##VIDEO ID:p6wMcLZHwOM## the meeting is being recorded by norn media um if anyone else is recording please just let us know um first up on the agenda is public comment period uh this is again one of our new things we did introduce it at our last meeting um we're trying to give a little bit of time in the beginning of each meeting for public comment anyone going to say anything go ahead Peter just Peter when you come off for anybody just anounce your name and where you live in town eer J Williams 157 m b Trail 43 thought masses Mar Norton and I like to wish everyone at the N schools a happy and a safe 2025 and it's could to be a good year in town thank you Peter thank you no one else so we will move on um next up is the vote to approve the meeting minutes of December 11th 2024 um to everyone get a chance to review those minutes thank you do we have a motion to approve so Sor all those in favor I I those pass 5 to zero uh next up is warrants Mrs Cen I reviewed and approved the following warrants School expense warrants December 11th 2024 1,1 14188 7.92 School payroll warrants November 27th 2024 1,164 26270 in December 2nd I'm sorry December 12th 2024 1, 216,303 a tremendous day of school pride and fund um this year our goal of fundraising is again $20,000 it is so incredible to the amazing generosity and support of our yel community this is um this is Mr G's seventh year at the hey and each year the community outd does itself and raises such phenomenal funds for us to do some fantastic things like the needed and necessary upgrade of our playground the purchase and refilling of the book vending machine bringing in assemblies yearbooks um classroom upgrades and so much more the booster Thon program um though it not just being um their only fundraiser the Boosterthon on-site rep will go into each class every day to talk about a character traits spk interest and incentives in the Fun Run and also have fun with the students at lunch and recess as we say the whole month becomes Boosterthon Glow Run and it is something that kids will always treasure from their yell experience um and then from uh the high school norn high school had a smooth transition back from break before break we had many celebrations events and instances of community service the math Honor Society worked with several Town organizations to sponsor a toy drive while the Spanish and French honor societies traveled to the nursing homes ofou caroling a huge congrat congatulations is due to concert chorus rock band chorus and Acappella groups who put on a wonderful holiday concert uh the last Theater Company rehearsals for little Shor has started with the with the show being the first weekend in April uh winter sports are well underway with almost every team to a very successful start NHS with 70 plus students leaving tomorrow to go to hyas for two days of competition and District in District a competition for Deca they have been working extremely hard to prepare and we wish them the best of luck and I also wanted to add on a personal note um it's been really cool to see this is the biggest chapter of kids that we've had for Deca this year um so we're around 70 kids which is 20% from last year um so we're hoping to um have a lot of kids qualify for States um we broke a lot of records for Norton last year um but we've been prep preparing very diligently um since September until now like until like this evening we at the high school working with some kids um but they're really excited um and we're excited to report back to you guys good Lu awesome thank you very much um student Spotlight Dr O'Neal okay thank you uh tonight I have the privilege of sharing with you um 49 of our current seniors the class of 2025 um 49 students received the John John and Abigail Adams scholarship from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and secondary education uh this scholarship is good for 4 years of tuition at any Mass Massachusetts State University or Community College uh just tuition not room board as well um but is definitely a great opportunity for these students in order to qualify uh for the Adam scholarship um students had to score Advanced on at least one of the three mcast assessments uh math Ela or science and then they had to achieve either Advanced or proficient scores on the other two uh assessments and they also had to have scores that place them in the top 25% of their graduating class um I'm not going to read the names here tonight because there's quite a few of them um but I will be publishing this in my newsletter later this week so congratulations to all these students and um I'm excited for them because it's a great opportunity for um cutting down the cost of college as well thank you very much yeah just quick math here I think there's 12 names four columns so to do the math quick 48 49 students I think total yeah 49 total pretty good um so yeah great job oh you said it too thank you Mr uh next is vote to approve M Middle School field trip to New York City Mr Gold was show the protocol so I suppose I'll just come up here so first time to do very nice must say um but that's not why I'm here tonight uh I am coming here for um the annual approval from you folks all uh regarding our annual 8th grade shift to New York City and so this will be the seventh time that we've done this would be more but obviously the pandemic years we missed a few years so um our itinerary is essentially the same and so we found that the things we've been doing with the students the last several years they definitely s to enjoy uh it's a long day it's a great day and you know really the whole idea is just to continue making memories for students and you know and we really get a ton of tremendous positive feedback when we do this trip and so um you know and I'm thankful that we have you know the staff who's willing to go do this because it's obviously a very long day for them and you know but you know we we are thankful that we have the staff who're willing to step up year in and year out and some some teachers have been there every single year and for them you know for those people I'm very grateful because it can't really happen without them and um you know so the date of our trip um is a little bit controversial uh in the sense that it is June 6th um and I know that June 6th is tentatively scheduled to be graduation however go ahead dror graduation is not able to be June 6 because of the infinity schedule correct Dr Doan to the best of our knowledge I think we're prti you're safe okay which is one of the reasons why I thought I ultimately would be safe um and also it just so happens and some of things we had to book I could not get availability in other days so it all kind of worked out fortuitously I suppose so um but that is the date of it this year is June 6th and so crossing our fingers hoping we get awesome weather because we always have so would so so any questions nope all good thank you very much please be safe you know it's been a crazy world out there thank you school committee has to vote because it's can out of state perfect um well obviously have to take a vote and we'll accept a motion to approve so moved on the same page uh all those in favor I thank you very much good luck thank you uh next up is acknowledgement and vote to accept equipment donation M Miss Wright good evening my name is Alexander Wright I'm the director of Music at Norton High School I'm here tonight to request approval for a donation for specific performance microphones for the NHS music program by the beautiful and wonderful Bressler family uh miles Bressler is a senior this year and he is my only student who is involved in all of my ensembles which includes concert chorus concert band aquapella choir rock band drama club and he's taking a semester of guitar so his family is generously offered to donate some more performance specific microphones uh this mean uh the microphones that we currently have are usually just directional microphones and if you've ever spoken in the NHS Auditorium you know what I mean you have to be about this close to it in order for sound to get through which is great for presenters and soloists but not great for choir or band where you need it to be a little bit more spread out so they are offering to donate two condenser microphones which have a wider cardioid polar pattern um that allow more sound to get in it balances the choir voices as well as bands and we will also be able to use it for uh for our theater program as well we started a new acapella program this year and again it's just what the wider base it just balances the voices so much better um we've also had outside performers from tus University and Wheaten college that have come and I would love to in the future have the equipment to support their performances as well to list all the items the Bressler family would like to donate to condenser microphones XLR cables onoff switch adapters stands for the microphones and pop filters this do donation is valued at over $500 the family would like to purchase the listed items from Amazon and Sweetwater Music um and then donate the items to the high school I would love to accept this donation because it would be something that would be out of my current budget and I think it will enhance uh what the students get out of the program as well um accepting this donation not only strengthens the music uh program in norin but I I just think it'll be above and beyond what I'm able to do now and I hope you feel the same way thank you for your time you thank you very much any questions concerns assuming it's going to fit with our current setup of what we have as far electronically okay that would be my only concern we're getting all these nice things and we can't uh I was fortunate enough they actually have the same microphones that they want to purchase for us they run um the street uh the church on Pine Street so we were able to borrow the exact setup they're going to donate to us and it worked like a dream so very excited love that great so I think this is a no-brainer but I do think we have to vote so uh vote to accept the equipment donation all those oh sorry entertain a motion so moov all those in favor sorry second By Justine all those in favor thank you so much it's not easy um all right next is review and vote to approve the Norton High School New course proposal uh Dr Doan and Mrs cers all right we work this out like like that um so just to give you an idea every year we do uh s solicit our staff to propose new courses that are in line with where we hope that our vision is going in this case we reviewed to our looked at the vision 2026 and also looked at some of the needs of our students based on the programming that we have um we have three courses this year uh to bring forward um one of which the first one I'll talk about is the advanced manufacturing course and this one's been a couple of years in the making um it's part of our Innovation pathway uh we have to offer technical courses that give students the pre-professional skills that they'll need going forward if they were to enter a job in advanced manufacturing uh our teacher Carrie Murphy proposed this um she actually did an externship this summer for I think four weeks she worked at an advanced manufacturing facility learning about some of their tools those types of things we've been able to purchase a lot of these tools over the past couple of years through grants um for the Innovation pathway CNC router machine 3D printers a cobot arm a 3D scanner those things that we can then use in order to uh basically be able to make stuff which is what advaned manufacturing is all about um and uh we actually had a tour today like as far as where we're going to situate it within our existing space in the shop so rather than just fabricating wood we'll be doing Plastics and possibly metal as well um and really the course will be take place there give students the skills to operate all the Machinery um to figure out sort of how the workshop should flow and then from there um engage in individual projects that are based on Advanced manufacturing um eventually part of their internships or Capstone projects with other manufacturers will be out have some type of problem or Challenge from that course uh from that uh company bring it back to the school and actually try to design solutions to those problems um so the course here is designed really to give students those skills a semester long um any student within the pathway will take it but it'll also be open to students who are not in the Innovation pathway as well do next one sure um so the person Finance next one was personal finance um I think this has been something that number of people have talked about over over the years um yeah I know Dan I know um so uh that is going to be run by our business department um they chose to um take this kind of take this on I know some folks have asked is a financial analysis class that runs for seniors it's a little bit different um so um that's more focused more on the math end of it and it's that a little higher this is more about those basic life choices you know thinking about careers understanding how you know your career leads to to money and how you invest that money you know where the money goes uh budgeting uh it's it's more of that kind of broad knowledge um that they can carry forward uh so it'll be part of the business pathway uh or part of the business program not part of the pathway by part of under the business department um so I know it's been something that's been in the works for a while and uh I think it's a really good opportunity for kids uh at any level and it will be offered to freshmen to seniors currently our our financial analysis class is for seniors only um so this would be open to anybody um so if they're taking calculus their senior year they'd still be able to do this personal finance course um as it goes forward and then our final course is also in the business department uh Advanced marketing um and this is really in response to trends that are seen in local schools uh colleges and definitely through the DECA program seeing that there's a lot more interest in going into marketing and learning some of those skills and so in this case it would be an extension of our current marketing offerings basically a marketing two to our marketing one as well as you could take Sports uh and entertainment marketing as well leading into this marketing class um so really just to expand on that um and to provide students with more opportunity to to learn some of those skills and to prepare for the next level if they're entering a marketing degree um or other business classes in a college great any questions on the three possible new courses I just have one question I know we I'm assuming you both look at this year-over-year but do we ever remove courses we do um and often times we don't run courses um sometimes we don't remove them from our program of studies because it hasn't even if it hasn't been taught for a couple years but then there might be some type of Revival where students become very interested in that and therefore we don't have to propose a new course um but we do also remove courses from uh our program of studies when it's the sort of the course material is seen obsolete or not aligned with where we're going in the future yeah and I also I'll meet meet with the um sorry we'll meet with the ual coordinators you know each at about this time talk about what courses they think you know they're going to be able to to run but what we would like to do is really have student voice so we put them out there they do their selections we look at the numbers and then based on those numbers we make decisions with the AC's around okay which which courses we going to run this year year um sometimes we run them on an alternate so they might run one year and not the following year so we make those decisions you know based on student student voice but then also Logistics and and stuff like that so okay I'm I'm real glad to see the personal finance cuz having two two graduated high school children and one in I'm like you guys don't know how to do this no okay so I think that'll be a great class I'd love to see it almost mandatory at some point but just then and there's talk that it's going to be made mandatory at state level at the state level I know there was a school district I forget where but for seniors they did it like the week after they graduate but before they walk so it's like they're done with school and then they have like a week's worth of time just to go over like stuff like this West not exactly that but no but one of the schools just made it part of their kind of require this not quite my only question is the Hands-On portion of the advanced marketing is that separate from like internship like if they're going to go out to the community and do actual handson marketing yeah just within the course there so they might have people who are looking for some marketing help or something along those lines but it wouldn't be students who are actually in the internship program be yeah they're always looking for authentic projects and that's definitely something that uh the business department has been really on The Cutting Edge up to and also within the DECA Foundation they do that um I just my own question obviously with the wonderful budget that we obvious have gone through um obviously we wouldn't be hiring new teachers for these these these course of top by Caron teachers um is there any cost to adding courses would it be moving someone's schedule are we going to have to bring in an extra Spanish teacher to whatever so on and so forth no as Mr Cy said we really put these in the program studies students make selections and sometimes if a new course is offered but there's not enough teaching capacity to do it then we don't run it unfortunately um but that's basically the decisions we make every year based on where students are at um some of them for instance the advanced manufacturing ones that we kind of need to offer um because it's part of the pathway there so we would reallocate sort of our teacher uh resources within computer science so Miss Murphy basically would teach this rather than a robotic section or rather than a programming section perfect any other questions I mean I guess my only other comment I guess is I think all three courses make a whole ton of sense for 2025 um I'm completely with Dan on the personal finance you know looking student loans credit card debt everything that's plaguing this country as as you know what we've seen um and then obviously manufacturing and and uh marketing is just a huge aspect from a higher red standpoint and you know obviously getting involved you know even if they just go to the uh into the job Force so I think all three makeing a whole ton of sense I guess the best way to do this is to vote on them individually um you can vote on all three at once if you like unless there's a split vote in some way shape or form cool so let's do all three of them so I will entertain a motion to approve all three new P courses of the high school second second all those in favor I thank you welcome Jus uh all right number nine discussion and vote on the norn high school Honor Society fees Dr o okay thank you so um tonight in your packet you have some information about um the previous school year so 23 24 school year and um the number of students that were involved in different honor societies as well as what was collected in stien um collected in fees from these students and what was paid out um over time so as you can see uh we had a number of students engaged in Honor Society clubs the reason we gave you last year's information is because number one um last year there was the cap that was put in place for this um and this year we still have some moving Targets in terms of expenses um we haven't always already put out the number the expenses that are there we still have a lot of students that have outstanding fees so it's hard for us to kind of make a give you a full picture um so as you know we have a number of societies um there is no cost to join the National Honor Society that is free for our students um but all other honor societies the other nine I believe it is one two three y thanks um pay $50 per Club um last year when we were going through our budget process we removed the cap um for families it used to be a $100 cap uh each year um so last year we collected $9,500 the stiens that are paid to the advisers are about 16,000 and then each of the honor Societies or or many of the honor societies have um memberships for National um chapters you can see that there and then of course just other expenses um whether it be um you know things for the induction ceremony or along those lines so we spent about a total of of $20,000 last year which is about twice the amount of money that was taken in through the um club fees I think it's really important to note that a lot of the honor societies also do a lot of fundraising on their own um whether it is um selling some sort of product or um participating in a fundraiser to keep their organizations going throughout the course of the year um also a lot of the honor societies do a lot of volunteer work it's part of their um chapter in most cases um I know like um mha Theta which is our math Honor Society they do tutoring during LLB a lot of our students are really giving back their time um so that's a little bit of information there for you regarding what the actual costs were to the district um I had asked Dr Doan to reach out to his jikes as well to share inform or collect information about what other high schools are doing um so he reached out to um like kok Valley tvl Bas State um Southern Wier athletic leagues so he had 16 responses um so there are three schools that charge Ethan do you want to do you mind sorry it's very confusing and that's why I like you need to stay for this B yeah so uh my job like just about 34 area principles it's not like a particular league but it is all the TBL and other peer schools in the hamach around here um so 16 of them got back to me um only five of those 16 have like a club fee generally um of those five schools that have club fees three of them charge for Honor societies um then interestingly enough there were those other 11 that don't have regular club fees do charge for some of their honor societies just because they do have dues to National chapters they have expenses for things like community service Transportation all those kind of stuff so they it's kind of a moving Target um clubs when there are club fees 60% of them do also charge for Honor societies um when there are uh no club fees you know a small portion of them charge for Honor socities as well um it was kind of nice to know we do have the most honor Societies in on this area which is great um because it gives all our students opportunity to be recognized and really kind of find their spot um but when you're talking about paying $50 per feet that is difficult as well since you might basically belong to four of them or something on those lines so that's another thing for us to consider um so I think the conversation that we had was is this something that we want to continue with um in terms of charging the the fees are there other ways for us to perhaps um lessen the burden for families when it comes to um fees for Honor societies I know um Dr Doan and I were on the phone earlier today just kind of chatting through some of these uh Logistics and so as he mentioned Norton High School has the most Honor Society some other some places have like the math club or um a science club but it's not necessarily an honor society which is great opportunity for our students to be able to put these things on their college applications as well um my recommendation to the committee would be that if we are going to make a change it would have to be for the following school year for 25 26 as part of the budget process as part of the budget process only because we really have not um budgeted for an increase this year um as as we know we had to make significant Cuts last spring in order to balance our budget um but I think it's a great conversation because as we enter another budget season it it reiterates the fact that every decision that we make has an impact on our families um trying to get my words together but so as a parent of a child that was elected to six honors authorties um it was quite the bill to pay this year cuz there was no cap um I think I said this at one of the previous meetings and this is not to be taken as as a shot at some of the other but these clubs are selective in who they allow this is to me I don't like calling these clubs because there's certain stipulations to join some of the other clubs if you show up you're in the club um and that's not to to dissuade any of the other clubs they do great work our students are great in them but these are a little different um so I think I I do agree with Dr O'Neal that this is something we have to talk about during our budget season obviously the fees you know clearly they're not covering you know what the expenses are which is honestly that's a lot of our fees um they're looking to to offset them so I think this is something we can discuss during our budget season but I I I do think we have to look at these so societies versus clubs um you know it was a special night um my whole family was there to see my youngest um my only child in honor societies um my other two just weren't there academically which you know they did other interests so um it was a great night it it is quite the spectacle and I enjoyed it um and I look at my my child she um still has two more that she can join next year that she just missed a deadline for so that it's compounding everything um and and I think having a lot of those children in that room were multiple honor socities like there was a handful that were one or two um but there was I would say over 50% of the children at that night um were multiple honor societies and I see Mrs barck in the back I'm sure she was in the same boat I was with my child um with multiple societies so I think we do need to take a look at this and I do thank you Mrs bar for bringing this um it's probably something that kind of slipped by us so um but I do think we need to take a look at the societies versus the clubs and possibly look at them a little different um and then maybe that cap is just might be something we have to look at again during our budget season um to figure out what the best thing we can do to try and offset some of the uh some of the the payments that families have to make because I I spoke to another child that's uh I've known for years and they elected not to join honor societies because they couldn't pay the fees which was kind of heartbreaking because that child would have qualified for at least as many as my child um but chose not to because they couldn't the family couldn't afford the fees so um it's definitely something I think we need to take a look at during budget season uh when we talk about expenses and things like that um Jen when if a student is on what us should be called free and reduced lunch or I'm not quite sure the exact terming now do we allow is there like a system in place that allows families who might struggle with payments to still be able to join because I'm we I know we have that with like Athletics and stuff is that work yes so um I Christine could maybe speak to it a little bit more clearly than I could um in terms of if um the reach out we're not used to this new setup yet um the high school usually reach out to us and um talk it over with us and we will wave or reduce the feas perfect so there is a I guess that's kind of important I guess so there are options for families and I and I think you know to Dan's point to hear that a student chose not to go for it because of that reason is is uh disheartening because there could have been an opportunity for um for us to reduce or or wave a fe so Jen just because so you can't hear me anyway I feel like I'm so far away from your Shar I know we are so far away I feel like I could bust into a song right now but um yeah nobody wants to get about it so I mean we've talked about this Dan we've talked about this for years we've talked about this so it's nice to kind of have it here in front of us the only thing that and and again I agree that we shouldn't have a charge for things like this but with what we just went through with this budget like how do we add another 20,000 almost $21,000 into our budget like before we can vote on anything tonight like I think I need to wrap my head around like how are we going to pay for this and and I think Sher to your point um there are I mean as I said earlier the clubs the societies themselves also fundraise so there are other expenses that are going out there that are not even included in this document here um it it could be that we Institute a cap just for the society so maybe we say it's a $100 cap for Honor Society payments and there's no cap for for other clubs um that would probably be um my recommendation just because I think um clearly we couldn't make up the whole 21,000 we would have to kind of find somewhere in the middle and knowing that we were able to collect 9500 last year with that cap in place for the honor societies um makes me feel a little bit more comfortable um but you're absolutely right like it it needs to be a part of the bigger conversation about fees and um how we're subsidizing some of our offerings right so what so what would the vote actually be for for tonight tonight it it we don't have to vote on anything tonight it if we felt the need um it's always better for us to have the word on there um because then we can choose to vote um and otherwise if you guys wanted to vote and it didn't say vote you wouldn't be able right okay yeah I just want to make sure cuz we definitely need more information I think the other thing too and this is where I I I like to see the the numbers but unfortunately this number is a little bit skewed because last year had the cap mhm so this year for example if you're in six honor societies is $300 mhm so the numbers are going to be higher yeah going into next fiscal year because there was no cap so that's the one thing I didn't like to see and I know we don't have this year's numbers so don't you know I appreciate the work but you know we're going to be closer to covering because we didn't have a c right so but I I I honestly think we need to look at um you know obviously this part of the budget process but looking at these as you know maybe Society versus a club because we have you know clubs that are you know where whether it's Deca or best buddies or something like that where you know they they have the fee as well but um you know they're different different because I mean and V and I'm not going to put you on the spot but best buddies anybody could join correct yeah um anyone who can join best buddies we do have requirements that they have to meet academically like behaviorally um but there's also no fee to join best buddies okay um I mean I think another thing just to kind of keep in because I D I totally agree with you like the numbers are going to be a little skewed for this year coming up but I think another thing we got to kind of pay attention to is the Sens that we're paying to have you know teachers and staff you know obviously oversee these uh societies we're also you know teaching negotiations here so you're probably looking at if I had to guess those numbers probably going up a little bit as well you know to you know fit with the the colder and everything else we're doing so I mean I think we definitely need a few some more information on on what this year would look like um but yeah I mean I'm I think everybody I probably can speak for a little bit like where it comes to an Honor Society it feels like you're academically you did it you made it and it feels kind of creepy weird like it's just like it's odd that we're charging someone for being academically successful that's what we want you know um so I I totally get it I I can you know it's definitely a little tough one here punitive perfect word good job and um I just had so the National Honor Society we they there's no fee for that correct the school The District covers it covers all of it for those for that particular one and is that just like a thing or is that Statewide or is that I think it's just a thing right yeah oldest Society it's one that was here before the subject specific ones and I think that it's just kind of had that place of honor that it was probably the I didn't know if well I didn't know if it was like a state thing and like it was like a a law I don't know and you know what Justine I actually and I don't know a lot of the history behind it and you might know better than I do but um it my guess or assumption is that these started out as clubs in in most places right um it was you know the math club The Art Club something along those lines and the student paid students paid fees and then therefore they you know over the time they transferred in or you know kind of took that transition into a more formal Honor Society so that would be my guess um because I know if you look back in Old contracts we we joke sometimes about like some of the things that are in there for stiens like we haven't had majorettes at the middle school and I don't know how long but it's still in the contract so those are the things I think that probably have been um you know kind of changed over the years um but Mr Cersei also just reminded me that a lot of our students that are in these honor societies are also paying fees for AP exams so just something else for us to consider and that is the responsibility of the family Ethan do you I mean we have 10 it looks like 10 honor societies I don't ever remember having 10 when I was in school that was also a long time ago but nor would I probably be in so um however did like kind of what is it what are the other schools have I know you said we have the most how what's around the average uh the majority have just one additional so like 50% or sorry I should say 50% of those 16 respondents small samp size I had one additional one that was trim almost across the board that's the musical Honor Society um and then there were uh two other schools that had an additional one and but 75% of the schools have less than three additional honor societies um after Honor Society after National Honor Society so there aren't too many many of them do have as we said math club um I know there's only been one Honor Society added since I've been here in the last six years that was business Honor Society and that was really just at initiative of student who said you know there's so many students taking advantage of the business program we deserve the recognition that we should have just like the other departments and they just kind of formed it um got the national chapter or sort of authorization and then um started the Honor Society and I think that's how almost all of them began I think Kimber who was a teacher here said she started the English Honor Society so that's like 15 years ago or so um before that there were only a few um so I think they like you said they're kind of clubs people want the recognition and that's how it kind of becomes part of our our club or Society culture okay yeah I mean I think it's you know as we shortly enter into our budget season I think this has to be something on our radar and I think we have to look at doing something different with the societies versus the clubs um as much as it might be a little bit more leg work for the the business office but um we have to we have to take a look at it because I I think it is especially without the cap um it is is a huge expense uh cuz then you tackle you know you have this early in the fall and then you know in the spring you start your AP and actually you have to pay for the APS right before um so I mean you're out I know my my high school student I believe we it was about $600 in a matter of a couple weeks for the fees for this in AP so um kind of in with our athletic fees too so um but yeah I think it's we have to definitely take a look at it and this Christine this probably a question for you if we instructed the um teachers who were you know being the uh what the leaders of of of this of each Society for example the national business a society is 42 kids 42 * 50 $2,100 could we include so instead of doing I know the all fundrais but like could we make it that instead of saying you owe us 50 bucks could we say you have 42 members we're adding $2100 to your fundraising you see what I'm saying so like that way it's not directly coming from the parents but they know their fundraising goal in order to pay hypothetically Z they're going to have to donate their time doing something and I managing that home I don't know how that work the fundraising is for the Student Activity portion which is a separate account so so this is a club which is serves as like part of our revolving account and those are all very small like subsidary accounts within it the fundraising is different kind of like how the DECA has a separate Student Activity account as well so that is what um they fundraise themselves they pay for as the Student Activity account um items they want so I don't know making this up like jacket you know what I mean um so it's just different because it has to be used for purpose only of the student not anything to do with the district got it do that way thank you yeah I was just like thinking like if we added that bottom line like hey in order in some Society might be like we're not doing any fundraising going to charge people 50 bucks you know and then others might say hey you know what if we all go down there and do this we don't got to pay $50 out of our pocket was all but that obviously makes sense any other questions uh M Bar would you want to say anything or I have a real quick question where did you come up with a number of 42 people in the business uh that was what was on our paper do I get a copy of that paper I'm happy to share it with you I was just C I just asked Mr cers if we know how many can you just do I know this is procedure please sorry I'm usually loud enough yeah I hear you um but what we have in front of us Mrs barck is the numbers from last year actually I'm going give you a different one cuz this one WR um better no these are my updated copies um so these are last year numbers cool I was will you just state your name and where you live please melan G 26 John SC thank you I was just asking Mr Cersei if we had an idea of how many students are actually involved in um honor societies and real quickly hang on one second 2 48 so if you don't count to the National Honors Society it's like 450 that's the number I'm looking for so 456 * 50 is roughly with quick math $23,000 So in theory the charging of the fees covers the stuff and all the things which makes perfect sense um but remember those numbers are based on last year where there was a cap this year there wouldn't be a cap right no but I'm saying if you multiply by the 50 then at least covers the expenses that's what I'm saying but it was just more the again on behalf of all of the senior parents this year who are getting nailed with this one um we have a lot of kids who have worked very very hard throughout their entire academic career to get to where they're at who are literally choosing not to pay their fees and will not get the Honors that they have worked hard for for their entire High School career because it comes down to in my house we're writing a $450 check cuz my kid bust are hump um there are about 20 families in the graduating senior year who are going to write checks the same size as mine I don't know about the rest of them but you've got a solid group of kids in this class that are are eight and nine Honor Society kids that's a really really Hefty sum on top of three and four AP exam fees on top of all of the Athletics and everything else they do to bring notoriety to this town all the places they go and things they do that you know represent Norton and it just seems a little cheap don't hear that that sounds really bad rewind um there's not a person sitting at this bench that doesn't feel the pain I get that there's not a person in this room who doesn't give everything they can for the students of this town so please hear and understand that but as the parents were sitting there and going as Mr shei I'm sure you did as well when all of those tests came to at the same time as the fees and we all sat there and said and I only have a junior so yeah well and it it's lovely to consider amending this for next year but then it looks like the well the class is 2025 so only got shafted so we figured it was at least worth trying to see if there was some consideration to make as perhaps capping the fees just for the seniors this year so that you know and maybe cap it at 200 instead of 450 at least to help alleviate some of the burden on the families maybe that's some sort of a concession that could be made to to make it worth something to them so that the kids wouldn't have to make the choice um and that they'd get to be honored for the things that they've worked hard for so so that was just one of the things that we were hoping that would be considered and thank you for sharing the numbers I like I said I just asked Mr Cersei if he had was like I don't know but there's got to be a quick way to do that math so the good the good news is we brought them we have enough smart students and with the set fees we can cover the cost so we shouldn't have to worry about that but again it just feels a little not that it feels personal because again nobody hears IND like it's not that don't hear that but and and unfortunately that's the the hardest part is when you're looking at a $3.4 million budget deficit you are literally turning over rocks and Pebbles and trying to find any way that you can to make it work and to not cut another staff members so it's and trust me none of it feels good no and there's not one thing that we can do that isn't going to affect the students so this is just another one of those things but we figured we at least bring it up so there it is thank you so much for your time and attention appreciate it thank you thank you very much um so I guess we don't need to vote which is prob table um we just have a discussion and we can see that we'll visit as part of the budget process you like can we can we just go back for one second like just what Melanie said is there anything that can be done for this year at all or no we're just there's nothing that we can do we can look at it a little bit more closely um I mean I don't want to put anybody on the spot I just think that you know like I said we've been talking about this forever and I completely agree with Melanie said like they just I feel like we're penalizing these kids who have really worked hard um so I'm just I don't want to add more work to your play but maybe it's just a good idea to just kind of run some numbers and see if there's a little bit more closely and see if there's something that we can do um as I said it's a very tight budget year and I know I know I know none of it feels good none of it yeah I know none of it does I just fig it's worth asking thank you Sher all right um moving on the any last last item nice uh any other business that people have no all right so seeing none there um we obviously just adjourn as normal and then we go so we do have a uh just so everyone knows we do have a joint meeting with our select board and our finance committee to kind of start the FY 26 budget um so we'll be doing that at 7:00 so we got a little bit of a break here um but if one welcome to stay if you want but we all know how that goes um soent motion to just before we um just a reminder I won't be at the next meeting thank you I will entertain a motion to adjourn so move all those in favor thank you very much I beeny doing a good today