--------- is then they said it was stationed bus remember the meeting we had we talked about it and then that was I don't know how it ended up in there but that's where it is okay that Mr. Mayor that answers that question. Okay. Uh good good evening. Uh welcome to the
committee of the whole meeting of June 17, 2025. We'll all rise to sleep. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation
indivisible with liberty justice and all. Okay. Lieutenants we have Mr. John Kingston, Miss Alicia Milbury Ellis, Mr. Anthony Kajiano, Mr. Fred Sella, Mr. Patrick Keith, they also
Kelly and Matt Cruz the CFO. We have the quorum. Um, we have approval of the minutes. That's how it attached for us.
Any questions? Any questions? No questions. Right. No financial reports, no food service questions there. No communications enrollment update. Miss Miss Kelly. So, this is just the um
bimonthly enrollment just so that you can see where it is right now. It's a snapshot in time. Um, I think a more accurate enrollment update for us to look at will be the one in August when we're getting ready to come back, um, and see how many kids have come into the
district. Um, things are pretty much stable and steady. Um, as they have been, the high school enrollment, which we're always looking at, um, to date is 2043. So, still fluctuating between that 2,2100
um and everything everything else is pretty much the same as well. Some minor changes uh by school, but I think again the August numbers are what we're going to really want to take a career look at and see where we are then. Questions
on grade eight. That's is currently grade eight right now. Correct. Grade eight currently. Yep. And what is our projection with it? Low fours. Um I think it's low fives, but um some
of those kids will go to private school for high school or to the voke. Right. When are we going to have the that number for that? That will know better as the summer progresses because those kids will notify us that they're not attending and request their records to be sent to other schools. Well,
basically it's it's like 16 or 1700, not counting minus the eighth graders coming in that might be going to a private school. Okay. I have a quick question. Dr. Kelly, have we is it possible for us to think about something with the beach and
the power? I'm looking at the numbers from Saturday. I mean, Paul has always been pretty stacked like this. Yeah. But when when I see it like this so clear in Beachmont schools are drastically smaller. I mean almost by half in many cases. Yeah. Is this something we could
look at? So like one thing we do invite all parent all rear parents every year is to to have their child go to the beach. Um there are not too many that take us up on that offer. Okay. I think it depends on where they're going to work and if it's convenient for them to drop
the kids off, they they would do that. But mostly they like to be in their neighborhood. Is it possible for us to like have a cut off of PR students like as you know at some point where any additional enrollment
would have to go to the beach? The beach. We could if these are getting I mean these are so change the neighborhood um lines. You mean? Yeah. I mean it's just something to think about. It is. Yeah. While I'm looking at this, the one the one question mark I have around that and the mayor might be able to answer that better than me is do we
anticipate that there'll be any kids coming out of Suffach Downs when that is completed? You know, in kind of same typical fashion with a lot of these um kind of, you know, higherend luxury um apartments, they're mostly all uh
studios ones and very few twos. Yeah. Not a lot of um families coming out of them, but you know, they'll they'll be very very small numbers, I can imagine. But yeah, I know the first building at Suffic Downs which is completed is a majority of single family sorry single
bedroom and uh studio. The majority of the apartments are between 600 and 700 square f feet. Not really going to be yeah mostly you know you get like couples and uh young professionals but you you'll definitely get a few. Yeah. Um
but you know I think that as you go into later phases but you're talking probably you know between five and seven years from now. Yeah. Completion. So in the meantime that is something we can look at with that minus run. Um D I I have to
step up as a bit of an emergency. Okay. Okay. Take next would be who would be secretary. Good. I can ask myself to speak. Um there is a building a goodsized building opening up right across from the beach one. They they got now leasing on it and it looks like they're almost finishing
up. So hopefully as the mayor said hopefully it'll be young professionals. But there's a I mean it's I don't know how many apartments but there's got to be hundreds massive building on Bennington Street right across school. Well there one already John that's that's been there for about seven years right alongside of it. Right. But that I
looked at I was scrolling down Bennington the other day and I I literally there's no one behind me so I slowed down and I said I didn't you know I've gone to Beachmont school but I take the left I probably wasn't paying attention to what was on the right but when I was driving that way I looked up and I went wow it's a big building. Yeah but that whole configuration is going because of Suffach Downs they're
changing the whole traffic pad and right but I mean just the size of the building I was surprised it's it's ready to be it said now leasing but it looks like they're finishing touches. Is it like two and three bedrooms or I couldn't it just said now leasing but it's a it's a No, similar to what the mayor said, I'm sure, but it's just, you know, I saw it
and I went, "Oh boy." But I mean, I've seen on the boulevard more buses picking kids up and dropping them off. Um, they're coming. You know, if you build it, they will come. Um, Alicia to go along. I don't know who's chairing the meeting. Um, me, I guess. I'm sorry. Um,
superintendent and I had walsed around this numbers between Beachmont and um, Naridia and there was some effort made. I I don't think adequate um, in the superintendent's eyes probably adequate.
Um, we went so far as to suggest they're already on the bus. If there's a a 15, 20, 25 who consent to it, the bus just keep going to Beach. I mean, I I was there today. I mean, the numbers um and
that was downsized because the building wasn't adequate with when they built it. So, I think if the superintendent would be so kind as to I mean, yes, you a notice may have gone home. I don't know. Parents that I've talked to are interested in it. I mean, with at that
time, they were like 10 or 12 in a kindergarten class or a first grade class. Who wouldn't want their kid in 10, you know, 10 or 12 kids? Maybe they can't drive it. Maybe they don't have the means. But I think that if we can work in conjunction because
they all of them are on the bus. So Diane, if you would kind of get a better feel on it, a b maybe better notification or something. I don't know. I don't maybe that is where that came from, Fred, was when we had talked about it before. That's when we started
sending the notices. We have more room, smaller class size. If you're interested, let us know. But we can we can do that again. But I think Aisha is right that the only way we're really going to move larger numbers of people is to
change the um neighborhood lines um on where the neighborhood school is. And one of the things that I'm thinking we could do if we're going to um try to find somebody, a consultant who can come in and work with us on where are the neighborhoods for the middle schools
around the whole lottery piece, we as well. Okay. But the difference is that that no matter where you draw your lines from the pines, the beachfly is not going to change. I mean, you can't draw it that intricate to to do it. So,
I think this is unique because of of of distance involved and and definitely transportation. Yeah. I I I maybe uh we could think about a um a cut off. Yeah. With their numbers and it just is what it is. Well, suggestion is tomorrow is the last day at the party. the notice
could go home with the kids. anyone interested in to contact whomever um we can send them we got huge interaction with parents on parent square so we could send a notice to them on that um just it's just too bad I'm
not too bad tomorrow's the I know but I mean Dian you know no secret I think that that's a hidden gem and um when when you're talking the numbers that you're talking about okay thank you apologies every I missed it. There's a
bit of an emergency. The city all set. All set. [Music] Personnel items. Okay. Thank you. So, uh, new hires are we talking about? So, one thing I wanted to point out on
the, um, staffing or personnel items is, um, they did not complete in time, um, the list of non-renewals that will be in the July um, packet because they were just
finalizing some meetings with folks over the last couple of days, so we couldn't get it onto the list in time. Right. It's kind of a related question. Some teachers have reached out about the how we doing if you could and I'm talking names. Just asking for numbers on the 21ish that we had a kind of um I don't
want to use the wrong word. Move around, shuffle. I don't know what word to use. I don't want to offend anybody. Yeah. Are we Can we say that we've um found spots for x number of them so far? Or we we have and we have Danielle's been doing one-on-one meetings with them. I've been doing oneonone one-on-one
meetings with them. Okay. Um, and what we're what we've been doing right now is kind of a this is what we have available. This is where we're going to put you. If something changes over the summer, what's your preference and we'll change over the summer. If somebody decides to move on, we can move them
closer to their desired position. I told I would ask tonight because I figured this would be the best way of getting that information out and that, you know, instead of answering an email and not giving them the correct answer. Great. And I think it was 12 people, right? Yeah, it might be 14. You have to 12 or
14 people. Great. Thank you. All right. Watching that. Yeah, that's the answer. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good job. Acceptance of donations and gifts. So, we had one that we wanted to mention. Um, you might recall, I think it was two months ago that we presented
for the library was receiving a grant from the federal government for $5,000. And um in the meantime that grant was pulled back. So fortunately, did you do that? Yeah. Um it was part of the whole
funding piece around libraries that got um all of that funding got stopped. Okay. Um there was news today that it got reinstated. So maybe we're going to get that too. But in the meantime, um we got this secondary grant. Uh, and again, I have to thank Mia Morgan, who's our
high school librarian, who has gone after both of these grants and uh, and got them. She does a great job. Um, so we'll hopefully the second one, that other one gets reinstated, but this is specifically this grant, the $5,000 is specifically for books who for newcomers
um, who are new to the country. So, and this was a partnership with the Riviera Public Library. Oh, right. Yes. Yes, that's right. Yep. So, we should thank Diana Public Library as well. Works with the Rivia Public Library. Oh, that's she's great. They're both great. Yeah,
they're really good. We have a lot of lot of lot of synergy in the two departments. Well, same department, but really good. You never realize how much the people use the library until that we had the um the internet system down and the online books that are used, it's
like in the thousands a week. Wow. When it was down for a day or manually. No, the when people have a digital subscription, they're on using a Kindle. Oh, yes. And they're, you know, they're on a trip or they're they're you know, work, wherever, and you know, they have rights to use these, you know, the
system was down for a day because the subscription was tied to a credit card from someone in the city 15 years ago. I agree. And uh so when people weren't able to get their online subscription, it was it was we fixed it and we won't ever go back. The good part is that you recognize how many people are actually
using it. So that's wonderful. That was the funny that was that was what eye opening to me was how many people used it. Yeah. Great. Okay. Um, school field trips to random. So this next item is the basam camera monitoring force and I I'll I'll take
that out. I'll share this with everyone, but I wanted to kind of give everyone a bit of an update so we can start having the dialogue and then uh we we'll make sure we take the corrective uh write the proper force uh and go through all the prescriptive measures. But the city council has already adopted the
legislation to allow the city to uh install this technology. The next steps would be the city the school committee uh agreeing to allowing this to be uh something that is used on our school transportation uh um buses mostly the large buses and the mediumsiz buses. Uh
it wouldn't be used for the small caravans and things like that but ultimately it's a bus arm technology. The bus arm goes out there's a camera that's activated as soon as it goes out and what it's done is it's you know the amount of uh vehicles that are ignoring the stop arm going around it putting
children in danger. Uh so this started a few years back where a few cities Salem and Peodyy uh began doing a pilot program and they were finding one bus had somewhere between uh seven and 800 violations on that one path per for the month which was significant. Of course
we have so many buses out there and how many kids are in danger. Um, by adopting this, it would be an enforcement mechanism, a civil penalty, not a criminal penalty, uh, where it would be similar to getting a parking ticket, but a little bit more of a sting, uh,
because of the we, you know, the child the children's safety uh, to the school or the city. What happens is we would have to get into an agreement with, you know, Healey or whatever transportation providers would get into an agreement with one of these companies. There's a few of them operating in the state. And
believe it or not, because they already have monitoring technology on the buses, they very well might be already working with these camera type companies, uh they would just be external. And uh the the city basically uh gets into an an agreement with the the company. The
company takes on all the responsibilities of monitoring uh of issuing uh issuance of of fines and andor warnings. Uh it does go through a legal I'm sorry, it does does go through a police officer. So, a police officer would have to review to uh be to okay
the official um information or whatever. So, it could so it wouldn't be arbitrary. Of course, all of the checks and balances are in there. Do we we own the cameras? No. So, we just basically it's all it's all through a leasing program. So, I'll just say we've already been pitched by a few companies. uh we
haven't made any agreements and again what we will do is if the city if everyone agrees we'll send out some sort of an RFP or an RFQ and and get the best uh qualifier uh but ultimately they charge something in the realm of $100 per month per per bus uh and then they
charge a fee for each ticket that's issued. Uh and then what they do is they take all of that off of the whatever the fee is. So cost is Yeah. If the fee was a $200 fee, then they would take all of their cost and then submit to the city the reserve, whatever is left. Okay? There'll never be a check going out. It
would only be a fee coming in in the hopes that this would be, you know, u behavioral corrective measures to, you know, not have 800 violations on school. We should be voting on it so we can have it ready for September. Well, what I want to ask is we we have we have time and yes. So what they what a few of
these companies have already asked is would we be willing to do a pilot program for the summer on one or two of our bus routes that we might have school transportation. They they have contact they all have contacts with these major bus companies as well and allow them to go on a bus or two as a pilot program.
No no written agreement. No um there wouldn't be need to be any any uh any any full agreement. and then they can give us sample data to say, "Hey, listen. Just so you know, you know, the buses running through your city are high risk." Or they might say, "You know what? You know, there's not a lot going on. You guys are a great community and
no one's and everyone's obeying the law, so these might not be really fruitful or we're not there's not a lot of crap." I don't know if we need them to tell you that. I could tell you right now. I'm pretty sure of the city. I'm pretty sure when I I I walk on Park AB, sometimes I actually walk to work, especially on the nice days, and I've seen it. They go
right around and it's pretty awful because of the kids jumping out. It's pretty bad. So, I I just want to I'll share I'll send this to everyone and it kind of talks about the the uh enforcement law and the summaries, but it also talks about um you know, if we adopted a pilot program, again, that
would just be us kind of coming just agreeing to do that. The next thing I know that the school union or the the bus driver union had reached out and said, we just like to be part of the process. They were not trying to be obstructionist. They just wanted to make sure that they were involved and I said absolutely. And of course, Superintendent Kelly and her team would
need to be involved. Revail Police Department, the parking department because they will probably kind of be the managers of the the ticketing piece and then and then of course our transportation companies. Um, but just wanted to kind of throw it out there. I do apologize. This is a hot press, so I'll forward this to everyone so they
can see it and kind of run through it. But the good news is from a legislative process, the school I'm sorry, the city council had already adopted this as a as from from an ordinance standpoint. So we can as long as we come to an agreement and we then get into an agreement with our bus companies. They told me that
they can have equipment on a bus within like 3 or 4 days. Okay. It takes an hour just they go in there. They hook it up onto the thing and so Okay. So it's just that process. It's just Yeah. So I I would ideally if we can come to say hey listen you know and I'll work with Diane
directly. If we can do a pilot program then that's great. and then maybe before the end of the summer we can figure out if we want to do this as a full scale so that they can get ready for September. Yeah, it doesn't cost us anything. Cost us zero. It's a no brainer. So, we don't do a lot of big bus transportation in
the summer. Um the one group or two groups I should say that we are going to be transporting this summer because of the construction at the Garfield School. We are going to have buses that pick the Garfield Elementary suffer bus for the middle school and take them to the alternate site which is at the beach.
Um, so we would have those big those will be big buses running. They'll be our buses. Um, so they'll be able to monitor that. But outside of that, I think we just have special needs kids that require transportation, but they would be on the smaller vehicles. Yeah. Well, I mean, even the big even the
small runs that we have, they might just be a smaller sample size, but at least they'll give you something. And I think it'll just give everyone an opportunity to see what what you know they'll get they'll they'll show us exactly what what the cameras are recording. Yeah. And everything's and from a privacy standpoint, just so everyone's aware,
everything's redacted. There's no faces facial images on these pictures. So it it gets a car and when it finally gets out, the uh license plates and faces are redacted automatically by the company. So there's no there's no privacy invasions and things like that. It's only meant to pick up the actual um
violation. Is there a reason why they they don't put the equipment on the smaller vehicles? So, I I I think a lot some of the smaller vehicles don't have uh specific buses. Oh, the stop. Yeah. So, I'm not sure I'm not sure how how how big it needs to be. Do all the Healy
buses have arms? Because I wouldn't make that the big buses. Yeah, they should. I'll keep you small. I think it has to do with it might might not even be just the smaller ones, but it might be just the really small like the ones that have the top flips that have like you know
the car just have the top ones that flop up. Yeah, because we do have some and even I think a couple of our own bands I'd have to confirm this with Denise have not the big arm but they have the stop sign that flips out. Yeah. Yeah. So they would analyze the fleet and and then you know and they would re they
would probably do a recommendation and say hey we recommended to go on all of these runs and go from there. Now some of the other complications are uh if they're going from city to city you know because then that's an enforcement mechanism in another city. So it wouldn't be valid if we have we're
sending kids to Beverly uh and all of those jurisdictions in between would say hey we don't adopt this or we have they haven't yet adopted it. I can tell you a lot of communities are adopting, you know, but at that if we did have kids on a run like that, it would be on a small vehicle. It wouldn't be on a big bus,
but they uh we can get definitely more information on exactly what the limit is for the buses and all that, but ultimately there's no there's not a lot of risk here for us, you know, and and I think it's a good trial and again there's no and also there's no penalty for the public. It would just be a pilot
program to see. there won't be any issuances as violations, even warnings. And then if we were to go forward with this, you know, that the first month, two months, it could be just old warnings. It's more of an educational resource for you to do a big public safety uh communication to everyone, put
it out on the the school system, the city system, and say, "Hey, listen, this is out there. Just be aware." And as you all know and I'm just going to I'm saying on a school committee is right is um this this types of technology and um is going to in is going to be used in
more enforcement when it comes to the state in most states traffic enforcement speed enforcement it's coming. So I mean I I enjoy it because I I get so many calls about people speeding on many different streets. So this type of technology is going to continue to grow.
Um and so it's one of those where we should just embrace to become early adopters. Sure. Yes sir. All right. Yes sir. So that's the question viol when the violation the uh the company what was it to the parking and then the they get the approval and then they issue so they they just get go through the checks
and balances that where it gets like a two factor authentification. So, two two people are saying, "Hey, yes, this we deem this a violation where it wouldn't be uh, you know, it's willy-nilly and they're trying to, you know, kind of kind of like a tow company, right, where they, you know, there's some predatory
towing out there. We all we we try to make sure that we don't have so we don't want we don't want to uh be too much of a a hammer, but it'll go through there." And the company would issue everything through the city of Rivia. So, it would go out from them. We don't have to touch you. We don't know what that, but they
do charge a fee for each each each ticket that's submitted. And it's civil, so it wouldn't be an insurance violation either, which, you know, those those are tough. Those are hard ones. You get a lot of eye when that happens. So, you know, we can talk about a little bit later, but if you if you guys give
me the green light, I'll I'll start initiating the pilot and I'll work Diane on it. I say go for it. That's fine. Great. Okay. In favor? Yes. Okay. um business school department by the chair. So there's one thing that we didn't get on the agenda is the dates
for the July to December meetings. Um and if if everybody wants to stay with the um third Tuesday of the month, it would be July 15th, August 19th. I'll send these out to you so you don't break them down. We already got it, didn't we? Yeah, I saw an email. Oh, did you send
them out? Okay. All right. Yeah. So, is everybody good with that? Yeah, I didn't see it, but okay. I I won't be able to be here at 15. So, I think you can hit a little my birthday. Oh, happy birthday. No, the 15th. I'll be traveling. So, I'm supposed to be traveling that day, too.
And I was just looking at it thinking, what should we do? But I can do the 22nd. We could have a really lame meeting. It's July. I could go a week before. Well, a week before you Well, where you said scheduling. So, instead of the make it
the second or the fourth that month. That's all. Not July 2nd. No, no, no. I'm just I'm just saying the second Tuesday of the monthly means or the fourth Tuesday of the month. Yeah, we could do the non whatever works for everybody right now. So far in advance. I can't do the second, but I can do the
fourth. July 4th. I mean, no, this so 7:22. Yeah, I can do. Oh, okay. I gota you around 7:22. 7:22. I don't have anything. That's not nice. Okay. Where's he at?
And then the regular meeting. I guess I don't know before we adjourn. I was just I I think we may talk about one of our subcommittee meeting. I want to congratulate Victoria and Jack Montroso again on their meeting. Congratulations. Congratulations on Nicholas Nicholas Franklin. Yes,
Nicholas Franklin. Yeah, Dr. And uh and and and uh and Stacy, if you're watching, we'll be filming the um one other thing from the regular meeting agenda. I had um put on the agenda to review with you all at the
regular meeting, um the new guidelines that Deetsi came out with for the competency determination requirement. We had talked about this a few months ago, but they have in the last few months decided to change um their guidance, but they didn't actually get so Danielle and I both attended a webinar on that today
and um they didn't get the written documentation out to us yet. Um so I'm going to table that until July. Um what it means is that the school committee is going to have to um vote to approve um the requirements needed to earn a
competency determination. Uh and then we have to put it in the student handbooks. Um which we typically review in August anyway. Um so we'll get I know Lorenzo is working right now on any ch um proposed changes to um the faculty
handbook and the student handbook and we'll present those to you in July along with the company the competency determination language will be included with that so that then you can vote on in August. Yeah, that sounds pretty good. I can the minutes for the ways and means are a
little well my opinion a little lengthy if we wanted to read them now instead of done because it's 5:30. You can do it then. I don't care. It's just Did you want to just time? That's not a bad idea. I can live with that. Is that okay? And would we be okay with maybe reading the the minutes from transportation or is that something that
I don't have that one. That was a committee of the whole so I don't have that. Gotcha. Do you have that item? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Is that all right? Yeah. John timer. Okay. Um there were three on there were
three um subcommittee meetings um since the last minutes were updated. So the first one is on May 19th. Um the agenda was budget 2.0. In attendance was myself, John Kingston, the chair, Stacy Bronson, Rizzo, Anthony Kajiano. Other members were Patrick Keefe, Jacqueline
Matroso, Alish Alisha Milbury Ellis and Fred Sella, Dr. Kelly, Dr. Macauver and Matt Cruz. Meeting was called to order at 435 with salute to the flag and the roll call of the members. Mayor Keef discuss May Keefe discussed the cost of transportation of the discussions about junior RTC enrollment, academic coaches
and mentors. Mr. Cruz discussed rising health insurance costs and other costs to the district making for a tough budget season. 21 teaching positions would hopefully be reassigned due to enrollment in hopes of retaining these teachers. Class size was discussed and the importance to both staff and students. The budget calls for 3.4
million deficit with money taken from our reserves. After a lengthy discussion, it decided more cuts were needed to save money for the future. So is so uncertain with state and federal funding. The committee believed 3.4 million taken out of state fund should be reduced and 1.7 million was the figure decided upon for the target for
central office to come back to us at the next meeting. Meeting was adjourned at 605. Thank you. The second meeting was on June 3rd again ways and means subcommittee meeting. The agenda was budget 3.0. In attendance was myself, John Kingston, chair Stacy Bronson,
Rizzo, Anthony Kajiano. Other members were Pat Keefe, Jacqueline Monteros, Aisha Milbury Ellis, and Fred Sella. Dr. Kelly, Dr. Macauver, and Matt Cruz represented central office. Meeting was called to order at 305 to the flag and a roll call of members. Dr. Kelly and Mr. Cruz presented the revised budget um to
reduce the deficit to 2.2 million. The the new cuts were outlined by Dr. Kelly were discussed in length and the rationale for those cuts. Two students with special needs districtwide coaches. Four consulting teachers positions, one adaptive PE, two VCBA positions. Some
teaching positions that were unfilled or would not cause a significant class size were also cut. One civics citywide coach. Discussion about the coaches which administrators believed were most needed. These cuts brought us to a $2.2 million deficit. Mr. Cruz explained the 450,000 to get to the 1.7 requested
deficit meeting was adjourned at 4:40 p.m. and finally um June 11 2025 ways and mean subcommittee meeting um this was budget 4.0 in attendance was myself John Kingston chair Stacy Bronson
Rizzo Anthony Kajiano other members president were Aisha Milbury Ellis and Fenella from central office Dr. Kelly Dr. Carver and Matt Cruz meeting was called to order 405 to the flag and the roll call of the members. The committee represented their cuts to the budget. These cuts were discussed in length.
One restorative justice districtwide, one communications director, one high school grading coach, three middle school operations administrators, one high school operation administrator voted to retain one alternative physical education teacher, four health techs, one civics coach, and one STEM coach.
Vice Chair Jacqueline Wroto presented a letter which was read into the record by by the by me um explaining what she would like um what her suggestions were as far as cuts. There was a lot of discussion back and forth. This became the budget recommendation of the ways and mean subcommittee to the full
committee. Meeting was adjourned at 5:05. That concludes my minutes and these are the trans transportation minutes from the pack. I'm all set. Yes, the chair. Thank you. Um, anyone else on M
Kingston's notes? If I could, I I have I don't know if anyone else does. I to do the minutes. I go back and watch the meetings on YouTube, but I struggle with getting finding them. I'm pretty good with the computer, but YouTube we got I thought we got the transcript. Um, so that thing
was like a temporary free trial. Free trial. Okay. Um, I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's just I don't know if to this if I don't if I could to Mr. Chair to the secretary. Do you have any trouble finding on YouTube or is it just me? I I have no
been seen. No, no, could be a me thing. All right, we can work with you on that. I'll be honest with you before it used to be a me thing too with the YouTube, but I think uh you have a subscription. You can just hit I was looking at
meetings from 2020. It just doesn't break. Yeah. No, I was fine. No, I mean, not that I was looking at I see the sweet of gates, but finding Yeah. So, the most recent's easy. It's going back a little bit. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Thank you. No, uh I'll just say um John,
Mr. Kingston, you know, I know that you you've held your meetings and I know that we've also had other discussions regarding, you know, kind of budget deficits and, you know, we we gave out, you know, some marching orders to the administration and uh, you know, and uh, Diane and her team, Matt came back with
what we asked for, 1.7, not to go beyond $1.7 million in reserves. Uh, and just to, you know, I want to make sure that everyone understands that, you know, there's never an intention on the school side to use these, but we know, we all knew that kind of banking some of this ESR funding
and being a little more conservative over the last few years was going to give us more of a runway with uh the ESR cliff. It came a year sooner, but 17 uh in the hopes that next year we can keep it. You know, I just say from, you know, whatever we vote on later on. And I
think that we we seem to be in a decent spot is knowing that next year we need to plan on trying to do the same exact thing is not dip into these reserves very much so that we can spread them out over the next four to five years. But we are going to have to continue to take the next 12 months to make the long-term
decisions rather than make them with giving people 11 days notice 12 days notice. It's probably you know it's not fair. It's not fun. I I know that if we had no other choice yeah we'd have to make the tough decision. we have the reserve funds for that reason, but you know, giving someone 12 days notice to
me is, you know, it's it's right for um just it's just not it's not it's not really good. So, I think that you came with a good plan. I know that uh the committee the the Ways and Means Committee came with some alternatives and I and I saw what I think over the last week was a lot of, you know, coming
together and uh making good decisions along with the feedback that we got from a lot of people in the district. A lot. And it was really nice because we can make decisions in a bubble. we can make decisions from what we think but you you know the educators the the superintendents the administrators in
the building people that are making the choices and doing it through every day are the ones that going to guide us and you know thank you for the feedback agree and I'll just say that I have really appreciated the meetings that I've had individually with school committee members and the mayor in person or if it if it was a phone call
in some cases um that people have been eager to collaborate and work together and and find some consensus around all of this because I know it is challenging. It is for me too uh to receive any kind of uh criticism or you
should be doing this or you should be doing that and I know the school committee has gotten a lot of letters from people. But I'll echo what the mayor just said. what it shows is how dedicated people are to the school district and to the kids um and and how important it is to them that um
everybody's voice be heard and and be represented in the budget and and those pieces and you know I I feel closer to you all as a result of this experience that we've had in the last couple of weeks uh which I think is a good thing. Mr. Snow, you have something
Matt, good job. Sorry to I mean you only did six versions of the budget. Thank you. It's because everyone cares so much. No, I mean that's what happens. Make a motion for seven seventh seven version. No, we'll save the paper.
I think this was the record, right? I think it's pretty close. And I know I'll mention one other challenge that we had this year was the we struggled to get the schedule 19 agreement done. Um so that caused a delay. Normally the school committee is talking about the budget in
February or March but we couldn't we since you brought it up I could if I could miss Mr. should in the future I where it's it's not a how do I say it where it's not a comparatively speaking
huge number to me if we I don't know I wouldn't say ignore it I don't mean it that way I don't know what to say if we kind of this expected us an amount and just you know even shoot high at least we still could have worked on the rest I guess is what I'm trying to say I know
we waited a couple of weeks while that negotiation was happening but it wasn't a big I mean in relation to it7 I just thought on something um but I feel like we're in a better place with that too and I think that that will be No, I know we didn't we were waiting and
that a few weeks and that wasn't on I took some heat for that because I didn't schedule a meeting but I reached out and I was told to wait so do you want me to try to summarize the transportation before I read this. Yeah. So, the the minutes are here. Robin just printed them and gave everybody a copy.
But, um if I try to condense this down, um the handful of big changes that the committee agreed to. The first was that we were going to reduce um the eligibility for big bus transportation for our regular education
students. There were no changes for the special needs students. they will have that transportation as always. Um and the and the changes to the high school and the middle schools, grades seven and eight. Um those students whose bus
opportunity is being eliminated will get the M7 um MBTA card which gives them free unlimited ridership for the 10 months of the school year. in the in the summer months in in July and August, th those students or their families can choose um
to use that Charlie card to put some money on it and use it as they see fit in the summer. Um, but the district would be paying the $30 a month cost uh for those Charlie cards and um I believe the agreement was um a total of $250,000
with the intention being 50,000 for each of the three middle schools and then $100,000 for city lab and the high school combined with any unused funds from the middle school also being able to apply to high school students if there are additional funds in that realm. Um, we would still be
transporting uh middle school kids if they live more than two miles from their school. Um, high school students would be exclusively using the um Charlie cards unless they have uh an IEP that requires
transportation um doortodoor. I think that's everything. Does that sound right? Yeah, I see. Oh, just that no changes to the elementary at all. No changes to elementary either. That's right. So, it's our older students that you
know might be a good life skill to learn how to use the tea. Okay. Any other any other business? Motion to address. Second. I proceed. Part: 2
Okay. Good evening. Calling to order the Reva school committee meeting uh of June 17, 2025. 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. Mr. McCab, would you call the role? Mrs. Bronston Rizzo. Mr. Kajiano here. Mr. Kingston here. Mrs. Milberry Ellis, present. Miss Montteroso.
Mr. Sella, Mayor Keefe, here. We have a quorum. I just want to mention that Miss Rizzo is uh ill this evening and we send her our well wishes and as everyone who's probably aware um school committee woman um Montto Roso uh is a new mom and
she's with her home with her child and her husband. So congratulations to Miss Montteroso. Mr. Kingston motion to take the calendar out of order, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Second. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Okay. So, just for the viewing audience, we know
that there are a lot of people here this evening regarding the school's budget ways and means uh subcommittee and uh just to give a report out. So, we don't want to uh make you stay here all evening. I think that we'll be able to give you a synopsis and be able to uh get to uh get to some finality on that
as well as some um some of the transportation related uh uh conversations. So, Mr. Kingston. Uh motion from the committee of the whole regarding student transportation at the middle and high school levels to approve the changes. Second. Any discussion?
M Miss McCaba. Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Mr. Kingston. Yes. Miss Millberry Ellis. Yes. Mr. Sella. Yes. Mayor Keefe. Yes. Motion passes.
Mr. Kingston. Motion to discuss the budget for the 2526 school year. Um Dr. Kelly has a um recommendations. Second. Do you want to uh hear Dr. Kelly's recommendation? Okay. Okay. Miss Miss
Kelly. Sure. So, um as we all know, it's been a particularly contentious uh budget season this year. Um, we always struggle with bug budget, but in the last couple of years, we've had the benefit of the student opportunity act. Uh, and I am incredibly grateful to our
state and local legislators who made that happen. Um, this year, a little bit earlier than we anticipated. We hit a bit of a fiscal cliff. Um, and I'm very grateful to uh Mr. Cruz and the past school committee members um who worked with us to make sure that we were
prepared for any kind of a rainy day like this. Uh, and I know it was definitely my intention and also that of the committee not to dip into those um, reserve funds this year. We were hoping that wouldn't happen until next year or even the year after. Um, and what came
out of that of course were the suggested um, budget and position eliminations that we talked about uh, through the Ways and Means Committee. Um, and most recently last week there was I forget Mr. Kingston if it was our fourth or fifth. We've had a number of meetings,
but at the most recent one, um I know that some of the people in the audience here were a little bit takenback by um some of the suggestions that were made. I know that the committee certainly has the right to have their input into what should be in the budget and what
shouldn't be in the budget. And I think that we've come to uh a consensus in the weeks since then uh and a better understanding of how we can collaborate together to make those decisions. Um so just a very brief overview of what the budget is going to look like. Um it will
be as um the school department had proposed it in our version 4.0 a couple of weeks ago. um with the addition of the positions that the committee had requested including the um civics coach
position, the adaptive PE at the elementary level and four um health aids. Uh Dr. Galuchcci and I met with um Miss Harwig or Mrs. Foley um this morning to start talking about what that redistribution of health aids might look
like and um where they can best benefit. We'll be following up with principles after this meeting on that. Um and and and to counterbalance um those new those positions being added
back into the budget which came out to about um $387,000. Uh we have identified a number of other cuts that are much less personnel intense um that might have been suggested last week that we've recommended to the school committee
including um a $10,000 cut to some overtime budgets that we had for fi the finance office where we're not in a negotiations year. I think that's a prudent cut to make. Um we're looking at uh funding the realm differently than we had planned. We were as as we have
before, we're trying to reboot that committee and we hope to do that work outside of the school day, but we're going to find a way to do it uh perhaps through director meetings or principal meetings or some other time uh that we have during the school day that won't uh result in an additional cost. Um we are
reducing our teacher fellow positions. Those are um full-time student teachers that we had in partnership with Salem State University. That's something that we can look for grant funding that hopefully uh will offset that, but it we it's something that we can't look at in
this budget right now. Um I know Dr. Moaba will be searching for those grants over the summer. There is financing out there for future teacher programs. So, we're optimistic that we might be able to find something. Um and there were a few other um small budget cuts. Um
12,000 here, 15,000 here, 8,000 there. Uh probably the the the two bigger things. One is we had budgeted $33,000 for newcomer summer programs. Um we do have some money in a grant already to pay for newcomer summer programs. So
we're going to continue with that. Uh it won't be as extensive a program as we've had in the past, but we also have not had the influx of students that we typically have at this point in the year. So we feel comfortable making that reduction. Um, and then I'll also be
looking um to work with the principles as our enrollment adjusts itself over the summer to to find two additional teaching positions. But we'll figure out what those are um as as enrollment dictates uh and as we continue our
scheduling work across all of the schools. Um, and so what that means is that um some of the suggestions that uh folks might have heard last week that weren't um necessarily what we were thinking was best right now for the school district um those positions will
stay intact. Um and I think that's pretty much everything. Thank you for the explanation. Uh and and I will uh also just echo some of the comments. You know, we we know that this was a difficult session coming in and we definitely came in a little later because, you know, you remember half the
half the year we were negotiating contracts, which was uh aggressive but really good and and good fruitful conversation and as we uh got right into budgets, you're you know, you're seeing what's happening with state aid and you're also seeing what's happening and you know, some of the un the unknowns
were the honestly the big killers for us were insurance costs uh and transportation costs throughout the district uh that just have spiral follow it out of control. Uh not not anyone's fault, but just these are uncontrollables that we had to deal with. So, they definitely made our decisions difficult, but you know, you
know, some of the fiscal prudence that you've shown and Matt and the team have shown over the last few years to bank some money uh is nice that they're able to only dip into the reserves for 1.7 million. It sustains uh some of that cliff funding for the next three to four years. And that's the goal for the
committee is we're all committed over the next 12 months. So when this budget uh if this budget is passed is to use the next 12 months to really figure out uh what next year's bud budget looks like so that we can have conversations a lot earlier and and really uh listen and
make decisions together. I I do want to compliment um when times get tough you sometimes see the best and sometimes you see the worst. We really saw some of the best in the district. We got uh emails and calls from um a lot of people and there was zero fingerpointing. It was all advocacy. It was all explanations
and giving us a good understanding of what your days are like. And that gives us good uh decision-making material, but there was never once uh vitrial or fingerpointing to, you know, my job is more important than this person's job. It was really just a good explanation.
And I think the committee did a really nice job of listening and understanding, taking a deep breath, and making uh thoughtful choices. So, uh, you know, I think that there's a motion on the floor to adopt the budget as presented by, uh, Dr. Kelly with the reinstatements of
some of the proposed cuts, and those were just proposals. Uh, and, uh, you know, I'm in full support. So, I'll just say that that I don't know if any of the council has any or any of the committee has any uh, conversation. Any other discussion? Okay. So, Okay. So, this is an open public
hearing regarding the budget. Uh and I will ask if anyone wants to come up uh in um in opposition. Uh so any so we'll do actually do propo proponents first. So if any proponents want to come up or if you want to uh just you know you know show a brief show of hands and come on
up uh you can you have all the time you want two minutes or so but come on up. Proponents. Okay. Uh hearing and seeing none we'll close that side of the hearing. Any opponents to the budget as proposed? Feel free to come on up if you'd like.
Sounds like we have a pretty satisfied group. That's good. Fantastic. Hearing and seeing none, we're going to close that side of the hearing. We have a motion on the floor. So moved. So moved. U roll call. Miss McCaba. Um sorry, one clarifier. So um you will
need to vote the budget by series. So okay. Um do you want to call it by series, Dr. Macaba? Do you want Matt to come up and help with that? Because where's Matt? I think Matt went home for the night. He left. All right. You want Oh, you you
want to call it? Oh, we have the way. Yeah, John. There you go, John. The budget is break broken up into series. Um series 1000 is administration salary 2,539,539. non-s salary1,138,890
for a total of $3,678,429. Mr. Kajiano, somebody make a motion to accept. Second. Second. Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Mr. Kingston. Yes. Miss Milberry Ellis. Yes. Mr. Sella.
Yes. Mayor Keefe. Yes. Motion passes. 2000 series instructional services salary $81,975,73 non-s salary $4,153,738 total $86,128,811 motion to approve second
Mr. Kajiano yes Mr. Kingston. I am un unable to vote on this due to a family matter. Mrs. Milberry Ellis, yes. Mr. Sella, yes. Mayor Keefe, yes. Motions, the next series 3,000 other
student services salary 5,256,573. non-s salary 8,874,964 for a total of $14,131,537. Motion to approve. Second. Roll call. Mr. Kajiano? Yes. Mr. Kingston? Yes. Mrs. Milbury Ellis? Yes. Mr. Sella? Yes. Mayor Keefe?
Yes. Motion passes. Next series is student services. Our next sub salary. No, no, I have to read the Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Student services 31 to 3200. 2,567,466 $47,775
2 million. No, that's the sub that's the sub. Oh, I apologize. Oh, I apologize. My my apologies. No, no, no worries. I'm sorry. Series 4,000. My apology. Operational plant and maintenance 2,490,328 non salary 7,500,931
for a total of $9,991,259. Make a motion to accept. Second. Roll call. Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Mr. Kingston? Yes. Miss Milberry Ellis? Yes. Mr. Sella? Yes. Mayor Keefe? Yes. Series 5,000 benefits and insurance salary
$537,000. Non-s salary $550,000 for a total of $1,87,000. Motion to approve. Second. Mr. Kiano. Yes. Mr. Kingston. Yes. Miss Milberry Ellis. Yes. Mr. Sella. Yes.
Mayor Keefe. Yes. Series 7000 Capital Investment. non-s salary 100,000 for a total of 100,000. Make a motion to accept. Second. Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Mr. Kingston. Yes. Miss Milberry Ellis. Yes. Mr. Sella.
Yes. Mayor Keefe. Yes. Series 9,000. Tuitions non-sary $16,450,000 total $16,450,000. Motion to approve. Second. Mr. Kingston. Oh, Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Mr.
Kingston. Yes. Miss Milberry Ellis. Yes. Mr. Sella. Yes. Mayor Keefe. Yes. Appropriation salary 92,798,513. Non-sary 38,768,523 for a total of 131,567,036. Make a motion to accept. Second.
Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Mr. Kingston. Yes. Miss Milberry Ellis. Yes. Mr. Sella? Yes. Mayor Keefe? Yes. No. The rest is um just explanatory. Correct. Yeah. That's that's city funding. Uh additional city funding from a separate just for the edification of
the audience and anyone else in anyone watching on on YouTube. The total net school spending is 159,415,532. Thank you. Um just again, I know you probably some of you have heard all those numbers and I'm sure I see some young young uh students in the audience and so just
understand there's a there's a lot of money that goes into our schools and there's a huge investment from our community. So uh appreciate your parents uh helping with that because they're the ones that bear the burden uh and everyone else the taxpayers of the residents of the city. So, thank you. Uh, it's a big number, $159 million, and
there's it's actual it's actually big, more than that, uh, as you all know, but, um, appreciate the the committee, uh, doing their due diligence over the last two weeks and really working hard at this. So, great job. Uh, we want to take a brief recess to allow people if they want to leave or if they want to grab a quick chat, we'll be happy to do
that. So, motion to recess. Motion recess. All in favor? All right. Five. We'll be back in five minutes. We're back to regular. Um, do you want to stay out of them? We Yeah, we should go back to regular. Okay.
Do we have a motion, Mr. Sella? [Music] Second. All in favor? Okay. All right. Great. So, uh, welcome back. We are going to go to our second item on the agenda, recognition. And are we not recognizing anyone?
Shame. Okay. We'll recognize you for the hard work on the budget and Matt. Okay. How's that? All right. We have the consent calendar. Motion. You need a motion to approve. That'd be good. Motion to approve consent
calendar. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Well, motion to Roll call. It says vote required. Yep. Roll call. Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Absent. Mr. Kingston? Yes. Miss Milberry Ellis? Yes. Mr.
Sella? Yes. Mayor Keefe? Yes. Okay. There's no student report. And now we have public speak. I know that we did it a little bit out of order, but if anyone wishes to speak on any items on the agenda tonight, feel free to come on up. You'll have two minutes.
Anyone? All right. hearing and seeing none. We'll close public speak superintendent report. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have um three reports to the school committee tonight. In the first one, we're very excited to
invite our friends from the Hill School. Um I know Principal Martell is here with her assistant principles um and several of their students who are going to talk to us about high-fives and deep dives into learning at the Hill School. I have lots of friends with me here
tonight. I'm very excited about Mayor Keefe, Dr. Kelly, Dr. McCabau, and school committee members. Thank you so much for having us here tonight. Um, we are here to talk about two exciting initiatives that we embarked upon this year. Um, one of them is the Hill School High Five Helpers and the other one is
our deeper learning project done by our fourth grade team. So to start with the high- five helpers, you can keep going. Two more slides. Um, so we wanted to increase leadership opportunities for students at the Hill School. We've had um a student council
that's been running for several years and it runs really effectively, but that's a limited number of students that we get to participate in that. So, we wanted to allow more students to have a leadership opportunity at the Hill School. So, we developed um a high- five helpers program that is an opportunity
to promote leadership and these students would work with younger students in the building. So, we had fifth graders who during their wind block instead of going to an extra PE or an extra art class, they embarked in the high- five helper
program. And some of the activities that they participated in were they did math centers and kindergarten classes and they helped with recess and lunch with the first and the second graders. So when we were outside in the nice weather, they were supervising games, organizing activities for the kids to do
at recess and helping them open the milks in the cafeteria and just sitting down and talking with the younger kids. Okay, you can go to the next slide, please. to we had over 60 students that um were able to participate in this throughout the school year and we have
about 120 total fifth graders. So half of them were were able to participate in this program. They had to interview with an administrator and talk about their strengths and their skills and why they thought they would be a good fit. And throughout the year we had many trainings with them and talk to them
about how to work with students that might be having conflict. How would they mediate that? How would they get the adult involved to help with that? Um, I don't think we had too many conflicts thankfully. And I have Shaie here who's going to talk about her personal experience as a high- five helper.
I'm Shaunie Castillo, a former high- five helper, and I am a fifth grader at the Hill School. My job as a high five helper was helping kindergarteners at math. One thing I liked about it was sharing my intelligence with them. I got to go to their classroom twice a two
time two days a week to help with st math and do some math games. I even made up a game for Valentine's Day. I really enjoyed I really enjoyed having a leadership position at my school. Next, we have one of my fourth grade
teachers, Carrie McKinnon, who's going to talk about the McMacken playground project. and we have some students that will join her. Hello, I'm Carrie McKinn and I teach fourth grade ELA at the Hill School. Um, we had an awesome opportunity this year to look at McMack and Field and see how
we could take what is there and turn it into an awesome playground and resource. So, we were lucky enough to have Mayor Keefe as well as Tom from the plan department come in and talk to our students about what this looks like, what has already been done, and what needs to be done. And the students were really able to take that and connect
everything that we're learning this year into their community and into the world around them. It was really cool. They got to go on Canva and design invitations. They got to write proposals. They looked a lot at budgets and what it would cost and how much employees would be. So, they'll explain
a little bit more about what they did, but it was a great start and we're excited to do it again next year. Hello, I am Emmy and this is Jaro. We are excited to tell you about our playground project. We are tasked with designing a park at
McMack and Field with a budget of $2,500,000. We had a lot of different steps and a lot of work to do. We had to hire employees, figure out how much fill we needed, and get prices for all of our supplies.
My favorite part was designing the invitation with templates on Canva. My favorite part was buying materials for the field and using the links to research. Thank you for listening and have a great night.
[Applause] [Applause] The last couple slides just talk a little bit more about the program, but I think you got the gist from them. Do you have any questions for any of our students? I live right up the street from McMack and I appreciate your efforts very much. It's it was I don't know if you're
familiar with the area, but it was kind of a mess and my thanks to Mayor Keef and his crew. Um there's an awful lot of work being done there and it's very exciting. So, but I I think that's great that you guys did that and I'm very impressed. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Milbury Ellis.
I'm going to ask a question to the kids. Yes. Good. Um, so tell me what was the most difficult part of all of this work that you put into this project? What did you find the toughest toughest part of it? Like doing the math and stuff. Yeah,
math is tough work, huh? And then like um like seeing how much like square feet you needed for the field. Oh yeah, tough stuff. Well, kudos to you boys and and to the other student as well. Good job and to your teachers. Great oral
speaking. I imagine that we'll probably see you guys as you grow coming back and speaking before us. Good job. Any one of those three could be in that chair someday right over there. We'll keep it warm. And uh Miss McKinnon uh when we do the groundbreaking for
McMack and uh you know, pay attention. It's going to probably be towards the um end of the summer. Okay. Even though we've officially started the work, we'll have a ceremonial groundbreaking. Thank you. Congratulations.
Okay. Uh school counseling presentation. Y so the next item on the superintendent's report is a presentation about um from our school counseling um program which we do each year at this time to share a bit with the school committee and with the
community on um things like where our kids are going to school, what they've been up to, what their plans are for the future. Um and we begrudgingly welcome Mrs. Finn uh to her last school committee meeting. And I also want to take just a quick moment to introduce
Lillian Parker, who's been named her successor um in in the in the administrative role overseeing all of these programs [Music] [Applause] and I will find you all.
Thank you. I don't know what just happened. Thank you, Dr. Kelly. Tonight I am going to focus on the um overview of some school counseling goals and the district improvement plan, some early college updates with one of our fabulous class
of 2026 soon to be grads um who was part of our first early college cohort of students and then um go through some highlights, college and career highlights and some celebrations for the class of 2025. And so the next slide goes through um
four of the goals in in general. Next one. Sorry, Dr. Kelly. They um our goals this year revolved around our external learning opportunities, practices, counselors opportunities for students that are open to all students. Um the
first two, the first one is about increasing robust internship opportunities. this year. Um, in 2425, we had over 180 River High School students participate in the internship program, which was up by over 35 students from last year. Um, we also had
students participate in dual enrollment opportunities. Um, which is separate from early college. Um, dual enrollment are just the singleton courses, elective courses that students take at various schools including Salem State, Northshore, Bunker Hill, Ben Franklin
Institute, and SUFFK. Um, and also UMass Lowel this year as well. Um, and also our increased um, opportunities with and connection with the VO and local trade unions. Um, and just to back
up one um, one step to in dual enrollment this year, we had 220 students um, take courses at those the schools that I had listed, which is an increase. Um, we were just under 200 last year. And so those dual enrollment opportunities at each of those schools
are funded through either the Commonwealth dual enrollment programming separate from early college funding, state funding, um or privately from schools like SUFFK and Ben um Franklin Cummings, formerly Ben Franklin Institute. Um so we feel fortunate to
have those opportunities for more and more of our students each year. Um in addition to the early college program which so the next slide is that um our early college and dual enrollment. Dual enrollment again those singleton courses students can elect to
take either in place of a a course within their day or as an additional fifth class. Um and early college students um find out about it in 9th grade. they apply and
opt into starting early college as a sophomore cohort. The goal in each cohort is 75 students which we're proud that this our third year in the program we have hit with our current 10th grade students. um the class of 2026 27 28 the
numbers are there and then so for students who started in the cohort like Bradley here um which will be two years ago his sophomore year there's up to um $9,500 in savings in transferable credit that students will get whether they
continue their education at the community colleges um or to a 4-year private or public school. So we're extremely proud of that. Um, and we look to grow that next year. We have our rising seniors have the opportunity to be on campus at the Danver's Northshore
Community College or they could stay at the high school, take their college classes on River High School's campus along with other high school courses, internships um, on the site here. Um, so our next steps are to continue to build
um, the junior and senior cohorts have some seats available. So, we're looking at students who would benefit from from those seats. And then, um, building up the 75 students through first semester next year. So, rising sophomores will have advisory lessons and and planning
that goes on to prepare them for college classes that start second semester um, next year. And so at this time, I'm going to turn the mic over to Bradley, one of our fabulous class of 2026 students to share some of his
experiences in early college. Hello, my name is Bradley. I am of the first cohort. I'm going to be speaking about my experience as one of the first students. And uh as Miss Fiana went over, I am saving a lot of money by
doing this dual enrollment basically. But there's also minor things such as the information I kind of gained from the classes. Working with actual professors, I learned how to conduct my first research paper which helped me learn about different things like
citations Chicago style. I also were able to take a variety of different classes like public speaking. Never did that before, but I was able to do presentations, speak in front of a class. I really appreciated that. But also minor things outside of the classes. For example, I know over the
summer there was chances to take online classes on top of the courses that we already had. That was to build up more credits. I personally didn't because I had other stuff to do over the summer, but that was still an amazing resource that was able for other students. There were also things like community service
hours for students after they finished their classes for college. Again, I didn't take it. I already have my community service hours, but that's still an amazing resource. And also what I like the most is that the college courses and the credits actually count as AP. Meaning instead of the average
one points that you would be getting, you'd be getting 1.2. That kind of broadened my horizon to uh take opportunities to take chances at higher grade colleges. basically my uh GPA looks better a lot basically and I can kind of look forward
into what type of colleges I want to take whether those are higher colleges good colleges even top ones but basically the program has helped me a lot given me opportunity to look ahead of what I didn't think I was able to during freshman year and for now I'm going to leave it open to any questions
for if any of you have anything for me Mr. to Kiano. Congratulations. If I may ask, how many credits have you taken um towards what are you in your first year or I don't know the exact number, but it is the 36 to 40 around those
types of credits for college. Yeah, that's very good. And uh are you thinking more of a community college or No, going on to a foury year. I'm going to a four-year college. Thank you. Thank you. Good public speaking here in front of a
crowd, right? Not bad. Good job. You're you're on a good path and uh so you have one more year. I look forward to seeing you cross the uh stage next year then. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Oh, Miss Miss Milbury. Yeah, I was just going to say those those um um
experiences that you described were were not minor at all. In fact, they're going to they're going to they're going to carry you through your life. Public speaking is huge. It's so difficult to get up and um and speak before people. And I'm sure, you know, the more that you do it, the more comfortable you get.
But isn't that wonderful exposure to have these opportunities to to experience things that you probably never would have even thought thought about experiencing? So, this is all good stuff. Kudos to you. Congratulations. It's wonderful to see a young person
with a a head on their shoulders that is thinking so far ahead um and really has has his stuff together. So, this is really impressive. Awesome program. I wish we had it. Um I love the fact that you're going to be saving a ton of money. Um and I wish you all the best
luck in the future. Thank you. You're welcome. Awesome. [Applause] Thank you so much. Um so our the last two slides are highlights from this year. Um some college and career um alumni panels we had in medicine
education. We were also um happy to partner with the city on a trade fair that this year we included um a fair a panel for um faculty members, counselors, administrators, student support specialists to come in
and learn about the different trades. There were 20 to 25 different um trade unions and um companies who were there to present. And I know it was a a learning experience for everyone that that participated. Um and then to follow up was a more traditional trade fair
where students elected to meet with um interesting pe um trades that they were interested in. Um, and I know a followup to this next year is using that information um that students if students were interested in local 12 for example, um, bringing that local in during their open
enrollment period and walking the students through that process because it's very detailed, very time-sensitive. It can be who you know um, and secretive in some ways. And so we're happy to open that up to all students so that they can
apply in a way that is timely and puts their best foot forward just like we do for our two and fouryear students. Um and then a couple of other highlights. We had over 30 field trips to college and career sites open to all students, not just juniors and seniors this year.
So we were happy um for that. Some of our partners are Minds Matter, Passport to College, and Mass Hire work with individuals and groups of students for um college and career prep after school hours. Passport to college works specifically with early college students
um and they work with small group and individual students for financial aid support um which we know is incredibly important. And so the last slide is kind of the shout out to our class of 2025 students. Um, these are our student
reported numbers. Um, so over 70% report attending a two or four-year school. So that's 31% for a 2-year, 41% for a 4-year. And then working 24% undecided around three. Um, and the armed services
just under 1%. And so these numbers will compare at the end of semester 1 with Edwin numbers when those come out to see and to identify students who did make it on day one and fully metriculate to a to a school or to do what they said they were going to do and then reach out to
those students who didn't quite make the connection between high school and college. And so some some um highlights there. All of the UMasses were uh represented, Mass State Colleges, Bunker Hill, Northshore, and then um extremely
proud of those the list of schools there from Harvard to TUS, BEu, KBY, Yukon, just you can read them there. They go on beyond that, too. But um I didn't want to take up too much time. And so just in closing, I wanted to to highlight the
the supports that the students have now, the smaller case loads the counselors have now, the external learning opportunities, counselors who um take the opportunities and bring them to students to all students. And so I think that um and advanced level coursework
that's open to all students. And so whether that's dual enrollment, early college, AP um open to all students. And I I feel like that contributes to the um various opportunities that students take advantage of whether it's high level,
four-year school, two-year, community college, anywhere in between. So extremely proud as always of our of our graduates. So thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Diana. really really
appreciate it. I'm going to miss you. Hey, Lillian's going to feel you. So, um Mr. Mayor, the next item on um the superintendent's report is a presentation by the Paul Reier School and um principal um Coyle is here. Um
and assistant principal is here. Oh, sorry. We're going back in time. Go. It's that's that's my 30 year old my 30 years ago brain. Sorry. Answer to that. Um uh any and Mrs. Quirk are here to talk
about the Paul River innovation plan which is up for renewal this year and needs the approval of the school committee. Um they the the full plan was sent to you but they have a brief briefer I can't even talk anymore briefer PowerPoint to share.
Good evening everyone. Thanks for having us here tonight. U we're excited to share with you the innovation plan that will be for the next 5 years. So the innovation plan um you actually can select different numbers of years for which you want to apply. Historically Paul River has always done a 5year cycle. We're going to continue on that
5year cycle. So the plan and the initiatives that we're going to lay out for you today actually represent the work we want to achieve over the years 2025. So starting this upcoming fall um and honestly some of this work has already started leading us all the way to the end of the uh 2930 school year.
So on our agenda today um which is the next slide, we are going to go over five key initiatives that we're going to be putting in place in our school. The first one is purposeful play. The second one is the learning pit zones regulation studentled conferences and then finally
a revised club structure. I'm actually um obviously uh very motivated and excited to hear the different things that were shared tonight. Particularly I like what the Hill School is doing. Um it's a we're doing similar work with our grade five leadership team, but there is a lot of stuff that you took that you're
doing that I'm probably going to reach out over the summer to learn more about. But then I really want to um just have everyone kind of think a little bit about the um the initiatives that we're putting in place of the Paul Rebeer and how that actually connects to the work that's being done at the high school because there is a through line and this
is what our goal is, right? uh is through these initiatives to be able to develop learners and develop students that actually love learning, that are intrinsically motivated and that can believe they can do anything. And so listening and watching Bradley to me was a very moving moment of saying, "Oh, okay. We're doing the right thing." Um
so you might disagree, but I don't think you will when we go through these tonight. This is this is the energy that went into the plan that we're going to lay out tonight. So with this, we came up with a new mission and vision statement. We're going to read through these very quickly, but the new mission statement for the Paul Revier says that
the Paul Reier School is committed to providing an individualized and authentic education to all students in an inclusive setting by amplifying student identity, voice, and choice, building and maintaining positive relationships within our school community, promoting rigorous and
relevant learning through innovation and collaboration. And finally, fostering a safe and diverse community community to c cultivate lifelong learners and leaders. And so we are trying to gauge the work that we're doing and saying as we go through these initiatives, do they connect back to this mission and then
particularly also to the vision uh which is now on the next slide. So to be an inclusive and innovative community of scholars who contribute to our society in a meaningful way. The vision is meant to be kept simple and clear because we want it to be something that people remember and can actually uh can can put
put this into your work. It's not just something to live on a page. So, I'm not going to go too far into initiative one. Um, I already did a full presentation on this back in March, I believe it was. Um, but essentially, this is the playful learning grant. We have, uh, it's called the playful learning institute. We're calling it
purposeful play in grades K through five. The idea behind purposeful is making sure to delineate that this is not just kids playing and having fun, but that there's always going to be a learning target associated with the play that is taking place in the classroom. Separating this out into three different
pieces. is the initiative itself we just described. There's going to be six core strategies that teachers are going to learn. Um and that's going to be uh they're Desi endorsed and they're actually being provided um by Desi through the grant program that we're participating in. The way we're going to implement it is a really slow roll out.
We're looking to add some different grade levels um each year uh in different um classes and content areas as we go through that. The overarching idea is that by the end of the uh I'm sorry by the start of the 2829 school year um all cra all grade levels and all
content areas will be uh implementing some of these core strategies that in integrate playful learning into the into their classes. The intended outcome is that students will be intrinsically motivated. They're going to work on communication skills and that they're going to really strive to to grow and
learn. Um so by having fun, we're going to trick them into learning and to really love it, too. So, that's the goal and I think we'll get there. The next piece is called the learning pit. Um, this makes the most sense with a visual. I don't have a visual for you tonight, but there is a link in the presentation. Uh, in the the learning pit really talks
about um how can we purposely complicate the learning, but not in a way that we're just trying to like be annoying, but really to drive interest and to make the kids want to figure something out. So, how do we get them to really uh to to look at that like um that that like
cognitive like the confusion and the close confusers and say, "Oh, wait. I know a resource and I know a way I can figure this out." Or, "Hey, I think Miss Quirk might be really good at this. I'm going to talk to her about it." And really get them to uh to get used to being in that place of ambiguity and
learning and that place of u you know, productive struggle where they start to feel the satisfaction and the urge to push their way through it. And this is going to be woven into everything that we do, all of our lesson planning. And the goal that we have is that this is going to be the foundational um like
planning tool that teachers should use. They need to look at when I'm teaching my lessons today and I'm trying to teach these standards, how am I going to get these students into the learning pit? How am I going to put them in a place where they have to navigate a challenging situation where it's a non-rine question that's being asked or
where it's just a piece of new information that they themselves actually have the power and control to be able to find and use resources to be able to get those answers. And so that's going to be our ongoing message. Teachers have been trained in this throughout the school year. They've had an extensive amount um eight hours of uh
uh planning training with this through um a team that we put together of teachers that actually are from our school and actually did their own research and were able to implement and create professional development. This work is already actually being used now at the uh new teacher orientation. Um, and it's something that we're really
proud of and something that I know in my work during the um, professional learning community for administrators this year. A lot of the other principles are tapping on me for some resources and would like to talk about it over the summer. It's great work that I think I'm I'm excited to share that with people. So, this is going to look like a a
consistent language across all staff and something that uh, everybody knows and it's it's the way that we talk and it's the way that we do our work. Students will also have that level of familiarity. There'll be stuff posted in classrooms and it's just going to be a basic expectation. I'm in your way.
That's right. Get a hook. Well, we already cleared the room. I don't know. I thought they were all here for us and I was like that camera. You did great. Um, the third initiative is the zones of regulation uh and social thinking. We
have talked at this meeting and previous meetings and over time of the importance of um social emotional learning and how we need to make sure we're addressing our students social emotional needs in order them to in order for them to be able to achieve academically. Um for the
for this plan, we will train all of our staff in zones of regulation. We we use it in pockets and our counselors are trained and have experience with it. But we are going to make this a schoolwide focus again to create that common language around what are our emotions,
how are we feeling, um and there's a whole color-coded system so that kids are going to be be able to identify which zone they're in and what strategies and tools they have to self-regulate. Um we like the learning pit. There'll be universal signage in
all the in all the um classrooms and offices and learning spaces so that kids know that it is um it is the that expectation around the school that we are that this work is important and that we have systems and strategies in place
to support our our kids to um to stay regulated and strategies um to self self-regulate and what they can do when they become disregulated. Um and and the reason why this is so important to us to have this is in the in our plan is just
that we have seen in the postcoid years that you know our students have come to us with higher social emotional needs. It is leveling off. We've seen things getting better as time goes by and we think our kids and adults are ready to have this um throughout the building to
continue to support that work. The next initiative, um, we're really excited about studentled conferences. Um, I think like most of the many of the schools in the district, we have traditionally done a parent or caregiver teacher conference where a parent comes
in, sits with a teacher for about 10 minutes, share some information, and then leave. And although over time those have been well attended, we haven't really been able to measure the out positive outcome of the meetings in that structure. Um so for our new innovation
plan, we are going to be implementing studentled conferences, piloting first with our fifth grade students um uh in conjunction with our family engagement committee to roll this out so that the student will become um not just part of
the conference but at the forefront of the conference. And and the reason why we feel this is important is it allows the student agency to use their voice to share with the important grown-ups in their life, you know, what is meaningful about school to them. Um so they'll
they'll be able to select, you know, make set goals and share progress to their goals with with their teachers and caregivers. And the fifth and final initiative is our revised club structure. You may remember that we have enrichment clubs
at the Paul Rivere School where all of our teachers offer either a before or after school enrichment opportunity. Um topics are varied. Um but one thing that we have found that's missing is an opportunity for parents or caregivers to
engage in those club structures with their children. and and um in line with the purposeful play um you know sort of teaching that importance of you know parents understanding how the kids are learning and these opportunities for
more hands-on engaging experiences um for for everyone in our school community. So, we're going to modify our current club structure to have some staff um propose opportunities where it could be a a caregiver and student
enrichment club um to be able to build those authentic relationships with um school staff and caregivers. So throughout all of this um we've always tried to uh connect with the staff as a whole to understand where
they are uh in their thinking and do they feel like the different initiatives and the work that we're trying to do is heading in the right direction. You might recall that previously I've already shared with you information about um when we applied for our uh playful learning grant. We asked you know some questions about like how they
how the teachers would feel this work would impact students and we gave them a bunch of categories. Teachers felt overwhelmingly positive about that and so we did end up applying for the grant. This is really just a reflection now of how the staff feel about the new innovation plan. So the first uh piece of data just talks about um does this
plan effectively support the mission and vision statement? You can see that four and five um are the categories most uh only yeah only categories selected and those are um representing agree or strongly agree so that the staff are very much in favor. On the next slide we
talk about um that will it bolster bolster staff collaboration around researchbased practices that support students academic and social development. Um again mostly in the four and five category with staff feeling overwhelmingly positive about this. And then with the next one um it is do they
feel that this innovation plan in of itself is the best next uh step forward for our school and overwhelmingly again the staff feel very much in agreement that this is the best next step forward for our school. Um so we're excited to be able to continue this work. Um Bianca
is going to give you a little more and then we're almost done. I promise. And within that same survey the teachers uh the staff had an opportunity to share um comments. You'll see here the positive comments that were made um by our teachers and the excitement around the
plan that we came up with. Um kudos to the whole staff because everyone does have a hand in in helping to create this plan and and brainstorm ideas and make them come to life. So, we're always very proud of our staff and appreciate um their efforts in this work as well. I
won't read all these to you, but they're lovely. And I think the final two or the next two I think are just we included some resources for you to look at later if you'd like to just get more information about our initiatives.
Um and lastly if anybody has any questions and thank you for your time and um allowing us to be here tonight and we are very excited about moving our school forward these next five years. Absolutely.
Mr. Kingston. without having to come up here, maybe an email to all of us or Dr. Kelly. I'm really kind of interested in the student parent uh conference. I think it's a really great idea and if you folks found it was good, maybe it's something we do in other schools, but you know, I guess
be the guinea pig, I guess, and try it out and let us know how you like it. But I think it makes a lot of sense. Well, no, just to have the parent come through. Okay. I mean, I think a parent student could come to a parent teacher conference without any other We can we
can look into it. Um, no, I'm I mean, like I said, they use if you say g, you know, we didn't find it to be successful and I don't I hope it is, but I think it's a great idea. Yeah, we actually um and it could potentially be something that we um I don't know who's humming, but it might be something that we could share about at a school committee
meeting next year where it is I don't like to make you come extra to work. I'm not trying I'm talking Oh, no. I have to do it anyway. I got to do one. So, I'm like I think you picked my one and I'll never forget this moment. Don't you worry. No, I think I I I think it's a great idea. I like to play stuff, too. I think
that's awesome. But I this kind of hit me because um you know I can think of like you know maybe maybe that's a culture night or something. You have parent teacher conference and then there's some food there or something that seems to draw people. Um thank you. Thank you. And just on that um point,
Mr. Coyle, City Lab has been uh doing student le conferences this year. They started piloting but um to Mr. Kingston's point, it might be interesting to partner with them. Absolutely. And have um parents of older students and parents of younger students come in and talk about what that experience was like. Yeah, definitely.
Thank you. You're in. So, I just wanted to thank you both. Um and I also wanted to tell you, so we've been working on our five-year strategic plan. Um and it was nice to see some of the things echoed. Um Dr. Macaba and Dr. Kelly can can
affirm this. um echoed in your plan that we have in ours. Uh in particular, I'm thinking of the um productive struggle struggle. Same thing. Yeah. Yeah. I love seeing that. It's like we're we're all in tune and the vision statement was very similar. Definitely. Yeah. Good stuff. It was like Do you guys have like
a a I'm only kidding. But thank you both so much. Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks everyone. So I do think that we need um the committee to vote to accept their innovation plan. If I'll put a motion
motion to accept the Paul River School's innovation plan for the next five years. Second. Roll call, please. Mr. Kajiano. Yes. Mr. Kingston. Yes. Alvarales? Yes. Mr. Sella? Yes. Mayor Keefe? Yes.
And Mr. Mr. Mayor, the last item on the um superintendence report I'm actually going to table until the July meeting as I explained to the committee during the committee of the whole meeting. Um the state has released new guidelines on competency determination what the requirements are for that um for
students who um don't quite meet graduation requirements. Um but they have not sent us in writing um the documents yet. I should have that in the next day or two. So I think postponing till the July meeting is the appropriate thing to do.
You make a motion to table. So um we have really just I think we already went through the ways and means subcommittee and the motions from the uh ways and means so unfinished business. Yeah. Do we have
any unfinished business? Okay. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Yes. So ordered. Good job. Have a good evening.