the tax rates are set um we did get certified at 1,872 226 um this is about 800,000 less than last year's certification um the end number is made up of the activity of the general fund um year-over-year so it's made up of expenditures um in excess of what was budgeted when revenues and excess of is budgeted uh so this year uh of that 1 million um and also we carry forward if we had an end from the prior year that would be added to it as we know this that didn't happen this past year we did use the full end last year support the budget so that gets red that that was reduced out of the number that we we um certified this year so we have revenues coming in um about 620,000 over what we expected the the majority of that came as investment income and I think that has to do with some of the ways that the funding was um the accounts that were set up um our Treasurer Michael hartnet um moved some things around this past couple years and that's increased the investment income significantly we did get a um return of funds from the valley collaborative rate around 150,000 last year so that's part of that 620 um and then a little bit more in the Medicaid reimbursement almost 70,000 more than we were anticipating um so that the excess of um the expenditures and the revenues over is what made up the million eight so you have that in your packet um the detail to look at if you'd like um you can take note that one of the things that's on that expenditure report is is a expense column but then there's also an encumbrance column and the formula is a little funky as far as how it calculates that because you're actually um kind of closing out prior years's encumbrance and adding the new encumbrances so it it sometimes doesn't look like you think it should look but um it's a little more complicated of a formula um the state did certify the number early as mentioned the Department of Revenue does that and goes through the whole um the whole financial statement um it is isn't we've had our audit the audit isn't complete yet but it's almost there so I just wanted to update you on last year's activity there's any questions about it for this year any questions all right thank you n sure all right on to the crosswalk Mr or superintendent Morgan yes um so this crosswalk memorandum is something that has been drawn up by our legal council and was also done that this was a project that was done in collaboration with the town of Pep Ro where we had two blind spots entering both the ntis and the bar Brook Elementary School we had received several complaints it's something that I brought to the committee back three maybe four years ago at this point and it took um engineering and the project to this point to be completed um so again just coming back in asking that Miss Martin as the chair had the ability to to sign off on that memorandum of agreement and the money was already approved we did transfer funds um that year I want to say 2018 maybe or 19 to cover the crosswalk work and that work happened and pepp provided a breakdown as best they could they they they did they were the lead as far as bidding the project and they included everything that they were working on and some parts could be pulled out and some parts couldn't be so they provided um the letter that you'll see I think it's like at the second page of that letter of the breakdown um and and we looked at that and um came to the conclusion to use the number that's in theou right now which is the sorry 259 981 to reimburse peil and we would be working on that if the committee uh approves the mo the mo um a we go forward and work on getting that reimbursed to the town of app and this did pass through the financing we to discuss it um just out of curiosity um how much did we put away in 2018 or whenever we had originally put money away does this cover does that cover everything it does yeah we had 300,000 I think we transferred out at the year that we did that we've done a few things we paid actually for the design of the crosswalk um areas we have did the contract with that engineer they did the design work and then provided that to the town and the town did the bidding um and they added to it obviously the thing other things so it was included a larger project that the town did but yeah there's there's more there's plenty to cover that can I take a motion I I move the school committee vote to designate Lisa Mart as chairperson to execute the crosswalk memorandum agree with the town of peil for the school second that was Will and Patrick all those in favor all those opposed any extensions right passes we're on to the m masc delegate selection is there anyone wanting to go to the conference down that kcod anyone not everyone jump up all right I see no one all right masc resolutions anyone want to discuss any of them they are all on here but we don't have to discuss them if somebody wants to discuss one we can discuss it or we can pass on them no one wants to do a good resolution we're not selling s in Del yet I don't think we need to vote on any discuss okay all right now we are on to the order business of the district strategic plan and Dr Reese thank you very much um so earlier this year we shared out the draft uh strategic plan um as I identified at that time there were three areas three buckets that we were looking at curriculum and instruction meeting the needs of all Learners or all students and climate culture and Community um after we shared out that draft with you the leadership team did do some tweaking in terms of just the formatting of the document um so the first two pages are really the overview of what we're looking at over the the two years and then it goes into um the next three pages are the major Milestones so what you see listed there is under each category what do we anticipate will be the M the major actions or major outcomes that you'll see as a result of the work in that area along with identifying the specific year that that Milestone will be embedded as regular practice that doesn't mean the work ends at that point in the year the work will continue but it'll be something that we anticipate will be a embedded practice that will be in place and sustained um moving forward um going on to page six I we did break it down um Pages six and seven by school year so you could see kind of what it looks like from a school year perspective and there's also a link on the top of page six um to a more detailed document that breaks down each of the actions each of the milestones and shows all the little the substeps that go under them um we didn't want to get to that granular level on this core document but we certainly wanted to provide the link so that people could see the type of work that goes under there um so at this point the the administration is really comfortable with um these actions and moving forward we um would seek the committee's approval of um the Strategic plan and if it moves forward one of the goals we have is in this fall in the fall doing a family community evening where we um walk through the Strategic plan in a little bit more detail and we talk about the data sources that we use to identify these areas as areas of need and also get input and feedback from families in the community about what other sources of data or what other concerns or things that they want to um make sure we're addressing within those cor topies is that visible yes wanted to wait until we had the plan formally approved and then and then s something does anybody have any questions on the Strategic plan then I will take a motion from somebody to approve the district strategic plan I move to approve uh the the district strategic plan as presented second that is Randy and G all of those in favor anyone opposed any extensions I want to abstain I haven't been through the whole that sorry that's okay all right we are on to the subcommittee reports um Jun M with the Ashby Elementary building um we just received received the electrication study that was Grant funded um and that was just presented to us in our last meeting so that is available if anybody withit um we'll probably get it on the site too we're trying to get all the studies and everything on the new site so is taking care of that all right accelerated repairs I know that were trying to reach representative and to close out those projects that's there um Finance we are going so uh the first item on our agenda is that the finance committee is recommending uh that we appoint and I'm gonna mess up her name so I apologize Kathy Laris as the community representative to the finance committee for this year second that was Will and Patrick all of those in favor any oppose any exensions now we are moving on to the FY 26 budget so will is going to take over and okay so um Mr Morgan and I have been meeting with the town administrators going over some of these the basics of the budget coming up for the 26 so um want to weay out a few items here uh for the so right now f.5 budget roughly $66 million okay I got to resarch by mistakes all right um as many of you know uh because I believe you guys saw it the letters from the three uh found administrators that they signed they requested uh to us roughly you know 3% that they could handle a 3% increase from 25 26 yes okay so um in order for us to get to this you know 3% so well back up a step here the talents are roughly 6% uh 60% of our total budget the remaining 40 comes from the state okay so basic math here 60% of our budgets coming from the towns that obviously comes out to 1.8% increase year-over-year for the budget Pie as we know as we've been told and we've seen historically you know the state piece of it think we have predicted at I mean zero um is you know round numbers for it I know there's a little bit of an increase um but it's always been you know low under you know certainly under a percent to it U we have like your estimates like 310 of a percent oh right now we're anticipating um $60 a student and a reduction in the transportation um due to um going down to 78% it's unclear what those will be yet till the state sets their budget but those are the numbers which is 0.31% increase one state number so 1.8% of $66 million and I've done that somewhere some calculator there go 1.8% is 1,1 188,000 or we looking for the total 1.2 close yeah so an increase of one 1.2 million so uh let's see what we already had reported here for today when we talk about P and D you know as we go to fiscal year 206 first you know the first change that we have well increase of 800,000 800,000 on the end because we used 2.6 last year there's only 1. this year so just from that em portion of it we're going up 800,000 over what we had last year in the budget also due to which don't know how much we did this last time but right now due to you know increase in the special ed costs from movein from the you know language Learners you know things like that the already projected increase over last year is about a million new special were okay the other projection that we you know we're projecting piece of it about a half million dollars in increase inrease on insurance cost and since we're standing in the building here let not forget down in principal so that's another 150 for the high SCH School principal that we don't have in the budget so already that it changed the 2 and2 million before we go to anything else at this point 2 and half million on 66 Randy with the calculator um thank you 68 um oh the increase is the new budget fund yes it's 3.8% okay because the town are 60% of that divide that by6 pleas I'm sorry got 3 oh 3.8% your 3.8% increase 6 60% of it's on the town okay which means their increase is in order for them toover no no um sorry I'm looking at it's 2.28 for the whole budget uh the other just over 10 yes that's what that's what he projecting right now we haven't pulled all the department requests yet just as a a simple few things we're looking 63 so difference here so go back that's correct I me you're kind you're there in concept well so Delta 4 and a half% right they said they could do three which when it calculates to our budget is 1.8 our 3.8 so really influences the town are roughly six 4.3 4 and a half% off okay so we're g to ask for I think you're slightly off on that it's uh because the towns go 3% to 6.3 the difference for the the towns we're going to see 3.3% the 1.8 our budget going up 2% from what it can for the 3% I think you got those numbers crossed 6.33 yeah is to the 3% that's the to towns will see 6.3 but budget full budget full budget there's a right so 3 % of towns going up compared to 6.3% so it's 3.3% the towns are going to see above what they um they're asking right you're saying the same thing it's just you're adding that three until the three 3. three onto three the 4.5% should be 3.3 sorry any town down the numbers different when correct okay yeah all right so but if we're going to ask for something obviously we'll figure out we figure out doll piece of it yes but that's where we're at here okay so sort of first option you know asking for something in that direction just based on this room of changes nothing else okay so in order to try to resolve this right what's the next step right option b kind if we say that the average cost of a teacher is 80 85 Plus benefits it's called close to 100 is spend you know 100 per 25 and that direction don't know obviously you know when it comes to the individual Personnel side stuff not clearly not going to discuss that here that's like the executive session there okay but if we cut 25 teachers we're talking huging increasing class SI right maybe some missing of programs other things there okay obviously some of the stuff when we were going through this like last year you know just talking about cutting some of those programs we had you know people that said I'm going to go to private schools I'm going to go Tech there's a drop of enrollment that drop of enrollment obviously causes more problems for us each time we go all right next one is the cutting of buildings and you know we talked about some of that piece of it you know what some of them cost us last year before but I think we're talking not just one here we're talking multiple the reason to talk about this now and to discuss this now is we have to talk about the appetite for this piece because if we're going to go this direction and do this there's a lot of work that needs to be done to figure out the structure and the changes here that's you know we want to walk on capital capital and get more money from the state and try to raise their numbers I think that's a math problem we're sitting Happ I I think there's a lot of other options that are out there not necessarily one magic bold that's going to hit $2.5 million or anything that we need um I think there's a lot of areas that the school District can take a look at and I think there's a lot of areas the school committee can sit here and make choices on um I think cutting buildings got to be on the table I'm not going to take it off the table right now but um we need to take a look at all of the ramifications of what cutting buildings means uh to the uh capacity of the district to grow in the future whether we want to bring in more special education programs to help our special education budget and or create a revenue Source uh if we have another um small surge we've had bubbles go through here before um what it means if we close a building will we ever be able to open it again so there's a huge conversation to be had other than are we for or against cutting buildings there's so much information that we don't have I think it needs to be a conversation but it needs to be a full conversation I think other areas that we can try and take a look at is can we bring in some special education programs um um it's been brought up to my attention I don't know how big it is in the district of a dyslexia program I know I have a friend in another state said that's an easy program uh again don't know the circumstances in the district but is there anything that low hanging fruit that we can bring some kids back into the district but the program or our numbers high enough to make it worthwhile to save the transportation costs and the tuition costs to offset what the program will cost here I think we can take a look at our one-on-one um technology we spend a lot of money to have a Chromebook for every single student um maybe it's time to consider uh bring your own devices there's a lot of students I know my kids came through year especially at the high school they were begging to bring in their own computers and not use the Chromebooks so why should we you know maybe we look at that and we can um have a smaller Fleet of Chromebooks and decrease some of our budget that way um I think we can take a look at uh any grants that we have to have matching money for are those programs pros and cons are they worthwhile versus a teacher versus a building um we need to take a look at everything on the table it's been forever um actually it's never been that the school committee has uh taken a look at programs and what we what each program costs other than the big things like um Athletics but what about other programs in the district I'm sure the Administration has looked at it over the years but with what kind of an eye if we're looking at this from a cost perspective and what we have to cut we might decide to cut something that you know ordinarily we wouldn't um I think all of that needs to be on the table as well why weren't these things on the table last year when we used all the andb um frankly because uh I will tell you that it's just NE never been anything that's been coming up um on the radar we've usually um 10 years ago or 12 years ago when we had the override that kind of solved the problem that we didn't need to do that last year it kind of came up and I've been trying to think of different ways to do it and I apologize I wasn't fast enough um but these are ideas that had come this year because you know what using our end last year um I even said it that that was a stop Gap it was not a solution it was something that if we didn't get the override that we were going to do so we didn't have to cut the teachers and then we were going to try and think of more ways uh to help our budget or get more money and that's what I'm doing here but but also an override is on the table as well because we need money it's just a matter of we have and everyone faces the town BAC it to is there are costs that are beyond our our ability to control like health insurance and other costs that go up by more than 1.8% for what the towns can see from our budget because the state's not uh kicking in there's only so much that we can cut and still have a top rate education program so these are some of the ideas that I have come up with this year to start looking at um and an override needs to be on there we need to thoroughly investigate uh what cutting buildings would do and what the benefits and the uh detriments are for that and we need to take a look at all these other areas in our budget as well yeah I did that last year and did more detailed writing I'd be happy to talk with you I know we have that third party study as well so I know that was all discussed uh no we have not discussed buildings we discussed the condition of the building and what some of these savings would be we did not discuss it all does anybody know about how to reopen a school building what we need to do can we if why we reopen that building or either of those buildings because we might need space in the future we may need to have a need for it in the future there's other better ways to get space than reopening a building oh you want to build again that's going to be even more expensive than keeping depending on the amount if it's just one bubble there's there's trailer there's there's lots of other lessive op but there's other there's other things than just okay let's go through them one at a time then let's start let's have let's let's do this in a very calm way and a systematic I don't have all the information here at my fingertips and it's just going to be a back and forth back and forth without it let's sit down let's get this organized have a list for pros list for cons get the administration's opinions where they have to put us thought into it get information as far as what cutting buildings can really do and then we can discuss when we have facts in front of us if we need to cut buildings when do we need to know why sooner than later probably so we need to have this conversation starting but tonight's not the night because we don't have information here I would say let's have it on the table and let's get some maybe a subcommittee together or a couple of people that want to work on this and get information for the full committee to discuss I think this should be the full committee I think this is extremely important I think we should all be here okay that's fine as far as ideas like I Sawan with some ideas I'm not sure how any of those get us close to 2.5 million and I don't think any of the towns have any appetite for override with that being said I know the Ashby building needs a lot of work still is there going to be a secondary override in Ashby for that like I don't I don't understand like right now that building is working they have spent money it is functional um and it's not a safety hazard and and um there's no reason that it needs to be shut down it's down to one boiler that goes no that's been replaced or being replaced it is being replaced yes it's it the money is there they have a I don't know we contract yet or um it's oh yes yes okay so they have two boilers currently one H currently one ask us next month but we're consider closing the building order pleas all right Jun have Handa uh yes I just to call for order because typically we don't have meetings with people shouting back and forth and Randy had the floor um but I guess since you called on me I will say that Randy has a lot of good ideas here that should be looked at um we jump right to extremes we there's no information in the packet or the agenda to even truly have a discussion about this yet um and in fact although Patrick seems to have mentioned a building where buildings plural was mentioned um and I'm wondering what that is about because there's no information for us to even start talking about this yet what buildings don't know the question is do we give the administration the direction to look at you know making changes in that direction okay well I would think that understood but I would much rather go back to the towns first and and really hear from the towns I mean this is something that we want to look into what I'm saying part of the finance report we've had multiple meetings with the town administrators they're telling us what their appetite is for the year right and I'm telling you there's a huge gap between these pieces already the what 1.3 million is that it the 2.5 minus the 1 change yes so so 1.3 million is what we're looking to make up right now and you said that would be about 25 teachers essentially and a half million yeah so that's actually even more than what we would I mean need to just round numbers because we don't have final stock yet right job getting right but not a hard cut and dry either we do an override we fire 25 teachers or we close multiple buildings like this is not I mean there's so many other things that need to be looked at first of all and I think until we start diving a little bit deeper into some of more options we don't jump right to extreme just to clarify that that 2.5 does not have any of the collective bargaining agreements in it as of yet it also does not have Transportation increases and all of those are built-in increases and that that 2.5 is the total number though that's not that's just not this is just where we're at right no no I just mean the overall budget it's not like the 60% Town share or whatever right right now just with those items our budget is $2.5 million over where we are right now25 right but it doesn't which the town would pay about 60% of which would be about 60% of that 2.5 plus the the other but the assessment instead of it being the 3% that they requested is actually right now at 6.3 but as without those other items added in yet um on the zoom 212 meeting problem that we were on it did say they I forget the person's name who said it but they did say that it's really not good for a regional district to close a a school or for a town not to have school in it yeah it was in the presentation Kelly um everybody everybody should received yeah and that that Zoom call I believe it was reported so if anybody wants to go on was not watch it I know that we need to investigate these things um and Randy does bring up great points on to what we have to look at but we do have to give the superintendent a Direction how to go about this and we have to act quickly because what we we can't come to April and not have a decision on things because we ended up there last year with overrides and they took us until the beginning of this year to get solved um I do know from the towns because I've talked to town leadership they are not in a they do not want overrides they're not in the in the mood the town's people are not in the mood I mean every town meeting that I went to there are several disgruntled citizens that said no more to the schools and I know that that's not correct um but we need to really listen to our citizens and figure out the next action plans for these and I know that our towns do not want to lose a school I know that but we do have a lot of real estate in our district and we do need to figure out a plan going forward um our schools are going to need repairs going down the future we know that hawor Brook needs repairs we know that our high school already needs repairs and it's a newer building so we do need a plan for the future too and I know that these discussions are tough and I know that they'll get emotional but we need to keep qum amongst ourselves because how are we going to stand up stand with the citizens to what they decide but we need to really give superintendent Morgan and his team what direction this committee wants them to go in so that being said but it's very hard to do that without any information and I agree but we need to act quickly to get the information so the things that you've outlined Randy I don't even know where to begin but we need direction probably before the beginning of the year for Brad to go probably by even December 1st because doing any of these is going to require a lot of time and we're going to have to get the support for them too so anyone have any proposals on how to go forward um I'm happy to put in some extra work um fortunately I do need uh administration's time um because I just don't have a lot of the answers and things but uh put some numbers to some of the ideas that I had to look into um and see where what um ballpark some of these Cuts could possibly make or these trade-offs could possibly make um I think it would be good for somebody to put together um like pros and cons um at least for staff cuts for building cuts for program cuts um so we can take a look and see what the trade-offs are um for different decisions that we make anyone else J I I think at this point we do just need any more information I mean as far as looking into any of those we need to know what are we looking at are we looking at multiple buildings closing because that's what was mentioned and if so what are those buildings I would like to have that in front of me and say these are the buildings that we would look at closing these are the buildings we would not look at closing you know something like that to even start this conversation I don't like the idea of Flying Blind and say yes please pursue any of these without having any clue what we're talking about yeah I mean there's a lot of details that still need to come but without saying we're willing to take this step and go that direction you know because it doesn't make sense to spend a whole lot of time you know all the time takes to go figure option C out if I mean what what are the potentials for option C I mean any any any information I'm saying I I I would not want us to give any directive to pursue something that we don't know what we're talking we don't know what is being pursue I mean you know what are we talking closing here and and if you don't have an answer yet then we don't have enough information to give directive how we can't get all that deep into it no we can't we could we have seven buildings yeah buildings is plural I know Patrick likes to bring up AES a lot what other buildings are we talking about closing if nobody can say that to me I'm not going to give a blessing or a directive to pursue it we're just saying are we going to go down the path of looking at that or are we taking that off the table I think we should take that off the table to start with while we pursue any of these many other options that should be looked into and if we exhaust all of our other options then perhaps we start looking at more options okay my concern is we had a lot of discussion about some of the user pieces of it none of them anywhere close to 2 and5 million so we have to think big the fact may I say something yes I I did just want to add that if if an override is something that that we're going to ask the towns to consider it it cannot be a May time meeting with a June Val we can't wait that long it would have be a special town meeting and a special B Bo so that we're able to plan because even again option C option b any combination of the two you're looking at potentially months of planning so it can't so an override would have to be something it can't it can't be like last year it wouldn't be an enough time for us to open school just a thought um throwing it out there what about moving um the kindergarten toor and the eighth grade to the high school I eth grade was in high school when I came here so um those are options that I mean if we give Mr Morgan and his team the direction to go they can look at consolidation and movement of some of the class rooms around or the classes like bring grade that you know I mean but kindergarten kindergarten Kar hawor you mean prek you mean prek yeah prek I'm sorry yeah thank you we could go to hbor I don't know when hbor is equipped that's why we would have to get the direction that's why I'm just kind of I don't I don't know that but then like the sanook is central office we have Central office that we'd have to relocate central office if we're looking at closing squ if we're looking at possibly closing hawor Brook we have to figure out where to put those students if we wereing eth grade here do we send the students to ntis if we look at any of our elementary schools where do those students go to be house those are the directions that superintendent Morgan needs and besides looking at these other things that Randy has put on the table right which is all going to take time to figure out and several meetings I mean clearly a build includer would require a lot of research and a lot of effort so again I don't want to give that directive to pursue um any of that if if you're looking at multiple options because that's a a lot of time and a lot of work that we may not want to pursue once we you know look at these other options so I think if that's something that people seriously want to look at we need to have a little bit more Direction and say if we move the schools to this this and this you know or this this and this those are the things I want to pursue not let's just look at all of our buildings and you know you know what I mean I I would I would like more details before we say waste admin's time if they're pursuing a direction that we don't want to go so let's get some more details on that piece and in the meantime I think we need to take a serious look at a lot of these other options about bringing some more speci special education programs back one of the issues with spe bringing special education back is that I know that because it's specialized training for all of these and it's going to bring on more money to our special ed cost for these specialized training teachers is that something that and we think that's something we need to know how many students if we have yay amount of students being sent out a district for a certain program then that's probably a program that we want to find out what would the class to bring in and bring those students back if we can bring if we have enough students to um support a teacher then we save on the transportation costs and that pays for the program and gives us lots of savings that's the whole reason for bringing in special education programs um it but it all depends on what our population is going to be just a completely random idea that I just thought of right now the way that we combine something as simple as PD with another District like lunenberg is there opportunity to find out what neighboring schools have for resources like that too and potentially combine the lands we have reached out to gron and Dunville they have interest in consolidating some of our services with us okay well perhaps we have a relationship with they are not interested as well as consolidating someone like our central office and things like that well I I'm thinking more special um Ed special services if they have you know certain teachers and staff that you know are more qualified in certain areas that could somehow be share or something just an idea it look like a almost like a tuition collaborative almost like you we have you know program a and because couple districts around us don't have enough students bring it here and then a different program if whoever has more students but not enough to program if we have enough we send them there I do think that I think one of the things that we have to be careful of is I mean bringing students back into the district is is always a good thing but something that we could run into is that if we bring back a percentage of students that are considered inclusion students we could start to eclipse the 50% uh barrier in classrooms which can be a problem if you have students if you have a classroom over half of the kids are on anes that can sometimes be problematic it is not something that it's recommended I don't know Dr ree you have any you want to add on to that but that could be something where our numbers are high right now um and in some cases we are I would guess we're close to close to that number we do have to be cautious enough to go over that 50% threshold and weion Center what happens at the after 50% threshold um I I would have to talk I would have to talk to pessy it is not something that is it's not something that is recommended I about um so at this point I mean there are a lot of good ideas out there and just having this discussion we're starting to have some more ideas which is great um so perhaps maybe that's something you can schedule is just a way to talk out a lot of this but even invite the public to give some input to something like that just just you know another I don't know more ideas essentially and Diving a little deeper brings Workshop yes thank you that's but this Workshop has to take place quickly right like next but at least now the conversations are starting because like I said there was nothing in the packet about this I asked through email a few times what is this conversation about so coming to the table I have a blank sleep well and and that's fine because I think we want the discussion to happen in a meeting and not over emails and not no no no you know so I think that's why like when will and I had chatted we said let's bring everyone together so we're together and see each other and can have this conversation and get it started just getting it started right we not saying I'm gonna go home and go to bed and think of something right before I'm falling asleep from something three days from now and I mean Randy had a nice list prepared from I'm sure Finance subcommittee meetings but I think you know to to really have a good conversation we need to know that this is the conversation we're going to have before we have them yes so and so that's why this is the start of the conversation but we need to act quickly that's because we can't take all of um the superintendent's time or Nancy's time going down a rabit hole that we're never going to right do so given that anyone have a proposal on what they want to do um I recommend we give the superintendent Administration Direction on showing us options B and C items other than override options B is cut C cut staff Y and option C is buildings and perhaps staff too because you may not get to the number we need because we have contractual obligations as everyone and look into because that would be looking into these Pags as well and so a point of clarification when you say Administration to show us do you mean the the point that I was asking like this is you know poten to close this school or this school or potential to move students here and there without actually pursuing any of the information yet so that we so that we can give admin an indication of which direction we would want to go once we hear this once we hear the b c we're just asking them to do visibility sign essenti no I don't think so we wouldn't no because that would involve probably a lot more work than than again if we don't want to send admin doing a bunch of stuff that we don't might not want to pursue at all so I think we need to hear what buildings and what um say redistricting students around options there are before we determine if we want to actually do a feasibility study on any of why why would we why would we make that option and not it up to to Brad and his team who understand the buildings who understand what we can and can't close and why we can and can't close it why would we not leave everything for them on the table to decide what could and could be done because that's what school committee does we give them a direction and the direction would be to look into composing building not everything willy-nilly no it's looking into specific of one building or another we're not going to have bread take all his time looking at a whole bunch of different scenarios that we might not want to entertain I'm fine with them showing us some options but doing a feasibility study or exploring these other avenues any deeper without going through the school committee doesn't make a mess but how would he show you options without looking into the feasibility option one is close ashb Elementary and move students here option two is close the statistics and students here option three is close this school and that school and students here he would tell us what the different options might be that admin wants to look at and then we would say oh let's look at this one but not these ones I think we're saying the same thing I don't think we are it depends on what you're talking about what level um of information we're asking to come back this first time I just want the most basic op very simplest information without a feasibility study or taking up very much time there's also three members exactly sorry iar that oh there's also three members not here tonight also so first we have a motion on the floor second right the clarifications though was what show us mean I mean what perhaps superintendent Morgan what what do you envision showing us are you asking me to come back with potential um recommendations for buildings and gr configurations in those buildings and cutting staff I guess if that would be the other option if you were just going to show us a layout of like these are the PO potential options or or these are ones that we'd like to go down look at on whether it's actually fully feasible yes I the staff I I've already pretty much looked at um and I mean I can I can share that if we reduce 15 staff it gets us to about 1.4 in class sizes of 29 to 34 if we go to 20 if we go to the 2.5 mark we're going to be close to 40 in our in our class which is right I but again the the way to cut this money isn't all cut staff it's not all cut buildings it's not all cut no but it could be a combination of right so what we're asking for is um you're asking us to give you a direction on what to look at so that you can go down the Hard Road of doing the full feasibility on how things would work yes we're asking for one step before that so your gut right now is I would like to explore these things because I think this option might be the best that we might come have a good outcome if we go down there and this is another possibility between cuts buildings and programs or other things um so that we can sit here and weigh pros and the cons of those Avenues and then give you the permission to go down um the the um the extensive uh look at and energy of figuring out how it would work so I'm going to propose this for me overlooking seeing what buildings we could cut or look at potentially so that we can give um superintendent Morgan a better view of what we may think of is that we know that we have two buildings in Townson of sanac cook and Hawthorne Brook we know that Hawthorne Brook is going to need extensive repairs and we know that sanook is not fully used would we want to send Brad down the direction of looking at Squan cook and Hawthorne Brook and taking one of those offline and the other option is also add Ash in to counterbalance the others because we know that Ashby still needs work even though they have progressed in work but we know that Ashby probably is not going to go for another override as well I mean Ashby is safe and functional and any of the immediate things that we talking about a couple years ago have already been addressed by the town um but sorry I just lost my thought um s it's okay um but do we want to look at Ashby in a consolidation point of view to get more of our kids together so everyone's Consolidated kind of thing that's where my Approach is is that we can balance out our special ed programs across the district where we don't have to keep everything at barn and Brook because right now they have all of the special programs and so and it's taking the strain on that school whereas if we could spread out maybe some of those programs we wouldn't have as much of a stream but we'd have to see what we can do with the again I'd just really like to see what the actual options might be or any of it is you know I don't want to send him down a rabbit hole that nobody wants to pursue so I'd like to see it on paper of a couple of different layouts um and some reasonings pros and cons just high level Frozen cons of what it means okay did you have anything so again we have a motion on on the floor do we want to take a vote on this motion or and I think it was having superintendent look at the cuts of staff and the possible cuts of buildings with a proposal behind it of what buildings and the reconfiguration and consolidation or whatever name you want to put arounde this so just showing us potential options without without wasting his time doing our feasibility study big picture not getting into the like busing routes we're not going to like right schedule busing routes right now and potentially a variety of options so we can try to start to narrow it down yes and also the other options mentioned yes are we ready for vote I all of those in favor I anybody oppos any extensions all right now that a workshop was proposed um we can have a workshop with the committee when is everybody's schedule to an open date what about Thursday November 7 next week we have Halloween um on next Tuesday night I am way until 12 and then we have a meeting on 14 can I make a um it just there's a lot of night events right now especially here at high school um and we do have various subcommittee meetings as well I I would suggest if at all possible just having a school committee meeting and the workshop before the school committee meeting okay on the 14th yes just because the night events at this point in time of the high school are almost every yeah okay so are you guys okay with an early meeting um what do you want to start that and that's where the information can be reviewed and maybe maybe share ideas with um just bounce ideas off maybe a finance committee meeting in advance I don't know and hopefully I mean with that being three weeks out hopefully we can get fill in some of these numbers so Andy was asking about so on the 14th you guys want to schedule a lip shop what time do you want that to start our meeting's at 6 we could try five I don't know if everyone make would that be enough time or do you want four I think four makes it hard for people to get there after are you saying you want to do this right before the school committee yeah how does that give us time to go over and and then actually be ready to vote on things well we'll discuss some in finance okay and then I maybe maybe suggest that the meeting be at 7 and the workshop be at 5: so we can make the meeting a little later and then we can make the workshop a little later as well and maybe have two hours to an hour and a half to figure out to go over some options I I I I mean obviously time is but we are going to need time tother to gather the information right um I I guess uh to Patrick's Point of um discussing all this and then going meeting to vote on it doesn't really give people a lot of time to digest all the information as well as we were talking about the workshop being more for generating ideas um which obviously if we generate more ideas on where we can make compromise then we're not going to have any details um and feasibility and numbers um sorry December 12 oh December 12 and we can always you I I don't know people's availability on the weekend on the Saturday morning or something like that just to kind of sit down and do a brainstorm make myself for anything PA I think sooner than later day to go through R's email and go through every point and and have figure out if there's anything there that is a actual cut that can decrease money I think even on top of BNC looking at 3 million I mean Randy has some good ideas in there do I think it's three million no but every good idea that she has might save a teacher so absolutely Brad how long to gather your information on some of these and again to brainstorm some new ideas we don't need to have Brad doesn't need to have his point work together um I I would say a week anyway do you workshop on the fourth maybe the fourth is a Monday or you know something there I I right now there's nothing scheduled here at the high school on the fourth so I I could do that that data do you want to do a workshop on the 4th do that instead does everyone Monday Monday's in person Workshop we can do in person we can I mean it's a workshop we can zoom in uh will if he wants to join yeah out of time oh are you out of time that whole week yeah would you be able to join did you think and again I'd have to check with Nick unless someone knows the answer I do think we should try to do the executive session I mean to do it in executive session where people could potentially be identified just by talking about reductions so close Workshop an executive session does that I wouldn't want someone just if we start talking about positions people know where they are I'm Ling your West is the workshop more for just brainstorming new ideas though we're not necessarily identifying specific some of the new ideas may come out of information that we given you know there's Staffing reductions and talking about potential Staffing reductions I wouldn't want someone to to be able to identify who they are right I understand but um but our Workshop isn't where you're presenting various options to us it's where we're trying to come up with more places to find money ESS potentially some of the suggestions that Randy wanted us to look at we're looking at program look okay when you're looking at those programs that might be little touchy and it's not that we're trying not to be transparent the community but we do need to protect the people that we hire right I just want to differentiate between the brainstorming Workshop where we're just kind of bouncing on ideas and you know other things that we can look at compared to like what options are we exploring further as far as the the bigger potatoes so is there a time as better for you will or or that week zoom in um yeah I mean Wednesday yeah I mean Wednesday is better for me than six certainly Monday or Tuesday only day I can't do EXC I mean I I could do 5 o' so I guess I could do it 5 530 in that time frame on Wednesday six yeah we could do 5:30 that would be great 5:30 onday and that will be a closed executive session workshop for the school committee and it's in person Y in person okay and then your followup meeting will be a regular schedule time at 6 pm on the following and we necessarily do not have to have it in the LGI room we could pick a different room conference well we could always do it at the central office that's easier we do have um the PD room in Cal office what would work easier or for I'll be finally remote well okay we can have a closer room we'll figure a room out all right 5:30 on the 6 5:30 was that the six y yes all right are we done with the budget discussion and now on to policy Ry uh policy um so there's a number of the ones here for adoption I am pulling jic student discipline we had a comment from a Community member um that we discussed in our last policy subcommittee meeting and we're going to make some small changes to that policy um so I'm going to read them all together if anybody wants any of these pulled out for any particular reason know um but I'm going to make a motion that the school committee approve for adoption policy dja A-1 Regional School District purchasing Authority dj-1 Regional School District procurement of requirements ihba programs for students with disabilities I hbd compensatory education ibea English language Learners I hbf homebound schooling I hbg homeschooling I HB sorry ihb h e remote learning ICA summer school second great all of those in paper by any body oppose any extensions Iain I do my homework1 it's okay and then we have just a couple of four um for first reading um the jic all the way through the ehb we're pulling we we did not get through those in our last meeting um so I move that the school committee approve policy um iiv class size JJ instructional materials and igl Library material selection and adoption for a first reading second all of those in favor I I any extensions any opposed any extensions moving on Mr MC Phillips with the warrant committee any report warrants come in I review the warrants I sign the warrants okay um negotiations and Personnel teachers I have no updates at this time uh Randy with negotiations of non-teachers nothing community outreach and to the ason anything with Ash anything with PE no um anything with Townson uh we do have another uh some call the administrator administrators and one and we are on to other business any any other business and it is 8:30 right now so you time this out really well yeah I'm gonna say I have one quick thing um it doesn't necessarily require a vote but I meant to bring it up to the last meeting and I apologize um there is an ongoing a wellness committee that Katherine hamson um has has started last year and what this on our wellness policy and making sure that we are looking at the district on implementing everything in the wellness policy and improving Wellness in the district um it's a committee that has a cross-section of um I think there's a Community member there's uh obviously nurses there's um um health or gym uh teachers there's other teachers in the district I'm I was on it last year for right now I just went to the meeting that was today but wanted to open it up if anybody else wanted to be on this committee um you know please speak up I'd be happy to give up the spot for somebody new if they would like to if not then I'm happy to serve I'll take that as I'm happy to serve but I wanted to bring it up and make sure all right um I will take a motion to adjourn well what do we do we is it okay if we allow Chu to talk is everyone okay with that he's a representative from peil the folks first of all I appreciate everyone's on the committee's dedication and talking about the bud and possibility of is not it's not fun we when the PA and the group got together with the leadership of andos with it wasn't because we don't want to do more it's because there's nothing I I would ask you guys to look two lines below where it says t 3% and 60% and 40% state in zero increase the state has money they just don't have the right and I think we need to make that loud and clear to all of our constituents I certainly have that clear and it's not a lack of trying to reduce cost we both have a revenue I can speak for petol and in other towns we're constrained to 2 and half% that's what we're constrained you guys are constrainted by the funding from the state and unfortunately the state has chosen not to fund local a municipalities and has chosen not to fund the school I think as you go through this liberations we have to keep that in mind and as talking to constituents we got to let them know that we are doing everything possible I don't think Brad has that I don't think that there's thousands of people sitting up there we don't need children it's a it's an important task that this High School does for our communities and I really wholeheartedly thank you guys for your efforts but we are missing that third leg of the school you guys are doing what you should be doing I believe the towns are doing what they should be doing the same right now just thank you all right now we have a motion on the floor to adj will yes who second I okay all of those in favor anybody oppos any exension thank you thank you everyone that