--------- But um that house next [Music] mayor. Okay. Good evening. We'll call to order the uh review of the whole uh 5m meeting will all rise in salute the floor.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Lieutenants, we have remotely
participated. Miss Stacy Rizzo, Mr. Presidentella, Mr. Anthony Kajiano, Miss Aisha Ellis, Mr. John Kingston, and Miss Jaclyn Montroso. We can go over the approval of the minutes.
Any um tax warrants? Oh, nothing. No. Financial reports 25. Yes, Mr. Cruz. All right. So, we have two financial reports that are given to you normally in the August meeting each year. Um,
they're both backwardlooking to make sure that the previous fiscal year was done correctly and um have a bead on how what our plan was last year went. So, that's what these two reports are about. Uh, the first one is the
final financial report for the school committee. So, you've gotten quarterly reports up to this point. Here's the final one for the year. Uh the most important note here is that we spent within the bounds of the series appropriation vote.
I just want to make sure everybody has the right packet because they might have been reversed in the packet. So this is the stapled document. Thank you. Yep. Right. This one's called final financial report for school commission. Um so the the most important thing here is that we stay in accord with what we
had voted when we did the budget. And you can see that we did that. There were some razor thin margins this year. Um, but we were able to stay within those series votes without having to do budget amendments to baseline accounts in this
way. And then I added a few other notes at the bottom just so you aware of what you're looking at. But happy to answer any questions if there were any on the final financial report for fiscal 25. That's fine. Miss Proso,
I would just say the notes you put at the bottom were really helpful. So if you would like to do that moving forward, it helps a lot to just have that overview things pulled out. Sorry. What was the final for carryover to last
year's budget to this one? This that's coming up next. Okay. I follow those. All right. So again, the financial fin the final financial report is somewhat antilimactic
because we've been talking about any issues regularly since October. This is just to say, hey, we addressed them and we spent in accord with what the desire of the committee was and nothing spiraled out of control in the last three months of the fiscal year. So
that's kind of a Yes. And so all those all of the um prior votes that we had are reflected within here although they're not spelled out. You mean the votes around um so that would that's that would be for the FY26 budget.
Okay. And this is a summary of the FY25. Okay. Thank you. And it should be an antilimactic report. The only thing that would make it climactic would be if something very
unexpected happened in the last 90 days of the fiscal year and we were ahead of all things. So that's why I was not boring report. All right. Now to uh the other question. So the other onepage report is just a projection. It says
projected carry forward FY2 uh 25 into 26 single sheet. It's the single sheet in the packet. So, um this is us saying, hey, we were trying to manage the previous fiscal year in such a way so
that there was some carry forward that would flow through to make the FY26 budget work. So, the most important note here is that we are trending to meet or exceed the $5.25 25 million that was
specified in the FY26 budget as anticipated carry forward. So this is always uh tricky to know in March or April what will happen in August. So we try to
ballpark it conservatively but to not leave anything on the table with our projection. So 5.25 25 is what the committee voted saying we are confident that we'll have at least that much flow through and this is a preliminary report because
the fiscal year hasn't been closed out in the accounting system just yet but we highlighted the uh net school spending eligible projected preliminary carry forward amount and that's tracking at the 5.4.
So, we have, you know, a little bit more than we had uh needed in order to make the budget go. And I'm pretty confident that that will be the number once the fiscal year is closed up. Um there was a bunch of other notes down in here, but
don't forget that we've committed over $6 million to the McKinley renovation project happening. So we're just showing that uh the money that we have not encumbered or spent yet in the project is not vanishing that it's identified
and clarified in the city. Is that in capital spending? Yep. The city it's in a capital outlay account. The city is in concert with us on the accounting for it. But a big part of FY25 was us making the commitment to that.
And so a bunch has been spent, a bunch is unspent, but we will not lose track of that. And then you can see there's a column that says non-eligible. So the city infuses our budget with money to spend on city responsible
things like transportation. And so then we go throughout the year if purchase orders close under or there's surpluses in certain accounts that column of carry forward flows back to the city reverts back to free cash. So that's where we're
showing you that amount so that we're also synced with the city. so that they know how what they gave to us was spent in the fiscal year. But that's the 594,000 that you see in the second column. And then
most likely, I can't predict a 10-year future, but this will be the last time that we see a $10 million figure for district reserves because we've committed about 2 million of that for this year. And we'll see what happens in January, but likely to to do
more next year. So, this is just showing you it's not banished. The accounting is clear on it. It's going to flow through and it will begin to be mobilized next year. So when you put all these pots together of a huge district like ours and all the different things that we're
working, the the carry forward figure on the books looks large, but I wanted you to have a clear vision of all the different smaller buckets that go into the big one. And again, antilimactic is good with the numbers. Uh we're not
saying, "Oh man, we only carried forward $4 million of net school spending required eligible funding." So we've hit all of our marks that we were talking about in earnest in the spring. Good. And I'll I'll just add that as is typically our practice, we should have
the final confirmed carry forward number uh late September, early October and usually at the October meeting is when we would say here's the amount that we have available to spend and the committee would make a decision if they want to spend any of that. I think in
this troubling financial climate, we hopefully I would suggest that we let that money flow through um so that we have it for the following year. But if something came up in the meantime that we really needed to address, there'd be that couple of hundred,000 that's above the 5.25 that
we've already committed. Um because we committed 5.25 in the current year budget, but we're at that 5.470 anticipated carry. So, we could think about if we wanted to use some of that money or just let it both, you know, usually around your October meeting.
Okay. October or November? October, right? Uh it should be October. Yeah, thank you. Yes, Miss Montrosa. So, this final amount of 15 million really isn't that once we kick in what we took to balance the budget for the
next fiscal year. Uh what that 15 million479.99 um is what will be available, which is good. We've already committed two different pieces of that funding. Yes, we've committed 5.25
for classroom teachers from the natural carry forward and then we've committed you know 1.8 I think 1.75 1.7 or 1.8 from the district preserve so if all else equal sitting here next year
the district reserve number will say eight and not 10 and we'll see how all the rest of the things have flowed. I see. Okay. And then so we are giving back to the city around 600,000 because
we didn't use it. That's right. So that 600,000 is the city put into our budget money to spend for them for transportation um for capital needs that may come up. So as we operate both the year we're in
and close out purchase from purchase orders from the previous year that may not have been fully liquidated any surplus that emer that amasses there it obviously it reverts back to the city because they were the ones that
put put the money in the budget. the school knowing that the city is present, but like does the school district ever see, okay, we have this much left. We should try to spend that on things we need that are applicable instead of giving it back to the city because I know needs are always there. It can only go towards a certain Sorry to interrupt. It can only go towards a
certain pool. It's what is not. So, it's part of the schedule 19 agreement. So, some of it is transportation, some of it could be employee benefits, could be So, it's not like you take the money and say, "Let's put it into um it could be capital improvements, which again, we're planning on doing some elevator work and
stuff." So, some years it could be leaner, some years it it could be a little bit um uh more, but it you can't just take that money and say, "Let's put it into something that was required school net school spending." Um, so it's there's always a little one year like
two years ago, um, we we instead of making the taking the money back, we we kind of did a tradeoff and I think we did the Ambrose Field uh replacement. Correct. The soccer field. Yeah, correct. The the soccer field. So, it tends to always get back into the
good purposes of all all of the city, but they can't just say, "Let's draw down from that account to pay teacher salaries or um anything on schedule." Correct. And and I I think the health insurance is a good example because when we're
doing our schedule 19 negotiation typically around January and February, we're anticipating the people that we're going to hire over the summer. Uh and when we figure out what amount of money we think that we have to pay the city for employee health insurance, it's kind of a guess, right? And so if we
anticipate um that we're going to hire um and this year is a little bit different because we didn't do the level of hiring that we typically do. Um but in in a if I go back a year um we hired over 80 new staff members last year, a
year ago, right? Um and so we try to anticipate using historical data how many of them are going to take a family plan which costs about $25,000 each, right? And so if we're off by 20 people, that right there is going to give you
the number that you're seeing be returned. If 20 of those employees come back and say, "I don't need the family plan or my partner carries the insurance or I'm just single." Um, then you can see those numbers add up pretty quickly. But, uh, what we have to do is anticipate what they're going to be in advance because what we don't want to do
is get caught short pocketed and they go into December or January have to ask for more money. Yeah. Uh but just and also as an example is it'd be the same as if uh the $10 million carry forward. If a city was to try to sweep that, there would be
probably a very contentious um um conversation that wouldn't bode very well for either side. So we try to keep it without we don't want to um make the schools spend uh quicker than they should uh just because it's there and we want them to be responsible and the same
goes to the city side because you don't just spend it to spend it. Yeah. We don't want to just spend it, just spend it. Um, and so we make we make our decisions based on that. But most of it's because of we budget the beginning of the year with 12 months to figure out. We don't want to ever come short and have these years where we go
in front of everyone uh in January. And you know, that's why the snow and ice deficit doesn't exist anymore. Like you can carry a deficit on snow and ice. You really can't carry a deficit on anything else. And um we because it'd be very embarrassing to say, "Hey, we didn't budget properly. We're coming to you for
more money." and it would just would look foolish. So, we'd rather roll a little heavier and then have that slip back into a reserve and then adjust for the following day. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Good question, though. And the only other thing to keep in mind
as you read these is we're all normal people with normal lives. And when we look at these financial statements, it's it's such a massive enterprise that we're involved in. So, $594,000 strikes us as enormous. Of course, it does. But with a $14 million
transportation program across two fiscal years to to close out POS or have surpluses that weren't used to this tune is not is not irresponsible out of out of the ordinary considering how much we're we're beginning with. I appreciate you explaining that because
I see that I'm like how much does like a bus cost? Like could we get another? So, but it it is all in perspective compared to the day-to-day versus managing the whole school district and and this was last year. Yeah, correct. And city city reserves do just that too. They have to get put back into
the free cash. Um they don't get um kind of carry forward for the following year. Yeah, they could, but some of it goes into the affordable housing trust. Some of it goes into the school building trust. Some of it goes into capital improvements. All of that those those pockets that we put them into for good
planning. um which sometimes turn back, but I can guarantee you this year capital improvements in the school outside of a new school are going to probably exceed $500,000. Elevators, the big one is going to be the elevators back, which uh thankfully the mayor's office has
already committed to putting into um the capital planning budget because they they all three need to be replaced. And um we're spending about $50,000 right now just to make sure that they can get us through the time period until they can be replaced. Um and again,
that's that $50,000 is money. One of the line items you've seen on schedule 19 is a capital improvements line item of $100,000 that the city gives us every year in case something happens. And so already half of that is committed to the work we need to do just to make sure the
elevators are functional for the beginning of the school year. We're going to have at least one up and functional. Then we're going to do a minor repair on a second one. And then ultimately, it'll probably take a year in the planning process to design the redevelopment of all three. And as the mayor said, that's probably about a half
million dollars. Thank you. Thank you, Jack, Miss. So, typically I would have a food services financial wrap-up of the of the operating year, but the we have a transition to food service management companies and the last claim does not
hit the books yet. So, we'll kick that to September and look at that. And don't forget at the main meeting to vote in approval of student activities so that we can operate those this year. And just if anybody had any questions on
those while Matt's here, that's um the next staple um packet in your the student activities. The student activities. Yeah, it has a cover memo from Matt that looks like this.
Right. Basically the the idea here is uh any student activities need the oversight involvement permission awareness of the school committee so that um no one gets jammed up in three nights saying oh I didn't know that that
club was going to exist what is it about this is a formal way of saying here's the clubs on the roster and then as the year develops we can pilot a club different than having permissions formally granted for the club to be set
up in town systems. So, we do this each year in August. So, the schools are free to do their thing. And the elementaryaries and the middle schools typically wait until the start of the school year to talk to students and finalize what their clubs and activities going to be. Some of them are carried over every year like the um the theater
program at the Susan B. Anthony, I promise you, is going to run. Um we're actually working um Director Williams is um working on an elementary theater arts program that would be districtwide. Uh and we put a little bit of separate
funding aside for that. Um and we're just trying to build that pipeline from elementary up into middle and then um up through the high school. So that's in the works. But the high school uh determines their clubs in the spring. They talk to the kids in the spring
about what clubs are going to run the following year. And so that's why you have a full list of what the clubs and activities are for the high school but not for the other schools. Yeah. Mir superintendent. Uh in allocating
funding, was um enrollment taken in consideration because they're all the same amount of money? Uh can I answer? Yeah, please. Uh so what you're approving there is not funding per se.
It's the uh maximum allowable balance to be available immediately to any school in their local checking account. So there are controls in place that if one school had a very vibrant student activity programs and lots of funding
was coming in um they can't have access to 10 20 30 $40,000 immediately in their local account. So they keep the difference on deposit in an agency account managed by the treasurer at city hall and this gives them enough
operating leeway to do what they need to on a daily basis. So, um, it's set at, is it 10? 10 straight down except for the high school. Except the high school 75 because the high school would run into just the prom could be a $40,000 reimbursement that they need. But if we
do run into any requests of local schools saying, I need access to more than $10,000 at a time, then I can come to you and request an increase. But the 10 is ample for the middle schools and more than ample for the elementary
schools. It doesn't mean that they all operate the same volume of money through their programs. The Susan B would have a much more active student activity world than say the the Paul would be.
Thank you. All right. If anyone wants to come help us get 1100 people accurately on the payroll for come say hi. Thank you. Thanks, Beth. Okay, Mr. Sorry, Mr. Mr. King, two things. Um, could the food service
director come before us next month just for week? Yes, definitely. They were just named um last week. Yeah. No, I figured this month was too high. Okay, that's number one. Number two, and I don't want to put you on the spot, Mr. Mayor. How where are we at with the McKinley? We on track or Yes. Um, so there they did um
it was brought up, so I figured I know it's Yeah, no, no problem. They did I'll give you a quick rundown. They did um some small they did some uh speesus remediation and um a small demo interior. Uh they're removing um what
looks to be an o former oil tank in the ground by the parking area. Uh good news is on that the oil tank doesn't seem to have any uh any contamination beyond what's inside the contained tank. Uh so that will be removed out of the
premise. Uh and the larger scale demolition bid is going out. Uh so there's some McKinley bids coming back on the 28th. Okay. Um and then some work will really start swinging probably uh late fall and then going into um the winter.
The um from a zoning perspective, you may have seen part of the program of course is outside of the school side is the 911 center uh which is um a third of the building. Um there's there's a conversation about the size of the antenna or tower that is
needed. Second question. Yeah. Right. So it's needed and that's where um you know I I I you know it's not something that anyone really um loves to have but um you know it I can assure everyone it'll be safe. It'll be it'll be reasonable and it's not unheard of uh
adjacent to a public building um school and of course a 911 call center. And it's mostly the height needs to reach Winthrop and Chelsea and the destinations in Rivier or you know even destinations in Rivier needs to hit. So um you know think about the geography of
of our community where you have some areas that are very high and some areas that are very low. So the size um you know certainly is isn't something that everyone's totally excited about. That's what that's what studies have said and that's what the the safety experts have are are requiring and that's what state
911's requiring more importantly because they're going to be foring the bill for most of this entire project that benefits all of the three uses. Um and I'll just remind everyone it is next to a lumber yard. Um it's facing a lumber yard that's probably great business.
Love them. Very nice people. The pro probably one of the most um aggressive businesses in the residential area in all of our community. But it's a it's an active lumber yard in the middle of a a residential street across from a former school across from another current school. So, uh I I didn't think that the
most intrusive use will be um the city's use and and I'll stand by that. I agree with you. Thank you, sir. Patrick, have you got all your tenants in mind? Last time we talked, you were others were coming in as capacity the school.
No, no, the McKinley you were talking about. So, yeah. So this there is um the food hub is was just not going to um make the most sense for the use and for some of the sanitary needs and also for some of the deliveries and we felt that
it that would be more intrusive use. So the intention is to move the parking department and some other uh city hall type office space into there. Um that would be a savings in the long run. You know we pay current we currently pay rent for our parking department. It's not owned by the bu the city. So, we'd
be able to uh save on that that monthly rent and move the uh the parking space into the basement level of the uh of the McKinley school and potentially a few other offices that are currently paying rents. So, that's the design. And we're going to design it into in uh office use
uh and uh administrative use which will be helpful because as you know we've become a little limited on on space but the goal is to save money uh in the long run and help cover the cost of of of these um improvements. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. So, communications um the discard old broken RPS technology. I don't know if you want to speak to that. It's just this is the annual uh request from Jonathan Ferrara to um get rid of any
devices that are no longer repairable or resalable. Uh he does a great job. He does his due diligence to see if they can be donated anywhere. um and does all of that work first and then determine then so it's just items that can't be
reused in any way that he's seeking permission to get rid of. And if I can just go back one one one other question that came up just regarding the um the um the antenna for the uh communication for 911. There's no
intention to use it for other means or subleasases and things like that. It's for the city's use for 911 operations. I know that some people get nervous about um cell phone companies like that. Yeah, I'm not looking think anyone will be looking to do that.
It's going to be the sole purpose of the city in the emergency response. Thank you. But I'm glad that we were able to address that. And if I could m and just to remind the the audience that there will be early childhood classrooms there and that's why I asked about it because that's exciting to me, right? And it
walks through the exciting everyone. It's I don't know. I just early childhood is a big a huge thing and I'm looking forward to having more space. So, thank you and thank you for your work on that. No, my pleasure. And it's this is this is stuff that's been long overdue and we're we're excited. I remember when they closed the school and everyone remembers they closed the school, the
initiative was to turn it back into uh public use uh quickly and save on rental costs and all that and use it for administrative space. Obviously, 10 years uh has 10 12 years it's gone vacant. um and it's good to get something back in there and we just had to find a way to u pay for it and we've
gotten a multi-purpose use that's able to spread out the cost some funding from the schools some 901 grant money that's going to cover a big chunk and then the city will encumber the rest and which is not which is not a lot of money on the grand scheme of things so we're excited
to do it I'll be happy to have that space open and then what we'll do and I'm talking to the superintendent is by freeing up some other space in other schools it'll afford us the opportunity to keep more of our students from being outplaced and again net savings and net
benefit to the residents of River all of the residents non-school and school residents. So it's there's a lot of good planning in in place here that's going to um be a big win. Yeah, definitely. Um and I can what I can do is at the
September meeting have an update on the McKinley as well. I know we just recently, I think yesterday, maybe even today, signed the um contract amendments with Cambridge 7. So, they're digging more into the detailed design of what
the space is going to look like um as a whole, but in particular the early childhood center, John, like you were saying, uh and the and the playground space. One of the state requirements for us to have um a certified early childhood center is that there's adequate outdoor play space for the kids. And so we've been having
conversations with them about making sure that we're meeting those guidelines and I can put that on the agenda as a as an item for the September meeting. We should have some um some better drawings. I am I did film today with um
Paulado and John Lind's my welcome back message to staff and included in that is going to be a couple of rough diagrams of the of the McKinley space. But hopefully uh by the September meeting we should have some more detailed renderings that we can present then.
Thank you. Okay. Uh an enrollment update. So I I'll just briefly say it's the same story that we've had for a number of years. Class size is um looking very
good. Um the one place that is troubling uh and not you know we do much better than a lot of other districts do but the Paul Riviera still has high class size. Um if you look at their numbers at uh grade five the average is at 26.
At grade four it's 25.3. So let's call it 26. Um other than those two spots everything is looking good. And we did put a par excuse me to Mr. We last year I remember we hired pars right to assess. Yep. Just to tell the parents there is a par with the teacher because there's nothing
we can do about the class size at this point. And I still think I mean we would like to be below 25 for for all of the classrooms but um you know we're we're close and we do still have those paras like you mentioned. Yeah. I just want so the parents know that you know what what did you do about
it? Yeah. Or what did you try to do? Miss Monro does Dr. Kelly, could you just explain why um so the these the prek kids are
typically new students. We do have a um three-year-old program and a four-year-old program. So it could be that some of the four year olds are in their second year of prek. Um so they they might be included in there. But um we try to make this be a little
bit more readable for the school committee and for the community when they see it in the meeting minutes um and look at how each of the different classroom sizes are running right now. So uh if you look at the Beachmont Ignite program and again um the the
early childhood programs are geared toward addressing um the special needs for different groups of kids. So, okay. So, this this whole top section is the number of students in the different programs, correct? Okay. That was two of them. And there was like new students per grade or what
this top part was. Yeah. So, like just to uh be clear, the at the Beach Montgite program, their first classroom in the morning has nine kids. The that same classroom in the afternoon has seven kids. Okay. And then our early our prek
classrooms, are they all full? Do we have weight list? What does demand look like? We have some space open. So, um the maximum class size that you can have in an integrated early childhood classroom is 12. Okay. Um and so you can read off of that.
There are some spaces open. We always do intentionally leave spaces open at the beginning of the year because if new students enroll in the district who need who have IEPs, we need to have a space to put them in. And so we do leave some some flex room at the beginning of the
year. Those seats will fill up in the next couple weeks. So the Hill where it says Hill/Propel, does that mean we have no students in preK at the Hill School? That's right. So the preK programs are at Beachmont, Garfield, and Lincoln.
Okay. And then are our preschool programs, do we have space for general ed students as well? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That was a Diane. This is looking at the numbers again. Beachmont's low.
I still find it hard to believe when we offered parents from the Pines to continue on to Beachmont that there were no takers. I I I just I mean, you look you're looking at grade four,
you've got 51 students, but you got three teachers. Mhm. So if you had two teachers, it would be 26 and 25, which would bring you up to the par numbers. Um it doesn't seem the equity doesn't I
mean nice 17 that's great, but I know space is tight. There's got to be some way of of I mean, can the bus continue on to Beachmont? maybe bring some fourth graders, some second graders and something like that.
So, as part of the work that we're doing um with the city's planning department, and I'm going to talk about that a little bit later in the meeting when we get to uh number three with the lottery and transportation update. Uh in addition to looking at the middle schools and how we might organize those
uh into neighborhood schools, they're also looking at the Beachmont/Paul Revier to see if we can shift that neighborhood. Exactly as you said, Fred. Maybe we make the kids that live so far out um in is that Beachmont, the Point
of Pines Island? In Oak Island in that area rather than make them be part of the Paul Reier neighborhood, they could become part of the Beachmont neighborhood because we're putting them on a bus anyway. Right. That's what I'm saying. Right. Well, for September, why can't it start?
Whatever plan is being school starts Monday, Tuesday, right? Tuesday. I mean, who decided on adding a third um a third teacher to Beachmore with 51 kids? Who decided on adding a third teacher there to bring the number
down to 70? It's it's been it's been three teachers for a long time. We actually But that doesn't mean it has to stay three teachers. I mean, it's it's it's a luxury that I mean, you 25 kids in a classroom and 17. Well, it was always
three. So if it were 48 kids, you'd still have No, no, it wasn't always three. For the longest time, the Beachmont had two classrooms at every level. And as our enrollment was increasing, we started adding one at each grade level. And I, you know, I agree with you that 17 is a
great class size to have. I think the difference between 17 and 25 or 26 is significant. And then if you have three or four kids move into the district during the course of the year, but you've only got two classrooms, now you're adding two to your 26. So now they're at 28. And it doesn't give you
that that kind of flexibility. I'm not saying that we shouldn't reconsider the class size class sizes at the beach. But I think that as long as we can um financially sustain having three classrooms that that that's great for kids to be in a room of 17 instead of a
room of All right. on that premise then you're you're assuming Parier is not going to get any more transfers in. So their numbers could go to 27. I'm not I'm not assuming that. I'm I worry about the Paul Ring here. If you had one more closet to turn into a classroom, we would do it,
right? But we don't. when you when you are um when we are revisiting the transportation and the lottery and um those issues, I would like to also think about a cap on the part of their school or having some just exploring the idea
of having a cap. I don't like the idea of sending fourth and fifth graders that have been at that school their whole life to a brand new school to finish off like their last year. The last two have to be new on kids coming in that we're at our max. We can't take anymore. you have to go to this other school.
Yes. I And I know that in the past when they've changed district lines at the elementary level, uh they've grandfathered the kids who already go to that school and it just starts from it starts from anybody who wants to move now, right? And any new students enrolled will be
assigned to the new place. So it'll still take a few years to work its way through, but you're right, Fred, like let's get moving on it. Yeah. I think the focus should be the power of their school though in the excessive number of kids as opposed to the beach just shifting them.
Mr. We you did cut a and I'm not complaining. I'm just make observation just for everybody's so everyone remembers you did we did cut a fifth grade at the beach. That's right. That's what I'm saying when we went up. I'm just saying. So to Mr. Sell's point, you know that we we did. Yeah. We're not ignoring the class size
cut. No, I I was just trying to point out that there was a cut there already, right? And that one was an even more appropriate cut to his point. They're still only at 21 even even though we've cut a teacher. Like we are paying attention um to those pieces, but we're
trying to be thoughtful and make sure you know we're not putting the teachers in a position that is more difficult than it needs to be. Unfortunately, the party there just doesn't have any more space. Yeah. That's safe. I did have one more. I apologize, Mr.
I don't recall and I meant to look it up and I apologize because I didn't. What was the number like around? Did we add kids based on this? And I know it changes daily but where we like in June and where are we now as far as number of students total? I'm not talking I'm not talking you know different. We are lower than we were in June.
It seems like middle school. Yeah, it it's across the board. Even the high school we're down under 2,000 now. Okay. I think this is the first time we've been under about the funding for next year when we turn the number in. It's a real worry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I kind of follow that the M mayor
with the chair. Uh the eighth grade is going to the ninth. Is that 550? Just want to confirm what the number is. So right now there are Where are you looking? Enrolled starting for next year are 553 students enrolled in eighth grade. Um,
and there are 513 ninth graders enrolled at Revak High School, 39 enrolled at City Lab. So, what's going into the ninth grade this year? Comment, so that would be five, my quick math, 552.
That's including City Lab, right? That includes City Lab. Okay. Because I thought we were in the fours after Yeah, me too. after the private schools and the vocational schools and everything. This is I know Robin spent some time
refining this today and this is what we have in power school. So it may be that there are some students who are still enrolled in read public schools that families have made decisions to go to Pope John or um Catholic or
uh call it Pope John. No, definitely not. Oh, it doesn't. No, no, it's gone. Catholic. How about that one? St. John. St. John, not Pope John. Oh, okay. St. John, sorry. My point is there may be some kids who haven't let us know that they've decided
to go elsewhere and that and you might see that adjustment in September. We'll run these numbers for you again at the September meeting because there usually are. We'll we'll still see more kids. It won't be the kind of influx that we typically see in the summer. Uh but we will see kids that will enroll in the
next couple of weeks. Um especially families that don't realize we go back a week before Labor Day. uh who will come in next week to enroll and then won't start until the following. So, this is a silly question. If if students are electing to go elsewhere as opposed to RHS,
are they required to let us know? Do we communicate with them and ask them whether they do or do we just kind of have to wait and see who shows up? Uh most of them communicate with us because they want to get the students um records and all of that that stuff to go with them, but there are always some people who don't. And I'll say that's
more uh typical when the students going to some kind of a public school, whether it's in another district or a charter school or whatever the case may be. Often when they go into a private school, they don't require the previous records. So that in that case, it might be that the family is so focused on getting the child enrolled in the new
school, they're not even thinking about letting us know. And then when they haven't shown up for a few days and we're calling and saying, "Where's so and so?" They let us know, "Oh, he's going to such and such other school." Okay. all washes down after a few weeks and show it does. Yeah, the next few weeks all of
this data will be refined. So, we'll run it through again for the September meeting. Um the high school class sizes are also in good shape. Um we ran a report that has them listed out by department. Um so all of our business classes are
averaging at 20.7. Elective classes are averaging at 21. EL classes are at 15.4. 4 um you know fine arts is at um 18.5 I think our highest one is physical
education which is averaging 21.7 which is typical um and our lowest of course is the special education classes which are averaging 8.5 and the rest are somewhere in between those two numbers. All right.
personnel. We have new hires and retirements resignations. You provide that. Yeah, that's a list. We met a good group of uh new educators um last week. Very nice. Lot of lot of I was impressed um with
all of them, you know, and uh we had a lot of people from traveling not just from out of state but from out of the country. Yep. So, cool to get such a unique background from educators. Yeah. And we have um through our educator diversification grant with uh Desi, we have five staff
members who have come to us um on visas from other countries. So that's really exciting to have them. Three from China and there's a few from uh Africa. Yeah. I I'm not going to remember offhand exactly. Yeah. I was Yeah. And and
these were, you know, believe it or not, a lot of Americanborn educators that are teaching in China. Yeah. and came back. That's true. Really unique. I'm sure the perspective will be pretty cool. Yeah, it's great to have that kind of a worldly experience that they can not only bring to the rest of us who have
only taught in the United States, but for our students who are here from other countries to have that uh understanding I think is great. Um I will share that we currently have nine open positions. Five of them are at the high school. uh one at City Lab, two at
Garfield Middle, and one at the Romney Marsh. Um those numbers do not reflect some people who may have signed paperwork today. We're, you know, um running a thousand miles an hour trying to to to get things done and I'm sure there'll be a couple of those positions
filled in the coming days. Likewise, we received a resignation today and I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two more of those come in um over the course of the next week because that always happens at the start of the school year when um folks find their dream job in the community they live in or in a
neighboring town that cuts their commute by two hours every day or a variety of other things. So there'll still be adjustments as we go on, but this is the best position we've been in for hiring and I don't know. Diane, yeah,
I just want to I know there's um five or six of the educators that are on the list were here, but they didn't get licensed and now they're licensed. and I just thank them for pursuing it and keep going and glad
they're so back. Thank you. That's a really good point. There were a number of people as you know as that the school committee knows at the uh end of the school year that were on our um no longer with us uh employment list. Um a number of them went and and did what they needed to do
and got their licenses and we were able to welcome them back. So, we're really excited about that. Uh it is always helpful to our students and to their colleagues when somebody is coming back with experience that knows the school that knows the district. Uh and in as many cases as we could they went back to
the exact same position that they left. Um so we're excited about that as well. Good. Thank you, Stacy. And uh so school field trips acceptance of gifts and donations on neither neither yet. Not
um school field trips, nothing. And um any late communications be addressed? Okay. So I know the lottery update uh and transportation update is something that um to be discussed. So yes. So just briefly um uh I had
mentioned um that we're working with the city planning office um to look into how we can um think about neighborhood schools at the middle level so that um we can move away from the lottery and uh
if that's viable to do. Um, and I did do a check-in with Tom Savski today, um, to see where we are at that. He has reached out to MAPC, um, which is the Massachusetts Planning Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Metrop You said it.
Wait, what's that? Uh, Metropolitan Area Planning Council. And they're um, are they a quasi governmental agency, Pat, or um, independent? They're independent. No, they are. Uh but they we work with them on a number
of different programs and uh they're they're very familiar with obviously all things planning in community and um you know we we've been a member of MAPC for probably well over a decade. Yeah. Uh a lot of advocacy, a lot of um grant
funding support and and I know they have big operations that do all kinds of data analysis and that piece. They're the ones who worked with the city on uh redistricting the wards a few years back, a couple years back. Um and so Tom is anticipating that he's
going to have um a scope of work proposal from them next week. Uh they've already said to him that there are going to be two different paths that they can take. The first one is going to be um the free resources that they provide to municipalities um which you know the price is right um
but the what they're able to generate may not be exactly what we're looking for. So they're also going to include proposals for them to do a full data analysis look at all of our enrollments and projected enrollments, the city's projected um census data, all of that
kind of stuff and really craft exactly what we want. and they'll have that um scope of work outlined for Tom. He anticipates next week along with what that would cost. And so at that point, we should look at it and say, "Do we want to spend this money and do it this
way? Do we want to not spend the money and do it this way?" Uh Tom said that they'll have like three different scopes of work that we can look at at different price points um and see exactly what the school committee wants to do. Um from there um he said they'll look at um
enrollment data from grades 1 through 7 um and map out heat maps for where they are around each of the three schools. They can craft different scenarios based on what the school committee's predetermined criteria are going to be. Um and then bring it back to the school
committee um to see what direction you want to go in. and he did tell them that he needs all of that done by December so that the school committee can have time to look at what the different options are and and decide how they want to proceed either at the December meeting
or at the January and May. Quick question. Mhm. Um, so the we have the Whan and Garfield, those are already neighborhood schools in a sense, right? The elementary schools, would those numbers help us to like
gauge? That's a good question. I was like, if we did our own assessment of the same as the as the as the elementary, would that give us some idea? Well, and that's the kind of thing that MAP C will do for us. I mean I can I can
try to look at some of that analysis. Um if I could miss a minute you had said at a meeting prior and I and I I wasn't I had to think about it and then but you I think you were right. Um if let's just say let's say just humor me just say
Paul River and Lincoln school kids go to say Ry just say if what my concern I guess with the the mapping part is if I went to school with someone for like five years or six years you know say kindergarten through fifth grade so I've been with them for six years because I live one street over um
possibly I'm going to a different middle school than my you know childhood friends so to speak. So when you had said these two schools will go here and these two schools will go there. At first I was I wasn't sure if that was the right approach but after thinking about it I agree with you. Yeah.
I mean I'm just saying if if I went to school with someone for six years and you become my best friend and now I'm going to a different school because I live either at the end of a long street or the next street over. I understand because of the lottery it does that now. That's what happens now. Right. And I get it. But it just I don't
know how I would explain to a parent, you know, my kids's been best friends with him for six years and he's going to this school and I'm going to this school cuz I'm one street over. And not because of, you know, if if that happened at elementary level, it happened because that's where he lived. But I kind of agreed with your approach, you know, whatever schools they were, you know,
these two schools will go here, these two schools will go there, that type of thing. It it really made sense. I have no problem with with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what with what Tom's doing and I thanked him. I saw him and I said, "Thank you for helping us with that." But I did agree with your approach because you're going to be breaking up to me you're you're going to be breaking up some groups there. And the and the challenge is if you look
back at the quick and dirty math that I did for that meeting is that it wasn't balanced. If we said these two elementary schools go here as they exist, these two elementary schools go here. Then we ended up with um much larger numbers of kids at SBA I think. Yeah. Potentially. Yeah.
Than we did at others. And so that's why it needs a little bit more looking at and thoughtfulness. And MAPC can do things like they can project if there are going to be um new residents in some of the buildings that are going up um across the city. They'll they have
that data and can project that stuff into the model. Like it might be that we decide that's exactly what we want to do, John, what you just said because eventually there'll be more kids coming out living in the Beachmont neighborhood that are going to go to the Garfield and five years from now it's going to be
balanced off anyway or that was my thought. They have the skill set to do that which I grow as well. I think they're going to do a running enrollment and and uh again these planners are pretty thoughtful much more than I think yeah they do for a living. Not
discrediting anyone, but this is what they do solely for a lot of different things. Relationships broken over, you know, one street over. That's a And I I will say, sorry if I can say one more thing, Jackie. Um I imagine that if we go to neighborhood middle schools, we
would still allow the non- neighborhood request like we do for elementaryaries right now. And we would base it base that decision on enrollment, but we would consider what what parents want if they want to be at a different middle school that's not their neighborhood. Yeah, I was going to say I think it's good that we're going with experts who
can thoughtfully present plans to us. I am a little scared of what that timeline can look like because we all know, you know, you contract the scopes of work. December is going to be here very soon and you need time to plan. So, we'll take it one step at a time. But once we know what we're going to go with, we
discuss and we have options and we as a committee have digested those options. What I would like if the committee would entertain is some type of community forum or a public hearing at one of our meetings where we hear from the community and parents, you know, what options they want as well so that what
we vote on is also informed by what the community wants and then we can make that final vote hopefully by January so that your team can start to work out. Definitely. That's a great idea. Good point. One question also. Just want to
reiterate. So we're basically you're doing the redistricting, the refining of the lines to eliminate the lottery completely. There's a lot of misinformation out there. I'm getting calls on fund the misappropriate funds. Is transportation control by the school?
It's actually controlled by the city. So I just want to just have that clarified that the goal is to eliminate the law we completed. Yeah. The goal is to see if there's a way that we can district the city in our middle schools so that we would no longer need to have a lottery.
Also too is not just here. I serve on two other school committees which are have about 20 communities and this is not this transportation is not a re problem. No, it's a statewide everybody is going through the same thing and everybody I
talk to, you know, they ask that question. It is I mean there's some towns that dip they're charging per pupil for busing. Some are eliminating completely. So I just want people to know it's not a reair thing. It's it's it's statewide. Thank you. That's and that that's good.
And and it's still again we all know that this was not a fun decision for anyone and and whether it's the city side, the school side, there's there's a shared responsibility and a shared shared owners. Um as mentioned some communities charge for everything. They charge for after school sports fees. They charge for every piece of equipment
they get. They charge for the school transportation after school, you know. So, we've been uh charge for buses, they charge for regular transportation. Um, so it's it's one of those where we we haven't had to do that, but uh that statewide issue has been because of
competition, uh not not or lack thereof, um rising escalating costs, um and unfunded mandates, you know, quite frankly. And I don't want to ever position a a parent against a district or a student against a student because someone's getting something that
someone's not. Um, but there's requirements in the state. We have we follow state law. I to that point, you know, every three years and Dr. Kelly will bring this up. They go to the state house and they champion for reform when it comes to unfunded mandates and school transportation, you know, uh, issues.
And it does it gets talked about and then it goes away. And you know, so I I I have not been privy to those conversations in the past. I can tell you that when they come up again at the state house, I'll be up here. I'll be asking our fellow uh residents to come and join us and our the colleagues on
the school committee. Hopefully we we get a little more uh momentum uh with that. And I know that our state legislators, specifically Rep. Tero, uh we're meeting and he's all ears. And I know Director Jenino as well will will listen and advocate um because they're
they're getting information that is not consistent with with with reality. They were they're under the impression that we get 100% reimbursement for homelessness transportation. That's 100% false. That there's that narrative out there at the state level that oh no, they get 100% transportation reimbursement versus for homeless
transportation. Not true. Um and I had I informed a rep that and he was like well that's good to know. I want to hear more and I'm thankful that he's willing to listen and hear that because I know he'll fight for us. I know Rep will fight for us and I know that if more communities are doing this then we might
it might change and and and and so this problem has been long-standing we have to deal with it kind of kind of have to break it and then rebuild it properly and that's the un unfortunate truth. One more comment about the lottery for me so people know is also if we don't
have a plan yet by December, we can still make the vote by December to eliminate the lottery. So I think if we all want to agree on giving you time, we can make a timeline for our committee by December we make a decision. Hopefully the plans are ready so we can choose
also what we're going to do. But if not, we can at least make the decision on the lottery existence and then continue to work with MAPC to see what the new plan will be. Yeah, I agree. Fine. Um, can you give a quick transportation
and we add six o' Well, one more agenda item. We can move the other agenda item to unfinished business. So, we have the time to discuss it at the 6 p.m. This is unfinished business. No, sorry. Transportation. After transportation, there's one more item, the bench dedication. We can move
that to the 6 pm since we don't have time. Okay. Okay. So, I created a one-pager um just gives you a snapshot summary as of today actually um of uh the families that took
us up on the M7 um MBTA cards as well as uh the yellow bus if they live 2 miles or greater um and those that declined. Uh what I did not list here just for the sake of simplicity are those that didn't respond or uh new students that still
have it pending like they just came into the district last week. So we gave them a little time. Um what I'd like to highlight for the committee is that after we did our initial round right after that first meeting that we had about transportation, we expanded the high school down to 1.5. So if you
remember initially for the MBTA card, the high school was at 2 miles or greater. We knocked it down a half mile and offered it to more families because we had a surplus after that first round. Um we're going into the school year with a surplus. So we basically are funded
for 820 cards. And if you look at the fourth line from the top um right now we have 620. So we have about 200 cards um still left. The number of uh kids that are outstanding right now does not exceed 200. So we're well within budget.
Um, and I think we'll take another kind of analysis and maybe expand it down a little more. Yeah. What about like after school programs or co-ops or you know Yeah. Exactly. Right. those types of things offered to those students. And so we just kind of want to just like the enrollment members want to get through the first couple of weeks see
what the final number is and then to your point put it out to those groups that might need some result. Thank you. At 6 p.m. we're going to head over to the regular motion to second. All in favor? I roll call. Oh, yeah. We have Stacy on
roll call on on adjournment. Miss Rizzo. Yes. Mr. Sella. Yes. Mr. Kingston. Yes. Mr. Cal. Yes. You p my name. Miss my blue rails and miss my Part: 2
Good evening. Calling to order the Reveal school committee uh meeting of the meeting of the committee at 6 p.m. on Monday, August 19th. We'll all rise. Oh, Tuesday, August 19th, we'll all rise and salute the flag to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Dr. Will you call a role? Mrs. Mrs. Bronson Rizzo.
Stacey, can you hear us? Go back to her. Mr. Kajiano here. Mr. Mr. Kingston here. Mrs. Milbury present. Mrs. Monttoso present. Mr. Sella present. Mayor Keefe here. Hey Miss Rizzo, you here?
I can hear. Great. Miss Rizzo is present. There we go. No, I'm not on mute. Oh, I think it's delayed. First item on the agenda is recognition that we don't I mean we're not
recognizing anyone this month. Yes, I'm here. Yes, thank you, Miza. I can hear you. Just type in noise. Let her know we we know she's here. Okay. Uh we have the consent calendar.
Motion to approve the consent calendar. Any discussion? Second. Any discussion? No. Roll call. Mrs. Mrs. Bronson Rizzo. He's not in.
Okay. Okay. Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Mr. Kingston. Yes. Mrs. Milbury Ellis. Yes. Mrs. Monttoo? Yes. Mr. Sella? Present. Mayor Keefe. Yes.
Motion passes. Mr. Thank you. Okay. There is no student representative report this month. Uh we have uh public speak now is an opportunity. Um Miss Montroso, do you want to invite anyone up to public speak? Yes. Uh Robin, do we have anyone signed up on
Zoom? Do we have anyone? Dr. Kelly. Okay. Then a motion to close public speak. All in favor? I. I. Sorry, we need a second first. Yeah. Second. Okay. Discussion. All in favor? I I
Okay, Miss Dr. Kelly, superintendent report. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, we have uh three items on the superintendent report. Um, the first one is brief but probably the lengthiest of the three and
that is the introduction of our new deputy principal of Rivier High School, which we are all very excited about. Um, Sheay St. Laurent is our new deputy principal. She brings over 20 years experience in high school teaching and
instructional leadership. Most recently, she was the director of curriculum and instruction for grades 6 through 12 in Portsouth public schools um way up in New Hampshire. Um in that role she led the curriculum alignment, assessment design and professional development and co-chared
major district initiatives including the development of their portrait of a graduate um their strategic planning and their NEAS accreditation um and the transition to an inquiry based model of instruction. So as you know all areas that we are very much
invested in here in Revier. Um so we're very excited for Shay to bring her expertise to us here. Um she also prior to being in Portsouth served as the Andover, Massachusetts uh public schools pre-K through 12 program coordinator for digital learning and innovation. There
she oversaw their blended learning and built professional learning systems to support educators and students um as they shifted through technology and instruction uh and technology integration and deeper learning initiatives. Again, more things that
we're very focused on. Um, Sha's leadership has consistently focused on creating relevant, rigorous, and student- centered learning experiences, priorities that deeply align with our vision of competency based learning. She launched and facilitated the innovation lab course grounded in design thinking,
helped led Andover's idea studio and maker programs and coordinated Andover's um, global pathways program to expand global learning and post-secondary readiness. Her work empowering teacher leaders, rethinking instructional
materials, and building systems that support equity makes her an ideal partner to us as we advance our core commitments and competency based learning, personalized learning pathways, and deeper learning experiences. Um, so please well, please join me in welcoming Shay uh to her to
our community. [Applause] And Shay, I'll invite you up to say a couple of words. We'd also like to say a quick hello to your husband and daughter who I am with you as well. My husband Tim and daughter Kylie are with me tonight and I also have a son
Connor who plays high school football couldn't join us tonight. Um, thank you so much for the warm welcome. I am super excited to join this team at River High School. Um, I'm most interested in the progressive plans that you have as we move into the new high school in 2028.
And I'm super excited to bring my expertise in deeper learning and to really moving teacher leadership forward and designing those learning experiences that River would like um to move toward. And so I'm thankful to be here, excited for the opportunity for my own growth.
And I am really excited to welcome in the students and staff this week and get to know everyone and and spend the year really listening and learning and um and helping to move it all forward. Congratulations. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Did any members of the committee have any questions or comments and things? Okay. Good luck. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'll share my just welcome to the district. Uh we we we had talked Dr. Kelly and I uh on the appointment and uh
everyone that that had seen your resume knew that you were coming from a high pedigree, but also we thought you'd be a good fit with Mr. Principal Bowen. Uh we we care deeply about the high school, so we're excited to see you come on. Awesome. I'm really excited. Congratulations. Thank you. Congrats to your family. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Now you have to take her to Rivia Beach for a nice fancy dinner. That's right. That's right. Talk to Kelly. You hear that, Tim? All right, write that down. Okay. Okay. Uh, the next item on the
superintendent report is um am I looking at the wrong agenda? Uh, sorry, influence 100. Um, so I'm very happy to report that, uh, Miss Lisa Hannifan, who's one of our special ed directors, um, has been accepted into the influence 100 program. Some of you will recall
when Dr. Napier was part of that program a couple of years ago. Um and also that I have um an influence 100 intern uh Aaron Vander who is who who works for the department of education um but will be shadowing me uh through the influence
100 program for this school year. Um I've also agreed to mentor Miss Hannifan at the same time. Um the influence 100 program is designed to build diversity in educational leadership and that means uh both racial diversity uh and gender
diversity. Uh as many of you know nearly 80% of all educators are female uh but only about 30% of administrators are female. So there's a very very very there's a there's a a a very significant
imbalance um in those two areas. And so influence 100 is a program by the department of education that seeks to bring both gender and racial equality or uh greater levels of um equality to the
administrative staff in our K through2 public schools. Um, one of the requirements of the influence 100 program is that we demonstrate as a community that we are in support of the program and it requires that a school committee member uh work with me to
mentor um these these folks and it includes attending four virtual meetings of two hours each. One is on September 11th, one is on November 13th, there's one on January 29th and one on March 17th. Um, so what I'm asking now is if
there's what I'm wondering now is if there's a committee member who's interested in supporting Miss Hannne and myself in this work as we go forward. Miss Montroso. Um, if there's no one else interested, I
couldn't do it before when I was a state employee working for Desi, but now I'd be more than happy to. And if there's any changes after December, we can talk about someone else um coming in. Looks okay. Thank you. Okay. So, if you could just you can just send me the information, Dr. Kelly, and I'll
put that forward that email. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Um the last piece of the um superintendence report is just an update on our title funds. Um, and I had emailed the school committee a couple of
weeks ago to share the great news that the federal government had released um, funding for titles 2, three, and four, which previously had been on hold and had us very nervous and wondering how we were going to um, come up with the money
to pay for the nearly $900,000 worth of professional development and salaries that we had already planned on using the title grants uh, to afford afford. Um so the the figures are slightly lower for FY26 than they were for FY25. Uh but not
in a way that's going to make a significantly negative impact uh on our ability to uh implement the pieces that we had been funding through those three grants. So um just briefly, our title 2 grant this year is a little bit over
$39,000. Those funds are primarily used to support highquality instruction and professional development. So, we use these title two funds um to pay for parts of the salaries of two of our curriculum directors. It also pays for
one of our math coaches um and it also pays for professional development um on MTSS, the multi-ad systems of support, which we're currently engaged in throughout the district for all teachers. Um, and we had planned on using the title 2 money um, to support
the creation of the year-long plans that the NEASH report said we had to revisit at the high school. And so thankfully, now that that funding has come through, we're going to be able to um continue that work. Under title 3, which is primarily targeted to our English learner
students, uh, we are receiving $378,568. Um, and these funds again will be used to support our EL par profofessionals who um help teach our English learner students in small breakout groups, do some one-on-one tutoring. Uh, and it
will also fund our um professional development for all staff and how to better support English learner students. Um, and it will pay for our extended day, extended year programs uh for our English learner students.
Finally, title four. Uh, title four is geared around making sure students have a well-rounded education. And, um, that that grant came in at 259,000, just a little bit over 259,000. Um, and thankfully, we had added a
health teacher a a year ago through that grant, and we'll be able to support that position again this year. Um, we are also using title four funds to help develop our fine arts curriculum and uh expand that program as well. And we also use that funding to pay for our AP exams
so that that burden doesn't fall on our students. And so we're very thankful to be able to continue all of that work um now that the federal government has um supported us uh with that funding. Miss Milbury,
Dr. Kelly, what was the first use for the title 4? I miss that. It's to ensure that students have a well-rounded education. Um, so it helps pay for the kinds of programs that often get cut when budgets get tight, like health and wellness, fine arts, um,
advanced coursework like AP classes, all of all of that. Did you say that there was a particular Was there a particular position that a health teacher that we were paying through that grant? Yeah, that's what it was. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Kelly.
And that's unless there are any questions. Any questions on the title funding? No. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Subcommittee reports. I don't believe we have any today. Oh, we do. I apologize. Mr. Kiano safety.
Okay. We met on August 3rd, August 13th on our safety audit, a long awaited audit was 130 pages long and it was the meeting was attended by two representative Gideost Dr. Kelly and her administration, school committee, fire
chief of police, the mayor, city councelor. It was very detailed. Uh first it came in with an overview then it broke down each of the schools and then they had some suggestions and uh we broke into executive session when
we went through each and every uh each and every individual school. Uh it explain told us a lot of things we're doing right and some things we need to work on and some of the things we didn't even think of like tying our system up to the police department and so on. So
going forward in the next couple of weeks, we're going to make a committee consisting of some of our school committee people as well as fire, police, and administration. And then we're going to really go through it in detail. And then that committee will make a presentation to the school
committee as a whole on what uh what we need to do at every school. Some of it is easy fixes and some of it is will be take, you know, will take a while. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Giano Miss Montroso. Uh, two questions. My first question is,
can a copy of this audit be sent to the whole committee so we can look at it? Well, the overview and the presentation and the overall view will as far as each individual school, if you need to review it, you need to come to the school. This
is for security purposes only. I can't have it, you know, put out in if everybody to see. Okay. And then if I can just um Dr. Dr. Gluchcci has copies in his office anytime you want to come in, take a copy. You're welcome to sit anywhere in our section or take it to the learning
commons wherever you need a quiet space um to to sit and read and then just return the copy to Dr. Galuchcci where he has them inventoried and numbered and carefully counted. Okay. And then this uh committee that you're speaking about, Mr. Kiano, is it just the safety subcommittee with the
chief of police and the other person? Yeah, we're going to put a committee together with fire and police and administration and some of us and then that'll be kind of the working group before the presentation. Correct. To the whole committee. I just feel if more people involved, you know, you want your fire and your police there
and especially if we want to inter, you know, combine our systems a little, it would be good to have their feedback also. Yeah. So to confirm, no major decisions will be made until things are presented and brought to the full. Correct. Okay. Great. Thank you. I I think if I can add uh one of the
charges to that committee is going to be to develop that kind of uh year-long or multi-yearong for in some cases plan of here's what we need to address right away. Here's what we're going to figure out that we have to budget into the next budget season to make sure we can pay
for and all of that. So that committee would establish all of that and then present it to the school committee. We'll try to break it down in like whether it be a year or two, you know, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. So, it's going to be very intense. And I just want to commend you, Mr.
Kajana, and the members of that subcommittee. You have taken on now a multi-year long project that is really, you know, sensitive for our schools and the safety and the way you've involved all the major decision makers across the city so we can, you know, at the end of this year come out with a plan that will
strengthen the safety of our schools. We heard the community, you jumped on it as a chair of that and I think this is not something every school district does. So the fact that we've been able to bring someone in and you've led the whole subcommittee in the community through this, I think is is really amazing. So thank you.
Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Kiano. We're on motions. We have a motion by Vice Chair Monttero. Yes. Uh so the meeting calendar was approved in June but I was giving birth so I was not here and um we didn't
realize I think that the September 16th meeting date there's already no school because there could be a pre there is one preliminary election. So I wanted to ask instead of bringing everyone in on their day off staff if we could move it either to the second Tuesday or the
fourth Tuesday whatever folks prefer. Um, but we usually wouldn't have scheduled the meeting that day if uh we had realized that there was a preliminary. So, I don't know what folks prefer to increase. I'm sure we have more attendance. And then I can just make the motion for whatever day the majority of folks prefer.
Yeah. I would um Yeah, we usually move meetings to the 4th. Uh but I know there is a a Jewish holiday that day. So I if anyone prefers not to then I yeah I'm agreeable with moving it to
whatever accommodates the need so fine there's no there's no school for the 16th the 16th there's no school for the preliminary the beachmon school for the elections in the high school in the high school.
Yeah but there's no there's only it's only award one it's The high school's not being used. The no schools are being used. But we had already approved the calendar to cancel school. And one school is still going to be used, the beach month.
Yeah, we're going to lose the school day for no reason. That that the school calendar has already been done. Um and there's there was always a little bit of a contention with having school. So last year or two years ago during the elections there was
a um some concern that there would be having school during a pre preliminary or any any election would limit access to the school create parking issues and deter people from going to vote. So um that's why the school decided to take a
look at those days as either professional development or days that they would not be school. I mean I I can understand if it were the old Lincoln school was being used and everything, but it's just a primary. Okay. Yeah. Correct. Thank you. But ultimately, you know, the you know,
having having a you know, a schedule well over a month out to schedule a school committee meeting on a day that the building's being occupied makes probably makes good sense. Yeah. Okay. So then with that, the nth seems to work for everyone. I'm put a motion in to make uh the school committee meeting.
Pardon me. I can't make a motion as a chair. Correct. You can second the motion, Mr. May. Does anyone have a motion? Yes. So, motion to move the September meeting to the 9th. Second. We have roll call, please. Any discussion?
None. And roll call, please. Any member cannot make it. Is it I I haven't heard any. So, I know I can make it. Uh Aisha, Miss Melberry, Ellis. So, it looks like I saw something that somebody want to be a Okay, never mind. That was for the
there was concern about moving it to the 23rd. I believe that one member was going to be out of town and also it's Rashashana. Rashana. Thank you. Roll call, please. Mrs. Bronson Rizzo. [Music]
I think she's having some technical issues. Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Mr. Kingston. Yes. Mrs. Milellis. Yes. Miss Montoroso, yes. Mr. Sella, yes. Mayor Keefe, yes. Motion passes.
And the second motion is to approve the student activity accounts. Do we have anything? Second. Roll call. Mrs. Bronson Rizzo. Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Mr. Kingston? Yes.
Mrs. Milellis? Yes. Mtoo? Yes, Mr. Sella. Yes, Mayor Keefe. Yes. Okay, we're on hearings there on and we have the unfinished uh business. We have the additions to the handbooks. Miss
Kelly, do you have some uh Yes. I did send an email to the committee today and it the we made five adjustments to the handbook. All of them were based off of discussion that we had at the last school committee meeting. Um, and so you have two documents in your email that hopefully are openable.
Did you try again? Um, I'll I'll try. Okay. If if you can't let me know and I can have uh Mrs. Flynn, who actually uh made that document um see if she can adjust it. I did reach out to her today and she said everybody who has the link should have access. But um the the link
that's right in the email brings you to a document that just identifies the changes and what page number they're on so that you can go look at them. And then within that document there is at the top in the first table which is a link to uh the guide for students and families um there is a link that will
take you into the full document and then you can look at the page number that's in the summary to go actually see exactly what's in there. Uh but we did summarize the language. The only big thing that I think the committee would really want to take a look at is the Rivia High School cell phone policy.
Everything else was um you know the first who the description and process for forms for teachers working under two licenses or who have buy or multilingual capabilities that are supportive of students uh is really just a description of what we agree to in the contract
negotiations along with a form for them to apply for that benefit. Um the second one is the same type of thing but it's the operation system uh assistance under the ask me contract. Um those are our secretaries. Uh and then in the student
handbook the three changes. The first was the crown act language which you've all already looked at under the anti-discrimination required by law. The second is the language for the competency determination which again you already looked at and voted in January. Um it was just a matter of including it
in the handbook. And then the third is the cell phone policy for the high school. And um that refers to the kids having to lock up their phones in the locker units in the classroom and that they're not allowed to use them um in the hallways or uh take them to go to
the bathroom or any of that shenanigans. Okay, Miss Milbury Ellis. Um there may be some additional updates as well. I do need to schedule a policy meeting. I did notice the state came down with a a host of um updates that we need to as a committee as a subcommittee take a look at and they may not affect
us at all. We may decide not to change anything but I haven't looked at them close enough to see whether you know there are some that would warrant a change to our handbooks and our policy themselves. Okay, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Sella through you to the superintendent. A little more clarification on opening of school
Monday and the bones they will be put away and enforcement is the responsibility of whom? So the uh the high school has come up with their develop with their policy and they have those locker systems in every
home room. Every classroom is going to have one of those locker systems that the kids have to lock their phone in at the start of the class period and they don't retrieve it until the end of the class period. Um if there there are guidelines in there if the students are insubordinate which refusing to lock
your phone, refusing to hand over a phone that's not been locked appropriately, uh being on a phone is insubordination, the students will be disciplined um at per the protocol in in the handbook. Uh and that will be I mean the teachers will deal with it at the first level. If the students being
insubordinate to the teacher, then the administration will step in and deal with it from there. All right. the teachers are responsible for the initial aspect of it. Is this a policy that was in effect last year? Um, it is similar. The difference last year was that that we didn't have the
lockers. The kids didn't actually lock the phone up. So, this is different. And then also last year, no, there was a um progressive discipline um system in place that was in the handbook that like I have a million
cases for. So, um, Mrs. Rizzo, oh, she she's muted now. Um, all right. I think my concern is last year it was kind of haphazard. This seems a little more functioning and but
the teachers are to be directly involved whether it be reporting and or Okay, fine. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Montreo. Uhhuh. Okay. Um, I was just going to say while we're on the topic of cell phones, there is a bill that has been moving through. So, I
I've lost track. I don't know if it's now at the governor's desk or if it passed on to the Senate uh about there's two bills. One has moved faster than the other, but basically it looks like we will have a statewide ban on cell phones. So, I don't know when that'll come into play for all of us to think about.
Did you say we will or we will not? We will. I My understanding is that um the bill is likely to pass. that there's a lot of support at the state house for the bill. Um but that the bill is going to put um enforcement and implementation
in the hands of the local school boards. So more than well with that I don't know if anyone else has any comments. I just wanted to kind of bring up on the cell phone policy. You know we we know that we we
all believe it's the right thing to do and we know that there's not you know not 100% buyin. My concern and I know that we all share this and is the that heavy lift over the first few weeks of school getting the kids adjusted the students adjusted to the policy getting the the administrators and the faculty
adjusted because it's a big burden you know one two students being disruptive with not want to turn this over could really change the entire day uh at this level so I will all I'll say is we're five days six days away is you know all the resources we need all hands on deck
whatever this committee can be of service to support school days four five days calendar days six calendar is whatever we can do to be of support um to help and certainly don't want I don't think anyone wants to be author the authority in the classroom I don't think any of us
are fit for that um no offense to anyone but um you don't want Fred Sinella disciplining in the classroom and you don't want Pat Keefe doing it either uh I'm not sure which would be worse um right so but what I will say is I think that We just need to be very prepared.
This is not something that we know it's coming and you know just we we should not be shocked on on Thursday or Friday or the following week if there's if there's um there's some some issues that arise. We got we we need to, you know, get go
where Dr. Galuchcci, we need to go where the puck's going to be. And we know that we know where the puck's going to be. So, let's get there, okay? and you have my full support and whatever I can do or whatever we can do to help, please let us know. Thank you. Do we have to um we have to prove that?
Um no, we don't have to approve that. That was just updates. Correct. But I think what we can do is, excuse me, um, during the next policy meeting, we'll definitely take a look at the cell phone policy, the impo, the new in-house policy and
make sure that it's incorporated in a way that's consistent with what the committee had, the intention of the committee the last goound when we put, you know, pen to paper with the policy. Um, and now that we have these lockers, just just to make sure it's smooth and, you know, we cover our basis with the
policy itself. And if I could also add, maybe asking um John uh and the communication team to uh start really hitting this out there um on the social media platforms that the we know the students are using and the parents are using. Um, again, there's a small
minority that are probably we will be the vocal minority that are not happy with this, but the overwhelming majority, including we're starting to see at the state level, are supporting this because they know how disruptive it has been to the learning environment for everybody, teachers uh, and faculty and
students, of course. So, I think it's something Yeah, I I know that uh, Mr. Bowen has sent information to all parents already on Parent Square, but uh we can repeat it and have um Mr. Lynn do a more public maybe do an article for the journal for
next week or something. An article um and again I think the social media hits will be you know whe whether it's Instagram and we'll we'll be it'll it'll grab another niche of of of student base. We'll we'll take a rash with it as well.
So just be prepared. We have to support it. We have to support this. It's important. Thank you. Uh yes, Mr. Mayor, we just had one more item from the last meeting moved over to unfinished business, which was um the
bench dedication uh for Richard and Mr. Kingston added this to the agenda. Thank you. Uh the PTA reached out. Um Richard was a longtime volunteer at the Lincoln School. Um they received a donation of a bench Um, so no cost to
the uh school department. Um, and they'd like to um have permission to dedicate the bench to him for his long longstanding uh volunteer work at the Lincoln School. Thank you, Miss Kelly.
So, um, this is a a tricky situation because obviously, um, this is a very beloved person, uh, who was a great contributor to the Lincoln school community. Uh, one of the things that past school committees have
been very cognizant of and that that I think is important to think about, um, is that our schools are places for our students. Happy Monday. Um, and when we move down a path of honoring and memorializing
um, certain some people um, there become two complications with that. One is people have different opinions on what qualifies somebody to be memorialized. Uh and the second is over the years there becomes um a significantly large
number of people memorialized. And so if we project this idea down 5 10 15 years from now, how many memorial benches would we have and and who exactly would they be for? And what message does that
send to our students? I think particularly of the students who may have had some emotional distress themselves uh and may have lost a close relative or a parent um or somebody like that and and you know be thinking along
the lines of how can my parent be memorialized here as well. Um, I think that the in the past we've been very cognizant about trying not to turn schools into places of memorial. Um, for exactly those reasons that I've that
I've just articulated is it is that it becomes uh a daunting task when it's iterated over several years and and several situations. Um I'm wondering if there is a less permanent way um that the Lincoln school could honor the
memory um even if it's a recurring I know that um Mrs. Milbury Ellis had mentioned earlier uh perhaps a scholarship in the name um of Mr. Santaaso or um I don't know, but I would just offer
that for the school committee's consideration um as you contemplate this idea of uh creating a a memorial bench. Miss Miss Montroso to gain clarity, Mr. Kingston, they want to donate
uh like a bench to place at the school. It's not on the grass. I'm sorry. to my understanding. Again, not my idea. I was just approached and asked if the school committee would approve it. A bench um my understanding is a bench um in front of the school in the grassy area on Tucker Street.
Uh I think for me, I would be willing to move this to postpone consideration of this until next meeting just so we all can think about a little bit more since it's the first time the majority of us have talked about this. But before I make that motion, I'll see if anyone else has thoughts.
Mr. Snell, I maybe it's a gray area, but we don't own the schools and we're not responsible for the grounds. Um I don't know if we would be authorized to approve something of this nature. Maybe a ruling from the solicitor or something before
um you know the legal ease of it. But I mean someone had mentioned possibility of a moving on uh little award and or something of that nature for the family or field day have name put on the t-shirt you know something like that.
Uh Mr. Snell uh that's probably something we can we can have uh taken a look at and I think u Miss Montroso's uh um question was also valid uh in maybe just taking time to uh review it. Um what I'll say is from the city
standpoint um outside of the school purview typically we have we have uh standard some certain standards when it comes to especially putting names affixed to buildings uh or adjacent um for certain designations of of either
career service or um military service um or community or service to the city whether it's employment and things like that. Um so that the same exact reason that Dr. Kelly had mentioned. Um, we do get a lot of requests from people coming in, you know, whether it's an old street
that they lived on. Um, you know, so it's one of those where there's there's a delicate balance. You want to be respectful to people and their service to our community in whatever form that may be and the fond memories that family members may have uh and certainly Mr. Santis. So, um, you know, I I think I've
every time I went to the Point Pines Jo Club, right, same gentleman, uh, he's a gentleman. Uh, and I would see him walking by, uh, a couple of the neighborhoods that I would see, um, a great person and always greeted me with this a warm smile. So, um, I know that
in some way, shape, or form, a community like ours will find a way to recognize and memorialize him in the appropriate manner that's consistent with every resident that has lived here for their generations and also the future generations that we'll have. So, we should do something. we should think of
something thoughtful as a community whether that's with a school grounds or um you know the point of a j club or um something that's appropriate that is again just consistent motion I move we postpone this matter until the September 9th regular meeting
second roll call it doesn't look like um Mr. spr. So we can do all in favor I I so ordered. We have any other new business?
No executive session? Nothing. And motion to do we have a motion to adjurnn? So move second. Okay. And we will see everyone on September 9th for the next pardon me. Yes, I will do that. So, the next school
committee meeting will be on September 9th. Motion to adjurnn. Oh, sorry. All in favor to adjourn. I Soed. Thank you.