e e a little bit of I M I thought it was micro I heard I've heard I've heard it I've heard AP microeconomics is it Mr scaff teaching it okay so then I think it's I think it's micro that's going to be a good
class if he's teaching yeah I could teacher he's awesome play want to play you like watch I want to play Carla don't we e e call the school committee meeting uh
from February 27th to order it is 7:03 um we have some we have remote attendees so we'll do a Ru call and I apologize in advance for two of our members who unfortunately have to travel for business um so we are a little bit light but we are still functional um so
roll call Sean here Carla here Sarah here and Tom here so we are called to order a quick walk through for the agenda then we'll jump in um we'll start with public comment for anybody here from the public that wishes to address the committee on anything not on the
agenda and that will be our starting point um when you do that it'll be you know two to three minutes your name uh address and what your question or or point is uh we then move to consent agenda uh where we will go through that and review and approve it we'll move to
reports starting with our students um then our Director of Finance and operations our superintendent and any liasis on reports that we may have here in the committee um go from there from to Old business which includes a discussion and vote on the FY 26 school calendar and then move to new business
uh including the fy2 Q financial report um FY 26 kindergarten enrollment update approve an award approve the awarding of the David B Libby scholarship uh discussion and potential vote on a town meeting warrant article for school bus
camera enforcement systems uh pursuing to chapter 399 of the acts of 2024 um a discussion on the cell on a potential new cell phone policy and potentially including guidance for the policy subcommittee and then a notify notification of upcoming policy votes
will conclude us so uh there we go um now with that said we will start with public comments anybody here wish to make public comment um Dr corm first first hand up and then you want to defer okay please Chris kovaleski uh 14 Browning
Terris reading um you want the topic sure um special education within school um this will be close to 3 minutes but I'll be under 3 minutes as you all know um as you all know all to well the website's second sentence after welcome
to writing Public Schools is our district is committed to meeting the needs of all Learners the continued Vision states that its goals is to instill a joy and joy of learning through inspiration engagement and support this week another special
education teacher took a job in a neighboring District in the middle of the school year they did this because the repeated requests for support additional trained um uh request for support additional trained Staffing and resources to meet the needs of their
students remained unmet month after month the case loads that's what they call our children who are extra fun um become too many and too complex and finally untenable for a skilled experienced and mature educator to
continue to ask or plead for assistance assistance which those in the disability Community called advocacy merited them the term abrasive the role of the special education uh teachers may seem as
managing only a small classroom but it is anything but especially in the soon to be defunct and defunded sale program housed at wood end those professionals must have experience in a broad array of disabilities especially especially uh
especially moderate to severe ones those students are often non-verbal communicate through action and non-action we call that behavior and require extensive AAC training and support including medical considerations they coordinate with any number of
therapists our son our our son's own team numbers 10 around the table every time we have a meeting and support the peras Specialists and gen Ed teachers so that students time in the uh uh pardon me um Jed teacher so that
the students time in the classroom is Meaningful and impactful both for the students and the classroom they collect data and know how to share it so we know what we need to know losing this teacher is just one in a line of missteps we seem to be making in terms of our
commitment as a town to special education we hire and then do not support we profess to care about every learner but we are not willing to to spend an extra money on hiring adequate qualified and experienced staff I am deeply tired of my son being a trained
gr training ground for new hires only to have them leave a year later or the inevitable shifting of teachers from one school to another or one class to another as short-term Solutions their students lose as well in addition we are
ignoring the anticipated National shortage of teachers looming in the most shocking of ways finding hiring onboarding and then getting them in the classroom and up to speed with a series of from personal experience 48 page IEPs for complex Learners and then refusing
to Value their professional expertise and request for support and is so shortsighted and financially insane that it hurts there is nothing inspiring for our children to see the revolving door of those who are helping those who need the most help because we refuse to
support them this week I have learned our children are looked upon as units and not necessarily children and I'm deeply disappointed thank you so Chris thank you
um technically by policy we don't need to respond but I feel like this needs a response so I don't know how best to respond to it but I'll just say thank you for coming right your voice is important um
I I do believe that we support special education probably better than most districts if not all districts around it doesn't mean that everybody's life is going to be perfect in that process um and we definitely should learn from every particular
situation and get better um I don't think we've had an issue with funding in special education I think if you look at our budget we've put a significant amount of money to special education over the last two or three years doesn't mean it's done yet but it's it's definitely not an issue of funding overall I don't mean to say that to
minimize anything that you've experienced in any way shape or form but I just want to say thank you for coming and we will listen to what you've heard and we'll figure out what the next steps might be anything else you want to add thank you uh Dr
Corin thank you Mr chairman Jeffrey corm Ridge Road um looking through the pack um I got to the end with a correspondence which I think is not going to be discussed during the meeting so I wanted to um address the fact that I do feel that SOA for AGI has been extremely patient with their request uh
to rename the school um and I've seen you know number of requests over over the months for them to get on the agenda the other um note that I had was um your request and your response that they use uh personal email instead of the the group email and I would ask that you
look into the possibility of of adding that uh that particular group's email to your safe senders list or something so that they're not don't have their personal address email addresses exposed in the the packets in the future again we don't technically have
to respond but I will respond to that because I'm very close to that one overall um as a technicality the email here is the first request to rename Josh ween the requests before were the review of POS of policy
FF and that policy review is is very much in process um we talked with a member of that that team earlier today we have another email from that team that we're going to respond to very shortly to go through the other side of the equation
is not necessarily just um the safe senders list per se we're looking into the the issues with junk but there is a anytime you have an an email that comes from what could be now we know so for eji is not but what could be an
anonymous source it it produces challenges for the committee in terms of what we can and should respond to so we want to make sure that we're responding to members that are known members of the community so that's that's the other side of that as well and it makes it easier there's I don't I don't perceive they should feel like they and I don't
think toia is either she came earlier in the meeting that there's anything for them to hide from they are who they are and they're requesting what they requesting and I don't think they're trying to hide that either I think they're just trying to speak in one voice when they come from that that perspective um and so in many other cases we've had those direct conversations and we will continue to
have those direct conversations the policy is under review and has gone through multiple steps thank you okay any other public comment conversations are we on the is Unified on the agenda you are you're up next
you're up next uh I skipped pass that I apologize didn't I when I said the agenda no my my I'm yeah my sincere apologies the next topic on the agenda is the focus on excellence and the unified Bachi team in
particular so Dr milki will introduce the team great well good evening so exciting to see so many members of the unified bota team and families support staff all here tonight too uh I'd like to start by saying one of the things I think our community should be most proud about uh over the last couple years is the work that's happened in the uh around Unified sports and unified
programming which I think has been a a significant increase in opportunities for our students and the The Buzz around what's happening unified the excitement I think is palpable and I think is uh you know translates both in the day-to-day school and also outside in our community as I talk about unified I
any chance I'll have to I'll I'll say a huge thank you to Tara hurle who you hear from tonight uh just her vision her leadership her advocacy in just I would say to making this Vision a reality when we had talked about Unified sports while her taking sort of The reigns of it and
making it happen to a point where you you know may hear a little bit about tonight the different programs we offer is a testament to to her and what she's done she has not done it alone you see so many staff members here too so many parents so many students who have been a part of this so I just thank uh Tara first and foremost but also just thank
you for all the staff behind the scenes who day-to-day make this a possibility and also thank you to all of our students for making this program such a success um for the students as you may know tonight is a chance for us to talk a little bit about what happened with unified botch people are watching at home uh people are watching they'll be
able to see kind of what you about too so it's exciting for everyone to hear about how awesome it was so that way more people can learn about it get involved and support you so I will invite uh miss her to come on up and if you want to share any words and then you can invite the whole team up uh as well but we ask you just come up
come yes please perfect we hear from the better I think right ter thank you which one either one okay hi I'm Tara Hurley I'm a teacher at um kage a special education teacher um unified where am I
looking anywhere look here okay unified uh started for high schoolers three years ago we started just with basketball in the spring um last year we started being able to offer three seasons we do basketball in the fall and the spring and in the winter we part
partnered with the YMCA um which is we're very lucky cuz it's so close by um to our schools so we partnered with the YMCA in the winter and we did a strength and conditioning season so uh unified went from not existing to being a one
season sport to being a three season offering and um weding which was fantastic but being a middle school teacher it was great to see a lot of the kids that I had um previously had in middle school as high schoolers that was really fun but I wanted to see if we
could build it a little bit and welcome some of our middle schoolers in and the state through Special Olympics of mass Metts has begun to have some middle school programs so we jumped on board with that um their fall offering is botchy um so we started with that this
fall which sounds like a kind of a strange sport but um it ended up being like really really fun because bot is one of those sports that um you know everybody can try and it was we got very competitive with it we got really fun uh we actually
hosted uh the jamere for our um for our team we hosted it at coolage which which was really nice um and that was and we won right we won uh so that was really awesome so uh our This Crew also joined in the winter season with the high
schoolers at um the YMCA strength and conditioning and today they kicked off their spring season of middle school basketball so um now we have three seasons of sport for at the uni for the Unified sports uh for Middle School
which is fantastic and I think it's a huge um it's a huge thing for our school system a huge thing for the community um I'm really happy that we've had all the support that we've had to be able to bring this to our kids um I'll let any
Miss Wiis do you want to share anything about your experience before the kids go or I think they are excited to talk wait can go first my name ISP my name is Arthur Pereira and I'm here to share why like Club should be
like extended I mean like I'm like bot and all all the other sports very good but why should be they should be like like short like I'm like they should be like all they should be like some they should be like for like all year or something like that cuz cuz uh well you
know like they end like after a month I mean like I mean well yeah because because you know why they might they they have like they need to like put in some room for new clubs but seriously why not just put the all the other clubs
in like any other day like Tuesdays and Wednesdays want it every day or like do it every single day I mean like it's so simple and guys I'm not joking and yeah I liked B I mean we could have played baji during strength
and condition so that we could like Contin bot although bot season's over like like bot also counts as exercise like like we could have all just went to the fitness room and maybe coach and maybe even coach Paul could be our Bachi
coach oh I'm [Applause] getting all right arur one of the other kids oh and for basketball it like ends way too early I mean like like end it for like all the other clubs I'm like even best buddies too it even ended
after a month like I liked Best Buddies the fact that we made bracelets made bookmarks for retirement people are like really so much fun like why could have been for a month I like we could have just done so many more activities we like to te it up bud
like like you know and we [Music] [Applause] anybody else hello um I'm L Robinson and um I'm
so grateful to be a part of the unified like sports it's so fun and I love to like hang out with everyone and it's like everyone's just so nice and kind like all like all the people that go there and it's just awesome and yeah
that's all I have to say thank you one day be aach anybody else anybody else want to say anything I don't want you to [Applause] feeled all right well thank you I'll say
something okay go ahead bot was really fun for me unified is a lot of fun and it's a lot of fun having something that disability kids can do thank
[Applause] you all right thank you so much for having us uh Arthur really likes would like to play every sport every season that's a hard thing to understand one thing ends and another thing start
you have some more suggestions all think your top two and you can share your top to but thank you for having us um it's really awesome to have something fun to look forward to after school um for all this all of our kids so R you have one more thing you want to share oh and here
are like my top two suggestions so for my first suggestion they should do like a volleyball club like after the basketball season we can just play volleyball Mr heising would like set us up some volleyball nets and then we could and then we could like get a ball
and then we can like throw it to other people and for the next thing I want to do is like is like tennis because you know how in tennis you like have like these paddles and then you throw them over a net mhm well
well that's what we should do I think and I think it's going to be pretty fun and make UniFi more popular and like and like everyone for to sign up or something Arthur thank you for those recommendations I think it's a little
bit sad because when you unified Middle School season ends the high school season starts so that means the middle school kids are done with their season early so that is a hard thing for uh our kids but maybe it will extend in the future we'll see but thank you so much
thank you before we let you go for anybody who's willing we always do a picture for those that come for focus on Excellence before after they're done presenting so we'd love to have you come down in front and take pictures with us if you don't want to you're not comfortable that's fine too but hopefully people will
be get out [Laughter] [Music] are you good more couple more you [Applause] [Music]
good midle scho he's got a futurist politician the tie has come out unzipped played last today fol my parents Ina leaving they're the rolling oldies
leaving they so competitive it's hopefully you got to see them then you come too you come the whole we would we would never abandon you say I just my mics are on
thanks John good job Jonah okay so we're going to move on in our agenda to the consent agenda um and uh Carla will you give me a motion uh motion to approve the consent agenda second seconded by Sean any
discussion Sarah saying no okay we'll do a roll call vote uh Sarah yes John yes Carla yes Tom yes so it is approved four to zero and we move on to the reports and we'll start with our students so who's starting USI okay yeah
um okay so for updates a group of rmhs um students just returned from a Spanish Immersion trip to Costa Rica that took place over February break um I was on there um students lived in groups of two to three with Spanish speaking families attended events and community activities with counterparts and had had a truly
amazing experience thank you to miss irons and Miss Betty Murphy for taking um us on this trip and making it safe and amazing I do kind of want to talk a little bit about that um cuz I did just come back from it last night it was honestly one of the best like we all agreed everybody W on that trip we were talking afterwards was like that was one
of the best experiences of Our Lives I was not I had maybe one or two really close friends who also went on the trip but aside from that everyone else I was acquainted with but I was never really close to and coming out of that we were all like we all become such a tight-knit community now um with like billions of
inside jokes and it was such an amazing experience I know originally the plan was we would all go to Madrid which is what we've done in the past um and obviously like teachers had to switch because some teachers left um and everything kind of changed but I honestly think Costa Rica was a much
more immersive experience than what we would have had in Madrid which is obviously a very like touristy location not that Costa Rica isn't but the town we stayed in was very small very like tight-knit everybody knew each other you really got to experience like what it would be like to grow up living there
and I think one of the best parts of this experience was the freedom that it gave us we had a curfew you know 9:00 p.m. everybody was fine with that but all of us would you know we text in the group chat and we'd be like oh let's go meet here let's go do this we all went out to dinner one time at a recommended restaurant um we would hang out at the
plaza de the PES which is the Sports Plaza right next to the local Middle School which was amazing because we got to meet all these students from the school who were there just playing basketball um and we got to talk with them in Spanish our Spanish overall improved um and we just made amazing
friends and like Memories to last life time so I did just want to talk a little bit about that and how amazing an experience it was so we are super thankful um to have this opportunity and this privilege um and to also you know be without privileges no hot water no air conditioning you know in the home
and the places that we stayed which I honestly think was actually a good part of the experience though some might disagree um so yeah that was the trip um and then afterwards uh 16 RMH students are competing this Thursday and Friday in the state Deca competition held in Boston so today and tomorrow students
had to qualify through past competitions to be eligible for this amazing event thank you to miss Rosenfeld Mr skeffington and Mr blanch for making this possible and then congratulations to all the winter athletic programs for great Seasons gymnastics girls basketball um and girls hockey are still
in the tournament playing for the State title and then spring athletic tryouts begin on March 1th I will be there playing tennis so you may not see me post March um but yeah I'm very excited for your sport Springs points great anything else uh yeah we
got a few more things uh right up next kind of what we talked about in the last meeting like majority of the time the uh new AP classes so I won't go through and list all of those again but um students excited to have that opportunity for next year especially the Freshman becoming sophomores um and then also seniors that qualify and apply for the
senior internship program um right now there are about 130 of them in the senior class we'll begin their internships on April 10th and attend an internship boot camp from the 7th from April 7th to April 9th at rmhs and I know a lot of seniors I'm in a class with a couple seniors in elective and
they're all super excited for it not just to get out of school and get out there but also to gain that working experience a little bit so that's something everyone's looking forward to do you mind list in those new class and we may have some new viewers coming in on this meeting versus the prior meeting
too um this this is the I'll go to the full list so new new courses for 2025 26 are going to be AP econ AP Psychology intro to Public Health Computing number two intro to Cy cyber security intro to environmental politics intro to civil
and environmental engineering uh and then new courses open to grade 10 there's quite a few of them AP chm AP biology AP Government AP Spanish and French AP pre-calculus um dual enrollment audio production social media management intro to Public Health intro
to environment environmental politics and intro to civil and environmental engineering so those are all the new courses and the newly open courses up the last two yeah and um just some upcoming events to look forward to um February 29th to March 29th is
Ramadan and the library Army test Library will be open during lunch for any Muslim Students that are fasting in addition there is a prayer location for Muslim Students also in the library Miss moand can assist any students in either of these areas also March 1st is a drama production at Wayland High School at
10:00 a.m. and tickets are $10 also March 5th is school council meeting yeah obviously and um March 8th is the SAT for students that are taking the SAT March 12th is a college fair at the Fieldhouse at 6:30 I personally will be attending and I'm really excited for
that opportunity so um 125 colleges universities will be represented and it's open to all rmhs students so I think a great opportunity and I'm looking forward to that March 20th is the mecho roller World trip I believe that's in sagus it is yep um the 22nd is
a sophomore semi which is held in the cafeteria uh the 25th and the 26th of March is mcast for grade 10 that's Ela and late start for grade 9 11 and 12 March 27th is a PTO quarterly meeting
there's going to be a guest speaker which is Liz Faria and it's open to all RPS parents the topic is one word comes home how parents can reduce anxiety in their kids and themselves and lastly April 3rd is a junior prom from 7: to 10: p.m. at end over country club guys
get the country club excited your prom and I'm also excited to come in late because I don't have to take mcast yeah we got all of it yeah they got a country club okay anything else any questions for the
students okay you guys know the rules you're welcome to stay and encouraged to stay but we know you have studying and other things to do so thank you very much got several tests tomorrow to go good luck several test go take care of that 1984 huh yeah I have to finish that
it's well it's good times to be reading it yeah go get them thank you okay um uh I think Mr little H you're you're up next here I don't really have anything other than the uh next item for the uh
Q2 update okay Dr Jesy great just like to give one shout out and congratulations Sach quickly mentioned the uh the gymnastics team who will be competing this week in the state championship we were just notified that Zack Stein the head coach was named the Mia State coach of the year which is obviously a huge recognition for him uh
individually but also reflecting sort of the program that he's built in the community that he's fostered over there too so huge Cong congratulations to coach Stein on that well-deserved recognition and best of luck this weekend great thank you any questions comments no we'll move on to Liaison reports and we'll start with Sarah
no report no report okay Sean no report Carlo um just a quick update on kilum um we've been doing the rounds going to different PTO to talk about the project
and give people an update we will be um doing a presentation at fincom next Wednesday okay um finance committee wise um Dr M chest Mr little Hal and I were at the finance committee last night for the review of the school committee
budget um they did a great job presenting and answering questions um and the vote is going to be in two weeks I think if that's correct something like that not next week but the week after maybe through somewhere in that range somewhere before town meeting we'll just
say that right um so I think are there all their questions were sufficiently answered as far as I could tell and I don't see any reason why they wouldn't vote for it but obviously they have to do the vote so okay can I say one more thing that I just remembered you may thank you um
there will be on April 2nd um for all um a presentation for all town meeting members on the K killum and recel project um it will be like a pre- meeting to town meeting on April 2nd
okay for both projects both projects okay great um one thing I missed or didn't get to yet was the policy committee finally we're we're back in Action um we had have we did have two meetings earlier this month on the 11th and the 18th meeting at 7: a.m. on my
birthday was a lot of fun um so that was good we have another meeting scheduled as I said earlier tonight on the 4th of March also at 7: a.m. uh the challenge has been getting time for the three of us with our relative schedules so we're making progress though and we'll talk
touch on the end of that touch on some of that at the end of the meeting as well okay all right uh moving on to the uh first item in the regular agenda and that is the 2526 school calendar Dr mileski great so on February 13th we presented a
uh first draft of the uh 2526 calendar for the school committee review uh couple of pieces of feedback that came through in that meeting three pieces of feedback one was potentially shifting uh the uh secondary um early release days back from the which were on the draft
calendar on Wednesday days back to the Friday to make sure that we'd be able to limit the burden on families of potentially having to find you know two days of child care coverage second piece of feedback was potentially um also uh moving the October PD day that would
allow us to back that on the October holiday so it'll be October 13th and 14th off instead to limit interruptions for students and then last but not least there was also the potential uh the the piece of feedback of uh having the 22nd and 23rd of December being uh winter
vacation days as well um and then adding those on to the end of the year as well so following those three piece of feedback we went back as administrative team uh looked at those and also talked to the RTA leadership around those and tonight in your packet you will find an updated uh Squad draft school calendar
for your vote and approval and a cover letter that explains some of the changes so two of the pieces of feedback we have implemented you'll see first uh we have shifted the uh PD day back at the secondary level back from uh Wednesdays back to Fridays we feel that would
probably be more beneficial to have the PD on Wednesdays for the reasons we described at the same time we recognize that that could put a burden on many of our families and felt that uh both the union and administration felt like it was important to make sure that we could limit that burden on families so therefore you should see that reflected
on the new draft calendar secondly we did also shift the uh inservice day to October 14th so now we have both October 13th and October 14th off uh which then should limit interruptions uh through the month of October as well the piece of feedback that we did not Implement
was the uh longer winter break I can see both sides of the argument here but ultimately we felt like having off December 20 uh 2nd and 23rd uh would provide a longer uh break for students and uh sometimes for many of our students that extended break can be you
know challenging just that much of a disruption throughout the consistency of the school year uh we also feel on the back end we have currently students coming back on January 5th so was a little bit longer than normally it is because of Just The Way January 1st falls so we felt it was just it was best to move forward more of a traditional
end uh time which is the half day on December 23rd uh so that was uh Incorporated that uh most recent feedback and uh open any other conversation hopefully a vote and approval tonight any other questions comments from the committee predicting alltime
lows in attendance on the 22nd and 23rd of December but I we'll uh we'll let it go so we'll make a note of that and look and see I'll say we have done this before so this is not un unusual that we have the 22nd and 23rd but I generally agree that it will be some low times so
um I will say there's one thing I just remembered that we did not yet do and while we can and will vote and hopefully will approve it um I'll ask that we make a kind of post approval adj adjustment which is not related to the dates themselves but one of the asks was to
put the quarters for the high school oh yeah on the last page um so not just semesters but the quarters because that's when grades are adjusted and sent out and all that kind of fun stuff so parents would know that yep great catch thank you okay like a
motion I would love a motion motion to approve the 2526 school calendar do I have a second second seconded by Carla okay any further discussion seeing none we'll start virtually again Sarah yes John yes Carla
yes Tom yes and we are hereby approved we can publish that out great thank you I know that probably as soon as Monday or Sunday comes somebody's going to ask hey does anybody have the calendar for next school year so it's actually already been it's already been there we
go thank you so okay um with that said we will now move on to the next uh agenda item and uh that would be our uh Q2 financial report and while we do that I'm just going to do a quick share of uh of that
document so that should be available now okay so U Mr little we'll start with you all right so this is the Q2 uh financial report I like q1 you know was a little bit more to talk about now that we've you know got some more time under our belts for the the fiscal year so we
did a couple of things before we presented this um Kate and I spent a lot of time going through all the salary lines so we've already gone through and did our projections on the salary lines for the rest of the year so we have good understanding as where we're standing on those so that's why you'll see in the
column that we've headed incumbrance slash uh what's left for requirement we've already forecasted out what we need to encumber for the salaries for the rest of the year also went through the non-personnel lines as well uh we made an assumption that we're going to spend down all the non-personnel lines
as of right now I mean we're still four months left of the year and 6 months out from these from these numbers when we put this together um the overall all um status is that we are in good shape financially um we've got enough money in the general fund to cover all of our
expenses as well as all the other expenses that are paid for by our offsets so we're looking good um our forecast here also is already incorporated into the numbers some of the uh typical yearend um things that reading does for
example we've U Already Incorporated the uh prepay on the tuitions for 26 uh We've also put in about 350,000 estimate for the year-end it refresh and also as of right now as a placeholder
anticipating perhaps up to 300,000 being able to put that into the special ed fund so those numbers are already reflected into these uh into that column called the encumberance requirement for the rest of the year so when you look at the column that says there's 200 we're estimated about 240,000 left that's
after we've already done all those other items so that's why overall financially we're we're tracking well but you know who knows what happens in the next 3 and a half months but uh again uh we were fortunate this year that we had I wouldn't say fortunate but uh we saved
some money relative to Budget on some hires that were coming in less than what we budgeted for so that's reflected in some of the uh some of the balances that we'll have available available at year end and we're also uh made a couple of tweaks one tweak in terms of uh one of
the offset numbers we're anticipating not having to use as much of the um kindergarten fund as an offset for this year we initially budgeted a 485,000 usage out of the fund we've lowered that down to 400,000 and again as we get near the end
of the year and we see how things are tracking we'll obviously be doing you know a Q3 update as well and then in June will be you know we we really tighten things up and get it down to what we're going to end up with but overall from my perspective we're looking good
so um so if you look through this um one of the things I struggle with in this report is if you look at the year-to date you know what we've spent it's really hard to have those percentages really tell you much of anything because of we have staffs on
different paying payment Cycles so through December year round employees have had 12 pay 12 pay and the teachers have had eight so you know trying to show what that means for percentage wise I'm still struggling with that some some year I'm going to get that so it makes
sense um again all in all though all of our lines are tracking well um any questions on the uh the general fund look around Sarah no okay the next page are the
grants um you know the superintendent did uh force me to actually write a memo this time so that's why you have the onepage memo but when I did that I did miss um if you look down under the state grants there's three new grants listed on there that's
the uh special air mark for the anatomy table at the high school that was the um what's the word what's the word I'm struggling with inovation Pathways no it's it's an anatomy table but we don't have real bodies we have virtual virtual
thank you yeah it's actually a cool looking um machine so uh we had 50,000 that got ear marked on the budget for this there was about 59,000 from a grant from last year and we had it come up with about 10,000 on the operating budget to cover the final cost but we
got it done so which is good um we also um listed the myap Grant and then finally the HQ which is the what is that one called high quality instructional materials Grant so those are three new ones that were added in for Q2 the only
real change that was made on here is a slight adjustment in what we're expecting to have carryover from the idea 240 special ed Grant you know we had 151,000 now but 156 but we've also if you also look all Grant monies for fiscal years 22 and 23
are fully expended which is good and we're anticipating that we will fully expend all the fiscal year 24 grant money as well just as a reminder to folks that on the entitlement grants while they are from a certain SCH year you actually have approximately 2 and 1/2 years to spend the money though Ur
limit is how much you can carry over it used to be 15% then when we hit covid they basically said carry over as much as you can I believe we're back to 15% as the most you can carry over from many of your grants um any questions on the grants so
I guess I'll ask one quick question um besides that 15% adjustment we're going to zero in many cases is there a philosophical will change there and using them earlier as opposed to like last year for example you look at title one we obviously carried over 13,000
title to 177,000 now you're not forecasting to carry anything over so just wanted to check with the logic there it's called by conservative worst case scenario way of doing things you know we get to the end of the year that's sort of we're going to see where we end up what do we have left in the grants what do we have left in the
general fund and try to you know make sure that we balance that correctly so we know for example that we're going to be carrying over money out of the Ida Grant cuz that's our biggest Grant you know the problem with title one as we discussed last night with the finance committee is that title one is down to
$889,000 Y in fact we did get news today that every year desie makes adjustments to the grant allocations around January to February if there's money that some districts haven't accepted then they reallocate it so this year for tle one
we got an additional zero and title to we got $439 more oo big big dollars and we're going to take it because you know we're not going to leave money on the table so you know again on the smaller grants I philosophically I like on the
smaller grants to just try to use them up because they're again they're not big money so to speak it's really the Ida grant that you want to work on try to carry some of that money over Okay so this might not be zero at the end of the year that is correct but you're concern this is our best estimate as of you know
the end of December okay I can I quick question Tom for the um virtual an anatomy table is that here and is it up and running it no not yet ordered supposed to be arriving any day
and we'll get up and running right away I thought and what classes will it impact it's uh I it's most of the classes in the healthcare and social assistance pathway and there's a variety of classes in there uh most notably right now like the anatomy class as well um that's been one that we were waiting
for funds for a while for that table and uh finally sort of came through to so that was not a delay on the high school administration to order the day those funds came through they you know we ordered but it was a it was a pain in a process longer than we expected there was a delay on the 50,000 that have been the ear Mark out of the budget because
that's actually a fiscal year 24 no yeah 24 ear Mark not a 25 It's just sometimes things are very slow what we're seeing with that table too is that there's a lot like when we're talking other communities that use the table there's a lot of uses you see Dana in the crowd who probably knows more about it than I
do who probably uses that are even outside of just your traditional like anatomy class right that uh um that could be of used so we're still kind of doing some research on what else where else could it be used it's really exciting awesome can I ask a question I've I've never thought to ask before but I wanted to see I mean you may not
know the answer so it may just be a takeaway um and I'm only asking somebody else was asking me because that was a negative thing this elimination of timeout runs Grant believe that's training related correct not like we don't have a timeout room anymore at
least we really need it but it's more training related for our staff so they can handle the situation more um carefully for like better word and to minimize uh excl uh opport space where students need to be ex excluded right to be able to build staff capacity to
handle challenging situations in a way that would increase the chances they can be included as much as they possibly can thank you yeah I wish the grant was worded a little bit differently yeah if you read the language it's it's heavily focused on training and not actually on
eliminating timeout room I know I know um okay thank you Bill is there anything else revolving accounts and whatnot well the revolving accounts just one thing I want to point out is under the full day kitty garden you'll see that under the fiscal year 25 offsets we've lowered that from 485 to 400,000 I mean that's
really the big change you know there just so you know the typical es and flows for a a quarter now that you know it's a full now that everything's up everything's been up and running so looking at the school lunch one yeah I think I remember last night
you said we should carry essentially four months worth of Revenue or cost into that into that over the regulations say that the most you're supposed to carry is up to four months of your monthly Revenue so in our case that's
you know going to get us around $8 to $900,000 and and if if I remember correctly again yesterday refreshed me we have a couple of like an 85 and 85 and a 50 or so Capital potential spend in in that are
related to cafeteria related stuff yes um if we spent that theoretical 20 something thousand that brings us down to about 900,000 which would be just slightly above that number um is there anything we need to do to kind of fastpath those purchases or or do we
think we shouldn't um that's an artificial thing that's put out there it's not regulation you know it's one of those things we my interpretation is that's what they would like you to Target for in a prior location where I was at where was at the charter school we had our balance up to
about um 15 months because it was such a well-run program so when they when Desi came in to do our review I said to the reviewer what would you like us to do because the building was only 8 years old so I didn't need any Capital expenses yet I said everything else is running fine no other issues what would
you like us to do and I said somewhat sarcastically shall we start you know serving Lobster and fet because I I'm not going to spend money for the sake of getting down to an artificial number if it makes sense yes so I think um Mr wise going back to that yes I think we can
use some of that for some of those Capital things which then as I think we talked about before might free up some of the capital money that's been allocated to schools for something else that that's where I was going with it not not so much as a as an obligation to get to the 800,000 or anything although there's a potential benefit of alignment
there but really more of the I think it's in 26 we have an 8585 and 52 related cost related to cafeteria if we I mean we can don't have to spend it now but if we know as our need now and it's only in in 26 because that's when it could be put in the capital budget then
if we could spend it now and it would help the program and is needed now then maybe we well what is needed right now are a couple of uh new ovens and Katie has uh sent me down a requisition request 14 new ovens I forget which school it's for and it's about a total
of about 90,000 so I think that's one of the items that is on the capital plan and she needs them now the only other context I like to is on the downside of trying to spend some of that down now maybe quicker than we would is just some of the conversation around like federal grants and and you know Federal
investment in you know food you know food service programs I think having that number a little bit higher right now is something I think I'd be a little more comfortable with with the uncertainty of what that will look like the next couple years yeah that's what I'm said if it's something we need right that's what you know if it's something we want that's a different story but if
it's something we need and it would benefit getting here a year earlier then great but yeah just something to think about so agreed okay Bill why did you say the amount what's on those ovens 9 or 90 I think they're about 45,000 each so Katie's gone through she's
purchased them off the state contract so in terms of the bid stuff we're okay with that um I just have a chance to talk to her about it to you know go over it make sure I'm un comfortable with it before we put in the requisition thank you thank
you okay so that's it on revolving accounts um on the gift and donations I just did want to point out in case anyone's really was looking at the numbers would end um it its donation um balance has gone down because they took out about 13,000 to finished paying for
the rock rock wall both the purchase and the installation of it so that was the big thing that was going on there um on the other ones not much really else to say I they're all looking they're all looking well at this point and then finally on the Student
Activity accounts um I just wanted to point out I put it on the notes what some of the expansions have been for the Student Activity counts for the two middle schools a lot of it has been for Nature's Classroom so that's where that's coming from and for the high school it's reflecting what's already
been spent for homecoming the Costa Rica trip and the Switzerland trip so before anybody questions why is wood end getting a rock wall it was a donation specifically for a rock wall you may recall so okay I do not know that so thank you
those w kids are special they just get all the best you know what that's exactly what people are going to think that's I'm trying to trying to head off a parent specifically donated money for a rock ball so and so at this point um we don't have any need for any large transfers um I don't expect to become
too f folks with those until the fourth quarter you know again we want to track through the third quarter you know make sure we'll Katie and I will go back in I'll say Katie will go back in and revise the uh projections out for all the salary lines so as we get Clos to
the end of the year we'll be much sharper in terms of the overall numbers okay one of the things we've seen in the past that we don't see here and I don't know that we need to but just want to see if we have a status of it is the graduation accounts the class of XYZ accounts
right dispersing of those funds and getting them back to the class officers and stuff like that so it' be good to get just get a quick update on that maybe just be le on or or update report next time or something like I'll just I'll bring it in for the next meeting
great Dr corm I just uh Jeffrey corm Ridge Ro just looking at the revolving accounts the Q2 revolving accounts and I noticed that um extracurricular Parker appears in the budget book that was distributed to fincom yesterday but does not appear
on this list in the packet tonight because there are two there were two uh revolving accounts one was Parker after school one was Parker extracurricular and we have merged them ah okay um I there was particularly the extracurricular coolage
an extracurricular Parker that had not had any activity over the past I'm going to say 10 years um an extracurricular coolage again you know has has not moved in this budget so we it's been know we are slowly going through and figure out
what we can and what we can close down and move around and we got to be careful with that cuz these our revolving accounts want to make sure that we stay within what we're allowed to do yes so but yeah we Katie and I have been working there some clean up that we still want to do with this try to uh
close down some accounts that we haven't used in a while and get rid of them so should the budget book then be revised to to to because the par extracurricular Parker is no longer a separate
account a 26 budget so what doesn't exist for 26 so it's just probably a small update if we can make that up I believe it's $650 yeah so I'm not I don't know the history here for me a $650 line in there I'm not sure if it's
going to be worth going and reproducing budget book for but I'll do what is uh what the committee feels we should do it should be a pretty quick update too I mean just I would say you're not we're not printing it we haven't printed
just a PDF virtual update to like one page so if if it takes I'll fix it 15 minutes or something we can get it fixed right that's my view I don't think okay we'll get that fixed is me y i let's do
it okay anything else that's it for the the report any other questions questions from the committee Sarah no car no no thank and again if there's other things that you're looking for please let me know you know for example in terms of the Student Activity
accounts that's a good it good thing to add to it great thank you um and it's moving on in the agenda then we will move on so Phil thank thank you do Mr little hell thank you very much for that um let's move on to the kindergarten enrollment update and and Dr CH great so
uh in your packet you'll see an updated uh kindergarten enrollment uh document couple of things I like to share first the number now is at 287 uh that is uh does not include any school choice or does not include any Meco at this point either um couple things on that I feel like this year we
had a more firm deadline to be able to get your priority school as the uh beginning of February uh we did a lot to try to contact all the families who we thought could be out there whether that was sending out you know email blasts whether that was contact our local preschools whether that was Facebook
notifications uh contacting sending letters multiple letters to everyone who was on our census data and I think something we did this year which is a little bit different was we also used the town of reading property assessment data to find the names and the of people who are or actually to find the contact information of families who were um also
on the census information we hadn't yet registered and we were able to track down some families that way too so I sure all that to say we feel like we have hit you know the majority of families who may be out there who are already living and reading who are eligible for kindergarten 287 is below our projections of 340 as again the
reminder of why do we have 340 that um the demographic study we had had the projection at 313 we had a 20 students who we knew were eligible for kindergarten who did not enroll last year and also seven students who are not on the Census Data who you know contacted us who with interest and and
um registering their child that brought to 340 we knew that would be on the high end I still think it's on the high end but I uh at 287 I think we're going to go you know a little bit above that especially as we get into school choice into Meco and some families move in uh we always get some more registrations over the summer so where does that bring
us so I think in the packet you'll see it broken down by school at this point um we did as you know allocate in the f26 budget an additional kindergarten teacher for an additional classroom the spot where we're hoping that we don't need that this for next year is at barrows the reason being we have this
would be four classrooms at barrows if anyone was familiar with the barrows Community there's not a lot of space that would pose a significant spacing space challenge for us at barrows uh so we are hopeful that we can keep that to three classrooms as of now we have 62 students registered we're going to try
to keep that number as close to that as we can and then fill some of the others uh schools where right now as you can tell by the numbers that we have space in each of those as well too feel really good about where we are right now is that we can have you know obviously some autonomy and choice over where we'd Place Meco and school choice and also
knowing we have space in most of our schools gos for students who still move in so uh we'll keep the community uh and the committee informed as the spring moves forward and especially if we get into a position we feel like we definitely will not need to move forward with that additional kindergarten
teacher okay any questions for any think you hit on pretty much everything we talked about last night finance committee too so I have no questions okay um then we'll move on to um the awarding of the DAV David
Libby scholarship um and Dres do you want to start with this uh there's not I mean not a lot on here which you you'll see a memo in your packet which outlines uh for the last couple of years as you know there was a d David B Libby scholarship
fund uh which allows us to provide uh scholarships each year for the last couple years it's been 22 sen uh deserving seniors 4,000 each and the criteria being left by the David Libby family was uh qualifying students residing in reading and graduating from Reading Memorial High School um so this
is the the vote tonight is just a the committee approving the town to expend the $888,000 again this year so I would just like to thank the David bivy uh scholarship you know fund and the family uh for this generous donation that I think is being has been very well received and appreciated by so many
families and students in our community you like a motion um yeah I'll make it um just because I'm looking through some of the language here so um I move to approve the D David B Libby scholarship distribution tion in alignment with the scholarship attent to be established I mean for qualifying students residing in
Reading Mass and graduating from Reading Memorial High School second seconded by Carla any discussion or topics or concerns Carla go ahead so this is for um this year's seniors this year's yeah um considering we have this we have
seniors this is just a this is just to appropriate the funding correct we have no we have no say in the people being awarded okay well technically we do but we don't so we we have no input into that
okay but that is a good concern to raise so you you you can approve the criteria it's not you're you're approving the criteria and they're generic enough that it's not it's not for our individual kids yeah I don't I don't think you have any conflict of interest issues can I just make a friendly amendment that we
include the $88,000 amount in the motion sure yep I think since we're since we're approving an expenditure probably should include that figure so so amended any no objection to that I assume no okay so amended thank you very
much okay so um all right roll call Sarah yes John yes Carla yes Tom yes and it passes 4 to zero okay um thank you very much and we're moving right along um so
discussion and potential vote on a town meeting warrant article for school bus camera enforcement systems per chapter 399 of the acts of 2024 um Dr ches do you want to start this or do you want me to sure I don't mind starting uh so again you'll find a p a memo in the packet that gives a little bit more information but uh in
kind of broad Strokes on January 10th Governor Healey uh agreed uh signed a law uh a bill into law um a it's a it allows for bus mounted cameras uh to be able to issue fines for vehicles that uh pass school stop uh stop school buses uh
and then it basically allows towns and cities to be able to you know uh move forward with this uh move forward the program they have to accept the provisions of the law and do this formally so for us we need to move forward and have this approved by town meeting um so couple of things one in
following sort of where this has already been approved the towns where I've seen this already approved or ones that have their own bus companies as well so um in here you'll see a link to an article that talks a little bit about what's happened in Salem and pey who are both moving forward with this program uh for
those in the community here may wonder you know for us we you know partner with a with North Suburban for our for our busing we have been in contact with North Suburban to you know kind of inquire about how what would this cost look like would we share cost with other communities you know you know how would that who would that bill fall on so
there's still more information for us to have in terms of the actual cost uh so that's one piece two uh I I've been asked you know is there there a need for this in our community as well speaking to some Community Committee members some committee members said they remember years ago some comments on Facebook
around people saying I saw someone you know Buzz by a bus when kids were getting off I haven't heard much of that feedback since I've been here for the last four years from uh bus drivers themselves with that said we know what is happening in the region in the one of the Articles linked in the packet uh
you'll see there's a kind of a press release from Salem who said well again a different Community you know different cont different amount of buses but from September 1st to December 30th uh they put the the cameras on and monitored sort of the amount of suspected violations I didn't believe this number when I saw it
3,371 violations so again I I haven't heard firsthand of that being an issue in our community but given even just what you know Salem had alleged on the violations um like to think that there's probably you know some level of violation happening in our community at some point too uh I've been asked where
I stand on this too I mean from my perspective anything that we can do to keep uh promote student safety I stand behind um particularly we know that that's such a vulnerable position for students as they are getting off a bus and Crossing in front of traffic and things like that as well so uh I am not necessarily advocating for any action or
needed action tonight but I did want to make the committee aware and if the committee wants to pursue further action tonight you know that's great but I will also loop back in the next couple of weeks with some more information around what the cost would look like too so that can be evaluated and then we can move forward uh as you see f
yeah any questions comments go ahead Sean yeah I mean I obviously I'm sort of generally supportive of the concept of something that improves safety for our students you know I I think the question of the cost does matter you know given that we haven't experienced this as a huge or at
least doesn't seem like we've experienced this as a huge issue in town um so that is interest you know it's interesting to me to find out what the cost is the other thing that I would like us to think about as we work with our part Partners on the town side on this um I just scanned the law and it's
not clear in the law but I would assume the police department the Town Police Department is the issuing authority for the violations and so um some percentage if not all that Revenue comes to the town so I don't know if this could be something that maybe we put it in accommodated cost or something along those lines so that we're not absorbing
operating costs in our budget and generating revenue on the town side great um uh just maybe something to look at as we work with um you know Matt and his team on on what this would look like at town meeting and so forth yeah I originally we originally
talked about this because it came through masc I think Arlington passed it as well and we do have to do a a warrant meeting warrant article for it to show up and then have town meeting approve it y right so I don't know that we're ready for that yet because I think we we need
a little bit more Intel um and understanding but uh Dr mil ches and I were talking as well is you know even if we don't have that the ability to be able to do it once we have that it would be something that we want to make sure we pursue um I do think the warrant for
this April is going to close here soon so if we don't act tonight we probably won't be able to act for for April but we can follow through on this and then see if we want to get it for November um as something to go through um so yeah I do remember and I'm sure others on this
committee remember that there have been plenty of Facebook posts over time about you know people speeding by parked bus or stopped bus with their stop signs outs so it's not that it's not happening here just a matter of how do we make sure we're we do it smartly and efficiently is s anything on your
side Carl anything for you no okay all right seeing then then we we will keep moving on um no motion no thing to approve uh we'll just move on um so the cell phone policy uh
potential stuff and I'm looking at this in terms of first Sean you asked for it based upon some stuff that's happening at the state level um Dr mileski has done some research and the Administration has done some research on this as well um so one I want to hear about some of the research and what the thought processing Administration is and
then two um I'd like to get some feedback from the committee on whether they want this to be pursued by the subcommittee and any potential guidance and and kind of what options you would like us to look at so Dr mileski we'll start with you great uh so this is I think the first of several convers
ations probably this spring and also into the summer talking about cell phones uh and device usage in schools as you may know Mass state legislator recently proposed an act that promotes it was a safe technology use and a distraction free environment um and then that pack that information and that
legislation is also in their packet for review uh these are things that we've been talking about even before this you know kind of legislation was was being kicked around um I think that these conversations before we are to move in One Direction or another I think these are conversations that need to include
the voices of our high school especially our high school administration our high school Educators a lot of our families uh I've already received a lot of opinions from that Community like a lot of times contrasting and uh differing opinions on what this should look like so I think this is one that we'd really
need a lot of community engagement uh on a plan moving forward so uh principal count and I have already started talking about trying to get some more formal process for us to think about what this would look like I think a resource that we found particularly useful recently was the Attorney General released a
toolkit for school leaders and communities around uh you know in the in like you know with the potential of this moving forward as uh you know being passed by both the state and the and the house by the state it would um the toolkit gives you a couple of things one
some sample model policies to be able to use for uh for use to some conversations around like how do you start to get your community or processes how do you get your community on board with the direction that you're moving and then what is some of the curriculum that could be used around digital media
literacy I think the part here that has most interesting to us right now is that kind of the toolkit outlines a few different models of what implementation of a distraction free environment could look like the three there that kind of represent a different type of a spectrum
being one uh Bell to Bell no phones know I think more in the middle is that the phones are the policy will be phones are you know you can have them phones are off and phones are away then all the way on the other end of you know limited use which would allow certain periods of the day or S
designated times where students would be allowed to use phones I think the feedback I've heard kind of weighing those out with some of our staff already is a lot of our staff and a lot of our uh leaders feel that we have an obligation as a school Community to teach our students appropriate use and
how to navigate a world where students are having to Grapple with the the distractions and the challenges of being you know having uh technology readily available and sort of on you and also recognizing that that poses some pretty significant distraction or can pose some
significant attractions for our students particularly where they are developmentally so I think in obviously those represent you know a pretty wide view of belief so I think the next step on our end was uh principal K and I you know coming up with some more formal process to be able to gather feedback
and ideas uh to be able to get some more input that would help inform the committee as the committee would come up with a policy um and to be able to kind of Kickstart that process soon I'm saying the high school this is predominantly we think a high school uh challenge right now but it it is seeping to the Middle School
level as well and I even say at the elementary level as well but uh we're going to start with the majority of our conversation up here at the high school as well but I'd love to hear any thoughts feedback direction from the committee as we dive in John your hand up so I I I mean I certainly think it makes a ton of sense
to get a lot of feedback from you know from teachers and administrators at the high school and middle school you know who are going to have to implement whatever we do I I also think though um this is a policy where we probably could never do enough to sort of try to hear from the community about you know sort of what they'd prefer in their schools
right um you know I I can't tell you how many parents I hear from that have like immense regret about having gotten their kids phones and and and would welcome knowing that their kids spend six or seven hours a day not touching their phone um and so uh you know I I I hear
you know I hear the sort of balanced perspective I worry sometimes when you talk about three options there's goldilock syndrome where the one in the middle always feels like the right one I don't want us to predeter you know be predisposed to thinking that way um so I just I think there's a lot of value in US trying to you know I don't know what
the Forum is or what the approaches but almost like we do a hearing on something that requires a hearing where you know there's kind of a more of a process around making sure that we're creating opportunities for people to be heard as we consider um you know what we want to recommend to the policy subcommittee
orever we're going to approach that um all that weighed against certainly the Practical implications of people that have to implement it in the schools and what that looks like you know I think is certainly a big part of that but um I I just uh you know I think this is one where we need to make a point to hear
from the community as well as as well as the staff I want have follow comment too I I wholeheartedly agree with you on that on like hearing uh the feedback from the community and from the staff as well and I'd also add like another words just is hearing to is also like in there's an
obligation for us to inform the community as well uh around some of the research of what's coming out I think even recently around brain development uh you know uh impact of social media you'll see one of the quotes here that resonates with us it says about social media from the US Surgeon General it
said uh uh with near Universal social media used by America's young people these apps and sites introduce profound risk and mental health Harms in ways we are only now beginning to fully understand as Physicians we see firsthand the impact of social media particularly during adolescence a critical period of brain development and then you see some of the other in there
listed some of the research that backs that up so while we are we need to hear feedback from folks they also think there's the obligation of the school district to be able to inform people about what is the body of research that is would be backing some of these policies because there's that may also
shift some of their perspective and thinking on some of these things as well I think this would be I I agree wholeheartedly that this is this is a um townwide like this is a broader scope of of hearing from people but um I'm I'm
also thinking that there would be different levels at different you know levels of school different policies potentially um and and then you always hear the flip side right you know at the high school even you the kids know what
the expectations are in each individual class and they know kind of the wiggle rooms that they have too right and the frustrations in class because of it um so it's it's the compliance piece of it as well it's just that we're arming them with the policy
um the compliance still needs to happen oh yeah yeah so it'll be an interesting process yeah so what I'm hearing um here is that it's not something we want the policy subcommittee to take up
unless although we might have to think about the interest from the rest of the committee unless it's in in a hearing type presentation shape form right um with that said I think it probably sounds like it's going to be more of a whole committee conversation and and
whatnot so um I was thinking as Tom was originally talking okay is this an advisory subcommittee that goes and does it and I I don't think that's necessarily the best approach either um you know picking a group of people or anything else to go look through it um I think getting the the collective feedback sounds appropriate we might
want to start with some sort of like survey yeah right um you know that we can get get some some feedback that we can do some analysis on um you know wordcloud or otherwise analysis maybe some structured questions that can give us some sort of starting point it
doesn't have it's not going to be perfect um they never are but maybe it's something that we can start with in addition to the research that could be part of a presentation leading into an open Forum Q&A type process um I I've heard you know in addition to some of
the you know I can't believe I get my k a phone so early then the other side of it I hear on on that when you come especially when you come to the high school is there's a the perception of safety or having safety by having a phone available um and I say perception
because I think it's there's a great deal of that that our schools are already very safe and the way they are but there's a perception if something were to happen than having a phone and the ability to call out or get somebody there or whatever you know is is a good thing so we have there's a lot of factors to balance in this um
fortunately in our district we you know one to one from an other you know technical platform perspective but in many districts the phone is the way in which kids get access to certain things so we'll have to account for that in case we have problems with replenishment of our technology platforms right because some kids could use their phones
to get to Google classroom or something like that if we needed to and we're already hearing we heard earlier today about the Wi-Fi being a challenge in getting to Google Classroom so there's going to be some technical sides of this to consider as we go through it as well um so a lot to come I think we'll have
to figure out collectively how we want to schedule that um I think it's important that it doesn't happen over the summer um but what do we need to do to prepare ourselves for it and and then when do we want to start holding those conversations I can add thank you one
piece to it is the the conversations that should be H be having that that individual schools should be having of what you know and and there'll be multiple conversations I'm assuming and staff meetings and stuff what school council yeah like really getting the
feedback from the teachers and the administrations and stuff okay um Sarah anything on your side no I think just add I think obious it's super complex there a lot of ideas and thoughts and opinions I think from
you know all ke stakeholders so important to hear from parents and families um teachers staff administrators and then balancing out our you know data and policy state level um and taking all those different nuces into consideration
around suppor all Learners the adaptive technology other things that some students are relying to their phones for example to support their learning if you know what is that for providing appropriate tools and and those of things
okay um all right any other feedback or thoughts on that Dr I would just like to encourage the committee to also really involve the middle school because I think there are number of I mean when my daughter was there and that was years ago it was even
in sixth grade you know kids were texting back and forth in class and it's you know you stop something like that earlier before they've developed the habit of oh I got to check I got to check I got to check before it becomes kind of ingrained in their
processes my my sixth grader is is known as an iPad kid because she doesn't have a phone so it's that I mean it's that prevalent at sixth grade already yep I know yep it was a fifth grade thing I think for for us in many ways so I'm not surprised that it's a
sixth grade thing or or otherwise Elementary I as as we were saying that needs to be included as well very much it's all levels and appropriate use may be different and we need to figure out how we address that across the levels as well as things like you know some other
districts do things like um you know an iPad wall or a phone wall when you walk in you go put it in the pouch or something so it's there but you're not using it and that goes to the compliance side of it right that becomes part of the Standard Process then it's there from a safety perspective but it's not
being used unless explicitly allowed or something along those lines so there could be a capital or financial side of this too as we work through the actual implementation of the policy um to be thought through too so okay good um seeing no further topics on that
or discussion on that Bo we'll move to the last item which is notification so um as the packet um memo says apy bgb policy adoption provides for our ability to notify Amendments of policies that are in existence for a
single meeting member vote um so we have um six policies that will be on our next agenda on March 13th policy ikf which is our graduation requirements one uh was updated as a result of the most recent vote in November removing mcast as graduation requirement so we had to add
a competency determination process in in alignment with that um then there's five Personnel policies um that we have reviewed uh with legal counsel and um the HR Director a couple of them Michelle herself did a lot of a lot of edits on to clean up and make even more
um clear for like a way to put it um so those five will be up for discussion um review and hopefully adoption votes um this is six of I counted 159 policies on my list so we are a bit behind um and we
have another meeting next Tuesday uh which does include the next and hope hopefully final review of FF before it comes before us as a greater group um and and six other Personnel policies and that's not even the end of the
Personnel policies pile so we uh we have a lot of work to do we continue to work through it um and we seem to have found some sort of cadence with early morning meetings on Tuesday so we'll see what how we progress from there any questions on the notification okay seeing none that is
our last agenda item so one thing real quick if I follow Kate finegan must be tuning in a home and had a quick follow up on the Student Activity account so I figured I'd just save an action item so Kate emailed and says in response to Tom W's question regarding class account balances thank you Kate uh all past graduating class account balances have
been transferred to outside bank accounts class of 2024 did not have any funds left over after graduation to transfer to an outside account the class of 2025 account balance is currently 12,450 and 47 cents but they still have promend of year activities to pay for
thank you Kate Kate she's a rockstar I was just to saved an action item feels like check done okay um no further agenda items motion to adjourn motion by Carla seconded by
Sean not debatable roll call Sarah yes Sean yes Carla yes Tom yes and we are adjourned at 8:23 e