WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=J1hcbhgqPSg

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: J1hcbhgqPSg):
- 00:00:00: Meeting Commences, Thanks to Hosts, Agenda Overview
- 00:05:17: Spotlighting Graduating Seniors in the Writing Program
- 00:09:44: Consent Agenda Approval and Committee Reports
- 00:13:09: Select Board Retreat and Facilities Naming Committee
- 00:14:48: Appreciation for Friends of Reading Meco and Feedback
- 00:15:53: Public Comment: Lavand's Daughter Update on Health
- 00:17:10: Reading Meco Updates: Events, Tutoring, Gala, Advocacy
- 00:24:02: Testimonial from Tyrie Walker, a Reading Meco Student
- 00:29:13: Meco Team Spotlight: Coordinators and Their Work
- 00:41:25: Public Comment: Grandmother Appreciates Meco Support
- 00:43:53: Committee Members Share Plans, Gratitude, Leadership
- 00:45:23: HR Director Search Process and Timeline Discussion
- 00:53:08: Financial Update: Q3 Review and Year-End Forecast
- 01:22:20: Approval to Transfer and Close Extracurricular Fund


Part: 1

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I had the Zoom. >> We'll find out. >> That's your bet. >> Me or Yeah. Yes. you. >> Hi.

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>> Hello. >> That's for the team. >> Hi. How you doing? Happy Monday. >> Either of the bags two bags. I wasn't there for the first

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second but I was there. Oh yeah. >> Especially because you were there. You probably remember what happened because >> I don't want. >> All right. We good to go?

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>> Let's do it. >> What is today's date? Okay. Uh, I call the May 11th meeting of the school committee to order. Um, before we jump in and I review the agenda, let me just say thanks to our hosts. We're here at the MECO headquarters in Roxbury. So,

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thanks everyone for here for hosting us. We're excited to do our our annual meeting here. Um, and our agenda will reflect it as well. So, uh, we're going to start with public comment for anything that's not on the agenda. We've got a relatively small crowd here, so I'm not expecting much public comment, but the opportunity will be there. Uh

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our focus on excellence tonight is a spotlight on our our Boston resident seniors. We'll do the consent agenda uh reports and then the new business section. Uh I want to just express a moment of appreciation for for friends of writing mechco and we've got our VECO co-directors here to to share with us

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the state of the writing mech program. Um Dr. Milichesky will review and we'll we'll take a vote to approve the HR director search process and timeline. Uh we will have our Q3 financial update and then we'll close out the evening with a vote to approve the transfer of remaining funds from ample revolving

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funds that we've been um we've been talking about for the last several months. Uh that will bring us to the end of the evening. Uh so with that uh let's jump into public comment. So, is anybody anybody on Zoom? Um, you can come off mute. If you have any public comment for

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anything that's not on the agenda tonight or anybody here in the room you want to say anything, now's your chance. All right. So, we'll move to our focus on excellence. Um, my hand to walk the seniors. All right. We need your slides

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for that. I think that'll be great. >> Oh, that's right. Oh, yeah. That's right. I'm so sorry. Uh, we've got a video we want to share from Canvas before we jump in here. Got to do this without messing

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everything up, getting us logged off. Share this window. All right, fingers crossed this is going to work. Happy Monday, Reading. Thanks so much for having your school committee meeting at Inc. We're so excited to be

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partners with you in this process and this progress towards reducing barriers for our babies and improving educational equity and access for all of our kids. Mechco Boston reading everybody is do work

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together. So we are so excited to be doing this work with you. I want to say thank you all to all of you who came to the gala. It was so wonderful cutting a rug and hugging and sharing the journey apart with you. And also I wanted to wish a happy birthday to our revolutionary

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in training, our revolutionaries in residence, Jerica and Cindy. You guys are doing an amazing job with our kids. Thank you so much for loving, leading, and lifting the legacy of of our shared work together. We couldn't do this

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without you. So, thank you so much for being role models for our kids and paving the way for the transformational journey that we're doing together in education. I loved you. I appreciate you. We appreciate you. Happy school committee meeting and I'll see you guys

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soon. Bye. >> All right. Thank you for that. All right. Now, we will have our focus on excellence and spotlight our Boston resident seniors. I think I'm switching to the depth of that. Correct. >> Correct. Slide four. Yeah.

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Check on that. Let's see. Yeah, if you have socialight to share better. All right, we're gonna get there. almost like

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sh. All right, that's about as good as we're going to get. >> Okay. Um, first we have Andrea Hall. She's been in the med um writing medical program since she is was in kindergarten. She'll be attending MCPHHS this upcoming fall and she's looking to

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major in prehealth sciences and to with I forget how Shakespeare pathways um physician assistance program. Um then we have happiness. She started the program in the eighth grade. She too will be um going to MCPHs this upcoming fall um

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majoring in diagnostic medical. We have Clinton King. You're going to notice a pattern. Many of these of our seniors um started in the ninth grade. That was part of the um expansion with Mr. Curtis Martin who is here with us today. So, we have Clinton King. Um

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started in 9th grade. He's going the trade route with um electrical and he played football for Running High. We have Carmani. He is still undecided and he's been in Meco running since the ninth grade as well. Bington, he also started his ninth grade

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year going to Monroe College majoring in sports management. Um he played football and does track and is also a part of the SOA group up at the high school. We have Aiden Williams. He also started his ninth grade year in our program. He will be attending trade um taking up

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carpentry and he also played on the football team and his mom is also part of Portco. Yes. Next we have Assad Lane. He will be attending Porter and Chester institution to become an electrician. Um Assad

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participated in winter and spring track and has also been here since his freshman year. Um, next we have Janiah Belfen. She will be going to Framingham State University where she will be majoring in business. Also started her

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freshman year. Next, we have Fabricio Amado. He will be attending Fitsburg State University where she's going to major in game design. He's been a writing medical student since second grade. Um, then next we have Rashan Ryland. Um he's

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going to be going to Copen State University where he's going to be majoring criminal justice. He also played uh football and has been in Reading since freshman year. And last but not least, we have

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Jakai Hopson. Um so Mr. Jakai Hopson, fun fact, he has three businesses already. So he is going the entrepreneurship route. Um he's very into um tech. He also has like his own

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clothing business, tech business. Um so he will be getting into that which we appreciate it. Love that for him. Support him. Um he's been in Reading since kindergarten. >> It's awesome. >> Like their businesses.

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>> Yes. >> It's awesome. Good businesses. It's impressive. >> All right. >> So start. And then um next we did want to share just some updates across the program for this year. >> Yeah, we're gonna hold that. We'll come

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that'll come up very quickly. Just >> our senior >> and uh we're excited to celebrate them in just a couple weeks here. Graduation. >> Nice. >> Um all right, so let's move to the consent agenda. Uh is there a motion?

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>> Motion to approve the consent. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Laura. Uh maybe discussion on the consent agenda. Okay, we are all in person. So all in favor all oppose carries five to zero. Um we

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will move to reports. I'll start with you. >> Great. I'll share a couple quick thank yous. Congratulations first. Uh we see him here tonight. Curtis Smart. any chance to look to get we'll get was a chance to thank him too. I think we're all in this room very encouraged and excited with the leadership of uh Cindy and Jericho over the last couple of years as our our co-cho directors and I

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think they'll al they'll share the same thing I do that uh they took over our program that had a really strong foundation on the work that many leaders have done in the past and I know that during my tenure was uh through with Curtis Martin just appreciate all that he did to we think uh improve our program in so many ways for students you saw that tonight even so many of our

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students who are going on with some uh big goals and dreams or as a result of entering into the program and the work they did at Roma High School as part Curtis's expansion work with Jess Desessie and the Ready School Committee. So Curtis, you left a lasting impact and legacy in our community. Uh just thank you for all your work and thank you for being a part of these our students lives

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still. You come to graduation, you come to games, you come here. So we know you're still a part of the Ready community. So a sincere and genuine thank you for for you and for your leadership. >> Um two would like to give another congratulation to uh Dr. Ramsey Merritt as the community knows uh do Dr. Merritt

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now uh was completing his through his uh residency dartal residency uh in the reading public school. So he's a thirdyear student at the Harvard Grad School of Education um placed in a full-time residency in our district over the last year. Uh Ramsey was also had done three years in our district through

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like various fellowships and internships and then culminating with his full-time residency which did a lot of work supporting leadership growth development in our district. So huge thank you to Ramsay. Congratulations to him uh for thank you for supporting our community. Also a thank you to the Harvard Grad School of Education. There's two years

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in a row that they've fully funded a uh full-time uh resident in our district. So typically the cost of around $85,000 and Harvard committed to uh fully funding those in our district for two years in a row. So again, a huge thank you to Harvard and a big congratulations to Dr. Merritt. And then last, I'd like

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to give a congratulations to RMHS for just finding out through Jessie that they were awarded a sixth innovation pathway, which is the uh business and finance pathway. I think if you see some of the profiles of students, you can see students who have an interest in business uh and finance. That pathway came as a result primarily of student

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feedback. We had our alumni come back saying, "We are very interested in the business and finance world. Uh we think need to do more at the high school to open doors for our students earlier on." So the high school now has a pathway which we're excited to share more about. uh the next couple months where they will now be able to students get

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involved in business, finance uh earlier on in their studies at the high school. So again, a huge congratulations to the high school. Excited to see what's ahead for our students in Los. >> Hey guys. >> Um all right, let's move to the Aison reports and I'll just start the table.

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Tom, >> I start with the bag. Um I think some most of us heard this but just everybody else hears this. Um the select board had their retreat just last weekend. Um and they were notified uh by the town's

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accountant that this coming November. She's highly advising that we have a a minimum of a 7.7 million over. That's a minimum and she's advising a higher number as well. So that's important for us for obvious reasons. um

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impact in the FY28 budget. We all know this as well. The FY27 budget was approved by town meeting just a few week just a week ago at this point in time. Um but this upcoming potential override is something we're have to strategize around and plan around over

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the summer. >> Laura, >> uh no report tonight. >> Jeff, no report. >> Aaron, >> no report tonight. Um just one quick report uh on my end the the facilities naming advisory committee now that we're post superintendent search a post town

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meeting we're going to get refocused on that and get that up and running. So um at our next meeting which is on May 28th I believe um we'll have a committee make up for for that advisory committee for this committee to approve um so that they can begin their work and come back to us with a recommendation on those two

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nominations. So okay uh with that we'll move on to new business and Dr. just I think I'm going to hand to you to to say a few words about what Meco >> this this will be brief. I know we may have some members of uh friends already metco on zoom as well. Uh this just gave us the chance to say thank you on behalf

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of Cindy Jerick and I for their continued partnership with our administration. Uh we meet with them every couple of weeks uh with Ela and Levanda uh chair and co-chair to work through all different things around our program and program improvement. So we just wanted to take a moment to say uh thank you to them for their leadership.

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uh also to say that uh Ilk and Leavon have also been hosting listening sessions from the beginning of the year with families, with students, with staff to think about uh making sure our program improves by listening to uh the feedback of those who know our program the best. So, we haven't quite figured

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out yet exactly how we'll use the feedback for improvement, but just know that they've been working really hard to collect feedback and hopefully more to come over the next couple of months of turning that feedback into uh some goals for our program uh as well. So huge thank you to them as always to me and Derek if you have anything you want to

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share about. >> No, we agree totally with everything that Dr. Weski said and we appreciate um the partnership that we have with Hila. >> Hi, sorry I just want to say something. I'm on Zoom. I'm Nabiha Lav's daughter.

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>> Hang on just one second. I'm trying to figure out why we >> can you hear me now? side. See if Wanda can hear >> Wanda. >> How about now? >> No. >> No. Okay, hold on one second. I'm trying to

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have any turn. >> Um, let's see. Wanda or Phil, can you talk either one of you try to talk to us? I >> I can. Hi. >> Can you hear me? Can you hear me? >> No, >> you can't hear me. It's Wanita. >> I can hear you, Wanita.

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>> I can hear both of you. >> What about the audio source on the hand side? >> Okay, try now. >> Hi. Can you hear me now? >> All right, we did it. >> I'm Nabiha. I'm Lavand's daughter. She

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isn't unh she's unable to make the meeting due to some health issues right now. But I do just want to let you guys know that I am here on her behalf today. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for being here. >> No problem. >> Awesome. All right. So with that now we will return to the rest of the

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presentation. So let me share. All right. Take it away and Jerica. >> Um we're just with this next these next couple of slides, we're just going to share um all the good that's happening in Reading. So um each year we host two events, one in the fall and one in the

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spring. This fall and October we hosted um a Reading Mech family event over at Lorchester Bowl. Um and you can see a few pictures here. We had a really great turnout with both Reading residents and Boston resident um families with the entire medical staff um also present.

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And then the next slide we have which is our I think our bigger hit is roller skating. Um we this is our second year now having about 120 um families join and um even Dr. that his family came and

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joined us this year which was >> but these are always such great events and we always hear such positive feedback from students um parents and even um ruler worlds has shared that they appreciate when we come and how respectful everybody is and just how much fun it seems like everybody's

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having >> the best skater >> Valentina Camila Aaron just And a lot of the high school a lot of the high school we had a big turn. Usually the last year was mostly elementary but this year we actually had a good amount of high

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school students that came as well. So we showed some skills >> and parents too. Parents put on their skates and it >> I mean you can be honest cuz he's leaving next. He was in the practice section. >> Um and then so for middle school um we

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have some after school tutoring. So the first half of the year Parker kind of gets prioritized because they're picked up second. So they have an additional depending on the bus to traffic an additional 15 to 30 minutes. So we encourage students to go seek their teachers out for any extra support they may need. on their homework. Then the

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second half of the year it switches over to college and college um students have that opportunity. Additionally, um there is the um the option of them taking the later bus up at the high school if their parents are okay with that um where they're also able to receive any

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additional support after school. And we still do our honoral lunches for our middle school and high school students. So any student who is on honor roll um they get their own special um lunch which is a good incentive for them. I know as as a kid it's sensitized

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with food even at this grown age and they have funny and then we do our end of the year celebration um which our students do look forward to. We do that with elementary and middle school. And then this slide just shows how we not only support our students in school

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but also out of school. So we have our um freshman student here, Dion. He made varsity as a freshman and he's a starter. He's the lead off he's the leadoff batter. So we had the privilege of watching him play the other day which was awesome. We have Sayia who was a part of the Finding Nemo play production

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at Kage Middle School. And then >> Nelly Nelly, she was a part of I think was the Osford. Yeah. >> So um then you have Miss Sonia Cindy. Um so we love um going to our students games whether it's in Boston or if it's

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here in Bing. We we love to show support for them not only in school again out of school as well. Next, we wanted to just share some pictures on the Mechco gala. So, this was a first for us. And so, it was important that we mention it because um

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the reason why we had so many of our staff attend is because we sent out an email and all of the PTO's in Reading got together and sponsored tickets um for staff to attend. And so um just wanted to note that the partnership that

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we'd have across u all schools and all PTO. So I just wanted to highlight that. So in the picture where it says enter in reading we have Sonia Lomba who is the medical coordinator Saga Killum Sha Brown who's at barrels. You have myself you have Katie Buckley who is the

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assistant principal up at the high school and we've been doing a lot of amazing work um with all the students especially you know supporting our Boston resident students. We have uh Jannina Santiago who's at JE in her first year. And then we have one of our

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lovely parents um Tiff Williams who's very active with for Reading Mecho but also very active in Mechango headquarters as well. And then at the bottom we have Aiden Williams who's our um who's one of our students. So um we were all able to um just attend the gala

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and it was uh just a very beautiful experience and very empowering. And then on the other picture, we took a little picture with um Ronnie Dvau from New Edition. >> You know, we had to put that out there. Ronnie from New Edition who did Mechco.

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So, he was in Newton. He did Newton. And then Marvin, last name isn't coming to me, but he was the manager of the New Edition group and he also did Mechco as well. Next, we just wanted to share some pictures from MECO Advocacy Day. Um, we

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had a great turnout. We were able to receive funding from my headquarters and get a bus. And so, here you can see just pictures of students, um, staff, parents, school committee members who came out to support. Um we also have a

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picture of Ila Lavanda who actually spoke at advocacy day and kind of shared the importance of um parent involvement and support with with the program. So just wanted to shout them out and thank them for their leadership. >> And just for fun we're we for the second

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year in a row have brought the biggest crowd even though Lincoln Sbury likes to throw shots at us to say that it's them. It's been us two years and I don't tell. Oh yeah. And the picture at the top we have um you can't really see but that's um is it Rev Hagerty who's the representative of Reading. So um he was

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kind enough to step out of a meeting and kind of speak to us um take pictures with us and promise the pizza party. So we're going to hold red Hagerty. So that's >> nice. >> All right. Next, we're going to hear from our own sophomore Tyrie Walker, who

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joined Mechco his eighth grade year. He's the peer elected class president for his grade. He's also here in person. Um, but we wanted to share this quick video that we did cross. >> Can you share a moment where you felt

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supported and successful as being part of the writing program? I would say that it it happened in this room that we're in right now when um I was a class officer last year and I'm secretary and I felt as if that I wasn't listened to and no one really acknowledged my ideas

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nor all the work I was putting in and I sat here with some friends and citizen whose room this is and I was saying how I wasn't going to run for office again but it was actually my friends who convinced me and the citizen to not only run for office but to run for class president

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and I did and I won. And those two friends are also class officers now. So I think that'd be a defining moment from where I felt like actually a part of things. >> And who is Miss Stinson to reading? >> Uh Miss Stinson to reading is I don't inter

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guidance counselor or a social worker second mom or honor. I don't know. Everyone knows the senses. How has being in Reading Mechco shaped both your relationships in Reading and in your home community? >> Um, I would say you can vote for Reing

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community and home. Well, it would be different for Reading community. It's like they acknowledge that you're getting up at a certain time to be here and be a part of their community and try to, you know, be progressive along with them. And then for home, my family has done me for years. So that's like

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another thing for them like they're like proud to see another generation go to and be a part of this. >> That's beautiful. >> Tyrie, what has your overall experience in the running Mechco program like so far? >> Um in the beginning I didn't like it. I

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really hated it. And it wasn't like just um getting up early. I did. We kind of felt like neglected by our former mech like like by our old Meco director, but like it did change a lot and um I think it's it's a lot better now because now we

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have like directors that actually like care and want to be involved. So it's better now. >> What challenges have you faced in the program and how have you worked through them? >> Um in the beginning I hated that joke. I did I hated getting up so early in the

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morning. I hated being around so many people that did not look like me. Just simply didn't understand as much they said they did. I hated um learning about civil rights or black history or slavery. Everyone in your history class looks at you because you're the only

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black person. But how I overcome it? I think I just finally I stopped trying to assimilate, I guess, and stopped trying to be like them and just being myself and acknowledging the fact that they don't like it. They don't like it, but clearly they liked it because they like to be as a president.

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So, it's about that's about it. That's all I have for that. >> What advice would you give a younger student who is thinking about joining the MECO program? >> Um, I would say to speak up because you have a lot of feelings of doubt,

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contemplation, or positive feelings and sometimes you keep it to yourself because you think that you're not or you don't have the place to speak because you don't live here. But um definitely speak up because the odds are there's someone else that feels that way and there's at least five people that feel the way that other person feels.

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>> Yeah. >> Is that for next year that you'll be the student the class president? I am now. >> You are. Are you also going to meet it next year? >> I hope they I hope I win again. >> Yes. Okay, great. >> Tyrie, while we're on there, do you mind to share? I know. I think it was really interesting. We just had a pizza earlier

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share a little bit of like future like future goals kind of like future career interests, things like that. Do you mind sharing that? I think people will be interested to hear that. >> Like politic, government. >> I was just talking to the school board and Dr. Meski how I like politics and

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the listening thing. So, >> yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Um, to me the biggest thing to advance in anything is just to listen. Because sometimes you'll have people that are like into sports on one side of the building and then you have people that are into music and drama on other side of the building and

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they'll think, "Oh, well, I have nothing in common with someone from the opposite side. They have nothing in common." But the odds are if you really sit down and listen, they actually sound exactly the same. They whine about the same things. They complain about things. They don't like spending money on certain things. So the best thing to show is that

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although I'm at a different point in my power, I'm still a peer. I'm still a person that wants to be respected and I'm a person that wants to give respect. So when you kind of knock down that wall of being, oh, I'm better than you or I'm from Boston and we're not equivalent. If you just show them that you wouldn't

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listen and that you want to aim to help them and progress, it's a lot easier and it levels up the playing mile. Thanks. So, next we just wanted to give a little spotlight to our amazing Michael team. Only took us the whole year to have a

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full uh group picture. And then on the sides, you'll see the little images um uh on all the different schools from well the entire district, right? Elementary all the way to high school. So, we wanted to showcase that. And then um as we go through the slides, you'll

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see every um medical coordinator, sack or just medical coordinator um kind of did their own slides. You can kind of see their personality and the pictures. So yes. So first we're going to start off with Sha Brown who was at Barrows.

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She's in her year three. um coming in she was um she started an annual door decorating contest um at Barrows. And so the first year it was Black History Month. Last year it was women's um

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history month. And so this year they went back to um Black History Month. On the next slide, you'll see don't move now, but you'll see you'll see some pictures of the doors. Um she uh started a barrels mentoring program as another

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tier 2 support for students where they currently have 15 students paired with barrel staff. Um she has facilitated the social emotional learning team meetings and supports uh currently supports six students and their families and we

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actually have some barrel students um currently and from the past with us now. So, these are some pictures from the door decorating contest. You'll see there was a Malcolm X store. Um, Asia Wilson who's a basketball player. They

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had Carl Hamilton, right? Carl Hamilton, who I think he's a a NASCAR driver. Um, we have some Boss and George Washington Carver. So, a lot of the students and staff really took their time to um create the doors and I think they do

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like a contest. So, it's a it's a building lift for sure. Um, Dr. But Chesky is too nice on on the on the scoring. >> True. >> On the scoring this year, he did a lot better. >> A lot. They needed me to be a little harder harder of a judge this year. So

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the feedback was very critical. >> Simon Cow open. >> So just wanted to showcase um some of the doors. Next we have Miss Cindy me over here. Um, so I'm the longest tenure medical

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coordinator sack. So I was one of the first that Mr. Martin brought on to the team when we expanded. Um, second year as in the director role. So currently I'm a part of the instructional leader leadership team, student support team,

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school council, 504 attendance assembly team. um also helped facilitate and establish tier 2 SEO supports in Birch along with our inclusion specialist Jackie Palooi um and our assistant principal um Lisa

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Azero. Um we currently run targeted lunch bunches to support students with foundational skills. Um and something that we're currently working on is bringing culture night to Birch. I know um at Koulage they do a culture night and maybe some of the other schools. I

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think maybe the high school. So we're trying to bring it at at Birch and hopefully to all of those schools as well. Next we have Janina Santiago who's at Joshua Eden. So this is her first year in the medical sack role. She currently

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organizes lunch groups for Jed and our Boston resident students to focus on social skills um by using games and rewards. She started win interventions to reach more students across all grades, focusing on SEAL lessons of the month. Um and she also assisted in

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bringing back our JE mentoring program for students um who would benefit. Right. Fun fact, she's also the twin sister of our other MECO director, Derica Santiago. That's the similarity. >> Yep. Fraternal 9.

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>> I'm older. Y um next best four minutes of your It's four minutes of enough respect. >> Next we have Sonia Lomba who's at Kill. She's also at year three as well as a

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lot of our um coordinator set. She's a part of the IoT SST in the district social emotional team. Um she's also help implement tier 2CO supports and also facilitate some targeted SEO lunch bunches um for all of our all the

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students at and last but not least for elementary we have Julian Lynn who's at Woodend. Um so he is actually currently servicing gen edge students as well as IEP students. Um he creates an office environment where

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students can walk in and feel like they have a place um to land. He introduced new and exciting ways to learn about African-American history within the school alongside leadership. And he also facilitates um social

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emotional curriculum to K to second grade to help provide foundational skills at Quad. Um, next we have middle school. I'm over at Coolage. I'm on year three. Um, I start when we implemented the sixth

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grade SEO advisory lessons this school year. Um, we also I've implemented the eighth grade lessons this year as well. Um, their block is longer. 8th grade is 50 minutes. Sixth grade is anywhere between 15 to 20. Depends how fast they get into home room. Um this is my third

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year being a part of the multicultural committee. Um started over when I was between Parker and Coolage. So Parker and Kulage now are on year three for their multicultural night. Um I never not have a sixth, seventh, and eighth grade lunch group Monday through Friday. Sometimes I think my dorm policy is

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almost too open. They never have a student in there. Um, and I'm also part of the school's anti. Next, we have Katherine Gedo. She's in her first year as a medical staff. Um, her positions very similar to mine. She runs lunch groups. Um, she's part of the

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SS MTSS they call it over at Parker. Um, she runs social emotional groups um as well. She's very, she has immersed herself very well. She went on the Quebec trip this year. She went on St. Chair's classroom. And I gave her plenty

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of praise and fluence for that because when I was asked, I said no. And he was like, I'm going. Next, we have Luke. He is the coordinator up at the high school. He is also on his third year. Um he led a

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schoolwide presentation for Black History Month. He's promoted unity and inclusion with the theme of we are one, we are one together. He's taught students how to play chess. Um which I have seen plenty of times when I walk into his office. He really is playing chess with college students. Um to build

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critical thinking and community. He's organized a mentor mentee program pairing seniors with freshmen for guidance and support. And he also supports and mentors students after school. And last but not least, we have Mr. Mel Daring, who is a district support. Um,

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he builds relationships and supports students from the inner city of Boston socially, emotionally, and academically. Um, he supports embart and reef program. He's helped mentor students at Gillum and Barrows. He helps facilitate the basketball curriculum over at Barrows

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and he um develops shared practices and learns from one another. He is also in his second year. Sorry. Yep. End to end for this last slide. I promise this this wasn't to toot my own horn,

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but I just wanted to highlight this because um these are letters and notes I've received from Reading resident students. Um as much as we are advocates, champions, confidants um to our Boston resident students, obviously

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in our role, we also impact our res students as well. And even though I received those notes, I know for a fact that all of everyone from our team has received similar things, notes, letters, I see it when I walk into their rooms. Even when I go up to Luke's office, it's

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not just Boston residents um in his room. It's also writing residents as well. So, just wanted to showcase that, you know, representation is not only about helping students see themselves, but it's also about helping students see, value, and learn from others.

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Right? So, the presence of counselors and educators of color um benefits all students by normalizing diverse leadership, broadening perspectives and teaching students how to build authentic relationships across differences. And these are all skills that they will

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hopefully carry on throughout their lives. So, >> thank you. >> Any questions? Uh, I couldn't agree more that you you all impact, you know, the Boston res just as much. Mr. L is a legend within

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campus. So, I can certainly speak for that one. Um, you know, I'll just say just thank you for the work that you and the whole team do. It's just it's had such a tremendous impact on our district. And, you know, we were we were fortunate to have uh have Curtis when we did and and he left and we all got a little bit nervous and it's worked out

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and it's worked out very well with with your leadership. So, um it's worked out for him as well. I I know but uh you know just thank you for everything. >> Oh, please. >> Um I'm I'm impressed by the number of like initiatives that that your team has

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started. If is there any talk of anything that you hope to bring next year to any of the schools or that you've heard anybody talking about hoping to initiate? >> For me, sorry. For me personally, in the middle school level, I always feel like seventh grade is kind of left like on an

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island and it's such an important year because you go from I feel like sixth grade you still have that elementary personality where you don't care who's going to judge you and then seventh grade it's like okay who are my friends who are so for me I want to focus on how do we implement SEO also for seventh

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grade how do we continue that on so it just builds off on each other from sixth seventh eighth grade here. So I know that's one of my um professional posts >> and then I uh can share that I know recently I know you know as we all know

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there had been budget constraints um recently MECO was awarded some additional funding um so we're hoping that that gets distributed sooner rather than later and so our hope is to also um just

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um partnering um with Sarah cuz I I know her and I have had um conversations about kind of targeting the educational gaps for some of our Boston resident students. So, I'm hoping with the additional funding we can, you know, just brainstorm ways to kind of

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really target that and provide additional supports to kind of lessen that gap between our boss and our vetting students. That's definitely on the forefront. >> Anybody else? >> Can I jump? Can I say Can I say something? >> Please do. Yeah.

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>> Oh, hi. I'm Wanita. I'm Wanita Jackson. I'm Abby Jackson's grandmother. A lot of you all don't know her, but most of you do. But I think y'all are doing a great job. Um, her second year. She'll be going into ninth grade. Thank you, God.

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Um, I think she done grew and grown a lot from the seventh to the eighth. Um, she matured a lot more like now. And I noticed and I

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noticed how she's really like, you know, from that bus ride out there and back home, she matured a lot with that, too. And I notice it. I don't say anything. I pay attention. And I'm like, she has a different attitude now. Like,

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you know, before like last year, she would come complain. I can't stand the school. I want to leave the school. D. So, no. we going to fight this out. You're going to make it. And thanks to your team there who gave my granddaughter the support that she needed and the love and the

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understanding and the caring that I couldn't do because like I told her, when you're at the school, they're your parents. They're your aunties. There's your sisters. Those are everybody to you. When you come home, you're mine. I'm Nana. You're mine. But y'all are doing a great job with her. And I I

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thank Curtis. I think that's his name right there sitting down. Is it Curtis? Is it? Yes. Yes. I thank I thank God for meeting him. I thank God for the program. I thank God that she's in reading because she had a tough time when she was in the charter

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school. And I think y'all are doing a great job and I hope that you get all the support you need far as money to keep it going and everything else that you need. But I had to get on tonight to say that and I appreciate each and every one of you guys even though I didn't meet everybody there but person to

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person but I appreciate it. Thank you very much for um giving my my granddaughter the support she need and um and she's doing I think she's doing a lot better you know but that's it. Thank you.

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>> Thank you for trusting her to us as well. Um Sonia I see you've got your hand raised. Do you want to go ahead and take us off you as well? >> Sure. So for initiatives for next year, I know um last year I got to help out with uh Kllum started a play and um so I

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know next year I'm signing up to be on I also found out one day there was a student coming in to take a dance class and I was like what? There's dance here. So um I'm going to talk to extend a day so I can do dance lessons and I'd love to make them kind of multicultural. Um,

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and then hopefully tie that into the play. So, those are some things. And we were inspired by Julian's multicultural night. So, I have already talked to the principal and we're planning to bring a multicultural night to kill him next year. >> Thank you so much.

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>> I hope that you can hear gratitude from everyone in the room, but I just hope that you also know that we really really appreciate your leadership in our community, too. If you've seen the day-to-day, they our counselors are the glue in so many of our schools and are thrown so many different things every day from students to families to

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community uh to program needs to just come and they're all super urgent like you're carrying really heavy things every day and that are really important for our students for our families and just appreciate all you've done for our community. I had a a student the other day ask what did we do before we had metco counselors? I I don't know like we

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we um but I think that's a sign just of like the way so many ways you impact our communities too academically, social, emotionally uh personally for students. So huge thank you to all of our our team. I think many who may watch us afterwards or watching live we appreciate you and appreciates you.

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>> All right. Um, so our next order of business, we're going to talk about the HR director search process and timeline and take a vote at the end of this. But, uh, Dr. Leski, I'll hand it to you to kick us off. >> Great. Uh, so on your screen or in your packet, you'll see a, uh, overview of a, uh, proposed draft timeline and process

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for HR director search. A little bit of context. Michelle Roach, our HR director, served in the role for the last 5 years, uh, recently let us know that she'd be transitioning to a different HR leadership role in the, uh, in the field. uh really excited for her for what is a great career opportunity. Really sad for us. Uh she's done an

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amazing job at RPM over the last uh last five years. I say she's done an amazing job. A few things stick out which I think I wrote about in the packet one. Uh she's really streamlined a lot of our HR systems and practices in a way that just hadn't been done before her which I think is leaving behind a pretty good

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foundation for our uh you know district and for the HR team to continue. two, she builds really good relationships with all of our our unions, all of our partners, our staff. I think that shows in things like smooth contract negotiations and other things like that. Uh three, I think where Michelle is

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especially skilled is navigating really complex and challenging just HR issues. As you can know, as you know, in any field, there's a lot of different thorny, challenging, nuance issues that come the way of the HR office. I think Michelle has constantly handled those with a high level of professionalism,

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high level of skill uh in a way that just I think is uh set a really high bar. So I think a big loss for us uh and at the same time excited for her and what's ahead for her her future. So we have outlined here a director of human resource search process. I will be

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facilitating this but I'll be doing this side by side with our incoming superintendent Dr. Henry Turner uh who will just sort of will be present for everything and obviously trying to be involved as much as he can uh during the process. You'll see that we've listed screening committee members which uh we

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thought the group of folks who work most closely with this role uh day in and day out and then you'll see the timeline which started from a May 7th posting application window closes May 31st. That's when we get the screening committee together to start looking at uh applications, selecting finalists,

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and then moving through what the committee knows is a pretty traditional process. So, uh, why don't you just pause there to see if there's any questions, concerns, feedback on the process and also to get the committee's perspective on is there anyone who may potentially be interested in uh serving

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on the uh screening committees a school may run. >> You want to jump in? >> The goal here is to have someone move for a July 1 start date. >> That's the goal. Okay. Um, we recognize that like this timeline right now has an offer of the week of June 15th, which

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ideally sooner depending on how the process goes. We know that there may be clauses and some, you know, contracts for folks who may be interested of a 30, 60, 90day notice. So, if it does push into July, I think both Dr. Turner and I are comfortable with that. Our goal is

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really making sure that we have someone uh at the latest by the middle by the middle of August. any uh questions or feedback about the timeline and then we can >> All right. Um why don't we let's take a motion on the timeline and then we'll

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we'll talk about potential interest and available availability from the committee. So I'll make a motion um move to approve the HR director search process process and timeline as presented in the packet. Second by tell any further discussion

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all in favor opposed um yeah you know I mean before we talk about who from our team might participate you know I'll just echo everything Dr. Milesky said about Michelle's contributions over the last five years. I think we've sort of universally sung her praises when she's

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come to us, you know, quarterly throughout the years. And um the phrase I always use is she's she's really professionalized the function. Um and you know, you talked about in the context of systems and and teams and that sort of thing, which is is a really a really big way to think about it. Um

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it, you know, this is going to be a tough a tough uh loss for the district. Michelle brought a lot to that role. Um sir, for sure. Um, okay. So, with that, um, we don't necessarily have to settle on somebody tonight, but if if anybody

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wants to raise their hand, this is certainly an opportunity to do that. It looks like the bulk of the work is the week of June 1st. Yeah. The screen any any sense of, you know, sort of roughly a number and days, times, and

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>> it's really tough to know how just big the pool will be. We don't know what to anticipate. Uh if I had to put a number on it, I I think you're probably looking at about 10 hours all into meetings. That's from interviews to uh screening applications. U

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probably over probably couple of hours of resume and candidate packet material reviews in late May. I would anticipate four to five at a minimum hourlong interviews and then a couple of hours of deliberation. So I I can't see us getting out for probably under 10 hours

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at a minimum. >> And you're thinking the interviews will be during the business day or >> depends on the availability of the entire team not opposed to other times. And if there's if people want to think about it, I can just loop back out to

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>> Yeah, I would need to stack it up against my work calendar and stuff that week. Um, >> I have flexibility time-wise, but I'm not sure I'm the best choice backgroundwise, just I know there are several people on school committee who have a lot more experience kind of

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understanding the ins and outs of how HR works and so I'm I have availability, but I I don't know that I'm the best choice. That said, if I'm the only choice, nobody else has availability, I I would stop it. I think anytime we do something with a screening committee, it sort of obviousates the need to have a

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particular expertise from any one person on the committee, right? So, um, you know, I I hear you tenatively raising your hand so we can get, you know, we could see if anybody else is interested and then um, make a call, but um, you know, I don't think any

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particular background business is out there. It could be >> I I will have flexibility. Sean, one other comment too. Something we've done with other CO level searches is we have had school committee members meet with candidates too as part of the finalist interview process. So I'm also not opposed if people want to be a part

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of it, but also maybe have a chance to meet with a candidate, you know, at some point at the end of the process. Comfortable with that as well. So real quick, I'd love to be involved because this kind of stuff hiring people is so important to what

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we're trying to get done and the culture we're trying to set. Probably not to mention you touched on these are huge shoes to huge shoes to fill. We are coming up on negotiations. So, you know, as we think about what we want people to be able to do and how they can jump into the role,

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thinking about their their skills or qualifications and trying to fit that. Um, but it sounds similar like if this is during the day, there's no way if it's at night, I would find the time to sweeten it. You know, I

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don't want to make everybody else work tonight because that's my that means that I tr fully trust in action with this as well. So that's good. >> All right. So we'll follow up on this one after tonight. Perfect.

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>> I would if if we don't know I would like to finalist independently. >> Uh all right. Um, with that we will move to the financial update. I think Bill, you're still on the line. See you there. >> I'm still here. Can you hear me?

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>> Hear you? Let me find your uh materials here. >> Yeah, go to You can skip the memo. Just go to the first slide, please. >> Okay. It's not going to be terribly legible for us. >> Um, you'll have to do a really nice job

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explaining, right? >> Oh, yeah. That's true. Everyone's got it. All right. Go ahead, Phil. We've got a version of it up on the screen yet. >> All right. Thank you. Uh just one thing I just want to bring up about uh going roller skating after a certain age. My wife went roller skating about 15 years

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ago with our daughters when they were around 10 and she ended the day by fracturing her leg. Just want to let you know you know about roller skating. All right. So third quarter financials with year end um forecast is what you

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see in front of you. As of this point everything is tracking fine. We've uncovered all salaries, so we know what we need in terms of paying salaries for the rest of the year. Um, right now we're anticipating having just under a million dollars left at the end of the year. And that also assumes that all of

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the non-personnel alliance are completely spent, which, you know, typically doesn't happen, but that's what we always use as our um ongoing or our assumption to do our year-end planning. As of this point, we have about 800,000 available to prepay for special education and we are setting

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aside 200,000 for the technology refresh. Um, one of the challenges we have with technology this year is um, four or five years ago when we had some money uh, not sure which grant it was from the government, but we did a big buy on technology. I think it was around

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a thousand devices and typically we've been buying about 4 to 500 a year. So Julian has been working over the last couple years to pre-by some of those, but we still have to buy more than we typically would at the end of the school year. So we have $200,000 that we've set

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aside out of fiscal year 26 funds. U we have $100,000 um not grant but the targeted what is it called Dr. little chesky the >> you know the the well whatever it's

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$100,000 set aside for technology I think it's for the high school or overall for the grant to buy technology and for next year for fiscal year 27 the town has upped our um money for capital expenditures to

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250,000 so Julie and I have had a lot of conversations I think we're in pretty good shape in terms of being able to um buy what we need in terms of replacement for fiscal year 27. Um I also want to point out at this point um this uh the

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results you see here assumes that there will be no money being returned to the town out of the general fund. Um you know historically we've always we've always returned a little bit but you know 26 was a little tight 27 was even tighter in trying to get ourselves as best

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position as we can for 27. So, as at this point out of the general fund there, we're not planning on returning any funds. I mean, that can always change when we get to year end. Any questions on the general fund? >> Bill, can you start? And if sorry if you

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said this and I missed it, I apologize. Um, are we tracking towards doing out of district tuition prepays as we normally do? >> Yeah. 800,000. >> 800,000. Okay. >> Yeah. Which is down. We've been running between a million and a million two the last couple years.

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>> That's at 798 right then. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Got it. Okay. Thank you. >> How does that compare percentage wise? Not absolute value wise, but percentage wise of our out of district placements. Is that hitting the same percentage? Are we going to be behind the eightball where we normally? >> It it is Mr. Wise. It's lower than what

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it has been. Our we are expecting that the out of districts for next year are going to track slightly below what they are this year. But you know down 400,000 of the prepaids. we are going to be uh behind where we'd like to be. On the other hand, our uh circuit per reimbursements, if it

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gets fully funded at 75% are also anticipated to be up a few hundred,000 uh because of this year's expenses. So, if next year turns out to be flatlined or slightly less, that will be a benefit to us. Will help make up some of that difference between the 800,000 and the

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million, too. There any other ways we can squeeze any more money out? I mean, you said you're you're forecasting at the non-salaried lines to be fully spent. That doesn't usually happen. Is there a a process we can go through over the next couple months to to realize what would be what

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should be true savings and not just spending money to spend money? Well, at this point we're getting to where um we're start we are starting to close down the POS and um for the most part we're going to be cutting off taking any year any more POS for fiscal year 26. Um

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I plan on having the year closed out by about June 21st this year. So we're not really going to know what that number is probably until the middle of June. But yeah, we're going to squeeze what we can, but I also want to be able to hold

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back in terms of whatever we can in terms of some of our other uh non-general fund balances as well. And that will make a little more sense we get down to some of the revolving accounts. So to rephrase, we're going to squeeze

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as much as we can and get as much as we can left over at the year end. So I would, you know, the 998 you're seeing right now based on what we know right now, that would be the minimum. But again, anything could change. >> Yeah,

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I'm looking at other offsets, too, to try and figure out like this this number being down going into next year from from our prepay is is not a good spot to be. going into that year. Um, and we look at any other offsets that may may be appropriate like special education

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tuition, you know, we're forecast to be significantly higher than we started the year. 140 plus thousand higher than we started the year. That closed the gap pretty pretty well. >> Uh, it is directly aligned. Um, you know, I'd love to see more more ideas

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here to bring that number up and and tighten the belts elsewhere where where we don't need to spend the money. I'm not cutting off needs, right? But where we are optionally choosing to spend certain money just because we have money at the end of the year. Hopefully that's not the case, but we should be looking

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here to make sure we're set setting ourselves up for FY27 in as good a shape as possible. >> Yeah. But you know, our philosophy has always been is that we try to end the year with what we took in in the current year.

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And so, well, you'll see that the balance for special ed tuition will be up. That's because the revenue has been up this year. So, we are using out of that line what we took in last year. If I start digging into this year money, that kind of blows our entire strategy

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for the budget. So, we've already done that for 27 in terms of uh school choice where we are digging into uh for 27. We're going to be using 27 money in fiscal year 27 and not being able to

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hold that for fiscal year 28. So, so while you're seeing that go up again, that's fiscal year 26 revenue and typically we hold the whole thing over until the following year. And next year's budget assumes that that number that the higher number that you're seeing is what we're going to

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have available for our sets for next year. >> All right, I guess we go to the next one. >> All right, go. Just one more question on on the u on the regeneration piece of this uh you know returning to the general fund. Um you mentioned I know I

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know you provided um Sharon Angstrom with some guidance on you know some early guidance on FY28 you know as part of their planning. Does she she know it doesn't really change the macro position from a free cash perspective but does she know to expect um nothing to be returned this year?

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>> We that never came up in any of our conversations. I mean last year's number that we returned ultimately ended up being about 40,000. No, actually action was about 6,000 because the rest of it was going to be from um reimbursement from an insurance settlement. So last year we

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had about 40 at most. And you know, we didn't really have any conversations with her about that for 27 yet. I mean 26. >> Yeah. Like I said, it doesn't really change the macro position in any meaningful way. I'm just curious whether

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Thank you. >> All right. Uh you want to speak to Grants? Yeah, the grants are are running where they need to be. I just want to point out a couple things. You'll see that the METCO year balance right now is expected to be almost zero. Um, that's because the METCO uh grant has been

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level funded for the last couple years and our expenses continue to go up primarily in the uh busing on the busing line. You know, busing is uh getting is as we all know is extremely expensive. And then if you go down to under the fed grants under the idea 240 grant, uh we

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started this year with about 288,000 available and we're projecting this year we're going to end with only 148,000. Again, um the idea grant has been flatlined again for a number of years and our expenses continue to go up. So those are the two big items that are

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impacting our projected ending balances on all our grants. Right now we're projecting about 190,000 where last year we ended with about twice as much at about 370,000. And you know if we if we get the good news on the MECO grant that would that will be nice. I don't see us getting any

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good news in terms of the federal grants. >> For those who have been following along on the MECO grant so it's currently a $30 million grant overall the number we've seen bouncing around is 30 moving up to 33 million at a minimum. uh when I've talked to legislators, they feel pretty confident that that's sort of the

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the floor of what they think the increase will be paired with a couple of other one-time monies as well. So, I think we're optimistic about the met budget this year, but we're still sort of waiting to get clear, you know, confirmation of the next couple of weeks hopefully. Do do we expect that to be distributed,

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you know, to more or less the same formula? >> Correct. Per people like 10%. Jeff, >> excuse me. Okay. Um, any other questions on the grants? Excuse me. If we go to the next slide.

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So, this is revolving accounts. Um, first piece of good news at this point is that we are forecasting that all of our revolved accounts will be um, positive by the end of the year. Can you can you slide it over because I want to show the uh the forecasted balance because that's probably the more

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important thing. So, as of right now, we're forecasting at the end of the year that our overall balances will be just about what they were at the end of last year. Last year were about 2.8 million. This year would be slightly lower 2.8, about 2.84. A couple things to point out as we go

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down. Community education um is doing uh quite well. uh the afterchool programs. Um you know a couple year two years ago we were negative. We ended we started this year at about 140,000. We're going to end the year forecasted right now at

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about um 368,000. So they've done a great job in terms of the programs that they're offering and changing some of the uh ways that the they're being they're charging for the programs. And so I think that's in great shape. It's being wellrun and I don't

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have any concern at how it's running right now. So, that's good. We go down to the kindergarten tuition. This year, we're forecasting to use 430,000 of what we had left in that account, which will leave us 128,000 for fiscal year 27. And we've baked that 128,000 into next

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year's budget. Um, preschool program, we're projecting to use 550,000 as an offset this year, which will leave us 276,000, which is 100,000 less we started the year. um we need to keep an eye on that because we don't want to dig too much more deeply into that. And for

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fiscal year 27, we've dropped the offset back down to $450,000 and that's more in line with the overall revenue that we get for the program, trying to keep that balance in that account at least around $200,000. Um school choice, uh we start the year

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at 311,000. We're projecting to u use 38,000. Again, that's follows our philosophy that we use in the current year what we ended the last year with. So last year we ended at 311 and we're projecting to use

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just about that whole 311,000 this year. So the 536 that we are projecting to have the end of this year that is also baked into the next year's budget. And this is the one line where in fiscal year 27 we will have to use current year revenue to uh cover year co current year

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expenses and I think we using about 400,000 of next year's projected number. Um so that's the one area where for 27 we are violating our philosophy of

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keeping you know keeping this year's money that we get in that we use it all in the following year. Um, the other thing I want to point out is just for some clarity and also to help to understand it better, we've taken the the school lunch program and

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I've split that fund into the operating results and the capital results because one of the things that we are running into is we've been spending money on capital and that's been coming out of the surplus that we had. But it when it was all one line together, it made it

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look like the program was actually uh negative from an operating perspective. So I wanted to break that out cuz the operating shows us, you know, what we're doing currently. And for fiscal year 206, we projecting to be a little over break even, but about 50,000 uh to the

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positive side, which is good. On the capital side, we've spent $98,000 on capital this year. So we will end the year, we started the year with about 790,000 and we'll end the year with about 740,000.

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And again, the reason why that's going down is that we are over the last three years, we continue to spend money on capital and we have not had to go to the town to get capital. We've bought a van. We've bought ovens um and various other items over the last couple years to the tune of about I think it's about 300 or

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350,000 at this point that we have uh used for capital items that in the past we would have gone to the town to get that money. So, we're going to continue to see what else we're going to be using up for capital over the next couple years. I know we need to get a couple

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more serving lines in and um I think we want to try to buy some more of the um ovens which I told you about before. Those are the the ovens where they could both bake and clean themselves and hopefully we' get those across the entire district over the next couple years. Um you'll also see that we have

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two other funds out there now. we have for the summer programs and as well as the catering. Catering is starting starting to grow and that's where um Katie and her staff have been doing things such as um providing food to meetings at town hall as well as some of

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the meetings internally. Um they also serve lunch at the senior center a couple of uh days a week and so that continues to grow and I would you know put the plug out there. It's a good program. and they serve good food and you know the price you can't really beat

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the prices. And then on the summer side, Katie started working on building up the summer program last year and that actually has two components with it. One is the summer programs that are funded by the federal government and she's

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doing those um in Wuburn and in no I'm trying to go down 128 uh Waltham. And she's also though going to be doing uh summer programming. She's going to be providing lunch over to the Y here in Reading and that is not funded by the

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government. That is a straight uh the Y is going to be our customer and we're going to be providing lunch to the kids over the summer programs. So again, it makes good use of uh what we have because typically over the summer the equipment lies fellow, doesn't do anything, but Katie's been able to uh

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build that business over the summer which allows her to hire some of the staff to work over the summer. And so that's uh a benefit to the staff and it's a benefit to the district as well. Um other than that um there's not much

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else going on in terms of the uh revolving funds. Any questions on the revolving funds? I know I went rather quickly. >> I do have a quick question on the um the school lunch capital. I I agree with you that it's the right thing to do to split that. Can you just speak to a little bit

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about where that capital funding came from? because I don't see any going into it now. So, how did we get the 780 >> the uh I think it was four years ago we got additional money from the government

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one-time funds for food services um which allowed us to have a rather large surplus back in fiscal year oh I don't have my uh numbers in front of me so I may be off by year was either 21 or 22 we had a very large surplus because

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we got the additional funding from the government that we really didn't need and that's what really built up the uh surplus in the account because on an operating side over the last couple years we haven't been really um we've been breaking even or slightly above. So

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that's where the majority of that money came from. That was probably about $900,000. So, it was fortuitous that we were able to get that money, but we didn't have to use it to uh offset any of our expenses. Now, I think I've said before, you know,

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one of the challenges that we're having right now in running the food service program is the cost of food. You know, cost of food's going up in our reimbursements from the government are not going up at the same rate as, you know, inflation's going up on the food service side. So, I've been working with

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Katie to make sure that we're keeping an eye on our expenses to keep things in line because um that's one of the things that can suddenly come back and bite us if we don't keep our eye on it. And Katie and I have both been keeping an eye on it all year to make sure that we

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get the program to continue to run at least at a break even. In terms of building that back up, that really depends on how well or what happens with inflation on food over the next couple years. Hopefully that will start to come back down as soon as some other things

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in the world settle back down. And I'm hoping that we start building up the surplus um in the account again so that we are positioned um in terms of more capital expenditures. You know, it's a benefit to the town when we do that because we don't have to go to the town and ask for the capital

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>> just mechanically. So this is a single fund code. Yeah. Um, at one point this was a single line item and that that balance represented both operating and capital. And I think Phil, you've just sort of made the decision to structure it this way and put the entire beginning balance and capital knowing that

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operating was likely to cover itself which is where we're >> with 53 balance at the end of the year. So would the intent be to roll that 53,000 over to the capital line as part of next year's >> Oh yeah. Yes. I mean it just rolls into the overall I mean this is an artificial

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split by me just so that I can isolate the operating results because that's the primary focus because we need to keep the program on an operating basis breaking even um at a minimum and so you know it's an artificial break but you know the money that's left over is I'm

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you know saying it's available for capital or any large expenditures that we need. So yes the 53,000 gets rolled over. So when I line this up for Q1 for fiscal year 27, the opening balance again will be the 689 plus the 53 which

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would be the 742. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh let's go to reserve fun. >> This is just the uh the donation funds. Nothing much going on here. Um I I do want to note also under the special

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education reserve fund, we are not planning on making any um any contributions to that for this year. We just don't not have the funds to do it. >> And I did put and I put a a couple of notes down just so as folks can remember

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that interest on unrestricted gifts belong to the general fund. I know that we're working on which one is it Dr. Milichesky? Is it the Libby scholarship? We're trying to get that changed. >> Yeah. >> How's that going?

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>> Good. So, Kobe's office is uh putting is having to work with the probate court. Uh they're in talks with the probate court now to try to get the language the trust changed. So, they say the process sometimes can be weeks, sometimes can be years. So, we don't we don't know. So, we're holding pad. >> We heard from the administrator of the

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of the >> We have Yeah, she was really helpful. that she's unwinded that this should have been done the way we're talking about or >> not necessarily to be determined. So saying that um she couldn't be the one to take the lead of the probate court for us because she will have to be

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called upon as a witness on this. So we had to fully turn it over to K's office to take the lead on it and then they'll go back and reach out to her. She thought that his intent he used the very specific language around drawing down on the principal yet she thinks that the

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intent of it was to last also to last as long as it possibly could. So I think she believes that there's I don't want to get too far into it but believes that um there's re there's reason to believe that he wanted it to last long and that's going to be our argument.

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>> More to come. Keep you posted. Did you want to go back to >> Yeah, I want just real quick. Can you Bill I want to go back up to the um the lost books and tech and again I'm looking at the end of your year budget and the money and all that kind of fun stuff. So what is the revenue source for lost books and tech?

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Um excuse me scroll back down. Um students at the beginning of the year I think it's $25 they buy insurance so that if something happens to their device um they don't have to pay for it. They pay their insurance for it. And so that's used by

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um it to pay for the repairs um for students devices that you know get broken during the course of the year. In fact, I was just up there last week where a student came in with a rather badly damaged device and they didn't buy insurance on it. And if they don't buy

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insurance, then they're responsible to pay for it. and the student um knew they that he had to pay for it and his parents told him that he had to pay for it and he had to bring his own checkbook to pay for it. So we offer the insurance to the to all the students at it to be

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able to avoid doing that. and the lost books. Uh I'm not sure what um I think if somebody loses I think in the past when we had real textbooks if they lost the book they had to pay for it.

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>> And the forecasted expenditures against this is this for replacement hardware that we know of. >> It it it replaces you know when they have to buy supplies to repair damaged um devices and if they and if the device is damaged beyond repair then they have

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to buy a new one. So, where I'm going with this is, can we squeeze $25,000 out of this? >> I'd prefer not to. >> I've got 1,200 devices in the district that we've more than 1,200. And, you know, again, Mr. Wise, when we get

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down to June, I will squeeze wherever I can and let you folks know where we're squeezing it. But, as of right now, I can't say that I'm comfortable doing that because I don't know where we're going to be year end when all the devices get returned back in. because you know most of the a lot of

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that money to to repair them is going to come after the end of the year when the devices come in and the staff gets a chance to look them all over. >> Why why does the revenue precede the spend the expenditures so much that if it's like an insurance

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payment? >> I'm sorry, what was that again? So, I mean, so the way you describe this is we have a device that gets damaged, you know, during the year, needs some repairs. Most of that the end of the year when devices are turned back in, which is why we've got a big chunk in Q4

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of forecasted expenditures. That part makes sense. Um, you're you described the revenue is coming from, you know, insurance, you know, claims essentially against an insurance policy. Why do we why do we realize most of the revenue by Q3?

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Actually, we we get most of that revenue in Q1 because the students have to buy the insurance within the first couple of weeks of the school year. >> It's actually like the premiums that students are paying essentially. >> Got it. >> Let me rephrase the question in a different way. Why is insurance not

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paying for the fixes to these machines as opposed to us paying it out of out of this? >> Because this is our own insurance program. >> So, it's self insurance. >> Exactly. We're self-insuring. That is correct. Okay.

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Which case, our actuary is doing a pretty good job. This is where it lands. So, right. >> But, you know, you you you do bring up a good thing, Mr. Wise. Maybe we should look at an outside one just to see if um it would make sense. >> Yeah. It's also I mean, looking at the

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200,000 you have planned for tech refresh. If this if this if some of this money could be used as part of that too is what I was what I was going. >> Okay. Fair enough. >> So you already have a tech refresh plan. Some of this theoretically applies to tech refresh. So there go therefore

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those hence free up some of that money to go for special education. >> Yeah. And as you know, one of the issues that we're having in terms of buying devices is the prices have gone up quite a bit over the last couple years. I also wanted Phil to thank you for

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eliminating the Coolage extracurricular. >> Well, it it hasn't been eliminated yet. You folks need to vote on it when right after this. I believe >> I've got my phone here a minute. >> Recommended be. >> All right. I think we did reserve funds.

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Um, >> student activities, there's nothing really going on there other than um, you know, we're going to move that uh, $2,698 out of the coolage extracurricular over to the coolage student accounts student

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um, activities account. And that is the motion that has to be done after we finish going through this. And I believe the last one is uh, the scholarships. Nothing to report there. You know, in the case of these, we they

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do get um credited with the interest that they earn throughout the course of the year. >> Any questions on those last few pages? >> Thanks, Phil. Um, all right. Our last order of business, you know, as uh Jeffrey alluded to, is is approving the transfer of remaining funds from the

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privilege extracurricular revolving fund to the college student activities revolving fund and then to close the extracurricular account. I'm going to split this into two motions. Um so, you know, let's just make a motion on the first one and then we'll we'll just we'll have any discussion. Um, so I'll move to approve the transfer of

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remaining funds from the coolage extracurricular revolving fund to the Koolage student activities revolving fund authorizing the superintendent to designate to complete the necessary accounting trees. >> Second Jeffrey >> Jeffrey. All right, I think that might be your first second. Congratulations.

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>> Any discussion on any discussion on uh moving the funds? This is the culminate. This probably turned up what two quarters ago, three quarters ago. >> Maybe more. >> Maybe more. Yeah. So, >> maybe multiple just talking. >> Yeah, I'm sure it was. Yeah, I know. I've seen this multiple where nothing

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has happened in that particular gap. No money came in, no money went out. >> Oh, it's been it's been years. >> No, it's definitely been years that it's been an issue. I I think we probably only sort of asked Bill to get serious maybe a couple quarters ago. Yeah. >> Um Okay. Any further discussion on this?

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>> Okay. All in favor? All oppose. That carries 5 to zero. Then the second motion would be um a move to uh close the coolage extracurricular account authorizing the superintendent or designate to complete the necessary accounting entries.

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>> Second. >> Seconded by Aaron. Uh any discussion on that one? Okay. All in favor? And all oppose? And it carries five to zero. Thank you. So uh that brings us to the end of our

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agenda. So again hope there were some transfers kind of h into that in the do we need to do those or those in the um the financial update >> the financial update right like the general education was over spent or projected to overspend. So do we need to

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do those? >> No those are done at at year end. Okay. >> So it's you can spend that money even if it hasn't quite been transferred yet. essentially. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> June.

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>> Yeah. Um okay. Uh that brings of our agenda. So again, just uh thank our hosts here at NECO, Inc. Uh for having us this evening. Um thank you to Cindy and Jericho for third Jer. >> She was here.

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>> Okay. I totally missed her sneaking up. Okay. >> All right. Uh thank both of them for for being here and all the work that they do and uh that will wrap us up. Let's see. Is there a final motion? Motion to adjourn by Jeffrey. Is there a second?

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>> Second. Seconded by Lara. All in favor? All opposed. And we are journals back from Paris, right? >> Yeah. Yeah.