all right at 6 o'cl I am going to call the nor school committee meeting on Wednesday February 25th to sorry 26 2025 to order uh first up is Pledge of Allegiance fly cl to of the United States of America
and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all the meeting is being recorded by the nor media um if anyone else is recording please just let us know I think
she check check better check check check that much better okay um first up on the agenda is the public comment period is there anyone in the audience who is here to make a comment come on up if you can anyone
speaking if you can just uh give your name and address just so we have it yes my name is Alexis Clinger uh my address is 16 Daniel grad um in are you a staff member sorry I am a
staff member thank you make sure you're speaking directly okay thank you good evening and thank you for the opportunity to address the members of the school committee it is a privilege to be here today to share my thoughts with you my name is Alexis Slinger and I
am currently a third grade general education teacher at the lgm I have been teaching for 9 years four of them here in Norton and have had the privilege of working with a diverse range of students I have completed my Bachelor's of Science and education have completed my master's degree in moderate abilities
and curriculum and instruction and continue to educate myself through graduate level courses I want it to be known how grateful I am for the unwavering support I've receiv received from staff Administration and the community here after navigating some challenges in my
career I truly feel like I found a second home in Norton the camaraderie among my colleagues the trust from the administration and the shared dedication to our students have made me feel incredibly supported over the past couple of Years After experiencing some
transitions in my teaching career and teaching in multiple districts finding a place like our Norton district has been a breath of fresh air it has been a place where I have felt valued and have found real passion for being part of a team committed to making a difference to the lives of our
students this district has not come without change and sacrifice too due to the major budget cuts our district has faced I have had to make significant personal sacrifices to help help maintain my colleagues and my own position in order to support the Staffing structure and prevent further
reductions I transitioned from teaching kindergarten for the past 5 years to teaching third grade this year this shift while challenging and outside my initial Focus was necessary to ensure that our school could keep valuable positions intact despite the difficulty
of this change I made the decision because I value my colleagues and recognize the critical need for strong dedicated Educators who can meet the diverse needs of our students the continuity and quality of our teaching staff is essential for providing
students with the education they deserve and I wanted to do everything I could to protect that despite these sacrifices the effort to ensure our school Community remains strong I'm now faced with the difficult reality while the environment here has been nothing short
of a blessing I am at a point where I'm struggling to reconcile my deep commitment to this school and my personal financial reality despite the support the solidarity and the joy I find in teaching here the compensation simply does not allow me to sustain
myself long term it is incredibly difficult for me to even consider leaving but the truth is if the financial aspect doesn't change I'm not sure how I can continue to give everything I have to my students my colleagues in this District this isn't just about me I'm speaking on behalf of
many young Educators who are facing the same dilemma right here in our town we are passionate we are committed but we are also trying to make a living in an increasingly challenging Financial environment it feels heartbreaking to be in a place I love only to face the painful reality that I might not be able
to stay because of financial constraints if we want to keep the next generation of Educators here we need to address this issue together the loss of teachers and essential support staff like interventionists and Specialists has had a huge impact on our students
these aren't jobs their lifelines for kids who struggle academically or need extra help with personal changes challenges excuse me every time we lose someone in one of these roles more students are left without the support they need the absence of
interventionists in particular has created a major Gap in the help that vulnerable students rely on without these resources our ability to offer a personalized education has taken a serious hit students who once had a chance to suceed are now slipping
through the cracks and the emotional strain this is putting on them and their families is hard to ignore losing these key positions isn't just a setback it's an injustice to the kids who need us most and I fear this will continue happening unless we do something about
it now I stand before you because I believe in this District its Mission and most importantly the potential of every student we serve I hope we can find a solution that ensures not just the survival of our school but its ability to continue thriving and providing the high quality educations that our
students deserve thank you for your time and consideration and for supporting the work that we all do here I'm looking forward to working together to find a way forward thank you thank you very much anybody else for a public comment
good evening my name is Danielle Sala my address is 34 Cornell Avenue in pcket rhod Island good evening my name is Daniel Salah and I am an art teacher my journey at Norton Public Schools began in January of 2017 where I completed
student teaching at the high school since then I have had various roles in our district including a part-time art teacher position a long-term art substitute at the high school for two full years I was a par professional in the lb program at our high school and I'm currently in my fourth year at the
JCS as a part-time art teacher bringing me in my eth year working with Norton Public Schools where my journey began when I started my journey here I remember being excited and thankful to be in a district that had so many art and music offerings at the high school level it was beautiful to see students be able to explore their unique
interests tell their stories and grow as people now after years in our district I'm afraid of the Ripple effects of the budget crisis for the Arts here in Norton last year art music were cut from the Middle School without giving students exposure to the Arts in those grades I'm afraid for what that means at
the high school level and Beyond in our district as a whole moving forward once students enter grade n they may not know if the Arts are a subject they are interested in leading to a decreasing numbers in those programs and them being seen as obsolete through exposure to the art
students learn crucial problem solving skills they develop empathy for others and gain a better understanding of perseverance the Arts teach students to be resilient in the face of struggles which offer them confidence by giving them an opportunity to succeed no matter what that looks
like throughout the years of teaching here I've seen students use art as a creative Outlet persevere and Achieve things they thought they never could do and tell their story My Hope for Norton's future is that we can provide a learning experience where all students
can continue to persevere learn grow and succeed thank you for your time thank you anybody else hi my name is Amy Weber my address is 451 South Main Street Mansfield I'm the president of the Norton Teachers
Association and I just want to thank the two teachers who came and shared their stories with us tonight um over the next few few weeks we're hoping to have more Educators come and share with they love about Norton and what they find challenging in Norton um and you can see there's many of us here tonight um and
what we're asking is to the school committee is we want to work with you to advocate for the schools and to really work to Advocate to the town to make sure that we get the funding that our schools deserve and we're asking you tonight if you will commit with us to
work together as we move forward with negotiations great thank you very much I mean I think speaking on behalf of the school committee that's always been our goal um we don't have schools without teachers you know so that's of of course exactly what we want as well so yes we will perfect do everything we possibly
can thank you anybody else for public comment seeing none I going to move on to the agenda uh next up is vote to approve the minutes of February 5th Open session meeting has everyone had a chance to review
yes I will entertain a motion so second all those in favor next up Mr Cen for warrs I reviewed and approved the following warrant School expense warrants February 5th 2025 $
39675 199 February 19th 2025 63428 39 School payroll warrants February 6th 20 25 1,167 48378 February 20th 2025 1,
21577 181 I wish to enter that into public record thank you very much uh next up student rep update good afternoon everybody um so from the hey from Mr gagan um one of the best times of the year is almost here with our hey PTO spring Scholastic Book Fair which Begins
the week during parent teacher conferences students come down as a class to the fair and can go during the conferences to pick out books this is one of the best ways for us to keep our PTO book vending machine filled with choices for the kids each book sold at the fair earns a Scholastic dollars
which we then can use to purchase new books to refill the machine and we need it we average 30 books per week earned by students for PBIS hashtags and good news calls of the day and we hope to see as many parents as we can during parent teacher conferences coming up in a few weeks on March 19th and
20th and then from the LG the PTC sponsored one of the best arrangement opportunities today will mobile each class of students received 40 minute learning experience and even got to spend time in inside of the life size in F whale every student teacher red about
how awesome it was we are lucky to have such a supportive parent group who looked for a new and interesting way to enrich learning here at lgn and from the JCS um our students are looking forward to read Across America week um during the first week of March each day of the week the teachers have different themes
and activities plan to make reading extra fun and engaging some of the activities are dressed up as your favorite book character flashlight reading and other days read something you haven't you have written to someone at school um so lots of cool things coming up at Norton High School as well on Tuesday March 4th members of the
English Honor Society will be participating and traveling to elementary schools to participate in read Across America um so we will have some of our high school students make the trip to the three elementary schools um next week on March we have the steam showcase where students and community members present their science technology
engineering art and mathematic accomplishments with some other interactive exhibits and the music department is sponsoring a night of Music food and fun at the high school on Friday March 7th called the nightclub and that is night with a k um and the week after on March 12th is the annual
Mr NHS competition for the senior class that's all for us just kidding I have one more I forgot to add it um and then from nms the boys and girls basketball teams close out their season February vacation both teams enjoyed successful Seasons with the girls finishing at500 for the season at 8 to8 while the boys
enjoyed their successful season in many years finishing with the best record in the league and an overall record of 162 congratulations to both teams and the coaches our unified basketball team began their slate of games today and traveled to Berkeley our unified basketball team hosts their first home game next week on Wednesday March 5th
our amazing SRO officer roboot have recently began working with our students once again on the Project Alert curriculum project alert serves to give students the background and education they need as it relates to making good choices and dangers of substance abuse
students very students very much enjoy working with officer rad in the programs is the highlight of every day for many students and lastly the seventh grade math and social studies teachers recently completed their cross-curricular unit known as the poin asan travel journal and expensive
expenses project students were tasked with creating an itinerary for a fictional trip to the South Pacific utilizing their math skills and their understanding and knowledge of the South Pacific history from their recently completed unit on Polynesia the award-winning project was recognized by
the New England Le of middle schools Nelms and it's for its creativity at last year's annual conference that's all we have for you tonight perfect thank you very much Timmy we expect better than 500 next year
um next up is uh student spot with Mr Goldstein good evening everybody great to be back here uh as you know for many years now you have come to you around this time of year to uh share with all of you the Ambassador for project 351
for the current year and so I'm going to allow her to introduce herself very shortly just so everybody knows this year was the 15th year for project 351 so a milestone year and project 351 obviously something that's very near and dear to my heart and we have lots of connections within the district in fact
the person take pictures of me right now is a former Ambassador and sits here with you for every meeting um and so I'm going to allow the wonderful individual to my right to do this some talking now and tell her let you tell her about the awesome day that she had
so hi my name is s m Gary I'm so excited to be chosen as a project day pravel Ambassador this year and I'm looking forward to the year of service ahead so at our lunch day in January all 351 new ambassadors met at the JFK
Memorial Library in Boston here we had the opportunity to hear Governor hey and the Secretary of Education speak on leadership and service we then broke apart into three service site locations I was in the clothing Drive group where we went to ks to CR here we close for
children in need before heading back to the library the whole day was such a great experience and seeing what a big impact we made in such a short time was so inspired this was Project def5 On's 15th year and their goal was to impact
15,000 lives in Massachusetts this year an exciting part of being an ambassador is the chance to serve here in our hometown Community which is why I'm looking forward to Leading a Norton Public Schools clothing drive this spring I'm I'm so grateful Mr gin and the nor middle school for this amazing
opportunity thank you um so for everyone here I included the 2024 impact report from Project 351 for the school committee um and it's amazing to see over the 15 years how many service opportunities have been provided to our students so um at this
time I'd like to recognize Hannah uh for her hard work and I know that she's went do an incredible job making us proud with her service this year I have a a little certificate for her as well [Music] turn congratulations Anna thank you so
much any questions comments All Good Nice Work proud thank you thank you very much and thanks to the McGary family for coming and join her tonight too uh next up on the agenda is our presentation and vote on the
2027 Global education trip to bar Barcelona and Peru this is uh Mrs Bray and Mrs brette hi I'm Kim B and I'm Kim B we're here to propose uh trips International trips through EF travel uh
for the school year 2027 um the first trip would be during February vacation which Kim will talk about in a second the second trip would be during April vacation we' like to propose a trip to Barcelona and Paris um this trip would support our curriculum because that supports the two languages
that we offer it would give kids the opportunity to speak in their languages to see some cultural uh learn about the culture of the um languages that they're learning um the trip would run uh from the beginning to the end of vacation approximately 8 Days exact travel dates would be determined uh they would spend
3 days each in Barcelona and Paris with travel time in between um and the cost is approximately $44 $0000 which is in line with what the other trips have cost over the years uh we're going to Greece this year we were Ireland next year um
so we have traveled with the EF a few times before and have had some very positive experiences yeah great so for the service side we like to do you know a a language and tourism tour and then for this next service trip so we just had a
last April we had a very successful trip to Thailand and then and so for 2027 we are looking at a trip to Peru which was previously approved and was scheduled to go and then unfortunately had to get canceled because of Co um so we're going to try again we did survey the student
body and Peru was the Top Choice in terms of location so uh I believe it was Dominican Thailand Peru maybe one other but we did survey the student body and Peru was the Top Choice so we're going to move forward with that um this is a 9-day trip there's a sample itinerary in
there and it would include 2 days of working with a local nonprofit and the local community members and this would take place over February vacation in 2027 and the good thing is this total tour cost is um
$465 typically the service trips tend to be a little bit pricier so we're excited that for 2027 it's a comparable price with barcelon and Paris so that's a great that was something that we wanted to look at and so um those are are hopefully next two upcoming Will trips
by kimes we're just going to call them kimby trips from there just got to um I've been through a number of these I've sent my child on several of these and some to be determined so she will be
upset that she doesn't get to go on these because she'll be lumni at that point but I think these are such great experiences for for kids in the district um I traveled as a teenager as well um EF is a really good partner they do try
and you know keep the cost down as much as possible the auto debit and things like that so um for me I always like to see these trips I know they get pretty popular so um I think it's great that you guys have this interest um it's above and beyond for for the kids so I I
I think they do appreciate it that you guys take your time out of your vacations to bring them so um that being said it it's another great experience and and it's it's it's good to they found EF as a good travel partner so um I also think it's important for
everyone to know because I know not everyone has approved these trips in the past um we do work consistently we with ef as our travel partner um for a number of different reasons number one they have great opportunities and experiences for our students um but also it really
comes down to the safety and the protection that are provided to students while we travel uh they have 24/7 access wherever you are around the globe um to um people that work directly for EF that are in the country where you are if
there's an emergency um we had a situation last year where a student lost their passport on the way to the airport EF was incredible in working with us to make sure that our student in our shound that have to stay behind we're number one taking care of number two help them
work with the embassy really quickly to get an additional passport and then also help them transition all of their travel plans for the way home um EF can be a little bit more expensive than some other Global Travel companies but I think it really does come with that um
Peace of Mind not just for um the people who are traveling and taking the trip and also sending their own children but for us as a school district as well so um I would ask you guys to support these moving forward yeah I mean I think one of those things when it comes to these
tours like you look at the price tag and you get taken back but if you're going to pay less you're going to get that's that's especially this type of Industry so I mean it's good that we have an industry partner that that is a worldwide leader so anything else I would just like to make sure everyone is aware this is
completely funded by the students there's no Town funding to these projects or trips rather um with that being said I will request a motion to approve Global educational trips to Barcelona and Peru in 2027 as presented
so second all those in favor all thank you sorry have fun have a great time guys sure will and
how many how many days until breze oh 51 I'm counting I'm also coun yes I am every other year I kind of do want it's such it's such it's so so much fun um it's a great way to get to know the kids too so it's um I'm really
excited looking forward to it take 10c break just let get out of here all right continuing on uh next up is our first reading for a graduation requirement policy revision uh Dr
do thank you very much um this is going um so really uh this is just some recommendations uh for me and from our Norton High School site Council as well as our academic coordinator group who also s took look at this and some other
District administrators on sort of how to adapt our graduation requirements to the ballot initiative um that passed on November 6th um so just to remind everyone what that said uh is that in the past or at least since 2003 um mcast has been used to determine whether or not a student
met basic competencies uh by getting a um appropriate score on English math and then science and that is no longer the case in Massachusetts as of December 5th actually is when the law took effect um but what it states now is to satisfactorily complete coursework um
that kind of meets those standards and curriculum Frameworks that were part of mcast um so basically students no longer need to pass ncast graduate um so what that means um we got some guidance on December 11th from actually two sets of guidance one on the 7th of November and
then again on the 11th of December U from DSC on what that means basically we as a district can no longer rely on an mcast score in order to determine whether or not a student is competent we need to determine what our guidelines would be for that competency um and then
also in January uh we have the promise of more guidance eventually there's going to be a group coming together that's going to look at uh sort of systematic um changes to compens determination across the state or recommendations from DSC and so that puts us in kind of a interesting limbo
um so we looked at all of these factors and also considered the fact that there's going to be um additional guidance um definitely checking around area districts there's kind of two ways districts have approached this they've taken the opportunity to kind of do a whole systematic review of their their
graduation requirements um and then others have kind of put in a stop Gap measure for the class of 2025 and 2026 in anticipation that we'll have more more guidance and more um requirements in the future um and that's kind of where we landed as well is to have a
very light touch with this um as far as what our policy is um in order to kind of wait and see what that guidance would be um so that we're not um kind of Reinventing the wheel twice um when it comes out in the future and so what the recommendation is and and um as I stated in that memo I looked through I didn't
read every school committee policy looking for it but I did do a bunch of searches um where I can determine as far as compens determination um for or Norton what it had said is just also required to pass the state assessment tests and that comes in with other requirements uh that are stated for
Norton High School in the Norton High School handbook um and what I suggest was to strike that and just to put in place uh the competency determination and that's the language directly from the ballot question um would be to pass English 1 and two algebra one and geometry biology introductory physics
physics or chemistry so those are the areas that were covered by the mcast in 2023 um it seems like the wisest course to kind of adhere as closely as possible to that law um just to again U make sure that we're fulfilling those requirements
um really this changes nothing um these courses were required of our students anyway um you have past four years of English four years of math that include these um there's no way within the course structure not to take these uh courses um they have students have to P three years of uh science as well and
all of these classes particularly biology and introductory physics would be nth grade uh courses um you know that is the only one where students can move on to another science they still have to pass three courses so they're going to pass one that would qualify um for that confidency determination uh just for
some context um this would only affect one student this year um who has not yet earned the compens determination by traditional means so either through an original administration of the mcast or uh a subsequent retest all of our students pretty much um have already
achieved their accomp determination um 2026 pretty similar although there's a little bit larger group there because we won't be offering the retest to them uh down in the road down the road here as well um over the course of the last six years I can kind of speak to intelligently since I've been here that's been only um that would only
affected three total students including this one this year as far as not earning the C determination through mcast um so again really trying to stick close uh you know using those listed cources to make it as as light of a touch as possible in our in our policy right now um what that would look like
is we then sort of alter all our documents based on what was in the uh school committee policy so just rather than having it uh you know the comp determination standard established by and what it had now is the Massachusetts DSC mcast we would just strike that say the northern public schools in our
handbook um go back to our program of studies do the same um we would still acknowledge obviously needing to take um the mcast um that's an important thing uh not necessarily listing it as a graduation requirement and that's something definitely we can consider maybe in the future when we're looking
at this do we want to require students to sit for an mcast examination as part of it since it will still be part of federal and state accountability students will still still use our scores in order to assess our districts um and it's important that we get good data from that as well it helps us obviously looking at our instruction and
curriculum um and then obviously in the future looking at what the state has to say um and one other thing I'd say is definitely as we get that state guidance it would be worth looking at um our graduation requirements and thinking about ways that students could demonstrate Mastery again what we have listed at least in this recommendation
um really is just core courses but maybe there's something else we want to think about requiring as far as um you confidence portfolios or um projects or things like that that might be part of that down the road um but again I think it's wise um to wait and see what the state would say um with that especially when they're going to be talking with
lots of uh business and other leaders around the community what what they might want to see um it's kind of a systematic graduation requirement Statewide um so that's pretty much it is really just uh St striking it moving forward questions cins
[Music] concerns I I guess one question and you might have touched on this do we anticipate with further meetings on this that they're going to have like more specific policy language to be put out to schools and like right now I
understand we need to change it just to because the law has passed but I assume whatever version 2.0 looks like there's going to be more guidance and literature pass around that yeah so uh that was one of the things in the memo that I linked is that just as part of the State of the State or state of the Commonwealth
address um Governor Healey had formed a commission through executive order to bring together uh Business Leaders uh secondary um postsecondary educational leaders throughout the state and try to come up with exactly that like a recommendation for things that would be
consistent across District districts in the state rather than kind of turning loose to all total local control um you know how that would what that would look like and sort of what the of force behind that would be who knows uh down future but that that is definitely the plan and there's also already a lot of
push back on that because of the language that went along with um question two on the November ballot and giving more local control to schools and districts whether that's the right way to approach it or not remains to be seen
but um there are definitely two approaches that are taking place right now across the state well and I've also seen some schools who are making in a graduation requirement but the students still have to pass them test yeah that is one of the frequently asked questions on their guidance there is can you still
make that and you can if you want to make that the local decision that you still have to achieve you know a uh meets or exceeds on the mcast in order to graduate that too I think just from my standpoint I think this is a great opportunity for
our district to kind of separate themselves to a certain degree um and what I mean by that is you finally took some power back from the state if you will I feel like this is a time to capitalize on it and figure out what do we want our students of
North to graduate and what what is that requirement you know um so I think you know I I agree with the basic for now because there's a whole lot of you know nonsense going on behind the scenes if you will uh but I think moving forward forward I would really like to see you
know further things you know Financial you know competencies you know stuff along the lines of you know actually real life real world things that we can actually now incorporate into our into the curriculum if you will um and make it a a requirement you know um so I do
feel like there you know with everything that happened there is some opportunity here for us to kind of grab this and be a leader you know and not really worry about what other districts are doing it's our it's our choice now so I would like to kind of see us you know figure out exactly what that looks like so this is the first reading um we
will bring this back to you at the March 12th meeting um for a second reading um to get us through the end of year thanks thank you very much all right uh next up our lovely topic you sick of talking about this
show um is our MBTA zoning update with paud well thank you as Pam is getting uh everything set up online because we actually have another presenter here with me um I'll just go and start again I'm Paul DBI on the town planner and uh
I'm really excited to be in front of you all um and we're going to present where we are in the process with the NBTA um as you may recall back in November we had a proposal that was tabled at town meeting and since that point we've been working a lot with the public and the
planning board has been working to identify address issues that were brought up uh during that process and to I want to show that to you um especially some of the comments that were made that we presented to you all back in the fall
about your issue of making sure we don't put this District in one area where it impacts one school so the board's been um very focused on that and so um what I'm going to do is turn it over to will who's with an organization called Chapa
and Will's going to talk about the housing situation in Massachusetts and in Norton he'll also talk about impacts of housing on School enrollment and and and uh uh revenues and taxes property taxes and so forth then he'll turn it
back to me and I'll go over where we are in the process right now and uh what the drafts are looking like and then the time frames before this goes to town meeting so I just need to make sure I oh
there we go so will are you there hold on will we're not quite here in you try again so I can hear will fine on the zoom yeah but I think you need to take the microphone to
either what if we meet M let's [Music] M7 because I can hear him he's completely because it's going through all right yeah now you got that's right I'm still here can you all hear me
now okay great so I'm I'm getting some Echoes from your but as long as you can hear me then I think where else I have to go am I all set to start speaking y okay great um thanks all for having me
really glad to be here and would love to be there in person and hopefully I will be able to come to teacher meetings uh in nordon about this issue but um to introduce myself my name is Will rigan I work for an organization called the citizens housing and Planning Association where state nonprofit that
works to encourage uh housing that is Affordable to people with low and moderate incomes and I've been working for about almost the last year with communities around the state to educate them about what this new law the M communities act means and how it's going
to affect our communities so um I guess I'm not sharing the screen so Paul you get some slides for me okay thanks very much so um what is MBT communities act um it was passed in 2020 as part of an economic development Bill uh signed into
law by Charlie Baker after passing nearly unanimously through the state legislature and what it does is it requires 177 communities so really most of Eastern Massachusetts um to create an area somewhere in the community where some
multif family housing would be allowed to be built it doesn't mean it has to be built but it would give Property Owners the option to build it um and unlike other zoning reforms that have happened in other stes um this law allows communities to choose where they would like to see that new housing be built um
based on their unique situations Community uh and most importantly what it does is it reduces a lot of the red tape that has made it very hard to build as in Massachusetts so we can move on so first off I think it's important to start with the why of this why this
law was passed in order to understand um what kind of impact was likely to have and what considerations you might make as you're implenting it um so very simply this is about housing affordability uh it's about making housing more affordable um not kind of
capital A affordable housing but housing that's affordable for everyone um because the fact is we're seeing really high home pric in Massachusetts push out college graduates young adults and families trying to buy the first homes or find an affordable rental and older adult adults who may have lived in our
communities for decades and now are having a difficult time downsizing to smaller place we're also seeing teachers firefighters police officers and public servants struggling to find homes in the communities that they serve um and this is a long-term problem that has really
grown across the state there's not a specific Community that's responsible for it and there's not a specific community that can solve it so the state stepped in to try to take a regional approach to creating housing across the entire region uh we can move on and a little bit about the why um
very simply housing prices have Skyrocket since 2016 Massachusetts has seen housing price increase by 73% and Norton has increased by 73% as well so right in line with the state a little cheaper than the state as a whole but um
that kind of increase in just a short period can really drive a lot of people into a difficult situation which I'll cover on the next slide so how difficult is that situation um it's it's gotten pretty rough and I both some data for nordon in particular
so you can see how it's affecting you um and the way we think about housing affordability is that if you're spending more than 30% of your before tax income on housing we consider you cost burdened and if you're spending more than 50% you're extremely cost burdened and that means that you're struggling to pay for
housing alongside groceries Healthcare education for your children all the other things that you need um to live a good life and what we're seeing is that about 25% of homeowners in Norton are struggling to stay in their homes um and that not quite so high because many
people bought of course when housing prices were much cheaper but for renters who are really facing the housing market as it is right now uh almost 50% of renters in nor are struggling with st HS which is a big problem those people um they may think about moving they may
think about what are the sacrifices need to make in order to stay in their homes it's really are tough situations so we can look at some more of those impacts in the next so I want to think about what would relevant to you in thinking of this issue and I thought it'd be good to look at what nor teachers can afford based on
current housing prices um and I don't mean this as a any criticism of of your salary scale because this is a problem that every single um School District in the state is facing which is that teachers are not able to afford in to live in the districts that they're serving um so I just took a look at the
contract starting salar is 48,000 a month based on that 30% a month affordability ratio that means you can afford to pay about 12 mon as uh a starting teach in nordon um median rent in nordon is 2600 so you're not even close to affording rent uh and medium
home price um at 550,000 if you're putting 20% down a current interest rates that's a monthly payment of 3,200 a month just for the median priced home so as a starting teacher no way you're affording an apartment no way you're affording
um to buy a house uh maybe with with a partner who can p off rent um maybe with a lot of Roommates who can fall off the house but it's a really tough situation and what it's doing is driving a lot of people out of the state and we can look at that more in the next
slide so this is kind of this is the reason why this was included in an economic development bill because our housing affordability is becoming a major economic problem for Massachusetts uh in 2023 Massachusetts lost more residents than it gained and what's
really important to see about that is who's leaving and if you look at the graph on the right um we'll see that although we have some college students still to the state um we're seeing folks over 65 or between 45 to 64 leave at kind of moderate rates but we're seeing
folks from 25 to 44 leave Massachusetts at a really rapid rate um and we know why that's happening um the Greater Boston Cher of Commerce that the you survey of people in the group um they found that one four young people plan to leave Greater Boston in the next five years and two of the top three reasons
for leaving are related to housing affordability that's the cost of rent and the ability to buy a home so we're seeing young people leave the state specifically because of Housing and those are people that are at the age where they're starting families buying their first home launching businesses
many that might be starting work as a teacher uh and they're growing their careers and if we want to build a thriving economy for the state we can't be having people leave the state just when they're ready to begin contributing to our economy in our society especially because we're a school a state that
invests so much in our schools and universities um and then we're investing all of that time and money and people are taking those skills to other states instead of investing them here at home uh we can move on to the next slide so the question of course is why
is housing in Massachusetts so expensive and the answer is really simple um Supply is less than demand there's a lot more people that want to live here than um than we have homes for them to live um and the reason for that is also very simple we just have not been building
very much housing in the state for a long time uh in the 60s 7s and 80s we were Building 25 to 30,000 homes per year and then what happened between the ' 80s and90s was that towns around the state decided they were going to go
through a process called down zoning where they made it much more difficult to build multi family homes like uh two families triple Deckers Apartments Etc so we saw in the '90s is we were still building a lot of single family homes which tend to be more expensive but we almost stopped building multi family
housing which tends to be cheaper entirely same thing in the 2000s 2010s got a little better but still building very few few homes overall uh and what we're seeing now is that that with three decades of building very little are really coming back to bite Us in the
form of very high prices go on to the next slide but of course why did we stop building housing um the answer again is pretty simple Chapa works as a convener across the Housing Industry we've talked
to hunt developers municipalities Realtors Advocates and more to ask why s build housing uh and the answer was overwhelming it was zoning was the biggest barrier um so you probably all have heard about zoning a bit um if you're engaging Municipal politics and
policymaking but I think it's worth going to a little bit about what zoning means um and then how this law is seeking to change zon make it easier toy for so can go to the next slide for that so um what is zoning zoning is the
set of rules that determines what can be built in your community and where you can build so that can set things like the shape the height and size of buildings that's allowed um the distance between buildings and other land uses like agriculture or industrial sites
whether the land can be used for residential use for commercial use for open space or for industrial and also things like parking requirements or affordability requirements and standards on architectural design um I think the most important thing to remember about
zoning is that the kind of zoning we're talking about for the MBT communities act does not force Property Owners to do anything or to make any changes in their property what it does do is give property owners more options on what they can use their property for
we can go into that more next so how is MC communities act performing zoning it allows communities to create um districts we call overlay districts where Property Owners will be given the option to build multif family
housing at around 15 homes per acre and I'll go over what that looks like in a minute so again it's it's saying to Property Owners you already own this land but now you have the option to build multif family housing if you choose to do so you don't have to um you
can keep your property exactly how it is but it's giving you more options um and if you choose to build in that home even if the zoning allows say up to eight units on your property you can build one unit two unit 3 four 5 six up to eight um as long as it's under that maximum
you're allowed to build it so it's really giving owners a lot more flexibility with what they can do their land with their land and the idea is that over time as some owner decide to either redevelop or sell to someone else we'll start to see more unit in the community but you're not going to see a
whole bunch all at once as long as um you follow the plan that Paul's working on which is seeking to um Prov gradual Redevelopment comp on the town we can move on so uh we're talking about multif family housing but what do we actually
mean there this law is really intending to create what we call missing middle housing by encouraging housing at around 15 minut per acre uh and missing middle housing is really is called that because it's one missing we don't have much of it and
it's in the middle both in terms of what's affordable and its size so it's really everything between single family houses which we have a lot of right now and we know are very expensive even home price over 550,000 um and these midr Park Builders we have a lot more of an
urban areas um and on the other hand um it's also to mean single familys that are expensive and um subsidized which um many people in the middle class do
not qualify for they don't have loan of incomes but they're also not able to afford really expensive Market housing so it's really seeking to create mod siiz housing for people in the middle class uh if we go on we can see what it actually looks like so I think people often have like these kind of
unrealistic portraits of what 15 per acre or Missy metal housing looks like I think it's always helpful to look at one examples of an already existing community uh I just P here two here 14 40 bar street we have a triple A
three family house that's on uh a fifth of an acre that comes up to 14 units per acre so that would qualify for the kind of housing we're trying to create here and then 278 Reservoir stre we have four units another a quarter acre comes right out 50 un per acre so these are kind of exactly the kind of project that this um
initiative is shooting for you might see larger projects with more Apartments but they would be at about this kind of to be to go to this law so it's not talking about giant apartment buildings it's talking about going up from single family homes something that's a little larger scale but might be providing
three units in a building that looks somewhat similar or a similar scale and S different moving on um so this is the school committee I imagine your first question is how this will affect School enrollment and I think this is an area where it's really
important to look at what the data has actually so far CU I think when we hear new housing we think a lot of new school TR uh and what's really interesting about this is that the metropolitan area planning Council which is the planning Council for the entire P Boston region
has studied this pretty extensively and they've actually found that there's really very little relationship between new he development and specifically um multif Family Housing Development and School enrollment and if you look at the graph here you can see
um about I think we have 30 to 50 communities uh in the Metro Boston area and in one access we have their change in school enrollment and the other access we have their change in total housing units and there's actually very little correlation between the change in
total housing units and the change in school enrollment and the reason for that is when we build multi family housing it tends to appeal much more to young couples uh single people looking for their own Apartments older adults looking the downsized and smaller families um School enrollment ends up
being driven much more in the turnover by the turnover of single family homes which are more likely to have with children so the upshot is um nordon is not particular very likely to see much enrollment change definitely in the
shortterm um from this law so moving to the next slide and I just want to note because I think the fear so many people have about New development is that it's going to overgrow the schools um and we can find Ro of course on every uh School District
in the state and nordon as you probably all know already has declining enrollment um this isn't really likely to add many more so if you're worried about kind of reversing that Trend um this probably isn't going to be um the Silver Bullet is going to start school
enrollment increasing or U leveling off but um it's certainly not going to over at the schools I would not be concerned about that um unless you committed to some much more growth housing plan than what Paul is is proposing right
now so we can move on um other common concerns I hear about this law is that it could somehow overload sewer and water um capacity of nordon um and the thing that you should know there is that municipalities have absolutely no obligation to provide or pay for sewer
and water for new development that is going to be at the expense of the developers um I know nordon has areas that do not public sewer in water and although that can make development harder it is still possible developers are capable of building multif family on land with public sewer and water but you
should know the town is not obliged to pay for that so you don't have to worry about any large costs coming from those developments moving to the next slide and finally property taxes I think this is kind of the first question people have about any change to
Municipal policy uh and we had a great presentation on this actually this afternoon by the president of the m it's taxpayers Foundation that follows at as well which I'm hoping at a later date we might actually be able to show that to you or other groups in N because I thought was really informative but um
the master taxpayers Foundation studied how communities have seen rapid housing growth communities that have seen very little housing growth in the last 10 years have seen their property tax rates and total levies change um and the upshot on that and I'd be happy to provide more data on this because I know
FKS might be interested is that towns with highest population grow have seen taxes of the percentage of income remain steady or decrease whereas town for population loss have seen the highest increases in property tax rates and particularly relevant for the school
committee towns with the highest aeration R have seen a Aid percentage of our school funding increase and so if we thinking of ways to lessen budget we know is an issue almost every town in the state U it's actually communities
that are seeing enrollment grow that are having less of an issue with that right now um and now of course as I said earlier we're not looking to see a lot of population growth or norment growth from this law but it's something to keep in
mind if you get questions from about um how School enrollment changes could affect Municipal finances so moving on and that's the end of my portion and then I want to turn back to Paul he's going to talk about uh exactly what his
team is proposing right now to allow family housing in Norton and I figure once we're both done I'm happy to put some questions from the community or the general okay so I just have a few sles um okay so I just have a few slides here but I want to spend my time talking
about specifically things we're working on with the Norton MBTA community um so Norton has been designated as an nvta adjacent Community because we're adjacent to Mansfield and anbo which have communter rail stops so we have to
designate a minimum of 50 acres at 15 units an acre um I think this is the part of the bylaw I really don't like because in all my years of planning I've learned and we seeing it here you never leave with density and unit counts cuz
that's what people have been f focusing on and I want people to remember what will was showing that's what we're really striving for places for that and you know I've heard some of the comments earlier to U at the at the beginning of the meeting today um what's driving this
to the real stories of people like that teacher and then you know we have people particularly there's a a couple um you know that I know here in town young couple engaged cannot find housing living with their parents because you saw the
numbers that will had and that's a real world experience that we're that this law this LA's going to touch it a bit but there were broader things that would have to happen but anyway um so these are the minimums we have to get to 15 15
minutes per acre and at 50 thank you sir don't want to put germs on it um and minimum 50 acres so um it also there were requirements that the law we can't put age restrictions on there so we in the bylaw can't say it's limited to 55
and older and we can't say that it's one or two bedrooms we need to make sure we make Provisions for our families with children and as will said it doesn't require any multif family to be built um nor infrastructure
Investments um you may recall when we were bringing this through in the fall that the town of Milton had a lawsuit going with the with the state well the Supreme Judicial Court did F weigh in on that and they ruled in favor of the state they said that the NBTA
communities Act is constitutional and it's enforceable so the Attorney General can enforce it um it did also say the court did also say that the state didn't properly promulgate their bylaws or their guidelines but they fixed that
they passed emergency regulations and they're seeking to make those regulations uh fully um permanent and we've re receed direct emails from the state saying it's enforceable and the regulations are regulations so um I just before we start
going into the areas that the town is currently looking at um I just want to make a couple of points here one again was they he the planning board heard your concerns about putting this in one area so we're looking at about four
areas and they're one of the criteria they're going to be looking at is do the areas split the difference between nurse Elementary and salones so that was a big thing and and also we heard at town meeting from folks that they didn't want
large vacant areas and you'll see that we've picked areas that are not that so the first one is Norton Glenn um we actually had an event shortly after town meeting um when the public said they wanted to have a public
event where people could come in well we had one right here and we we asked people to dot vote where would they like to see this District go the number one vote G was Nor Glen um you know there's good opportunities for redevelopment here now this is 150 units it's all
affordable housing but it's it's getting pretty old I hate to say it's old because it was built after I was born um but there are opportunities If This Were to be designated for mvta Community zoning that if they needed to expand
they could because right now they actually legally can't they're no longer a legal conforming use but if they if this were designated then if they wanted to redevelop it they could but this area is built out as you can see there's no
vacant land is in what we're selecting the Lots aren't that big they're all about an acre um there's Wetlands there still would need to meet your Wetland requirements these lots are pretty oddly shaped so that's going to reduce what they can do there's sewer here and
there's some nearby commercial so this could be a good area but this was the number one vote getter the number two and of course this go these students go to nurse Elementary the number two vote getter was Manville DAV which you recall was
where we had uh the property over at t uh TPC during the fall meeting but this was the number two vote getter but instead of putting that parcel in it is not in I want to repeat that parcel vacant parcel is not in all of the parcels you can see on the map this is a
again a largely built out area it's a mixture of residential including quads and multif family including the 40b that's uh about to open called Norton lyx there's a mixture of warehouse and some commercial in this area um this
area is served by sewer uh there's retail nearby it's got proximity to I 495 so this is another area and these students go to salones as as you know another area that just a quick question on that one yes that is across the road
from TPC correct with the across the road yes yes we are not going to TPC thank you there's still confusion out there about that but the next part property that's being considered um and this was the number four vote getter at
our event was the uh at 138 Barrow Street in fact this is very close to that slide of one of the homes that will showed but this is the old twave Mill and this has been a vacant Mill for at least 2 or 3 years and people thought that this could be a good re adaptive
reuse of this site uh there is a lot of vacant land there um and unlike the other two areas I just showed this is one big parcel so it would have you know it's a different situation than the others but it could be a great site for development uh this is on septic there's
no sewer in the area but again there's about a 60,000 ft building there that could be repurposed and then finally and then these these students or students in this area go to salones and then finally um this was
brought up at one of our recent public hearings uh Redmill Village in 274 East Main which again is largely built out in now fairly new development um this was brought up by folks who you know said we
we want to put it there because because of the the Condition it's it's pretty darn new and it's in great condition that they felt that nothing would happen here so this is that this is the that option that's why this is here this is all up for consideration um students
here would go to nurse or they do go to nurse Elementary School um again good site it's already multif family uh there's commercial nearby there's commercial right within this area as well um and then in addition to you know
just putting it on a map we have to come up with text and you know this is the nuts and bolts of all of this but as will said this is an overlay District so any of the properties that get selected could build under their base zoning or they could opt into this depending on what they want to do but in most of
these cases it would give them a right that they don't currently have um it would make multif family bu right so meaning no special permits needed we would be doing it by site plan so the board planning board would still review it it but it would just be by sight plan
now a development could also be in addition to just being all multif family um we're looking at it just also allowing for top of the shop housing which allows commercial on the first floor and residential above it uh the board was uh wanting to try to promote more commercial development in town and
thought this would be a really good tool to do and then uh one of the things we're still working on we're working on all of this still is these dimensional requirements that we showed earlier the thing I want to point out about this is if we're trying to get to that smaller
type of missing middle housing these things are important smaller lot sizes will help guarantee smaller buildings having it on areas that already have smaller lot sizes helps us get there too um height
height requirements are a big thing we certainly heard loud and clear from the public a town meeting the density bonuses were not wanted so like that those will probably be out uh we're working on that uh things like setbacks and Frontage all affect how a building
could be built and so um you know if we want to achieve the that smaller type of missing middle housing you know we have to try to set it up so that the these types of Standards help promote it and um try not to promote the large scale
apartments that you know a lot of people in town do not want to see and finally uh our time frame um we are still in the process the planning board is in the process of refinement of the text and going through the parcel
selection uh but March March 25th the board is actually having their public hearing uh the notices will be going out in the mail next week I think uh no signs are in the ground next week but then we will be having that public
hearing on March 25th and it's looking like April 1st will be a joint meeting with planning board finance committee and select board uh I understand tomorrow the select board is voting to see if they can make that meeting uh I understand finance committee voted the
other night that they could so April 1st will probably be that that's a crucial meeting uh you know our goal is to get the the boards talking together and have an understanding and have a you know my hope is have a unified set of
recommendations going to town meeting and then May 19th is where it all happens town meeting so that that concludes my presentation so I have a I mean I have a number of questions and concerns but the the two that are kind of sticking out
right now um one with these new development overlays is there a way for developers and Builders to as we've heard for many years kind of skirt the building process and make these like those 40b units or
is this going to be specifically mentioned otherwise cuz I don't know what Norton's percentage is I know we' fought that 40b battle for several years that I've been in town um so I don't know what the latest percentage is but is that a possibility for these zoning so so we're over 10% barely we're
10.02 now those are new numbers so 40 BS are always an option in fact there's one going through right now that the select board they did a friendly 40b and that's coming to the ZB a very soon in fact I'm meeting with them tomorrow to talk about when they're submitting it um this is we
want to keep in mind though 40b is a different thing than this 40 BS require affordable housing this does not necessarily so the the second question and and comment as well is I think my
personal biggest issue with this is they talk about this as housing but it's it's still really rental properties so I mean when you you're talking a multif family unit are you are they marketing it as like a townhouse where you own your unit or do you have a landlord and four
tenants like that's the part I can never understand about this whole law so that's at the choice of the owner the the bylaw the law the state law does not mandate rental or ownership so it's it's it'll just be dependent on a project that comes in so it's a case-by case basis but that's not something the town
can regulate we we can't regulate ownership or rental or demand it okay that's all I thank you and this law doesn't change that um I guess my question is is I
think it's the town of Middleboro has come up with something around unfunded mandates that we know a lot about um but from a state level and challenging this um a prop two and a half from an unfunded mandate standpoint with the state saying you got to do this but we're not giving you any money to do it
what does that look like at the current moment so I'm going to start that and will do you want to chime in on the the whole unfunded mandate so right so the division of local mandates uh last week uh had a Rec
had a a determination uh Middleboro and there were two other towns that sought that same request was was this an unfunded mandate the the um so that division did find that this is an unfunded mandate although it left a lot of things open
um Our Town Council is still looking into this I can't tell you the Attorney General issued a a a letter a press release the other day that says they don't agree with that finding and that the towns are still needing to comply with it um that's a tough that issue of
unfunded mandates it's a challenging one because for example our town did receive funding for Consultants to help us in the first go around we don't have to provide water or sewer for any project the other thing is if a project does get
built um there are tax revenues that come in so I think more has to develop on this to determine what exactly do they mean by unfunded mandate and well I don't know if you want to add anything or correct me hold
on sorry wear you you hear me okay okay you're good yeah what the auditor has said is that the law as it was originally written did not provide funding for towns to drop these zoning plans um that said after the fact the
administration did provide a lot of funding for town to drop these plans um so there's been a fair amount of funding available to nordon there's actually still more on the table that um you are able to apply for from the state to um explore some of these different options that Paul presented so
of course we don't know exactly what will happen the process is that towns that have an issue with this and do not wish to come in compliance can go to court again um the state has been pretty outspoken that they will defend the law
in court and so I wouldn't think those lawsuits have a whole lot of chance of success but of course I can say for sure um but the state's position is that this is not going to change much and that would be my prediction is that um if
anything this might be a delay for some towns but likely the law will move forward as it has been already well I think che che um so [Music] so I guess uh all right so I guess my question is
is you know you have a study around how this could affect student student enrollment you know what is the percentage based within the state itself of students per housing unit so there's got to be some percentage of you know3
you know 29 whatever it may be because wouldn't that be a pretty good judge of what we were looking at if we put 750 units on and went with a state average where we always generally fall in Norton you know if that number number is 0. 29 that's you know over 200 students that
could be coming into District sorry this is hard um I don't have the number across the top of my head what I can tell you is that um based on the projects that have
gone through under this law so far is that we see students per unit for multif family housing that are much like even radically lower than what we see for single family homes and what that study showed us is that um new housing has very little impact on School enrollment
um whereas turnover in existing single family homes that tend to have more bedrooms uh does have more of an impact so to give some examples uh we just discussed this this morning project in Southborough with 300 units 12 students
enrolled in the schools for that okay and now that's of course not generalizable every product will be different I think smaller multif family will probably have more students than the kind of products with a lot of studio apartments of course um but that's a great question I think we
should get that data point we don't have it right now but all the data shows us that new multif family housing is unlikely to really change your student enrollment very much and then my last question my last question would be uh it says towns with the highest population growth
have seen taxes as percentage of income remains steady or decrease What towns have decreased taxes because I would like to go there that's a great question so I'm going to try to send you this presentation through Paul after this because I think it would be a great thing to share but
um aair so towns have had seen taxes decrease as a percentage of income right which means you're seeing probably Rising incomes and taxes that are increasing slower than those incomes I don't think we have any T where taxes as a whole are decreasing um but what we do
know is that towns that are seeing increasing population are able to spread Municipal Services across a wider base of taxpayers which leads people have to pay less fewer fewer taxes as a percentage of their incomes um and we do actually have this study that compares
the 28 towns that Chapa is working with right now in terms of how their taxes have changed and uh I'm going to try to get to that to PA as soon as we have all the data would love to see anything else great Paul thank you very much appreciate it great thank you thank you
everybody and have a great evening um all right next up is the second reading uh and vote on the concussion policy revision okay uh so at our last meeting um Mrs Dorian Brown came out and presented to the committee on our
updated head injury and concussion policy uh This was done in partnership with the district Wellness committee and takes two current policies and kind of brings them into one that's a little bit easier in terms of um implementation and
ease of use for um both families and for um our staff as well so um because this is a second reading it will require a vote this evening questions comments concerns n all right then
so uh I would request motion to approve the head injury and concussion policy as presented so motion second all those in favor I a 50 vote thank you for the committee's work on that I know it is a lot when you start going through all
that information for sure uh next up is second reading and vote on meal charge policy however Dr O'Neal um so earlier this week we actually had um the Department of Education out for their in-person administrative audit of our
food service program and during that visit they gave us some feedback on what we voted on two weeks ago so what I'm going to do is I'm going to turn this over to Mrs Hatfield and we are going to turn this into a new new first reading
which means that uh Christine will go over the changes with you and then we will bring it back at the March 12th meeting for a second reading so Mrs hfield um so I apologize that we will do this three times now total but um so the
first basically why we have to update this is because now that Norton this year no a Little Closer um qualified as a c District um we are also universally free but federally
we're C District which is community eligibility provision and so that means um federally we are free regardless um just to give you a quick history why this is all changing is the threshold um used to be 40% for um
identifiable um student population and it got reduced uh ferally to 25% so most of our schools fall into that category so they lump that together so that is now why we're a c District so she said that we um the
auditor recommended that we no longer need some of this language so um we just figured we would clean it up um that is um the bullet in the very first one is the bullet in red for the reproduced price meals because there's everybody is
free regardless um we're going to get rid of that eliminate that bullet and then on the next page um there was no need for the differentiation of the the four students with three produce just different
categories that we broke out um we did we no longer needed that and um I'm sorry I'm just pointing this out because I didn't highlight it before so I apologize because I did it before I printed this out on the payment
and low balances the new language we are getting rid of the very last paragraph where it says any remaining positive balances for a particular student will be carried over to the next school year we're getting rid of or
negative I did not put that in but I just want to put that out so now it's just um we can't carry over the negative balance is only the positive and then lastly um the graduation requirements of
the seniors may lose the ability to participate um even though we didn't follow that directly um it was more of teeth leverage perhaps but um we shouldn't have had that in there either
you can use it to not allow student to participate in a fee based program um but not something like C so we eliminated that as well and then just because the first two BS on the financial assistance we didn't need
those either we just took the bullet of the unimited fresh fruits and moved that up to um under the universal free bill so I guess my my question and concern for you dral because this was a
votable agenda item in theory we would have to vote in the negative on this presented item or we can table the vote because um excuse me the it says second reading and vote so we
can table the vote portion and we'll come back to it on 12 correct 12 yes okay yeah I think that would be my recommendation let's table this look at it and then we can make a final vote next meeting because I think there's a little it's not our admin Fall by any
means because obviously this came back through yesterday but I think just getting everything on one paper making sure everything's correctly crossed off and everything else so we can actually just see it all at once we definitely be helpful so I would make a motion to table the vote on the second reading for the change policy
revision we have a second thanks Audrey sure let us down I was letting somebody else have all those in favor I I excellent thank you very much uh and next up and last is uh other other
business that was not anticipated in 48 hours I have two items for the committee um the first is some updated financials uh that were received earlier this afternoon from um the town manager there are estim um updated operating revenues
and um expenditures from town hall and Christine also has updated um budget financials for you all as well um we have been doing some work over these last few days um we've had a few
retirements and resignations come in and therefore have been able to um take our initial level service budget that we had proposed to you a few weeks ago and we have it down um to a 4.96 increase which to be honest I'm pretty excited about
this is definitely one of the lowest increases for level services that we've seen in a number of years um it's important I think for the committee to know that any of the positions that were reinstated um After Fall town meeting with that free
are still in this version of the budget with 4.96 um so we have our next meeting which will be on Saturday uh March 8th which will be our budget Workshop um we will go into more detail for the committee at that time um that will also
be when we present um ideas and um alternatives to if we are not able to get a level service budget from the town um our our thoughts and processes around to how we would close that Gap so that is one thing um Dr real quick that is an
open public meeting for anybody that wants to come to that Mar yes it is will be the yell school we will be in the yell Library what time I believe we said 9:00 a.m. yeah I think we decided 8 was too early and 10 was too late if I remember
correctly is that sign right oh it says 9 okay um you may not have maybe you weren't there that night yeah um I believe so it is 9 it is 9:00 a.m. um and then the only other item I have for you all is a
reminder that next Wednesday evening March 5th will be our um annual steam night um at Norton High School super excited about this event um Mrs Carrie Murphy from Norton High School is um
the I can't think of words I want to use the word Steamroller but that's not like coordinator she's the coordinator proponent she is the cheerleader cheerleader I don't know what's wrong with my brain right now um she is in
charge of this event and it's an amazing event we actually have 30 tables of different um steam related activities and vendors for families to come it is for the whole family so bring your children there's lots of Hands-On activities um and we hope to see people
there sorry yeah I was going to say h date one more time um March 5th from 6:00 to 7:30 at Norton High School awesome anybody else with other business I also have two things uh one I don't know if you've been paying
attention to Norton um the town manager is retiring as of June 30th um the select board per the town Charter um is going to be asking us to put a member up of our choice um to sit on the selection
committee for the new town manager um by Town chter rules it does not have to be one of us we just have to come to agreement on who it could be or wants to be um so I think if we just kind of keep that rolling I know they're obviously want to get started on it decently quick I think they have it on their agenda for
tomorrow um to actually announce exactly what that's going to look like um and then uh what my number two oh number two uh the carnival um the veterans committee reached out to me today um about adding that onto the next agenda so just going to have that in mind as
well anything else motion to adjourn so all those in favor second oh second sorry uh second by all is in favor thank
you very much thank you all great mine's too far