this government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers call to order the local Southam School Committee meeting this is our regular monthly meeting for April second Wednesday of the month 6 p.m all five members of the committee are
present as well as our superintendent our building principal and our business administrator first item on the agenda is approval of the minutes of March 12th March 21st March 26 and April 1st any objection to taking them
up as a packet hearing none is there a motion to take them up as a packet so moved motion made by Dylan seconded by Kim under discussion [Applause] I'll just point out that everybody did
their pre-eread that was excellent awkward silence on the live TV riveting riveting television job wait where's Kim okay hearing no discussion all those in favor i I I
opposed passes unanimously public comment any member of the public wishing to discuss an item that's not currently on the agenda may do so now see no one circulation of warrants i believe we're continuing those electronically no announcements or
correspondence we'll move to the principal's report okay the principal's report for April 9th 2025 is in your packet our enrollment is at 482 students this is two down from last month we lost a preschool student and a fifth grader um
April is autism acceptance month we will be having an autism acceptance spirit week the week of April 14th to the 18th which is next week um I believe parents may have received something today awesome grade four held their trunk showcase on Friday April 4th students in
grade four learned about different explorers and created artifacts of their travels parents were invited in to see these wonderful presentations uh the Norris PTO hosted bingo night on Friday night it was very well attended over 150 people um signed up to come i I went for
a little bit on Friday it was the kids were having an awesome time i think everybody won bingo at least once students in grades three through eight have I'm sorry three through six completed ELA MCCAST testing um and then we have a couple makeups to do before
next Thursday is the last day um and then math starts the Tuesday after vacation um as part of our ongoing learning about inclusionary practices at Norris to teach global consultant is providing virtual coaching to teams so special education and general education
teachers that happened yesterday um via Zoom so each team of teachers that are working together we're able to meet with the consultant for about 35 minutes talk about um how they're doing on their goals what questions they have or what what they need some support with and the
town of Southampton is applying for a $50,000 feasibility study for a cooling center at Norris it's called the um MVP program it's engineering study that if awarded will assess the feasibility of establishing a cooling and air quality center the center would serve as a vital
resource for students and teachers during extreme heat and humidity while also providing a safe climate controlled environment for seniors and individuals with respiratory conditions during the summer months when school is not in session um I guess I copied that twice
sorry but this was I was approached by Chris Fowls to um see if I would wanted to write a letter in support of it so I did and I think the other department heads did as well so that's out there and it's just for a feasibility study at this time
okay any questions comments concerns hearing none we go to the superintendent's report i don't know if anybody has any questions but one of the things I wanted to specifically bring to your attention
is that the H uh the regional agreement for Hampshire Regional uh was one of the first documents that I brought to um review for the sake of uh revising and ensuring that all the amendments and
changes that have been made over time were actually captured in the document uh so we are working with Russell Dupereé and his office to ensure that we are in line with all those changes over time that had been made but weren't
captured in the document additionally we are um taking input from the state and uh where we are right now is we've met twice uh with Russell and his office they have um
generated uh a track change document with uh Kim Musa my administrative assistant and uh we are finalizing that uh the next step in the process will be to bring it to the Hampshire Regional School Committee for their review and
then it'll have to go to each of the towns for uh for approval uh the I I don't anticipate that it's going to be anytime soon we have to work through the process and um I just wanted to make
sure that everyone was aware that we are making progress on it and that we're certainly on a parallel track to other work that's going on uh making making sure we're moving forward in a positive way um the other thing I wanted to bring to your attention was in the
packet there's uh again from DUP law offices it's a document I received January 15th and it talked about the title 9 updates there were some questions about title 9 and that uh the updates and I just wanted to to bring
this so that people could take a read and look at what the lawyers how they interpreted the changes that were made one of the questions that we've heard at uh many of our meetings is you know what about uh you know are all of our students still protected and
so what uh attorney Dupereé says in this document is that really the the the the protections afforded under the 20 uh 2020 20 version or the 24 version of
Title 9 uh included um discrimination on the on the basis of sex ser uh sex characteristics sexual orientation gender identity But when we go back to the 2020 version those are now
underneath title six so it's just the protections are still there it's just differently um insured and so I I guess from my perspective as as the superintendent all of our students are indeed protected uh either under Title 9
or under Title Six we are responsible to ensure that uh no one's being harassed or discriminated against and uh we have processes in place to keep all of our students safe so I just wanted to bring that to everybody's attention i thought I had shared it in January when it came
but I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of it so that they could at least answer some uh initial questions that they might have about the change that came out in January questions comments well last month my biggest question was
exactly what you just addressed Veto was just making sure that all of our students are still protected one way or the other so I'm satisfied with that excellent thank you and I thought I thought that might uh help um so yeah
thank you thank you u my question isn't for the superintendent but for the other members of the committee who are not in the Hampshire regional level has every does everybody have access or seen a copy of the redline version of the Hampshire regional amendment no the working district so if
we if we could just make that available to the committee i know I've se I've had it through the chair's update and I I thought I shared it but maybe I didn't but if we could just share that with um the other committee members over tracked for the for the Hampshire regional agreement redline version so that
everybody has time to look at it okay yep that's all those that has to go to the town not to us right that has to go like to town yeah but I think as committee members would be good to know it at least be aware okay you don't
try to build support for it at any time we haven't seen that in Hampshire i think that we're we're waiting for a more opportune time when it makes sense because with track changes those documents are 50 pages long and very hard to read so our understanding is that we would get it as it got a little
bit closer to its final the what what attorney uh Dupre suggested is that he would um complete this segment of the work making sure that all the track changes were
there and then have a clean version so I guess when the clean version's available absolutely whether it's through the chair or just blast email to all school committee members I'll do it you know that yep i'd still like to see the red line if possible i understand i understand
speaking as the attorney on the committee i understand it's a lot of work i understand it's a 50-page document i understand it's a mess but I would like Well if you just get you get sent two documents and then you can choose what you're going to read yep okay i will all right uh chair's report it's all about the budget and I don't
think we necessarily have to rehash any of that other than I will say that last night was a joint session of the Southampton Select Board and the finance committee and we've had a resignation on the select board so we're down to four there were only three of us
there last night and the full finance committee was there three there's two open seats um I feel confident in saying that the select
board is unanimous in making this override question a ballot question and and not deciding it at the select board level meaning the select board is going to put forward the override question to town meeting which
is the first step to get to the ballot finance wasn't necessarily unanimous but they but it was more in talking points they they didn't actually take a vote um but the first step as a as a town is that we have to go to town
meeting so there are three ways we can propose the question at town meeting and we discussed it last night but we did not make a decision and we do not have to make a decision till April 15th and the significance with April 15th is that you need to require you need to provide
the citizens a 35day notice of a ballot override question so even though town meeting isn't going to happen till May 6th town our ballot election is already scheduled for May 20th so if you back up
for May 20th April 15th we have to say this question may be coming forward if it fails at town meeting it gets pulled off the ballot if it passes town meeting it's on the ballot we've adhered to the 35day notice and we don't have to hold a special election
um individually speaking my thought is people already plan to go to the polls on the 20th so let's keep it on the 20th let's not have special election 15 days later um to delay this the um so the this the select board has the sole authority to do that and that we agreed
to do that last night where the concern comes up from speaking tonight as chair of the school committee and not as vice chair of select board but as chair of the school committee there are three options now at the town meeting level the vote
can go in three ways one option one which is the option I'm advocating for it's a single motion it has the um contingent budget which includes the override
and then the non-contingent so a town meeting when we generally have 100 to 120 people they would just vote to send both of them on one vote to the ballot and it's a yes or no vote if the question passes the override goes through if the question fails the
override fails and we go to the the step down budget um there was discussion from members present on the finance committee that it shouldn't be a single vote there should be a double vote they which in essence allows
the ability to kill it at town meeting and never get the override to the ballot my individual argument is this issue is not something that the select board in itself should decide and it's not something that because there's only
technically four of us representing 6,000 people that this is too great of an issue for four elected people to pick that it should go to the ballot but we have to go through town meeting and again now you generally only have 120
and if you know if the supporters of the override are unable to attend that night it could die right there and never make it to the ballot so and then the other option is it goes it goes to town meeting but instead of a townwide
override it's singly it's specifying the school and it's drawing it out as a department override so option two and three to me don't work because they have the ability for the ma matter to be killed at town meeting and I believe that this issue is too great for a town
meeting decision that it needs to go to the ballot box and allow all eligible voters to weigh in on it um so we're going to continue that debate and discussion Tuesday night um and we have up until April 15th to make a decision on how that's going to be presented
and we have anybody have any questions on that piece we have nothing to say about it the select board makes the decision yes ultimately the select board casts the vote so on how it's presented but it might be helpful for us to be there on Tuesday to answer one way or the other
support whatever we need to do so you want to make it an override question for funding the town in general so op option No no option one says "Do you agree to send the following to the ballot?"
This is the a yes vote approves the override a no vote approves the contingent budget all right so it's one question yes or no versus traditionally what we've done is here's the budget we pass that now here's the override okay and and we're putting in two votes at
town meeting all right so it's going to be one vote well that's what I'm right that's so you're advocating for one question that is a yes vote means that we get the override budget for the school a no vote means we get the contingent with the possible loss of 10
FTEEs well there were definitely $800,000 so 10 FTEEs the supply lines being cut and all the other things that were mentioned at the public hearing correct okay and so um so going to a single vote limits the ability for town
meeting to kill it okay do we we never we didn't approve a continue a no no we didn't approve the second like if if the override doesn't pass but you have the select board has that number to be able to right now it's sitting at the 4.05 05
okay so that number would be made public during the the meeting then it be on the second portion of that ballot yes and it would show because it's by department it would show that Norris would go from X to X minus 800,000 okay and have
you since our um budget hearing have you done anything with that that information that you put together about how chapter 70 has been used and from what no not with that but from what I can see because vocational education is included
in the Norris net school spending and not Hampshire regional net school spending we they're meeting the minimum oh yeah i'm not worried about that no what I'm saying is the use of chapter 70 funds to cover other town expenses rather than paying school we haven't
explored we haven't dug into that any deeper other than the town's defense is we're meeting the net school spending which is the general fund obligation plus Oh I Yeah I understand what that is it's also I mean that's really a a floor
not a ceiling correct correct okay John um so if the 4% increase for Norah's budget is here and that is included that the town has decided they can pay that right y and then we're asking for 14% is
the overwrite the difference between those two or the whole amount uh shouldn't it be the difference between the two so it shouldn't be 800,000 right correct you're right mathematically mathematically it should be 14% right cuz we were asking for 18 right or 17
it's 14 we were asking for 14 so it's 10% so it's 10% which would make the cost to the taxpayers right different right and and the discussion or argument is that it
wants you a 4% increase to our budget to the to the Norris budget roughly $280,000 our contractual obligation is 330,000 now that is a little skewed because we're alleviating contractual services
by 150,000 and we're adding a BCBA for about 80 85,000 so if you back that 85,000 out of that 330 that's really our contractual obligation right and then there's an offset but we have to have the BCBA that's not that's And
it's really a cost savings but it's it's a requirement yeah it's a cost savings because it helps us keep students in district right but when you look at the number it's 333,000 which is 6.6 so if you just say it's contractual obligations they're going to say which I'm I'm sure the union would disagree
because they'd be correct that why did the school committee give the union a 6.6% increase we didn't right we're we're shifting from non payroll dollars we're moving a $150,000 expense here saying we can do that with a payroll job
which is which is adding 80 plus thousand to this so you got to back that out of that 330 and then recalculate so no the school committee did not award a 6.6% increase i actually ran the just to be clear on that i ran those numbers when we were looking at this because a
being part of the last negotiation but also for this purposes of tonight we negotiated including steps columns and cola increases it just it's like just over 3% so we were fiscally responsible I believe we were fiscally responsible
in making that determination of what would the town could afford when we signed that contract two two and a half years and the other large issue that's impacting us right now is the um special education cost which is kind of like a pendulum right because when the pendulum
swings back because circuit breaker is in a rears we're gaining the benefit right less expense more reimbursement coming in but we're on the other side of the pendulum now the expenses are going up and our circuit breaker uh trails by
at least a year those expenses and our our special ed even with the $150,000 reduction our collective special education went up $280 some odd thousand so you add those three together
now you're almost at $6,000 we have our central office expenses increased by 190,000 of which 90,000 we know hopefully is the second year of one-time money for the forensic audit so if all
goes well a year from now that number is going to fall out right and come out so now you're at seven yeah last year this current year we put in 970,000 of you know I'll call it grants into the
into the budget to offset it and this year we're only able to put in 730 because of cuts so you add all that together and we have a $900,000 issue and we're covering some of that but we can't cover all of it and and I think that needs to be the speaking points i
agree to get um the public on board with this y for the public to understand it i mean that's the whole thing the public has to understand why these things are happening because if if all you're doing is just looking at a number it seems like oh my goodness how you have to have
a story to tell right great jen when the question goes on the ballot and it says yes is for the override and no is for the 4.5 will the 4.5 include like the loss of 10 teachers in that it will not be on the question itself you cannot
give a summary nor can you give a t which is interesting we found this out last night and I guess I knew this but I I didn't I forgot it the state when the state question comes on those are citizens petitions so there's always a yes vote means and a no you cannot do
that at the town level because it's a select board putting the question on and not a citizens petition all it can say is do you approve a budget of X or do you approve a budget of Y but can we talk about that at town meeting we can talk about it at town meeting we can also stand out
with outside the polling place we'll have signs we can um we can not take a position as a elected board we cannot say you should support this because of this what we should say and what we can say is this is a level service budget
with no additions other than you know and it only includes contractual services you know basically what I just said boom boom boom and um the in the impact you almost want to stay away from
the impact because you can't get into the details as a school committee no but parents can par as long as the parent isn't a school commander correct parents can parents can and the union is free to do what they choose to do and you know take the social media yep yep
i'd also add that our central office costs one up because our town is so popular and our parents are um you know populating our schools very well while the other schools are decreasing in enrollment which is affecting our aortionment of funds to the high school as well as to central
office that's a talking point for the budget but just something to be aware of yeah I was of that same opinion but somebody and I haven't gone back to check the data said that actually Southampton's numbers are shrinking i wasn't going to call you out on it but but but that could change
because there are some big classes coming up yeah and all you have to do all you have to do is look at the um it's it's not difficult for Southampton the number of building permits being pulled is increasing year-over-year you know the building
commissioner reported um we're waiting for a final report and but the number of spring permits that are being pulled for built home buildings is higher than higher and higher which you got to think 50% of those homes are going to have children in them you know and maybe only
50% of them are of the preschool age but you know there's there's cost if the fact that your new growth is going up that's one of the factors that they use in calculating the minimum required contribution so they look at the change in your your
municipal growth factor so if you are going up it's adding um a p it's adding an additional requirement for a minimum yeah so sometimes it's not so much the budget driving it although you know what the budget numbers are but it's the
formula that is used by the state to calculate your minimum requirement and then the regional agreement kicks in for anything that I also think too if you look at if you look at the state website where it talks about net school spending and all that
there's hardly any communities that that's what they're funding their schools at correct you go down that list in 351 towns in this state i don't know how many I if I didn't see any I I'm not saying there aren't any but almost every single thing that I saw it was and this
is how much we're going over yeah so you can't really run a school just at the requirements and I know they're you know they're always talking about reevaluating chapter 70 funds and how they calculate it i mean the one thing I just can't get my head around and right now it's the law of the town or of the state
where I think because we're so unique that we own our children up till sixth grade and then we transfer responsibility to Hampshire regional and because of how we calculate central office central office is based on jurisdiction of the superintendent
versus Hampshire Regional is only jurisdiction of the children 7 through 12 that I would argue that vocational expense should not be born at the elementary level and currently by state law it is those are 9th through 12th
graders you can shut the door i'm just going to shut the door yeah she can thanks that that cost that cost has to do with children that are 9th through 12th that that's at the Hampshire regional level it and and so that's a almost a million two that gets chopped out of
Norris and we're one of the few communities that are set up the way we are right williamsburg West happen to have the same issue but other than Silver Lake I'm not sure there's still anybody else that breaks it up the way we do so it's the 8020 rule right with
the 20% and it's one area where we're just cost should still count but I don't think it should hit the elementary school but the law is set that's all I have for chair's report anything else okay hampshire Regional School Committee uh I participated by
phone and it was really hard to hear so I don't know if veto wants to say what happened on Monday um well there are the MASC has brought forward um a number of policies for
review that look at technology and uh many things in that area and so uh much of the meeting was focused on uh first reads of the MASC policies uh which turned into discussions about the
consequence or the ramifications of those things and uh that that dominated much of the meeting [Music] um other than that I I wouldn't say that there was much to report on okay budget
stuff yeah yeah uh PTO PTO is not meeting till next week so I have nothing to update you on school council they're meeting on the 29th okay thank you collaboration for educational services update their last meeting was the same night as our budget meeting but I had a
chance to review the executive summary from that meeting um uh budget continues to be an issue over there that in the same way that is for a lot of us unfortunately a lot of their funding is coming from federal sources and grants as well um the the good news is they're not doing any more staff reductions this
fiscal year but I wouldn't be shocked if they're looking again towards next fiscal year doing additional staff reductions i would also ex uh expect and it's not in this report but I would expect that with uh the reduction in services across the state health and
human services department that you wouldn't you're not going to see some sort of trickle down there as well um affecting youth mental health services and youth um uh crisis needs and and the
supportive schools um the schools itself are not obviously funded through that but this the ancillary services that go with them are uh they continue to do the good work that they're doing with uh the with academy uh mount Tom uh Three Rivers and and those programs are
continuing to plug along um that's basically the the update from them questions comments concerns okay uh select board i covered it with the
chairs um there is a meeting tomorrow afternoon for the capital committee um I looked at it i I don't recall seeing any any Norris request okay well I do have things but I wasn't given the packet yet
scott had said a few months ago was coming and I did not receive it so I believe the email as one of the capital committee members we're having the initial meeting tomorrow and I pretty sure you worded the agenda of that here's what I have so far additional
departments may be submitting but I would just say we only have until the 15th to make a decision so if things are ready you might want to fire them off in the morning okay and maybe copy myself as chair so I can make
sure it comes in um budget and finance team update any highlights i'm going to give you a couple of highlights the first thing I would say is um for the warrant for this week I don't know if everybody signed it yet i think Dylan did i don't know if anybody else has signed it and
we need to move that forward um and if there are any reasons why it's not being signed if there's any questions There was one question and I was looking on my phone it was too small for me to tell okay it was the cumulative warrants a little over 400,000 yes and I know the answer to this but I'm going
to ask you okay is that because the amount that's owed to the town in a rears is included in that or is that separate no um but it is I mean it's great that you notice it's larger than typical and um what is included is the
first second and third quarter 2025 central office costs we wanted to make sure for the current year it's a catch up for the current year through yeah it's not addressing their rears at all it's just taking the budget dividing it by four and putting three quarters of it in and then the last one will come at
the end of the second quarter i mean fourth quarter i'll I'll sign it after the meeting time okay thank you i appreciate that um then the other thing um included in your packet we don't need to discuss it is um some information on FY24 um and and we may on the FY24
central office costs and John's going to bring that up later under new business and I'll address it then um the other thing I want to say is just generally speaking we're moving forward in a positive way in uh the central office um one thing I offer as an example of that
is that um we did submit what we needed to for END uh for for Chesterfield Gan for the smaller regional um we submitted it on Friday on Monday they came back with two questions and on Tuesday it was certified and when I talked with um Jay
Sullivan at Desi he said he thought it was a a testament to the fact that the DR has more confidence in the numbers that were submitted and I'd like to take um credit for that but I can't entirely um that's also because we have Eric Kinsherf as as the um consulting
accountant and they've worked with him so they really have a level of of confidence so um we'll take credit for some of the hard work but but I really think it's because they've worked with him before um then um um Alisa and I will continue um I'll
distribute something for your packet won't won't talk about it too much but we're going to continue on looking at FY25 expenditures and where we're projecting to be by the end of the year so I think I I gave you a look at it last uh week and it looked like we might
be over so we want to get together with Lisa and Bradley again to see if there's any more grant money that can be applied and where we are with that do you think um before the pandemic so way back in time yes quarterly we used to get um
budget transfer requests that we would have to vote and sign off on do do you do you think there might be anything in the May meeting that where we could kind of start shifting things and at least as a committee see it in buckets yes sign off and get it in there for Yes I do
think so i think for the May meeting part of you were over here you're under here yeah exactly okay exactly um and so the only other thing I wanted to mention is um on the good news side there was a math teacher opening at Hampshire
Regional and um it's been filled by the assistant business administrator who um on the bad news side means you know he was 17 years a teacher and I think that um he found being in the other side of
it on the dark side it was a little bit different and um the force and the commitment given his family so it's he's intelligent he's a a great guy and um glad for Hampshire Regional i'm not so happy for ourselves regional September
uh he'll start last week in August um and he'll be he'll be with us we have him through training and some other things too yeah and so we we have him through um the beginning of July so like around the 1st or 5th of July um and so
I'm trying to come up with some creative ways one of them i I don't I think I have to come back to the school committees for um like approval of a job description but I'm I'm trying to get a summer intern um I think we've talked before that the do has um noted that
there's just a real shortage of accounting uh municipal accountants and so they have created this program with the with the community colleges for um municipal school focused um accounting and it's a a little fellowship that they
include in uh their training and so I've become aware um of a student who was at Berkshire Community College who has um gone through the fellowship program and then the do tries to find them assignments and through one reason or
another i've I've become aware of him and I've um he's now at UMass and he's got like a 3.8 40 at UMass in accounting and has the municipal so I'd like to be able to grab him and have him augment um our u our staffing um but we're also
going to go out as soon as possible to uh advertise for the open position okay okay but I think that's the highlights any any questions um the line I thought there was a line item on our budget that said any or on our agenda any other business but it's
not here but you've already mentioned it so I'll just bring it up now okay um so the the issue that Don referred to is that outstanding amount of 400 and change that's owed um the uh they've been in contact central office has been
in contact with Desi and there's some options on the table that could be explored desi's recommendation is that um they will uh honor any agreement between the chair of the Southampton School Committee and the chair of
Hampshire Regional School Committee that come come to an agreement on some sort of payment plan assuming that the town can't pay 100% in year one so I would ask obviously there'd be more details come back for ratification but I would
ask the committee to uh vote to empower myself as chair of Southampton to enter into um negotiations with the chair of the Hampshire Regional School Committee to define some sort ofou that money will be paid back and
the details related to it so for desi approval motion made by Margaret is there a second second seconded by Kim discussion i assume anyou would then come back to the committee for for ratification yeah yep i I also want to mention that I believe there will be an
article I don't know if you've talked about it within the select board there would be an article on this um town meeting warrant uh authorizing the payment of the first installment um and maybe depending on what the attorneys
say including this agreement the article would have to refer to the agreement tom still leg yeah yeah i would think Tom and I would have to come to an agreement prior to April 15th yes so that the exact wording exactly then the town people vote on and then that becomes binding exactly so it doesn't which
means 14th or so there may be a special school committee meeting for the purpose take up that one vote that one issue yep okay did we all in favor i post so move thank you okay thank you
first reading Title 9 policy revisions updated 2022 i think we've had the first reading already this this is a second reading because it already came before us once and we asked it to go back are these the same is it the same that same as we were
given any change from last month no just hiding and and what I did want to bring your attention to is the second paragraph in this this document that I shared with you because it really there was a question asked about of me and how I'm going to proceed as a title 9
coordinator and this paragraph really there's no equivocation there you know based on the ruling effective immediately all title 9 investigations revert to the process released under 2020 version of the law and you're you're referring to the document on the
due pre law offices piece letter head dated January 15 2025 signed by all three attorneys yes okay so everything that follows is what we saw last month yes right right but we didn't really do the first so this tonight's just the first read i'm I'm
fine with that yep i'm going to move forward so basically the update is we have the the opinion of our attorneys attached and there was another opinion that we saw too somewhere that mirrors this about students are still protected
because of title six so if there's nothing else on this should we um move to accept this as first reading cause public publication on the website for 5 days minimum 5 days and schedule it for second reading and potential
final vote at our next monthly meeting move uh motion made by Margaret to uh consider this our first reading cost publication on the website for a minimum of 5 days and place on our agenda for next month as a second and potential final reading is there a second second
seconded by Kim discussion hearing none all in favor i I oppose so moved so I want to go back to the thing you said about there might have to be a special meeting for us if there's going to be a special meeting on Monday you're going to get have to get that posted tomorrow
just to It's an emergency that's true but I'm just saying tomorrow is the 48 hour notice today's not April 3rd i just wanted to put that out there because it's easy to say "Oh if we're going to meet Monday but when you're having a Monday meeting Thursday is your
is your posting deadline." You're going to love me when you say "Oh yeah." That's why Kim is so valuable to us right um so let's let's post the emergency meeting for the meeting for Tuesday uh half hour before the select board
meeting okay okay i mean so that means you have till Friday to post it yeah so at least I mean I have no idea if Tommy even knows this is coming i haven't yet so who's the vice chair margaret oh we're going to work terms
out just fine if he's unavailable all right um next item IT contract update who's running point on this that's me okay so B and C are really speaking to the uh the transition plan from uh
the 100% external IT contract to a hybrid model where network security is uh is going as a contract out and actually uh assistant superintendent for debt uh ran the um ran the the search uh
we got four quotes um one of the quoters subsequently withdrew and we were left with three viable quotes uh we checked Michael checked u references and um did work to make sure that
procurement wise we were following our procurement agents advice and we found uh Twin Lakes is the um the company that will serve as the
um as the network security uh contractor they um though they were not the lowest bid they were the most on target with respect to services they had the best recommendations and they met
the criteria of the the posting uh the RFQ I should say um so TW twin w twin links was issued the award correct okay yep and um I I just I met with uh um
Souzar's CEO uh personally just to communicate with him i felt we owed him the respect after the the years that we've worked with them uh we had a great meeting uh we have a plan for transition from Souzer to Twin Lakes and um in my
con conversation with Kimberly I I had just said you know in the past the superintendent had signed the contract she said "Absolutely just you need to inform the school committees of the new contract services for network security
um the second part here C the IT salary stipen is the um the the position that was discussed initially at the ADC when we wanted to have all services internal but it was uh too it was cost
prohibitive so uh the IT director is going to um be an internal uh uh employee he or she is going to have a 0.2 two and stipend of um hours per week
and 20 days over the summer to fulfill the duties of the IT director and he'll be overseen or she'll be overseen by Michael Ferdet and uh each of the principles has a plan for IT uh support
in the building a tech in the building so that's not changing um but there were questions about how we were going going to support the the students in each building but that that really isn't changing it's that was always that always lived in the building's budgets
so the 0.5 that historically has been at Norris will remain at Norris under the direction of the building principal in conjunction with this IT person yep okay y and and so really what what I'm
asking for is an approval uh of the job description for that point 2 um uh position and the stipens that go with it um there were questions last night and the previous night about the scope of
the work but the work really hasn't changed over time and um the plan that Michael has put together with the principles um with our local experts we are confident that we're going to be able to get the work done and the
41,18380 that makes up the cumulative 2 plus stipens exactly is already built into the central office budget and allocated down through it is okay
discussion hearing none is there a motion to see the job description of HRSD director of information technology revised as of April 1st 2025 so moved moved by Kim second seconded by
Margaret we switch this time is this going to be is so is this point to a new person coming in or is this someone who is in the school who is taking on additional responsibilities the latter okay i was going to say that's
Yeah and everything's everything's in place um so it's not like we're starting from starting over everything's in place the high school still has a tech position uh Norris does um there's a position being split between New Hingham
and um uh West Hampton and then Williamsburg also has their internal can uh internal tech position so the person at Norris and the others buildings are people that work there and are just getting like a stipen to be the IT
person or something right um well the person at like is it a teacher that's also taking on the responsibility of it that's part that's part of the plan is that we're going to well but spec I guess as it relates to us at Norris it is a is it correct right now I have a halftime tech person it's the same
person it will be the same person next year it's not changing but that it's half custodian half technology there you go okay thank you this person's been in that post for years I think since I've been on the committee the one that's doing the
videos for quiddage Just don't name any Don't name anybody talking about she's like "Yeah the custodian does it." I was like "What?" But that makes more sense now thank you uh so there's a motion made and seconded hearing no additional discussion all those in favor of the job description
approval as of April 1st 2025 say I i i opposed abstain hearing none motion passes unanimously good luck with that page of job description report ongoing business school choice do we
have an update oh yes um we we still are at the same place that we were we actually had two more students um pop up from Southampton that weren't on the census so we're at 62
including the two kindergarteners yes including the two that we already accepted for school choice that were siblings yeah so my recommendation is not to add any Did you Did you tell me that we're going to only have one kindergarten class at the worst case scenario
please don't start any rumors i I was just asking for clarification i know i know i looked at Elizabeth first before I said that statement your face okay um so there's no action required by the committee we're holding fast at just
sitting at the two and you're going to close out and the and the two that are coming in are their siblings are already in the system which is one of the requirements of school choice to be clear if we have to get a question at tell meeting about it yes okay
um and while it's not on the agenda I believe um timeliness is in it so I'm going to um risk a violation of discussing a matter that's not on the agenda but time does not dictate another meeting although we are meeting on Tuesday um I believe uh the building
principal has a a request to make to us that requires school committee approval yes do I still have a job the sixth grade the sixth grade teachers would like to take the sixth grade students to Sunny's place in Summers Connecticut and because it's out of state I need school
committee approval it would be June 10th um we would depart during school hours and we would come back to school during school hours so it's 9:00 a.m to 2:45 p.m yeah and again traditionally only travel outside of the Commonwealth Massachusetts requires
school committee approval and it's usually done in advance of permission slips going home uh it's like Kimbles no Kimbell's farm um in Westfield they have bumper cars there they
have all kinds of fun stuff okay fun stuff for sixth graders it'll be fun it'll be fine so is anybody over here going to make a motion to approve yes I I so move the motion that the sixth graders can go to summers all right motion motion motion
made by Jen seconded by Dylan any discussion hearing none all in favor i oppose so moved be no other matters come before us there's a motion to adjourn by Dylan seconded by Kim all in favor i opposed meeting is concluded at 6:51 p.m
thank you very much