on the MCAT. And so, um, we we will be able to take a dive into that a little bit closer. We have a, um, a team that works, the ILT, the instructional leadership team that works on, um, uh, making help, you know, helping the
curriculum choices along and also looking at data like this. So we'll be doing that soon. >> Okay. Any other discussion? Yes, Anna. So, similar to what Leo was saying is in
the improvement plan there there's a lot of like things that you might use to as evidence of completion but there's no specific measure of it in a way. So what I'm what
I mean like here if I can where's the um for goal one with the stren strengthen schoolwide and and expectations evidence of completion screening results
but you don't say what the screening results should be just that you will you it seems like you're saying we will use screening results as evidence of police of completion But you're not really saying are you looking for 50%. Are you like
what what exactly about those screening results? >> Sure. That's to identify the percentage of students that we have in each category. So our atrisisk students, our grade level trends like what is happening? Um it does it seem to be one particular grade level that is that is having any issues. We have such a very
small incidence of any students presenting as at risk that it's um but it is something that we we go ahead and use that data. Parents are are aware of what their students have rated themselves as and if there's further intervention that's needed then that's
that's what we do. >> So then the evidence of completion would be knowing the screening knowing the percentage at risk in each grade. >> Yes. So >> like planning for it. So I think that
the the the way it has it is written in evidence of completion, it would be helpful if it were more concrete like not just not just say screening results but like say >> um
the you know the data for from the screening results is complete and known and there is a plan for how to address it or something like that as opposed to just screening results,
percent of students, >> grade level trends, right? >> Yep. >> Um and then lesson plans >> what what are lesson plans as evidence of completion? Is it like lesson plans are complete? Lesson plans are
do you understand what I'm saying? >> Yes. That's the specific lesson plans that go with the that's based on the data that we've learned from the students from that from that screening. So if we've learned a lot of students are having negative self thought self-t talk then that's going to be something we're addressing in our our um like our
social emotional block with the choose love. >> So instead of just saying lesson plans it could be completed lesson plans based on screening results. >> Sure. >> And then walkthroughs. How many walkthroughs? Walkthroughs completed. Walkthroughs planned. Walkthroughs what?
Assembly. Yeah. Assembly agendas. Uh assembly assembly X number of assembly agendas completed based on screening results. >> Mhm. >> So Anna, you'd like to see the goal. You'd like to see the the the results be
smarter to have an actual like >> a little smarter. A little smarter. >> What's the measure? What's the measure that we're using? >> Um so yeah. Okay. Okay. So, the evidence you want the evidence to be more specific about >> what does that look like? Lesson plans used to like if I go back to the beginning column, it would be like
lesson plans to teach, you know, lesson plans completed uh showing evidence of teaching expectations in routines across multiple classrooms or something like that. >> Something like that. I'm not saying I don't I don't want to specify any of these things. I'm just saying like the
the way they are listed in the evidence of complet or in that column doesn't actually tell you what what would qualify as completed.
>> I could be also wrong on this. I'm just like I'm in the middle of a NEAS review and so I'm having to like pay attention to all these things and I'm on professional practice which means I'm going through my school's school improvement plan >> and I kind of see these as more like these are the guidelines that then you know the administrative team then
creates their goals out of. So, I think that sometimes that might be like this might be and I' I'd like to hear what Shannon and and Ann had to say about this, but this might be more of a like this is like the general guidelines that we're trying to implement to make our school better and then the
administration and other teams kind of pull their goals out of this in order to >> actually make it happen. >> So, if that's true, then I would say maybe just re
Reabel some of the columns so that you're not looking for outcomes in those columns or evidence that suggests that this this task or action was completed. And like we have a school improvement
plan. Um how do we know if we have achieved or if we have uh I don't know followed the school improvement plan? But I don't I think that if if there's a a thing that says complete evidence of completion,
then you should actually be able to use that evidence to determine whether that was completed and not just sort of know which pot it comes from. Does that make sense? like what what data this one says which data are you
going to use kind of but it doesn't say what the data should >> should say >> to to to qualify I guess like 50% is 50% what you're looking for is 100% what you're
looking for at least 75% or we're just going to know because we want to just see how it's distributed like so it's just it it's hard to know how to use this. In other words, >> so the feedback that I'm hearing is that
you to to Jeremy's point, these this is an outline of where the efforts of our professional development, our educator goals, our administrator and leadership goals are sort of aligned around these pockets that Ann and the ILT have looked
at various data points which she's listed um to determine where where should we target our efforts. Um, I think that there's merit in your feedback that you'd like to see some metrics added to that and because this will this plan will probably um much of
it will continue into next year. I think we could add those metrics and bring it back for for you to review and some feedback. I will tell you that those more specific goals you would find at um the um instructional level level as um
Jeremy sort of alluded to on their individual goals that you know we're looking for you know 10% of students to move from uh proficiency to exemplary or you know it's more um you would find it at those
individual levels but we can certainly you know compile that and make a a wider generalization for the school. If if you're looking for that kind of metric, I think that'd be easy enough to do. >> I think I think what I'm hearing is that
she's get Ann's getting a little dinged because she gave too much information. >> That's fine. It's It's not a problem. Like honestly, like it's it's good to know because when you do these there's about how many examples do you think there are of school improvement plans online, Shannon? Maybe 7,000.
>> Yeah. I I don't think I think every every every school district wants something >> a different look information around general topics, right? Like I could go to just about every district in the Commonwealth and they have, you know, academic goals and
they certainly given um the needs of our students have some social emotional learning goals and they might have others. So every district sort of has this is what we would like to see. Um the state gives a lot of autonomy unless you are an underperforming school on
what they want to see. If you're an underperforming school, they are very specific about what they want to see. But Shootsberry luckily is not in that um realm where we're a pretty high performing school. So we don't we have a little bit more autonomy at the state
level which has sort of trickled down to more autonomy at um you know the school level. But I think that if if you would like to see more specifics around feedback around how would we know as a a measure point, I I don't that's not really difficult to add. And so um if
you want to hold off on the vote because like I said with some tweaks, this will probably stay through be much of our guiding document into next year also with maybe some small changes. um we can do that and you can can take a look at it and do a formal vote in February if
that um feels better. Um we can certainly add some points of of measurement um because we have them, they're just not in this document. So um if that's what the committee would like to do, we can certainly do that. >> Is there a way to provisionally is there
a way to provisionally approve the goals um contingent upon receiving u some additional metrics? because I think that the the school the plan is good. Like I think that the how it's structured like what what the school
intends to do is good. Um I think the only thing that is really um has a potential for some additional edits would be the the metrics and uh if if it's
not, you know, if if it's not great to not have a school improvement plan approved, then I would kind of like to try to approve as much as we can. Is that crazy? >> No, it it's not. I mean, like I said, we're we're we're a high performing
school. Nobody is coming saying, "Where's your um improvement plan?" So, we do have if if you would like that, you certainly as a committee have the autonomy to say, "We're going to approve these goals cuz that's really what you're approving. Are these goals
um goals that you can support as a school committee um with metrics to be shared, you know, as an update in the next committee. The conversations with metrics are happening, but they're just we didn't put them in this document. They're happening with Ann and her staff
around what are those tools of measurement going to be to determine success? And then they're happening with, you know, myself and the leadership team around how are we measuring if this is successful? And and for example, walkthrough tools. We just had a walkthrough this week, which is
part of my um superintendence report. And we look at trends, right? We look at trends. Well, this is, you know, an area that was improve, you know, needed for improvement last time. How much have we and we do have a rating system for that. So, we do have the metrics. We just
didn't put that um detail into this, but we can. >> And I think what I'm hearing, Anna, too, is just like you would be happy to even just see it say, you know, completed lesson plans showing that like it doesn't have to be it doesn't all have to be percentages and numbers. just like what does this look like in as a piece
of evidence showing that it's been met. >> Yes. >> Is that correct? >> Yes, >> Katrina. >> Yeah. No, I just wanted to jump in and say that as like a principal document, this is total this is totally fine with me and it makes sense reading the evidence column to me especially given
this conversation um where where this what this means semantically. So I think as a as an overarching document that then waterfalls down into individual level lesson like strategic planning this makes a lot of sense and it sounds like it could be resolved with just you
know both of those things that Shannon had mentioned one and what I guess Jeremy mentioned is if we can just maybe do some semantic changing where it's like completed lesson plans based on you know which is it's clear to me that that's what you mean by this um but
maybe just so it's like super And then I I just want to say I'm fine with where there are metrics that make sense to add to this. I think it would be it's you know yes it makes sense to have smart goals. Um, so if I would be
fine with not necessarily having it for this iteration, but like collecting those metrics so that we can add them next time. And when there aren't metrics that really make sense because like you said, Shannon, we're really just looking for 100% of everyone feeling comfortable here, then I think I'm fine with not forcing metrics where they need to don't
need to be basically. But that's just my feelings, >> right? Because some of the items are not a percentage. Like you're not going to say that I'm going to 100% complete the the pacing guide. >> It's either done or it's not. Like it's either a thing or it's not a thing. So I'll I'll definitely go through it.
>> It would make it smarter. >> I'll go through it again and make it smarter. So thank you for the feedback. >> Sorry. It's the it's the state language. It's all it is. Like these are like sevens of the way to smart goals, right? Like, but like I like I said too, like I do feel like this is more of a like goal setting document than it is like
>> you know everybody else pulls their evaluation goals which have to be measurable um out of these kind of schoolwide goals or at least we're supposed to. We're supposed to we we as instructors are supposed to know our school improvement plan which I can honestly say many of us don't really
know the ins and outs of it but we're supposed to be considering that when we're creating our smart goals for evaluation and the same with the district leadership teams. So, um, so, okay. So, we're here. We've got some suggestions about either maybe, um, adding matrices going forward if we like
for next year's vote to re, you know, when we re up the school improvement plan. Um, we've also had, uh, Shannon said that we could maybe just add that stuff in and come back and vote on it in February. So, I guess as part of this this discussion, can we just get a sense of where we're at? Because we could just
move uh, well, we could just vote on it or we could move to do whatever it is we want to do. So I'm curious about what the committee feels like doing here. >> To me, I think actually a lot of these in the evidence of completion column are
pretty are fine as smart. You know, like before in schoolbased PD around writing rope framework, it's like before and after samples of writing. I feel like all you to satisfy this um critique, all you would need to add is like evaluated, but it's clear that it's you're assessing before and after samples of
writing to look at metrics of success there. So I think a lot of them are there. So I don't feel like there's drastic revisions necessary from my perspective. But >> um I'd like to see I'd like to see um
more like specific metrics where it makes sense um added into the plan um >> given you know. So then >> given that I think we want to like maintain how like well performing the school is and so like if we can like
have a sense of what that means you know right now so that we can have a sense of you know what it looks like as we are maintaining the performance I think that'd be really great. >> So it sounds to me like what we'd like to do is to kick this to next month with
some added language to it and vote on it then. Um, so I think I'm not sure procedurally, but I I feel we have a we have a movement and a second. So I guess we would need to vote that down. Is that correct? >> No, I think we can I can move to
postpone the vote until our next meeting. >> Okay. Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> All right. All in favor? May you? >> I heard I Jackie.
So that is unanimous and we'll bring that back to our February meeting to discuss further and >> and always feel free to always feel free to email me because then I I mean if I had this feedback before I would have definitely um taken it. So if you ever have any concerns or questions or anything before just let me know. Happy
to happy to change it but all right >> thank thank you thank you for being willing to to massage it a little bit. >> Sorry for the late feedback. So, uh, the new business and discussions that we're moving on to would be, um, we need an additional warrant signer
because we did not assign one, um, or did not vote on one when we did our reorganization meeting and Leah is going to miss one of the warrant signings. Um, so I had thrown my name out there into the ring. I'm fine with doing it. Um, but if anybody would like to nominate
anyone else or volunteer themselves, now is the time to do it. Okay. So, uh I guess if somebody could move and then second it and we can vote on it and that will be off of the table. >> I move to uh uh
>> just make me just make Yeah, there we go. >> To appoint Jeremy as the backup warrant signer. >> I second that. >> All right. All in favor? May you? I >> Monco by
>> Herd I >> Jack I >> I guess I'm it. All right. Thank you guys. Uh I will sign that one on I believe it's the 20th, but whatever. It'll come into my inbox and I will sign it and we'll be good. All right. So we are moving on to the reports section of
the night. I'd like to um start with the superintendent report. I have to take a quick minute out of here and I'll be right back. So Shannon, it is yours. >> I can I can go. Okay. All righty. Um some uh Shootsbury updates and and
trying not to spend too much time on things that I think will come in other um reports. Um we had some members of the school committee. Um Ann and myself met with the Shootsbury finance committee on 113 to discuss the budgetary needs of Shootsbury
Elementary. Um from my perspective, I thought it was a very productive meeting. We were able to um have some some great dialogue and um uh offer some clarity around our budgetary needs um and um use that guidance in in getting
ready to present a budget. Um Ann and I took part in an instructional walkthrough um with the director of curriculum, Lindsay Rodriguez, and the academic coaches from the consultants from TNTP. um TNTP are the consultants that are
associated with the prism grant for the union uh 28 um schools that applied as a consortium. Uh the walkthrough focused on buildingwide trends around literacy practices. Um, SCES staff took part in professional development and coaching
offered through the TNTP consultants and district leaders were also able to engage in some professional development around supporting literacy initiatives and providing meaningful feedback to staff. Um, so that is one thing. Um although Shootesberry uses a different
curriculum um so was not able to be part of the consortium, they have been very flexible as has DESIE with allowing because of our unique structure of having a union a union uh and as opposed to a regional in allowing us to use some
of those resources to include um uh Shootsbury Elementary in in some of the PD and also um in our um literacy um consortium group after school. Um so that's been very helpful. Um the union
28 CPAC group uh met yesterday at Leverett Elementary School to discuss progress reports and IEP goal setting. Uh the CPAC agendas continue to rotate um their meeting their meetings around the Union 28 schools and present on topics of interest for special education
support but also may of be of interest to a wider range of caregivers. Uh the group is open for all Union 28 families. Um they've had a topic uh recently in Irving around executive functioning. Um which is is you know how children uh
organize uh their their thoughts and um that was uh well attended and they'll be um looking for topics that may be of interest to all families. Uh the joint supervisory council met on January 12th and passed the union 28 budget for
fiscal year 2627. Uh Caitlyn Anderson May presented a 411 regarding how school budgets work uh with a specific emphasis on the intricacies of a union type of budget. We have uh across our um union 28
schools a lot of relatively new um to school committee um members. And so she presented a great report on how exactly school finance works. Um, and we got a lot of pos positive feedback. So I want to give her a shout out around that. Um,
and some legislative updates. I submitted testimony which I've linked here to the department of early education and care um for their consi continued support of the coordinated family and community engagement grant program and shared the impact that it
has on families um within our union and on um small rural communities. Um, I linked a copy of the testimony that does a lot of things like we have parent groups. Um, it supports um early
childhood um practices and engagement um across our our districts. Um lot of collaboration with our local libraries. Um so we're hoping that that grant be remains fully funded at the state level. Um, Gileian Boddine, our community
network coordinator, will actually be attending a legislative breakfast tomorrow, and I believe it's at Shootsbury Library to continue to advocate for support for our early childhood programming and um, family supports, especially um, in rural areas.
Um, and so we're happy to have her representing um, the Union 28 area. She's a great a great advocate um and certainly um as someone who has grown up and been a a a parent in um uh rural
schools and also was a student of rural schools. She brings a really great perspective of of exactly um how that outreach really impacts um our communities and getting in touch with families prior to students coming to school really does benefit our schools.
Um and so um we're very happy to have her advocating at the legislative level for us. And that is the conclusion of my report. Happy for answer any questions if you may have them. >> All right. Thank you, Shannon. Uh next would be Caitlyn with the director of
finance and operations. >> Sure. So, I've linked in my director's report the um current year budget spreadsheet that has all of the manual incumbrances. Uh if you'd like me to show it right now, I can. Although, I
don't think I have sharing capabilities. >> I can fix that. >> Okay. I think somewhere right here that >> Yep, that did it. >> All right. So, here's our current year's
budget. Um, all the cells you see in in pink are uh salaries. some we have to manually encumber and substitute salaries and then we're going to have those. So those I manual encumber, but things like office
supplies, those aren't because I don't know how much the office is going to. So this is if um the school were to spend no more money for the year and what we would have left.
Some of the ones we know we're going to go over are the special ed transportation and the tuition. However, we think that between IDA, circuit breaker, the line we have in the operating budget that
will that will cover the tuition, the transportation's a little more difficult. And then manually encumbering all of the union 28 salaries leaves us with this 155,000 for all of
the utilities and um supplies and things that we are not expecting for the rest of the year. It's a better outlook than I had a month ago because when we looked at the the placement, the costs,
it was going to be more, but we're feeling more positive about it now. Uh, the next thing I'm going to show you is the budget. Sorry, Zoom's a little different than Google.
Um, I'm going to stop sharing the screen and then go to the budget for next year the 2027. So, we met with the Shoes Fairberry Finance Committee on Tuesday and this is
the budget we presented which is up for you tonight if you want to do a preliminary adoption of the budget. It is a 6.32% increase more than um than typical. However,
we've had some um increases in our special education costs and the we are looking to decrease the reliance on school choice money because we're coming in about $112,000
for school choice. The cherry sheets for next year don't come out until later this month. um sometimes I think it's the 22nd and so we're looking to decrease that dependence.
Rural aid did go down uh keeping early childhood revolving the same and grants and circuit breaker um less than we had before or more than we had before
but keeping track of those we're at a 5.4 44% increase on total spending. However, our grants and other revenues have gone down. That'd be a 6.32%
increase for towns. Here are is our budget presentation. This is there's been no changes since last month. if there are any questions about any of these let me know
and then for funding uses for grants and school choice. So, for title grants, a decrease because we are not uh seeing the title 4 and title 2 grants coming through for next year. Uh we've added I think $1,500 into
the operating budget for those grants. We've increased a little bit for the reap. We've increased to match what we're we're receiving. Uh circuit breaker is an increase.
rural lead is a decrease. Early childhood revolving about the same and school choice, we'd like to decrease our dependence. And then here's a fun little look at the five-year rolling average. So, um, the
joint supervisory committee back in 2022 voted for a 5-year rolling average moving forward. not to look at previous years, but to start at the year that we were in. And then it's now grown to a full
fiveyear rolling average, which next year will finally drop off the the fifth year and and be a full 5year rolling average. Shootsberry has um has had more of an enrollment in the
last couple years which is which is great. So Shootsberry went from 111 students in FY25 or the FY23 October first count to 127
to 120. So they have had more of the the increase in the union 28 budget based on their enrollment. So do you have questions about the budget or do you want to stop sharing my
screen? Can you can you talk about uh the percentage um of increase in the budget uh when you don't add in the outofd district placement and
>> sure that number's been like it's in my brain it's 2.39%. So, if we did not have the additional cost, not all the costs because we had already budgeted for some, but if we didn't have the additional cost, it's a 2.39% increase of the budget. Ann and
Shannon and I have worked hard to decrease where we can decrease uh without impacting any salaries. Um, and it's we know the towns are in a hardship
right now. All of them, not just Shu Shesberry, but Lever and Wendell and New Salem and Irving, they're all having challenges with health insurance and with um you know, for some towns failed
20 the overrides. And so I think that this has been as much of an effort we can make without cutting any current positions to get us to this place.
>> I just want to say that's commendable. I really appreciate all your hard work on all this. So thank you and thank you to Shannon. I really appreciate it. >> Thank you, >> Anna.
So, um I wanted to give a quick update on um the regional budget because
um the both good and bad news is that all of our four towns are also in a very tight budget situation. And um because of Shootsberry's
lower population growth than the other towns, our proportion of the allocated funds is going down. And so there seems to be no scenario where Shootsbury's
allocated amount will increase by more than 2 and a half%. And it is unfortunately very likely that it will increase by less than a percent.
um and that would be devastating for the region but with a 3.5% increase for Ammerst and and then with lever saying we can't go more than you know we we would like to limit
it to 2.5%. Um the chance that Shootsbury the chance that the budget would go up so much that Shootsbury would be asked to pay an increase of 4 and a.5% is almost zero.
So it is possible that a slightly lower increase for the region could benefit the ability to pay the elementary school their full six and a half% increase.
So that's the kind of good news. >> Thank you for that. So um do a discussion. We can do a possible vote on this. What do people feel like? Oh, Katrina, I didn't see your hand. I'm sorry. >> No, it's okay. It blends in with my wall. Um, yeah. No, I just wanted to say
my read from the meeting with the finance committee on Tuesday was that was it seems like this feels reasonable on on all fronts and that this is doable for the town meeting. And I guess Susie, correct me if I'm wrong, but if that's
if that's the right read, I feel comfortable moving to adopt this preliminary budget. >> We're so we're still early in the game. But I think you read that right. The the finance committee truly appreciated the
effort to bring in 2.4 when um in fact we'll be dealing with something bigger. But people certainly on the finance committee understand that's the responsibility of a school. And that's also why u we're pushing really hard for
rural aid to be increased. And um it'd be good if the circuit breaker wasn't such a screwy process, but I think the only one we can really hope for and work at is to get rural aid. They could restore 4 million in for FY26 and um
they could do full funding for FY27. And um I've been doing a postcard process and I think I'm up to 90 postcards mailed to the governor. We're trying to get them in before she writes her budget so that she has a chance to
be a leader because if she doesn't lead on this, um it would be very likely that the legislature is not going to jump out in front and say, "Yeah, 60 million, that's reasonable. It's in the report. We're going to do it." So, we are still early in it, but the effort the school
made is um really helpful. One of the things that's going to be different though is you don't handle the health insurance. So if that was in your budget, that would have made your budget screwy and it's making the regional budget screwy and it's making the town budget screwy. Um and and this is the
early wrestling season um at the FinCon. Nate. >> Yeah. I just uh want to reiterate uh what Susie um said. We I met with Susie and uh George Aanadus and we met with
Aaron Saunders, a rep from Aaron Saunders at the town hall on Monday and we were all like really pushed for um doing what they can now um you know restoring rural aid and I encourage all
everybody to tell anybody to uh write their breath and push for these you know, they can do chapter 70, but that's going to take a long time to rejigger. So, they they need to do things now. So, yeah. Thanks, Susie. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Thank you, Susie, for all your hard work on that. >> Yeah. And one of the um ways, so communicating is really hard. So, I have the postcards. I'm sitting in the library, the new library, getting people that come in, getting a positive response. Rural schoolsmma.org
org is a straight ahead way of finding out the issue and sending the governor your email right from there. So people need that's an easier word to spread telling people to go to rural schoolsma.org.
I think I got that in the the news the town newsletter. I'll make sure it's in again. It should be a banner somewhere because everybody that drives by could be part of supporting the 38,000 rural aid student rural students that need
that aid. So that's a simple simpler step. >> So again, >> question. >> Yeah. Sorry, I can't raise my hand >> on my app, but um I was just wondering
um when we're holding the public hearing for the budget. >> The um generally we hold it on the Wednesday before town meeting. Um we will be having another fiscal summit with the all departments sometime in
February. So, we keep them up to date. And then the finance committee is sending out monthly um news updates on the town announce so that people can feel that it's being fed out to them kind of a step at a time. And we're just
about to send out the one for January. >> Thank you, >> Kayla. >> So, we have two public hearings. Well, we we had the one for the school committee, which would be if you voted for the preliminary adoption this month,
and then in February will be the public hearing for the school committee, and then we have the meeting, well, we did have the meeting with the finance committee. So, I think to answer your question, it would be at the February school committee meeting and
Robin will put out um in the I don't know if she uses the gazette or the recorder for that, but she'll put out the budget and um we'll have the public hearing next month. >> Thanks.
>> So, still on the table is what should we do with this? Um, so if we were to take a possible vote on the adoption of the preliminary budget, what are we saying? We're just saying like this looks good for now and then if changes happen, we have to vote on them again. What's the
>> You'll do the preliminary adoption vote and then the final adoption vote. So you can you can vote on the preliminary adoption vote and if changes are made, then that doesn't really matter and then you'll do the final adoption. Um, but it gives us kind of a place to
start. >> So, I feel comfortable with that. Um, does anybody want to make a move? >> I move to preliminarily adopt the budget. >> I presented.
>> Okay. Um, all in favor? Mayu. I >> Jack. Heard I >> and that is unanimous. All right. Um, anything else, Kaitlin? >> Nope, that was it. >> All right. Thank you very much. And thank you for all your work on that all the time, all year long.
>> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Um, so we're moving on to Ann's report. >> Sure. Um, we are off to a great start this year. we um continues the students are continuing to make steady progress
in in lit literacy and mathematics as evidenced by a growing matrix which I'm sure I will reference many more times but um we're having a great time but I learned a lot on the walkthroughs we're having a good time with getting into classrooms we continue to strengthen our targeted intervention work and emphasize
an inclusive safe safe and respectful school environment um we're celebrating all the student attempts in improving our attendance records across the school we have the um the golden ball that we received from Desessie for improvement with attendance because it is such an important measure of how um how our
students will be successful and now the ball travels every month based off of data that um supports how what classroom had the highest amount of attendance. So the kids have been enjoying um finding out at the assembly who's going to be the um the holder of the of the golden ball and it's actually motivated some
kids to u maybe make that choice that they're not quite so sick that they can't go to school. So um excited about that. We're excited for tomorrow. Um, a big thank you to Leila, our kindergarten teacher, for working with the PTO to set up chain reactions and creative contraptions. Um, we're going to do a
building workshop tomorrow for all students um with J Mantika. So, they worked hard to get a grant to be able to cover that. The enrichment clubs are being developed now and will be starting very soon within the next couple weeks. And um so far we're going to be offering
chess club, crochet club, uh pickle ball, and kickboxing club. And um the enrichment activities, if you're new to Shootsbury, are led by staff members here after school for students and um they're able to do sort of passion
projects with the staff in the areas that they that they love. So um that's what I have for January. Does anybody have any questions or comments or anything? >> Yeah.
>> So, that's really great. Um, thank you for that report. Um, I would caution a little bit against encouraging kids to come to school a little sick >> as we saw in the middle school when the like 30% of staff and students were all
out sick because of a raging I think it was neuro virus. Yes, we're not encouraging that. No, it's more of the like, well, I had a long weekend and I'm in a play and I don't really feel that great because I'm really over tired. It's that. So, yeah, we're definitely not taking kids with fevers of 104.
No. Yeah, we're not we're not monsters over here, but we definitely um >> are working hard to to get students here. >> Yeah. And definitely the, you know, like taking a vacation early and things like that is is definitely the uh the targets. Yeah.
>> Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, we had a case of whooping cough at our school. >> Nobody wants to protest this. Nope. >> N Susie, >> I wondered if there are any metrics on the um number of kids out from illness. >> Oh, yes, absolutely. We um we have an
attendance committee that's um myself and the school nurse and it's um Jessica Carson Carlson Beler, our um school um counselor who meet on um like sometimes it depends on the time of the year, but
we meet on a regular basis to go over exactly what the percentages look like and the absence reasons why students are absent and then work hard with um our school psychologists too. we looper in to really do um a wraparound approach to see if there's anything that we're missing because sometimes it's it can be
school anxiety, it could be a lot of factors that go into whether or not a student is coming to school. So, we really want to make sure that we are doing our best to support families and the situations that they're in. >> Well, as a grandma, I just want to know is there a lot of flu, a lot of colds
right now? Honestly, honestly, Susie, since we started with the real like really intentional handwashing and the like germ busting before kids eat and keeping food in one location instead of having a lot of food going around in the hallways, we have noticed a huge decline
in how many absence and how many stomach issue type things we've had. Um, you still get a little thing couple of things here and there, but it is not the um it it knock on wood everywhere. I don't know. It's it's been um it's been really really helpful.
So, and keeping kids healthy for sure. >> Thank you. Uh thank you very much. >> Um we move on to the Emers Pelum Representative Report. Hannah, >> so I wasn't here
the last meeting. So, I was wondering, Jeremy, did you pass on that note that I >> I did. >> Okay. So, I don't need to repeat myself on that. >> Nope. >> Um, so we, as I mentioned, we are also in budget discussions. Um
the we just had a four town meeting um where all of the other towns basically are um highlighting exactly how poor they are this year and how they can't possibly do increases over two and a
half or three and a half%. Um I'm not sure where that's all going to shake out. Um I think that if the the data that I have is that if um
where was that? I just if the if if the budget increases enough that Amoris's increase is 3 and a half% that will put lever at a little over that and it will put Pelum over five.
And I just I'm not sure how much bluster and complaining about cut services and fired teachers and everything else. The I'm not sure how much we can get the
towns to increase over that. Um it just seems everything is so fiscally tight that asking Pelum to pay 7% and leverage to pay 5%. Um I just I'm not sure we're going to be
able to get there. Um so I think we need to expect close to a $2.6 million reduction in budget from level services. um that is the equivalent of probably
over 20 teachers and I don't I don't know how that's going to happen. So that's pretty devastating. Um I think if there's anything that other people can do to increase the appetite of other towns to um increase
the budget a bit the you know the the the counter art the po The good news for Shootsberry is that even with a much bigger budget, Shootsberry's increase is still going to be relatively small. Um and
with like 11% of of a lever increase and like a 12% pel like the the problem is that for Shootsbury to get itself into into a
a territory where the increase seems undoable, the other towns are already drowning. And so it's unlikely that we're going to get to an expense a budget where shoot feels uncomfortable. Um but it just what it means is that the
region is just going to be devastated next year. And so I don't really know how how to report that better, but that's kind of the situation. Um we are still dealing with some ongoing
legal cases that are costing the region in legal fees. Um the president of the high the president sorry the principal of the high school just announced that he will not be returning next year. So we will be
looking for a new high school principal. Um we the director of student services um left the district and so we are needing a new director of student services. Um
so there's a lot of changes going on. Uh I'm not I don't think that there's any other big news. Um, I think that's about it. I think the budget is really the biggest biggest
issue. Susie, >> um, I haven't focused on it yet, but it looked like you sent a um email about a um >> Oh, the roof. >> The roof. And I didn't understand what
what part was already approved and what part this represents. So, the middle school roof project is m mostly being covered under the MSBA grant, which is a matching grant. Um, I think we're responsible for 25% and the MSBA covers
75% of eligible costs. Um, but it the MSB puts a limit MSBA puts a limit on the age of the roof and so only roofs that are older than a certain age um
qualify for the grant and apparently the portion of the roof that covers the auditorium is slightly younger than the rest of the roof and so they can't get the costs of the portion of the roof over the auditorium covered under the
MSBA grant. So they didn't put that portion of the roof into the grant because they couldn't. And so the current plan was to just do the portion with the MSBA grant money. But then I guess Ammerst found
themselves with $10 million in free cash and a need to spend it. And so they recommended that we should fix the roof anyway. There's some
there's, you know, mixed reaction on the on the school committee with even some Ammerst members saying, "We'd love $1.6 million, um, but we'd rather spend it on a different capital project that would result in greater
ongoing operational costs. So the idea for from a couple res couple committee members is that we should invest in capital projects that will reduce year-to-year operating costs like energy bills.
Um I think that repairing the roof is kind of necessary and that not repairing the roof will result in uh additional repair costs year after year. But whether a new solar system
would reduce or cost more than repairing the roof, I think that's, you know, a whole different calculus. Um, but the idea is that Amoris doesn't want to be the only contributor to replacing that portion of the roof. And so they really requested the regional school committee
to ask the four towns to contribute some money, too. And so the portion, if they were to allocate that 1.6 6 million. According to the regional agreement, the Shootsbury proportion would be about
$111,200. There is almost zero appetite or negative appetite from Lever. They don't even want to pass it on to their finance committee for consideration. Um, and Pelum seems extremely unlikely
to agree to do this. I think that my understanding when the topic first came up was that Amorest wanted us to ask the four towns, but they didn't seem
at that point averse to providing the money without other four towns contribution. They just wanted us to ask I don't know how they're feeling right now. It's possible that if all three other towns say no, Amoris will just
say, "Okay, forget it." And we'll just fix sidewalks instead. Um I think it's unlikely at this point for the regional school committee to be able to put together a $ 1.6 million project
for something else that the >> the council will be like, "Yeah, let's do that instead. Um, so I don't know what my recommendation would be at this point. I think, um,
Fincom needs to look at it. You know, it if we have extra money in free cash and we want to provide $110,000 to fix a middle school roof, we can do that. But, um, my my gut says that's not going to happen.
>> I think so. But you could you might you might co talk to the fincoms at leum and just sort of see if there's like a coalescence that wants to happen. Um or you can reach out to Ammerst and see how
committed they are to getting at least one town to help them. And also it's possible that you know you you'd say well we can't contribute $111,000 but we could contribute X and you know that would be some good faith towards
this but we're just you know like everybody else we're strapped and we don't have the cash reserves that you have. Uh that might be fair as well. Um, but there was a memo that Shannon, our the finance director over there, said
sent out and it seemed like she she CCD the towns. So, I don't know if Haley got it or if >> right >> AJ said he didn't get it. >> Right. >> So, um I don't know who or if it was just um
Melissa Makepiece or or what's her name? Gail. No, Gail Flechek. >> No, Gail Weiss is the accountant, but it would have been either Haley or the select board. >> Yeah, >> it wasn't AJ. And I don't think it was AJ.
>> So maybe maybe someone on the select board got the memo. Um but we recommended that the Ammerst Town Council reach out to the other towns directly. Um, so it's possible that Ammerst Town Council will send out a
memo um separately. Um, but that was just sort of like information out there that was floating around and I think the other three t other two towns are like we're not even going to send that information to our people.
Censored. Well, there two things I want to say. one is that um the capital planning board is um working harder to broaden what they look at and I think there's going to be work on a capital plan for our elementary school just like
the um region has capital plans for their two buildings. Um and the other piece in terms of perspective is it's not really just about the coming year. The average single family home in Pelum went up $913
last year. In Shootsbury, our town, um it looks like the average single family went um bill went up $56. People are freaking out because that's a really really big jump. Shootsbury is
still kind of in the middle of the state's average single family. We are everybody everybody jumped up. Um but $900 increase in your tax bill for the average home is um is what is people are
reacting to. So I'm also reacting to that the regional school budget has been cut every year. We don't ask other departments to come in with a 5% cut. That's a big thing. And so um cut from level services, they would still get a
4% increase, but you know that um that includes the salaries and and they have to handle their health insurance in their regional school budget. So it's all these things at the same time. And it's not just people saying I can't do
that. They say I've been doing this and now how do I do that? And that's the same thing with the roof. We supported the other part with the MSBA and now there's a move to do another part of the roof and I understand roofs need to be repaired. Chesbury knows that lesson
very very well but um you know we we're still in the early stages for what we can wrestle with but I doubt that we can come up with um 111,000 for that roof part. I it doesn't seem likely to me but I don't know for sure.
Yeah, I know this is just griping, but it seems crazy to me that the MSBA like if you're going in to replace three quarter and the same thing with Shootsberry. If you're going to go in and replace threequarters of a roof, you know, there's joints, there's all sorts of things that go along with that, it just makes complete sense to do it all.
And so, like, you'd think there'd be some sort of wiggle room or like, hey, if we're going to replace 75% of your roof, even if the other 25%'s slightly newer, it makes sense for us to just do this all at once. You know, it's it's going to be cheaper. You're not gonna have to get somebody else out there to
like bid the smaller piece of the roof later on. >> It makes no sense to me. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I don't know why MSBA functions like that. It just it doesn't make any sense. >> No. >> And in addition to the fact that MSBA has been moving the age of the roof back
a year every year, so that every year our roof is one year shy of being able to be qualified under the MSBA grant. And it's just finally this year where they apparently didn't move it back one more year and accepted this this age as
being old enough. And so, you know, if if we had been this age when the MSBA grants started, you know, like the >> maybe the auditorium even would have qualified then. It's just it's kind of crazy and that to be able to not fix it
now. Now you're having, you know, you're still having leaks. you're still having all of these other problems in that area and that's just not it's it's not great. So, I'm kind of hoping that Ammerst does >> just >> give us money for the roof and specifies
that it's for the roof and then we just have to take it. >> I just I also it seems to me like MSBA could also be looking at the function, right? Like more than the age like hey is your roof leaking and ceiling tiles are falling down? Oh, we should replace that roof. You know, there's mold issues. the idea that it's just like
based on an age, whatever. I I know there's nothing we can do about that. >> Nothing we can do. But yes, >> the um the 20 positions, are we talking just that's just high school and middle school? >> What I'm saying? Yes. But what I'm saying is
>> that's that's not accurate. Like it just it depends on it's it's an estimate. Um, but that's the equivalent of a the amount of the budget decrease would be the equivalent of about that much of 20 FTEES.
>> Um, and the the number is like really loose um because because that's like the average FTE and so it really depends on which FTEES are cut. It could be more, it could be less. Um, and >> they could find money somewhere else to cut. >> Yeah. And I mean the benefits are are
rolled up in that as well. So if there, you know, if health insurance goes up, then that's fewer FTEES and, you know, it's just that's a rough estimate, but it's going
to be in that ballpark. >> I I don't even understand how you can do that without cutting an entire program somewhere. >> And yeah, it's just the middle school and high school. Some of some of the things that have not been accounted for in the budget yet is
any cost sharing that occurs between the region and the sixth graders that are going to be using a portion of the middle school. Um they are talking about using sharing a few teachers that do not currently get shared. um being able to
use teachers in the middle school to serve some of the kids in the sixth grade. So I I think that any cost sharing that occurs is still going to be relatively small as a percentage of the total budget, but there might be some
additional reductions in costs that make it not quite as bad. But I just I I think it's going to be on the margins. Okay, thank you Anna. Um, any other questions for Anna before we move on to the joint
supervisory report? >> Okay, joint supervisory committee report. Um, Nate or Katrina. >> Um, yeah. Uh, Shannon touched on that. The big thing was that we voted for the
budget for the regional for for the union budget. Um we had superintendence uh report. Um, one thing that we did do was, uh, Shannon brought to the committee's attention, um, the
substitute pay for teacher, substitute teachers and paras, um, and she said that, uh, someone had pointed out that it was below um, minimum wage. So, we uh, voted on that. We increased the pay
by $5 a day. So, it's uh 125 now for teachers and 105 for um Paris and that starts February 1st. That little pay increase. It didn't seem like it was a big uh increase to the budget.
Uh there's not a lot of subs anyway. So, that was that was interesting and cool. Um, >> yeah, we had Lindseay Rodriguez and uh Amy Langden's report. Um, yeah, it was a good meeting.
>> Okay, thank you. Do you have anything to add, Katrina? Did you >> just like a tiny thing to add? Um, not like super important, just that I feel like we got some context on the Hampshire Trust updates that were available. Um, which affect Union 28 employees obviously. Um and just some
information gathering that happened where we're not we're not like when we look at other potential groups what we're expecting in increases is somewhat comparable. So I feel like there's been some conversations about dealing with that situation and understanding what our options are and that was some good
context we got. >> Yeah. Yeah. Everyone is going through the same thing. We had uh well we were 40% last year and 40% again this year. like it's a it's a nutty it's a nutty thing. Um so okay, thank you. CES, did we have a
CES meeting, Leah? >> Yes. Um so we had an offcycle meeting. Um the the the collaborative is looking to um install a
new executive director. And so, um, we had three finalist interviews last night. Um, we did not leave until after 11, but I can report >> made an offer to um, one of the
finalists. And so now the the um, chair and the vice chair are going to be negotiating a contract with the finalist. Um, it's uh, Dr. Bonner from Northampton. Um so we'll see how those
negotiations go. And there's another meeting on January 28th. Um Anna, I know I reached out to you about coverage, but they actually don't um have
subs. Um so you are off the hook. Um and we don't really need to vote for um that in the future because they don't accept alternates. So, um, yeah, I'll just, uh, catch up with notes and check in with
people so I can update everyone, um, at our at our February 14th. >> All right. >> I was um, I was shocked when I was on that when I was on that board that there are districts that don't ever send
anybody there. Like, we used to have to struggle for quorum. like we'd have to like everybody have to reach out to people that they knew to try to make sure we could get enough people there to vote on the budget and all the other things. So maybe they should take some alternates. Um okay, so thank you very
much, Leah. Uh moving on to the policy review part of the night. We've got um first read for deletion which is uh the IHAX early childhood education IE organization of instruction and IHX
early childhood education. Does anybody have any feedback or comments on those? Okay. Uh moving on. We're going to skip the first read on the next four because we as a committee uh we want to take them back to the policy committee. They
weren't supposed to be here tonight. Um they were supposed to be with us. So we're going to take them back to the policy committee. Um second read, first vote on IB, academic freedom, ICICA, school year, school calendar. ID school day. Um so we're
going to need a move and second and then discussion. Uh, I move to approve >> policy, IB, >> IC, ICA, and ICD.
>> It's just ID. >> ID. Sorry, ID. >> I second. >> Thank you. Um, so is there any discussion on these? You've already been through these. Okay. All in favor? May my
>> you kind of >> longer pieces around. And then we've got our final vote on KA. Now I'm doing pronunciations of them. Uh KA ECAB. Okay. Sorry. KA school
committee uh community relations goals. ECAB, access to building and grounds. JJ, student fundraising activities, and KBE, relations with parent booster organizations. >> Oh, Trevor. Yes.
>> So, in uh the December meeting, there was also um maybe I'm I'm seeing KI visitors to the schools appeared in two places in the second read first vote, but also in the final vote. So, it's not here. So, I'm wondering if that that's a
correction I need to make to the December minutes that KI visitors to the schools was not in the second read slot, but in the final vote slot. >> My notes say final vote, Trevor. >> So, I'll make that correct. I'll make that correction to the December minutes.
Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Um, okay. So, oh, >> can I just um for KBE, why is the asterisk red? >> Uh, no idea.
>> No, if there's no reason >> I I have it printed out in grayscale, so I don't know. >> Oh, okay. >> But I think >> Yeah, I don't think it's I don't think it's significant. >> Okay. >> It just means that there's an enclosure. That's all we use that for. So,
we can move. I move to approve policies K A E C A B sorry ECAB B JJ E and KB KBE I'm sorry I started that it's not your
fault >> I second thank you all in favor Mayu Illino I >> Jack. >> Thank you all. Um yeah, it's it should be easy to just read out three letter strands, but for some reason at this
point it is no longer. Uh okay, so future business, we've got the Shootsbury Policy Committee uh meeting February 12th at 6:30. We've got the school committee next on February 12th at 7 o'clock. Um Union 28 joint supervisory, our next one is March 16th,
2026. Are there any future agenda items that people would like to add to our next month's agenda? >> Um, we do have a CES meeting on January 28th. >> Okay. CES meeting on January 28th. >> Thank you.
>> Yes. >> Glad that um Okay. So, hearing no future uh agenda items, let's uh have a move to adjurnn. Yes. >> I move to adjourn the meeting.
>> Second. >> All in favor? May you? >> I >> thank you all and see you all. See you all in February. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye.