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stand for the pledge please thank you Frank I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one Gody and justice for all I'd like to read a quick statement if I may please the New Jersey open public meeting La was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced known s to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of this act the clide Park Board of had has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having a date time and place they left posted in the office of the B clerk B Library b Rec Department the office of the Bo of Ed the offices of school number 3456 in the high school on October 13th 2023 and notices will forwarded to the reporters of the record October 13th 2023 this is an official meeting Dr ha i' just like to take the role if I may yes sir Mrs AB breu I know she's on her way Mr capano here Mrs Fredo is not here right okay Mr Gara here Mr nadw here Dr pontano here Mr ran Court you're here correct yes I'm here okay thank you Mr ran Court Mr Russo is not here terak here here okay and I believe Mr yui is not here Dr pontano Dr Hayes want to kick off the agenda yep you want to start I do do you want to start with your report or I'm going to start with the honors okay would you like to join me downstairs Dr P actually I would like uh hene no we're GNA go with Enrique first okay Sor yes we going to do that a second Mrs B would you please join us so ladies and gentlemen Board of Education members tonight we are once again in these Chambers here to recognize excellence and tonight uh if you would join us please Marilla we are here to honor marillo marillo sadad Fiera who last spring achieved the perfect score on zjs laa math exam we're honored that is principal Mrs broco is with us congratulations and his last year teacher Mrs Chong Mrs Chong thank you very much and this year's teach Mrs Tian well is the most polite uh young man that I know he says hello to every adult in the hallway he's always smiling and there's only one time that he visited my office for the wrong reasons and he said oh don't fall home he said because you're going to ruin my dream and I said what's your dream he said but I want to be a rock star and uh he L music right Mero and he's old school music rock and roll and wherever your dreams lead you I know you're going to be successful congratulations congratulations Dr Pano president of Board of Education Mr capano Vice President Board of Education and all the members who are here tonight to see you and our audience who you're on television now please know you're an inspiration to all of us you and your teachers we thank you very much to your parents we thank you for all of your hard work and trust me your fellow students thank you too we got competition back please stay AR Co berelli so ladies and gentlemen we have double doubly good news to share with you this evening I want you to know for the first time in 5 years an athlete from Quick side Park High School received the north Jersey Bergen Record athlete of the week award so um we're here to honor Randa satou a tremendous volleyball player and this time we're going to start with a few words about you from your coach Mr Bren yeah so uh you know Raina started playing volleyball around the 8th grade and she had told me that there really wasn't much of a program that had going on so freshman was the first time she really got introduced to volleyball um and she came up to our freshman coach and said hey I want to be a Setter and if anybody knows anything about volleyball the setter is one of the most important people the offense goes through them everything we do as a team goes through that Setter there's a lot of responsibility on their shoulders uh by her sophomore year she was already sitting on the varsity bench uh by her junior year she was our our part-time uh Varsity Setter and we graduated the other set her junior year and Senior year everything was on her everything fell on her shoulders um what we were going to accomplish as a team relied very much on her right there um and she stepped up in a huge way um she exceeded any possible expectations that we could have anticipated uh one of our Setters about 3 or 4 years ago had 330 assists that was our goal we wanted to pass that number she finished the season with 630 second second in the state of New Jersey and first in North Jersey um she was given an athlete of the week uh for the first time in 40 years uh for the girls volleyball program which was a tremendous honor uh and one thing I want to do say about Rainer is I've never seen anybody work as hard as this girl right here first generation uh American uh her family immigrated here from Guatemala about 20 years ago uh she epitomizes what Cliffside Park is just someone who who comes to practice every day works really really hard gives everything she has uh and for four years her early her career she was taking the bus every day to and from practice never missed a practice was never late every time I saw her she had a ball in her hands and um that hard work paid off in a very big way one being named athlete of the week also named First Team all league and she was actually honored as a third Team all County uh for the the the county of buron County um she's going to go down as the best Setter in Cliffside Park girls volleyball history uh and one last thing I do want to say about Raina uh the type of she is the most selfless Co player I've ever coached in a day and age where where everybody's kind of concerned about stats how many kills did they have how many digs did they have in the sport of volleyball Rea never cared about those things I remember early on the season we played north Berger and she had a huge game 30 assists it was a personal best for her and I saw her in school next next day I'm like Rena you had a great game you had 30 assists last night she's like I did and that just that speaks to who Raina is she's not going on there looking at Stats caring about how she did she cared about two things one was winning and the second was getting the ball to her hitters and that's it um and she was again one of the best players I've ever had the privilege to coach and just a tremendous young woman and she's going to do fantastic things in her life and I thank you for um allowing me to speak and talk about thank thank you for being here coach I just want to congratulate Raina as well I remember the Middle School volleyball program and to say that the volleyball program has grown Leaps and Bounds from your Biddle school years both of you to where you ended I always said 2024 was going to be your year you did not disappoint but I also feel it necessary to say a big thank you to coach brelli because there are good coaches there are good coaches who know the sport who know what players to put in what positions and are out there but what makes a coach great is a coach that cares about their players and fortunately my daughter had one year of playing for coach brelli and the one thing that she said impressed her the most about playing for him is that he cared about every one of his players not only on the court he cared about his players off the court he would see them in the hallways he would talk to them he would ask them how they were doing follow up on their grades and so forth and I think that the tremendous growth in the volleyball program because I think we can even go back maybe six years ago and there probably wasn't many wins at all to now is the fact that we have a tremendous coach who cares about his players and when you care about your players you can get the most out of them because they know you care and I think that this is just evidence of the great things that can happen when you have motivated players and you have a caring coach who is you know great in his own right so I want to thank you it's my personal you know dream to see this program grow you got it to where I wanted it to to be in this year and great things to come Irene you too I want to say you know you had a tremendous season being a labero playing back road defense not not easy positions and your team would not have gotten as far as it did without having a phenomenal Setter and a phenomenal bear on the back row so congratulations thank um rainy was honestly one of the best teammates I've ever had like no matter what rough patch we went through during a game dur during a game or through practice she was always positive and just always she kept finding who was hot when was hitting and she just knew how to win she knew who to give it to to win and she knew how to pick us up and he us there I love you I just want to say that I was at a round table with the athletic director of Iha and your name came and as you know they're the number one team in the state and said you got you got a superstar there and uh so congratulations to you than if you don't mind giving her her award I think iene she come for wow we'll do that thank you congratulations thank you so thank you congratulations thank you so much um want to take like a two minute break do photo ops in a recess in case so we're just going to take a two or three minute pause to give everyone an opportunity for photo ops uh regroup themselves I'm going to keep you want to do first I can pass you want to kick it minutes so tonight before you you have 26 personnel resolutions the vast majority of them are leaves custodial appointments teacher Aid appointments salary adjustments professional development approval and a couple of transfers but I would like you to take a moment with me and I'd like to speak to resolution number 18 which we discussed last week at the work session and I want to commend and thank the Board of Education and Mr Alano for helping find the funds as we now are able to after tonight's meeting when you memorialize this that we're able to move the students with interrupted formal education coordinate his duties into the elementary schools as well it sent a nice message to the five elementary schools and everyone's very grateful that we're moving forward from December 1st on with an elementary C coordinator excuse me Dr yes can you just help me out what does scyth stand for again cyth is for students with interrupted formal education got and we've been uh predominantly focusing on the high school students who were coming in overage and adjusting their schedules but now we're trying to go down to the elementary level and do the same and resolution 19 again I thank and commend the board of education for approving this additional stipend for a winter cheerleading coach from what I understand these winter cheerleaders um haven't been active during basketball season for the past few years and now with uh tonight's approval and Mr Alano helping us find the funding in the uh co-curricular stien side of the contracts that I were able to reinstate it and again I know uh you have a lot of grateful cheerleaders on your hands in the high school and the coaches are very grateful as well and that's basically it for personnel I would like to point out though that under policies and procedures uh which is there are nine resolutions tonight numbers 27 through 35 and within those policies and procedures you'll see four hidden inces that were reported this period three alleged one confirmed but in all four cases parents were notified counseling was provided and behavioral interventions were introduced and I think that's it for the superintendent unless there are any questions I have one question yes pleas the winter cheer yes is that going to be for both boys and girls I'm going to say yes absolutely cuz I know in my day when I was a cheerleading coach we had a cheer for the girls as well as the boys for the home team you can't just cheer for the boys and not the girls I I I thank you for raising that point I should have said it that way but yeah I've been giving that some thought that's what I want to pass on to the head coach Mrs Schmidt because we have Title Nine absolutely to deal with great Point thank you I just have uh two comments myself first of all I want to thank the Executive Board of the Bergen County School boards Association because they just elected new Vice President congratulations so I will be representing Cliffside Park and most importantly the students of Bergen County as the vice president of that board and uh I want to thank them for giving me their their confidence in their FA and C side as well represented along with uh this field is on that executive board as well as fortly far local uh town so I want to thank them for that V of confidence and something very important I would encourage anyone watching or listening to this I saw for the first time today a curriculum newsletter and I want to commend Mrs calri for putting out that curriculum newsletter the newsletter actually highlights different things that are happening in the area of curriculum and it's broken down into elementary middle and high school I also want to thank them because I see a lot of things on social media sprting all the different instructional strategies and lessons going on in our classroom and I think it's important as a parent and as a community member to be able to see all of the uh interest in lessons and activities that are going on and I want to thank again Mrs Cal and all of her uh supervisors especially Anette fich for putting that out I think that it's something that the community will enjoy looking at and I look forward to more to come I learned a lot from it so when you can check out the curriculum newsletter and uh we look forward to bringing you more about the wonderful happenings within our schools thank you thank you if I might interject U I completely agree with you about the CRI new the and I want to say on my personal behal thank you to the County Association because um when we elected you to be president on this board um we went in with clear eyes and you have the experience for this you have the compassion for this so big congratulations I know it wasn't easy to get here but I still expect excellent things for the future I think so too thank you congratulations Dr you bring a lot of knowledge to uh the board you've been here now I think this is your second term and U we're in a better place your experts and a lot of great ideas the table moving forward anything super a couple oh just turn sorry about that um few things going fair amount of things going on in the world of business office um we're just finishing up our uh uh 2324 uh audit We'll be asking for the board to approve uh that audit with the corrective action plan we already shared with the board we are now working on our Assa which our enrollment report and our drtr RS of Transportation Report with the Auditors we want to get that approved before the formal fiscal audit comes in September the very labor intensive uh good news we got our transportation report approved and certified and we're looking at the same thing happening with our Assa report which is due December 1st uh they're both very labor intensive and so we like to get the obviously the report certified on time we also like to get the audit done before the formal audit that happens in September after the end of the fiscal year I like to take your eyes if I may to resolution 55 which we spoke to the board about in our work session we are asking for approval of the schematics and the department of Ed application the High School annex and rec center a very large project we're taking on collaboratively with the burrow so be asking for your approval again that is resolution number 55 and and that resolution is based on uh feedback of U the plans that went to the Department of uh education that worked with land Associates and uh uh Cari uh iino and also Steve F was that's correct that's correct Mr cap and I shared the schematics and the scope of works the work session you're welcome teraka uh last last week sent them out on soft soft copy schematics scope of work and U some other items specific to the High School annex and rec center right and if we can picky back uh to the audit I know in past practice we had the audit to come during one of our uh session and just give us a clear understanding they'll be back to yeah absolutely yeah they want to they don't like to come in until it's formally approved bya resolution so they're they're still working through that we know you get those booklets and stuff yeah yeah then we'll uh we'll bring them it'll either be uh uh Kevin Reeves who's the senior lead who is now a partner or it'll be Steve W you'll let us know ahead of time course thank you you're welcome so that Dr Hayes and Dr ponana that's pretty much my uh oh great Finance update I don't know if we want to ask for maybe any committee I wanted to ask uh I read I hate to put you on the spot but do you have any updates for us about the high school or the student body or anything you'd like to share with the board um any positive updates have to do with we had our blood drive which we had over 68 people um sign up and we donated a lot of blood we had so much people sign up so many people sign up that we couldn't even get to them all by the end of the day so that was really nice we have Homecoming coming up on the 30th and we met our um our minimum ticket requirement to host with a DJ for the booth and all of that and yeah going to be really fun some concerns the students have um are we recently had the tables taken out we had tables along the hallways for kids to sit at during lunch passing periods if they had a free period um and especially with it getting hard it's going to it's a bit harder for students to find a place to stay we have classrooms open and there's still a lot of people on the ground and we just want to make it a better place for our student body like for the students to feel comfortable in class especially during lunch um and then secondly seniors specifically have come to me about about asking we have free is we have study halls now and with the um drop schedule your study hall changes blocks every single day so some days you'll have your study hall next to your lunch period and with open lunch people have been asking about getting to Le for that study too now that will permit open campus policy rather than open lunch policy so that's a big process but um I was asking around and just something to bring up to you to have your thoughts on anything else I actually think that that's a policy issue that we may have a policy because I was under the impression from my time in high schools that students could sign out sign themselves out on a free period if they're 18 so I think think that we need to look into it look into a policy that may already exist but may not say anything about lunch per se but I know that students over the age of 18 can always sign themselves out and uh you know your parent may be able to sign you out if you're under the age of 18 so that may not be per se lunch but there may be a policy that already addresses that that we should look into I would encourage you to discuss that with Mr Pinto as well as the tables because that would be the first place to have that conversation if I may interject on the tables um you know uh just understanding the fire code uh that the fire code has changed drastically I was at an Atlantic City meeting uh and uh you know fire codes change drastically on a yearly basis monthly basis and our fire officials here in the burough close Park uh had no choice but to follow uh that state mandate and and that's why we had to get rid of those High tables but the the you know the Board of Education was a proponent give you guys what you need to to you know mitigate there do whatever you have to do but unfortunately the uh fire code official uh overrode us on that one if the the the statue changes we'll put them back but right now they don't want them back based on the population we have in the high school Etc it all comes down the numbers and egresses and all of that maybe you can brainstorm on another place you can put them that put a few Su may not be uh a fire code issue have some class can I ask a question about homecoming now is it going to be a dance in the high can you tell tell us more about it cuz homecoming is relatively new right it's only the last couple years that you've been doing this dance stated it last year it's going to be held at launa in Fair View I believe 6:00 to 10: p.m.

good evening everybody it is November 21st 2023 I'll start by reading our vision statement the Ashen Public Schools is a forward-thinking district that cultivates the academic and social emotional growth of each student through a supportive collaborative Innovative and challenging environment students will develop V into self-motivated resilient lifelong Learners who Embrace their role as responsible contributors to a global Community this meeting is being recorded by waca cable TV and our order of business this evening includes our opening procedure agenda review and adoption public comment items of interest to the public and our administrative items this evening include request to establish a new student organization and stipend at mindes The Rainbow Club request to establish a new student organization and stipend at AHS The Culinary Club Shan wgl Ashlin Youth Baseball Softball aybs softball field lighting installation proposal for the Warren school school physician role Dr Charter's retirement recommended replacement Dr Michelle Duke school choice funding allocation FY 2024 High School Improvement plan any as nesdec enrollment projections superintendent update warrant approvals the consent actions include minutes from October 25th 2023 gifts and donations committee reports of activities member updates action items and then we will adjourn so I will ask for your um attendance and to see if you are okay with the order of business this evening Paul Kendall I am Haron Williams Hein yes Tina fanes yes heing yes Mark and here and I'm here and I'm here too yeah I am here we here to say I'm pretty sure I can get rid of the the virtual covid here and yes thing thank you all right I'm gonna um see if there I know there are a few people on um line there um if there are any people that want to speak publicly now is the time to do that so you could raise your hand or turn off uh the okay awesome yeah um so seeing none here or there um move on to the next item which is the request to establish a new student organization in stipend at MES The Rainbow Club so I don't know Meg Jen or Jenna uh who's going to take the lead on that but one of you three most capable women go ahead mag do you want to take the lead sure I I'm happy to um so the Rainbow Club is like a club that's equivalent of the gay straight Alliance um at the elementary level a lot of the elementary schools in the area have one but it's basically a safe place for students to meet and talk about um different kinds of families different kinds of people and it's an accepting way of um creating an anti-bullying environment for the students thank you anybody have any questions about it you have any sense of how many students are interested so we haven't um we haven't solicited any students we haven't advertised in any way shape perform because we wanted to get approval first so so Megan on something like this at the elementary school uh certainly at the high school level it's you you engage the students directly is at the elementary level is this uh like a family engagement kind of thing how how does how does that work at the elementary level great question I should have said that it would be an after school club for an hour and would would need parent permission as we do with any club um sorry for an hour after school once a month um so students parents would need to sign off on them coming it would obviously um not be mandatory in any way shape or form but any students who were interested um we would not include siblings or families it's something that has been discussed among other clubs but I think for mes for the start just starting with mindes age students who want to stay after after school for an hour and we'll do games activities books crafts just more promoting um a Unity experience for them and Megan would this be something that is just open to all students the same way any club would be that you would just kind of advertise it maybe in you know the weekly newsletters and then any students who are interested would then reach out to you or whoever if they wanted to join yes it would be exactly like that um and you know if kids hear about it later they could always join later it wouldn't need to be like you sign up for the entire session or if kids want to try it and it's not for them and they don't want to continue that will be fine as well excellent anybody else who's got a motion uh motion to approve the um establishment of a new student organization and stip and at Mendes for the Rainbow Club second all in favor Paul hi Aon hi Tina hi Mark hi I great got a new club The Rainbow Club thank you ladies excellent thank you so much next up good night we have a a request to establish a new student student organization and stipend at AHS called The Culinary club and I actually think that it's just supposed to be the student account the club is already established and receives the stien okay they've been operating for the last year and a half or so um but have just started this year wanting to do some fundraising um and um I think they've asked to do a bake sale recently and and just because they've been using their own um their own money to purchase some of the things they're doing for the club so they just wanted to kind of have a a way to raise funds for the group so they opened a they're looking to open a bank account EXC Student Activities account yeah the paperwork is correct in the uh in the packet but it was labeled incorrectly on the agenda okay so are we comfortable uh yeah such cuz I mean the club already exists right just but what we're doing is not listed it's not on the agenda properly the creation of the uh but I think in terms of I our obligations to give 48 Hours the public notice to the public of what we recently anticipate and given that we're we've got on the agenda something related to um The Culinary club and the student organization I don't think it's inappropriate to anticipate that one of things that might relate to that establishment of account so I think on something like this I'm comfortable moving forward the agenda is not quite right okay I agree okay uh I will just uh remind that we create the account and also authorize uh uh the principal to make the uh deposits and withdrawals or act on the account or whatever verbage we typically do at the beginning of each year for that who's got make motion no I was hoping somebody else all the language PA I didn't that's I I was hoping somebody else would have a language I'll give it a shot um I moved to authorize the the creation of an account for the culinary club and as well as the um authorizing the principal to um manage the account consistent with our practices regarding clubs that was that was a lot better than I was all in favor Paul hi Ain hi Tina hi Mark hi hi great thanks um next up the Ashlin H baseball softball aybs softball field lighting installation proposal good Sean so I'm Sean wage for those of you that don't know me um I've been the vice president of softball now for one full year and a lot of the things I've been doing has been organizing field enhancements for the program to not only help the kids want to come and play but also with the amount of fields we have within Ashland trying to get everybody to be able to play between baseball and softball ball um has been a challenge kind of field field space so this year you guys um really helped us with a home run fence at the Warren school which we had our first home run derby just so you know we had five towns and 25 contestants um and we had a trophy a raffle prize we raised $300 for aybs as a fundraiser so we're actually utilizing that as well not just as a pretty fence to have there but also to get the older kids that's seventh eth and ninth graders that can really put it out there which also saves us from having to pay money to go to the high school and then use theirs fields or middle school or Stone Park so um so I'm here again to represent the softball side of the house to help us because specifically this fall there was a lot of rainouts so you have a six week season and we had no place to play because if they rained out on a Sunday or a Saturday which were our games 4:00 gets dark at 5:30 quarter 6 you couldn't move the game to 6:00 when the weather might might be better um and then even practice times as it kind of slid we had some of the kids practicing for 15 minutes cuz there was they still wanted to come out and play and they played in the dark as best they could with coaches with their phones but um it limited us to be able to have a full season for what the families are paying for and then again from a season standpoint even getting a four o00 game in was a challenge because it started to get dark at 5:30 qu 6 as we played so it kind of transfers into spring and summer as well because it limits us to if we have more than three teams in a division you're kind of looking for other towns to pick up where the we can't have as many home games at a field um and Warren is the field that we don't have to pay for so it's also trying to draw more people there versus trying to work with the town to figure out Stone Park which doesn't have lights so then it's like okay again rush to do that and then again the high school and softball so the proposal was to just ask the town the school committee the board um if there would be an opportunity for us to look at what it's going to cost cuz again we haven't done that cuz I wanted to wait to see if it's an opportunity but we have The Big Field which is where most of the people play um third fourth fifth sixth 7th e8th nth each season um so the lights kind of face towards if anyone's everever been there The Snack Shack so it's away from the houses that are behind it um and then the small field which has the annex so the Warren school kind of annex so our thought there was like could you put a couple flood lights there you know to help the younger kids that are playing which is prek-k in first grade to be able to keep playing at that point um instead of putting giant things that are up around the school kind of try to make it easier and then I'm assuming it would have to be light poles that would come you know looking at grinell and looking at the middle school I kind of figured out where those might have to go but we haven't done any scoping or pricing or promises it was just enough coaches wrote in enough parents wrote in that said it would be great to not have a five minute you know again like we got there at 5 we were done at 5:15 or the games getting super dark or again we had some teams that couldn't even have a full season because we would call Holliston or Southboro or Medway which had lights and we could only use them so many time you know again if it wasn't their town that we were playing in so it kind of took away from also fundraising from The Snack Shack for us or stuff that were coming to town so I'll pause there okay so you just you're you want to make sure it's not an absolute no before you go and you do the research and um get more information for us and Jim are are you aware of any obstacles that would make that not necessarily obstacles I think it's appropriate to to get all of the information to to be brought back to the board uh certainly we have it is in a residential area and we want to make sure that we're thoughtful there of of the families um but anything we can do to you know get our our student athletes out there a little bit more I'm in favor of it's just the cost obviously ly who it's born by and things of that nature need to be done so anybody else have questions or concerns about it before you know it looks like it's very initial phase for you to just go see what the interest is it kind of came up whether there's fundraising opportunities yeah so our our fundraising this year we've already put our kind of budget in for other enhancements that we're trying to do um so this would be a kind of second year out for our budget down the road but it helps us be able to figure out what the pricing would be like even the home run fence was a year out and then it got us enough ability to be able to fund raise to be able to pay for that fence and then so the thought is it's costly item and then you the the board has someone who's a construction that did all the grin cell stuff so we have people that are you know smarter than me that can come up and be like hey this is what we'd have to run conduit up or again right where we' have to go so we'd have to show you guys hey this is what it would look like and all that but it was more just initial like is there an opportunity to put lights there to help eventually I mean my daughter's thirdd grade so I'm in it for a while so yeah um so it's again exciting for me my older daughter's 16 I coached her way back then so I'm now back in it um and then just again exciting to watch the kids come and want to be there like I said just having them in the dark was it not safe and then also it just limits there so mostly it's the fall so again if people had questions about timing game you know practice was at 5:30 and so you could imagine trying to have a 5 : in the middle of October when you couldn't even see so it was like Hey get here at 5:15 as fast as you can and then we'll go and then the older kids same thing so it was it wouldn't push us to like 8:00 or 9 o'clock it would just give us the ability to play at a regular hour and then the the summer games again it starts to get dark towards August if you're playing usually their six o'clock games end at 7:45 so the goal is to give them opportunity that if we had to have a 7 o'clock if the weather's changed so it gives us some more flexibility that there could be lights there um we did already get one letter from a neighbor who must have seen that this was on the agenda you know with some concerns so down the road obviously there would have to be to see if there are other concerns um and probably that have questions answered about like will will they be on every day will they be shining into anyone's home you know the the typical kinds of things you know one of the questions too were why do kids need to be out that late but I mean we all know living here in New England that it's dark at 4:30 um time of year so it's it's not necessarily that we're keeping anybody out any later than they they otherwise would be it's it's an opportunity to just let them finish their practice or finish their game yeah like I said mainly it's for fall so if it's September through end of October yeah is when or you know before Halloween is usually when we end but halfway through our season that's when it starts to get super dark so you have three weeks and then the weekends weren't our friends this year because of all the weather so we had no place to to get a game like later or even hey let's play during the week you couldn't because you couldn't start a six o00 game during you know if you had lights you could but we didn't have opportuni so we lost some playing time yeah um and then again most of it's for the kids like hey we want them out there having fun for what they're paying for and doing that stuff um so yeah so I guess it'll be helpful for me to know once I get some other things like what else do you guys need or the town needs to just if I can a couple of things that that I'd be thinking about you know if we got further along with this um so certainly in line with what Jim and Lori have said about you know the impact on the the houses nearby and the residents nearby things like that I think um sort of whether or not there would be an agreed upon end time um because like grin cell during the summer there can be stuff going on down there till 10:00 at night um I could see that being more of a concern to the neighbors than if there was like a 8:00 end time yeah you know or something like that and I'm not trying to legislate that now I just think it's a a thing to think about um who Bears the cost of the electricity when they run right um if it's on our property I don't know how the the electricity is connected over there but if it's going to have an ongoing cost to the school district that's something I think we would have to look at and say well now you're using the fields it's for your purpose and you know we'd have to look at yeah I check because I know we pay for electricity through the Snack Shack and the water so we do all that on our own so I can find out how they would do that yeah and then the other thing I'm just thinking about is um you know I I don't have a sense of which sort of field is better whether the stone Stone Park field or the field at the Warren is better but i' be interest just understanding um whether the lights would be more useful at one or the other um because obviously one of them is an our proview one is not um Stone Park is Town property but it yes so Stone Park doesn't get um we've met with Doug and Roy and Patty and they're awesome they just don't have time to keep up like our Sha is completely Fallen apart and so we're we're actually meeting with them to see if we can do a quid pro quo like hey don't charge us to use the field if we build you a new shed that's there um but they're the maintenance on the field they just don't have the ability like this year we rented in the summer the high school field and we didn't get any maintenance so we would show up there and sometimes other towns were renting it and it would take us an hour some we had to cancel a couple games and we had paid for it because we only had two coaches that were setting up the field so we're learning things together Warren is what we're trying to like the home run fence there um you know enhancements of the field like we did a um Ferraro Landscaping we paid for them this year to redo all the fields so if you go down there you'll see gravel now in front of the dugouts where there used to be mud pits so we're going to have new um batted cages installed some of the things that we're trying to do so we're trying to bring we investing in that we're trying to just because we feel like it's still a home of softball for what we have um and Stone Park field has kind of Left Behind it's not worked that way um so that's what if that helps answer that question I appreciate that and and to add on I kind of had the the same thoughts that have already been expressed but the other thing that comes to mind is with lights on that field is it now going to become something that other towns or groups seek out to use in different ways and what would that look like um are they going to be I mean I would assume since it's on school property it would be something we would have to decide how they use if it can be rented what that looks like but people are always looking for field space right particularly and Jim maybe you can exp we we have a contract with our Our Youth Organization so we don't have contracts with the other towns and so that would be a totally different right but would they be asking to use it what would the rules around that be would it I'm just I don't know I'm not sure how fields are use what other organizations would want to use it but obviously those fields that are lighted are in demand and so like the middle school and the high school rent out to other towns we would not be thinking that way um One is because your control and we don't have the town doesn't they mow the lawn up to the annex and then it stops so our goal is we still we paid Landscaping to make sure like we want to make sure that's that and then I had asked Holliston Medway and South bro because again two are on school properties and one is near a school property but a little further out and they only allow you to play if you're with that team that team unless like Southboro rent it out to their men's softball so if you're in the you or the men's softball league of Southboro you can use that field because it's part of the town and then you're just it's just their Town thing so it wouldn't be an outside thing that we'd want to do it's more just trying to help our program continue sure no understand I just think it should be part of the conversation that if it if it is something that goes forward that there are rules around the use absolutely anybody else with questions more a a comment as the vetting of this goes through is that you know they uh some place like Sunrise rental or Sun Belt Rentals has the light towers and I don't I don't know if they're diesel generated or if they're plug and play but the ability to kind of do a trial with some heavy duty lighting before installing something permanent and being able to talk to the neighbors and see what their what the impact is you know it looks like there we wouldn't be looking at something like this for next fall installation but maybe a trial when you're talking about the sun going down you know in in October and working with the board for approval to bring on site equipment yeah that's a great idea idea thinking about the time limit like to me I'm a little less concerned about impact on the neighbors if lights are going off at 8:00 or 8:15 then if we're allowing people to use till 10 you know I think there's a big difference in terms of the impact and quality of life to people and then it's not every night for several months in a row right but if there's an opportunity for rental in the meantime and it it's within your budget then you can get a feel for how it's going to work the placement complaints yeah whether people are going to start taking an interest in the property that they didn't have before that sort of thing so maybe there's an opportun invitation come on down and right have a have a snack at The Snack Shack check out our exact our test game you know yeah um okay and then my other comment was a question to Paul is what are we gaining back for field space at noren that can help soft mes sorry yep yep yeah I mean so those won't be available till 20125 uh because they're going to be planted in the spring of 2024 so and they're going to be allowed to grow two growing Seasons okay um so if they were planted this uh this fall then they would be available next fall but uh so we have a a baseball and a softball field there and then in the middle you can you can play soccer as well um not at the same time obviously but uh uh and not lighted no that's not that's that's not lighted uh there's been a question about that brought up but uh we're not going to co-mingle that with our current permitting uh and things like that that that that muddies the water muddies the water from funding perspect yep it's it's very complicated to to introduce that as part of part of the project but uh but it has been discussed um so my my my thoughts are similar to think about your timing what and not just I wouldn't be reactive to say okay it's got to be 8:00 but what do you what do you want right and then be prepared for uh you know if 9:00 is the right time that would that would make sense uh I I know a lot of the guys that do the things with the uh with the program and have the skills and help at gzel do these things I think in a case like this I think it'll have to be externally designed and and professionally designed in that case um I I don't know that temporary lights are helpful because it's a totally different experience right so what we did at Mendes is part of what the professionals do with all of our sight lighting there was uh they can they can have photometric uh diagrams that actually account for the light spillage of the design and where it's supposed to go so that we could show it was part of the perating process and I can show you those from the from the permits um that when it's designed just like our sight lighting at Mendes it can show that there's no light spillage right and that uh whereas with temporary light just because that that works or doesn't work it might it might actually backfire because here's these loud lights that are intentionally broad uh which might offend somebody or so I I would I would say it should be professionally designed and in installed not uh uh not not just by the the dads that like to help and and have the skill set to do it um and with that you get this this level of uh of design that that you can uh and then they can also be held to that so somebody can come in and say hey these need to be adjusted because they're not to specification because you'll have a contractor that's hey this is what what's been been specified so thing of the timing uh I I would definitely recommend that's the route to go is is profess designed because you'll you'll get that and when you do it that way you're going to it's going to be a heck of a lot easier conversation with the neighbors CU you're going to say this is this this company designs these things this is um and they may even be able to say hey go to this place or go to this place and you'll be able to see the lighting and and and how they can control that light just the same way as we do at Mendes for site lighting it's different it's not as bright obviously as a as field lighting but and would you have recommendations of those types of professionals would that be my homework to try to uh I can I can ask um what the what they use but it might be a totally different firm and and quite frankly on a different scale you mean I mean I don't know how how uh uh but I can certainly ask a design team they were just part of the part of the design team so through through our architect so would we have to go through procurement for if it's on our property even if it's being paid for by someone else I that's a good question for Chris that is I think it's I I think it's only about the funding I think right that makes sense I just wanted to no I don't believe no we don't so it sounds like there's no objection from anybody here for you moving to the next step and and doing the research main things are placement who's paying for it who uh who's paying for the upkeep and the the ongoing electricity and if that's a school committee thing that's a bigger conversation because it's got to be part of a the overall budget discussion for the whole district and usually something has to go to make room for something else so you know those things have to be ironed out but certainly begin the conversations and and I do think the focus on on the impact to neighbor the neighborhood is important you know I know for me I I'm kind of envisioning potentially having the proposal at some point in the future should you get that far and wanting to see notice to the neighbors whether that's required or not I don't know but I'd want to see that make sure they had an opportunity to come in and express concerns hear the kind of presentation that that Paul's referring to um and you feel confident that the the change that we're potentially making to our property isn't going to have a hugely negative impact on the on the neighborhood agre yeah and I treat it because I as as you probably know uh uh it's been brought up about lights eventually at at Mendes as well right and so think of this as a as you you do this well and you're you're going to then have the ability to go and and and say we've done it here we we' we've managed the impact properly and and I think that's the that's definitely the way to go because I can tell you that and they're different neighbors for sure but uh there's a lots concerns even about uh an electronic sign on uh for Mendes so uh the people can be sensitive about it and and I think that's why I really recommend going the professional route that you can uh you can have something that just not trust us but here here's something that uh that was professionally designed and and we'll meet this specification and I think that'll go a long way okay yeah I mean my main thing was to just ask guidance and thought because again even the fundraising side of like once we find out what the price is I don't know but I wanted to make sure I let the families know and had reached out to me over the fall sure hey told I would talk to the the committee and and we kind of at least have those conversations so I know it's a longer process than the home run fence or the sign that we did but I just wanted to start the process so I appreciate no we appreciate you coming that's this is the right first step sometimes things go really far down the road and we're like What well we learned that with the sign but I wasn't in the committee yet I was I I was an outsider thank you guys for thanks for coming Sean okay uh School physician role Dr Charter's retirement recommended replacement Dr Michelle Duke yeah so uh sorry so as you know um maybe you don't know but we do have a school science position it was Dr Charter as he says going back to 1976 uh we sign a what $6,000 a year contract uh with with Dr Charter's office to help with physicals uh for those students who don't can't get them he'll come into theice office um give free physicals uh and offer other advice that we have throughout the year immunizations Etc uh he's retiring uh he's recommending out of his office Michelle Duke uh is the next uh physici for um the ash Public Schools uh Christina Molton who is our lead nurse um said it'd be wonderful to have her on board so really um the school committee's responsibility is to appoint the physician uh moving forward so I'm just asking for approval to point point uh Michelle Duke Dr Michelle Duke for the as a school physician and so Chris can enter into a contract uh with her uh we are I will say we are looking at the job description uh a little more deeply uh Christina is because the job description that Dr Charter had goes back to 1976 uh and really was job has changed the job's changed a little bit so we're just working through some of that um those details uh and uh once those are done we can then enter into a contract if if is the expectation that contract essentially from monetary value will be you know somewhere similar exactly yeah but I I would say it's going to be close I mean I think what's happening is the duties have changed dramatically um so we'll want to get an idea what um Dr charger is actually looking at the job description and say this is really what I do compared to what I used to do and then we'll have to look at it the you know what makes sense the denomination of right the contract yeah but but nominal for order of magnitude it's similar correct 100% yeah motion I move to app point or authorize Mr Adams to negotiate a contract to appoint Michelle Duke as the replacement for Dr Charter as the town as the district physician second all in favor Paul Mark you not say it right yeah well so two things one I'm going to really abstain from from the conversation CU I think my firm may have a a relationship with the place where the doctor is um so I'm just going to stay out of it it just seemed like Aaron was the motion I thought the question before the committee is I think the appointment correct right and then the functionally the contract be uh done elsewhere so I don't know if we had to vote to authorize that I will bring it back to you either way I would but I don't think we have in the past we've had the same contract but um yeah at the end of day if you're not entering into the contract and it has contract has to come back to us anyway right we can do that partly that that's part that's part Mo right okay so I move to so strike the previous from the record I move to appoint Dr Michelle Duke as the replacement School physician for Dr Charter second all in favor Paul hi Erin hi Dina hi Mark and I'll obain I okay uh school choice funding allocation FY 2024 so the the numbers have not changed from previous years uh sorry the backup I was looking at it as well the the backup shows the amount we authorized back in 2019 and 20 it's the same amount uh totaling 153,000 uh we've had good success with the amount of school choice funding again how each building uses the school choice is that really they have their own autonomy to to make a DEC ision on what they're spending it on uh I would say that as we move away from having more and more school choice students as we've talked about um last budget cycle I'm cautiously uh looking at the amount of funds we are receiving in school choice it's going to go down over the next few years just because of limited space uh so keeping the the amounts equivalent to what they have been over the past few years is at least fiscally conservative this year so so to that point Jim can you just tell us what the incoming school choice funds were at ballpark are we spending all of it I guess is the question of 153 no okay uh no um I don't have it off top of my head I'd have to go back and look at last year balance in school choice um from prior Years and we're not I guess overarching question is are we drawing that balance down with this allocation or holding it firm or allowing it to increase for this no we've included this allocation as part of our budget ccle from last year okay so this is what's already in the budget corre this we we anticipated this amount of these these amount of funds being used when we did our budget last year we just didn't appoint or you know um authorize the spaces to each building right yeah so one question that I had and you know kind of looking at obviously you know each school you know has a certain allocation of money and the different departments do I'm wondering and and this is just a thought this isn't necessarily something that I expect the conversation to move forward tonight but I'm wondering if there's room to potentially allocate money to the Arts as well I know that there's a line item for athletics um you know particularly for our band drama music programs at the middle school high school is there would there be space potentially to think about that just something to so yes there's always space to think about it um it's really deter determined by each building principal and the department so art and music have an opportunity to utilize those funds if that's where the school um specific School determines that's where the need is um Athletics for instance is underfunded by about $250,000 a year um for the most part um but I think the maybe the question is why would Athletics be itemized separately as as for example apartment because outside of the does it operate like within a school building or does it operate across school buildings I guess maybe is for athletics it would be operating across two buildings for sure right middle and high okay so I guess so I think the the point's valid right I'm not I'm not discounting it I'm just saying yeah but the athletic the reason for $55,000 in athletics appears to be like it's not built into what we're allocating or expected to be built into um the funding at a school level then the question would be like well should we put more I was just going to say and that that would be my thought in terms of is there space to have a conversation about you know cuz there are yes like music band drama those things are are part of our curriculum as well too right they're they're offered mainly as um not extracurriculars what's the word I'm looking for electives right that student particularly the high school that students take um and the middle school but Bandon the ex right but is there room I think that there's I mean there's a lot of opportunity to grow the additional programs that particularly at the high school you know around um looking at the extracurricular piece kind of like Athletics is I mean obviously Athletics is a whole different animal we have a whole athletics department with a director you know it's it's different um in terms of how we structure things here in asham but you know kind of looking at this is different buckets of money is their space as we move forward obviously this is already essentially allocated but um as we think you know are there ways that we could potentially use some of this to help grow some of other I don't know off hand Kelly how you've allocated all of school choice but do Arts and Music and band class get um some of those funds um yes yeah yes I would say there's certain there's definitely certain things that are not in their budget that's for um you know their day-to-day operations that we use school choice funds um I the piano tuner was here today yesterday and that comes out of there rather than out of the music budget so things like that and and is what I look at this uh I believe and correct me from wrong these are these line items correlate to an administrative position as well right so to your point that we have an athletic director so it's it's allocating it to a line item that is controlled we do not have a similar director of you of the Performing Arts and so it would fall to the building um and so it's I I sounds like it's already built in that they they're they're getting that but here it's listed as Athletics because we can give Kevin hey here's here's something for you to to spread through throughout and we have a I think it's also positional positional as reason why it's listed there the line item thing makes sense too yeah I mean certainly that could be that could be folded into Kelly's budget and then through you know given to Kevin in indirectly but I think it's because it's it's a director level position just like sped is and I mean I think in some ways like this line line item allocation is just splitting this money up within what we had already budgeted to take from school choice so the big picture question is like are we supporting our programs including the Arts at a level that that's appropriate and we should always be talking about that kind of stuff and I and I would say Tina to that point as we go through the budget process if we're looking at the music and arts department budget itself right that's the opportunity to build it within the operating budget so sustainable long term sure not just through for me I'm looking at the school choice those allocations eventually that money is going going to be depleted but if it's not built within the operating budget how do we even giving you know the music department $5,000 more if it's not there in the future I'd rather have it built we have to go back to 2006 um in 2007 before my time that these funds this $150,000 was basically supply line items that were built into the operating budget that were removed from the operating budget and never never were it was never put back into the budget so we've we've subsidized everything through school choice um and I've said for years we'll never be able to sustain this unless we start building textbook line items supply line items for each department back into the budget textbooks uh hundreds $200 a textbook now um if you want to replace a set of textbooks in a classroom um so yeah okay it's it's a large larger conversation for sure I appreciate it yeah yeah and like it's a process question too as far as like whether or not it should be the Arts or or building some other program or whatever it is and and I'm not saying I don't think that we do this because I know the budget process goes on for months before anything even gets to us but I think the bigger point for me is to make sure that we're not just doing the same things that we always do just because we always do them like we usually send this much to this school and this much to that school and these are the programs that are covered like like maybe there's a different way to do it or a better way to do it and I don't doubt that that's not considered when you're sitting down together um by time things get to us I'm sure you've had those conversations but it's helpful for us to understand yeah yeah yeah yeah so Jim just I maybe you said this but what's what's the um sort of the basis or calculation for the way that the proposed allocation has been done across our buildings I thought at one point we talked about we did have a bigger conversation stud en or it's a good question right I mean I don't think we fully ever determined uh how we were going to CU I know we made adjustments five years ago corre because there have been like so the high school concerns so the high school for instance right is the one is the school dist school that has the most school choice students and one would think okay they bring in the most Revenue therefore should the most of the allocation go towards the high school well that's not the case we're trying to equalize if you look look at um percentage wise the high school's still getting a larger percentage um of the of the pie but it doesn't line up exactly it used to be a lot greater and they also have four grades of kids they have four grades right um but I think when looking at the budgets quite often when Kelly's looking at the other principles and we're saying okay what are we what are we not including within the operating budget you know who needs more textbooks the high school offer many more classrooms uh what what is mes using it for and how are they offsetting some of the the costs that are not in the operating budget but to your point we don't have a strict formula Paul that that we've decided on um as a district um you know again one could argue that the school choice money should follow the building if you want the revenue but that's not it's designed for right it's designed to go across the entire um District I I'll move to approve the school choice allotments for fy2 24 as presented second all in favor Paul hi Ain hi Tina hi Mark hi hi High School Improvement plan see oh I got to share it sorry Kell do share there you go all right um and you should have a copy a newer copy I'm sorry that Kelly added some stuff some updates and changes um since uh since we talked a little bit about this in July and and um since the school year started um we've had a chance to kind of start some of the work that we were talking about doing here so made a little some adjustments um to some of the things that we're doing so obviously the you know the first page um looks at the district priorities um so I'm just going to maybe highlight a few of the things that are on here that are going to be our our Focus for the year and our and our work for the year um and really starting under um maximizing academic uh growth down on the second one and and the goal of programming for students um with alternative needs and paths to and looking at different paths to a diploma um and we have started the work this year um of being part of the desie high school scheduling cohort um and I know I mentioned this in the summer but we hadn't done any the work yet so we've at this point had the opportunity to come together two or three times with the cohort which is not nine nine communities uh nine diverse communities um to really talk about some of the things that we are all seeing um with our students um and desie has taken the last five years of our data around um classes students are taking um teachers that are teaching certain courses what our class sizes look like Etc um and we had the opportunity last week to meet with the representative from the agency and start looking at our dashboard with data around that and kind of we're looking at you know with students on track to graduate and um you know one of the most interesting numbers we saw was that their their you know interpretation of our data is that 75% of our freshmen are on track to graduate at the end of freshman year um which was a number that kind of threw us um but it's giving us some information to really look at in terms of um it's you know we all of our students don't take World Language as freshmen and so that impacts um you know were they really making sure that our students that are in maybe some of our sub separate classes were part of that in um that information and that look at data so um we do not have the dashboard with us yet but we're looking forward to really um digging into all the data and so Kelly did you say that their data shows that only 75% of the freshman classes on TR okay but not at the end of their freshman year based on the classes they're taking as freshman year helping us really look at what are our graduation requirements what do students at Ashton high school need to do every year to be at the place to get their assessment is as of right now only 75% of them are last year's Freshman Class yes interes so yeah it was really it was interesting to look at we're really looking forward to getting uh deeper into that data and think about how does our current schedule support what we're really looking to do with students um Kelly just can I ask a quick question question on that is that based on our school committee policy with regard to graduation requirements Andor the state requirement to apply to a State University or college um we we are looking at both of those things but that that particular number is based on our okay thank you graduation requirements distin difference making sure yeah um and you know we're looking at other things as um in terms of how do we do our science curriculum and and the four years of science what do the students take um in terms of to be considered to be on track for graduation um so some good conversations just starting uh just last week K is a part of the discussion also like the math track yes which has caused some people some concern over the years yes okay MH yeah so we will um you know sharing ideas and resources with other communities in terms of what they're doing um you know we had an interesting conversation with one of the schools that makes everybody take geometry as freshman um and you know so just starting to explore some of those different options and what it might mean for us um and then related to that underneath there um in terms of an action item is really just evaluating some of those school to Career options alternative education work study um and I so I think that's going to be a big bulk of the work we do this year is is looking at what our current schedule um um does for students um how we're using our Personnel is the other piece they're going to be helping us with you know are we using everybody to their full potential could we look at um you know rearranging how certain positions are um currently being used um and then um can we use Personnel or do we need to ask for new Personnel in order to support some of the needs that we see out there um and I think I shared um you know our our dropout rate while while it's not high it did go up significantly in the past year and um I think you know looking at our data we know that a big part of it is students that leave school um often for work um and um you know so we we think it's important to look at options our current schedule we don't feel allows for us to have students do a work study have students do um any kind of alternative um options in order to earn the diploma and what is the dropout rate for like class Year's class um I I don't have the rate off the top of my head I apologize our typical year we would have two to three students um leave school without a diploma and last year we had 14 it's a big deal yeah it's a big deal um and and we know that many of these students are students that um are new um to the community new to the country um and uh that's part of what we're also looking at is as we expand services in that area um you know we hear from them that uh it's school is just too difficult to maintain and um you know so you know working with that we've we've spent some time looking in other communities and what they're doing to meet the needs of those students and so we've you know had some discussions about um you do we look at a half day Alternative Program where their half of their day is credits for work and half is um school and and those I assume are ones that we confirmed are not enrolling to somewhere else or going to a different country to enroll but they're but they're uh but they're not enrolling anywhere else not completing any education yeah yeah we follow up I mean we know this students who you know the hard thing with um students that withdraw from high school is there are some programs that they go to that still is considered um so we do have a few we really encourage students to use job core um or pursue their High set um we don't have high numbers for that but um we do have one or two um so the other thing that we're going to be looking at um this year around equity and and um some of these recommendations and AC action items came from both the equity audit last year came from um our Jed um audit that we will talk about in a minute um but really wanted to make sure we're looking at our course levels and we started the conversation last year with our site Council about analyzing how we wait our courses um and our site Council will be um starting the work started the work this month of um kind of reviewing other schools that have done the work already um they were all gracious enough to share their process um and we are going to take a look at that data and see what that means for Ashen high school and how we want to move forward with the discussion of whether or not we should um unweight um our different levels and I'll just say I mean ke being the sort of school committee representative site Council Kelly just shared this out last week so if anybody's interest in reading that material I can certainly forward that along actually I'll do that now you can choose whether to look at it or not yeah I thought interesting uh point of data from one of those towns was they had surveyed the top 100 colleges that their students attend um and you know the vast majority completely unweight the GPA that the high school um shares with them and just calculates on their own on a 4.0 scale so so we will have more on that but that is one of the things that we're looking at from an equity standpoint um and those conversations um really started around wanting to make sure we have students taking classes that are the right level for them um and not um you know the host of thing you know students don't take classes that are of interest to them um because it might be at at a weight that they want they don't want to have part of their GPA um you know the whole conversation around student stress they're taking six AP classes because they think they need to have a higher GPA um and the host of social emotional issues that that leads to so kind of a lot of facets to that conversation but looking forward to having it um so those are kind of the highlights for this year around Equity um in social emotional learning of talked a little bit here about um our work we've been doing with Jed high school um we spent two years with them doing with them looking at the things that we do doing surveys doing um focus groups Etc um the our overall uh strategic plan is shared is linked into this document if you do have it by Google doc but I gave you tonight um a one page that they put together for us um that um are kind of going to be our priority areas for this year um and it really is just talking about okay what you know what our what's our vision and Mission around social emotional learning at the high school level um we had our first um interdisciplinary team uh meeting that was also last week um really looking at okay what are the things that we're going to focus on this year from the Strategic plan um really starting with vision and Mission around social emotional learning um what do we want to do for means safety um you know really educating the community um whether it be within our own school um we know we have conversations with teachers that we don't always know what happens once we've made a referral for a student um and then contining to work on you know working with students so that they understand the protocols of what to do to seek support um and a lot of that work is also we've had some conversations about Crossover with some of the things that the Safety Committee is doing um and um really looking to make sure that we have these are our these are our procedures for what we do when we have a concern X Y and Z about a student and this is these are the steps we're going to take um so that committee that that group is starting with um they've taken many of the thing you know old procedures we've had for um if there was a student incident on campus um you know let's look at that revise it as needed um and then we anticipate bringing a lot of that to the Safety Committee and then eventually to you for approval over the course of the year um and then again I the Strategic plan just making sure that we have that out to the community we're going to talk at the beginning of the year about how we just present these are our goals these are timelines for how we're going to do um curriculum around social soci emotional learning and then kind of a long-term Focus that'll be after this year about making sure that um faculty has some tools on how to embed it um into day-to-day learning when appropriate um which also I know ties to um some of the work uh the district is doing around um making sure social emotional learning and the competencies are part of everything that we're all doing um uh let's say that's it on that area um Resource Management also ties into the safety piece um and we will continue um this year to really focus on the training we're going to do um around um safety protocols again you know in terms of the social emotional learning I already referenced that we're going to be revising some of the practices that we have um we're going to continue to evaluate our classroom space as we've been growing uh we have had to redesign how we use some of our spaces um and so I think you know we for the first time we have teachers sharing classrooms um and we have um you know kind of moved where one of our um our life skills program is housed uh we took kind of over a teachers um space and made that into the classroom which has been wonderful for some of the the activities that those students are working on um but we have not as much space as we've had in the past years in terms of um to make sure that everyone has their own classroom space and that we have additional spaces to use so we're um that'll be something will'll be ongoing this year as we look at the needs for next year especially if we talk about any kind of additional programming being brought in based on what we do with the scheduling um Network and um the social emotional work we're doing and um the other thing I highlighted in terms of um around technology is um we're having a lot of conversations that the high school is and I know every school is um around training and best practices with AI we do have a group of teachers that is um doing that as a goal area um with and it's across departments and there they've gone to some conferences um they're really looking at how do we um get ahead if it's possible to get ahead um of what the students are doing and how I that we can be teaching them how to be thoughtful about using AI um and then hopefully they'll be sharing with their colleagues um what they learned and um how we can uh teach teach students to use the whole world of technology safely so uh that is resource management and then finally with curriculum and programming again I already referenced the waiting system and looking at our course catalog to make sure that we have offerings um so that kind of also goes back to uh some of the alternative things that we were talking about um offerings for students um in addition to talking about um whether we look at internships work study Etc um we've also have a small group um working on looking at bright programming um which we've looked at um off and on over the years which is programming that supports students coming back from uh long absences um and we're looking at whether or not we can maybe meld um some programming that's bright programming for supporting students that may be struggling with getting through the full school day um and students that might not that might need more of that work study and looking at how do we support the social emotional needs the um academic needs for those students that aren't um finding success in the tradition traditional classroom um so again a lot of it is looking at the flexibility and the things that we offer and how can we make adjustments to meet the needs of the students that are in front of us right now um and again I think we we are looking at a lot of the same things in a different way so would highlight on the last page is just really again the alternatives to a diploma um and how how can we make sure we get a diploma in the hand of every student if possible um and then the final thing is then again just continuing to look at the community service opportunities and how we're going to make sure that um is something that every student um is exposed to over the course of the year um I thought we had a successful first experience at it it was not what we had hoped it would be when we did the day back in um October um but it was a good start um and we had a lot of kids out uh doing a lot of meeting meaningful experiences around the community um and and some outside of the community um so I think we'll continue to work with um both the site Council um and our teachers throughout the year to see how can we um do this in a meaningful way that um everyone feels comfortable uh supporting the students that be an ongoing discussion with our site Council questions questions comments Mark you been in it so you probably have had your chance to yeah I mean to be honest with you like the conversation about s of the weighted grading system was something that just um really started the dialogue at the end of last year and and hasn't yet really been the topic of conversation at pouncil this year um other than to te it up and and the information I circulated to everybody tonight um was in preparation for meeting in Kelly I think wisely decided you know what it might be better to give people a little bit of time to digest of stuff before we start talking about it um but I'll be interested to see where the conversation goes I mean last year there were sort of a two immediate reactions one is absolutely and what are you crazy you know and not much very strongly about one way or the other and I and I think look I mean it comes from The Angst that the parents have probably more than the kids about what's the implication for college right and you know I certainly going through that process you're going through that process you've been through that process four times um you know it it's you start to learn as you go through it and the comment you made Kelly along the way about how schools just as soon as they get the GPA they unwe it anyway and that's certainly something I've heard you know out on the The Campaign Trail if you will um but I'll be interested to see where the dialogue goes too and I do try to largely stay out of the substance of the conversations I always feel like my role at the the St council is to express sort of the the point of view of the school committee you know what is it that we're focusing on and how does it connect our strategic goal rather than participate as a member of the site Council so I I tend to bite my tongue you know or or at least you know keep my comments you know from a a certain lens and and let the conversation yes I do I do and and it's um I think it's going to be a really interesting conversation and I think you could you could easily go off on tangents all over the place about what the hell is the matter what what's grading all about to begin with and what are we trying to do with this and right and I have every confidence that Kelly will lead that discussion wherever it needs to go but yeah and it's part of our bigger conversation too about wanting to like have these individual student plans like what really is right for each individual student it's not you know some thing that you're grasping at out there yeah right it's more of it what's right for for you and you and you and it's different a lot of schools are you know doing career Pathways and and those programs that are you know through Desy and we will have those conversations we have looked at it as um an admin team and we've had those conversations with the high school scheduling Network as well and so you know kind of looking at some of those things that are out there that are far more individualized for students is um you know it's helping them get to where we want them to be do they still do those tests that's that are trying to determine like what career that you'd be well suited for yes still have that yep they do that sophomores doing sixth grade did not say I was going to be a lawyer I was going to be a bus driver but you know well I was joking about it this this past weekend because mine said that I was like my destiny was to be a member of the clergy like a rabbi or a priest or something thought you say school committee no and so of course like when you're a kid and you get that news it's kind of weird but um but I just married two of my kids like I was the chaplain so that was like the story that I told like after 50 years I'm living my destiny finally um any other questions comments we don't vote on this by the way you guys probably remember that it's just an opportunity to give uh if there are major concerns or some feedback um but it's the the site Council that has control over voting on the final yeah no it's evident you guys have put a ton of work into it thank you for putting it all in the format to align with the forthcoming strategic plan yeah yeah I should say that there are some people who've been on this site Council for a long long time there a couple um I won't name names but a couple who are like I think they were talking about who's going to take the minutes and they the two of them were bouncing back and forth for probably a decade as they've had multiple children going through know who you're talking about and um you know I was like listening to that and like you know it's their commitment is is really impressive yeah and and really impressive and important and you know I think you also have a nice addition of some new voices in home too yeah I'm looking forward to yeah and and the student voices too at the high school level are are fantastic also so it's it's a it's a great opportunity for for discussion I had one question on the four so under Resource Management it's the one where resource Management's on the middle of that page the fourth one um the technology in the thoughtful manner that it complements instruction and provides access to all like Kelly are you looking at this at all with a lens of consistency of application across departments or across teachers especially where you know it's my first couple months of school and I'm just noticing sort of a drastic difference that makes some of those executive function skills or the management hard because you know you got to look at Jam board here or you got to look at Google Classroom here or there's a piece of paper here and to try to help guide your student becomes like somewhat of a logistical nightmare for the parent as well and I don't know if like you're wrapping that consistency in that goal at all we've we've had some conversations about looking at consistency within departments um as opposed to across the entire school um and we have we have lots of conversations around that and go back and forth of you know are they at the high school level is it's the time they are learning to um have many different um you know approaches and to deal with many different approaches um versus needing to provide that support um so we yeah we are having some conversations around within departments how they can look at doing some things consistency um but I think we're at the point of deciding you know that we do want each department to have um some ability to decide some of the things that they're doing and some aony it could be some yeah okay yeah because they each have such different needs as well right you know I I will say that you know I know our English Department our history department is working closely um around you know the piece of how are we doing essays now um and you know uh are we are they are they going to be all on demand in school um rather than you know assigning them as an at home assignment like we might do might have done five years ago because they right and how they how they use Google Classroom to assign those assignments um they're they're having a lot of consist question I mean um conversations around consistency there so that everyone has certain expectations for students when they are doing a piece of writing y interesting anybody else excellent all right thanks have a good night you too okay Jim nees sure so as you know each year twice a year actually we have U the New England School Development Council U looked at our projected enrollment numbers uh for future years and as always I want to um qualify it by saying you know years 5 through 10 are really just guesses uh on on nzc's part uh years 1 through four are the ones that typically are the ones we look at and say they are most accurate if you will uh not always perfectly accurate certainly uh turnover within the housing market within Ashlin um is important there are a lot of uh single family homes now that are being sold and students are families are moving in with children uh and you'll see an increase in uh enrollment because of that uh we currently still have almost 200 um units um that are to be built uh in town that have been approved uh and even though there was the moratorium put on these were projects that were already in the pipeline uh over on Chestnut Street and hom RAV that um pick up um I think 170 Plus in Chestnut um I don't so we don't know exactly how many students will be coming out of those apartments uh when it's they're finalized but we know we'll get some um and so it's hard to quantify that I'll show you uh the spreadsheet that I um track on a daily basis uh that shows where our students are coming from because I like to look at the condos in the apartment housing complexes and see really um how many are coming out of these um um you know multiple unit structures I think it's important to look at but I'm going to share this with you because I think when I first read it I was like oh my God what's going to happen um and and what I and so Chris myself Mike and actually Gretchen uh did sit with NASDAQ um maybe a week ago or two weeks ago Chris and to ask a number of questions but one how did they determine uh and I'll just jump right into it how did they determine when they're looking at um let's see here not this one yeah the straight line uh is concerning right uh yeah well there's a couple things that were concerning but um let me just see here enrollment and then share this screen view full screen okay so the easiest thing to do is look at this projected enrollment right um and when you when you if you if you look at I'm just going to highlight here with my Mouse um if you look at the 2023 24 school year the kindergarten students of 219 then it moves to 233 in grade 1 242 in grade 2 246 251 260 269 that that line was sort of concerning right it was like oh my goodness what's happening and why are they anticipating the number of students who are um going to be coming into the the district how is it working so if you filter all the way through on page 12 in the packet you got um you'll notice they talk actually about the ratios that they use and it's based on historical numbers so the facts that existed previously um they're not saying this is per perfect science but if we look at I'm going to go back um to the historical enrollment and if you look at similarly the line of from the 20131 14 school year the kindergarten number is 196 then it went to 206 so increased by 10 students in the first grade then it went to 219 in the second grade so these are actual numbers then it dropped a little bit down and then by the time they get to fifth and sixth grade 218 229 it starts to increase again and so they used they looked at as a factor of increased year-over-year actual numbers so that's what they're using for the projections does that sound right Chris how how they described it um and they actually write that on I'll highlight it because I think it was it certainly was important um but it was just a confirmation of how they were doing it um SE the reflection Jim scrolling up there I'm sorry so the so the so the projection methodology was here if 100 students enrolled in grade 1 in 2023 increased 104 students in grade two the percentage of survival would be 104% I don't like the term survival but that's what they use right so they use the ratio of 1.04 so ratios are calculated between each pair of grades or years in school over several recent years so they're looking at the Historical actual historical enrollment and then trying to project future years with that um so it it's and I found it interesting that that's Mark you and I had this conversation because I initially was like shocked and said oh my God we're gonna be out of space soon yeah I mean I I will say because you and I did have this communication when we first got this data like that didn't feel right like what we've experienced right that we start with a Kindergarten class of 200 and end up with a high school graduating class of 230 or whatever the number might be it felt like if anything we get to high school kids some go off to private some go to ke Tech um and so I was very much looking to forward to understanding it because either my sense of things was just off which is probably partially true um or this is a scare tactic and it's not you know feels like I mean I obviously don't have this isn't a scientific comment right was mine it but it feels more Dynamic than it has been in the past so we see our largest increases what they're saying is in that Middle School time frame right so that's where that High School number jumps up now we lose about 19 kid you anywhere between 10 to 19 kids a year as they go into to high school right uh for a variety of reasons whether it's private school right any of the V techic schools um but that percentage increase is what you know we wanted confirmation as to why that number was going to go up now there are some anomalies in here I mean I look at our kindergarten class which is now a first grade class right and um that first gr class is only 175 it only increased by one student last year so we actually had them go back and say how many kids were quote unquote red shirting if you will um and how many students who were in the current kindergarten class were at age appropriate where they could have been in kindergarten last year and in first grade this year it was six students so not significant which I you know so we start digging more deeply into that type of data like oh wait a minute maybe these families through Co kept these kids another year or two you know they they didn't register not really the case it was six kids so it's a weird like like a reverse bubble yeah I just don't know where the I've said this to staff and waren staff I don't know where the hell these first graders are I don't know where they were as kindergarten it was just a a birth rate that was higher but didn't those kids aren't they just moved somewhere they're offsetting our ninth grade class uh yeah you know um so so from the nesdc perspective I feel comfortable looking at you know again we do this in the spring as well um partly because we have that transition of students right who are are moving uh who who move in uh we still have if you go around and look at the properties in naon there's still a number of single families that are out there um that are on the market and we'll see what happens there um we have the you know the fluctuation of of students to move in and out um Transit students um families go back to you know Brazil wherever it might be uh so our numbers really do fluctuate um I'm not concerned I think you know when I started looking at this and I looked at Mendes for instance because i' think about next door in Hopton right I mean our population's at 669 um it gets up to 684 by the 27 28 school year projection now we have flexibility because of how the building was designed to handle this so I'm comfortable with that now that being said if we got up to 771 in 2321 or 23 20 31 32 that might concern me a little bit but I'll be retired so somebody else can deal with it um but but the greater point is they're guessing beyond the first four years like really significantly guessing when I went back and looked at nesda projections they're within a Delta of 20 students per year over the course of the time times we've done this but that's partly because they take the data the actual data in the spring and readjust their their projections like they're taking October one numbers and then trying to develop something and then move it forward to in April we we do it again and say okay how many kids really actually are here um so I mean if you look at this kind of data it feels like it begs a million different questions s like where are we going to put them right I mean if this comes to fruition yep how are we going to educate them part of my grammar but in terms of a budget yep um and obviously we get some amount of money from the state based on how many kids we have yep but um in the profile of kid remember which I want to show you yeah but this certainly says if we're looking long term this is within the range of possibilities range of outcomes yep and you know I I think about at least our space issues I don't we're we're talking about sort of at this maximum projection having in five years right the 2028 birth I'm sorry it's 2028 birth year yep um we yeah we'd have 3226 kids I think if I'm reading it right in 10 years in 10 years in 10 okay in 10 years yeah so years few a few hundred more 3,56 right and we're at 220 kids right 220 so I mean it just K was already talking about sort of space challenges the high school you know but it just which is to me interesting concept because the high school was built for 1,50 students right so we're at 900 we could be up at 900 so so again it's how are we visualizing utilizing space and I think that goes along with what Kelly's talking about with even looking at the schedule right how is the schedule designed the schedule designed at the middle school we've had this conversation for ever the schedule was designed when it was a smaller concept for the teaming right it that's how it was designed now when we have more students and you're adding half teams it makes it a really difficult schedule to Monitor and and to utilize um you know the Middle School stays relatively flat meaning that half team could and should be in existence if they continue with that schedule moving forward um it's not like we can just get rid of that half team otherwise now the class sizes are up in the mid-30s again so it does I mean it helps us as we're projecting budgetary stuff um I'm not really concerned over the next three to five years um but I think beyond that we have to monitor it for sure so I want to share um so so Jim just before and sure and we can take this offline so I can better understand it but I'm look at like the historical enrollment yep chart how are we supposed to read this there's a birth year there so don't worry about the birth year there then there's a school year yeah so so like I'm I'm trying to track my if you look at your kid so when so so let's assume um Kaden was born in 2008 he wasn't I don't know 2010 right okay but let's start with 2008 because I think that's the 10e window that we have to look at right so because the 2018 students are the ones who are first in are in prek now so if you look at that 2008 student and I and I'm going to start with really the K and the K would really be 2007 kids does that make sense it's the year before um that's what I was trying to understand so it goes in diagonal so the pre I'll stick with the prek the prek is it's a challenge because we're not required to have prek kids right so I always start with k i mean I just Lop it off and I start with k so it would be the in in the 2013 14 school year there were 196 K students okay then in two in 20145 that same cohort of kids moved to first grade there were 206 of them so increased by 10 students that's factual we know that then in second grade that first grade class increased to 219 students so we added another 13 students so over a course of kindergarten to 2 grade we had 29 student increase for that birth year of 2008 if you look at the birth year of 2009 it went from 193 to 212 to 219 so seven another 26 students were added K through two and then and then it just Cascades all the way down so that's how that chart works so those are the fact that's what they're using as their ratio saying okay well wait a minute you had 10 kids this year 10 kids next year 10 kids we know that there's going to be at least additional 10 students so the the thing that that drives this that sounds like you've looked at but they may not is development in town of the types of housing that brings they do look at that do they yeah so that's part of this um but do they look at so they look at both the future and historical to so you're you're using a ratio that so that's a good question there's a causation for that ratio they might be using an infl inflated ratio it's inflated right probably potentially but I know they're doing it for for current projects and future forecasts but if they didn't go back and say hey so they don't know specifically right so they're they're just taking the raw number they don't know specifically about so if we look at the permits issued and they go and they pull permits and birth certificates in town right to those families that so not the families who moved into town and had babies just the the babies that were that were um reported as being from Ashland so similarly with building permits so they look at the multi-units in single family home so you can see there was a decrease from 2019 to 2023 in number of permits pulled for single family homes so there were 30 in 2019 there was one to date in 2023 for single family home but multiple units there was 64 in 2019 and then 174 for 2023 and they don't know specifically if it's a one-bedroom two-bedroom and how many are going to be students potentially could live in those apartment complexes or condos so like the American boulevards is now in their final stage right we they don't go in and look at how many kids are from those um those units so it's hard for them so they're just looking at that raw number of okay to increase 10 kids they don't know where those kids came from they don't know if it was single family homes they don't know if it was uh the apartment buildings that were permitted and or now um you know fill yeah no it's it's more if if they're applying it on their forecasting they if they logically should go back and apply the same to your ratio to better understand the what you expect what your logic if you're applying it in the future go back to the past adjust your ratios with the same logic so you're not because if it's if they think it's valid enough for forecasting that means it's valid enough to also use for your ratio so you're not um because when you're using it for a ratio it's a projection but you you can't project Things based on what's already happened and you got to you got a bump you can't predict another so if there's a and you logic here to predict it you should go back and adjust your rati I see what you're saying so you're not say hey there's a bump well that means I'm going to forecast a bump in three years so right so they're looking right they're not doing bumps they're looking that 10e window saying over 10 years this is what happened in each of these grade levels and then they're applying that ratio to that grade level I would say at least for just having a sense of where the community is now compared to where it was to years ago right the capacity for additional building is shrinking sure right and so I don't know what the future is going to hold in that but it would certainly suggest that at some point in time about the years we're talking about that huge sort of expansion off my neighborhood which is like Ridgewood and and Summit AV or Summit Road um where there are tons and tons of kids like there's not I don't know there's any space left in town for another development that size um that's going to generate you know probably an average two kids per house um and I'm not saying that's fault for them I'm just saying it's it's kind of like there's a lot of possibility that the sort of most expens most aggressive growth projections may not come to be because I think we're running out of space in this town right well it was interesting too to look at from the historical numbers over the past 10 years there's been about a 15% increase and then the projection is over the next 10 years there'll be another 133% so it's kind of like a similar I mean it's a little lower but roughly and who knows if it'll come to to pass but um we'll keep this in check on him in 10 years right exactly no I mean but but thinking through I mean like a the demographics of the district have changed a lot obviously the size and and you know the number of students and housing them and class sizes and all that kind of stuff and so um we have more families that have say a two-bedroom condo that might have two or three kids within those condos right then we have ever had before and and are we seeing more uh you know I hear more stories and and know people who are housing nieces and nephews or the you know families are are you know it's a Max You Know It's a Grind to say the least servicing extended families uh more more so than we used we we could have two full-time employees just determining whether or not folks actually our residents of Ash like it literally we could have that uh even when folks come to register and we're looking for certain data to register them it's like pulling teeth trying to get actual information before we can let students in the building um but I I think again it's it's interesting stuff and and to me this is um this is what I track um have this um this chart in here to Jim in her packet no I don't know if I gave no um I don't think I don't think so cuz I just finished it today okay because I literally do this daily um because I think it's and and I wait until everything's updated um what you'll see here is just and I'll share this and make sure it's in part of the package but you'll notice get a little bit bigger here it is um at the end of the school year so our data that we reported to the state is the 6 20 3023 number uh home school I don't you know it's not part of this projection that I do daily and then as of today we've got 2841 students in the district um when nezda did this there was 2,835 students so it's increased six students since o October 26th if you so what was the number at the beginning of the year 2798 is what we ended last year ended last year okay so we're Plus 43 right so and what you'll notice is the major difference is we graduated a class of 178 right and that kindergarten class is at 220 that's 46 student difference that's really the so so the projections it's interesting um you know how how the numbers are panning out um and and it's it's don't look at the Delta it's Delta by grade level but it's not Delta by cohort does that make sense yeah it's not cascading like nzda does so because 46 students is difference between last year's K and this year's K so it's not 174 to 174 it's actually zero they have the same amount of students they had at the end of last year as they do currently today in first in that first grade who were kindergartens the year before I colorcoded it I didn't that makes sense I can track it by color um except 208 was messed up like in the classes all jumped up a chunk in mes like that's where a lot of kids came in huh um third and fourth grade am I reading that correctly so third grade went from 199 to 194 okay never mind I'm looking at the next one fourth grade 222 correct that one went up 12 kids yeah yeah and then the fifth now sixth grade class and the fifth to sixth right so you'll notice fifth to sixth sixth to sth in sth 8th he said that's the largest group right that's where we're seeing our greatest increase every year it's 16 you know 21 extra kids right it's a full class but it's at least it's spread out yeah right I just remember we had that year I don't know what it was seven eight years ago already where we had a ton of kids come in and a whole group in fifth grade no like just randomly had another fifth grade class but it was it wasn't like a bubble of births it was a bubble of mve so this is where NASDAQ thinks their like their numbers are so accurate it's because they're taking our data from October and then applying it to their current projection so as I said they're off six students from from what they projected it's because we gave them the actual numbers on October 1st um what I find interesting is this other data um that we're tracking that I track our L students uh and our students on um IEPs uh so from we have 21 students currently um really 229 again the prek is not included in the 2 um students who are English language Learners currently uh we have 575 students on IEPs which is actually a decrease from 500 um 31 take that back it's actually the 42 should be let's go back and look at that I don't know why the we we have a slight decrease um I know that and then in the yellow the gold and the the other colors are um the number of students in each building so 70 L students the percentages there aren't dealt is there of student population correct well of the number of L students so 70 of 20111 right so 33% you lost yeah you lost me so the 7 7.43% and the 20 24% oh that's a total population PA right I was down here I'm sorry I was looking down below yeah yeah yeah so can you talk about that colorcoded part yeah so this is the number of students in Warren specifically of this total here okay so there's 70 oh that's a car so 25 23 and 22 is 70 okay so that's the L students then the IEPs IEP students and and that's a percentage of the total percentage is as of as of that total number of that demographic that's right of that demographic right not of the whole population yeah so so 7.43% is the is the total number of students who are L students across the district and that is 20% active or active as of today or tracked not correct that's active who are receiving services today today okay that's as of today I know that for a fact okay and and so the number of students on IEPs is about 20 20.2 for okay it's 575 students as of today if Miss Brewer updated it correctly which I'm 100% sure she did she's on the ball she is always on the ball um what what's what's the what's the the next column um 531 that's where am I oh yeah that's just comp comparables from the previous year Paul 531 students were onun IEPs okay yeah last year last year so so so so if yeah so this 28 represents there were 30 students last year in the kindergarten level there are 28 now in the first grade level so we reduced there were two students Less on IEPs okay for you know so that's that's how it was working so these are the languages obviously Portuguese 75% of our students who are L students are Portuguese speaking students 158 of them and then 24 Spanish speaking um more interesting data to me is this when we talk about more building projects so we break out the number of students in um condos and apartment complexes so we just run a report and I pull it in and look at certain data that exist um whether they're free and reduce students English language learner students or students on IEPs like what percentage of those students coming from these housing um complexes do we have because there was always this it was far back as I can remember people like well they move into these condos and they have all these kids and they're all on IEPs well it's not true it's it's just it's sort of like okay let's look at the data and see really what it represents um it's a high number for sure um but we have 713 students currently living in those 10 to 12 and again includes a couple different things America Boulevard is Boulevard queen of Isabella John hanock all neighborh that whole neighborhood right so there's 161 student students in there that currently reside uh in the as public schools so 713 of the 2,841 kids um Jim just the free and reduced yeah is that now free lunch free meals for everybody don't we we they get meals but we still have to classify them because that impacts Chapter 70 okay so when we're looking at we so we still encourage folks to apply and it also impacts busing or Transportation Athletics any other thing that we have for user fees um we want everyone to to um qualifies qualify because it also if you remember the incremental uh on the Chapter 70 that's how we're able to get pick up chapter it's based on the state program so they're going to be a part of that not just for the services they get from from us right yeah I I will say I think it's helpful to have this data to think about projections I certainly wouldn't want anybody looking at this stuff to sort of Come Away with the the statements like you you were illustrating before like that's where they come from because I think there are a lot of reasons why that's right um families who who have El students or students ateps might be choosing I I understand right mean it's a result not a cause correct right the causation isn't because it's just really I think that's always the double- Ed swage when you're looking at data mhm is people are going to ask okay look and they make these unfounded statements like everyone's coming from here well actually guess what numbers don't lie right um and but I do think it's important because at one time when we were looking at an override we talked about Ashlin being probably I think at that time was the second largest condo apartment complex um in the Commonwealth in terms of you know act I think Acton was number one boxboro boxboro right in terms of the number of students impacting the school districts right I mean again we've got 25% of our students are coming out of a very small populated um right high density set of residences right uh with 200 more to go with 200 more Apartments to go right um so and and the state pushing for more apartment more Apartments along you know over where the NBTA station right exactly right so how does that impact us right so it's just I think it's just um you know it does it does um is kind of probably beyond the scope of what we can do to some degree but um you I know that when Hopkin approved the Legacy Farms development they also had triggers you know in there in terms of what right what the developer had think had to pay to the town in the event of a certain spike in enrollment um I think it was T million dollars if I remember right and you know I think Ashen kind of after cus kind of like oh we should have thought of that too kind of thing little too late but as we look at these types of developments it's certainly something I think we as a school committee and School District need to Advocate with the other Town boards to be looking at those types of right linkage fees or encies or what have you um to support the growth yeah I mean Cirus has given us 55 kids right but but like the first year or two that that was there was like six right right so I think the initial I think it was 74 78 originally was never as well below what forecast was like 75 or 80 like4 was the number that popped in my head yeah but again but there's no you know there's no science behind exactly how they're determining it like they they say well if it's a one-bedroom you might get a point two of a kid well I really five bedrooms you get a whole kid yeah right five bedrooms might get three who knows right it's like um so again we you know we have this conversation we're still a growing population we will continue to be growing over the next 3 to 5 years that's really the story what it looks like I'm not sure I don't think anyone can definitively say we're going to get 30 more kids um but I think we have to as we continue to build our budget and project for the future right and looking our staffing um that's important so when and again it's probably out of the scope of this conversation with the exception of when we're looking at our Esser funding that's going to be utilized final finished up this year with those half teams at the middle school the bottom line is we have to absorb those those teachers into our operating budget next year right and that's what we've been planning for I'm be clear we've right that Happ to look at you know many districts did not use Sr funding for Staffing because they were afraid it would go away and they would never have it again um the way Chris and I and Mike looked at it was well we also know we're going to have anywhere between 8 and 15 retirements over the next 3 years and so we have to hire more strategically and utilize those funds to offset the money that we're not getting through the grant funding or the SR funding so um so it'll be an interesting exercise when we start asking for staff in our budgeting process um you know I talked to Pete today at Warren and you know in determining you know what his numbers are going to look like he's still got one more year of that small class right will go to second grade um so we'll see what kindergarten looks like in the spring those are the projections thank you do you have anything to add to a superintendent update I don't no okay no Thanksgiving break starts tomorrow woohoo Paul do you have warrant approvals I do uh between October 26 2023 and November 2 1st 2023 I Paul Kendall authorized by my signatures payables in the amount of 1, 38,000 $247.9 this includes general fund expenses of $312,700 and meal tax expenses es of $28.7 thank you does anybody have anything on the minutes from October 25 I think that was the meeting that you missed yeah anybody else have anything motion to approve the minutes of um from October 25 2023 as presented second hi Aaron I I even though I wasn't there I don't know if I get to vote on this one I I um gifts and donations sure um Paula pepper $50 to helping our own fund Deb pelier $50 helping our own fund Jill Verns $300 helping our own fund Kim Robinson $25 helping our own fund Ohio pile $82.

okay okay all right great I'd like to welcome everybody to the Ashlin Board of Health meeting for November 21st 2023 like to call the meeting to order at 6:06 PM um as always first thing is Citizens participation Mark you've been absent for a while I was hoping you were okay so I'm glad to see you what's going on even Mar Sony 49 hoton Road gobble gobble gobble still taking care of my dad he's still alive and kicking 98 years old nine years now taking care of him in bed loves his classical music 98 hotbeat hot oxygen 116 over 80 blood pressure no wheezes in the breathing clear wrot clear hot with the with the stethoscope readings and he's do he's doing well just shaking off little cold little cough and stuff like that and basically home is here me me my dad and later on the um Thanksgiving Day Afternoon my brother and his and his family brings all leftovers and we have leftovers here that's what's going happen Thanksgiving okay my question is either to Raj or to uh you who are can answer this is about the comprehensive plan committee my question is is there any representative from the Board of Health on that that is correct Mr Burman is part of it you know Mr ad Burman so he he's on the committee okay and um just wanted to make sure because I've seen a couple times there I just wanted to make sure that they're having little tiffs and TS and little thing that that that handles with groups and again over little little Buffs in the road but that doing okay um to miss to miss French from the division at every turn how's it how does it feel to be be a good coordinated good coordinated all around to be together with any age groups oh I mean we're really fortunate to be able to I think first and foremost work in the community of Ashland um of all ages for sure so it's just a really privileged position I think that I have being welcoming by the to in the role that I have to work with a lot of great people and to do great work regardless of the age so um so yeah I mean thank you for the question and um I'm just really happy to be here but um I know that there was another woman that was that was basically Ru in this that you took the place from sure so I mean I could talk a little bit about that during my little segment here but I you might be referring to Jennifer wolfing the Director of Human Services is that correct that correct and and part the um being with the high school right um so at the high school we've had a little bit of a turnover with our coordinator position but it's currently being served by Eliza Dodge eus she's our youth um and and Community coordinator doing the work directly with the um primarily the middle school and high school okay I that's enough for me being a inter room chairman thank you you're so welcome all right thanks Mark thanks Chris okay and um with that um doesn't look like there's anybody else online so Kristen you want to take it from here um agenda itum three uh Kristen's the director of prevention and Human Services um you're going to discuss the fall Retreat so just because some people you know may not know in case you know people end up watching this can you kind of give us a little bit of an overview of what dat is just so if people aren't informed and then whatever want to talk about for the retreat is great sure so thank you very much and I wanted to thank um Raj and Laura as well who have been asking me um to come on to a Board of Health meeting for a while and um I think at our first invitation we had some conflicts and it was difficult for me to be here and then um we were in a little bit of a state of flux and I didn't really have a really good update to give but I feel that now we're in a good position and some really great stuff has been going on so I think this timing feels perfect um so for anyone who is unfamiliar with decisions at every turn um we have been a federally funded community-based Coalition that works to prevent youth substance use um and we've been in the community um prior to but really fly friended since 2013 so for for 10 years we've been working collaboratively with parents and youth and schools and town departments the police um businesses so on and so forth to really put together a comprehensive plan like I said to um reduce and prevent youth substance use but also um really to promote positive Behavioral Health um part of what I wanted to talk about um tonight is sort of the the shift and we talked a little bit about this at our Retreat um just the other day we've been fortunate to be able to host an annual Retreat where we bring together such stakeholders and such groups um to reconnect as a community but then to also think about the work that we're going to do over the coming year so we just met um last Thursday and one of the the leading um parts of the introduction was that um our federal funding we we had 10 great years of drug-free Community funding which allowed us to do so many um wonderful things including um reducing rates of semar of substance use which is really the goal of the grant um but that funding ended in in September and so we're sort of now at this um transition part where we were really focused on how do we sustain prevention how do we continue to do the work with um without this large grant that has been supporting us for so long um so I wanted to just you know take a really quick step back just to say that there was a lot of um foresight um with one of the um the leaders of several leaders of the Coalition prior to me coming on um that had approached the town when we were applying for the second round of funding and um we wanted to see if they would serve as our Fiscal Agent and um and they agreed in 2018 when we applied for that Grant and in doing so um it was sort of cementing their um their investment in prevention by saying that we believe in the work that the community is doing um to help support youth so we'll serve as a f Fiscal Agent and part of that conversation was once we know when the grant ends what what do we do in so many coalitions when the when the funding ends there's no money to support programming and there's no money to support staff um so in a lot of communities the the work just falls apart um but one of the things that the town managers and through the select board and different groups agreed on was that it was really important to maintain a staff role that could oversee prevention one the funding ended so over a course of five years they increasingly um put the role of the director into the budget so now my position the director position is completely funded by the town um and there's some funding shifts with regard to um with our programming um that have changed a little bit but I did want to first and foremost say say that um because the town believed so much in prevention that was step one um the second part is um through some of the conversations that we've had and really tying into the community's goal one of their goals is to promote community health started thinking about how do we take what we do and know about prevention and kind of expand that so um really over the summer if you might have read some of the Articles and some of the announcements that have been made um the Human Services has now expanded into the department of prevention and Human Services and that's allowed us to do I think a couple of things things um we can now look at prevention across all ages so now we can look from like birth through you know 100 you know we can look at prevention across all of those ages now um and we can also expand our definition of prevention so rather than the strict focus on um youth substance use we can now look at all aspects of health so physical health social health substance abuse you know um prevention um mental health um that the social connectedness P so really looking at being able to expand what we do and and apply those you know um prevention strategies um the third thing that we're able to do is to connect that work to what's already happening in the human services department which has done amazing work um for the residents of the town for such a long time with case management and referrals and resources and the holiday program and the Thanksgiving meal program um and just being able to support residents with any need that they have so the this it's all that that part is all very new so I just wanted to um say we sort of laid the foundation for this work that now we can look at Community Health in a very different way and hopefully by the bridging of prevention in human services will be able to um support residents even more um one of the ways that um I'm hoping to be able to do this is to put it in the community's hands to tell the department what what you want as residents um so we have put I'm going to promote it a little bit more but there is um we put together a a simple three question survey that um was in the town manager's newsletter and it's on our web page and I will continue to promote it that basically says um what is your you know what what age group do you want to have programming on what topics do you want to have programming on and how would you like this programming and services to be delivered um and I'm hoping to collect as much feedback as possible from the community we can start to think how we build um these broader services that in programs that we're hoping to do so I guess so I guess maybe my final thing is I know I didn't really talk too much about decisions at every turn but um now the decisions at every turn is no longer a federally funded Coalition it's it now sits very very nicely Under the Umbrella of the prevention and Human Services Department so the work that decisions does will still continue to happen is just under the town and then there's a and the Human Services will still operate as it always has and then there's this piece in the middle that we're building to provide prevention to all the other ages all the other topics and then bridging prevention and Human Services so that that was a lot of information and just a couple minutes but I just I I'm just so excited about um I'm just so excited about the opportunities we can do a lot of great things um and that's that's sort of I guess that's sort of the long and short of it that was great I didn't realize that more recent history you know of the town I think that's awesome yeah so yeah yeah that that's that's nice that they included it you know I know that you guys you know when I used to sit on your meeting sometimes with Diane and you know it was uh you really are an integral part of the Board of Health you know and especially you know trying to keep these kids away from you know to me you know particularly tobacco you know um that probably has a more Delirious you know or detrimental effect than alcohol not that that's good either but um so I was looking at at some of these Norms at least for one of the questions you asked it what research you know have you gotten that really tells you the age when these kids start experimenting I'm shocked to see that you know in the past 30 days of these things from 2012 to 2021 n over 96% of middle school kids have tried alcohol and that might be non-us almost 100% like tobacco um that might be non I think it's nonuse oh that's Oh that's nonuse oh am I the wrong Norm survey positive community no so are non-us okay so all right that's awesome which is which is great which is which is like I yes so so not so use at the middle school for all substances are fairly low um if you're looking at high school rates and I I um I will say even though I don't have the numbers in front of me across the board most high school students are not using in any of those main um category substance substance categories so alcohol marijuana vaping yes yeah right so is it is it you know do you think that by the time you get to high school that a lot of those kids have already made up their mind and they're going to do it and it's better to focus on middle school or even even lower than that even in grade school right so yes I absolutely so what the when particularly through like the drug free communities Grant which is how we which is where we sort of collect and use the data there age population is sort of like this I guess it's like 13 to 18 or whatever that age group is which is middle school and high school because that's where we can collect data in order to be able to measure the ups and downs and the trends through the years but which is f which is fine but I do think and and there's certainly work to be done in that space of preventing and or reducing so there still prevention work that can happen even if someone is us and we would want to reduce the use as well but what we've learned is that we do need not just Ashlin but across the board we need to prevention needs to start so so so so so much earlier so even work in uh like the elementary schools um is still is sort of the a common practice style um but I would say it it looks a little bit different so when you're talking about prevention with like kindergarteners and first graders and second graders you may not necessarily be talking about any particular substance but you're laying a foundation of a strong social emotional um you know Foundation you're talking about healthy choices you're talking about um self-confidence and the kinds of things to build strong characters and those those are all these like protective factors that will help keep theoretically kids from um making a choice to use as they get older so um a lot of the but again like you said a lot of the data does focus on that middle and high school because that's just sure those are the surveys that we have but I would 100% agree that prevention can start when that would say like prevention starts at Birth like you can you can start the foundation really early yeah which which I think is awesome and I don't I don't want to hog all this time I just have one more question I know that you know previously um you know there was the the huge vaping issue especially with kids with you flavored things and then those were banned have you seen a increase in use with the band that it's not so flavorable or that doesn't matter they're still doing the nicotine thing anyway so I would so because I'm I'm sort of isolated in a space where I'm not with with with young people I don't have like a lot of access to young people personally I know maybe if you talk with the schools you might get a different perspective what I would say has been for me what I think has been a real um variable in use up and down has actually been Co and sort of like during that time young people didn't have as much access to alcohol or or ecigarettes and also the social opportunities to do a lot of the um a lot of the lot of the drinking and or vaping in sort of a social setting so for me like the co and the pandemic was a big like eyeopener in terms of in terms of use because it did go way down during that time um what will be interesting to see is that um the middle schoolers and high schoolers just took the um 2023 adolescent Health survey in the fall the results will not be available until the spring but it will be interesting to see the rates of not just vaping but alcohol use of tobacco use um as of a current use because um 2021 which is the last time of the data was available it took place in this very very weird time in all of our lives that can't necessarily may or may not actually represent a true like a true pattern so um so it'll be really interesting but I think overall I think the research does show that by Tak a lot of the flavors um I was you know was helpful as well to answer that question yeah thank you for that that's great you know Barbara Jay you guys you know want to ask some questions yeah I've got a couple um before the questions though Kristen first of all thank you um the survey that you're talking about you said that was in Michael's newsletter oh I think so I think it was it might be a couple issues back um but I can tell I can tell you where to find it um yeah if on the um so on the um town website ash.com if you go I think to the government tab you can find the department of PR service okay and we have a and I like right up at the top um the link to the survey okay all right great thanks uh just two two questions about funding so um did is the town now covering everything that the drug free community Grant covered or just part of that budget so it covers um foring I guess I'll say like programming operations that's actually um being covered by a couple of different Pockets but not currently through the town budget budget um we still um have been very very fortunate to be recipients of funding through the state atmer the Senate President Sila um has been really great about putting money that goes to the town specifically for prevention so we have funding um for that to do like the um for um like programming and operations so the state nark does not allow um Personnel um we are also the recipient of um a couple Regional grants basically agion Grant is overseen by the city of Hudson and um we're commun so they provide some direct funding to town specifically and using some of that money in order to keep our coordinator on um and then I should say even though the drug free community Grant has ended we have a no cost extension so we can actually use some of that money through the end of June to complete some projects that we were not able to complete um but but currently no aside from um Staffing there is no of my job opportunities you know kind pull all the different like pieces together yeah you you cut out a little bit there Kristen at the end but um you you answered my question that uh the second question which was so it sounds like you're going to be looking for different funding opportunities in um going forward to okay sure yeah okay all right all right great thank you welcome and Dr Ron if I may you know I just want to add on on your question you know on the flavoring part right the ban on Flavor tobacco in Massachusetts mg is actually leading a study they're doing uh in Massachusetts uh about that you know like what impacts uh the ban on flavoring have uh you know and I was actually part of that study so when the data comes in I will provide it to the board you know so that's great thank you thanks Barbara anything no but I just want to say Christian you know thank you so much for the work you're doing in the schools and um you know I don't know where it would be without your help like from just what I hear from the students you know it's very helpful to have somebody to even go to talk to in the schools um which I don't know maybe with time maybe we can try to change some policies because the stories you hear is you know the kids vaping in the school like in the school bathrooms so somewhere you know that way they hold responsible if they're caught doing stuff like that so I know so my I keep getting a message that my um internet connection is unstable so I was hearing bits and pieces of that but um but I agree Barbara because um we had the the privilege of hearing for young students at our Retreat the other day they were an amazing group that um just kind of talked about um positive things as well their hopes their dreams but um and but also you know what concerns them and how adults can support them and a whole a whole host but one of the things that we did um here was sort of this um uptick a little bit we believe um in in vaping and I have to say but the schools have have been really great about addressing those issues as well so I think um having such supportive schools and having such thoughtful policies as well as having um Eliza who is you know part of decisions um being that person that can talk you know talk with a lot of young people I think is a really good um formula for some really good work going forward um yeah absolutely yeah all right that's great anybody else okay Kristen thanks um you're certainly welcome to stay you probably have a few better things to do but you know again you know just like the rest of the board said you you know you do a great job and you really are you know an a a part of the you know the Board of Health in my opinion you know you are even I don't know how many kids you've helped over the years but it's got to be a lot and however many you can keep off of those you know things or at least using alcohol responsibly and not smoking is you know one less kid that's going to have a good chance to have a lot longer healthier life that's for sure and I think it's important that you know that you continue to do this and that at least the kids that are going to listen to you you know that have a choice to kind of go either way are going to see that there's an adult that really cares we didn't have anything like this you know you just had your parents yelling at you you know so mine scared me so much I'm 62 I think I just found out about smoking in alcohol like two years ago so you know that's how it was but I I think to have you know this this whole basically community outreach program where parent there's a coalition between the students and the parents and you know concerned adults is um it's really you know awesome and you're you're not going to get everybody but you know whatever you do help it's it's really a you know they don't know it yet because they're that young but you know I see it all the time you know I see my my best friend's mom who smoked you know two packs a day for 40 years you know she is COPD she can't walk more than a foot without being winded you can't have enough oxygen tanks and to save any body from from that you know is you know it's it's it's really uh you know a worthwhile cause if you can help anybody so you know thank you for everybody well you the work the work could not be done without everyone I mean really it really is uh prevention is just it it's a it's a community sport really I mean we we need we need everyone everyone has a role everyone has a voice um you know so I'm just I'm just really I'm really grateful to be able to sometimes be the um you know the voice of it um but it's really everyone at the table that that makes it work so yeah of course thank you yeah thank you very much have a great holiday with your family thank you so much I am gonna pop off but um yeah absolutely happy holidays to everyone and I know I'll see you all soon thank you great thank you so much bye bye and I don't have to talk because Raj has to talk agenda item for the director's uh agenda that you sir what you got yeah thank you sir you're welcome so first is the house tree landfill the new company langon uh uh was out end of September to do the testing at the landfill uh the results was out and I've submitted it to the board also we have sent you a copy uh the results was similar to the last testing we had at the landfill and other than that we also tested the irrigation Wells that that's part of uh the testing you know I handle both the reports uh to the homeowners one is at uh six Dale Road and second one is at 4 Sandstone uh both the reports are good you know they they was happy so that's that's with the house tree landfill uh regarding the VFW uh I I've submitted the report to board again uh we we had a complaint that was on the sixth of the month you know regarding some Anan conditions and based on that I did an inspection and we have to temporarily put a seas and assist on their operations and I thank Dr J he was with me for the reinspection uh that uh uh we did on November 14th uh they their operations are back on I still have some few pending items uh that U I'm waiting I did get the pest control report after the inspection and few other items are pending hopefully they they solve them or correct them uh housing cases you know going on at Chestnut Place Apartments you know we have three open cases we picked up one more from last time uh definitely improvements you know but uh still still a lot of stuff going on you know and I'll keep the board informed uh we definitely have lesser complaints you know but some still some activity there still you know 137 Pawn Street uh no update from AG's office uh but the Building Commissioner have sent an order letter to the uh to the person who's who's living in that camper and uh I heard you know we had a holding task force meeting this afternoon that there was some activity there last evening you know once I've have the information from the police department uh I will update the board uh I have asked Police Department for that you know uh of one of the officers you know so hopefully get that report and I'll update the board I guess they found one of the brothers sleeping in the car you know but I'm I'm not positive I still have to get the report to update the board with the mil Pond uh I guess board was also copied on that as well right uh that the state uh they have won a party that have was interested to buy it I it seems the state have denied that transaction I I I don't know the reasons so we'll see like you know what they do uh last time I had conversation with them they said like there was eight residents there uh but I'll keep the board informed on that as well uh couple of restaurant changes you know change of ownerships at Las Kus and da queen that we are uh working on uh the uh next item is the flu covid clinic so so far this season we have done nine uh flu clinics uh Barbara been present at couple of them thank you Barbara uh eight of the clinics we did with Pine Hill Pharmacy uh and we have done 305 vaccines with them uh this is in addition to what we do our Wednesday clinic and one of other flu clinics we have done with our staff and we have expanded the vaccines we are offering at these clinics uh besides uh flu that we had offering for under 65 over 65 both kind of covid vaccine and now we are doing RSV as well uh shingles as well as tmas so these are five different kind of vaccines we are offering uh we have four more Clinic lined up uh this season uh the next one is on November 29th and we are planning another weekend Clinic that's not final but it's going to be on December 9th you know and once I have full information I'll inform the board but and then there is one for December 5 and December 13 so there these are four additional Clinic that we're doing with the pharmacy so overall I guess we're going to have uh 9 + 4 at least 13 clinics uh just for uh flu and covid uh this season along with our wday clinic for childhood vaccines last item westn virus cases uh and I'm I'm just glad you know that we have couple of hard Frost you know yeah uh so far in the whole state of Massachusetts we had 164 positive samples water samples for uh vile virus and six cases this year human cases uh six but no animal case you know similarly with Triple E we didn't had any human case or animal case but we did had 28 positive samples and hopefully we don't see anything more than this you know this season given the two hard frosts I guess that's all from me but I'm open for any questions for the board thank great anybody Jay Barbara no great Roger off the hook thank you very much as usual are you um are you happy with the new company for the yes sir so right very very good reputed company uh so but we did have a little bit of time in between you know finding the new company given you know all this Workforce you know Workforce situation going on you know but uh looks like very good company okay all right that's great thank you okay um moving on to the uh fifth the uh item can the consent agenda anybody like to make a motion to um approve the draft meeting minutes for September 19th and October 17 2023 um long as everybody was there or they read it as well as the fiscal report 202 Year year-to date budget we can pass both of those so Ron for the 17th yeah it looks like Barb let me just double check I was gonna say Barbara wasn't there I don't know about let me see the other one yeah that means okay hang on a sec uh so so we were all so we could approve September 19 SE 9 okay and the in the budget in you want to do that and I'll just make the motion we'll table the um yeah we can make a motion for that and then we'll I don't know separate motion to you know table the October 17th until we have a you know a fuller panel okay then I'll do I'll make the motion to approve the um let's see September 19 2023 meeting minutes um and uh the fiscal year 2024 year-to dat budget reports okay anybody named Barbara want to second that I'll second that okay thank you all all in favor I okay thank you um all right that's great and the uh the October 17th will'll just move that to the the next uh you know the next meeting whenever that is um which is great because we can talk about that I think December 19th you know sounds pretty good that would be is that the third Tuesday already I'm assuming that it is right so the it would be the fifth the 12th and the 19th so I don't know if every if anybody if everybody's going to be around I know I'll be around um we can always keep that pretty fluid you know Laura can let us know Raj can let us know any is anybody going away that can't make it I'll be here you'll be here okay yeah you'll be here too Barbara okay all right great so at least it'll be us three again so at least we can have the meeting and Raj will let us know if we need anything you know more urgently if we need to to do something you know in the earlier part of the month I will there's no um you know uh total five things we need to check out or other things um not at this moment so but if something comes along you know we'll definitely do that you know okay all right great I see Mr buman yeah Superman we missed you how you doing I don't think you can hear us yet hello Ed yeah hey Ed how are you sorry got stuck I'll fill you guys in after yeah that's okay one of those late ones we we're actually we're actually all set do you wanna you know you know so we appreciate it we waited for a while but yeah sorry that's okay not a problem it was it was uh well I'll tell you guys offline okay I'll text you guys all right all right well um that I asked everybody else what they were doing for Thanksgiving except for you what are you doing uh we made reservations nice where are you going um we we might be going to fireflies oh that's awesome all right yeah well that's great so um well everybody have a a great Thanksgiving and uh you know Raj Barbara edj thank you guys all Mark you as well for being an active participant you're uh you're always a good fixture on it nice to see that you know people like to uh you know take a listen and uh be involved in the Board of Health so we have the always the most important um motion we we'll make that for ED ED you want to uh make a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn all right there we go now anybody named Jay or Barbara can second that yeah I'll second that okay that's great all in favor I I okay I all right that passes for nothing Barbara I mean Laura you as well have a wonderful Thanksgiving I don't know why we can't hear you unless you're good now okay we still can't hear you but you're loved anyway have a great time with your family and we'll see everybody on the 19th all right all right thank you everybody Happy Thanksgiving see you later

e for a good um opportunity for me just go and do a walk through with school yeah for e for I think we're ready to call this meeting to order it is 6:30 on November 21st and we are meeting in the Dover Sherborn Middle School library before I read the Preamble are there any Community comments no one's there and no one's here okay so we're just going to get started and the first thing on our agenda is the superintendent comments um is Beth doing that or are you uh Beth is doing it okay hi everybody can you hear me yeah okay great um first of all thank you for your um leniency tonight and and zooming in from home I figured I'd try the technology on the other side just to make sure it works um and many thanks to Denny and Don and Kate for holding on the fort in central office this week um I know it's a lot on Denny tonight to be juggling uh the technology and Don I know tonight's your big night so I'm excited to be here to support you thank you um so Denny's going to project my slides and we'll make sure that you get a copy of these in the updated packet Denny let me know when you're ready yep I'll set okay great um so I just wanted to give you some updates on my goals as superintendent this year my first goal focuses on um a vision for teaching and learning and certainly I'm doing all of this work in partnership with Denny and our building leaders so as you know we have identified nine best practices across the district K to 12 and they're identified in this beautiful infographic that Denny created um and we are using these for a number of reasons and a number of ways this year our Educators have created goals around um these best practices and expanding their toolbox to implement these best practices in their classrooms the leaders have identified goals in how to support Educators in acquiring these best practices implementing these best practices perfecting them um and so as a leadership team we continue to bring our ideas back to the leadership table and calibrate what we're seeing during observations and how we give feedback to Educators in order to promote their professional growth and learning our building leaders are also using their monthly faculty meetings to highlight these best practices having Educators share what they're doing in the classroom so they can learn from the experts in the very classroom next door as to how they're supporting students to to own their learning um and putting students at the center of their learning each and every day and I'm sure you'll be hearing from Denny after next week's professional development day as a reminder we don't have school on Monday our educators will be engaging in professional development um right after Thanksgiving and we have a keynote speaker from AJ Giuliani who we leaned on very heavily during the pandemic when we were Reinventing teaching and learning so we're excited to be hosting him um he'll be talking to our Educators about how to put students at the center of their learning especially in an age where they're distracted by technology and we now have the challenges of artificial intelligence and then Denny has uh created workshops with the help of many experts both in person and on Zoom around all these best practices so again opportunities for educators to fill their toolboxes so we can see these best practices happening more often across more classrooms next slide yep all right um my second goal is around um showing progress and holding ourselves accountable to our strategic goals so um thanks again to Denny we've been working with open Architects to create a data dashboard it already has been um created and is an opportunity for our leaders to be looking at our mcast scores but we're hoping to also include additional standardized assess ments in information um including both AP information SAT information um but also information from the benchmarks that we use throughout the year especially at the primary level around math and literacy so that we can track our students growth and provide interventions to make sure that they're continuing to make progress towards benchmarks we'll be able to see attendance and discipline information um throughout the year and then as we conduct surveys with our students on a more qualitative level around social emotional Wellness um student health and well-being around sleep um student engagement homework we'll be able to look at this information too so with all of the goals that we talked about last year through Dei and making sure that we're looking at the success of all of our students across academic social emotional and behavioral Realms we'll be able to track and monitor progress through this dashboard so we're very excited about that the third goal is around transparent communication so I'm sure um last month you saw my superintendent's newsletter come out um this will continue to come out hopefully um on a bimonthly period I've held three of four office hours for parents and community members to drop in um bring ideas ask questions and just engage in conversation they've been held in the mornings in the evenings on various days of the week hopefully to provide all people regardless of their schedules an opportunity to check in um so far I've been able to attend three of the four school's PTO meetings just to give an update on the district strategy and our goals and what's happening in the district again taking questions and feedback I'll be going to the last PTO meeting at chering um in December um I met with the Sherburn Council on Aging last month and a meeting with the Dober Council on Aging in January again to provide information on all the wonderful things that are happening in our schools um answer questions engage in conversations so that all of our taxpayers and stakeholders have IDE of what's happening in the schools um in the lines of communication I attended the U Massachusetts Association of school superintendent conference last week it was held in coordination with masc and I went specifically to attend two workshops um from the communication specialist Chris um horen who I worked with in Boston the first one was on how to address um and communicate about polarizing issues within a school district I will say say that much of the advice uh he provided in terms of how to navigate polarizing uh issues we follow black St so we will continue to do our best to bring our community together around difficult topics and find common ground in how to support our kids the second um Workshop I attended was around how to keep the district strategy at the Forefront of all that we do so I have lots of ideas on how to uh continue to keep our goals and progress on our goals at the center of our website center of our school committee meetings and my newsletters so that everybody knows what it is that we're working on and how we're making progress we're hoping to bring Chris to the district um in January to meet with a larger leadership team about how better to communicate um at the school level um our principales spend a lot of time trying to communicate information out to their parents but we want to make sure that we are using our time and energy and resources effectively so that the information that our parents and caregivers is getting are getting um is um bit-sized enough and informative enough about the topics that they want to hear to make sure that everybody knows what it is that we're working on at the school level um and how we're supporting their kids lastly on this topic um I've app plowed to be part of the lead now um cohorts lead now is an organization that is bringing together superintendent from across the country to learn how to be proactive with communication reactive with communication and problems solve around um issues with communication they're having in our districts so I've applied to be the next cohort um I will know in January whether or not I've been chosen and I'm hopeful for the opportunity to collaborate not only with um superintendent from Massachusetts but Across the Nation as we all face similar problems [Music] um met Cod 2.0 so Denny and I had the opportunity to attend the metco leadership um uh Retreat excuse me a few weeks ago with all of the metco leaders um from our area it was held at jillette stadium and it was an opportunity for us all to come together after a lot of work that's been done done by Meco headquarters around reminding uh districts and re-engaging districts in what it means to be a Meco community and our commitment to all students in terms of developing an inclusive and Equitable School environment for all of our students to attend um I'd love to share you with you this quick video that was developed by metco just as a reminder of our commitment as a community to um our Boston students of auson families and what it means moving forward um in terms of our work so Denny racism has been very bold in recent years people are losing their lives walls are being built children are being separated from their but the me can be bolder and stand up for racial Justice after George Floyd was killed we developed an anti-racism road map we're embarking on a journey toward a vision we call Meco 2.0 where every student in a Meco District receives an inclusive Equitable and anti-racist education every student Meco 2.0 means changing improving enhancing the work that we do each day in our schools let's ask ourselves how can we do better by breaking down racial barriers and stereotypes by diversifying our teachers by creating inclusive and representative Curriculum by building interracial friendships by implementing restorative justice practices and by preparing students for a diverse Workforce we cannot end racism but we can make the experiences of all students better by implementing small and large changes our founder Ruth Batson said business as usual as a way of life must be totally discredited we have to continue to evolve as individuals as a community as a school system and as a world Meco is not a Boston program this is just our mode of transportation Meco mobilizes people people's hearts and people's minds being a mea Community carries a lot of respons ability we are the largest voluntary School integration program in the United States people see us as a model for school integration you are participating in something special and unique as long as the community begins to see it that way then every decision that you make will benefit everyone in the community Meo was Grassroots then and it's Grassroots now what is your role in this next chapter of Meco 2.0 remain inspired to do this work be intentional about your approaches and insist that change can [Music] happen right it's all set Beth okay thank you so that's a good note now that I'm experimenting on the other side of the screen um people on the screen bu can't hear the video when you're playing it so just a note um for people watching from home um so lastly I just want to mention an update about the calendar task force um goalie is your official representative on the the calendar task force goalie I'm not sure if you want to provide the update or I'm happy to sorry um um I I'm sorry I didn't prepare anything but I can um if you want to give an update I can also add anything needed okay thank you so as you know um the calendar task force has been meeting since the spring it's con um it includes students faculty members parents community members and school committee members and you test us with the um the job of looking at our school calendar with an attempt to be more inclusive of the many um observances and celebrations that our community engages with throughout the year we've done a lot of work including uh sending out surveys to students staff and families and I think I mentioned we had over 7 100 responses which was a lot of information to to uh synthesize and analyze we've also done a lot of research in terms of what local comparable districts are doing including uh those that we compete with in the sports arena because certainly schedules need to align there um we had our last meeting a few weeks ago and we engaged in really deep conversation about wanting to reach back out to the stakeholders one more time uh to collect additional more detailed information as we move forward in doing that and as we start to think about questions that we were going to craft around whether or not we should revert to a calendar that only recognizes um holidays mandated by the government or whether or not perhaps we should um consider the holidays that we've included in the calendar that aren't required maybe some of them be taken off and replaced with others we realize that given what's happening in the world right now that this is a very difficult conversation to be having around holidays and who to celebrate and who should have time on the calendar um and so we have asked um goalie being your representative to come back to each of the three School committees and and just ask if we can put this committee on pause at least for the short term um until we get through the holidays and perhaps catch our breath and can go back up to the balcony and think about the task it is that you gave us and how best to move forward um given the raw emotions and feelings of everything happening and how we can use this as an opportunity to bring our community together as a as opposed to um causing additional um strife and division I'm not sure if I missed anything no thank you so much uh for the detailed up uh updates be um as uh Beth mentioned we had um a lot of deep conversations we looked at the surveys and um in um in our last meeting we we were not sure if it's a good time at this right now to ask um to send out another survey asking if um if families are like the one of the options is having the mandatory just mandated holidays as our school holidays and uh we thought it's not a good time to act to ask this question um from our families thank you goalie so um sure we or I am happy to take any questions about the goals update or Meco 2.0 about the calendar task force um at this time any questions I don't think there are any questions Beth thank you all right well thank you you know where to find um goalie and me if you have any questions or follow up perect thank you yeah please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about the task uh calendar task force perfect thank you both um Don I'm going to hand it over to you to present the warrant report and the fiscal year 24 monthly report great thank you um in your packet is your monthly uh routine monthly uh warrant reports again uh thank Liz for stopping by uh town hall and signing those on behalf of the school committee uh and again if there's any ever desire to look at the detail in these particular warrants um there we definitely keep copies at central office so always feel free if you want to just explore a little further uh what makes up sort of your operating expenses that does come in handy you know as we start talking about the budget to sort of see the ins and outs so um I'll just add that little comment um on the monthly report which I think is going to be another good tool for you for looking at your budget is that you can see where we are coming in um towards budget through November 16th Uh I that is actually a date where we had just posted a warrant had just posted payroll so I wanted to make sure you had the most up-to-date information that we could provide um as I have done in the past on your um Business Report anything that is new information will be in bold other than that I carry the narrative forward because a lot doesn't change and it's always there as a good reference tool for you from month to month uh so really the only new thing I have to share on both salaries expenditures and out of District which is a good note um since our last meeting is that uh as they've settled into school and they've looked at the needs of the students we did increase your OT um FTE needs at chering by Point 2 um what how we were able to do that is that we do have districtwide shared staff members which allows us to sort of have them on staff and then if when school starts and we see what the case load is we can allocate them based on where the need is uh so this is an existing person who's in the system who's case load just got switched a little bit based on the schools and so you picked up an additional Point too that is reflected in your financial statements um really other than that it was only a month in between and um your uh a lot of things are just operating as we thought they were so that's actually positive um also you have in this month's uh report your quarterly statement for your special um revenue and revolving funds um um so this can just shows you sort of the roll forward of those funds um from July 1st through September 30th and a couple of these will come up uh you'll note that uh I I pointed out that we added the second preschool this year and that it was being covered by the revolving fund this allows you to sort of see how the finances are working at that so what is incumbered actually are the the full year it's what's been expend what's been expensed so far for payroll and what's um expected to be uh incurred through the end of the school year so they can see we're really going to be pulling from the fund just under 125,000 for the year so we had the funds to do that and that's how we'll operate the second classroom that we have at uh chck ring any questions on that probably not pretty straightforward again I think um when you start you know spending more time with your budget book it's actually good also then to look at the uh where we stand because you have your 23 actual in the budget book then this will give you at least a peak into 24 as you look at what the budget is for 25 actually done quick question on the unexpected additional out of District placements were all those uh incoming like kindergarteners or those were people in the school district that ended up moving out of the school district the like there were six more than no it it was um majority were um in District that just got placed out okay um where I think there was um there was one no the move in actually was reflected last year so it was really just changes in student needs um for um between last school year and this school year any other questions okay we do not have any discussion items this meeting but so we'll move on to the action items so don if you would like to continue with the proposed fiscal year 25 budget exactly um so hopefully you had some an opportunity to spend some time with your your budget book over the weekend or or at least um on Sunday um just to sort of step back a little bit and give you some insight as to the process that we follow for building a budget uh we sort of Kick the process off in mid October third week of October and at that point in time it sits in the building hands um and so your building Administration meets with their curriculum leaders um with other departments um that are operating in the school and they sort of say okay what do you need how's how's your budget looking now um it's an opportunity for them to sort of reflect as well and bring forward any new requests or where they can see that we need that something's not being used anymore and we can reduce the budget um with that while they're doing that in central office we're actually building the budget on the payroll side and I will tell you we do it employee by employee so um payroll rolls into the budget based on where we are now um advances staff into um the steps and Lanes where they will be for fiscal year 25 and now that we have all the contracts it's great because we know exactly uh where things are going so these this is the easier side of the budget to do uh because we don't have to um wonder what what the contracts are going to be so just so you know payroll then is built up employee by employee um and then uh we come together and have a meeting with uh everyone in central office and the building chck room building Administration and discuss um what they have come back from their buildings with and we'll talk more high level to about staffing needs both at the special education level and the Genet level new initiatives that we may be contemplating so that we can pull all that information together and put um our best sort of foot for forward as to your first version and we try to capture everything even if we're contemplating it because this is sort of the first budget that's going to go to the town and it's going to sort of earmark the funds that they sort of set aside for us so you don't want to come in January and say oh well we we want to add the math program now or or such so we throw everything in this first version and now we have until um march to sort of have some of that sort of sift out uh so that's sort of what we sort of do to sort of get to the point where you're getting your budget book um and then if you look at the components um we sort of give you an overview of of the budget itself uh a higher level statement where you can just sort of see the main categories and at least that gives you sort of a um a highlevel look at the budget in the categories without looking at all the details um we it's very important that we share with you the town's budget guidelines I also think as a citizen L it's great to read because it sort of gives you a sort of the big picture look at what the town is is dealing with right now coule issues that they' notify uh us about and just sort of their approach to the budget and I think it makes you realize that we are a big part of the budget and sort of our fiscal responsibility to know to understand what the town is dealing with on a bigger picture um so that we are sort of a collaborative partner in that process so I think that's great reading and I will say that the a recommendation that they sort of are given all the Departments are sort of the steps that we follow anyway um as you see they say look at your fiscal year 23 actual versus your in your 24 budgets as you're contemplating your budget that's exactly what we do and we provide you with all information um so that you can do that as well uh Dober is usually uh very generous and that they tell you to do level service so no matter what it costs theoretically they want us provide the same level of service Service uh where another uh funding option could be level funded so we're going to you keep the same amount of money and you just figure out how you're going to make that work so it is very advantageous on the Dover side that it's level service but they also want you to be physically responsible um and so I do believe when you start looking at our budget you'll see where we have made some cuts um because we know we don't need the money and then that helps where we do need to ask for more money um in addition I think this is the opportunity that you get to see like every line item in our budget um and how it sort of rolls up to the bigger piece um and that is in your tab two and then also to supplement tab two you have your summary of Staffing and then the summary of Grants um and we'd like to share the summary of Grants because that is money that's outside of the operating budget should for any reason we lose any of those grants you understand the financial ramification of what we might have to make up in the general fund so so it's good to just sort of have that we're lucky and that the biggest piece that we rely on is the special ed um Grant the 240 where we do put for EAS so if that Grant ever went away then that's you know Staffing that we'd have to um build into the general fund so it's good to see that there's funds that we get from state and federal um to supplement your budget but also understand that those happen to go away sort of the financial um implications of that again I think one of the um important pieces and I'll go through we'll talk about this but I just want to sort of walk through what's in your budget book is um tab three is the enrollment uh both a 10-year historic and the 5-year projected again we're built on our budget's based on who is coming to us for services um in the fourth tab is looking at out a district gives you a little bit more insight into um that budget number and your fifth tab is your capital budget which you approved in October so it's there for reference only right now until we make any further um decisions on the flooring this is what has been sent to Capital um and at some point Liz they'll request us to have a meeting um and we can go talk the capital about our Capital so getting into sort of the where we are with the fiscal year 25 um budget again the assumptions are that we have level enrollment based on fiscal year 24 uh we obviously follow the compliance with the town budget guidance um we work towards you know to make sure that we're in lined with the alignment with the district strategy because that's very important right the strategy is where we want to go so we want to make sure that where we're putting our financial resources is going to get us there um we continue to sort of assess student needs and postco especially at the elementary level um and so we take into considerations and there as far as educational supports additional curriculum supports that we need to do and as I just mentioned um just keeping our eyes on the entitlement grants um just so that you're aware of that component of your budget so overall we're looking at a 8.83 per increase just a little under a million dollars and um recall that we sort of look at our budget in two pieces one is the operating budget of checkering itself and the second component are students ages 3 through 22 who are do residents who are educated outside the uh District um because there's that's actually sort of beyond our control and so we obious look two components we've got the elementary component and then the outer District component um just for Jesse and Martha for the new members um the region here itself doesn't cover any out of District expenses in their budget it sits at the Two Towns so Sherbon covers all Sherbon residents at their Elementary oh budget and you cover all of doers and that's in the regional agreement and that way you're actually sharing your each town is responsible for the expense of their residents versus coming to the region and sharing it based on enrollment and who makes those decisions about how the placements work the placements so we um we have an outed district coordinator uh who reports to Kate McCarthy who's the director of student services so there's a team okay um so if you're on a individual education plan and IEP uh it could be that that's the recommendation uh you've been evaluated and we might not be able to accommodate your learning disabilities and there's a place better suited for you to to grow and learn um and so that's where um then they will go out and send packets to various um educa private and and up public some Public Schools do have uh special education programs that accept students from other districts um and so then that they are then placed um we are because we're a small school district it's a lot of times we have to place students out because we don't have a cohort of students in that programming that they need Y and you want them to be with peers um and so that's what you'll see a lot of times we um if you only have one or two students then they're best probably served in a different learning environment but then again we're trying to invest more in our programming as you know we talked about um a couple of Dober students who are attending the goals program at Pine Hill yep so that's an added that's sort of a IND District program that do student are eligible to go to which is great because it sort of keeps them in their home District sure um but gets them in a program with cohorts and with the Staffing they need to to be successful the cost per student is really high it varies yeah um it can go anywhere from uh let's say I would say like 40 now is our least expensive and it could go all the way up to hundreds of thousands of dollars um because we also have residential students so there'll be students who are in a program 365 days of the year and those are anywhere from like 3 to 700,000 so uh part of that and and and I'm happy to have like a finance 101 meeting with you is just talk about the circuit breaker reimbursement so there is some State Relief from those um students who cost at that level uh so anything that's over say $5,000 I think it's about the threshold right now so we'll spend $50,000 if the placement is 100,000 50,000 of that is eligible for reimbursement and we get 75% of that back so when we talk about circuit breaker reimbursment we're estimate that we're going to see like a million dollars that's money coming back to us of tuitions that we paid in the previous year so there is a mechanism to help districts with the to sort of manage the finances of out a district so it's not coming all on the tax players of the Town um so as I said we are looking at about just a little a little under a million and you're at uh a 5% increase for your IND District just to give you sort of a comparison that's almost exactly where we started last year for version 1.0 and then you can see we ended up at 4.63 um because again we start at the high point and things that can happen hopefully will only benef benefit us coming um bringing that budget number down um the Adda district and as you know we've been having um a a pretty large negative variance this year so you would expect to see an increase in the budget uh for uh fiscal year 25 is about 20% and that is up over just the one almost under 2% that we had last year you will see um definitely wild swings in that a district um due to new placements uh we can have years where we have several students graduating or um aging out in 23 um your out of District budget was down half a million so it's not uncommon to sort of see some some big swings both ways um it's just the nature of also the small number of students that we have in this population can make it swing uh so looking at the um IND District operating budget obviously we took a a cut at just telling you a little bit about the key budget drivers um obviously people payroll is 87% of your budget um and so that's the easy piece right now to sort of um uh to sort of at least budget for version 1.0 if you remember you approved um all the contracts last spring and you're looking at contractual increases and the majority of them at 3% um in addition for your Educators there's the step increase which can range anywhere from 4 to 9 so if you look at it this way there are some um staff members who could be be getting either like the 3% because they're on the top step or closer to like 7 to 12% so I would say the majority if you're in the Matrix are getting 7% increase and there's a couple little areas where it does Spike um and Jeff being on negotiations you're probably aware that there's just certain movements in the The Matrix that have a higher increase um but that's where you have to just keep that in mind and the seniority of your staff has a big difference on what you're going to see in payroll increases um coupled with that is when you add staff so we are in this budget requesting a05 FTE to make the math coach at both Pine Hill and chering be a 1.0 um and that is built into this budget uh that's approximately uh $50,000 increase and then you're also making up for all the post uh fiscal year 24 budgets so if you go back to your monthly report you'll see that we did some uh some conversions of some positions from contracted services to FTE that's also in your Staffing report but those now have been worked into the salary side of things versus the operating which is going to show it's going to give you a larger increase um in salaries um in addition um any retirements that may come forward for next year we reflect inversion 2.0 we do have an early retirement incentive for the Educators if they let us know by November 1st um they'd be eligible for $5,000 uh early retirement payment but they have until February 1st to resend that um so we don't make any of those impacts on the budget until after the February 1st date rolls around so you'll see those in your March um meeting um the other really I think the biggest budget driver on the operating side is the proposed adoption of the new math curriculum um and so we're putting it in here now as Denny's been telling you it's sort of in the early stages we're still running the second year of the pilot um but we took a we did get estimates of what it would cost to take one of the pilots and Implement at K5 um and so Ching's piece of that is about 72,000 the way that I think a lot of the vendors are packaging things right now and um Mass General law has allowed municipalities school districts specifically to take advantages to do package prices so that 72,000 actually represents five years worth of um so you're buying the curriculum plus all the supplies for 5 years um but you have to purchase it in the first year so you'll see that spike in the first year but then you won't really have any math curriculum you might have to supplement a little bit but the majority of it um you won't see in K so it's it's good and bad for municipalities because you hate to have that Spike and then have four years with nothing and then have to have the spike again um but the spike the next time won't shouldn't be as great um because we're just going to be picking up the supplies the workbooks and that's what we do right now in Everyday Math so we'll have a little bit of a break for four years and then pick it back up it'll be picking up the supplies so so that we'll have at a further presentation just cuz yes yes that's still that's good to budget for it now but we don't know we don't know and so um in I think in the you know in the um memo we sort of say there would be a full presentation on this we're thinking in the January February time frame and we envisioned both Ella both Dober and Sheard School committees having it together that's great since it'll be implemented together across the school so to the5 coach there's currently one one currently.

oh I hear [Laughter] nothing I think I'm getting some feedback is it because I'm closed MJ no I hear [Music] nothing think I'm getting some feedback is it because I'm no it's the TV talk now now does it sound good yeah it sounds good okay cool can we check the mics really quick MJ just to go over a little bit now does it sound good that sounds good okay cool can we check the mics really quick MJ just to go over a little bit can you come here MJ it can you hear me do I can hear you let's see if we don't get no feedback that yeah that's what I'm looking listening to see can you hear me at all Echo that's so MJ should we shut down the meeting and restart it yeah do you want me to do that um maybe because I'll have to re we shut down the meeting and restart it sure sure sure yeah do you want me to do that it's 5c delay have to we shut down the meeting and restart it

um yeah oh so it's it's actually out out of the district it's off off site very nice and any idea how many people you already have signed up we have around 150 and our last date for sales is tomorrow morning wow that's wonderful to get a little bit more good congratulations congratulations on bringing it back and having such a nice event thank you very much that's great on that note I'm going to make a motion to approve the consent agenda for November 21st 2023 I'll second Mr capano and Mr terach is that correct okay okay excuse me one minute I like to get just uh Mr rort you there yes I'm here okay uh requesting your vote for approval okay is that a yes Mr Ring Court yes it is okay thank you Mr rine Court I'm going to put your back off uh I'm going to mute you again uh Mrs Abu make it in okay Mr capano yes Mrs Fredo Mr garciaa yes Mr nadw yes but uh on page eight I'm going to abstain for Mrs nadw okay thank you for that Mr Dr pontano yes and Mr terot okay so move anything else Dr P no Dr okay adjourn no you I'll make a motion to adjourn second okay thank you we just got to go over a few things uh yeah just one second sure I have to run to and just to share with the public Mr sa oh I'm sorry we'll be going into executive session so you can you can leave this portion thank you always nice seeing you here though thank you thank you

76 miscellaneous gifts and donations uh fames friends of David M's Library 9,332 71 for the book fair uh Lisa Ben dagel $25 for helping our own fund and Greg rean $30 for helping our own fund for a total of 9,895 47 thank you motion to approve uh motion to approve the gifts and donations as presented second all in favor Paul hi Aon hi Tina hi hi Mark hi uh Committee Member updates Paul uh let's see uh so have met for a while um trying to look through I know there's been a several different things um what was our last meeting there we go uh so I did they had the Halloween parade this year first time going to the uh to the new school so I I did I did pop over for that that was pretty cool um let's see I know there's a couple other things we had a safety committee meeting and I've attend at U uh the concert and sorry should been more prepared here um the went to the El night um that that they had at Mendes which was again a success and and thanks Christie and everyone for you know we've been talking about how we engage uh our population families and and we haven't had much success but since since uh since Christie's started that it's been very successful we had uh I don't know how I don't know what the numbers are but we had uh ended up being over 100 folks with parents and kids nice yeah great um and I guess the big thing is I shared it with you we did uh open the playground yesterday or yeah yesterday to uh to the school so the Bus Loop and playground are now uh fully operational they won't use the Bus Loop until I think after after break but but uh they've been there's been kids out on the playground and everybody's really excited to have a have a legitimate playground to use and as opposed to just running around in the in the dirt and and I'm assuming uh Mike and Randy and everyone all the custodians at Mendes are going to like that as well because say everybody does laundry at home right well the if you walk the hallways over at that end of the building where they come in from current recess it's it's a disaster so they had the work cut out for them so I'm sure they're they're going to appreciate the not having to sweep up all that stuff all all the time so they just waiting for waiting for the um pavement to sort of Harden before they drive on it no just uh planning and and when you make changes for the bus drivers and and for the parents and and stuff like that uh yeah so and they didn't we we've been really pushing to get that turned over so it wasn't until I trying to remember when I told Jenna gave her the news I think it was I think it was Thursday I uh Thursday evening last Thursday evening I gave her the news that we'd give it to her on Monday so she didn't have a lot of I I told her we were we were pushing for that but until we had all our ducks in a row and and and all sign off so couldn't give it to her so uh scheduling the fence to get taken down and all that stuff so so it's just be prudent they've uh they haven't had a full recess out there yet uh they've been bringing the each of the classes out there going over the the rules and and and having them have some some lower key experiences on it and before they unleash the uh the masses on it so you pleased with how it turned out yeah it's it's if you haven't been over there it's it's beautiful it's it's you know we designed it on paper and and we rendered it and I think it actually exceeds that so it's it's pretty cool to see that's awesome that's awesome yep I have a fifth grader that's been getting his instructions like small groups going out and getting what are the new rules what how do you play on certain pieces of equipment and that sort of stuff so I believe they might be as a special for the half day tomorrow I think they might be doing a a full recess except the weather say that's why they did it last two days they pushed it up yesterday yeah they shifted the Turkey Trot until today of the weather well it' be nice to come back from vacation um yes so uh the uh Safety Committee um met and so the Cadence on that will be monthly the first Thursday the first Thursday of every month yeah whatever that one was um and so that'll be the Cadence going forward um there's more discussions about Alice certifications and this trickle down um methodology of essentially teach the teacher and then having fa having admins being our inhouse staff for that and then having that trickle done and through um PD in the building um but poent I know you were researching bringing somebody in as well um so we'll probably after the December meeting have an update to share on that um and uh first kids night out in the actual building um in mindes was a success and I think I was stuck in a corner doing face paint it was wonderful I love seeing all the kids but um you know just seeing the kids so excited and like exploring their new space and having it clean and bright it was just wonderful so again more kudos for you yeah I did stop over to that they didn't put on my calendar so I forgot to mention it but yeah it was it's the loudest I've ever heard that cafeteria because they had the dance they had the the dance party going on in there it was it was really loud up in the media room watching and just I I did I did I did go up there and look uh you know and stuff like that but they also um and and thanks to to Len for doing this so I I connected uh Jenna with with Len and he had his hooked up his telescope up on the so she was taking small groups of students up on uh the roof uh the the outdoor uh outdoor space on the roof uh and looking at the moon and and having conversations so she was really excited about that and uh so thanks Len for doing that so I probably should have you know thanks for reminding me about Koo I you wanted to mention that as well um so let's see uh lots of things going on this month so I was able to also attend the eel um night last week it was great it was really nice to see all the families um there and engaging with one another with the The Faculty um and the the administration and to to see all the kids too like they uh every they were having fun uh which was nice so it was nice to see them all in the building um I also attended the ashack meeting um this past month with you know there was a a a robust discussion about a number of different things Britney is the one who who tends to answer most of their questions and share a lot of information with them um there was a lot of discussion about um the 18 to 22 program um that Britney is working on um so she was sharing you know kind of some of her thoughts about that it's still in the planning phases um but you know a lot parents had a lot of questions in terms of what that was going to look like you know we also disc discussed um you know different survey results and and whatnot things that ashack had been doing and one of the questions um they had for me is in terms of some clarification on Jim's goal they know they had uh listened to the meeting and had some questions about the goal around um attendance um and looking at absenteeism chronic absenteeism so we discussed kind of what that goal meant um and how it it came out of a state directive and and and what that means and so I think um you know between Britney and I I think we were able to to to answer any questions um you know that they that they had um and so it was good it was a it was a a nice robust meeting um I also had the opportunity like Paul to attend the the high school band concert was actually high school and middle school so they had the seventh eth and high school bands play uh which was nice the eighth graders get the opportunity to play with the high school kids at the fall concert so they enjoyed that um the uh the AHS uh drama club also had a a a performance this past weekend it was a very very unique play um and I'm going to say the name wrong it was either she kills monsters or she something with I'm I apologize that I don't have the correct name but it was a really unique play and it was very um they did a very good job on it it touched on some sensitive topics and and walked through a lot of different things and they they did a really good job of making it very entertaining um and and in dealing with with the issues that the that the story dealt with um there was also we had a number of kids from the high school school this past weekend audition for um districts for Central districts for both band um and chorus and there's a huge group of kids from Ashlin who and I I apologize that I don't have the list here to read it but who were selected to be part of either the band The Orchestra or the chorus um for Central districts and a number of them were also offered um auditions for all states and does one of them live in your house one of them does live in my house yes um so we're very proud of him congratulations thank you thank you're allowed to brag here and you know and a couple of the students were actually you know not they didn't just make the band or the orchestra but they were placed as the principal instrument player in their instrument for all of Central District so they they had a great showing yeah they had a really great showing at District auditions this weekend so um you know Mr Maul and um Miss nameth is that right is is that the right teacher thank you um you know have should be very proud that their students had a great showing so excellent congratulations yeah thanks so said two things um one the uh masc conference did go on without all of you um so I was down at the conference from Wednesday through midafternoon Friday um a number of actually interesting speakers a lot of content about Dei programming um some of which quite frankly seemed a little basic and and but probably also appropriate for people who are like new to the school committees that Etc um and also very interesting speaker from MIT around um Ai and sort of the the challenges where we are with with um what's a term not iterative generative uh Ai and sort of what it is what it isn't which maybe some of you already know um the challenges that that face education with it um but but interesting very interesting speakers so a couple of good ones I wasn't able to go to a lot of EX I have my work a hat on for you know for 75% of the conference but um but good programs and and I did spend some time with the folks from Grafton as usual so um awesome and then the other thing I'll just share um by way of update for um Paul Aaron and youori is we do have um dates to start collective bargaining negotiations in early January um and Jim Tina and I need to schedule time to get in a room and talk through that a little bit but um that is forthcoming and then when once we met with them and have an understanding of what they're looking for we'll have an executive session to to talk about how to respond that's what I've got excellent um I also attended the El U dinner the other night uh hudos to christe and her team they did an excellent job it was nice seeing so many people out and and enjoying that beautiful building um I attended the Warren sight Council um we also had some good communic iations about how to um you know welcome people into that building and what's the best way to do that is it through um you know a food night or or a dance night or and and and parents had some really good feedback about communication and I shared that it's something that we've been working on you know forever really truly um and um a parent shared and it's something that we've talked about here before but especially as our community becomes more diverse um people coming from different places that there aren't the same expectations in some places about the involvement in in school at the educ and your kids school education whatever so there are um you know there I think there are some folks that aren't really sure what's appropriate and you so it's it's just helping us understand I think we need to have some cultural training or sensitivity about about that so that we can best Reach Out um and then we need to continue to find ways to I'm just going to excuse myself my airplane that I have to meet is um coming in earlier than expected get on the road and that that's all I have anyway so um I I should have mentioned uh just like I I did attend the Mendes site Council they also talking about um different ways to celebrate the diversity and and and and the inclusion and and had some robust conversations Happy Thanksgiving around some of that stuff so uh want to give them the the nod that they're working on those things as well yeah it's nice to see those conversations happening at the building level um it's like we need portrait of a guardian in addition to like theps and the portrait of The Graduate of like hey here's like normal behavior between like you know your child's teacher of like hey can we talk about this like maybe emailing them every day and badgering them is not the right way to go you know like certain kind of the social norms that you know I think some especially coming from a different country you may just be hesitant to begin with right and then I've always thought and I I've said this to you all privately like as a school Committee Member knowing what our teachers go through I personally hold back and if I had like a document that's like here's what's normal and okay like I maybe would have engaged more you know I think that's really hard to figure out what's normal and okay for right that's I think that's that's a that gets into a really slippery slope yeah but I think what's what it part of I guess the work is it's not just about the tools and how you reach out it's about how it's been received and understanding who you're reaching out to and what their needs are and it's not uh like one size fits all in our community which is a beautiful thing but it just means that we have to put some effort into understanding and looking at what we can control and how we can contribute to that relationship exactly like I like in Kelly's not uh I don't know if it's in the daily announcements but I think it's in her weekly thing she talks about like go here first then here then finally come to me if you have an issue like I think that's really good gu yeah sometimes it's nice to have a road map so as far as um action items Jim is it you're planed to have like one um one one or two each meeting for the Improvement plan so we started with the high school and we'll keep going I knew was the most prepared yeah so just know what to anticipate going forward so that's all I know that's um that we should add to action items and other than the normal stuff that we our next meeting is December 8th I think town meeting is the 29th town meeting is November November 29th 29th December 8th did you say that's a Friday no 6 six sorry the second Wednesday so the second Wednesday is actually the 13th no it's aren't we on first and third yeah we were second and fourth okay cuz I have the 13th and the 27th it's the 13th yeah yeah the 13th is our next meeting yep that's what I have from Gretchen that's what I have as well 13th and 27th okay is vacation week so we won't we won't be meeting on the 27th so we'll just have one meeting in December and it will be on the 13th time meeting is the 29th right correct yes y um and if we have any business that comes up in the next could right right if we need right and and it sounds like so far into the future but not really so if we're not meeting till December 13th then that would be the time to start talking about whether we're going to have a meeting in January talking about the budget right right we're just in that process we have a meeting next week yeah with ad okay all right I'll take motion to adjourn second all in favor I I I thank you good night everybody good night Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving so Jim do you want you and I to look

five yes among both schools that are 1.0 that's shared ah and so each school is adding an additional 0.5 so each school would have a 1.0 specifically for the math curriculum specifically for ma whatever as an expert in the decided program well not not necessarily but it's someone who's already working so we already have a math coach who been working with um the Educators to coach in the class got it together so not not necessarily because of the curriculum classroom it's just to have well I think it's going to definitely when you implement a new you're going to need extra support yeah that makes um and I do think that even without that they're seeing the need that it would be nice to have a 1.0 you have a 1.0 literacy coach okay um so that would equate Ela with math and probably um give you a little bit more building support it's great to have them work across the buildings uh it's for that um consistency but I think at this point especially with a new math curriculum it makes sense to have a dedicated person in the building because there will be a lot of of uh PD a lot of questions about the new curriculum so I think it's going to give you a better um sort of starting point to make it be as strong as we can if you've got that person there to support it but if we decide that it's not this year for that program that might be postponed as well maybe but as I said I think that was something that was coming up and I think it only is is more solidly supported with the math curriculum but it's definitely something a need they see now so that piece could stay but I think that's where the presentation will bring it all together hopefully for us um and uh then we'll see where we'll go but that's we made sure we put uh K through five full implementation in there so that we were only coming down and not have to worry about going up because it could be that you know they decide to do something K2 something different than that but um we want to go for the whole the whole shebang right now to to at least have the placeholder in the budget um and then the majority of all of our other operating counts um luckily were at remain at or below funding you will definitely see a lot of red where we went and looked at the threee act the three last threee actuals looked at where we are in 24 right now some line items we could pinpoint something we are no longer using so if I did that we made that comment uh specifically we moved our IEP um uh uh management system from an outside into Aspen which is already our our student information system anyway so that annual fee could come out of all three schools so wherever we can we sort of we do pull out those um numbers that we know we just don't leave that padded in your budget um and I think you can see that when the the different line items were you do see reductions if we have an increase for any particular reason we try to give you a little more background as to why we're having an increase in that line item um obviously in enrollment um how many students we have dictates how many special how many classroom sections we have how many specialists we need so that is definitely a key um budget driver which is why we give you the 10-year historical and then the five-year projections um just a little bit of background about the five-year projections we uh use a formula where you look at in migration and out migration all as of October 1st so we look at the October 1st of each of the years you can see what the grade was the year before what the grade became you look at take that percentage and that's looking at both students who came new to the school and the students who left so it gives you a blended average um and that's what the percentages are at the top so if you see something over a hundred that means from grade from year to year that grade grows and if you see a number below 100 it could either be for that particular year or over the three-year period That's a grade where we typically might see a decline um and so at least gives you sort of a forecast the one number that is in there right now that sort of skews it a little bit is kindergarten so we just use a threeyear average um but we know that number can be something other than the threeyear average um in the somewhere in mid December is when the uh school gets the sort of the initial census from the town's um clerk's office um and so we'll have a better feel of what that number is like last year it was in the ' 50s um so so that's where doing a three-year average and putting 70 in there could be overstating it uh but the kindergarten is always one of those things that it's hard to sort of know exactly um where it's going to be you can have your senses but then you also know parents can hold kids back there could be kids that we don't know about that are on the censes um but we'll have a better feel of that too when we meet in January we should have an updated number for you for kindergarten um at the bottom um we sort of show you the sections using the three-year projection um and where they would be uh class size wise your class size policy is 17 to 22 you'll see that there's some that are below that however we would never reduce an educator if we didn't think that long term we could substain that um reduction we you don't want to reduce one year add it back the next year so we're very thoughtful um when we we either add or uh reduce a section um you can see there's some numbers there that are below below 17 however you only need one or two more students who sort might show up in that class and you'll need that and then you can see they're going to grow as they continue on so um we look pretty stable I think right now as far as 26 sections um so before I just jump into outed District does anyone have any questions sort of about the IND District um and again you've got two more meetings and or maybe three um actually with the special meeting um and always feel free to as you're looking at it and things pop in your head send questions to Liz um and she can uh send us send them off to us and we can provide um answers as well why is there 1.99 FTE for principal and the principles um because the our assistant principles don't work a full year oh yeah they work something short shorter of a a 12-month position okay so we sort of equate that it's two people but technically they're not they're not a 260 day person yeah schools love FTE we got all kinds of weird FTE I got 10.55 all little they're a little Wy but the 1.9 stood out as the 1.9 and that's released because we um had made this a couple years ago but there's there's very few schools that have both administrative uh ass principal and assistant principal work 12 months um and so we sort of uh uh move their schedule back to something less than that a couple of years ago okay so technically they don't work full ft um so there's like I said a lot of information to go through you've got the line items we try to give you some really good explanations off to the point off to the side I would think that's why one reason why your your U print shrunk a little bit because the explanations were so long and it still tries to keep it printed on the 11 by 17 um so you might have to get your magnifying glass out but um I think that uh you know it's good to see the three years so you've got your three years of actual your current 24 budget keep in mind you've got your monthly financial statement for 24 that you can refer back to and then our 25 proposed and then you see the differences between your 24 budget and your 25 budget with the percentages and where something doesn't look like it's in a normal increase mode is where we try to give you an explanation of what's going on and I think again the biggest piece that we have here as far as an ask for the town is the math for the bus and contract I noticed that we're in the is it a 5year contract or we're in the fifth year we'll be in the fifth year and fiscal year 25 so we'll go out to bid next year um and what we do is it's typically um a three-year with a 2-year extension okay with one two-year extension with one two-year extension yeah so it gets you to five and it's those twoe that's the two-year extension where they really sort of entice you in because we're seeing like a 1% increase so I'll prepare you for fiscal year 26 you're probably going to see like 18 to 20% increase because we take a huge increase the first year of the contract um second year gets lower third year gets lower four fourth and fifth year are always like um minimal increases because they're you know they want you to sort of like buy into program years yeah so we're in that sort of I love the fifth year I just don't I'm not going to like first year or next year that's where it it definitely um we see we see the increase maybe we can Factor and extra services like Bus tracking systems yeah so I've had told Liz I've had more people come to me this year complaining about their kids standing what people who don't get picked up at their house they're like down the end of the road for like a 15minute time span of like when the bus is coming and they're like maybe I already missed it I don't know and I walk all the way back down the street to get driven to school yeah usually they're not our bus drive our bus routes are pretty cuz they're they're not as spread out as some other districts um cuz we have you have 10 buses alone just in um in Dover but yeah that is something that you would negotiate um because it's an added cost to the contract and every year I will tell you at least I've been done the bus been involved in the bus contracts twice um and we do talk about it they'll give us pros and cons about it it's it seems like it's a good thing but there's also some cons about it so we do have this discussion and we'll definitely ask school committee for any other uh concerns they have about busing that we'll bring mov forward when we do the RFP uh next like next late fall it's one of the odd Hot Topics that I come to me no and and it's it's you know it has its cycle um because we definitely talked to Conley about it last go around and at that point they only had one school district that was doing it and um it becomes like another thing you have to um manage yeah and that's where it's a little bit of a drawback um on Administration the communication's gotten better though I think that there's more updates about buses that are late or like you know late in their route this year than there has been in PR right we get all those calls I've never gotten that oh yeah me neither yeah well you might have buses that aren't we've had a couple we've had a lot substitute buses this year and if you throw a different substitute on a bus we've been running into problems both scattered buses in Dober and Scattered buses in sherbet uh we'll usually get a call in the morning then we call the school and they can quickly send out emails um so we do try to to keep everyone as up to date as we can on what's happening with with the buses but I will have to tell you I think we're in a really good situation we have um veteran drivers um and the communication is great between us and the bus company yeah so I think goie wants to say something yeah yeah I have a question we are sorry can you hear me mhm okay so I know we are in a very good shape um in terms of buses especially with uh what you're hearing from other districts I have a question about the routes um who uh plans uh on the routes Conelly themselves plan the route or We Do It um ourselves uh Conley does the um first draft and then where we know that we've had some uh uh feedback in previous years we share that Fe feedback and we've make adjustments where where we can um we're very happy to say this year that there is no Elementary bus that starts before 7 um yeah by making one or two tweaks over in Sherburn we were able to take one bus that was starting a little bit before 7 and make them after 7 so we have been able to sort of maintain that goal of not having any Elementary buses um uh with a starting pick off any earlier than 7 and do just because of the Graphics even have some that are much later than that yeah so um I I know it's they're really becoming more efficient and great um is there any way that now with new technology and all these Google Maps and Improvement in um uh traffic studies can be used that technology to even make it more efficient so we actually have the technology that um at least a transportation we added that pre preo um and we we actually did prototype runs but they were basically giving us where we were um and I think there's some nuances about some of our streets and some of our um turnarounds that then dictate a little bit changes to that where we have to finesse it so I we're very fortunate that the main router at Conley who works who's been assigned to us knows our streets uh forwards and back W but she's also very open like I said we changed two buses in Sherburn this year um with some suggestions from families that were that it did allow us to to change time so um I don't I think that we do a pretty good job of that and I think you can look at different routings and it could give you a little bit of different scenario but I don't think we have time Savings in there necessarily to um to be made up uh we we also have to look at uh the Riders the number of riders on a bus that sometimes also impacts um sort of routes but I think that we take a fresh look every year I will say a lot of especially at the elementary level because kindergarteners get that door to-door service um that impacts the routes on an annual basis depending on where those students are located um but a lot of work goes in all summer long to sort of perfect those and to make sure we have a safe route for drivers that they have places they can turn around um and uh you know can safely get down streets uh we do more coner service I will say in this town than we do in surrounding districts um in that we don't have at the elementary level their stops aren't that far apart um so I think that we maximize what we can I that's great I was talking to our our bus driver the other day and he was suggesting changes to the bus route and he was wasn't quite sure how those changes were going to get taken yeah oh no they usually are well received because they're the ones who's who are writing to yeah and we had changes in DOA this year because clay Brook being closed and that driver was instrumental in helping us figure out how we were going to get that to work when you couldn't use clay Brock right to get out so um I think they are a valued um input and uh communicate well with their dispatcher um who does who makes the impact so it's a collaborative team process for sure so yeah exactly so any other questions on the operating just let Liz know um but then we'll take a few minutes to sort of uh segue into the out of District um so there is a chart in um Tab four that I think is a helpful um it sort of breaks out the big number of you know um 2.6 Mill million and sort of shows you the age groups uh by Elementary Middle School High School 9 to 11 we separately break out 12th grade because theoretically in most cases those would be the um students that would Age out um for the following year and then we do uh highlight for you that students that we're keeping 12 who are in fifth year in the fifth year of sort of a high school um uh schedule but also that we then U maintain until they turn 23 so or when they turn 22 um and that maybe most are morly our residential students who actually will never be able to sort of graduate and get a diploma um a school district is responsible for them until they turn 22 um and then we also there's different uh placements you can have a mass public as I said uh where there are lot some of the larger school districts Wellsley for instance some we used to send students to they have IND District special education programs where they allow other districts to send students and that way they have a healthy cohort um of students to participate uh we have a collaborative so if you hear us talk about accept and accept collaborative is um actually also provides our special education transportation and then we have the tech collaborative so those are collaboratives that uh come together to serve the needs of districts and provide programming that they need and they both provide special education programming um and so students can go to their locations um so that is a a category then we have the non-public um which are obviously some of the more private schools um if you think about neck um there's a a landmark so the schools that are specifically special education schools that are non-public in nature um and then we have some students because of where their needs are are placed in out of state schools so I think it's good to see those different categories again just to sort of wrap your head around the number um and then uh the number of students in each of those categories so we are budgeting 22 um placements and so that are fiscal year 24 placements that we have now that we know are going to be continuing in 25 so if you look back at your monthly report you'll see that we talk about that we have 24 placements well of of those 24 two are aging out or graduating um and so those are not continuing into 25 um and your 24 but obviously was with 18 which is why we're seeing the spike since we have 24 um I think it's also helpful to sort of roll forward the budget one year to the next um sometimes you'll see the number is the same but what you're not seeing is the ins and outs um and so I think it's important just to see what's that what's coming and what's going so if we start with our 18 that we had budgeted we had three that graduated or aged out and I sort of give you an estimate of what that is the 190 um we had one student who actually moved out of District um so they left us um and so that that's a savings there we had eight new placements and that half a million dollars is sort of the the uh composition of those um we are looking at a a 5% with increase right now so I put 5% in the budget I didn't actually put 5% in your report because as some of these schools start making their announcements I could refine that uh so I hated to put a number so it's 5% but I hated to put it in writing because it could change um and then changes in placement so um once a student goes out of District they they may or may not work be working well in the district where they are and the placement where they are and so we have to seek another placement with that sometimes comes an increase or change in prices so we did have about $100,000 of that so if you look at that we've got an increase if you look at the ins and outs between 24 and 25 it's a net increase of 500,000 which is approximately what you're seeing in your budget but it gives you a little more insight as to how that's coming about and sort of what some of the drivers are for that um one thing that we don't have really good insight into right now is our transportation expense we're still waiting for our first sort of monthly bill so that we know how many riders we have and with the mileage they're being assessed for their writers I should definitely have that we're expecting it actually this week so I'll be able to refine those numbers both for your 24 actuals and also for your 25 budget um I do know that the rate approved for accept was a 4% increase so I know what the increase is going to be just don't have a good handle of what our base is going to be um so we will hopefully um hopefully it'll be in that $372,000 range um but that would be one number that we will definitely tweak in your version 2.0 just a small question when you have number of students in the categories here mhm what is what is less than three like we started with three and somebody left the pr there's um sort of a um compet we don't want to single anyone out in those categor so I just mean we have less than three when you only have one category from less than three you can actually back into it U but like last year we had a couple of less than threes okay that's I kind of wondering what it's the total end up in a point something or other an anonymity to keep someone exactly yeah yeah and then sorry the tuition collaborative is is that the Dover Sherborn no so that is going to accept or Tech or there's there's also a couple other ones out there case there's a lot of collaboratives so a collaborative is considered like an extension of public school and that it is all public school districts that are members and together sort of created um this organization so except not only does our transportation they also have special education programs um that you can send students to that are um intense uh learning disability type programs they have a great transition program so it's a way that school school districts come together who don't have cohorts think about all these school districts if we all have students we have a cohort and the collaborative allows us to provide the services to those students and so there are member rates and there's non-member rates so when you go to the collabor if you're a member rate you're getting a discount than if you're a non-member rate um so typically your least expensive C your least extensive placement is a mass public the collaborative is NE usually like the next one cuz it's really just an extension of public and then it gets more expensive if you do the non-public and obviously sometimes out of state is sort of equivalent to non-public so where we can we look at non-p we look at Public Schools we look at collaboratives because we're looking for the best match for the student but also the best economical placement for the town and it's nonpublic private is that another way of saying yes private yeah and out of state is private too exactly y it's just out of state okay and these are the categories that we use when we report um students out of District students to the state as well so this is what sort of the why we're reporting to you this way this is actually also the way that we do our financial and our student uh reporting uh to Desy and there's there is a coordinator that not to not to it's just kind of a a to check the accuracy of the not accuracy the yes they attend efficiency or the yes they do visits so part of that U person's responsibilties to go visit the student at the placement uh be in constant uh correspondence with the student in the placement if there's issues um the IP still that we uh manage here still goes with the student to those schools and then that's still annually updated um and evaluated so it is it's no different than um say we have a student in District the same uh sort of vision that we have and and uh oversight that we have for here we actually have for the our students when they're placed out as well and then out of district coordinator covers um you know she's or that position covers uh all three through 22 Dober and Sherburn so they have a great breath of uh a breath of what where the programs are they learn about the programs they visit schools that we might not have students at to learn about programs yeah that's awesome so that are the those are the two pieces um again I think that the your biggest cost driver is payroll on your operating side and then then the ass that we're asking for math I do think that we were very fiscally responsible in the other categories um where we could we trimmed um obviously uh the bus the one issue with the bus too is the fuel search charge uh we have in um in our contract sort of a fuel Clause that if we're within operating I think it's I I meant to look it's like from three from 280 to 3 uh30 we don't pay if you go below you get a credit if you go above you get a fuel search charge well as you know what diesel prices have been um they just keep they they're not coming down they're maintaining so we do for every mile that we drive we get a fuel search charge for the difference between what's in the contract and what the the market rate is on a on a monthly basis um what is that panged off of it is a it's a um industry pricing um something that I I know when I do the RFP because it's in there but there is a there is a index they oh it is definitely Regional specific yeah yeah and normally you're operating within it um but it certainly the first couple years of the contract like exactly well the first couple yeah it was a point we're actually getting credits it's great wow yeah um so it can definitely fluctuate some districts use um the fuel Sur you know the fuel um cause I do think it protects you because if you don't have it in there I think your contract cost is probably more expensive because they have to hedge it one way or another so you're best off sharing in that risk um and so I think we've always sort of had that in our contract that's good yeah any other questions great Don thank you yeah you just make it something very complicated clear and easy to follow and go back and look at and I appreciate how you walk us through year after year so thank you well my pleasure and um as I said as we get more information that's why I ring your book every meeting because I'll bring new handouts um and again anything that you see because you're a vital part of this process as well um please you know let us know um but I do think that you know we we meet weekly in central office and are always talking about um you know what's going on in the schools and where we need to find funding and I do think we're very resourceful um and uh do bring forward to the town's um you know good service at a really good price um and so I think you should pride yourself on and sort of being you know the community that overseas and make sure that you know we do do that yeah thank you okay our next no but I do need you to vote oh we vote on that yeah you got to vote so that I can send version 1.0 to the town 1.0 to the town so you just taking a vote on yep just approve the budget as presented um so you'll vote tonight and first round as a first round the next time you'll vote is in March um so you vote tce to approve the budget as presented okay because this will um as you read in the guidance they want all first uh version budgets turned in by December 6 got it okay so may I have a motion to approve the first version of the budget as presented Jeff Cassie so moved is there a second as hold second any further discussion okay all in favor does goie have to like yeah World call CU she's remote okay I forget how that works so I just say names yeah okay goalie suffer yes J all in favor yep Jesse hle Liz Gman yes so the motion carries by unanimous consent thank you okay our next agenda thanks again Don our next agenda item is the consent item so in our packets we had um the not the minutes from our last meeting on October 24th as well as some of the grant Don can you explain the grants piece just a little um so we started this last year just to make school committee more aware there's there's a whole slew of entitlement grants that we are eligible for that aren't competitive grants we're sort of then told this is the amount you're eligible for we do apply for those it was a very tedious process this year I will say they have a new Grant system at Jessie um but we wanted to just again as we highlighted in the budget we wanted to have you sort of approve acceptance um grants on behalf of the committee and so there's um and these have all been applied for and approved uh so we've talked about the sped 240 that we spend specifically on educational assistance for the sped programming uh we also get a small 262 grant for uh Early Education which helps with some pre- expenses and then we have some title grants that are based on various things in your budget book actually gives you more explanation as to what the grants are but these are the amounts that we've been awarded for fiscal year 24 okay thank you so I'm hope well first of all does anyone have any changes they'd like to make to the minutes I didn't notice anything well you're good okay um may I have a motion to approve our consent agenda Jesse H open mo okay is there a second Cassidy second any further discussion okay so goalie Seer yes Jesse Hull yes Jeff Cassidy yes Liz Grossman yes the motion carries um by unanimous consent and our next I lost my thing um the last second to last agenda item is the informational items so in our packets we all got the chering November newsletter from from um Dr Rhyman we have the Sherburn school committee minutes as well as the regional school committee minutes just so we are all aware of what's going on in the other committees um and then finally does anybody have any items they would like to bring forth to discuss at the January 16th meeting and if you don't have any right now can always email me and we can bring those forward anybody okay well that is all we have for tonight um do we roll call through this okay so we are going to do a roll call to adj uh goalie yeah J Jeff Cassidy Liz Gman yes thanks everyone Happy Thanksgiving feel better thank you Happy Thanksgiving bye Happy Thanksgiving B hope you feel better soon yeah thank you take care thanks Don thanks ding thanks Acoustics were

[Music] [Applause] [Music] Happ [Music] [Applause] [Music] get [Applause] [Music] test one two good morning ladies and gentlemen and Happy Thanksgiving welcome to do Sher high school and Norris Sur field for today's varsity football matchup between the Medfield Warriors and your Dover Sherborne [Music] Raiders the Warriors enter today's matchup with a record of three- seven Under head coach Eric orber while the Raiders enter the game with a record of three and s seven Under head coach Steve Ryan benfield's athletic director is Eric Scott and do Sherburn Athletics are led by our own Emily Sullivan before the game begins we would like to take a moment to honor the senior players on both teams we are grateful for the leadership and support of the senior football players and your commitment to your football programs we hope you have a great game and a fantastic senior year first we'd like to recognize the 17 metfield seniors Roman shenfeld Tommy oel Nick hpus Nick halsworth Max Masters Alex muns Chase cofn Luca Morello Captain will Griffin Cal gardener Captain Matthew Stevens Nate malv Marco muso Tyler Rosen Dean Frasier Captain Nick Gan Jimmy and Ben Carpenter congratulations to all the senior Medfield [Music] Warriors and now at this time we would like to celebrate the 15 do Sherborn Raiders many of you have been playing football together here at do Sherborn for the last four years or longer some of you have recently joined the do Sherborn High School football team together you represent DOA Sheron football and your leadership and sportman sportsmanship have made us all proud today we would like each of you to proceed to Midfield one player at a time as you were announced we welcome your parents and family to walk out with you and join you for a photo please remain at Midfield for a group picture and recognition at the end here are your 2023 senior football Raiders number seven playing running back and linebacker Zach Jeffy Zach is walking out with his parents Gula and Michael number 11 playing right receiver and defensive back John [Applause] saber and John is walking out with his mother Stephanie number 19 playing wide receiver and linebacker Robert [Applause] saber Robert is walking out with his father Steven saber number 23 playing wide receiver and defensive back Vincent stefanelli Vincent is walking out with his parents Kathleen and Jason and his brother James number 25 playing wide receiver and kicker Tyler Juan Tyler is walking out with his parents JT and Rachel his brother Andrew and his sister Ellie number 27 playing wide receiver and defensive back chip [Music] mravic chip is walking out with his mother Melissa number 45 playing wide receiver and defensive end Drew [Music] tomson Drew is walking out with his parents JY and Joel and his sister [Music] Lily over there number 88 playing wide receiver and linebacker Bobby Lan ziki Bobby is walking out with his parents Nicole and Steve and his sister Rachel number 59 playing offensive line and defensive line Jacob Kum Jacob is walking out with his mom Miriam number 73 playing offensive line and defensive line Walker [Music] [Applause] Adam Walker is walking out with his parents Samantha and Dave his brother Barrett and his sister [Applause] Campbell number two playing wide receiver and linebacker Captain Chris keyley Chris is walking out with his mom Kristen his stepdad Jim his dad Jeff and his stepmom [Music] Bonnie number nine playing wide receiver and defensive back Captain amelo k alilio is walking out with his mother Sierra his father amelo his brother Egan and his grandmother [Music] Maria number 18 playing quarterback and defensive back Captain Garrett web Garrett is walking out with his parents Beth and George and his brother Ashton and sister [Music] Caroline number 24 playing wide receiver in defensive end Captain Brian [Music] olon Brian is walking out with his parents Katherine and Keith his brother John and his sisters Lizzy and [Music] Nora and finally number 78 playing offensive line and defensive end Captain Dylan Rogers I know Dylan is walking out with his parents Darcy and Doug and his sister Kaitlyn ladies and gentlemen join me and congratulations to the DS football class of

first down car number 33 Anthony buet first down [Applause] Lancers [Music] [Applause] [Music] number six Zachary Tasman on the carry first down and go long medal [Music] number 15 Bry Harrington the touchdown boys keep in it the extra point number 18 Colin m is good theore stands on m sast m zero not bad complaints winding up little break for the winner yeah yeah I work in the basketball gam but I imagine I'll see you at some basketball different so tight yeah so close inside yeah you run in the score table that's hard much harder than football's hard I feel basketball is evener it is it's nonstop and you people yell at you constantly that's right yeah and they always table you got know what [Applause] Happ 20 y return by number five [Music] J [Music] this [Music] it so the seniors cond the those are they all actually are Dr they usually [Applause] always this game running um no I thought it was a yeah maybe maybe a regular season is 15 minute and then this game is 12 I think it's always yeah I think the in was as many guys I know they used to I think it's something where like both teams are in state playoffs they make the game [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] shorter dead ball one sports L conduct 15 y penalty first down and fir fir up a four six Porter Carol second down and [Applause] six [Applause] gain of 6 by 26 Dominic delli first down east long m [Music] [Applause] go number nine Shane Becker with a four yd gain second down in [Music] six third down right it should be third now that was second down thought now it's first now it's first another Sports penalty 15 yard first down [Applause] east is your family there um no actually it's just great [Applause] [Music] job beer to Robo for an eight y gain third down and nine there the [Music] front Becker with a game of six fourth down and [Music] three he [Music] had who you for Mike who you in for oh there you [Applause] Go's got daylight okay play for [Music] gotcha [Music] number 34 Luka Marina with the first down [Music] carry [Music] Mar with the first down carry first go [Music] ball start against the offense 5 [Music] yeny [Applause] [Music] 20 20 seconds of timeout 36 Porter [Applause] Carol and [Applause] time on time out long meow there is three seconds remaining in the [Music] court Happ thanks [Music] hanging [Music] on [Music] just short it'll be third down and goal from the two yd line when to restart the second quarter Snack Shack also has breakfast sandwiches for sale half Browns Donuts stop by The Snack Shack and get some [Music] breakfast I used to do Thanksgiving my family all growing up and obviously get there and you're like holidays are we doing with [Music] last [Music] Ang fourth Dow and goal from the one yd [Music] line [Applause] [Music] I don't know who scored I forgot now someone's unhappy that's when I make the Ed dubish call the announcement [Music] that guy wants to stay in this field he better keep quiet because Joel will kick him out hey Mark make sure you give his phone number too please call [Music] Mr Don said that [Music] remember the a game they had that half ceremony Jersey ceremony yeah so I'm W wrote an article about [Applause] Mond great yeah should be shap enough enough [Music] to 17y return by number five Jake Rob first down in ten meow whatever they want you to do uh do I cover uh I'll cover whatever they want um yeah I mean I've probably done well over a dozen different sports at thise is like the only sport me to work supervision at oh yeah because it's easy you go to the Olympia it's the parents are in the middle section and the kids are on the far ends and you're like it's easy basketball forget it yeah see this this fall got a little bit everything definitely did some football boys soccer girls soccer field hockey cross country cross country how' you do that I did the western Mass and the state and the western Mass they basically just like you see them leave and they go into the woods and they come back so you just kind of have to ask them how it went H the state one you could see most of the it's a little easier I suppose golf was where I really had no idea they're doing a shotgun start right so they're all starting all the different did you do the Western MK One yeah I did the western Mass one that one I just hung out of the clubhouse till it ended that ended up being like a really nice day we got lucky for that day it was perfect thankfully my group nobody lost the golf ball because they were all close and it was like there was several times we're just like like d every kid in my group their parents were F them so they were helping me find balls cuz if you were off the Fairway it's like takes one lead cover a ball can [Music] do that Ryan kid is pretty yeah he shot like you know five or 10 Strokes worse than his vest on that course be still and then thankfully he won that greator yeah that would have been embarrassing for him home plays that more than everybody else has combined five Strokes in the state tournament was a significant win Wester m is the only one by one yeah that looked like it was taking a while to KCK good morning did I say anything bad oh I appreciate the heads [Music] up that's a good man right there he said be careful he can hear everything we're talking about my Dad we're watching it on TV thanks Jamie party killer party police I don't know what to [Music] do bring it back we're on a hot career killer [Music] confirm yeah touchdown by number 15 Brody Harrington [Music] sh out quick yeah it comes right it doesn't reset all right clock is still it's accurate the connection just stop oh okay so I like did I miss something see be ACC on your board still nothing [Music] changes tell him not to do that again 18 y return [Music] my [Music] s s yard game by number three Co [Music] Johnson four Y game L with first spart first [Music] down [Music] hey guys got 18 yd completion from Becker to number 13 will devoy for a Spartan first [Applause] down w [Music] five yd game by Cole Johnson second and [Music] five [Music] [Applause] 11 y completion from Becker to deoy for another first [Music] down I just no the trucky be all right not bad not bad [Applause] oh oh oh what a move first down one by 26 Dominic Dey first down and goal for the nyd line he got those three guys I stopped it when he went out of bounds you want me to wind [Music] it time out long meow all right am I crazy did he go out of bounds and the line [Music] judge [Music] [Applause] [Music] my good [Music] [Applause] [Music] no he was out second down and goal from the three after a sixy game by they [Music] getting another that's to December 2nd from 900 a.m.

to 1 p.m. at East Village Tavern the East metal police department will be doing a St the cruiser holiday toy drive they'll be accepting all new unwrapped toys you can drop them off at East Ville Tavern next Saturday December 2nd from 9:00 a.m. to p.m. all right right come on it wind it wind it wind it go go go go go third down oh that third down and goal from the two yd line touchdown number 26 Tom gelli [Music] l [Music] new football hero by High School [Music] [Applause] band d o u d o w d o [Music] [Applause] u tap on the play by number 21 Alexi elizabe number 41 Adam Rodriguez [Music] Bo first down car number four J booy [Music] there set little flag on the sport against 15 penalty [Music] PB oh [Music] my just a heads up there's a oh 122 left in the first [Music] half [Music] BL I mean it actually could have [Music] 36 pter Carol fourth down and [Music] [Applause] five interception by number 13 press from the back 26 [Music] delli no take us into halftime with the score long metal 21 he's long metal seven [Music] right number two Christian Harding number three Cole Johnson number six Nolan Griffin number nine Shane Becker number 13 will deoy 26 Dominic delli 27 JY Lee 51 Bobby Cunningham 52 Vincent Burell number 75 Garrett [Music] [Applause] donu [Applause] 57 yd return by number five [Music] Rob what seveny gain by gelli second down in three what's that yeah put him back the game e [Applause] he [Music] first down completion to number 13 will de [Applause] boy to all [Music] oh no bad time for that [Music] am [Music] yeah that's [Music] cool [Music] is it no [Music] flag fourth down in [Music] [Applause] [Music] six pass is incomplete be a turnover on down I'm so glad I'm up here down the 10 bucks more game looks like not worth Tackle by number six Nolan Griffin [Music] you're 1 two three [Music] four [Music] Tackle by number 56 Ken Martin bring up fourth down f [Music] [Applause] [Music] this year's band drum majors are Eric Wayne Abby ryer eler zapy Katy no and mine [Music] morti [Music] [Applause] down 16 yd completion from Becker Nicole Johnson for a first [Music] down [Music] [Applause] [Music] sh we tell him it's onat next time so not to [Music] [Applause] [Music] fil three yard gam like a Melly third down and six you don't that father Tony uh yeah yeah okay need to work out with him all [Music] m [Music] you can't do that down oh you did who's this I know you don't it's someone on the youth football kids keep saying they're on the high school it's not a high [Music] school what just happened what a one I think that the quarterback also person foul but I don't know that for a fact but I saw ra quarterback but I don't know yeah I don't understand yeah well our coach doesn't seem to be arguing about that so yeah you're right must have been offset offsetting it is who's here play 56 K Martin and 15 Colin Mara third down in pretty is in the house kn [Applause] seconds 10 seconds [Music] remaining for the last time this year Sweet Caroline [Music] bir [Music] sh [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] got the longest stiff arm justers can't reach by he's end up like that hope your you get the offense 10 yard from start [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] follow [Music] sure [Music] he's getting his money his last who [Music] over the what are you talking phone yes [Music] [Applause] k s p a r t a let's go s p h r t [Music] a let's [Music] go confirm it I'm not sure yeah I'm not sure if it was 33 so did yes or no touch them I didn't see anything oh what okay [Applause] [Music] touchdowns number 34 Luka [Music] Marino [Music] you're 17 yard return by robodo [Music] my brother you look [Applause] [Music] 28 yard game by gelli first down Spartans drop it over here you have really was thr Ella how many years has Kieran been here how many years for Mr Kieran 20 ask him how many [Laughter] wow nyard game by gelli fourth down in one they might have been making that up they might be making that up although he turned around he turned around this is my 20th year in total it's my 17th year here conratulations like to give a little shout out to our girls field hockey team who finished the season regular season at 19 and0 and won the West M Championship on the seasonly scored 107 goals and gave up four beat [Music] long [Music] no three there's a face [Music] Mas flag on the [Music] play that was only a five [Music] yard just [Music] [Applause] [Music] kidding this isn't good course that [Music] one [Music] let's also recognize our band director Mr JP Kieran 22 years last football game thank you for great memor Mr you yo what's up how you doing what's up K we just talked about you the other day you know wrapping up field hockey and freshman year and Martha's Vineyard for you know we talking about that in the whole truth good memories you are all graduating and because what year are you guys sophomores how was the out where are you at pennate I was like I'm like I know you were looking at but you didn't they [Music] lost you m took a little beat down at your stadium that was fun did you go to the game yeah you and the spread was like 48 and a half and I think they lost by 56 63 63 3 Z they uh all the like betting us on the game because the spread so ridiculous I think pen state was plus 10,000 winus win to win where you at oh nice happy down there oh nice yeah not a beach weather anymore though it's over got yeah cool great Thanksgiving good seeing you both oh it's like all sunny and 50 it's going to be nice out we're sitting in a yeah a damp shade no heat [Music] oh [Music] another flag h oh hi Uncle [Music] Rob my mistake is not other [Music] one do it it's Miller time Mike next to meet you game hope every guys is safe and Happy [Music] Thanksgiving over there again

>> Tim Turner: Testing one two, three four, testing one, two, >> Tim Turner: Testing one two, three four, testing one, two, >> Tim Turner: Testing one two, three four, testing one, two, three, four, five six, seven >> Tim Turner: Testing one two, three four, testing one, two, three, four, five six, seven >> Tim Turner: Testing one two, three four, testing one, two, three, four, five six, seven eight nine Testing one two three four. Testing one two, three, four, five six, seven eight nine and Testing one two, three, four, five six, seven eight nine and Testing one two, three, four, five six, seven eight nine and ten. Testing one two three four. Five six seven eight nine and Testing one two three four. Five six seven eight nine and Testing one two three four. Five six seven eight nine and ten.

everyone to this regular business meeting of the board of school trustees on today Monday November 27th thank thank all of you for coming on on this cold evening um we'll first get started with item 1.02 our Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence led by Mr Vasser if anyone could please rise pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank you uh just let let you know we do have a board member present via phone so when we come to a vote tonight I'll be calling for a roll call so Mr Smith can vote via phone this evening so with that we'll get started with item two Board of school trustees resolution accommodation Awards the first one being Timothy Ball Elementary spell bow Team for winning first place in Lake County in the orange class at the 2023 Elementary spell bow competition two 2.02 Colonel John Wheeler Middle School spell bow Team for winning first place in Lake County in class one and being named to State finalist at the 2023 Regional Junior spello competition in item 2.03 Crossroads Regional Chamber of Commerce 2023 inspiring educator awards for overall uh with winners all through the corporation can I have a motion to approve those three accommodation Awards so moved second a motion by Miss Basin second by Mr Vasser any question or discussion all those in favor by sign I Mr Vasser I miss Basin I Mr Smith i m Mr angel I that motion carries 40 with that we're going to present those Awards individually if I could have the Timothy Ball Elementary spell bow Team please come in and face the crowd please I will read the commodation award resolution accommodation the Crownpoint Board of school trustees is honored to commend the 2023 2024 Timothy Ball Elementary School spell bu team for meritorious achievement be it hereby resolved that the board of school trustees for the Crownpoint Community School Corporation wishes to express sincere congratulations to the 2023 2024 Timothy Paul Elementary School spell bow Team for winning first place in Lake County in the orange class at the 2023 Elementary spell bow competition trustees publicly recognizes its achievement and renders it permanently to its minutes to be preserved for public posterity due this 27th day of November 2023 uh I will read your names and then if you come up I'll shake your hand congratulate you then you go back in your spot and then eventually Brook will get a picture of you so nobody will go anywhere okay terara B come on up [Applause] terara Jeffrey [Applause] Garcia oh boy uh so Sophia gorva hope I got that close conat Jackson [Applause] Hall Emma [Applause] hurt daa car how was it Dash D doc okay I'm sorry doc congratulations I could have been here all night unfortunately with that one Bri [Applause] kallison Lucy [Applause] kallison Naomi Mar Mara Elliot [Applause] Missour Alex pulowski Joseph swedes and our two coaches Lynn Carlson and Todd Emery coaches uh I always offer an opportunity to say anything about the team this year either one of you'd like to say a few words I just think we had a great group Harding came to practices worked hard tried their best we had a lot of fun withjoy okay I don't feel it's bad now thanks you all right if we could get a picture Miss Allen you probably got a group together here in a couple groups maybe some down in front if you want to oh ly I'll give you the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] next those parents that are part of that group if you'd like to take your child and go you're more than welcome to stay for the rest and until the end for all that matter that's up to you but we usually do dismiss you after your award is presented all up to you though you're more than welcome to stay and that's usually what happens just for the rec Colonel wheeler come on in good evening I will read the resolution of commodation award Crownpoint Board of school trustees is honored to commend the 2023 2024 Colonel wheeler Middle School spell bow Team for meritorious achievement be hereby resolved that the board of school Trustees for the Crownpoint Community School Corporation wishes to express sincere congratulations to the 2023 24 Colonel wheeler Middle School spellow team for winning first place in Lake County in class won and being named a state finalist at the regional Junior spell bow competition trustees publicly recognizes this achievement and renders it permanently to its minutes to be preserved for public posterity dat this 27th day of November 2023 I'll read your names give you a handshake congratulate you and then you go back in line and miss all will be coming up to get a picture Carter Courtright Joshua Garcia Cheyenne Khan I say that Cheyenne congratulations Solomon MAA no say that for me oh please I want to okay like he said congratulations Alissa Nelson [Applause] Ron rulla Valerie Shanks not here this evening and our coach Mr James Hensley I was told few words about your team but I gotta bring this to you if not we don't want that uh this team was great this is my first year doing the spell and these kids have couldn't have been more amazing uh this year uh they came in they studied really hard uh they said some spelled some really amazing words um Shan uh actually qualified for the state individual contest and only missed one word out of 50 words and got a silver um silver distinction for that and so uh we're looking forward to years to come from this team and I'm just very proud of each and every one of them Miss Al's coming up to get a quick picture all right thank you [Applause] congratulations parents I'm giving you the same offer I gave the first group you're more than welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting but you also are welcome to leave in the meantime if I could all my all of my Crossroad finalists inspiring Educators come forward please and now well it just helps me out because now I can address ladies because it's all L well I thought Mr bundo was here oh he wasn't follow instruction must be something you learn at Ohio State or something oh oh I'm sorry Mr bun I couldn't resist you know that I no harm by it uh congratulations on behalf of the School Board of Trustees on your inspiring educator Awards I'll refrain from that because they're all kind of different but I will read each one individually as far as where you what school so overall the overall Competition winner I'm going to hold off on um finalist from Eisenhower Sarah Fritz [Applause] uh from Lake Street Christina help me with that one scope Halloween scelia she's not here want to make sure I give her to just do box for too oh we have a box see all right see they got to they got to help me out with instructions thank you Sarah you next uh she's not here this evening so we'll go from there Dennis Bund [Applause] thank Annie spoff not here Katie cre did I say crease or CH CHR sorry Katie congratulations award here Bailey [Applause] lordson Nicole shipek and the only reason I got that right I've known her for a long time otherwise there's no way I would have got that one Alicia [Applause] zart Rebecca Zol and Karen [Applause] buo get those uh Dr Terell anything you want to say about that I mean you know more about it than I do congratulations you guys did a great job representing us uh thank you to the chamber and all those involved in putting this on each and every year and we appreciate everything you do for our kids thank you thank you ladies don't don't go anywhere we got to get pictures Brook's got to get picture thank you [Applause] congratulations uh item three tonight is Patron comments uh when I when originally signning sheet there was no patrons registered comments to speak today is that still accurate with anybody that walked in late okay item four a consent agenda Dr Terrell thank you for your consideration this evening uh we have 4.01 our minutes as listed 4.02 the Personnel agenda and then 4.03 again voucher registered checks as listed you've heard the rec you've heard the recommendation from the administration for approval of the consent agenda may I have a motion so move want to give Brian a chance a motion by Miss Basin second by Mr Smith question or discussion any of those items there being none uh roll call for vote uh Mr Vasser abstain abstain Miss Basin hi Mr Smith hi hi Mr angel I uh three and one abstain uh with that obviously that's approved and we'll move on to item five action items do you want to give them the same line about leaving oh yes I'm I'm sorry um once again I understand you guys have busy days teaching our students and doing everything else you do besides that so you are more than welcome to leave you're not it's not going to be held against you let's say that there you go yeah there we go all right see there we go see I've never got a round of Applause for it but that was good I'll take it I'm having a problem with my mouth so be with me all right item five action item one course additions Crownpoint High School M rire Mr rire sorry thank you Mr President and board members tonight we are seeking approval for Crownpoint High School course editions for the 2425 school year the administration is recommending that the school board approve the courses as outlined as additions for Crownpoint High school again to be implemented in the 2425 school year are there any questions about this recommendation yes Mr mirez could you walk us through the process of how excuse me how courses uh come to us to get sure well Mr I'm G hold you up one second I'm just going to go through protocol we'll have that open question okay all right yes you've heard the recommendation for approval of the course additions recommended by the administration may have a motion motion second motion by Mr V second by Miss B now questions we're good to go sure you um what we do is we receive requests from our department chairs we also look at career Pathways for our students to meet the high school diploma requirements we want to make sure that we have an abundance of Pathways that meet the needs and interests of our students so that they are College and Career ready so we would look at um adding a pathway here we see one that will be added in our um science field so that we can have students who are visiting our coursework here at the high school that will be able to sit for the CNA assessment and leave with that credential we also want to make sure when we look at our culinary arts or our teaching and learning that those are the third-year courses in a pathway so our students are receiving dual credits as well as then preparing themselves for work that they will either continue in the workforce or in um their post-secondary University or college placement we also then work with our guidance Department we also get information from local um organizations that we work with like Northwest Indiana that tell us about careers that are up and coming and making sure that we are preparing for for the future and preparing our students for jobs that they will be eligible to obtain okay well thank you thank you for that of course so for the um U that's okay um for the uh I understand what you're saying about the healthcare specialist I I understand that completely uh the courses for teaching and learning is that in cooperation with I yes okay that's what I I thought that was and uh for the Fitness training course where does that fall into that pathway thing that this is not this is the course that is not part of the pathway it is not a dual credit course however this does give our students who are not in an actual sport but want to participate in this type of Fitness TR training course the opportunity to do so it really expands our offering to make sure that we are inclusive and able to um address all students in our um really in our high school being able to take this physical education course well I think that's novel so that means that if you're not participating in a in organized Athletics this is the course for you but if you're in athletics you cannot be in this course you would be in an kind of an equivalent course that focuses more on weightlifting and uses other equipment that would really prepare them more for the competition this is more for um personal physical health and well-being in interest well I think that's great any other questions all those favor by signifying I Mr basser I miss Basin I Mr Smith I Mr angel I uh motion carries 4 Z 5.02 outof country field trips to Costa Rica spring break 2025 Mrs Ramirez thank you Mr president and board members we are seeking approval and support for an outof country field trip to Costa Rica for Crownpoint high school students during spring break of 2025 and are hoping that your approval for this recommendation that is administratively supported will allow students to travel to Costa Rica again in Spring of 2025 and these would be cphs students you've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of the Costa Rica outof country trip for Crownpoint high school students during spring break of 2025 may I have a motion motion second motion by Mr Vasser second by Miss Basin question or discussion all those in favor oh sorry just a quick question so I see that we're this one's capped at 36 students and I saw there's a 6:1 ratio for um the chaperon are those chaperons going to be all teachers will they be parents or it can be a combination okay is there any training that they have to receive prior to that they would make sure that they have passed our SA visitors that they have a clean background check and that they um are meeting the requirements of kind of what is outlined in terms of being punctual making sure that they can take attendance all of those things to make sure that our students are safe while traveling um but we would run them through our system that we use with any of our volunteers or chaperon awes but but they don't have to speak that language they don't have to speak the language they do not no so that makes us all eligible there we go do I have three takers any other questions all those in favor please signify saying I Mr basser I miss bason I Mr Smith I Mr angel I motion carries 40 5.03 outof country field trip to France summer of 2025 Mrs Ramirez thank you Mr President board members we are also here seeking approval for Crownpoint high school students to be able to travel out of country to France during the summer of 2025 through an organized trip by Education First tours and and are seeking your approval for this administratively recommended trip to France outof country trip for Crownpoint high school students again summer 2025 you've heard the recommendation from from the administration for approval for the France out of country trip for Crownpoint high school students June 17th through the 28th of 2025 may I have a motion so move second motion by Miss Basin second by Mr Vasser questions or discussion now I just want to say thank you I I don't I'm not sure if it's you that initiated or some of the teachers or how this came about exactly but I love the opportunity for our students to have these worldwide experiences through and you know organized and kind of making them more excited to do well in their foreign language and continue on to second and third levels um for each of those things so thank you for bringing that to us yes thank you to the teachers who are committed to really expanding the horizons of our students and giving them numerous opportunities both within the classroom and then of course outside of the classroom and thank you for your support support of these um requests any other questions all those in favor please signify by saying I Mr Vasser I miss bason I Mr Smith I Mr angel I motion approves 4 Z thank you again Mr mirers for your help in that 5.04 approval to apply for and receive Indiana Department of Education alternative education grant Mr Hardman your tonight St you want me to start over thank you seeking your approval to apply for and receive those funds this evening you heard the recomendation of the administra to apply for and receive funding Indiana Department of Education alternative education $2,440 may I have a motion motion second motion by Mr Vasser seconded by Miss Basin question or discussion Jim does this Grant come up come up year after year um it is an annual Grant uh normally this this is a unique year usually we don't actually see the amount we just get the grant um and so this is kind of a a good time good thing tonight to be able to tell you how much money we're receiving and what the allocation per student is thank you questions all those in favor please signify by saying I Mr Vasser I miss Basin hi Mr Smith I Mr angel I motion carries 40 thank you Mr Hardman 5.05 policy additions and revisions the second reading and the adoption Mr Kiwa thank you Mr President board members um as you may recall last month I brought to the group uh a set of policies to be reviewed for a first reading as you know we're going to be transitioning from um we're transitioning into isba policy so last month uh I presented to you for review uh two criminal history background um check policies for employees and contractors also the new tag Grant we updated that or we would like to um a bullying policy that will be updated and revised and also a new challenge to library media and other supplementary materials um at this point what we would recommend is that the board wave the second reading instead of going on for a second month and approved these policies you've heard the recommendation of the administration for a waving of the second reading and approval of the policies revisions Replacements and additions may I have a motion so move second motion by Miss Basin second by Mr Vasser question or discussion all those in favor please signify by saying I Mr Vasser I miss Basin I Mr Smith I Mr angel I motion carries 40 thank you Mr IA 5.06 additional construction Management Services Mr ree thank you Mr President members of the board I bring before night an addendum to the skilman contract for additional services at Lake Street and Windfield elementaries um with the additional length of those construction projects and the time being added to them skilman uh has presented us with an addendum to add $374,800 to their contract I want to make a note that skilman also has waved any of their specific specific fees these are the fees for the actual Personnel on site so the oversight of the project those fees have been waved uh however the fees for actual PE Personnel on site that's what the additional um um dollar amount is for all these were done within uh the same guidelines of their original contracts that you've approved uh two or three years ago in the past for these projects so with that we're recommending approval amendments uh to accurately reflect the scope of the changes for the 2021 projects you've heard the recommendation of from the administration for the approval of the amendment to actually reflect the changes in the scope for the 201121 projects as attached and the additional fees of contract of $374,800 may I have a motion so moved second motion by Miss Bas seconded by Mr Vasser question or discussion I was just say Mr ree this is all part of our no additional funds needed from additional bonds or anything like that because it's included that's correct okay thank you uh all any other questions all those in favor please signify by saying I Mr Vasser I miss Basin I Mr Smith I Mr angel I motion approves 4 Z thank you for your help on that Mr Ree and we appreciate uh skilman uh waving those fees with our long uh history with skilman we we greatly appreciate their uh waving those additional fees item six information and recognition items 6.01 policy addition and revisions first reading Mr Aiwa thank you Mr President and board members I bring to you this evening a new set of policies uh for your review for the next month or short month I should say as we roll into our next uh board meeting um as you see there in the summary uh we have policy 2300 which is a disclosure of student list this prevents the release of student information names addresses emails to any commercial organization uh for the use of commercial purposes does not include commercial um organizations it does not include the uh Armed Forces um we also will be updating our homeless student policy so this policy is going to replace our current Neola policy it's very much the same uh on the isba side basically outlines the support we provide to families and students in this category um in addition we have policy 4304 uh this is a new one we're putting in place for uh uh to help Mr G and firmy and his efforts with school safety criminal organization activity in schools this is a a policy that must be in place according to State uh law which addresses criminal activity and or gangs uh and this talks to uh speaks to U you know recognizing uh the presence of these organizations uh discipline investigations and support students for students and families that might be affected or involved uh it also speaks to the corporations need to communicate more closely with local law enforcement um in this in in this area um policy 4340 acceptable use of internet and filtering software please keep in mind this does not replace our acceptable use policy of Technology overall this speaks really directly to the internet uh we're having Brian Gil also take a look at this he gave us a thumbs up uh on the language with maybe a couple of uh a minor tweaks with terminology but uh this one will coexist with our current policy for acceptable use of techn techology and finally uh we'll be updating our exit interview design policy uh if you weren't aware that uh individuals that um are between the ages of 16 and 18 that withdraw from high school they uh have to BU law be interviewed uh by the superintendent designated which in this case would be the Principal or a counselor um to gather information on the reasons for uh that withdrawal um so this allows us to go ahead and and like name the individuals that would be doing this uh interviewing uh in policy 5530 so again um as we move towards um updating and replacing old policies from Neola uh to isba uh this set of five policies we ask you you know take into consideration for a first reading thank you Mr Aiwa with that being a first reading really know we'll review those and be back next month I assume for the second reading and approval so any questions or concerns come up we can reach out individually thank you thank you thank you 6.02 superintendent's discussion groups uh Mr Vasser anything from uh any of the uh areas uh Cedar Lake Redevelopment commission they push they push their next meeting to after the New Year they're changing board down there almost in its entirety um so I think they're pushing things out so no report thank you very much Mr Smith we'll wait till uh next month when you're back in person that'll okay with you yes that'll be fine thank you thank you with that we'll move on to 6.03 director of Grants and assessments Mr Hardman thank you very much I want to give you upate I want to turn on my microphone um I want to give you an update on our title one uh Grant if you recall back in July I think it was when I brought it to you uh we were using projected numbers as far as our title one uh free and reduced uh lunch populations and at that time Jerry Ross was a possibility for uh receiving Title One money uh when we received the October 1st uh student enrollment numbers which included free and reduced lunch populations uh we were able then to use more accurate numbers for that uh Jerry Ross did not qualify for but uh we did are able because of the size of our allocation this year which is the highest in The Last 5 Years at $662,000 we're able to bring on uh uh colonel wheeler middle school as a title one School uh and they will this is their first year that they have been a title one school and we've been able to actually Service uh u a colonel wheeler middle school so I want to just give you that update that uh we did make a change from what I had originally said and uh just to let you know that uh Colonel wheeler is going to be part of uh our Title One programming thank you Mr Harman any questions comments no thank you Mr Harman thank you uh awesome director of Elementary education Mr Chino still getting used to this new format here with the new land thank you Mr President and board members I am excited to share that we held over 3,700 parent teacher conferences during late October and early November uh which was just shy of 97% of all elementary students that had a conference held um it takes a ton of planning and hard work uh on behalf have of our teachers to make this happen uh just really proud and grateful to our teachers for uh the exceptional job that they did to hold all of these conferences and also appreciative to our parents for their commitment uh to partner for the success of our kids I I feel like over 3,700 individual touch points and connections is really powerful and meaningful in just a small small amount of time so great job to our teachers uh I also want to provide a little update on an exciting new uh opportunity for our elementary schools that we've been working on uh with in the area of stem uh next year we are hoping uh to add Elementary stem as our fifth specials rotation so in addition to music art PE and Library uh we will be adding stem next year as a fifth specials opportunity um we really want our students to be prepared for uh the careers and the opportunities uh that are going to face them and we feel like this starts in Elementary School uh so this is something that we've been working on we've had a small stem planning team that's been meeting since August uh to get get the ball rolling um and kind of right now we're in the interview phase to identify who our elementary stem specialist will be who will help us uh kind of lead this and and get the planning going so we're ready for August any questions I I think that stems great Nick that's fantastic um in your experience as principle were you were you ever over 90% participation for parents so uh looking that's a high number yeah the it's a great percentage uh 97% um I think in previous years we were right at that 96 97 uh percent Mark so it's pretty consistent um with where we've been over 3,200 of those happened on the e-learning day so that that e-learning day is really important and then about 500 of them happened during like an 8: a.m.

those do come due and um in the in the current calendar year at times we have to apply for this uh approval and so that's what we're doing here tonight there is no tax impact the funds are uh in our accounts and we just need approval to be able to spend the money in this fashion so you're just asking us for approval to move funds as as legally appropriate and necessary absolutely yes any questions board does the public have any questions about that um hearing no questions I guess that will end our um public hearing on Appropriations now we will call to order our regularly scheduled school board meeting please rise and join with me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all great um let's start with our Blue Ribbon update Mr Smith Madame President Dr Smith members of the board I like to start off with that aial shot just to show you the massiveness of this project so you can see all the site work and the building work going on uh LC baseball uh we're getting real close to uh laye Turf and uh Stadium uh should be erecting soon LC baseball and soccer again combined uh LC pool we're about done digging so they're putting in the underground and forming up ready to get ready for concrete uh LC pool uh the inside continues on with finished work in the locker rooms and different areas softball JV field is almost complete finished work on then on the field will complete both Fields Len again the sight view can of see the north area right now you'll see a picture of that front asphalt area parking about 34 of the way done with that uh Ln soccer and concession stand uh finished work going on between soccer and baseball uh Elm Plaza entryway uh the facade is going up and hopefully some storefront going in just hopefully for the snow flies uh Len old pool demo uh mechanics are coming out the bottom of the pool has been demoed and that fill is taking place uh Bell Auditorium continues on uh Special Needs Bus drop had a little bit of delay do some weather but hope to get some Asphalt in there as well to be able to utilize that space classrooms in Phase C uh C continue on uh bells are Middle School auxiliary gy all of these areas here should be turned over to the building by the end of winter break uh fek uh Valley main gym is coming back together that's the back half of the main uh office area and uh for to six classrooms I believe we have underway nearing completion and hopefully be turning back over to the building in the next two weeks office space support staff again more area that'll be turned over to the building LC uh LCC the site Improvement we now have access to our West Drive and parking area so we're uh at full capacity right now uh this Southside will start this spring thank you very much Mr Smith board do you have questions for Mr Smith I do have one question um Mr Smith that initial photo reminded me do we have do we own the area near LC if we needed to expand our facility in the near term you're talking about the I saw shot and it looked like we had a lot of landay next to yeah part of that's not ours no just wondered and also as somebody who has come for the last year or so to all of the recognition was very nice to have the extra parking today so thank you yes does help Miss Norman um yeah I just had uh two I guess comments slash questions if I read correctly Ellen will be hosting their first meet uh swimming meet in the new 50 meter pool tomorrow night correct at 5:30 so that's exciting and then the second thing is I've had some questions from people about what the north side of Lin will look like when it's done um and so Dr Smith and Mr Smith pointed out to me today that it will look very similar to the west facing side of Lawrence Central um if that's correct around their so if they want to take a peak that's what the future of Ellen's North Side will look like I've had some neighbors ask me questions so that's a great frame of reference thank you and I will be glad to have that North Side done as well because I went to a play the other day and it was a wonderful play but it was chilly in there cool um my only other question is what's the timeline for that pool to get done will that be done in any way for this season or are our um Lawrence Central kids using the Ln pool are they just La Central currently is in their old pool so we're not shutting they can't have meats in there they can yeah yeah they do yeah it's fully functional so we didn't want to take it down until the new pool is up so they're continuing to swim there I've asked that question before but do we but do we know the timeline on the LC the new pool uh late spring should be uh we should be turning that over to the building they should have that for summer okay yep great thank you if there are no more questions board we'll we'll move on to the next information item which is the demographic report update uh Mr C it's Transportation oh yes it is transportation again Mr Smith sorry about that Madame President Dr Smith members of the board uh we did receive bids on November 16th uh the bid was for the transportation buildout of the Second Story and two storage facility barns uh six competitive bids you can see those bid tabs in front of you there very competitive uh this time of year uh we were under estimates so that's a good thing uh we're excited about the low bid meeting all specifications who powers and sons who is also the general contractor on the phase one of Transportation so they know the project very well uh this project budget for the hard and soft cost was 3.5 million we projected to be under 2.5 million so we will be bringing a recommendation to the board for powers and Sun uh as low beid meeting all specifications I just wanted to mention Robin lysing here with Schmidt an associate uh Robin was also over the build of phase one and will also help with phase two of Transportation as well great any questions on that yes question is um and this forgive me because I know there have been so many things that have happened prior to my tenure as a board member so as a fairly new board member through this process if is there other criteria that is looked at other than the cost Associated um with this investment but are there other criteria that is used to determine who will win the bid yeah Public Works were Guided by State Statute so we have several different guidelines under State Statute but uh a bid spec is usually low bid meeting all of our specifications who would then receive that bid so in other words only those companies meeting all of our specifications are considered correct good any other questions we will now we will move on to the demographic report Mr kusik and Dr Brown please president must Dr Smith board members tonight we're pleased to yes sir and we're pleased to bring to you some information regarding our demographic data it's on can you it's green okay um so the first thing we'd like to look at tonight when we look at our district enrollment and demographic data is in years past our ADM date our uh enrollment count date people count date was in September and traditionally this report is done October to October this year ADM was moved to October 2nd so that means that our report is synced with ADM so that's a slight change change for us this year it does make looking at the data a little bit easier when you look on our first slide you'll notice that the pupil count is up this school year by 88 students at 1652 and you can see the enrollment since the school year 1112 and the steady incline since the pandemic on our next slide you you can see the pupil enrollment preschool through sixth grade um and our total is at the far lower right col um corner and is 100 students higher than last year that number 8803 is 100 higher than last year you can also look at that chart to see by school and by grade level continuing on the same information with our middle schools and high schools and we are very consistent from last year maintaining enrollment the next set of slides um looks at each cohort over a five-year period when you're looking at these slides you want to look at the numbers in a diagonal and those are colorcoded for you the far right hand column shows the fiveyear change um and so this first uh chart has grades seven through 12 then moving to the next chart you can see obviously that um we we do not have have an Indiana mandated prek or kindergarten also those students in those first grades we don't have five years worth of data so you can see where that far right column starts and that increas is there digging deeper looking at the demographics um for the last 10 years um if you can look at that uh last I'm sorry the second column our total enrollment you can see that increase that you saw on the first slide um at 16502 a couple things just to point out um there have been some increases over the years that are very apparent if you look at our Hispanic percentage of students you can see the increase there also if you I'd like to point out the free and reduced lunch percentage of students a steady increase there as well that uh information that you just saw overall um now you can look at by School broken down by school and continuing on and here you can see starting with our elc's in a group and then going alphabetical by Elementary you can see um the fiveyear trends of this demographic information if we move on going um to the second group there you can see at Forest Glenn with the immersion expansion when we expanded access uh last year you can see growth there at Forest glint Elementary um as that program is very much in demand by our community moving on to the next slide you can see that same I'm sorry uh you can see fast growth also at Mary Castle Elementary and then moving to the next slide you can see the growth at Skyles and sunyside where the immersion programming is at continuing on for the middle [Music] schools on this slide you'll see a slight dip not much but a slight dip for our middle schools and then on the next page you see our two high schools had an increase so overall at the secondary level were stable last portion of our report is what we refer to as the district in and out data refers to our transfer students transferring to us so into us or transferring out transferring from us to another school first slide we have here is our uh fellow Township schools within Marian County just as an example there number first slide first row there Beach Grove that that data is showing you that we had six students transfer into us from Beach Grove and we had 11 students leave us and transfer out to Beach Grove for a net loss of five students another example on that side would be IPS schools we gained 253 students from IPS and lost 198 so a net gain of 55 there overall if you look at the entire chart all the Township Schools in Maring County made a net loss of 31 students however that is down from a net loss of 73 students last school year on the next slide are In-N-Outs for nearby districts are what we often refer to as the donnut districts around Maring County pointing out some highlights on this slide for a grand total of negative - 207 which is pretty consistent with the previous year moving on to Charter Schools again looking at those students who transferred to us from a charter school or left us I also want to point out sometimes we have a student that will go in and out multiple times within the same school year that happens sometimes with in our student population here we have an overall net gain of 51 students our private and perial schools highlighting some of the highlights there and then we show a net loss of 18 pretty consistent pretty stat quot we also the last several years have looked at virtual schools see how many students have joined us from a virtual school or left us to go to a virtual school here we show a net loss of just 21 students uh this is a number we keep in touch with to make sure that our programming meets the needs of our student population and we continue to show that there's not a very high demand for a virtual school here in Lawrence Township and then the last In-N-Out slide here refers to other states here you'll see several students and families have left the state of Indiana to go to other states around the country a net loss there of 171 then on the right side if you look at different countries we have a net gain of 184 students from other countries and then this last slide does not show ins and outs it's slide that we give to you every year that shows all our current nonresident students in the district so not just over the last year but over all the students that are currently attending Lawrence Township that live in another District we've highlighted some of them there with a total of 2,120 it's a lot of data for you some conclusions that we have um some significant conclusions for you would be overall our enrollment continues to increase we see that study incline over the last several years Dr hos BR mentioned the growth at our emerging schools has increased with increased access our demographics continue to shift over the last decade overall our free and reduce numbers as well as our multilingual Learners have increased over the last several years we also regularly monitor the difference in our free and reduced status between our Belzer LC Pipeline and our FAL Valley lawence North pipeline that continues to stay at 10% be happy to answer any questions you have who questions um I have a comment and a question first of all it's very encouraging to see our enrollment numbers continue to go up because I know that's not always the case across the state and that's a testament to our people in our district um I know from the finance end that's also beneficial but um well done there um that's that's very good and then um the the question I had was on slide eight um on the yeah it's on the free and reduced lunch number down at the bottom right um sorry Sheila okay so um the community eligibility provision was actually a huge unexpected blessing um and just for the myself and the general public to understand a little bit more about that what percentage does the district have to hit a certain percentage number districtwide to be eligible districtwide for C go ahead Roger accidentally come from Roger operation I may have to get that information to you uh for our food service does that they Lo they do have a percentage I'm not sure I can't give that to you we'll report that back to the board okay I was just curious cuz I know it has gone up and I wasn't sure if there was a threshold because in the past we've had schools there is individual schools who've qualified but then other schools haven't and then over the summer we found out that our whole District uh qualified and with inflation and everything that's been just a huge blessing to a lot of families just looking at the threshold there board we were at 69% last year we crossed over to 73 so it's probably somewhere around 70% so but we'll get the exact number for the board and the community questions I would like to Echo uh Miss Norman's comments about just the incredible work that has been done to encourage our families to choose uh Lauren's Township especially when you look at those 2,000 students that are coming from other districts that's certainly a testimony to the wonderful things that are happening in our district do you have a question followed up by what you were asking about this 73% of free and reduced lunge um with the fact that no longer families are having to complete the free and reduced form how um i' like just for the general population understand how is that number then determine that we have 73% because I have a I have a feeling that there could be more families to the point that you're making that also would qualify but would just like to know how that is done go ahead Roger from our existing applications of people have filled out that information uh that's the way we track that yes in some cases we could have more and that number could be lot lot lower than that or actually higher when I think it probably is Right a higher percentage um because of some people's current status do you have um a couple of other questions I do notice that um there are some of our programs that we know are extremely well established um that folks are vying to get into such as Forest Glenn going from 769 to 93 4 whereas some of our other programs are showing a decline in enrollment um however there are great things happening in those schools as well so I'm wondering what we're doing to advertise the other programs to ensure that families understand the wealth of opportunity because we have great programs not just um obviously at Forest Glenn but across our district so just wondering how families are understanding the options that they have I think we've got to do a point of clarification for Forest Glenn Forest Glenn we added the preschool and kindergarten programs to that building which is unique to that in particular building because normally those youngsters would be at our elc's so that is also included in those numbers and Emma you didn't we didn't point that out to the board so just so you understand Forest Glenn is more like 700 students and really would not be our largest our largest Elementary if you just look at grades one through six is Amy beverin okay so go ahead answer the question Dr Smith and with our special programming whether that be immersion High ability um families are notified a variety of ways and right now we're in our early application immersion enrollment window taking applications for all three programs all three schools whether they have prek and kindergarten or kindergarten and first um and then the same thing is done the same system um as students are tested for high ability so information has gone out and then my office our office as well as a curriculum and instruction are available to answer fam's questions when choosing programming sometimes student families are interested in multiple programs that are offered at different schools I I'm just thinking about the increase in our Latino population for example and if you're new to the country I know sometimes the default is the school that's closest to your home so I do wonder if there's an opportunity for us to have some open houses or other ways that we are supporting our Multicultural families to understand the choices that exist um because I do think that we have such great programs um and just in my experiences working um in schools people tend to go to the neighborhood when sometimes there might be something um that might be another option that could be of interest to their children which is I think one of the reasons we have such great magnet programs and the office of student services has been very helpful during this window and they have several bilingual staff who call our families who've identified a space speaking who are in kindergarten currently to talk to them about first grade options and so they get a bilingual call to explain that to them and help them choose whether that be our one-way program our two-way program or their um districted location excellent so it's the same support and education going to our Haitian families because I we have seen a drastic increase there so I'm wondering how we're supporting which by the way this slide with in and out of other states and other countries is amazing and so fascinating um but really seeing that increase in our Haitian Creole population so wondering what supports we have to support um that large demographic that's growing oh team it is a a quickly growing demographic force with nearly 300 total students speaking Haitian Creole and so I'm pleased to share that we have added our first position um that is specific to Haitian Creo um will be housed out of Harrison Hill and supporting several of our schools that have high Haitian Creole speaking populations it's uh we we call them El tutor translators but it's similar to an assistant looking at support so I think this is likely a question for you Mr Smith as we we see the good work that is leading to increases in our student population how are our buildings prepared to support this future growth of our district BL Riv in phase two is coming so we always have a plan Miss for those for those lawence yeah we always have a plan do I know we do we always have a plan but I know that this is a hot topic for those parents in Forest Glenn and others that are um have gone through renovation and are likely needing more space in the future so just wanted to get some clarification as to what the future plans are coming soon thank you for those great questions just a a quick uh quick followup you know on our last slide um we do notice a 10% difference in free and reduced um um years ago when we redistricted the board had students can choose which school we have free Cho choice so because we have that free choice um this is what our families and are choosing and where they choose to send their children to school so um that does not necessarily apply anymore um but Madam President we do bring that up we do constantly monitor that monitor that number to make sure that we're um on point with those numbers and you're you're right on point with the fact that we have school choice and that affects no matter how much we try to play the school choice could affect that number overall but as as the City of Lawrence continues to bring on new uh neighborhoods and all that we continue to monitor to make sure that we' got the right number of students funneling to the right side of the district because we do have a new neighborhood coming in on the um Southeast side multiple um so we'll have to determine where those those families will will go to school Madam president may I also add a comment so that there's no confusion uh the assistant superintendent pointed in their demographic report they are project giving number numbers from last year to this year Mr miles with our ADM it's a little bit different that number is determined semester by semester so our school funding goes semester by semester our overall growth for this semester was 167 students that we increase from Spring to Fall okay you got to keep that in mind that's how our funding works and so we'll do a second ADM count February 2nd 2024 okay so we've seen a significant growth in our district in one semester okay and the only other thing I would like to ask and I did not ask in advance I apologize I wouldn't expect an answer today um but at some point if we could see how our um incline in population looks compared to other Marian County Schools I can give it to you they're all down that's the answer everybody's down so everyone's down I mean I think that's speaks yeah very highly as Miss Norman said very highly to the work we're doing here in Lawrence Township and I want to thank everyone in the room and all of our teachers and administrators um great work uh because again it doesn't only it doesn't only speak to the work we do and the education um and our graduation rate it it does determine our funding so thank you any more questions board okay then we will move on to the financial update Mr miles thank you madam president Dr Smith members of the board uh in front of you you have a copy of our end of October financial statements for the general fund and can see revenue and expenses lined out as we do every month um in in total our general fund is right as expected actually our total revenues exceeded our projections just a little bit bit and our total expenditures just a little under uh the projected amount so in a very good position there for the general fund and likewise the transportation fund uh again line item out by revenue and expenditures again the total revenues a little outpacing our projection and uh expenditures slightly under where we had projected so both in a very good position at the end of October do we have questions board or are we just all so happy about that so happy about that but I do have one question how do we account for inflation in these numbers this is kind of a general question are we budgeting for the pre the previous inflation numbers and that's why we're seeing the discrepancy just curious yeah it's good question so um we put put together our budget uh about 18 months in advance and so we're locked in at that point um that's submitted we we passed our budget for um or or presented our budget Senate off to the state um earlier in the fall so we're we're looking far in advance and trying to to do some forecast what inflation may you know come to us so again it's it's an estimate of projected expenses and projected uh income you know obviously the the increase in you know our just general cost of living our our utility expenses for one that's that's continuing to go up um there are some advantages to it we certainly make more um from an income standpoint on our interest so any of our monies that we've been able to invest so that helps there is some offset but it's just something we have to look at in advance and do the best we can to to try to estimate we're going to be and Mr miles haven't we not in the past locked in our prices on fuel and certain certain yes we're able to do so on some of those uh and take some of the risk uh at least reduce it um so certainly our diesel fuel uh we've done so in the past and we continue to do so um other fuels that we you know for heating and things in the buildings um we do look at those opportunities when they're out there thank you okay uh board we are on to our board committee chair reports um so miss Pucket yes parks and R yes as you know we had Winterfest this uh past Saturday and so the skating rink is officially open it is open um the hours are Saturday and Sunday from 2: to 700 p.m.

[Music] hi I'm Michael KY assistant superintendent uh on behalf of Mr Adams and myself we want to wish the entire community of Ashland a very Happy Thanksgiving we hope you all enjoy being with family and friends and we hope you also enjoy some [Music] football on behalf of Ashlin High School Happy Thanksgiving good luck at the game go clockers on behalf of the Ashen select board we want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and goers from all of us here at Ashland Town Hall I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and go clockers goers on behalf of the Ashley and Community Center we want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving and we want to give you all a great big luck I don't know what I'm saying from Mr Handyman your home improvement professionals Happy Thanksgiving and go [Music] clockers on behalf of techniflex Ashland Happy Thanksgiving have a great game and go [Music] clockers behalf of the Ashland Police Department we'd like to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving good luck in today's game go clockers weal the as fire department Happy [Applause] [Music] Thanksgiving hey I'm Jack Lewis your State Rep wishing you best of luck on today's game I'm Karen spela Senate President and representing Metro West have a great game be safe have fun and happy turkey day happy [Music] rolling holding the micop on behalf of Ashlin High School up forget [Music] it let's go beat some [Music] hillers We wish all of Ashen a Happy Thanksgiving and to everybody playing the football game today we wish you great luck and have a lot of fun W go clockers from all of us here at waca TV Happy Thanksgiving go [Music] clockers

are you interested in the future of Ashland if you are please plan on attending the Envision Ashland comprehensive plan popup happening during the Holiday Stroll on Saturday December 2nd from 12: to 4:00 p.m. in the basement of ashon town hall go to your shopping and come spend 5 or 10 minutes giving your feedback on different areas of a comprehensive plan including open space housing and transportation as well as just letting us know how long you've lived in town and where for more information visit the ashin mass.com website and search for comprehensive plan

Brea two one and we good afternoon everybody um my name is Michael Herbert I'm the town manager and I'm here with our assistant Town manager Jen ball and we're here today to review the town meeting warrant for the special town meeting that's going to be happening this Wednesday November 29th 2023 at uh ashin high school starting at 7 p.m.

time slot or during teachers prep time so um yeah thank you for those are outstanding numbers thank you yeah absolutely thank you 6.05 director of secondary education Mrs Ramirez thank you Mr President and board members I just want to I think coming off of Thanksgiving just really share how thankful we are all I believe to be bulldogs um I had an administrator last week in a text chain wishing everybody a Happy Thanksgiving saying like I am thankful to be a bulldog and I think that that is a statement that we all genuinely believe to our core and I think looking at today with our spell bu um participants we had our Crossroad Educators we had an exciting weekend um down in Indianapolis with football we finished Mary Poppins at the high school these are just a few touch points of what our students staff and community Community really make happen and so I just want to really reiterate how thankful I am for the opportunity to serve Crownpoint Community School Corporation and how thankful I am for those that I get to work with last week our students I think also really exhibited their um service they really extended opportunities for families in need we had numerous turkeys that were donated and delivered to families in need as well as we had a great opportunity in both of our middle schools to attend um a Thanksgiving feast that was hosted by students in our applied skills program where they really um treated us so well and it was great to be able to um highlight their talents and to interact with all of our students that day that participated so thankful for that upcoming events at the high school um there are several concerts that are still upcoming I have the dates back there if you guys would like me to grab them I did not bring them up um but I will grab them Andor share with them share with you right after the board meeting but we do have some exciting events and I think the concert season at the High school is always a great one during this holiday season so encourage you to attend as many of those as you can lastly I just want to extend a big thank you um to Jan Carney Janna Carney is our media and Library coordinator she with her support her expertise her experience is really helping our whole District she is um in the trenches and really working to provide professional development keeping us um a breast of legislation making sure that we are doing what we need to be doing to do what is best for our students curating our collections in our libraries providing professional development to our media center staff she had us involved in bookmark um designs with the public library and we had three students win those um that design contest so she really is just making such an impact to our media center to our Collections and to our processes so I just want to um acknowledge her and what she has accomplished in the first few months that she's been with us and I know that she will continue to have a huge impact for us so just want to again share our thankfulness for everybody that we work with and for all the great work they do thank you Mr M and if you be kind enough to get those dates to Diana green the easiest way for us to all to track those events is through email I appreciate I will get those to her and I apologize for not bringing them up thank you very much uh 6.06 director of educational exceptional education Mrs pascus is on her way to a conference so we'll skip that and go to 6.07 assistant superintendent Mr G uh thank you Mr President and board members uh I don't have much of a voice so my recognition I'm going to package in um one week um November 13th it started uh and I think it catches the gamut of everything um Athletics academics and Fine Art so I started that week by attending the elementary spell Bowl hosted at Colonel wheeler um it's nice to recognize those kids but it's amazing when you're watching them spell those words some of those words are no joke they put a lot of hard work into into that so we really appreciate all the efforts of our coaches and our kids to make that event successful uh of course we then hosted a semi-state football final for the first time ever um and we know the results of that so that was an amazing turnout by the community and just the school community and the community in general so that was super exciting um then the next uh afternoon I attended the fall play Mary Poppins uh congratulations Mr flu Allen the cast The Crew the orchestra that was like a professional musical now we usually have that in the spring but the foresight of some of the people that are working with them now these kids that are in Orchestra and choir won't have to compete with isma and a spring musical so a nice little move that they made thinking of the kids and then finally I attended the crossroad uh Chambers Gayla where we we uh recognized our inspiring Educators at the Avalon that night we got dressed up and uh we had a good time there and our our people represented us great and we we really thank uh the crossroads for doing that and recognizing all the hard work of our Educators um so I woke up Sunday morning as like Mr R said I was just like it's a great time to be a bulldog all this wonderful talent and and and the things that are happening in our school Community it's just great thank you Mr Jee fery 6.08 Chief human resource officer Mr Aiwa thank you Mr President uh just real quickly I I want to thank um our support staff um I should say first I want to thank the board uh not too long we've approved some raises and rate increases for all of our employees here at cro Point Community School Corporation and I have to inform you that it is no small task to get all of the calculations done to catch people up going all the way back to July 1 of this year based on those new rates so um I I just want to give a personal thank you to Gan Lang Renee Rich and my office uh Mr Reese and his crew uh upstairs it's funny I have to say that now but uh the business department upstairs Lori Cooper Sher lsen Heiser um who works tirelessly uh to get this accomplished so um just thank you uh for everybody uh for allowing us to make that shift into those increased rates and um uh at the Crownpoint Community School Corporation thank you thank you Mr kiwan 6.09 Chief Financial Officer Mr ree I'd like to Echo Mr aa's uh comments regarding the business office and his staff it's great working relationship between the two departments and a lot that goes to Mr AKA and his leadership of that that department I can't thank him enough for that uh but enormous effort over the last month to get all that updated and and correct pays going out so thank you very much thank you Mr Reese 6 610 director of communication Mrs Allen I remember when she used to be reluctant to speak at these meetings we're good it's fine um thank you and good good evening I wanted to share that today we launched a new video series called did you know so we're still keeping super things which is a lot of fun it happens in the classroom but did you know is a behind the scenes look at some of our departments and really what it takes to kind of operate a district of our size so our first Did You Know video was about Transportation um some fun facts we go through about $500,000 a year in fuel um we run 76 bus routes we have a th field trips a year um so that video is kind of pecked full of information with all of those little facts and figures um I also wanted to just recognize um all of our teachers for the Thanksgiving events and um things that they planned last week I was only in my office for about 20 minutes on Tuesday because I was running from building to building to take pictures but it was an immense amount of fun so preschool had friendship Feast Jerry Ross had their annual formal day they also had a balloon parade wheeler exceptional Learners held a lunch um and at Winfield they had Charlie Brown Thanksgiving um a lot of fun but so many of them were connected to curriculum and I was really impressed so the Balloon Parade was not just balloons they read a story they talked about creativity Ingenuity problem solving and then they decorated their balloons and walked around the school so it was really cool um and then finally I just came from the First dress rehearsal at Colonel wheeler middle school for The Lion King it's Friday and Saturday and it's just adorable so if you have time to go it's worth it thank thank you Miss 611 superintendent of schools Dr Terell so a lot of mine is going to be repeats of what you've already heard but I I can't go without restating um the high school play Mary Poppins um from the actors to the sound people to the set design the orchestra the kids that were playing below it was unbelievable I mean just just fabulous um also Crown Point High School athletic department um the way that the student body rallied around our football team the way the community came together all the donations uh we just truly appreciate the fact that we have such a strong and uh active Community with this but I think one of the things that I'd really like to highlight tonight and Dave Coulson has sitting out here on Friday night uh November 17th was supposed to be the plays night and all of a sudden we win a game at regionals and now we're hosting semistate and so they immediately after that as soon as we find out I'm getting texts from Mark and Russ and uh different people and we're looking at this and we're like how are we going to do this with over 5,000 people at the football game the play is going to be packed out um we delayed the start reserved the bus lot for the people going to the play Dave Coulson did a fabulous job of orchestrating efforts with the the town the city of Crown Point both with our police department and our EMA Department had over 22 officers working that night um comments that I got from Westfield's coaching staff was this was like coming into a Collegiate setting with all the way the traffic was laid out to everything so Dave I appreciate you and the way you coordinated that and that doesn't go just that night that's because relationships and what you've done and built over the many years here at Crown Point so thank you very much um again just unbelievable place right now with all the exciting things that are going on and uh we look forward to the many more things that are coming with the holiday season approaching we'll make sure we get those dates to you thank you Dr Terell item seven tonight other business of the board anything that's wasn't on the agenda that anybody has that we need to bring up there's no Regional meetings nothing I can think of so okay uh item eight board statements of appreciation recognition we'll start with you Mr baser sure I like to recognize the mechanics at the bus barn um outstanding job that they always seem to do uh keeping our transportation vehicles and excellent work in conditions and as it gets a little colder be a little bit more challenging for them but it'll be even much more appreciated at that point so thank you for all those men and women that are there thank you Mr vasher miss bason anything evening so not to reiterate things that have been said many times but uh I had the opportunity to see Mary Poppins which was absolutely amazing it's become a tradition I take my kids that we've gone every year we've seen Little Mermaid and all you know all kinds of things but um for for my family the girl's highlight was when Ethan Ogen who was um Henry is that his name right sorry here's I'm like terrible on my Mary Poppins but when you did the back flips in the air so you're talking about students who have orchestrated this entire every you know I kept telling my my daughters like the the music you hear is not being played on a like you know a CD player on you know what they Apple music whatever they use now but um I'm like there are kids in the orchestra playing instruments that make those sounds and just really helping them understand that these are students and everything that they see there is I hate to say but like to me felt about as good as when I go to Broadway in Chicago you know we go to the Chicago theater and we've seen a number of things there recently it is truly a Class Act and it is absolutely amazing when you think about everything from the choreography is done by teachers and students and all the way through it's absolutely amazing so I love that I can take my kids there and they can enjoy you know not only a great show but then also to see past students who you know are producing that so that was amazing to attend then our semi-state I have never seen more people at a football game like a local you know football game than there were at that game and yet the behavior I think across the board was better than I've seen at any football game seeing kids with Valpo um you know clothes on and Handover clothes on and um not maraville because they were also playing they had their own stuff going on but seeing even the way our community rallied around and came to support Crown Point was awes awesome and then getting to attend um the game on Saturday down at Lucas Oil was really amazing getting to see those kids who put you know so much effort into that play it kind of like you know the top place you could play if you're thinking about football so in Indiana so um it was really awesome seeing how many Crown Point folks made the trip down there was overwhelming I mean you look at Ben Davis which is in Indianapolis and I would argue that we had more fans there than they did which is absolutely amazing that we have people who were driving to hours down to that game um so anyway I'm very proud as you can tell to be a bulldog but very proud to get to serve in this community and the way that our school corporation across the board from students parents teachers have represented us so well um makes me very proud so thank you thank you and I'll just add to her sentiments about Saturday evening um for those of you who don't know our band got to perform at half time with our dance team cheerleaders were there so it was just nice to see from a perspective of a board member where we're not technically involved on the day-to-day stuff but to have that representation down at the state level from top to bottom football team the band the dance team and all that see the fans support the community support it was just a wonderful event to show hey this is what Crownpoint does and we do it the right way so with that I'll lead into my number two it's been touched on here this evening I love the fact that we represent a community where the individuals involved in their day-to-day performance and jobs aren't afraid to either delegate delegate authority to others or collaborate with departments with different buildings to do what's right for kids and it makes me just warms my heart knowing that whatever is needed is being done and nobody has to claim their thumb to it so to speak you know and sometimes there are individuals like that and I it's just nice to know that in Crown Point we don't have that type of atmosphere and that we can do what we're here to do and that's educate kids the best of our ability and use tax dollars wisely to do that so I just want to kudos to everybody on that and that's from top to bottom so uh with that I will look for item nine a motion to adjourn so moved second motion by Miss bason second by Mr Vasser Mr Smith is gone so all those in favor please signify by saying I I that motion carries 30 Z thank you very much

um no cash they do not accept cash so yes adults are 10 kiddos Under 12 or five um Cory I missing something I think that's live music in Winter Market every time that we're open thank you so much lovely Miss Norman um the foundation um in honor of giving Tuesday tomorrow um has set a goal to raise $3,500 um you're welcome to donate the Public's welcome to donate go to msdlt f.org or um a physical need right now are winter coats gently used or new they can be dropped off here through door three um anytime now through December mber 5th thank you great policy we are currently working on the administrative guidelines and hope to have those ready by our next December board meeting great I love to have a lot of reading in December at Fireside lots of get my computer out lots of reading um Miss Lawrence is there anything new with the Indiana school board system ass ma'am thank you okay then um we will move on to our action items um Mr miles the approval of the additional Appropriations resolution thank you once again Madam president Dr Smith members of the board uh as presented earlier tonight there is a need for an additional appropriation uh for our debt service fund and I recommend the board approve the additional appropriation resolution as submitted so moved second properly moved and seconded are there any questions all those in favor I I any opposed the eyes have it um we will move on to the approval of the transportation renovation bids Mr Smith Madame President Dr Smith members of board I recommend that powers and Suns be approved for the transportation renovation phase two as submitted we have a motion move second properly moved and seconded any questions board all those in favor I I any opposed the eyes have it Madame President I'd just like to acknowledge Dustin Tolman with powers and Sons there he is uh you've seen him before so we're excited to work with them again thanks for being here Dustin thank you okay um we'll move on to the approval of our request for the City of Lawrence pathway Trail easement and that will be again Mr Smith Madam president Dr Smith members of the board first of all I'd like to recognize Corey Korn with the City of Lawrence who is leading this project uh for the City of Lawrence uh brought to you on November 13th a recommendation to um deed over the easement uh right away for a trail along Lee Road and E East on 63rd Street so I do recommend the board approve the easement space to the City of Lawrence for the next level Trail as submitted do we have a motion for approval so moved second second properly moved and seconded questions about that board um all those in favor I any oppos the eyes have it we'll move to the approval of curriculum um the the team recommendation 2324 Mr notor thank you madam president Dr Smith and members of the board at the November work session Mr harsh and I presented to you the recommendations of our curricular advisory committee for High School courses for the 2324 school year we ask that you approve those as submitted so moved second properly moved and seconded any questions about the curriculum changes all those in favor I I any opposed we have our curricular changes great uh next we'll move on to the approval of the request for the RFP for internet services Mr gagin I'm sorry Dr gag line that's pardon me president muston members of the board Dr Smith we request permission to advertise the RFP for internet services as submitted so moved properly moved and seconded any questions all those in favor I I any opposed the eyes have it great all right um and now we move on to the approval of the request for the RFP for the fiber connections Dr Gin yes we request permission to advertise the RFP for uh fiber to connect the new lecc to the network so moves second questions all those in favor I I any opposed the eyes have that as well uh next we move forward again to the approval of the request for RFP for the network switches we request permission to advertise the RFP for Network sub uh switches as submitted I think we should make you say it again so moved second okay um all those in favor any opposed okay um and we'll move again forward to the approval of request for the RFP for self-provisioned fiber versus lease Services yes we request permission to advertise the RFP for self-provision versus leas lit fiber to enhance Sunnyside and Sky's test Network capabilities as submitted so moved second oh take it properly moved and seconded all those in favor I I any opposed Dr gagin unique New York unique New York New York rubber baby buggy bumpers Madame President um I move that we treat action items 5.09 through 5.13 as consent agenda is there a second second um and all those in favor of of moving those items to a consent agenda I I any opposed okay the eyes have it I move approval of the consent agenda second properly moved and seconded um all those in favor of approving the consent agenda I I oppose the eyes have it we are to our um board comments so which one of our board members would love to begin commenting on how how great things are I have no comments today I hope everybody had a great holiday with lots of leftovers I actually do have one comment today um I went and got my flu shot in covid booster today and would encourage all members of our community to do the same um it's not just to protect yourself but also those vulnerable populations within our community I just visited my mom in a nursing home not too long ago over Thanksgiving it got it for her but I also got it for all of all three of my kiddos so that they can stay in school because I don't want them when I'm working from home bothering me about snacks yeah Miss Norman um I just uh as November comes to a close I just wanted to acknowledge two things about this month it's a Native American Heritage Month um social studies teacher Dr Smith can appreciate that just wanted to pay honor to our first nation's people which currently represent 1% of our US population and secondly it's also National adoption Awareness Month um just want to honor the ways different ways that families are are brought together and to the people who show their love through family so um thank you for that Miss done um I we have so much to be thankful for here in Lawrence Township and I think we saw with our demographic report that we are uniquely gifted in the services and the education we offer our children and are recognized as such in our in our larger Community um so thank you you to all of those who provide services to our students whether you're an AI or a custodial care or bus driver or cafeteria worker or a teacher or an administrator you know you are the true heroes of our district whether we're in covid pandemic or not you are the true heroes of our of our lives and um on that I will just I will leave it there thank you very much Dr Smith thank you madam president and board just to remind you next week we will have our traditional holiday open house on December the 6th uh so that's a huge event for us at 11:30 and then Madam president if you don't mind if I say reminding you that we have one board meeting for December December the 11th we'll have a combined meeting starting promptly at at 5:30 and also last thing it's winter time so we're going in indoors Dr nth basketball SE Seasons indoors where it's nice and comfy and warm and we got some good basketball teams so join us next week because I think the Bears and Wildcats are going to meet each other is that correct Dr nth next Wednesday okay because of the county tournament we'll be there we're gonna claim that one so thank you thank you with that said is there a motion to adjourn so moved second properly moved and seconded we are adjourned thank you board great meeting thank you yes signed it it should be making its way

um those of you that are familiar with uh with uh this process and what we do in this program we basically go through each of the Warren articles um give some general background about them and then open it up to any questions that people may have uh and that we can hopefully answer um and it's an opportunity for people to get informed about town meeting in the different Warren articles before you actually get to town meeting so um oftentimes it's it's hard for residents when they're just showing up at town meeting cold and and they don't know exactly what's on the warrant or any of the background related to it so we really came up with this process to hopefully alleviate some of that and uh have an opportunity to give you information that uh you find you hopefully will find is helpful so uh and I do notice that we have a few people here on um on Zoom so that's great so uh and what we'll do is I will just go through each warrant article and after each article after I give background I'll just open it up to any questions on that AR article so that being said Jen do you have anything you want to add okay you good um all right so we'll start off with uh the first article for special town meeting which is the appropriation of free cash now free cash is essentially the balance at the end of the year uh in the town's accounts that uh after you take all the revenue that we got in and you take what we expended um you come up with a free cash number just a essentially the balance in your checkbook um this year we have a free cash of number of 1.7 million uh specifically 1, 74364 and several years ago uh the select board the school committee the finance committee as well as the town manager and superintendent of schools agreed on a financial policy that determined how free cash numbers were going to be appropriated and split and really it's uh spread between a few different buckets namely our general rainy day stabilization fund um also our sped which is special education stabilization fund to handle any out of District uh expenditures that were unaccounted for at the beginning of the budgetary season um our opep trust fund which is other post-employment benefits which is the liability that we maintain to pay for retirees health insurance um and then we also utilize uh some of the money for capital and other one-time expenses um this year we're actually going to have an additional category which is somewhat unique um which is a distribution of opioid settlement funds now the reason we're doing this through free cash is that the Department of Revenue at the state um is not allowing us or municipalities to distribute this in a way that we normally would distribute it which is through its own special account so it's part of the free cash appropriation this year but um General stabilization fund is going to be funded at at $25,000 or an additional 25,000 will be put into that and that's so that we maintain a 10% balance of our expenditures in that rainy day fund so that's you know if the bottom falls out of the economy uh we have this back stop to help support operations and expenditures um opep trust uh this year it's going to be an additional 515,000 uh that will be going to the opep trust that should bring actually our funded ratio which is the amount that we have funded related to our liability up around 10% which we've when we started this 2013 in 2013 we were at like zero um so we've made quite a few strides with that um sped stabilization fund we're going to fund that or we're going to add I should say add to that uh to the tune of 200 $100,000 uh this year we had to use some of that money out of that uh stabilization fund to fund uh out of District expenditures this year so this is replenishing that um the opioid settlement funds which I discussed earlier so we will be funding those at 71,3 64 and then finally um our capital and other onetime expenditures will be funded at 9316832866 so uh there's a list of capital expend expenditures that uh we'll present at town meeting so people can see exactly what that is or what that will be spent on Jen do you have anything you wanted to add on this okay so that's that's basically the uh gist of our article one free crash transfer anybody out on Zoom world have any questions oh mark I see you have your hand raised yes goodly afternoon Mark sorry for9 Road last um I was just wondering with with any of this levels can't any of this levels help out with the economic growth and help out with a uh I finance boost to the comprehensive plan no um the short answer is no um we actually used free cash last year mark to fund $250,000 for the comprehensive plan that fell under that one-time expenditure Capital uh item can the okay and the and the sped cost um can that be possibly used as a uh a nonprofit economical thing to get into the town to help the schools no it there's there's very I guess you could say well-defined constraints Mark in how we can use that special education stabilization fund and what expenditures it can support and something like General and forward thinking like what you're talking about we wouldn't be able to use it for that that's it for now okay thanks Mark anybody else going once going twice all right um we will move on now to um property tax exemptions so um this is an elderly exemption program that allows certain qualifying seniors to uh basically exempt a certain amount off of their property taxes and so that amount is established uh through the board of assessors based on some guidance myself and the and the finance director provides in terms of what we can afford and this year I'm actually pretty happy um we're actually going to be able to fund this exemption amount um to it's going to be estimated around $970 which is you know significantly more than last year's exemption amount which was $854 so and it's actually quite quite a big almost double what we had in fy7 which was 516 th000 so as costs have gone up we've tried to steadily increase this amount as well um good news is that we're also increasing the income eligibility amount from 62,000 to 64,000 and generally we have over the last few years I would say approximately one 130 to 140 people take advantage of this so it's a big help to those seniors that qualify uh again and you're saving $1,000 on your taxes essentially and um it's a it's a valuable program that uh we've put in place I think back in fy12 and uh again excited that we're going to be able to to fund it at this amount this year so does anybody have any questions okay moving right along so we will go to article number excuse me one minute here get back to my place um which is the senior tax workof program article and uh Jen if you don't mind I'm going to pass this over to you since you've been working on this sure so article three is to um affirm our acceptance of the M General law that allows municipalities to create a a senior tax workof program so this is a bit different than the previous article which is an exemption um this is for seniors um who do a certain number of service um volunteer hours and earn um a reduction from their taxes and so this will allow the select board to come up with a little bit uh broader of a program so we'll be able to increase the number of hours up to 125 hours rather than having a cap of a certain amount of money it will also allow us if there is somebody who has a disability or uh uh mobility issues um somebody within the home may be able to also um to do the hours for that person to receive the benefit and that's really it is there any questions on that one awesome oh Mark does oh Mark sorry yeah I said I said for now not here the now um this was working for the for seniors and volunteering is this going to be a exempt for fixed income seniors exempt from what meaning they wouldn't be allowed disability Social Security that they already acue is this going to help or not help in fix in the fix income that they they're getting if they want to forer you know Mark I'll have to look into that I don't think I don't believe it would have an impact I think that if that person did additional um volunteer service hours within the town so it's placed in you know lots of folks do it at the senior center we had a couple of seniors that worked at Town Hall um I think we had a couple of seniors that worked at the library and so if you did a number of hours that's sort of how it works but I can certainly look into that very specific question mar Just yes no so are you asking if there are any income limitations associated with this and would social security and disability be counted towards that income um um yes because I know that the AO before has nothing to do with it so I'm wondering if this has anything to do this doesn't have any income there is some parameters but it's not as strict yeah yeah Mark there are some parameters but we'll need to we'll need to get that information get those specifics and have that ready for you at town meeting again that's it's for now okay great um so seeing no more questions on that we'll move on to article four which is the acceptance of uh donation of land um and the specific address is zero Fountain Street although this property is not uh technically on Fountain Street it's actually um property that is in the middle of a subdivision and this is a donation from Bill and Carolyn Bell and property that they own and uh you know we we obviously any anytime somebody wants to talk about donating property um we have a conversation with them and see if it makes sense um in this case it made a lot of sense especially after a conservation agent and assistant conservation agent um back in Sophia it took a look at this particular parcel and realize the ecological benefits that it would have for the community and that neighborhood in particular so this land would be just kept as open space um or forested Woodland as it is right now and again provides quite a bit of ecological value for the for the town in the neighborhood so it makes sense to accept this uh piece of property and this is this is a donation it wouldn't require you know there's no money uh changing hands for this so but uh as it is an interest in land we do have to take it to town meeting it has to be supported by a two-thirds vote so um I'll pause there and see if anybody has any questions related to that Mark I'm having fun now um echon econic how much is the comcom and how much how much is the uh the town bylaws and Zoning is going to have a say in this so mark this piece of property does fall in you know in one of the particular zones for the town it's really it's unbuildable because there's no access to it from from any of the streets um so people wouldn't have to be worried about that again the primary value of this is going to be ecological and keeping it in its current state is it going to be open space yes thank you okay any other questions I saw something maybe pop up I think it was Aaron asking about a map which we'll show at town meeting okay yes we will have a map that we'll be able to show at town meeting uh for those of you that are wondering um so moving to Article 5 which is accepting an easement on 107 High Street so this easement is to Grant access to a piece of land that was donated to the town in the '90s believe it or not and uh this piece of property was to remain as open space and also had the condition upon its donation that it be maintained by our Department of Public Works two times a year and so essentially what that means is they go in and mow it um we've had access before um to the property and uh so when that house and prop the property that we were using for Access once that sold and changed owners the current owners didn't um you know weren't too keen on allowing the the current arrangement to um to continue um so we looked at an alternative here and this is what we came up with and it's um again an easement for 107 High Street and so there's a cost associated with bu or gaining this access to this easement um which is $2,000 so again $2,000 in exchange for us being able to go in and maintain a donated piece of property um that uh that we've been maintaining for for decades now so any questions related to that nothing Mark okay all right article six um article six is the authorize a home rule petition to increase uh the number of liquor licenses that we have in town so this would increase uh increase the amount of liquor licenses by 16 and that's for on premises consumption so with liquor licenses you have off- premises like retail like uh you know Sunnyside Liquors or or you know one of those establishments where you go in and take it out um on premises is for restaurants and and things of that nature where you're actually consuming alcohol on on site um this is a good Economic Development tool um that cities and towns are utilizing to help bring in Commerce and Business Development into their communities um we're limited right now in how many that we can get based on the population and so what we're doing here and what a lot of communities have done before us is actually petition the legislature through what we call a home rule petition to allow us to get more liquor licenses and um so the advice that we were given is that you want to make we really only get one shot at this um and so you know we want to make sure that we're asking for enough to make it worthy of a homeo petition and also enough so we don't have to worry about going back to the legislature in five or six or seven years and asking for additional ones if these run out or if if a smaller number ran out and um trying to think if there's any do you have anything else associated with this um I'll open it up to questions hey Amy you had to know I'd be here Amy I I figured I figured you probably if you were going to ask a question about something it might be this you got it um can you tell me how many available um and I'm assuming that's 16 all alcohol licenses um well they're on premises consumption so so I think they're broken down into like is there a separate I just don't know is there a separate kind of wine and malt liquor or I I believe there is um I want to say that was a I think there is two and so I'm just confirming that that's 16 all beverage so all alcohol beverage correct correct and how many available licenses are there currently do you know I mean I did do a a public records request so I'm I'm just making sure what I have is what you're thinking so I don't have that right in front of me Amy but I believe it's four okay say I I have six so okay so I'm assuming that would be 16 plus the six that are available so that would be 22 um license is available that would be correct whatever we have currently left plus the additional 16 okay so can I just ask is there something that's driving this uh motivation to ask for 16 and to ask for 16 now yes so you know we're looking at you know the Redevelopment of the 126 uh quor um also downtown um I think we're going to start seeing more private investment into both of those areas in town um because of the public Investments that we have made and so in turn uh this is another tool that that municipalities utilize to help attract more private Commerce and private business so we feel kind of like Ashland's in a position right now to where we are going to start seeing some of that private investment coming in we want to be prepared for it um in terms of the 16 licenses you know why is it that number number uh you know compared to less you know I I don't know if we have a specific formula uh involved in that just the the guidance that we were given um from our legislative delegation was since you are really going to have only one shot at the app app uh one shot at this then you want to aim On The Higher Side than than the Lower Side um because I the reason I'm ask and my last question is in terms of census numbers are we looking at like 19,000 residents currently currently yes yeah I think I think technically it's like 18,800 is some change yeah okay that's what I saw so from a and and from a public health perspective I mean one per one license per 1,000 residents is considered to be a lot and it looks like right now we have more than one license per 1,000 residents and if you you know add the additional 16 um then it you know we're we're getting closer to one per 500 residents and that's looking at the 19,000 overall in total and we've got I think approximately 3800 that are 18 or that are under 18 so you know those are where my questions are coming from you know from a public health perspective um you know increasing alcohol licenses is never good Economic Development policy so um just wanted to kind of have that um that conversation and and get a little more information so thanks for that no I I can certainly I can certainly respect that Amy and I think you're right I mean I think we have 22 licenses currently you know used and and and available so if you had 16 on that yeah that would probably equate to around five one per 500 so I think your math is is pretty accurate on that one okay okay thanks okay you're welcome any other questions oh mark thank you Amy for doing that I'm in that same bar Park as you I'm going to be a little bit more hopefully direct and saying this is why why is it more economical Fe Fe feasible to get 16 liquor license where there is no future business yet coming into town so Mark you want to be in a position you don't want to be in a position where like a restaurant wants to come to town and you don't have you know the available liquor license to give them so you do it before restaurants come into town because it's a long process so you know the home rule petition process is going to take at least a year I'd say more likely 18 to 24 months um and you know a business is not going to wait around 18 to 24 months you know while a town goes and secures more licenses why must we wait for businesses to look have um liquor license why is it that we're betting that more liquor people be coming in why is that a future vision for the town well I think the town has been pretty adamant in fact in that they would like to have more businesses in town um especially related to residences I think a lot of people would like to see more commercial growth commercial growth is is lot more than just restaurants it's can it should be expanded to a marketable rate not drinking rates so the town is enough to to usually we did have um the nickname for asht on trash Camp because that was one of the reasons but we we looked at it and it doesn't seem and from I'm seeing Aaron lad's the brewery and that's what that's what I'm going Afters that old fire station place is going be doing we this town looks looks more for a scientific bi olical expense to the Future than just sit down and get drunk why is that looking for the town I I would agree and I'm not necessarily sure I hear a question there but I you know I guess I liken it to building a house okay when you're going to build a house you don't just take a hammer right you need a lot of other tools in in your in your tool bag and in your kit to build a home so think of this not as the only strategy but as part of a more comprehensive strategy and the comprehensive plan has something to do with that too that will definitely have something to do with that so comprehensive plan with the 29 people and and the and the the project management and all that has not brought liquor license is up yet not yet and uh so Mark that's actually a really good opportunity for me to plug the fact that we're going to have an open house the comprehensive plan committee is going to be having an open house on Saturday from 12: to 4: here at Town Hall where you can come and learn more about that but more importantly provide feedback on what you think is important what's your Economic Development vision for the town I could say here because I may not be able to make an impos on my dad is what I'm saying right now okay thank you and I did sign up for the um the citizen um Academy yes oh good I did I signed up on that Mark you could probably teach a lot of the the Citizens Academy stuff give me the chance give me the confidence and show and and then we all can do the two-way street and compromise and understand and then work all together it all works together you're right gotta close that Gap you got it okay that's it for now thanks Mark um our last two articles are CPC um or CPA related funding articles and um I can just briefly cover them I see the chair of our comprehensive excuse me our community preservation committee is on Zoom as well so I want to give him an opportunity to add to this but um the first article related to CPA is article 7 and it's to vote to appropriate $215,000 to enable the creation of uh a dog park on Town property along Memorial Drive and um this 215,000 is not the total amount that it would take to build this dog park but there is a grant that is available that uh would hopefully account for the rest of it um eron before I ask you if you wanted to add anything Jen do you have anything you want to add okay Aaron did you have something you wanted to to speak to about this he said he doesn't need to speak on the okay um all right so Michael there was a question in the chat related to the last article it wasn't from me but sorry I I didn't see does the brewery does the brewery in downtown at the old fire station need this to pass in order to exist what are the other comparable Town ratios of license so Aaron I don't have that second answer but the first answer is no the brewery is not dependent upon this passing to to open up in town okay um so article 8 our final fin article which is to extend Uh current CPA appropriation uh for the Riverwalk project and Jen you've done so much work on this project I'll turn it over to you okay so this article is pretty straightforward um it's really just to extend a previously authorized um project that has an end date of December 31st of this year um three years out to December 31st 2026 and so that's we have not um were able to finish the first phase of this project which is the large bridge that goes across at mil Pond um we had always hoped to cross one more time um and connect to um either Marathon park or to uh Pleasant Street and so we need to do some design work and rep permitting and uh then construction so this would give us some time to do that exploration and hopefully Construction in in that time frame okay any questions nothing okay all right well folks that is the last warn article uh so again just only eight articles for this special town meeting uh which is probably an appropriate amount for a special town meeting but um that concludes our review of this uh this is actually very helpful for us too because we can see what questions are going to be asked and so we can prepare and have the the information um at town meeting so it definitely helps I want to appreciate those who are watching and uh either on Zoom or uh through YouTube or Facebook um your engagement is definitely needed to to make this community and this town meeting successful and uh with that just a reminder that town meeting is this Wednesday at 7 pm at the ashin high school in the auditorium and I do want to put one final plugin for the comprehensive plan visioning openhouse uh this Saturday at at from 12: to 4: at the um at Town Hall the lower level of town hall doesn't mean you have to stay from 12: to 4: uh literally you can spend 10 15 minutes there and provide all the input that you want um and you know we'll make sure that we capture that through various methods um and then like it really this comprehensive plan needs to be your plan it doesn't need to be my plan it doesn't need to be the committee's plan um so it really is depent upon your feedback so um just want to put a final plug in for that so anyway that uh concludes our session this afternoon I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and um hopefully I'll see you on Wednesday thank you