We're on. Hello everybody, And welcome to the school committee meeting of City of Westfield for, I'm gonna say it's March the second. I hope still it's seven o'clock. Um, Mr. Sullivan. Jeff Goslin. Here. Jeff Gunther. Here. Kathleen Hillman. Here. Mo Sullivan. Here. Kick Sullivan. Here. Mike Terrell. Here. Chairman McCade here. Uh, at this time, I'd rise for the pleasure of allegiance, The ledge allegiance to United America One Nation. Thank you. Uh, at this time, I'd like to open up the floor
to public participation. Um, well, anybody who would like to address the school committee can do so. On a topic of your choosing, you have up to three minutes per person, uh, for a total time of 15 minutes. If anybody would like to address the school committee, please do so. Now, the only thing we ask you is just state your name and address. Alright. Hi, my name is Grace. I am a resident at 53 South Maple Street, just down the road. Grace? Yes. What's Grace's last name? Taylor. There you go. Hi, grace. Agree.
Most of my favorite people call me Auntie G. It is wonderful to see the students participating here this evening, and we are a huge fan of civil engagement, especially from our youth. I, some of you may recognize me from previous meetings where I've spoken about foster care and my experience as a foster parent to teenage boys today. However, I am speaking simply as a parent of the Westfield Public School System. First, I want to thank you so much for everything that you do. The decisions made by this committee directly impact my family every single day, and I recognize the responsibility that comes with it.
I would like to address concerns regarding the student led anti-ice walkout that took place Friday at Westfield High School. The event has certainly sparked significant community engagement, and I appreciate that it has led to civil discourse. At the same time, it highlights the importance of ensuring that all students are treated equally under established school policies. In 20 21, 1 of my children was abducted from Westfield High School. We did not know he was missing until he failed to arrive home on the bus that afternoon, missing multiple classes on the day
of the most recent student-led walkout. However, it was reported that parents received phone calls, emails, and notifications that their children were not in class. The level of communication stands in stark contrast, which what has occurred when any of my past or current children has have skipped class. The inconsistency in protocol is deeply concerning To me, consistency matters. And as a foster parent, I can tell you that that really does matter with our youth. Policies in the student handbook exist for a reason, and they should be applied equally to all students, regardless of the circumstances surrounding an absence.
I would also like to emphasize the importance of continued civil engagement. Our students are tomorrow's voters. Their views may evolve as they grow into adulthood, but we want them invested in Westfield. We want them engaging with civic leaders, thinking critically, asking questions, and participating respectfully in public discourse. In our most recent local election, the ver voter turnout was below 20%. That is deeply troubling. Many residents are quick to voice concerns on community forums, yet far fewer engage in formal civic processes
when efforts are made. Even something as simple as publicizing a change in the city council meeting times like Dan Alley has been so graciously posting on the community forums, there is minimal response that suggests not disagreement, but disengagement for a city with so much to offer that is a significant loss. I respectfully ask that this committee ensure that attendance policies outlined in the student handbook are enforced consistently and fairly. Students should be treated equally, and consequences should align with
what is clearly stated in the policy. If making up missed work is not a stipulated disciplinary consequence, then students should be allowed to make up that work. More importantly, I urge you to continue engaging youth in civic engagement in ways that promote respectful dialogue and equal treatment under school rules. That commitment to fairness and civil discourse is one of the many reasons why Westfield is such a wonderful place to live and raise a family. Thank you for your time. Thank You, Chris. Anybody else? Good evening. My name is Peter Martin,
one 10 Western Circle here in Westfield, Massachusetts. Mr. Mayor, members of the school committee, thank you for letting me have a comment. As a young civil rights lawyer practicing law in Alabama in the 1980s, I had occasion to represent a group of undergraduate college students, um, called the, um, Auburn Alliance for Peace and Justice. At that time, the Reagan administration was supporting the anti-democratic insurgents who were fighting to topple the elected Nicaragua government. The students opposed that policy
and set up an informational table on the Auburn University campus to hand out literature and discuss their concerns with fellow students. The university threatened to expel them. I sued the university on their behalf, claiming that the university was suppressing their first amendment right to free speech. In the early two thousands, I was involved in a lawsuit against the Westfield Public School Department. A group of high school students had engaged in group prayer before and after school on school grounds, and as Christmas approached, they handed out candy canes
to which a written Christian message was attached. The high school threatened disciplinary action. The students are retained, a not-for-profit law firm dedicated to promoting its version of Christianity. The law firm then sued the school department alleging that it was suppressing the first amendment rights of the students to free speech. This time I was on the side against the students. This past Friday, a group of Westfield High School students left school before the end of the school day to walk on the sidewalk displaying signs opposed to the Trump administration's policies
concerning the treatment of immigrants and the American citizens who support them. Now I'm old. I I'm not directly involved on one side or another of this current situation, but I will share with you some things I've learned. First, history has shown that the students who protested in Auburn, Alabama were right. We now know that the Reagan administration, using Israel as a conduit, sold American weapons to America's sworn enemy, the country of Iran, and then used the money to support the anti-democratic insurgents in Nicaragua
in violation of several congressionally passed laws. Second, history has shown that the students who conducted the candy cane protest were right. The US Supreme Court has since ruled that students engaged in peaceful student initiated faith-based activity cannot be treated differently from those students engaged in similar secular activity. Mr. Martin, can you hold on just a second? Motion to extend second motion be made? And second. And all those in favor? Aye. Go ahead, Pete. Thank you. Yep. It is my personal guess
that history will also vindicate the students who engaged in the so-called walkout this past Friday. But be that as it may, each generation has a duty to pass down the democracy that our founders gifted to us, to the generation that follows peaceful protest and making one's voices heard on the policies of government are essential to the fulfillment of that duty. Democracy does not die from the direct assault of tyranny, but rather from the indifference of the citizens,
these young people are engaged, that these young people who were engaged on Friday, that gives me hope in these tumultuous times. We're concerned about how things go forward. Their standing up lets me know that our democracy will endure. Thank you. Is there anybody else? Okay. Seeing none, I'm gonna close. Public participation. Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Mayor, I would like to make a, a motion to move item five, Westfield Intermediate School presentation. And item six, Westfield Technical Academy student
representatives up above. Item number four on the agenda, second Motion been made. And second, is there any further discussion saying none. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Westfield Intermediate School. Um, we have parents for our, for the students here somewhere. If you guys want to fill in around us anywhere or fill in in front so that you can film or do whatever you want to do. Or if you're fine sitting where you are, you're certainly welcome to sit where you are. Um, So Take a second. Get yourself situated. Do whatever you wanna do. Your camera's ready, Whatever you need to do.
All right. Good evening school committee. It's a, it's a great privilege for me to introduce the West Seal Intermediate School Robotics Club. Hello, I am James at the Westfield Intermediate School Robotics Club, and I'm here to introduce the other members. This is Matthew, Adam Corbin, and Liam. Uh, this was our first, this was our first time Comme competing. So we had a lot of help. As you can see over there, the core values were a big part of the judging process, which included a project, the robot tools and modifications of the robot missions.
Unearthed was a theme we had to research a real world problem in archeology. After several ideas, we choose preservation. We came up with a model, a machine that can scoop up dirt, take it to a lab called damaging the Artifact Act. Our machine is like a forklift with a special attachment that is like a scoop. It, it scoops up the dirt with the artifact, then it takes it to the lead to be later studied. Our machine would use sensors before excavation that would determine if the artifact will fit in the scoop.
We, we built the robot. It has a hub that we program to control motors, lights, sounds, and more. We also built tools to complete the missions mission. One, surface brushing. You have to move the brush side to side to score 20 points. If the brush is lifted out, this would score 10 more points. Corbin will run this mission. Mission six. Forge lever needs to be pushed. So three oral rocks can roll down to score 30 points. Liam will run this mission. The last mission is Mission 12, which is called salvage operation.
In it, you have to push to the red slide to Es to excavate the ship For 20 points, Corbin will be running this mission. And now I would like to introduce my, my mom, Katie Bailey. Katie, thanks. I'll hold it too. Good evening. My name is Katie Bailey. I'm Adam's mom and I'm also a special education teacher at Highland School. Last winter, Adam participated in a few different Lego robotics workshops at Bottomless Bricks in Pittsfield. The shop owner, Erin Laund, was featured as a participant in season three
of the television show, Lego Masters. If you haven't seen that, it's pretty neat. It's on Netflix, it's worth checking out. Um, it's pretty much like a competition show. So she went on there and now she's got a business. And she told us about the robotics teams and competitions through first Lego League. Adam was immediately interested. Unfortunately, it would've been logistically challenging to commit to a regular midweek drive to Pittsfield. Um, so we couldn't do that team. Some online research led us to discover the robust RO robotics program in Agawam. I had reached out to one of the educators who runs the program there for more information
and learned that understandably, their program is only open to participants who live in Agawam. Really hoping to find a team for Adam. I asked our STEM coach Lindsay Ayers during the first few days of school if she happened to know of a team more local to Westfield that might take students from out of town. She said that she would look into it. On September 4th, she texted to tell me she had met with the president of the Western Mass Robotics Club and good news would be coming on September 10th, she texted to say she would have a club in place at WIS and had found a coach.
They'd be able to pilot the program in the fall, including participating in a first Lego League competition in Springfield In December, following several months of meeting, once or twice a week after school, Adam and WIS teammates spent the competition day collaborating with each other, executing, engineered, and code admissions, problem solving in real time. They're still doing that right this moment, taking meaningful risks, presenting a project to multiple judges, investigating projects by other teams, managing feelings of competition,
while knowing they were a novice team and increasing their desire and motivation to learn and grow a skill. Those of us who were in the audience weren't sure what to expect, um, and we found out pretty quickly how confident and capable they had become. So I would like to thank superintendents at browski, director of Curriculum and instruction, Susan Doji and Principal Miller for approving and funding this endeavor. Thank you for supporting student interest and providing them with a pilot program with big potential to grow. I would also like to recognize the tireless work that Lindsay Ayers and Anne Farnam put into this project.
When I asked Lindsay if she knew of a local team that Adam might be able to join this fall, I really didn't expect that she was magically going to create one at WIS in enough time to compete this season. Ann's patients expertise and dedication to meeting for extended hours in order to give the students as much time as possible to prepare their missions and presentation is deeply appreciated. There were also four high school volunteers, two from Westfield High School and two from Agawam who admirably served as mentors and sounding boards to our WI students throughout the fall
and on the competition day. Finally, I'd like to thank Westfield Gas and Electric for sponsoring our team and covering their participation fees for the competition. A takeaway that I'd like to end with is it doesn't hurt to ask if you a student or a parent have an idea about an experience that isn't yet in place. It doesn't hurt to ask about it and see what comes. Someone else might be thinking about it too. And your interest might just be the push that is needed to turn an idea into an experience. Thank you. Thank you. And finally, we're going to, um, end with our high score
for the competition was 180 points. Thank you for listening to our presentation. And does anyone have any questions? Any questions? I think we're all set. Thank you very much. Comment. Mayor. I would just like to thank Lindsay personally. She's goes above and beyond and I'm so glad you're in our school system. Thank I was gonna say, do you know Lindsay, when you asked that question? Do, do you know her? It's no surprise that she came up with that. Um, do you wanna take a, uh, two minute recess? Yeah. Is there a motion? Motion For a two minute recess? Second
Motion be made. And second it take a two minute recess. If the folks from the presenters wanna exit, you're more than, Okay. That's good. Thank you for what you do. Got it. I like that. I like that. Um, yes, I know you read a little over, but I was, I had a feeling that you were wrapping up, so there's no reason why am I the first person to, I just didn't know how long Pete was gonna go. Thanks again. You guys motion to come back into session. Does that really matter? All is in favor, aye. Aye. Motion passes. Not back in session. Uh, how about the Westfield Technical Academy update?
Hello? Can you hear me? Kind of bring it up to us. There you go. Better? Better. Hello. Good evening. Happy March. Although the snow is undesirable, Um, the ninth graders are in their permanent shops after going through the exploratory process, and we are happy to say that roughly 95% of the students received their first or second choice of shop. The deadline for applicants for the class of 2030 has passed. Um, we have received close to 230 applicants for next year's ninth grade class.
This year's students will be selected by lottery. The lottery will be held on April 1st and will be available online so that parents can follow along. Each student will receive a lottery ID number, and they will use that number to see if they will receive an invitation to attend WTA More information regarding the lottery will be shared in the coming weeks. It is hot stove season for Tigers Pride. This Wednesday, March 4th, the pride will host their monthly veterans' luncheon. This month's luncheon is sponsored by the Sons of Aaron Tiger's.
Pride will be open to the public on Friday, March six, sixth, excuse me, from 10 45 to 1215. Please stop by and enjoy a delicious lunch. Tiger Talk is resuming its place as the number one rated show on 1 0 7 0.5 fm. Tune in Thursday mornings at 8:00 AM to catch up with what's going on at the place to be. Join Mr. Daley, Mr. Bette and Mrs. Groom as they welcome student groups and staff members to the show. Our winter sports programs have shut down for the season. Congratulations to the Westfield High School Hockey team
that included WTA students for earning a trip to the Division three State tournament. Spring sports will be starting most likely having inside practices for a while 'cause of the snow on Monday, March 16th, WTA has added a new co-op sport for the spring. Um, having a boy volleyball co-op with Southwick High School. Congratulations. Go out to Mr. Sperry, the horticulture lead teacher. He's a winner of the Grinspoon Pioneer Valley Excellence and Teaching Award. Thank you Mr. Sperry, for your years of service and dedication to the staff and students at WTA.
We'll be hosting its annual General Advisory dinner on Wednesday, March 18th in the cafeteria. All members of the advisory boards for each of our shops are invited to attend and hear our own State of the Union address. A wonderful buffet dinner will be prepared by your own culinary students for all to enjoy. March Madness is about to start. With that comes the third annual Staff Rock Paper Scissors Shoe Tournament signups are underway and the competition will kick off next week. We have already seen a few students, coaching staff members
in the skills and strategies so they, so they can at least pass the first round. School Secretary, Ms. The Kresky is trying to defend her title and Officer Turon is already getting into smack talking as our staff buys for the coveted trophy WTA a's annual staff versus student basketball. Showdown is fast approaching. The game will be held on Thursday, March 12th at approximately 1245 in the gymnasium. Come watch all the fun as once again, the staff plans to destroy the student's dream of victory. Look, I've actually seen it.
This staff is bringing in a ringer this year as Dr. Morris will try his hand in assisting us to a great victory. Okay, as always, this event serves as a fundraiser for Rob o Scholarship. The WTA family still misses our dear friend Rob. And this is an opportunity for Rob's spirit to live on at the place to be. In closing the staff and students at WTA want to congratulate Mr. Paquette, our assistant principal for being named our next principal. The WTA family is very excited to have Mr.
Ette lead us and continue to make Westfield Technical Academy the place to be. Thank you very much. Thank you. Stay warm Mr. Superintendent. If you're not quite ready, I would take a motion to take item. No, I, I'm not gonna be able to open it. I've tried to sign into this thing now. I, I do you wanna, do you wanna keep trying and we'll give you another couple of minutes. We'll take item. It's quick. Okay. Sorry. So you're up, up, I mean, I did send this to you all already and I just, and we'll post it to the website. Um, I've never had to sign into something more times in my entire life Right now.
I'm just trying to get just a Microsoft PowerPoint to run. Um, so, uh, this, uh, just really quick, uh, presentation is about, uh, just what the state has proposed, the state graduation frameworks, um, or the requirements frameworks that they put together. Are you gonna get it? Oh, look At the truck. It's asking for like my personal password and the blood sample, so I don't really know. How about we keep rolling? Yes, sir. Um, all right. So What, wow, I signed 30 times. Don't understand. Obviously did it right. They hit a button. Alright, so, okay. Okay.
So, uh, statewide Graduation Requirements framework, as you know, I was a member of the graduation think tank too. So we were able to offer some feedback, which I'll also share some of that with you, not all of which I agree with, uh, but most of which I do. So, uh, the first one was a rigorous program of study aligned with higher education admissions requirements. So that is the mass core, which we have adopted since then too. Uh, and my, and my only pushback would be to that is that if you have no intention of going to college, we're, we're, we're having you take this college coursework and it leaves no flexibility within your schedule.
Uh, and it is a, a tall task to meet at any career technical education school across the state in order to meet all of these, particularly the two years of world language, uh, becomes problematic. Um, there's also some question, and we're hoping the state can clarify, uh, what the impacts are on some of our special education students with disabilities, some of our newcomers and, and eng English, English learners, and then over age or under credited students. And so what does that mean for them, uh, as we move forward? And again, how to integrate career tech education,
early college and Career Pathways into the existing Mass Corps framework. Um, and of course for, again, the biggest thing that came out of the think tank was if students are not aiming to go to a four year college, this is a particularly rigorous coursework that some of which they may not need. For example, world language, if I'm going to be an electrician. Uh, the other part is, is when you increase the amount of credits and the amount of courses that people have, is that you're gonna have to add staff to teach these courses. And at a time when budgets are not kind to school districts across the state, uh, how are we able
to add more staff to meet these requirements as we move forward? The second one is a proposal was an end of course assessment connected to select courses that are designed, administered, and scored by the state. Uh, and again, um, it will measure, uh, this is what we've been told so far, it will measure student mastery, but will not be used to deny diplomas to students if they, they don't get it. Uh, actually in theory, the EOC is a deeper assessment of actual course content than say the current MAS, uh, than, than what, than what we are still administering.
Um, and there hopefully would be alignment with instruction testing what is taught rather than just general grade level knowledge. Um, and we also would see some consistency across high schools. So, and we do have some transiency students going to Springfield or Chicopee or Holyoke or Westfield. And so it, the nice part of that is whatever high school you go to will be on a similar, uh, page, which is good for, for kids that move around. Some of the questions, again, which courses are gonna have these end of, of course, exams. And so that hasn't been defined yet. Is it all four years of math, all four years of English,
all the social studies, the science courses. What is the weight of these courses? In other words, what are they gonna mean? Uh, accessibility and appropriate accommodations. In other words, right now we have MCAS ALT for some of our students with severe disabilities. Will there be any sort of EOC ALT assessment for those students? And that hasn't been clarified. Um, is there a retake option? And then the turnaround time for scoring. And I think one of the biggest frustrations that we have with MCAS now is that you don't get the results until the following school year. It'd be nice if you got it the next month, because then you could actually assess the students
that are in front of you rather than the students that are in the next grade. Um, and if you have, again, if you're taking four end of course assessments, historically speaking, the state is not really quick on the turnaround for getting those results back to us. Um, we also are concerned about significantly increased student testing time. And what is the cost of developing these end of course, assessments. And again, at a time when budgets are not kind to school districts, that money would be diverted to develop this. Instead of we're going where superintendents are asking for these funds to go is a concern, a capstone
or portfolio that is defined by the state and designed, administered, and scored locally. Um, so every student under this proposal would complete a capstone project or a portfolio. So that has not been decided. However, um, these do provide student agency, right? So the students get to choose what they want to be able to work on, and they have to demonstrate their knowledge over the, over the course of their, their, their four years of high school. Um, you could also, again, showcase your skills for college and career readiness. Uh, the question for this is, if every student has a capstone or portfolio, how are they gonna be evaluated?
Who's scoring them? Uh, when you do a capstone or portfolio as a student, you typically have a mentor that you're working with someone who guides you through that process. And so what does that mean? Do we have the resources that are necessary for that? And are we going to have to increase, uh, timing, uh, or staffing, uh, for that? So again, the biggest cost, the biggest issue comes with this is what is the cost as well and what is the time requirement and will we have to add more staff? And when is this implementation timeline? When is it, does this begin? Um, the third one is develop and maintain an individual career
and academic plan, which is my cap. And so this is actually something that, that our district is already kind of working with, with our students in that, um, the, my CAP framework is strongly recommended for whole school invitation for students in grade six through 12. So it kind of is a plan, puts you on track if you want to go to college, this is what you have to do. If you wanna go into a career, these are the things that you're going to need to do. And you work with your school counselor. This is increasing the workload of our school counselors undoubtedly. Uh, but it is also, um, hoping, you know, and for us in particular, grade six through 12 is required
for middle and high schools engaged in CTE programs, which we are because we have, uh, Westfield Technical Academy, also Innovation Pathways, which we have at Westfield High School for, um, uh, biomedical engineering and business finance, and then, and some work-based learning programs. So any student that goes out into the, uh, workforce through the career center at Westfield High School will have a My CAP plan. But this now goes to everybody. And research does show that students with an active my CAP are more likely to graduate, complete the FAFSA and enroll in college.
But the questions that came about is, um, again, the staffing and the resources, and then the funding and the training of all guidance coun or school counselors, excuse me, to be able to use this, my cap. And while we have applied for every grant that we have, we still have more staff that need to be trained. So there are some gaps. Uh, and then the next one would be students complete the FAFSA and the fafsa or opt out of the requirement. So FAFSA is the free application for federal student aid. And FAFSA is the same thing for the state. Um, it is available to undocumented students. This is some of the points. Again, uh, the framework, uh,
completion significantly increases college enrollment. This is true. And looking at the makeup of folks that were on the graduation council, there were a lot of college, some college representation. So there certainly is interest for, uh, people to go to college. However, superintendents felt like this ought to be something that the state, uh, takes on. We shouldn't be forcing our families to, to fill out the fafsa. If I have no intention of going to college, why am I filling out the FAFSA form? And if you've ever sent a child to college and fill out that form, you know, it is not easy. So why would we put INFLICT that pain and punishment in folks who are not sending their, their, their kids to college? Um, what are the resources necessary
to support students in completion? So if every student has to fill this out, this is again, a burden that would fall onto our school counseling staff to help our students fill these, fill out these forms. And there's also a lot of personal information that goes into those forms. And now we're, we're kind of talking about violating personal data and, and such of that nature, family privacy. And then, uh, the enforcement is, is that if your family does not, so we'd be making phone calls saying, okay, your student did fill out the fafsa, not do you opt out. So we'd have to be doing the chasing right now, we, the, the, you know, we would rather have people opt in
and have the state push to fill out the FAFSA rather than yet another unfunded mandate that falls onto school districts financial literacy skills. We already do that. Yay. We're ahead of the game. Uh, and we've been doing that since before my time in the district. I think it's key. And if, just as an aside, we're looking for volunteers for Credit for Life, April 8th. The flyer is on our, our, uh, website and our Facebook page if you are interested in signing up. Uh, but we do already require this. And then the last one, which was part of the graduation frameworks, which we're a little confused
as to why I was included, mentions an optional state designated seal of distinction. And, and so we have that now in world language. And we actually awarded some of those last year, as you you may recall. Uh, but why is this part of the graduation requirements? We don't think it belongs here. Uh, it's if it's optional. Um, and, you know, it would be nice if, if if we, the students got these seals on their diploma, but who decides what it is? You know, what are the criteria? Is it, is there equal access? Is this a graduation requirement? Is that why it was included? That every student has to have a seal. So these are questions that we have.
Um, and are there, if you get a seal, does it give you any, what do you get for it other than a stamp on your diploma? Is there anything else that goes to that? You know, what would be nice is if you got a SEAL in world language for Spanish, maybe you don't have to take Spanish one. That would be at, at, at a college level, because that would represent an actual savings and a reward for earning this, this the by literaries or SEAL distinction for the state. So those are the requirements. I, I also shared with the school committee and I, we'll be sharing that more broadly now. A a survey that you can look at and fill out. I you got that? Yes, yes.
A survey to get, provide your input. But I'm happy to answer any questions. I know, Kathy, you wanted me to share this out. So there, there's a lot here. Um, some of which just superintendents in our, in our think tank felt a little better than some of the others. But the end of course, assessments would not be a graduation requirement. So there's a lot of questions around that one in particular. Then why are we doing it? Why are we spending money? I know we spend 30 million plus on MCAS right now. How much are these end of course, assessments gonna cost? And wouldn't that money be better in the hands of districts? Questions? Any questions? I just wanna thank you for doing this.
This is, this is a lot of more work than the MCAS would be. It is. Any other questions? I have a question. I I'm almost scared to ask it, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. Framework number five, FAFSA MASA available to undocumented students. How does that work? How meaning a student who is undocumented would be able to fill out at least the FAFSA and be eligible for financial aid. And that is a priority of our current, of our governor. But again, how does that square with one another?
'cause it doesn't seem that the FAFSA and the Maths Spa are equal here. I would argue. So you would get some financial aid through fafsa. I would urge you probably not to fill out the FAFSA if you were an undocumented. So do we have a definition of undocumented? What, what does that exactly mean? I'm not trying to put you on the spot. I'm just trying to, there's, there's a reasonable point that we're trying to make here. And the reasonable point is it doesn't seem that the federal side and the state side are on the same side. I know what you're getting at. I'm just trying not to say the word. Okay, then you don't Have to, I'm, I mean,
it's an immigrant who will be undocumented as opposed to an immigrant who's documented. So an an an i, an immigrant who's undocumented, would not be eligible to fill out the fafsa, but they would be eligible to fill out the fafsa. Okay. Okay. Just so we're clear. Okay. I think I answered that the best I could. Yeah, No, no. I It's gotta be said at some point. Yeah. Anybody else? Thank you. You're welcome. And, uh, we also don't know when these are gonna be finalized, but I'm guessing that the survey will help guide future implementation. So I would encourage you to please take it and we'll be posting that on our website and sending it out as well, so others can take it as well.
So the, the reason why I'm trying to point it out is not because I'm trying to be persnickety, but because it obviously has some impact in terms of how we go about funding and how we go about getting grants and whether or not the grants are from, from federal level or they're from the state level and how it all plays out. That's all. It continues. The, the internal conflict we've been, that's been forced upon us over the last year. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next item, which should be, I believe it, right? Presentation of the use of property. Yep. Hello. Hi there.
Uh, so in your packet, you should see the handout. Um, it's a brief overview of phase one for, um, south Hampton Road program. So in your packet you'll see just, uh, what we're looking to do for next year. Um, we're looking at some of our core programs going there. We're looking at one of our RISE programs right now. Uh, the river, uh, Westfield River School has three classrooms that are considered a RISE program, which is our therapeutic, uh, self-regulation, coping skills, uh, skills centers. Uh, we're looking to move one of them off campus.
Uh, we're also additionally looking to do two of our milestones programs from paper mill. Uh, our milestones program is our A BA Center, uh, functional Academics, daily Living Skills. Uh, so if you notice both, uh, all three of those classrooms would be grades one through four, um, students moving off campus. And we would identify the students with some of the needs that would associate with a an off campus classroom. Uh, in addition, we already have, uh, a program off campus. Our age 18 to 22 post-grad program we call transitions.
Uh, we would be looking to move that program out of the basement of the church, uh, over to the Southampton Road program. Uh, and we'll kind of talk about just what, uh, that building can offer each of the students. So again, our RISE program is our emotional. And so, uh, social growth program students, uh, in this program, uh, have the cognitive abilities to be at grade level with their academics. Uh, but they're developing more of that social emotional resiliency skills, um, uh, coping and self-regulation through specialized design instruction.
Uh, we use different techniques with, uh, zones of regulation or, uh, therapy with adjustment counselors, uh, to really help support that developmental growth so they can access grade level content. And we differentiate to their, their ability level and our milestones program, it's an a BA component, uh, direct instruction, uh, specialized. We look at daily living skills. We look at social skills at a fund, uh, functional foundational level. We look at academics, uh, that, uh, the dimension
of MCA was earlier. A lot of students in this program would do an MCAS all potentially and really, uh, build those functional academic skills for, uh, adult, um, a vocation potentially that, uh, they can go to right after they transition from the public school. Um, so we really do focus a lot on, uh, building for a future for students in this program. Uh, looking at, uh, pre-vocational skills early on at the, uh, elementary school level. And it's kind of nice
'cause this would have a lot of our students that would begin in our program, uh, in grades one. But also we have that transitions program, which is some of our students that are out when they are 21, uh, there. So you kind of see the full, uh, umbrella of it. So again, our transition programs, uh, there's a lot of opportunities there, uh, for students. We have internal, we would have, uh, a mock market. Uh, there's a setting for that where we can get, uh, uh, an opportunity to practice maybe stocking shelves or, or taking care of a market.
Uh, there's a fully stocked kitchen there with, uh, the stove oven, uh, and there's dishwasher and, and other things so that students would be able to practice cooking for themselves. And, uh, there's an opportunity for in an apartment and one of the, uh, rooms so they could practice daily living skills of, uh, apartment living and, and that sort of thing. So there's a lot of opportunity there, which is really nice. Uh, also with SRS and West right there, we can go outside of the building and work in, in the elementary schools.
Uh, we have one, uh, individual student that, uh, is potentially looking to work at a preschool level, um, eventually down the road where we could do some job share and job, like where they can go and, and maybe read it a kindergarten classroom or first grade classroom, something like of that nature. And also help out in the buildings there. Uh, the bus stop is right there. Uh, we, we saw how a bus stopped, uh, for an individual who's getting on an adult. So there is a bus stop. So we do have access to our, the external, it's the P-V-T-A-P-V-T-A, sorry.
Um, the, the public transit. So we're working on transportation skills, um, for students. So you have to read the schedule, know when the bus is gonna be out there, get out there in front. Uh, we've already accessing, uh, working at the Boys and Girls Club. We're in different agencies within the, uh, within the community. So they will still be able to utilize that, utilizing that or using that bus stop that's right there as well. Um, so some of the key benefits of this that we really believe in, uh, the code team has been excellent. We've been putting this together by the,
the special education department. Some of them are here in support, have really put a lot of thought into this and, and really supporting the students. And I can't thank everyone enough about that because a lot of the things that we're looking at to help students, uh, we're smaller group, uh, classrooms where we're gonna build a, a sensory room within this building. Uh, we're not gonna change any of the, the structure, but we're gonna be able to add materials in there. Uh, the, it also reduces the stimuli, uh, sensory stimuli for students. A lot of students walk into a building of 250 kids,
300 kids, multiple floors, and it can become overwhelming. So it's a smaller setting, uh, less visual stimuli, less auditory stimuli. And it really helps support our students that might be going to another setting if we didn't have this, such as one of the outer district schools. So we really feel that it's a huge benefit. Once this is established. We can also use it as an extended eval for students that are currently in some of the buildings. Uh, we have cases this year where we are trying to determine
what is the appropriate service, what is the appropriate setting to, uh, fully educate a student where we can't do that ourselves because we only have the very large school buildings. How do we reduce that stimuli? How do we, uh, get an opportunity for students to really be evaluated at the base level? This would be an excellent opportunity for us to do that, uh, both at the therapeutic level as well as the, the cognitive, uh, ability level Question. I have several. Go ahead, Dr. Gutha. Um, I, I have a couple, but, uh, the first is just, I know that we engaged in
that assessment of our special education program recently. Can you remind me, but where we are in that and whether anything from that is informing this move That will be part of that? Uh, so unfortunately through the snow days, they had to actually, they finished their last interviews today. Okay. So we should getting that very soon, um, once they tally everything and put it together. So, uh, we gave them a lot of our proposals, uh, for this so that, that they can look at it and added into their recommendations as well. I know a lot of school districts, uh, in my directors group,
they're looking for settings in their own district that could possibly do this. They just, they just don't have the building space for it. The second thank you. The second question I had is I see how this is a potentially huge upgrade for the Transitions program from their current setting for the rise and milestones. Um, this would be a new, sort of a new type of setting for us. And so I'm curious to hear more about like, what, so we think, go ahead. What's happening now is these are the students that, that we have identified whose needs are so great
that they probably ought to be an out district placement. And we're trying to avert that by meeting their needs in this particular building. Yeah. Um, so rather than sending 'em outta district, so we, he has toured the building multiple times. Um, and we were able, we looked at, and I believe you're putting, so it's kind like two separate buildings. And so the transition would be in the front and the students that would be the, uh, the elementary students that would be in the back of the building. So that's where it becomes a cost saving measure, but also keeping our kids local moving forward. We're also able to put students who are at risk of potentially who need a different, uh,
environment for the moment. We can put them in this building for a 45 day evaluation, which we currently pay for out of district. We'll be able to do that within our own district. So we think we're providing more opportunities for both groups of students and the transition students. I just want our kids not in a basement. Yeah. The last thing I have on that is the great, do we have a thought on what happens for the students in between the grades five through you? Five through Through 12? So this, this again is, uh, phase one. Okay. We're, we're piloting this right now. Uh, we're building, uh, curriculum and,
and a structure of the programs we're, uh, putting together training manuals so that the staff are fully, um, prepared to be able to, uh, support students within this off campus. Not that we're not already doing professional development with our, our, our staff, but it is going to be something that is, um, gonna be a little bit new for some of our staff. So we wanna make sure they're very prepared. And, uh, to one of your questions earlier. So we, I, I can currently say right now we have five students on wait for a 45 day extended eval assessment off campus.
So this would be something that we could provide without a wait list in our community and, um, with our staff being able to provide some of the evaluations that necessary that form. Well, And I, and I, there we've thought about phase 2, 3, 4. I will add that. And we have ideas and we do believe this can be cost saving additionally down the road. But I'm also trying to be mindful of our current budget limitations as to what we can and can't do. So before, I mean, it's nice to dream and we have our thoughts and what we'd like to grow this program into and expand it, but that will come. Thanks.
Any other members of the mic? Tara? Um, How many, and if you said this before, I apologize, but how many students do you anticipate have you, or have you identified that would, So there's 22 transition students. That would be, uh, 18 to 22-year-old students. Yep. And then how many of the others? Uh, so we're looking at, So we have to confirm with everyone. We, this is gonna involve some team meetings and that sort of thing, but we're looking changes. We're looking for each of the elementary school classrooms to have a, a, a ratio of eight, uh, students.
So eight milestones and one eight another, and then eat and rise. And so we would've a teacher and, uh, right now we're proposing an RBT. So it's, and then additional whatever staffing is on the service delivery grid. So we're looking at a, uh, uh, uh, one staff for every four students within the program, which is kind of aligned to what the outer district programs run. So teacher, RBT plus any paras that are required based on student needs, based on Service delivery growth. Okay. And does that leave any room for additional students
that come into the district or, okay, so there is, there is room to grow there. Yes. Yeah. Uh, and with the eight, um, that, that does give us room to add some, um, you know, typically you don't want to go too much above 12. Yeah. Um, but eight still falls in that small group range. And then Do we, do we know what the net add and overall staff is for that? I mean, are we able to repurpose staff from existing programs? So right now, we were able to, I mean, I will say there is some addition. We've been able to finagle stuff.
Uh, we've tried, we've kept the, the staff addition that I can see right now as a to a custodian. Mm-hmm. Um, and that may get altered, but right now that's where we are by able to shift somewhere on as we're, as we're working, we're still working through the budgeting process. The administration is not a requirement. So what we're looking to do is restructure a little bit of our, uh, our administration right now. We currently have four technically supervisor positions, three in the, in the director. Um, so we're looking to restructure that. Uh, and we are also taking staff from that are currently existed in the positions in the programs.
So I know some, uh, some that will be moving, uh, potentially moving to the off campus. So it's not that we're gonna have to add staff because they'll be coming with the students, uh, per the IEP. So we don't need a building principal is what, what we're saying. And will we part of another school? No. Still to be determined? Yes. Okay. But we would have an administrator on site, um, because we would have, uh, we're looking to see about the supervisor position there. So for example, like Pathways is part of Westfield High School, but it's off campus. So we would do the same model.
Got it. Okay. Still in the works. Thank You. How's This side doing, Mr. Solo? The building itself? What, what upgrades, what, what anything do we have to do to the building? 'cause that's gonna be a capital cost. So we're looking currently right now, um, and actually, uh, Chris and I met last Friday, um, to talk a little bit about that. It's not really gonna, we can't really change anything about the structure of the building that it is what it is. Um, they do have a security system already in place. They already got the fire alarms in place.
So how do we incorporate that into what we already have? Uh, we're gonna need a copier over there, you know, printer copier, and we're gonna need, you know, the infrastructure around, uh, wifi and that sort of thing. So that, and so some Of that will come from the transition program that we currently have. Yeah. So like the copiers coming over for the transition, it's not gonna be an addition. Yeah. Right. So did you have phone? Yeah. Um, you mentioned PBGA. What about regular school buses are transportation. So there's a parking lot right in the back. It's perfect. Um, it, it's off the street, so we don't have
to worry about anyone running into traffic. It's, it is excellent. Actually, there's, the playground is still being used in the back, um, that, that one's stay, uh, from our understanding. Uh, so, but there's also because age appropriateness too, there's also some availability for open space for them to play. So you mentioned grades one through four in both the Rise and the, um, milestone programs that you're taking them out of current elementary schools and going to put them here.
Are there eight more students that are gonna go into the current elementary schools? So we'll be moving, um, the classrooms there. So we can't predict move-ins. We can't. So what We're, it's just gonna dovetail on Mr. Terrell's question about staff. Yeah. So we can't predict all the move-ins that could potentially happen and, and that sort of thing. But what we can say is that we're, we're bringing students that have some of the highest needs, uh, and getting them an opportunity to work in an environment that's most conducive for their learning, allowing the building to then reallocate into,
in supporting the other students because they still will have programs. So we can now reallocate what the resources there to help support their learning there to hopefully reduce the need for the off-campus as well. Right. And so, like right now, so last year when we, when we finished the year with Two Rise classrooms, we, we, we have an additional Rise classroom this year that wasn't budgeted or anticipated because of needs and move-ins. And the same thing with, we, we had moved two, um, milestones classrooms to South Hampton Road School with the expectation that we'd only have three at,
at, at Paper Mill. But that has grown as well. And so, but we don't know how to stem that tide. Correct. That's what, that's what I'm getting at is you're not gonna stem that tide. So when you take eight out of each school or however you're gonna do that, you're gonna get eight more to get the fill. Right. The difference is, is that the students that were pulling would potentially be outta district placements. And were trying to eliminate that cost. So, so the last one I got is the, again, the building itself, has it been inspected? I mean, it's been beat up. That was 20 years ago. Westfield Infant toddler, I believe. And it's been, it's been Head Start for the last few years
that, that building is, it's had a couple additions put on it. Mm-hmm. Um, it's structurally sound, the roof, everything else is, we're good to go. I mean, I will say I would, I believe that, uh, community Action has put a lot of money into that building. To be fair. They updated, they upgraded the entire HVAC system, for example, and other upgrades that I know that, um, they, they did. But, um, our, our tenant would be the city of Westfield. So our landlord, I'm sorry, we're the tenant That leads to me, to him. So I could take most of the rest of these questions. I guess. I'm good. I thank you. Anybody
Else? Okay. Yeah. Two questions. Um, you said the programs were gonna be the, you know, the rise and milestones were gonna be associated with another school. Is it gonna be one school or multiple schools? Multiple schools. So it's two separate building. It's basically the addition, basically the way it's divided, it's kind of two separate buildings with an entryway in between. Yeah. But then the, and which, so there's gonna be three classrooms in the, in the back. Correct. Yep. Are, are, is that, are each classroom gonna be associated with a different school or one school? We, we want to do it with one school. 'cause I think that makes more sense, but we're still working out those kind of details.
Yeah. What makes the most sense for us? Because having, you know, you know, for example, at Pathways, there are students there from Westfield Technical Academy and Westfield High School, but it falls under the new jurisdiction of Westfield High School. Yeah. So I, I think it makes more sense to have it under one school. The transition program also incidentally falls under Westfield High School. Mm-hmm. And so that, uh, principal then drives it who continue to be the, the one that oversees the transition program. Yes. And, and then secondarily are, so the services we would be provided from that one school as well without additional staffing, So Right. Because we're providing those services in those schools now, correct?
Mm-hmm. So if you move the staff, so we are still working out some of the logistics in terms of specials and how we can do those sorts of things. But, uh, I think we have opportunities here. There's also opportunities because we have two other schools right next to us, uh, in terms of, uh, Southampton Grove School and West Intermediate School. So those are some of the finer details we're still working on. And quite truthfully, the budgeting, the budget process will help guide some of that. Uh, and so we're kind of waiting for that next step. And PT and ot, they're already in the program, so their schedule will be, you know, moved to make sure that we can be providing the same things.
Uh, PD would do an adaptive PE as a related service there, and also supporting, you know, the students. So it, it comes down to a scheduling nuance instead of a, a staffing one. Um, just a couple more things, um, by my count, yeah. 46 students, including the transitional and the right. And 24 students, 12 staff, which are pulled from the other pieces. So that's not a tremendous drain. The issue will be, um, the, the whole idea surrounding this, I believe was to create a, an environment whereby we could
keep, retain more of our out district placements. Right. I guess that's the best way to say it. This is phase one of that process. And this is phase one. The good news is the capacity, I believe for the building is about 90 people. So, um, there's plenty of room for growth. Mm-hmm. And I applaud all of your efforts. Um, the other thing that I really wanna make sure that I can, um, tighten up, I guess is when is the drop dead date that you foresee that you need the building for? 'cause I have some July one. I've got some other, uh, pressing issues, if you will. And I'm just trying to figure out really what to say. If we
Don't have it by July one, we can't. So there's a couple things that are happening. So that answers my question. Is it July one? Yeah. The transition program has to be out by June. Would have to be out in theory by June 30. Correct. So I have to have some place to put the, So currently right now, there's a, uh, there's a, another school there we'll say, and their, um, their contract ends on May 30th, May 31st. They have not yet asked for an extension to June 30th, but I anticipate that's where we're going to be. But we don't have, um, an extension inked yet.
But, um, I have indicated to them through the indication for you, and I just want other people to hear this, is the only reason I'm doing this is that you absolutely need your drop dead date to be July the first. Um, and again, this is for those folks that are listening in, it's not necessarily for us. Right? Um, so that's where we are. And it's, again, for example, we need the tech center to go in and look at internet and things of that nature. So I know they have a system. Now. Is this something we can just kind of adopt or do we have to start over? And I, you're gonna get, I know, the tech center in before that date, so we have a more informed decision. Um, but those things are still in the work.
So we're excited about this prospect. We are, I think it's a move in the right direction for many reasons. Um, and, uh, Wish a continued success. Thank you very much for your presentation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Next up, item eight. Uh, so this is, uh, for the Boys and Girls Club. Uh, potential land proposal was all, uh, out, uh, adjacent to the current building. As long as I don't say anything. Hi, my name is Kelly Brown. I'm the Chief Operating Officer at the Boys and Girls Club here in Westfield. And we are here to ask for some additional land
to support a expansion on our current teen center. So I believe you have the drawings in front of you. We are currently asking for a 50 by 50 plot of land off of the existing teen center. Um, during construction, we will be 60 feet out, but that's just during construction to allow for the construction fence in the equipment to come in. That 10 will go back to the city once the construction has been completed. Okay. Do you wanna, uh, go a little further? What, what we're using the land for?
We are expanding the teen center. So currently, um, back when COVID had hit, we had lost what we called our general membership program within the walls of the Boys and Girls Club, which service youth grades seven through 12 last year, about this time, we had probably 150 to 160 registered members. This time this year, we are currently just shy of 300 men members with an average daily attendance anywhere from 140 to 150 youth. So if you've been in the building, that's only one program
that exists within it. We have three separate programs as we have our preschool along with our school age program. So in order for us to continue to serve the youth, um, in the community, we need more space. Um, the existing teen center is the original teen center. There has been no construction done on that. There's been no additions. Um, as a matter of fact, I'm a little embarrassed to say that the colors on the walls are still from the Kids Club program we had started 20 years ago in that building.
Uh, we've just concentrated so much on trying to get the preschool open to get the school age kids going. And again, during COVID, we, we had lost this, this teen programming because we just couldn't put them in the building when we became a remote learning center. So we're building it back up. The kids are coming back, we're servicing them, they're making a difference. There are future leaders, and I think it's only fair that we do our due diligence, the best that we can to service the kids so that we don't lose these teams. Are there questions from the committee? Have y'all had a chance to take a look at the proposed
site, Mr. Cho? Um, so I did, I did get a chance to look at their proposed site. Um, and just for, I guess the folks watching this is the southwest corner of the building, right? Yes. So this No, it's the, it's Actually in the northeast, In, in, where the existing teen center is. It'll go out into, um, the field right behind the Boys and Girls Club. Maybe. Go ahead. I was gonna say closest to the Middle school. Yeah. So, yeah, I guess, I guess, uh, that's why geography and me never,
So you it's actually Into This, into the, I I would've thought that was So the field and then adjacent, right? If you're looking out the back door, the teen center, the Correct, the middle school is to your right. Yep. But it's actually a minimal impact on the fields themselves, because there's a lot of land from the existing building before you even get to Yeah. The, the greenery, so to speak. Of course. And then we're just looking to go a little bit further out than that. It really isn't gonna consume a lot of the land, but the difference it's gonna make is to service about 50
to 75 more teens a day. Yeah. And I wanna say 12 or 15 feet of it is already currently road, correct? It's already currently paved, yes. Yeah. So it's building driveway and then roughage, to be honest with you. And then the fields are a little bit beyond that, but it won't have any impact on any of the existing soccer fields, baseball fields or anything like that. Has this been discussed with Park and Ruck? Do you know? I do not know. And is there a reason why we should handle it tonight? Yes. Um, time is of essence.
So our biggest goal is that we don't wanna disrupt again. One thing we did learn from COVID is if you don't have the services ready, when the teens want it, they will not come. So we're looking to not have any disruption into the program. Our timeline is very tight, we realize this, but on, on the organizational aspect of it, we've been doing our due diligence, trying to meet with the right people, trying to get this in motion, as you know, trying to have the architect come in and, and go over our options. So our timeline kept shrinking.
What we wanna do is we would like to get this up and running so that for the first day of school, the kids are back in the building and the building is new, complete and done. So you're saying September, well, August, I would say that the end of August we would have to have it ready and, and inspected and everything so that it would open on that first day of school. Yes, Dr. Jonathan for the, actually more for the superintendent, which is just, um, Can't ask him. Sorry. Can't ask the superintendent. Have you all, um, been in conversation with the, uh,
administration at the, particularly at the middle school? Yes. To see if there would be any impacts? So, um, we actually had, Thank you doc, Principal McMillan over the other day. Um, walked, walked him around, showed him, uh, talked about a couple of different things because we know that there's some construction that's gonna be happening over at the middle school this summer, too. Neither one of us feels that one's gonna hinder the other. Actually, if we could share construction equipment, it might be beneficial to both. Um, but he was very much for it. Great. Thank you. Okay.
The only thing that, uh, we do have to be careful of, um, I realize that we have a timing issue. Um, we just have to be careful of blurring the lines between the sharing pieces. So I think, I think we're good there. Um, is there any further questions? And I know that, uh, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Um, Roski kind of have to remain neutral here. I'm, I am going to add that I did tour the building with, um, principal McMillan, um, recently. Um, so I certainly understand, uh, what they're trying to do. And I would be in favor of moving this forward tonight if we
could, unless there was any objections. If there were some objections, I certainly understand, and then we could, uh, uh, take that up and we could move it to committee. But, um, I have toured the building. I know that, um, Jesse McMillan is toward the building. I know that, uh, a committee member Terrell is also toured the building. And I certainly, certainly would assume that, um, the other folks know about what's going on. So, um, and Kathleen, have you toured the building as well? I have to. So I think that, thank you. Um, Mr. Golan, I think that at this point we could move forward
with the motion to, um, um, move the land proposal forward. I'd like to make a motion to, uh, grant the 50 by 50 parcel of land adjacent to the current Boys and Girls Club for the use of their expansion as presented. Second motion made, made. And second, is there any further discussion? Seeing none, I don't know how we're, can I go to Mr. Sullivan for the roll call? Well, he's gonna abstain too, just because he thinks, right. So we want, I can hear Mike. There you go.
Jeff goin? Yes. Yeah, I got you. Hold on one sec. Trying to get, sorry about that. Uh, Jeff goin Hold that thought. Mr. Terrell. Jeff Goza. Yes. Jeff Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Bo Sullivan. Abstain. Kick. Sullivan Abstain. Mike Terrell? Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. Motion passes. We'll forward this on to the school committee, uh, excuse me, the city council as required. Thank you very much for your presentation.
Thank you very much. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of the February 2nd, 2026 school committee meeting. Minutes second. Motion been made. And second, is there any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Motion passes. Thank you, Jose. Um, item 10. I'd like to Make a motion for approval of the Massachusetts School Building Authority Statement of interest regarding Westfield Technical Academy. Second Motion been made. And second, is there any further discussion? I need to read this word for a word.
Okay. But hold on before you do. Okay. So, um, I worked up some numbers. Let's assume that the number starts at 400 million for a comprehensive building at 400 million. And let's generally assume that the MSBA ponies up 50%, which is not a real accurate number. It's actually probably around 42. But I'm just using numbers so that everybody knows what we're talking about. If we assume $200 million
to the taxpayer at 4%, which is incredibly low, so that's not a realistic number, but we'll say that means the payment to the taxpayer is $11.5 million. And to the taxpayer yearly, that's 700 3700 $13 a year for 30 years. That's to the taxpayer. $21,390 per taxpayer, if you'll assume four
and a half percent, it's 22,837. And if you assume 5%, which is probably the more realistic number, it comes out to $24,180 per taxpayer. What happens if you don't do a comprehensive school and you do, uh, just a technical academy and it costs two 50? What does it do to your numbers? Well, that's a great question, but I don't have that before me because we've never, 'cause we've never really talked about specifically where do we want to go? Do we want to go comprehensive school
or do we want to go to one school? So if we took, we were to take those numbers, I'm sure I could have somebody extrapolate 'em. 'cause I could give you the, if, if anybody wants to try it, let's say it's $250 million to do one school. And let's say that that's $125 million to the taxpayer on a bond, that would be a 30 year bond at anybody. Got this? Four. About 400 At 4%. 400 At 4%? Yeah. Okay. And you wanna take that to 5% just for goofs, What was your, what was your 5% number? Uh, 5% at 125 million.
So I see what you're doing very quickly. You wanna try that 5% at, uh, What was the, sorry, what was the 400000005% annual per household? Uh, 24 18 1 18 24. 180, 24. 180. So Oh, over 30 years. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you'd have about 14. Agreed. Sure. So 14. So here's, here's where we are, and just a couple things. We're not at the point, in my opinion, to decide
what we want, because what we know is we have an aged Westfield High School. We have an ancient Westfield Technical Academy that is crumbling around the kids that are in it. And, and I think that when we go to MSBA, just like we did when we went for the new Franklin School, right, we did a feasibility study. We paid a million dollars for that 900,000 ish. And they told us what they thought we should do, which was combine Franklin and Abner going through the feasibility process is when that discussion would happen as to what we wanna do
to determine what MSBA would or would not fund. And in terms of this, so right now we have a letter that I shared with everyone in this, in this, in this room, actually, that, uh, for not you guys, sorry, but which tells us that the accreditation at Westfield Technical Academy is now in a warning status because of the facilities students. If we lose the NEASC accreditation for Westfield Technical Academy, our students who are currently going to Wichita State, Purdue Culinary Institute of America, Johnson and Wales, could lose their standing in being able to go
to those schools because they're coming from an unaccredited high school. To me as a superintendent, those are significant implications of the potential impact on our students. And so, you move the statement of interest forward tonight, it goes to the council. We put a question on the ballot, whether it's whenever the MSBA takes us on, it could be this year, it could be 10 years from now. For all we know, we've seen it happen in Holyoke where they went for two middle schools. The voters rejected it, they went back to one. We saw it go to Agawam where the voters approved it. And so, my ask is that, what I also know is that we have to provide a plan, an update to the New England Association
of Schools and Colleges in two years that provides how we're going to fix the school up. So the bathrooms have been approved. We've replaced the intercom system. Some things have already happened, but the, the, the things that are now wrong with it are simply that we're looking at a building that is well over that is about a hundred years old, and a lower campus that is about, probably, ironically, maybe built by the same contractors as Franklin. I have no idea, because it's equally as poorly built. And we have students in this building that are excelling
and moving forward, but their facility does not meet modern day needs of our kids. And the technology. We have limitations as to what we can put in there. So my, my, my plea would be to move this forward. And if the city council moves it forward, we take it to the voters. And if it gets defeated there, then we take it from there. But whether we're doing one or two schools, because if originally this request came to me from the city councilors about replacing Westfield High School, to which I then said, have you been to WTA lately? Sorry, Bruce. I'm, now I'm preaching.
And so, uh, that is my ask the statement reads, I shared with you the ne ASK report for that reason, so that you could see, I mean, that roof's been fixed more times than I know what to do with, but it just keeps leaking. And then the problems that come with a leaking roof keep happening. And the, the plumbing there isn't getting any better. Um, there's just, there's all sorts of, of issues. So what that staff does in the building around them is phenomenal and amazing. And what the kids pull off in there is absolutely terrific. But they deserve a 21st century building. Mike,
Um, just a couple comments. Some of which, uh, superintendent Roski already, already, um, touched upon. But, uh, the determination between, um, uh, Westfield Technical Academy or a comprehensive school, whatever that is, is still very much in the future, yet TBD, um, based on showing interest first and then determining, having the, having the, uh, MSBA come out and help us, uh, with that. Um, in terms of likelihood of the project being accepted by the MSBA in year one,
obviously we have no idea what that, uh, what that probability is. Um, assuming that that is, uh, that that goes through in year one of our statement of interest, we are still many years away at that point from building a, from Construct, probably eight to 10 years constructing This from Construct building this morning, probably eight to 10 years away from that, even if they were to take it next year. Correct. So The money that we're putting into the building and the work that we're trying to do to get the building livable here in the short term, um, if,
if I, I guess, I guess let's flip it. And let's say we, we, we determine that we're not going to show interest this year or, or next year or whatever the year is, if we're 10 years, if we're potentially eight to 10 years out, if it gets accepted this year. And the likelihood is not necessarily that it would get accepted this year. We could be looking at 10, 12, 15 years before this building gets replaced, at which time all of that infrastructure is, has, has aged that much longer,
another decade and a half. Um, so my, my opinion as far as moving forward on this is, um, yes, eventually it does have to go to the voters. And, and there are a lot of contingencies on this, but I just based on, uh, the, the feedback that we've gotten from NEASC and, uh, the state of that building, I just don't see how we can't start to march down that path. Right. Last year we didn't have that report. Correct. This year we now have the report because it was issued this summer. Correct. Um, so to me, the report brings a new sense of urgency.
So, just so that we're clear, the reason why I gave the numbers is not because I'm against the asking. I just want people to be aware that this is what we're asking for. I actually support the notice. I'm, I'm good to go with it. Um, I think we should be looking forward to the future, but when you break down the numbers, people have to know what they're getting involved in. Agreed. And I don't want anybody to say that nobody knew and, you know, oh my God. They didn't tell us. They didn't tell us. They didn't tell us. This is the numbers. These are the numbers. And I'm fully well aware that I'm gonna support $713 every year for 30 years.
I get it. I'm good. I just wanted, I just wanna make that statement to you, Mr. Sullivan. Yeah. I just a, a, a couple things. And the superintendent has referenced the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, uh, report that they've got on the school. Um, the commission was impressed with many of the program and services and wishes to commend the following. And there's 11 bullet points, lots of positives, many opportunities in academic and CTE areas. Create positive culture, gives students a strong sense of belonging. And it goes on from there.
Then it lists eight bullet points where we are not so good to put it nicely. The current condition of the building does not adequately support the effective delivery of curriculum programs and services. That is the most, that's what we do. That's the most powerful one of all the bullets that they Have. So, so all eight bullets is comprised, and then given these concern, the commission voted to place the school on warning for standard on learning resources. This is what we do. Um, I get,
and I appreciate the mayor for doing the homework and the background work on the numbers. Those numbers are gonna be front and center for everybody because when you, you or whoever else go in front of the city council, that's the first question you're gonna get. 'cause it was the first question you got last year. My answer to that question is, what's next year gonna be like? Mm-hmm. Because if you had done this last year, that would've been about $650. Now we're here at 713, we waited another year, we're at $800. So this project is not going away. The numbers are not going away. All of the math that people want to do and try and sell it to people, there's no sell here.
The sell is we're educating our kids. And if you really want to get down to, to the nuts and bolts of it, and he, the mayor can tell you this too, what are the two things that companies that want to come to a city look for? They look for the tax base and they look for the education system. And this school in particular, I mean, we can go get all those manufacturing companies that are knocking on our doors to add another teacher. Or we can get the construction people, or we can get the culinary people that kids get hired directly out of this. The aviation program, you know, you, you've got air traffic controllers that graduated last year,
have one more year at college, and they're gonna be up in a tower. I mean, that's what this school does. And, and I may sound a little passionate about it, but I'll write the first $713 check mm-hmm. To get this thing going. And if I gotta be the one to stand in front of people and tell 'em that they need to vote yes on something like this, I will do it. But this has to go forward. And we have to convince the city council the only ask, the, the, the ask besides their yes vote is gonna be the feasibility study. If it gets to that point, right. That's the next ask. But this has to go forward for this city. It really does. Too much goes on in that school that, that people like and,
and create jobs that these guys in the back row over there do every day. This needs to go forward. I absolutely agree. And the only thing I want to add for the people listening and wondering, you know, do we do this now? Can we wait five years? Is, if you think about how many buildings there are in this district, we cannot go 20 years between every new building. We know that facilities are in need. We have some exceptionally high priority ones. We need to move to address those needs and not drag our feet or else we will be trying to figure out how to fund the policemen of three schools at the same time,
which is not gonna ever be feasible for us, ever. Anybody else? I don't think I really need to say anything, but I am totally in support. I was in support for four years ago as well as last year. So I am going to be a definite yes because this is our pride and joy we need to go forward. Thank You very much. I think I'm gonna move the question. Mr. Sullivan, I need to re read. We have to put this into the minutes. Uh, the motion was made for Westfield Technical Academy. Resolved, have convened in an open meeting on March 2nd, 2026.
Prior to the SOI, uh, statement of interest submission closing date, the Westfield School Committee of Westfield, Massachusetts, in accordance with its charter bylaws and ordinances, has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The statement of interest form dated March 2nd, 2026 for the Westfield Technical Academy, located at 33 Smith Avenue, Westfield, mass, which describes and explains the following deficiencies and priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in the
future on their list. Number three, prevention of the loss of accreditation. N-E-A-S-C Spring 2025 school is in a warning status for the general condition of the facilities. Any a SC listed the following as a priority for growth, the school site and plant support, delivery of curriculum, programs and services. And number seven, on their list, replacement of, or in addition to obsolete buildings in order to provide a full range of programs consistent with state and approved local requirements.
There a second. Second. Is there any further discussion? Mr. Sullivan? Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Kick Sullivan? Yes. Jeffrey Goslin. Yes. Jeff Gunther. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Chairman McCabe. I'm proud of this committee. Yes. All done. Item 11, I'll make a motion to approve. Make a motion for approval of the homeschool applications. Number one 90 dash 1 94 for the 20 25 20 26 school year. Second Motion may made. And second, is there any further discussion? Everybody had an opportunity to look at it.
All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. I make a motion to approve a second and final reading by title only of policy file. JECB, Westfield Technical Admissions policy. Second. Motion been made and seconded. Just one quick clarifying question. I know we heard about all the applications that were coming in. I think believe the deadline was yesterday. Just confirmation that the approach that we've put in place aligns with this policy even though we haven't approved the policy yet. Yes, it does. It does. Okay. Thank you.
We have done it a thousand Times. It's showing that we want a roll call vote here, but I don't, I don't think we need one. No, your Honor. Um, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of the, uh, Massachusetts Teacher Association request to voluntarily recognize board certified behavior analysts as part of the Westfield Education Association Unit A teachers collective bargaining unit. Second Motion made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Saying none. Mr. Sullivan, can you call the roll please? Jeff Colan? Yes. Jeff
Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Mo Sullivan. Yes. Kick Sullivan? Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Chairman McCade? Yes. Item 14. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of the memorandum of agreement between Westfield School Committee and the Westfield Education Association Unit A teachers and authorize the mayor to sign on the committee's behalf. Second. Motion Been made. And second, is there any further discussion on this item? Say none. Mr. Sullivan. Jeff Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. O Sullivan? Yes. Kick Sullivan? Yes. Jeff Goslin. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes.
Chairman McCabe? Yes. Item 15. I'd like to make a motion for the acceptance of the Westfield Public School's financial statements as presented. Second. Motion been made. And second, is there any further discussion for Mrs. Barry? How are You? Yes. Good evening everyone. Shannon Barry, director of finance. Um, I just wanna point out a few items tonight on the expense side. Um, and I do wanna mention a lot of them have to do with transfers that will be coming. Um, I do realize that these accounts are already in the negative and that is technically backwards. I should be asking you for the transfer before they happened. Um, but I just wanna explain why some of these have occurred. So if we look at page one, um, under the technology supplies
for system technology, um, there is a transfer there to support our one-to-one technology initiative to purchase Chromebooks. So as you're aware, we had to eliminate the technology line from the budget this year. Um, through the work of Senator Beis, we had the fair share earmark, which we have used to purchase technology that will be used next year to fully implement our plan. We needed some additional funds. Um, and that's what that $22,683 and 90 cents is. So we could fully purchase all of the Chromebooks that we needed to meet our technology plan.
Question on that, and I've asked this one before with the other, um, accounts, the connectivity account that we have, can we use that money instead of transferring money out of this budget So we could, here's what we're using the connectivity for. It's still for hotspots for students. So I've kind of set that money aside as where, 'cause that fluctuates so much. So I've been using that pocket of money to year over year support the hotspots. So I mean, I'd prefer to continue to do that rather than add the hotspots to the budget. But I obviously that's up to you. And that's also though because the kind, the,
the money was initially intended to provide hotspots for students. So we're kind of tied to spend the money on what it was intended For. Right. Just just know that we have been given permission to use the money as we see fit. Okay. Alright. But typically, You know, we do. Yeah, we have to. No, I know. Thank you Mr. Sullivan. Okay. So that was that item. And then the one right below it, technology maintenance technology supplies. So this is to purchase switches for Highland, um, SRS and wis. So the switches allow connectivity in the schools. Those schools all had very outdated switches.
So through the E-Rate, um, discount program, we are able to purchase a hundred thousand dollars worth of switches, um, for that discounted amount that you see there, the $18,225 and 20 cents. So that's that one. Um, I did wanna go back to that first line too and point out that the reason the Chromebooks had to be purchased already was that we needed to get them in before June 30th. And the technology center had let me know that if we did not make the purchase, um, a couple weeks ago, that we could not be guaranteed they'd be here by June 30th. On page four, the heating fuel and the electricity.
So I actually just received the other day new updates from the g and e about our usage. So our natural gas, our budget was originally 1.2 million. So it's still currently projected at about a million. So we're running a little low. Again, I like to wait till heating season's over before we start looking at that excess funding there. Under electricity, um, we budgeted 1.5 million. The current, the estimates that have happened all year were at 1.6 million. They're actually back down to the budgeted 1.5 million at this point. So that's good. And then on page 30 again, you'll see a line in a deficit.
It's special education contractual services. They do have the funds in another contract services line to cover this. Um, this was specifically for psychological services and obviously we can't delay evaluations that are happening for students. So that's why that expense moved forward. And then finally on page 31, it seems late, but sped summer transportation just actually went into the negative. Um, and that is because a bill from our transportation provider just recently surfaced for summer transportation. Um, so that is what happened there. And obviously, you know, we've looked at this for next year's budget. Summer transportation ran way higher than was budgeted
by almost $20,000. Um, and then finally, I just wanna point out that the schools and district departments have been given till the end of this month to make purchases or encumber any funds they need for services through the end of the year. So after that point, we'll be looking at the excess funds that we can use for other purposes. Um, so that's what I have for tonight. Thank you. Are there any questions? I have one. I do have an observation. Um, I would like to share that I, I'm concerned with SPED transportation, um, for a couple of different reasons.
And I know that we're working behind the scenes to make sure that those numbers, um, are shored up. I will assume that the sped transportation and the transportation department will be inquiring as to why we would've gotten a bill. Today's the 2nd of March, right? Yeah. For summer transportation. And I just wanna make sure that we're on good solid ground there with regard to transportation for special education moving forward. Mm-hmm. Um, 'cause there are some other concerns that are, um, integral to that process. So that, that's all I have. And I've actually, just to point out about transportation,
I did ask our transportation manager to look at his purchase orders specifically this week because right now we're currently, we have quite a surplus in transportation. Mm-hmm. Um, and a lot of that has to do with we're not using our full amount of mini buses in district, um, or our, um, regular buses. So I need him to look because also in that regular transportation line is McKinney Bento transportation and foster care Transportation. So I've asked him to really project out and come up with a final number for this year so we can really see where we are and what we have left. I'm not speaking ill of any, anybody. I'm just saying that this has been a bit of a bugaboo
and we, this is something that really should have sp focus on and I know that you've taken care of it, so thank you. Mm-hmm. Anybody else? I have a question. If, if gas prices are going down, why are we being charged more money? You know, it, I just, when you look at the gas station, it's like we're at $2 and So they use Natural gas. Yeah. They use, they don't use the gas that you and I use in our cars. Oh, they used diesel. Yeah. So, and then, Oh, you're talking about for the, for the buses. For the Buses, Yeah, for the buses. So we're actually, we're getting money back from this year.
So you'll see there's been no money used in our fuel adjustment line. Okay. Um, each month they are sending us a check for the adjustments that they have to do, um, for both. It's part of the contract that they have to, they have to do adjustments every month and they, our transportation manager does them and then KY verifies them. And yes, we've, we've received a check every single month this Year. Oh good. That's what I wanted to hear. Yes. Good. Just a technical follow up on that. Does those end up crediting back against, where do those end up showing up? They credit back to the line. So Okay. They do 'em separately. The excess. So we'll get one shot and I put
Comes from a separate line. The credit back goes To to the actual line. The transportation. Yes. Instead of the fuel adjustment line. Correct. Thank You. Thank you. Anybody else ask Another question? This, this may sound Yep. Uninformed, but that's okay. Um, now if people are doing vocational students out of district, why can't we get regional funds for that? If it's out of our district? Because we're not a Regional school. That's the million dollar question because we're not question. It's a great question, but because we're not a regional school district, and to be fair, even the regional school districts aren't
being fully funded by the governor and the government. So they're also being shortchanged. Uh, but that would be something that would be terrific. But that's not, we Don't have that. Is there any remedy that we could do for Not at the local level. Not at the local level. Good answer. Just not at The local level. But shouldn't she be answering that question? Well, I'm just trying to do it right. It's political. Okay. It's political. Okay. Stephen can take one every now and then. I was just asked Wondering why. Well, I was, hold, hold on. I think gas, they gonna be shooting up a little bit.
Hold on, hold on, hold on. We're right. Really not supposed to be crosstalk, so I'm trying to prevent that. That's why I said not at the local level, but there you have. So moving on to personnel. I tried to do it right, So I don't, I don't have anything really specific to point out for personnel this time. So there have been shifts that we've talked about all year, between lines and, you know, staff we've needed to, to implement throughout the year. Um, I didn't wanna bombard you with a million transfers on this agenda, so I was gonna do expenses this time and say personnel for the next meeting. Okay. The next meeting where
financials are presented, I should say. Anybody else? It's Only expenses. I'm Sorry. It's only expenses. Sorry. Good, good, good. Oh, where am I? Motion set. Uh, you've got the motion if you need to vote. Do you have to do each one? Ready? Kathleen Hillman? Yes. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Kick Sullivan? Yes. Jeff Goslin. Yes. Jeff Gunther. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. So right, I'm 16. Yep. Um, they've obviously all been explained. Um, can you just read the motion and we'll take it from there if there are any other further
Questions? There's a couple I need to go over just Okay. So you're aware. Okay. Yeah. I gotta do 'em separately anyways. Yep. I know, I know. Okay. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of a budget transfer. The amount of $18,907 and 81 cents from account 5 7 2 8 4 3 3 0 5 4 8 0 1. Regular transportation, gasoline, diesel to account. 5 7 2 2 3 3 3 0 5 3 3 0 2. Special services, transportation, sped, summer transportation. Second. Motion be made and seconded. Good. She's already talked about that. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Mr. Sullivan.
Bo Sullivan. Yes. Kick Sullivan? Yes. Jeff Goslin. Yes. Jeff Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. I'd like to make a motion to approve a, a budget transferring amount of $30,000 from account. 5 6 5 2 3 2 4 4 5 3. Teaching other expenditures, contractual services to account. 5 6 5 2 3 2 3 3, 5 3. Special education, other contractual services. Second. Motion been made and seconded. This one's all set. Mr. Sullivan? Sullivan. Yes. Jeff Goslin? Yes. Jeff Gunther. Yes.
Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell? Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. I'd like to make a motion for a budget transfer in the amount of $42,000 from account 5 7 2 2 3 3 3 0 dash 5 3 3 0 1 0. Special services transportation, SPED in district transportation to account 5 7 2 8 4 3 3 0 5 3 3 21. Regular transportation, BOC out of district transportation. Second, What that made and seconded. So this transfer is needed. Um, this is our transportation for students that attend Smith Vocational and LP vec.
Um, and our transportation manager has let me know that we are not going to have enough funds to cover, um, that transportation for this year. So he needs this additional $42,000 to cover the rest of the year And that will cover the rest of The year. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Sullivan. Jeff Colan? Yes. Jeff Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman? Yes. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Kick Sullivan? Yes. Mike Terrell? Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. I'd like to make a motion for the, uh, budget transfer the amount of $24,131 and 22 cents from account 5 0 0 7 8 5 2 0 5 7 6 SYSTEMWIDE
insurance programs unemployment to account 5 0 0 8 2 7 5 5 8 5 1. Acquisition of motor vehicles. Second. Motion been made. And second Ms. Barr. So this, um, item is regarding our transit van. Um, the one that we lost in an accident. Um, I actually have been able to secure if we would like to purchase it, um, a new transit van with Marco Ford. Um, and the amount of $61,995 purchased through the state contract. Um, we did receive an insurance reimbursement for $37,863
and 78 cents. So that will cover a portion of it. Um, the transfer will cover the balance We comfortable taking out of unemployment. Um, yes, our unemployment is running very low this year. That's A good sign, I think. Any other questions saying none. Mr. Sullivan? Jeff Gutter? Yes. Kathleen Hillman? Yes. Bo Sullivan? Yes. Kick Sullivan? Yes. Jeff Goslin? Yes. Mike Terrell? Yes. Chairman McCade? Yes. Motion passes like to make a motion to approve the following budget transfer of the amount of $30,425 from account 5 0 5 7 8 1 43 dash 5 7 6.
Legal settlement system judgment to account 5 0 0 0 4 2 4 5 5 5 1. System technology technology supplies second. Motion made second. So I addressed why we're transferring this, but I just wanna point out the legal settlements, um, judgements that any of the cases that we currently have pending do not appear that they will be wrapping up anytime soon. So I feel comfortable transferring this money from that line. Kathleen Hillman? Yes. Bo Sullivan? Yes. Kick Sullivan? Yes. Jeff Goslin? Yes. Jeff Gunther. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Chairman McKay? Yes.
One more. I'd like to make a motion for a budget transfer in the amount of $18,225 and 20 cents from account 5 0 0 7 8 5 2 0 5 7 3 SYSTEMWIDE insurance program workers compensation to account 5 0 0 0 4 4 4 5 dash 5 5 1 0. Technology maintenance technology supplies. Second. Motion been made. And second, is there any further discussion? So again, I pointed out why we need the transfer, but just wanna let you know, workers' compensation is also running low this year. So we have that funding available to transfer, knock
God wood. Those are three good places to take. I was Gonna say, if you could do that. Good for you. Mr. Sullivan. Bo Sullivan? Yes. Kick Sullivan? Yes. Jeff Goslin. Yes. Jeff Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. Thank You. Thank you. How about a report of the weekly warrants? Weekly Warrants? January 30th, 2026 14 batches, totaling $697,847 and 64 cents. February 6th, 2020 6 21 batches totaling
$1,126,366 and 77 cents. February 13th, 2026. 20 batches totaling 300 and FE 3 350 $7,790 and 32 cents. February 20th, 2026 16 batches totaling $683,706 and 1 cents. Kathleen, you're gonna hate me for doing this. Can you reread the third one? February 13th, 2026.
359,790. Yep. Yep. And 32 cents. Perfect. Thank you. Uh, Mike, I'd Like to make a motion for the acceptance of a gift donated to Westfield Technical Academy from Darlene Biggs of Westfield, Massachusetts in the amount of $500 to be used for educational purposes and the WTA Allied Health gift account. Second. Motion made. And second. Is there any further discussion? Thank you. Darlene Bigs. Thank you. Jeff Goslin. Yes. Jeff Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman.
Yes. Mo Sullivan. Yes. Kick Sullivan? Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. Mr. Saki. Other. So, um, a couple things. Um, you know, sometimes when you ask, you get a yes. So I reached out to stop and shop corporate, uh, headquarters and asked for them to establish a food pantry at Westfield River Elementary School. And they said yes. So we will be accepting, uh, $7,500 worth of gift cards to be, to purchase things at our local stop and shop, uh, to, for the students at Westfield River Elementary School.
Pretty good. Um, also, uh, last Thursday, uh, Susan Doji, Christine Shea and I presented the Pioneer Valley Teaching Excellence Awards, otherwise known as a grinspoon Awards, to six of our staff members. Our veteran teacher winners were Carrie Chipa, the Westfield Middle School Chorus Director, who you all got to see a few weeks ago. Um, we also, uh, winner Gina Clark from Highland Elementary School. She's a, uh, elementary music teacher, Pam Collins from Westfield High School, a math teacher, Ann Elisa Eck from Westfield Intermediate School, a grade five math and science teacher. Nathan Sperry from Westfield Technical Academy,
the department chair of horticulture. And the new teacher this year was Miranda Wozniak from Paper Mill Elementary School, who is a grade two classroom teacher. All winners will be celebrated at May 12th at a, uh, a very nice dinner at the log cabin. They also receive some free college courses, some, uh, money for their classroom, a bouquet of flowers and a nice, uh, certificate. Nate Barry loved the flowers he made them. Anyway, uh, so I'm also excited to announce we have finally, after many years of negotiation and back and forth, uh, uh, secured an articulation agreement
with Westfield State University for students enrolled in our criminal justice slash public safety program. Uh, students that enroll in all four years of our program now have the opportunity to earn 18 credits in criminal justice from Westfield State University moving forward. That is terrific. Yeah. Terrific. Uh, speaking of partnerships at Westfield State, we are proud to again, announce our continuation of our successful partnership for the spring of 2026. In our second year. Uh, we are gonna be offering an SAT prep course for students at, uh, Westfield High School and which is where it'll take place, but it's open to students at both high schools.
This year's program provides a comprehensive six hour in-person bootcamp for our cohort of up to 25 students excited because, again, of the curriculum, they're gonna get instructional materials and they're gonna get a digital copy of the SAT bootcamp handouts and all necessary instructional particular, uh, in materials for no extra fee, which is unusual 'cause there seems to be a fee for everything these days. Um, and convenient weekend scheduling. So sessions are scheduled for Saturday, uh, March 28th and Saturday Mar April 11th from nine to 12:00 PM Um, I'm also pleased to announce that we'll be holding our annual career, uh, fair
and Job Expo at at Westfield State, uh, university on April 1st. Uh, again, if you are interested, we have put the information on our Westfield, uh, schools of Westfield website, so schools of westfield.org and as well as our Westfield Mass Public Schools Facebook page. And the same for, we were also doing, speaking of financial literacy, we are doing our, uh, credit for Life Fair, which will be held on April 8th. Also, uh, at Westfield High School. We do still need volunteers. So if there's a flyer posted on our Facebook page, and I will repost it on our website so you can see it. All you have to do is take your phone
and scan it the QR code and register. And it's a terrific event. It really is. Credit for Life is fun. I know Kathy has been there probably every year since she's been on there. And it's just a terrific event for our career fair. We are looking for more businesses. So if you have a business or, or, or a realtor company or anything like that, Mr. Figgy, uh, just putting that out there, uh, that would like to, we have students that are interested in being realtors, but in, in many, many careers. Uh, we typically have around 60 to 70 businesses at this career fair, and we'd like to exceed that this year. Uh, the Boys and Girls Club comes every year and,
and many other organizations. Uh, what I love about this particular career fair is, uh, quite a, uh, significant handful of our students walk out with jobs, so that's also helpful for them. And that's all I have for tonight. Excellent. Thank you. Gonna pass baton. I'll take it. You got it. Um, tomorrow I get to go to Westville High School and do a cold case review for Carol La Valley's, uh, criminal justice class, which should be fun. That will be, uh, professor Allen and Jamie Lucia. You're the best. Um, so that's fun. Uh, I'm here to report
that Parkside has been officially closed on today. Um, so that's no longer, uh, in our purview. However, saying that, you know, there's always, there's always more, um, Fort Meadow and Abner Gibb need to follow suit. I'm hopeful that that will happen, uh, when we can get this plan together and we can get out of Abner. Gibb. That's a shot. You got Fort Meadow tomorrow. Mayor, you can have Fort Meadow tomorrow as is. I'm, I'll Sign it. Take It. I'm aware. So, uh, with that said, I'm gonna move on to the school committee update. I have one. Sure.
I'm gonna be attending the MASC workshop, charting the course on March 21st. Saturday. Um, it's in Worthington, mass. I'm just wondering if any of my colleagues on the school committee are also going to be attending. Is anyone else? I think it's designed for mostly the newer members, but Yeah, I think you're it Ammit. Okay. No, I'm gonna be with, I'm gonna be with Senator Wheelis at the State House. Oh, that same Day. Same day, Sure. Anything else? Items you refer to subcommittees
old business subcommittee, reports and recommendations This way? We got two of them That would Facilities Capital Planning, um, subcommittee, the, those we discussed. Um, we met on February 19th and we discussed items, um, seven in 10 on this evening's agenda. Um, I feel like I don't need to elaborate on that. I passed. Um, do you want me to do the minutes or we go to the other subcommittee? No, do the other one. You Can do the Go Ahead. You give quick update. Uh, curriculum instruction Assessment
Subcommittee met earlier today. Um, we reviewed, uh, in more depth the accountability data related to, uh, last year's MCA data that was released in the fall. And then we also did a deeper dive into learnings and plans for next year related to our integrated pre-K program, which I think we'll hear more about as a full committee in a future meeting. Thank you, doctor. Moving back to Kick. You want to do the minutes for your committee? I'll make a motion to approve the February 2nd, 2026 Facilities Capital Planning subcommittee meeting. Minutes Second. Motion
been made. And second. Is there any further discussion? Say none. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And the same can be said for the next item. He's Got the next one. Yep. Motion to approve the February 19th, 2026. Facilities and Capital Planning Subcommittee meeting. Minutes Second. Motion been made. And second. Is there any further discussion? Say none. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Next regular school committee meeting is March the 16th, Right here in this building at seven o'clock. Motion adjourn. Second. Motion.
Mad made and seconded to adjourn. Is there any further discussion? All is in favor. Aye. Aye. Opposed? We are adjourned at 8 58. Just.