All right, folks. We're gonna get started. 6 o'clock. >> All right. Just so everyone's aware, this meeting is being reported by northern media hitting public school. Uh public comment shall only concern items that are within the scope from school committee. Each speaker will be
allowed three minutes. Anybody wishes to address the meeting, please come up to the podium. Rachel Kierney, NTA president, address out of town. Um I, as promised, I have an updated cell phone policy for you
guys. I know I this is the first meeting. I think there should be one for everyone. We made 10 copies. Um, so we pushed a poll out this week. Um, it was open through today at noon. So as you look at the policy um, poll, I try to ask similar questions to the
first one. Rate, how well it's going, how many students are not complying with the policy in your classrooms, and then how many writeups have you had to do for cell phone policy violations. So overwhelmingly, it's still rated as either great or good. That um those two
figures equal approximately 94.5%. So it's still overwhelmingly supported by staff. Um how many students are not complying with the cell phone policy? We have about 83% that are saying um only
three or fewer students are not complying. And it's important to remember during the course of a school day students um teachers see an average of probably about 100 students. They are teaching about five or six classes a day. So if we say there's an average of 20-ish pigs per class, it's about 100 to
120 students a day that they are seeing. So the vast majority have fewer than three students not complying. Um that 15.1% represented I think eight respondents who were in the four to six range. And then we had one staff member
um who was more than 10. Then for the final question, how many writeups have we had to do? Again, 80 almost 89%. We've only had to do five or fewer writeups. Uh 9.4% had to do between six and 10. And that small
sliver is again only one person who has had to do more than 10. So, you know, we've had a which is to be expected a little bit of a drop from some students. Um, but it's still overwhelmingly successful. It's definitely making a
positive impact in the classroom. It's better for teachers. It's better for staff. Um, there's there's, you know, when the there's a natural pause in the classroom, kids actually turn and talk to each other instead of all whipping up their phone and just texting their
friend three doors down. So, it's just still going really, really well. Um, and for the few teachers that are sort of not consistently maybe um, enforcing the rule, we, you know, we have a climate and culture committee at the high school that I'm on and we're maybe raising that
with our ability admin to see what type of steps they can take to get those teachers to sort of come into compliance. Um, because now that it is a cool policy, it is our job as teachers the building to enforce the school rules. And so if we have some staff that
maybe we aren't necessarily doing that, that's something that we would ask our admin to address and do what they need to to sort of get them to buy into the program, see the benefits and come into compliance.
So there any questions about the policy? Okay. So I will probably like again April May do one of hopefully our numbers stay consistently deer or better. Um but again it's just thank you for enacting the policies and it's made
our lives as teachers a thousand times easier. So thank you thank you thank you for that. Um and again it's the the biggest benefit is that it benefits student body. If I can take one more minute. I might be over my three minutes. I just wanted to take a moment to publicly
congratulate and recognize our high school principal TJ Clinton. He just successfully defended his dissertation last Friday at Nor Eastern University. So he is now officially Dr. Flanigan. Um even though I think he said it's not
until May that the official ceremony happens. We're out and find him Dr. Flynan. But we're all super proud of him. Uh super excited for him. It's a huge accomplishment. So again, I just want to sort of take the opportunity to publicly recognize all the hard work we
did to earn that accomplishment. I'm secondbody else to the next item agenda which is approval of 12 session >> questions, comments, concerns, edits.
A motion to approve as presented. Second >> second. All those in favorain. 8301. Next is the warrants just >> um I have reviewed the following school expense and payroll warrants. Um school
expense warrants November 12, 2025 94,15754. December 4, 2025, 549,71626 school payroll warrants November 13 2025 1,200,646 and 54 cents. November 26, 2025 1,171
863 5. Um I refute and approve the wish statute public record. You next we have our student reps. Hello everyone. You all had a nice Thanksgiving um from the Yale. Um they are gearing up for festive winter spirit
weeks including some December vacations. Students have already been showing great enthusiasm with creative air hats, socks, pajamas, good warmth. Some of the upcoming winter character day, PJ day, festive sweater day, yell pride day. I think these spirit weeks continue to
bring joy and energy to the building. This past week, the unified kickball team played against Foxboro. But it was a um it was wonderful to see such strong support from family, staff, faculties, players had a terrific time and a huge thank you go and a huge thank you goes to coaches Mrs. Mallister and Lily
Williams for organizing and supporting our student athletes. Students at the continue to excel across the board. This month's PBIS incentive is a holiday movie during the week before vacation. Every class is breaking goodbye to earn. school is very proud of their positive
friend and humor from the high school. It has also been a very um busy time especially for spirit week all the way decorating in the Thanksgiving day football game now behind us. The energy these events brought to the building per car period bright to last Friday's semiformal for each juniors and seniors
which was a wonderful performance. >> On Monday we celebrated the members of the class of 2026 under John and Abigail having a scholarship reception where students were recognized for the certificates of academic. Looking ahead, our winter concert will take place
tomorrow beginning at 5:30 p.m. This annual event is always a highlight of the season, and we're exciting to see our students showcase their talents and help bring people completely into holiday spirit. To round out the month, our staff has also been participated in the spirited few days,
adding to the positive atmosphere and creating a joyful environment for everyone in the building. And from the JCS, November was a grateful month, and December is shaping up to be just as active. The Friday before Thanksgiving, school welcomed a drumming performance
coordinated by Mr. Place at the JCS SP. All students in preK through third grade attended the assembly and enjoyed learning about music and instruments. The Little Lancers preK program held its annual Thanksgiving family feast on November 19th with morning and afternoon
celebration so all families could attend. Thank you to Mrs. Blackburn and the entire Little Lancers team for a social warming at Milkwing event. Right before Thanksgiving, teachers and staff participated in the secret staff spirit week with daily themes that the students
had a fun try to guess based on how their own stress. Preparations are underway for the annual third grade holiday concert which will take place next Friday. There will be a morning performance for pregame for second grade students and families are invited to the
afternoon performance at 2 p.m. To wrap up the calendar year, JCS will spirit week plus starting next Monday at running throughout the Tuesday before breaking. Each day will have a different theme and pajama day aligns with the prankage and kindergarten express
celebrations. That's all of us. >> Question um if with hearing from the teachers about the cell phone policy. I'm curious like from a student perspective. I think it's going to >> Sure. Uh Dr.
asked if CC includes our other communications to share just a little bit about how we felt about the policy month newsletters months ago said. Um but now it just being December honestly it was strong in the beginning not what
I thought I would say all all of my teachers reinforcing policy um building now in December I'll definitely meet that like you know there are a few teachers who I would um like reinforce but I would say overall I would said
that most teachers are kind of sticking to it and students don't have the habit of it already so I agree. I think some teachers are definitely a little bit more laidback, but I definitely think I won't spend too much time on my phone anyways. So, it's
it is nice for me to be able to like get it up and put it away and just I think it actually helps me focus classes. So, from a student perspective, I think I know that might not be universal. Did you see the holiday glass
Thank you. Sorry. >> Next we have the march. >> I'm not sure yet. We're going to find out. Um, so thank you for uh joining us here at LGN and allowing me to speak about our opening school opening of school this year. Um, it's a little bit
different for me this year because usually it's it's September and I don't have a whole lot to say or show. So this is kind of nice that it's in December this year and I have a few things that uh we want to highlight. Uh, this is primarily some of the stuff that I share at our opening staff meeting here in the
in the cafeteria when we in August when we when we get together. Um, this year we had some music playing. We're kind of dancing and partying a little bit. So, I refrain from that because I know you have the full agenda tonight. Try to keep this as brief as possible, but we'll have some fun as well. Um, we did welcome some new staff and faculty this
year. So, every year I go into the summer thinking, "Oh, I have no one to hire this year." Uh, we're kind of in good shape and then inevitably someone resigns or moves to a different position or retires surprisingly. So, uh, we were lucky enough to add these fine people to our faculty and staff this year. here.
Emily Hunter, our school adjustment counselor. Uh, fellow Stonehill grad. Awesome people. Uh, Susie Deorter, who I think is here. Susie in our best one par profofessional. Kelly Fontaine, Eric Greenberg as well in our best one classroom. Uh, phenomenal hires. Susie
is also a parent here at LG. And um, it's we did amazing. We stole Eric from Mansfield, which I was very proud of living in Mansfield, taking him. Uh, they've done a great job. Kaylin Sandborn just started with us as a great power professional. uh last week, last
Monday. So, uh she's doing really well. You might know her mom. And then Jenna joined us from JCS um when Rachel Young retired. I'm going to talk about that in a second as well, but we just like to welcome them uh and show them the LG love. Few teachers this September also
earned professional status. Uh Jenna Shest who's our speech language pathologist uh started the same year as me. So, these folks started the same year as I did. uh this is Greg Clinton who's our beauty other beauty specialist and Holly Maloof uh also a parent in town and uh teaches first grade has
bounced between first and second over a couple years. Soon to be retired Rachel Young at the time uh had about a month left in her teaching career. I don't think I've met anyone as passionate as Mrs. Young about early literacy. if you've met Rachel. Uh
actually she retired and then 5 days later I asked her to come back in and sub for us and she was like yeah I'm back. So we're super lucky to have her and her enthusiasm and then Mrs. Jen Bronco is retiring at the end of this school year after I don't know how many years of kindergarten quite a few years. Um but we're going to miss her as well.
So we celebrated those folks. Uh I've shared these with my faculty and staff over the last bunch of years. I get a um MSAA PD as principles with solo leadership. Um this is something I took from them and I've used with my faculty
and staff each year uh since I've I've learned about it. It's just a way for us to kind of be grounded as adults in the building and get ready for the work that we do each day. So I'd ask you, can you see that? All right. I'd ask you just to read these to yourself and maybe choose one that speaks to you. Maybe you love
it, maybe you hate it. That's okay, too. Um, I have a couple of favorites myself. Now, number three, there's always invitation, never invasion, always opportunity, never demand. So, I would ask anyone on the panel here, if there's one that spoke to you and you'd like to share it, I'd invite you to raise your
hand and maybe share it and maybe share why it uh it spoke to you. >> Dr. O'Neal, >> I know I could count on you. I was either you or Dr. Akerman. I like believe that it's possible to emerge refreshed, surprised, and less
burdened than and that is exactly how I feel anytime I get to classrooms. >> Go back to >> Yeah. Anytime you have a rough day, go visit prek or kindergarten. We turn your attitude right around. Anyone else?
>> Dr. A, let the beauty be in what we do. And that's really it's why we do this. We're here. We're really We're here for kids and uh it's chaotic at times. There's always competing priorities, but we're
here for kids and that's that's the beauty of our own life. >> Thank you. One of my favorites is when the going gets rough, turns to wonder. That's important for elementary kids. Uh sometimes they do some wild things and instead of, you know, kind of attacking them in terms of what are you doing? Why
would you do that? Asking them, hey, I'm wondering what what's going on here? Why are you why' you say that? What made you say that? um and always turning to wonder with kids. Dr. Aman, let the beauty be loved. Let let the beauty we love be what we do is also one of my favorites and it's actually the kind of
the cornerstone of of our opening this year. Uh we talked about this quite a lot at my opening meeting. All about love. Uh this comes it's part of a it's a line from a poem by Roomie. Uh if you want the whole poem, you look it up or I could send it to you. It's it's a great
one. But it's a really great reminder of why I do what I do. And I think, you know, we'll be sharing it with the teachers this year around um sharing that love with with kids and just, you know, it's hard sometimes, right? And you want to make sure you're you're
having fun. Speaking of fun, uh I've continued my video morning announcements. This uh I started these in March of 2020. If you have any recollection of what happened in March of 2020, this is probably one of the only good things that came out of that time. Uh I do these every day. Hey, I get to work here around 7:00 a.m. and
take 3 to 5 minutes to record an announcement. Um, it's one take warts and all. I make mistakes in front of kids. Uh, a lot of the stuff we share, you'll see. So, like StMath, our our GI the penguin, our mascot for StMath, he
shows up every Monday morning at least once a week to um update kids on their puzzle bowl progress. We've done a really nice job over the years. You can see like our our Super Bowl. I feel like the the Patriots with our Super Bowl banners. We've got 80% or more the last three years. We've actually been up
close to 100% uh the last few years and we track our progress as well. So, every day the kids can come in at lunch and see GG moving up the chart. Um this little golden GG guy was a donation from a family. We hand out golden GG's to classes who have the the most p puzzle
progress. It does get pretty competitive. I mean, I have some teachers over there who was questioning, wait a minute, but we had the the golden teaching this week. We share great children's literature. Uh, I have a a classmate from Stonehill who's now an author, and she sends she actually came to visit our kindergarters and did some
poetry with them last year. She shares books with us. That's an autographed copy, which was she was so nice to send. And then Halloween obviously is a special time here at LG. We'll get to that, too. But that's uh that's me there with my long hair. Uh I'm holding out purple hearts. So, our PBIS here at LG
is is handing out purple hearts or white hearts here in the cafeteria. Kids can earn those. Sometimes they love to save them and take them home and hang them on the fridge. Sometimes they put them in the purple heart towel in the lobby. Every Thursday after school, I pull five purple hearts and three white ones and uh and announce them on Friday. Kids get
to come down and select a prize, which I will get to as well. Um, if you'd love to follow me, I know you'd love to. It's Thomas Higgins 3807 on YouTube. Check them out. We have people as far as Lancing, Michigan watching these videos of morning grandparents of kids. Uh, but
I did get a message from someone in New Zealand which I shared on announcements one day just saying what a nice nice thing they thought it was, you know, saying the pledge of allegiance and sharing our our love here in our school community. We also have an amazing segment called Taste and Tidbits. So, our wellness committee in town, the
nurses put together a bunch of different um just tidbits, little things that the kids can read uh to promote healthy eating. Miss Kim and Miss Linda here in the cafeteria do a wonderful job providing kids with all sorts of fruits and vegetables. And it's just cluing the kids into trying different things. Um
and our third graders do a wonderful job. Mrs. Bork and Mrs. Loveing and Mrs. Quinn who are over there helped me record these tasty tidbits. That's just a screenshot of one. Look at that. You got to see the backgrounds, the camera work they do. It's amazing. And Mr. Blaze, our music teacher, did a jingle
for us. Uh, which is absolutely amazing. Yeah. Tasty. >> It's really good. Uh, this was these are some pictures just from the start of school. Kids kind of get getting back into routines. Um, you'll notice I took the pictures cuz it's like, you know,
bird's eye view. Uh, but just really kind of, you know, starting the year off strong. um getting back with partners and classmates, learning new classmates names, and just having a lot of fun re-engaging in school each year. We had a chance uh this summer as a curriculum
leader team and myself and and uh across the district actually to do high impact teacher teams, professional development with Dina Freriedman uh over three different days. It's three days, right? Um and the team we had was phenomenal. our curriculum here. A lot of time and effort into it if what they do at their
grade level. We have a lot of fun, too. We we always try to have fun in our learning because it's important. It's important to me. I feel like when kids are having fun, they want to be here each day. Uh they want to participate. They feel energized and engaged. Um in
addition to that, a lot of this stuff you see is our new leading program, our year two of of inter reading. Uh the teachers by all accounts love it. The kids seem to really enjoy it. and we're seeing the results. I have to give a shout out to Miss
Clinger aka Mrs. Craniac. She's newly married. She's not here, but she's changed grade levels. I think every year I've been here because we needed her to. She just jumped right up. So, currently she's teaching second grade. These are just a few pictures of her and her class. Really engaged in in
uh into reading. One day she was in a high level group who was doing some interesting stuff. And I just love seeing books in kids hands. definitely brings joy to me. Look at those faces. So, years ago, I asked PTC,
my PTC at my old school and and currently here to help support us in terms of getting books in kids hands. Uh, so we give out birthday books, we give out break books. So, every day at lunch, anytime we have a birthday, I announce it on morning announcements and then, uh, up on the stage, we have a bookcase full of donated books or books
that PTC has purchased. Um, my own kids have donated their books that they've never read. feel nice. You're brand new. You didn't even practice thing once. Uh, but the kids are just so excited to get a book and a bookmark and a pencil. Uh, and simple things like this go a really
long way. So, I thank the PTC for for helping us support this. That's just a few this year. We had an amazing opportunity. This one came out of MY JOB IS so easy. Honestly, I get people come to me with ideas and I'm like, "Yeah, let's do that." So, Mr. Joe came to me.
He said, "Uh, Mr. I think we should do a touch of truck this year. We have Luca Ferrara is here as an LG student and his dad runs the DPW. Maybe he would like to bring some trucks over and the kids can go on the most beautiful day in September to climb on some trucks and
they made it happen and we had a blast. I offered Miss Bronco who was retiring if she'd like to go up in the in the bucket. She declined respectfully. I think Karen you said maybe we can superimpose her picture on there for her retirement. Um, it was
just such a great day. I had 8 million pictures. I had to choose two. There they are. How much fun is that? Um, also shout out to Mrs. Dermis, our library media specialist. She does a phenomenal job getting programming for us that is
absolutely free. We have a great relationship with um, Young Lifely Bookstore in Planeville and they have an author series I think at the Yell. Ian Kouler is going to the Yell soon. So, Philip and Erinstead came to visit our kindergarten first graders. Uh, it was all inclusive. Every student in in the
school in K1 went to the library. They did a phenomenal job. Um, sharing their Amos McGee series. Uh, Amos McGee has a sick day and Amos McGee Snow Day. Um, and I don't want to steal Julie's thunder. She's going to talk. Are you
going to talk tonight or is it >> I am okay. Maybe I'll talk a little bit. Um, they agreed to give us their artwork in terms of, uh, Julie had this great idea of having a mural out in the library courtyard and they heard the
idea. Julie kind of described it to them and they were like, "Yeah, we're totally on board. You can have our artwork." And so Aaron, who's the wife of the artist, um, is going to plan a beautiful mural for us and we're going to be able to have it on the wall outside. um and they
come to our school for free. The unlock bookstore um does a great job with the series and how how can you pass out free enrichment that gets your kids engaged around others. So that's a phenomenal thing as well. This year we had that's me right there
if you can't tell. This year we had our uh big heart hustle. We rebranded this year. our PTC and I were dealing with Booster Thought over the last two years and we felt like we could do I would say a better job but a different type of job in terms of donations coming to our
school and us keeping the majority of the money. So we had a goal of $20,000. Um in the past we've raised upwards of $40,000 to when you do full service with them you generally get about half. So we were
leaving with about $ 19 to $20,000. So, we set a goal of $20,000. Our PTC did a phenomenal job. Our teachers hyped it up. Um, I obviously hyped it up. This was a logo design by one of our parents. These are actual LG kids in the logo.
Um, so we raised $31,000 last year with our Big Heart Hustle, just us internally. It was a lot of hard work on PTC. I give them so much credit. They met all throughout the summer and the fall getting this ready. The kids had a blast. Um, you see their smiley
faces. We had our step program kids from the high school with Trish Sweeney. Trish emailed me and and Dr. Flanigan to uh ask if she could bring the kids over in the van. She like, "I've never done it before. We're going to try it out and see how it goes." They cheered on the
first group of kids and then they helped and were mentored through our best uh one classroom and you modeled walking around the track with them. Uh there's Miss Pam with some of her former students. She was super excited to see them. It was just a great day. And again, I don't know how we do it, but
the weather keeps coming out perfect for us all these all these days. That's our good buddy DJ, the yo-yo man. Um he is a DJ and he and I have known each other a long time. So he came out to help me MC the event. He had the music going and
the kids were excited. Um just a really really fun time. So, we're excited about that. And hopefully now that it's been done once, we can just replicate it each year and continue the the amazing fundraising that we're learn that we're doing. Little Halloween fun. You saw me. There's the Savannah bananas. Uh we
actually had a first grader who's dressed as a banana, which came in handy for our picture. Uh but Halloween's always an exciting time around here. Kids kids love dressing up and just having a parade. And I always think again if kids are having fun and enjoying themselves coming to school. I
remember last year we talked a little bit about how do we make school more fun and I'm like I don't know how I could possibly I don't know if I stand on my head or what cuz we make school a lot of fun. Um I feel like if I'm having fun, kids are having fun. Back to our purple
heart choice board. I mentioned those purple hearts. So every Thursday I pick names. So some of the choices that our kids have um I hate to admit this but I will. Show and tell with Mr. Higgins and probably the bottom of the list. I I
think over four years >> It's true. It's true. I think over four years I've had maybe I count on one hand like five kids who have chosen show and tow with Mr. Higgins. When they do it they have a blast a fun time. Uh
tops has to be Mr. Joe's cafeteria helper and Miss Tracy's morning helper. Um, it's honestly it makes my life so much easier to have people who are willing to jump in and help. Whether it's a school secretary, uh, school custodian, your librarian, media
specialist, whoever it might be, our par professionals, everyone jumps in. We've got some just bright smiley faces here. This guy Lucas, if you know Lucas, that was it was a highlight. He had a blast. Jocelyn over here, uh, M took this this
picture herself. She's, I think, going to be a flourishing selfie photographer. So, they just do a really nice job. Uh, and kids, you know, whether it's a prize from the prize box or just a connection with an adult, it uh it goes a long way.
Mo, one of my favorites. This one's my favorite is positive note sent home. Not a lot of kids choose this one either. So, when they do choose it, we make a big deal out of it. Dean here chose Positive Note Home. I went to his classroom. I make sound of trumpets. It's like I make Dean stand on a chair.
He's like, "I'm not doing that." Said, "I'm the principal. It's okay. You can stand on a chair." Miss Klinger, is that okay? Can I stand on the chair? Yes. You can stand on a chair. He's just such a a good kid. So, we write a note. I ask the teacher to share some things that they they think are are positive about their student. I write handwrite the note.
They send it home. I hope it lives with them forever on their fridge. Whatever. Maybe they take it to college. That's wishful thinking. You never know. Um Benson mentioned this. I think uh Mr. Place uh did a wonderful job this November in anticipation of National
Drum Day. Uh he I think last spring asked PTC for some funding to have the Shindai uh Japanese drum company come to to LGM and JCS. What I say was probably one of the best enrichments I've ever seen. No, I've seen a lot of enrichment
over the years. the education piece that they gave around the history of Japanese drumming tied in with a perfor, you know, multiple performances and songs. The kids were mesmerized. Students had a chance to go up on stage and participate. Um, it was it was just
phenomenal. So, you know, big shout out to to Mr. Place. He did a really phenomenal job with that. It was a lot of fun. And um yeah, hopefully we can continue to do I know we'll be able to continue to do things like this cuz PTC both here and at the JCS love to see
these amazing events happen in our schools. Have to give a shout out to our after school fitness club. We had a couple of fitness clubs this this fall. Um Mrs. Luffing, I don't know how she convinced herself to do this. And then on top of that, how she roped in Mrs.
Bork and Mrs. Hagglin. And on one occasion, I think Mrs. which was out there subject to your fitness club teacher. Um we had how many kids, Lisa? >> We wanted 121. >> Yeah, about that. We said we'll do 12 and then it was just it grew and grew
and grew. Word spread. That's like half our school. >> So they had a phenomenal time. Um you know, Lisa did a great job coming up with events for them to do and and changing it each week. Um, in addition to the afterchool fitness club, Emily
Ducharm, our learning specialist, also did a positive walking club with her her therapy dog, Oreo, and that was an a massive amount of kids as well. I think she had over 25 uh kids in her session as well. We want to continue doing these things. And this was through a grant
from >> the nurses, right? Yeah. Dory Brown. So, um, yeah, again, her teachers going above and beyond and taking time after school to do fun things with kids. kids have had a blast. So hopefully that highlights a few of
the things that we love about our school and the fact that loveme can lift you up. And uh that's all I've got. I I I I could go on for days talking about our school and how much we love it here. U but thank you for the opportunity to share my my opening remarks. You have
any questions? I don't know why I go back. >> Yeah, we could do that right now. You know, it's always to me I I never had kids in the suit is on the other side of town. So, I I always feel slightly disconnected from the um but
seeing the great things you do here and I've always heard great things about the staff. I know some of you personally on that level, but um So it's and and to your point as we're a little bit later in the year there's so much more substance for um but you know again like
for me I always feel like I only hear about LG uh so kudos staff really making this anything else >> thank you very Thank you. >> Appreciate it.
>> We have our student spot. I'm glad you everyone. Um as um our amazing student representatives as Melia mentioned earlier this week, we uh celebrated 46 seniors uh with John and
Abigail Adams scholarship. The John Abigail Adams Scholar is a masteration award that provides a tuition waiver for up to eight semesters of any masters of state college or university. Students qualify based on their strong performance and then pass demonstrating
academic excellence across test subject areas. The scholarship recognizes high achieving students and supports their conceived education through the state public higher education. Um at high school members of the class of 2026 burn station were honored at a C
celebratory breakfast on Monday, December 8th. This evening, I present to you the list of these students in recognition of their hard work and academic excellence. Um, and I'm not going to read all their names to you. Um, but Venton was one of them, so it's important.
>> And I have to say, um, this class of 2026 is just an incredible group of students. Um, they're extremely civic-minded. They do so much above and beyond academics and athletics and school activities. They're all super involved outside of school. They do a
lot of um volunteering and um everything else in our community. But I'm super super proud of them. And one of my favorite parts about the other day is we had a couple students that um missed the initial come down. And so at the end when they when they made it, everybody stopped what they were doing, stopped
participating in practice. We did our own little ceremony for those three kids and welcomed them. We took the new picture. Um, so thank you to Mr. Cersei and his guys department. Thank you to Dr. Fian and Mr. Shaughnessy. Um, and it was it was a great event. So,
congratulations to these students. >> It's It's always great to see, you know, the hard work of all our kids. So, this one's a little special because my kids all day. So, you know, I mean, it's just I feel like a special connection to this graduating
class. That's they kind of started their school program that I started by student. So, um, seeing that they're both congratulations to all those kids there and great. All right. Next we have
Brandon come on down. Thank you for having us. Um we are a nonprofit development where a volunteer nonprofit organization fundraises throughout the year to announce that we support teachers in Norton by providing
a grant program. Since it began, Nita has had the honor of giving over $238,000 to teachers and staff public schools. This year alone, we are gleefully giving out $27,000 um just over $27,000 across nine
sighting grants. So, I've been need for a while and that is by far the largest amount we've given that. So, we're pretty excited about that. Tonight, we would like to thank all the teachers and staff submitted their grant requests and acknowledge all of this year's recipients. Some teachers are able to join tonight um and speak about their
grants. We'll let them speak by themselves and when we get to your school, please feel free to come up and join us. So, we'll start here at the LGN. Um we have two grants at the LGN. Uh, first up was um Julia Lassio. I hope I say your
name right. Um, in the amount of $900 for an inschool field trip with barn babies. Barn babies would come to the LG J and set up the animals for students in the best in Greek program. Animal therapy is a very effective way to help students with their social, emotional,
and physical well-being. And we look forward to the students being able to experience this wonderful opportunity. The second grant is Mr. or Mr. Higgins, do you want to come up and say a few words? is pre-written words if you know what
>> this is Julie Julie and Linda's grandchild uh I can't take credit for this but the second uh grant is a group grant from Julie myself and Linda for a literacy garden with planter beds the story book interactive mural that I mentioned from thestead family and a bus reading nook for students which is going
to be I think you agreed right >> I did >> another LG parent here who's going to help us with the with the bus note. Uh, this grant was fulfilled in the amount of $4,158. Again, all disturbs. >> Um, at the Yell, we funded a grant in
the amount of $1,176 for a math subscription um that was submitted by Diane Bruno. This grant is to obtain four one-year subscriptions to the program mix and math 160 160 360.
This is a high quality multifaceted resource for teachers that will enhance their ability to provide hands-on targeted instructions to fourth and fifth grade students. And then also at the yell at the middle school is uh Grant. Would you like to speak to that or would you like me to do it?
>> Middle school. >> Mr. scene. >> So, at the middle school levels, uh, a grant was funded for unified uniforms for a total of 12 $1,200. This grant was submitted by Mr. Hayward, uh, Miss Mallister and Lily Williams. The Norton
Middle School Unified Sports Program brings together students with and without intellectual disabilities to train, compete, and grow as one team. This grant will ensure that the unified athletes are outfitted with gear equal in quality and design to all other sports programs at NMS. And on a
personal note, our unified program is just awesome. They do great work. It's so cool to see whether it's basketball or botchi or, you know, any of the activities that take place. It's something that, you know, a lot of our students get behind and it's just a great thing that brings a lot of students together. So, it's awesome to
hear that they'll have uniforms on par with the rest of our school games. So, thank you to the Um, at Norton High School, we funded five grants. Um, first up is Matt Bushard and Rachel Pwatt, who requested a grant for $4,780
for a new cabinet saw that meets OSHA safety standards for the industrial arts workspace. >> Um, thank you very much for uh the grant. Uh, this really does provide the students with um the type of cabinet saw they would see in a real world
environment, but it also upgrades the best-in-class safety. Uh, I have about 50 wood shop kids, so I guess you could save 500 they use cuz they all still have their fingers negatively. Uh, if you guys are interested, I recommend YouTubing Saw Stop and looking
at their technology. Basically, if a finger even touches the blade, it immediately drops into the saw and stops. So, it's basically the worst you get is like a nickname finger. So, it's it's it's amazing. Um, super excited. So, maybe
>> I was going to say in in funding the grant we do research and I did see that it's pretty amazing. Yeah. >> Yeah. They uh they they do the demo with a hot dog. >> Yeah. But the dime developed it and the owner of the company will put his finger on wood. He said he's done it and you
can watch him do it on YouTube. It's crazy. So he really believes in technology. It's it's pretty amazing. And we had also um asked for from Jen Shiron's uh TV video class, we asked for a full set of uh cameras for the students to go out and do filming. Um so
you can imagine the TV video class not ideal to do filming with phone cameras. So uh we graciously funded over 6,000 almost $7,000 for a full um class set of cameras to be used in this TV video class. Um, so we are incredibly grateful
for their unbelievable generosity. And so these kids have been doing some community work lately with helping offic uh videos around Alice train evacuation. They're also working with Mr. McCoy currently doing some things around the Sichu Foundation with the toy driving
stuff. So um these cameras are really going to be very very influential and very grateful for that class and beyond like I said extremely grateful for their unbelievable generation. Additionally, Todd Kefir and Jennifer Young are collaborating to have students
in semester 1 and two sculpture courses to be able to collaborate with Cuban club members to successfully plan, develop, and deliver a public art installation to the annual Adabor Arts Museum high art exhibition and
competition. With a grant for $2,971, they will be building a frame for the mosaic cubing masterpieces, which will then be used after the competition to double their artistic exposure for years to come. And then lastly, Robin Miki will be
adding two new pottery wheels to her art classes at NHS with a grant for $2,844. The potter's wheel is a high quality instructional material that offers a more advanced skill to clay handbuilding. Students will be able to create throne
pottery and display it at the annual art show. And the last one at NHS, Karen Dennington, uh is leaving a grant for just over $2,500 to obtain 30 new graphing calculators to be shared in math classes across grades 9 through 12.
Um we can't do this without the support of the town. We are we get this much money from big donors. It's hustle, hustle, hustle for all working moms, all the kids in the schools. Um and can't do it alone. So, we thank the talent of
Warren. Um, we think, "Oh, you every time you get a pen in your driveway, you purchase an art to remember project, you drop off a bag of clothing for our savers trucks, you're you participating in our big auction in the spring. Every time you do one little thing, you're helping us fund large amounts of money
for these greenhouse. So, thank you. Thank you all for coming. It's it's impressive year over year how much you guys continue to help our staff. Um there's there's truly no way to say thank you to our staff but
All right. Next we have Mr. Goldstein for Middle School. Greetings everybody. Thank you for having me here this evening. So once again I come to you as an annual tradition at this point. I believe this is our eighth year. Like I said I've lost track quite honestly. Um but we are
taking our eighth grade students once again to New York City. Uh the date for this year's trip is Friday, May 29th. And so we are praying for awesome weather like we've gotten in the past. And so our itinerary generally speaking is the same. And so we are, you know,
looking forward to a great trip. It's it's always a very meaningful experience for our eighth graders who, you know, choose participate. It's a long day, but we're very fortunate to have, you know, pretty good participation rate. I think our participation rate usually is right around 80% students uh who choose to go.
I think the students who choose not to go, it's really more about many of them tell me, well, I've been to New York City a bunch of times and or you know, I don't have any interest in going because I get away that weekend or something like that. But really the vast majority of students are excited about it. And I think now they've done it for as many
years as you have. I think students just know it's something that they're going to be doing and they look forward to doing it. So now any questions motion to approve a middle school trip to New York City >> um I may come back one second to we have
to approve the motion to approve the right All approve. >> Uh next we have the second reading and both background. >> Um at our last meeting I presented uh
policy 18A background checks to the committee. Um and what we were doing is we were adding um an additional component of our background checking process um which is the story um the nationwide sex offender registry
information. Um so anytime um we do a background check whether it's a new staff member or a parent volunteer we will now include that story component as well. And some of the questions that came up the last time were about like do we have to go back and now do background
checks on anything as well. Um Lori um that connection completed in a webinar recently um access and using the uh registry um and they run a batch file called current employees. So once this call is
approved, they'll write a batch file um and that would be um up to the background information on all of our current employees and volunteer to move on and it will be updated um right now for updated
should be updated um as well. It's very interesting to me that I mean ultimately the Massachusetts is Massachusett. It's definitely important I think we make sure that we have this aspect um of
all our students. Um I already seen this last minute but can you just give us a like snapshot bringing in a sixth grade check what's kind of a background check process for what is what is everything
much wrong and I guess why I'm asking this question just because like is there more to do is there like you might consolidate all this into one kind of >> so we do we'll we will now do the three different number one we do which um runs it's a it's a um criminal
background history check um and that if you want to be a volunteer in our schools or want to work for us to have that um they submit us they submit a picture of their license they fill out the form it is run in our office the majority of times they come back very very quickly um but until we receive
your report back can't start whether whatever whatever the situation is you're not allowed building in that capacity until we receive that back Um, everyone is also required to go through the national figure printing process.
Um, it's $55. You go down um to typically you get like a nest door. They sometimes they staples. You have to have your fingerprints done. Um, and so it's $55 if you're licensed by Desi and it's
$35 for other um other employees. Um and so that is done as well and now we will have the jewelry as at the same so all three of these it's unfortunate because um the finger printing is mashed right so
you get everything less um but sometimes that can take a little bit longer but that is a little bit of a delay um but again hit start until we kind of check you out um for is bound only texture,
>> I believe. Um, no, that's nationwide. The story is it's a nationwide texture. >> So, I guess my my question about I guess my question is from the two triple story.
So, so theoretically the fingerprint egg is your backup to so if you are a volunteer you just you're >> so what is the who? >> They're all done in central office. So
um all Flori runs all of those documents. Um, so when we hire someone new, um, all of the onboarding pick work is actually finally now in 2025 done online. Um, we
were still doing a lot of the basic work up until a couple years ago. Um, so they submit everything and that's just part of the onboarding process. Um, if a parent is volunteering at one of our schools, um, the the front administration will have them fill out
the appropriate form. They'll copy their license. They'll send it over to Lori. before starts. Um, and so once the period, then they're able to come back. Um, and I think a couple months ago, we actually had an issue where we were trying to get
work done on um, field projects to kind of close out some of the uh, outstanding items and they had some trending work and the reports were so so slow. Every once in a while you get to something that really needs but then it happens
and it's just so strange that happens. >> Okay. >> And then this fingerprinting thing so does do we pay >> district and then what is
what do do we know what that like what happened? Yes. It's like okay the fake part comes al >> yes we get a report >> so for every so for every single or um single printing that is done I get a report on my desk for every single
person and whether things come back if if somebody comes back and there's no um outstanding events or no historical offenses either um we'll just get a report that says it's there to nothing right it's a cover page it's the ending
Um and then in the middle you can see what is um what might benefit. >> So right now think of it trying to add >> and it's the story component is not required. Um but from my perspective if if you're not going to be getting this
information from the for process I think that's a component that we added to our report. >> Yeah. andorism from Massachusetts not saying this has happened but someone was charged with crime in Wisconsin moved here didn't register
the story database that they would not hop on their employee now hopefully fingerprinting component would >> have we ever this is definitely Well, but have have we ever looked at in terms of going to
be able to do this in house with the police? And I don't even know if that's possible, but I'm throwing it out there just simply because of what the police have from a standpoint of like main social security. It's almost instant
where like is that something that like you could ever tap into? And again, there might be data model. There may be um and I I'll be honest not entirely sure. I don't know if the police department has the capacity to help us in that way either. Um it's it's it's
pretty light in terms of like you just >> send it through they they give you the report it sends right um they'll say the individual has to vote and you get that >> well then there's people >> and it goes and it's not like we're
>> I'm sure that you know whoever the company is that's doing it gets something and then the um the federal um fingerprinting national printing doesn't >> and then for volunteers. Mom and dad want to go read it both. But she just would
>> it would be for >> no. >> Yeah. So I mean I do this by that. So for so I we don't have the national paper that
I don't all the finger printing for sure the fingerprinting definitely and the toy definitely the sword is kind of something new. >> Great. Thank you. >> Of course.
>> Anything else? >> All right. entertain a motion to defend. >> So second discussion >> um so there are just business. So we were to talk about actually that
seventh we still pretty much um market for Asian budget >> I believe it's the 18th Monday the 18th is um meeting
8 weeks from that is Monday and the 23rd of March. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Oh yeah. All right. >> Oh, May 18th May 18th is town meeting. >> We have to send our budget to town hall 85
which is Monday March 23rd. So we have a meeting on the 4th and on the 8th of March. to receive recommendation in the budget. >> So meeting you on the 4th as well. Yeah. And then
the session >> um that's the budget workshop. Um some are be done on Saturday morning and other bunch of the meetings. Um >> February 7th and then >> I mean um
I mean I I do technology, but I also think we probably chose I think you need a little bit more information from the town and chose to be quite exactly you know I really know what's going on here so
>> we have received um documentation from the town in terms of their process. They've already started their process. Yes. Um I believe all departments are required to submit their budget by um December 23rd. Um and I said that that does not apply to us. Um
our charter language is different than the rest of it because at the end of the day it is the school committee that um votes approves their budget recommendation and then we get to um the town set. So, um, I
have I, as I've shared with all of you, as I've shared with my team, I'm never going to bring to the table a budget that does not fully reflect the needs of our students and our schools. Um, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to bring you the budget
that I think is what we need. Um, and I'm sure that we will be asked to return from there. Okay. >> Yeah. So far, Saturday morning was so far. >> So, why don't we make that meeting kind
of a light agenda and then we can do the workshop. I mean, obviously, it's a public meeting of the committee, so anyone is welcome to attend just like they would be on a Saturday. Um, but we can make that a shorter agenda and we'll do the budget workshop on this 11th. Yeah, I think in workshop
you never usually get surprised. >> Yeah. Well, the meeting for the in January will be our first um presenting to you and then we'll have >> and then the interpretive presenting to us be looking at the same idea as last
year in terms of by schools and that >> I found that very well helpful like hey it's you know six areas to look at the five schools plus central you know suggest hey there's a new budget >> and we'll ask the principles to attend
on the 11th um so that way they can answer specific um questions that people might have um and and so Christine and I started budget weeks today um we met with two departments um already and you know I think people are being very conservative which
I appreciate and you know some of the hard conversations we've gotten into our terms of okay we need to do this where are we going to reduce in other areas to make it so um we will see how that goes >> I didn't spend
>> any other questions I guess we'll just put it on regular sheets we don't have to >> yeah and then I mean we always have people out >> 100% Yeah, but >> it is we have
cap for spring. Um so this is our brief plan. Um it looks a little bit different because like
so we put together just for Saturday. Um we will get more backup as it comes in. It was just a little early uh to get and we'll work on it with all the attention
on votes but I'll put over the FY27. Um the major made it in this exact format we just took submitted and you can see um so our first recommendation is for
upgrades to network instruction. Um I had quite a bit of help from Karen involved today explaining all this to me. um because it's a little bit confusing. So like this is the very last project when we upgrade Wi-Fi except switches
which I think Paul explained it as the switches is like the post office in your district and all of the traffic goes there and that's the switch and then communicates that class. So those are
failing. they're being online um usually about 7 to 10 years and we're at 15. So it is um very costly which is why we are going back to help rate which gave
us time um so right now um just to give you an idea of I think it was 2020 skip 2020 skip um it was around $175,000
so we're guessing it's obviously going to be over an so but they will reimburse the 50% but we have to show the funding very similar to MTBA project they have to show it um unlike them reimburse you know they will
not be able to pay the vendor directly but they still have to show funding say so right now compared to all the mortgage where the vendors want to do some walk um you might sell you would get
as soon as we can. Um, the next one. >> Yeah. >> So, what is EA? What is that? >> You want to talk about
>> So, is a federal program and what they do from the government. Um we are a 50% district reimbursement. So it's a schools and library program. We actually get um 50% of our internet covered. So
if it were to cost us $16,000 per year for internet, they actually pay $8,000 of that. um whenever we look at doing like a big project like a Wi-Fi project or um
another type of infrastructure they we could put in for funding and so because Norton um based on the free and reduced um lunches that students and families um going to fill
out we get 50% reimbursement. There are towns that get 20% reimbursement. There are towns that get cities that get 90% reimbursement. We fall right in the middle. Um, and that changes from year to year, but as long as I've been here, um, we have
been a 50% district. That hasn't really changed in the 12 years that I've been in one. Um, I will say that when I first got here, they were only, um, capitalizing on like the internet and back then it was phones, too. Phones are no longer an option. Um it's just purely
internet and um any type of uh like infrastructure or chat to is what they call it. Um you get so much money per year like per 5year cycle and we're at the beginning of a 5year cycle. So once we use that kind of pool of money um and
it's quite a significant amount like like we will have enough to cover the 50%. They'll they'll fund us for this. Um it's not like we're going to cross our fingers, they will find us. Um it's just a matter of we're doing the
walkthroughs with the vendors. Um very, you know, specific, but you know, it's 15 years. Um if you've noticed on some of the the uh school committee meetings, um we've had drops um when I've recorded them, that
switches. Uh some of our staff might tell you uh we might have some lags and it's not bandwidth. We have plenty of bandwidth. It switches. It's all of the infrastructure that we've done over the years. Um
what's happened is more and more of our schools rely on Wi-Fi. They're relying on the network. It's it's not just our boards and our our student devices and our staff devices. It's the cameras, it's the uh the door security systems,
it's the uh heating um it's you know facilities now part of um the network. So we really >> go all five schools >> the entire and this again would be like a 10 year
it would cover for another 10 years or anything on these things or >> Oh yeah and we get support built into that as well. Um but this we're really looking to build this out so that again when you're looking at a 10 year you know what can
you anticipate for 10 years um I think Paul has been here for 20 something like this and did an excellent job you know when you say these things don't usually last and it's they've lasted for 15 years so
>> is this something that's full of like something >> for rake Yes. Um so if the town were to, you know, need or require any type of uh infrastructure, they could not be on
this project with us because um only funds schools and libraries. >> Public, >> I'm sorry, public library. Yes, >> it's definitely you can see it more now. I've noticed it if you get on a Zoom
call or you're at a Google meeting like like a mine everyone else meeting it's like when you're noticing it more often you think um and so I'd say you know kudos to parents and their team for keeping us going for so many years
and >> this is I mean that let's just say best estimate 500,000 >> I'm hopeful uh I'm hopeful that it's 500,000 and that our cost is 250,000.
>> Is this a one time payment or is this something we can do over three years and we have done with >> I can be a phased project? >> Well, I don't know if you want to come over it could be a phase in project but
two biggest portions of the project were about to be phased on which would probably be 70% of that budget end which would be the high school first and that's going to cost the most money is that how I mean
I I hate phase I think phase has got the huge other issues that you brought into have a system that's from 2025 and our new system 2029 it's an end however would it go by school so Like hypothetically, if we did the middle school and high school 2026,
you know, Dell school in 2027, like is that how it would go or does it need to all kind of be connected on the one? >> Ideally, it would be one shot. >> Yes. >> And everything's full speed. Now you got just old equipment. I'm
getting failures every day. I am not just because not getting away from switches. uh we patch that, you know, we just move things around and and make it work. >> And and thinking about just the status of the schools, I mean, 12 15 years ago
when the switches were in aging that was different. Um I mean, it it was just a different world then when we think about the JCS and just the the way that that building was wired and kind of set up. I mean, if you want to speak to this as kind of honestly, yeah, you know, even here, the
networks were built back in the late ' 90s, mid '9s, and things were just done totally different. So, you know, you got to hop from here to there, you hop from here to there, and it's just not ideal. I'm going to throw a question at him.
We reduce the amount of things on the internet hypothetically at our elementary schools. Turn the Chromebooks away and other stuff when this project becomes shared. No, it's not going to matter. It's not going to matter. Doesn't matter
how many devices you have. Everything. So think about all your access points go back to the switch. All the phones go back to the switch. All the security kits, everything, everything you see touches network. It's just you can't get
away from So, >> it's not a trap. It's just really basic like sometimes >> so building a project was a cool bird about not bring it forward. >> So there isn't any specific
>> lower. >> Yeah. And the other things that are on here are while I'll let Christia speak to them, but um yeah. >> Um yeah, so the next one we um
our next one is the replacement of the door access. Um so I guess it was very consistent. One of the buttons does not work when you get busted in. um there's nothing um so and now both of them are not working
on most of the time which we've got once in a while. So um those are outdated not operating um where we want right now we thought we have money today um we have in these guys
25,000 a little bit lower and then also the last uh second year these high school checks that we got last spring right this fall and then these other checks on there just because they weren't at 207, but we're not going to
discuss it until the um so this is the challenge of 10 year capital. Um the replacement of the front door access high school just kind of pop up pops up at the very know it was installed when the building did the
addition of the rental about 10 years old which to me seems a bit too glass um and so but to me that's a school safety issue. We can't have four props and we can't and we can't have people not be able to get in. So, and it's, you
know, if you've ever been in the high school office on a hill in the morning, that place is nice. There are kids coming in, now staff members coming in, now parents. Um, it is it is truly the busiest office that we have. Um, and so
something that wasn't on our radar is now one of now number two on our priorities for this. So, um, while we're we handed in this 10-year plan to, um, Brit earlier today, students afternoon, um, we know, and I'm sure you guys all
know this possibly, there are things that are going to go in and out. Um, there are things that we can predict there. The only thing that kind of sticks out to it's more of like do we need it type of
thing is being a onetoone district. We don't just have classroom. So some of the software um again certificate on specific form but um we have like um
video class that uses specific um software. We have um some engineering classes that use a specific software that have to run on actual computers versus Chromebooks. So Chromebooks are always web based. So we have to install a specific software. We can't always see
that. to like um and sorry I might be using data lingo 43 not that it's not here anymore um >> we used to have and so that was like for engineering design those types of things so you can't put that software
>> I was going to ask and the other one that came in be in the garage building. Um just looking ahead. Um would that be something like
just I'm looking at this and saying let me >> I agree. And like there's lawnmowers and there's another tractor. Like I don't know Jared might not be saying this but like
what a grounds department of something of interest perhaps. So I I think I think that's a that's why we have these things on this list because um >> it's important conversation. So if we
retain our our grounds everywhere our grounds equipment, there are things that are going to be safe, right? Um that garage behind the senior center is not a seat and I have nothing and it's you know the
wear is there over there. So um they're on here um to have to have this conversation. So I guess time to if we I assume you just
don't tell me to get lost. Um so I assume if we go out for a John Deere tractor we get the same prices like >> Yes. And it's all off the state list. So, it's not um they don't get a better price because they're town versus
>> No, no. >> Um I just had a quick question. So, if we I see the tech switches in FY27, but again, they're come back again, but it's upgrade network infrastructure in FY34.
But it's it's the same thing. So they think they would set in the same year out. So I was like, why are we doing this again? And that would the exact same thing. So that we don't go this 15 years that we should.
And then we look around the room and we're still going to be here. >> We will be right. >> Yep. Sometimes I feel the broken record when I just fear don't do cat. I feel like we get this
one meeting try to go through all these things. Vote on it. We don't even know how much things are going to cost us. >> Yeah. And I would not vote on anything after FY27. >> Yeah. But even FY27 are we talking $750,000 for these switches? We're talking $4,000. >> What's our What's our thing to the town?
I hate voting on things without knowing this. Um, and again, I understand the the town needs him. You know, I'm sure the town the new town manager maybe is doing a little sooner than has been and so on and so forth, but like I feel like we need to start covering capital back in September so we can get these
questions done because there's a huge thing on here that no one's thought about. That's going to be probably about one to two million probably $2 million. It's going to be a replacement of the chars. That's another conversation that we've had that we actually had today um in terms of um our athletic provolic
account and the fields account. Um and so we can actually present to you maybe we'll be at a meeting in January about what the balance of that account looks like. Um and so and I had a conversation about where we want that account to be. um because we
know we're going to have to you know we're going to turn you know >> and again make this policy fall for this thing >> but like I would just love to see what we have done
what we're looking to do what our projections are we know things are going to come up school safety is number one that if if that thing has to be moved on to capital project they're going to move on to the capital project just as doors are open they're going to do the same thing Like I want to see it like we just need to have a little bit more. I don't
even think it's detail. It's just a little bit more of a clearer picture of here's what we have done. We requested this last year. It was in yellow last year. We're now turning it to Rick. Now we really see hey this is green. We know this is coming of you know tech switches in 10 years a field you know retailing
something whatever that can be green. We've done a good job maintaining it. It's now in yellow. But we need to set this up so that we can actually plan and have a clearer picture of exactly, you know, um what things are possible. And I think the other the other issue that I really have is like I feel like we
missed out on a few opportunities simply because like the town approved every single capital project of the last 3 years. So like should we have been putting more stuff in? Should we have been like, "Hey, this is a yellow. If we got $30,000, we can check this off the list now because the town has the funding. Let's do it." Yeah. So, but a
lot now prior to those three years >> we can this is the town we can have our own. >> Yeah, >> we can give you our own and our own is just a little bit more funky right now to try to get it to a 10 year. Um another thought was like say you
discussed that um that you're going to capital one. Um, so we're kind of like getting those bullets. So then this particular comes up very quickly finally about that we did in October with Ronnie talk to
contractor getting that ball rolling and then all of a sudden so maybe in September when we discuss the fall at the same time we discuss do it all together maybe that >> I'm not even against
I don't know like that way everyone kind of can understand we have a little bit more information than you know not for nothing but pure memories on a piece of paper and being like well we might have these projects coming you know and I'm not saying that's for this year I'm just saying and I know the 10 years now you
know to try to project but a three to five year window is five year which I think was a little bit more manageable than um >> accurate >> I think um and so we could definitely do
that um we also bring back around our other business safety. We have >> originally
gone to jump. >> Oh my god. >> I'm assuming this is everyone doesn't. >> Yes. >> So everyone has the exact same sheet and like we could go through and we could look at okay what is EW asked for? fire as like see.
>> Um the other thing that I think is important for us to remember is that um we typically have more luck at the fall time for capital than we do in the spring because in the spring we're trying to we're trying to get the actual fiscal budget for the big school year.
We don't know what our free cash is really going to look like as much and the fall there's a big cash every year. So that we we tend to um do well at that time. But again, I don't know if that speech either.
>> Um, >> um, yes. >> I believe it's not. I think they were out there um before. >> Yeah. I'll I'll take care of that. >> So,
>> yeah. >> I mean, I we're >> we don't have any deadlines. We're very submit of this honestly. >> Please finish. It's so early. around.
>> Yeah. And it doesn't sound a little bit too hypothetic. A door here falls off place. That's something we did with emergency put on March. >> Right. Right. >> Well, that's what happened to the uh
they sent the elevator. >> Yes. that you that's I mean you could look at this correct you know uh John Deere track well that that's a catastrophic failure it's our only one this to me just looks like a generalized
10 years the things we would anticipate because they're being proactive like that's why you see the network switches twice because it shouldn't be 10 years 15 to 17 years no I mean I think this is just to me this is something he's just trying to be a little more efficient but
you know schools can't can't really do more than 500 if they can find out >> and you know the town does have you know emergency funds like for some reason we needed that it's the whole conversation about the middle school roof when the
permanent building and the finance committee said if you need money to fix the middle school roof to get you through the winter let's do this you know contact finance committee for your proceed so to speak if we can we'll
shoot I think that >> all right next we have the student assessment data as other info do you want to wait for us to have all that info or do you want to do this tonight and >> I stop with me I think I might as well
do it >> okay And then >> yeah ask >> yeahition blow out next >> wonderful. >> So I want to just take a little bit of time and just share with the committee the results of our student achievement
sess from last year to give everybody a little bit of background. Um we've been a busy place doing a number of things over a number of years. So, we've had INTSS other schools now for over four years. We're currently in the third year of a number
of curriculum adoptions. Um, I'm not, you know, I'm not going to read them off to you, but um, we've been busy at all three levels. And in fact, this year we're going to be looking to add additional math materials at the high school and additional uh, science
materials at the middle school. Um, so we continue to have an active and ongoing curriculum adoption process. Additionally, we always pair our curriculum materials with professional development. So, uh, Tom had mentioned
this earlier this evening with uh, the LGN. We had high impact teacher teams this year with a large cohort of administrators, principles, and teacher leaders to really look at the power and efficacy of teachers working together and focusing on the most important data,
which is work that we're going to continue throughout this year. Additionally, we have um uh an offering of English language learners at all five schools. In elementary we're focusing on into reading and this year we brought a
board for tier 2 and tier three spire which is a reading intervention system that has a strong evidence base it at the high schools. Uh we are continuously updating our curriculum maps. uh over the last year and a half, we've created
an intentional time for the middle and high school to come together to talk about longitudinal connections, content, curricular connections. Uh as I had mentioned earlier, we're looking at math and science, science at the middle school, math at the high school, and um
we have formed uh thanks to uh Karen and a number of folks the artificial intelligence um district task force and we hope to begin for our high school folks professional development later this year. And for each of our early
release days when we have professional development, we almost always build in dedicated teacher time to take the new learning and unpack it together. So I wanted to focus this evening, I
think it came from, it may may have been Nick, I don't remember um from where, but a little bit more information about our star assessment. And basically our STAR assessment is a nationally normed assessment. And what that means is we compare Norton students, students across
Massachusetts and then across the country to get a really large data set as a basis of comparison. So it's a good progress check for us as a basis of comparison across the state. It's given three times annually, beginning of the
year, middle of the year, and the end of the year. And we are a bit of an outlier. Our students begin in kindergarten and actually take STA all the way through grade 10 in both math and EL.
So STAR is really important because it gives us a longitudinal piece of data that can help us identify and support our struggling learners. It also tracks progress over time. So a
student begins their time in Norton, we can follow them with star data all the way through 10th grade. And it really helps our teachers to look at what the star score says, what their classroom data says, and then for students that may be in the intervention process to
have another data point to talk about the next steps in service. All right, great question. Just quickly I think I answer but student A is in bridge one and take star into the dark as well making that up. Can we can you request
the results from KR and then see if like we're seeing more progress as they come in on them. It would be difficult because there would be student privacy around that data um and star is proprietary. Okay. Um
that will be tough. So one really important measure on star is something called student growth percentile. And what that does is it measures a student's progress over time in a percentile basis. Percentile from
one all the way to 99. A student that is at the 47th percentile scores at or the same as 47% students across the country.
When we talk about that and then we reference that with the large percentiles, we look for students that are growing typically and that falls 35th percentile or above or high growth which is the 70th
percentile above. That's really our goal and our intent around benchmarking is to identify students that perhaps are below that 40th percentile to give them additional help via INTSS.
And the district benchmark that we're using this evening really is designed for that purpose to identify students that may need additional intervention. So student growth is really important because every student that comes to us
and walks into a classroom has a different skill level. So this is kind of our applesto apples comparison. And what we look for as educators is one year worth of growth
during one school year. That's really an important piece of how we look at growth. So the first table I want to show you is the star SGP
in English language arts by school from the fall of last year to the end of last year. So this over here on the right is the percentage of students at our schools that took these assessments that are either at or above typical math.
So Brian, should that say spring of 25? >> It's fall. We took the Yes, it should. It should. Yes, my bad. >> I was reading that and I was like, >> yes, but it should say um spring 25. >> So So when we see LG Norse J3, obviously
>> that is last year's 24 25. >> Yes. Got it. Yes. Okay. And then when we look at fall 24 and it should say thank you Nick spring 25. These are our by school percentages of
students at or above typical growth which again I think we always strive for improvement but this does show progress for our students. So I guess one of my questions is like LG Norris, right? And and I think this is where my question
from my email came is 78% of our students at LG Norris ELA are testing on STAR at or above typical last year of last year. That seems probably really good. Taking that guess, I don't know if that's for sure or not. If you compare
that what I this is where I was talking about with the state. Yeah. >> Is like okay it sounds good. 78% good or is 78% in the middle? Is it low? Like where are we? Just like that. That's where I was kind of saying like sure where do we look for in Massachusetts? What do we look for dark? What do we look for? >> I think I think when you have the
majority of your kids making typical or above typical growth, that's a strong positive sign. The goal is I personally I'd love to see everyone at 80 and above. Um but that's a high aspiration.
But as long as you're seeing students make progress over time, I think that gives us some positive data. Got it. And then I don't even know if we can answer those questions. I think we could. We were trying to fix it. But like LG 78%
in ELA and for percentage wise, they're our best school. But income math, they go down to 56 57.6. And that's where one data point is always interpreted with caution. Mhm. >> It's valuable. It's important because
having almost 60% of your students at or above is still a solid metric, one we always want to increase, but that is just one data point. Um, and we don't in the overall version. >> Yeah. I just I guess when I look at this from from ELA and by school, the Sony
school goes from 73 to 63 10%. Okay. Middle school goes from 66 to 63 in math. The yellow school stays right around the same, high school stays right around the same, but a massive drop at LG. So, it's just like again, I don't know if we know the answer exactly. You
know, you know, it's just bad class. I mean, in both it really it really honestly could be any because it is one one data point and over one year and the growth itself is is still excuse me the
percent is still pretty split. Okay. The next one I wanted to show you is then this breaks it down by grade. Um, so that's fall. Again, should say fall 24 to sprain 25. That's
my fault. Um, but again, if you're looking at those grade levels going all the way from two up to grade 10, those numbers are pretty solid. Do you also think it's safe to say as they get older they're
starting to realize that this is a standardized test and I don't really care about and there's no real grade on it so they don't >> I I think there's some function to that. >> Yes. I I I would say that um but I do. >> Yeah. >> Uh and then why don't we have K and one on?
>> So kindergarteners take something called star early literacy which is a different test subject and then some grade one students also take early literacy. So it's hard to get the applesto apples comparison.
This next table shows fall uh it should say fall to spring. So our SGV and again similar the percentage of students at or above typical growth is is solid. I think we want to obviously
always be on the high end of that. Um but that you know I think that's helpful to us. So this is a super busy table. So I just want to take a moment to explain it. So if you go over to grade two, these
results here are actually for students who took this in grade one. These are current grade two students. So this represents for ELA the percent of students in grade two that were at the fall or above the fall
one benchmark. And then that blue represents the percentage of these students who are now in grade two, but these are grade one scores that were at or above the district benchmark in the spring of 2015.
So what we hopefully want to see is we get growth from blue to red. >> Red. >> Yes. Red to blue. Thank you. where the yellow falls in are those
students. So these are current grade four students who took the MCAST in grade four. So that is it's the star data juxtaposed to MCCAST data all the way through the relevant grades from two
to current grade 11 students. But these are results from grade 15. I'll just give you a minute to take a look at that. And then similarly on the next slide, it's the D course. So
again, if you're looking at the fall benchmark, the spring benchmark, and then for those grades or students that took MCCAST the previous year, they're at or above proficiency level. So, we know with MCAST data,
it's a little bit sticky because of the valve question last year. Um, there's been a ton of work that's gone back and forth. Um, you know, there's all all new like graduation guidance from from Gassie because obviously they can no longer mandate
MCAST. So that's had a a little bit of a sticky effect for us. But what I'd like for us to just take a look at is to focus on grade level cohorts. So that's following students longitudinally. And again, we want to focus on that with.
So this is the middle to high school ELA cohort data starting with students that were in grade six in 2021, which again was a wonky mere test, following them through seven and eight. They didn't
test a nine and then grade 10. So overall in the meet and exceeds over a 4year period we're up slightly for the middle and high school math cohort data. Um again it's it's about
it's relatively similar from from 21. Um we have seen some increase overall from those students. Um but it has been you know relatively consistent.
Then our elementary middle cohort we've seen a nice growth in the exceeding category. And then looking at our elementary to middle math cohort, we've had a little bit of a drop, which isn't to be totally unexpected because we have had two new
curricular programs. So there sometimes is a little bit of a implementation what they call an implementation dip. And then for our elementary ELA cohort, we did um have a little bit of a decline, but again that I think comes
from a new program that takes a couple of years to embed the language and the routines and the instructions. And the last cohort slide is the elementary math cohort data. And again, a little bit of of decline,
but again, I I really do believe so function of that is curriculum, new curriculum materials, and again having some changes in the MP laws. So, just kind of summarize the data, I
think looking at SG, we're making some progress. I think all five of our schools have a majority of students that are at or above typical growth with many having high growth and there's some positive movement in the middle high school MCAST math cohort.
Um again, MCCAST is one measure. I know it's complicated. We always want our scores to go up and we did see some cohort moves that we haven't decreased. Again, we take this data seriously. We're going to continue to focus on all of our students,
implement our instructional materials of accompanying PD, circling back to the high impact teacher teams to really look at the data that matters most in leveraging the expertise of our teachers and continue to have ongoing
longitudinal connected professional development that also gives teachers time to assimilate. I know that wasn't as much fun as phon. >> I think it's really interesting um to see this together as you believe our audience all be able to see. We definitely saw
some but it's really interesting because the anecdotal conversations that I have with the teachers specifically around the math program the program um great example Mrs. She was a different teacher where GCS was published in Apollo last
year. And so I was having to be in her classroom couple weeks ago and she said, "It's amazing to me to see the difference in number sense and the understanding of math from this year's group of students because I wasn't very much here and I wasn't here to see what
it looks like kind of building through." So um I think MAS is obviously getting a lot of finger press. There's a lot of conversations that are happening around the benefit of the assessment. There's a lot of conversations I think about, you
know, how much effort you can put in. And so I think that for Brian showing some star data and comparison to MB test data I think that's really important for us cuz we say all the time it's one and
um hearing from teachers and kids about what's actually happening. It's just really really powerful. >> Um the negative of that is that the state is still judging us on NFS and they will proceed to judge us.
there is no plan at this time to move away from that. Um so it's it's definitely frustrating. Um I know that there's a lot of educators that are not track and my role but we've been working on the same ination about the need for
um other measures assessments. Yeah, I think it's a data point. I've to spoke right now for three and a half years to see how our students are doing is the hardest thing to judge simply because
one, we get a bird's eye view or 50,000 food. We're not daily in the classroom. It's like we kind of see the kids go from first grade, second grade to, you know, eighth grade to nth grade, whatever. We kind of just see that progression, but we never really know how they're actually doing. So when we get the MCAST data and we're seeing the
MCAST stuff and then obviously now that it's starred but to me the more data we get on what's happen very and I think ultimately being one of the people who you know sat on this committee approving new programs for lots of lots of money to the town to me it's very important to
say hey okay you picked this curriculum you know we had the curriculum team and teachers and that we're hoping to you know by approving this we're hoping that this is supporting our students we want to make sure it's actually important for students and then if okay five years we kind of like hey pivot maybe this isn't
right for us like you need exactly this type of you know information >> just like that just again I get around really bad standardized testing and even the star stuff it is not the greatest it's not the best thing in the world but
that's all we did you know and that makes it very tricky to kind of see and compare and and know hey you know where is no you know I've obviously looking at all the results you know going back to the MCAST when it first started matter in 2003 I've gone
through the destiny website and gone through exactly where's all been we've kind of always floated above state and you know over the last give or take seven eight years we've kind of dipped a little below and now this is concerning again to see like it looks like we're
falling behind even more yet are we actually falling behind where is the state you know and that's why I think bringing in star data is also important because again that gives us now two data you know now we can say hey the jazz whole state came down we were yeah state
average last year we're state average again this year you know hey we're starving doing better in these you know and then we can kind of start maybe taking a wild guess of like all right how do we make the impass still mean what's being driven from admin to principles to teachers to home to
students What's that connection saying? Hey, you are going to take the MS. It is important. We need you to do well on this test. How do we get our parents and our community members also involved that? And what does that cost to them? We are one of districts with regard to
what the policy. We're asking our high school students to sit at the end. There are other places that are not asking for that at all. So I I think we're trying to keep an appropriate level of of um
you know fidelity to to the metric whereas it is true there's mixed vest use really everywhere um and we're still waiting for a little more specificity so we stay on well um because when that
ballot question asked Jesse had a whole new reconiguration >> u and then I guess like you know obviously next steps I feel like we hear these a lot like focus on the whole student what does that mean? I feel like we've been focused on the whole student for the
last four years. So like are we doing anything new? Are we looking to be like wait a second maybe I'm making this up again? But ITMSs maybe that's not the best thing we're going to go. Are we going to pivot? Are we looking at you know what are we doing from anal standpoint but kind of what is the focusing on a whole suit? We've been
doing focusing on a whole suit for the last four years. our testing scores seem to be trickling down if you want that way compared to state averages I should say like focus on the whole student how what are we going to do how are we going to make this better >> so I think some work with the year um
this summer we did that I impact teacher students um professions development so all those principal goals our central office team and all teach so coordinators team leaders the middle school leaders level And that all focused around
looking at. So what do you think about what um it really focuses on looking at student data and using data from classrooms daytoday to make educational decisions about where the students are going to be. Um so that work has been
very beneficial that um it's part of our strategic plan as well when it talks about um creating via systems the protocols for schools. So that's been really helpful and um a lot of our schools are looking for a bit more when you say look at the whole child we mean
more than just so um our attendance needs in each of our buildings. If a student is not here at school and they're going to have a hard time keeping up with the learning being presented on so that's really important. um if a student is having a problem with
mental health issues, social functional things and they're not available support and how can we meet them where they are and help them um to be ready to take on the signs that um and and so a lot of the the work in professional development um I remember
having I mean they were first rolling up but it's like it's g me a long time yeah it takes a long time to do the thing So it's, you know, if you do you want it done or do you want it done like what I said with Joe and so I think
thats process it's a multiver the hit scenes which every time people like squad um but that's our next step on on CSS really giving teachers specific phone calls
about how to data and what to When do you really dive in and look at data across all of your grade level classroom? It doesn't have to be just start assessment or just like at that point it's over like what assessments do we have with you on a day-to-day basis
where we can say okay I gave this exit ticket at the end of class yesterday and I'm going to now pull these five kids this morning. they clearly didn't get it. And we're going to do a small group while other kids are working with them on next slides and giving teacher permission to
stop and pause for a moment and say these are the things that we need to do. And I also think it comes down to building tools, right? Um one of the conversations we had the other day about um classroom placement at the elementary level and um when I was classroom
teacher, I got a certain type of thing every single year. They said general meal works really well in this but if your picture goals into that area then you're not building your tool like your tool kit say you know we need to have her work with this you know profile of
student this year so she can develop that and then that way you're building the capacity of teachers we tend to pitch people um and it's it's not good for professional growth but it's not good for kids either. So it is very important that we're looking at what types of training are providing to our
staff so that they can have the confidence to make these successful themsel. Um, how many hours of professional development are would you be required to provide to teachers or how many I guess
hours also required to like so as as districts and we are now required to buy a certain amount of um when a teacher is going to reertify we need 150 PPEs um
was not it's a five cycle 150 piece Um, and so that they need specific professional development points in certain areas. So like you need a certain and I I'll be really honest. I can't tell you the numbers offline, right? It used to be like 30 of them had
to do with content or 90 to pedigogy or vice versa and now they also need to have 15 that are >> targeting special education, >> 15 for L's. Um, so they need that, but they can get those in a lot of different ways. So they can see they can earn
credits by taking their graduate course. They can earn credits by the professional development that we offer here in district. Some of our um more interview classes that we offer um going to a workshop, going to a conference. There are a lot of different ways that we can earn those um but we are not
always needed by the sea to buy a certain number. We are just all we're required to provide fresh and so the reason we started a number of years ago was to be able to provide teachers with professional development that align with
our strategic goals in a way that is cost effective. So instead of hiring someone to come in and do professional development on universal design for learning for 300 staff members, we've, you know, we've offered all these little different types of workshops that people
um couple years ago we did year-long books that we've spent staff that choose from how many 212 probably 15 to 20 different auth off because of all the ad. So like on
instead of on early stage, you might have been high school together with advocacy school, you're on learning about something that's tied to our strategic goals getting creative for us. I'm just thinking with all of the heaviness around professional
development and it's important but it's also time that kids are not in the classroom and I'm wondering if there needs to be a shift perhaps when
some environment more set once or twice a month So I think one of the strongest tools we had was our coaches our phone coaches.
So I Chia is at the back. She was our um elementary um reading coach. Mr. Be was our elementary found coach. And one of the best things was that they attended every PLC and they would go to PLC's book with classroom teachers and then
they would push into the classroom to help once a year. >> Oh, professional learning. Okay. So, our teachers meet once a week um usually three times a week. Sorry, three times a month throughout the course of the year. Um and it's part of their 35 additional
hours of their lunch before school or after school. um and is centered around instructional um practice. And so she would do that and then they would push it to the classroom and they would go home teach a
lesson or they would help a teacher look at their student data and say, "Okay, what's our plan for these videos over here and say um these things over here are like totally what could we that?" and they would also help to facilitate
the um grade level intervention box. So sometimes that was you know helping states plan sometimes that was speaking groups. Um so when we lost those positions in the spring of 24 we lost a lot of that building
which was really valuable and so you know Dr. Acriman is one person. B is overseeing curriculum and instruction from pre um in all areas and you know
capacity. So do those types of things and you know some of our principles are really really good at instructional leadership and others don't know
I sent a quick email today or definitely sent it. Um I'm just taking the data with us a little bit more but stay dark. >> Great. Uh next we have update follow. Yes.
>> Um okay. Good job. I'm happy to um welcome Dr. Ross Fever tonight. Um Ross is down in I believe New Jersey as he's joining us virtually. Um Dr. Can you hear us? Okay. >> Yeah, I can.
>> I'm just trying to get my video on here. Oh, there we go. >> Push the button once. >> We're just going to turn you off a little bit louder. >> I can hear you. You need me to be a bit louder? >> No, I think it's the um I think it's the
system we have here. I just need it to be a little bit louder. So, we're working on that. What am I just one second? >> I will use my outdoor voice. >> Thank you for joining us tonight. >> My pleasure. Um what I'd like to do
before I start, I'd like to share my screen. So, I need permission to do that. Okay. Working on that. >> All right. >> Um, okay. You can now Can you see my screen now? >> I see a I see a moon.
>> I'm gonna make it's >> Hang on a sec. Um, slideshow beginning. Okay. So um again can I'm trying to I I am
sharing but can you guys see it? >> We can only see your desktop but we have the presentation here. So if it's easier for you to just see us um and then we can move the slides forward. We can do that for you as well. >> Okay. Let me just try one let me try
sharing one more time. Um >> if not I'm absolutely willing to have that. Just give me a second here. Stop share. Okay. Share um
screen two. >> Yes. No. >> No. Thank you. >> Does it is is this is this working for you? >> Yes, it is. Thank you. >> Okay, great. Okay, so first of all, good evening everybody. Um um you've had kind
of a long long afternoon into evening. So I will try not be boring. Okay. I'm keep my voice moving so I don't put anybody to sleep. So anyway, having said that, uh what I want to do tonight is kind of a brief overview as to where we
where where we've been, where we are, and where we're going in terms of this project. So just um first the first slide. Okay. And here here were the tasks that that were part of this this project. First was to develop a 5-year enrollment projection
using the cohort survival method. Um which is cohort survival just is the way of of of projecting students based upon live births attributed to the community. Kindergarten students who come in five years later to develop an average between kindergarten and births five
years before. and then a five-year history of the um of the actual enrollment in the district and averaging that out and using that average to project forward. That's the cohort method. Uh so that was the first thing we did. The second thing we did was conduct a facility utilization analysis
to assess the impact that enrollment changes may have on school capacity. So what we do is we take the projections, we tie them into the instructional space in each of your buildings and then and and move that out five years to say okay here's where we are now. Here's where we're going to be 5 years from now in
terms of instructional space and then uh we create a data infrastructure to evaluate the existing school boundaries and evaluate any concerns that may result from enrollment changes. In other words, what we're taking a look at is how does the projections how do the
projections impact the facility and does that facility does that impact require us to do other things to um either equalize um enrollment or program or that kind of thing. So that's kind of the direction that we that we go in. Um
this next slide really talks about the relationship that I just spoke about. Okay. The basis of any of these studies is enrollment. That tells us where you are and where you're going ahead. And then that gets applied to the facility. Again, as I said, taking the
projections, spreading them out over the number of instructional spaces we have in each building. And then finally seeing if this would have any impact on school boundaries, school attendance zones. So that's the overall approach that we take. Okay. So now what have we
done to date? Well, as I said, we did the enrollment pro the initial enrollment projections. Uh we did initial student geocoding and boundary development and I'll show you that in a minute. We visited uh this we we site visited all of the school buildings and that's been done. Then along with the
projection the housing the the enrollment projection based on births and history. We also t take a look at how any potential new housing construction might impact future enrollment. And that gets tied into the long range projection. And then from all
that, we go back and review what we found and update any of the tables or anything that we need anything that we need to see in regards to how all of these things are impacting instruction. Okay. So, geocoding. So, this is this is a map. This is a district-wide map. Each
dot that you see on the map represents a student geocoded to their home, their residential or parcel address. Okay? So you can see that there is um density, a lot of density in the northwest part of the school district, but because most of your school because schools grades 4
through 12 um serve all students, they will flow through that and the centrality of the of these schools, the high school, the middle school and and is Yelli the right way to pronounce it? Yeah, >> okay. And and and those these so these
three schools with everybody attends, they're all centrally located. So it doesn't make um doesn't create major impacts on transportation. >> Okay. Okay. Now, what you're looking at here, you're looking at the um the Norse
and the Salmon Salomi. Get them on. Close enough or som >> or JCS >> okay so um you can see that the two boundaries aren't the same size but
that's because Sony is a bigger school so that that that that generates the size of the attendant zones um where you know and that and also having these boundaries also does limit limit the impact on transportation so we've gcoded all of
gets to the map. We have them in place. We can count them in zones. We can count them in boundaries. Okay, this is um a a a distribution of all of the um K5 students across the district. So, it's a good spread. Um and again, in our
analysis doesn't have any major impacts, negative impacts on on we call it logistical structure, most simply transportation. So that so that was our initial analysis based on student locations and things like that. So now and that was the first setup. So the
first setup was to do the to draw the boundaries and to geocode the kids. Make sure we have everybody located properly on the map so when we do counts that the counts are accurate. So now we take a look at some of the projections. So this is a district-wide projection. The gray
is the historical enrollment. The color is the projected enrollment. So we kind of take a look at at at these things. We take a look at the the K3. Okay, it's the base year was 564. The ed the the last historical year that
we're using which is the current school year was 657. And then as you take a look, these are the projections come out. And as far as kindergarten enrollment is concerned across the district, it's 11. I mean it there's a you know a slight a slight bump over here but over the course of the um of
the five years of the projection the enrollment is pretty steady same for grade four and five yellow school again there is some fluctuation but it stays within a reasonable amount and our assessment is looking at these numbers don't cause us any alarms in terms of of
facility distribution of kids and instructional space again middle school um middle school very steady, just a couple of bumps here, but again, not enough of a bump to really have an impact on um on facility. And finally, the high school, same kind
of thing, 662 to 663. So over the course of the 5 years of projection, it comes back to where it was in the first year of the projection. And again, some fluctuation here, but nothing terribly critical. So that that that's was what
what this represents us that m no matter what we recommend or what you do almost everything will well everything should have sustainability. In other words whatever decisions you make now should last over you know a fairly long period of time. We're saying 5 years but looking at these numbers it would
probably be considerably longer than that. Okay. So now here's the Norse enrollment and again kindergarten near your numbers no major fluctuations there. Um grade one same kind of thing.
Grade two little bit of fluctuation high here little bit lower here a little bit higher here and then kind of steady going out. So again Norse shows stability. It did have some it did have some increases enrollment in the past, but it looks like using the projections
going out this tool looks like it's it's it's it's stable in terms of enrollment. Okay. So now, so I'm going to try and explain this because sometimes it the terminology may confuse me. So when I talk about we're looking here at at
taking a look at at target class sizes and we're looking at two variations of target class sizes. So one we're calling lowend and that low end it's it's a low-end target of class size. So on the low end we're looking at a target class
size of 18 students at K1 and 20 students at grades two and three. So that would be the the targeting the lower end of of of of enrollment of enrollment. The high end uh uses 22 students at K and one and 24 students at
grades two and three. So let's take a look at at how that works. If we're taking a look at the high-end over the over and targeting that class size at those high-end numbers um 20 uh 22 and 24 across the board, we're taking a look
at three CL of three classrooms at each grade level and that but that's what we're looking at three class at that grade level. If we look at the low end which lowers the class sizes and it make it makes perfect sense the lower the class size the more
rooms you may need. So if you take a look up here where almost we have the majority of the of the grade levels the majority of the grade levels in each of the years require four. So in most cases it exceeds the number of rooms by one.
There's still a couple that remain at three or they're actually one two five that remain in three. The rest are at four. So what this shows you the difference between um higher higher class sizes and lower class sizes and and based on your instructional space
you guys can make a decision where you want where you want to target. Do you want to take the class sizes down? Do you have enough room to increase the number of rooms by grade levels? Um do you need to do you want to maintain the current the 20 the higher the lower end
which is the 22 to 24. This helps you guys make a decision in terms of how you want what kind of policies you want to set with regard to class size. So our initial assessment of enrollment projections of class size targets that we will need between 12 and 16 rooms
again depending on class size. Now this is also important to note too and it's it's it's important to our method methodology. There were no provisions made for for the different for breaking out special needs students. There are two reasons for that. First of all, not
all special ed students require a a a specific classroom. So, self-contained students, yes, but their mainstream special needs students, they they stay with they stay in general ed classes and maybe get pulled out for resource, get pulled out for some kind of help. But the bottom line is that
all of these students, general ed and mainstream special ed, require a seat in the general education classroom. So what we do is we we tal we calculate how many of those rooms we're going to we're going to use to meet the needs of special needs of of of gened and
mainstream students. And then we take a look at the the individual programs that exist for self-contained students. And we we make sure we we make sure that in building this stuff before we do anything like boundary change or anything like that or move programs
around that after we program in the mainstream the mainstream special ed and gen students that we have classrooms that are available to to put to self-contained special students and um I haven't looked in detail at your classifications yet but you know every
uh every different every every classification may require a different maximum class size. For example, um a autistic children may require probably can't exceed more than a six in a classroom and there will probably be a
teacher and be a so you need a full-size class. Um learning disabled children um who need to be self-contained can go to a higher number maybe 12 to 15. Um I'm not exactly sure of the uh of the state guidelines on that but u typically um uh
autistic children are around six to eight and typically LD children are around 12 to 15. But we want to make sure for those self-contained children there is space in their home school. So you don't want to be or or wherever their program is located so they remain in that school throughout the course of
their um going through the school district. So that that kind of gives you an idea though of the difference between um between going to the high end the high end which is the 22 to 24 or the low end which is the 18 to the 18 to um
to 20. And um this is also this is also a a thing to take a look at. Okay. Um if if we look at at these at these charts, okay, this is a line of 20. If you take
a look at um our projection using the the low-end target, okay, we come up above the we come up above and don't have a whole bunch of space. Uh I'm sorry. Yeah, the low-end target. We have we come up to here and we have no room
above 20. And what's significant about that is that let's take a look at let's say this um this this grade in um in 2025 next year, right? So if we're using a target of 24,
right? And so that means that vertically if we got if we received new students, in other words, students coming in, we could take this all the way up to here. We can go between 16 and 24. So we have room for eight students in that grade
level. So So this gives So all of these show indicate room for growth. There's a little bit of less space here, but the bottom line is that with the high with the low with the low end uh we we create room we create vertical room and the vertical room being the difference
between the target and the actual and that's what this represents. When we go to the um high end, the high class size, what you see here is that we don't have a whole lot of space for growth. At at 18, we have a little bit of space here,
a little bit of space here, some space here, a little bit of space here. So, at this at this level, okay, the difference between the target and the actual gives you little room for growth, which means that um let's say you're in a you're at
um in a kindergarten and you're at Well, let's take a different number. Let's say this this grade level, okay, exceeds exceeds the tw the um the 20. Okay. The Yeah, the 20. That means that if you if if you want to keep that that number at
the at the 18, all right, you probably have to open up another classroom. You have to probably have to split this. So again, the the the the highend lower class sizes gives you less flexibility. Okay. Um and so decision so one of the
decisions that has to be made is that if you want to target low-end we do the assessment of how many spaces how many instructional spaces are available in the room what impact it has on teaching staff. In other words in other words if you start to split split grades because
of of of any access coming in. Um do you open up another classroom? Doesn't mean hire another teacher. I'm not saying anything that like that's a bad thing. I'm just telling you what it is. So, more flexibility on the low end, less flexibility on the high end. And flex,
what I mean by flexibility, the ability to absorb more absorb new kids as they move into the community. If if the community expands and grows so we look at salom salmones, same kind of thing. Historical enrollment,
historical enrollment, projected enrollment. So, here we're going again. We're staying we're staying the next year projecting a little low but after that a little bit lower dropping from 88 to 81 but across the board that looks very very stable. Uh probably carrying
over to later grades we're going over we're at 92 so we dropped a little from the year before dropped again to about 87 here but then we go across the board again last four years out steady. Same thing across here. A little bit of differentiation in the first three
years, steady in the last three years. Uh finally here at the high school, um I'm sorry, at the um third grade level. Um you take a look what the numbers are. There are a couple little drops in here. Uh but pretty much with pretty much within a range. So if you're starting at
113, you're ending at 103. You're probably not to have make a whole lot of changes over the course of that 5-year projection. Again, what's important here uh as I said before is that um that the district is by and large stable and
again stable stability is good for sustainability of programs, sustainability of class sizes. So again um the the same thing we talked about here at the um at the low end uh I'm sorry at the high at the low end um
you need less classrooms. Take a look across here. And at the high at the at the high end, I'm sorry, at the high target, I'm going to say high target. At the high target, um, you need less classrooms. At the low target, you need more classrooms. And we're talking here,
um, that as with as with as with Norse, for purposes developing section counts, we use the same 18 18 at K and one and 20 at two and three as the as the as the low as the high target. And um we used
um the the same figures the 20 the 18 the 20 and 20 I'm sorry the 22 and 24 at at at the higher grades and again shows that um that there that that less classrooms are required at the at the
low end at the high end and more classrooms are required at the low end at the lower target size. Um it's all logical it all makes sense. Um and now again adjusted again the same thing we talked about before high-end gives as
you go above this line especially for the low raise at 18 and even if you go above the line at 22 you've got very little flexibility and again like the flexibility between the actual enrollment and the and the target size
that that determines how that determines how many kids you can bring in the class before you either have have to create another section or just go beyond the targeted the the the target size or the target class size. Again, the um the low the the low end a lot more flexibility.
So, and and again just reemphasize flexibility meaning that if you absorb more children over the period of 5 years vertically you've got you vertically you've got room to grow before you either need to split a section or take
some or or increase the class sizes. Um and again the same kind of thing. Um we we're taking a look at the at the um this is for um Yelli I believe. Yeah. H A Y. All right. Again the the the the
low end produces more classrooms. Uh the high end Yeah. produce I'm sorry at the at the low at the high end uh we save classroom space. At the low end we increase classroom space. So uh again
that that shows that kind of shows what the differences are when you target different class sizes and as the board begin if the board needs to or wants to which has policy with regard to maximum class sizes this serves as a good guide for that. So now just uh couple of other
things uh the recent review of school classroom capacity indicated substantial capacity in each facility meaning that each building has room. LG LG Norse has 24 classrooms. JC Telmies has 41
classrooms and her Henry Yelli has 40 classrooms. Now, as indicated in the prior slides, pre previous slides, a demand for general education classrooms would be Norse 12- 16, Somes 18 to 24
and Yelli 16 to 18. So when all the programs including special needs and other programs in the building are considered, there really isn't enough space to consolidate the three PK5 facilities. Um we the the the uh studies
are funding show that that that there's too many other kinds of programs including self-contained and all those self-contained and uh OTPT if you have it and resource rooms and individual instruction that you've got enough space to do that you've got really adequate
space to do that but not with a consolidation. uh the clear size comparisons indicate that no significant imbalances exist between GCS and LGN that will require any kind of redistricting. I mean there's no need to make any changes because it's not going to change. It's
not going to it's not going to be an equity issue in terms of class size and enrollment and access to programs. And you know one of the things that that we look at we consider in a study and I'm sure you do is equity. We want to make sure that every kid in every school has
the same opportunity. So, so given us us our study being based on class size and based on instructional space indicates to us that in terms of enrollment in terms of class size there's no inequity between the buildings or since it's very
minor and um and so again sustainable but again there there's no need to well a we don't believe that you can uh that you can adequ you can um join join schools uh consolidate any of
the schools given the space that you have um and finally existing space is being used by specialized programs and activities which can clearly continue. Another was saying that things are to this point in terms of our analysis things are looking very good. They look
like they're sustainable. Um we're not quite finished with with the study yet. And um bring to the next slide. So um the next steps in the project a reassessment of space allocations and given a lack of space available for
consolidation are there alternatives to the current space configurations that would be valuable to the district to consider and what we're saying here is we're going to take we're going to take like a 30,000 foot view of all the data and say is there something that you can
do better not saying that there is but we're saying that we don't want to we we don't want to reject everything out of hand. We want to take one good look based on the confidence that we have with the data that we we're we're um dealing with. What are the other viable options for grade configurations and
their assignments to the schools? Again, something we're going to look at again, and this could this could have to do with program location, um consolidation of maybe special needs programs. And these are hypotheticals. They're not anything that we've decided at. just kind of things we want to look
at the whole picture that um I think that Tim uh I don't know if you guys met Tim he's my colleague he's been doing a lot of work on this project also has been doing most of the work on this project actually and um but we we we have confidence in the data so now we want to do is we want to step back with
confidence in the data and say is there something maybe we missed is the recommendation that may be um helpful to the school district in terms of decision- making remember the purpose of this study is to help you guys make decisions for the future. Um, and I was
listening to some of that tonight um, at at some of the presentations. So, there's a lot going on in the school district and this is helpful in terms of basically where you're going to put your money in the future, what you're going to do with your programs in the future. So, that's what this is about. It's it's
it's just giving me data and information at least on the instructional level, on the um, capacity level and instructional space level to make decisions in the future. Um and the other thing that we're going to look at finally at the end is that what are the impacts of any
of the options um in terms of in terms of um uh logistical things such such as if we if we make a recommendation how does it impact transportation and of course changes in transportation um have could have serious impacts or major
impacts on costs. Again, we're not we're not ready to say we may say, "Hey, nothing there's nothing left to see here. We're fine and you move on because you're going to be sustainable over the next over the next 5 years. You're doing well. You got space." Um, and or we may
say, "Hey, we found something that might be helpful to you." And if it's helpful to if if we if we say this is something that's helpful to you, we'll give you a cost. will say, "Well, this could change transportation," which is probably the single most expensive part of logistics in the district. Um, in terms of in
terms of dollar per student. So, um, there you have it. Um, and I am more than happy to field questions. >> Thank you, Dr. Gabber. I appreciate that. Um, I I think I the only thing I just want to mention to the committee um
is that um, we'll be coming back in January with those next steps. So, one of the things I asked Dr. Habber and Tim to kind of look at is if we reconfigured the lineup of school grades, what would that look like? Um, you know, we have
five schools. He really touched upon our three elementary settings. That's what the majority of our kind of movement is at this time. Um, but we will take a look at a couple different scenarios in terms of, you know, if this building was
no longer 45 and it was 35 or if this building was K2 or something along those lines. Um, and I think it's important because um, as Dr. Hmer said, this is nothing that like we've decided. It's just giving the committee information and data to make informed decisions. Um
I also think it's really important um to talk about the facility capacity. So in the ideal world when we said you know what is our low target for class size? What's our high target for class size? Like that's like if the stars align and like minding from like from the trees.
Um we know that that's not always where we're going to be. Like I like kindergarten classroom sizes to be 18. I think that's what's appropriate for kindergarten, especially when we do not have fulltime power professionals in those classrooms. >> Yeah. >> But what we can actually do with the
funding that we have is really important. And I think it's also important to note that the general education classroom spaces are really what was the focus of this study. As Dr. Gabber mentioned, every student needs to go into a home room. So that's make the
timing that's the the the data that we look at. But we have and you know here at the LGN alone we have um five or six special education classrooms that are full classroom spaces for
specialized programs. At JCS we have seven preschool classrooms. So those things are all um in factors. We do not have the ability to um combine any of our two schools um the way that our current grade level configuration and
enrollment are right against. So, I think this was super helpful. Number one, the geocoding is really cool. Like, you can almost look and find your address and see your own individual little dots sitting there. Um, and it's not something that we could have done.
And so, thank you to Dr. Neighbor and to Tim um, you know, for doing this work for us. Um, and we're working with them to get the transportation information um, and really take a look at alternate options. and we will present that to you probably in the second.
>> Um I have a quick question with the numbers um with the enrollment projection baseline numbers >> is that >> yes >> does that school choice students or is
that just nor residents that's a great question um Dr. behavior. We have school choice students, so they are currently included in our numbers, our current enrollment numbers, but I would imagine that you see them in the gray as the actual or the enrolled, but they're not
projected in the colored columns because they're not births within the community. Correct. >> Well, okay. So, your school school Okay. So just so I fully understand I mean I know what school choice is but in terms of yours. So uh your district so you've
got two K3 schools. Okay. So can parents elect to go to either one? So in other words someone living in the um in the >> Okay. How does school choice? >> If you live in town you must attend the school that you that you're you must
attend your neighborhood school. However, we have very few openings each year for students from other communities or staff members that want to choice their children in. >> So, typically in a kindergarten class the last couple years it's been maybe
five bins. >> Okay. Well, they're they're counted in the projection count. Okay. Because we're taking remember that let me go this is your just your actual enrollment from the schools. So this is historical
enrollment. So of these 664 or 662 um or 653 if they are in enrolled in your school they're counted and they're projected out. Now um the other thing that we come up with too and I don't know um if we
talked about this when we did the initial geocoding any child who does not have a Norton address doesn't geocode. So we'll know we know that those are kids who are coming to the school district you know for other reasons you
the school of choice or whatever it is but just going back to what I said all of these historical numbers they include every single child in your on your enrollment doesn't differentiate whether they're in district or choice kids or out of district kids those are those are
so we are projecting on those numbers they're they're included in that they're in the bars >> which so theoretically if probably only impact that kindergarten number >> or if we said we have two spots in second grade or something along those lines. So it would be a small
>> So where we've cut back on choice. >> Yeah. >> Two or three. >> Okay. >> Well, what we can do what we can do is um we can do it. Let me go back up to the geocoding. So um
now okay. So, so on the geocoding we can we can say okay show me all of the kids in any school in any grade who live in the Norton boundary and it's going to show me the kids who are geocoded into the um boundary. Then if I reverse that
and I say, "Okay, now show me all of the kids outside of the Norton boundary." And and we take a look at that and we say, "Okay, we've got 20 kids um in grades K through three." Uh >> 23. >> Okay, I'm I'm just making the number up.
Okay? You know, so I'm just making I'm just telling what we can do. and um is is give you the number of kids who are coming into this the number of children who are coming into the district who don't live in the district and we and we break that out we can
break that out by grade level. So we could take a look at K through 12 and say and you K through 12 you say it's 200 and some odd kids over 13 grades right so on a on a grade level basis unless it's overwhelmingly in one grade
it probably doesn't break out to that many numbers but but it does appear in the projection and if you need to know you know and if if if these um I got my thoughts together and if the facility stuck here okay is
impact like may say we go here okay so in the in the in the low end in in this partic in in in LGN right the low end says that's the 18 that's the 18 to uh 18 and 20 18 and 20 uh target sizes okay
so if we say okay now let's extract from this okay all of the out of all of the choice kids or all the out of district kids it probably would have some impact on the on the on the on the uh low end. Okay, probably it probably
would probably bring these numbers down and maybe decrease and I don't know for sure because I'm done it maybe decrease the class sizes but you can do this on an annual basis. I mean it's not you know it's not set in stone one. Again going back. So yes, choice the choice
kids are counted in the projections and they are they are counted in these numbers but these numbers don't deduct the choice the choice children the choice children. So um so if that's a question that you need answered we
certainly can answer it. >> Thank you. Does anyone have any other questions for Donald? I have a bunch, but I think it'll be better. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Haber. We appreciate your time and um I know you
were on for a while before we got to you, so thank you for spending your evening with us. >> I was watch I was watching a basketball game, so it was fine. And no, I was occupying myself. I was watching Purdue basketball game, so that was lovely. Uh but I was paying
attention, too. Anyway, thank you for your um questions. Um we will I I'll talk to I'll talk to Tim and we'll address we'll take a look at what that choice what the choice impact is and if they were removed from school how that
would impact the uh low end and uh you guys have any questions um get them you know get them to me and I'll be Tim and I will be more than happy to answer answer them. Um and uh I guess that's about it. So, so, so again, thank you
for attention and um have a great holiday everybody. >> You as well. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> My pleasure. Byebye. So, um >> we switch things and change things up. So, we can do that or we can talk offline. It's really whatever you
prefer. So when they come back in January, um we will be looking more specifically at um reatterization of the schools themselves and make great span changes and we will also be looking at transportation
impacts which then will inform the you know so um and it's very cool to kind of look at like if you're like if you like number Um, and then timelinewise, >> yep. >> Would we be still looking to roll this
out forward? >> I would say if we do not have a decision by the end of January, I think we should push it back to fall of 27th. Um, I think the end of January 0. So I think >> that depends on the change
>> arrest. Yeah. Well, what's recommendations here? Absolutely. Um, and the other thing we could always do too, like just like we have conversations like we have two people that are on the negotiations team, like we have two people that are on the table, like we could get two of you together, I mean, we could do some of
the meetings like get on with him and um, Ross and the three of us at some point if we wanted to do that and flush out some, I think it's we were to make some type of significant change, very strength based, whatever, would you look to do it in fall?
>> Yeah. So, we're getting close. >> No, that this was awesome. >> I think so. It is very interesting to see it. And um Brian and I met with Elazi said, "What about this? What about this? What this? I haven't." So, >> I mean, I think if nothing else, it
finally to know based on this can't I don't think Yeah, I don't know. Well, I don't not that's very similarly slow.
I don't know if it gives us the ability to look at eventually doing something differently where schools to follow. And with that being said, is there a potential for
I don't want to go down the thing, but an addition to this for all would there be an addition to JCS where we move this grade that there, you know, whatever. Like I think those are the doors that this would give us way more information. >> I agree >> to make those decisions logistically.
And so because of the program we offer in district and we all know that every time you keep a special education program in district you are number one you're keeping kids with their siblings with their peers with their neighbors and it's better for the student but it also is significant cost savings because
an out of placement is always always possibly um so we always want to keep kids in discharge. So because we have those programs being able to face and our preschool program is just for us which would be wonderful right it's wonderful that families want to be able to send
their sto and so the other thing we always want to be cautious of is that if you were to close one of our elementary schools any reimbursement that we receive from the MSDA windows doors the roof you are
now obligated to pay So those things because it's no longer being utilized in the school and therefore it no longer involves the MSBA. So that is would be something. So
hypothetically if we said I'm just throwing you like and I'm not going to use LGN because LGN always gets typed on. I'm going to say we're going to say okay JCS is going to be just preschool. >> We would never say that. >> That's not a question. But um JC is
going to be judg like at least it's still a school. >> It's still a school be operating as a but you wouldn't like closing a building that whatever money just like whatever
like 20 years >> but I can get you. Yeah, but it's you you >> I mean side of that there's talk about capital
where >> you know I'm not reinforcement for MSBA. >> It's much easier to sell the project both to capital and sound. >> All right. Uh, next is discussion and vote on the middle school demest
project. Um, so I brought this back to the committee for um because when we last talked about it here publicly, we talked about a restoration of the local um you know, we had a lot of concerns about it um and we really pushed our
open and um design firm to give us more information about what a full um couple weeks ago we went to building committee um had a really positive uh meeting with them in terms of you know
sharing all the information. Um so tonight we I'm not going to go through everything with you. I think um the schematic design is is all in there and ultimately what I really just want to share is uh the finance.
So, um, we had originally started by talking about a restoration that was going to cost roughly $9 million, 9.5 million. And now, um, we're talking about a full replacement, which would be $9.2
million. Um, plus, if you look on the back, it's it's actually spend because of the uh the OBM fees and all those and all those other things there. So, um I apologize my starting to shut down. Um
we have a 55.63 reimbursement and when you look at this cost here, it is going to be higher because the x estimated maximum total facilities we're in from a state is about 5.6.
It's very important that our s that our highest number is here and now before the MSBA speaks its board meeting and approves that they will give us up to $5.6 million in reimbursement for the middle school. Uh in talking with our
OPM and in talking with our designers, they find that bids typically come in around 70% of this initial construction cost. So, second grade math for a long time. I'm going to say 70% of 10 million roughly 7
million give or take. Um, and then we would get a 55% reimbursement rate on that >> 70 on on whatever the final whatever the final cost is. Um, so if it if it cost
us 7.5 million, we would get 55% reimbursement on 7.5, which would block cost the town under $4 million to do. So the narrative around $10 million for a roof is not Yes, that's number showing
us right now, but it's not accurate in terms of what it's found is going to mean to perform this. Um, also in your packet tonight, this is brand new, is the timeline for the middle middle
school roof project. Um, as you can see, we are, you know, kind of in this schematic design. Um, the estimator cost estimate. All of our information has to be to the MSBA by next Thursday, which
is the 18th. um and they will review it at their board meeting in February. We do not anticipate any issues. Um but what this would mean is that it would go to ASBA. It would be approved by them. We as a school committee um and
superintendent, I would like to do my road show a little bit in the spring if this is what we're going to be asking for at some meeting. presenting to the finance committee again, presenting to the platform board, going back to the current building committee, going over to the senior center and presenting to
the mayors. Um, all of those things, um, I think are really important for us to help sell this project to town. Um, and at end of the day, the reimbursement is really good. a 55% reimbursement um would be incredible for
us and we can't afford to do it on our own right so we want to make sure that we are following this process here um and I would welcome any of you to you know attend these meeting and share these services when we met with the permanent building committee a couple weeks ago one of their questions is what
else potentially would need to be done to Norton Middle School to kind of make that building weather excite again um and so they had asked our op and our designer to come back with a little bit more of a comprehensive number. Um, knowing that
it wouldn't necessarily be part of the reimbursement for MSBA, but like when you're in the road, do any of those windows need to be replaced because there's been so much water? Um, is there um pointing of the brake
that needs to be done because of some of the water damage? Um, one of the other things that we discussed is like the middle school's like in good shape. Like when things happen, leaks are fixed, tidles are replaced, the wall is the wall is fixed. So, we're not super
nervous about the about the inside of the building itself, but I think in many construction projects, you never know what it's going to be. So, they are working on um cost estimates. >> Yes. Well, we knew there were specists
like well, but there are no middle school. Um, so I felt it was really important for you guys to do another vote because this would be a full place. >> Yeah. And I think sitting with the
building committee as well as a resident um and talking to the to the 70% just reporting point numbers not going to bid and whatnot but the $10 million that's being thrown around everywhere
that cost $10 million to go places is very somewhere between three $4 million that's actually going to be put on the taxpayers and some type of form of that exclusion that you know pass through all the processes involved um you know so I
think that needs to be clear to the public and with the state shifting into 55.63% 6 million% state is going to be on the hook between you know what 4 million and 4.5 million give or take up. >> So I think that that $10 million I think
scared a lot of people but it also makes sense if you're thinking in terms of like you got to go to the number to stay you always inflate it on purpose to make sure the reimbursement fee that's coming back it's also going to make sense then you know things fall. The nice thing
that I did thought was great from the building committee, one Republican committee was they seem to be much in favor of putting contingencies in around gender damage. I just never know if you know put off. So, uh, I thought overall in
that episode there was definitely good support behind it. I think ultimately as a committee, you know, kind of making sure we I think pulling this from the town in the fall was an absolutely move for me. Uh, you know, so I do want to commend us a
little bit on that as well because I think we kind of not that we got rushed into it, but I think we were still going to call on like trying to get this thing done because obviously we need a room. Um and I but I think kind of scene is all kind of planning out now to put our bandaid on it essentially you know so
the next few months make sure we have all ducks go give the support we need you know put in the town and hopefully you know blew the stick forward because I have yet to >> um yeah so I mean we're going to be
looking at the summer so um to the finance committee and to the permit building committee for their advocacy and for them to you know say that our team like do the repairs you need to do we'll figure out how to pay for it so thank you very much to them um
and I and I um I think also going to that meeting as a listen um was it was really nice because I think again everybody you speak to and you're part of these committees they want to do this right they ask nobody Nobody wants to approach
this in any bad year in 5 years. You know, we're throwing for a lump lender like you know everybody knows that this needs to be done and they want to do it in the correct way and so that was I think it felt really good. Absolutely. >> I think that kind of shows the evolution
of the talent because for so many years >> a lot of projects weren't done correctly and and ultimately lost its taxpayers paid them. So now, you know, you kind of look around town, we have a lot of new facilities, we have a lot of, you know,
now it it turns into now we have to keep going, you know. So that's that. So that's where I think, you know, we're going to always have our hiccups if there's going to be the difference in improvements and everything else. I think that's where school committee select more f permanent building
committee pulling everyone together and having general consensus of like hey here's our front lines because when we do that type of stuff the presidents see it and say wait a second you know are doing this together you know they're making the best decision what they believe in full town you know in our in
the city so I think you know again I give them a lot of credit I I give us a ton of credit you know it's always been a ongoing process and as it should be. We've crossed our te's dot our eyes and so close. So, um, you know, I think hopefully we can kind of I think we're in a good spot kind of moving this thing
forward and doing it correctly. So, like I said the last time, poor souls who sit here and you know, 20 years from now aren't doing the same. >> All right. Any other discussion? >> All right. So, change motion to approve
the roof project as presented. So please >> any other business anticipated anticipate >> only thing I was going to remind you guys cuz that's the high school winter month service tomorrow night 5:30 um we have an abusive chorus band
like oh um group they're amazing it's really fun head. >> So, I know you just gave us instance for them. >> Yeah. >> Um, Greens is hoping it's their new space January 5th. >> Most companies are really exciting.
Really exciting for them. >> Exactly. >> They should have probably >> So, that facilities or they should they're not shutting down. >> No, medical room is still breath. So, this will be their their partner space for DHH. Um and so um they will be
emptying classrooms at JCS um and students will be transported um from their facility back to GCS. >> Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Recording stopped.