Wait, it's coming. It's coming. It's taking off. So, I'm gonna That's why I'm confused because I was looking for the sign this morning. It's a different one than I I have fresh in my head.
No worries. No worries. But the amount is correct. Sure, you can. Is the camera on yet? You don't want to run across? You want to share yours with that? No. Okay, good.
Yeah, they have dance stuff going on down there. to go. All right. Right ahead. All right. Today is Wednesday, June 18th, 2025. The time is now 6:31 p.m. And I'd like to call this meeting of the
Westport Community Schools Committee to order. Uh we'll now uh actually first off to stand for the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands. One
nation indivisible for all. Thank you. The first item on our agenda is an opportunity for comments and statements from the public. Is there any see seeing no no public that wishes wish
wishes to speak? We'll move on to the first agenda on or excuse me first item on ourformational agenda which in lie of a superintendent report this week will be a chair's report. Uh it's certainly been a a busy week as we head into the final stretch of the school year. Uh
Monday night I had the pleasure of attending the fourth grade promotion ceremony. Uh certainly a fun evening and the eighth grade promotion ceremony took place yesterday, last evening. Uh and uh I think that uh those that uh Miss
Sampers was actually both as parent on on the first night and the school committee member was on the second. So uh congratulations to all the students and all the parents who help them helped uh get them there. And uh just a few schedule reminders right quick. Uh so there is no school tomorrow of course
with holiday. Uh Friday will be an early dismissal day for all students and all schools. Uh it will also be the final school day of the year for students at the Mumbumber in the middle high school. Uh Monday there will be an early dismissal for Westport Elementary School
only. Uh this this is as you may recall is to make up for the emergency school closure earlier this year. uh understand and recognize this this uh schedule change is is certainly uh inconvenient. I do want to thank our parents, our our teachers and staff for the flexibility. Unfortunately, uh a
request for a waiver from Desi did was was not granted. So, we we will have to uh have have that uh that half day on uh on Monday. So, thanks everyone for your uh adjustments and cooperation to make sure that that goes through. Um just
want to uh briefly say, you know, looking back over the year, I want to commend our students, families, faculty, and staff for making this a successful year. Uh certainly been a lot of progress, a lot of challenges, and uh all all through I think it's it's been it's been a very successful year.
Looking ahead to the summer, uh we're going to be undertaking several different uh important important capital improvement projects including the uh uh the the Mac air conditioning and and several other projects happening around the around the schools uh in the
district. Uh we're especially uh excited to officially welcome our new superintendent, Dr. Fran Roy, who will begin her tenure on July 1st. Uh Dr. Roy was in town on Monday to tour schools and and begin uh meeting with with building leadership and looking forward
to to uh the the the new vision uh that she she will be bringing starting on July 1st. Uh later this evening, we'll also be acknowledging members of our school committee who are excuse me school community who are retiring. Um but for now I just want to say thanks
again to everyone who uh who is whether educator staff member parent and students who's uh been been great throughout this year. So uh the the second item on our agenda would be the uh committee liaison reports and I'll
ask if any Mr. Mel sampers no meetings since last. No meetings no meetings. All right no worries. Uh, I will uh mention so uh Evan Jro is the uh the representative
from from the uh long-term building committee, but as the chair of that committee, I'll just let everybody know that the long-term building committee did meet earlier this month uh where a presentation as part of the as part of the RGB architect study uh was presented
uh regarding the old old high school uh building and the architects have outlined uh four potential options and future for the property uh with it a a a particular emphasis on a community campus type of concept. Um I encourage I
think there's a story in the shorelines this week uh with some more details. Everything is still a work in progress and even the presentation is not the final round of of it's not the final final product from this study. Uh but I'm I I must say I'm pretty optimistic and feel strongly that we're pretty
close to delivering uh options to the voters of Westport who will ultimately have to say on what what what to do uh with with that with that building. So, I uh like I said, pretty optimistic. Our next meeting is going to be next Wednesday. Uh that will be followed by an additional large public meeting at
the old high school uh during the summer months. So, uh with that, we'll move on to the third item on the agenda, which is the acknowledgement of the bill warrant dated June 13th in the amount of $25,336.33. All committee members should have
received an electronic copy of the warrant uh via email for review and at this time I'll take any questions from the committee on the warrant hearing. None warrant is acknowledged and we'll move on to the next item on
your ourformational agenda which is a presentation on the curriculum and professional development uh year in review and I invite Miss Kamitzky please take it away. Thank you for having me this evening. I'm just going to pull this out a little so I'm not looking like an ostrich. Um,
so I thought I'd put the put this together for you. Um, I think it should happen every year, but especially this year because there's going to be a transition um at my position as well. Uh, as you know, I'm retiring at the end of the month. And you should have a copy
of the slide deck that I created. So I'm calling it the um curriculum instruction curriculum instruction and PD overview. And for those of you at home, it will be um posted on the website so you can access it after the meeting tonight. So I have a few topics that I want to
cover. I have an overview. I want to talk a little bit about the grants that we got this year. I want to talk about our continuing work around literacy, personalized pathways, um professional development and artificial intelligence, and then what's on the horizon. And then
um if you have any questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them. Is there anything you want to ask me before I start? You want me to just run through it? Google. All right. So, in the SL uh Oh, you have you have the most up-to-date one in your hands, but the
one that you received through the link um was missing a couple of things. So, um, just as an overview, I just want to let you know in all the work that I've done since I've been here for the past three years, I've tried to ensure that the work that we do embodies the vision
of the school and district, the mission, and our strategic goals, those those goals that we laid out in the strategic plan in 2023. So our vision um in Westport Community Schools is that we are an exemplary 21st century learning community whose graduates are empowered
through an engaging, inspiring, and personalized curriculum to meet the challenges of a global, complex, and changing world. Our mission states that we ensure that our children achieve academic and personal excellence, become lifelong learners, and are responsible,
productive, and engaged citizens of the world. And I focused on two of the goals in our strategic plan. The first is that we infuse experiential and personalized learning into the curricula. And then the fifth which which is that we provide professional development to support all
of the goals in our strategic plan. The other goals in the strategic plan and it is linked here. So you can if you're if you're viewing from home once this is uploaded you can click on the link to see the entire strategic plan if you haven't seen it already. But these were
the two goals that mostly fell under the umbrella of my role here in Westport. So everything that I'm going to talk about it it is either related to infusing experiential and personalized learning into the curricula or providing
professional development to support all of the goals in um in the plan. So first grants. When we're applying for grants, we pay close attention to how they align with our mission, vision, strategic plan, and also the the student
opportunity act plan that we crafted last year so that we can obtain funding and support to achieve those goals. Um this past year, we got federal grants. We got, you know, the entitlement grants. We got title one, title two, title three, and title four. This was
the first year we've rei received title three funding because we entered into a consortium with Freetown Lakeville and Swansea which was very successful. We we as you know we're a small school. We only have one school at each grade span and our EL population is not huge but it
has doubled in size over the past five years. Um and because we are we're we're what's called a small incident district with regard to English language learning. We don't have access to federal funds but when we when we
entered into the consortium with Freetown Lakeville and Swansea together we have enough numbers in order to access some federal funding. Um what that funding was primarily for professional development for staff and for supplies that we need for teaching
and learning EL students in the district. Um our staff met three times together with sta the staffs from the other schools and it was really helpful them for them because they they play a unique role in the district and a lot of other professional development that that
might be offered doesn't always apply to the work that they do. So they were able to collaborate with staff from other districts and we also hired a consultant to come in and provide professional development to them. So it was very successful. Um, just as a quick
overview, title one is funding that allows us to support the the literacy and math goals of our students in the district. Title two is primarily provided for professional development. Um, so that money goes toward improving
the skills of our staff. And title four is for um more holistic programming and program programming that connects school to career that prepares our students for graduation and the world beyond
graduation. So those were the funds that we got um for it's called ESSER from the every student succeeds act which is different from esser which is now all wrapped up. We also get funding um through the IDA act, but the special ed
department, the student services department handles that, so I didn't include it in my report, but I'm sure they'd be happy to provide you with information about that at a later date. Um there are also competitive grants that the state um that the state offers and this year we got a MYAP grant and
MYAP stands for my career action plan. We got a grant for that last year and we got a grant for it this year. And what the goal um at the state level is is that all districts infuse career action planning into their curriculum
for at at right now beginning at fifth grade and going through 12th grade. But their goal is to do it, you know, prek to 12 so that students are thinking from a very young age about how learning in school connects to careers in college later on.
Um which makes the learning here more relevant. And then our students are more engaged in the classroom work if they see that what they're learning is going to help them later on. So we got a grant for that from last year and this year we got a we got a grant grant for safe and
supportive schools. We applied for 18,000 but we got 10,000 because so many schools applied that they decide to prorrate the money that they had and provide funding to more schools. That allowed us to bring in some speakers. It
allowed us to create um a steering committee that looked at what's happening with um our schools around safety and student support. And um we have we have a survey that um the people on the committee have done. And eventually we're going to push
that survey out to staff and families to get some feedback to kind of take the temperature on what do staff and families think about our school um and and safety and support for our students. We we received a a planning grant for innovation career pathways and I'm going
to talk a little bit more about that later on because we did receive designation for two innovation career pathways. We also received a workbased learning grant for 18,500 which allowed us to um continue to beef up the
workbased learning program and opportunities for our students to go out into the workforce. um that grant didn't didn't come into the district until late February. It was really late getting here. So, we weren't we we weren't able
to do a lot of a lot with that. And part of the grant was also supposed to support um substitutes and travel for us to work with other districts in the state around workbased learning so the state could see what's happening. But
they never convened those meetings, so those didn't happen. Um and lastly, we got a career connected learning grant for 35,000 which we used to buy equipment for the classes that are going to be um teaching courses related to the innovation career
pathways. So those were the competitive grants that we got. And then we also every year apply for some competitive grants from private foundations. Um many teachers and staff apply for grants from the Westport Education Foundation. I I know you see them in your agendas when
when they come through. Um we got a grant from the cult mass cultural council for $5,000 this year to have an artist in residence which was a really successful program. We had Roger Andrews who lives in town. He's a digital artist um come in and work with our students
and help them learn about digital art at both in the middle school class art classes and the high school art classes. And then we also got a um the city green um with Mary M Dr. Mary Louise Mosquita
wrote a grant for $2,500 that was kind of a partner grant with us and she has started this foundation city green and this spring she came in and worked with our fifth grade students. And if you go um look out on to the west side of the
building outside the cafeteria they planted 30 peony plants and then they also planted hosta and alium out near the gym entrance. and it's it looks pretty pretty amazing. Um, and the students really really enjoyed working
with her to learn more about um soil erosion and soil protection and the different plants that um flourish in either the sun or the shade and she enjoyed working with our students too. So, um, and then just quickly, last year
we got the MYAP grant, we got a, um, an a social emotional learning grant last year, we got a genocide education grant last year, and we got a hate crime prevention grant this last year. We applied for all of those this year as well. Um, we didn't receive them, and I think it's because they wanted to give
the funding to schools who hadn't gotten the funding already. So, that's a little snapshot of what's happening around grants in the district. Um, the next thing I want to talk about is is literacy. I'm not going to go through every slide because it would probably take an hour, but you've been a
probably been able to take a look at this. Um, and because of the extensiveness of the slides, you can see that it is a high priority in the district. We know that um when when students learn to read, they're successful and when they struggle with
reading, there's much less likelihood of them being successful. So over the past few years, we have transformed um teaching and learning reading at the elementary school by infusing um more intervention at at the early grades um
grades K through four and we are meeting with a lot of success. For the past two years, we've partnered with um the state and they've been very generous in their funding to provide high dosage tutoring to our students in kindergarten. And then this year we had
um 10 fourth graders and one third grader also receive Ignite tutoring. And for those of you who aren't familiar with it, students get partnered with a with a real person who zooms into every single day for 15 minutes and they build a relationship over the course of the
year and they they make really significant progress on explicit systematic foundational literacy skills. Um, and you can see just from the MacBre School chart, I'll highlight that one because it's so significant.
It makes sense that kids who are entering kindergarten would be learning about kindergarten reading skills, right? Um 41% of students entered entered needing to know about letter sounds and letter names. So 41% of the
students who entered kindergarten this year weren't proficient in knowing their letter sounds or their letter names. Um but over the course of the year they made significant progress and by the end of the year the 30 students who
participated in well I guess 29 participated longterm long term we had 31 alto together but we had one student move out of the district and what for one student it wasn't a good fit. Um I'm sorry that 83% of our students that
participated in this program are entering first grade with some first grade reading skills already after after participating in this Ignite program. And the state has dedicated $25 million to continue this work. And this next
week, I'll be finishing up the application to continue to get subsidy subsidized from them to continue to work with our kindergarten students and ex hopefully expand it to our elementary school as well.
The students at at the Westport Elementary School who participated in the Ignite tutoring program also made significant gains and at more holistically because of the the change that we made with the with staffing and
more students getting intervention. We have in grade one 71% of our students at or above the benchmark. Nationwide
the numbers less than 50%. So we are way ahead of the nation when it comes to preparing our kids to read. Do do we want it to be higher? Absolutely. I would like for 95% of our students to be done at the at the end of the year on
grade level. So that's a goal that we have. We've also been um making some shifts with regard to instruction at the middle school level that are that are really showing significant gains in literacy. The teachers in fifth and sixth grade
have done some training on the science of reading and have been doing a lot of research and gotten professional development in um more evidence-based practices that they're using in the classroom to make sure that our students by the time they get to seventh grade
can really grapple with difficult text. I'm going to continue unless you have questions about literacy. Okay, so the next category is personalized pathways. We know that when students feel connected to their learning and they feel like the learning that's happening
is relevant for them that they're more engaged and they become more successful. So here are just a few examples of how we've been personalizing learning. We've increased STEM learning opportunities at the elementary and middle school. And we also added a materials in manufacturing
course and a robotics course at the high school. So, our students are working with with um wood um metal and las and and laser cutters and all kinds of tools in the middle
school and the high school to create um to create things. We've also incorporated Socratic seminars into our instruction and assessment at the middle and high school. Many of our humanities teachers have gotten training in Socratic seminars and are using this
strategy to empower students to use their academic voice by staying rooted in text they can use as evidence in their arguments. They also get better at listening to each other in this dialectical model. So it's more of a dialogue than a a debate. Um, so I feel
like when there is a place for debates, but in the classroom when when you're having a dialogue, you're more open to listening to the other person rather than kind of just having the mindset of beating them at this argument game. Um, so it's it's been a very successful
inclusion into our um instruction mostly at the high school. And we've also been doing a lot of work on connecting school more explicitly to career and college. So we've participated in two years of seminars and workshops with Desi around my cap which I mentioned earlier and
MEIFA pathways and have worked through the process to achieve in innovation career pathways designation and advanced manufacturing and healthcare which are the two most in demand labor um labor markets in the south coast region. This
spring also 11 of our students participate in the boat for nextgen. I don't know if you've heard of this, but it's an exploratory training program at Electric Boat and General Dynamics. We are the first school in Massachusetts to partner with EB in this great program.
and they went six times um in uh at the end of April through May over to Warwick and then to Westerly to work with employees and former employees and instructors at Electric Boat to learn
electrical machining um plumbing sheet sheet metal fabrication ship building and I can't remember what the last um piping um pipe fitting fitting yes Um, and three of our seniors who
participated applied for positions at electric boat as a result of it. Uh, I just wanted to give you a quick a quick overview of the professional development that our staff participated in this year. Um there was there was professional
development around the ignite reading program around science of reading and um University of Florida literacy institute has a great early literacy foundational skills program that K to2 staff um did a working group around. We expanded
Wonders to grade four and I ready math to grade three. Through grant funding, we're able to um to provide early literacy staff with UFly resources and time to unpack and explore all the lessons available in their toolbox. And the link is there if you want to check
it out. Preschool staff work through the year to learn about and incorporate the pyramid model for um social emotional competence into their practice. Middle middle middle high school ELA and social studies staff worked together on writing across the curriculum while science and
math teachers collaborated on standard standards crossovers in their disciplines. They also participated in a multi-day training on best practices for inclusion classrooms. We had time to continue to build out their um understanding by design units.
We had sessions on um CPR and stop the bleed and first aid. And we had many many staff participate in the ZSpace workstations trainings. We had an artificial intelligence training scheduled, but extenduating circumstances prevented the presenter
from attending on the scheduled day. So we're hoping to get him back for convocation. Um because he his his name is Greg Kulawick and he's been designated by Desi as the the the foremost trainer in AI in the state. So,
he's going to be in demand now. Um, having said that, we've been working on a draft AI guide that will be presented to the school committee at a date in the near future. So, lastly, I just wanted to kind of talk about next steps, the things that I think should continue um into next year
with um the wonderful person who's going to replace me as director of curriculum instruction and professional development. I think the district should continue to strengthen literacy, reading, uh, reading literacy, math literacy, financial literacy, and media literacy. We should continue to
personalize learning for all of our students. We should work on successfully launching our innovation, career pathways. We should continue to pursue additional funding that aligns with the mission, vision, and strategic plan. We should continue to provide professional development opportunities that align
with those things. and we should continue to strengthen our relationships with community and industry partners. Uh lastly, I want to thank you for affording me the opportunity and honor to be your director of curriculum instruction and PD for the past three
years. And I know that um my replacement is going to do as good a work or even better. So, thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Does anyone have any questions? Any questions from the committee at all? Um I am curious.
So can we get the updated version when you get a chance? You you said this will we have you have you should have the updated. Yeah, you have that via the email. Via email. Oh, sure. Absolutely. Y you know me I want to dive into the lity literacy. Uh yes a
little bit. Oh the you want the you fly stuff. Yes. So all right. Well, thank thank you so much and and uh so before we move on to the next agenda item, which is uh acknowledging our retirees, I I do just want to take a moment and
recognize your contributions, Lisa. It's been Thank you. Uh I I will tell you that as you recall one of the one of my first committee meetings uh we we dove into uh the science of reading and and between giving me a podcast to go down a
rabbit hole and and and subsequent to conversations I uh it's really it really helps shape how I'm able to approach uh being on school committee from from an educational standpoint. I really want to thank you for that personally and and
and thank you for all the work that you you've done over the years. I think the the literacy uh challenges that this district has faced uh to see the successes in the numbers very clearly uh that is coming out has always been is is
very refreshing and I know that's that's uh thanks in large part to the efforts that you've made over the years and uh also very excited with the innovation the career pathways uh designations uh that that's that's going to be huge going forward so you certainly certainly leaving a legacy too. So, thank you
again very much. It's been my pleasure and honor. Thank you. So, anything anything further from the committee at all? Thank you very much for this presentation. It's most appreciated. So, um so as as I mentioned previously, our
our uh our next item on theformational agenda is an acknowledgement of our 2025 retirees. Uh we have uh Miss Marie Fowls who uh are middle school guidance counselor is retiring as well as Caroline Baro uh Pavo should I know I'm
pronouncing that terribly and I apologize please forgive me but uh who's uh been a Spanish teacher at the high school uh and of course Lisa thank you thank you again and and also uh of course our departing superintendent uh
Thomas Alvin who is retiring at the end of this year um to to each one of you I do want say thank you for your commitment and compassion and years of of service. Um I do want to just make a a quick note about Mr. Alan. He he's certainly been a steady and determined
leader through a period of of dramatic changes in in Westport schools from uh being marked by milestones such as coming out of the COVID pandemic, opening up a brand new building uh and and also the shift to towards embracing
new technologies in the classroom and and with a uh with an emphasis on on uh STEM education and experential experiential learning. Uh, and I just wanted to say uh, thank you again to for the years of service to from Mr. Albin.
You certainly remain steadfast and a commitment to always putting students first. It's been most appreciated. Uh, and I I would dare say that Westport Community Schools are stronger, more resilient, and better prepared for the future because of the leadership of of
including uh, Mr. Al and and deeply grateful for his service as as uh, as I as I am and I know the committee is for uh all all of those who have served Westport school as well. Um I also do want to mention our vice chair Evan
Jindro could could not be here tonight but did ask me to share the following message on his behalf. U Mr. Jindro writes, "Please extend my utmost appreciation and respect to all of our retirees. Each one of you has played a meaningful role in shaping the lives of our students and strengthening our
school community. Your dedication, expertise, and care have left a lasting impact and your absence will be certainly felt." join the committee in expressing heartfelt gratitude for your years of service and wish you all the very best in this next chapter. And I think that sums up uh certainly
committee's feelings towards all our retirees. So uh to uh all all the retirees, thank you very much and uh appreciate it and grateful beyond words and wish you all uh joy and health and uh and and fulfillment in whatever lies
ahead. So thank you. Any other committee? No. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. All right. So now we will move to our uh action agenda and the first item is to review and act
on a building use subcommittee and appointment of members. Um I would ask uh Miss Reposa here my thought on the composition of a subcommittee was that it would be a four a fivep person
committee two school committee members and then three from staff. Um I I know that uh Mr. Nunes Chris N had had indicated his willingness to serve. I know that you of course would be would be the head and I do feel Kim will so I
I was going to leave it up to the discretion of the committee of as to who that person would be. My my thought was Kim would be certainly ideal, but I I wasn't sure having not had discussed that with you yet. I wasn't sure if that was the Kim does receive all the building use of facilities. So, she
really does understand how often everything is used, the hours that go into it, the charges that go into it currently, what we should be charging compared to other districts are charging, um how often, how frequent that everything is being used, the maintenance of everything, issues that
have happened in the past. I think she's really beneficial in sitting on this committee. Excellent. Okay. S that sounds good to me. And as far as the the purview of the building new subcommittee, it would be to review the policies, procedures, um fee schedule as
well and basically just uh report back to the committee with with a policy to uh report it to the full committee a policy to move forward on. So um I know that Miss Sampers and Mr. Chico, you had both indicated your willingness to serve on this committee. Is that uh correct?
Is that correct? Excellent. So, if uh if unless there's any questions from committee members, I'll I'll entertain a motion to appoint uh Mr. Reposa, Mr. Nunes as staff, and Miss I'll go ahead and add her in now as staff
representatives, uh Mr. Chico and Miss Sampers as school committee representatives and to authorize the subcommittee, excuse me, to uh and to authorize the subcommittee to come up with a new building use policy. Can I so move on myself? You can
absolutely move. Absolutely. So, it's been moved and seconded. Uh any further discussion from the committee? All right. All those in favor? I. All right. Excellent. So that passes and looking forward to uh forward to what will come out of that.
Uh so the next item is to review and act on the 2025 26 school lunch program food contracts. Uh Mr. Posen, I'll let you give us a brief run. So the we each year the food service department goes out for school lunch bids. Um we go out to bid
for milk and dairy products, pizza, groceries and bread and also vending. vending usually we do every three years. Um we do participate with a tech group and the reason we joined with the tech group about three years ago was to help save some money on the cost of food um
purchasing. So we participate with the tech bid group. They handle all of the bid process. We pay them a flat fee of $1,000 and then they have somebody that does all the procurement for all of the groceries and also for bread. We can participate with them with vending um
and also pizza, milk and dairy. But sometimes we tend to go on our own for certain things because sometimes like the milk products don't come locally. So we deal with whites dairy out here in Newfford I believe it is or Kushnet and sometimes they're coming from Boston for
the milk. So there's certain items that we tend to not go everything with the big group. Um, so we do have currently 14 full-time staff members with over 15 years of experience. Um, we opened our bids on Friday, May 23rd. Our school
lunch program is self operating. It runs through a revolving account, so there are no impact to the general budget. Um, milk and dairy this year, and again, it's kind of like a little cycle right now that no, not many people are bidding on anything. So, transportation and many
other groups, I mean, we probably maintenance custodial for supplies and whatnot that it it's really a tough market out there. Um we had only one vendor which was right brothers Allstar Dairy of a Kushnet. Um we're recommending that White Brothers obviously be appointed the um
recommended for the appointment of the contract for milk and dairy pizza. We Domino's was our only one that came in this year. Again, you know, everybody would like to have something different, but Domino's keeps coming in for it with the win. Um,
kids love dogs. I know some some do, some don't. So, you know, we can't make everybody happy. Um, groceries and bread products. Um, groceries are bid through the tech group. Again, like I said, um, it helps with equitable cost sharings amongst other vendors. Um, two vendors
submitted bids for Thirstston Foods and also ACE. Both are being recommended for that because we get certain items from ACE and we receive certain items from Thirstston. Um bread products also bid with the tech group. We only had one vendor which is Khesi Bakery of um
Blink. We are recommending them as well. Um vendors this year for the first time we are getting Coca-Cola products. We have had Pepsi products here for kids. You pumped about that? Up teen years. I think for maybe 15 years right now we've had Pepsi products. So we're moving to
Coca-Cola. Unfortunately the kids are not allowed to have any type of soda products. So we have to limit on what you know what they can have. But we are going with Coke. They came in with the lowest bid this year. You said fortunately, right? Fortunately. I prefer Coke products myself. But just
out of curiosity, um was it a dramatic difference in the price per unit or It's not dramatic. One of the one of the benefits that we used to receive with Pepsi before we used to receive like part of the contract was we received 50 free cases of water which helped for like convocation and certain events that
we would have field days and whatnot. Um their costs have been increasing. like every six months. Every six months they're sending a sheets with cost increase. So it's been really difficult to you know keep up with any of them. Um
Coca-Cola for a while did not send any bids in this year and three years ago. They did submit bids in but they also Pepsi used to pro um have a like a vendor reimbursement. So we would get like a if we sold 50 cases of this we
might receive you know $25 per case. So at the end of the year that was money that went back into the revolving account as well. So they've unfortunately with their increase of prices are unable to you know to um keep up with everybody else as well. So we
did go to Coca-Cola this year. So we're recommending that the school committee approve the following. Excellent. So before I entertain a motion on this, I just wanted to say uh you you you so was is that 14 full-time and one part-time, I just wanted to
acknowledge uh so earlier today I was I was in the in the middle high school and Michelle was actually helping to serve lunch because we were they were a little short at the high school. They were they were short today and as if you had needed more to went on and we said we won't bother you people but we're going
to jump in and help. So they were okay. They they thanked us afterwards and stuff, but we did serve and you know, it was nice. It's nice to be back there because you get to see all the kids. You don't get to see them when you're not in that position. That's right. You know, you're in a little office and I enjoy
the kids. Excellent. Excellent. So, I I just wanted to mention again the uh hard work and dedication goes beyond the office as well. Yes. And we we do have a new food service manager this year, director. I mean, so Holly Maro has done a great job trying to, you know, spend a lot more time in the kitchens and
getting things up to serve safe and, you know, my time was being very limited in the food service department area and, you know, I felt it wasn't fair to the staff, nor was it fair to the students. So, this year was Holly's first year on and she's done a great job like trying to tighten up all of those little
fine-tune things that, you know, we weren't doing before, you know, not through any fault, but just not having the time to put into it. So, we are trying to clean some of that up and next year we hope to start working on she hopes to start working on menus and some different food items to try to change
this around. The other thing that we are looking at doing too, we're trying to work with some co-op groups for produce. So we're working with ORR and New Baffford schools to try to and Marian Institute to try to see if we can start to have like our only little our own
little consort consortium there where we can purchase from local vendors like local farms and whatnot. It's difficult because the farmers have a difficult time keeping up with the volume that we do. So that is our the biggest downfall
is that we're trying and Marian Institute and Farm to School projects and the other surrounding towns. We're trying to I think it's like a three to five year project and hopefully the economy changes a little bit and that will help us as well.
Excellent. And just clarifying uh all of this comes you know this is all in line with what's budgeted from right we don't budget for the school lunch pieces of the revolving and we also have to the cost of our meal has to remain within a certain percentage of what our
reimbursement is. So it's it's difficult in a sense because like I know some people will say well you know you don't serve this you don't serve that. If the cost of my meal exceeds the amount of my reimbursement we get penalized and we get charged back. So it is not the easiest thing. School lunch is not like
you know going to partners village store you know it's a different animal in itself you know and there certain percentage of the meal has to be government foods. A certain percentage of the meal has to have certain level of sodium in there. So sometimes the kids will be like, "This doesn't taste very
great." But we've unfortunately over the course of time over the last five years, we've had to decrease the amount of sodium, certain spices. It's not the best task to try to keep up with school lunch, but some point we hope
that will change. Well, there's nothing from the committee. I'll certainly entertain a motion to approve uh the vendors as as recommended. So second. It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none.
All those in favor? I. And that passes. And thank you very much, Mr. Proposal. So we'll move on to uh the next item is to review and act on a job description for a maintenance assistant and groundskeeper. Uh I wanted introduced.
I'm not sure if everybody here. This is Paul Bulan. He is our new head of maintenance and facilities. Um, and he's come in swinging. He's had to from the first day he's walked in, he is on the ground running every moment he possibly can. So, it's really hard to keep track
of him, but he's been very efficient and, you know, whether he's on a ladder, whether he's wherever, he's definitely, you know, the staff has turned around a bit, I think, and everybody's working very well together. and Paul and Kim have done a great job kind of getting us
back on track and where we are. So, excellent. Thank you very much for being with us here tonight. Um, so just very quickly before we get into the details of of this job description, I do want to make it clear. Uh, so each of the committee members has the job description as well
as a memorandum uh of agreement with the uh with ask me uh and and the of course will uh will report to the director facilities director. Um as so
as part of the budget work that was done this year uh the committee determined that the district would be better served by bringing groundskeeping in house as opposed to continuing some of the uh the landscaping contracts. So this this the
work is not new. Technically, this is a new position, but it's being offset by uh by the money saved from the the contracts from from ending the contracts. And those those contracts are set to end at the end of the fiscal year on the 30th. Uh so we do want to uh
hoping to to move forward with this uh tonight. Um so if you if you want to speak to I just add to that. I'm sorry. So, one of the things also to keep in mind when you're looking at this job description, currently we contract out with an outside vendor, and that vendor
really only does the maintenance and lawn services for just the old high school. So, when looking at that, that runs anywhere from 32 to like 38,000 a year. So, that's really just that building alone. Not here. Correct. So, this position now will be handling all
of them, not strictly just the old school. So that's where we took the money from the budget for that contracting out and we felt why contract out when we could bring somebody in house for the same amount of money and be able to have access to utilize them
for plowing for doing the lawn all over you know all I mean and anything else that you know Mr. pool and would like them to. So that comment lends to my question which is we have the equipment to do this like we wouldn't have to purchase we have equipment and then um you'll be
responsible for keeping logs of all the um services that need to be done on all the equipment. So I think that'll make the equipment last a lot longer having somebody dedicated just just for that. Excellent. So um so again you you have the job description as well as the
memorandum of agreement in front of you. Um I process wise I just want to make sure we do this correctly. I believe we need two like to have two separate motions. One to approve the memorandum of agreement uh regarding the position and then a second to approve the job
description. So unless there's there anything further from committee on on this or any other questions. All right. Uh so I again I'll entertain a motion to approve the the MOA uh regarding the maintenance assistant ground position. So move second move and
second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I passes and the second motion I'll entertain is to approve the job description for the maintenance assistant grounds position as presented. So second move and second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in
favor? I. I. And that passes as well. So, we will now move to the next item on our agenda, which is the uh acknowledgement of a
$1,000 American Red Cross scholarship. Just need a motion to uh accept this. Second move and seconded. All those Excuse me. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I
carries as well. So, uh, next we'll be, uh, next item is to review and act on school committee meeting minutes from Thursday, May 15, 2025 and Wednesday, June 4th, 2025. I want to hand a motion to approve the minutes.
Second. Move and second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? And so now we will move on to routine matters correspondence and notice I have none. Uh topics the chair could not reasonly anticipate 48 hours in advance of the meeting. Um I'm just going to
make a note here. I did have a conversation uh with our spread director when Miranda uh about a another job a job description that I'm going to ask the the committee to uh uh to take up. Uh I believe we're going to have a It
might be a oneoff meeting Tuesday uh virtually just to make sure that we can uh get get that in uh before uh before the end of the fiscal year. Um I'm so technically we're not properly noticed to discuss this, but I did want to make everyone aware that it's my intention to
bring this before the committee uh as soon as possible to uh to discuss that uh that uh life skills position. So, and with that uh we'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So move second. It's been moved and second. All those in favor I and we
are adjourned at uh 719. very much.