This government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers. So six o'cing the meeting to order. Hi everybody. Uh quum being present, calling the meeting to order. 6 o'clock. Um first
thing on the agenda is the approval of the minutes from June 25th. Move to approve. Second. All right. So move to approve by John, second by Dylan. Am I supposed to be taking notes? Yes.
Is there any discussion on the minutes? I'm going to stall on discussion so uh Jen has time to write down the motion and who seconded it so I can kind of filibuster for the moment if you want before we call. Do we not have a clerk anymore the recording?
Well, the this is being recorded there but we don't I don't know if anyone's doing the minutes central office cuz the admin veto's administrative assistant left and no one's been so we don't have a minute taker. Okay. Right. Cuz normally what would happen is they would just watch the TV show. Oh, I understand. And I just don't know
if anyone's doing I don't know if that's something that you know people covering the position are doing or not. So all right, Jen, are you all set? Mhm. All right. Is there any discussion on the minutes? All right. Hearing none. All in favor? I.
Okay. Motion carries. All right. Public comment. We have people here. I don't know if anyone wants to talk during public comment or if you're here to answer questions later in the agenda. The later in the agenda. Okay. Yeah. Everybody. Okay. Okay. Good. Thank you. All right. Uh, no warrants,
no announcements or correspondence that I'm aware of. So, Alisa, principal's report. Okay. Here's the principal's report for August 13th, 2025. Um, our enrollment is 479 students, which is
the same as it was in June. However, there was a lot of movement back and forth. It just ended up at the same number, and it continues to change daily. um not by a lot but just by a little bit. So $47. Um for summer work um we have installed new doors in the
gym that lead to the outside and also new doors were installed in the custodial office leading to the outside. These were funded by the town of Southampton through the capital plan and also new flooring has been installed in preschool and two kindergarten classes in that same wing. We took up the carpet
and installed flooring that was part of the capital plan as well which we are very grateful for. It's cleaner, probably less germy, and the rugs, and the rugs have been there for about 30 years. So, um, it's great to have those new floors. They're all in, and we're ready to go. So, the floor, the
custodians have been working hard to wax and shine the floors. The classroom rugs have all been shampooed, and the tiled floors in each classroom have also been done. We're working on the outside of the building a little bit this week. Um Tom has been powerwashing the front
entryway um and sort of going onto the Poory Meadow Roadside as well. You can see it if you drive by. One half of it has been powerwashed today and the other half will be tomorrow. And that moldy black stuff that just sits there on the surface of the building. Um it looks
really nice now that he's power washing. He does that every couple years. Um he also has purchased concrete from Flurry I believe and has cut out part of the um concrete apron of the the walkway there in front
where the buses are. We had it um redone a few years ago, patched up a few years ago and where those patches are has started to come up from the winter, from the ice and the cold and then the warmth. And so he has done a really good job cutting that. He said it was something that he could do. So, he cut
it out and added some concrete there and it looks really good and it's less of a tripping hazard now because we can't afford to get the whole thing done. Uh some academic things that are happening, the K to5 Bridges program has a transition kit that we've purchased um with curriculum money. Um, and this was
led by assistant superintendent Michael Ferdet. Um, and we're moving to this third edition of Bridges. And it, um, the teachers have all received their materials in grades K through five. And there's some professional development that they will do if they would like to on their own, but there's also a, um,
like a getting to know you guide that shows you what the difference is between the second and the third edition that we'll be working on during staff meetings this year. Grade five social studies. were moving from grade 5 students receiving social studies instruction from only Mrs. Sullivan. Um she was teaching science and social
studies and now each teacher is going to teach their own social studies in addition to the subject that they taught and Mrs. Sullivan will focus solely on science. So there are three full blocks during the day and the students get ELA, math and science and then social studies
is done during an additional half block each day at the end of the day and each teacher is willing to do that. So that that'll be great. Some staff news. Um since our last school committee meeting, we voted to approve the money to bring
back a special ed teacher and we have posted and hired Katherine Lton. Katherine lives in Hatfield and has experience in Hatfield and in South Hadley public schools. We also hired Lindsay Adams Rivera who was a building substitute for the admin assistant
position that was open. Um Lindsay has a child at Norris and one at Hampshire. We're looking forward to having her in the office at Norris, which will be great. And then unfilled positions at this time include a paraprofessional, part-time school nurse, BCBA, and a preschool speech language pathologist.
There's a picture of the beautiful floors. It's all shiny. I don't know if you can see it. It's not in color, but you'll see it online. It's been a little hard um because of the budget cuts. I have to say that um people that were cut to 0.5 are
really having a hard were having a hard time with being uh without health insurance. And so I had people resign or retire or resign. So I had unanticipated positions that I had to fill this summer that I didn't think I would have to fill. So that's why we're still working
on all of that. Do you have candidates for the unfilled positions at this point? I do. I do and we continue to um interview and offer I offered uh SLP to two different people who couldn't take it because of not having health insurance and you'll hear a little more
about that later in the agenda. So, thank you. Any other questions for Lisa? Thanks, Lisa. Okay, I have one question actually. The social studies stuff, are they all going to be teaching the same thing? Yes. Okay, so it's all the same, just each teacher's doing it on their own. Okay.
Yes. Everybody all set up. Good evening everyone. Uh the pretty short superintendent report. Um as many know the uh insurance trust Hampshire insurance trust is raising rates mid
year. Uh I sent out a preliminary message to all staff teachers using uh parent square uh just to announce and share that uh information. That was quite the shock to everyone that received it. Um, and
the the what we're trying to do now and what we're working on, what I shared with you in the in the drive folder is a draft letter that includes the um the communication from the trust uh and that has uh some numbers attached to it. So
everyone will be able to take a look at that. Uh once that letter is completed and Dawn I think is finalizing it. Uh that'll go out I hope by Friday. And so that'll um be a communication from um uh
Rachel Emerson's office to faculty and staff in uh in the regionals not in the municipals. So that's a different communication from a different source. Um unfortunately my administrative assistant uh resigned her position. Uh
I'm really actually happy for her. It's a growth opportunity for her and um she's she's really uh was headunted for a position with power school uh with respect to state reporting which is kind of where her niche was uh with reticer
previous to uh uh coming to Hampshire regional. So I wish her the best. She was a wonderful person to work with and a wonderful member of the team. We're actively uh interviewing and working to fill that position ASAP because it's tough to work without your right arm. Um
Lauren, Mike, Ma and myself uh excuse me and Amy and myself attended a webinar that's uh focused on the competency determination and graduation requirements for the state. And this is in response to the ballot question. um we had a preliminary CD competency
determination um requirement that we we put in place, but now the the state has come out with regulations. The um the the link that is in this um document in the in the uh in the drive has the
graduation requirements, the recording of that that scintillating webinar and the slides of it which gives you all the information you really need. Um Lauren has done an amazing job uh really synthesizing that and really and
preparing for a presentation to the school committee at Hampshire Regional. And uh Amy of course from her perspective as director of pupil services is uh looking at the transition piece that uh the state is requiring for
all students at the high school level. Uh and then next week we'll be holding our second annual alladmin workday. uh to complete final preparations for the upcoming school year. Um all the administration from the the buildings and central office will be working
together with a focus on intra district cohesion collaboration. Uh we'll be finalizing PD uh bringing in our state trooper and our uh our uh local police to uh talk about safety and security to
schedule out dates for the school year. Uh we're bringing in Kimberly Roach to uh revisit Title 9 just to refresh everyone's memory on the other Title 9 that's back in in place. And one of the
uh big bucket items will be ED eval. Um we're we're assuming a new platform called um Vector Plus which is really uh used to be called Teach Point. Many of us uh have familiarity with it. uh and it's going to be new to some of the
schools, but it really is an excellent platform to keep everything organized to help uh alleviate the questions around how do I upload, what should I do, by what date, etc. And um the high school
and New Hingham already use it. All the principles talked about this throughout the year. We had some presentations from Vector and uh Southampton uh Williamsburg and West Hampton are now going to come on board again for that consistency across the districts and to
really uh create a platform that uh makes the organization of ED eval all the forms all the dates all the evidence all the um the action items that that anyone that has goals has to submit uh keeps it all in one place. So,
thank you. Any questions for veto? Okay. Chair's report. I don't have one. Um, the five chairs haven't met. ABC hasn't met. So, there's some stuff, but um John's going to cover it in the select board update. So, moving on.
Hampshire Regional. Has Hampshire Regional met, Jen? Uh, nope. They have a meeting on the 25th. Okay. PTO. Okay. That's me. Um they they had their uh first meeting of the school year last night and um just some
highlights of that. They the they are currently doing a fundraiser um to try to raise um additional funds because of the override not passing. And as of yesterday morning, uh the fundraiser had reached
$8,915. So that's pretty good. They have a goal of $15,000. So, there's a link to Zephy and the Norris PTO Facebook group. 8,000 what you said? 8,915. Um, and the other thing they did last night was they approved um every year
the PTO gives a I don't know if it's a stip I guess they call a stipen a $100 stipen for um teacher. It's not just teacher. It's teach. It's classroom teachers, but it's also like specials and OT and all those, right? t-shirt,
right? So, they it's $100. They get $100 per person. Um they approved that last night. Um ice cream social will be September 3rd at 5:30 with a rain date of September 4th. Trunk or treat will be October 17th.
The Holiday Bizaar, formerly known as the Apple Pie Festival, will be November 22nd. Yeah, I'm never getting over it. I'm never letting it go. Um and so that's November 22nd and they've got they've already booked a Norris night for the um Thunderbirds
which will be March 14th. Um other fundraising stuff they have going on, the congregational church is having a community dinner on September 9th and all the proceeds are going to the fundraiser for the whole because the override didn't pass thing. Um
and I think we'll have more about that later. And that's it for PO unless anyone has any questions. Okay, their next meeting is September 9th, 6:30 at the Norris Library. School council, uh, uh, Alisa is going to talk about the
school improvement plan a little bit later, so we'll wait for that. All right. Collaborative. Uh, the still an ongoing search for new executive director. Uh, firms have been identified to help with that search, but they have not begun yet. We were
supposed to meet next week. That meeting is off because I don't have the enough information yet. Uh, next meeting is scheduled for September. Any questions? Okay, John. Select board update. So, I think they're looking to schedule
a meeting for September 1st or second. It's a Tuesday. It's going to be between the select board and the finance committee. And I've suggested that the chair of the school committee attend that meeting. There will probably be an executive portion that um the chair
would be able to go into because it's going to be related to an update uh regarding uh negotiations with unions that may be scheduled for this current fiscal year. And the one of the crust is the insurance trust the 20% increase
that came on the 20% increase that we got in July which is really a 44% increase. So the town needs to identify 38 well the impact to the town is $386,000 as of October that we need to identify. Now 97,000 of that's going to come from
the employees because they pay the their percentage. So we need to identify $289,000 to fill that gap. We also need to figure out how to restore the $380,000 in next year's budget that didn't go in because of the override.
So, right there, we're sitting at about $600,000. There's a series of other things that are happening that uh will become public after the joint session with finance comes out, but I think it's safe to say that uh there's going to
have to be an override question. It's probably going to be around $1.2 million just to restore all the funding. Forget about public safety building. Forget about the Council on Aging. Um so, we need to figure out where that money is going to come from. We have a potential
that we can use operation and stabilization money as a backfall. However, that requires threequarters of a majority vote at town meeting. So, that would have to pass there. If it doesn't pass there, then the only other option is to go into mid-year cuts within the existing budget, which obviously we want to try to avoid
because from a school committee point of view, the Norris budget is roughly 56 57% of the entire town budget. So, it's my way of saying we need the support to withdraw the stabilization funds and we need to make sure it
passes. So, if there's a town meeting, we need to the select board already called for one. It's going to be in September and the additional items will be to move forward with the $11 million request for the Council on Aging to fill the vacancy
on the select board. Um, and there probably will be some other things. There'll be a special election 35 days after that. Mhm. Which is the first Tuesday in November. Wait, what? And the special election is special election. It will be needed for
the second vote assuming council on aging passes at town meeting at special town meeting has to go to the ballot and it has to be a ballot to fill the select board seat. Okay. But the to use stabilization to cover all of this is just the town meeting vote I believe. So, but I'm waiting to get
clarification. Clarification. Okay. All right. And would that 1.2 million override be on that if if it is that up for discussion or is that for next fiscal year? That would be on a separate ballot. That'd be because we'd have to do the budget. So that's in the next that's our regular time.
So I'm making sure. Okay. So the regular budget cycle that so what we vote on in May you believe will have a $1.2 million override? It's going to have to be. We're not going to be able to raise enough revenue. Okay. Yep.
Any questions for John? I I will say from the town's point of view, the town is currently looking at alternative health options to exit the trust. Um and uh and I'm spearing head spearheading that with the town on the
town side and a proono capacity. Um but it's very similar to what we did for Hoyoke and we have three other communities. It's actually been a windfall for me on the private sector because all the towns are coming out now to move out of the trust which is just going to make the trust worse
because the unhealthy ones will staying. Yep. So, so on that point, um we can talk later if you want, but I'm I'm I'm aware there's been several meetings with other municipalities and state legislators regard legislators regarding
either state backup funds or options for exiting the trust. Yeah, I'm just assuming that that's not an option and if it turns out to be an option, then we can stop everything else. But I don't I don't think from a select board point of view, I don't think we should wait for that to end. And and Chris is involved.
Chris and Scott are involved with those conversations. Yeah. I mean, the town the state did come in and bail out the gick for $300 million, right, last year. So why can't they do it for the trust? But it is what it is. And the paychecks
are going to get hit in October. for the deductions. So is a similar letter going from the town to school employees but like the um central office is doing to the regional employees what they're there'll be a communication to all all
impacted town employees. So it's probably only it's only going to go to the ones that actually are on the plan. No, I No, I understand. But I'm saying like so there's a plan in place. I mean like there's some there's some kind of communication going out to the town employees relatively soon given that if it's hitting their
paychecks, when is it hitting? October. Okay. Is for the regionals, isn't it hitting at September 1st? Is that what your letter said? That's part of my report. Yeah. So, all right. Okay. Um, any other questions for John?
All right, John. budget and finance team update. Okay, so picking up where John just left off, starting with the health plan, um the Hampshire regional impact of the same 20% increase is going to add another $229,000
to the Hampshire regional budget for this year. Uh wait a minute, it's going to Excuse me. It's going to actually add more than that. Um, but the 229,000 is the impact to Southampton. I apologize. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Sorry.
What? So, it's like 400. It's almost 400,000 that um is being added to the Hampshire Regional Budget. And of that 229,000 will be going would be allocated to
Southampton if one of the options is to do a mid-year assessment to the towns which would require a new you know special a special town meeting etc. So one of the ways that Hampshire regional could come up with that money is to go out to the towns and and do another uh
assessment. Um the other way is to find that money somewhere within its own budget and revenue sources. So the only real place that we can look at for that is the school choice balance that the
that the school has and it is um s it's high enough to be able to take to take that um hit but at at a significant um impact and that hasn't been discussed with the Hampshire regional school
committee yet. I just want to be clear. You're talking about the school choice at the Hampshire regional level, not not the Norris school choice. Okay. No. So, um, this is the Hampshire regional bud budget impact. It's like 383,000. It's almost 400 in round numbers. And we have to figure out where that's going to come
from. We have not met with the Hampshire Regional School Committee yet to see if they would um entertain taking it from the school choice fund which would then limit the impact to the towns.
Um the al the third alternative is some hybrid approach where 200,000 may come from school choice and and some amount to the towns. So those are the only three options that we have control over. Um the other or that we could propose I
should say. The other option as Dylan mentioned is that um we do know the legislators have been in conversation with the trust regarding and within the the uh governor's office regarding potential assistance to the towns um and
units that are impacted. So that's what the impact is on the school level on the um in in the employee level. Um within Hampshire regional the split is 7525. Um I don't know what it is within your town if it's like that or not.
Um and in CG so Chesfield Ocean it's 60/40. So the employees pick up 40% and the employer um 60. But within Hampshire Regional, um the impact to the employee is going to be um somewhere between $49 to $134
a month depending on um which you know plan you've picked up. That's the PO, the more expensive plan and depending on whether you've individual coverage plus one or family coverage. So that amounts
to about 59 $590 a year to $1,600 a year. Um, and if you're in the HMO, the impact on an annual basis is somewhere between $500 and $1,400 a year or 42 to $120 a
month. So, depending on where you are, the one option that will be communicated in the letter is that um in recognition of the significant impact and the more expensive option with the PO, if somebody wanted to move from the PO down
to the HMO, they are allowing that. So, um, that has, as we've all talked about, an impact on the employer and employee. Um, the other thing I wanted to report on, could could I just ask a couple questions on this matter?
So, option one to defay. I'm assuming you didn't use that word, but I'm assuming if Hampshire Regional opts to use available funds this time, they're going to be looking for that in the next budget. They're going to It's just going to be a temporary like a interest free
loan, right? Which compounds to that 1.2 million number and then um second the the trust is allowing mid-year change for non-qualified event only going from the PO to the HMO. Yes. As a cost saving measures. And third
point, the trustees who are fiduciaries to the employees and not the trust, have they yet put forward any explanation why they went five years in a row with 0% increases? That has not been discussed. No, I would I would say again for the
chair to decide now whether or not this raises to the level where they violated their fiduciary trust should be removed as trustees putting us into this situation. Just one point of correction. I believe it's 5 years of no increases and one year of a one and a half% decrease
actually. And yes, during CO meanwhile allowing all the GLP1 narcotics into the plan. Yeah. And for 5 years, I'm also Okay, then I have no idea. Anybody has
Oh, I wanted one more thing to say on that subject and um to Dylan's point and to John's comment, the trust is making these increases effective October 1, but all all of us pay a month in advance. So, employees will start to feel that in
September. So, we'll be deducting um the employees portion out of the first September check. And is that true then for the town side as well? I if the Hampshire if if the regional has to do it then does that would that if we collect it a month in advance then yes I could contact I could ask our
interim acting treasurer I I don't know the answer whether we pay in agreeers or or pay in well it's just trust it's the same trust and it's the same trust requirement so I wouldn't bet my life on anything but I would say that more likely than not you
will have to all all participants will feel it in their September check okay Well, September 1st is a couple weeks away, so it would be good if the town could get their communication out. Same. Okay, John, you have anything else? Um, yes. And a couple more things. The
second one is, um, as noted in the minutes, um, at the last meeting, we talked about a forecast of where we thought we would be in FY25. So, I'm actively working with Bradley right now to reconcile those numbers and
to determine where we are. Um once we have stabilized those numbers and identified all of the offsets to the budget and we're applying different grants, etc., we'll come up with an amount. Um the the minutes note that it
would be about a $59,000 deficit for the elementary school. However, we may be able to bring that down and we'll know that in the next couple of weeks, but we already got approval from the select board and the finance committee to cover that, right? Yes. Okay. Yes. Um so then uh that's
that's the um FY25 FY26 budgets unlike 25 the way the information is presented on the reports we're going to present them differently. That is to say the school committee approves a gross budget
and then there are offsets to that budget. But when the reports have been produced, the gross number is in there and it's very difficult for the principles and anybody else looking at it, the school committee if you were getting reports to actually be able to track those because it's it's um the
budget number is too large. Just suffice it to say the budget number is too large um because it doesn't factor in the offsets. And we've discussed this with our auditors, with the do with Desi, we're all in agreement that we need to present them differently. so that people
have better control over um the numbers and would be able to do what John was saying as representatives tracking the numbers know early on. Oh, we're we're pl it looks like we're going to be under budget or it looks like we're going to be over budget. So, you
will see that and I'll be able to explain that once we get the 26 budget numbers loaded that the school committee identifies offsets to the budget. So, school choice, um, circuit breaker, those kinds of things. And we are applying those
upfront as opposed to retroactively. So, I know it's probably as clear as mud, but it will be clearer when you actually get a report so you can see it and I'll go over it then. Suffice it to say, we are implementing something for FY26 that'll make it easier to track what the expenditures are.
And will we see that next month? You, that is our goal to see for you to see it in September. Okay. Oh, wait a minute. When is your September meeting? It depends. Um, probably September 10th. Uh, you may not see it. We We'll hope that you'll see it, but I don't. No. Okay.
I can't commit to that. Um, and then the fourth item. Oh, well, the other item is just to close the loop on the FY24 central office cost. those um that the
town well that was incurred by the um elementary school that the town needed to come up with the money for and um that there's been a discussion between the town of Southampton and Hampshire Regional and they have agreed on what the payments will be over the next
several years that's been accepted by the do and desi with a with one ch with one minor well with one change and everyone has signed it and the payment is um on its way. So that taking care of that is um behind us.
So that's going to help with Hampshire DND then, right? That will help with Hampshire END. And the goal was to try to get it in um before September so that uh they do allow you when you have a receivable on the books at the end of June, they allow you to count any revenues that you've
received before the end of September and it will help a little bit. Okay. Okay. Um the other thing is um Vito and I have been meeting to review what we have learned this year and and
what we can do going forward. We want to try to accelerate the end of the forensic costs. Um understanding the the pressures on our budget. Um the expectation is was that that those might last for 2 or 3 years. And what we're
trying to do is make this the year that they would stop. Um, and in order to do that, um, we want to ensure that the person who has been our accounting person for this whole period, um, is
able to transfer that institutional knowledge to whoever is hired. Um, one of the things that we have had in the budget for for the last couple of years is a position for a financial analyst or
accounting person. Um, we have not filled that because that's that fund has that those funds have been necessary to cover the forensic costs. Um so we would like to uh propose filling that position
um as soon as possible so that we can have that crossover training. Um and it is consistent with what we've heard from Desi and the do and now uh the auditors the auditors have come in and audited
FY23 for Chesterfield Gan. We anticipate that they're they'll have the same comments for um New Hampshire Regional as well and that is that as it comes no surprise to anybody here that the accounting has been less than stellar. Um that there
are significant issues and they need to be addressed. Um they have for the last several years speaking of fiduciary responsibility for the last several years they have indicated in their management letter um that
uh the central office is not staffed proper properly both in terms of the skills and the number of people. um that was understood and so a position was put into the budget a couple of years ago
but we haven't filled it. So now um we understand that we need to fill it with somebody that has significant accounting financial experience recently. Um Price Waterhouse Coopers an audit firm has laid off 2,000 people and um we have
gotten the resume of one of those people and I would like to hire that person. um she will not be on the market long. Um she has very very good skills and she would be a she would be a perfect fit in
my view for um this position. Uh at at one point Vita and I were talking about actually creating a new job description that would have accountant as the uh title so to speak.
But as we've discussed it and reviewed our needs etc. we have decided and would like to recommend that we fill the position that currently exists in a job description called assistant business administrator. We
have that position already. We would recommend another one with that same title and responsibilities whereby the assistant business administrator for the regional schools would be one person. It would be the person with the accounting experience because the regional does not
have an accountant. The assistant business administrator for the municipal schools would would not necessarily be an accountant. They would have financial background and experience as the current person does but they would work with the municipal accountants that are already
in place. So their expertise is slightly different but the amount of work that has to be done and the type of work that has to be done in both of those would be similar and would be covered through that job description. Further um one of the other things that that I
have mentioned and that everybody sees is that there are several single points of failure. So we have a accounts payable person. We have a payroll person. We have an assistant business administrator. What we don't have is cross trainining
and we don't have the capacity for cross trainining. If we add this other person in the mix, we would be able to have the cross trainining that is necessary to ensure if one person leaves, it doesn't crash the whole system.
So it's it's basically we have heard we have our own analysis veto and I having been there and looked at it. It's been reinforced by our external auditors by Desi and by the do we need to add capacity and we need to add certain
skills. Um we have been doing this with every job that we're filling. So, right now we're in the process of filling the payroll um job. And so, we're looking for people who have those skills that can um
augment the entire portfolio of skills within the department. So, you have the money in the budget right now for one of those positions. Yeah, we have the money. So, what we would propose is doing whatever we're going to do, which I just proposed, within the budget. So, we're not asking
for more money. The budget is there. We just have to give move the external person along, use those funds which were already allocated for this position for this position. And if we do it now and we will have sufficient funds to carry
us through FY26 and live within our budget and still have the have the training for the the person who's coming in by the person who's already there, the external person. So, one of the things with the forensic work though was that eventually
that cost was going to go away and it will because there was there's $200,000 of cost, but we there was also another $100,000 that was added to that to bring in the cadre of of skills that we needed. So, the 200,000 we're hoping
will we're planning to go away or most of it to go away this year. We may still have to have a little bit the following year in FY27, but we already anticipating the pressures on the budget for 27. So, we're trying to see if we can get that stopped now and still um
use uh so we would still get rid of that 200, but that other 100 which was in our budget would stay. Okay. So, that's not considered it's not part of the forensics. The forensics is two something, right? No, I just I wanted to be sure that we're not adding it wasn't going to be like, you know, Massachusetts turnpike taxes that were
supposed to go away when the turnpike was finished. And, you know, no, we're keenly aware that we're keenly aware that everyone wants those to go away as soon as possible. And that's been our goal at the same time trying to do it in a way that is responsible and
um gives us what we need. The reason I'm even mentioning it today because we're you know um reviewing our ideas with with council just to make sure that we can go forward. I just didn't know if we are filling position that's already budgeted and where there's
already a job description if I have to go to five or six school committees to get approval before doing it. I believe you do when there when you're putting in your job description, which we did like um couple months ago for the intern, but this is something that's already
budgeted. It's for a job description that already exists. It's just how Veto and I are organizing the staff within the office. And if I could just piggyback on what Don's saying, you know, the reality of the situation is be we're in this
situation because we didn't have accounting uh skills in the in the central office and that went away I believe 5 to seven years ago is what my I was informed is that there was uh and this is from the auditors at a certain
point in history there was an accounting skilled person in the central office. when that person left others rose up didn't have the necessary skills they were doing the work by wrote and so the analytical side of and the skills of an
accountant on the back end of things were lost my our fear is that if we keep doing things the same way we're going to say we're going to get the same outcome. So we're given a three-year contract to come in and identify what's wrong to fix
it. We've talked about the forensic cost being essential to get us out of the the hole that we're in. Um all the tasks that we were assigned from Desi and the do are being accomplished within the timeline that Dawn has identified and
the um position that Dawn's talking about, not the payroll uh not the payroll position, that's a different beast. But this $100,000 that was taken and put towards the forensic work would now come back to the central office for an accountant in order to make sure that
the regionals were functioning as effectively as the accountants on the municipal side were. So that's the plan that we have a little restructuring using the budget that's available to us that's been approved. And again, we, as Don said, we're we're going to council
to make sure that the plan A is is is viable based on everything that she does as a lawyer and that um that we can do what's right and prudent for our stakeholders. So if you had two
different assistant business administrators, would the one that was for two regional schools be assessed just to those schools and then the one for the municipals would just I would say no. Um and the reason I
would say no is because while the focus on the accounting end meaning um closing the books and things like that would be um the focus of that particular person in terms of accounts payable and payroll that crosses all
five schools they wouldn't. So um that is to say that would be the exclusive um area of of for just the regionals. I think they will be doing work that will transcend um in some cases in order to create the cross trainining that we've
talked about. But um it's conceivable that after we do this in 26 that we could evaluate with the appropriate people, meaning if it's the ABC or if it's the each um school committee
whether or not it makes sense to realign the uh allocation of that, but I I don't I can't commit to that right now because I I really have to see what the work is. Okay. And um but I think that
um more purposefully I think we need to put it in writing uh identify a plan and a proposal uh and have it vetted against the governance agreements with our lawyer. Okay. And just to kind of piggyback on what
Kim said, you know, I'm not opposed necessarily to having the staff that we need, especially if these staff are positions that were filled there. However, prior to this administration and during this administration, there's been asks for more money that were obviously
needed and a lot of those were under the promise of the temporary costs and we agreed to kind of blow the central office budget to fix a real problem. But I think we all were on the understand that those were temporary. Yes. And I really don't want to end up
in a situation where it says we're coming back and being told, "Well, we said it was temporary, but we really need all that money now." So, you're absolutely correct. The the forensic costs in total were temporary, but $100,000 of that temporary cost was
in the the budget. And I, if I may, um, with all due respect, state that a little differently. The forensic costs were 200,000 in I believe that was proposed in maybe 2024 and then um when I came in almost a
year ago and saw what was being spent it was slightly more than that and so we did come back for that um be yes and but that 100,000 was in the budget separate what you're saying is you're just reinforcing if I understand it Dylan
you're really reinforcing as everybody has that those are temporary cost and those that 200,000 or 200 whatever it is right at the moment needs to go away and that is our commitment is that is going to go away and what we're trying to do
is accelerate that so that it will go the majority of it will go away this year at the end of 26 and I appreciate that I do and this is not this is not a criticism of anyone sitting here but it's just I also have seen how these go of well we thought we
could do it for the hundred thousand but we really also want these job attributes too, which also means that the person is going to be a higher paid candidate. So, we need an additional $40,000 in order to pay them. And because we're bringing this person in, we really need someone to backfill this role. And that's going to be an additional $65,000. And all of
a sudden, that $200,000, you know, we had a promise of $100,000. All of a sudden, to to fulfill the end goal of what is being asked for, it ends up being more. So, I'm just asking that we try to avoid that.
I would definitely commit to trying to minimize that and not only minimize that, but to try to eliminate as much of the forensic expenses as possible. As soon as possible. As soon as possible. So,
John had a question. I know. I I see you. John, what do you what's up? So, let me try to recap this. In the existing budget you have right now, there there were non um there were regular dollars added
to that budget outside of the 200 for whatever the number was for forensics, right? Yeah. Was in that budget 24. It was there in 25 and 26. Right. So it's there not. So it's that 200 plus 600 was 300 all together. Yes. So we're talking about the 100 all together.
Yes. Right. And there's an approved job description for an assistant business administrator. Yes. Okay. And so this person is going to be open for about $78,000 to take the job or are you saying the 100 is the salary
and then we got to add 22% for benefits? Um the 100 was the salary. We're going to try to get it to less than that. But we also have the benefits budgeted as well. I don't know what Well, we just talked about we blew the benefits to hell with the extra 20% increase.
That's true. I mean, that goes without saying. Absolutely. So, so to your that was budgeted, it would be an additional 20%. Yes. Yeah. So, to your your question about if I don't believe the assistant business administrator is a select or school committee position. It's a
superintendent position. it's budgeted and you have if it wasn't budgeted and you didn't have approved approved job description I'd say you can't do it but then so to your first question what the process is I I think you just superintendent informs us when it's done
but secondly but but you can't exceed the $100,000 budget number for the salary no it's a h 100,000 if so we have $100,000 in the salary and then we would have um I have to look and see what was budgeted in the in the bud
But the benefits were budgeted. But I understand what you're saying. So now the 20% needs to come out of I just get it. But for transparency if it's within the 100 and then we're saying, "Well, yeah, but this one's on benefits. It's just more communication there." But the second statement that
you made about potentially hiring another person and then possibly ch I thought you were going to get to two. We are. We already have the one. We already have one and now we're getting to two assistant business administrators. It's just that was in the original book. Two
assistant business administrators. Well, one assistant business administrator was in the budget and another position called accountant financial, right? In in theory lesser paid. Um the accountant would never be lesser
paid than an assistant business administrator. It'd be about the same. About the same. But but the the the $100,000, as you said, is key. The second position she was talking about then was um one of our
uh our payroll clerk is is uh resigning her position and that's being filled. That I thought that's what you were talking about. I think now you talk about the two assistant business. So you have in the budget there's an assistant business administrator and in the budget there's this accounting position.
Yeah. It's it's a new position that was like a financial the person that's responsible for payroll. There's a payroll and there's an account payroll, right? Yeah. Okay. But that's not what I'm talking So, but these two positions that have not been filled yet are the assistant business administrator,
which which we had an assistant business administrator last year. That person is doing something else now. So now you're filling that position. So it's the accounting position that had not been filled. So those are and that has an approved job description. And it has an approved job description. Yes. So, so
you don't have to do anything with So, that is except Except you're not you're not authorized to hire two assistant business. You're authorized one business assistant business and one accountant. No, I mean, yes and no. That is to say,
we were authorized to do one very specific assistant business administrator with a very specific job title, which you have. Which we have. Okay. And the the next one was here's another position for $100,000. Call it what you will. And what Veto and I have
decided is that we're calling it an assistant business administrator. We're not going to call it an accountant. We're not going to call it a financial analyst. They will be doing the same thing as the other one. It's just that we are restructuring the department. That I think you need un universal
approval and and full transparency. That is why we uh we spoke to councel and we're providing the um the proposal to her so she can weigh in. You want to hire someone with that $100,000
that doesn't match the job description that the $100,000 was put aside for them. No, that's not true because thatund No, that $100,000 was never identified and now we've identified it and we've identified it as an assistant administrator. It was never
said, "Oh, this is going to be an accountant or this is going to be." So, there was no approved job description for $100,000. This is to this is to augment the skills that are necessary. Now, the reason I'm saying that in that way because truly I don't
have a problem going and getting authorization. In theory, I do not want to lose this person. And if I have to go to six places to get approval for that, I will I will lose that person. Well, it just seems ridiculous to me. Sorry to
be so bold. Well, so okay. So, so really you can't do anything here until you really need counsel to weigh in on that. I will say if it comes down that you do need to go to five or six places, that's when you do a joint meeting on Zoom of everybody at once, you do it one
night and you get your you get your meals. Don't make it a six week process. And I'd rather I'd rather air on the side of caution and get everybody's buy in because it's not something we're trying to pass quickly. It just so happens that I've approached veto to
pass it quickly in order to achieve an objective and in order to continue to improve our credibility with DESIE and the do we have by the end of September which is
around the corner six end of year reports to do. We have five audits to do by not the end of September, by January. We have the END to get certified in October. The amount of work that is
there is too much for who is there right now. And that's with me working many, many, many hours, which I've done for one year. And when I say many hours, I mean a time and a half. Yeah. So, I'm just suggesting that once
you know what it is you have to do, if you have to come to all of us, schedule a Zoom, get everybody on at one time and so that it's not a multi-week process. That makes sense. Makes sense to me. And I will say there was one time when we were in a crunch like this when I was chair at Hampshire
and we were having a heck of a time finding a night to do it. I gave up part of a Hampshire meeting to make it the Zoom meeting for everybody. I see. So, we have done that in the past. So, if there's an upcoming meeting that you have to go to the chair and say, "Hey, can you can your meeting start an hour
later so we can do this zoom with everybody?" Um, there is precedent because we did it before. So, you may want to try that. Thank you. So, um I'm trying to recall when we approved the additional 100,000. Yes.
Did we specify a job description attached to that? Not that I've been able to see. before us. It just says it says additional staffing and then it had you know question mark additional staffing financial
um for the central office. It would it would be back in that document that Mickey Bule brought forward. It is it was in the Mickey document. Exactly. So I I I you know this has been a a long process. Oh yeah. even before tonight. But I
don't see a majority of the 36 of us agreeing to put in that money without having it tied to something. I I don't see that vote ever going down. So, it had Go ahead. Okay. So, um I do appreciate since the
definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result. So, I appreciate that this is the approach you've taken. You clearly put a lot of thought into this. I do think it is something that we need to all have. We have to buy into this
so that you know we understand and I think Kim's idea is good and you know I think we can just get it done. I'll have to come up with some creative thinking if um
if I can't get that person. Well, I think I think if if what is the what is the the deadline in your mind? I will find that out next week. So, part of that conversation can be we're just we need to get this approved
and if you can get Kimberly working on it quickly like we could all meet next week. Yeah. Especially if it's Zoom. But the I think I think instead of trying to figure out how we got here, it time has moved so far from that vote
that if the two of you are here's the new plan, here's the road and because of this, this is what we want to do. Yep. This is what we thought we were going to do. Now we're here, it's here, here's the job description, here's whatever the thing is, whatever the money is. Paint that picture. Yes. And then I appreciate that. It's our
first opportunity to actually vet this and so I I appreciate the feedback and absolutely I think you are prepared to move forward as you as you mentioned as someone who was literally feel like I've been listening to people talk in
circles for just clarity there was a $100,000 line somewhere in that budget and it attached to it was just a bunch of accounting question marks we don't know blah blah blah there was never an actual job description attached to it that's So, what you want to do is create
the job description to hire that person that you talked about from that very fancy place and get them to do the necessary work that needs to be done to make sure that the problems that have preceded everyone for the past 5 to 7
years do not continue to happen. Now, it's not just that person. It's but they have the knowledge that hasn't been in that office. knowledge and there are people in the office who we are working with to move from data entry clerks to analysts themselves and so at
each at each level. So there's an oversight um there's an oversight capability that exists now that did not before and that is how do you draw somebody who does this work and and help
them learn to analyze the work and as an example of that um you know help me out here was this Southampton or West Hampton I forgotten there was a particular cost that has been incurred in excess of
$20,000 that was unnecessary. And the person who was data entering things, who has started to analyze things, identified that and brought it to the attention of the people who should have been looking at it. And so that's what we're looking for.
We're looking to try to help each person there um come to the next level. So you have a plan to try to make these things happen. Yes. The immediate thing you need from school committee potentially is if you find out from council is for school the the all the committees to approve a job
description so you can move forward. Yes. With that piece of the puzzle for the big plan. Yeah. And and to approve a job description that already exists but to authorize that job description to be used for this $100,000 that's been reserved. Okay. Does the person from PW have um
school experience? No. But so there's a learning curve, but the sooner they get in Yes. Yeah. Yeah. There is they don't um but for the things that have to be done in the near future um meaning September and October they bring the skills necessary to do it
and besides the short term the long-term capacity to grow um because eventually what I think is best for the district is to have somebody homegrown who can take over my position when I was gone. Y
and um you can always go and try to hire another person, but we've done that. It's very hard. They don't exist, very many of them. And um learning curve, the learning courtesy. And so having somebody who could seamlessly move in, I
think, is is the ultimate goal that I have. Not that I'm trying to work myself out of a job. I'm have a commitment and I want to see it through. But my commitment is the district long term after I'm gone. And I think that's the beauty of having me here. I don't I don't care about this job forever. Um
I'm closer to the end of my career than I am to the beginning. And um I want to see Hampshire Regional survive much longer and it's only going to do so if we start doing what we need to do in that central office and we are getting there. I'm I'm
encouraged. We we've made a lot of progress. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Thanks, John. Thank you. All right. Thank you, John, for everything. Thank you. Okay. Um, next up, the district physician reappointment approval. The contract was in the folder and it's in
the packet. Um, Veto, is this the standard contract that Kimberly had already vetted that we've used before? Yes. So, really, all we did was change the dates. Yes. Okay. Same doctor. Same doctor, same responsibility, same pay. I move that we approve the employment
agreement for Dr. Hano Yner. I probably brought you back. Motion by Margaret. Second. Second by Dylan. Is there any further discussion or any discussion? All right. Hearing none. All in favor? I.
All right. Motion carries. All right. Next, it says wellness policy approval. Um, we don't have the wellness policy in our packets. The one that's in there. Oh, the one that's was shared with us is Hampshire Regional. Right. Well, so there's two things. I don't know if we've all seen that one
before or not. The one that we have in the folder. So, I'm thinking that this I mean theoretically it could be a first tonight could be a first read if everybody had a chance to look at it in the drive and we could put it on next month for a second read.
Yeah, I'm assuming they're just going to edit remove Hampshire Regional School District and put in Southampton. I assume so. All right. So, all right. So, that's what we need to do for the wellnesses update to uh A motion to make the wellness policy the first read and schedule it for a second
read and potential final vote the next monthly meeting with the amended changes. All right. Any Is there a second on that? All right. So John says this was the first reading. Margaret seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor? I.
Okay. All right. What you do have in your packets? Um Margaret worked on consolidating the universal free school meals and the school nutrition program charge policy which we talked about in June and we were told we had to update
our policies. So what you have in your packets is what Margaret worked on. You want to talk about it? Yeah, sure. So um what I did was primarily take the MASC policy. So you see what was in our
old policy crossed out and um everything in yellow are things that I had questions about. So do we offer a snack, Elisa? No. Okay, take that out.
Um, do we communicate in the C community eligibility provision? It's on the EF. We don't know. I do know.
Do you know that? I do believe that that's the case. All right. Well, this is a first read, so we'll confirm. Can you check on that? Y. Okay. Okay. For some reason, every the rest of our old policy isn't in here. I don't know why. I guess I messed up when I But
I It's all crossed out anyway. It was really old. Okay. Really, really old stuff. I can make sure it's in the second read. Okay. Are there any questions about that one?
Pretty straightforward. All right. So, that was EFC. Um, we specify charges in the school handbook. Yes. Alisa, Nikki. Okay. All right. So, now we're moving on to EFD. Same story, although all of that did get
included. You can see all the crossouts in there. Um, okay. So, a couple questions. Um, do we call it the food service department? MSC calls it the district food and nutrition program. What do we call it?
The cafeteria or is it is it the food service department? What do you call it? Do you call it food service or do you call it the food services? Do you call What do you call the cafeteria? What do you call the cafeteria services? Okay. So, we just call it good services.
Okay. And then under payments, it says if parents, guardians have issues with student purchases, they should contact whom for assistance? Are they contacting the cafeteria manager? Cafeteria manager.
Okay. Okay. Um, and then we've got, uh, parents, guardians may pay in advance for anticipated purchases beyond the free mail amount allowed. Further details are available on the school district website and in the handbook. They are not.
So, I think they are supposed to be put them in there. Okay. I think it says something in our handbook about putting money on your child's account. It used to Well, I don't know if it's in the handbook, but I know we used to I didn't see it in the last handbook,
but I didn't There the current one isn't up there. So, it's been free for so long that we haven't had to deal with it. Do parents actively put money on $10 on the child's account and then take a milk every day until that money runs out. And I believe it says it in our handbook. Can you see it?
I could have just missed it. I can double check it, too. Okay. So, do we need to put it on the website, though? Because this has an e on the website. It is. Okay. All right. Um, and then we've got setting up an online account. See student handbook for
more details. Is it specified in the handbook or online how parents sign up for this online account when they enter it? When they enter the school system how they have you can have online at the elementary school. No, we don't have an online account. We just do it.
We don't have it at Norris. Right. Do you possess a computerized point of sale/cash register system? Okay. So, there is no online account. No. Okay. So, how do they do they bring a check and is that's outlined in the handbook
and then they and then the cafeteria manager has to manually enter onto the account. Like parents don't have access to the account. Okay. But the cafeteria manager will put it on the account. Okay. Um, and that is in the student handbook. Nikki, do you
Yeah, I think so. I can't find the handbook, but I think so. Okay. I had a tough time finding the handbook for some reason, too. You have to go to the district website. Yeah, it was like in a weird I expected it I expected it to see it under like school info as a general thing just as a
lay person. Change that, but we can. We will. Yeah. Okay. Um, and do parents and guardians receive automated low balance notices? Okay. And then we talked about what do we do? Well, oh,
I don't there's no no automation about it. I I I get a I get an email. Well, we got an email. Okay. So, I'll take out the word automated. Yeah, but it's not automated. It's not automated. They have to manually go through it. I'll take out the word automated. It just kicks out of your balances. Oh.
Oh, I don't know. How would I know that's wrong? He just automated all the taking the money out of my account. Put 20 bucks in there. Got one all a cart and we're told we're over budget by a buck 50. Oh, I bet he took one. Which
kid was that? I'll tell you. Not Margaret, what's the next thing? Well, then I would say I would guess that whatever he said was right. Okay. Um, under refunds. So, we talked about what happens when a student graduates. We didn't really talk about what happens if a student withdraws.
Um I think we're going to just send a check. Yeah. Within how many days of withdrawal or graduation? And the MASC policy says this must be done by written request is or are we trying to if
they're going to the regional we just send it? Like how do we want to handle it? Well, the money can't follow the student to Hampshire regional because it's two separate things. So that's okay. So I can take that out. Graduating students do not have the option to transfer funds. Correct.
Okay. And so when a student withdraws or graduates, what happens to the money? The money is well, I don't know about graduates or withdraws, but at the end of the school year, if there's any money left, it gets refunded to the to the parent
by check. By check with at what point? Right. they have an option of so last year we were able to we were ahead of the game and we got everybody down to zero before the last day of school so we didn't have to do anything but we still need something in our
policy so they would get a check okay like within 60 days within 30 days we could do 60 days okay um now students who've withdrawn same thing so if they're if they have left in their money okay
all right shook Go ahead. The child in second grade has $5 in it and they're in their prour into third grade. I I think past practices that money has stayed there. It's only when they when they exit at sixth grade, right?
Do you get the money back? Well, right. And then if you're withdrawing with from school, then the parent should be putting in the written request to get the money or Yeah. Um, the the MSSE policy did say that students can
transfer it to a sibling or to a friend or anyone they want to. I didn't include that in here. Let's not do that. Um, it felt complicated to me, but Okay, I agree with that. Okay, it's good the way it is. All right. Um and then under delinquent
accounts and collection student handbook contains detailed instructions for family assistance. Does it? I don't think so. Ah okay. So do I take it out or do we need to have some I think we need to think about what
what that looks like. What's the question about the handbook we wanted to know? I found it. All right. Uh now last question. Under cross refs. It references two other policies. I do not believe we have those policies.
I don't think we have a JQ and I don't know about the EF. All right. So, we'll look about Yeah, the policies are kind of all right. Wacky. So, we'll look to see if we have those or not. Yes.
Second rate. And in the meantime, so then we probably need to work on those and we can't put them as cross refracts until we have them. All right. And so so who's going to work on what the detailed instructions are for family assistance? Is that Alisa? Is that Alisa and I can work on that together
with Nikki? We can all do that together. The delinquent piece. I just I just note that in there it's referencing the business administrative office, central office, and not not the local principal's office. Uh, it says it says business office,
right? Do you want it not want it to say that? When I read business office, I think central office. That's what it's supposed to be. Yeah. But you want me to add district? Well, no. I'm just saying right now delinquencies aren't handled there. I mean, I agree the superintendent had oversight over it. But that's the role
of how they currently handle cafeteria manager, right? That's all part of that comp. Send out bills, call and see if people will pay. Okay. So we do want to change that to internal calls within food services. Yeah.
Okay. All right. Got it. Margaret over here on the community really provision which I'll research but um in order to we do qualify for that in
certain schools. don't know if Southampton does anymore. Um because you have to have at least 25% um or higher of students identified as low income. Okay. Um and so what I'm just wondering is if if it's not through CDP, it says for
districts participating through that, you serve breakfast and lunch at no cost. So if you do not qualify for that, then what happens? What are the This is all it said. And we're only 15.4% 4% low income.
What does the 164 according to this report that we're about to give? I should cross that. I should not include that. All right. So, are you serving free breakfast and lunch right now?
But that's because is that's because of the state. Aren't we doing it for the whole We're doing it for everybody. That's for the state. That's a whole entire thing that has started since co That's a different it has normally under a before co year
you would have to do it for that if you met the C right here on tape right hook's been free for all students forever right I think probably because their numbers because they're number
so but ours would still be free and reduced for those kids that met it it's just not for everybody if we were pre-COVID times right Do parents get reminded to complete the free and reduced lunch form? Because
that is really important that I was going to say we just got a thing to do it. I just got a thing for the high school do it even it's still free for everybody to still so people think they don't need to do it but they should do it right cuz it affects the statistics
lots of things. Yeah. I don't see anywhere here in the handbook anywhere where these specific things you're asking about. Yeah, I didn't I didn't either. So, we'll we'll work on it. We'll get what we need added. Do we need a motion to accept these as
the first read? Sure. So, move. Second. All right. So, move to take this as a first review by Dylan, second by Jen. All in favor? I. All right. Thanks for the work, Margaret. You're welcome. Yeah, that was a lot. Thank you. All right. So for next month, we'll do
second reading on wellness policy and what we just looked at. Okay. School improvement plan. Okay. So this is the last year of our three-year uh school improvement plan. So um we're going to try to keep the train on the tracks even though we've
had some budget cuts and some staff to do it. Um so we have 439 students. As you know, majority of those students are coming from surrounding towns. Our population data is 23.9% special ed, 15.4% low income and 2.1% English
language learners. So, it's about 36% high needs altogether. Some some students belong in two categories, so you can't just have those. Um, some of our strengths are we have a strong community support and partnerships. We have committed and collaborative staff
and we're focused on inclusive practices and targeted uh interventions. Some of our challenges are addressing diverse learning needs with limited resources and maintaining programs and staffing levels following budget constraints.
Um we have five goals. Uh the first one ELA interventions implement a tiered intervention model is our goal and inclusive practices for ELA to meet all students needs. So some of the key actions that we do in order to uh meet our goal is the fast bridge screening
three times a year targeted interventions for students who are below the 30th percentile and support and adjust our plans for students who are not responding. So, we're looking for outcomes of um fast bridge results that guide our flexible intervention groups,
data teams that meet after a screening period to analyze progress so that 100% of the students identified below the 30th percentile receive interventions and progress monitoring will show expected rates of improvement for 80% of the students and 100% of the students
that are not responding will be referred to group review for further examination. um inclusion strategies will support their engagement with core curriculum as measured by pro um classroom observations and participation data.
We also are continuing to work on the science of reading. So our goal is to deepen uh teacher understanding of the science of reading to improve our tier one core instruction and literacy and our actions are um the focus of science of reading for teachers. We're going to
do that through um faculty meetings after school um consistent implementation of our um core curriculum which is um open court and continue to implement the HDR program for K1 so that
we have the evidence that we want to see in the outcomes is that a 90% increase in teacher reported um science of reading knowledge. We did do a survey a couple years ago. We're going to do another survey um this year and we want to see 100% of teachers using open court
consistently for tier 1 and literacy um and the walkthroughs that I do with my assistant principal will show alignment with program expectations. 80% of the K1 students will show measurable gains and formic awareness on fastbridge screener
by the end of 2020. And then um the next goal is I took out the math goal because don't have a math intervention. I don't have either math intervention this year because of budget cuts. However, I would like to work with the school ILT to see how are we going
to catch those math students that may fall behind because our math scores are are really um but we don't want to lose track of that. So um goal number four, I should have omitted slide five on safety and security. So, we want to ensure that
students are safe um for their safety and their welfare. So, we're going to um implement and continue to implement our social emotional curriculum. Second step, we're going to promote kindness, responsibility, and safety values by uh reinstituting our I call we used to call
it behavior management team, but my assistant principal is working on getting that um team back together to do things with students to promote that kindness responsibility and safety. And we're going to continue with our regular safety drills and updated materials from
the police department, fire department, and um wherever else we need to learn from. So that um our social emotional learning lessons will be documented in lesson plans and 10% reduction of office referral students coming to the office for for
different things. You know, hopefully not punching each other or getting into fights, things like that. or do preventative measures. Um, student surveys and behavior tracking will show increased understanding and application of kindness, responsibility, and safety.
And 100% of staff and students will participate and have knowledge of our safety measures that we put in place. And then the last one is technology. We're going to expand student access of of effective use of technology. We're
going to um that's our goal. and we're going to integrate technology into units through collaboration with the library technology teacher um and have a annual tech audit and replacement planning for our devices. Um I know that our library
technology teacher is very interested in some of those things. Kathy is here right now. We were not able to hire a steam uh STEM and steam teacher this year because the budget wasn't even really brought to the table. But Kathy is very interested in instituting or
integrating some of that technology into her library time. So we will be doing that. Um we would like lessons to reflect meaningful technology integration. Students will demonstrate very appropriate digital skills as observed in classroom performance or project based um assessments. and the
annual tech audit will guide our request to the capital improvement committee um for different up-to-date devices and technology needs that we have in Norris. So we would like to in closing continue monitoring progress toward all of our
goals, develop ways to support programming despite our budget cuts, um celebrate successes and adjust our strategies as needed. It's just an ongoing last year of the improvement plan and I think we really need after this year a reset um to include more of
some of the inclusion work that we're doing now that we're really into it. Um really try to enhance our digital technology and integration that we have in Norris going forward. Um, and I'd like to thank our school council members, Margaret Larson,
Kelsey Ra, uh, Roshana Doshi is a parent, Kimberly Scaro, a parent, and too. Thank you. Appreciate all of your efforts. Does anyone have any questions for Alisa?
We don't have to approve these anymore, right? School committee doesn't do that anymore. Thought that was taken out. Do we approve these still? When in doubt, call for a vote. I move to approve the school improvement. Second. All right. So, move
to approve by Jill and second by John. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Okay. Thank you, Lisa. You put a lot of work into this. The many, many revisions. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So, next up, we have a vote on
accepting gifts from local businesses. Alisa, that's you. Yes. Okay. So, again with budget cuts, we have so many people wanting to help and I think that
we want to be not, you know, not just asking everybody for money and not we the PTO is really trying hard to support everything that we're doing for classroom teachers and and for our school for for the students. Um, and I know that parents want to go
out and buy extra this and extra that, but we want it to be meaningful. So, we really want to put it in sort of like the teachers hands of what the teachers need in order to support students because everybody has a different idea of what they need. Some teachers want to go out and buy all the pencils because they want the pencils to be a certain
kind of pencil where other teachers will say just give me pencils. But, you know, it's really hard to make everybody happy all the time. Um, some people have really stepped up as Anytime Nutrition, I guess, put something out there and challenged other businesses to also, um,
I think was we started with $700, um, and said if you can match it, you know, try to match it. And I know we can't, um, publicize on our Facebook page or try to encourage people to use those businesses, right?
So we have to accept these donations sort of quietly. However, we don't we can think the policy says we can't. Well, it says that what it says is gifts from industry or business um are subject to school committee approval and should
not be tied to endorsement of any business, service or product. However, it also says the principal shall acknowledge all gifts in an appropriate and timely manner. Yeah. And I would think that if it's a monetary contribution that they want to
do in excess of $100, that notification needs to be made, but the the check should go into the principal's revolving fund because then you you have you know discretion of where to use that money. Well, actually monetary gifts.
Um, so the principal shall have sole authority to accept monetary gifts and offers of supplies or equipment for the school in the name of the school committee when the gift is of educational value. But gifts from industry or business, which is what these are, are subject to
school committee approval. So we do have to prove that. Is there a period or a comma? because that that section is supposed to be that nobody gets naming rights for the ball field or as an example. So ind it just says gifts from industry
or business are subject to school committee approval. Then it also goes on to say monetary gifts must be presented to the principal in the form of checks or money orders payable to the school gift account shall be deposited by the business manager with the town treasurer in a
separate school gift account. Funds from this account shall be expended at the discretion of the school committee. So, so is it okay for me to name the businesses? Just name them right now. I think you I think we could name them, right? Unless they want to be anonymous,
right? I mean, we're not endorsing anything. You're just unless they want to be from, right? Thanking them. Acknowledging I'd like to just acknowledge that Anytime Nutrition started with $700 and asked people to match it and the people that matched the $700 were Applied
Mortgage, Pyanos, Kent Brothers Excavating, Hackworth School of Performing Arts, Parker and Oradi. So the total is 4,200. M and then a parent who owns um Kendo's cleaning services gave us $1,800, but he
wants to ear market for his child's two teachers at that grade level. So, I think it's K and five, which I will explain something in a minute. So, the 4200 and then 1,800 was for K and five. So, the classroom teachers typically get
$375 in our budget. All those supply lines were zeroed out. There's no money for supplies at all in our body. Um the language arts, math, ELELLL, and and different other teachers will get about $250 to spend on things that they do
with the kids. The specialist teachers usually get between $400 and $700. So using the $4,200, I would like to be able to give the faculty $195 each to order school supplies and then K and five would get the $300 donated from
the parent. So everybody gets $195, but because that parent earmarked it for K and five, those teachers would get 300. The PTO has accepted requests, right? and they have about $9,000 in donations that they
have received. Um they will al they Okay, so the $9,000 is going to stay in their account and then they're going to accept requests from the teachers. So the teacher can say, "I need something for my classroom." They fill out a slip, I sign it, and then they have to go to the PTO and ask for it and tell the PTO
what they're using it for. Um but the PTO is also giving the teachers that $100 startup money. So if you're a regular classroom teacher and you get or a class a teacher right any of the teachers at Norris will get 195 plus the 100 from the PTO. So it's about the same
as what they would be getting before the budget cuts which is great. Um and then the K and five teachers would be getting 300 without the 195 and then there's an opportunity for a grant request to the PTO.
PTO. Yep. So, the one who gave money for K and five gave $1,800. But wait, so I Okay, so you're taking $1,200 of that to I don't understand.
Okay, gotcha. Gotcha. Okay, thank you. I couldn't I I was not getting the math there. All right. Okay. So they're still behind the eightball a little because they would have gotten what was in the budget plus the $100 plus go to the PTO and ask for things.
Right. Right. So they are not where they had been before but this is making this is right. They're not at zero. So this is helping. Okay. Right. And I really want to thank I know I just thank the businesses um in Akendo's cleaning services and the PTO
for doing what they're doing and anyone out there that has donated to that fund to the PTO as well without you know I don't have names obviously but that's pretty good. Yeah. And the fundraising for PTO is ongoing so it's not too late if people want to do that. Okay. So, we need to
I will make a motion to accept the monetary gifts on behalf of the school committee as uh deposited pursuant to our policy and to be spent at the discretion of the principal as described and for the building principal to
acknowledge and thank the donating businesses in the appropriate manner. Second. Okay. Jen, do you have all that? Nope. I'll go back and watch it. Okay. Thank you. Is there any
too many words for my discussion about this? Um, my one discussion would be per the policy saying that we have to approve money. Is that different? Now, you read you read that and said that the school committee gets Yeah. So, is this our way of
this is our approved? That was part that was our cuz Dylan made it a two-part thing. and we're accepting it and we're accepting we're approving how Alisa wants to use it. Okay. Some some schools have a baseline like if it's under that then right you know whatever some schools allow anonymous
gifts you know it kind of depends and I don't know if we want to I mean this policy there's a motion on the floor Julie second it just that vote be called call for the vote for Pete's sake well cuz she's not going to go down that road.
Any other discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I I Madam Chair, if I may, what can we take up that policy and revise it because the because the one thing again I think it because it should mirror what
we did on the town side and it's corporate and industrial for naming purposes doesn't happen. But if a company out there wants a red check for 10 grand, no strings attached, no problem. But the second thing is that principal's fund. It's traditionally used for what do they call the la the
last day of school with the field day field days. That's never come to us for us to approve. It's parents just go and drop off a check. It goes in there and somebody the gift revolving fund check out to the town of Southampton. What do you spend that money on? Do you
spend any of that on field day? Do you spend any of it on field day? I don't think so. That's all PTO, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, leave it the way it is then. Well, so no. So, what I was going to say though is I also have never just dropped a check off to say, "Hey, there's 100 bucks. Do
what you want with it at the school." Well, I know I did when we had this whole controversy about the blue waves. So, what do I use for like there's money for it? It should not be it shouldn't have could be come back to this body if it's being used 100 bucks here, five bucks there. It's the principle. if they have
to submit a monthly or yearly recap. Well, according to this policy, we're the balance is supposed to be reported to us monthly. So, this is also this policy. So, what I'm going to say is this policy
is from 1995. So, perhaps we could look at revamping it. John, you seem to have some thoughts on this. Would you like to be in charge of Yeah, I'll get my red pen out for that. Okay. So, so for next month, John is going to have a first read for Oh, and I won't be by mail because I won't be at next month's meeting.
Oh, well, aren't you just have that? That's the That's the current policy. All right. So, via email, John will get us the first Sure. All right. Good. Thank you. Okay. Now, this is hour. We're going to revisit the 2025 2026
calendar. So, um, for background, the, um, union leadership reached out to me in July, and on July 24th, Margaret and I met with union leaders, um, to hear about their concerns with the 2025 2026
calendar, specifically around the December break. Um, I think you all last night also received a letter from the union explaining their concerns. So, did everyone have a chance to read the letter? Yes. Yep. Okay. Um,
Union is here. If anybody has any questions before we talk about it, if there's anything you need clarified, um, Erica, you're good with taking questions. Okay. Um, does anybody have any, could you come to the microphone so
that for the recording? Thank you. And if you want to say your name, well, Jim probably knows it. Teddy and Levi. Um, Erikica Misho, grade three teacher at Norris. Okay. Okay. So, um, first question is,
how was this run by the Southampton Teachers Association and was there a vote or was there just a There was no vote. I think teachers discussed it throughout the year and were kind of surprised at the length of the December break. So, they brought
concerns to us. So then we met as the leadership group to talk about it and take a look and come up with a different idea of how to better use that time as opposed to having the full twoe break. Um and then we also looked at the other the other elementary schools are doing the full day Monday half day Tuesday. So
it would also just kind of be consistent with what the other elementary schools are doing. Are there teachers who've already scheduled some time off and would thus need to use personal days or something? Do we know? I have no idea if other
teachers if any staff members have planned vacations and if they would need time. So they would have to use personal. Yeah. Um and to clarify because I didn't say this. So what the what the union um is suggesting is that instead of having the
December break go from where's my December? Um, instead of having school end on the 19th and having kids come back on January 5th, school would be a full day on
December 22nd, half day on the 23rd, and then students would come back on January 5th. So, um, that was the request, and I didn't say that before. Okay. Do you have any other questions, Margaret? And that also changes when school gets out in June,
right? which is also our goal too. The sooner the better just because of heat and if you're on the second floor at Norris in June and it's like it is today, it's really difficult to keep those kids engaged. So the potential last day would be the
13th. No, it would be the 11th. It would be the 11th. 11th if we bumped it back cuz it's currently cuz I'm looking at the calendar cuz I remember this conversation. Yep. And I remember why we did it the way we did it right because we bumped back August. Yep.
Because every other I mean if we're talking about aligning with elementary schools the issue was all after Labor Day and the and the concern from the union was we like to come back before Labor Day to have the 345. So we moved that back which would then put us
out in the middle of the second week of June which is substantially before with no snow days right which is substantially before the other other schools. So the decision was made to um extend the December break at that time and if I remember correctly I
believe union leadership was in the room when this conversation was happening. I don't recall I wasn't in that meeting. Um I feel like we talked as a group or we typically hear about it in March and there's drafts that are put out and people look at them and I feel like even
at a faculty meeting sometimes we're given the draft and we all look at it. Um, so I don't know who may have been here at the March meeting, but my issue with this is that it's August 13th. People have seen this calendar and had
this calendar by at the very latest May. It's been approved. It was it was approved. It's been 5 months. So why wasn't this brought up after it was approved? And then we could have had a discussion about, okay, maybe we'll just rework it or maybe for district continuality or whatever that word is,
continuity, we'll keep it the way that they originally made it. Like this to me seems ridiculous for an ask on August 13th when school starts in 2 weeks. My personal opinion, I read that email last night and was that's not when they made the ask to be
fair. Then why were we not informed of the ask when you guys were brought the ask? We met with them on July 24th. That's still July. And if this was approved in March, I understand. And and I made the decision to put it on tonight's agenda.
That I did not decide to do it any earlier than that. Well, no. And I'm not saying that part necessarily because we didn't have a meeting scheduled before this meeting anyway. I just think that even if they came to you in July and it was approved in March, if you had that big of an issue with it, it should have been
something that was brought up at our May or April or June meeting. My guess is it's probably we just heard conversations through like April, May, June from people and then it was like, okay, I guess it seems to be something that's bothering people. And my other guess would be the springtime was also
pretty hectic at Norris given all of the budget disaster that was going on. So, I feel like this kind of, you know, may not have been at the forefront. Um, but different people had comments, brought them to us, so we thought we'd, you know, bring it to you guys. You know, and not to push the point too
far, but different people. Are we talking five teachers? Are we talking 10 teachers? Are we talking the entire staff? I mean, you know what I'm saying? It's like if I know you can have I'm not pointing any fingers, but I know some not I'm not
even identifying anybody people whenever you have a group of 30 people you can have a few people who can be loud you know bring up a point and it feels like there's a huge concern with it when it's in fact maybe only a couple. So I mean was the entire staff pled for this or
was this just a few people who came to leadership group? I would double check with Elizabeth on how many, but there was no poll taken. So, we didn't have an STA meeting and do like show of hands, how many people vote one way or the other. I just think it's also like what do you
do with the parents that have had the calendar that know that they have two weeks off for Christmas and are like, "Oh, great. Let's go on that vacation that we normally can't take cuz we don't have enough time off." And now they're like, "We can go visit grandma in Colorado for two weeks for Christmas. Woohoo." And now you're telling them that they're going to miss a day and a
half of school. Typically, in my experience, we see more absenteeism around the weeks of February and April break as opposed to the holiday break in December, but that's definitely a possibility for sure. I can personally understand how this
bubbles up. Having been a teacher, when it's really hectic in the spring, sometimes calendar stuff bubbles up. Y that's what happened when I was a teacher. So I do I do appreciate and understand that I I am a little concerned about parents who might have
vacation teachers who suddenly have to use days that they weren't expecting to use or we have to pay for subs you know so that that would be really my only concern. And to be fair I completely based on the letter I completely respect and
understand the reasons why that is a problem. I get that. You know, I'm not dismissing any of that. I think it's all there good, valid, understandable reasons. I I just whatever the reason, we're here now. It's August. It is what it is. I just have a hard time that it's
5 months. I understand they reached out in July. So, 4 months after the calendar's approved, we're now closer to the time off than we were when it was approved. You know what I'm saying? We're we're like at the 60% point, if you were between those two issues. I I just, you know, especially knowing that
I don't know. I mean, there what's going to happen if half the staff has already made vacations and now all of a sudden we're closing school because we can't staff it and can't get substitutes or afford to get a substitute, right? You know, or
Yeah. I just I don't know. John, are you my two cents? Yeah. I I I see both sides of this angle, but it goes back to what we talked in March. There's a flaw on how the the school calendars are put
together because it it's and I'm just going to repeat what I said then. It is the school committee's role and responsibility to set the calendar. Yet, traditionally, my seven years here, we're always the last stop. First it
started with the principles and then you know everybody tried to get together and I think I think we made a lot of progress here. My guess is next year I think the elementary calendars are probably going to mirror themselves so that we don't have where one committee's going rogue on its own and doing these things to try and get the early stuff
in. You know this is tough spot to be in right now because I I I'm the same way. I'm like, "Oh, originally when we did it, I'm like, we can hit the road on Saturday, 3 days before the airports go
and it's not a problem. I'll probably still do that and just keep Jacob out of school if if we make the change." Yeah. Because it doesn't personally impact me. I feel at all. I mean, it's not even the whole I hear you. I I'm personally I'm
indifferent in the sense of it doesn't impact me if we do it that day or not. I mean, heck, I agree with getting out summer's nice getting out earlier in June. I mean, it gets except I've heard from a lot of parents that even this year we got out so early that they had a hard time.
Yeah. Camps don't start until filling the gap of time when though cuz they still have to work. Two days I I don't see two days being the make or break there either. You know, it is what it is. Um, I just get, you know, I would be I I just honestly would have been much more comfortable with this if there had been
because like you said, parents, if if parents pull their kids out for a day and a half, it's right. It's not a dealbreaker, you know, and I think you're you're talking a very limited number of of kids that it's going to impact. And most of those parents are going to say, I'm take they might have been they might have been planning on leaving on Thursday
anyway, you know. So, like what it it's the least of my concern. The bigger one is I I you know is what happens if there's staffing issues? What happens if you know without knowing what staff feel about this? You know I
understand you're coming as a leadership of the union. I get that go ahead. So John's absolutely correct. you know the by MGL the school committees approve calendars but the work that was done collaboratively amongst the principles
initially put a united front if you will on it and then a change was made and then a change made at other schools and then we had you know the the the different approvals in the different days. Um I I
feel like the changes made at West Hampton and uh Williamsburg didn't incorporate the long um Christmas break, right? Uh but nonetheless, I I I was I was
happy that the the principles and Michael sat down and worked together on a calendar. Um but uh the purview of approval is a school. Yeah. Yeah, with that I I would just suggest like next year and they might
mirror, but I think there needs to be an elementary calendar and then the high school or middle and high school calendar because the the high school has that caveat in their collective bargaining agreement that creates that firm line. Yeah. Where the ele none of the elementaryaries have it and again kind
of along those lines. Get the kids in a day and a half or two days early so they can kind of settle down. So then that next full week or the the three, the four, the five, they're up and running where that's not necessarily an issue up at the high school, middle school. Understood. So I feel like we should go on the
record as a school committee. And so I um I'm going to honor the teachers request and move that we uh alter the calendar to have uh school on the 22nd and a half day. on the 23rd
with the last day of school, I guess, being June 12th. Okay, Marion, is there a second? Um, just looking at that. Are we It would be the 11th. June 11th. Okay.
Right. Cuz what's the Yeah, cuz the 15th a half day. The half day have Yeah. Okay. So, the 11th that gets us the right date, right? Last day of school to be confirmed. We believe it's the 11th. We can do that. Last day of school to be confirmed.
Okay. All right. Use the 11 f. Okay. Is there a second? I'll I'll second it for the pope. All right. So the motion is to um change the 2526 calendar such that
December there will be a full day of school on December 22nd and a half day on December 23rd. Um the last day of school to be confirmed tentatively we believe it's June 11th. Okay.
Is there any further discussion? So the motion was made by Margaret and seconded by John. Okay. All in favor? I I opposed. No. No.
Okay. The motion does not pass in a vote of 3 to two. Two to three. Two to three. Sorry. Yep. Sorry, John. All right. Um Okay. All right. So then next on the agenda we have um appointed
the negotiations subcommittee. It is a negotiations year. So two of us will um be the negotiations subcommittee and I just wanted to get that set. So madam chair in in in an effort not to be selected. I nominate the chair and
vice chair to be their two representatives to negotiations. Is there a second? Second. Does somebody else want it? I kind of wanted it. Okay. Well, and I definitely would like to do
it again. I have a lot of experience with negotiations. So, um, do I have to do it? I think the chair has to do it, right? I think the chair should I'm I'm totally just I was kidding. I have every intention of doing it. Um, well, there's
a motion. for the chair and vice chair. Is there a second? I'll second that. Okay, Jen, you have said that you would like to do it as well, but we can't have three because then we have a quorum.
That's why it can only be two. That's fine. I'm just saying I as someone who is not experienced, but one of the newer members of the board, I would like to gain experience before everyone is gone and I'm the last man standing kind of a deal. So, this is the first seat out. So, you got
to come all the way down this way. So, like I would like to be able to, you know, see how it goes is my reasoning for wanting to be You could always do it at the regional, too. Yeah. No thanks. Okay. So, there is a motion on the
floor. So, is there any further discussion? Okay. Hearing none. All in favor? I I I Sorry, no. Okay. All right. All right. So, that's set. All right. The only the other thing that
um we didn't do in June that just because we forgot um Margaret and I are the ADC reps. Um we typically also have an ADC alternate so that if one of us can't go, um Southampton still has its full representation. So, does anybody
want to be the rep that only has to go to ADC in the event that either Margaret or I can't attend? And we're really good about attending meetings. Yeah. I mean, as as a last resort, I don't mind being the person to fill in. Okay. All right. Just don't plan any vacations or any
trips during those meetings. If you're in the hospital, I'll go. Okay. All right. So, um, John has offered. Is there anybody anybody want to make a motion around that? I nominate John Lumbro to serve as
alternate DDC member from the Thomas. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? I. Okay. Thanks, John. All right. So, the next thing on the agenda is to vote on
um a union memorandum of agreement regarding common planning time and data analysis. If anybody on the committee wants to discuss this prior to the vote, we have to go into executive session, which I think everyone was aware of before now.
If there's no discussion, we can just take a vote. I move to approve the memo of agreement regarding common planning time/data analysts. Um and that we approve the
latest version provided to us by our legal counsel. Is there a second? Second. There cannot be any discussion. So and and is there one signature or all five signatures? One. And that the chair be authorized to sign thatou on our behalf. Second.
All in favor? I I Okay. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Um I have a copy with me. So I do I just sign it tonight and then pass it on. I I would give it to sign it and give it to veto. All right. I I made a copy in case that's what
So then that means we do not need executive session. That means we do not need an executive session. I make a motion that we we adjourn. All in favor? I need a second. All right. I All right. So meeting is adjourned at 7:52.
Thank you everybody. Let me