right calling this meeting to order it is Tuesday June 4th the time is 6 PM this is a meeting of the Westport school committee uh could we all rise for the plge Allegiance Pledge ALG to flag of the United States of America to the for stands nation godis and jusice for all okay thank you uh going into our informational agenda we begin with our student Representatives yes thank you Sharon U at this time I'll entertain comments and statements from the public okay seeing none now we'll uh go into our informational agenda we have our student Representatives here all right good evening superintendent Ain members of the school committee and everyone else in attends this meeting uh a little bit of news to share with you this evening first off the eighth graders headed off to Washington DC today and will return home on Friday June 7th we wish them all a safe and fun trip a save the date for eth grade families the gr promotion ceremony will be held on Wednesday June 12th at 6m in the Westport Middle High School auditorium students should arrive at 5:45 and guests should enter through the auditorium gymnasium entrance each student will be allowed for guests and little Shameless plug right here on uh Wednesday June 12th the freshman class will be holding a Cold Stone creamy fundraiser from 12: to 9:00 and 20% of your order will go to the Westport class of 2027 and lastly this is for the West Mac PTO but it's also for everyone in their District the seventh annual tough kids challenge will take place this Sunday June 9th at 10:00 at the former Westport HIgh School Advanced registration is Thursday you can also sign up on the day of the event we would like to thank the Westport Middle High PTO for all their effort in fundraising events that funded amazing opport and events for a middle and high school teachers and student body and uh I would like to thank you for the opportunity for joining you this year and um hoping to join back next year it's been fun thank you thank you thank you Ryan looking forward to having you back good evening superintendent Alin and all school committee members and attendance tonight on May 18th our Juniors and seniors enjoyed a lavish prom at the Fall River Country Club students dance the night away and make memories that will last a lifetime we would like to thank Miss Avala for organizing the event and to the Junior and senior student councils for raising the funds for the six stting night Thursday evening May 30th was a very special evening for the juniors of Westport High School students from the junior class received book awards from Harvard University of Pennsylvania Brown brandise suff St Michaels the University of Vermont Western New England University endicot Smith St Anum Alfred WPI salv St Joseph's Wells and Bridgewater Thursday evening was also a very special evening for the seniors of Westport High students from the senior class received academic Awards including the superintendent award principal's leadership award president's award for academic Excellence president's award for academic achievement president volunteer service award scholar athlete citizenship Awards Daughters of the American Revolution good citizens award by literacy recognition and Phoenix Awards seniors were also presented with Department Awards the class of 2024 also earned just shy of $300,000 in scholarship money which is an amazing accomplishment congratulations that's great that's great on this past Saturday June 1st our senior class graduated from Westport HIgh speeches were given by Mr shet superintendent auin salutatorian I carvalo class president Marco Dutra africano and valoran Madison FL our top 10 students starting with our valoran are Madison Floyd Avery car PA Iver Avala Ken Holden Kaitlyn Jones Savannah Fantasia megany Sarah Perry Han theion and myself alen prer congratulations to all of our graduates as we know they will do great in their future endeavors and finally I would like to say thank you to superintendent auin all members of the school committee and principal fette for allowing me to the opportunity to serve as one of the Westport Middle High student liaison to the school committee it has been my honor and privilege to work with you all thank you thank you very much Al yeah congratulations and we uh certainly appreciate your time here um representing the school to our school committee and keeping us informed of all the events and goings on in the building um and congratulations on all you've accomplished and we're wishing you the best and Tom I think uh you have something for for Alden there uh after your Awards the other night it's going to be pale in comparison but uh we just wanted to say thank you it's a small token of everything you've done uh to represent the students you've done it very well and we're very proud of you thank you very much thank you thank you good evening superintendent auin members of the school committee and all watching live uh I would like to start off with some important dates the last Daye of school for all students grade 1 through 11 is Friday June 14th and this will be an early dismissal day at 11:00 a.m. final exams for all high school students will begin next Tuesday June 11th to Thursday Jun 13 students that return signed permission slips will be available to leave after their finals at 11:00 a.m. permission slips should have been turned in last Friday and lastly the end of term four will also be on Friday June 14th which is the last day of school mcast testing is almost over and the last test to be taken will be the second module of biology mcast for all grade n students last week was an amazing recognition and celebration of our student athletes and Scholars especially our seniors and lastly this is a very um last minute update but the Westport drama club will be hosting a karaoke night this year it will be held on Thursday June 13th at 6:30 and will end at 8:30 food and drink will be for sale at the event please come to the show and help raise money for the drama club now for athletics the spring Sports season has come to a close and we would like to congratulate our spring athletes for a fantastic season the boys varsity baseball team finished their season at 12- six and they reached the first round of the Mia state tournament where they would unfortunately lose 63 to Bourne yesterday afternoon the girls varsity softball team finished with a solid record of 8- 10 and they reached the second round of the Mia state tournament they also unfortunately lost yesterday but it was a very close matchup our lacrosse team finished their season with a record of 2- 16 the boys varsity tennis team finished their season seven- six and made it to the first round of the state tournament and lastly the girls varsity tennis team finished 1 and 11 lastly I would like to thank everyone on the school committee and superintendent Alman for once again allowing me to help report news around the school and I hope to see you next year thank you Jack we appreciate it looking forward to seeing you next year yeah thank you see now we can't dismiss all them to go home into our homework thank you all bet it's starting your you're going to do fine you're going to rock it very exciting it's great congratulations and thank you very much representing us so well with yes it's an honor to have you as students representing us have a wonderful summer what a day thank okay next on agenda we have the superintendent's report sure actually before you begin uh Mr Robin just to you know the athletic awards night and the scholarship night was was mentioned and I just want to congratulate our students for the great work that they've done over the last year um representing our school so well um you know just shy $300,000 in scholarships there were our teams did great so I just want to recognize the hard work that all of our students put in and also our staff um who organized the events and have been supportive throughout the year so I just wanted to recognize them and if I can piggy back on that uh graduation we received a number of emails uh just absolutely uh a great event and uh I certainly want to thank you for showing up and uh coming and uh you know it was the speeches by the students was really a moment of of Pride for this District letting letting us know that our kids are getting an outstanding education you know not just uh academically but they they're really decent human beings and uh I couldn't be more proud at this point right thank you okay so uh this is going to be extremely quick and and and the reason I'm presenting this is is because um as we know the budget H continues to get Tighter and Tighter here I I think we would be negligent not to take a look at some trends that are happening in Westport right now so the slide that you have in front of you was presented in the Boston Globe yesterday which talks about median home sale prices rising in Massachusetts since 2008 if you take a look at that it's it's pretty easy from the color coding to see that Westport um has had a significant increase in the number of medium uh sales price homes uh from 2018 to 20 23 the uh percentage is 66% and um if we can go to the next slide sorry about that this I think is an even more illustrative uh slide and one that I think we need to consider if you take a look at the median sales price that we showed you that was from 18 to 2023 this is just onee increase in median price sale between 22 and 23 and you can see outside of Becka in the western part of the state Westport had the highest number of homes that were actually purchased and if you compare that to Dartmouth I think Dartmouth was somewhere around 5% we were at 33% why is that important for the schools well it's important for a number of reasons can you just do one more time for me Mrs Kaminsky thank you so much I appreciate it we' got three assumptions that we're making desite price increases families are moving to Westport faster than other communities which doesn't seem to make sense from a supply and demand except for the fact that we have to get rid of our concept of the nuclear family moving into these homes and in fact because of the affordability issue what we're seeing is we're seeing multiple family units coming together and buying these homes and so that's going to have an impact clearly on enrollment moving forward additionally uh we we' got to take a look at what that impact on the schools will be especially in light of the fact that we've been given our marching orders relative to don't expect more than 3.5% per year and so we have to take all of that into consideration as we continue to plan for uh next year and you know the side part going forward is that you know it wasn't long ago where budgeting was sort of a like a season it was started in November and usually you were done more or less by February I I can tell you that um starting the fiscal year in in July uh we will be working on the 26 budget because it is that desperate right now even under the best of circumstances and mind you we have increased enrollment by 155 students over the past three years so when we were told that the problem was an enrollment problem clearly it's much deeper than just an enrollment problem because although I'm extremely proud of the work that the staff have done to recruit and keep students in the reality is is that you know these are going to be more costs that we need to countenance going forward and it's going to increase uh the services and and and my concern is some of the services that are already very expensive so you know again I it's more about thinking going forward than it is about anything to do about this but I I I am I'm not afraid to say that uh I'm concerned seeing that data and I'm concerned anecdotally when you go through the community and see how many new homes are being built it's uh it's it's so I think as a committee and as a district leadership and as a as as a school leadership I think we need to come together and and try and sort of strategize going forward if we have any access to more specific Census Data it would certainly be helpful at this point because again we are going to be on the margins next year and we know it we're not we're not candy cting this we're going to have a very tough budget next year so um if there's any questions you have I'd be more than happy to uh answer them yeah just a couple couple of things on this so um I would say I mean there are certainly challenges that this poses it's a good problem to have seeing increasing enrollment student interests right we have families moving into Westport um but as you mentioned it will Poe challenges for our budget going forward we know um the direction that we'll be going in in terms of what to expect from the town side um and any increase that we see at the state level you know won't compare to the increase in expense that we see from taking on additional uh students which again is a good thing that we're getting students in the building that's great um when it comes to to budgeting I think starting our conversation with the town on these issues is important because that's something to keep on the radar going forward absolutely um there any other questions or comments from the committee on this just have to wait till it happens and see what's going right again just I I'd really like to get my hands in some good Census Data at this point you know because this seems to be happening much quicker than your you know desend your census so some real time data on that would be hugely helpful you know and we so we'll we'll seek out where we can get that information other than that um I think the students did a great job expressing what a what a great couple of weeks it's been here right nice right um before we move to our next item I just wanted to note that we do have some retirement ments this year um from our teachers so uh Donna Edwards uh from the elementary school Dan Harrington from the Middle School Kathy Santos from the Middle School Mark Ward from the high school um are retiring this year um so I just want to recognize them oh and also Julia Judy alera from the Mac is retiring as well so um I want to thank them for for their time here at in the district and all they've done for our students over the years um and we wish them the best absolutely okay uh committee leaz on reports so I I added this as an item on our agenda going forward as a standing item just to get a glimpse from the committee on you know we we all sit on other committees in town um as the school committee reps to other committees so going forward um this item will be an opportunity for members to discuss anything in those committees that have come up that they want to bring to the attention of the school committee um so I think it's just a good way to Foster discussion between the members keep an open um connection between what we're doing here and what we're doing on some other committees as well just as a centralized place to to bring it uh to the full board so I'm waiting for committees to contact their meetings yeah I know I know that's still going on the select board appoints in early June their um their other appointments that they have uh terms expiring in early June so that'll be coming up you know we may not have anything for this meeting but just going forward I wanted to make the committee aware that you know know if if there's any updates you know this this item would be the place to share um I know uh chairman Brewer reached out to myself today regarding the audit committee so we'll be meeting next week um and then I'll have an update for the committee after that um so just wanted to make that if I don't know if there are any members that have any updates have I did um attend the cable Advisory Board um it was probably over a month ago now um not a ton of info to pass along um just some staffing um questions in terms of reorganizing their staff um is certainly something that they're looking into and also a highdef um cable channel uh for the town um so there's a little bit of discussion on that in terms of um which channel it will be because you have to you're basically replacing one of the existing Channels with a high def Channel sure um so more to come on that but um I did attend a meeting and I would think that I would say those two are the biggest topics that would discuss there all right thank you anything else other items just that I expect an agenda for the long-term building committee uh will be posted uh tomorrow or or Thursday for next week and I believe you're the you're the representative on there as well so okay all right great well thank you uh moving along to the bill warrant dated 53124 4 $46,000 46282 42 um if there are any questions for the committee here um but always welcome to email myself and I can contact the business office for specifics there um all right moving on to the student and staff attendance report members have had chance to review this as well um not sure if there are any specific comments on it from the committee I I did have a just a a brief question for uh superintendent um the does seem like there to be a little bit of a drop off there at the at the end of the school year is that part of the course every year or is there is anything an outlier this year it's every year is a obviously a unique organism um generally speaking um typically as you get later in the year people start using some of their time that they don't want to lose so um I think you see that reflected but I I don't think you see anything that would be so gross that would be an outli of that I think would require action again I I'll say it again I mean I think our staff have done an unbelievable job of showing up and uh you know I think now that we started doing this everything has gten a lot better I would say too it's probably not uncommon but across districts either I fig as much but I just you know as a as a new member wanted to catch up a little bit and make sure my assumptions were partially correct it's a it's a legitimate question the the other thing is that um and I'll say it publicly this this this step staff has gone through some this has been a really tough year for staff um for a lot of reasons you know personal loss illness um this has been a very tough year uh for a lot of people and I I I want to publicly thank our uh our staff for um you know putting the kids first and and and really doing their best we uh we have we have had people go through some pretty horrible things and they they're back uh slugging it out so um I think overall we uh we have a lot to be thankful for for the people who come in on a day-to-day basis they they really work hard for the kids and uh um um I'm I'm extremely proud of them right okay there's something else on that item we will move to the discussion of Esser funds Michelle oh no friend so right currently right now we have a remaining balance of 46,7 um these need to be expended by August 31st at a March 19th meeting there was discussion with the school committee um on how those funds would remain to be spent um I'll just quickly go through it with you um athletic uniforms for the cheerleaders $4,000 because they're worn faded and torn at this point um athletic go forms for Bob boy soccer um that's a replacement because this year there was a decision to be made to give the the soccer team their jerseys that they wore so that is 5500 to replace them um uniforms for girl soccer again there's a one fad $5,500 from there um one of the items that they're looking to we're looking to purchase is a touchless power washer which is basically as exactly how it says it's touchless so it's this machine that is a power washer that they use in all of the bathrooms they can use it for the bathrooms they can use it for walls toilets floors ceilings whatnot so it's not strictly just for the bathrooms it can be used for hallways stairways and whatnot so we originally put two of those machines down but we're really looking to keep it here and to utilize it here and that's $814 um academic expansions expanding the math program to grade three $5500 and academic expansions again for the ignite program which is 21,000 so that puts us within a $3,000 range that we know that we can we can come up with the remaining 3,000 to do this and that would use 100% of the Esser funds to date that need to be again utilized um spent by August 31st didn't they talk about wrapping the van yeah I was going I was going to ask you compared to that March meeting what what does this look like compared to the wrapping the van I'm still waiting for a quote from the um people to wrap the van that is something that could potentially come out of our revolving for transportation so we're waiting to get a price on that we've we've gotten a few different versions of what it would look like so we've kind of gone back and forth with them of what we want it we don't want it to look too gy we don't want it to look too like out there but so we're waiting for the second one to come back to us and apart from that are there any changes to this list that were made post that March 19th meeting okay um we had reduced down from one surface from two surface cleaners to one to be able to meet the 40 closer to the 46,000 okay cuz these were the two programs that were talking about on yes you know will they two academic programs they may just stop one year and that'll be it right the that's that was my question yeah the ignite program is a high dosage tuing program and uh Mrs Kaminsky uh has been working very closely with the deese and if the chair would recognize her I think she could share a little bit about that please there you go good evening thank you for having me um so the ignite program I'm going to share more specific data about the ignite program's impact on our kindergarten population later in the meeting um but BAS basically in a nutshell the state has underwritten um the use of this high dosage tutoring program for 30 of our kindergarteners who in November were tested um as behind in their uh you know in their on on grade level um skills and so we we plug them into this program and they've been meeting each of these 30 students has been meeting with the same tutor for 15 minutes every day and um in the last cycle which was five weeks um the the most you can get for the whole program in tutoring if you started when we did which was in February is 5 hours of overtime and our students have averaged 4.95 hours so they've gotten nearly all of the tutoring that's available to them and the data is quite remarkable um we're going to press the so the state has underwritten that at a cost of $2,500 per student um we're going to continue that convers ation with desie to see if they will do the same thing with our kindergarteners again this year because if we can set our kindergarteners up with first grade ready skills then they're going to be on track to to meet benchmarks moving forward and we know that if students aren't reading on grade level by grade three there's a likelihood that they won't graduate from high school and um so our goal is to really meet that Benchmark and have all our kids reading on grade level by grade three um and we're headed in that direction as you as you've seen from the data that I shared with you um so my goal with that little chunk of money is to move this tutoring opportunity to our middle school with a with a select population that still have skills gaps that haven't benefited from this D this direct systemic explicit instruction that we've moved to this year um so that we can help them kind of remediate their skills and get back on track to meet with success when they get to high school um so it is a it this this situation is a temporary situation if all of our ducks line up and we can get our elementary kids on track with you know um fluency around reading we won't have as many moving up to middle and high school that have skills gaps in reading so um that particular program could be a year or two that we would need it um with regard to the math we have we have moved to I classroom math for great kada 2 and we've had a lot of success with that I can come back later in June and share the math data with you if you want um so because our students in kada 2 have learned these new habits of mind that are embedded in this program we want to give them the opportunity to continue with that deeper thinking around math in third grade so we're expanding the program to third grade we've already met with the teachers to talk to them about how the students coming up to them will be already used to using these ways of thinking and talking to each other about math um and so the cost to expand it to third grade would be $5,500 and we were hoping to use the aser funds for next year questions that's 2500 per kid for five hours that's $500 an hour per kid for two it's 15 minutes a day right over a period of time the five hours was just February to now so the 20 the $2500 is the yearlong program um it it's it's an investment it's not an expense we're investing in kids Futures and helping them gain the reading skills that they need and it's more than just the 15 minutes a day with a FaceTime with a professional it's the data it's the analysis of the data it's the conversations that we have around what kids are learning and how they're growing um and building confidence with them so desie is underwriting this at a huge expense across the state mostly in Gateway communities and they allowed us to par participate um because they also want outlier communities or or more rural communities to have that Advantage as well um I I would love to expand it to the middle school and and help our students with that so that 2500 that you mentioned is that does that cover the entire cost currently or is per student per student so that the money that we're receiving for that covers that total cost right there's from J for kindergarten yes yeah okay they pref preer really to do first grade desie is underwriting across the state mostly first grade but we came to them with this kindergarten population because as you know last year we restructured our elementary school so we have more reading Specialists there now and it would it it wouldn't it wouldn't be sensible for us to invest that that time effort and money on our elementary school population because we already have teachers who are doing that in small groups at the elementary school so then it would be $2,500 for the year so that would be like total of 10 hours but I'm trying to look at the bigger picture yeah so it's a seat so let's say a student signs up in in September and they exit the program in November because they make such great progress because at middle school they do have some reading skills right so they're going to enter the the program at a at a later access point than someone that has no reading skills so they're going to exit more quickly and then we can put someone else in that seat so it's not a one time once they're in and out exactly it's an equaling of 2500 for 10 hours the seat no not necessarily that's the that's the time that they expect kids to spend in the program to to make all the progress but if a student accelerates faster than that we don't lose that seat we can put another student into that seat on the seat cost the seat cost would be for a whole year you can look at it that way yeah right because they need to switch in but I I was just thinking at that cost is there another something else that you could actually get more for your money so I would say no based on my experience with Ignite the the return on the investment is unprecedented and with that program um you know I think it's great I think I just want to be mindful that that's you know onetime funding that we're using so is I gu my question is would you see would you would you see a a marked improvement in that one year or would you or do you think that that this is something that would need to be baked into the operational budget going forward and for us to keep supporting it I would say not at the same extent because we're going to have fewer and fewer students who come up to the middle school with those hu huge skills gaps yeah I mean the only like students who enter the district not having gone through our schools kada Middle School they might come in with serious skills gaps it's still our responsibility to give them the benefits of what we know about what works when we're teaching kids how to read okay any questions from the committee on that right I don't think we have that on as an action item tonight so um it's just informational right all right just information yeah um but that's expended by August 31st August correct so I'm sure we'll see this again before uh right because now what we have to do is they have to go out provide us quotes for everything then we have to get invoicing purchasing and then it'll get submitted you'll see that next you'll see it on one of the bill warrants okay all right thank you Lisa Michelle um okay next on our agenda discussion of moving district offices and the usage of fields so this has come up um over the last few months especially following town meeting uh we were looking to for areas in the budget to reduce and you know we there's a cost savings associated with us moving out of the old high school um and the document that committee members have in front of them is not this isn't the full document this is just an outline of the issues that we discussed at at the last work session um on considerations for us to to uh talk about with the move um we mentioned the use of the fields which wouldn't be an issue for us until spring of next year correct um the district would also need some storage there as well in the garage space we have a basement area that has old files some of which we cannot get rid of yet the special ed files downstairs we have to keep all of our documents for 10 years um so there is still probably about oh I I would say at least 60 70 file cabinets that are downstairs so one of the recommendations would be to bring those upstairs it put them in an area of the garage area or there's two offices in there that we could put them either between those two offices or in the garage area organize them so that the access the school department would have would still be the full use of the garage area and two offices off of there that would hold storage for some of the technology that we do have which we do have that area alarmed and locked and the fing system at the same time when they go you know when the trucks are kept there you know every single day they could do a building check of maybe just the exterior to make sure there's no broken windows and to make sure there's no like water damage or anything that's broken and exploded down in the basement you know that's probably like a 15minute walk total on some of the in R um so in addition to that uh we'll we would continue to under the current approach we continue to maintain the use of the grounds correct including mowing weed whacking correct um which we do have budgeted already right um you mentioned the files and the storage we would continue to handle the use of facilities for the gym and the fields correct um would continue to as a garage in the two offices you mentioned that um District would also conduct Daily building checks there which I believe was done with the middle school they do it now right now so what they do and that was one of things like by us doing the Winter Rising again so I did talk to U Mr monz today about the Winter Rising I know there is it's a two unit like area so one section is on one unit another section of the building is on another unit there is a pot that you would need to replace in order to fix the unit that is on the gym because of he heating it during the winter time so he was going to look into that and get me a price on what that would be to fix I I can't I don't remember exactly what piece of the unit he said but he said it would definitely need to be fixed in order to be able to run that section to keep it heated for anybody using the basketball courts during the winter time right so that we're waiting for a price onto you know on that um I know I've received a lot of questions about this move in particular so I guess just to address some of some of uh those concerns the move here in addition to being a cost savings to the district which given our budget is something that you know there aren't many Alternatives outside of unfortunately reducing staff so this is one of the areas where we saw cost savings opportunity um given the outcome at town meeting um we know going forward what number we can likely expect from the town for our budget in addition to that I would also say that um you know the town has the building and the fields there that's that's under their purview currently there are some as is true of any older building there are some issues with the building um that you know we currently maintain um I think there's opportunities also for some support for staff by moving folks into other buildings as well and again I think this has been a process that's been in place for years since the closure of that building and going forward I think it's important that we have not only the district but the town develops a plan for the use of the building um it's quite quite a bit of time has passed I know this it's not an easy topic to tackle um but you know quite some time has passed and I think at some point a decision has to be made by the district and also on the town's part on the usage of of the building so I think given the situation unfortunately the district is in this is sort of the direction that the committee has felt the you know that we need to to head in um but I would welcome any comments from the committee because I want to make sure that we're you know we kind of we're kind of on board with this before we move forward with you know speaking with the town on this and continuing the conversation so would welcome any thoughts what is their conversation on their end sound like um I I think you know they there's certainly questions and and that's understandable um from their side and I think we've we're we're certainly open to and we have uh worked with them and and are open to addressing issues that they bring up and I know there's been exchanges um Michelle I know they've asked some questions of us so if do you mind just briefly mentioning some of the I mean one of the things was the conversation is going back and forth about winterizing the building that maybe it should be winterized um they do have a concern obviously about keeping who's going to maintain the fields uh who is going to handle the use of facilities because they know there's a lot in the community that the community uses the fields quite a bit they use the basketball carts quite a bit you know and obviously the community doesn't want to let go of that and you know I don't blame them for that piece of it so I think some of their questions is community questions but also building questions I think some of the idea of evacuating out of that building also raises concerns of leaving a building in that state and who at least with us being in there you know we can see things that have happen does it change that insurance wise it does so having an empty building also I believe on their end increases their insurance from what um Mr Harton had told us so there was some different questions regarding that um again the fields were a question unanticipated cost by nobody being in that building do do we have were we given any number on on that we were not we did not get any type of number it was just I think that helpful for us to yeah I have from them a number see the because we I mean we are in this together at the end of the day right it's one it's one budget and we're we're a piece of the Town budget so you know we certainly want to work with them and and I understand that there are questions and so and I think that was one of the with putting this together it seemed like they wanted an idea so what does the school department plan to do with like what what is your plan when do you when do you plan to be out what will happen at that building who's going to maintain Fields who's going to continue with the use of facilities how are these things going to handle so I think it's something on their end that they want to know but the school committees and the school Department's idea is going to happen there and so that they have the information and then I'm sure that they would have some feedback in regards to anything that we would send them as well right and I think I I appreciate you putting this together because I think this addresses a lot of the questions that that were um that were made so uh especially on the use of the field so we would continue to maintain all of that which is important I think not only for the town because you know other leagues use that space but also for for our own sports as well and it is something that we have talked about to meet with all of the leagues that do use the town that use the fields at the high school anybody that uses the the basketball courts anybody that uses the baseball fields soccer fields other than our own students so I think it's a conversation and a meeting that we plan to have this summer so I think at the same time dealing with the town on this it'd be a great opportunity to meet with all of these to talk about everything because I know sometimes the town leagues have questions about how the fields are used how they maintained we do as well and I think it's been probably years and I would say probably years can't I can't remember being on my end of having meetings with the town the leagues that are outside of the school leagues of what this looks like maintaining it access to the building bathrooms M you know trash all of that kind of stuff so I think it it's really a good time to be able to get updated with all of that with them and us and knowing where we're going moving forward right so as as a as the chairman of the long-term building committee I can tell you uh for the last year and many uh many many versions of that committee prior to the last year uh the questions have continually been been asked what what is to be done with this building um and and in the end I think not we're dealing with the exact same thing we're dealing with here in the school committee there is simply no money in the budget for any kind of major conversion or or or major uh major upgrades to the building that would be NE necessary to utilize it as a as a Civic Center um or or some or even moving Town Offices um without rehashing all the continual arguments and continual uh perspectives that exist with regard to where the building or what what the building should be used for the future um I do have a couple of concerns with this move um and I'm wondering if there are ways to interface with Mr haret uh and and and the the town as well about how to to kind of mitigate some of the some of the issues that may come up uh one one issue in particular is no matter what any any discussion that that happens surrounding where the building or what happens to the building uh down the road uh there is this this idea of Code Compliance and the and being able to maintain uh the usage without having to go go and and U Get get you know recertified as far as what uh what what code the occupancy would would fall under so I'm wondering in conjunction with some of the uh some of the the storage that's being utilized I think it's been mentioned a lot of the it infrastructure that's there um you know would it be possible to to have even a single employee still uh still if domicile for lack of better ter within that building uh or within a small section of the building um and and would it be physically possible to winterize most of the the school if you you know would and then still maintain you know a small a small portion you know I think it's really important for us to get together with some of the just follow the suggestion that you made let's get him in here let's talk about it because it's not just a financial issue the fact of the matter is you know we've been short three custodians now for months because it's just virtually impossible to find people to because right it's not a it's not a Westport Community Schools problem it's it's a national problem but it's impacting Us in the sense that we just don't have the people and you know the the problem is that we're we're almost like prisoners of our own success and that every time we continue to expand and we have you know more showings in in in the playoffs and things of that nature um we just don't have the bodies to to get the work done and it is really putting a strain both financially and and psychologically on the staff because um it's it's a real challenge to try and take care of what we have I mind people and mishelle was here before I got here obviously but we actually had more custodians and maintenance prior to this building opening if I'm not mistaken isn't that correct correct so you can imagine that we've got a much more intense building here that needs to be cleaned and at the same time you know we've got three sites or six fields that have to be lined and so this is I I think it's really important for us to meet with the town so that they can really understand the nuances that we're facing as an organization this is is not punitive we are not looking forward to spending a summer of moving out of the place you know we've been through some real transition over the past four years and it looks like it's going to be five years now and we're a little disappointed about it to be honest with you well I think that's you you bring in bring up a point that that has been a concern of mine as well which is just the the sheer Logistics of of this move out and and I think that I mean there's look you look at the numbers here there's no questions there's a significant savings at play here uh additionally by moving staff to uh to to this building and to to other buildings that that uh administrative staff is in a better position to support the the uh Administration that that is u in in the school so I may I appreciate you saying that because as you know per the recommendation uh we will be moving an administrator over to the West which means that this district will now or this school will now have you know one less administrator which having you know everyone from Lisa to to and everyone else will be able to provide the supports that we can't necessarily do you know two miles away and so um uh it's it's not ideal but we're going to make the best of a of every challenging situation and you know uh we we'll be happy to talk to anybody in the town about the the who's what's and wise of this at this point I I think that it it will be crucial um to have a some sort of Workshop if you will between uh the school committee school school administration as well as as uh Mr hard and and staff at the uh staff of the town just to to coordinate and make you know every Department in town is having to make ends meet having to you know figure things out this is this is uh another another situation where I think it's in all of our best interests and and the town and uh certainly the uh the students that that we serve on this school committee um it's in everybody's best interest to work together to try and figure out a way forward with this and not uh you know the bottom line is when it comes to the town budget school budget we're we're all uh we're all going back to the same poth that's getting smaller and smaller and smaller and we have to uh have to adjust so um I I I thank I would like to thank all the staff and and and everyone who's put a lot of work into figuring out these Logistics thus far um and I'm I'm hoping that with with this again I I I see I I see how this is necessary I really do um I'm just hoping that there's a way that we can work with the town to make this as as smooth as possible it's going to be a rocky road no matter what but what can be done to make this a smooth transition that does not leave huge gaps for for either side of this equation understood yeah thank you for those comments I I know I'm certainly willing to work with the town on that we're all we're in this together right so uh I'm willing to work with them and and continue the conversation and make this workable I think it's something that the district has put a lot of time and effort and thought into careful thought over quite a period of time now um and it's well thought out and I think you know any way that we can work with the town to to help make this happen and you know alleviate some of their concerns that's something that I know I'm committed to so uh just wanted to put that out there on would be something like an executive session with Jim haret or something on that that they'll come in and we'll work it out or we don't we don't need an executive we do it in Open session just to we'll just have a meeting with them um on the issue and we can schedule a work session with on that specifically and Mr chair I definitely see this as being um not not only in a meeting uh capacity but also just sheer Workshop like actually figure out okay you know steps one through 10 one through maybe just trying to figure out practically how to get this done right agreed y that's important okay one last thing um I know that um Jim had put in his email that um I don't it may have already been thought about and and discussed and figure it out but I don't see it on the sheet it's just um that being a polling place for elections and what we'd be able to do and how we'd be able to accommodate the town I know the um it was also mentioned that that the state is looking to consolidate polling places so there is potential I believe um and please correct me if I'm wrong to use this building as a polling place because it's not currently used as a no and they did ask that if that did happen and it wasn't def wasn't definite if but that that that's what they're trying to do is combine so they don't have all these different ones and what that we would have to have a no school that day which again for us we could continue to have a PD and it doesn't necessarily have to be in this building we could move our PD over Soo the kids would have school that day but we could have our staff doing PD between the mac and the West so that was workable and I think when we did I think part of speaking to Jim one day I did mention that that that we we'd be able to make that work and just going off for that too I a question on that is with the old building just just going through options here if would that would the gym space still be able to be utilized as a polling place for this cycle if we were to start that process I really think this is why we need to have this meeting sooner rather than later so we can eyon all of this out we we I'm not saying that this is obviously preferable if it can be done here but in the event for whatever reason that it's not workable you know is that an option that's that's that's my question you know I want to go on record I'm sure the town would have that too every everyone in this in this District administration will do whatever we need to do to make sure that uh we take care of as many people as we possibly can understanding that we're managing a paradox we're not finding a solution because going forward the thing I will be presenting to the committee once again is that uh we are incredibly short Fields as everybody is painfully aware and with the you know the question about what happens to the old school is clearly going to impact what happens here going forward and so I agree I think uh we we'll we'll we'll make the time to discuss any of the issues that have been brought up and uh we're not hiding anything all right thank you for raising that um is there anything else from the committee on this all right and we will I'm looking forward to uh discussing to think of other questions I can add that to the list because it probably is good for um Mr Harner to know ahead of time so that way if he has to come up with information he can be prepared for it and then I can also do a little more back leg work on like Insurance to let him know what that if he has an idea on that also anything that we know that might need to be repaired here before so there's no secret if we could add the polling place issue to that too all right great thank you um all right next on the agenda we have an update on the OST program hello hello good evening thank you for coming no thank you for putting this on the agenda um I split it up into to this year and then all already kind of projecting into next year um as you can see well I guess I'll just stop by from reading this does anybody have any questions that kind of come out to them instead of me going I I mean I can go break it down for you but um yeah if you don't mind could you could you run through the yeah of course thank you so for those that don't know we are a pretty big program uh we offer breakfast breakfast program is at the Westport Elementary School right now and then if you're in kind that's for all students if you're in kindergarten you get busted over in the morning over to the Mac we have the after school program which is for grades K through 4 now at the former High School will not be soon at the former High School um and then we have the prek which was um started on March 15th for our little ones and that is they remain at the Mac because they can't take the bus over to the former High School and then a summer camp that is also at the former High School um which runs seven and a half weeks from 8 to 4:30 Monday through Friday um and also a big program so this summer we have that's actually already increased over about a week from me doing this so we have about 70 children that will attend the summer camp this year and um mostly almost all our 5 days a week and then you see that we employe 10 staff in the summer um one of which is one of our own high school students which has been great um self-pay and then Pace vouchers that um provide income to the program and then as you see the monthly net uh yeah yeah the the revenue each month for the school year is 2200 it's a bit more in the summer for the months of July and August um based on inflation rates of pay to to staff and all that you will see at the bottom that as of 8:29 we had to increase the rate on both morning care afternoon care and then the pre- program as well um didn't necessarily have a decrease at all in students and in fact the numbers have increased um so we had to raise the cost in the morning to 15 30 in the afternoon and then 25 we remained at that for a prechool but we also did increase the time instead of 2:30 to 4:30 for prek we've now Ed it till 5:00 after kind of hearing a lot of feedback from prek parents that they were highly interested in at least the additional half hour to 5:00 due to like traffic commute and and work so we are doing that as well that number which started out from five um students when we first started this pilot on March 15th has already doubled so we we expect that I personally expect that that's what we have the first day of school but as with this typically goes with this program the first day of school you have you know for instance I already have 70 kids enrolled from K through four on the first day of school but I would guess it's just a matter of time from when that 70 turns into about 85 kids from K through four and probably will reach capacity the capacity for prek is 20 children I don't I think that's going to happen by October or November so you said the capacity for prek is how many uh yes so I'm licensed for 20 pre- children 20 okay yep and uh where what's the capacity for the for uh the k k through you said K through four K through four I could have well over a 100 students because so you're not not up against the cap there no so what happens is um now the eec will come and and license those areas at the macumber and they'll give me you know I mean based on the space you could have prob 130 kids in that program every so they these kids don't come every day um there's a large group of kids that are 5 days a week but parents pick and choose so they can have consistent schedule whatever works for them but um collectively I would guess by November in morning afternoon and then prek program I would guess an easy 130 kids will be in the program if something the closing of the school where you going to go or does it stay there for now or if they they close if we move the whole thing from the high school are you still going to be one little area in the high school or you going to have to move your whole program I have to move the whole program to where macumber okay on the column on the right with the for the 24 25 school year are those those are students that are currently that that have signed up for the program for the F for the next school year uh yes so there's 36 automatically enroll so I because demand for the program I typically start enrollment in March of this school year before um so in March March 1st I send out kind of anyone who's already enrolled gets first priority anyone who is a child coming from the DCF system also has to get first priority and then any siblings obviously anyone new to District coming into K gets the next round of kids and then um after that it becomes kind of first come first serve and then a a waiting list and that's all based on stat in ratio um I know there was a wait list was that for the summer program the wait list I have a wait list for the summer program that unfortunately I can't chip away at and that's due to Staffing uh I know last year the committee approved the um the prek as a pilot so how is that how has that gone over the last year uh so it started in March um I would say for what my expectations were great it's been great to see um Min obviously you see the number there it's not as many kids as I would want to to be in it but um trying to get a pilot started in March when parents routines were already set in stone was kind of difficult so for the kids that have there have been there I think that the parents if you were to ask them um love it these kids are there 5 days a week and and some pretty high needs kids to be honest so that's been great for them to have that opport that they wouldn't necessarily have um not a question I guess it's just a comment for the for the committee this is all done through a you may know but this is all done through a revolving account that that is maintained uh by the the rates that are set by the program so this is all kind of so this isn't from the operational budget when we talk about these expenses here it takes care of say it does yeah it's self-sustaining so all the salaries all the expenses um everything everything Su nuts comes from account and then um has a balance if I may they actually clean up their own areas so um yeah we do we do the custodial work there yes so again they do a great job people need to know that you know everyone's going over and above it's not you it's we just short people we're short out right and your prek program already has 11 students enrolled for September yeah so the the chart on the bottom is exactly so anything at the bottom is set in stone there's 30 yes so those 36 kids in The Breakfast program already have a slot they are they're in um the 70 students in after care from K through four are students that um whose parents have already sent in their application and um registration to to be there and then the 11 students in the prek program are already locked in as well so what I'll typically do in the midsummer is see what the Staffing will look like CU we do have we're going to need to hire more staff for the school year based on that then open it up to the community and just say hey there's you know let's say 10 slots I'm just throwing it out there 10 slots from K through 4 first come first serve but um it's it's it's a program that fills up I'm never not you know I'm never worried about the concern to not have enough kids in the program um it's large I noticed you included uh the net on the bottom here um which I appreciate you including that and could you just give us an idea of sort of the I know it doesn't touch their budget but just the expenses that are associated with the program you know you have staff but yep so um that's staff salary that includes my own salary as well and the program coordinator which obviously are the two higher salaries um that is all the expenses so we feed the children in the morning uh the students in the morning so that is breakfast that is all their snacks and any other program supplies um so everything comes from that so and the reason for the increase oh go ahead I'm sorry after you the reason for the increase um if you're wondering like the 25 to the 30 kind of per afternoon um so our rates hadn't changed we hadn't made a a rate in change a change in rate I'm sorry since uh 2021 but each year as you we've always been able to give our staff increases and So based on that we had to um increase the parent uh the parent rate and ALS so with the um we saw a significant if I actually if Melissa Souza would be able to go back to it she I believe when she looked it up was almost a 56% increase in the snack order alone because just everything went up yeah so we've seen you know when maybe we could we could spend $300 a month on snacks it's easy $600 $650 um and at that that many kids so um yes how can I answer your question so just a just curious you you mentioned some staffing issues is it are you do you have a full staff at at this point or are you still down no so when I say staffing issues I'm not short staffed okay um the concern sometimes is that with this number of kids this this number of kids well prek to four the number of kids that come to the program obviously after school some of the kids have higher needs and so what their supports are during the day aren't their supports after school um and so I always try to get additional staff to kind of help in that way and also sometimes during this so different times the is sometimes she'll have a lot of college students so she may be fine right now and all summer long and then once they go back to college then she kind of goes back to a different hiring so it's like a rotation that you yeah like in in September it's going to be different um we have a a a good I would say five staff that are in college right now that's great um but every semester they're their schedule changes so then sometimes in from September till December it's great and then they get their new schedule for after intercession so exactly January and then it's oh I can't work Monday through Friday I can work Monday Wednesday Friday it's a puzzle piece again so I'm not short staffed but I always kind of have to over staff it a little bit at least by two at least by two staff if you compare I apologize one more no go ahead please it's just a totally separate uh issue I'm just curious and if you don't have this number in front of you no worries curious what the breakdown between those uh self pay my question and the vouchers really I actually I have that here for you as a note so um uh 24 school year uh 26% of of the students are Pace vouchers um and receive subsidy so I've always pretty much consistently been at 25% of total enrollment um our children re receiving a subsidy it ends up amounting to like for instance um in September it's a actually right now it's 26% in September it's 25% I mean just call it 25% but um always a quarter and and I personally would anticipate that to more only knowing that I have several students that are going to be in the DCF system that are going to come up and they automatically get a voucher so I've been as high as 28% and we can share a document with you that shows expenses the revolving that comes in with the income that comes in and it's broken down too so we could we I could share that with please sure yeah sure thank you very much any other thoughts or questions from the is the plan to continue with the summer program next year I just know it's not on that chart so oh yeah no I'm sorry the um yes it's just that I could never project out those numbers so I didn't and I'm not really sure if there'll be a rate increase to be honest on that parent rate so I didn't really want to put anything on there but um yeah it's and we also run through February and April vacations as well for parents and we do all the half day um most of the half days um if I think there's six half days a year and three of them were open um to parents so personally I don't see it getting any I I I never see this this number decreasing only increasing um which is a great thing for parents obviously but to have 120 children I would guess by November is almost like saying that's an entire grade um that's probably what we have at the MAC at K the K student so it's it's an undertaking I mean I say it all the time and you know i' would like to make it clear also here today it's not it's truly not just child care it's really not it's um really coordination with amilies outside agencies and everything in between to make sure these kids are cared for before school during school outside of school this until 5:30 so right anything else okay well we appreciate you putting this together we wanted to you know I wanted to ask you to come here to give us an update on how it was going this year and looking at next year so appreciate the update and I'm sure we'll uh we'll continue to to talk about this as we go through the summer program and into the next school year so yes thank you very much yes thank you okay next on our agenda is a curriculum update from Lisa Kaminsky hello and thank you again for having me this lovely evening um so you know a curriculum update could take days yes and I was try I tried to think of what would be the most impactful information to share in this second penultimate school committee meeting meeting of the school year I love using that word penultimate I learned it the other day um um so I thought I'd share some reading data because last year the committee was gracious enough in allowing us to restructure the elementary school and move three teachers one from grade one one from grade two and one from grade three from the classroom and create more reading special specialist positions so that we could offer more individualized support to our earliest learner and it it has been successful I don't have the complete years data in your packet um because as we speak this week they're doing the end of year Dibbles assessments with kids um so I can get you an updated document before the next school committee meeting so you have that information um but I just love to go through this and let the commit the committee and the community know um first I want to say that our staff does go above and beyond to meet the needs of our students every day and I feel like this document is a testament to them um in kindergarten our kids come at varying degrees of being ready to learn some we learned to I learned today in a meeting a student who is part of the ignite program who's made amazing gains had no preschool experience had no daycare experience came to school straight from home with no understanding of what it means to be a little person in a a group and listen to different adults tell them what to do and now they're going to first grade ready to read at first grade level which is very exciting um and so our kindergarten teachers do a prek kindergarten teachers our kindergarten teachers all of our teachers do their best work every day to meet the needs of our students and as a result 93% of our kindergarteners this year are going to enter first grade being able to read whole words at or above grade level which is remarkable shared with attorney Thrasher earlier this evening that according to the neep scores only 37% of third graders Nationwide in 2022 we're reading on grade level 37% and 93% of our kindergarteners are going to leave kindergarten ready to enter first grade we're going to arm them with some information that they can work on over the summer so that so that they can maintain hopefully those levels of Readiness um that's as a that's a result of the work that our kindergarten team teachers did every single day for all of our students and I believe the ignite the ignite program with those 30 students that they worked with every day from February until Friday they're going to work will be their last day has really helped to raise that number up and you'll see the difference when when we go through the rest of the document um so first so first grade last year before we restructured at the beginning and you don't have this information but I can get it to you at the beginning of the year 41% of our first graders were reading at or above grade level in the first Dibbles assessment that's higher than the neep scores so Westport is ahead of the curve but 41% is not enough for us and so with the restructuring um oh and that midy year last year last year we had six six classrooms at each Elementary grade level and we had two interventionists so of all the kids who needed extra support we only had two staff members that could provide that support this year we have five now so just just keep that in mind so at the beginning of the year last year 41% of our students were reading on grade level at mid year now the the reading test gets more difficult as the year progresses so kids need to continue to be gaining skills right because they're not going to take the same test in September that they take in De December or January we we had 43% reading on grade level so a 2% increase if you look at this year 76% of our first graders were reading at or above grade level midyear I attribute that to the work that classroom teachers are doing and that extra layer of support that we've now provided with those additional interventionists 61% we're reading at grade level at the beginning of the year this year in second grade last year 44% at both the beginning of the year and the middle of the year were reading on grade level this year at the beginning of the year 53% of of second graders were reading at grade level oh no I'm sorry 33% we're reading at grade level and 53% by middle of the Year something else to think about too is this ambitious growth so um as you know Dr Parker is the soccer coach here in the district but he also owns a company called ideal Consulting and they provide support Nationwide to to districts around reading and we get to access his platform and he meets with us and provides us feedback and when he looked at our data at our data quite frankly he was amazed at the progress that we're making um and he he said it's unheard of that districts will be at 80% ambitious growth or 75% ambitious growth so that's a that's a tough number to reach for one student never mind 80 % of our students so moving on to grade three at the beginning of the year 41% of our students were reading at grade level and midy year they're 50% I expect these numbers to go up the data will tell us whether that's the expectation comes to fruition um last year and you'll notice that the the numbers last year are pretty consistent at the beginning of the year 43% of third graders were reading on grade level and at the middle of the year only 41% were meeting on grade level so what does that mean they might have still been making progress but it was a a little bit of a backslide as the text got as the text and task got more difficult and in fourth grade again last year at beginning of the year 43% middle of the Year 44% this year at um 50% oh you had a different sheet that's yeah I'm going to give you those numbers I have them in my no that I'm just kind of trying to give you a comparison cuz I made this gave it to um the executive secretary and then I'm like they probably want some comparison data this in a vacuum doesn't mean a lot right um so at this point in the year 50% of our fourth or I should say midy year 50% of our fourth graders were reading at or above grade level now fourth grade they're tested slightly differently they're only tested on their all reading fluency um but 97% of them were making ambitious growth by midye so I'm very excited to see what the what the data at the end of the this week will show and then we're also continuing to to shift how we do things at the middle school and they're using different strategies at than the elementary school but I I I just wanted to put this little um fun fact down here uh through the use of evidence-based literacy practices including repeated reading our Middle School readers are making ambitious gains as well using Dibbles we learned that 93% of our students made gains and 80% are now meeting grade level expectations and fluency compare that to I told you 37% of third graders are reading on grade level in 2020 nationally only 30% of eth graders are reading on grade level nationally and this year our sixth graders 80% of them are meeting grade level expectations which is very exciting so um I want to thank you again for you know allowing us to make that shift I think that the data proves that it's working and um I I just want to mention to the whole committee I was talking to attorney Thrasher about it earlier and to also the community if you've if you listen to podcasts this summer you might want to tune in to the podcast sold the story um it's done by I can't remember if she's from The Washington Post or the New York Times Emily Hanford who did a lot of uh took a really deep died Deep dive into literacy Across the Nation and has very remarkable things to report out and a lot of what I learned from that podcast and some graduate work that I did is informing the work that we're doing here in Westport so thank you Lisa any questions I had a question on the could you just talk a little bit more about the ambitious growth piece what that entails is that is that a um is that a certain percentage increase that a student has over time yeah yeah so I can get you the specific numbers but let's say from one testing um Benchmark to another so like beginning of the year to middle of the year uh an average growth for a third grader might be um three4 of a word per week they're going to improve their fluency at a rate of three4 of a word per week an ambitious growth might be 1.83 words per week so 80% of our students are making like double the gains of someone who's making average gains but I could get you those specific numbers great um just to the cuos how how soon do you think end of your data will be in they're doing the testing this week and I know when I go on to the platform they're inputting it into the platform in real time so by Friday okay excellent excellent good and thank you again for for all the work that that you've been doing on this and for our conversations earlier and I already had that podcast queued up you're not yeah it's going to become ating for sure I've been trying to do a bit of a deep dive since getting this information the other day as well um so I I am curious the um so the ignite you mentioned the ignite program are there any other specific curriculum either programs either offered from state or from outside that that are being that you're your specialist that's a great that's a great question I have to give some a shout out to my predecessor who when he was in this position the superintendent invited him to go to find what were the what were the most highly rated programs that that were being used and bring them here and they did decide to bring wonders um which is what we use um K kindergarten through grade four and actually the fourth graders um the fourth graders the ones that are making the most ambitious growth are doing something similar in their classrooms as as the Middle School um staff is they still have the six teachers right so they still have um they didn't they didn't lose a classroom that we only shorten them grades 1 through three um so they asked for wonders because they realized that the rigor that our students who were experiencing K to 3 um needed to be expanded to their grade level so we did equip them with that program this this year um so that's the that's the reading program that we're using around comprehension so what you'll learn from Emily and the podcast is basically literacy comes from two bigger ropes that tie together that are made up of many threads so what we've been focusing on tonight is the decoding piece so really being able to look at looking at look at letters as symbols that represent sounds and how they come together to make words sentences ideas um and then the comprehension how those words come together to tell a story that we then understand as a reader or we don't understand if we we're not you know um well versed in it um so the Wonders program helps with the reading comprehension piece and the and the different genre of literature etc etc and then the Dibbles and the foundations and the fluency practice that ignite uses is the decoding piece so you hit on my exact um I guess inquiry and and concern so it it it's not uh you're not overly focusing on just the mechanics it is does Bal and we don't want to use Bal the balance approach because the balance approach failed us um it's a structured approach to literacy with a lot of data using a lot of data to kind of really pinpoint where our kids are strong and where their opportunities for growth are yeah I I I want to crit L and your team uh they've done a a phenomenal job and uh the Boston glob uh probably six months maybe eight months ago uh actually did an article on on school districts and the reading programs that they were utilizing and how many of these districts including wealthier ones we're uh utilizing what was considered now to be ineffectual balance um balance literacy balance literacy so um it's good that we were on that side of the of the chart and it's a real credit to again uh Forward Thinking and uh you know we're we're it's just part of the genre that you know we're not we're not waiting for for you know things to come our way we're going after it because uh it's important for these if we can if we can get these these kids reading at the middle school level at grade level it'll be a huge jump compared to where we've been over the past few years it really will so it will be transformational and I do want to say again like our our teachers work so hard and I was like I was telling attorney Thrasher earlier when I was educated as a secondary educator a long time ago the the tools I was given as a teacher didn't allow me to really teach kids how to read and as a secondary educator that wasn't my Focus I was teaching kids how to analyze text um but at the lower grades the the structures that were created and presented to students in education schools weren't really effective because what we've learned is 40% of early 40% of the population will learn to read with what you put in front of them but a full 60% need systematic explicit direct instruction that's cumulative over time and that targets what skills are they're lacking and we weren't doing that as a nation and a lot of other countries weren't doing it either and if you go back to the 80s and look at the data it's pretty consistent that a big chunk of of our population was not learning to read effectively and it was through no fault of teachers or students it was just so we didn't have the right tools and now we have them and I feel like it's our moral obligation to really use them so I have one final line of inquiry um so I can't help but notice that the the the lowest number on here is for is for uh the fourth graders right um see how that would correspond with you know those they began their their educational Journey during during Co right so I could I could see how that might be still uh or we might still be dealing with some lingering effects my question I guess is Are there specific programs or specific uh intervention strategies that that you you've been focusing on on that particular grade level try BR up you'll notice that they also have the most ambitious growth ITI that right so I think that the repeated reading that the fourth grade teachers are doing is really having an impact and I think the ignite like expanding to the fifth grade with that ignite program for key students will help to definitely continue to buoy up their skills um but I'm going to take a close look at the data to see who's who's making gains who's not making gains and and have have the teachers have convers ations with Middle School staff so that none of those kids falls through the cracks and and the thing we're facing going forward is that the state is clearly getting a lot of data on this high dosage uh tutoring and what they're finding is that it's moving the needle and that's why we're going to continue to look for uh outside of government sources um to get Monies to continue to try and expand this as far up the the chain we can because we know that this tuing is is valuable and we also know that we've got to start looking not only at vacy but you know math vacy as well yeah thank you and I could say just anecdotally I've spoken with Specialists and Professionals in this field and on the signs of reading and other issues so I'm certainly appreciative the district has taken a proactive and forward-looking approach on literacy because it's what we need right it's a huge issue yeah not just in our district but you know across the state and Country so um wanted to thank the hard work that you put into that thank you and the team there any com questions from the committee before on well it's important to me and I'm grateful to be in a place where I get to try to make a difference with it so thanks thank you Lisa okay um moving to our action agenda the first item is review and act on WS 8th grade trip to Washington DC Tuesday June 10th 2025 to Friday June 13th 2025 I do not see anyone here to present on that um presumably because folks are currently on the trip um so unless this isn't a an item that needs to be voted on tonight does it this there's no urgency so this is there okay so with that wanted just to let you know they actually did bring a wreath uh in honor of uh one of our veterans who uh um just recently I think it was a chair genda that uh spoke with this uh individual who was on one of those uh missions oh Clifford Cliff Brightman Cliff Brightman who also lay the wreath at the uh the town's Memorial Day ceremonies so we have a reath in honor of him um and that's uh if it hasn't been displayed it will be so great thank you um so I guess in Saving presentation time we won't act on this tonight uh but we can include this on a future agenda so I will entertain a motion to table this item so second okay motion a second is there any further discussion all in favor I I oppose that carries review and act on school committee meeting minutes Tuesday uh May 14 2024 and school committee budget work session minutes dated 5212 24 is there a motion to accept there I'll take a motion to make a motion to accept the minutes okay all right motion made and seconded is there any further discussion hearing none all in favor [Music] opposed okay that carries acknowledgement of soccer championship donations totaling 4,281 um these this isn't a this these are just donations that we received or that's correct so that we could have the event that we had again we were very concerned about uh any of the taxpayers having to pay over and above considering the tightness of our budget uh the people from Westport stepped up and were very generous in uh recognizing our state champion soccer team so we appreciate the um the kindness and generosity of our community okay do we need an acceptance on this yes all right so entertain a motion to accept I'll make a motion to accept the uh donation second okay motion made in second any further discussion all right hearing none all in favor I I opposed that carries and thank you again uh echoing what superent auin said we appreciate any donations we receive to supplement the uh great work that we do here because you know we always it's always difficult so we anything we get on top of that is appreciated okay next review and act on food service director job description and position for fy2 um before we get into this uh Michelle would you mind giving some background on this and sure thank you so we have not had a food service director in this District probably since 2007 um in true Westport style as Mr Orman has said in the past that many times the positions are combined with other jobs so when I first started I was a teacher assistant moved to HR from HR went to data administrator and took on the role of Transportation then from there went to Food Service director/ dat administrator Transportation director till I earned my license for business manager and Contin to maintain business manager food service director Transportation detor dat administrator so we were lucky enough to get our very fortunate felicio as our data administrator and also our Web Master so that was a huge burden taken off my back doing State reporting because State reporting is a beast in any District I mean we are a small District but yet it is it is a beast um so in saying that as you know as we progress through food service and whatnot and it's and it's something I'm passionate about but unfortunately the time right now with I mean we've been fortunate over the last 3 years to have free meals across the state we have just been assigned and told that we are a community eligibility provision District which that means is because our free and reduced percentage is more than 25% at each school we are mandated to to participate in the community eligibility provision um the amount of money that you receive as reimbursement is very similar to what we received for free meals I could send you guys I can send everybody the committee the guidelines of what that reimbursement is um typically we charge $3 for a meal so we typically get reimbursed anywhere between $291 a meal can range to $323 a meal depending on the eligibility of the student so one of the things we I tried to decline participating in this and then I was quickly reminded that there was no declining you have to participate but along comes with that is a lot of work for the first two years by year three and year four the amount of work that you have to put into this on reporting is is not as difficult but the first two years is very difficult because there's a lot of paperwork that goes into it so in saying all of that as and over the last few years I've looked at trying to get a school a food service director because I don't feel that my time as food service director is given to first of all my staff as the way that it should be I don't feel like can spend enough time in the schools overseeing the food quality inventory I have a very good secretary who spends a lot of time that does all my ordering watches pricing um does a lot of the back door reporting for me um checks in with the food service managers Food Service staff this year I've started to need some food service manager training she's been able to provide that um f to school F to school was a huge undertaking because because in order to participate in F the school you also have to be active with the students you have to be active doing um all types of like you know taste testing you need to be reaching out and meeting with local farmers you need to be talking to other local districts to find out how we can pure um procure those items locally and again you need to have the time to do that um project bread is another another grant that I get throughout the year I've received about $8,000 this year in Project bread money that is also to help with our school summer eats program providing meals to students that from the outside not just our students that participate in the summer program but for students off the street we could have families that could come in with four five eight students they can come in and access breakfast they can access lunch um this year we're going to be working with um Mrs shabs to be able to provide her extended day students breakfast and lunch as well to participate because they have access to that as well so we'll be working all all of that and this grant does help provide the funding for either materials professional development or for paying staff to come in to do that so our school lunch program used to be just really a 10-month program and is now expanded right through school vacations we Prov we provide food for the math camp program um in February and in April for breakfasts for lunches um and you know again I we would love to tackle more of the locally grown foods and work closer with a lot of the farmers I've attempted it we we've done a lot of work with it but to do it 100% And to do it efficiently we need a food service director we need somebody that can be here that can can do this and work with our staff all the time and that's working with also the administrators in the building like you know hey we want a culinary person to come in we want to be able to have them work with the kids one day a week for like two hours to teach them certain nutritional facts about things working with our nutritional teachers as far as our fed teachers on how they integrate nutrition into the classroom um we had a culinary program two years ago it was great our kids loved it we had like eight students that participated they did a really great job um you know eventually we'd love to get a culinary person that comes in that works with our menus that works with the nutritional guidelines that ties the menus in with the guidelines that puts program software onto the website that can actually you can click you have a student with a gluten-free allergy you have a diabetic they can go in they can click and they know what their cops are for the day based on what we're serving so there's a lot that goes into it that personally I just I'm not able to get to the program 100% I'm probably giving 40% to the program 50% to the program and I just feel that there is a lot of room here that this program could really expand Way Beyond where I can bring it at this point um one of the things that would be good to know so typically a salary for a food service director ranges anywhere from 75,000 to 95 ,000 based on the numbers I can share a document with you that shows the food service director salaries across Mass with people that are participated in it I'm looking to pay someone 65,000 for this role because I would still be overseeing a lot because I'm the procurement officer I would have to proceed I would have to oversee the procurement piece of it so it would be something that I would not expect a food service director right yet to go into that piece of it um also that money would not come out of the general budget it would come come out of the revolving account so I currently have a secretary that handles that the salary basically is about 47,000 so really the only difference in the impact on the Food Service revolving is about $188,000 we currently carry a balance of about 231,000 in the school lunch revolving account right now thanks to just you know the state issuing free meals and whatnot we have to we are only SP required to ma to maintain three three months of revolving net profits in that revolving account so part of bringing this in would be the expense of the food service director and also a nutrition program that we can put online that is from menu based to show the school nutrition and all the nutritional values for all the food that is served here um and then also taking this program and expand it as I said I think in a previous meeting the maer school we have Garden a garden being installed over there for our younger kids so that they can then begin there and one of the hopes is that we bring It full tuition up to the um high school middle school high school so you know again any questions that anyone has you know want anything to review on the description I'm more than happy to and ask any questions so the the secretary that's currently that position that's currently paid from correct that's that that position is paid from revolving certain a certain portion of it comes out of the revolving certain portion comes out of the general budget because that person currently handles the tech piece of it they do all the purchase out of the technology and also do a reception position okay so my bottom line question is there any change to any change to what comes out of the general budget there probably would be some flexibility in that depending on what that person would be doing so the position would be posted um you know potentially hopefully there would be somebody that would apply for it and then that position that's in current would then we would take some of those St responsibilities to move them around so the exact number I couldn't give you what they exact number savings is it could be a little bit of flexibility but I could get that number you know just But ultimately looking at potential savings as opposed to correct additional expense okay correct oh yeah there' be no add there'd be no additional expense to the general budget right that's can you say that again please there would be no additional expense to the general budget that's hiring a food service director yeah that's important um and just a note too I I think you you probably hard would be hard pressed to find a district that has a single individual that is both the uh business manager Transportation director and the food service director so I think there's certainly a need for it especially you know you touched on the additional uh reporting requirements that are mandatory that you know we're Bound by so that that in itself itself is a is a significant workload um I had a question on the the POS the job description itself correct was that um was this sort of modeled after this was one that was in play years ago and then we have gone through and just kind of updated a little bit with today's sure information and and the the other piece to this is uh obviously you know with the increase in different dietary needs needs of of kids today it's becoming much more complex in terms of feeding our kids and that's why we're trying to get away from as much processed food as we possibly can because uh we we know what the Obesity uh issues are and um um you know uh the allergies the Groen free the uh so you know the person taking this job this is not going to be right and fluffy they're going to have uh a lot of responsibility in terms of improving the quality of the food again I want to I want to publicly give Michelle a lot of credit she's done an exceptional job of uh bringing uh scratch cooking uh to the district and uh it's a lot of work and uh I appreciate itk we also do prepare meals at our macumber location for our uh Council on Aging so Mondays and Fridays we provide meals for them we do charge them a flat rate of $4 a meal um we have cambros that they come byy they will pick it up they bring it over they serve it to them and whatnot so we try to work together with them to find out like you know what what what are the meals that they like because obviously they don't like chicken nuggets and you know there certain things they like and they don't like so we work together closely with them to try to help offset that eventually we'd love to do the Monday Wednesday Friday but again they have a budget that they go with so you know we still would try to work together with them which again that's another program that we could probably access if I had time to find out how do we act it as a school district to be able to fill them in like for Jen's program we can provide down the road probably a snack program that would tie in with her students because we're all in the same building again we haven't tackled that but then that would give some leeway in her budget to have a little bit of relief on the breakfast piece of it the snack piece of it so it would definitely help in the long run by just having somebody that has a lot more time in the day to focus on that area right just can I say one thing I do want to thank Michelle publicly for that too because this all the kids will be fed breakfast and lunch at no cost parents always have to bring in you supply the breakfast but they have to bring in lunch knowing that 25% of the population there this summer is on a pace voucher that's huge uh and certainly a burden that parents don't have to worry about on any level even the private pay um you're already paying tuition at $55 a day on top of it a lunch every day um so I know that when they find that out and I'm able to tell them that's going it's appreciated on My Level like up to here and on theirs will be even higher so thank you thank you Michelle right any further thoughts or questions from the committee on this this is going out soon it will be yes good good to to Michelle I um again working with you for a long time and knowing the 27 different hats that you wear um it's it's incredible that you're able to get the job done and and do as well of a job as you've done um at the same time um two weeks ago we voted to cut $450,000 um in $165,000 of that was a teacher two teaching assistants and um and summer school programming um for me personally again I know I'm only one vote in the room um it would be tough two weeks later to um vote to create a new job for someone for a new position that is needed and I will not deny that um we should have a food service director how we don't is probably because of the phenomenal job you've done and again I don't want to take anything away from you but as an elected official um it's a tough one for me this isn't coming out of the budget right this coming out of the budget yeah no I appreciate bringing up the point I think it is difficult given the situation that we're in um between making Cuts we're also it's also a contractual year um but I think you know in my opinion uh ultimately this is a position position that's necessary um going forward and these requirements only you get more strict as time goes on with nutrition and and planning so I think for for the district this is an important piece looking to the Future um because I I you know as as has been mentioned you've done a phenomenal job but you know going to the future I I don't know with increasing requirements how much longer one person can wear all those different hats without uh and this is a I will say too given the the situation that we're in this is probably the I think most fiscally responsible way we can approach it um through the revolving account because you know again I know it's still concerned but doesn't impact our operational budget um so to be able to fund a needed position without having to tap into that with the you know given the circumstances is is a responsible I think approach to this if I knew this was having any impact on the general budget obviously I wouldn't you know have even gone this direction you know what I mean um I think the thing we need to clear up for the community also is the the amount of money that exists in that revolving account is strictly Limited in terms of how we can spend it we cannot spend it the way we would certainly like to and there's there's a cap on the balance that can be carried on that as well correct correct like by the end I'll have until probably September the end of September that I will have to to spend down probably about $165,000 of this so last year I was able to use that for like we put new equipment in at the elementary school we've talked about putting new equipment at the I've talked about so one of the other pieces that would come out of this would be a new steamer for the ma school I know the committee has gone different directions over the last year and a half about putting any new equipment at the Mac because there's always been that are we going to stay there are we not going to stay there are we going to move them up are we are we going to put Administration that building so there's been some question with that so a steamer is something on the cheaper end that I can have come out of here and then I still have to spend that and it again we're going to be taking out school um cafeteria tables to make it easier for the custodians to come in pull them up roll them out so you getting rid of the tables we have now so that I believe was like 58,000 that's already come out of here so we're still working on seeing like what can I use cafeteria kitchen wise that can between there that's why this Farm to school grant that you know all of all of this programs is like how can we use that because if not we can get fined for not utilizing and spending down that money so and and the other piece to this is that this lar s in terms of the free lunch that the state has done has allowed us to do infrastructural changes that otherwise we would have to go to back to cipc and ask for the money and we know that that's a very limited amount and and uh so I you know again it's also the fact that we're saving the Town Money by not asking them to provide the infrastructure and using this money that quite frankly comes as a result of the free launch program that we've had over the past couple years and again I want to credit our staff in terms of how we've spent that money in terms of looking at a long-term benefit of the funds that we're expending at this point and it's a very big health risk not having people to understand or be able to do that on a constant basis because again allergies are it's crazy craziness and illnesses or whatever like says you know you have to be on top of it just to follow up i i m Mr Poo I I share your your sentiment ad that it it does it it hurts to have to make those tough cuts and then come back and you know on the surface it looks like just adding another position but and that's why I asked the clarifying question does this affect the general budget in any way shape or form and on top of you know the the funds that are there that have to be spent one way or the other um not that I'm trying to pile continue piling titles and hats on understand yeah I I would I would not vote for this if it did affect the general budget but um if the if the ultimate number actually might end up being a bit of savings I see I can assure you that we wouldn't have even presented it because there's a whole host of different positions that we haven't positionist we don't have a director of guidance at a time where social emotional learning uh is is clearly an issue in this country so you know we we're very cognizant of of the appearances and and how it impacts the tax pays so and and I again I would like to thank both of you and then and rest of administrative staff for being uh being creative when it's necessary and this is seems like another example of that in front of us so thank you okay any any thoughts on this no Okay can I'll make a motion to accept the new position um as it's been given to us um okay all right motion made and second is there any further discussion okay hearing none all in favor I I oppose all right that carries yes all right uh moving to our next item on the agenda review and act on a $1,500 Grant from Project breed for the school launch program it's me again no so we've received a few grants this past year probably like I said earlier totaling probably about $88,000 some of the project bred is to help expand our breakfast program which we've had a little bit of a struggle on the middle school high school side um because of the spacing and having all of the students all 8 to 900 students trying to get in here that sometimes majority middle school high school kids tend to to not want to eat breakfast at 7:00 between 7 and 7:20 in the past years ago we used to have break students we always had a larger breakfast participation because students would 9:00 would come and now they're all awake and now they are hungry and they now want to eat breakfast where the 7 to 720 it is a challenge to try to get them to eat breakfast um I've worked closely with some of the people from Project bread and again they're trying to see how they can help increase that participation for breakast I it it's still been a challenge I will say for this year it's still been a challenge to get that in um but this grant here for, 1500 is to expand our summer eats program which again we qualify under that map of lowincome students in this area so this is our site that we use so this $1,500 goes towards paying for salaries for the summer East program to be able to feed students breakfast and lunch whether they're in a summer program here whether they're in the extended do program or whether they're Walkins from the street so I have usually two staff that are here and they provide breakfast and they provide lunch they'll make fresh muffins while they're here they tend to have a little bit more time in their day to be able to do expand that so we're hoping to expand that program more this summer and get ourselves nice great into that thank you Michelle any questions from the committee okay I'll make a motion to accept the Grant from Project red all right motion being seconded any further disc discussion hearing none all in favor I I oppose that carries review and act on receipt of ,000 scholarship for Health Sciences award in memory of George Goble is there any background on this or I don't have any okay can all right um no absolutely we always appreciative of of any funding we receive uh these grants so I'll a motion okay um make a motion to accept the grant the science grant for George goal second okay motion remain seconded all in favor I that carries unanimously routine matters correspondences and notices I have none topics to chair could not reasonably anticipate 40 hours in advance of the meeting uh nothing there also with that being said I will entertain a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn this meeting second all right motion second all in favor I I oppose that carries think