##VIDEO ID:https://vimeo.com/1046630212## It was come to in September. There was only one that continues to remain. Well, I have heard it from other places too. I, I had it. I took a staycation. I've got my head together. And so I thought I was supposed to work today, and I said a little bit. You today. Everybody ready? I forgot. Ready or not? Here we come. There we go. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. So, I see everybody here tonight. I would say welcome to the Westfield School Committee meeting of January the 13th, but I missed, and she's back. Ms. Heather Sullivan. Jeffrey Gunther. Here. Kathleen Hillman? Here. Bo Sullivan. Here. Heather Sullivan. Here. Mike Here. Tim O'Connor Here. And Chairman Mcca Here. All Rise Ladies, United States Justice. At this time, I'd like to open up The public participation portion of the school committee meeting. Uh, if anybody would like to address the school committee on a matter of concern, feel free to do so. You have, uh, three minutes, and we'll keep it open for 15 minutes. If there's nobody wishing to address the school committee at this time, we'll move on to the next item, which is the Fort Meadow Early Childhood Center update. Is there any takers saying None for Meadow Fort Meadow? Okay. Um, um, the team has, uh, met and firmed up the timeline and action plan for the moon. Cool. Thank you. Uh, um, and so I know we're gonna be looking at that as a co team shortly before we, uh, make a presentation, but we should be ready for February 3rd. Uh, we've also, uh, developed a draft of classroom configuration based on age, need and homeschool. And again, at the next meeting, um, we're still putting together the presentations that we should be ready to go for February 3rd. That's all I have for today. Anything else? Just, your honor, Just without getting into anything with great detail, because I know that you guys will be forthcoming is and simply yes. Is there any major hurdles or, or blocks that, that, are you've come up or is it just kind of what people have kind of thought to expect in terms of the review and, and discussion and so Forth? I think that, uh, the review and the discussion have gone well, but I think the team is unanimous in moving forward. They haven't presented any obstacles to this point. Okay. Anything else About moving on to election of school committee officers? I'd like to make a motion to nominate Tim O'Connor as Vice chair of the school committee for 2025. Second, Second Motion has been made and seconded by Ms. Hillman. Is there any further discussion saying none. Call the rule. Kathleen Hillman? Yes. Oh, no. Sorry. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Bill Sullivan. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Tim O'Connor. Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. I'd like to make a motion to nominate Heather, Heather Sullivan as secretary of the Westfield School Committee for 2025. Second Motion has been made and seconded to nominate Heather Sullivan as the school committee Secretary. Any further discussion? You're welcome, Matthew. You sure you want it? My question, I, I think you should call the role. I agreed to it. I, I'm excited. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Jim O'Connor. Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. Thank you. Gladly. Item five, I would like to make, um, the following announcement of subcommittee assignments, uh, instruction and curriculum Chair. Jeffrey Gunther. Member Heather Sullivan, human Resources and policy chair. Kathleen Hillman. Member Bo Sullivan, educational Planning and Technology Subcommittee Chair, Heather Sullivan. Member Mike Terrell, finance Subcommittee Chair Bo Sullivan. Member Jeffrey Gunther, facilities Capital Planning Chair, Mike Terrell. Member Kathleen, Helen. Thank you, Mr. O'Connor. Is there any questions, any discussion, comment? Um, I, I do really appreciate the work that goes into the subcommittees and, um, I think we've, we've had a, a very good year and want to continue to build upon that, and I'm confident that we will. So thanks for all the work, brother. Ditto. Anything else? Item six. Uh, I don't want nominate myself. You want Me to, you want me to read the header? I Can do that. No, I've been doing it, so I just don't want make the motion. I'll make a motion, uh, to, to nominate, uh, bo uh, that's right. To Sign the payroll. And Mike is alternate. And Mike Terrell as an alternate to sign payroll. Second. Second. Any further discussion? Motions been made by Mr. O'Connor, seconded by Mrs. Sullivan. No further discussion. Mrs. Sullivan. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. O'Connor? Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. Item seven. Mr. O'Connor, you want that Heather and me? Yeah. Heather. Uh, I'd like to make a motion, uh, to identify, uh, Heather Sullivan as a member, and Bo Sullivan as an alternate to sign the weekly warrants on behalf of the school committee. Second. Motion been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Again, thank you for joining us. Call the roll. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Rell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Millman. Yes. Bill Sullivan. Yes. Tim O'Connor? Yes. And Chairman Mcca? Yes. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of December 16th, 2024 school committee meeting. Minutes second, Motion made. And second. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item nine. Well, I I can start. So, uh, at our previous, um, facility subcommittee meeting, and at the last school committee meeting, uh, um, Matt Barnes was here from the city to talk about funding, the funding possibilities for a new school, a new high school, Uh, whatever form that that may take. Uh, if we were interested in applying this year, um, our deadline is April 11th. Um, so we would need to be writing that now. Uh, and I know there was some discussion as to what path we want to take. Um, I know that I have shared, um, from an opportunity and a financial, uh, piece. I look at that if we were able to combine, uh, both high schools into one and make it a comprehensive school, that we would be meeting more needs of our, of all of our students. Uh, we would also have less, uh, duplication in staffing. Um, I know there is some concern about, uh, from the, uh, career technical or vocational folks that it would be more of a, like a half day shop, half day, um, academic program. And I do like that idea for grades nine and 10 as we front load academics. But for we'd, we would need to do something for junior and senior year so that we can meet the needs of the employees that work with us. So we would have to have a hybrid schedule where junior and senior year would be week on, week off, but I, I know we can do that. Um, and we would be one of the few doing it, but that's what we like to do around here, is be the first. So, uh, but the question becomes, do we apply now? And if we're selected? So if you're selected, uh, you go into, uh, what they call an eligibility period. And so they, that that is the, uh, essentially we have a lot of work to do. You have 270 days to complete it. So with the due date being April 11th, my recollection, it was some time ago when, uh, we were entering the eligibility period for the current Westfield River School. It was later that spring when we got invited to Boston to sit in a room and then go meet our person and everything else. So the, the, the question is, um, would we be selected if we are selected? Are we prepared to be selected? And what would we do with that? Now, if during that eligibility period, um, you can certainly stop there. Uh, they can say, well, we can't meet the needs. And part of that would be the financial piece. So, um, that's one of the things that they have us look for. Now, uh, in terms of the two schools, I think the tech academy is certainly older and, uh, in, in more need of repair. But both schools could use obviously an upgrade, but of the two that are the, the, that need immediate attention, it would be WTA. And I wonder, do we, if we do apply, do we apply for WTA? And when we talk about our educational mission, we talk about blending the schools. Um, 'cause don't forget, when we first started, our, our mission to was to replace Franklin. Right? And so, through the eligibility period and then the feasibility study, we were able to incorporate Abner Gibbs in that as well. So, um, but originally the school date that MSBA came out to visit was Franklin. So I, I think we have some, um, decisions to make. And, um, it is already January 13th, so April 11th isn't that far away. Um, and then I think we need to know that if we get into that eligibility period and we don't get past that, does that hurt our chances moving forward in the future if we're not ready? I, I can't answer any of those, but those are just questions that are coming to my mind. And I, I didn't hear from, uh, Matt Barnes that our financial situation would be, I mean, it would seem like we would need to go for some sort of a vote, uh, in the community. So, um, that's what I have, that's what I know what our next steps are, um, really are now up to the committee question. Can I just say a couple words state? So based on, and, and we had a, we had a, a brief conversation about this, uh, uh, probably a little bit more than brief conversation last week, um, to, to superintendents at Browski point. Um, we brought in, uh, Matt Barnes to both our subcommittee, uh, meeting facilities, capital planning subcommittee meeting, as well as last week, uh, to answer questions regarding bonding capacity, things like that. And, um, the, the projected cost, and, and again, rough numbers, the projected cost was, was way outside the projected bonding number, yearly bonding number over the course of 30 years was, was way outside of what the city's capacity is. So, uh, to superintendent Zeke's point, the, the funding source would almost certainly have to be to go to some sort of a vote to determine whether citizens of Westfield would like to, would like to take that, take that funding, uh, portion on, um, we have a couple of questions that we just need to, again, answer as a, as a committee. And to just break it down to its most simplest form. Do we apply this, this time around? Uh, if we do, what, what do we apply for to, to, to, uh, Stephan's point? Are we applying to re uh, replace the Westfield Technical Academy? Are we, uh, applying to replace the, the high school we're applying to replace both of those things? And, um, if, if, if the answer, if the answer to number one, uh, is, is yes, then obviously we move to number two. We get through number two, the next logical step. Obviously, we can't do this in, uh, in a vacuum. We need, uh, our help, help from our colleagues on the city council, um, to sort of move forward on this in a, in a, in a unified fashion. So if it's determined that we would like to move forward for this particular round of funding, the next logical step would be to call for a joint meeting of the school committee and the, uh, city council to sort of further discuss the, the possibilities and the timelines and, and, and things like that. Any other, Um, I just have a question. Uh, if we don't apply this time, when is the next time that we could apply next year? Oh, it's, so It's every year. They, they, they announce it in, uh, January, and the deadline is usually that second Friday, April. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Gun for Dr. Gun. Just to offer my perspective on those questions. I think, um, I would advocate strongly that we, we go for it this year. We were at the same point last year and said it felt a little tight, maybe next year, I would like to get out of that and just go at every year. We don't, every year we don't, is another four to 500 students that aren't gonna get the experience of a new high school every year, we delay. And so I would like to, I'd like to do that. I hear the, um, you know, the, what we heard last time around the financial picture, I do, I feel clear that we're gonna need to do a debt exclusion vote, whether we do it this year, next year, three years from now, five years from now. So to me, there's not a, a reason to delay for that. And, um, in terms of the question too, I, I really appreciate the vision that you've set out, superintendent. I don't know what that means strategically about what you put in for the application of whether it's just one or, you know, how firmly you say that's our plan. But I, I, you know, feel aligned on that vision in terms of the opportunity to provide, to give more access to vo-tech opportunities for students, the diction and redundancy, the even just like transportation cost of not transporting students across two different schools in across this large city at the same time. So, feel fully lined on that. Mr. Silver, I, I tend to agree with Mr. Gunther. Um, I really see no reason not to go forward. Um, it's not gonna get any cheaper. Um, I have no idea what the number is. Um, first of all, if it's just a tech academy, I don't know what that number is. If it ends up being both schools, which I am in agreement, I hope it is, um, eventually, I have no idea what that number is either. Um, I know everybody, there's no way, as, as, as Dr. Gunther said, there's no way the city's ever gonna be able to flip this bill. That's doesn't matter how great the economy is or anything like that, it's just not in any budget that's gonna be able to cover the cost yearly for 30 years of this. So eventually it is going to go to the citizens of Westfield. Um, I know exactly how that's gonna go. Um, I wish I knew exactly how that's gonna go. I mean, uh, but like, like Jeff said, we either do it this year or next year, five years, 10 years from now, it's gonna come down to a vote, um, of the city. So, um, my feeling is it's there. Let's see what other people say. Let's keep the conversation going. I would love to hear what the city council has to say. Um, I, we're not making a definite decision tonight, but if there was, I would be yes, to keep moving forward. I think everybody deserves, uh, all the students coming up deserve, uh, the best education they can get. And that's what we're here for. And I think part of that is the building that they're in. I don't think anybody would argue that that Tech Academy needs to be replaced. Half of it was built in the thirties, so we're getting closer to that 95 to a hundred years that we just got rid of Abner Gibbs for. So, um, my, my thought process on this is to move forward, take more input, listen to more people. Um, but at the end of the day, I still think I have a yes vote to move forward on this. Connor, what are we doing tonight? We're not, what are we doing with, this? Doesn't say anything about a vote. So I just figured it was conversation. I think it's conversation and some guidance. And so there's a webinar on the 21st that I would now sign up for, um, for the MSBA about filling out the application. Um, I think on the third, uh, well, so I think what a couple things need to happen. So I know how I feel that I think one school would solve a lot of issues, including offering AP classes to vocational technical students and shop classes to act traditional academic students. There'd be no more waiting list for to get into the tech school. Um, we'd have a heck of a sports facility that's with our new fac. I mean, there's lots of pluses here, uh, but I have heard previously that there was interest, at least from some members of the council of replacing Westfield High School. So I need to, to know what I'm applying for, and I, how do we get there so that I know what we're doing? I, and that is my question back to you. So if it is a joint meeting, if it is, whatever has to happen, when does that happen? Do we have a discussion or a vote? But I want to make sure that whatever I am applying for is what we want. So as a community, What, what's the, um, The deadline for the application? April 11th. So April 11th, that really is a lot sooner than you think. So Let me, uh, can I just offer a middle of the road perspective? I have been in favor of a comprehensive school brother. I'm afraid in this current climate that we're in right now, if we move forward too quickly, we'll set it up for failure. But let me unfold that just for a second. If I may. As we see in the city council meeting of November of 2024, the city council asked me to return back a million dollars of free cash because people couldn't afford it. That was their argument. Now that argument has been made, the million dollars has been given. So if truly people can't afford it, if this is the logic of the argument, then how are they gonna be able to afford it an override? So just, just, this is just food for thought. There are two other things that are on the horizon that I think the DPW are gonna be struggling with and the water department are gonna be struggling with. The reason why we didn't have trash pickup a leaf pickup this year is because we didn't have the people in place in order to get the leaves picked up, which caused people to be very grumpy about this event. The reason why we currently have a deficit in a enterprise fund on the water department is simply because we don't charge enough money. And there are some people in city government that believe that an enterprise fund is the best way to fund projects. I'm not one of those people, but we'll just say that. That's correct. So in order to upsize the right size and enterprise fund, there's only one way to do it, folks. And that's to raise the revenue in the enterprise fund. And the only way to do that is to raise the rate to the people that are in that enterprise fund, and that would be all the water consumers. So I would be cautious about moving it forward, but again, I'm fully on board with the need. I understand that. I've seen the tech academy, I've seen Westfield High School as you know, I clearly am there a lot. Um, I'm not against the concept, I just don't know that I agree with Dr. Gunther in terms of the timing. He's gonna come back to me, he's gonna say, well, when is the timing ever gonna be Right? Which I totally understand, but if we're concerned about the amount of money that was saved on a million dollars with $70 a year, if you break that down by the quarter, you could do the math. If you break it down by the day, you could do the math. And we were told that people are in that type of desperate straight. So if that's the case and we're now facing a deficit budget of FY 26, do we wanna move it forward right at this time when I don't know that the outcome is gonna be a yes vote on. So it just Food for thought. And My take would be, I hear all that. I think I appreciate you bringing the, you know, that I think you're previewing the city council perspective for us. And I think that that to me means I still want to take that next step of having the joint conversation with the city council so that the council can express that point of view. If from an education standpoint, the school committee feels like this is the right, the right move. So if I can just point out too, like Matt, I'm sorry, but, um, when we had Matt Barnes here, he anticipated, and this number has stuck in my head, Agawam residents will be paying $800 a year or more for their project, which is about 250 million. Our project would be probably three 50 at today's numbers. And so I imagine people will be paying over a thousand dollars more a year in taxes. So I just think that's a reality based on the $70 that you just talked about. But we're talking about a 50%, even though it's supposed to be much more than, we're talking about a 50% kickback. So I don't mean kickback, uh, 350 million. We're talking about a $175 million bond over 30 years, right? Yeah. So that's what your number correlates with Mr. Oconnor. Yeah, I think we're, I, I think if we're, we're not ready. And that's what I'm hearing. Uh, because we, we don't know anything about a funding source. Um, we don't even know if everyone wants a comprehensive high school in this room. But I, I don't know, is if we had that conversation yet. I am for a new school period. Want to make that clear. I think where we fell down as a committee is if we had the same conversation as we're having right now. Last year, we should have been doing something about it over the course of the year, and we didn't do that. Yeah. We should have had more conversations. I think we should have talked about, um, what our funding sources, um, possibilities, let's meet with the city council and have a joint meeting and, and get their involvement. Um, I don't think we're prepared right now as we sit here tonight. I don't even Know our submission. I don't even know what, what people want for school. I mean, I know we talked about a comprehensive high school talk about applying for a tech academy, trying to finagle maybe a Westville high in there. Or do we combine them? Where does the high school go? Does it go where the Westfield Tech Academy is or does it go where the Westville High School we're building new athletic, uh, area, you know, in front. In front. Understood. So the thought would be to, I would, but I wouldn't even know. I mean, we haven't even had those type of conversation. I think we're, I think we're not prepared, but there's no way we shouldn't, we can't just stop the conversation. We have to, we have to keep it going. Um, when we, we go and we put our application in, uh, in front of the, you know, the Building Authority, school Building authority, we gotta make sure we got all our ducks in a row and we know what we are asking for. And listening to this tonight, we, I have no idea what everybody in this room wants to do. Mrs. Helman. Um, there are two, tomorrow night, I'm gonna go on a Zoom meeting for resolution eight and nine. That's gonna be before the, um, mass, uh, school committee. And the eight is to do a tiered funding for different schools. So there's gonna be a v uh, v voc, uh, piece that's gonna be elementary. So they wanna do a tiered level. So maybe for that, we may have more clout because if we're gonna, we'll get more money if they're gonna do this tiered, um, funding for MSBA. And also they're looking for more capacity. So number nine is the capacity piece. So they're looking for more seats. So I'm very interested in looking at that before we go forward with, 'cause that may be in place where we would get more reimbursement. Mayor, they only MSBA only, uh, invited. So I think their funding is, is must be down or, or the cost of construction is so far, far up, but they only invited four schools last year into, uh, a core program or a new school. Um, so, um, that's also that, that, that jackpot is getting smaller and smaller. Mr. Trump. Um, yeah, a couple things, um, agree with a lot of the points that are being made here. Uh, i I, I would Particularly, the point of the $350 million school is gonna be 425 next year, and it's gonna be 4 75 the year after, and 5 25 the year after that. So there, there is that theory. I i, if, if the submission year is not 2025, I think it needs to, we need to get onto that docket very soon. Um, to Mr. O'Connor's point in, in, in terms of proceeding or not being ready to proceed. Um, we tried to start this like September, October this year, this conversation, thinking that was going to be enough time. Um, one thing leading to another, we end up, we end up here in January, which we're still three months away to to, to Stephan's point. Um, there's a lot of work to be done, right? Uh, and, and meetings to be had and, uh, determination in terms of everything that we need to do. My, my argument would be if we're truly serious about doing this in the next year to two years, we should be proceeding today like we're submitting for this year. And if we miss the submission deadline, then we miss the submission deadline. But at least we've started the process of the fact finding and in determination of how do we get funding, what do we want? We know what the city council wants, let's proceed like we're doing this right now. And if, and if, and if we have to pull the plug at the end and, and move it to next year, at least we all that work's been done. Yeah. Could you describe Mr. Drill what that process is? Uh, for me it would just be going to the next step, meeting with the city council, hearing what they have to say in terms of, uh, what the, the types of things that you were bringing up, uh, in terms of funding, in terms of tax base, uh, and, and, and what we think the voters can or would bear prior to The 11th of February Of April is when it's due of April. Of April. Yeah. But one of the points is before you submit, you need to have a, a, uh, nine votes of the city council to, to move the application forward to the MSBA. I'm not sure that's true. I'm not sure you need two thirds. I think you just need a majority for the letter. I had always thought it was two Thirds. That's, that's for, that's for money issues. Okay. This isn't a money issue. This is just a majority. I it is. Best I understood it. And best I've been told What, so that's something we could certainly check on. Yeah. When is our next, uh, city council meeting? Sorry, Doug. When's our next school committee Meeting? Well, so we are meeting at the tech on January 21st, but we're meeting back here February 3rd. Is it too aggressive to have something to discuss the 21st? So it's typically that's the day at the tech where we hear from the, uh, general advisory chair, uh, Jeff Am and then we are The two of them. Yeah, no, we go to the shops. Oh, we go to the shop and we tour the shops and we hear about the, so we each have four shops to visit, and then we convene. So the whole, it's a joint meeting between the school committee and the general advisor. It's not a typical meeting. Well, how hard is the issue, right? I mean, if the issue is how enough, Then I almost feel like, um, a joint meeting with the city council to gauge that where they are might be our, our next step. But that's just my, well, we don't Even know where we are, so That's, no, we don't because we don't know. But I think getting a feeling of, I guess the question, is it, and we have to make a decision. I mean, do we want a comprehensive or are we gonna replace the tech or are we gonna try to put in for the high school? That still hasn't been decided. I know how I feel, but, um, the committee hasn't, I guess, voted on that or taken a stance. So for me, I know how the high school's, um, property got set up if, if you will, in terms of the softball field board and the field and the athletic field. I know why it got set up that way, what those locations were for. And I think that the notion, the broader notion that has been discussed with some city council members in fairness, is to take a look at the, the pool and the gymnasium as the west anchor of the building, and then build the building from west to east, going into a terracing, if you will, of the parking lot as you move forward along the back of the parking lot and create a comprehensive school. Now that's been the scuttle, whether or not that's true or not true, and I would be in, in, um, in favor of a comprehensive school because I think there's a lot of economy. I think there's a lot of cross germination as well as a lot of economy. I think that you're able to use multipurpose staff. I think that you're allowed to give more a la carte. Um, you know, if I, if I'm a shop kid and I want to be in shop, but I also want to learn Spanish, I wanna be able to do that. If I want to be a college prep kid is what it was called when I was there. But I want to do woodworking. I want to be able to take that as an elective. Um, you know, so there's lots of good reasons in my opinion, of course, to have a comprehensive school. But what is the next step that we don't know amongst us what we want? I don't know if Bo wants a comp. I don't know if you want to. I don't know. Right. I mean, I think that that's, I totally agree. Mr. Trail's point of, I think we do need to keep going for is this, this is the second meeting in a row that we've had this on the agenda. And so I'm like, I feel clear on what I want, which is described, which is the comprehensive high school that you just described, and that Superintendent Seki named, um, I think Bo I heard you say you are for that as well. I, I don't want to get into a, we don't know. And then we, we kick it. So like, does anybody feel Yeah, I, I know we don't taking a vote here tonight, but I don't want to lose the momentum of this conversation and just end up February 3rd reiterating this conversation. Mary, can I just add one thing? No, I don't wanna reiterate the conversation on, on the third either. I wanna reiterate the conversation on the 21st, and I think it's much more rather, and I'm not being disrespectful to the tech tour, and trust me, I'm not. But I mean, we should be able to, within two weeks, gather some information amongst ourselves, kind of feel it out, look and see what it looks like. What, which campus do you want? Do you want the Smith Ave campus? I, I don't know if you want that. Or do you want 1 77 Montgomery Road? You know, those are things we could do. The reason for, um, the, the selection, if you will, of 1 77 Montgomery Road is a site in my mind, only in my mind is because MSBA won't fund a gymnasium or a pool. Now we just sunk appropriate amounts. Stop it a hundred percent. No, I To be on the pool thing, but I Was swim, Right? Um, we had the anchor there, there, the gymnasium and the pool are in good shape. They're, you know, I'd like to see some other stuff done in the pool, but it's another story. And if you build off and go east, I think you're in pretty good shape. And then you can have shared complex and everybody can use the, um, athletic facilities. They may four, 10 years from now as they move forward. Can we do A straw poll right now? Sure. Why can't you do a straw poll? Why couldn't you? I just wanted to, I agree a hundred percent. What, what, uh, Mike, Charles said. So I feel like, um, you know, as you were talking, everything was resonating with me as far as, you know, if we do our best and if we make it, we make it. And if we don't, we got all the work behind us. Let's do the straw poll and let's just, let's God's just, yeah. Well, there'll be one more thing that you should all be aware of, right? Don't lose track of the fact that a police station is gonna be up for bonding. Probably first week of March, those conversations are gonna be had because the demolition delay on, on the Atwater Mansion will be there. So people will be a little gunshot. Just, just know that that's all. Everything's kind of working in the background. And I'm still in favor for a comprehensive school. Just one last point, and I'm not trying to sway anyone's decision, but the state is grappling now with the shortage of CTE seats. So I believe if our proposal included, uh, career tech ed, vocational seats, there's waiting lists all over the Commonwealth. I think that if we put forth a proposal that adds more seats, it will be viewed Favorably. Favorably. Yep. I'm willing to take a non-binding vote right now if you want, if you think that that's the way we should do this, Mr. O'Connor would say, Oh, was the question My budget par materials over here? You know, I, I think we're not ready, but that's my opinion. And I, I'm not saying we don't do any, I think we do something going forward, and if we hit it, we hit it. That's fine. I, I, I think that's a, an okay plan. We are not ready it to I, what I wouldn't want to do is submit a sloppy application either, but we, we have to, I would, I would get facilities to take the lead on things, um, and make it a priority. And I, I would say we, we have an agenda item every, every time we meet To talk about the progress of it. Can I, Someone's gotta take the Lead on it. What, what do you think the next step is that we need? Like what, what is the next like, concrete step that needs to happen to get us closer to ready? I guess? I think we Disagree. Gotta decide what they're gonna recommend To Bill. I think that's what we're doing with the drop ball. I mean, I think that like, probably if we all feel directionally in a certain way, I agree, it would make sense to come back with maybe a more formal, you know, this is what we would share with the, with the, uh, city council in terms of what's being proposed, but, Right. But if your deadline is April 11th and you still need to have a conversation with the city council, you can't boot this around. You've gotta, It's gotta move. This has gotta be something that moves. So if we're not comfortable taking a straw poll right now, which I, I get some of the nce, why don't we put it on the agenda for the 21st, this coming 21st meeting at Westville Tech. We can tell the Westville Tech folks to hold on. And when we're, when we're ready for you, I don't mean that flippantly, but what we're ready for, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna talk about? Well, I'm hoping that we talk amongst ourselves. And I don't mean outside open meeting laws. I don't mean not, I mean that we talk amongst ourselves is kind of explore whether or not what we're open to, what we're not open to within the next two weeks or within the next, it's a week. It's A week. Eight days. Yeah. 'cause we didn't meet oddly enough when we were supposed to meet or something. I did find out. Okay. I, but is it week enough time? I don't meet any time. I, I know where I'm, Okay. I want a comprehensive high school up at Montgomery where our other high school is. That's what Maestro Poll says. Mine is the same. So is mine. Same Mine as well. Can I say a couple? Sure. Tim, Tim didn't get a chance to talk Sorry, go ahead. As far as the straw poll goes. So, so, um, I think to, to Mr. O'Connor's point earlier, uh, this started in subcommittee and it was quickly determined that we needed the input of the, of the larger committee, um, to, to start to have these kinds of conversations, the kind of conversation that we, that we have right now. Because it, it, it didn't really matter if, if three of us thought this was a good idea, it mattered if this committee thought it was a good idea, the committee as a whole, or at least a majority of it. I think where we stand now is that, and, and if we, if we do just sort of keep putting this on the agenda, it, it doesn't just matter what this committee thinks. Either it matters what the city council thinks and it, we could want, we could want one single thing. And if, if we're not, we don't have the opportunity to have this conver this open dialogue with the council, who are the folks that are going to have to ultimately vote to move this forward. It's, it's not gonna be, it's not gonna go anywhere. Uh, so I I I feel like, um, Even though there might be some poss, you know, some disagreement here, I, I feel like the conversation is a healthy one and, and, and, and a necessary one. And there's no time like the present to get that, to get that done. I do think though, um, you know, by waiting even another two weeks to have the conversation that we're, we're, we're crippling this year's effort at least. And if, and if that's what the, if that's what this group wants, then that's fine. I just want us to be aware of the delay is potentially, you know, costing us, you know, not just, um, a couple of weeks, but, but 12 months. So, so, so far we've all been in agreement and Tim and the mayor have not voted or said what they felt. Oh, Tim did, Tim said, we're not ready to Go forward. And the mayor said, And the mayor said, yeah, the Mayor said top of the head. Yep. He said it already. Okay. So I'm looking for something. Gimme, gimme a second. Can I ask, I, I feel like the, what I would propose as a next step is that we take a, you know, given the timeline and given the, you know, the urgency and the, the time with which we've been trying to move this over the, this year that we take, you know, a, a dual pronged approach of trying to find the time with the city council in the next, whatever the reasonable timeframe is. It's not gonna be next week or the following week probably. Right? Um, and concurrently flesh out the proposal that many people here have expressed tentative agreement with so that we can come in so that we can engage one more time as a committee before we engage with the city council and at least know how strongly held our point of view is on that particular proposal. Because I suspect they'll want to react to something concrete. And also to your point, Mr. Terrell, it doesn't make sense to get, necessarily get unanimous consent on the exact thing that we're proposing without getting any input from the city council. And so I think if we can come with together with a higher level proposal and a sense of how strongly we believe in it as a school committee, that would support, that would help the conversation with the city council. But I don't think we should wait to have that conversation before we even begin trying to have a conversation with the city council. I would say if we are going to go forward and have the next set of discussions, I don't think we should do it the night of the Tech Academy advisory council meeting. I think we should have a separate meeting. 'cause I think we really need to talk about a lot of things. And I don't think, I don't think making it that night. I, I'd meet before that if we, if we want to do it. I just think that night is not the right night to have this ongoing discussion. Well, it also might be helpful, and I was gonna ask Mike if you wanted to do it as well, the webinar on the 21st might be something we want to see as well. Some, Yes. That I was gonna say that the 21st, so everybody would see what, what we're up, we're up against and, you know, different things. Maybe, um, Mike, we should have a facilities meeting that night and view it together. The meeting. Yeah. So it's 10 to 1130 in the morning. Oh, 10 to 11. But if two of you came to central office, that would not constitute a violation of open meeting law. I could put it on our big screen in the conference. You need three? I need three. You could have, you could have three. Oh, so there could be somebody else too. I just wanted, okay. Uh, and we could watch it in there. It's a big screen. I'm not saying it's enthralling, but it would be informative. So here's an offer of a solution. So we'll stop kicking this one. We set up a special meeting between sometime and the end of January. So in the last week of January, preferably in the Monday end, if we can get a special meeting to just simply discuss this time, um, we'll have enough time to a couple of weeks that we can kind of kick around, mow over and then decide what we want at that meeting. We're gonna decide what we want and then we're gonna decide whether or not we're gonna proffer a letter to the city council to be put on their agenda for February the sixth. So that will go in on February the sixth is their first reading. They will then send it to, uh, they'll send it to probably, oh no, they'll probably send it to finance. Um, they may even say something about long range plan. They'll have a, I don't know. So the sixth, the 20th and then the first week of March, March 6th again. Sixth again. And then March the 20th. Yeah. You would probably have a reasonable expectation that they might come to a conclusion as to what direction they want to go by March the 20th, which is four meetings away. Um, and that would still keep you on your timeline of April the 11th. Yeah, but not, not to start drafting a No, I think you start the draft. No, you start working on your draft now. I mean, I, I think we're in favor of starting the draft. It's what does the draft look like? And if it looks like just tech or if it looks like just the high school, well, we can lay the groundwork for the foundation to have to, you don't have to have all the Right, you don't have have to have all the answers for it. Right. Do you facilities guy? I've never done that. I've never done this, uh, this part Before. Um, I Had a hard enough time at the police station. Can you imagine what's gonna be for a, I I guess I, do you have the application With me right Now? No, no, no, no. On your desk or on your computer or Wherever. It just got re so I haven't even clicked on it. It just got released. Today's the first day it got released. This weird. Okay, So if you had a Yes, just, just hypothetically you had a Yes, you would start working on that now. Yes. So hypothetically, if we said you had to get going along with what, what Mike said, all those steps would already start. So you would already start the application process. I think that, um, I was gonna do that anyway. Right? So, so my point is, I think if, if there's a week or or eight days till our next meeting and we do at least talk about the subject, you are gonna have some answers that we are gonna ask the questions of. You're gonna know what's in that application. I'm not sure it's changed since you did the one for, for Franklin. I don't know. But at least that process will go forward and it will guide us a little bit more to what we have to decide what we want. Does that make sense? Yeah. So I think if he continues the application process, what Mr. Terrell said, we we're doing the due diligence no matter what, if we get to April 10th and you're like, there's no way I can finish this and that and then, then we know where we are. But at least that process has started now and we know where we are. Right. Well, and I also think that, um, I, I can't write it alone, so I Right. I'm gonna need help. And maybe the facilities committee, certainly, uh, Mr. Rogers probably Shannon a bit when we start looking at the questions. Yeah. And the po the addition of do, the other benefit of doing that is we may get a better sense of what the cost of this program or of what this is gonna look like. I know throwing around that, that three 50 number, but I suspect that if it's, you know, the difference between 303 50 is, is big. And I know you're not gonna get all the way out there, but I suspect that going through the application process may be able to answer some of the questions that city council may have, or at least with some degree of greater clarity. I think the cost of this goes higher because of the, um, the comprehensive piece in particular. The shops are gonna be, it's, it's a lot more expensive to build a shop than it is to build say a typical classroom. Yeah. That's where I think your class Yeah, I understand that. But you know, I know that there's, that three 50 number was not, my understanding is that three 50 number was pulled pretty out of the air. Thin air. Yeah. And so, Um, so AG was what, two 50? Two 60? I think that's where ag So it was a guesstimate though, that came from not just the air, but, but it was also, um, the MSBA has increased the amount that they reimburse per square foot. Yes. So that will be helpful as compared to what they were at Westfield River. So, but I think that increase is why they only welcomed four schools in last year. Yeah. They only have so much money. So As a guiding principal, Dr. Gunther, it's about a thousand dollars a square foot. Yeah. So you would actually have to have some architectural drawings done before you really knew what your numbers Was gonna be. There's there's no other way to, You'd have to, right. And that comes in with the MSBA and the feasibility studies. So Can I ask a question? How does of course to this day is good for me. January 29th, go for a special meeting. It's a great day for me. Works fine for me. The lunar New Year. I'm sorry. Missed it. So loaner new year folks that, uh, Come tonight. Can we do it at six? Wanna do it at six? Sure. So do you see any issue? I just don't know where we would, it might not be in this room. It can be Yeah, that I can check in, but I just need the date. I, I'm free January 29th. Yes. To the 29th. Yeah, that's, yes. Across the board. Okay. So the reason why I picked the 29th is 'cause if you guys vote to you guys, if we, sorry about that vote that this is what we want to do. I'm gonna have to craft the introductory letter to go, is it me that has to craft the introductory letter to get us onto this, move this forward to the council? 'cause that has to be done by the end of that week. So it may, or it's somebody else here who does this Well Because you're the chair. I think it would be you, but it could be the vice chair just to say, Okay. So it's me, I, I, which I'm good with. I, I'm happy to do it. Um, and that'll get it onto the council agenda for first reading and then dissemination to wherever it goes. But we're gonna have to have, by that time some, some semblance of a concept as to really what we want to see done. And I will get some numbers from the treasurer of Barnes to seeing what some of that bonding number looks like. Right now it's about 5%. Um, my guess is if your reimbursement is a little bit better than you're looking to the taxpayer somewhere over 200 million, over 30 years. That would be my guess if I had to guess. So is that good for everybody? So can we set a special meeting for January the 29th at six o'clock? Okay. Yeah. Find out. We just find out where And to be determined. Yeah. Ideally here, but Elsewhere, I, uh, the city council doesn't meet here, so I'm confident that it may be open, but we'll see. Well it's A Wednesday, Right? It's a Wednesday. So, and it's a Wednesday on off week of council, so Yeah. That wouldn't meet anyway. Well, I don't see anybody really meeting, I dunno who meet Do at the high school. Let's do it anywhere. Right. Except you'd have to hire. We good? Yes, I think so. Alright, so marching forward, we're gonna do our own individual reviews of what we think. Hopefully we'll get some numbers back to the facilities guy. And I would like the superintendent to continue with the application that he got today. Yeah, You start, Start Right. Well continue because it just came, you opened it. So Continue. No, I didn't click on it. It opened the email. That's Why You started. You guys are telling me 1 21. Are we good? We're good. 1 21, whatever. Uh, Heather 10. Yes. Item 10. Just a report of the weekly warrants. December 13th, 2024, which feels like six Months ago at this point. 24 batches totaling $1,382,147 and 52 cents. Decem 20th, 2024. 20 batches totaling $352,763 and 17 cents. December 27th, 2020 4 25 batches totaling 1,000,300, $3,950 and 43 cents in January 3rd. 20 batches totaling $550,772 and 46 cents. And a thank you to both Sullivan for Covering me. Um, can I, lemme jump back to item nine. Do I need a vote for anything? Mm-hmm. Item nine, we're good. Right, right. I think we all need a competency, judge. So as you know, the, the MCA law has changed. So, um, this is a continuing, evolving, uh, matter. But we have as a, uh, first of all, um, Jeff on his committee, they've been working on graduation. We introduced this already and I asked Christine to give us just all an update as to what, what we are looking at. Um, and we'll have more to come, but this is just a preview. Yeah. So this will be just a quick update and what's going around was also put in your folders, but just in case. Um, so as you know, MCAS is no longer required as the competency determination for graduation. What still holds is the local graduation requirements. So, um, where we are right now, we are really primarily looking first off at our class of 2025 because we wanna determine what do we have to do for the students who haven't gotten the competency determination in order to graduate. So, um, you know, what stays the same? Everyone still has to take MCAS that is still required. Um, the use of MCAS results and participation will still be part of the accountability, um, data that we receive every year. And students who try want to get the bi bilingual seal and there's a couple scholarships, still need to take MCA and get a certain score. So those things stay the same. You know, what they students do not have to do is get a certain score to get the competency determination. Instead, we as sort of our school can determine, um, the content that was assessed by MCAS. Um, students have to show mastery of that content in science ELA and math. So for the 34 students that right now have not earned a competency determination, we're evaluating their transcripts to say, have they taken coursework that shows mastery? Um, if not, there's a semester left, you know, can they take that and in order to graduate? So that's number one. Secondly, um, and we've already set up a policy subcommittee because currently our policy has passing MCAS as one of the graduation requirements. So we have to change that policy in order to be now in compliance with the law. And, um, that'll, you know, come to the subcommittee and to the full school committee for a discussion and a vote. Does that need to happen before this graduation? Yes. Okay. Yep. Yeah, so those are the things, you know, when DESI has had their informational sessions, they said, make sure you're ready to go for the graduates of 2025. First thing, Just quick question. So I, I know when we talked about this last time, we talked about whether or not there was gonna be any leniency for the class of 2025 because of how quickly this came in. And it, it doesn't sound like there is any flexibility. Um, I mean, I think the, uh, determination of mastery for the coursework is really what's happening right now with our supervisors, with our counselors, with our, and that's, you know, that's something that we're looking at. What's, where, what courses did they take, where they learn those certain standards and did they pass, you know, did they learn the standards? It's not even whether they pass the full course, it's whether they master those standards. So I do feel like that, um, that's where we can sort of say, okay, this is how they did on those particular standards. Um, so, you know, so far we've looked at some of the transcripts and it looks like, you know, kids have taken, um, algebra one and Geometry and one of the science is an ELA. So it looks like it's gonna be, you know, work out pretty well. Okay. Um, just to finish that last, the other thing that we're in the process of, um, any one who has not received, uh, a diploma but got the certificate of attainment starting in 2003 to last year, can reach out to say, can you evaluate my transcript to see if I can get a diploma? So we have heard from at least one family to with that request. So we are in that process and then this summer we can pull up, you know, who are all those students, um, and start to evaluate their transcripts to see whether they can receive a high school diploma. Thanks. I think that's pretty, that's the update for now. We'll be back with the, um, update of the policy once we have that meeting. And I just want to add that you might see some changes to our graduation requirements. That's a little bit of a preview. Um, and we are toying around with the idea because, you know, one of the realistic things is that if you make a test not required for graduation. Mm-hmm. There is, what is the seriousness that the test will be taken? So we are also gonna try to address that in the policy as well. And, and that, because the state is still, it doesn't seem, uh, necessarily the right thing to do, in my opinion, to say we're still gonna hold you accountable to a test that the kids no longer have to take to graduate. Because I think there are, I think the vast majority of students would still try their hardest, but there are going to be a handful who are like, why I don't need this to graduate. I don't even have to show up for it. So we're gonna try to address that in the policy. So I just, I'm sure you were thinking it, so I just had to say it. I was thinking something else, actually. Okay. Yeah, I was thinking, um, I'm reluctant to say it, but I think I'm probably gonna say it anyway. Um, prior to MCA, we had 400 students take my class, 425 of the 425 students that entered their senior year, how many graduated, who knows what that number is. And I suspect now because there is pressure to have people graduate that the 34 people that you're describing, we'll find a way to graduate. Yeah. Is that valuable? It's not valuable. I, I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud. That's All. Well, last, Last year, just as one example, we had, I think it was six or eight kids who got a certificate of attainment. It may even have been fewer. So, you know, we're not talking, we're talking about a handful of kids in the end. Yeah. Because There's still, I'm not talking about being penal. That's not, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm, I'm talking about is really everybody who goes to Westfield High School or Westfield Technical Academy and goes through 12 years of schooling, are they ready to graduate? That's, you know, the questions that you guys will flesh out, not me. Yeah. And to be fair, I don't know what the M Cs in 10th grade answered that question Either. That's absolutely fair. Thank you. One Quick question. Sorry. The, the, I know we talked at the, uh, cu the instruction curriculum committee meeting about there's potential updates. I just want to clarify the, when you're bringing to policy and then to us, is that just to clean up the competency determination component? Or is it also proposing some of those changes that we discussed in the instruction sub curriculum? Both. It is both. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Approval of budget transfers? Nope. Nope. How about if I make a motion to accept the Westfield Public School of Financial Statements as presented? Second. I never even got to that one. Sure. Course been made in second. Any further discussion? Mr. Good Evening. Shannon Barry, director of Finance. Yeah, that was best who, I'm gonna start on the expense side this evening. Um, on page three, the heating fuel we just received, um, recent projections, again from the GE and we're close to being on track. It was, um, $20,000 more, um, than what we budgeted. Think Gap, I'm sorry. It's all, it's, it's all, Um, the electricity. We're still within what we budgeted, so we're good there. Um, and then on page five, the out district vocational tuition. So obviously what we budget was the students we planned on attending Smith Vocational or LP vec. Um, so we had some students that are not attending. So we have some additional funds there. Now that it's January, I feel comfortable, um, moving that money where we need it. Um, someone could move in district that we do have to cover. Um, but for right now, I'm gonna move it. Um, you'll see it on the transfers to that. Um, special education outta district transportation, sorry, special education outta district tuitions. On page 17, under the high school guidance tuition's in state, you'll see there's a balance of $60,000 that was budgeted for the Westfield Promise program. Um, again, this year we are fortunate that Westfield State has received grant funding and we don't have to pay a cohort fee to Westfield State. Um, so that frees up those funds. Again, I'll be transferring that to the, um, out of district tuitions line tonight. Okay. And then, speaking of tuitions, so if we look at page 31, um, tuitions in state, you'll see that we are actually back in the positive for right now. Um, I believe we're somewhere around 200,000 in the deficit. Last time we had a student age out of a very expensive program, so that enabled us to save money there. Um, and then we had another student come back to the district. Um, we do have two students attending a program that we have not been able to get a contract secured with the program for due to just a pricing issue. Um, so this amount is not actually accurate because I have another $152,000 worth of tuitions that will be hitting that line as soon as that contract's resolved. And then for tuitions out of state, again, currently we're in the positive with $28,000. But again, um, another contractual issue about rates, um, with another school that's out of district and out of state. And that is another $284,000 of tuitions that will be hitting that line. Um, we're also currently working with Desi about a student, um, over whose responsibility the student is, whether it's ours or in other cities. Um, so if it becomes ours, that's another $85,000 that will be ours on that line. Can I hold you up there a sec? Yeah. The budget buster has been spoken by Superintendent s broski and me recently publicly. Um, when we're looking at the school department budget itself really seems to surround itself in this issue. So if you are planning on trying to fix this budgetary problem from a financial aspect mm-hmm. And also from a educational aspect, do you see any plans on the horizon to bring those students back into district? Maybe this is a superintendent aros question question, but if you're not ready to answer any of these questions, um, 'cause they're kind of off the cuff, is, it seems to me that if we're trying to get the $3 million of transportation cost or the million nine in, um, out of district placement, then the way to really solve that problem is to not send 'em out in the first place. So to have some type of program together that you, you follow what I'm saying? It just seems to me we should be doing it in Westfield rather than in As long as you're okay with me publicly asking Reve me asking you. Um, I, I am. Okay. So, um, you know, when I, I shared some, uh, data with you recently, and you'll see that the, the majority of the students that we have that are going on in district are, have an autism diagnosis. Um, and our autism programs in our schools are full. They're bursting at the scene. So even though we added a teacher at Paper Mill, it's just, um, we had a, a lot of students with autism. So, um, I know that the lease is up with Head Start. Uh, I think after, not, not this June, but the following June. And I would like to explore, uh, taking that building over and using it as a, an our making our own Autism Day program so that we don't have to send people out. We can actually keep them in our district going to a school that we run. And as a matter of fact, in this room, we could actually charge tuition and tuition in students from outside of district, but I wanna take care of our own kids first. Uh, but I think that would be, uh, financially, um, uh, certainly better than what we're doing now. But more importantly, it also keeps the kids in Westfield, which I am a strong believer on, they're not going out a district. They should be in the community where they grow up. They should be where their friends are, not having to travel halfway across the state or wherever. And I think, uh, that is a, that is one strategy. And you're gonna hear something about a bright program tonight that is another strategy of, to keep students, uh, um, you know, in district. And so, you know, when, when our students have needs, we have to meet them. Um, it's just the number that we have has grown exponentially in the last several years. Um, I've heard that, uh, people are moving to Westfield because of our autism program. Um, and now it's full. So, um, you know, I, I shared a letter with you recently about, from a parent about how much they love our milestones program and what it's doing for their, for their child. So, but the problem is, is when you have a good thing, everybody wants a piece of it. And so I think we're at that point. So let's make our good thing better in a larger space where we can accommodate more students and send less students out. The problem is it's a year and a half out, but it is my thought that I've run by you already, and I'm glad you like it. Uh, I'm, I do like it. I think it's a, a great idea. Um, and I said so publicly in a recent television program that I think you were probably in the preceding program on or whatever it happened to be. But I wanna make sure that people we're being transparent with people. I mean, nothing has been done. There's no, you know, there's no groundwork that's been done. But the philosophy is that we should be teaching our kids here in our city. It's that, that simple. And if you believe in that philosophy and that has the added benefits of not sending them to Dorchester or wherever they happen to be, then it also has an added benefit of taking some of the pressure off of our budget. Yes. Do I understand that it's gonna need a facility? Yes. Do I understand it's gonna need some teachers that, or, or check that, I'll just use the term broadly professionals that are gonna be required to staff that type of environment. Yes. But if it means that 30 kids that might go out of district no longer go out of district and that burden of going out of district is no longer born on their, on their parents or guardians or whomever that happens to be, I think it's something that we should absolutely explore today. That's my bully Pulpit. So if you have the space, which you do, um, then I would like to go down that, that avenue. And, um, you know, I think the other thing is too is the transportation costs will be so much less. I mean, we pay so much to, to drive students to Dorchester, for example. Uh, now we wouldn't have to do that. So there's opportunity for significant savings, which is nice. But I also think that we can do a better job serving our students in Westfield. I couldn't Agree more. Thank you for allowing me that time to insert it into the expense report. Sure. So I do wanna point out that we have seven more students that are supposed to be going out of district this year. Um, one already went, um, Joanne Lin, our grants manager, was able to free up $475,000 on the special education grant for me. So any of those new students going out, we will cover this year through the special education grant. So the deficit we're looking at, you know, and tuition's in state and out of state should stay the same because anyone knew I'm gonna put on the grant for this year. Um, but I do just wanna point out, um, you know, the concerns, looking forward to FY 26, um, the chances that we are going to be able to prepay tuition, um, like we do every single year are nonexistent. Um, and, you know, Joanne is going to free up that money to help me cover those students for this year. That doesn't mean that she's gonna be able to keep those full tuitions 'cause we're talking about only parts of the year for this year. Um, and some of these are pretty significant tuition she may not be able to carry on the grant next year. So just to point that out. And then finally on the final page, page 32, when we look at transportation, I asked, um, our transportation manager to gimme some hard numbers today. Um, and we are looking at a $880,000 deficit in transportation. So she's projecting that McKinney-Vento in DCF transportation will have a deficit of 450,000 and that added district will have a deficit of 430,000. So I just wanna point out the impact too, of every time we send out a student, you know, the transportation costs are, are insane. Um, so, you know, a van per day is $210. Sometimes we can put multiple students on a van, but there's a lot of times that it's an individual student. You add a monitor that to that it's another $105 a day. So we're talking about $315 a day now for 180 day program that's $56,700 a year. Some of our students are not attending a hundred and day 80 day programs or attending 220 days or 365 days. Um, we have one student alone right now who is costing us $77,000 in transportation, um, which is more than the tuition itself. So I just wanna point out how significant the transportation cost. It's not like we're talking about $10,000 here and there. It's, it's significant every time. So on the expense side, we're looking at about a $1.2 million deficit. Any questions on expenses before I go to personnel? Nope. Um, I'm trying to get that wrapped around my head first here. 1.2. Yeah. Thanks. I thought I'd help. Yeah, So it's, it's down from the 1.5 because of the money on the special education grant. So You're earning your keep No, I can't. So lemme ask a quick question. Maybe the, uh, Mr. Rell, go ahead. No, you know, often as we get toward middle to the end of the school year, we've got positions that we haven't been able to hire. We've got, um, you know, some areas where we can kind of sweep and mm-hmm. And make up some of that. And that's where we've prepaid tuitions in the past. Yep. Uh, what is the, is there any Projection so that, that bad news is coming next? When I get to personnel? Um, I have projected out the year and there's definitely a misconception that I'm accruing funds on the personnel side. This year. We are looking at about only a hundred thousand dollars remaining on the personnel side at the end of the year. And that's without hiring another single position. So I have asked Stefan, um, and Mike Forest to do a hiring freeze. We're only hiring absolutely crucial positions for the rest of the year. And any recommended positions have to come in at like the bottom steps, um, to be able to, to fund them. Um, and then I've set a deadline for all expenditures, um, of March 14th. So every school and department has to have their money spent or encumbered by March 14th. And then I'm sweeping everything that isn't spent at that time. So, when, I'm sorry, can I ask one more question? So at of course, at what point will we know the, the number, the number, number that we need? The deficit nu the final deficit number? So if there's a hundred thousand dollars in personnel, so I Would, I wouldn't count on the a hundred thousand. I'd say maybe 50,000. 'cause we're clearly probably gonna have to hire a one, something's gonna come up. So I'd say we're looking at 1.2 million as the deficit. Okay. And where would we seek to find that? Um, I would first go to school choice would be my recommendation. Um, if we touch circuit breaker that's coming in this year, we are not gonna have it for next year, which will pose a significant problem. But Shannon, we haven't, um, expended all of the school choice money that we were going to Correct. So this year, we'll expend everything that we had planned to, but last year I didn't have to, um, use as much school choice. There was 2.6 million in, um, school choice when I looked today, I wanna say we've received seven months of revenue, six months of revenue. So we'll get another 600,000 in this year. So we're up higher than we thought we'd be at the end of this year. Would you Say 2.6 in there now? Right. And we're gonna get another 600,000 Dr. Got And so just to, I I think I'm following, but to be explicit, that $1.2 million expense deficit assumes the the amount of school choice being applied that we expected this year. Correct. And no prepays of tuition. So basically no, no discretionary expenses. Right. This is, this is your Correct. Within the current fiscal year. Mm-hmm. Okay. So to hypothesize, if you have 3.2 after the 600,000 applied and you use 1.2 to balance off mm-hmm. Whatever the deficit when you create your school budget, which is also due mm-hmm. In March sometime. Yep. The what will the plan be to offset whatever you see to be as an increase there? 'cause you won't obviously be able to, Right. Well, the, the plan when we went into this in FY 25 was that we were using significantly more school choice than we ever have. And the plan was not to do that the following year. Yeah. I'm running same thing on the city side. Mm-hmm. Exactly the same problem. So Another question is, do you, I, I know that we'll get more information about the future budget year and all that. Mm-hmm. Um, are we seeing as our special education costs continue to provide this, this pressure, are we seeing an upward increase in our circuit breaker funding that we're getting year To year? Yes. So we did receive, I mean, not enough, more, but about $400,000 more this year. Right. Than last year. Right. And so we, that was covering, that was essentially, if I'm remembering correctly mm-hmm. Two, that extra $400,000 was because of the increase that we had from two years ago to last year. Yes. It's year behind. Yes. Yes. And so in theory, we would expect next year to be, we would significantly higher because our special education costs this year is so much higher than last year's. Correct. Mm-hmm. Okay. If, if I could just, yeah. A perfect opportunity to plug, um, every time I speak with you, the Representative Pease or Senator Velos to fully fund the circuit breaker, uh, that is my plea, uh, with them every year, um, as it was originally intended to be funded fully. It has never been, What is the percentage circuit breaker costing co cover the cost for our special ed? About 70. Yeah. I'd have to go back and look. Not everything's reimbursable, so I'd have to really look at it. But still, even if it's 20% less than what we, Yeah. I'd Be, we getting, what do we get kind of on par with what MSBA was reimbursing, which the only reason don't even know the number was on. Yeah. But only of the costs after $40,000 Or something like that. Right. So circuit breaker and FY 24 was only 2 million I and I think we were spending, you know, five, six, 7 million. But if the legislature fully funded it, it would certainly alleviate some of that pressure. Yes. They also are under funding the base 40,000 in the chapter 70. Yes. They're in addition to the inflation problem. I like, they've gone through this all over this Chapter seven. Listen, I'm, I'm right behind on Job. I mean, not at the, Shannon, can you re refresh my memory? What, what was the prepaid tuition number for 2024 I for, for this, for this budget year? So it was 669,000 and I wanna say I was able to do slightly more than that at the end. And the, what was the school choice number? 1.32 or Nine? No, 1.992. 1.992. Mm-hmm. Thank you. I think they're good. Okay. On expenses, do we want Good? Is a strong personnel now Good? Is a strong sign good? I think they're sed. Okay. So just on page one of personnel, um, that prep time line is in a deficit. It's gonna be in a further deficit because of the MOA, um, with Unit A for prep time. Um, as you know, we were unable to implement the 50 minute prep times this year. So we had to come to an agreement with the union to resolve that. Um, and it involves paying prep time to teachers on page two at the top. I just wanted to point out, I'm going to be transferring money from that, um, phys ed line. We have a teacher that left that we're filling with a long-term sub. So you'll see a transfer there tonight On page four, the sub secretary line in the middle is in a deficit. That is because the, um, the clerk at Abner took a different position. So we filled that with a sub clerk. Um, because as you know, that position was going to be cut mid-year because of the new school. Um, so I have funding transferring from the Abner Gibb secretary line to that line to cover that deficit. Um, I do just wanna point out on page four again, the add of grade line, that 55,000, um, that is not current year money. That was money that was carried over to pay custodian retros. Um, so that is not funding. I can actually spend in this year, page five in the middle. Um, under health professional substitute. Um, again, we knew we were going to be losing a nursing position with a new school. Um, so we hired a substitute nurse at, um, WIS because that nurse had left. So instead of having to cut a position, we filled it with a long-term sub. So again, that's why the long-term sub line is in a deficit. And there's funding in the, the WIS nursing line that could be transferred to cover that. Page nine. Um, under Franklin Avenue, there is a, um, hourly position that's in a deficit. Um, we had to hire an RBT versus a para, um, because we are unable to find paras for the program. So the funding would be in the paraprofessional line. The RBT are just on a different budget line. Page 18, um, a speech therapist unit, a position that was unbudgeted is in a deficit. Um, so I do just wanna point out, there's a few of these. The plan was to transfer money from the special education contract services line. Um, when we reduced that contract to hire, um, internal staff members. Um, unfortunately there's no excess balance in the special education contract services line. So all of these positions are now just causing a deficit on the personnel side. So, um, on page 26, that line, that's in a deficit, that's actually just a transfer that had to happen. Um, we no longer separate health and physical education lines. So a transfer's already been done to fix that. Page 34 at the high school, again, an unbudgeted speech assistant, um, that's causing a deficit there. Page 38 at Fort Meadow. Two unbudgeted s LPAs, there are causing a deficit. Page 40 at the top. Um, before we were separating out pathways from the high school. In terms of cost, there's no point because I report pathways as part of the high school. So we fixed that for this year. Um, tho those have both been updated to move those to the appropriate line in the high school. And I have one last one. Um, page 53. Um, just to point out the deficits there. Those were all from summer school staff. And that is all I have. Do You have any idea what the projected, um, balance will be? Four positions that are not filled? Yeah. So projecting out it is gonna, there's only gonna be about a hundred thousand dollars left on the personnel side. So We're looking at 1.1, not 1.2. Right. But as I said before, I wouldn't count on it not filling any other positions. So I wouldn't count on it being a hundred thousand dollars. That was something's gonna come up that we Have to build. That was the first part I got. I know, but I just wanna let everyone know that that's not definite. Someone needs a one-to-one or we have to hire, we have to hire it. Mr. Sullivan, Page four. Mm-hmm. School leadership building. Um, it's about $9,500 over. Mm-hmm. That was the sub secretary line. Okay. So it, that was the one where, um, we have a sub secretary at Abner until the river school opened. And right beneath that, the long system negotiations longevity. So that is, it's not actually longevity, it's severance. 'cause we still have non-contract people that have severance in their contracts. Those Are my favorite class. I know, I know. So how much, I know severance has been a sticking point forever. Um, how much severance is left? Do you know? There's only a few non-contract people with it. I, I don't remember how many off the top of my head. Okay. I want to say maybe three. One retired last year. Yeah. I knew we were down to single digits, but mm-hmm. Okay. Alright. Anybody else on the personal finance side of the house? Like to ask any questions? Thank you very much. No instructions to vote. Can't believe you can smile. Thank you so much for all That. Oh, to accept. Do a great job. Thank you. Oh, we already did the motion. Okay. So wait a minute. Heather Sullivan? Yes. I was just Wondering where it was. Bo Sullivan? Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey got there. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Tim O'Connor. Yes. And Chairman McCann? Yes. Bo you moved? Yep. Okay. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of a budget transfer in the amount of $58,952 from account 5 0 0 8 6 9 5 3 2 1 out of district vocational tuitions, tuitions in state to account. 5 6 5 2 3 9 1 5 3 2 0 1. Tuitions in state. Second. Wow. Oh, Sullivan. Go ahead. Saying none. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gun. Three. Yes. Gun Three. Gun Three. Gun three. We Koman? Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Tim O'Connor? Yes. Koman Chairman. McKidd? Yes. Like to make a motion for the approval of a budget transfer in the amount of $60,000 from account 5 3 0 0 8 2 71 dash 5 3 2 0 0 1. Uh, Westville high guidance professional tuitions in state to account. 5 6 5 2 3 9 1 0 dash 5 3 2 0 0 1 tuitions in state second. You seconded by Mr. Sullivan? Seconded by Mr. O'Connor's. Any further questions since we've already gone over the top? Well, except for one that was a $60,000 transfer. There was, if I, I don't have it right in front of me, but there's like $64,000 in that line item. Are you just leaving that? No, It was 60,000. It's the tuitions at, um, Westfield High School. The guidance You looked at it. Uh, It's on page 17. Okay. I believe it. Okay. I guess I'm good. Good? Yep. I hate to do this to you Ms. Sullivan, but go ahead. Uh, Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Tim O'Connor. Yes. Chairman McKay? Yes. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of a budget transfer in the amount of $41,609 from account 5 0 0 1 8 2 3 5 System F Ed professional fulltime teachers to account 5 0 6 8 3 2 4 5 2 2 0 0. Long term illness, long term teacher. Let's, uh, let's, let's just cool your jets a little bit. That was, Well, you're not giving me chance to say, Carrie, you're just jumping right back. Okay. We're little punchy. Any further discussion on this item? Say none. Ms. Sullivan. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. O Sullivan? Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Tim O'Connor? Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. Mike. To make a motion for, uh, approval of a budget transfer in the amount of $18,269 and 53 cents from account 5 2 0 7 7 2 2 1 dash 5 1 1 0. Uh, Abner Gibbs, principal full-time hourly employees to account 5 0 0 7 7 2 2 1 dash 5 1 2 1 0 school leadership building temp employees Motion been made. And second and once again by Mr. O'Connors. Any further discussion on this item? Saying None. Mrs. Sullivan. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. O Sullivan? Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Tim O'Connor? Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. Motion passes. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of budget transfer amount of $50,977 from account 5 2 8 8 5 3 2 0 5 0 WISS Health professional full-time salary employees to account 5 0 0 8 5 3 2 0 dash 5 1 1 4 0 0 system health professional. Substitute Second in second. There. Any further discussion on this item? Same. None. Mr. Sullivan. Bill Sullivan. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike au Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Captain. Uh, Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Tim O'Connor? Yes. Uh, chairman McCabe? Yes. Motion passes. It was a slight dock. I'd like to make motion to accept the following gifts, donations, uh, donated to Highland Elementary from Grin and Barrett Enterprises in the amount of $1,345 and 23 cents views in the educational purposes. Gift account donated to South Hampton Road Elementary from Grin and Barrett Enterprises in the amount of $984 and 97 cents to be used in the educational purposes. Gift account donated Westfield Middle School for Mr. And Mrs. Scott of Westfield. Donation of a snowblower valued at $500 to be used for snow removal donated to Westfield High School from Karen Shaa of Long Meadow Mass. A donation of $250 to be used for the community closet at Westfield High School. Donated to Westfield High School indoor track and field teams from Dunking Donuts, a donation of $618 to use purchase weight throwing implements and donated Westfield High School from Michael and Maria ti from Westfield amount, a hundred dollars to use purchase weight throwing implements. Second Been made and seconded. I know it's coming. Shot put. Is that shot? Yeah. Wouldn't it? I would Weight throwing implements. Okay. Any further discussion? Go ahead. Yes. Bo Sullivan? Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Jim O'Connor. Yes. Chairman McCabe. Yes. So before we go into the next one Yep. Principal McMillan. I couldn't figure out why you were sitting here this whole time. So if you're ever finding yourself alone in the gallery, just kind of throw your hand up and I'm sure we could make a, uh, a motion to get you outta here prior to, I don't know, midnight. Mr. O'Connor. I'd like to make a motion. We accept a grant from Apartment of Mental Health to start a bright BRYT program at Westfield Middle School during the 2024 2025 school year. Total funds for FY 25 are $69,919 and 27 cents. And for fiscal year 26, $140,833 and 31 cents. Second. Second Motion been made. And second, and I think Mr. Sullivan beat Mr. Sullivan and Mrs. Sullivan. That time further discussion on the matter. Is it great for break? I have BRYT. Yes. So the funding that we are receiving is going to cover staff, which is an adjustment counselor and a teaching assistant, materials and supplies for the program and professional development. And Susan Doji, director of Curriculum instruction and Principal McMillan from the middle school are here to do a brief presentation on the program. Okay. Before we talk about Good evening. Good evening. Superintendent Zaki gave me the Okay to revisit the question that Dr. Gunther asked about the graduation requirements and policy. We do need to go straight to the policy subcommittee with the law change for our 2025 graduates, but the changes that have been proposed at the curriculum instruction and assessment subcommittee will remain with that subcommittee until recommendations are made to the full committee that would then prompt policy change, or at least that's what the plan was before the vote was taken. So just to, So just to clarify, the what's going to policy imminently is just what's absolutely necessary for the 2025 graduating class. Right. Okay. Okay. So turning to Bright, bright Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition is what the acronym stands for, but the organization doesn't really use the acronym anymore. And when you see it on their website, it's all small letters. But of course everyone wants to know what an acronym stands for. Bright has been in Massachusetts for 20 years and it has now become a model used nationally. It's something that we have heard about, I've talked about many of us have talked about on our central office team and with principals over the years. There have been times when there was a mental health grant and we considered applying to have a Bright Intervention program, but the timing never quite lined up. This time, everything did line up. Conditions were right. We were put in contact with Paul Rie, who's the director of the, um, behavioral health Team in Brookline. And there was funding that had been released for Bright Programs. And one of our contacts that we work with from UMass originally for PBIS put us in contact with him. And Jesse had just joined our district behavioral health team. And so he had interest in the program and has the need. So things came together and we were able to meet and talk about it and receive the grant. So Bright is an in-school intervention program. It's tier three, which means when we talk about that multi-tiered system of support, it's that one to 5% of the population of students who need more than the general curriculum and supports and more even then the first layer of intervention tier two, they need something that's more intense and it is not a program, even though we, it does get referred to as intervention program. It is not a program in the sense of a special education program. Bright is for all students. They may have an IEP, they may have a 5 0 4, they may not have or need, they may not have a disability requiring those supports. So while we can talk about how do we bring back our students that are in out of district placements or how can we change the trajectory with that, we believe that Bright may be able to prevent SPED referrals program placements and out of district placements because not all students who experience a mental health disruption in their life need to be on an IEP. But when we don't have the right supports for those students, when they need them, that is the trajectory because we need to help them and they can't be in our general education class. It's not appropriate for them at that time. So we start down a different path. So Jesse and I visited Bright Interventions in East Hampton and Amherst on Friday. And it was great because we got to talk to the people that are the boots on the ground. We talked to the school adjustment counselor that was running that program. We talked to the teaching assistant that is the educational support for that program. In both cases, a Bright Room is open all at all times because students who may not typically even need to access those services in that room, uh, may on a certain day at a certain time need to. So, and then they're able to get right back to class. So it's open every period, every day. We want to make sure that it is a comfortable setting. This is a therapeutic setting. So we want comfortable seating tables and chairs. There should versus desks in rows. There should be space for individual meetings with the school adjustment counselor. So a private space where that can occur because there are varying numbers of students in the room at any given time. They did talk about in with our meetings with the Bright organization and also the people we visited, they noted that a location near an entrance, a building entrance can be good because we have students that become school phobic. They can't even get into the building. And if we can just get 'em into the building, then that's the first step to getting them back into their classroom with their peers. When we think about which students may benefit from Bright, there are a variety of students of situations where it could be an appropriate intervention. And intervention. We're thinking eight to 12 weeks. Some students need more, some students will need less. Students that are experiencing a significant mental health disruption is the, the main purpose for the Bright Intervention. That could be students that are awaiting hospitalization, a partial hospital setting. Those, um, spots fill up. We have many, many students in need in our area and really across the country. So it may take weeks before a student is able to access the level of support that they need. So they may be spending time in the Bright Room to get them to that place that they need while keeping them somewhat connected when able to the, their education. We have students returning from hospitalization, and Jesse can tell you because I think it just happened to him a week or so ago, sometimes they just appear back at school and we haven't had contact from the hospital program to our adjustment counselors. We weren't invited to attend a discharge meeting. And we are working with our partners, uh, to improve on that. But things happen and sometimes we don't have a lot of advanced notice. So a student that's coming back in, instead of being dropped immediately back into exactly the environment they left, when things were heightened for them, they can ease back in going to the classes where they have a best relationship with a teacher as they work toward catching up on the work they missed, which also impacts students' mental health. Um, other things that we didn't necessarily know about, um, but Jesse and I, in meeting with the folks from the Brookline Center and also Amherst and East Hampton is students that are navigating a serious medical condition. Students who just received a cancer diagnosis, um, type one diabetes diagnosis are grappling with that, with their actual physical health. The impact of that on their mental health and trying to keep up with school students may be in need of an alternative remedy to suspension. Some of the behaviors that result from the mental health needs and disruption get students suspended because we don't have something else that will help keep them in school at that time. And we've exhausted other remedies. This is another alternative remedy. And it's also good for reengaging students after suspension because that's another time when you could need to ease in ease back in. Maybe you had a physical fight with a student in one of your classes. Well, in the Bright classroom, the student can make a plan before going to that class. What are they going to say? What are they going to do if, if X happens? And then concussion Pro, when students are following concussion protocols and because of an injury and they need a a quieter darkened environment, that's another time when the Bright Room can come into play. These are some statistics from a 2017 study that the impact of students participating in Bright is, uh, outcomes are seen in graduation rate, fewer re-hospitalizations. This is big. Many of the students who are hospitalized for mental health reasons have re-hospitalizations and the bright classroom can help to break that cycle. And then we also can see a decrease in substance abuse and self-harm. So our funding, uh, as we said, was secured through the Brookline Center for Community Mental Health. They received the large grant from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. And um, that was part of a $13 million earmark that was from May of this year in, uh, last year in Massachusetts. So Westfield Middle School is the site of our first Bright intervention program. The, um, table shows what the total cost will be and the DPH funding for this year is the total cost of the program. So it's the prorated salary of the school adjustment counselor that will be hired and the teaching assistant that will be hired. And it also includes startup costs for equipping the room. Kudos to Jesse because he went for it and asked for a good amount of money and the whole, the budget was approved. I said, do you think that's too much? Okay, Let's try. So he's going to be able to build a very nice room. And then, um, as Shannon mentioned, some professional development costs. There's a, a cost to belong to the organization to get the support for the staff. And then next year, the full year would be a total cost of 140,000. And that's with the salaries and, um, the continued support. And 75% of that will be funded through the grant by the DPH once. So, um, we're happy to answer any questions, just If you'd like. Yeah, I'd just like to add this is, um, exactly what we need for the middle school. I think all schools could, could certainly benefit. Um, but we've seen a substantial increase in the mental health crisis and there's a number of criteria at which point a student could become eligible. There's going to be a very specific referral process. Um, so it's not going to be, you know, a counselor, a teacher saying we're transporting the student to the Bright Room and they're dropped off at the Bright room and no one knows what's happening. So we're gonna be working on that. Um, starting on Friday, Susan and I have a meeting with the director again to go through that entire process. All referrals will come directly to me. Um, so I'll make sure that I, I can approve or deny and explain the rationale behind the approval or the denial to make sure that we keep the main thing. The main thing this is, we, we don't want to overburden the program. Um, it's designed to start off at approximately six students. Um, I know the six students who we need to put into this program immediately and then build up to 12 to 15 between now and the end of the year. And we wouldn't want to exceed 15 moving forward. 'cause that's really, that's a lot in the program. We just visited Amerson and she had mentioned she took on, uh, 15 students and, and she can feel that in that particular program. But it's all gonna be dependent upon the needs of the students. Um, there are a couple of students in particular, um, who I think, you know, if if we didn't have some sort of intervention in place, I think that the timeline could be much quicker for an OUTTA district placement. So I just want to note that there are two students. We, we've had, you know, conversations that, you know, if God forbid we can't meet their needs, who knows if this is what would happen. Um, I, I feel confident based on what we've seen with the program and what we're going to be able to offer, that they're going to get some of those supports that we wouldn't otherwise be able to provide. And, and the program Bright makes that very clear that that's part of the intent of the design behind this Question. I have a, a financial one. Um, the, the local funds FY 26. When you say local, that's us. So we put that in. So how much is this grant? Because what we've, what what the, what the motion was is that we're accepting a 69,000 plus for FY 25 and then 140 for FY 26. Mm-hmm. That's, is that the total of the grant or is that the total of the program? That's the total of the program. So the grant we're accepting is only 69 for this year, plus plus and 106 for next year. So the motion's gotta be amended. Okay. And I, I should add, and Sharon Shannon, correct me if I'm wrong, we did put in, um, for the grant at the recommendation of the Bright coordinator to put on the higher end for the SAC salary. However, I can tell you based on that, the candidates so far, and I'm, I'm conducting interviews, um, I don't anticipate hiring on that higher end. Um, what we budgeted for a master's, um, I think it was a Master's plus 30, uh, at the top scale, I, I anticipate hiring much, much lower than that. A a very high, highly qualified candidate I'll add, but much lower than that, which will impact the cost, um, to us in the end. Anybody on this side? So a couple questions. Um, for the communities that have an established Bright program and they've been doing that, um, is, is the grant, are the grant monies something that would be expected in the future? No, the, the East Hampton is, is establishing a new program. So they received the grant funds, but the grant funds were to, were to seed a new program. But there are mental health grants and bright programs are well regarded in terms of applying for those and for expanding, we would be able to apply for grants again, when we are looking at other schools and opening those. But it would be something that we would have to take on as part of our local budget. And it's the cost of a counselor and a teaching assistant, which is in the unit D um, scale, You know. And when you talk about students with mental health deficiencies or challenges, um, is covid, do we know? Um, my expectation is covid is probably contributed to that. And, and do we know how that is, is going meaning are we still seeing the effects of, of that and particularly in the mental health area for students? I would say yes. We are definitely still seeing the effects of that. And grades five through eight is an area where it's very prevalent. So thinking about which years were disrupted for that group of students, the impact that that has had on mental health is, I, I, I mean substantial. Anecdotally I don't, but that's what is believed. Mm-hmm. And discussed about where schools are at this time. One thing that I did not mention is that this would be a voluntary intervention that the family and student would agree to, and that there are supports for the family as part of this, um, program. Mr. Star, what do you see as being the offset to the 34,000 3 533 33? What do you see as being the offset? Um, one RBT that we don't have to hire One that's current, that's currently on the books. I, I, um, I'm trying to see where this is going. So, so let me, right, yes. Foreshadow this a little bit in a different direction. If I have sent out, um, letters to department heads that there are no new positions mm-hmm. Um, given the abysmal situation that I think that we're currently facing, does that $34,333 33 cents 533, sorry, but you should do this for me. Um, that substantially represents a new position in the FY 26 budget. Yes. Is there a realistic offset for that? So meaning that if we're able to capture the $140,000 of FY 26, does it mean that it's possible that x number of kids won't go out of district? Is it possible that the transportation cost won't be born? Is it, does Shannon, do you want I I think that Jessie could answer with some specifics because of he his school, but in general, because I am part of those conversations when a student is in such crisis in one of our existing programs, the only thing that we can do in many cases is hire another person to help deescalate them, to help keep them safe, to help keep other students safe. If we have this program, then many students can benefit and we would, in theory, not need as many of those extra people that we have added. Okay. So lemme just add one more follow up, and I'm not trying to badger anybody. I'm just trying to get the, what happens in FY 27? In FY Oh, go ahead. In FY 27, we have data going into FY 27, we have the data of students that we have reengaged. We have the data of fewer hospitalizations, fewer suicide attempts. We look at have we put fewer students in our own in-house programs? Have we had fewer out of district placements? I believe that when it comes to the students at Westfield Middle School, we will be able to show that as a reason to continue to fund two positions. It's, it's not a, so, but it's, Is it going to be continued to fund on the 75 25 formula, or does it become a hundred percent? It becomes a hundred percent our responsibility. Okay. Okay. So, okay. So I'm wondering if, first of all, you answered a ton of questions, so thank you, Jesse. That was helpful. So I, I look at something like the RISE program and so many times that we go off and we learn about new programming and then we come back and teach it to our staff. Is this something that, you know, is something that we can train so that our RISE programs or other schools can use with their adjustment counselors to service, um, crisis that come up? I mean, I, I, um, I, I don't, it's a, a specific approach to be used with students who meet a certain criteria. So one of the issues with RISE is students who have a variety of disabilities are in that program. That's right. So they, and so there may be Bright could meet a need to keep a student out of rise when RISE really isn't the best placement. But it's, we, we don't have unlimited don special programs don't. My concern, and also this is what happened before, we had milestones, many students on the autism spectrum were put, were in the RISE program. And that was not the best to meet their needs. So I wouldn't say that what Bright brings to the table can be translated to all other programs. I think we have a number of things happening for our students' mental health. We have River Valley Counseling services, we have our own adjustment counselors. Certainly we have a school-based crisis clinician that we contract with through BHN who responds directly to Westfield, stays in contact with the Westfield families and supports students through the, the weeks following a crisis incident. So to follow up and then I, um, so to follow up, so maybe you can't do it for the Rise teachers, but is there things or components of this, because I know he's looking at a budget saying, okay, we're gonna have to, if we wanna duplicate this, you know, all this money, but can, is there something that can be, uh, given to adjustment counselors of that nature? And then secondly, I just wanted to get this in so that I'm all done. Um, how many students do you forecast you projecting that you could service from now till the end of the year? Because I know it's, it's certain amount of weeks. So you could take in new, what are you looking at in, in your, in School at at least 12 to 15 by the end of the year? So we're gonna start off with six students. Um, I, we hope to have staffing set in place, uh, by early February and then have the, the intervention up and running right after February break. Um, so six students to start for the first round, it's gonna depend, I'm gonna say they're gonna need the full 12 weeks at this point in time. Um, and it's also, um, something we discussed with the programs that we visited that it's very likely that some students might need to repeat that intervention for a period of time. Uh, to answer your question though, I think that, you know, as Susan said, we can't replicate the entire thing with all of the other programs, but there are certainly strategies, um, that in, as a part of that playbook that we would be able to implement in some of the other programs and how we approach students in a mental health crisis. Um, to answer the financial question, I, I think that knowing the students who I'd like to have in the program between now at the end of the year, um, you know, we just had a conversation about not being able to hire the, the additional supports which we, I fully respect and understand realistically with what we're seeing at the middle school. And Stephan sees my suspension letters come across on a, on a weekly basis. There is no shortage of suspensions. Um, the vast majority of those are due to, to some mental health issues that we're seeing in the building. Um, I, I would say that there are at least two students who between now and the end of the year at any point in time, you know, families could be calling team meetings and requesting for additional supports. Okay. Jesse, hold on. I appreciate the conversation, Dr. Gunther. Okay. I, I think, I think this is gonna build to whatever you're getting at. So I have two questions and one is, one is of that about $70,000 that we're spending this, that we are having funded by the grant this year. How much of that is like non startup costs that, like if you were to in the future try to apply that, you know, put this at the intermediate school or the high school that you could expect to, you know, see again in the future, like how much does one time cost versus the, the, the salary? It was about, uh, 10 to $11,000. Okay. And then my other question, and then I'll get to a point is, um, what is our current adjustment counselor? What are our current adjustment counselor size within the district? I just don't remember approximately how many we have across, Um, we have about two. Oh we have four at intermediate, we have two school counselors Section, right? Yes. Adjustment counselors. So We have one at each elementary school. Yeah. Uh, two right now at River. Yeah. And then, uh, so that's five one at Fort 9 0 6 4 at West 10. And then Jesse has two. Tech has 1.5, 1.50 0.50 A 0.5. Oh my God. She's a drug substance. Okay. Alright. But so, so the, and so my takeaway here is that we're moving From this, we are basically moving from two to three assessment counsel or adjustment counselors at the middle school. We're getting, which is more or less paid for, we are getting the, uh, the non, the one-time costs, 10 THOUSANDISH dollars paid for. We're on the hook for covering effectively. I know it's not exactly that, but effectively a para salary in FY 26. And then to your question, I think the decision that we have in FY 27 is continue, do you remove that third adjustment counselor in the middle school and or if this is effective, spend that $10,000 in each of the other or in, in select other schools to be able to apply Bright at some of the other locations? Is that how you're thinking about this? Yeah, Well, and the need to have that educational person right in each. So if you are talking, are you talking about using an existing SC at one of the other schools? Because I'm just trying to understand what the, like what the real increment. I'm trying to understand like both what it would look like to unwind this program if it's not effective, and also what it would look like to effectively double down on this program if it was. So I think we'd have to look at that after. I mean, I think we have to determine if this works for us first, right? And if it does, then we cross that bridge and how we would look at expanding it. But earlier I was asked about how we were going to keep kids from going outta district. If this program saves two kids from going outta district, it pays for itself. Okay. But, but that's, Heather got part of my question or my theory. Right? But that isn't really, it's only part of it. So the second part of it is when, two years ago, what's the name of the tier program? The what? The tier program where we have a set of skills at one level and then tier One MTSS. Tier 1, 2, 3. There You go. So tier one, two, and three was supposed to already be in place to take care of this specific need. Is there something within, say it again. TSS whatever. M-T-S-S-M-T-S-S That is not working and that is going to go away because it's not working because we would like to try this program. That's essentially the question that I have. So, So this is Actually, hold on just a sec. Hold on just a sec. My reticence and I'm not against it. I, you know, I want kids to be able to thrive in our schools. I'm not against it, but what I see is the ever increasing school budget is that we just move on to the next without the evaluation of what happened over here. And that still stays in place even though it wasn't maybe the response necessary. But we've got the fix in place and while we have the fix in place, this never went away somewhere. So when this goes into 2027, the school committee is going to have to vote on a budget that's going to increase the footprint of this program by w add another, well, I won't add it. 140,000. Right? And FY 26, it's only 35, but in FY 27 it's 140. And did we do the proper evaluation on the original program? And did the exact same program still exist but nothing happened To it? So we don't have a mental health program. Years ago we had a therapeutic intervention program, which is where currently Pathways was. That did not work. This is a different model. And we also have more kids with significant mental health issues than we've had in my 30 year career. So this is a different level. This is a tier three intervention that is being added out of necessity. It's not that we had something that failed. Well, I've only been here for three years, right? I've, I've only personally been here for three years. And the tier three intervention that we had in place when the tier model came up was that we were going to be able to capture these folks. That was the goal. We were gonna capture these folks. Is there something that didn't happen? No. I would say that what's happened is that the cases of mental health, not just in Westfield Public schools, but across the nation, have become more severe. I think you'd have to watch the news to see it. And that's the first thing. And the second thing, tier three does not only reflect mental health, there are tier three interventions for reading. There are tier three interventions for other subjects. So you can't say all tier three is one thing and if one tier three thing doesn't work, we're gonna bring in the right program. That would be wrong. So this is an, this is an effort to be able to address students with significant mental health needs. Whose needs we haven't met never since Covid never have I been in a school system where we had to partner with a River Valley Counseling or A BHN or somebody else to bring these services into our schools. In addition to the school adjustment counselors that we have. We have a mental health crisis in this country. And the longer we don't deal with it, the only the worse it's going to get. So what we are trying to do is put in place a system that makes our kids okay, being able to function in school and not need to be sent to a mental health facility on a full-time basis. Ms. Sullivan, I think I, I've been here longer than three years and I don't know of any tier three mental, um, health interventions. I think you're the, the reading and the math were the interventions that were placed and, and you go through those. And the other thing I, um, I lost, wait a minute. Um, Deb Ecker stood before us in the last meeting or the meeting before and said that so many of our students that are leaving are going to a therapeutic, um, placement, which is costing us more. And it's because of safety. And so that's the thing I'm looking at. That's what I'm looking at, is, you know, we have to deal with the problem that's in front of us. And as much as we want to stop sending people outside of the district, we might have to put some front money in front of it in order to save it in the end. I don't know. But I can tell you that as sure as he's standing here, you wouldn't have put your time and effort into this if you weren't feeling the need in your school. And to me, that is a reason to do it. I, I, I five kids is five too many. Mrs. Help. Um, Susan, as you were speaking, I could think of a multitude of kids that I've had at middle school and I have tears in my eyes right now because I totally understand where you and Jesse are coming from. And I really feel that this is something that needs to be all those interventions that those kids coming in from cancer, with those kids coming in who couldn't even come into the building. I saw that firsthand and people tried to help this child, but we had no place to put him. He was in the hallways. He was, it was just, i, I commend you for even attempting to do this because this is such an important need for our students, especially at the middle school. 'cause it's just so sad to see what these kids are going through. They can't even think about academics at this time when they're in such dire need of their own help coming into that building. And we need people who are un going to be understanding of that. We need the, the, the adjustment, the counselor. I just hope we can find somebody good enough to be able to help these students. Thank you, Doctor. Just one more. I, coming back to the other question I had earlier of how many we have now. If I remember correctly, we did reduce the number of adjustment counselors by eight by eight from, okay. And so this is in essence restoring one of those positions that we removed from 24 to 25 through this grant for the remainder of FY 25 and into FY 26. Yes. Mr. So Did, did I hear right that if you applied for, if, if another school wanted to run this program, you could apply for the same grant because it's a different location or the district got this once and that's it, I think. But my, my theory is your students are going to the high school or to the tech academy, chances are something is probably gonna have to be done up there to follow these students. So, And there are other mental health grants out there that we will obvi obviously look for. Right. In order to try to supplement this program. Right now, what we see this as is a pilot at the middle school. We wanna see how it goes. We wanna make sure it has impact on our students before we even take the next Step. Right. So we don't know if we could apply for the same grant for a different school. Yeah. I mean typically the answer is no on those things. But because they only have so much money as well, I think too that with the counselors that we have, some of the counselors, I would say they're all at different times and the principal spending an entire day mm-hmm. Three entire days in a row with a student who is in crisis. Mm-hmm. So having this program frees up our counselors to help the kids that are tier two. Because if we don't help them, then we're just increasing the kids that are going to need more intensive support. Anybody else? Ms. Sullivan? Uh, do we need to, do we need to amend it? Moneywise? Oh, I don't know that we actually need to amend it. Moneywise. 'cause I think that we're just talking about the total acceptance, aren't we? Well, the total acceptance is, Yeah. But that the way they have that grant worded, it's worded that the total acceptance is one 40. If you wanna amend it to add the 69 9 9 19 27, 1 40 Number, It's 1 0 6. I got that. But in order to get, in order to get the one 40, you have to accept the whole grant in. Its in its entirety. But I get what you're saying. I just don't think we need to do it that way. This Is just a table that I, that I put on here. And this, uh, these rows are totally separate from these rows. This is why Shannon doesn't want you do anything. So it's not really an added up. And so I think we're all was saying is on your motion or on the document, we have this total, correct. Right. But really we should have this total added to This. Right? So the total grant's 170. No, I, I totally understand what Bo's saying. What I'm, what I'm saying is though, the, the, the grant itself doesn't encompass just 75%. It, it encompasses the whole thing. So in order for this to be pulled off, you still have to have the whole $140,000. 'cause that's what you're accepting. And you're agreeing to pay the 34,003, no, 5 33. Three three I I, I respectfully disagree. We're, we're accepting 69 9 for this year. And 106 for next year, we're actually accepting $175,000. I'm, you know what, it's nine 15. I'm, I'm good. I'm not arguing the point. So amend it back to whatever the 69 9 19 27 plus 1 0 6 2 99 98 and make the motion based on that. So 1 76 2 1 9 25 Shannon, is that right? Accept just The, okay. Which is 170. $176,000. So the only point I was trying to make was, in order to accept the grant, you had to agree for the 34,000 as well. So you're actually taking the whole grant. But I don't, I I don't care. What's the new number, Mike? 1 7 6 2 1 9 25. Is that agreed on the number Shannon? Yes. 1 76. Would we split my position? That's right. So, so make the motion to amend it To like, to amend the motion to say the total grant acceptance will be $176,219 and 25 cents. Second. And that number's right. Everybody's happy with the number? Yes. No further discussion. Call the roll. Mrs. Sullivan. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Definitely. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Tim O'Connor. Yes. Chairman McCabe. Yes. And I appreciate the discussion Mrs. GY and Principal Miller. I really do appreciate it. I hope you know what I was trying to get to. So thank you. I agree. Superintendent's update. Uh, just a couple things. Uh, we have a new school. It was a wonderful opening. I know we have some, uh, continued concerns with hiccups and drop offs. Those are hiccups, but when phase two is complete, um, that will be a much better. But seeing the kids smiling faces on that first day was what this is all about. And the high fives and the jumping up and down and the miles and everything else. And, uh, I also just want to, uh, invite folks to our open house slash ribbon cutting, which will be on Saturday, January 18th at 11:00 AM And that's all I have for tonight. Super other, Nothing under eye. We're good. Uh, under the mayor, we have the science fair, not to forget, we have the science fair on January 30th, I Believe January 30th. So if 30th, we're looking to sign up. Uh, Lauren do tigan@schoolsofwestville.org and I will post that. It's on our Facebook page. It's been in the newspaper, but I will Repost it, it's my thing just timed out. I had it up here. Ready, ready to go for it. But, um, I know that last year they had, I don't want to just find out from Lauren if they need it. How about that? 'cause there were a bunch of us That that, That were there last Year. Judges actually still looking at last night. I knew so, but I've had quite a few people volunteer. Uh, since you're giving me the opportunity to shout out the best science fair in Massachusetts, I will do that. And, uh, every year we have students go to State Regional. I don't know if I gave him this opportunity. I Just get everything else. Well, So much, so much for that mayor's up update. So truly it's, uh, it was fun. Westfield River Elementary was fun. Not only was it fun for the kids, but it was clearly fun for the faculty. Uh, there was some people running around like chickens with the head cut off because that's what you do on your first day of your brand new school. Um, it, it was a lot of fun to be there. And Stefan, thank you for all your support there. School committee update. I'm not sure if this is right gonna be the right landing spot for this, but, um, we did talk about our cell phone policy and usage being back in front of us to see how, how that's going. And February 3rd, it's gonna be on the February 3rd agenda. Thank you. That's it. I just wanna give a really quick shout out to our music department. Over the past six weeks I've had the opportunity to see winter concerts, the tree lighting of course. And then last week, uh, two Fridays ago I got to attend as a parent, um, seeing Highland and Munger courses, uh, sing to open up the Thunderbirds game. And just really constantly impressed by the amount of effort that goes in the commitment out of school time that the teachers are putting in to support the kids and the, the music program. And so once to take the opportunity to shout that out, Two things to tag along on what Mr. Country just said. Dr. Country just said. Um, uh, you'll be hearing from me soon about, uh, a fundraiser for the show choir. 'cause they're taking trips, they need money. They talked about it at the chamber breakfast. The other, uh, morning while they got in touch with Corey, uh, Bruno. And there will be some sort of fundraiser. It may be at the tavern in March. Um, but I'm not sure about that. And a shout out of one of our own, uh, like to congratulate our vice chair, you will be leading the city of Westfield through the streets of Holyoke at the St. Patrick's Parade. He was voted as the parade marshal for the city of Westfield for this year. So congratulations. That's awesome. Alright, Mr. Subc. Committee. Subcommittee. Subcommittee. Sure. Okay. Um, over the past couple of months, we've been working on policies for Title IX and, um, unfortunately the federal judge vacated the recent changes to Title IX regulations, the sex based discrimination. Uh, we will be working to fur further action with our lawyers, um, to determine what we need to do with it because it was passed. So we need to topa it and, um, we need to revert back to August 1st, 2024 regulations. So be in the, just be looking forward to that and plus our policies for our curriculum changes. That's it. Anything else? Do we need to, uh, refer the, um, the new language and the law on the mc a to our policy subcommittee? Yes. Is it ready for that? I don't know if they're ready. It's ready to go to then. Yes. Well, We are meeting with the subcommittee. It February 3rd. February 3rd, Right. Five o'clock We'll come up with a policy and then bring it to the board Committee. Got it. Well, I just wanted to comment. I I didn't say anything when we had the, uh, Fort Meadow, um, update. So I'm gonna just say it here. Um, I just wanna make sure that everybody knows that we haven't voted on anything yet, so we don't have any details or anything. So, uh, I know that things were swirling out there about decisions that were made and this was definitely gonna happen. And, um, none of it is true. Um, and until this body makes that, um, vote, um, I would just, I know everybody's anxious and wants to figure it all out. All I'm saying is, um, I appreciate your patience, but not until February will there be a vote from this committee regarding anything to do with Fort Meadow. So, um, let's take a deep breath and, um, know that there's no, nothing set in stone until it's done. Okay? Okay. Well, I mean, it, it was presented to, to staff that it was a done deal and it, I, people were calling me and it was in, it was embarrassing. So I just wanna make sure moving forward that that doesn't happen again. So I'm just putting it out there. So if they're watching or they're telling their friends or whatever it is, um, we haven't made a decision, so That's it. Gotcha. I just didn't know where it came from. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's been fun. Anybody else? What about anything not reasonably expected? Within 48 hours of this meeting, we get 19 minutes. Let's skip 19 Construction. Do you remember when I said anything else? I thought it, I looked right at it. Well, we're on 17 and then I got a little bit lost, but, oh, you know what God got. So sorry. I'd like to make a motion to approve the instruction and curriculum subcommittee meetings from December 16th, 2024. Second. Always been made in second. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Sorry. Now I got nothing else. Are we, are you sure? But I did, I looked at him. I said you got anything else? Did you recall what? Okay. How about, is there anything else? 48 hours? No. Next regular scheduled meeting. February 3rd, 2025. Is there another motion? Motion adjourn. Second. Motion been made and seconded at 9:24 PM All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We are adjourned.