e e e used to be the e call the public hearing for the approval of the proposed annual budget for fiscal year 2425 to to order is there anyone here that wishes to speak on the proposed annual budget for Woody of O tech for year 2425 I will open the public hearing anybody here to speak on the proposed budget for 2425 seeing none can I have a motion to close the hearing on the budget for FY 2425 second motion made and seconded to close the public hearing can you please call the role for me on that yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no I don't need to closed um just a quick housekeeping item before the final vote on the warrants Brett are you okay with still uh doing that Lisa are you still okay with yes signing on them I have Joanna and the alternate Ron you're okay with that so we're all set on that all right we have the final votes and before the final vote on the um 2425 budget is there any discussion questions among any of the members um do you have any Madam superintendent you wanted to go over or thank you any discussion Mr early Madam superintendent were all these numbers sent to the towns and cities the towns and cities have received all the information final reports will be given to the cities and towns after this meeting thank you any further discussion I believe the overall increase of the budget is 2.59% um which I think in relative comparison to most school districts is is is very low so um we need a couple different motions tonight because of the fact that uh there's a few conflicts of interests on the budget um so the first one we need someone to make a motion for is can I have a motion to adopt function 2323 teacher Aid budget in the amount of 34,5 86 moved by Miss L seconded by Mr Murphy and please call the rooll on that one is that part of this whole thing so we have to do these separately because someone has a conflict of interest on the on this so that's why yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes have passes the next one would be a motion to adopt function 2700 guidance budget in the amount of $873 and $873,000 yes yes yes passes next one is going to be a motion to adopt function 5250 insurance for retired School Employees in the amount of 1,383 795 second by Mr can you call the roll on that yes yes yes yes yes yes yes passes uh let's see is there a motion to adopt the remainder of the fy2 operating budget in the amount of 28 m526 39 second moved by Mr Irvin second by Mr Murphy any dis final discussion on the fy2 operating budget seeing none please call the role yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes operating budget passes and is there a motion to approve the FY 25 Capital assessment to the communities in the amount of 56800 $665 moved moved by Miss second by m Gerald any discussion see none please call the rooll yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes passes and uh quick h housekeeping before we adjourn um if you guys could send me an email of the policy um of the subcommittees you wanted to serve on uh if there's changes something else you want to serve on just let me know so I know um on those some of you probably don't have subcommittees yet so whatever you're interested in um just let me know having said that is there a motion to adjourn to adjourn second moved by uh Miss L who second at that s s Sandy cop just seconded that all in favor of adjournment anybody opposed we are adjourned e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e call to order the meeting of the uh wotch school committee uh we all please join us in Pledge of Allegiance the United States of America to theice first item on the agenda is going to be public comment is there anyone here for public comment state your name and address for the record please sure um can you hear me yes okay um it's very difficult to hear you guys back here for whatever reason um my name is Bernard Cullen I'm at 283 Weathersfield Street in Rowley um and I'm here basically because I was surprised at the uh speed with which the new SOI was being sub submitted Now history can repeat itself if we do not learn its lessons seeds for the overwhelming defeat of the last proposal made by this board essentially were visible on October 30th when a wiia came to rowy and presented at that point three issues were raised by um by both the select board and members of the audience which included me the first one was that the there was insufficient discussion communication listening consideration given to the needs and the interests of the towns themselves it just wasn't there and the result of that was in rowy 94% of the people voted against that proposal that's a massive overwhelming in defeat and it should lead everybody to kind of consider what's the best way forward what's the lesson to be learned from that particular piece of History across the 11 towns the the vote was 75% against your proposal and against the process which was used in order to put forward that proposal to the size of it the impact the consideration of the impact of that proposal on the on the towns all that was on the table at that point and it wasn't addressed then now we've started a new process a new cycle I understand the msba process it kind of places certain demands on you in terms of getting in the queue and the logistics associated with pulling together a proposal but that doesn't change the requirement to communicate with the towns to communicate with my town of Raleigh because this is a big big ask our budgets are incredibly tight and wiia will represent both in its operating costs and in the capital costs a major hit on on rally so um what I ask basically is that you begin the process now of communicating with with the town in a formal way asking the Selectmen to go on their agenda and present where you stand what this s SOI basically represents but most important is that the agreement the 1967 agreement gets re Revisited seriously and significant changes are made in that agreement because otherwise history will will repeat itself we will not accept the fact that this the formula leaves towns like rowy towns like Newburyport or cities like Newburyport at a complete disadvantage you will get the same result that you had on January the 23rd there is no doubt in my mind that that will happen and it doesn't it doesn't it's not really going to be impacted by the size of the fund that comes from the state that obviously makes it slightly more digestible But ultimately you have to look and understand the budgets that the towns have to deal with thank you very much thank you thank you is there anyone else here for public comment good evening I'm Cassandra glove I serve as the mayor of Asbury and I live at nine Garder Street in Asbury I intended to be here to speak during your budget public hearing but uh was slightly delayed so regarding uh your budget I just wanted to mention in particular that after reviewing the documents it was notable to me that I did not see any offsets from fees and have been told by the superintendent that the woodier district does not collect fees uh for any extracurricular athletic participation I I know that it may not make a huge difference in your budget but your participating communities do collect fees for these these activities and in a good faith effort to establish parity I think it should be considered uh we have had many conversations of course over the last few months and really year about uh the differences between the schools that that we have and the ways we serve our students and so to ensure that all of our students have the same access and um and opportunities uh the way we consider our schools I I I think that uh our school committees should be working with a Level Playing Field and so I just suggest that consideration be given to uh fees and offsets that can be um generated and while I'm here for your uh general meeting I know that you have an SOI on your agenda and I just want to uh speak in favor of that the cities and towns and the district have been meeting to continue our conversations after the vote and that process uh regarding our regional agreement and have been in conversation with the lieutenant governor the leadership in Northern essics and the leadership here at woodier Tech and in general the conversation and the feedback about the proposal has been positive I don't want to speak for my colleagues but I'm sure the superintendant would uh relay similar um sentiments from what we have heard in the the few discussions that we have had uh I have asked uh to just start from the outset that um we apply a lens of uh just ensuring that we are really approaching this with an understanding of the impact it will have on the other you know on the communities and our other schools uh considering in particular our enrollment there is a lot of language in the so SOI about the opportunity to increase enrollment in capacity at Wier Tech and we all know the ripple effect that that has uh so I want to make sure that we're really conscious about that and also about curriculum alignment in our other schools we are really trying to take advantage of things like the the Innovative pathway grants that the state is providing and so we want to make sure that the the programs we offer um complement and not conflict each other and and how do we make those choices uh while while you're making choices about programs too I actually saw uh something in I think it was the budget presentation about a new program that I I don't believe I had heard of yet potentially Patty mentioned it at a presentation but um but we've got to make sure we're really clear and aligned and communicating about those decisions too uh so those are two things I just want to make sure we we start with right at the beginning and we carry that throughout this process as we think about the great potential that this has to um providing access and opportunity for our students and for training our Workforce but again in general very positive feedback about this um and and it did require some fast action from the leadership so we really appreciate uh the cooperation that we've had from both institutions and from the state leadership um and um happy to be with you tonight thanks for having me uh real quick um sure were you suggesting across the board fees for curriculum active like sports and um just that is what we collect in our community for our high school we do charge fees for athletics and for extracurricular activities and um an assessment of per perhaps what other communities are doing so that you could get a full picture of what's happening within the district and then make a decision based on that would be I know for instance doesn't charge any fees across the board um and we did at one point and it was an impediment for students participating in activities even when we offered it for free there was a stigma that those kids didn't want to come and ask for it for free um so I think it's a I understand it from the financial standpoint um but uh I also think we need to make sure that we're not doing anything that um stops those kids from participating in active school activities because we all know if they participate in activ after school activities chances are they'll succeed more um academically I don't disagree at all but the reality for many of these small communities with very small districts is that we have to charge those fees and so a lot of them if we and we are starting to survey our students who are applying to Wier for why and some of the feedback we get is that they apply here because frankly it's cheaper they don't have to pay it we also charge a bus fee and in this year's budget we're actually eliminating our high school busing completely eliminating busing not that you have to pay to get to high SCH School you actually need to get yourself there we cannot afford busing so we charge a fee for busing we charge a fee for athletics and we charge a fee for extra curriculars so the reality is that our students and our families have to make that decision and when you look at the enrollment Trends which I know you saw in that budget presentation because I looked at the slides myself the reality is that yes those those are making those are impacting fam's decisions and that is impacting our enrollment and our finances and that a fin those finances are affecting the decisions that you're able to make which we saw at The Ballot Box so it does need to be considered thank you thank you anyone else here for anyone else here for public comment one else for public comment last call seeing none next item on the agenda is going to be approval of minutes March 13th 2024 minutes of the budget Workshop there a motion move to approve second uh moved by Mr Irvin seconded by Mr Murphy please call the rooll on that yes Mr Rossy yes M Cain main Mr Fitzgerald yes Mr Irving Mr Murphy m l o yes m o yes Mr sloski yes passes next item on the agenda is going to be March 13th minutes of the regular school committee meeting is there a motion so move by Conor seconded by second please call Mr sasi yes Miss OK yes Mr OK yes Miss L yes Mr Murphy yes Mr Irving Mr fitzer yes M delay abstain Miss C Mr Rossy yes Miss Sullivan abstain and Mr early yes passes next item is going to be the March 27 2024 minutes of the special school committee meeting is there a motion approve second motion Mr irvan seconded by Mr Gerald any discussion seeing none Mr early yes Miss Sullivan abstain Mr RI yes Miss CA yes M Del abstain Mr Fitzgerald yes Mr Irving Mr Murphy Mr Miss L Mr OK Miss OK yes Mr passes next item the treasurer's report is there a motion soov yes any discussion on it s none please call the mrki yes Miss o yes Mr OK yes Miss L yes Mr Murphy yes Mr Irving Mr Fitzgerald yes M Delight yes Miss cof yes Mr Ross yes Miss Sullivan yes Mr Eary yes passes next item under old business is the school committee self evaluation everybody should have a copy of it I believe just for the record one person may have put I will speak publicly to this with a huge bite of humility pie um I believe I reversed the order of the numbers evaluating my results so anything that was supposed to be a one was a four anything that was a three should have been a two so um I will just ask for the on the record that um well anybody my husband is taking great pleasure in noting that um I replied I don't know so many times to a survey about education and um as he would say that doesn't come out of my mouth very often so um I just to make it public I I believe I incorrectly completed the survey by reversing the order of the numbers and um so that I would request next year maybe that the the language be associated with the little bubbles so that I don't reverse the order um but in general I did have agreement with most all of the statements not not the I don't know statements okay give me a huge M again on did anybody um have any discussion on the results anything that stuck out to them that they wanted to to speak about in the survey results at all Mr early m l thank you for saying that because I did have that I did have a lot of questions on that thank you me too any other discussion on this seeing none we will move on next item on the agenda is going to be the student representative report you're up good evening Mr chairman superintendent Lynch and all other members of the school committee um for spring Sports the softball team opened its season this week against molden Catholic the team consists of seven seniors four Juniors two sophomores and two freshman we have 58 student athletes stal for the program this year for baseball the first four games of the Season were postponed due to weather issues the varsity team has six seniors returning seven Juniors and four sophomores the program has a full JV team and a freshman team with strong numbers on both teams due to weather issues the track and field season may not open until after we return from the spring break we have many returning athletes and great leadership on the team they are looking forward to a spectacular season with the new crew the boys volleyball is off to a great start with its second year program playing tough against all the great opponents they have faced in this state I know this will be a great season says head coach Kevin Bradley this attitude and work ethic are unbelievable watch out for the Wildcats the boys lacrosse team opened their season on 49 against Notre Dame which was yesterday uh girls lacrosse had a slow start due to game cancellations however the first game will be played today more players registered this season than any previous season the team is looking forward to the continued growth of the program for the clubs the Multicultural Club hosted their first Culture Night on Friday March 22nd which was a great success over a dozen coaches were represented families and friends came to share their cultures and many students in St participated in dance activities and food tastings many thanks to those who came early and stayed late to decorate prepare and clean up thanks to the DI coordinator Jonathan Warren and the custodial staff they hope this can be an annual event interact students joined the haal rotary club meeting on March 21st at the hao Country Club students enjoyed a launch on meeting and spoke on the club about the community events done this year the chess club continues to meet every Tuesday after school membership remains consistent we will have two more tournaments before the year's ends a blitz tournament and a classical round robin tenament Student Government are hard at work planning a teacher appreciation event for May and getting ready for elections for the 2425 school year which will take place in June after the seniors graduate they will elect officers for the class of 2025 2026 and 2027 the ski club had a wonderful season they had three successful trips with over 40 students per trip they are looking into Club sweatshirt orders with your Tech drama club's mean girls high school edition was a hit on opening night they had a full house and opened the balcony to overflow tickets holders now onto the senior talent show additions for the May 24th show will be held after the April break students in the art Club are beginning to create mandala designs as well as continuing to create poetry the yearbook layout is complete and onto printing the books will be shipped in May with an expected delivery date of May 20th the Spring sport photos for the year of 2025 and the layout process for next year's book have begun in celebration of national poetry month The Poetry Club gave the main office poets and poems to display on the electronic sign that welcomes people in wi year in addition they celebrate naal National poetry month by writing poems based on creative prompts presented by Poets who have influenced the Contemporary poetry scene lately one prompt even challenged us to include the nyt connections word of the day and their poem thank you thank you great job as always next item on the agenda Madame superintendent good evening Mr chairman members of the committee tonight before you I have Personnel action I have hires for special education IEP trainers sat School uh vacation attendance makeup monitors our summer CTI program uh budget update uh the public hearing on the FY 25 budget was held earlier this evening and the budget books will be distributed to cities and towns as soon as possible woodier had 23 students take the biology mcast retest and 10 students passed the 13 students who were not successful will retake the exam in June on March 26th and 27th 3155 10th graders took the ELA mcast exam these same students will take the math mcast exam on May 21st and 22nd uh superintendent update on Thursday March 14th I attended the maava general meip General membership meeting in malbar we had the opportunity to honor two Whittier Tech presidential Scholars um one of those Scholars is Nathan Shamano from Groveland and Gabrielle orti from Cil um I this is a huge honor and on a side note I was with with both of these students last uh last summer I would say June um and when they both won Gold National gold medals uh through the skills USA competition so we're really proud of those students on Friday March 15th I attended the St Patrick's Day breakfast along with Cara cosmus for the Exchange Club of Hil on Monday March 18th I attended the marac finance meeting along with Cara cosmus and school Committee Member Mike Rossy thank you Mr Rossi on Tuesday March 19th I attended the 19th annual women's educational leadership Network Conference through mass in Framingham on Wednesday March 20th I attended the marac valley board of directors meeting in Lawrence I along with John LaVoy the superintendent at greater Lawrence will be the guest speakers on April 26th to discuss vocational education in the marac valley on Thursday March 21st I attended the multi-chamber legislative dinner at Blue Ocean along with Cara cosmus and we saw mayor go at that at that dinner on Friday March 22nd I attended the norshore superintendent's Round Table in danvas um on April 26th we were going to have the legislative um lunch in here with our legislators but they will be in session so we're replanning that night that um that lunch in um on Tuesday March 26 I attended the open meeting laot training online with Lisa Ram Thank you Lisa for setting that up for us on Wednesday March 27th I attended the mayor's hope task force in havil um this is a monthly meeting you can be in person or online on Friday March 29th I I hosted an area superintendent launch in at wer in attendance was Elizabeth mcandrew from Asbury Dr Brian Blake from iwit Sean Gallagher from Newberry Port Dr Justin Bal from Pentucket and Brian foret from Tron on April 1st we held our budget meeting uh here breakfast with Town managers in attendance was Neil Harrington from Salsbury Carol McLoud from marac sh W from Asbury and Angus Jennings from West Newberry on Tuesday April 2nd we had to cancel our budget meeting because we had to shut off the water and close the school as many of you know um a vehicle hit the fire hydrant um and created sort of a geyser and to shut off the water um we had a little bit of trouble but by the time we shut it off we really needed to evacuate the building um I really want to say you know um the staff did an amazing job and I'll get to that a little bit later on April 3rd I attended the regional agreement me meeting in Asbury and there is another meeting to look at the regional agreement set for May 1st on April 5th through the 7th I attended the mass c conference um at Patriots Place in foxbar we were H we were able to honor one of our um students at that conference um on Tuesday April 9th I met with Lan Glenn the president of Northern essics to start thinking about planning uh a future collaboration together um and then today we met with uh Mayors Town managers uh legislators uh to be with the um lieutenant governor to discuss how we could collaborate what what kind of the process we'll be going through letting everyone know that we would be submitting a statement of interest um to msba we won't hear anything about that statement of Interest till about December um so you know we didn't want to lose any time by by putting that off um but in the meantime we will be looking at putting out an RFP um to look at you know what this might look like there are so many questions we want to narrow that down um before we get into hopefully get into the pipeline with msba uh so again on April 2nd a vehicle hit the fire hydrant on the access road uh the city of haval tried to shut off the water on Nam bar Line Road but they were unable um because of the age of the pipe to shut off the water we needed to show off water to the school there was a thought that this could be done quickly um and the reality said in that it would take us much longer we had to miss dismiss students and staff we're able to make the decision by 8:15 a.m. and we were able to evacuate the building by 9:15 a.m. um so we're really um just so pleased with our our bus transportation coordinator Jenny green um she was able to get all the bus drivers uh returned and we were able to make this happen with an hour um I also want to thank the cooperation of our staff and students it was very orderly and um people just went right to work and um it was it was very good to see uh on Thursday April 4th we had originally planned a 2-hour delay and as you know the weather that morning was um a little bit I think it's almost like it got worse as the morning went on at about 6:00 a.m. we lost electricity um at that point the weather conditions did seem to be detering and we had no timeline for when our electricity would be put back on so we made the decision to cancel school electricity was restored on Friday morning at about 2 amm um I really want to thank Bob Hardy and his team for working so hard for what seems like at least 24 hours I mean one of the times he called me when the electricity went out he called me not even two minutes later and said there's a tree down blocking the access road um so it was very chaotic that morning and I was I was actually happy that we ended up having to cancel school um that morning so we were supposed to have an Advisory Board dinner on Thursday night we have since rescheduled that Advisory board meeting for May 14th it won't be the same kind of a dinner it will be scaled back quite a bit but we do want to make sure that we get an Advisory Board before the end of the year there so light meal along with the meeting and again I want to thank everybody for being so accommodating uh for a few we we have a few new members of the school committee there is a training called charting the course through masc um Lisa I think has provided you information on that course if you're interested in taking that I really recommend that um and then Lisa has Al also posted the link for open meeting law training in our Google Classroom so and I would also encourage you to participate in that as well um I have an admissions update uh so our admissions letters went out at this point uh we had a total of 697 applications we accepted 393 students um are there any questions I can answer you I just want to um ask I know the students don't have to respond until May they have until early May to respond and um will you be giving each of the towns and cities updates on what those numbers look like right when we do the budget meetings right so as soon as we get our numbers we try to make sure we do that in the spring but then we also do it on the October one the official October one report yeah but just in terms of looking at how many graduates and how many students are planning to come because they don't even though they get as they used to say invited to the dance they don't all come so just have those numbers of an ideas as we go into the summer how many are saying that they're going to come yes Mr early super M superintendent on the stiens we just talk are those in the budget now are those the CTI stiens yes yes so that's separate from the budget so it's all would be Grant yes thank you any other questions uh also before you today um as we have spoken about a little bit um um there is a statement of interest um that we need to file by Friday um it is very quickly a a quick turnaround from our January 23rd um vote but um we do feel like we don't want to lose any time because as I say time is money so um we want to make sure that this we we do this again I really want to thank um the the town managers the Mayors the lieutenant governor Lane Glenn uh for really kind of rallying around you know what how can we make this happen and this is something that we know we need to do for our region and for our Workforce um we had a meeting um this Mo this afternoon with Town managers and Mayors and legislators um you know some some issues came up you know one being the regional agreement there's there's some concerns about moving forward until that Regional agreement is taken care of um also providing Workforce training for the region and making sure that we are doing exactly that uh there was question about our admissions policy and making sure that the admissions policy is is fair and Equitable um and as the um mayor go said sensitivity to the local districts um and enrollment in curriculum um as we move forward so those were some key takeaways from that meeting um there is a lot of work to be done um but I think everybody understands the importance of of the work that happens at Whittier Tech and wants to find a path forward um but we all know know that there's a lot of work that needs to be done before we can get there um and we are just in the very preliminary stages of at least having the discussion Mr early you said they were talking about the regional agreement were they trying to abolish it uh I think some people there's some members of the of the cities and towns that feel like it's not Equitable and they would like it to be changed they also have to realize every town has to sign off everyone understands that thank you um I'll just Echo I think mayor Go's sentiments about the enrollment questions and I do not question any student who wants a vocational education should get one but when I was reading the uh should have the opportunity for it and and reading the new statement of Interest I the language did jump out at me about increasing enrollment and I know there was a lot of discussion about not doing that in this prior um statement of Interest that we wanted to just stay the course their enrollment not not try to increase it um but in the same vein looking at it being aligned with Northern essics I was wondering is that language around increasing enrollment more around increasing access to the programs because it will be on the Northern ESS you know with the alignment with the northern essics campus and so ultimately and I know this is more Visionary than reality at this point but would it be that students even if they remain in their sending schools would have an increased opportunity for Access like we do right now with the senior program that students come over and have an opportunity to do the exploratory and decide if they want to continue technical education or you know other programs like the early college program because if V The Vocational campus is there there'll be an opportunity for students to have access to it where it's a little more restrictive where where we are right now um so I I don't think there's any ideas that are off the table um while I did hear and that was one of our decisions to same size with the the former building project there was a lot of feedback that people felt like we should have in increased our enrollment so right now we are just in the early stages of of having the discussions and um um I think you know we do have a weit list we do have people that are truly concern want to attend Whittier Tech we have uh admissions process but I also hear the concerns of our cities and towns that they are struggling with enrollment and I all along have said I don't want to hurt our cities in towns high schools that's not what building a new building or a new project should ever do um but we're we're right at the beginning stages because I can say there's other cities and towns this is a hard thing when you have 11 trying to make everybody happy because there's others that really wanted increased enrollment so you know those are things that we are in the very begin we're just this is a concept you know we're going to have to narrow that down in the next six months and then further narrow that down um if we get invited into the feasibility study no idea is off the table Mr I think I naively misunderstood the the press that this would sort of be a state uh Community College Venture and so I I assumed s SOI and all that was not involved but obviously it still has to go through that process right despite where it might be or who it's in partnership with I think it's the cities and towns are going to have to contribute right but this provides us an opportunity to have other resources the Community College resources State resources msba resources um but you know again we don't it's so broad right now that I I I I don't know how to narrow it down just yet I just had his comment too my recollection part of the reason for the non- increase was also Financial because the more people the bigger the school the more expensive it was that's true yep M yes I just wanted to commend the superintendent and your team having done these before the quick turnaround to be able to do this to get foot in the door to preserve our opportunity potentially get additional revenue from the state um and I know there's concerns about the quick uh the rapid you know turnaround of doing another SOI but it is as we all know a statement of Interest right it's a statement of deficiencies in your building despite the vote those deficiencies still exist and so I I really appreciate the fact you went through all that effort to get that done as quickly as you did um really minor but I just on page 19 um under priority 7 question two I think you meant to say please refer to Priority five question two versus please refer to Prior seven yeah seven yes you are right thank you thank you for that any other um discussion I would just like to mention on as far as whether we're going to increase or not increase we haven't allowed any school choice so there options froms the communitys obviously the communi within the district want people I work for one of the largest employees in the country and we are struggling to find trades people so there's definitely a huge need for trades people so personally I think we should increase a little bit obviously balance it with the cities and towns because we want to make sure we do it right but I I definitely see the need for it so thank you Mr did you have your hand up I'm just wondering if it's appropriate to for a vot this time to move this forward what do you mean is it appropriate to have a vote to move this forward so I would move at this point to move the statement of interest to the massachusett school building authority motion made by Mr Viner a second second seconded by a bunch of different people but M I heard you just I give it to Mrs can point of order order do you have to actually read that vote exactly as they say in the form of vote or Cara will read it I know the mspa is very yes you do 100% you have to read it yeah you're right you want to do this first yeah I'm going to have her read it into the record and then we'll have discussion on it further okay resolved having convened in an open meeting on April 10th 2024 prior to the SOI submission closing date the school committee of the re whia Regional Vocational Technical High School in accordance with its Charter bylaws and ordinances has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts school building authority the statement of Interest dated April 5th 2024 for the Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School located at 115 Asbury Line Road havil Massachusetts which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the pr priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts school building authority in the future as noted in priorities five and seven of this application regarding total renovation of the existing building and system updates project and hereby further specifically acknowledges that by submitting the statement of Interest form the Massachusetts school building authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application the awarding of the Grant or any other funding commitment from the Massachusetts school building authority or commits the Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School to filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts school building authority thank you all right there was discussion on this no I want to talk about something else all right any discussion on the motion on the table seeing none call the Mr yes M yes Mr yes yes Mr yes Mr yes yes yes yes yes Mr ear yes pass uh Mr early what topic was your discuss the admission on the admissions that we just came out on April 1 I want to commend the school superintendent and her team I'll tell you why I get a lot of calls there's no question about it we accepted over 390 am I correct 39393 I know it was over 390 and I think that's the highest we've ever accepted and a lot of people that are on the waiting list I believe if they just stay a little patient things could happen thank you is that it for you madam superintendent that is it thank you next item on the agenda principal lanus okay good evening Mr chair congratulations your appointment and rest of the new school committee members and Miss Lynch superintendent Lynch I'm here uh just to if you can believe it to uh try to get the 2425 calendar for next year um so I know you have it in your packet uh what I did is I just kind of highlighted a few things of our new teacher training that will start August 20th 21st also uh our first day for kids all the kids is August 28th this is next School season and staff comes back to August 26 so it seems pretty quick um and then as you can go throughout the entire all the months um you can see that there are mcast dates and also retest those are dictated by the state so I don't have those yet so I will fill those in uh once I get them from uh my Guru my associate principal uh Miss Jensen and also obviously from the state I'll have those in there to have all the mcast other than that um any questions on the entire next year any discussion on the school calendar is there a motion to approve the school calendar for 2425 so second um Mr Murphy L Mrs low seconded any discussion please call the RO yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes passes thank you very much that's all I have for thank you sir next item on the agenda business manager Cara cosmus come on back up Mr chairman congratulations Mr chairman thank you superintendent Lynch members of the committee first of all congratulations and welcome to the new committee members and because we have some new people uh just briefly we do a variance analysis every three months which we bring to the committee and it basically looks at the pluses and minuses in the accounts the pluses are in green the minuses are in yellow and um typically I do quarterly transfers between between major functional accounts but we're so close to the end of the year that um we are very much on track and this is the time of year when I start to look at our grants and closing out our grants and making sure that we utilize our grants so as we go forward there will be a lot of changes to these numbers and I usually do a catch up I usually do an all-encompassing transfer at the end of the year because as we have monies in Grants we shift monies from this budget to Grants and then what we also do is because we free up money in The District budget we do a lot of pre- purchasing of supplies things that people will need next year we'll buy them before the school year ends uh so um I just wanted to mention that the transfer requests will be done at the end of the year to balance the accounts we're on track we're in very good shape and uh that is what I have for you for the variance analysis I don't know if anybody had any question any questions Carly do you have an number I'm sorry e and D number I didn't hear him do you have an e and d and I do not have an well I do have an e and D it is on your report it was a million it should have been on the financial report that you had yes it was certified at 1,1 157,500 that at the next meeting I will be bringing you a transfer request to move some of that to stabilization and maybe even capital projects depending upon what is happening after the superintendent and I meet about what we think will be the cost to do an RFP with Northern Essex thank you very much you're welcome any other questions Mr early the bus drive is homeless SP Rush driv transportation we are required by law to do that we don't have enough bus drivers so we have to the numbers they are very high we have to contract it out we don't have enough bus drivers however Mr early I'll also be bringing a transfer to you we also have a balance that remains in our transportation revolving account um as you know I always bring that to the to you at the end of the year too we will probably need some of that money for this and we will probably buy uh we need to replace I think one or two of our vans so that that that's coming in may as well exactly thank you any other discussion see thank you Miss Cosmos okay and one other thing I always like to keep the commit oh I'm sorry that's okay I just quick question um I got the yellow coding is uh are things that are in deficit um green there are those are funds that are potentially available to offset at the end of the year the deficits yeah got it yeah um I'd like to keep the committee apprised of what we're doing with the Educational Foundation again for our new members we have a foundation we typically um assist over 100 families at holiday time um with things that they need including food and sometimes for our students gifts and supplies and last year I believe we awarded $31,000 in scholarships out of the foundation so I know you've probably gotten used to us doing a Kentucky Derby event but we're not doing the Kentucky Derby event this year instead if you like to play trivia we will be having a trivia night on Friday May 10th at 6 p.m. at the elz hall in havil the tickets are $35 each or 300 for a table of 10 you can go on to our website under um wher Tech under foundation and you can register but we're already up to about 11 tables and I think the most we can have is 17 to 20 I know Miss Crosby's GNA give me the evil eyee over there um so if you think that might be something you want to do or put a table together I encourage you to come have some fun with us we'll raise a few thousand dollars we'll have some Raffles we'll have a good time we'll probably have some snacks um you know how we like snacks around here and how we love to show off our culinary um so that's coming up so I just wanted to share that with all of you and thank you thank you you uh next item on the agenda is the May annual agenda items are going to be the appointment of the subcommittees school calendar although we just did that so that won't be there superintendent evaluation we going to be sting those out um so you should be getting the form to for the superintendent's evaluation uh and then I believe we'll be welcoming a new student representative um at sometime in May all right subcommittee reports there's nothing listed under executive uh instructional personnels Miss TR is not here plan operations Mr Murphy yes uh we have plan operations meeting last month and the minutes are in your packet uh make a motion to motion made by Mr Murphy seconded by Mrs L any discussion seeing none please call the yes yes yes yes yeah pass next item uh policy Mr Irvin Mr chairman we have several things to do tonight we have the minutes of March 13th to approve motion made by Mr Irvin to approve those seconded by Miss L any discussion all in favor of approving the minutes say I I anybody opposed seeing none passes also this evening we have the second and final reading uh of the following listed policies in in your packet AB people in the school district down to free and reduced price Food Services uh EFC that will be a uh Second and final vote on these U uh policies in your packet motion by Mr iring to approve about 25 different policies AB through EFC seconded by Mr Fitzgerald any discussion on any of the policies uh on the motion on the table seeing none please call the yes yes passes Mr Irvin Mr shman also in your packet this evening we have U listed policies for the first reading DJI Regional School District purchasing and that ends with uh IMG animals no correction jic student discipline put those up for the first vote reading motion to accept first reading second motion by Mrs LEL seconded by any discussion on this seeing none all in favor for the first reading first reading only all all in favor anybody in post seeing none passes Mr chairman um as a member of the instructional Personnel we did meet this evening and we we reviewed um electives for juniors and seniors uh half or semester electives and also yearlong electives so I think that's important at least to get into the record okay noted for the record next item on the agenda is going to be meeting dates regular school committee meeting is going to be Wednesday May 8th at 6:30 p.m. under new business no new business has been posted executive session there is no need for an executive session is there a motion to adjourn Mo can you withdraw that motion next month oh sure operations do you want to do that at six o'clock yeah motion made by Mr Irvin seconded by Mr Fitzgerald to adjourn all in favor of adjournment I anybody opposed seeing none we are adjourned