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[Music] okay we'd like to get started uh thank you everyone for coming there has been adequate notice of this meeting provided by the Board of Education in the December or possibly yeah December 20 28 2023 notice in the Asbury Park Press and the co-star setting forth the date time and location of this meeting similar notice has been posted in the barl hall the Briel SCH website and the burrow clerk has been notified Mr Becker present Dr Dan brosia here Mrs mcdevit here Mr Milano here Mrs wath here Mr starky here Mr Vitali Mrs Walsh here Mr Waltman here if we could stand for the flag solution to the flag of the United States of America rep stands Nation indivisible liy justice for [Music] all get a motion to approve the minutes of the uh January 24 2024 meeting I make a motion and I will second it Mr Becker yes Dr D brosio yes Mrs mcdevit yes Mr banit yes Mrs wath yes Mr sty yes Mr Vitali abstain I wasn't here Mrs Walsh yes Mr Walman yes all right I believe uh Miss pster we have a presentation we do um Mrs peon and I tonight would like to spend a little bit of time giving you an update on our district goals that were set um I believe back in October or so we're about halfway through the time that we set them and yeah sure um you know we just wanted to provide you with a little bit some snapshots of evidence uh to demonstrate that we're making progress towards the goal that we set um back the beginning or near the beginning of the school year so so I'm going to allow Miss Pearson to talk about the first two since they're a little bit more curriculum and program related and then I will talk about our third goal uh since that's a little bit more Global and and operational in terms of res so if we look at our goals overall our first was to look closely at our Ela and math programs we know that there are new state standards in those areas and we also wanted to really do um a little bit more of an in-depth assessment with with how our students are doing and take some additional steps to um see how well they are doing with meeting braing level proficiency uh we are looking this year into uh ways to enhance our social emotional development of our students character education executive functioning really taking a look at um the program that we already have in place and some of the things that we're doing and then considering ways that we can continue to meet our students needs in these areas and lastly um being new and coming into the district taking a look at our technology tools that you know affect how we are even doing some of our day-to-day business um so that we can increase our efficiency and enhance our organization so I'm gonna let Miss Pearson um give you some details about what we're doing with Ela now thank you um so it's been a really exciting busy year um as most of you know um whether you're a parent or a board member you know that we've had um lots of rigorous ideas um we came in looking really close at our El Ela and math and in the beginning of the year with the analysis of our New Jersey state um results we've talked about that and some of our goals as to helping our teachers look at what to do with those results where to apply the standards appropriately um and look really delving into what they can do to change their instruction to meet the needs of each of their children in their classrooms so that was what we started the year off with very very first thing in the beginning on August and September and then to our October PD um we started we continued with the administration of our link it benchmarks EXL and Dibbles Dibbles is given in um K through five and that is an assessment in Reading EXL is given in the area of ela and math and Link is also given in the area of ela and mathl and Link at R K8 we did hold off with our kindergartens and first graders and didn't assess them until the mid year benchmarks um in linked inl just to give them a chance to get used to you know the new routine of school using computers and all of those pieces so that has been very valuable data for our teachers to drive instruction in their classroom um and also allow us to look at where we need to Target our small group instruction with our students if they needed more than just what was given the high quality instruction within the classroom tier one did they near tier two or maybe even tier two three more intensive intervention in specific areas and any of those students that do um qualify for the type of instruction or progress monitored by our interventionists usually they are within an action plan that parents are involved with as well so it's been um a new Endeavor not new but an updated Endeavor for our school district but it's been you know very um well received with our community parents and our teachers because this really has allowed us to track progress of our students more effectively um that that goes right along with intervention and also kind of solidifying and put making some updates to our intervention and referral services and making sure that we had a case manager that was overseeing all of those plans and making sure that we had the connection with the parents uh coming in to understand what their students were doing and how they were progressing we've um given our staff members ongoing professional development and Link it Dibbles and iel using our October professional development days using um days within our school calendar and getting some sub coverage when we had link um we've had link it come in a couple times to help our teachers along the ways when the different benchmarks come in what you do with this new updated data because we have such important information it's a lot for the teachers to take in and know what to do with so we're trying to get as much support with that as possible and we are a year to W wisdom which is our Ela curriculum in grades p through five it's actually the third year for grade four because I believe they piloted it um a lot of really excellent feedback from our teachers um to observe some of these rich discussions that these even kindergarteners are having with literature and text um and identifying um different things within what they're reading is really truly remarkable um what they can get these little ones to do at a very young age and get them writing even um sooner than before so that kind of sums up our El math and moving on to social emotional learning um that was another one of our district initiatives so our counselors Kate and Kate Caldwell and Beth O'Reilly um have started off the Year by pushing in on a regular basis to our classes in K through five whether it's during The Home Room warning meeting period or during the a regular period throughout the uh the week we are ling everything to our five Cel competencies self- awareness responsibility um all of those pieces so all of the lessons and everything that we do related to social emotional learning does link back to those five competencies um we had initial training of our counselors our pre teacher our occupational therapist our speech therapist on zones of regulation in October that is something that we would like to push out a little bit more globally to the rest of um K through 4 next year so we are got our pilot groups going we have some of our um therapists using that individually with students and some of our counseling groups so we're trying it out we do know that it's an excellent program um and that we hope to make that available to all of our students next year and up to grade four we had some summer training in the area of metacognition for our counselors and teachers um that had signed up that kind of started performance of culture and I came in um very well received we were looking to continue that again next year too um in I think it was October there was um I made ANL presentation to the bpeg um committee about what we are doing with the district initiatives inal and what seal kind of is and what it's not and how it can just be very easily integrated into the day um with our students we have we are Contin looking at our code of conduct um and we are making sure that we are incorporating restorative practices um when we are imploring the code of conduct and discipline and certainly with any of our hi remediation and making sure that it's meaningful and it's not just giving you know telling students what they did wrong but what can we learn from that and how can we do better next time so that has been very helpful for some of our students or some of the kids that just continually make the same mistakes like how can we help them not make those same choices again how can make a better choice um our executive functioning groups um have been ongoing with oh that's something our OT and speech therapists do on a regular basis as well as our counselors but we have stared this year starting to do some co-reading co- teing co- treating um Cod groups and they have been really great because it allows the students and it allows our staff members to collaborate together and learn from each other as they're as they're working um and then again as like I said earlier with our irns process we have expanded our lens to just not be academic but to be a little bit more looking closely at social emotional behaviors looking closely at um at any kind of you know any kind of issues that might not be that might make academics look a little different but it might be because there's something else going on so we are trying to expand our lens with our whole staff um in that way so and then lastly you know we have some really great um you know technology Tools in this District that as we continue to de into what they can do for us you know we can find better ways to communicate to collaborate uh to kind of just make things flow a little bit more smoothly so here's some examples of some things that we've started to do with the technology tools that we already have uh we have asop for staff attendance we have started to use that um gotten rid of all the paper forms for um teacher absences and things like that that is all electronic right now uh we have increased the scheduling module capacity in Genesis that's our student information system so we have more fully built out um how we're using Genesis to ensure that uh we are you know more closely tracking where everybody is and and all of those types of things around scheduling um we're we've increased the use of Frontline for staff evaluation to include some other components that were not in there uh previously that we're required to have as a part of NJ achiev some things were on paper we've shifted some of those things over to front line so it's all one place uh and we've certainly uh increased the use of the Google Drive for a lot of our district processes uh things like our HIV investigations meeting agendas PLC notes our grade level teachers are meeting weekly um at regularly scheduled times and they submit notes to Administration from those meetings based on topics we give them or things that they're working on we can review those notes get back to them very quickly um all our field trip and professional development requests are all now being done electronically so we're using Google um in a much broader way and we continue to think about how that can improve our organization and efficiency um Nancy has created a great uh Google Classroom all around curriculum and instruction topics so when things are due articles we might want teachers to read um you know uh how we're going to do certain things like you know your linkage training here's the schedule so we're doing all of that through Google classroom with our teachers and very exciting just this week we are transitioning to online registration for kindergarten I want to thank Mr Slater over there he had a big hand in helping us with that and Mrs Kennedy um and new students all of our registration will now be online instead of on paper form so um you know there there is some some Growing Pains along the way and everybody has been really open uh to starting to make some of these changes but I think what it's also going to allow us to do is decide you know which of these tools is most beneficial are there some that we might want to expand the use of some you know others as we expand some of these there might be some that we're purchasing that we no longer need um so it's allowing us to really kind of dig in and see how we can work most efficiently with one another so like I said we just wanted to share some examples of things that we're doing to work toward the district goals uh that we set and the bottom we look forward to the rest of the year so thank you very [Music] much thank you Miss P thank you Miss Pearson that was awesome uh any board questions anybody yeah we're going learn more about um discuss code of conduct and restorative practices restorative we're going to learn more about what that is and what's being taught so we we have not fully redone our code of conduct yet that is a work in progress and I guess when we're talking about restorative practices it more is along the lines a little bit of what Miss Pearson was saying it's a little bit of you know many times it's just a discussion of you know think back about what you did what choice could you have made differently right and then for us to even as a followup to that conversation do a check-in with that kid and say you know have you you know how has this week been going you know so while we there are still some things in place like lunch detention and regular detention right I think we also want to seize on some of these things as you know um point points of reflection time to learn have a discussion about what took place and how moving forward you know maybe as a as a kid I could do something differently so I don't find myself in the same situation okay is the intention to reduce discipline for for actions as as part of that or is it as part of the process and then there would be escalations to different discipline yeah and I think like ultimately right we don't want to be giving detention detention detention detention right but rather if you can have those conversations with kids and check in with them and just say you know how are things going um you know or have you found yourself in a similar situation over the last few weeks where you had to stop and think about what you do whatever right we hope that that that student when they get to that next next situation will maybe pause and think and not find themselves being hit with another detention or making that same mistake so ultimately yes we always always want to reduce you know disciplinary infractions and hope that you know using some other interventions besides just the negative consequence you know can help kids make better decisions thank you thanks uh at this point we are at uh visitors business and visitors are permitted to comment on agenda items only at this time we just ask that even if you've been here before before you clearly state your name and [Music] address does not seem to be any Miss Quigley are there any correspondences this one no okay uh that brings us to committee reports uh Mr Vitali District Operations thank thanks we met yester we met yesterday late afternoon meeting less than an hour uh we we talked about the results of the audit through a representative of of the audit firm uh and a a very very quick summary of that is we ended up the way budgets are supposed to end up pretty pretty much even pretty much even so so so what we what we brought in on the revenue side we actually spent on the expenditure side and and I think it was a small deficit around $20,000 so on a budget of almost 20 million 20,000 is not bad um and and the good news the good news is we did not have any recommendations Mrs quickly congratulations yeah the microphones are for the for the people at home it is okay so yeah [Music] so we discussed the order which we have to approve tonight and the uh the results of the order was the budget was actually you know came it came to a small deficit up around around $20,000 and I just made a statement that budget of about [Music] million pretty and um the order part of the auditor's job is is is is to report on on any kind of internal control deficiencies and uh we we did we did um we did not have any recommendations for improvement which is a wonderful reflection on business office um we also talk about the media center and we we ultimately do have a Time table here um we are just we're in the early stages of the of the of the of the of the work there and the time table the timetable is for completion sake mid mid uh may actually uh we also talked about we also talked about the playground equipment and we are waiting on a proposal from from our vendor and and and and we still we're still researching if if we if we if we can pay for some of the if we can pay for part of the playground equipment from from from from one from one of our surpluses we should we should have an answer we should have an answer on that but you know I would think about the next committee meeting and the next committee meeting is pretty much pretty much solely going to be focused on the preliminary budget okay for the 2024 and we keep you up to date as to how it [Music] progresses that's that's about that's awesome good information uh representative this Mr M i attended the meeting in the beginning of February uh prel is month every month prel is represented very very well academically in clubs Athletics it's just uh it's amazing how all eight Towns come together for one high school and just to hear on the elementary school side I'm not a voting member there but it's very similar to what we do we had a presentation on their uh board goals and objectives and you know just weeks ago of what they're doing on you know Elementary in addition to high school so it's just on a k to8 level we run very you know identically if not very similarly and on the high school level it's just a whole you know different thing but how we have Representatives on the Key Club uh you know on all the sports they're excelling they're getting Awards month in and month out it's just a a very positive environment to go see month in and month out thank you thank you Mr uh curriculum and programs M Walsh yes we didn't have the opportunity to meet um we had such a robust meeting about um last month and when I talked to Miss busher she said she was going to present with Miss Pearson so they were going to go over many of the topics that connected to the board goals that they're working on under this category so so we will have another formal meeting this month and update you on that thank you thank you HR uh Human Resources we met with um Miss Paula just before the board meeting on the topics that are on the agenda tonight thank you and Mr Walman uh we did not have a uh former policy meeting uh this month there was no pressing alerts from Strauss smme um we are making steady progress on staff review of our our policies for the website we're now down to less than 40 uh to be uh completed um we also are going to evaluate in the next meeting uh the use of facilities uh for organizations such as as chess um that are not nonprofits or I guess four profits um and then we're also so working on verbiage for our two policies uh pertaining to the situation where uh students need to potentially pay tuition because of construction uh overruns in in the in the district so I'm sorry for no formal report we did not we did not not officially meet fine thank you Mr Walton and then uh M reath Community relation yeah I just have a a couple of updates um from the PTO um we had a successful inaugural Bingo night family bingo night um it was a really fun evening and uh we look forward to keeping that hopefully as an event for future uh school years um the PTO is hosting the sweetheart dance Friday night the 23rd um which they are all very excited about uh from from the bef casino night was rescheduled for February the 29th at 6: p.m.

e all right I'm going to go ahead good evening everyone good evening Welcome to our board meeting thank you I would like to call this meeting to order roll call Mrs Richards may I have the roll call please yes president Michelle Anderson let the record show that all five board members are present this evening thank you please join me in a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance I motion to approve tonight's agenda all those in favor I I I motion carries 5 to zero next action item approval of the superintendent contract and authorization um an and authorization the governing board to ex authorizing the governing board to execute the superintendent contract as approved by the governing board any board member wishing to make a comment I motion to approve the superintendent contract and authorize the governing board to execute the contract second all those in favor I I I motion carries 5 to zero and U we're going to come down um yes I'm going to come down and introduce Dr Carmen is here with with us tonight he's standing right [Applause] here go ahead introduce himself thank you and make a comment and make a comment well thank you um I want to thank the Higley Unified School District governing board for giving me this great opportunity to serve as your next superintendent I am humbled at being named at for this role with such a high performing and well-respected District at the same time I'm excited to join the Higley team and work with a the governing board faculty and staff and Community to continue to prepare all students for Limitless opportunities public education continues to provide the knowledge so that we maintain an educated populace our country's Founders knew the importance of education for democracy to be successful Thomas Jefferson stated the governments derive their just powers from the consent of the government but that it is education that makes that consent possible as such I am proud to be a part of public education serving as a lifelong public educator for 30 years beginning as a teacher and Coach I am still a teacher at heart and as my role has expanded in administration to include 11 years as a superintendent in prek districts I have and will continue to support teachers so they have what is needed to empower all students to be successful in their future endeavors again thank you for this opportunity I look forward to meeting our students employees and parents and working with the entire higgle USD Community thank you thank you okay next on the agenda is recognitions and awards Mrs Richards what do you have for us tonight president Anderson here comes another exciting Higgly Adventures we have a lot to celebrate this evening so we'll get started this is the year of the wooden Dragon husd held its annual Chinese New Year celebration on the evening of Tuesday February 13th at R hcpa students particip ating in our Mandarin dual language immersion programs at kulie early childhood development center Coronado Elementary and williamsfield high school performed songs and traditional dance in addition we had middle school students MC the event and they took the show away they provided explanations in Mandarin and then help us out in English because we didn't know what they were saying um before the performances we had booths with crafts games and of course food trucks we are so proud of our students staff and event planners for the preparations that went into making this a success it was beautiful and if you weren't able to attend we encourage you to participate next year we may shake it up a little bit but those fan dancers for example out there were impressive next meet your kindergarten principal day kolie and saaman preschool students and their families had the opportunity to meet our amazing husd Elementary principles on this day that was either January 23rd or 25th School leaders and mascots greeted our students provided information of course gave them some school swag and got students and families excited about coming to husd we also just completed the first round of Kindergarten Roundup husd elementary schools hosted this on Tuesday January 30th School administrators and kindergarten teachers provide an exciting overview not only of the district but of the kindergarten experience specific schools highlighted programs for parents and students families will have another opportunity to attend a Roundup event hosted by our schools in either late February or early March that information is posted on our website we are excited to welcome the class of 2037 next school year so I went to Santan today and they had balloons and they had that sign and all like I'm not going to do the math on how old I'm going to be when we hit that all right in addition we had our little preschoolers get ready for kindergarten by going on field trips to our feeder elementary schools during these field trips Kinder Prep students are getting tours of the school and learning about all the fun that we have at all of our campuses they had I've heard amazing things from not only the teachers but the principals so they're ready to go this year we had student council groups from San Middle School chapparel elementary and Cortina Elementary attend the first ever Public School parent par day at the capital this was held on February 5th a special shout out to Jessica Batista who set this up for us and actually went with the students they toured the house and the Senate and were introduced to the floor and had an opportunity to meet with Senator Hoffman so it was a great learning experience is Carrie Matthew here I don't know that she was going to be able to come tonight but I don't want to skip over her Carrie Matthew and the higgle High School Academic Decathlon team competed at the regional competition on February 2nd and 3rd where Tori Tesh won first place in speech and first place in interview Chase good earned second place in art the team qualified for state competition for the 10th year in the row which will be held on March 8th and 9th and we want to wish them the best of luck so we don't have Chase or Tori in the audience do we so when you see them congratulate them great job I went backwards so I believe these people are here this evening so I want to highlight them and then ask them to come up and have the board come down do I have Miss pan leatherby here this evening yes come here [Applause] five students from Higley High and one student from San Middle School have been awarded a federal scholarship to study environmental sustainability sorry I'm losing my voice course in Mandarin this summer at the University of Arizona the will be able to earn two college credits this is a big deal not only for our high school kids but our Middle School student as well this program received an overwhelming number of applicants across the United States however these students from our district stood out with their impressive proficiencies at a young age so I'm going to call call your name please come join Miss leatherby n Nicholas [Music] [Applause] Dewey Nathan [Applause] Sue Dylan Phillips Carston weart we also need for Savio Tac to come forward and Maxwell Moser come on down piggley is truly an Innovative District that is preparing our students for Limitless opportunities and we are so very proud of all of [Applause] you than conratulations than next do we have Miss April French in the [Applause] audience all right we want to congratulate The Fabulous Higgly High thesbian troop led by Miss April French for their outstanding success at the Arizona lesbian Regional competition in January where they received several Superior ratings and I hate to say it but way to go nights so I need all the students that received this amazing honor to come join your teacher right wow impressive group right they work hard all year and now we need to fit the board in there somehow I [Applause] congratulations you know when I said I hate to say it way to go nights there's a bunch of Williamsville people in here too so we're going to get to them next but what amazing kids we have in this District next We Have Allison May on are you in the audience here Alison [Applause] yes all right we're incredibly proud to announce that williamsfield high school senior Allison main on has been named a Flynn scholarship finalist this prestigious scholarship has thousands of applicants from across the state and only 36 of them become finalists Allison is also the valedictorian of her graduating class a member of Hosta Health occupation students of America America and a Star tennis player the next thing I want to get a sample next time because I heard you also own a business for decorating cakes is that true okay now we're going to invite you to bring us a sample next [Applause] up so the Flynn Scholars class of 2024 will be announced in April and we wish you the best of luck [Applause] impressive [Applause] all right next we want to congratulate Mr Joe abber scudo and Mr Devin Adams and the nine students from williamfield high school okay he just told me three out of the nine come on these students participated at the future Business Leaders of America regionals a fantastic achievement with seven out of the new nine students earned earning Regional medals we're excited to inform you that they qualified for the spring state competition in Tucson and when is that it is April 8th okay we'll be cheering for you over here all right [Applause] congratulations [Applause] okay you have to love the name of this robotics team they are called the technical Terrors it scares me to think about it uh williamsfield Varsity robotics team is Kelly Kelly Mahoney here this evening all [Applause] right all right this team competed a First Tech Challenge qualifier with 35 other teams on February 3D not only were they competitive Champs but they also received the Inspire award this is the most prestigious award given to the team in this competition they have to strongly embody the ideas of the First Tech Challenge they must perform well on the field and off of the field it must be an inspiration to those around them this is a great honor you don't really look like technical Terrors but I'm sure you are once you get on the field all right same kids same kids same kids you want to go to the next one sure The Story Goes On and On Right Kelly in addition on Saturday February 7th 19th Williams Field's Varsity robotics team technical Terrors competed in the Arizona Championship consisting of 48 teams divided into the Soro Division and the Grand Canyon division after qualifying matches the team was chosen to be part of the number three seated Alliance and went on to win the division semifinals and finals becoming the champions from there they went on to beat Grand Canyon and um they achieved a state record score of 272 Arizona's champions so congratulations to technical Terrors and thank you to Horn Kia family and friends for supporting their amazing season good job ex when you get your congratulations thank you thank you glad yall are here you notice they all have their medals with them we have a nice that all right Mr lson Heiser we have state champs in the house again yes and continuing on our state championships from williamsfield high school I'd like to introduce Mr Daryl stangle the athletic director at williamsfield to introduce our state champion [Applause] cheer Madam president members of the board I want to thank you guys for inviting us here um to honor this uh this incredible group of young ladies um they put in countless hours and sacrificed so much to be able to do what they love in competing along with cheering on the rest of our programs so they truly embody the selflessness that we uh that we ask of our Blackhawks um they went there are three major championships in Arizona State cheer um game day cheer all girl stunt and show cheer um and our girls took two of the three um championships in the 56 team second division in Arizona so first on Thursday um our all girls stunt team uh won the uh won the the the division 2 Championship um if we can uh have them come up just go right up there this this routine is is a minute long it's made up of a whole bunch of crazy stunts they throw up each other up in the air they tumble they flip they it's it's amazing to see and uh and these girls did this separately even though they're part of our show cheer team too they stayed after and and also practiced to become to become the all girl stunt team so these uh these five girls kicked it off by winning on Thursday um and also qualifying for the uh for the show chair Championship along with their teammates um and then on Saturday all together they competed and won the show cheer um championship in division two come on up [Applause] ladies [Applause] I also want to introduce Danielle degreef and Jen selder the soon Tobe mother um who coached this team to the Championships once again big round of applause for the cheer squad right we have everyone come on [Applause] out e We Ready president Anderson for points of Pride and now I want to invite principal Katie Harris and assistant principal Angie Walker up to the front I don't know if I have that on me thank you so much just yell I probably can do that thank you guys so much for having us tonight I'm Katie Harris the principal at Gateway and this is Miss Angie Walker thank you guys so much for this opportunity we look forward to this every year the first person we are going to recognize is Miss Janine Liu Casey if you can come on up [Applause] here so as the title coordinator at Gateway Janine has exhibited exceptional dedication Innovative thinking and a profound commitment to the success of our students in the enhancement of our literacy intervention programs in her role as title coordinator Janine has been instrumental in developing and overseeing our literacy Cafe Intervention Program her Visionary leadership and tireless efforts have significantly contributed to the program's success and positively impacted the academic achievements of our students Janine has demonstrated an unwavering passion for promoting literacy and ensuring that every student and I mean every student has the opportunity to thrive academically one of Janine's notable strengths is her ability to collaborate effectively with colleagues parents and students alike and her interpersonal skills and genuine concern for the well-being of those around her create an inclusive and supportive environment Janine consistently goes above and beyond to tailor it's her grandchild it's okay interventions to me meet the unique needs of each student fostering a love for reading and learning in the process sorry I love you so much I have so much to say Beyond her exceptional work in program development Janine's dedication to professional growth is evident through her continuous pursuit of learning and staying AB breast of current educational Trends she actively seeks out opportunities for professional development bringing fresh ideas and practices to Gateway in addition to our professional contributions Janine is a team player who read supports her colleagues her positive attitude and willingness to assist others make her an invaluable asset to our community so thank you for all that you [Applause] do and before we take a picture who is here with you would you like to recognize them the crying baby that just went out um my I have three of my four children here and um three of my five grandchildren here yeah so thanks for coming [Applause] guys I think you can just stay off to all right next Mr Lee will you come on [Applause] down so Harley or Lee we call him Lee just so you guys know in his role as our dedicated plant Foreman Lee has not only excelled in his professional responsibilities but has also become a cherished and respected figure among students teachers and parents alike Lee's impact on our organization extends far beyond his duties as plantform his commitment to maintaining a safe efficient and welcoming environment has earned him admiration for from all corners of our community Lee consistently goes above and beyond ensuring that our facilities are not just functional but also conducive to a positive learning environment what sets Lee apart is his ability to connect with people students appreciate his friendly demeanor always willing to answer their Curious questions and share his knowledge teachers value his proactive approach to facility management which allows them to focus on their core mission of educating students parents admire Lee's dedication to creating this as well Lee's popularity among our community members is a testament to his exceptional interpersonal skills genuine care and approach nature his positive influence is felt through our organization contributing to a collaborative atmosphere that enhances Gateway we appreciate you and who do you have here with you I have my H wife Lucia my son in the back um Ben I was gonna say Benjamin but you know um and then uh my daughter winter so thank you guys for coming all right next can we have Miss Suzanne Brown come on [Applause] down Suzanne's contributions as a parent volunteer has been truly exceptional her involvement in various school activities events and initiatives have significantly enriched the educational experience for our students furthermore Suzanne has been a source of inspiration and encouragement for both students and staff her positive and collaborative approach has created an inclusive atmosphere that resonates throughout our campus Suzanne's ability to connect with students teachers and fellow parents are further strengthened in the sense of community at Gateway point Thank You From the Bottom of our hearts for everything you do and you continue to do you're a breath of fresh air every time you step on our campus oh and you get to recognize who do you have here um I have with me U my three kids Gary Tim and Bella Tim and Bella are gators too back there thank you all right next we have Miss Ka KY who was one of our second grade students that is coming up with Mrs Walker let's give her a big round of applause [Applause] good girl and then you're gonna turn this way and Miss Harris is okay Kaa is a second grade student that has attended Gateway since kindergarten her ability to overcome obstacles is nothing short of remarkable sorry I'm going to cry she is an exceptional student who brings joy laughter and unique vibrancy to our school Community Ka is not just a student she is a beacon of positivity intelligence and warmth that brightens the lives of everyone fortunate enough to know her in addition to her delightful personality Ka is exceptionally bright her intelligence shines through in her academic achievements and her interactions with peers and teachers alike what stands out even more is ka's remarkable memory she does not forget anything I am telling you she contains information with an impressive level of detail showcasing her commitment to learning and her Natural Curiosity her parents are without a doubt a bonus to our school Community their involvement and support have played a significant role in fostering a positive and collaborative atmosphere the apple does not fall from the tree and Ka is a testament to the values instilled by her family and I also want to say that she just won second place at the regional braal challenge in Arizona this past weekend so let's give her hats off to [Applause] that Ka do you want to tell everybody who's here with you um my mom's here and my dad and my two little brothers kayen and cash and my teachers and my tvi oh we love it all right you're going to stand right here and we have a gift for you ka it's a balloon with some Smarties in it because you're so smart so you'll get to eat those when you get home okay are we ready for a picture now guys you come thank you Gateway Elementary next points of pride is Mr John Dolan with Higley Virtual [Applause] Academy I got to follow Katie Harris boy yeah uh president Anderson cabinet members welcome Dr Carmen uh thank you for this opportunity to share about uh not just a Higley Virtual Academy but the Limitless opportunities our students have when it comes to Alternative programming here so um I'm certainly going to talk about some students that are online but we're going to talk about a staff member that helps us in some other things and we have kids you know when you look at them uh we have all this opportunity in the traditional setting but outside of it as well we have kids who are going to take some classes online we have some kids that might fall behind and we have some summer opportunities for them and then of course we have those kids that get to a point where in person is not really working for them and they need some way to graduate and uh Mrs Tommy bird in her Higley Learning Center um works with that so I would like to First bring up the first person Talon gaspie [Applause] but what why don't you tell us who's here with you I got my mom my dad my brother and my grandma and my grandfather okay I told him I was going to embarrass him a little bit so hopefully I do so uh first for Talon when we talk about uh online classes I think his sophomore year when he probably started taking some classes with us I remember him coming in and uh Mrs marklin and I will deal with all kids when it comes to testing and it comes in very uh stoic and the goal was to try to make him laugh uh the only reason we trying to make him laugh because we're going to try to get to know him better and it's so nice to have this opportunity because I don't see them you know he's in a classroom but I get to interact with kids when it comes to testing When I Call Etc and for Talon starting his sophomore year um as he's continued online he was a concurrent student for a bit now he's full-time online and something I just shared with him you know we make our choices and some places are better for him he's doing wonderful online he's a 3.0 student in uh a full year of online classes um and I know that uh when I watch and see the successes he has I hope that that continues for him in the future so congratulations buddy stay here Presley Liga come on up here hun [Applause] so Presley you started in fifth grade online right sixth grade fourth grade so when we were in covid she was online so when we started she started so fourth fifth sixth and now in seventh grade um so uh I got to know her because we had we went from just looking at a picture uh on a camera to our fun fridays at uh Power Ranch and to now we have our meetings every Thursday where we get to have conversations now Presley why I chose Presley is when you think of an online student you just think about a student who you know they're at home and they don't do very much every single event we've had whether it be helping at Power Ranch going to a cancer Network thing she's been at uh she engages with her classmates uh did Riley come over your house today okay um I know they do other things outside of it I think that online for her has just been wonderful and it's great to see her grow and I'm very glad that um I can be part of that so congratulations [Applause] thank before you leave who's here with you my dad who my dad Mr pugnetti why don't you come on up [Applause] here I'm gonna let uh Mrs bird talk about you but before I do that I know that you like uh trivia nights and I tried and I didn't get something I was supposed to get for you but I think what is in here you'll like my name is Tommy bird I'm the director of the Higgly learning Learning Center Program um kind of a little bubble where we live um not a huge program but I think we make a huge difference um and Angelo pagetti is one of the major reasons for that um almost every kid who comes to us comes in with a frown they're not happy about being there because we're there to make sure that they work to make sure they graduate when they're credit deficient but every single time kids leave with a huge smile on their face and some of them even Tears in their eyes and for some reason they want hugs from us when they leave um but Angelo is a big part of that um and the reason that I nominated him for this award is because of his professional growth and his outstanding work in hlc over the past few years um he he's first and foremost one of the most self-reflective people I've ever worked with um he's receptive to feedback he's tuned into what's working what's not he's quick to make adjustments as needed over the past three years I've seen him work very purposefully on his commun Communications skills his classroom management style which is a huge part of what we do uh his academic content knowledge and his understanding of teenage psychology his efforts and commitment to professional Improvement are truly commendable The increased efficiency of hlc operations and the academic achievements of our students is due in large part to Angelo's commitment to Excellence he truly cares about his Student Success not only in hlc but in their lives after high school and he is a tenacious advocate for the hlc program additionally his willingness to collaborate and gracefully accept change as well as his ability to successfully affect change has helped transform the hlc learning program our team benefits from Angelo's gifts and skills on a daily basis and husd is lucky to have someone like him in our corner so thank you very much for everything you do for us who's here with you I got my wife McKenna back there and I know my parents are watching online hi Mom and Dad than for you bud thanks a lot man okay last but definitely not least uh Mrs Melody Griffin would you come on up [Applause] here so I go back a little ways with this uh person because we used to work together at San uh when we began our online program uh I guess I get blessed that there's some people that I know that will want to continue to work with me she did and the best part about Melody and why I chose Melody here is one of the things that we really need is flexibility with our teachers we talk about the importance of feedback and communication and when you look at what Melody writes to kids remember they don't get to see her so they're doing work and they have to trust that whatever she's going to share with them is going to make them better um so the next time that uh when they turn something in it's it's uh you know just looks better better and I get a better grade on it and her feedback to those kids is amazing her communication is amazing and also her flexibility hey John um I I'll teach that hey John I'll teach that she's now teaching uh 10th grade and art 10th grade hon a regular 10th grade honors art last year was nth grade did you do seventh and eighth too as well Visual Arts so just so willing and flexible to do so many things um I just so appreciate you so thank you who's here with you um I brought my husband ship with [Applause] me guys want to get a picture thank you everyone and congratulations to those that recognize tonight thank you for the administrators and teachers and all staff that showed up to support the students and staff and and um volunteers and the teams that were phenomenal and really making Higley proud um next on the agenda uh is our I'm so sorry is our upcoming events I do I always skip it um Miss Richards what do we have all right our next events include tomorrow night our parent night social media awareness here in the boardroom at 6: pm.

I beg you I implore you most people in this community would like to see a 6 PM meeting that is how they're able to get to City Council meetings that's how they're able to navigate work and being more active in their community so I'm sitting here and I'm imploring you all to vote to have this meeting moved to a 6:00 p.m. on a regular basis thank you thank you next we have Timothy or Tim Shaw good evening I'd like to talk about the 6.4 Pro of first let move this move the meetings to 6:00 p.m.

good evening everyone and welcome to the Ashlin select board meeting of February 21st 2024 uh we will begin with um I just want to note that one of our colleague colleagues Joe manani is not with us tonight but we do have a quorum of four members so we will be continuing um the first item on the agenda is uh citizens participation I just want to note that we do have uh an uh an agenda item for 710 so we'll try to if everyone will keep keep your comments within that so how many people here are for Citizens part so I think I have three any anyone on line see I don't see any hands raised all right remotely so each each have about three minutes so go ahead Joel three minutes oh boy okay uh first just a quick comment then I had a lot more to say about it but the uh and I appreciate very much that you're going to be addressing what happened at the planning board meeting of February 8th uh I was at that meeting and for those who haven't seen what happened you can hear about it to have been there it was truly a shocking just absolutely shocking what happened so the board will provide more details about that and I do want to I do want to um just clarify for people it is on that incident or is on the our agenda so we will be discussing it I will um allow citizens uh residents of ashin to speak on this at that time if you want to hang around for that uh but um but don't feel like you have to go ahead I hope that the board as it deliberates about the events that occurred realizes that people who chair Zoom meetings online we are not trained I don't know when it's okay to kick somebody out of a meeting for conduct or what to do I don't even know how to use zoom really I can mute somebody but I really don't know how to mute 20 people attacking the meeting I would encourage you to look at that and see if we we could get better training or guidance in in what to do cuz we have no idea now that is all I'm going to say given the limited time here Jo that's uh however that was the one of two incidents that occurred that night and I'm addressing the second one now and I was very unhappy with what occurred I went to that meeting uh representing the upper Charles Trail committee we have one of our members here and wanted to focus on public safety uh the project that was under consideration by the planning board was a large housing project on Homer ra and the trail that we have planned and have had the route that we have had in place for a very long time goes right on home arav we did that to bring business and commerce to the downtown and I got into a an argument really it was very unpleasant it was polite but uh I was told by the planning board spefic specifically one or two members that the trail they really didn't want to discuss the trail and I pleaded with them again this had happened at a previous meeting to uh only ask their traffic consultant to have an awareness of the trail such that safety could at least be considered there might not be any safety issue but at least they could have had professional feedback on the implications and I was told that the trail is aspirational that's the word they used we don't have anything in front of us it doesn't exist and it's we are not going to plan for something that does not exist and I started to say I thought the idea of planning was to consider reasonable intended uses that may not have occurred yet planning you know the future the unknown and I was muted I sent all of you today an article I hope some have had a chance to read it my I'm not a lawyer so I could be way off base here I you know it's for you to interpret but the the Massachusetts Supreme Court bent over backwards to say you can't do that kind of stuff you know there is Free Speech when a resident comes up to speak they're not to be muted even if you even if they are criticizing you even if in in the case in Southboro the the resident called one of the board members a Hitler likee person or or words to that effect I me called him Hitler and my point is that when you consider uh what what we should be taught as chairs running meetings we need to understand what is a what is legal speech even if it's not appreciated speech and what is not those are all my comments thank you so and yeah so we should just keep that in mind um you know maybe you could have a discussion with Peter about the planning board dealing with the upper Charles Trail and those kind of issues all right thank you Joel yeah we are just going by time limits here so limit go ahead uh Mar will be three minutes got three subjects three minutes one one subject is is I saw sh5 news earlier tonight that nian is going to be looked at again for the final twoyear study yes or no so Mark I haven't I haven't watched the segment but my understanding is that they referenced the the $2 million that the EPA is putting forward to finish basically the ground extraction system that they that they currently have in place basically supercharge that so I don't know if they're looking at it again just fully implementing what they call the final remedy for for the um yeah I did see it and that's what they were referencing is the Final Phase okay okay and another thing would be um you you was talking about in the board before we came on there the comprehensive plan has it meeting in the Box on Sunday can that be explained and how many people can go so Market's it's open to anybody who wants to attend so a meeting in a box is is really a focus group that's probably Jen and I have uh we we talk about this often uh what to call it so a focus group it's really more of a focus group and we have you know basically a set of questions that we ask the people that are in attendance so if we have a large group we'll split up into smaller groups so everybody has an opportunity to provide input and um yeah that's basically the gist of it and it's at the community center at the community center correct from one to three that's s on your um your site yeah and the last thing would be the the plan board zoom boom I'm going to wait to for my comments on that but then again you gave me three minutes so I'll wait to when it comes up okay thanks Mark right CeCe I believe CeCe is the last uh speaker for public participation right okay thank you thank you and good evening I want to extend my appreciation for my offer to take home for each of you the radio frequency radiation meter I hope that you each got to have a turn with that over the last two weeks and just really gather data on what our children and our families are exposed to given today's radio frequency radiation exposures what I brought for you tonight is a copy of the New Hampshire 5G commission report New Hampshire is the first in the country to pass a law to investigate the health and environmental impacts of today's 5G technology once they got started on their investigation they realized it's not just 5G it's it's everything Wireless from our laptops to our cell phones to our wearables and everything beyond that the utility Smart Meters as well that they're putting on our homes so I paid 50 bucks to print each one of these so I'd like to loan them to you for the next two weeks and ask that you at least skim through the first 17 pages of their executive summary and findings now this was not just a willy-nilly commission these are highly trained professionals we had medical doctors we had Engineers we had World leading scientists in electromagnetic radiation and these are top-of-the-line people who were in a position to assess the body of science that our federal agencies have failed to do they have defunded all of the good programs that we had at the federal level when the 1996 Telecom Act was passed that favors industry over public health so I hope you'll take a good solid look at this New Hampshire commission report one of the recommendations among the 15 that they make and they are not weighted in any way all 15 are very important one of them is to get the wireless radiation out of our schools because children are especially vulnerable and what got me on this path with with you guys again is when I went to the open house at our beautiful new Mendes school and there were no children with all their devices in the building but what we have done sadly is we put a wireless access point the Ruckus on the ceiling of every classroom and in the hallways and when I measured it was Skyhigh in the red zone and that's what we're exposing our children to every day so I'm asking once again that you continue to do your investigation on this issue I hope the resources that I'm providing you are looked at first of all don't take anybody's word on this do your own independent investigation and just today I was given a new report that came out um applying the precautionary principle to wireless technology we should have never let this come into our living spaces this is put out by Dr Paul Ben isai who's a physicist at the aerial University in Israel Dr halel Baldwin who's a neurosurgeon and he was the co-chair of the EMF medical conference which I was asked to present on for state and local policy Dr Linda burnam who's now the retired director of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and it goes on these are top level experts and I sent this to you this afternoon so I was going to ask this is different than yeah this report okay some of some of the same people Dr Kent Chamberlain has now retired from UN in their Department of electrical and computer engineering he thought it would be a slam dunk to sit on this Commission of course Wi-Fi is fine he worked in it for 30 years and then he got a hold of the science and he's done a 180 so we anything anything else on this the only thing I would say is you should go to the Board of Health and present this I think I I've been presenting for years Brandy and Ashlin has done um some really remarkable inroads to help us be the first in the country to even have a little sign hanging in our classrooms with precautionary measures we're the first in the country to put this on loan but you guys are the ones who set the rules in our town you guys are the ones who can change our zoning code so we will stop putting close range micro W radiation on our homes and cell towers near our homes and I don't know if you guys saw there was a press release from uh the Mass state board of Ethics that the DPW manager in Franklin has just gotten into some hot water because Yolanda is not in her head when the industry came in and talked our towns into putting these smart water meters on our homes they did some pretty unethical things and so now there's some hot water coming out of that um so I have asked Michael and I have asked the DPW to show me where in the state law it says we are required to put these smart meters on our homes because I think the industry pulled a fast one on us so those thank you CC thank you all right so that that concludes citizens participation so we'll go in the first item on the agenda which is um I have here Hank Rous uh Habitat Humanity discuss 47 Main Street proposal and who do I have uh on this one if you could either unmute yourself or raise your hands so I think Steve Greenberg is there and some other folks maybe so is this a presentation uh do you want to just introduce yourself um and I think Dave Rosen Bloom is here from the affordable housing trust as well all right so why don't you go ahead and um um we have a we just want to remind we have a public hearing at 7:30 so you have about 20 minutes for this in discussion so go ahead put that in mind so thank you all right thank you I'm Debbie maruka H I'm the executive director of Habitat for Humanity thank you very much for having us tonight um Steve do you or Dave want to say anything by way of introduction or would you like me to jump right into presentation please Jump Right In David wants to say something all right um so I don't know if I have the ability to share the presentation her sharing and I think the board did get this right is this the same thing that you sent us correct yeah okay very good okay um so yeah you should be all set to share now oh wonderful all right is that working that looks like it's working see it great okay great um so I have a brief overview of habitat and then um the primary point of the discussion tonight is to share the details of the project that uh we would like to pursue at 47 Main Street and to request the select board's support for that project so Habitat for Humanity our mission is to build homes community and hope we do this in um cities and towns um our affiliate covers 42 cities and towns in uh South Central Massachusetts and we specifically seek to um to do these buildings in towns that are requesting us to join them and to partner with them our vision is to uh is a world where everyone has a decent place to live and we build our homes through volunteer labor um and donations as well as subcontracted um projects and site supervision with our construction supervisors our primary programs are home builds veteran builds um our operation Playhouse program we also do home repairs have neighborhood revitalization and a brush with kindness as well as operating a restore which you probably know um there is one on pwn Street in Ashland um that is uh growing every day so the details of 487 Main Street um this is where it is um you know located on the on the site plan map um habitat has made an offer to purchase this property from the current homeowner and that offer has been accepted the purchase and sale is contingent on a building permit um moving forward habitat's next step is to complete um and to direct the 40b process through um the executive office of Housing and livable communities with the state uh and we would navigate you know the U 40b application as well as regulatory agreement and um uh you know right through to the deed at the end of the process um our build schedule we would begin construction within 30 days of receiving a permit weather dependent um and and construction completion would be estimated to be done within 15 months the details of the process with the 40b application is that we do need a letter of support from uh the town manager and a letter of support from the Housing Trust we have already met with the the Housing Trust and um believe that we have their support for this project um we would also request a town funding commitment that's a requirement for uh 40b application um and then some details about the overview of the any master plan or affordable housing plan that may be in place um in town habitat would then complete the housing plan the budget the lottery um and the schedule and communicate with the um with housing and livable communities and they would then commission an appraisal um once the application is accepted then we would be given the um permission to move forward uh for a comprehensive permit and then all the building permits Etc would follow from that habitat would identify prospective homeowners and conduct a lottery process as required by the state um for the homeowner to move into this home um and simultaneously be fundraising for the project who then complete the construction convey the property to the homeowner through a third party mortgage um and that mortgage would include a deed Rider which would maintain the home um as an affordable unit in perpetuity I realize I jumped ahead and probably should have pointed out this would be for a single family home our sales model is that the um eligible buyers to work with habitat are make between 30 and 60% of the area in median income and are required to be a firsttime home buyer as defined by the state um their financial qualifications do need to be approved by the executive office of Housing and livable communities um there is typically a requirement for somewhere between 3 and 5% of a down payment um and that varies depending on the bank that we are working with for the um for the closing the family conducts Sweat Equity with habitat meaning that they work for 300 hours through a combination of um education firsttime home buyer classes um other Financial education and then work on the home itself um and other partnership opportunities within habitat um the family is selected as I mentioned through a lottery um and we will have we will write um an execute a fair housing market plan that hlc does need to approve before we can begin marketing the property um and the maximum sale price estimate for the home is $280,000 that is based on um the current area meeting income um that is you that's in place right now however in March or April the new numbers will come out from HUD so that's an estimate because that will be updated when those new numbers are released great for our funding model the construction cost we estimate for this project will be between $475 to $550,000 the mortgage sale the net that habitat would receive at the end of the mortgage sale would be somewhere between 200 and 250,000 that's once we take out the um the expenses of the closing um and also uh recognizing that the majority of our homeowner applicants do not make enough to um sell the price at the maximum um and habitat's mortgage amount is actually based on the income of the family that gets selected through the lottery so we back into the price of the home we don't set the the house price up front and then require applicants to meet that price we will do um fundraising through corporate grants and um in kind fundraising and then again we do request a municipal sub subsidy through uh CPA funds in the range of$ 120 to $170,000 for this property a recent example that um we just completed Ed is uh 226 Cedar Street and Sturbridge um the town of Sturbridge actually donated that lot it was Town owned land um their CPA funds were allocated to cover 50% of the project costs and we um we built three-bedroom one and a half bath 1500 foot home there it did have a septic and well um because that site did not have sewer and water run to it here are some images of some of the recent homes that we've built so um this one on the left is that home that we've recently completed in Sturbridge the ones in the middle are essentially this house plan um joined together into three town homes um and this site is in Worcester and then this one is a um renovation that we recently completed uh in Holliston that one's on on concrete Street in hollist we just finished that um home owner actually just closed a week or so ago so big celebration for us so the summary of where we stand right now is that the property is currently under agreement with the owner um we did uh advertise and hold an autter meeting um on the week of January 29th um we are here tonight to request support from the select board um if we receive that report moving forward we would request the letters of Municipal support um in the next month and then through March and April um habitat will work to um finalize the rest of that 4V application and keep the process moving forward okay thank you for that presentation do um do um Dave or uh do you guys have anything to add to that presentation I have some questions but I'll comment if that's okay um we've met with habitat many times over the years and most recently um this project came up and um want to thank uh David Rosen Blum for uh helping put in this together and uh we've met with the owners and uh it seems like a very good project habitat's a wellestablished nonprofit and I think uh this type of development would be an asset to the town yeah um thank you Steve so my question is I thought that the trust was contributing the funds uh Deb said the CPC what what's the situation with the town funds well um I think that's to be determined um you know we have to uh see where we are when this thing is uh finalized uh terms and conditions but you know I think it would either be directly from the trust if all goes well uh Andor um approve the town meeting through CPC funds still CPC funds okay questions or thoughts on from the board uh sure I have I have a couple of questions here um you know one question is in terms of uh who might be eligible so the the are is any sort of priority given to town employees no so the um when we build a single home at a at a site there is no local preference that is allowed through the office of uh housing liable communities um it has to be a a lottery where all eligible applicants um have equal waiting okay I think that we several years ago we it wasn't a um habitats for Humanity but um the the land off of um Raymond marquetti that looped there those homes um they were built uh for low-income housing and and there was they were able in that case to to offer I think um priority to town employees um and then I wondered about your Butter's meeting on January 29th and and how that had gone um so that was a relatively quiet meeting um we had uh members of the Housing Trust and one of the members of the select board Joe was there and the um current owner of the property attended but no other Butters attended thank you Brandy or you um so thank you for the presentation um I know that our affordable housing trust has been working hard to try to bring a habitat project to Ashland I think that I've I've been on uh on site at habitat builds and it's it's a it's a great project to be a part of um so you know personally I'm I'm excited to see a habitat house come to Ashlin um I was curious about the the current um owner of 487 Main Street and sort of how how that works if the property is a is privately owned how that gets worked out with habitat I'm I'm just curious based on you know knowing that this is going to be kind of offered up as a lower income um house for a family so the way that it works is habitat has made an offer to the current owner to purchase it um and the owner has accepted that offer um pending habitat being receiving a building permit um once we receive the the building permit we would um go through the the purchase and sale process and close on the property and then the deed would be um in habitat's name during construction um and then final disposition of the property is you know then um to Habitat to meet uh housing livable communities requirements um for affordable housing but I did have a conversation a very transparent conversation with the current owner who is um in support of it being a habitat property um there's just no concerns about that at all okay great um and then just one other quick question um assuming this would need to go to town meeting for for um CPA fund approval from a timing perspective if it's a 15mon um construction process is that from when the 40b application is filed in April or is that sort of the like what what would be the timing from actual like in your estimation when would construction actually be feasible and how does that kind of fit into the to sort of the CPA funding process that makes sense it does it does um and I I have may may have misspoken about where the um whether the funding was housing trust funds or CPA funds and I apologize for that um if it did need to go for um C to CPA for approval um you know habitat's 15 months um construction begins at um receipt of uh the building permit um so that's just the the average time that it takes for Habitat to build a single family home with volunteer labor okay all right so so and and the 40b process would take a certain amount of time as well assuming it does yes yeah it does extend the the time frame there's a comment period of 30 days that can't be changed and the um the marketing plan also has some time in it that uh that is mandatory by Al hlc okay all right thank you very much Yolanda yeah I want to thank you for coming I know as Brandy said that we've been trying to work with habitat so it's nice to see that this project is moving forward or potentially moving forward here in Ashland there was no details on the type of I mean other than a single family home does the design get determined further in the process or when does that happen so the the images in the presentation um are especially that Sturbridge um image is um habitat sort of standard plan um so we have built that that same house type um a number of times now and we have three different fronts that we can put on it um you know so that that um review you know goes goes through obviously the um you know building permit process but we do try to match Styles in the neighborhood so that the home Blends well okay good yeah I I too have done a build and I I think this is a great pro pro program so um I hope we can help you move this forward here in Ashland if it needs to come here I have construction volunteers on the on the board so that's great oh yeah definitely we can we can do something um in regards to timing I guess the affordable housing trust still needs to decide where the funding is if it's going to come from the trust or from current CPA funds I guess that has to happen um if you need to go to town meeting are you looking for spring town meeting or potentially fall town meeting Steve or David yeah oh I'm sorry if I may go ahead thank you Yolanda uh the trust has the funds um in an account to cover this if need be okay so um you know it's not going to be a last minute type of approach but um if if possible we'd go to town meeting if it makes sense to ask for funds uh replacement funds or additional funds but as I mentioned the C the um the affordable housing trust has the capital to cover it might be the kind of thing where you move forward with it now and then ask for replenishment funds at a different town meeting well I was a friend used to say probably maybe definitely we'll get back okay so uh what do you need from us tonight to move this forward or what what do you require um so it would be very helpful to have a vote of support from the select board um for this project to move forward I move that we support the Habitat for Humanity house that is being planned and presented for 487 Main Street and I'll second that okay the motion to support like U has been made uh this project has been made and seconded all those in favor say i i i a motion passes four uh 4 Z so congratulations thank you for coming forward to do this um and hopefully it'll go smoth smoothly so thank you and congratulations to the affordable housing I know you the the committee has been working to try and work with habitat for a while so to everyone involved in making this happen thank you for doing that absolutely and now you can start with the sibson property so there you go all right thank you thank you very much all right so the next item on the agenda is uh minutes late it's been uh uh uh this is a notice of violation hearing to include but not Li mited to noise occupancy and parking ashin Memorial Association Incorporated VFW 311 uh Pleasant Street and um I'm just going to read the um uh the the the purpose of the hearing um and I um before I get into that I'll just um just maybe make the members aware that we've had a proposal to open um to start this hearing and then to uh to take testimony and facts and then and potentially suspend it until our either next meeting so that Joe manani will be here for that so that's kind of the thought so keep that in mind as we go through this that we'll be uh deciding that be and just want to make everybody aware that that um we may not have a a conclusion to this hearing tonight okay um although the idea is that we're going to gather all the facts and information so people won't have to necessarily come back and spend a lot of time as we conclude this okay so thank you for bearing with us on that so the purpose of this hearing on February 16th 20124 uh notice was provided to Fred auton bar manager Richard Smith president of BFW and Kim wallbridge owner operator of marone's company pursuant to General Law chapter 138 section 64 and section 3-2 of the town of ashon Charter the subject to be to be discussed is whether the VFW violated the provisions of 204 CMR 2.52 and our section 4 D6 of the town's regulations governing alcohol licenses by permitting any disorder disturbance violation of noise ordinance exceeding the building capacity illegal parking block erress and consumption of alcohol brought onto the licensed president pres premises by patrons whether or not there was a crowd manager on duty during the event and if the crowd manager completed the building safety checklist fp-25 the incident in question occurred at about 2224 hours on February 9th which I think is what 1024 uh 2024 all the facts are more specifically set forth in the police report fire lieutenant report and photograph on record with the select Board office uh the hearing will be held uh pursuant to provisions of General Law chapter 138 section 64 so do I have a motion to open um uh the hearing so moved second motions been made and seconded all those in favor say I I so this hearing as described is now open um since people will be offering evidence at this hearing I ask that if is there anyone here who will be presenting evidence to the board uh either in person or remotely to stand raise your right hand and repeat after me do we have so I think we have three four I think all you folks except for Mark should stand up right potentially and then anyone on line there that is on virtually that's going to say anything want to want to testify I'm not seeing any okay Kim Kim oh there she is okay thank you all right so Kim you too put raise your okay everyone raise your right hand and repeat after me I state your name I Kimberly Walbridge very good swear that the testimony I am um swear tesy I am I'm about to provide is the whole truth I'm about to provide is the whole truth all right thank you all right you may be seated all right so this uh hearing is now open so I'll turn it over to I think the town manager to present to introduce people to present uh okay so I think has everyone had a chance to read through so we kind of are familiar with the basics of what we're talking about here so Michael if you want to just present the town issues and then after that we'll get to the folks from the BFW to talk all right so thank you I mean I do think it was it was self-explanatory um you know the violations there's a little bit of detail involved in each one in terms of what um what is supposed to happen there versus what our uh professional Public Safety staff felt was happening there uh and so to that end I would probably ask um Chief Roby um if you would like to come up and outline what the what you have in your letter um that outlines the violations and how how they are violations essentially uh so the biggest things we're looking at is sprinkle of violation um due to the type of event that was being held that's why we wrote up a violation of not having a sprinkler um following the nightclub fire occurred 21 years ago yesterday actually in Rhode Island 100 people were killed Massachusetts past regulations that every nightclub dance hall discotech bar or similar entertainment must install sprinklers so then the question came up what about your vfw's your Legions Knights of Columbus fishing game type places so going through the sprinkler um hearings a lot the waiver was issued to them on only certain circumstances I'm going to read through them because it so I don't miss anything but they concluded they would not have to put a Sprinkle system providing they feature a meal as the main attraction the facility is used for events that it organized for the purpose of private function attendance for each event is limited and pre-arranged between the facility operator the private event organiz the number of guests is limited by written invitation or limited tickets available and does not exceed the attendance limit each event has a definite start time and end time tables and chairs are arranged arranged in well-defined aisles in such a manner to not impede ESS there is no significant low light situations the maximum documented legal capacity based on the available floor space is not less than 15 ft per occupant and that is a reduction just because they don't want a concentrated Hall the characteristics of the event as referenced are strictly controlled by an on-site manager and made in part by a written function event contract although there may be dancing to live music and recorded music during some portions of the event the entertainment is not the main feature of the event the dancing activity is limited to those persons who are attending for the purpose of eating a meal each guest has a seat at a table in such situation the occupant load is not typically concentrated or crowded in this event it did not appear to have enough tables and chairs and looked overcrowded from reports from my lieutenant that was on site and I believe he produced a picture showing that so that's the biggest thing I are we looking for sprinkler systems yes if they're going to continue this type of event if they're going to go back to a controlled event then they they fit the requirements not to have it uh crowd manager a crowd manager is required when you have over a hundred people two if you have over 250 we had estimates of up to 300 here wow um I believe the bill inspector will be talking about that but it their occupy limit is 250 right now must be the owner the operator or an employee working under the control and supervision of the owner or the operator who is the crowd manager so you can't rent the hall and tell the people who rent the hall they're in charge of it it's on the the building control they must make sure pathways are maintained assure they do not exceed the occupancy they have to initiate the firearm if needed they have to assure all exits stay clear and guests are aware of the locations of them and they also have to do a daily complete uh checklist it's a state form that they fill out um in this this case we were later produced a form that she did complete and it was a crowd manager they had one on site technically if they were over 250 they would had two but they shouldn't even have been there um the checklist was pretty much checked off other than three squares were missing and the biggest one being the Occupy was checked so um another big thing with the sprinklers and more for the VFW to know two violations of occupy in 12-month period is mandatory that sprinkler systems have to be installed so if they violate the Occupy load one more time in this year it's mandatory sprinklers it's not waved anymore and if they do get a third offense according to mess law they lose liquor license food license and all entertainment licenses for the property Chief the sprinkler cut off is what 250 or or just oh no Morey of over 100 over 100 and if it's not a controlled event like a dinner I guess right so basically they're looking you want more like a restaurant type style that way there's tables you're filling up the place where here if it's a dance hall you can load it with just people dancing around standing okay right any other well should we have questions now or uh are there more people that want to I think if if you have questions of the chief um you know you can you guys have question yeah go ahead we can start with quick question I think even even with the sprinkler system would that change the occupancy number no no I mean they could get away with the table so I technically yes I would have to say it would change it a little bit here they're supposed to fill up the room with tables everybody has to have an assigned seat so there for the amount of people that are there they all have to have a seat at a table somewhere what you're doing is you're filling up the room if they had a sprinkler system they could take all the tables out and have a dance just strictly dance flexibility but the ultimate square footage 250 would never be exceeded so quick question so the the three boxes that were not checked um where um basically it says with the respons you know about the responsible party to ensure no one in excess of the occupancy load um which includes all employees guests and performers and it's listed as Kimberly wallbridge but it's not checked off correct um because it's not checked off is that I would say it's not completed I mean Ally by checking it off it's verifying that she's saying she counted everybody and never exceeded the occupany okay and I think in this particular case is really the big issue was the Occupy load was okay and they have the person has to be dedicated to count um I sure if you read the fire report Lieutenant marowitz I think was going to try to be online if he didn't yeah he's he is online um their person was running the bar at the time okay and you're not going to be able to count and do two jobs like that yeah because the way the way the setup is is the bar faces away from where the occupancy is and there's a wall between okay well and that person is supposed to be free to make sure the aisles are staying safe maintained uh I believe you you could see in the picture that it's it's not basically what it was doing for the law coming in place was allowing them to continue on with their retirement bodies their weddings that they were hosting right you know without putting all those type of facilities out of business okay and so Chief your determination like the three main violations were the sprinkler system or a lack of a sprinkler system um the crowd the requirement of a crowd control manager and then the occupancy limit yeah okay and uh the last would be is just maintaining fire lanes and access to the parking lot cuz that's actually what started this whole thing was somebody driving by saw you couldn't get an Hance in a fire truck in and ended up it was the police officer who later called the fire department to come over there and so you know just for the board's clarification you wouldn't be making a finding on those issues that's the chief's Duty and and what he found you're basically um talking about the liquor license and whether not the actions that happened on that night um you know constitute um affect the liquor license in some way shape or form yeah I mean I hope from here it's an education for them to improve and monitor it Yolanda any other question I'm good right now thank you um so just to follow up so Chief what actions are are you going to take on these violations so I gave him a written notice for right now and we're going to go with the education of it and oh okay I mean unless we have to take further action down the road but that I'm going to consider is violation number one so that's a notice a second violation would be okay to shut them down until the sprinkler system is installed okay thank you Michael uh who no are you are you all set Chief okay um so one of the things that the chief mentioned was um blockage of of egress or Vehicles the inability of emergency vehicles to um be a part of that and I would offer up to uh Deputy Chief vula or Sergeant Rocky who is commanding officer on the scene if um you want to step up and give your your take um and Sergeant Rocky if you could also talk about like what was in your report in terms of what you had to do to get basically emergency access open and freed up absolutely um so on the night of the 9th my attention was initially drawn to the VFW because of a parking issue uh there are two main entrances into the VFW parking lot one was nearly fully obstructed one was partially obstructed so I could barely squeeze a cruiser in there um so again that initially Drew my attention just to the inability of emergency vehicles fire engines ambulances to make their way into the building should there have been an emergency um from there um we attempted to go inside and allow people to move the cars uh with no success I then called the on duty tow truck and a number of vehicles were removed um for safety so you had to physically tow yeah I believe two vehicles were removed by the tow truck okay do you have any observations about some of the well were there any specific laws that you enforced that were violated number one did is there are there any laws that you were sure um so I would say just given the size of the crowd safety of everyone that was in attendance was our number one priority um so safely when the determination was made that we were going to end the party uh with the fire department we were trying to develop a plan to safely egress everyone without a mass Exodus um so that was kind of our number one priority there um secondly the only other real observation that I had was a number of knit bottles that were consumed inside the VFW that were kind of strewing above the ground okay interesting okay how did you know they were did you say they were consumed inside you thought the empty knit bottles were on the ground inside oh inside okay questions or oh I had one from your report um Sergeant you said the security guards were armed yes they were is that usual or is that like is there something unusual or issue about that or anything nope it wasn't an issue we confirmed that they had valid license to carry firearms and in the performance of their duties as security there was no yeah legal violation there okay I was just I was a little surprised is that a usual kind of well maybe other folks can address that why someone thought it was necessary to have armed security there yeah well I can't speak to whether it's usual but um I haven't seen it in the past um but we did confirm that everything was above board with that company thank you other questions for sergeant thank you all right thank you thanks for your observation skills on that one thanks sergeant and then um our building Commissioners here Scott Doug do you have anything that you'd like to add well I can explain so what I can do is address the occupate load uh so that everybody has a clear understanding how it works uh I was not called to this so I don't know anything about what was happening at the time um the ENT load is a requirement under chapter 10 of this Mass State Building Code and what it does is it sets out the number of people that are allowed in a situation um so what I did was I I printed out a table this is a table that we have that we go by we can when we can create the occup Lo occupancy load in this situation I inherited this you know like the rest of the places if I have a problem I have the right to go in and do I change the occupant load if I if I needed to um and and so in this situation it would be considered an assembly use because you've got greater than 100 people in this in this particular uh in each floor cuz in this at the V BFW you've got uh occupancy load where this incident took place of 250 people and then you have the bar downstairs which has an occup occupancy load of 150 people so the different types of occupancy load are based upon uh fixed seating like if all these chairs were fixed permanently in place um they and without fixating where you're standing around the dance hall things like that and so uh and then concentrated chairs only but not fixed like this here and then unconcentrated which is tables and chairs and each one of them requires so many um square feet is how you get your Arup load so if you have an assembly area with uh without fixed seats and it's uh concentrated chairs only it's 7 Square ft so if you have 70 square ft of space you could only have an occupancy load of 10 people in there and then you have a standing space which is 5 Square ft so if you have 100 square ft you could have um 50 I that I think it do the M math right uh people and then if you had tables and chairs which is like a restaurant it's something like that you're allowed you're required to have uh one person for every 15 square feet so what the the captain was referring to was um that the the the amount of occupants can vary depending upon the use but typically what you would do is you would set that um by those calculations and that's what they would have to follow the other important factor is the certificate emancy that we issue every year because we go around fire department and I go around and we check exit signs emergency sites and things like that aisles are clear and safe um that is supposed to be posted so it can be seen by the public in both in this situation both upstairs and and a copy of it downstairs so that everybody can see so if the police or the fire or somebody goes and enters the building you can you can see or the crowd manager enters the building they see oh we can only have 250 people so I'm managing the crowd and I get to 250 people I have to shut the doors I can tell nobody else to leave unless somebody leaves then you can let one person in um so that's about all I can provide you for information to give you a general idea about that okay thanks Doug questions for Doug I have a question so the the 250 occupancy for the upstairs was that determined by tables and chairs or was that determined in a different way do you know you know this was long before I came here that somebody figured that out okay but you know depending upon what the board would like to do we could go in and I could go in with the fire department we measure the space out and and see what we come up with I mean if if they're not going to install a sprinkler system that they got to go with the tables and chairs yeah um and that means you know for every 15 square feet you get one occupant in the space so it's it's not that difficult to figure it out interesting okay thank you other uh questions for Doug interesting okay okay thank you thanks anyone else from the town no I I think that covers it and Deputy unless you want to to add anything okay deputy chief okay okay I don't oh Kyle did did you have anything that you wanted to add I don't think did he get sworn I'm here yep did you is there anything you wanted to add did you did you get sworn the chief Sergeant did you hear me did you get sworn when did you uh get sworn when we did the rest of the folks yeah I was I great thank you go ahead uh nothing crazy to add uh reiterating off what Chief Robi and sergeant rodkey had said uh the sergeant had inquired uh what the occupancy limit was which uh pequ my interest and brought me over there in the first place just to put eyes on the situation and like the sergeant said we our biggest uh concern was just how to safely Evac these people um without causing some Mass Exodus I did poke my head in I did check the egresses from the inside um what we call the alpha side on the fire service is the front of the building so there's two main egresses on the front side which faces Pleasant Street neither of those were obstructed for um pans per se in or out there was one on the left side as you come down where the handicap ramp is it was it wasn't blocked from the exterior it was just it would have been tough to get to from the interior just with the amount of people that were in that area um and other than that that's uh that's pretty much it okay thank you I I have one other question um just I don't I don't know who would be the best to answer this question but the occupancy certificate was posted um somewhere in the upstairs I posted downstairs just downstairs yeah I I was not able to find it I briefly looked for it after speaking with Kim on what the number was because I was uh not 100% positive and off the top of my head what it was supposed to be she said it was 250 which that's what it ended up being but I I looked for a posted sign and there was nothing at the time oh I don't think it says it in the contract either does it yeah I didn't see it in the contract all right okay we'll wait sir you you should be at the microphone so why don't we wait uh till you get there uh and um is there anything else brandy or we can so I think we're we're done with the town staff so uh VFW folks if do you want to come in in whatever order you like just come up to the microphone identify yourself uh who wants to go first we have two it looks like we have hi two people online Kim and happy to speak online since it's iPhone as well yeah did he get sworn I remember okay good all right so who wants to speak go ahead I'm happy to speak sure go ahead C we can hear you go ahead hear me okay yeah okay um so I understand the importance of safety in our Event Hall for sure um we definitely never do parties that make it a nigh hul This was um you know a surprise um I tell all my parties 200 is our Max I don't want to get close to 250 um the host of the party knew that so um I was surprised to hear that the count was over 250 you know um I understand that mistakes might happen within 10 that's why I wanted to you know that's why I like to keep it at 200 um just for extra caution um as far as as the three boxes go that wasn't checked off um it was because it wasn't a yes or no question on the checklist it's always I sign my name and then on the certificate it says the number and the expiration date my name and that's why they weren't checked off so it's not that they weren't answered I just didn't check the yes box because it asked for you know my name and the person responsible so just to clarify that um also you know in the six years this has never happened um now that it has you know I would make some changes that it can continue and you know we have a lot of different cultures that come in and have different events you know this was um a cultural um cultural Ecuadorian celebration and it's a festival and food was a big part of it um they do um food they do uh kids performances um and they have you know music so it started out that way um and there was no issue there were you know kids it was you know not a ton of people and you know I felt okay about how the party was going and at around 10 10:30 it's when it shifted and you know a lot of people started coming in it was um a different vibe um so at that point although no one was over served um because it had sort of changed and shifted from you know a family centered event um I decided to stop serving alcohol at the bar at that point um and I did walk around at that point assessing next steps and like what the level of intervention was needed and at that point the police and fire had arrived um you know I understand that I'm I'm liable to Monitor and be sure we stay below capacity and going forward I will keep count um versus in the contract I have it's the responsibility of the host of the party and he was the one checking people in um as far as security goes they were his security because I said I need to make sure nobody brings alcohol into the event so um you know that's why that um they were there for that um I didn't see the nips there was a bottle on stage at the end you know which I had seen um that was most likely from the DJ um you know but like I said going forward um you know I'll make sure that I know the capacity at every event that we have all the cbles um set up and that will also make it easier to keep track of the capacity because if there's anybody standing not in the seat then I will know that it's you know more than the amount that they said they would be okay anything else Kim I also have I have cameras that I have on my phone so like I can see different angles um you know so I was behind the bar um and I would look to see you know what's going on in there you know I can zoom in see like you know make sure you know um you know as best I can like what people are doing and you know nothing's being blocked and you know we're following all the rules okay thank you Michael did you want to well I think you want to had a question yeah we can start So based on the information that we've heard it sounds like it's difficult you're asking for them to be the crowd manager whoever the host is it sounds like you've asked them to be the crowd manager not the crowd manager but just um they were responsible for the amount of people that came in to be what they said that was set up to become in to come in okay and you were behind you were at the bar you were managing the bar was for the event okay so it it sounds like for larger events like this you might need to have another person to be the crow manager from what I can tell baby showers um you know yeah w they're all small simple you know this was you know an Ecuadorian Festival um the one we had the following night um was exactly the way I was supposed to go there once a year um but these particular people um that I had a couple of years ago um I you know asked not to come back because um they were difficult to work with and so it was sort of a surprise that it was them because they had booked under another name and I would never have allowed them back okay yeah that was in the report okay yeah that's what that's what I have for questions for this I just wanted to ask so you actually shut down serving alcohol prior to even the police arriving yeah because the the vibe shifted from the the way it was supposed to be and the way you know they said it would be to now you know younger people are coming in and you know uh you know the the children's presentations were ending and then it became like just a different vibe and that's not not how it was supposed to go so I started with okay how am I going to handle this I'm going to shut down the bar first and then you know assess from there because similar to what um Kyle was talking about you know I was fearful of a mass Exodus like how am I going to shut this party down you know and so I was you know just sort of making this assessment then and you know uh it you know they were standing on chairs they weren't supposed to do that um you know it was not going the way it was supposed to go at that point thank you so I have a question for you um we have a copy of the the contract that you Ed to um to sign with these parties that are coming in to use the facility um nowhere on that contract is there any information that you're looking for from people to like what the event is and how many people they are expecting and there's nothing on there that has an occupancy limit on it I do say 200 on there on the page under rules and procedures number two I put capacity as a maximum of 200 and it's it's the responsibility of the renter to ensure that capacity is not exceeded um you know it's 250 but I never want more than 200 I didn't see that let me hold on um because I I did look for that specifically um should be the second page uh we've got a lot pages in our packet just hold bear with me one minute um here we go so I have a hall rental agreement um you said it's on the second page yes so under rules and procedures number two so all I all it is says says here is entertainment must be concluded by 12:30 a.m.

to 11:00 a.m. at the community center um do we want to make any other comments about that we're moving ahead with that we be getting invitations if they haven't already and please RSVP if you've gotten an invitation so we can plan accordingly for food have they gone out Susan do you know or not yet I'm actually working on it right now hopefully tomorrow I'll have it out very nice all right thank you and the nomination papers when are nomination papers due April 3rd or 4th um only because I handed mine in today and that it's one of those dates I think okay yeah you can find all the information about how to run and what you need to do if you want to run on the town clerk town on the um town website yeah town clerk's office yeah um oh so the next is the consent agenda um and I don't know will I will accept a motion to accept motion to approve the consent agenda as presented second all those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I I I consent and Michael or anybody else I don't know if you want to uh comment any of the items in there I know we had able to hire two uh two police officers and we have a light equipment operator yeah good to see I was going to bring up during Town manager reports that this is the third straight meeting where we've had an appointment of a police officer and this time too um you know to the force and everything so this is we're heading in the right direction in terms of filling those vacancies um and you know the police department the police department personnel they've done a really good job of um of recruiting and and basically highlighting the benefits of working in Ashland and working for the Ashland Police Department so it's been great we just swore in um a lateral Melvin lagon um and he uh has just a great resume but he comes to us experienced already Academy trained this is an addition of these two guys yeah Melvin you oh we saw him last night U but he's uh he's uh just a great great guy great great candidate so um again we're moving in the right direction great with that so the um the exit from civil service has been a net positive oh so I mean yeah absolutely yeah um I mean we've had to kind of like do some you know we we've used a company called get badged to basically run that process for us um and they've done a tremendous job and and again our our police department has done a a good job of really highlighting the benefits of working in Ashland um so it's been a team effort for sure so wonderful okay thank you all right so that does bring us to town manager report um yeah just I'll start with one thing that's not uh listed on here on the agenda but that's the town hall roof um and unfortunately we got some bad news uh earlier this week and that it was found well just to kind of remind you what was happening before is there was a a beam that was cracked um and the roof essentially was pulling away from the top plate of the building um and it was it was fallen so we had already planned on doing a repair there um and it was going to be about $142,000 um what we did find out this week is that when this building was renovated it wasn't done according to the plans um on a specific area so basically a main load carrying beam um wasn't supported the way it was supposed to be on the plans so we're figuring out a fix to that right now so um yeah that was a little bit of a surprise regarding that is there you know either an insurance claim or not or if that's not worth it or going back to the PE you know whoever did the construction I mean if we can show that they didn't follow the plans I know it's been 20 years but I I would think that I don't know is it worth looking into who did the construction if they didn't follow the plans and now we're paying for it yeah it's always worth asking the question I think for sure but there so that was that um so update on the FY 24 and fy2 budget so um the fy2 24 budget I I provided the info to you in the packet you know I know it's a lot of info I was going to say we going through all the 100 Pages no no I'm just going to ask if you have any questions on ites so where are we um like comparatively year-over-year like at this point um you know I mean we have you know we're at almost March 1st so we have you know four months of fy2 24 budget left comparatively to last year at this point in time are we on track are we like do we think we're going to have you know money at the end you know like where are we compared to last year yeah we we're we're tracking very similarly okay um and so we should be about at like the 66% range on things um through December what is this through through it' be through March 1st I'm just think so the report that we're looking at only goes through the second quarter so from July through December correct okay correct um but uh yeah I would expect you know we would have a free cash balance at the at the end of the year once that's done I don't know if it will be as healthy as it has been in previous years I I say that every year though um but uh we did see a noticeable you know changed this year compared to this past year compared to the year before so line items that I'm seeing 95% 100% long are a number of them are longevity so is that because it got moved into the salary line items and that's why we're seeing that at 100% now already when we're only halfway through the year yeah that happens in the fall so those payments get issued in the fall okay and so it's it's one time so you will see it's been paid it so that's why it's going to be close to 100% okay one thing that that I would is it possible to get these reports in in a spreadsheet format instead of the PDF yeah I can see if Britney can can break down it would be you know I'd like to be able to filter on you know what's what's at 75% or greater or what's over 100% so that even some of the lines even you know you have to count down okay well over here in this column it's the eighth down so CU it's hard to even align them right well um one of the things I would ask for similar to that but it's not it's just kind of like an analytical summary from you or Britney or whatever like what's going on with the expenses yeah that would be great too but I'd like to be able to just zero in on something and say what's the story like you know even on on so I could ask a question or more easily yeah I don't know if we could do it quarterly I I certainly think we could do it semiannually you know to that level with a with an anal Yeah just something like what are you seeing like what's working what's not what's over what's under I mean we might be able to take the PDF if munus produces the PDF I mean they must produce an Excel you must be able to export it to an Excel spreadsheet I just yeah you can it's been a it's it's been a while but since I've done all that it has to be manipulated I would think Britney would be able to figure out how to on a half basis send this to an Excel spreadsheet and make it look you know and readable if if we have a if we use acrobat and have ownership of acrobat then we could probably export this into a spreadsheet I mean that would be sort of a workaround and doesn't seem like it would be necessary to do it like that but that would be a potential oh you're pretty good technical whiz Claudia yeah I know but acrobats those I try a couple of things with this which I know I could have gotten through but not at 100 Pages oh okay well we'll we'll make sure you don't have to do it has to interpret text and put it in a spreadsheet it doesn't always work that well I think but anyway I'd rather have the analysis myself but anyway kind of the detail so there's that so that was the um that that's the FY 24 budget so let's talk about the FY 25 budget um and just bear with me I just wanted to bring up my most recent um now we didn't have anything in our packets no no because we've been working on that up to the day um I couldn't find here let's see otherwise I'll have to do this from memory Emil us earlier oh okay that's why it wasn't in the P okay um like why can't I find it okay so if you recall you know we were looking at a$2 point something million dollar deficit the last time we we spoke um we talked about that so since that time so hold on just because we've never spoken about that we there were a couple of us like Yolanda and Claudia and I went to your department meeting oh right good point um board meeting we never spoke we've never spoken about it was posted but we haven't talked about it in an evening board meeting correct right so so kind of just you know because I know you've been in front of fincom and you've talked to fincom about it um but we haven't spoken about the deficit and where that came from and what it looks like and you know what the feasibility of it is because um which I think is important because not all of us were at the the the department meeting and also you know for people that might be watching understanding that 2.7 million doll I know you put it in your newsletter but it didn't have a whole lot of like context around it yeah and and and I would say you know I know you you're talking about a $2.7 million deficit in our budget but we all know that we're not going to be at that right that that was everyone you know your department head saying okay this is what we want to do this is this is what we want to get to so yeah so do you want me to start the 2.7 or me you yeah start at the 2.7 but I think we need to be clear that it's this was a starting point we were never going to try and fill in my mind fill the gap between what we think we have for Revenue in the 2.7 I was going to get there going to get there um but no I'll start I'll start back a little bit a little bit earlier so yes once once we got you know some idea of what our fixed costs were going to be and once you put in all the departmental the municipal Department's uh requests in and you looked at the school department going up the 3.75% that's part of our policies um we ended up with the $2.7 million deficit so so that's um and again a Big Driver of that uh were the requests from the municipal departments um and also the fixed cost drivers so um you know that's that was pretty much I mean benefits in Insurance itself is just $670,000 plus you know we're looking at less Revenue in terms of New Growth as well that's uh that's coming in so that's kind of where we're where we're starting from or where we started from so I don't know if you want to discuss that that aspect of it at all no um we can okay so what you know Britney and I have started to do and Jen's worked with us as well is okay how do we start whittling that down um and so one of the things we did is is we basically zeroed out all the requests from the municipal departments and you know basically said what if we just essentially level Ser do like a level service budget not level funding but level service right so we had a certain point there um and that was able to knock off about a million bucks um and then one of the things that uh we've talked about is Shifting more of our funds or expenses I should say onto revolving funds that we have and so we've started looking at doing that so basically with a level service budget um you know um excuse me just a second yeah a level service budget um we the municipal uh Municipal departments went up 341,000 once you shift some of that onto the Enterprise funds we would be at like a $200,000 budget increase and how and why are we shifting costs onto the Enterprise funds um because so it's Enterprise in revolving funds as well um it's not ideal but we got to make up the Gap I thought there was certain rules as to what was in the revolving funds and the Enterprise funds versus what's in the general appropriation yeah there there's there's um rules there's certainly rules um and then there's also guidelines that you follow and it's all in in line with that so for example we can't hit a certain like Recreation revolving fund there's there's two related to that you can't hit one to basically pay for personnel but you can you can do that for others or with with the other account I should say um which I would think we were doing anyway right if I have if I'm running a camp program and I'm hiring staff for that camp program that then it's going to match the expense for the camp is going to match the revenue that we've received for the camp so it makes sense to put it out out of the revolving account right yeah I think there's certainly some that come out of like this uh seasonal employees right like they certainly come out of out of that revolving fund what we're talking about about doing is Shifting more of like Kelly's salary onto a revolving fund um you know basically people that are paid out of the general fund um shifting it onto the revolving fund again that's not ideal and it's certainly not sustainable why isn't so you charge fees for recreation are you're saying so those fees wouldn't cover or there's a surplus that's going to get spent down is that well it's not sustainable meaning that we could do it for a couple of years but eventually it draws off unless the fees are raised yeah I mean well that's I guess what I was getting at yeah so there's there's that piece um what about while you're on that subject people always talk about the water and sewer funds those are the big ones are there are there any any examples of things that are changing there um well so it would be kind of a wash in a way on the Enterprise funds because essentially what we would do is take uh some people people that are paid through indirect charges for those of you not familiar with that there's direct charges and then there's indirect charges and direct charges are those expenses that are charged directly to the Enterprise funds and then there's also indirect charges where you try to capture the you know people's time oh that's working exactly um and you try to factor that in into the indirect cost people get suspicious okay yeah so so what what what I think people get suspicious about is when we shift from indirect to direct so I mean like currently Jen and I are paid from indirect or paid through indirect does it make more sense to have a portion of us charged through directly um what difference is there like there's not that's why I said it's a it's kind of a was because you have some rationale like x% of Jen's time goes to exactly whatever exactly so you know so is it to I'm just trying to understand how that works so is it a portion of each of your salaries is divided up amongst multiple um Enterprise funds or is it yes some multiple okay specifically water and SE based currently when it's indirect you kind of make a not a guess but I'm going to say guess as to how much time of your time is associated with working on behalf of that exactly exactly and we're not talking about huge pieces huge chunks of time or you know we're not talking about like 50% or anything you know we'd be talking about like 5 to 15% um so for instance like um on the DPW side I would assume Doug you know portion of Doug Small's salary is build to trash correctly right bless you trash and recycling so you know that that's kind of what you're talking about right like staff and different you know okay but it doesn't it does seem like a wash right if whether you Bill it indirectly or directly it might make more sense to people or something but but it doesn't there's no savings associated with that exactly ex that's yeah I mean it's more for I think still spending the money it's just how you're where you're getting it from it's an accounting accounting exercise it's even coming from same place it's just right and in the past we kind of looked at those allocations right you have certain rules or you know they're all listed somewhere right yeah there are rules um especially regarding the revolving funds um and there are guidelines associated with the Enterprise funds I just wondered if people wanted to see how that was done is it just like a handy list of like how things are allocated or kind yeah we have we have I think I've seen in the past it sounds familiar I think would be good is at some point we have a you know I don't know if we're planning a tri board meeting but I think that's going to be necessary especially because we not sure what's happening at the schools because they have some Union contracts that they're negotiating and I think it would be good for the boards Finance school and us to understand what some of these transfers are and then at the same point after that then do a public review of what we've done so the public understands what we're doing and why we're doing it yeah like one of the things I've asked Britney to do is keep track of how much more we're going to put on the revolving fund so I I can say you know okay this was the Gap that we had and this is how we've closed it and it's not sustainable um it's just it it's not um again kind of the the deficit after we made those adjustments to the municipal departments um is about 1.3 million that's what the deficit is so we'll find different savings and everything that we can with that and then we have to look at things on the revenue side then you know unless we want to talk about cutting programs and cutting services I I'm kind of going under the assumption that you would want me to figure out something with cutting programs and services well ideally but if we don't have the revenue and and it's I think it's a balance right I mean certainly we don't want to cut programs but if we're taking money to pay for things in an one sustainable way we need to talk about that we need to say maybe we do need to look at what we're doing and give the town the opportunity to say we can't do that anymore or certainly not this cycle it's too late but you know we need to increase our Revenue somehow right because another you know option that we're looking at or another tool that we're looking at putting together for this budget um is do I mean and this is getting creative is is looking at overlay Surplus um so the amount of surplus that we don't or the amount of overlay that we don't utilize each year um that basically stays in an overlay account for that year I mean would the board of assessors feel comfortable with declaring some of those year Surplus and that would make money available again it' be one time that we can utilize to help close that budget deficit for this year but again we're talking about onetime onetime fixes and you know shifting costs the things that are not um that are not sustainable long term right and you I've had you know a couple conversations with Jim and you know I think you know Jim's looking at a similar approach to you know what um what we're talking um why do you say it's not sustainable for an is that the Enterprise fund you're talking about no I'm talking revolving funds revolving so but they all have a revenue source so isn't it isn't it a function of what the revenue is like you could choose the raise the r interrupt you motion to go past 10 o' second all those in favor going past 10 o'cl say I I pass okay um but just to but the revenue can be increased through fees in almost every case I think the question is are people think the increase in fees is Justified for what the service is or what they've been paying so I think but it isn't necessarily unsustainable if the fee is sufficient is it well maybe I should re reframe that and say based on current fee levels it's not sustainable I I do think if we if we're talking about um you know the the you know increasing Revenue we also have to talk correspondingly like if we don't do that what is what what is the proposal proposal to be cut because I think people have to understand what that would look like so does that mean a cut in services at the library and the community center and DPW and less less um you know what are the choices Services Town Hall yeah like cut back hours a town hall like so I I think I think we have to kind of show that because I think it's I think it's I think it's important people have to understand what what that means um because you know I mean I do think I think that you know you're talking a a school budget increase of 3.75 usually it's what 3% no um usually it's five like four five% so usually so it's less than it typically yeah so what our policy says is that it goes up 3.75% and the municipal departments go up 2 and a half% got and if we have Revenue over and above that it gets split 7030 amongst the school department and the municipal departments so what we've done in in previous years is I mean it's it's been to a point where you know you could spend 4% 4% increase on the schools and because the revenue has been there the revenue has been there um and um yeah we're not we're we're not there anymore there yeah yeah yeah because I think the reality will be something very different I have a feeling um I don't know what that looks like but um I I think I think it's going to be a tough budget year you know and I think we have to we have to be very clear as to you know when when people ask why why we're looking to raise fees on X Y or Z we have to show them the the the documentation as to like like if so if we don't do this we need to cut staff we need to cut back hours we need to cut back Services we have you know one less fire firefighter on duty we have one less police officer on duty that affects service that affects a lot of things in town so or whatever that looks like and I'm not saying we let go of Staff because I that's not what I'm saying at all but I I do think we have to be very clear of what the options look like so that people understand the decisions that we're all going to have to make together you know so because it's not going to be easy no I mean this year I've we've never been in a place where I've had to look at onetime Revenue to this extent to to cover this uh but we've been going in that direction and I've I've been saying that for years I've also been saying if we continue to take like a a slow growth what I call a slow growth approach and you know basically buy properties and take them offline to be you know where they can't be developed and basically push back against development we're going to have these situations where you have a new growth of $400,000 and you know it's it's like the new growth stuff is like drugs I I hate to I hate to say that you get you know if you're used to getting it at like the million doll level and you've you know fairly consistently and that's what you're thinking of budgetary wise um if you're getting 475,000 it's there's withdrawals you still have growth in the pipeline though and we've talked about those projections yeah Michael what produces if it's possible to um kind of put this in Lay terms or that like $100,000 in New Growth monies what what is that look like in the community um well I would say so for example um like Cirrus when Cirrus was added on so that added on about $1.2 million of of new growth in one year um sure over a couple years and that's based on was over two years but well no it it's one year but then it gets built into built into your base oh because of the property I was thinking of the fees the yeah the fees are different yeah that would come in like in in building fees and local rece Bas on the property tax I thought it hit in two separate yeah it it was split between like two I'm just saying totally that's why based on the property taxes associated with the property yes we still a bunch of Apartments coming up though I mean right so Chestnut Street when that hits that'll be New Growth when 501 Pond Street gets built but and then the after that but after that we don't have any I mean we have some smaller projects but well they always seem to be coming along but you yeah yeah so do you have a timeline in regards to your budget process tribe board meeting and then you know public discussion I know you've had some already with the finance committee but yeah um so what I was was hoping to do is Britney and I would do more of a full budget presentation on March 20th I think so our second meeting um what's March 20th our second meeting okay and um I think uh that'll give Jim and I a chance to talk to he's he's currently away right now right so but um we'll get together and I you know kind of need to see where what he's thinking in terms of a you mentioned the schools are having their budget meeting yeah I don't think they've set a date yet okay um the last I had heard was probably end of February beginning of March but I have I in fact I just looked on I was just looking at to see if there was anything posted on the calendar but there isn't anything I haven't heard of anything yet okay so um what is the the you're you're thinking on the rate increases for is it water what was the one that I need to yeah I need to sit down and how does that work into this kind of budget for the coming year or does it well it's a separate it's Enterprise fund so it it doesn't really impact the general fund so you're thinking of is that something by itself that there's no adjustments from General appropriation into those funds into those funds are into those exp accounts or exp using those funds to cover some other expenses well I think Rob's talking about using basically subsidizing the Enterprise funds with the general fund is that what you no no the other I was just so I think it was what yoland was saying so you were looking at various times moving things that are currently in general appropriation into these revolving funds so I was just wondering those are the big funds so is that part of the picture this year and is that driving this rate increase or is that something totally different no it's it's something totally it's more Capital expenses okay that would be that would be driving a rate increase what's the goal for your revolving funds in terms of how much you want to maintain how um in there those funds yeah we don't we don't really have a hard and fast rule Barb Durand always had one that that we kind of liked which was you don't spend more than what you took in the previous year it's always a good thing yeah Barbara Barbara you know had some had some concrete rules and that was as you know and that was one of them so um so that's but we don't have anything kind of like outlining that um is there any way that that um things that we've you're marked for arpa funds like is there any way that we could use arpa funds for something in the general fund and then be able to move some stuff around or is because I know arpa like there's there's some kind of like hard guidelines on how we use those arpa funds but I also know that there's they're they sunset in what 2026 MH so it's like use it or lose it and you know so not that it's going to be like a like the solution but if there's a Band-Aid where we might be able to move something from you know into the general funds you know use use arpa funds for something in the general I I don't know how it all works I'm not I am not Britney so yeah so it would be um so basically Revenue replacement is an allowable use um I do think that could come into play in this year it's interesting so and we would have to look at some of the projects that we had allocated arpa funds for and say well we just won't be able to do these projects or we won't be able to allocate as much arpa funds for them and so the revenue will have to come from some other place also we have the stabilization fund as well like if we got into a Rob bind where we needed like the rainy day fund we could potentially utilize some of that stabilization funds even though I know we don't want to do that but we've replaced it I think we'd have to look at our um policy Financial policies to determine if we wanted to do that yeah that's that's kind of like the break glass um an emergency type of type of thing you know I'm I'm you know we might have to do a big borrowing related to some water and sewer infrastructure costs so I I'm worried about our bond rating especially if we I'm worried about our bond rating just by some of the things that I'm talking about doing for this year you know without hitting the stabilization fund I mean how are they going to look at using arpa you know how are they going to look at using overlay Surplus I mean to them it's going to be one-time revenues um which is going to indicate a a structural deficit that we need to address what about um in terms of I'm not sure what numbers were used for the borrowing reled to the school um but because we got that additional $5 million that's going to work to our advantage obviously um so is there any savings there um that from what you had you know uh projected yeah we're still doing like a complete analysis on that Claudia but we were thinking we might have to do like one final borrowing for around $5 million to like finish everything up and clean everything up um that 5 million that we would get from the state would basically wash that and we wouldn't have to go out and borrow that so that's that would have a direct you know direct correlation with residents tax bills right but not to the general fund yeah right so so their taxes wouldn't have to go up again so so more to come yeah more to come I you know I wish I had better news on on this but um you know i i i i point out like the um you know where a tax bow lies within our surrounding communities and our expenditures per capita the expenditures per capita especially because it's like at the bottom um that just doesn't seem to resonate with folks I don't know why but um well I don't think they want to compare yeah and people are used to a level of service so you know it um I think I think comparing it to a level of service in Sherborne or or another Community it does like it doesn't it doesn't it you know it it's not real to them like what that means like so so Sherburn spends you know a ton more money per per household you know for per capita um what does that translate into as far as you know sidewalks and like it it you know some you know there just like well Sherburn has lots of money you know they should spend the money you know so I and I'm not justifying it I'm just saying it's not real to people this is even just the sherbons we're talking about when you talk about where we fall right and all these right yeah I mean c Katherine is always a good barometer for me just cuz she came from Medway and spent so much time there and I mean she can tell you the level of activity that we have here compared to there um you know one of the things Brandy I think I could probably do a better job of explaining in of is that the fact that you know in this region the importance of the comparison is that we're all competing for the same people um we're competing for the same Services you know we're getting asphalt from the same plants you know we're getting gas and and Diesel from the same places so like we're buying it from the same places it's the same cost for them and we might have been able to negotiate even a better rate to but it's you know our expenses are going to be very similar you know in some instances to what um to what other communities are spending and I mean I will put our service level against like hop Hopkinson true any day with you know a tax bill that's at least 50% higher or expenditures per capita I mean I just take a look at our downtown projects you know put that out in a place like Sherburn and it probably is not the best example because I mean they hardly yeah um they're different structure too it's rural kind of just man well yeah that's the way they've been able to stay rural is um but like they don't have trash service they don't have um water and sewer right depends on us yeah holl the very similar hollon uses us basically for their ALS provider volunteer fire department I think right yeah it's still call so how are their taxes and expenditures more so much more I know I know somebody in Ashland who was a volunteer firefighter for that mhm really okay it's wild in this day and age you know so so yeah more to come and that's that's all I yeah project up I got priority project and I've got very little since the last one um uh uh with Mendes since the last time we talked it did we are going to utilize uh somebody to help uh vertex is bringing somebody on to help with that inflation reduction act reimbursement oh good um which is going to be um you know Jeff Deo is anticipating a little over a million dollars um so that could be that's significant um upper Charles Trail you know we've submitted the mass work M Trails ran I keep on confusing the two um and I hope to have a meeting with Derek warus who owns the Enzo Parcels again pretty soon and kind of get an idea of what he's thinking downtown um there's um you see a lot of eversource trucks out recently so they're they're continuing to pull wires and remove wires and everything um so they're moving along we should should be putting those bids out um to do the building connection soon oh we haven't done that yet not yet no we wanted to make some adjustments and wanted to make sure they were right because I think one of the things that um I think one of the things that kind of delayed the um first phase of the downtown project the streetcape is that the bid docks left some to be desired I think so we're just making sure that we don't repeat that again so um and Jen do you have anything on Public Safety no so I would think Public Safety is wrapped up at this point right I mean the doors are in the the doors yeah that was it okay I will say just speaking of Public Safety um we did have this the recent Citizens Academy class there and it they were thrilled with the building they they all pretty much said about how a good use of taxpayer dollars speaking of the public safety building will we get a final accounting of what it actually cost and um you know the funding for that and stuff yeah we can put that together for sure that be good to see I think it would be good for the community to see to say okay this is what we said this is what it actually cost us um I think that'll be good to see greated so okay is that it Michael that's it great thank you so um board reports Claudia you want to start sure thank you um so uh I was just going to mention about the mindes building so they are starting to gear up for spring work and uh we had a meeting last week and uh getting everything on site to get the fields all squared away and finish up a few other things that really um were mostly dependent upon uh the weather um and then I had the pleasure of attending a meeting in the Box um run by Miss Kinsman and uh it was you know very enjoyable we had um you know several people they all had great ideas suggestions uh it was it was a very stimulating conversation I thought so I really enjoyed it and inspired me to uh host one myself did you not yet that's good good reminder what's the deadline for that again April 1st April 1st so really yeah okay y basically okay so uh so I intend to do that in in the month of March I appreciate that I thought that was a pretty interesting vote in Milton there about a week and a half maybe two weeks ago now um I think I heard today that the uh State pulled some money from them uh quite a bit already yeah yes oh yeah a big pulled from them so interesting and a few other things to watch that have been taken from them because they didn't support the MBTA communities yeah resoning I thought there was a deadline how could they I thought you had until X dat to do something yeah they um they passed their they may they vot they yeah I'm not sure yeah they they had a ballot question no meeting passed it I think and then they there was a group of citizens that put it had enough signatures to to put it on the ballot no yeah understand in their Charter I see what you're saying you I thought the state gave you a certain deadline yeah well except that they voted the community voted not dead over techically voted a different measure before the deadline that's all I'm saying well this is certainly incentive them for them to look at it again so anyways I thought that was interesting that was a good thing to bring up CL yeah so to that point just um I know that there's going to be another MBTA communities Forum coming up in a week or so is it next week 8th 29th 27th I just saw it today so so yeah I I think I don't I know it's kind of too early to tell what the ramifications of Milton is going to be because obviously you know I think my my gut instinct is that the Attorney General is going to make a um example an example an example out of them because and probably file file suit but I think you know I think that's going to be a big topic of conversation from residents about like you know could Ashen file a similar thing and stuff like that so I I do want to make sure like I don't know if it should be part of that Forum or something else but just kind of acknowledge what happened in Milton and um discuss possible ramifications for the community and I think my guess and I haven't I haven't watched the last one but um my guess is I know you know from what Joe had said he and Trisha and Peter and um Alvaro are really like looking to come up with a solution that has minimal impact to our community and residents and I just want to make sure like that you know that that's part of the communication as well because I I I think I think non-compliance while we can talk about it like is a kind of a drastic I don't know if we necessarily need to go in that direction right I mean I I think six months ago I remember I was one of the people going do we really have to do this based on what we're seeing and hearing they're going to make us do it so the sooner we do it and with as much public input as possible the better with this little impact with this little impact well I wouldn't I think it could be done with I think we already have a solution I'm I think a little different I think we had to actually look at some of those Parcels near the train station like the church and the burnhams and actually and other commercial properties there and actually look at zoning them um can I suggest we maybe put this on the agenda that's agenda our next meeting yeah either our next meeting or our second meeting in March yeah and I'm I'm not going to I'm not I'm not going to be at that Forum but if people can go next week I think it's going to be a useful thing but yes let's put it on yeah that's a good idea when's that when is The Forum next week it's Tuesday I believe is it Tuesday I have it on it's either Tuesday or Thursday day I don't I didn't put it on a calendar cuz both nights I'm busy so yeah I have it for Tuesday the the one they had a couple weeks ago did get recorded so you can go watch that Tuesday the 27th Jo I think I have the link somewhere yeah I think you sent it to old email okay yeah Tuesday the 27th I have my schedule so probably I think seven but anyway I think it's a good effort and you know and I think the good thing about it is we're finding it very doable however the details turn out so all right thank you was that Claudia or Claudia and then I Claudia you finished I'm glad you brought that up yeah um are you all good I'm good you're good okay um I just wanted to um thank the ABA and Beth Reynolds for an amazing ribbon cutting at Subzero um nitrogen uh ice cream this last Friday uh Claudia and I were there with Michael um and it was hugely well attended there was a lot of there were parents of kids that work there because the kids are in school so it was it was it was great uh representative LS was there rep a representative from from um Senate President spilka's office was there um and Lauren and Dan the new um owners of subzero are like thrilled to be you know they're new residents of Ashland and they are new business owners and new parents all kind of stuff all sorts of stuff and um I'm so glad that we were able to like help them out with our business incentive program and all that stuff because that's the that's the kind of stuff that we we want to bring to downtown asy so I just wanted to give kudos to the ABA and to Beth um for a great event um and um our comprehensive plan steering committee is going to be meeting on Thursday March 7th which is um off schedule off yeah off cycle we didn't have our meeting at the very end of um February February or well middle of February um so we'll be making we'll we prob two meetings in March yeah so we'll be talking about the you know all of our Outreach and all that stuff so um so mark your calendars for Thursday March 7th um for that and then the only other thing I know um at the high school winter sport s are winding down um I've seen lots of um really great um posts and things about some of our some of our winter athletes um I just wanted to give a shout out to members of our swim team and our wrestling team and um gymnastics and um indoor track we sent when I say we I'm my son's on indoor track so when I say weeds we sent um I think 16 members to to divisional stes for the first time ever like so it's like and I know the wrestling team had an amazing season an amazing state champions yeah I mean and I think this is really like number of men a number of young men were were on at the state level either within first second and third so yeah very cool and the women's wrestling I think this is really like I don't know if it's the first year I know I know Norah quit who's a senior this year has been part of the the wrestling program there and just kudos to her for yeah yeah for um you know built that program that's great so now there's there's female wrestlers which I think is just awesome so no such thing as a boy sport so I like that um so anyway I just wanted to give a shout out to all the the student athletes and um and wish those that are continuing on to the next round of all states good luck so that's it for me great uh so just tying on to the comprehensive plan not only are we meeting but you still have the opportunity please go to the website find and take the survey put your update on a crowd map attend a meeting in a box and then once you've attended if you're interested in doing one let us know and we can help you out with that tomorrow morning we have our Metro West Regional collaborative meeting via Zoom at 8 a.m.

we are about to record this meeting as we do with all of our public meetings um and I will repeat that this is a subcommittee meeting for the reenvisioning our Public Schools school committee subcommittee meeting um on Wednesday February 21st 2024 and we are calling the meeting to order at now 4:02 PM um I'm going to ask that all of the members of committee uh indicate that they're here when I call your name um committee chair ston I am here member Childs I am here and member disor here and we are also joined by the superintendent Christine targe and assistant superintendent Karen patod welcome and thank you for joining uh and we do have a member of the public here with us um sort of giving ourselves a few more minutes so that the public could join if if any more folks were going to um but we do have a spot on our agenda to move into public comment just out of uh for Robert's Rules orders I will say to you all right now this is my first time chairing a meeting of any kind for our school committee so if I get it wrong many apologies but I'm trying to gonna try to do the best we can and uh if I skip a vote gently remind me and we can hold as many votes as we want um but until then public comment um and I wanted to give our our sole member of the public the opportunity to share if they feel so inclined does that mean me that means you yes I know there's a couple of other people trying to connect but uh their Zoom has not been updated so they're probably not going to be able to check in but uh other than what I said the other night at the um school committee meeting I'm just here to listen um to drink it all in be supportive uh provide constructive ideas you know based on my familiarity um but other than that this is just going to be a learning experience for me and so I'll just sit back and I've muted my face so I'm totally Incognito great well thank you very much um okay happy to happy to have you on the meeting as part of our public process appreciate just for clarification can I get the public participants name for the we need your your name and your address oh sure my name is Kate Bron b r o u g h t o n 94 Meridian Street and uh that's about three houses up from the Green River school so that's my primary interest is just to kind of see where things are and if you want to ask me questions but I'm just here to basically observe so great well again thank you for joining us um it's about five after um I want to be sympathetic to the folks whose zooms were updating but I also want to be mindful of our agenda and that there is also a city council meeting tonight which I'm assuming we are all also very excited about um okay so the the next item that I had on the agenda um was reconvening the committee and this was just sort of a place for us it doesn't have to take it it can take as long as we need it to take but just to make sure that we all understand what we're doing and why um and what stage of the process we're at because I think that that will be helpful um to remind ourselves where we're at as we make any decisions that need to get made um so as as I see it um the purpose of our subcommittee is to solicit public opinion carefully study and make recommendations on the use of our public school facilities uh and infrastructure including how we divvy up um where students go um that now that we are in a place where those um where the recommendations were ultimately brought to the school committee and then voted upon that we are in a stage now of making any decisions that need to get made in order to carry out that initial vote um as well as be supportive in the efforts of reaching out to students parents in the community about how this process is going to to to be undertaken so that's being supportive of the vision of the administration and helping them carry out any plans for smoothing the process of students getting from one place to to wherever they are now to wherever they're going to go in the future um to help do that um does that sound about right to everybody else who's here who has a part in making these decisions is there any piece of what we're doing together that is either unclear or I didn't mention and you think that I should have mentioned it no I I I like to give good pauses to to just weed out all the people who are uncomfortable with the pause and will say something anything um great can I I know that this will be slightly out of protocol and out of order but could I get the opinion of the other committee members on allowing or giving the opportunity for the other two Community people who have joined to see if any of them would like to give a public comment I'm all for it I think one of the benefits of the subcommittee meeting is that we don't have to be so formal in order to maintain order fantastic I saw a general affirmative from Jenny I I concur I always like to have members of the public have a chance to speak great um thank you both for that um so I just want to recognize there have been three community members now with Nancy who have joined in the past few minutes um and we've already we've given one opportunity for public comment but we are reopening that temporarily just to ensure that you do have the opportunity to speak um because we had heard that your zooms may have been updating as they do sometimes um so with that could uh we get you to put your name in the chat if you would like to get on stack to speak um and when you speak can we get your name where you live and then you will have three minutes to make your comment okay I see Jesus so we'll do Jesus followed by Nancy and Meg I see that you're here just to listen thank you for joining J Zeus you've got three minutes sorry I I got I got lost it I mean my my comment's basically just going to be a repetition of my comment um more or less from the school committee which is just having an interest in learning more information about the decommissioning process for uh the Green River school and that if there's a possibility to advocate for um I guess there's a there's a loan on the school that's tied to it being a school that would need to be I think forgiven by the state um in order to move forward with it as housing or even something else um so learning more about that process um being able to you know eventually Loop some local legislators in so that we can try to advocate for that would be great so mostly here to listen great thank you um Nancy can I get your name and your address Nancy Hazard 30 spring Terrace Greenfield and I'm here Jesus just said everything I needed to say I'm here to learn more about the Green River school and with the hope that um it can be de decommissioned and that it can be moved forward into the so that it can be used for a purpose other than being a school and ideally that the city doesn't have to pay back the loan but that that's the dream so thank you I'm here to hopefully I'll will hear the answer to that tonight all right thank you very much um seeing no other interest and public comment I'm sorry we can't we can't really respond to what's going on in the chat only use that for sort of a recordkeeping purpose so if you put comments I can't can't really see them um so I have a sort of another would you all support if we moved that item item five which is on our current agenda around the Green River school property moved it up talked about it right now and maybe addressed some of these concerns I'm in favor I'm great uh all right moving on we are now closing the public comment portion and we will be turning to uh turning to talk about the Green River School um Dr DeBarge can you give us a a brief overview of where we are with that property um well there's not much to actually share at this point um I have I have the documentation that needs to be completed um that's a goal to get it done during this school vacation and um you know out outside of that um I will be in communication with the Department of Ed regarding the process for um moving Green River from a school held property um to does it remain a school-based property does it move to being a city property for decision making by the city so we don't really know that and I think until that piece is clarified um you know we can't really talk about what if anything the schools would want done with the property or the city would want done because right now there's lack of clarity about who in fact would end up holding Green River so to speak um there is some there is a loan um it was signed it was accepted the documentation was signed by mayor Martin um it was I don't have it in front of me it was just over a million dollars and there is criteria in the documentation about that Green River needs to be used as an educational facility for 50 years um and failure to have Green River be an educational facility for 50 years um could kick in the requirement for a prated amount of the loan to be paid but there is some language in it that is suggestive to me that there is some flexibility however um msba the mass School building authority basically said you have to fill out the paperwork before we'll talk about anything else so we're we just have to fill out the very comprehensive paperwork which has been a little bit challenging when schools are running imagine so yeah don't generally have a stretch of time during a a populated school day um so that's really where we are so no not really even any conversation about Green River until we find out where it will be held at the end of the discussion do either of the other school committee members have questions about Green River School I don't think I do because it sounds like we're in the holding pattern until we submit our paperwork great um So eventually once that paperwork gets in and they do it ever they need to do on their end to process it and get back to us at that point it becomes a conversation then that gets um sort of ratcheted kicked up back up to some joint decision-making body between the schools and the city to decide who's ultimately Gonna Keep keep care of it is that what I heard that's what I believe I don't have confirmation of that but um I believe that is where the next step will go um but I am waiting on confirmation of that but it seems to me to be a reasonable step which reason reasonable doesn't always um equate to what will be so but that's that's kind of where we are and where I believe we will be going great um well then we look forward to working on that with you as it continues and thank you very much for your diligence in moving it forward and taking on taking on the grunt work that not everyone wants to do that's all right we'll get it done much appreciated all right so that closes that agenda item we are proceeding right along um I believe that takes us to sort of what I considered the main meat of the evening which is um or the main cauliflower depending your persuasion um the uh the discussion about what the next steps are Visa redistricting as per the vote that was taken um at the end of the last school committee session prior to the election of a couple of us um and so again if you wouldn't mind indulging us uh Christine if you could give us an overview of where that sits and what you need from us so where we are is that there were some decisions made one was that intradistrict choice would stop so prior to my arrival um there there was no real strong language in policy it just said that exceptions could be made by superintendent to assignment of students to schools um what that became operationally was what we refer to as intradistrict choice where families could request to have their children attend a school that was not their assigned school because of geography within Greenfield when I got to Greenfield I only approved in District Choice applications for incoming kindergarteners who would still have a sibling at their requested school um we had talked we administratively had talked about the impact that in District Choice longterm has had on class sizes specifically at Four Corners and so um I see my I'm flickering I don't know why that is um so I was only allowing that for incoming siblings school committee voted to stop any new incoming intradistrict choice but to allow students who were already accepted into a school that was not their neighborhood Hood School to basically age out um so there are students who are in um all of our schools despite the belief or the statements that suggest only four corners has intradistrict students that's not the case all three elementary schools have interdistrict Choice students um so they will be allowed to age out until they get to fifth or sixth well yeah fifth or sixth grade depending the age when they when they move out of Elementary um the other side of that is that siblings now our current registering kindergarten class is not allowed to move into the school where their siblings may be if it is an intradistrict Choice request so um you know every decision that gets made has a consequence and some direction or another um so while students are allowed to age out some siblings may not be allowed to attend the school where their siblings have already been accepted intradistrict Choice the second piece of that well a second Vote or a third vote actually I think those were two um was that for the 2025 school year I'm going to ask Karen to double check my year the lines were going to be drawn 2526 Stacy when you and I had this conversation I messed up the years prior so for the 2025 2026 Academic Year the district would redraw School attendance lines so that the makeup of each Elementary School better reflected the makeup of Greenfield as a whole in terms of diversity so the challenge that we now come to when you asked what do we need you to do is one one of the biggest pieces that I need the subcommittee and then the school committee to think about is we have a group of Kinder gardeners who will be enrolling next month who may the following school year have the potential to have to change schools if their neighborhood happens to fall in a different catchment area so the committee needs to consider whether you will move up the redrawing of lines to this for this school year or will you allow students who have registered and are attending a school to to stay and age out of that school even if the lines get redrawn and their home would now be assigned to a different elementary school so I can make that much more much more pragmatic if I am a little kid living on ABC Street and right now I go to Federal if I enroll in kindergarten next year if ABC Street gets reigned to Four Corners do I have to move or will you let me age out much like the same process we have right now for our students who are inra district choice so then the subsequent question to that is will we provide transportation for the students who we've redrawn lines and then created a new school for them if the committee lets them age out of their current school and that is clear as mon may I ask a question yes so superintendent Dage um is first I was wondering if yes you might give us the numbers that are in each one of the three elementary schools and secondly Karen might have them I don't have the that's okay that really isn't what I need for my question truthly that was more of curiosity okay however um would it be possible that because I would I actually would not like a little child I would it I would not like my own child or my grandchild to need to have to start in a school that I knew was going to change and then move them the next year that is my opinion um and yet I listen to the meetings and I understand it would it be possible um to you know start that child in the school that that we knew that they were going to be in even though we weren't starting the whole redistricting um or or is it your thought process that we should be doing changing of those lines earlier I just think we have to think about those little kindergarteners starting off and I wonder how many children that really you know how many children is that going to involve and I think that we should be careful and teach and and treat each one of those children as if they were our own so I do believe Karen has some numbers that may or may not respond to your question so I'll let her look but I I think the challenging part of this is regardless of when a change occurs there is potential for families to be into different buildings so for to answer your question if you were to allow say I'm again I'm a kindergartener living on ABC Street and and my siblings are already enrolled at Federal Street because that's the that's the neighborhood but next year ABC Street will be routed to Four Corners the kindergarten student could go to four corners but the two siblings are still at Federal because that's their school so I'm not sure that that um eliminates challenges other than the kindergartener won't have to move but I think the bigger question is do you allow the third and fourth graders or whoever the siblings are at Federal to stay or do you make them move see that an has raised a hand so I I think that we instead of just the kindergarteners we do need to focus also on the kids who are not in the school they've choiced into but will be moved out because I think we have a serious fa favoritism problem if we're going to say that these families are allowed to be grandfathered but these families don't get a choice I think we need to come up with a way of structuring this that is fair even though it might be logistically complicated because otherwise it is clear favoritism to say this group of kids doesn't have to move schools because that's too traumatic and that's too big of a transition but these kids me whatever I think we have to make sure that we're fair to all of the kids and we aren't giving one group special treatment is there a way for us to come up with not hard numbers but rough figures of how many kids are choicing at each school and how many kids are being moved from each School like not hard numbers because that would be impossible but just a rough ballpark um Karen do you have numbers that would address Ann's question yeah and again this is Ballpark and I think an you're correct I don't think it's just kindergarten you have to worry about I think you could have a family that moves to Greenfield tomorrow and they could have a third grader and we would be asking that same student to do the same thing so I appreciate that comment that you know equity and um conscious awareness of who we're affecting here is not just our little babies coming into kindergarten for the first time it could be just a student moving in um right now approximately about 40 students at Federal Street who have Federal Street as their home school would be uh affected by the redrawing of lines if you forced them to move to a to a new home school when those lines are redrawn and you have about 22 at Newton who when you redraw lines some would go to Federal Street and some would go to Discovery so you kind of have a mix split as to where they would get relocated and this is at grades all grades this isn't just um our incom in kindergarten and as you know we just started kindergarten registration so our numbers and our data on that is just tiny right now you know we only have I think about 50 students identified that are actually registered but that obviously is going to increase so you know I think also with the moves you have to think about if you're going to to force those whose homeschool switches because of the redrawn lines to move we would really have to seriously think about class sizes at some of the schools that they're moving into because the bubbles would increase you know where we've talked about trying to keep two twos and two twos of each grade level at every building we're pretty Equitable in dispersement you know Newton right now has 180 kids Federal has 185 and four corners has two 10 so you know we're pretty evenly distributed and I think if we if we have these huge bubbles of moving and shifting 40 to 50 kids throughout grade levels that creates another problem so just more things to think about how many children would move at I'm sorry I didn't raise my hand how many children would move at um Four Corners so there the catchment line would be they would be the receiving school for the new redrawn line not uh streets that actually would be moving so their grandfathered kids as far as I could see from enrollment currently that doesn't mean there could be a street or two here where there's a family that moves in or something but currently um they actually would be the school that's going to receive more kids because of the redrawn lines unless you grandfather those kids that are attending their home school even when the lines are redrawn as the school of origin I guess is the best way to put it okay so let me just make sure that I've got our options in My Mind One we could say sorry there's absolutely nothing we can do and adopt an attitude of no flexibility whatsoever which I do not believe is what any of us would like to do just based on what I've heard um but we could do it I mean it's it's always an option to sort of do nothing or take the path of of least resistance um there's letting the kindergarteners age out of their their current homeschool which would which would be um not the school that they would otherwise go to if we followed the boundaries so we could let we could let the kindergarteners age out um which is the same policy we adopted for intradistrict Choice am I correct in thinking that there's also this a third option of redrawing the boundaries this year rather than next year like the 2425 year as opposed to the 2526 or is that basically we are too far we are we are too close in order to make that viable and would that even solve a problem my opinion and certainly Karen could have a different perspective I don't I don't think logistically it's too late it might be um challenging for families to think about a change of school at this point because the school committee meeting as you know wouldn't be until March so we wouldn't be communicating out to families until at least the end of March um and that that could be um challenging but the question would still remain do you let the students who are already in their school of origin age out or do you force everyone to move to the schools based on the newly Drawn Lines I think no matter when you move the lines that question will remain I think if we have already decided that one group The Choice group gets to stay at the school they started then to say other people have to move and don't get a choice would be preferential treatment that we would not be able to defend so if we made the rule for one group it needs to be the rule for all the groups in principle I am in agreement with that I would also like to understand what the implications of that decision are uh implications are for Staffing for class numbers for you know like how for the same reasons that we were wrestling with that decision for for intradistrict choice I would like to know what the impact of that's going to be for this redrawn boundary decision as well so again I'm going to look at Karen to interject if I'm but um really the numbers if you if the committee allows students to age out no different than allowing students at Four Corners to remain or any school to remain if they did inad District Choice those are the numbers we know now so our staffing is really based on those students being in the buildings they're in so we know those Staffing levels the only challenge that I see is that um at some point which I don't know if it would be this year or next year I think it would be next year um if siblings choose to stay in their school of origin any younger incoming siblings will have to go to the redrawn line school no different than what is happening with the students who are in a school through intradistrict choice at some point you have to say you live in this area you must register in this school um the option as it is now for our students who are in a building through in District choice if their younger sibling currently enrolling is not able to attend that school the family does have the ability to take all of the siblings and put them in their neighborhood school you know that is that is an option um so that problem is going to occur no matter when you draw the line so to speak Karen is there any any other thought with well I think the transportation piece then also has to be played in if you're thinking budgetary budgetarily what is going to cost uh the district because you know if you're going to allow students who are in their school of origin to remain there even if that school changes with the redrawn lines but then have the incoming kindergarteners next year have to go to the school that they're redrawn line is you're probably going to need at least one other bus if not I don't I'm I'm guessing really right now and that Transportation piece has to also be a decision you make and if you're going to continue to provide transportation which is if I can piggyback on what Karen said that's a piece that I hope to bring to the committee in March around trans transportation in general because right now we have a situation where the school committee policy states Transportation will be provided for students you know greater than a mile and a half but we have some students who are within the mile and a half we're still getting transported so the committee I think will need to make a decision about do you follow the policy as written or do you change the policy um because right now we have students I'll say who are you know a mile away who walk and we have students who are a mile and a quarter away who get a bus and then students one house past that who have to walk so there's there's um there are exceptions within the mile and a half and I think the committee needs to just think about that and either change it either implement the policy as written rewrite the policy or shorten the distance for busing but that decision will be combined with the decision on this and I would need to ask kis mesus who is our next year's bus company because you've voted on the contract um so basically take take the numbers as best they can and run them okay yeah I think I would need to see that information before I can make the decision um an you have your hand I have another Transportation question that will just make everything Messier um so my understanding is that when you do the choice School your family is responsible for that Transportation so we know that the choice families do have the ability to self transport but if we allow kids who are not choice to grandfather and stay at their school and they are currently riding a bus would they lose the bus access and therefore if their family can't provide transportation would they not actually be able to take advantage of being grandfathered this um I think you just restated the exact question where trying I was trying to um POs to you and I I don't know if I did it well that is the exact question and that we'd like the committee to consider if we allow them to grandfather into their school of origin based on lines will the committee continue to transport those students um based on um the fact that the committee has moved lines you know they have not made an a choice we've made the choice for them so do you continue to transport do you transport if they continue to live a mile and a half outside of the school area you know some students may end up less than a mile and a half from the new school so you know it's and then we've got the other fairness piece of if we're transporting the kids if we're transporting the kids who uh did not choice but have been moved but they're staying then do we also need to transport the people who were Choice from the get-go whose agreement had always included that they would be the ones providing their own transportation in well I guess for my opinion it's not my decision but my opinion is the the choice aspect um that if families elected to request a school outside of their catchment area we have not provided Transportation um the families that we are talking about are being told you're going to have your school moved but the committee could decide to transport if the family says no I'm I'm going back to my neighborhood School even though I would be allowed to stay at this school those folks would get transported um so you can do it either way I suppose my next question is how long would it take for us to get some basic numbers of what the increased cost would be what the new bus routes would have to be I can reach out to kcus and ask them to rerun keeping in mind we're using what we believe to be the new judment areas and we would be using current students which may or may not reflect who's there when the time comes but we can give try to get a good good picture I can hope to have it um I mean I'll reach out to them tomorrow and ask if they can do that um certainly with a hope that they'd have it well prior to the school committee meeting but I can certainly forward any information if it comes in or I can reach out to Stacy and see if we would have the ability to get a new subcommittee in prior to the full school committee go for Jenny okay so I think I think I'm missing something here that I don't understand um you said or somebody said at the beginning when this all comes to fruition 40 children from Federal Street were going to be affected and 22 from Newton were going to be affected in that they would be moving okay but we didn't think any people from Four Corners were going to be moving and yet Four Corners has the most students um um so no children from Four Corners that are currently there are going to be moving when we redistrict or did I miss that part is it something I'm not understanding so the highlighted streets that we had originally Run for the redrawn lines when you go through um roughly who who lives where in what grades uh those students uh live in areas that currently attend Federal Street or Newton and then would be moved to Discovery School or some from Newton would be moved to Federal based on the street changes so if you decide to change streets in the redrawing that would create a whole new problem because we'd have to figure out that but according to the um I don't know how long ago that was done Christine maybe a year ago close yeah um the the people affected um would be moving from federal or Newton to other schools not from Discovery the issue right now is that all of our students who live in housing areas are routed to Federal and Newton that has been sort of the point of discussion in the community that or Corners is not a diverse population and so that the redrawing of lines would result um in the streets for lighten Woods to be rerouted to attend or corners and students in that neighborhood currently attend the other schools so a followup I if I may chair um I I was following this and I definitely understood what the problem was I'm just looking at the numbers in the end and I understood that there were certain you know I I understood the whole inequity issue and I'm but I'm just listening to this and I'm thinking well if that's happening it sounds like in the end once we do this that there's going to be even there's going to be a lot more children possibly at Four Corners that's that's where I was going with this and I I just caught up to you the the issue being the redrawing of lines was pushed out two years so that the Bubbles at Four Corners where they have three classes at certain grades where the bulk of those students will have aged into the middle school you're looking at current enrollment not projected enrollment in two years and does that explain does that answer your question yeah so so we know that four corner has the big bubble do we know how much of that bubble is made up of choice students versus students who are currently uh zoned to go there and would have been zoned to go there in a few years from now even I I don't not I certainly don't have the top of my head and I don't even know that I have that information no because because you voted that they could stay there that really wasn't a population we were were focused on well I was just looking at it for just the numerical piece of anticipating like okay this are what these are what the numbers are with the current but in a world without choice this is what the numbers would be just for figuring that out it's not important it was just more for cont for context so I think really the question is do you allow students who would be moved to stay in their school of origin and if you do do you continue to provide transportation to easy questions not at all it seems like just having heard the comments from the other committee we might have an answer for the first part of that question but when it comes to the transportation issue it sounded like we were asking for a bit more information that you we might not have on hand until the next meeting arrives um the transportation piece you are completely accurate I need to get more information before I can give that to you yeah um um because while we might have principles around it where we would recommend a certain thing based on those there are also obviously budget affordances we need to be mindful of when it comes to our transportation contract um Jenny just had another thought um and I guess you can't do this one family at a time and I don't know how many people this actually involves but um this was a long time ago when my kids were little but you know if it was an elementary school I I'd have liked them to be at the same school and um and do we you know if your kindergarten is going to go to a new different school do you give the is there any thought to talking to the the the parents when we're going to do the redistricting to see if they're willing to move to where their new little kindergarten or is going if that's what we're doing which I imagine that would be rather labor intensive um but uh I get I get how this is a very problematic thing and I I also think uh my other thought with all of this is I know this is a subcommittee of the three of us you know kind of the three of us and then we have um Karen and Christine I hope it's okay if I call you by your first names but if you have um if you have input into what you think is the best idea too I'm I for one I'm happy to hear it because I think they're uh these are they're they're big choices so can I maybe make a recommendation for how we proceed because I am mindful of the time um that we entertain a uh a vote now to answer the first part of the question are we allowing students to age out of their distri their their school of origin um even after the boundaries are drawn um basically getting a motion on the table that says yes we will be allowing that to happen um and that we sort of table or um whatever the language is that says pending information um to revisit this as a discussion item for the full school committee meeting the transportation piece of this how formal do we need to be do you need one of us to pose that as a resolution to vote on or can we just second what you just said and I'm not entirely sure how formal we need it to be can I make one minor suggestion yeah that you would be making a motion to recommend to the full committee thank um okay so I'm going to make a motion now that we recommend to the full school committee that we uh allow students who would otherwise be affected by the redrawing of the district boundaries to remain in their their school of origin and age out I will second that if it needs a second all uh any any discussion on that any extensions on that any no votes on that I and point of order ma Madam point of order chair yeah I I think we may need to do a roll call I'm not sure on that but I I think that might be true there's three of us so let's just get to it um myself uh chair ston I'm a yes and uh member child I'm a yes as well member disor yes all right there unanimously recommended to the full committee woohoo uh democracy triumphs again um and now I don't know if we need to make a motion but the the remainder of that portion of the agenda item related to transportation we are we are tabling it to the full committee meeting pending information which will be forthcoming from the district related to the cost and um you if our if our bus company that we've just contracted with can do it um great I think that closes out that agenda item for us yes um then let's let's move right along um I would love for us to go ahead and set up another meeting while we're all together and have our calendars on hand um if that would be possible and I heard I heard you Christine earlier suggesting that it might be helpful for us to do this prior to the next full committee meeting assuming we get information so like sort of like only if we get information yeah I think I'm maybe we could optimistically pick a date and then I can update you yeah is that is I'm all for holding the time and not needing it rather than needing the time and not having it okay um okay so that would mean that we would want to be meeting again before March 13th how does Wednesday March 6th at this exact same time feel feel to you folks um I most likely could make it but I might be running 15 minutes late would 4:30 be amenable to our district folks it's okay with me Karen does that work yeah yes that works for me that works for me as well okay that was remarkable um and just to reiterate that was 4:30 pm on Wednesday March 6 then I will make sure to follow up with Lauren to to get that posted um for that meeting are there aside from this one agenda are there other items that we should plan to talk about at that time and if anyone thinks of one between now and then feel free to email me I can't think of anything from our perspective right now uh what are the odds that will have any sort of a Green River School update I know it's a lot of paperwork I'm just trying to figure out when we'll have something for the public because it is something that the public seems very interested in yes they do I I don't know I mean I'm I'm certain looking to make a phone call today but even if I am to get not today I apologize an this week um to make a phone call to find out about process I have no idea the rate at which the mass School business Authority responds to anything um so I'm hopeful to have a little bit more information on process but I I couldn't even Hazard when they could reply maybe I'll know that part before the next meeting how long it takes for them to reply that would be something right that would absolutely be something yes I'll give it a whirl and see what I can get out of them yeah and the I'm sorry no you go ahead the only other thing I can think of is uh with what was currently voted on will the superintendent in the future have any sort of discretion to allow a caseby casee move in the event of say a kid whose parent is staff at one school or a kid who's trying to get away from a bullying situation like is was the decision made at the full school committee a hard no or do we have any flexibility for superintendent to make a very much single case decision as needed for student at one school or the other as current superintendent I believe in students best interest I always have some latitude with decision making but that is my perspective um you know I I guess I don't recall there being a an exclusion like I don't think that was restricted an so okay um I just wanted wanted to make sure that if that was restricted we could get it as an agenda item to come up with some way because what's the point of having a professional if you can't use professional judgment well I I haven't um been in a position to do that often but you know once or twice I think in my tenure I've I've used my judgment around student placement so okay well since there is nothing from the current decision that would impede that in the future that does not need to be an agenda item okay great are these are these meetings going to be Zoom is that the plan I believe so yes is that is that good with you you're oh it's perfect thank you great all right um with that I have no other items that are on our agenda for this evening and I would welcome a motion to adjourn so moved second disorder I I guess we probably do need a roll call for that actually um I am chair xon I'm an i member Childs I member disorder I we are adjourned at 4:59 p.m.

[Music] good evening everybody I'll call the order of the meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education um at 7 o'clock on Wednesday February 21st 2024 thanks very much for joining us um and if you'll all um rise and join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance that'd be great I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to theic stands Nation indivisible welcome to Man TV I'm Drew Mass the founder of the company founder of the network we're the world's first internet television network so we have um everyone assembled um around the table do I need to say everybody's name this evening okay great thank you very much um so we're going to start with public comment we have one name um Mr Korea second second public comment okay oh yeah thank you very much all right um so with that we'll move straight to we're not going to have the um uh agenda item number five uh this evening the students Spotlight Brookfield High School we're going to go straight to the student representative um Eva hi I hope you're all doing well it's kind of been a little while since the last meeting so I have a lot of updates um to start off uh the midterms at Brookfield High School were held between January 23rd and 29th and there was a master year midterms event held for freshman students too coming up the BHS musical Mama Mia is going to be running from March 14th to 17th and tickets are on sale now I have a lot of Athletics updates um to start off with dance team we had our first competition on January 20th where we play second for jazz at Woodland Regional High School um this year we were the S swc hipop Champions um on February 6 which we held that event here for the first time in a while um and we also placed third in jazz uh holding the event here was a lot of work but it was a really successful event and it was a great opportunity for a lot of students in NHS or Key Club or other to get service hours we and we have our state championship coming up on Saturday too for the cheer team they play second at their s swc Championship on February 2nd and at the hatter Fest competition at Danbury High School they were first place Champions and the overall Grand Champion too um basketball and hockey have their state playoffs starting next week and the Unified sports program at BHS just attended the CIA unified basketball tournament this past weekend um I have a couple individual athletes that I wanted to feature because we have a couple who have just accomplished great achievements throughout their High School Sports careers um starting with Katherine Sosi who scored her a thousandth point this season um Shane Weber on basketball also scored his a thousandth point this season and became the Brookfield High School all-time top scorer Danny car roza from wrestling um won his 100th match this season and Olivia Walters from indoor track will be competing at the New England opens in Boston next weekend for indoor track also this weekend several wrestlers are going to be competing at their state opens too finally spring sports are starting up with practices in March a lot of started conditioning already this past month on March 4th Molly McCarthy from the Central Connecticut State University athletics department will be coming in to talk about underclassman about the college sports recruiting process and finally last week Mr Baldwin our athletic director went to speak at the aasa National superintendence Conference about the great work that the BHS student athletes on the athletic advisory do um finally some of the clubs that I'm in National Honor Society we're doing a lot of planning for the Mother's Day 5K we haven't established a cause that we're going to be raising money for yet but we've started to establish committee heads and members just to get everything in the process of organization we also have a blood drive coming up on February 27th so right now NHS members are sitting at a table during lunch time and visiting ilt to inform students about the process of donating blood and to get them to sign up um also we had NHS members volunteering at some recent athletic events like I said the dance team s swc competition as well well as a wrestling tournament that was held here for Spanish Honor Society we're still doing our mural project just to increase appreciation and recognition of the Spanish language program at berkfield High School in the Spanish language and culture and we're doing a lot of tutoring for students in Spanish classes as well as the ESL students um I'm in a in the Morgans message club which aims to promote student athlete mental health and raise awareness um um we had a dedication game at the boys basketball game on February 5th where volunteers handed out ribbons and wristbands to support that cause and for youth commission we have our career fair on March 26th during the school day we've sent emails and flyers to pass presenters as well as all the parents in the district in terms of the schedule that event it's going to be exactly the same as we did last year with 3 30 minute slots um this year students will mannually get to select their first second and third choices for presenters on a first come first serve basis and we're also going to be working with the college and career counselor Mrs Usher for this event and I know that was a long one but that's everything thank you thanks AA can I ask a clarifying question um about the job fair the three 30 minute slots so those are like professionals who would have a dedicated space and then kids would go to that space for the 30-minute presentation so what we do is for an hour and a half out of the day all the in each classroom there's a different presenter so we have a bunch of careers so far we have um I want to say we're up to 36 um so some interesting ones we have right now are pediatric oncology or veterinarian a lot of business careers too um so each student gets to pick their choice for each slot that they want to do and like I said it's first come first serve but then they'll just go to that that specific classroom with their presenter in it during whichever slot they choose that's um are you guys still uh trying to recruit folks for anybody who's watching yeah we were like we're not really going to turn anyone away so so they should call The Guidance Department anybody who's interested in volunteering they can contact either Marty mcniff or um Senor dula who's the teacher adviser for youth commission there's a lot of Flyers posted on Instagram and Facebook and other social media with all the information for that awesome thank you of course thank you anything else for Eva thank you very much great report as usual okay so um Now we move to uh the next agenda item written correspondence the following people sent emails to the Board of Education Andy Korea regarding Legal Services special ed Council Federal discrimination verdict and more joint meeting BOS bof Boe operations plan and budget meeting Personnel negotiations and Public Act 22-18 Austin Montero regarding public comment at special Boe meeting and Stonewall speakers assembly Foya Todd and I apologize for the name kak kak regarding a news article Christina Zimmerman regarding Morgan's message basketball game and Debbie Brooks regarding the Brookfield Library hosting Brendan slom the following people wrote in support of the email sent by Mr belanda on Friday February 2nd Shannon Riley Raa stefen Laura orbon Ron swinger Christina Zimmerman Jennifer Kramer Andrea yurina Carrie Columbo Michelle Sans and Leslie riro again I apologize for any of the names that I'm about to butcher the following people have sent emails in support of the book appeal asking that fun home be removed from the BHS Library Andrea Lopez Agnes Dickinson Rita Tui Sarah Amaral Patricia bosio Kevin plel Amelia malfi Joyce bino Tony sangalo ream nser Jaclyn fistetto Jamie pletta Sarah coffee Elena Lopez Mary ewig Kristen ventresca Lori pesi Michael pesi Nicole Rogers and Robert greo the following people have sent emails against the book appeal and have asked that funol remain in the BHS Library Laura Orban Tara Peterson Christina Zimmerman Joanne cafiero Elizabeth Ray Mike Luchia Aaron Zimmer Stacy Gul Ellen Odon Eric and Tony Joseph s George Jean hartnet John pit Elizabeth cornachio Phoebe Holmes Brian McGovern jeie Fernandez Sarah Joe Banks Jillian Dyer Monica mackinery Debbie Brooks Maria seagull Jessica Hawthorne Shannon Riley Carrie Columbo I think there might even been a few more today um this has been an issue that apologies if I missed those that's right they'll make it had meeting at 6 o' and hav't been on my email put them on the next agenda yeah yeah um I yeah it's just noteworthy that we've gotten a lot of um Lively correspondence this um in the past few weeks haven't been on no problem yeah I didn't see those um so um Now we move uh to the next item on the agenda agenda uh I recommend the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended the regular meeting on 1724 and the joint meeting Boe BF and BOS on second um do we need to have the the literal word move in there no okay great um all well is there discussion on on this okay um all in favor say I I I any opposed okay so the um board minutes are approved for the regular meeting and the joint meeting thank you very much um now uh next item on the agenda item nine is the superintendent's update Dr BR Dr yba thank you good evening everybody nice to see you all um just uh I do have a number of items on the uh report tonight but they're they're brief kind of uh more announcements or notifications to everybody to let them know so of course I was going to uh congratulate Ava and the dance team for their uh s swc Championship um importantly the bhf BHS Athletic program review it looks like the site visit has been scheduled for early March so it should be in a couple of weeks um the uh State Department of Education has a mandate on a diversity recruiting plan and uh Dr man and our new HR supervisor are working on that um and that plan is due April 15th so we're working on that in terms of our human resources department um we're really excited about parents Square which is the new communication platform and website um Eric uh presented actually to the whiskin staff today to share with them what that's going to look like and um in March uh either at the first or the second meeting we'll make a determination based on the balance of the agenda Eric will actually do a presentation for us so we get really excited about seeing that so that's something for um soft roll out in the spring uh likely after April break to get people used to it start signing up for it Etc and then full uh after July 1 full implementation I do have to thank the parents that have been involved with speaks student parent educator advisory Council to the superintendent we kicked off in January our next meeting is March 14th we're still recruiting some high school students to be involved the real Focus there was uh enhancing communication and really the use of parent square and how that could really help us all out in terms of Engagement so we're again excited about that um I also need to thank the parents that have been involved with uh Mrs Newman in the gang really reactivating the district-wide PTO um three areas of focus were looking at school climate teams and supporting the the schools in that regard uh also fundraising and making sure that not each school is not stepping on each other's toes uh in addition to the getting the vote out uh this spring for the referendum The Joint board meeting that we held um on February 6th of the Board of Ed Board of Selectmen and board of Finance thought we had a successful meeting um and as a result of that um in trying to educate the board of fin and board of selectman on the board of education budget um so everybody knows um we could certainly Rosen might talk about this a little bit later Mr Dunn um submitted his uh budget to the the community essentially and to the board of Selectmen on uh this past Friday so that process is moving forward Mr Dunn uh moves It Forward the board of selectman work it through then it goes to the board of finance and then we see where we all land after that um as Ava talked about the youth commission career fair is coming up uh at the end of March um actually Anna and I were invited to do a little piece on uh organizational leadership in uh uh public school so we're excited about that and it's a really nice opportunity uh Legal Services RFP was posted last week um our um purchasing agent has that posted I believe it's for 30 days I think we've had three or four firms already sign up uh on our website expressing interest so that's in process um potential board retreat dates I have heard from two board members um but I could hear from the rest um March 21st or 26th April 2nd or 4th um we need to pick one of those days so if everybody could uh it was in The Weekend Update just asking about that if you can send Lisa and me a note as to your availability of those days obviously we'll go with the majority of people who can make what for day school security update um this was something that was really uh exciting and and interesting as we think about school security on February 6th we have our uh bimonthly uh leadership meeting we invited the police department we had the chief and the major and a number of other officers a couple of our sro's and there's really some new philosophy and thought on how to go about lockdown uh procedures and and lockdown safety so we had a nice lengthy conversation about that and we'll be talking further with the chief and with the uh the officers about certain kinds of training we may be embarking on um let's see here I did want to let the board know that Central Connecticut um their graduate school has a leadership program for administration certification and they actually put feelers out for uh faculty in various districts as to their interest in being part of that program um we sent that information out to our faculty um if there's enough faculty interested we may even host uh a course or two here that's taught by adun professors from Central um or full-time professors to come in here and do graduate work with our teachers so we're really interested in in graduate work to support our teachers in their continued growth additionally um the interim director of the YMCA Jim work uh reached out to us uh not only is he offered corporate discounted memberships to our faculty people are really excited about that um he's looking to partner with our principles and schools in a number of different ways including uh possible Child Care opportunities and other activities so uh getting the our local why involved with our schools a little bit more than they already are is uh another opportunity for our students and for a faculty um couple last things here in terms of calendar the um last day of school now is Tuesday June 8 18th we've had three snow days um that would take us to days 181 and 182 would be on a Monday and Tuesday just so everybody knows that graduation is on June 15th which is a Saturday uh the board voted on that a couple months back and then finally our not finally I'm sorry I've got one more after this our um religious major religious holidays we talked about that with the calendar development this past fall that has been posted and it's publicized with the 24 25 calendar and then the final thing is um we've talked about student attendance is needing Improvement in working with families and so forth um the state department of Ed has had some programs and some flyers and things that they've disseminated want to turn that over to Dr man for a quick update sure so thank you very much so um the uh State Department of Education and um along with I'm sure most State departments across the country have also acknowledged that student chronic absenteeism is an issue um and so they have launched a campaign uh a couple weeks back they sent all um all districts materials that uh focus on this campaign that is called school is better with you and so they send you they send each district enough banners for the number of schools that they have and so our schools will be putting up their banners in a conspicuous place to let all kids know that we um are happy to have them come to school um and whether it's this year or the beginning of next year it's kind of an odd time to you know launch a schools better with you campaign but it's great anytime because we always want kids to come to school um the focus and goal of this program is to inform caregivers and students about the importance of regular attendance regular and consistent School attendance and to educate folks on The Chronic ABS absenteeism which we've spoken about it's 10% or more at any given time of a school year so at the end of the school year it would be 18 days or more if you're chronically would be considered chronically absent it um highlights the importance of daily routines coming to school every day getting into the habit of doing daily routines um access to not so much for us but a little bit with the mental health access um but Health Access in general and then meal access um social and emotional advantages of being around trusted adults and peers and then participation in clubs and extracurriculars um and also the pathways to postsecondary experiences both educational and career and that's kind of the focus and so um as part of that you know they sent us all these materials including this LEAP program um which is kind of a formal program of Outreach for students who are not showing up to school um and so we haven't kind of gone through that with our uh District leadership team or the ad counsil yet but essentially the program is that you know you kind of establish a committee in your school um for educators to make contact with um with school with uh families that are not having that are have kids in chronic absenteeism situations so it's called leap which stands for learner engagement and attendance program um so it was just it was kind of a fortuitous thing one of those um non unfunded mandates it was just here's some materials to help your students uh avoid chronic absenteeism so um that's a nice thing to be partnering with the state and then I just wanted to mention that that um uh increasing educator diversity plan which is the IED plan which is a the state mandate which uh Dr BR mentioned earlier does need board approval uh the state made that adjustment to that mandate in January even though the Mandate came out in the fall um and so we will be bringing forward this plan um for your approval prior to sending it off to the state so I'll have more information on that as we look to figure out what exactly it means so thank you thank you that's all I have thanks Wendy um I have a couple questions on that um is Dr Manel the first part is for you it's about the um diversity recruiting plan um because schools can have that as a goal you know to diversify their professional core um or body um but then if and they can Implement all kinds of procedures but if if those folks don't get the job it becomes hard to like prove that you were faithful to the to the goal you know what I mean is there any flexibility within like do you know much about what the state requirements are going to be not not so I mean we'll see how it goes right now it's the requirement is that you have this plan which is essentially setting a smart goal based on your current percentage of and and when they say diversity they're specifically reflect focusing on racial ethnic diversity they're not considering religious or you know sexual orientation or you know um immigrant status or you know background it's specific to racial and ethnic diversity um and so it's really taking the percentage of um you know minority uh Educators you have now and then setting a smart goal um and then fleshing out the plan plan on how you're going to realize that goal um there has been no indication as to what would happen if you don't if a district doesn't meet that goal um and I know that a lot of uh superintendents and Educators around the state are looking to encourage the um the state universities and you know postsecondary schools to try to come up with a plan for recruiting kids out of high schools to be go into teacher prep program so that we then have a greater um Workforce to to try to pull from because right now the concern is Educator recruitment yeah it's a small including um diverse Educators but um yeah so that's so we'll see it's kind of a a learning curve for all of us um you know I I I think the effort is there they're they're trying to encourage you know uh the the whole concept and building up our Workforce in for educators um and this is hopefully just one of the ways not the only way um building off that to the CCSU leadership program is that for an 092 like an administrative or content so it's not content no this one's just 092 administrator program and it's a cohort that you know you can create if so like some Educators might be from here and some might be from and if there's enough in the area you know one District could serve as a host site or something like that okay I had one more question um that probably I could answer if I read my emailemail more closely the the potential board retreat um dates thank you for this uh these options do we have a time uh we were thinking uh 6 6:30 somewhere around that would would work for everybody I had sent that in my note on Friday work for you okay okay great all right thank you did anybody other have other questions one yeah there are four there are four options is that something that we feel that we feel like we still need well when Wendy and I talked we thought there was some yeah yeah that has cost implications when we bring legal legal to a meeting yeah I think I think that there are because there are so many of us who are new um the things that are maybe clear and obvious to you um are less so and um I think to to I'd be more inclined to because we were provided with the very thorough detailed binder to be more to have you have people ask questions prior to provide questions based on what they greata organize instead of having him read the binder like I could read that myself I don't need him to read it no that's a great idea sure so maybe by the end of the week if board members could get back to me on their availability and then once we decide on a date you know perhaps we could set up a a a dock or something where you send your questions in and that could help Drive the agenda just quickly in terms of driving the agenda does anybody know that they'll be out of town for any of these days I will March 21st and 26th my spring break okay I responded that so far those dates are fine for me all that spring break so then we're looking between April 2 and April 4 then okay great thanks everybody all right thank you very much Dr Dr man that was awesome okay so um subcommittee reports let's start with um policy and uh Communications yes so uh the policy uh committee policy and Communications committee met um and since this was a new committee new composition um Dr BR spent some time uh kind of going over the roles and responsibilities and gave us an overview of um how the committee would function we really spent most of our time talking about the survey of students which is the policy number 61 62.5 one which was a carryover from uh the last committee um it hadn't been finalized so we took a look at that language there was some there were some areas that the committee felt were a little bit vague we wanted to tighten it up so we asked for some advice on that uh some legal advice and uh we made some edits to it uh so that we could take a look at it the next time and just possibly tighten up the language so we can uh bring it to the full board for um for a decision on that um and uh so that was most of our time and then Dr br will give us a a a brief um update on some of the issues or some of the areas such as the ribbon cutting ceremony for CES um the state of the district the budget flyer and the new website which he mentioned in this update tonight and that was about it do you have any idea when that um policy 616 2.51 might be coming to the full board we hope we hope by the next uh March 20th meeting okay thanks mhm awesome holla thanks very much okay uh next facilities all right we met on uh February 7th finally we're able to meet after a few cancellations um we uh we elect the new subcommittee chair which is uh myself we had a capital project update um the guen swing roof was recently closed out at the high school um we were going to request uh more funding for the uh from the board for um another addition to the project but thankfully um we don't we don't need that at this time the uh the money was able to come from somewhere else and move for the electrical upgrade for the electrical upgrade thank you um that we do not have to request it at this time um Mr cwell uh reviewed a proposal from Max orbo to develop uh plans to complete complete the AC project that's been put on hold um the expectation is that the project can be engineered in a way will not require additional structural work which is good news um Mr Co will also provide an update on the locker room condition that uh there are conditions that are being worked on several items that will eventually need to be addressed um such as tile flooring and sink um he shared with us that the space is not used as traditional lock room at at this time committees discussed the needs for the space of relation to various Capital needs across the district um and that was it for us and to be clear the that's the um whiskin girls locker room I'm sorry whis my fault whis girls locker room yes so did he talk about give it like a specific timeline regarding that because there was very specific um regarding which one wh yes so the wires have been addressed um anything that could be immediately addressed I think there was he did say he took care of those those were yeah the same day that he was alerted to those um situations they were they were addressed okay um the only things remaining are you know there was um there is a sink that's been removed Off the Wall yep we we not even sure um Mr Caldwell was that way when he came to the district about nine years ago so it's it's been in that state for a while it's been sort of cleaned up in other words the ends of the pipes have been capped and and things like that but short of having you know putting in the committee did speak quite quite at length about you know sort of the prioritizing investing money into an area like that um that isn't utilized um per se as a lock room at the middle school um as it's reported it's really more like a holding place to put book bags and things like that um so it's prioritizing those things people use it as a the community uses it as a restroom as a bathroom right right right um and there is one sync in there that that is that is functioning okay um so any other fixes would be you know c not capital projects but would be more more um a larger investment than just you know fixing one little item here and there so so it's just prioritizing those things yeah and was the high school locker room was that closed out or is that still open the project um that I think there's still a couple of lingering things um coup with some uh door handles door locks things like that um Eddie from um techon was actually in contact with uh Steve Balman and myself today um I reached out to him because we just needed a little guidance on that and so actually Mr Czech go here grab him after the meeting if he hangs around so there you go the NPC okay is that boys and girls that you're referencing with that question for the middle school and the high school and just the boys okay that's what I thought right thank you so we all said great thank you so much um and now uh Cape report okay we met on Valentine's Day and we're all present um myself Sarah and holla is our second meeting with Dr man and Mark Blanda and Liz Spencer we didn't have any public comment and we received a thorough update on the uh 2024 2025 Brookfield High School program of studies presentation which we'll get more information on it's on the agenda later on so I'll just um touch briefly about it um there is a proposal for an additional course creative writing to it will be an additional halfe elective course or enrichment course and it's really student requests that are driving this uh creative writing one is a prerequisite for this course this is also possibly an opportunity to expand um our journalism course offerings like I said before Dr man will um talk more detail in more detail about this on the agenda we did vote unanimously um in favor of all the revisions and changes um unfortunately one of them will be not to continue with American sign language for next school year fortunately uh the enrollments down and the online platform that's currently being used is not really preferred by students um because we haven't been able to get staff to staff that course so that was an unfortunate uh piece of information to learn um we also talked about Capstone um we were brought up to speed on some of the history of what it was in the past but one of the qu pressing questions moving forward is you know how do we manage it effectively also we're we would need money to hire staff to go through with this moving forward so um that's something to think about moving forward um we ALS so discussed uh we got an update um PDC which is um having to do with the new teacher and educational leader educa evaluation plan um they the committee underwent a two-day trading to orient the new CSD de evaluation guidelines and begin preparing a draft for the adjusted teacher and administrator support and growth plans which will be presented to us in June for Implement implementation for next school year a little update on instructional team they're looking at student data reflecting on it and creating goals instructional coaches are creating an instructional Playbook so we're looking forward to seeing this Playbook and they're continuing to engage in ongoing professional learning opportunities with at Advance where they're exploring various approaches to student centered coaching including setting learning targets based on student data helping teacher teachers explore gaps and strengths based on student work and developing the instructional Playbook um and we asked for a comeback regarding midterm exams and data from them uh Elementary and secondary teachers are using their interm assessment plaques both as formative assessments as well as experential for students to become familiarized with the format and the approach of the SBA and ngss assessments and the instructional coaches are um currently collaborating with teachers on midyear data such as mclass midterm exam data Etc and that's about it we'll get more information later on the agenda from Anna um actually I have a question but I I wonder if I should hold off for later like the instructional Playbook how does that interact with um or interface with Atlas is that something that's better for later no that's okay that that would be now because later is just the program of studies for the high school um so it's that that wouldn't necessarily be something that would be reflected in Atlas um the instructional Playbook is really more almost you know kind of like a handbook um to pull from to flip through um based on high leverage instructional strategies such as using formative assessments differentiate instruction I mean all of that jazz um and it's really it would be based on you know it would be the way that a coach could offer um you know like based on the scenario that the teacher is bringing here are the things that my students are lacking and then a coach could say Okay so let's set some learning targets and then let's try this or let's try that so it's more like a you know bag of tricks specifically bag of instructional approaches um and so that's one of the things that they're working on as a product for the end of this year the instructional coaching team is working to build that um which is actually something they had started with Dr Ruby and then it kind of fell by the wayside so they've they've gotten a lot of their materials from before and now they're really digging into it okay um lots of questions not the place okay um and midterms uh which grades take midterms so um all grades take midterms unless they are unless a student I'm sorry 9 at the high school no 912 um and uh unless they are exempt based on the exemption policy um or on the course and is which subjects all the all the sub most subjects I'm not sure of the some of the elective subjects if it's like if their course is over they take an exam right like their elective course is just half year than they take it okay right thanks sure I may ask for joy to help me out with the program of studies or Hala or Sarah cuz if I miss something I'm pinch hitting for Mr Bland tonight okay um was there anything else on on the cap all right then we can go to um personnel and negotiations um we met oh sorry go ahead yeah we have so much to do all right I'll talk fast um so the personnel and and negotiation subcommittee um met uh last Thursday and um we entered into executive session to discuss strategy and negotiations uh related to collective bargaining um and we invited um superintendent Brill and um Mrs de in and um that's the report okay so now moving to the next item I move that the board approv the items listed below on the consent ENT agenda as recommended new hires resignations and transfers just have a quick question um for the school psychologist at CES are has that been posted yet or yes y okay since the um motion has been um made and seconded um all in favor okay it looks like it's passed unanimously great so fast all right so Stephanie and I decided to switch things up for new business and I'm going to read the actions and the Motions tonight so the first item under new business is uh the recommended action is that the board receive an update from Mr czecho chairman of the municipal building committee uh regarding clees so welcome Mr czecho thanks for coming thanks mrze thank you for those of you who don't know me I'm Paulo and as a Mobility for probably longer than I should be um I'm very direct don't take it personally I can be somewhat cynical and a little sarcastic again it's just me it's New York I know you're from New York working way too long in the Bronx so uh it does come out but as far as clees look the project is moving forward you know the it's taking longer than anybody wants it to the last VI % takes about 95% of the time but we do have right now the removal and replacement of the unsuitable soils in the North Lot which was a lot of the holdup that's complete sidewalk prep is continuing the storm system in the north parking lot's complete sight lighting is complete um you know we're installing the subbase material the plan is to do that get the uh binder course down the asphalt binder course sometime in May move everybody over there you won't lose any spots it'll just be a switch of what we're doing and then go to work on the south lot doing the islands the curbs and the balance of the concrete work uh that came up last night we're going to do a plan John and then we'll sit down with the team and we'll go through it and make sure everybody's comfortable because it will involve sort of um modifying that bus traffic um I have to thank everybody I sat in that line trying to get into CES this morning uh as people coming northbound on the road almost hit you because they have to swerve around but it's a wonderful wonderful thing uh commissioning on mechanical and electrical commissioning is done training is done hot water bypass is done that was the gym issue all right um we're still there was a little bit of a a hiccup there with one of the uh valves that's been corrected and we're just waiting for colleages to come back and finish that uh commissioning the punch list for the most part is done we still have about 100 open items we find more and more every day as we walk through but look we'll get through it we've asked them what their schedule is for the Easter break and that's where we're going to attack a bulk of these items and then of course there's going to be a host of activity in the summer with that as we get closer we'll talk about summer school whether it's a good idea to have it a clees or if there's activities that would prohibit you from having a clees so but again somewhere around March April we'll start to have that conversation we'll have a better idea on going forward what's going to be the best plan for this summer thank you uh everything else for the most part you know has been going along you know we we just do it every day uh you know questions come in and we're just trying to get this building complete get the site work complete and close out this project as far as the financials every month we get from on the BC we get a report from our OPM uh they do the financials for us and right now I think we have about 1.2 million 1.1 to 1.2 in uncommitted funds however there still change orders out there we spent close to $2 million to date removing unsuitable soil off of that site including a large Mr czecho I I want to inter when you say unsuitable soils that could be scary to people what was unsuitable about the soils can you explain that that's important for everybody to hear since they weren't good um see there's the sarcasm coming out understand um unsuitable soil so you have different grades of materials where you can put a building on some material some material you can't under the building we did excavate a large amount of material that was Clay and when clay gets wet it acts like a roller coaster you can step on it and the other side lifts up you can't put a building on that so a lot of those Clays were excavated and we put in what we call structural fill which is glacial till it's mixed with rock sand um LOM and when it compacts it compacts to about 95 to 98% density and that's appropriate to put a building on we found a lot of clay under the roadways or the road beds of the project and again when you're driving heavy equipment tractor trailers over that you have the sort of roll of coaster effect in the field areas it's not so critical because you don't have those heavy loads surprisingly enough we found a large portion of those unsuit bles under the existing Huckleberry school so after that school was demolished and taken down starting in September and October um when we started testing those soils because they really frown upon you bringing a boring machine inside an occupied school to test underneath it um they found a large portion of this some of that we're able to use on-site material to sort of remediate the areas because it is a drive but other areas again we had to bring in so this went through the summer into the fall through the fall just wrapped up about a month ago thankfully we had a winter which allowed us to continue to work for the most part through the winter months otherwise we would have stopped dead and waited for the spring thow on March so thank you unsuit bles in a nutshell can you just explain the 1.2 million uncommitted funds what does that mean exactly you want the sarcastic answer it's 1.2 million in uncommitted funds funds that are not encumbered elsewhere in line items okay that previously were identifi during the project whether it be PCOS potential change orders or other trades or contracts so it's that portion of money that's sitting there that if we don't have a another large unknown come forward would be returned to the taxpayers I don't see that happening at this point because of the unsuit bles we still have a few things to figure out with that we also have uh claims for delays from roofing materials and such that we're working through those are the types of things that are going to come up at the end of the project um that we're going to have to negotiate on but again every month we receive this it's posted it's available in the town clerk's office it's with our minutes everybody's free to come to the NBC meeting third Tuesday of every month come on down you'll love it can you speak to I don't know if you've discussed or has there been talk about the increase in our bills as far as um yep so the electric bills yeah yeah so when I did a deep dive into that I noticed that the total number of kilowatt hours us used off peak that's from 6:00 p.m.

f as you can see as we move on domain three student learning there were three recommendations um and I can address those right now this was how CRA saw how we did what we did in terms of learning and in terms of implementing specialized instruction so again creating and calibrating roles and responsibilities in partnership with building Administration this goes hand inhand with having building Administration be part of the conversation around ppts they also need to be part of how do we implement this in the building it's for all of the students who have IEPs the building administrators need to be uh involved aware and part of the conversation versus being handed a plan that says this is what we decided in a PPT this is what we're doing so making sure that there's more um accountability not only for the teachers uh for the supervisors but also for the building admins in terms of making sure that this is not just a one-size all uh approach and again ongoing um analyzing Special Education data regularly at both the building and District level in conjunction with supervisors and building administrators so we look at things like referrals we look at things like the goals and objectives and the Mastery so if you're looking at a a random IEP and you say Bill will um answer reading comprehension questions accurately four out of five times let's see the data for that because often times and this is is just anecdotal excuse me parents will ask justifiably show me the data I need to know how you arrived at this and that has been an ongoing process in terms of making sure that the data isn't anecdotal that the data is the probes that happened where are the four out of five what are the dates for the four out of five regardless of the goals and objectives and making sure that that data reflects what we're putting our attention towards and analyzing the data to ensure that when we get a referral or when we're moving a child through the special education referral process it's worked in conjunction with the intervention process which I will get to uh in a little bit so again looking doing a deeper dive on data uh is never a bad thing but in terms of you can look at data all day long what are we using it for what is the purpose the purpose is to support students and if a student isn't reaching reaching that four out of five or isn't reaching Mastery or you question what Mastery is this is where I need to focus ongoing versus just saying one and done and we've talked about it and that's it it's being able to speak to the IEP accurately and with Fidelity in a in a meeting to be able to make sure that we all are aware of where the student needs more support and where the student has mastered their goals and objectives finally uh for domain three partnering with intervention to examine academic and behavioral tier interventions and particular attention for me has been paid to the tier three intervention and the process of special education referrals so one of the things that you know parents will make referrals and we honor those requests for ppts but within each building intervention teams look and they say we we'd like to make a referral for special education okay my question back having attended these meetings is show me where where your tier three isn't working show me what you've done tier one tier 2 and tier three and in working with teachers and asking those questions to show that if you're making a school-based referral if you're an intervention team making a school-based referral at tier three that we really have exhausted our tier three options not to the exclusion of the student where where we've waited too long but also sometimes I don't know that we've given the tier three the the the opportunity to see if it's working or not over the course of you know 8we periods and and examining that data before we make that referral to special education not to deny a referral that a parent might make not to deny a referral that a school-based team may make but just to be able to be more uh targeted and precise on where does it go from tier three to special education referral are we there and if not why aren't we there and if we are there show me what that data looks like and again these are all things that are in process ongoing finally uh domain four which was communication and collaboration um this was one where I felt for the type of teacher I was and the type of administrator I am this is something that I feel comes naturally to me so I I I feel very strongly about the the recommendations on this and how we've moved forward with communication and collaboration across the building so the recommendations were things like aligning systems of collaboration with building principles and supervisors in all three schools with customizations based on scheduling in each school so I can say to you again yes it's completed but there are weekly meetings with principles there are weekly meetings with supervisors there are classroom visits I'm making making sure that the the process at CES is the process at WMS and is the process at BHS um again an ongoing process as we spoke about transition ppts before that's one area area where it can be very uh specific in terms of moving a child from middle school to high school or Elementary to middle but making sure that those systems of collaboration are similar so the parents experiences it at ppts or the parents experiences with special education are aligned not that you're getting one type of experience at CS another type of experience at whis skiner and another type of experience at the high school again ongoing as we change the culture as we improve Communications as we reach out to parents more as we have ppts where there are more conversations than they are confrontations um and establishing a school visit schedule there is not a day in the week where I'm not at a building I have my responsibilities at at TSO and I fulfill those but I also would be derel in my duties if I didn't visit the buildings to see what we're doing in action uh to be able to coach to be able to point out areas of growth and Improvement visiting classrooms visiting students making sure that there's connections um and creating uh clear expectations of availability and visibility for staff and parents parents know they can call me anytime they can email me and that I get back to them pretty much the same day and if I don't I'm telling them I'll get back to you tomorrow um but also making sure that the principles are looped in on what special education is looking like in their buildings and receiving feedback from them and receiving feedback from the supervisors in order to make sure that we are in a state of improvement again we're not looking for Mastery instantly in six seven months but what we are looking for is that we are in a better place now than we were uh in July when I when I arrived um cotter's change management model so in terms of uh the correct report looking at change management um this is a an area of leadership uh methodology uh that I've been applying in terms of how do you handle change management know you can't come in and and you know knock everything over and say we're starting over it's a matter of collaborating listening talking but also observing and seeing what else needs to be done and over the course of this change management model this is how you're how you're implementing that piece of leadership whether it's collaborating with building leaders reaching out to parents um accessing all the stakeholders within a building to be able to know that there's a visibility and there's an accessibility from my leadership point of view and again uh it kind of has been a through Point through these domains building leaders attending ppts as Administration Representatives affords the student the family and the team an opportunity to collaborate on implementation and provide context for how goals and objectives can best be implemented from a building-wide perspective so I'll give you an example example we're in a PPT and it'll be a just an average PPT if there is such a thing and you're talking about a behavior plan and what's that going to look like well maybe we do something with the lunch wave or maybe we give an incentive from class to class if I don't have a building administrator in those types of conversations then we're not collaborating to the level where we can support that student the Student Success is is incumbent upon the building leaders and the Special Education team working together so that when those plans are implemented it's not the case manager being the the only person that really knows or the related Services being the only person who knows it's a a collaboration so that we can have input from the principles to say you know I think that might be better if we did that towards the end of the day versus the beginning of the day that checkin would best take place with this person or items like that where there's a a a conversation oh did not mean to do that I apologize oh see my own fault um so those are the four domains and the recommendations that were uh across both the um crack report from June before I arrived as well as the specialized program review and out placements that was done in November by Dr corvo Who I also have to thank for her guidance and support throughout my my time uh since July being here again without the support of the teams in each building and a TSO I'm not able to do this this presentation I'm not able to be able to say to you things are completed and ongoing uh I'm not able to be able to be visible in the building so that it's it's that support that that fuels uh this report so now in summary two things I want to say so we're looking at recommendations and we're looking at you know green and yellow there's no red I'm proud of that um but really when you look at the correct report it's not really about Staffing it's not really really about increasing uh positions as it is refining systems and structures looking at those systems and structures from both a district and a building point of view and making sure that they're supporting the students but that they're valid that they're valid for parents that they're valid for students that they're valid for all of us who work in this field um so of those recommendations uh 13 of 20 have been completed but again I caution everybody that I have completed an ongoing but we could float ongoing back and forth because again in education nothing is ever completed you're always moving towards uh improving your processes and and uh aligning your processes across across the district the three that are in process and I would say are sort of on the outside of this looking in are as I mentioned before the Strategic plan there was a staffing analysis and a Time study that was in there that's probably more of a long-term uh look uh probably next year into the the year after and and that may be part of the Strategic plan and a purchasing analysis as you saw before about curricular materials aligning with both General and special education these are things that I can't come to you tonight say oh you know what we did a purchasing analysis in January and these are the results it's an ongoing piece so for those I I caution isn't the word but just that well yellow was caution but cautioning you that these are areas that are ongoing that are not going to be one and done and that the recommendations that are in there are both completed addressed and ongoing as we move through this year and ongoing and as I've said to many folks this is not a one-year uh project this is this is at least a 3 to five year project but it's something something that I that my heart is in my energy is focused towards and that I want to see through and be continue to partner with everyone I mentioned before so just to to conclude within the existing recommendations from the correct report is the belief that we must continue to Foster and reinforce a culture of inclusivity when we talk about inclusivity that means being inclusive of all students those who have IEPs those who don't have IEPs but making sure that when there are opportunities for students to be included in any activity in the building that everything that you see in these recommendations that we that we proceed from that not just recommendation number four on page eight but that we're looking at how can we best include our students all the time not just in specific times and areas uh a community of Learners which we've heard of anybody who's been in a classroom we've been at PD about community of Learners when it works when it's successful it's when all types of learning styles are recognized and supported including students with IEPs how can we best show how they can demonstrate what they know and within that we believe that all students can learn we believe that and I believe that to my core special education exists to create opportunities for all students and allow them to demonstrate their understanding the correct report is a way for us to reinforce and to implement these recommendations these are more philosophy these are more how we should proceed and and maybe they're a little more emotional or feeling than than the hardcore you know datadriven pieces that I've spoken about tonight but without those three points that I that I'm concluding with there is no uh the correct report is meaningless without a feeling of inclusivity a feeling of all students can achieve success and that all of our students students can learn so I thank you for your for your time this evening and I'm happy to entertain questions thank you Bill I also have oh finally links to the CCT report so when you if you want to look at things not in a two-point font those are in there both the June and the November and I thank you for your time thank you Bill does the board have any questions yes quick question Bill thank you for that um so what percent of time of time is used in PPT by or does an administrator like a principal or assistant principal attend a PPT would you say like 90% of the time or it's it's hard to say I i' I'd love to be able to break it down for you and I might be able to get get back to you on that what we did was we looked at um case loads and areas where a principal or an assistant principal could be in and if you're looking at let's say we have four or five ppts a day and of those four or five uh a supervisor might be in one or two of them an assistant principal might be in two of them principal might be in one of them it could be an hour to two hours a day if we're looking at a 45 minute to an hour but again hard to to break that down but it is more they're attending more than they were let's say last year so so is that a practice we're going to continue or absolutely I think that that what the principles and assistant principles being at ppts affords is making sure that we don't look at special ed as oh that's the supervisor or that's the director or that's a department you're including I mean we always include a general education teacher but to include a general education administrator puts an importance on the student it puts an importance on the plan and it puts an importance on these are your students too and this is something that we have to implement throughout the building and this is something that you need to be aware of and participate in not that they weren't before but I don't know that the opportunity was there if you have supervisors chairing every PPT I think in terms of like I said an example of a behavior plan or um anything where the larger school is concerned I think to get that message of inclusion really embedded you need a general education administrator in there to hear it and I think it they they have it affords them the opportunity to be uh part of that conversation and to be accountable for that plan as well and I think joyy bring up a great question because the other part of that is the more holistic view of a Time study of all the different positions and how they spend their time right yeah that was that was a recommendation inated into strategic planning correct for sure it's IEP compliance um person how do they play a part in that are they attending pbts or they're kind of after the iep's been implemented there's there's ongoing sort of instruction attending and following up with teams to write more appropriate and targeted goals in IEP so there is a a point where they could be facilitating ppts um uh there's also to me being able as I spoke about before writing those um writing those goals so that they're specific uh and targeted so that it's not again this is this is anecdotal and it doesn't mean Brookfield I've been in in multiple districts so I can speak to this you don't want to make a goal that is so General that almost anybody could Master it without some sort of data behind it and I think taking the ideas of what we want a student to work on and translating that into all right how are we going to show that what are those objectives going to look like what's the measurement going to look like that's where the IP compliance teacher also comes in and in terms of again interfacing with CTS which I again that's a presentation in and of itself um talking about making sure that those goals are appropriate and that they could be measured and then if a parent has a question about them that there's an answer that makes sense and not just oh we think they should work on writing what do you mean writing what does that look like what is you know if they need to work on their you know five paragraph essay or they need to work on topic sentences let's make it so it's specific and it's not just bill will work on topic sentences and write a topic sentence four out of five times what kind of topic sentence how is it related to the content um the IP compliance teacher is part of making that more specific and being able to um in instruct the teams to refine those so is that very specific pointed goal developed in the pbta or it's General at first and then it's it's definitely developed in the PPT but I think making sure that that language is available to the teachers and to be able to make it specific in the meeting versus trying to craft it out of whole cloth once you're once you're in the meeting I think the more conversations we have about what a specific goal looks like outside of a PPT and just in general I'd like to work on reading comprehension okay what kind what part of reading comprehension and what's that going to look like if a parent asks how do I know that they've mastered this goal we can't just say well you know they answered all the comprehension questions nope sorry not the right that's that's what did we do what was that specialized instruction so that kind of thinking and that kind of mindset can be brought into ppts where there should be and can be more specific conversations around that and again not happening 100% all over but again those conversations that through the correct report we needed to address and make more real and make more valid based on parent feedback teacher feedback and just looking at how those goals were were mastered and whether or not they were mastered and what evidence can you show and if it's four out of five show me the four out of five don't just give me oh it's four out of five so okay thank you all right all right great thank you very much thanks very much everybody much appreciated um okay we're going to move to item C under new business um and so I just want to make sure that I've got my dance steps right here uh this motion needs to be amended to include the information about the creative writing class as well so we we make the motion and then we amend no or you can just insert the oh the new language okay great let's do that then okay so um I'm going to move that the board established college algebra as a course offering in the math department and creative writing to in the humanities department at Brookfield High School beginning with the 2024 2025 school year uh as recommended by the cape committee including um Dr man and um and B just principal Mark Belinda second great um so the would we like to discuss that first or yeah so I can I can present on that a little bit so what I'm actually handing you is I'm not on now I'm on um what you have just take taken one and passed it along thank you very much for doing that um is a copy of the summary sheet so these are uh Mr are there not enough no no I I was thinking about my motion so much that I just passed it along okay thank you um so you have the summary sheet which is a two two-sided sheet which we're going to go through in a minute for the second motion as well as a copy of um the parts of the uh program of studies that are highlighted on that summary sheet rather than print out the 78 page packet and give you each one of those which you will all be able to see when it's online I just took the um Liberty of just taking the ones that are uh the parts that are changed so for the first motion we're going to focus on pages um we you turn to the back side of your sheet and you'll see that on page 30 which is right in the middle somewhere it is they are in chronological order um numerical order rather um so page 30 into 31 um is the is the highlight of that uh creative writing 2 is a 9 12 elective it's not it does not supplant um a required English course but it is one of the elective courses um and as Joy mentioned earlier so if you turn to page 31 um you can read the course description there but really this is an extension of creative writing one which is a current semester elective course um and it really satisfies requests for a more advanced exploration a deeper dive into creative writing the current creative writing one course is more survey oriented and kind of um just you know gives students the opportunity to explore various types of creative writing the uh the expectation and and uh purpose of a creative writing 2 course as the uh the extension of creative writing one is for uh students to practice uh creative writing areas of their choice more deeply and explore that more deeply and again that was um uh really came from student requests based on their experience now um just kind of uh Tang mentally as Joy also mentioned in her uh summary of Cape this based on the way the schedule works at the high school this would um offset the journalism course currently journalism runs kind of opposite of the creative writing course so if we have a creative writing one and then a creative writing to there may be a need and an opportunity to create a similar parody with the journalism scope and sequence so I can anticipate this time next year we might be coming back to you with a journalism too so that's just a preview I'm big on that this spring um so that's the the creative writing two course I can present the math course if you want and then we can discuss it if you'd like okay so then the last page um you'll see that actually is the wrong page number um it's supposed to be page 52 but the last page of the packet has the college algebra course and this was actually presented to us by Mr Hill at the January Cape meeting but we wanted to Spring to everything together in one Fell Swoop um this is a course that again this is more based on um prepar post-secondary preparation and and student need So currently um kind of the scope and sequence for high school anywhere from 8th grade up through senior year would be Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 possibly pre-cal um or kind of an Algebra 2 extension where Algebra 2 gets split into two years and then a calculus course um and they're really they the uh Department the math department really saw a need for um rather other than splitting Algebra 2 into two years which might be um too kind of twoo paced out for certain students or launching right into pre-cal there was really that extra need um of a college algebra Prep course so this would really uh kind of bridge the gap between Algebra 2 and pre-calculus for students who are interested in going um into post-secondary education um and just don't quite have the foundational skills in algebra or trigonometry um that they would need in order to really handle the pre-cal it could taken either as a senior if a student came in taking Algebra 1 and then going G uh geometry Algebra 2 then the college algebra or it could be taken as a junior if a student took Algebra 1 in the middle school geometry Algebra 2 college algebra and then they could take pre-cal or maybe one of the other math electives um and so that and you can read the again I'm not going to read to readers but um you can read the course description uh but both of these courses um both Department chairs felt uh very strongly and were brought by their uh um their teachers and are based on student interest and student need any questions concerns there's no budget College it's also right thank you very much Sarah so the college algebra course is um based on the um Community College course and so it's actually would have that opportunity for college um ADV advancement college credit thank you very much for that reminder is that um based on exam results or grade point average or what what's the it's because it's aligned to the current college algebra course and it would be essentially kind of like an ECE course is you know where you um as long as we use their book which that's the only U major budget implication uh use the book that's approved by uh the college uh algebra course through the state of Connecticut and uh we would have the syllabus which is fairly aligned at standards based um our and our students pass it then they would earn C Credit that's a great opportunity y so aside from the um books no budget implication because we would just readjust assignments are there other questions about these thank you for that reminder sir huge so all in favor say hi any [Applause] so it passes unanimously all right so now we'll just kind of go through those are the main presentation pieces but there'll be some other discussion points so they have to do a motion for so I know I know I think it's contagious right so um uh I move that the board approved the proposed revisions to the program of studies including any course updates as recommended by the cape subcommittee assistant superintendent Dr Anna man and BHS princip ipal Mark Banda second great so now that the motion's on the table uh let's hear from Dr man okay thank you so we're going to flip back to the front side of your page and we're just going to kind of walk through um the these uh notes so on the first page page four um and you'll notice that I highlighted the areas that we're going to be focusing on um the the adjustment for the required required course load is being adjusted from rather than carrying a um minimum of seven credits or six credits and then six credits senior year is adjusting down adjusting down half a credit for Junior and Senior year and the reason for that is that it still um requires 26 credits to graduate which the the actually the um requirement is 25 credits to graduate but this would allow that buffer if a child um didn't didn't pass a course one year would still have a one credit buffer um but what they're uh noticing at the high school is when students particularly seniors are forced to take six credits um there is a lack of investment and a lack of Engagement and it also pushes some students out who might be more interested in taking an elective course um and so it kind of just jockies things around so that's the reason for that adjustment on page four so um the it would go from 7776 to 776 and a half 5 and a half students would still be considered you know carrying a full load they would still meet requisite um requirements for C and all of that jazz the next one down um is a kind of a um bifurcating of the schedule changes and that's just more for clarity and for um focus on uh as kids are choosing their their classes kind of really having them focus in on what classes they're choosing and then once they get their schedule really taking an Earnest and honest look at what they've signed up for and what they've received on their schedule and then um clarifying that after the first day of school the time frame for which uh students can um adjust their uh schedule and drop courses um and as Mr Bland put on here um it provides an accurate representation of courses selected one of the things that uh is a constant struggle in the high school is if you allow too much time for dropping courses then a class that you ran because it had 12 or 15 kids all of a sudden drops down to six or set five we wouldn't have necessarily run that course and it again um messes up the schedule and puts more pressure on other classes uh in terms of that okay so if you turn the page to page seven um page seven is actually an adjustment back to how it had been uh last year the state uh this is class rank uh it's a revision um last year the state had uh asked districts to adjust and get kind of get rid of class rank um and so if a board of ed had class rank as part of their policy they were supposed to adjust that policy the state has now rolled that back and basically taken away um what we talked about this last year as adjusting the class Rank and not publishing class rank that is no longer the case so um they have adjusted that back so this is just now in line with our current um policy so now it's back to class rank how had been y Yeah well yeah how so this is now just in line exactly with how it had been page eight seven and eight but it's really page eight so um Mr Banda had presented this a couple years back I believe um with adjusting from um every year the Board of Ed recognizes has recognized the top 10 in the class the top 10 students in the graduating class um and this is really um an adjustment to make sure we honor and recognize the academic prowess of more students and based it on percentage rather than number um so that it might be you know 20 or 25 kids instead of just the top 10 um whereas you know students who are number 11 through 20 have worked really hard and done some really amazing things um and but they don't get necessarily get recognized so uh this is the proposal is to go to the Latin honor System which again I think this was proposed a couple years back and um agreed upon um but this is just reflecting those agreements um and so the top 5% would be Magnum ly which would include the valid dictorian and Salud Oran 6 through 10% would be Suma Kumi and then top um 11 through 15% would be just Kumi and so that the other way around Suma Magna okay yes did oh I'm sorry about that yeah he didn't adjust his notes for me sorry about that Suma Magna and then Kumi right um which would make sense so again that's just uh an expansion for our recognition for our students okay so we're going to know is that recognized like it graduation or are we still doing that I think the intention would be to do that at the Board of Education meeting in lie of the top 10 and I believe this senior class we're still doing top 10 still doing top 10 this is going to be for next year yeah this would be 24 25 um okay so then the next one is the College Planning suggestions so page 16 and 17 um and I've highlighted the the areas that um are being uh focused on I don't want to confuse this with the graduation requirements because they are not the same right so this is really a suggestion to students who are interested in going to college After High School graduation this is what Stu what most colleges are generally looking for so it is not um an adjustment to any requirements for graduation but as a suggestion for students who are looking so that to to go to co to college After High School so that as they're planning their course of studies they can think about okay so I have to take four credits of English and four credits I I should take four credits of math um the one that is really uh often um you know uh kind of the waffling one is the World Language piece do students want to stay in a world language for three or even four years because frankly four years is um what a lot of schools would prefer um so this just kind of puts it um for them the other thing we talked about was the fact that um I'm not sure any of you if any of you saw but a few schools particularly Dartmouth was in the news a couple weeks ago is bringing back sat requirement and I have a feeling that trend is going to kind of take flight a little bit um not with all but with some and so just highlighting the fact that the SAT or some sort of college ENT exam may be a requirement so students should be aware of that because we've gotten so into the mindset of it doesn't matter it doesn't matter we talked a lot about that in terms of our um our you know student achievement report not So Much Anymore now it might matter so depending on the school that you are looking to go to so that's in there along with uh focusing on the essay prompt on page 17 okay so if we so those are all kind of the operational and procedural pieces that were adjusted now we're just going into the course adjustments um a couple of which I've already spoken to and you've already voted on so I will just skip over those so on page 19 um there was there were um course the course that used to be here was critical literacy to um literacy Workshop uh this is just Clarity um so that students who need this course would sign up for this course and students who don't don't need to take the course so it's really just being much more transparent and clear that this would be literacy workshop for multilingual Learners um same course explanation um but it's just adjusting the title in the business department this is an adjustment to the grades this is on page 21 the grades that personal finance is open to um and we had some you know probably a little bit more in-depth conversation about this um currently it is open to 10th through 12th um but the proposal is to adjust it uh to be open to 11th and 12th and that is a couple fold one is um because it is a graduation requirement students have to take this course and so we kind of have to narrow it down so that if you're if you don't get at 10th grade then you don't get at 11th grade you know going to get a 12th grade because the requests are so great and the way that the the power school runs the course um or the scheduler might uh you know push some kids out so this is a greater guarantee if you have fewer n you have a lower n greater guarantee that uh those kids are going to get the course um and also the idea of just um preparation and Readiness um and probably proximity to graduation when students will need to make sure that they have these personal finance skills is narrowing down to 11th and 12th grade the other thing I'd like to add on that when Anna says that it has been for many years now a bfield gr Brookfield High School graduation requirement is now becoming a State graduation requirement um again actually for the class of 2026 so it's not even for this class yeah no it's not for this class so that's coming that is not a budget implication for us we had you know Vision the the uh leadership team faculty Board of Education a lot of great vision on this uh many many years ago and that's been instituted for a long [Music] time page 27 is just a CL again a Clarity in the in a title of a course it's the same course but rather than calling it Boe bot it's um coding for robotics so that students know what they're signing up for um we spoke about the creative writing course on page so we can kind of flip past page 30 and 31 it's actually page 34 on your sheets it says page 31 um this is again an adjustment to literacy Workshop rather than saying critical literacy 1 and critical literacy 2 um it the title was adjusted along with the kind of scope of the course you know what it's covering and um in terms of its focus for students on the next page on page 36 um oh 37 I yeah page 37 oh there was a I guess I I must have left out the um digital photography there is oh no I'm sorry 37 37 36 um so digital photography uh is just um the adjustment uh for grades offered 10 through 12 um rather than 9th through 12 and again that's a kind of a preparation and a um have kind of expecting kids to have a little bit more experience in um General artistic uh approach to um to photography and then that maturity of thought um so there's that adjustment as well moving along to the Visual and Performing Arts on page 38 um it's just kind of uh pulling out General chorus one and general chorus 2 and those are based on how they run um and clarifying uh where they um uh where they are in terms of specific to uh General versus specialized specialized course is on page 40 um which is being opened to ninth graders and I may have did I leave out syic symphonic band it's in the bottom of picture yeah the I just didn't highlight it yeah so symphonic band and then um some reason it got the description got cut off but um yep so symphonic band is again just a a clar clarification for the teachers as they are thinking about honor symphonic band versus symphonic band and that would be um you know the level of uh capacity for the students so those are the Visual and Performing Arts um special chorus is again open ninth um uh uh you open to adjust to be able to open to nth graders so that has to get adjusted and then the college algebra we talked about and then so that's we're through the adjustments and then as Joy alluded to earlier um we unfortunately have two courses that we are unable to offer um I want to just preface this with they're not being taken out of the approved course offerings we're just not running them next year and um one of them is the EMT course which I know some people have had children who have gone through the course and it's an amazing and very unique opportunity for um our students unfortunately it was a program that was kind of built around a specific person who's no longer with the district um based on certifications um and capacity to teach that course to actually give um you know an EMT licensing course uh and so we talked a lot about um various ways to bring something like that back and maybe do kind of a preed or pre you know emergency responder kind of um offering maybe partnering with different um towns trying to get a cohort together so those are that's still in the works um we just don't have the capacity to offer it next year we don't want kids signing up for it thinking they're going to get it and then we're really not able to offer it and then as Joyce said unfortunately which I know was a huge long hardfought battle for this um this body um was American Sign Language we are still committed to trying to explore how to offer that in the future um back to the educator certification piece it's not a public education certification uh for state of Connecticut there are certified instructors um but it would be you know we have to if we're going to offer it for credit um there we can try to kind of grow somebody into that or possibly um you know find somebody uh I know that there are other school districts that do have pretty robust programs so we can also talk with those folks and see how they grew their program I know Fairfield has a pretty in uh involved program so um we're not offering that next year it says deletion it's really just deletion from the program of studies it's not deletion from approved courses those are your updates to program studies my have pleasure um I I have a question sure um regarding the change um in grade levels for personal finance M aren't the personal finance classes the ones that are already um overcrowded I'm sorry to use that word is just the one that comes to mind those were the highest numbers right 28 or 29 per section how do we um how do we work around that reality well so if if we you know make fewer kids eligible to take the course um then they there would be fewer kids who that would be put into the course well except that all 11th graders and all 12th graders have to go through it well all kids do and now they only have two years to do it so maybe I I don't know I mean I hear what you're saying but when I saw that I was like wait a second you're putting a lot of kids through a smaller time window yeah I mean I don't I don't think the the way that we talked about this um with Mr Blanda um I think that there would they don't anticipate their being uh burgeoning um actually next year they might have fewer that might be smaller because they would have some of the 10th graders would have already taken it this year um and so only the remaining 11th and 12 who have to take it would would take it we'll see how it kind of plays out as we go forward um but the real the real impetus for was um the noticings of preparedness and maturity and also I think applicability it's more um although we know as is the case that there are some more precocious 10th graders perhaps even more than the 12th graders um who are prepared and excited about the course um and and then you're also mixing in the fact that it's a requirement which it already was a requirement so that wasn't that's not a big change for Brookfield okay well that works for me thank you sure are there other questions all right okay um then are you guys prepared to vote on the motion y yep okay so um all in favor say I I I okay all oppos nay right on it passes unanimously thank you very much they'll be thrilled they can get their course offerings out kids can sign courses yes um okay so now we move to um item 13 old business um the uh Board of education's adopted budget um so the recommended action is that we continue our discussion of the budget if needed I can just make maybe add like a little bit of um context if you are okay with me sort of just sharing some of the updates and then maybe you can add flavor to it if you can um but so since we've adopted our budget um and some of this was spoken about at the Joint meeting last week um but we have um some areas of reduction and some areas where we will have to increase certain line items um and I'll just kind of go through there's only a few of them but um so one of the things that was mentioned was insurance right so um when we originally adopted our budget um we had budgeted a 7% increase and it's looking like it might actually only be like a 5% increase um so that brings that item down about 151,000 um there was some since um that joint meeting some fluctuations in special education um to the tune of $225,000 for um transportation and 177,000 um for 2 ition so that's to the good of our budget um what goes what will have to be added back into the budget so actually more of an increase um is about 45,000 for um vocational agriculture education and Magnet School tuition um there could you maybe you can explain a little bit more about how that came out of the and actually just to clarify so that um that about $45,000 reduction is not part of the adopted um budget of the 6.43% increase that sort of came after you guys adopted the budget on January 17th and so that was sort of a on the horizon we we can likely reduce so it actually doesn't affect our it doesn't affect it doesn't affect it it's just is is was an opportunity um but based on the governor's um budget proposal that funding has been removed from the proposed budget so the guidance um from you know from casbo and from cave is to not really include that in our in our budgeting but it doesn't doesn't actually impact the current budget thank you um and then lastly just in terms of Revenue because we see those reductions in special education Transportation tuition we will also see a reduction in our excess cost Grant so um about $50,000 54,000 so in total we're looking at about um a net of 300,000 less than what we had adopted um but we're still looking at a couple of things um we're still going to wait on our final number for the various insurances most importantly health insurance um what were some of the other areas that we need to um basic all of our any insurance rates so our um liability insurance those are still estimates our electricity for the second half of the budget is also a big one um right now it's budgeted at 11 cents per kilowatt hour um we're you know we haven't locked in for our pricing for January 1 125 through um July so um I'm not sure if we'll be able to um get that final um estimate before the budget has to uh be approved but um but our purchasing agent is looking at that um very closely right now so fingers crossed that was a big one yep Rosa did we want to mention uh Mr Dunn's budget in the total reduction off of the adopted budget just so everybody knows that um yeah could you provide I don't have that in front of me just in in in round numbers uh Mr Dunn reduced in his proposal of the Town bu budget that he brought forth to the board of Selectmen but he shared it with the board of B and board of Finance he reduced the board of education budget by $575,000 so as we start to think about what that might mean again we're a month away from when we'll have a sense where the board of Finance lands on this whether they um stay with Mr Dunn's proposal whether they take a little bit more money from the Board of Ed uh budget or they put money back last year they they put money back uh after The Bard select brought things forward so um we don't know yet but what this means is when Rosie you you and Casey just talked about that approximately $300,000 that we know off of the adopted budget that leaves us with to meet the 575 if that was to say another $275,000 we we need to find so those are things we're starting to talk about at our leadership meetings where we might look um hopefully we get some favorable news and in administration and operation uh so we don't have to go near staff we would love that to be the case um but we'll wait and see it's it's a while off but I think it's important for everybody you know who's watching at home and the board to know that um Mr dun's proposal is $575,000 less for the Board of Education than what you all adopted in January thank you and thank you very much um oh Casey just so the people at home will hear this again more concretely um about when I think you said early March is when we should know about insurance numbers early early March is the latest information I have that we should have another update and hopefully that will be the final final number and what's the Horizon for um decision-making about electricity in your best estimate um the last conversation I had with uh our purchasing agent was that um spring like early spring is the time to to lock in so he's already in conversations and getting quotes and pricing for for that so um maybe within a month but I'm really guessing at that okay thank you yep thank you very much I'll certainly keep you updated okay early spring in Connecticut it could be anytime know now in right right um anything else from you guys about the budget okay all right then we're going to move to um public comment um we have one individual signed up for public comment um I'm just going to read our our statement and then I'll invite you up okay so the Board of Education welcomes public comment each speaker shall have up to three minutes to provide input um at the end of each regular meeting time is allotted uh to individuals and um discussion of school Personnel individualized students or of individual members of the board is prohibited so we urge you to stay issue focused um and so Mr kab the floor is yours yes and you know the drill please please think so Up is on it's on okay uh and 45 West whis Road um so I wanted to talk about um Integrity competency and doing the job for um both administrators and the board um this this has been quite a problem I think in you know with uh the administration in the past and prior boards looks like it's continuing a bit um we had a very positive example here um of Competency um and integrity and getting getting the job done today and one one of the presentations I think we have our staff member of the year pretty much figured out um an example last week or two weeks ago was a email I got that was referenced in correspondence about Public Act 22818 my response there was really a discussion of how that communication wasn't truthful it was a look at you know incompetency throughout the district um we know that there was in in the Press nationally there was Prett embarrassing situation but when we look at that communication it shows us that our district when asked to comply with the law and can't will then just make up an excuse I sent it to the board I hope you understood it um the other example here is really our budgeting process this budget was that you guys approved was essentially a rubber stamping of a of a plan over time without looking at the problem right a 6.6% increase we have a sort of a managerial Council that looks at it and says hey how do we do better we had a couple of board members look and say let let's take a different look at this the reductions that we just disc that you just discussed were really the sausage and how is it how it moves around right so in the end we're going to have essentially a 1% challenge to the budget the job is you know to look at what the objectives are for the school how we're doing what the taxpayers are going to afford and come up with a solution just looking at what we're doing in the past and how we replicate it is not actually doing the job so you know we have caucuses here who decide hey how do we you know essentially give the administration what they want and then others that are looking at what what should we really do in the end you know you focus on process research you just really got to do it is right and not just get together in little groups decide what's right to do should we tell the truth when we make a mistake should we protect kids you know when they're abused by coaches teachers and I think if you look you know behind the scenes and what's going on we can't just answer pretty simple questions so I think as you guys move forward stop caucusing try to get real things done the job is pretty simple when you think about it right prioritize understand the truth and make a decision thank you thanks for sharing your opinion okay so we're going to move to um the three main points Stephanie what have you gathered thus far uh so I suggest the three main points first be the CES update um next the crack update and and I originally thought that the course editions and revision should be the update but with the I don't know the information we discussed I was thinking perhaps even though it was small the finance update yeah the budget yeah I I think that's I think that would be a good one just because it's more broad it affects everyone rather than just the high school so people that are in high school yeah it's an important like update to see like where where the budget is in this process yeah okay so do Finance go that the budget the budget well hold on let's let's talk a bit um Sarah your thoughts I mean I think the budget has gotten a lot of air time and I think that the course offerings um with with what we went over the high school but I understand it doesn't apply to every I was on the fence about it because I thought this is like really in depth information we haven't heard but also I think because we don't have solid number well we don't have specific solid numbers for the budget yet I think maybe in a couple weeks yeah the program sort the meat in the core of our instruction 3 what are your thoughts I I could go either way Hest like I think they're both significant issues and I think either one would be be fine agreed agreed um would you consider what do you guys think of like uh for the first one the CES I was just going to say can I combine CES and school and say like school upd I think that's I think it might be too much um but I mean I think like the the budget is foundational to what we do so I think like communicating our budget and where it is at every step of the process in its approval all the way to referendum when we have these updates like that sorry um is important but it's you know that's my own personal opinion about it but I mean not to say the program of studies is not important obviously but yeah I agree with that I also think the budget's going to come up again so that it's probably going to be one of the three main points in a couple weeks probably as well so this is probably a one and done so you might want to include it oh yeah um what do you guys think of um I don't know I find your point really compelling and I I think like it could be like four for this one time you know um but for the CES what do you think about doing like slash MBC well yeah oh I have that M okay good good good that's why I asked for the meeting today okay oh that's really important I think yeah so are we going to do the three or we going to add a fourth for just something for everybody to think about um the town if you really want to stick to three cuz it's called three main points um but it's a self-imposed rule so if you need a four in a month you can do that um we we whatever three are decided the fourth one Stephanie and I are going to work on the three main points um the town um what do we call the town Spotlight we could put as many things in there as we want we have to stick to three so that's we could write up a piece on the fourth one and have it in the town spot a short little it's really just your information followed by the town we can put that in the spotlight that's fine yeah make everybody happy thanks that's decided then great um so upcoming events yeah sorry I was busy writing things down okay okay yes we have several upcoming events actually uh whis caner Middle School events this week is random acts of kindness week and so on February 23rd which is Friday there will be a kindness social for sixth graders after school and then a kindness dance for seventh and eighth graders from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

you're all invited to attend we also have our business partner breakfast next Tuesday here in the boardroom at 7:30 in the morning very exciting event that we love so very much best buddies Carnival at Higley High School at 9:30 on March 1st and I know Miss Miller and her team have been working hard to prepare for this and it's always like you leave and you feel better always all right March 5th Tuesday we have another citizens committee meeting here in the boardroom at 5: and our last one was last night and we appreciate our our committee members so much for their time and dedication and last our next board meeting will be Wednesday March 6th here in the boardroom at 5:00 p.m and that concludes upcoming events thank you Miss Richards and Miss ree all right next is our request to speak our public comments we value input from our constituents this time on our agenda has been settis aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board those that wish to speak should have filled out a speak uh filled out speaker cards which are due prior to the start of our meeting members of the board may not discuss comment or take action on matters raised that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to AR ARS 38-43 01i action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date also we ask that the audience members practice proper public meeting decorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal Outburst to ensure fairness to All Points of View those that refuse to follow these rules may be asked to leave in accordance with policy BH public participation at board meetings if considered necessary the governing board president shall set set a time limit on the length of the comment period in order to ensure that each individual has an opportunity to address the board the president may also set a time limit for individual speakers thank you for your cooperation first uh we're going to hear from Heather Balch I wish to speak to you about two items on the agenda the the first is to increase compensation for staff as you are all aware I sit on the executive board for the Higley Education Association and as a member of me and confer higgle Education Association is considered to be a wall-to-wall union which means we represent both certified and classified employees it is very important that as a district we recognize how valuable our classified staff are the schools in our districts would not function without without them and our special education department would be devastated that is why we support the second compensation proposal that would decrease the certified M percentage and increase the classified percentage I thank you for taking this into consideration during your future vote the second topic I would like to discuss is about special education programs in husd I have been a speech language pathologist with Higley since 2002 over time technology that has become available for our students has really Advanced when starting with alternative methods of communication we focus on low Tech such as objects photographs of objects and pictures then we move to simple s output devices which are recordable and use printed picture overlays at the start of this year one of my students was using a 16 button simple recordable device this means the device offered 16 vocabulary words per printed page this is a limited vocabulary and I could tell he was ready for something more advanced the Ada loan library has a high-tech digital device that I could borrow we put that in place and saw our student Blossom he went from a restricted vocabulary of 16 words to an expansive vocabulary of 60 buttons per page that linked to multiple Pages he now participates during large group greets his peers in teachers by name makes requests and comments on lessons during his class this has opened the world of spoken communication for our students his classmates are curious about his device but patient and kind as he navigates the pages to say what he wants to say through a collaborative effort we have been able to work with my students parents and insurance and the student now has his own personal device his voice can go everywhere with him I feel confident that this will help him as he transitions into kindergarten next year in education it is imperative that we teach kindness we teach inclusion and we teach empathy thank you next we will be hearing from Mindy brocker hi thank you recently I had an interaction online and it summed up what I believe is our failure as a community see the rumor has it that Our Town Council was having difficulty communicating and working together so they hired an expert to come in and work with the team to build new skills so work could get done the person who was bothered by this demanded that they should know their adults just figure it out the fact is knowing what must be done is easy the knowing how to do it is difficult when our district was interviewing the new superintendents one of them said something to the equivalent of children don't know how to learn because Co well I think it's time that we admit that this isn't covid this isn't the 90 days that this community locked down or the 180 days that our children wore a mess to school the problem is US Co has shown us the truth the deep down of it we adults struggle to get along it's not new we are who we are and we are deeply fractured here's the thing though we don't have to be not when we're talking about caring for our kids one thing I truly believe is that we can make an effort to get along because underneath all of these disagreements we love our children we want them to succeed to be happy to go into this world being great Citizens Great community members and great leaders in the same way that I cannot win a football game because I watch the Super Bowl we cannot expect our children to be the best students leaders and community members because they've watched the community around them our husd students we celebr celebrated this evening didn't become Champions only because they knew the mechanics of their Sporter subject it was a whole support team that makes it possible great coaches dedicated Educators boosters volunteers community support and lots and lots and lots of practice in the same way we invest our time and resources into these amazing Sports and science teams we should be investing in our schools overall to build better community members this requires resources and compromise and yes the dreaded social emotional learning because my fellow community members We are failing our children are suffering because of it children are being bullied and beaten in our streets and didn't feel safe enough to tell us why would they when they told us we did nothing our teachers are suffering they're losing hope we are losing them unmanageable classrooms scandalously low pay scant resources and an openly hostile Community who will call them the bad guys instead of looking inward fellow parents shame on on us we allow this political Showmanship and this division to continue blaming everyone else but ourselves and we must be better we must demand that this political Showmanship of conspiracy sharing cease we must demand that classroom support increase we must demand that our Educators and children train for social emotional Concepts we must give up our time and help where we can we must become involved with our children's District we must open our pockets and give this District the resources to educate our children our kids need us to be a better community and I think to I think together we could do that thank you next we have Maryanne good evening higgle board I'm going to start sounding like a broken record you're going to start seeing me on a weekly basis especially when I can pull it off it's really hard for me to get to these meetings you can see by the empty seats here that most parents especially the working parents making a 500 PM meeting to have our voices heard is nearly impossible the only reason I'm able to get here tonight is my husband is between gigs allowing him to watch our children and pick them up so I could get through meetings at work I'm an elementary teacher at I won't say where but between being a parent and a teacher and a Community member who wants to be more involved in the programs that create the culture of our City I really think we need to move the meetings to 6: pm.

as a professional my day goes until 5: well into that there's no way in the world I make it here on time except I'm going back to work for the government you hear the the s in my voice there six uh 6 and 14 approval of Soul Source procurement determination what this is more for Taylor uh what came up in the last meeting was we had a contract delivered to our our community this contract ordered millions and that's the the stands out there in the wrong direction something that the maintenance guy talked to me about which is fine it happens the problem with problem with that though is if we do not have a means of of correcting it it goes on to people like myself home owners said I don't want to have to pay for something three times I already work for the government The Who there is at least one engineer who had to sign off on it and or an engineering company that engineering company needs to have have uh errors and omissions insurance on it where we should be going after is errors and omissions not my home the the other thing is what we need to have is real easy wins these are two easy wins for you is some form of technology I hear all the time the complaints about the technology incorporating technology into the the classroom it is because of technology in the classroom that I became an engineer I'm not really great at academics my language skills are not nearly as robust as everybody else's here however I could build a machine and I've put machines in I've I've worked for NASA several times I could be considered a rocket scientist wrote papers on it the technology and skill set required to be effective in that is not going to come onto a blinking LED your average without getting too technical the average life in LED is only about 3 years Thomas Edis lights well over a 100 years so if we're going to have Energy Efficiency and we're going for that in order to benefit our people and our community we have to go where the problems actually are which is which is another point on that's priorities of the of the um where the funds are going is it's one of the things that was brought up to the to Taylor yesterday we didn't have time chat about it yesterday but if we know where to where to concentrate our activities and our efforts we could deliver results if it's because of a motion because you know somebody wants something else because they uncle or cousin and it's fine whatever we we're always going to have a little bit of corruption but if we know where to focus it we could solve the problems then that's all thank you thank you moving on to the consent agenda I'm motion to approve the consent agen items 6.1 through 6.18 uh and I got it sorry no just okay um let you know um all those in favor I I I I motion carries 5 to zero and with that passing Heidi would like to come up and introduce and speak on our new assistant principal at the bridges Elizabeth melter yes thank you president Anderson and members of the board we're super excited that you just passed approval for the hiring of Miss melter our new assistant principal at Bridges Elementary I just want to um share a few highlights about Miss melter for you and for everyone here um Miss melter brings 17 years of experience to the bridges admin team prior to joining brid bridges in 2017 she already was an elementary school principal so she brings admin experience with her she's spent the last seven years at Bridges teaching both third and fifth grade and she was named as the teacher of the year in 2017 at Bridges she's been an active participant in the Higley Leadership Academy for three years and she served as our one of our summer school administrators just this past year so we're really EXA ecstatic I know the staff is at Bridges Elementary Mr Bickle is also here with her tonight and we just want to wish her uh well and [Applause] congratulations thank you Heidi congratulations okay next on the agenda is the special education private Day School report with M Miller president Anderson members of the board this is the second quarter special education private Day School report we bring these to you quarterly um and as you can see we based on the expenditures that we have allocated at the end of second quarter we feel that we're going to be able to stay within the budget um we're cutting it a little closer this year than we have and I I hope I don't have to come back and we're watching those funds closely and making sure that while doing so we're meeting the needs of our our kids so any questions wonderful thank you Miss Miller all right next is an update from the um sorry my eyes next is an update from the special education department again on the program update from the special education department Mrs Miller all right president Anderson members of the board Bo I am really excited today to be able to come to you and just give you a little bit of an overview of our special education department and some of the neat things that our programs are doing um I look forward to this every year because it's not very often that I get to brag about my team and my my campuses and we're doing some really really neat things so I wanted to begin by giving you a quick rundown of our structure um of course there's me but I could not do my job without my team they they really do carry most of the weight for me and are incredible people I have assistant um director Kristen Nash she's um has been in the district for quite some time and services all of our campus and she is definitely a staple to my program in addition this year Mr Stefan Reed um filled a new position that we added as we went through last year we started to see an increasing need for Behavior Support on our campuses our teachers were screaming for help they needed professional development in that area and we really were struggling to be able to support our teachers our students and our families so we decided to allocate some of our resources to add a behavior and program coordinator uh Stefan is able to work directly with Debbie Welch and Dina Morgan in their department and we're able to support campuses not only with special education students but also with some of our general education students that are struggling we have found that this has been a huge help he is an amazing individual and and has an extensive knowledge in the area of behavior and is one um been able to fill one of the greatest needs that we have identified last year so he's been a great addition to our program in addition to Stefan we also have two special education instructional Specialists um both of these ladies were previous teachers in our district in our special education program Miss Harrison came from kie middle school and Rachel CET came from Bridges Elementary and we know that both of those schools were really disappointed to lose them because both of them served as leaders in their programs but they have been a huge um addition to our team team some of the things that our special education instructional Specialists do is they provide site compliance and monitoring training unfortunately while our special education teachers primary focus is students they also have to be concerned about State compliance in their IEPs and that takes a lot of training and so they're able to provide that training they also provide General sight support they've done a phenomenal job this year in developing PD for our pair professionals which was an area that we were really struggling with to provide them meaningful PD so that they were able to be more effective in our classrooms and they've done a great job at that um IEP Pro is our platform where we write IEPs in and it takes a little training and practice to get used to that so they support all of our new teachers in the IEP Pro program as well as just in being new to teaching and in special education and then they also help support our first year um first year teacher training at the beginning of the school year as of this week our um instructional Specialists have completed over 30 group trainings this year so that's pretty significant and have which has affected more than 200 staff members so it's been really impressive um this does not include the individual support that theyve offer parents students administrators teachers and staff so this is above and beyond um and these positions play an intrical role in our PD development and the support of our staff so we're really excited that they're part of our team as well moving on to give you a little bit of an overview in special education we service students in all areas of these disabilities these disabilities are um can vary from state to state these categories so in Arizona these are what the state recognizes as eligibility categories that a student can res receive services for and I can say that we have students in our district that fall into every single one of those categories in order to service these kids we need to offer a Continuum of service and we do that in Higley um we are really proud of the offerings and the support opportunities that we have for students and it's taken us a while to fine-tune these things because of the amount of time and effort that goes in to supporting all of these programs um general education inclusion is the first these are students that are able to remain in their general education classroom with their peers but need that additional support in that classroom that support is typ Ty Al provided through a co- teer which means you have a gened teacher and a special education teacher in that classroom or through a pair of professional to offer support in that classroom based on what the IEP team decided the next level of support would be resource support and that is a pullout support but it's important to note that in the resource classroom we use grade level curriculum and we cover the same thing that they do in that gened classroom we just make sure to individualize it to the individual student needs the next level of support is your cross categ orical classroom this classroom is designed for students with significant cognitive disabilities that are typically functioning below grade level and they oftentimes require additional resources and supports to help them learn in their unique Manner and to address their unique IP goals because of the specialty nature of this program we do not offer this program on every campus so at the elementary level we have two um campuses on the south side and two on the North side Centennial and courtine serve on our south side with and chapparel and Coronado serve on our North Side once they feed into the middle school and high school we're able to do the cross catle program on all those campuses so both of our middle schools and both of our high schools are able to keep those students with their home schools and and um service those kids on their home campuses the next level of support is our emotionally disabled program and we call that best that's our in-house private Day program so our DP programs these programs utilized when students require an increased level support that we can't offer in the public school setting we try our hardest to try all of our other levels before we reach that point but we do have a group of students that do require that additional support um the next group is our related services so we have OT speech Physical Therapy occupational therapy is the OT visually impaired support and our hearing impaired support and I want to give a really um kind of a shout out to that group of people we are those that group of people has to travel so we don't have an OT and a PT and a VI teacher and an hi teacher on every campus and while we have speech support on every campus they're carrying case holds in the 70s sometimes so while they service one campus many of our speech and language therapists and assistants actually do travel between campuses from day to day and that can be a little bit overwhelming and they're amazing so we are really grateful that they um are so dedicated to kids and they don't mind that and that they're willing to put in the dedication to service all 13 schools and and do that um our visually impaired teacher and our hearing impaired teacher and you saw one of them here tonight um very few districts in the East Valley actually have hired in-house hearing impaired teachers and Visually Impaired teachers and we do and so that's a huge blessing we have people reach out all the time and say how did you find them and we were lucky enough to get them and they're very happy happy here and we're very grateful for them all right next I wanted to give you a quick synopsis of our student count as you can see we followed the same Trend that the state did when covid hit so in um 201920 we were at 1926 special education students in the district and we saw that dip occur and then we are now on the upward motion we're right now at 1787 um these are October 1st counts so that way we're comparing the same date every every year but this morning I did a quick poll just to see where we're at and as of this morning we're actually at 1804 so that shows you from October 1st to now just it continues to rise and we will anticipate that it will continue to do so um Elementary numbers are affecting this which we know we've seen a dip in those numbers that's usually our you know when we identify kids is an elementary school so that's also affecting those numbers but 1787 and 18 that's a quite few students that were servicing um our staffing just to kind of give you an overview we have 14 School psychologists and two psychologist interns 17 speech and language professionals four occupational therapists two physical therapists uh we have a teacher of the visually impaired and a braist um which is another in-house position we were able to hire which is very hard to find in the state of Arizona and we were able to do so we have a teacher of the hearing impaired 116 special education teachers and 170 special education PA professionals and behavior health technicians so lots of people here to support students now to kind of go on to some of our specialty programs the first one I want to talk about is our post-secondary transition program otherwise known as htap this um was started in in 2018 and was an Endeavor between husd and voke rehab and we kind of took a leap of faith hoping that we had the right person for this position with Britney Wittenberg now Mrs yanov um and she has been the main driver in the development of this program and if you haven't attended the htap graduation ceremony it is absolutely amazing and what a really great opportunity it's a feel-good moment kind of like the best buddies Carnival um students in this program are instructed in classroom setting as well as they perform job duties and skills out in the environment the they currently this year are working with Amy's Farm priest School the rain cat rescue Sunshine Acres Children's Home hm USD Unified sports program Midwest Food Bank United Food Bank Legacy Park the Perry library and HTA and Gateway Point Elementary so they they have a schedule they go to these jobs and perform duties so it's been really neat um this program has gained in popularity and we're having a huge demand for it and so right now my department is looking at ways to expand this program in a cost effective manner to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the kids so super proud of that program and the work that the staff have put into making it successful the next program that we like to talk about is our best buddies clubs throughout the district um this is a club that focuses on integration and inclusion on our campuses and really changes the climate and culture of our campuses we have won numerous Awards and so our most recent awards are our excellence and employment award and 2013 Was Won by Jacob um by Boeing Aerospace and he actually works for Boeing now and went through their wiring program and so it was a huge accomplishment for him the other award that they've won is they won the best buddies International outstanding chapter for the 2022 23 school year and this is out of over 300 chapters worldwide so a really neat opport um accomplishment by by our best buddies program in addition I I wanted to go further so these are all the awards that we've won over the years in our best buddies program so just wanted H the amount of dedication and support that staff have to put into running this club is amazing um right now we have over 300 kids participating in best buddies clubs across the district so that's a huge a huge impact on our campuses that have these programs the next program is our Unified sports program so the Unified sports program is an opportunity for some of our special education students to be able to participate in football basketball cheerleading soccer and track with surrounding districts um and they also earn the opportunity to go to State and this program was developed and it has been an amaz developed to provide opportunities for our athletes to be or for our students to be athletes and then also for the peer buddies to be able to develop those relationships we have seen so much good come out of this program not just for the students but for the families so if you ever have the opportunity to go to one of these games and watch you will not be disappointed absolutely amazing um again I just wanted to share that the staff in higgle are dedicated to their students it's absolutely amazing to see um I get the opportunity to sit with the East Valley directors once a month and kind of talk about some of the things that we need to do in the East Valley for special ed and we're at the top we're constantly ahead of the game and doing things we're constantly being asked how we're able to accomplish some of the things we accomplish and the answer to that is the staff and the families and the students that support us so thank you any questions thank you for the presentation um I love that we have so many different opportunities for special ed um students it's great um I just have one question um how many um visually impaired students do we have oh I would not have that answer off the top of my head um our visually impaired students we have students that have full visual impairment and then we have other students that are just hard of are partially visually impaired but I can get those numbers for you thank you I don't have a question or anything just thank you for everything that you do it's such a great program and um even you know the IEP programs than I personally know how much they help and how amazing there so thank you and your team and I'm looking forward to the best buddies uh Carnival as well thank you Miss Miller and staff remarkable it's one thing to have the opportunities and programs and speak about it but it's another to show the growth that your program has done and really made changes and I know people that do attend the game even students that attend the the best buddies uh games and they're excited and I I thank you thank you for uh including not just the students and the families that are in the program but those outside the program okay uh action item excuse me information item 7.3 Human Resources quarterly ESI report Mrs Johnson what do you have for us today I don't think so thank you uh president Anderson members of the board before you you have the second quarter report on ESI which stands for Educational Services Inc this service provides our substitutes both C certified and classified as well as our retired to rehire employees that have retired and now are working for E through ESI do you have any questions this evening for me short and sweet thank you thank you okay 7.4 um we are going to now hear about the maintenance and operations budget with Mr Moore yes good evening president andon members of the board tonight I'm presenting the second review of the fiscal year 2025 maintenance and operations budget so again um just to recap the Arizona Budget timeline um this budget is working towards the June um legal timeline in which we um legally adopt the proposed and adop legally proposed adopt the 25 budget but as you know in Arizona it's been a practice um it seems like every year it gets earlier and earlier to get contracts out sooner and so um we bring forth the budget uh projections early so we have the opportunity to issue contracts um with our neighboring school districts and uh secure our staffing for next fiscal year as you know Staffing is 80% of our budget and so the earlier we can secure those positions the better we can prepare for next school year um we'll look at also uh this year's revised budget our fy2 24 current year budget it requires revision to the 100th day number um before May um and so we're also going to be looking at that number as well and how it plays into the FY 25 budget conversation so the FY 25 projected budget highlights not a lot changed from the first presentation um again legislative conversations are ongoing right now um the the bills that have been proposed have now been um first reviewed so if it hasn't been read on the senate or house floor it is now off the table um however there has been a lot of bills that have been reviewed at both floors and so those are proceeding forward in the process um we'll continue to monitor those conversations um one of the big ones that are impacting public schools that we're we're keeping our eye on is the aggregate expenditure limit uh or a um as you know that has been Exempted the last two years um I've stated in the first review of the budget that we feel confident that that will also be Exempted going into this next year's budget cycle um but again that legislation has not officially been adopted or passed and so we'll continue to monitor that um but I do feel confident um that some legislation exempting that into 25 um probably be a another one-year exemption um although there's several bills that kind of propose a long-term solution for that which would be ideal but I feel at least a onee exemption to that aggregate expension limit will will be um in the Arizona state budget when it is approved so the second bullet point there um we have heard in in my circles um some Rumblings about how the state is going to make up the you know $800 million State deficit and so um there's some conversation regarding where do you take that money from right um there's no new money coming to the table so how are you going to make up that deficit going into next year um one um uh Avenue um potential that we've heard is the school facilities division that is an entity of the state um the school facilities division provides Capital funding for school districts via an application process um to submit up for for Capital repairs such as um weatherization we've been successful in receiving some of that funding um but the state uh is minimally adquate or minimally a portion to provide $16 million to the school facilities division over the last several years they've provided an excess of uh1 160 $170 million so all that additional money has been appropriated through the budget process so one area again we Fe we have heard conversations of is not appropriating that extra dollars to the state school facilities board only appropriating the 16 million that is outlined in statute um that would be unfortunate uh because that limits now the district um as another Capital funding source where we can go and submit for application for funding some of our Capital needs so not in writing yet but we've heard some of those conversations take place so moving to the kind of known implications uh we're estimating the 2% inflation adjustment to the K12 base support level um I've explained this in the past but essentially districts are on a essentially a fixed income uh that is a state formula um based on on the state legislature um in that formula there is some language um that basically appropriates the legislature the flexibility to provide an inflation increase um that language states that the state has a to minimally fund at least 2% if the grow uh GDP price is above that so we're seeing the um GDP about 3.5% so we anticipate the state funding that minimum 2% requirement uh to the base level support so that's the people amount so that is taken into consideration into this budget conversation the second bullet point there uh we know this is the last year of our fully funded M override speaking of 25 um unless it's renewed in the November 2024 election and so um as you know the board authorized uh the district to um run a Citizens committee process to bring forth a recommendation we have now successfully had three meetings uh we have two more scheduled uh before a recommendation is going to be brought to the board and so um again we'll continue with those meetings and uh look forward to the recommendation at the April 3rd board meeting the last item there is the budget transfer um the district has historically looked and utilized um the ability to transfer emo dollars to Capital um this year um we're proposing and what is being projected in the budget is transferring um 3.55 million uh to fund the Middle School lease payment that needs to be annually paid for from the capital fund um I've highlighted there second bullet point considering additional mot transfers um if there is contingency into the budget we would not look at increasing the carryover that we've currently have in the m&o budget so we are currently as I get into that we're currently carrying over 22 million um we would look at appropriating anything above that to the capital budget so we're not increasing that M carry forward amount more to come on that diving into the fy2 24 projected revision number one so this is our current year budget um that first line there um the 124 million um is what we adopted in June 2023 um projecting into our required revision um as I've mentioned we've lost seen some decline enrollment but mostly in the elementary level um so we do have that 100 day actual number that's 1831 744 um that's average daily membership that's the number that we have hit as of the 100th day and so that is what the projected um revision is is showing in um the second line there the 125 million um with all else held steady with the exception of um realizing putting in the actual budget balance carry forward that we um brought forth into this current year budget um you'll see a a projected budget revision amount of 280,000 so we take that amount into next year's budget projections again at the top we are this is our projected budget revision for the current year um we look at the now the f25 projected proposed budget um as I stated to the board we have now seen a couple years years of enrollment decline um we have historically budgeted flat um we have now proactively um slotted in a 70 student um ADM decrease into the budget projections to be proactive in the in the sense that we continue the trend of declining enrollment so the 25 budget also includes the estimated 2% to inflation um to the base level support um one of the areas where you'll see you know how is the budget saying where it's at is because we're decreasing the amount of money that we're transferring from M to Capital so when you don't bring as much money over to Capital you're going to leave that money into the ml budget um that makes up for a lot of the deficits that we've seen um and able to support that M Budget on an ongoing basis with that um you take the numbers and we kind of look at a projected proposed budget increase of $918,000 so looking at um our budget process we start we have started to fill in some of the numbers that were previously unknown um looking into next year and estimating some of our budget needs in terms of the fixed costs um property Casualty Insurance that's something we have to pay annually um it's we're not we're not immune to um what is going on in the insurance World um we have seen our fair share of claims with our property um and so we're seeing a a slight increase of about 5% um to a property insurance um in addition I've mentioned before our prepaid legals paid through property casualty um we have seen an increase usage in prepaid legal usage so that is also factored into that $80,000 in projected increases utility increases um I've mentioned before like the town of Gilbert has we're going on year two f25 will be year two of two of their um increases so we're going to see $400,000 in increases in water um this is part of their aggressive schedule um to correct uh some of the projected deficiencies that they're seeing on their side the other 100,000 is increases in SRP and uh Southwest Gas so other our other utilities are also seeing similar not as high as water but similar increases and so that's what represents the 500,000 in projected utility increases next um annually we review um cabinet as well as HR um and both um Heidi and David we review our staffing um when we looked at um both Elementary and high school as I've stated we've seen um decline in elementary and so to balance some of the um Elementary class sizes and sections um we have reduced five sections I will note that all of those have been um satisfied with either um attrition employees either choosing to um leave the district or retire um there has been no conversations of of riffing or um putting people on leave and so um that is good news um it just natural attrition has satisfied already that the five um the reduction of five elementary sections on the flip side we're seeing an increase in secondary and so um while it's not uh it's a different Staffing model we do have a formula that we use um to justify High School FTE um we're seeing an increase um based on that formula we'll be increasing one FTE at Higley High and three at williamsfield uh williamsfield saw some significant growth this year um higgle also saw some growth but is now leveling off and So based on that formula we'll be increasing for FTE total to the secondary level the third bullet point there um this is a conversation going around the state and how districts are addressing um positions they may have obligated to the Esser funds um we have been open and transparent about um the the four positions that we have budgeted in there we have um stated that we'll bring these back into the ml budget when that time comes uh and that that time is is coming uh next year we will bring in uh the assistant director of counseling and the three Elementary counselors that we obligated to the sr3 um Grant uh that now expires at the end of the school year and so that is included into that amount in addition we we have worked with um with Shauna Miller um and looked at as well as miss Karen Johnson um regarding some of our um annual needs in terms of um where we see attrition where we see challenging issues within our staffing um and one of those has been in with the PA prayer professionals um both our one and two um PA professionals uh We've having difficulty Staffing those positions we have been contracting out uh those positions at two sometimes three times the cost of what it would cost the district to hire them internally um so one of the recommendations is to reclass the para 1 and the par 2 grades uh currently they sit at par one sits at grade 105 and a pair of two sits at grade 105a um the recommendation would be to bring up the pair 1 to 107 which would be starting at 1662 an hour and then pair it two to grade 110 which would be 1829 an hour hour uh we feel like this this this reclassification would make us more competitive with our neighboring districts it help us retain the current employees that are in those positions um and you help hopefully move some of those contracted positions back in house and save us some money the last item there is is kind of supporting also the par professionals but also all our other 12-month 11 month and 10-month classified hourly and administrators um some of the conversations around being being conferred over the last two years how how do we support uh these individuals um when when we can't do it monetarily right what other avenues do we have um to provide um an attractive workfor or like an attractive District an attractive um basically job U where we can keep these individuals employed um and satisfied and so one of those areas is adding additional uh days uh specifically three days over the winter break so currently certified staff have off um admin classified hourly those are working days with the exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and so the recommendation would be to add three days between um the day after Christmas so the 26th 27th 28th and then you already have the 29th or excuse me three days between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve um the way it falls typically schedule there's either a weekend in there and so it would provide almost seven days of of leave over winter break um several our surrounding districts have all two weeks off for their classified staff um some and and some of that is competition that we're we're facing but in addition we do have other other holidays that we pay that are different and so um we settled on on three days being a um basically a recommendation that we felt would be competitive with neighboring districts and provide that um additional benefit to those those employees so all that um in addition to some other smaller changes including adding uh a teacher at the Higley Virtual Academy we just heard from Mr Dolan tonight um he's seeing increasing class sizes and demand on his programs they're a department of two um and so uh adding an additional teacher there to help support the load of the number of classes that are being added um that program um kind of sums up and rounds out that um addition reduction reclassification budget line as we look at compensation um we have two options that we have discussed and I apologize uh the meet and confer meeting was Thursday that was prior to me getting uh the board the first draft of this budget presentation so um if you didn't get a chance to review the updated version that's what I'm reviewing now um so the fy2 salary compensation option number one um includes an M um percentage increase of 2% um as I stated earlier in the presentation the the legislature we anticipate um increasing the making an inflation adjustment of 2% and we would look at offsetting that directly to our employees um this is a p this is a practice we did last year um with the exception of classified where we made a larger um recommended increase um and so that was uh considered into option number one um you can see the totals down there for each um employee category on the M um column something that's different this year is looking at the second column the classroom site fund um we have historically approved this or talked about this later in the year um when we brought forth the classroom siphon plan but we felt it was important to include that in this conversation because it plays an important role in the option number two but um every year the classroom site fund bucket um is was considered prop 301 um this was a separate bucket approved by the legislature that's based on a 610 sales tax um and so that bucket can only be used as noted in the bottom for Teacher compensation includes performance Pay Teacher development and other classroom supported services so you're pts uh your instructional coaches are all eligible to receive this fund and they are included in higley's classroom site fund plan um annually we review this this bucket and make recommendations to either increase or decrease as this is now this bucket is subjective to sales tax not our formula so so we have this whole another bucket where we Monitor and make adjustments according to how sales taxes um uh trending year after year and so um over the last couple years this has ballooned um we have seen an increase um in in the per people amount that we're receiving uh in this bucket and so uh we're proposing making a a recommendation a recommendation of a one-time basically increase to um to to to put some of this money back into the teachers pocket uh it's not the goal of this fund to to to roll over um and but we know that in in in meet and confer we talk about this we know this is subjective to sales tax right and that can fluctuate given any any s any um any bad year during a recession or during times that we're experiencing right now and so um we look at sustainability with that I I run out a fiveyear um plan to make sure that is sustainable and so um that that has been included in that um dollar amount so what what that $1.4 million represents um the reason why it says 2 to 3% it's a flat dollar amount increase to the plan of $1,750 so when you take that on a base a new teacher base salary that's going to be closer to a 3% a more experienced teacher that's going to be closer to a a 2% um and so that's why you see a range on that um but that 1.4 million represents a flat dollar increase to that bucket that teachers get paid and so um I hope that explains that because it leads into the second option um which meet and confer um is the ultimate this is the recommendation of meet and confer and based on the conversations of of how Higley has um uh operated over the last several years have we have honored all employees and so um I actually brought forth the first recommendation me and confer came up with this recommendation um which um if you see kind of reduces the obligation to M um just because the teachers are already getting that 2 or 3% from the classroom that their own bucket this averages out um their total increase to 3.5 to 4.5% so they'll be still getting the the bulk of uh the highest percentage increase out of the district but what it does is allows for another percentage increase on our other staff that are not eligible for that bucket of funds um and so that it basically allows for another percentage increase into the other groups classified Administration classified exempt and our supplemental schedule which includes all our coaches our leadership Department leads Etc and so those are our two compensation options I'm happy to take questions on those um just looking forward uh to the budget calendar conversation uh we'll be bringing forth a recommendation and asking for tentative approval so we can issue contracts um at that time you know we would like you know the board to take action on one of the two recommended compensation increases at March 6 so we can include that in the compensation language um being ahead of that early again helps us uh post those salary schedules it helps us attract and fill those positions that may now be vacant um and I hate to say but is it's just now the the norm in Arizona is how early can you post those positions post your salary schedule so you can be that District that is uh either leading that charge um or or having that most attractive salary schedule um to attract those highly qualified teachers so um moving forward April 3D as I as I mentioned the citizens committee recommendation and then we'll look at tended approval of the capital budget but I know I'm on the next agenda item Capital so I'm I'm G skip that to allow for any questions on M&L there any questions or comments I just just real quick I I don't have a question per se but I do glance over at Dr Carman to see coming from Texas and hearing how Arizona how the numbers work and just kind of reading his face to see if he's like doing this or or if he's smiling um but I just if you wouldn't mind to clarify um for our viewers and our board members um to remind them that teachers going to the slides for compensation options that um under the employee categories verus teachers and other certified staff can you remind us who the other certified staff is please I kind of alluded to that Mr President Anderson members of the board um I kind of alluded that briefly but it's our instructional coaches it's our OT our pts our speech um it's really those individuals that also may not provide direct instruction but support the instruction um and there's about um take me off top of my head but there's about 60 to 70 individuals in that group um that provide that direct support to the instruction uh that's going on in the classroom president Anderson yes um Mr Moore thank you for presenting this and I want to kind of put a shout out to our meet and confer for them to um look at a proposal and say you know thank you but we know we're getting um funding from this Source we we would like to make sure that the whole district is um fairly compensated and so I think that's I think that's very different um I don't think that happens in most districts that they they are looking out for all areas and um of employees and that goes with our strategic plan um unfortunately I will not be here at our next meeting for the vote on this um and I just I you know I really support that option too and and I appreciate that our own employees came back and and gave us a different option that they felt was more Equitable across the board so um that definitely makes me feel very proud to to be serving in our district because I don't think that happens everywhere president Anderson Mr Moore who was involved in the Mee Ander yeah so president Anderson M meeting confer consists of uh six uh District administration personnel as well as six teacher uh represent Representatives um that includes the haa president um as well as vice president and secretary and then um three at large uh teachers that represent um either different grades different subjects um we've had teachers in special we've had teachers at Middle High School um we typically have representation at each um school so elementary middle and high um and that that kind of makes up the total Mee and confer there 12 total members so six District administrations and six um certified teachers and do you happen to know uh the percentage of our teachers that are uh members of the haa I do not know that off the top of my head and do we have teachers that are not part of the haa that are uh part of the meet and confer in order to make sure their voices are heard I believe so I believe there is an individual or two that are not what I I don't want to speak to that I can I can follow up on that um okay thank you I have more questions if you don't mind go ahead while she's looking um to confirm that the meet and confer participants do they they have a term limit or do they do they change every so often who's on this in this team God bless you yeah it it does it does cycle pretty frequently um obviously the president and ha President and Vice President are are kind of standing members as well as the secretary but um over the last three years since I've been here um there's been a few changes um to those individuals so as well as to the to the district team as well um we try to get new voices different opinions um because we want that robust conversation as well as representation um in different opinions right that's the whole point of those conversations so pres president oh sorry I'm sorry go ahead go ahead president Anderson um and members of the board I did want to say that the teachers that are on meet and confer work to support all employees and it's not just members um of haa so hats off to them that that's important to understand and I appreciate that I just um I'm sorry um I just want to make sure that um those that are not that choose not to be a part of the ha8 that their voices are heard to um question about the the m and um the the funds that we have so I know that at some point there used to be a um a cap of 4% um as far as our carry forward and and the legislature got rid of that cap um and our carry forward uh were about 25% of our total budget um and I want to make sure that um and and I attended the the committee meeting last night um so I I just want to make sure that people understand the you know our total budget and the fact that um this is when we look at the the December financial report you know we've got 25 million sitting in our m&o um classro classroom site fund almost at 14 million and our um Capital at 4.3 um and our adjacent ways at 2.7 um now does that 2.7 include uh the tax levy that we approved last year yeah so that that includes that Levy that's a budgeted fund so that would include the 1.5 million that we levied in this year's budget um another um thing is um are the amount of cash that we have on hand um $31 million and I understand that um some of that money um is restricted some of it semi-restricted and some of it um we do have the opportunity to to be able to transfer to m&o if needed um so when we when we talk about I I know the reduction of Staff here is is not for the purposes of like we're having to reduce staff because we have to and it's because of enrollment purposes um but I want to make sure that the community understands um when they look at our financial reports that um although last night you said you'd never want to T touch that cash that's that's there um but that is money that is ours to use um so I want to ensure that we consider that when making um decisions as far as any type of you know pay increase or whatever that and and any type of Maintenance or um anything that the district needs that we're tapping into these funds our uh four years ago our M override I believe was about six six million uh in four years we have grown to 25 million in our m&o and that's great that's wonderful and and I love that um that we've been able to do that and grow the M um but I want to ensure that uh if we need it we're using those dollars because that's there to use um because it's quite a bit of money um also the cash that we have uh do you know if that sits in any brokerage accounts are we earning interest on that no so president and member van H um school districts are obligated to hold their money at the county treasure um we we cannot abortion that money into our own bank account um the county treasure does apply interest um at their rates um to some of those funds um but so that does help a little bit but we are we're not a preview to keeping that money in any sort of District owned account uh we have to run that money through the mar County Treasury interesting I just know of a different District that was investing in Charles Schwab so um anyway um let's see sorry I'm just looking at my notes um and are we prepaying for any expenses for 20 for 2425 budget the biggest prepays that we do are uh with property Casualty insur Insurance and workers comp uh we prepay for those uh since with the district has that's been a practice um it's now kind of built into our budget so that prepaid expense is happening every year um but we know that it's going to hit we're budgeting for that this year that we're paying for next year so next year we'll pay we'll budget for FY 25 that we're paying for 26 so um we those are the biggest prepays that we do and there's there's limitations I'm sorry that on the allowability of prepay um and in property C insurance and workers comp is one of the few that are allowed and for the three additional um paid holidays do you know what the financial impact of that would be yeah it's approximately 350,000 anybody else can jump in while I look at my notes if you have questions thanks uh thank you president Anderson uh Mr Moore I just correct me if I'm wrong because it's been a minute um originally the the carryover that we had last year was a preparation because the AAL might not pass the aggregate expenditure limit and we we knew that there was going to be a potential loss so we were kind of you know padding our Landing if we needed to so we wouldn't have to lose staff or make cuts that are difficult um and I don't remember if this was like in passing conversation or a past meeting I want to say it was a past meeting and and that we talked about this year the carry forward and part of the reason we were looking at that is because our m is running out and we don't know what the the outcome will be should we put it to a vote or do those types of things and what that money is going to look like over the course of the the next few years and from my understanding the what we had in that carry forward was kind of in preparation for what could be coming in the years as some of the current M starts to you know taper off is that correct so president Anderson member Wade uh yeah twofold um over the last few years yes we U utiliz COV relief funds right to supplement our M budget um we received you know in excess about $25 million in cover funds over the last three years that's an influx of a lot of onetime money which is why the carry forward budget was inflated right um it worked it worked um in preparation because of that a um uh the a cliff essentially or the um because we were at risk of having to reduce our budget by 19% um so we in averly put ourselves in a position to be able to to cover that it wasn't intentional um but once we were there we felt um we should probably stay here um because this AAL limit is hanging over our our head and it continues to hang over our head um it has now inadvertently worked to look um kind of future proof us because now if this m override fails um we now have um some contingency to offset um probably the two harshest years or year one and year two of the phase down um if that were to not pass on the election so um wasn't planned that way there was no intentional um to carry forward that much um it just was how it worked out um and now we continue to budget for that um in our budget as a bigger contingency amount so and I'm sorry one more time can you remind me for year one and two if the M doesn't pass what that will be yeah so again we're fully funded into next year's budget fiscal 25 fiscal 26 would be a phase down of year one which would be a 33% reduction in the $13 million m&o override that we currently receive so that's about $3.5 million FY 27 would be the second year the phase down that's a um 66% decrease that's about $9 million and then going into FY 28 that' be the complete um phase down that would that would complete the phas down so that' be a reduction of $13 million from our budget um again we we have several opportunities to kind of take that to the voters and try to renew it but um yeah thank you president Anderson Mr Moore typical uh carryover just looking at surrounding districts is 3 to 5% um and as I mentioned we're at 25% and it's great that we can do that but again um when we talk about um going out for bonds and overrides um we have quite a bit money in our bank um and the funding you know has increased over the years um this is the most amount of money that um we're getting from from legislation um and I my concern is we need to ensure that we are using these funds and yeah it's nice to be able to have that but you can't keep this money in the bank and then go go back go to the bank and ask ask them for money um when we have quite a bit of money um to utilize uh we wouldn't do that in our personal finances and um I'm concerned that we would do that to our taxpayers um the funding just just the cash on hand at $31 million I mean that comes from our preschools and any any of those funds that you know programs that we have within the district um and it's actual cash Cold Cold Hard Cash that we have on hand um so aside from our M and our Capital funding um we need to be able to consider that um before we would consider any cuts um or any type of um and that should definitely be a a conversation within our uh committee meetings that you that you have for the bond um I think it's important to um to keep that in mind um also we had um the on here it says 24.5 um balance carry forward but on the December financial report it says 25.3 do you know what that difference is yes so we're looking at projected ending balances and and the December financials are current year ending B current balances as of today we still have uh we're in February uh we still have three more months of school as well as five more months in the fiscal year um so there's a lot of expenditure still to take place um so why wouldn't that be listed as part of the incumbrances why wouldn't that it could be one-time obligations um encumbrances are encumbered are purchase ORD that in place so salaries and benefits those are all encumbered um a lot of the M obligations that we have remaining for the year are Department um expenditures that are done either for licensers um these are POS that are put in at any given point in the year when that renewal comes up to date okay and and so we don't we don't plan that within our forecast that and and be able to add it to the encumbrances in order to know that difference a lot of times we're waiting for those quotes to be received there may be price changes or um differences in contract language um or different purchasing mechanisms that are being utilized to procure that item um and until all those items are known we don't input a purchase order because then we would be either under undervaluing or overvaluing that item um so we wouldn't go through the process of putting a purchase order in place until we know exactly what that expense would be thank you so much president Anderson m v hook I just I hear you with our cash accounts I just want to clarify though that there is a lot of those accounts that we can't just touch so kind of it's kind of misleading saying we just have 30 31 million sitting in cash at our disposal um while there is $31 million there it's not just at our disposal that we can use for anything um a large a large amount we have is in our self insurance that that's we can't just use that for anything we can't just pull that so um I hear what you're saying that we do need to be looking and and going through um what what is available for our use what are we using um but it's not that we just have $31 million sitting out there going okay well we can just pull $ 31 million dollar into our m&o so I I just want to clarify that and like Mr Mo said part of the reason that we had a large M and carryover is that we did receive our Sr funds and I just want to say I'm thankful for how we used our Sr funds because as of right now today you are hearing of several districts who are falling into some serious Financial issues and doing reductions in workforces because they were not not um as thoughtful with their eser money and that it's been a conversation with Mr Moore when we got our eser money and that's what's in our our budget here where it talks about these um counselors that part of the requirements there were requirements and stuff around the Sesser money and we hired counselors but when we chose to do that with the user money we had the conversations of this is onetime money and it's going to run out and then what are we going to do because we didn't want what I'm going to call a oneand done although it would have been a two-year thing and then go I'm sorry we can't provide counselors anymore because that us our money is gone so that was something that even then when we were hiring them we knew was going to have to roll into our m and so we were we were able to pay a lot of things out of that erer money that will now roll into our M and we're going to see a very different picture because I agree I don't know very many people who can sit with a 25 or 25% overage in their bank account and if they can then they're probably not working as hard as Mr Moore so um um and that that's not going to be considered typical and I just find that we've been able to to plan ahead and be smart about it but we are going to see that go away we are going to see that dwindle down we're not going to have as much carryover um and we've been in some different Financial situations than uh some of our larger districts around us that I know my conversations with Mr more has been a lot on contingency that we didn't know what was going to happen that we anticipated some things coming up and some things did and some things didn't or it wasn't as bad as we anticipated so um so part of that and just being in the know who gets a $400,000 increase in water I'm just saying who who gets a $400,000 increase in water T of Gilbert but that that's huge and if we don't plan for some contingencies and again I hear you the 25% I hear you um but those are some things that we've been able to to be fortunate to cover without going how are we going to pay this so um I hear what you're saying and I think that just asking that okay let's look and see what is what is is there is um good and again we're we've been able to do some of this because of our override so um I do think we need to look at that know what we're asking for if if we're asking for an override we need to know what and why um but a lot of the funds that we have out there uh we can't just spend in any fashion president Anderson board member Reese um yes and I mentioned that that some funds are restricted some are not restricted and some are semi-restricted for instance Medica Medicaid reimbursement um it's the usfr description specifically says can be used for anything and can be transferred to M and we have uh a bud budget balance of almost 2 million in there uh we also have Community Schools um which says any unused monies must be transferred to M funds um and we have almost 2.5 million in there so there are funds in there that could absolutely be transferred to M if needed um and that I I hope that if it ever comes down to it that we would consider that for sure and I know just from time to time while it may be restricted or unrestricted that there's purposes for them so there there's certain things that do get paid out of those even if they're restrict restricted or unrestricted so leftover balances is what I'm talking about that's as of December correct we still have five months of school so um some of the things we'll we'll see dwindle down a lot more to too that you start out a little bit higher and I'm not I'm not discounting that I'm just we need to be aware that we still have more school and and some of we've received payments and and some the payments come from this year into like at the end of for this school year we may not get that payment we might have just gotten a payment in October that made it look higher that we have stuff we need to pay out of right and I know that like for the for the first six months um I think it was 40 yeah 46 million and then for the the second half of the um school year we've got incumbrances of 53 million so there's about a 6 and A5 million um additional funds that we'll be spending um you know that we didn't spend the first half of the year um so I I don't I don't know what those are right now that we're expecting to spend that 6.7 million um and then also the when we voted on the tax levy that was one of my concerns is you know when we have funds to use um again going out and and taxing the community um is a concern of mine I want to make sure we're staying on on budget it is the tax levy well it's part of all the finances okay um but anyway so I just wanted to point out um so that those in the community that don't understand because it's taken me a while even though I have a finance background it's taken me a while to understand all the coding myself um so that's all president oh sorry Mr Mo I know we've had a slide on the cash on hand before but is there something that you can create for the community so that we aren't you know just saying they know that the 31 million isn't just for us to touch and where this goes and what would happen if we depleted those funds so we have a clear picture certainly I can look to uh add that into the next budget conversation thank you very much president Anderson uh first off I wanted to Express gratitude to you Mr Moore um obviously I've only been on this board for a short period of time uh and my experience with uh our CFOs in the past have been very very different something that I tremendously respect you for and I think uh a lot of people throughout District can say the same is that while you are extremely fiscally responsible um I think you value staff um you value the importance of the people that we have in this district and at the end of the day that's for students and what we can do to serve our students best is to keep the best teachers that we have around and you know considering how hard it is to be in this profession and the very apparent problems that we're walking into in terms of Staffing and keeping people and everything else because at the end of the day none of this works if we don't have staff to keep this working um so I wish to express GR itude to that because I think that is something that I've at least felt from you is always at the center in terms of how we talk about you know staying competitive with our districts that are neighboring us because it's very hard us being a smaller District surrounded by such large districts that are capable of doing certain things and so as we go forward for that I am very much grateful and I'm also grateful to meet and confer and how that process does go down because at the end of the day as a teacher we cannot do anything without our you know supportive staff helping us accomplish our tasks and so I think that's just a great Testament to Higley to Shadow what board member ree expressed in that we try to do the best we can to take care of our own and make it an environment in which it's difficult to leave because you want to be here so thank you any more questions or comments for Mr Mar all right uh 7.5 bringing Mr Moore back to the mic on the capital budget review what I say 7.4 I'm sorry 7.5 if I didn't say that President Reese member of the board uh appears I monopolizing this meeting but um budget is a hot conversation tonight U as it always is right that is the nature of Arizona so um tonight we're presenting our first review of our capital budget um just a little recap of what is capital right it is separate from ml um but capitals uh also known as District additional assistance in the if you're looking at our budget forms um but most commonly referred as capital um is is items that typically have use whole life of at least one year they're typically repaired rather than replaced um an independent unit that retains its original shape appearance character Etc and those examples include constructing renovating remodeling buildings um some other examples also include athletic equipment Furniture technology uh software um um whereas on the flip side what we just finished discussing was M which is what we pay our salaries and benefits our supplies Services repairs and fees from so this presentation addresses our capital budget um some of the highlights include um daa as I said that's the I guess appropriated term by the state um but we refer to as capital um it's going into this third year of a scheduled inflation adjustment this is year three of three um three years years ago Governor Jud guy implemented uh an inflation increase to this fund which has not seen an inflation adjustment again this bucket is separate from the M bucket is not subject to an annual increase in inflation and so um the appropriation three years ago had um a small adjustment to this fund to um apply some inflation um increases over the course of the last three years so we're going into our third year what that means is we're going to see about 4.6% increase um in this fund um and so it does help does not solve the complete issue because we're still seeing um drastic underfunding with with our capital budget uh and how much it can it can support the district um one of the major highlights you'll see in this presentation include fewer major maintenance projects um as we just presented the m&o budget you're seeing a lot more expenses come back into the M budget so we don't uh utilizing that capacity within the M budget we don't have that flexibility to bring those over into the capital budget um you'll uh you'll see this proposal has no additional transfers to support major maintenance um on the third bullet there um one of our major emphasis was um addressing our our security cameras and so um we are in the process of bringing forth phase two of uh that security the plan security camera infrastructure upgrade um this plan focuses again on next year and that would be a potential phase three um we have seen great success with with some of these implementations of these new security cameras uh they're night and day from what we've utilized in the past um the technolog is um uh Leaps and Bounds above what we had and so it's already helped um in in several um instances where we had property damage or people um coming onto our property we've been able to easily identify them get them to our SRO and um uh you know further you know either prosecute or or proceed with um addressing that that uh trespassing so uh the description to the left um kind of looks at some of the upgrades that we've we've done this year so the top picture is the San field lights so um again some of the just unforeseen things that I think go like implied right uh it's implied that these lights are going to continue to work so and and the reality is these are these are common maintenance items that we replace in our maintenance budget and so the top one shows our field lights and saucan being repaired uh the bottom description shows a main circuit breaker that was repaired this year um looking at our our capital budget um we go line by line um I'll go into greater detail on this so I'll kind of um peruse through this rather quickly but um how we've presented this over the last couple years we have our categories uh these sometimes represent departments or areas of focus in our capital budget um column number two the daa so that's our Capital um dollar amount that we're allocating towards those Capital categories and then you have adjacent ways which is our um our other Capital fund um so you'll see at starting at the top category we have districtwide um again I'm going to go into more detail on these um and I I think I'll reserve the right to do that so we can I don't monopolize the whole entire conversation but um going on the with two pages of the capital budget um I really want to emphasize again the First Column is our categories um second column is our capital budget and the third column is our adjacent ways total so um moving to the bottom of the page I kind of want to explain how the capital budget uh amount comes to fruition um we have a state allocated a portion capital budget and so that represents um that middle line there on the bottom category the daa budget capacity for fiscal 25 so we're anticipating a $7.8 million budget that's our annual appropriation of capital funds for the district in addition I've mentioned previously in M conversation that we transfer um 3.55 million to cover the Middle School lease payment um so that's really a dollar Ford dooll transfer because we have to pay that lease obligation from the capital fund that's the reason we transfer those funds over we're anticipating carrying forward about $4 million from this year's budget into next year um and so that is included when you calculate that total budget capacity and so you'll see a total capital budget capacity of 15.3 million um if you have been on the board for a while you'll see that number is about half of what we've previously approved in the last couple years um a lot of that is because we are spending those Capital dollars um and putting them to use so diving into the the details of the capital budget um I mentioned the categories and so each of these categories again is represented on that previous slide but I'll I'll share a little bit of um information on each one of those um budgets so the districtwide uh Capital allocation includes that 66,000 includes our various Department budgets that have Capital funds so we have sped um our superintendent budget our public information's budget so that's the accumulation of that of those budgets that it represents the 66,000 adjacent ways fund um as Miss man hook mentioned before we that's a levied fund um that currently sits at a budget about $2 million we're anticipating bringing forth in a budget of about $2 million into next year um we are still working on uh receiving bids for the San bus Landing expansion and then researching as I mentioned previously that williamsfield high school student parking lot um just a current status update on that we're still working with the town or Gilbert to make uh with the feasibility study on whether we can add a light uh uh North into that parking lot where the pool is um if that is allowed then that will greatly allow us to then move forward with um some future planning and that and start to assess um what we can do with a light at the north end of that parking lot so still in the works the town of govern has not um communicated that yes or no but um that is something again we're researching because we know williamsfield High School is an issue when pickup and drop Mr Mor didn't the town previously say no to that when we asked him they have previously said no but in recent conversations they've been more open to um entertaining that idea so previously right our enrollment was not as high as it was now so we're seeing increased traffic that was not previously no I know it's Miserable as wait just mention me I just wondered if that I I don't know if somewhere that I missed that they had a change of heart so I was just they they have recently had a change of heart and and been more entertain entertaining the idea idea more so and so uh awesome we are proceeding with pursuing that because I think that is maybe we could add the left hand turn to be longer too the what yeah remove it yeah for sure we're looking at all options um with that um but yeah still in progress um again with the town There's no there's no quick solution right there needs to studies and assessments done to make sure that we're not making other unintended impacts um to traffic so um but that's in the works and that's again why we levied for those funds thank you for clarifying um the Middle School lease I've mentioned this multiple times now that that payment is 3.55 million we transfer that exact amount to Capital to make that payment so it's a dollar for dollar um looking at the ed Service budget um we have a category assessment student information so um that is our assessment team so we pay we've allocated 350,000 that covers our canvas our Synergy which is our um attendance platform flexx point which is used previously called Florida virtual that's our hva c um software and then other assessment solar assessment software um instructional materials um this provides the curriculum supplementals that we need for several of our programs that have special curriculum uh those include dual language emergence um HDA Etc and so um that's what the 275,000 covers the textbook adoption um we have a annual curriculum cycle and um next year we have social studies scheduled and so in talking with M Richards um we are taking our time um moving into that adoption subject um probably be towards the later of the fiscal year um but there's been several changes in in curriculum and and that's a subject um it's been highly Poli just say that so we're working um but that is is our as in our cycle and so um we're budgeting for that um we'll again inform the board that it's a very public involvement process with parents and Community uh and when that does take place again we'll make sure that those are communicated out um looking at technology um we have categories that in four kind of main uh categories so we look at classroom technology and those are student devices so for fiscal 25 we're looking at replacing all the High School freshman devices and so um by replacing those freshman devices those devices now stay with that student for the the entirety of their fouryear tenure at the high school you know pending they continue to finish with Higley and graduate um that cost is 500,000 the districtwide refresh um um we have ongoing teacher laptop replacement and network upgrades and so for school 25 the replacement schedule includes hgle high school saucan and kolie middle school um in addition we have several Telecom upgrades um several of our systems in terms of Telecom are outdated and need to be uh refreshed districtwide software this is our annual software renewals um this has relatively stayed flat over the last couple years um but this includes our Microsoft we're Microsoft Office office District Visions is our financial software and human resource software Frontline is our hiring software and so uh this includes all those annual software obligations that the district has Safety and Security um I kind of touch on this in the Highlight but this would uh we have tentatively budgeted phase three for our video camera Replacements um as well as the khawk intercom system so um we're scheduling and phasing these approaches in rather than taking one false swoop we've done um several things budgetarily to kind of minimize the cost by utilizing in-house District Maintenance people to help with the install we're doing a lot of the cabling ourselves as well um but still utilizing the vendor to make sure that we're not breaking any warranty and maintaining that warranty so uh the phase approach has work really well um again we just finished phase one and we'll be bringing a recommendation for phase two in this fiscal year maintenance and construction um we have reduced this budget going into next year um slightly uh this covers this 800,000 covers our our HVAC Replacements that are scheduled water heaters uh custodial equipment electrical lighting and other various Capital Replacements um both planned and unplanned that come throughout the year um we always have a plan um but there's always unforeseen Capital needs that come come about during the year uh we have a small capital budget for our grounds Department uh this helps replace and refurbish some of the grounds equipment that either is broken or needs to be replaced on a annualized schedule and then uh thirdly we do a capital project request this uh 250,000 that is budgeted allows our schools the opportunity to submit for capital projects that they could not afford within their their allocated budget um these are bigger projects um that typically um have a larger impact on their campus some of the projects that we've we've improved recently are like Mass large scale furniture um replacement um as well as um other like um shade structures Etc so some of the things that they could not typically afford um they get opportunity to request up and District cabinet gets it um kind of prioritizes those into that $250,000 budget major maintenance as I mentioned uh we would not be transferring over any additional funds um but we have still some major maintenance needs that were not addressed in last year's budget so a lot of these items um you'll see that we're carry forward from last year we did not get to um a chance to to support these within our current year budget uh mostly due sometimes due to we had some inflation increases across some of the originally budgeted items that we intended to do um those prices came back higher than what we anticipated um so we had to postpone some projects um and again we're continuing to utilize uh the capital lease funds that were returned to the district when we refinanced that lease um for the kie and sasma middle school so those lease funds again were returned to the district they were meant for those two schools and so we're we're maintaining and honoring that and utilizing those funds to um offset the district obligation um transportation um currently right now we have the board approved earlier this year two bus Replacements um and talking with the director of Transportation um we are proposing not you know allocating any dollars here um and utilizing uh some of the the cash funds uh the Enterprise service fund that Transportation has available to it uh to support their Capital needs next year so um as miss van H mentioned we we are um utilizing those funds in our budget projections in next year um School Capital budgets um I kind of briefly touch on these These are formula based on student count um so each School gets a allocated budget for furniture fixtures and equipment we also call that FF uh it's 45 per student $45 per student based on 1003 day ADM so this budget allows that site ad Administration to um um fund some of their priorities within their school right every school has kind of some different needs especially based on program um and so this fund um gives those site admin the some atomy to make some Capital Improvements to their site athletic equipment at the high schools and middle schools we have sports programs that the district supports um that 100,000 is split between the high schools and middle schools um to help support and maintain those athletic um requirements and needs so we do the same thing for on the flip side for um non-sports um individuals with instruments and individuals that uh participate in band and some of our other um uh not curriculum but like uh extracurricular activities and so we provide 100,000 for uh the those Fine Arts um kind of groups and categories and then last slide here we have a warehouse print shop again utilizing some of the cash funds that we have our print shop has um uh been been successful and in um Garing revenue from not only um are utilizing our district um to to make print jobs but um we have um a number of external users that utilize our print shop for print jobs and so um again we'll look to support their Capital needs um with that external Revenue that we're receiving um for the printop and warehouse and then the capital budget contingency going project you uh this can be set aside for fiscal 25 is $2 million and so it's approximately 133% of the total um FY 25 capital budget um that is down um year after year from what we've previously carried over two years ago it was 8 million this year is 4 million and now we're carrying 42 million and I would be remiss if you know I would not probably recommend going below that uh Capital has can see sometimes a lot more higher dollar figure um in or unforeseen circumstances um and and being able to support those in the fiscal year is why we carry forward contingency and so with that uh we have a couple meeting schedule to review the capital budget again the second review um Coming March 6 um I'll do a much more SC scale down version of this if there's no further questions or no um items that you want me to look into or provide more detail on and then we'll ask for tenative approval April 3rd to allow our maintenance team and other departments to get ahead of the procurement cycle and purchase items for the upcoming year um and that's been our practice and it's worked effectively and in allowing us to have those items as of July 1 and for the start of school year any question president Anderson Mr Moore how many phases do we have for the cameras I see three but is there right now we we have uh planned out to three um we and yeah that that is the extent of of what we planed so far um we had a strategic plan to address the exterior campuses the exterior entrances in the first phase um at elementary schools phase two would address the exterior entrances at our secondary campuses and then phase three would look at addressing um some of our high usage interior areas where um we typically see areas of um disciplinary areas where we need to constantly review um instances or occurrences that that may occur okay and then I I I saw that so in August we we approved two campuses for um HVAC uh the next whatever the next phase is as far as HVAC I'm guessing that's what's included in here major project is that part of major projects is all exterior weatherization okay do we have any more I know we recently approved more hvacs do we have any more of those to replace or repair yeah we constantly have hbac units and that would come from the general maiden's capital budget um and then again uh we we try to utilize the school facilities board to submit up for units that have either expired or are not working um to to support you know the replacement of those items so we we try to utilize Grant funds but um are you looking for particular schedule on HVAC replace I don't um no I I just saw I I knew I saw it somewhere in this presentation and I couldn't figure out where it was I found it thank you um and then just one more question I'm sorry um on the financial report where it says Civic Center what is that exactly uh yeah Civic Center is are rental uh Revenue rental yes okay thank you anyone else questions or comments okay thank you Mr Moore all right next uh item 7.6 um we're looking at the proposed changes to policy be school board meetings and this one is Dr Lindsay good evening president Anderson members of the board this is one of four policies that we're bringing forward as a first read um based on legislative changes or updates that were provided to us from aspa in their most recent policy update so the first one is on policy be school board meetings this is an update to policy per recent legislation um that adds language specific to seating at board meetings so schools school boards and exe executive boards and municipalities are required to provide for an additional or to provide an amount of seaing sufficient to accommodate the reasonably anticipated attendance of all persons Desiring to attend uh the meetings when feasible um it does not require the public body to relocate the meeting outside of the largest regular meeting room and except for a meeting through technological devices the agenda for a public meeting is required to include the notice of the time that the public will have access to the meeting place presid uh Anderson Lindsay Dr Lindsay sorry um I uh wanted to um see if you can explain this sentence um where it says a a meeting includes a one-way electronic communication by one board member of a public body and then um I don't know why I don't move my mic to me instead of my chair to my mic um a um and then the second sentence a meeting also includes an exchange of electronic communication among a quorum um of members I'm just like wouldn't that be an open meeting law violation since it wouldn't be posted that's my understanding okay so that's a practice that should never occur right I believe that they're defining what a meeting is within the policy okay all right thank [Music] you any other comments or questions okay thank you Miss Lindsay um moving on to 7.7 we're going to look at the proposed changes to policy BB and Dr Lindsay it's back president Anderson board members this is an update to policy per recent legislation again that relates to the previous policy we just looked at um specifically the agenda for the public meeting is required to include the notice of the time that the public will have physical access to the meeting place the exception would be for a meeting through technological device Additionally the updated policy provides individuals with a disability to request the reasonable accommodation and procedures how to do so and finally upon review of this policy District leadership would also like to propose um that the board remove this section of the policy that outlines the order of business and instead put it into the policy regulation when we reviewed the policy and our current the outline in our current policy does not reflect the current governing board agenda structure and we think that moving this language to the regulation would be more appropriate to provide flexibility so the board isn't constantly having to update the policy president Anderson Dr Lindsay I'm just curious why we wouldn't just leave that in the policy and um so whatever language that's in the regulation why wouldn't we just leave it a part of the policy um board member or I'm sorry Vice President Van Hook uh it's more for flexibility so we can make updates or the board can make updates to the structure or the agenda um so we're not constantly having to bring forward the policy to have it approved again we can make those regulations administratively based on the um agenda of the board meetings thank you and um I did notice on here um it says uh on the regulations it says vote of members um and I was just curious if we can change that to say governing board members on the regulation yes yes yes so majority vote of board governing board members yep we can include that thank you so do we have to uh right okay so they just correct it correct anyone else thank you for that ad I think that sounds more professional it meets for the purpose of the regulation okay now we are going to on to 7.8 the proposed changes to policy Iha basic instructional program and this time we're going to hear from Dr Lindsay again this is an update to policy per recent legislation again per HB 2060 ars1 15-21 uh this adds language um and adds a literacy coach or literacy specialist to each school to the list of employees that m that may satisfy the dyslexia training requirement at each K3 School in the district um previously these positions were not included however that's been our practice and all of our literacy coaches are already trained so it just adds language to our policy additionally Administrative Code rz-2 d301 provides basic instructional program requirements for common schools grades K through 8 ARS 15-7 10 requires common school grades K through 8 and high schools grades 9 through 12 to provide a total of one-year instruction in state and federal constitutions American institutions and ideals and the history and in the history of Arizona including the history of Native Americans in Arizona please note that husd is already in compliance with these requirements also policy language has been updated to align with current basic instructional program requirements president Anderson um Dr Lindsay I don't necessarily have a question I just want to point out that um our uh ARS 1- 602 of the parental Bill of Rights just backtrack a little bit so section F of the policy states that um health and physical education including mental health mental health instruction may be included as part of other subject areas and shall comply with the statute um I just want to make a note um to just to mention that part of the parental Bill of Rights section e uh states that um and paraphrasing um that uh par parents have the right to um op you know opt their children out um if they choose um not to participate in any type of mental health instruction um and one question actually I do have is so if they let's say if there was mental health instruction in um health and PE um what options do parents have in that case vice president um Van Hook from an elementary perspective it's PE and so it's more about healthy habits if anything else um with with respect to secondary I'll defer to my colleague here thank you I would say it's the same and at the secondary level when we look at PE classes as well thank you thank you mine is just language um in here if we if we could go back to the front first page and scroll all the way down to where it's Redline the instructional program will include plan sequences in um I don't know if we could keep a sentence there it doesn't necessarily have to be this one but it opens up for what introducing a b c all the way down down to what those are um I I don't have a proposed language and I'm not sure if maybe we could start with why was that sentence removed president uh Anderson I'm not sure why they removed it it was we did a comparison between the two policies and the updated policy from asba had that line not a part of the policy so we struck it from ours but I don't really see any reason why we couldn't have it there I don't know if anyone else has any comment to that I wasn't sure if it had to do with sequences if that was anything to do with it I'm even if we look let that out it just seems odd we stop at one part and then we just open up with an AB if we could just introduce those sections that's all I have to contribute president Anderson I would guess that it potentially has to do with the word sequences which implies an order a required order so I mean we could look at the instru instructional program will include and then list thank you thank you okay we're good on 7.8 right um next uh we're going to go to 7.9 the proposed changes to policy ik KF graduation requirements ah we have a new Mr Lon what do you have for us thank you president Anderson uh as Dr Lindsay had said these are um updates for asba for our previous legislative update and we're updating ikf we're not changing any language we're just adding the language it's actually the exact same language that is in uh policy Iha uh which was then referenced and so if you'll see on the second page it says per pursuant to ARS 15-17 or 710 a total of one year instruction in state and federal constitutions American institutions and ideals and the history of Arizona including the history of Native Americans in Arizona is required during grades 9- 12 we are already compliant in this we are just adding the language uh from legislation for the update and and this ikf is referenced in Iha so we wanted to make sure that we were consistent when it was referenced then you would turn around and see it in in uh in the graduation policy as well okay thank you no questions or comments okay thank you now we're going to jump into action items um item 8.1 BDA board organizational meeting this will be the second read do we have any questions or comments regarding this policy second read nothing okay well I motion to did you have anything okay I motion to approve policy BDA board organizational meeting in a second all those in favor I I motion carries 5 to zero okay action items again 8.2 communication protocols um any questions or comments input regarding our communication protocols president Anderson I got quite a bit um so when we talked about moving the board meeting to um one day prior we were told that we can we should consider putting that in the communication protocols and that just it didn't we didn't do that so I I don't the fur the further conversation did not occur um related to that um so and ultimately again um we didn't take a final vote as to we were practicing the change um but there was no vote for that change that occurred um and one of the concerns then was that um you know if we move it to one day earlier then then we're going to have problems with being able to add things to the board to the agenda um she's asking where we're at uh the communication protocols no that's what I'm saying like we we didn't we were told that we could add it to the communication protocols and we didn't um and so I'm just wondering I and the concern was the fact that um if we change that then you know we we'd Miss putting things on the agenda um but this agenda we were adding things to the last minute um so I don't know if that's a conversation that we can have as far as updating including that in the communication protocols or um when Miss mlen was here we talked about us getting our board packets on Thursdays and she recommended It Go in the communication protocols and that it's not there so no there we go um what I thought we had talked about and part of the reason that it wasn't so correct me if I'm wrong because then I clearly misunderstood the last one is that we were also talking about the potential of doing um like the work study sessions and the work study sessions would heavily impact what we decided in that other area and so the way I interpreted that last meeting that we had where we discussed it was a plethora of us were interested in that work study session which is what we said as the directive going forward because that would greatly impact the need for an extra day or different time ex that's the whole point of it right was for that so I think that's at least the way I understood it I didn't expect it to be in here because I thought we were going to talk about the work study session no so president Anderson uh you're going to have a new superintendent and I think that it'll be important for him to be able to work with you to determine what that looks like um we are sharing the proposed dates with him but we obviously would like to have his feedback and your feedback on how those work studies and meetings are structured so we're kind of in a weird spot I don't know how else to say that uh I want to be respectful of you guys and what you want and I also want to be respectful of him so but that's the way I understood it too so but if you guys want to wait on this we can wait or we can accept it and it can be it's not a policy per se so it could be adjusted it was important that everybody um agreed to it and understand it and have input on it so I also maybe before I mean we can always revisit should things have to be revisit but I also and it could be just I'm confusing the things with um with the lawyer that we talked about previously one of the things that she talked about was that we could put it in here but one of the difficulties of that is that it's policy and then it doesn't allow us the opportunity was that something else oh then we're good she recommended we not put that in policy and put it here I I would I mean it either way I think that come July this needs to be Revisited again anyway um Dr Carmen may bring some different perspectives and preferences and and things like that too um I don't I don't know anything in it for me is urgently needing to be changed um as an expectation but I'm also okay with what's there so if someone feels that we need to to vote on this to have this in place at the moment then I'm okay that way too but I think either way we have to revisit this in in July with Dr Carmen is re I agree uh I think it doesn't all of these things in place I mean it's a reminder of communication protocols and it doesn't bother me to keep it in since we're going to revisit it in July that I'm fine with a boat today so any of the recommendations that I had that good that I had would it be best you recommend to save it until July like like Miss re said it's not going to change how we do things either way it's just updating verbiage like for example can I just mention one of my recommendations was on the page where it says governing board superintendent roles and responsibilities with the orange table um it has the board in one column another column and I I I just recommended under either create its own row or add to possibly ures accountability make sure we add evaluate superintendent in there because it's just one of our roles and duties that that we work very diligently on and and um that's not that's not added or listed in um our roles and responsibilities so again it's policy we already have it in there um is it a communication protocol I don't know like some of I feel like this document is really long I went to the Queen Creek School Districts and it was one page one page um not saying we have to be like them but I just thought man they got in one page um and you know another thing but I do find this one important as far as communication is that the very last thing after board meeting protocols I thought about adding policy following and making sure we follow policy uh bgd and that's um administrative administration's communication to the board on any regulation or exhibit changes um because I don't I don't think we've received any and you may not have made many but there was one when I was going through um grievances where the exhibits had been changed believe was the exhibits we had no clue um so I just make want to add that that would be a great communication call and that's actually a policy that needs to be followed and of course it was an old policy I think is another one dating back to 2001 um but I think it'd be fair again does it have to be added today no because it's policy but it would be good to add so you know I mean I I think keeping your notes make sense I also think if it's covered in policy then I I I do think that's important going for like because then we have it right and I do think those things are important to include for that um I mean I don't I don't think this really changes currently how we function either way so I mean I I don't have strong FS in any direction kind of deal so if people are uncomfortable by it then I think that gets to matter and then we can go on I mean because this is basically what we already had you eliminated stuff from my understanding if I recall so we had even longer previously remember weigh it was 13 pages so yeah so I mean if if somebody's currently uncomfortable then I say okay fine we can table it and we don't have to worry about it if if ultimately it is a a thinner version of what we currently do while still making sure that those policies of concern are already in place then I mean I personally don't have any strong feels either way so I don't have a problem voting for it because we will be revisiting it as we should but um yeah board member Anderson I do have uh concerns with a couple um senten in here and I think that so I'll mention the sentences um the part that says that um all communication with news media for the purpose of seeking or arranging uh page it's a second page sorry I highlighted my page so I assumed yours was highlighted too okay um so it says uh arranging news coverage providing official statement from the district or responding to requests um from media have to be channeled through the office of superintendent um as I stated last time uh we are elected officials um I took a oath to defend the Constitution and I surely will not allow myself to be silenced um I have a First Amendment right to be able to have those conversations and as Christina mentioned last time just because you can doesn't mean you you should but just because I can doesn't mean I shouldn't either um and so and then the second um sentence is on page six um where it says board members and staff will support or stay silent and not undermine the decision of the board um we are individual board members and we all have a voice um and so again um telling us to stay silent is a uh violation of our First Amendment right and I will not um allow that for myself or for any anyone else up here um because that is our constitutional right to be able to have um the ability to speak um about whether we like something or dislike something um so I would I would like to see that verbiage removed um and I mean I I don't know how you know if everybody else would support silencing themselves I'm I'm not sure why when we all took that oath um but that's my recommendation is to uh you know remove that you know this could be a recommendation board members and staff um you know should support but to say will support or stay silent is a bit ridiculous for me um let's see sorry do you have go ahead and then I'll go on about are do you want to continue okay president Anderson Vice President Van Hook I mean if you guys are I'm making notes of your comments and we can take them back and add this and like I said your new superintendent will probably want to review this and provide input as well so you know we can we can continue to revise and like you said you're probably going to go through this in July and excuse me Dr Carmen if I'm speaking out a turn that um Our intention was to simplify the communication protocols we had in place because 13 Pages was 13 pages and it was a lot so I always think works and progress are good so I mean we can we can take it back add the comments you said and let this individual work to think through it too because I'm going to guess if I hand this to Dr Carmen he's going to have some input president Anderson Just a and a reminder that these protocols were created between the board members at the time and the superintendent at the time and this is how um some of it was brought by the superintendent some of it was brought up by board members that they would like this is how we want to hold each other accountable some of it references policy um board member Van Hook on the media release there is a policy regarding that so it's not just in our protocols there is an actual policy um of and it references it kdda regarding media um so then that's something we need to look at because it's actually in policy it's not just a a protocol there um as far as the the last part you referenced is that again it was created with the board board members at the time this is how they felt um was necessary to hold each other accountable our role and responsibility is once the vote is done that we support the district doesn't mean you have to support the vote per se if you will but the vote is the vote if if you're on a losing end and it passes with at least three people then it passes and it is what it is and and we're the expectation of a board member is to support that um how you choose to do that is up to you um and again this was one of those things that with the board members at the time said the way we hold ourselves accountable to supporting a vote is either stay silent you just don't talk about it you don't have to be out there and cheer for it we're not ask anyone go yay I something passed that I didn't support you know and and that's why the words are there um and it's not necessarily to silence you it is our responsibility is to support the district and the vote whatever it is however it goes one way or another it doesn't help our district any if we're on a losing end of a vote that we're out there bashing the district bashing the board members bashing the administration because we were on a losing end of a vote um that we need to support it it passed or it failed one or the other um and our role as board members is to support whatever that boat is um so I I understand you you don't like the language I really think that there's probably more here than um than we probably really were prepared for tonight and with a new superintendent I do think we should probably hold our um our comments and and our suggestions till we can meet with Dr Carmen whether that be individually whether that be a board we'll have to come together as a board and talk about these but it we'll also have opportunities to meet with Dr Carmen individually um and unless there's an actual policy we just remember that this is these were the expectations of the board at the time with the superintendent at the time of how we hold each other accountable and what our expectation of each other should be we should be planning on holding each other accountable to professionalism um and and everything that that's outlined in there so it's not policy it's our expectation of what we should expect from our Administration what they should expect from us and what we should expect from each other so um I think then it's more important that we include Dr Carmen in before we go changing stuff just my two cents president Anderson uh board member ree I appreciate the perspective especially considering you were you know part of those types of things um I I I mean as a former government teacher I I agree with you that language um matters um the way that I interpret it so I I think it's important for clarification and those types of things is we we aren't silent I mean we get to use these board me meetings to express how we feel about the policies right so the way I took it is as you explained and that this is once the decision is made this is how we have to go forward this is what we have to do I mean we expect the same thing of our staff when clubs get cut or other things happen we expect that you aren't going to badmouth the decision and that this is what we have made and this is how we progress so I appreciate that um I also think then I agree with you that maybe we just don't vote and we we put that to the Future so I'd like to make a motion that we table 8 point two my only question is we've so the additions that's already been the one that you've uploaded has something you added the meeting Norms to it so that's a change so we what we're tbling is the original original or this version with the Norms added to it like do we need a vote to have the Norms because we never voted on the initial change corre so essentially by tabling it it is our sorry 133-page document um that not the condensed our 133-page document again is just what is expect you know is the expectations right I was just verifying is it's not this document now it's correct it's back to the original and we can use this one as a reference of what we would like to see okay the thing that would is the policy that we have in place that Miss ree referenced those are the only things that we have to hold to so I second we table it I I 8.3 approval of fiscal year 2024 2025 employee contracts any questions regarding employee contracts board member Anderson I wanted to we got an explanation about the fringe benefits um but I and I don't remember if I saw on the new certified teacher the language for fringe benefits said pathologist was it correct okay um and can you expl explain to me what it is in there that and I I you explained it in the email but I if I want to understand it better what is it that's preventing the board from changing great question uh president Anderson Vice President Van Hook so the way it is explained um in the email to you which was written today is that I'll just read the sentence out so we can go from there so direct economic fringe benefits means only leave and insurance benefits correct so leave is governed by federal state and local our policy rules so you would not as a board you would have to change policy for leave but you could never change Fair labor standards act you could never change FMLA you can not change Ada when it comes to leaves so that that is why that sentence is in there the board wouldn't have that Authority for federal um legislation and acts that are privy to employees rights so you would have you would not be able to change that does that make sense on the on the leave part president Anderson Miss Johnson yes it does it just um I'm just curious if I think the way that's it's written is isn't that great so well that was recommended by our legal department and they wrote that's that is new verbage in here when it comes to those two benefits the insurance benefit and the leave benefit and that's because those are governed by things outside of our control right now I understand it now I just wish that it was better written to make that clear cuz the way that it's written isn't clear because it which is why I'm questioning it what is it that we aren't allowed to change so um I don't know if that's something that could be better written or not um we could take a look at that next year with our legal council for this year I would recommend that we leave that verbage in there so we can stay on track to have our contracts out by a um by March 8th uh that's our goal uh obviously Mr uh Tyler Moore has expressed that we'll be bringing more fi you know the the compensation everything March 6th we'll have one day to get everything within the document and get it out to our employees by March 88th so thank you you're welcome my next question is about the 5day PDM um can you explain why that was added the 5day prum when a reduction in force is that what you're referencing okay that was not added as far as I know that was there last year uh it was it was blacklined amongst all all the contracts um and then I was just curious why cuz it it was on all of them wasn't it yeah it was it was the one I think the only one that it wasn't on was the atw yeah an at will is truly at will right um the five days is I didn't believe that was new this year and Tyler I know you're looking um um let me look real quick like it's it's number it was number 24 for the new certified teacher well it does look like it's blue lined but I didn't think that was new to us that must be some form of legislation that I could look into and give back to you I will check with our legal council as to why that was added I didn't believe that was new yeah I was just curious like what we've done previously without it as well I I will check and get back with you absolutely um the there's a sentence that says any subse quent Amendment and addendum to this contract must be in writing and signed by both parties yes um because we as a board have to approve these contracts why wouldn't that also say um and approved by governing uh anytime we do an addendum to a contract U much like we did with u Miss Richards this year it came back to the board it's under um section the section where you approve any Personnel actions you would be approving that we cannot approve a change to salary without the board approving that so can we add that verbiage to the contract because it's not on the contract it just says signed by both parties but it's part of with I believe it's part of policy that it must come to the board for any change in salary you you see supplements all the time you see all of the increase in pay anything we've done this year um or years past those go to the board every board meeting you see the supplements or the additional pay uh whether it's for a athletic or for additional duties anything of that nature is already coming back to the board we are mandated to do that anytime pay is increased okay it's it's mainly just in denim it's just an agreement between the two parties the the employee and the employer is the addendum and then it comes to the board to approve the the pay at the end so I think that's if I understand that correctly yep just like the addendum we did for Mrs Richards this year it's exactly like that yes you are understanding correctly um for the new certified teacher it looks like they changed it to say certified employee or teacher um why is that considering the teachers have their own contract so that would be because we have people that come on that are certified as like a um instructional coach or someone of that nature like when we were talking about the classroom site based fund there's other employees that fit in that group so we make it for either or so because they're new they're new and they're under a probationary period they have to have a different contract so we we might have a um instructional coach that would be new to the district we would utilize that new teacher certified contract for them okay um and be and does this language have anything to do with um potential changes to prop 123 does that impact this contract at all yeah president Anderson vice president B Hook um in the contract don't recall which line it is but it does allow if there's any change in state funding um that does allow the district come back and add an additional um increase to the contract um it also it goes both ways so both add and decrease and so um it would again fall under a supplement we would bring it back to the board for approval um but yeah the contract languages have that I don't see that number off the top of my head but I know it's in there okay my my concern I guess is um and I'm sure you're aware the you know they want to give under prop 123 they want to give raises to teachers and then there's an argument that it shouldn't just be teachers it should be cover be able to cover all staff so by by being saying certificated teacher or certificated employee if they did decide that it would be all staff it would be able to cover them under this contract right or any of the other contracts as well also have that language at a yeah so it's it's it's line 12 of the certified new certified teacher contract but but it's that same language it basically States if additional Revenue becomes available to the district throughout the legislative appropriation state sales tax revenue payment of back Revenue Etc um the district has um authorization to go back and provide a supplemental income pending g board approval so perfect okay and then I'm sorry I do have a lot of questions last year I was new so I I didn't know as much as I do today so um pardon me for my questions um many of the contracts had um 186 and 190 days removed can you explain that uh a new teacher will be here for 190 days they're new so they have four additional days for professional development and on boarding the certified teacher who is is returning would have 186 days okay so that language is also in the pathologist contract um I'm sorry again they're certified staff so they do have days um allocated to their contract every contract also has a calendar that goes with it that HR creates and that we provide the employee when we provide their contract so the REM by removing the number of days then so their contract has no number of days listed so how do they know what they have a calendar and they're accountable to that calendar and those are work days that they have to adhere to okay so the calendar becomes part of their contract correct sorry anybody else have questions while I go through my notes um as far as the benefits um and and signing the contract early well I guess I should say when is open enrollment for benefits uh that doesn't start towards the end of April I think we just posted that calendar I think it was about April 27th and that'll be about a two week span and my benefits team will head out to all the sites and meet with employees oneon-one as needed that'll be open enrollment okay and when when are you hoping to get contract out prior to open enrollment absolutely contracts will go out on August 8th or why do I want to say August I want summer um March 8th is the projected date for contracts to go out sorry have you ever had any um anyone concerned about rates so if they sign their contract early and benefits aren't until you know open enrollments a month later and when they find you know find out what the rates are during open enrollment um anybody have any concerns about that knowing that they signed early um they don't have they have concerns about the rates of our health insurance but it doesn't affect their signing the cont contract usually um Tyler and I are able to negotiate to keep our employee rate low um as low as possible and covered by the district um and then are you know your family or your uh spouse rates um he can elaborate a little bit on that but we've never had somebody come back and say I wish I hadn't signed my contract because the rates are too high got it okay President and Vice President V hook yeah so um we offer benefits to employees who are eligible for benefits at no cost right that it's just the spous will right if they're bringing um on um dependence at that point in time we have um in our insurance program right now uh uh basically a cost to that employee to bring on additional insurance so um the employees already whether they sign the contract or not they're already guaranteed benefits um it's just to the extent of what our benefits package can be and we've had conversations as a board about enhancing our benefits platform and and we work we're working on that um but the employees guaranteed benefits once they sign the contract because they're as long as they're eligible um so it typically doesn't come into conversation because they know they're going to get benefits it's you know it just depends on what the district can do to increase their coverage and some of those areas ancillary areas and the whole medical plan as a whole so okay yeah I just for me like I think like if I sign a contract with my employer and then I get my you know enrollment and and realize like my um deductible is going to be outrageous and now I'm stuck in my contract I'm just curious if that's ever happened not that I'm aware board member of Van Hook uh so I say this as a former teacher and in with as much tact as possible um I feel like teachers in the state of Arizona very much are understanding of the fact that our benefits are not good for being in this state as far as healthc care is concerned a good portion of our teachers uh rely on their Partners um or get healthc care elsewhere which is part of the reason why we've had conversations in the past of trying to do more to help there because it is widely understood widely discussed and it is add it to the ample frustrations that teachers in general have um as somebody with a disability uh that is directly related to My overall health and well-being I feel you deeply with respect to that and I think that is important and I think it's beneficial when we do start talking about some of these Healthcare things uh to keep in mind so we you know do the best we can so that way we're honoring uh the people who agreed to work before they kind of knew so I appreciate it I promise one last question um the pathologist and therapist contracts I'm just curious why we have two contracts when they're CU I I looked up each title just to see what the difference is um and the only thing I could tell is is that a a pathologist has to be licensed and a therapist does not is that the reason for the two separate contracts everybody's looking at sha Vice President Van Hook are you referring to the speech and language pathologist and the speech and language therapist yes the speech and language therapist certificate was a therapist uh was a certificate in the past that is no longer available so a individual going to school to be a speech and language pathologist can no longer get that certificate we do have some staff that we grandfathered in um and so that's the reason for the the two different contracts got it okay thank you I just want to ask a question regarding Dena students um I'm just curious why and and they work in the in the office with the principal and the assistant principal correct and they have an administrative position but it's just it's sad to see that the principal and the assistant principal get 15 days of General leave and the Dena students only gets 11 um I didn't know if that there're only 11 month employees oh they don't work the same no okay then that's the others are 12month employees and I think that's the difference of General leave okay well I tried Dina students are there any other questions or comments okay this is an action item I move to approve the fiscal year 2024 2025 employee contracts and a second all those in favor I I motion carries five to zero moving on to the Future agenda items um you can see on the screen we have a list for Community Education update AP dual enrollment update CTE update Higley leadership academy information item and a handbook update um I had asked um maybe a couple a board meetings ago for an AI update of how AI was being used in the classroom is that is that still something that we can get um at a board meeting as the information item president and Anderson yes we are still in the elementary phases of that um like I'm going to conference on Friday with the two instructional coaches our technology instructional coaches and we're working as an ed services team to draft our our vision for that within the district so I respectfully ask for a little more time you know yeah because we know it's important we just want to wrap our head head around it and you know move forward thoughtfully so Jal should get to go to that that conference the conference should probably mind-blowing in some ways yeah it's kind of scary right yeah anybody else on um future gen items okay this is our favorite not our favorite yes I'd like to add policy kdda policy KB is that the one um media yes kbba k d DDA da okay okay thank you for review yes please okay all right I motion to adjourn this meeting second all those in favor I I wish carries 5 Z have a wonderful evening everyone in here we your microphone's on my microphone's on

in accordance with our license as nothing about capacity directly above that not in the document that we have okay well I have the one here that was signed from the next night because I had printed that out so we don't have a copy of the rental we don't have a copy of what you signed with the renter we have your standard standard information probably was pulled from your website okay so yeah so I have this one and it's signed and it says I don't know if you can read it but there's a capacity of 200 okay oh yeah okay at that so is there is there a like um what is the communication like with you and the renter as far as what I speak to them first um either in person or by phone and then we go over the whole thing and I write down you know you know what the event's going to be you know how many people what time you know I you know I tell them all the rules and procedures and then we move forward from there they do a deposit I have them sign their contract okay um in the police report there was um a reference to an event that happened in 2023 with the same um it was two years ago and it okay the it wasn't a capacity issue um you know he they were just um difficult to work with and um I didn't want to work with them again okay so there wasn't there wasn't a similar similar issue with a large Gathering you know I'm just trying to get a sense of of the frequency of these types of events no we never have these sort of events um no it was you know I mean so we have um like Dali has a festival so that's like a similar idea it's a festival food event you know kids do some things um they do a dance um uh and this is the Ecuadorian Festival so we have a lot of different cultures that come in and have different things that they do um so this is something that we had booked before and this particular person had tried to come back and book and the the event that they had come was you know two years ago not last year and um so I had already said no you know multiple times and then they managed to book under a different name and said you know know it's for cultural event and you know traditional music with the kids doing the shows you know I asked the details about it you know uh for things like that they're a little bit different that I don't know a lot about and um you know and again it started out that way but then it shifted okay and then one other question about the security I assume the security was um the host had provided those I know it's it's required in your in your document that you need that they need to have security um for the festivals um uh you know for ticketed sales events like you know I'm not worried about a baby shower but you know I just nervous about events and thought that was like the smartest thing to do to make sure you know people were um you know checked to make sure they weren't bringing in any alcohol or anything like that so you know I said we could provide or they could provide as long as they had credentials um you know again this I don't know the last time we've had to have one so it's not something that's typical um I just had it in there in case and this was something like that and I'm happy to not have a party like this again so I don't think we have to worry about that going forward okay all right that's it for me thank you yeah anything else any other questions I just I just wanted to ask yeah go ahead hey Kim I just had a couple questions so um you know Sergeant Rocky and chief Roby and our Building Commissioner commer they they basically put forward a set of facts are there anything is there anything that you like dispute that they said no I W um I mean I hope there wasn't over 250 in there um you know again the host was supposed to keep it at 200 um so you know I don't know but no I think that's all factual okay okay thanks Kim if there's uh anyone else from the BFW want to speak or present any sure come on up come up here and introduce yourself and okay I am uh fredon I've been the bar manager here approximately 20 plus years uh I just want to assure people I was not there so at night it's past my bedtime but uh so I don't have facts that I saw but I do want to assure everyone that we don't want it Kim doesn't want it and I've been working with Kim for the last few days to devise a system that'll foolproof this from happening again uh a new contract format something along those lines that'll you know limit what they're allowed to do when they book The Hall also with a paragraph that if the criteria list isn't followed by the renters we can shut that function down at any time without refund that's uh because we don't want that type of thing there never have and it's a unfortunate incident that people can squirm their way in to a hall because it's that size and that's basically all I wanted to let the board know uh like I say not being there I can't really give facts on the situation that happened it's good to hear that you're already looking to address this issue so it doesn't happen again yeah oh definitely yeah we don't want it and uh I know I I noticed Rick Smith president is on the thing I don't know if he wants to follow up with anything before before so Mr Ron so how do you um can you go into specifics about how you would prevent this in the future like yeah I think a start would be in the contract that the people sign when they want to rent the function hall mhm and I just jot it now notes on the contract would be the credentials of the people what type of function are having a birthday a wedding whatever whatever it might be uh we would never accept a dance as a thing and the number of people they're going to invite or sell tickets to and make them stick to that you know within 25 30 they can't be 100% exact and a paragraph explaining to them that the main attraction of the function has to be food not dancing and music so they understand that and also that another paragraph that all the above criteria must be met or we don't rent them the hall and a paragraph that any time they don't follow the criteria as the function starts or before the function say a caterer doesn't show up and they don't have any food that we reserve the right to cancel that function on the spot without a refund of any deposits or anything so so only because I know you do have some functions there that are not related to food you might want to have two different contracts for those performances that you have that are not that don't have dinner associated with them okay we could I know that the only one it only because if you say it has to have food and then you have a function that doesn't have food they are in violation and they're you know that could affect your entertainment license oh I see okay we could make one for this yeah type of thing and one CU I know like the ash theater Society exactly has their plays there and everything yeah without food without food you guys should have food I guess that's a question food I haven't been so other questions for Mr a go ahead so I I don't know if I I was just thinking um for any event that happens at the VFW are either you or Kim on site for those events is there any circumstances where you wouldn't be on site I wouldn't be they go on a little late for me at my age but Kim is there for every function beginning to end regardless of what it is and I've never seen her miss one to be honest with you that's an important thing to make sure we know thank you well one thing I'm wondering does Kim have then the tools to shut something like this down when she sees a situation like that occurring because you got a lot of people and it's just her so I don't know I would suggest I'm sorry I would suggest that she do like she did you only shut the bar down and then maybe call the police department to make sure she has assistance clearing people out I don't foresee this happening again because we're just not going to book that type of a party okay if it happens under false pretenses then Kim could always call the police and say just assist me to make sure the people are okay leaving CLA did you have some questions no that's what I was just going to say is you know um I think you have to call the police and you know they're the ones that can help you the best uh in that situation to clear the crowd it's kind of scary I've been in a couple of situations in my life where crowds felt uh too big that than they should be and it's a little frightening yes okay um anyone else from VFW want to speak uh is I think uh Rick Smith here okay Rick hello y we can hear you I think hey Rick uh Rick Smith president of the association I I think they that Kim and Fred summed it up pretty well uh our feelings we we've always tried to maintain uh the quum within the within the parties uh every once in a while it gets out of hand uh there really with the with the dealing with the different cultures today it's very difficult to do uh it's happened before and we've shut it down immediately unfortunately this one went a little too far unfortunately there's really not a lot you can do about it uh without having numerous people there to control it uh you have to depend on the uh the people that are uh having the function to help you out with this uh situation but uh the the length the the L excuse me the L the language barrier is a little difficult sometimes too but we're doing our best to keep it under control and I think Kim as and Fred have summed it up pretty well what we want to do in the future and uh we hope you see it go that way that uh we need the BFW we need the the function hall for the people of Ashland a lot of people use it so we don't want to lose that and and uh hope you understand our situation and we'll try to keep it under control in the future all right thank you thank you any any questions or things for Mr Smith no all right um so thank you for that so I you know one of the things I just noted that one of the most serious parts of this is the fact that the and um the overcrowding the lack of a sprinkler and the egress issues uh and the exterior parking issues so I think you should think care y about that that could as Chief Roby mentioned that could have been a real tragedy um you know with you know the nightclub fire without proper facilities uh that's when really uh can be uh a real tragedy so if I can if I could just interject that as far as the egress we have we have seven egresses from the upstairs uh that are usable the sprinkly yes that was negotiated years ago that we wouldn't have without food and all that so we're we're pretty well good with that yeah and I think I'm also talking about the the exterior as well the parking and the ESS in and out oh yeah oh in far as getting out parking yeah and the driveway being blocked and you know so you just need to think about systems for that as well make sure those are clear I'm sorry Kim were you gonna say something yeah I was just gonna say I'll now that I you know I mean that's not typical I mean honestly sometimes the Bingo ladies Park uh where they shouldn't but you know people usually give a license plate and you know we have the move so you know I'll just be more um aware to give it a look you know when um other questions or thoughts or discussions so we did have the idea brooch that we would uh suspend this hearing and then take it up at our next meeting for final but uh so I'm I just want to get a sense from the commit my sense is I think it's the first time that they've come before us for this issue they've not had to come before us before it sounds like Kim and the people there realized they had an issue and that the things weren't done appropriately they now have further information from our fire chief and our Police Department to say what they need to be aware of I personally don't think we need to extend this I would like to recom you know a recommendation would be they get put on a warning or you know probation for 6 months and if something like this happens again in those 6 months then we visit making any drastic or recommended changes to their liquor license and entertainment license so are you you talking about like a imposing a penalty but putting it in abeyance yeah yeah I mean I don't have I don't have a penalty in mind my my thought is put him on probation for 6 months to make sure nothing like this happens again and if in those 6 months there's another complaint or the fire department or the police department has to go there again and it could affect their liquor license then we bring them back and then we look at putting a some kind of restriction or we've done things where and um a restaurant loses their liquor license for a day or for something like that so that's my recommendation so yeah go ahead yeah questions thoughts so um you know a couple things that came to my mind one um you know I I think that I agree with Yolanda I think you know Chief Roby and um and our Police Department um first of all did a did did a great job that night because it really um there there was no crisis it was it was handled in a really professional great way and no one got hurt which you know that's first and foremost um and I think that that hopefully um the VFW takes takes the um recommendations very seriously also I the the whole idea of rewriting the contract and making sure that um you are aware of what what the events are and and make sure that it's very clear what your expectations are for for these events that would be um important as well as posting an occupancy certificate on the upstairs I think that that's necessary um personally I I like the idea that you know our Building Commissioner takes another look at the space and makes sure that the occupancy um that the downstairs space the upstairs because Doug had said that he basically inherited the 250 number Oh I thought that was the downstairs I guess I missed that one it's sorry okay downstairs was so but I mean I would I would definitely support taking a look at it to make sure that that's that's a a number that should be supported by the whole idea of dinner or a meal as a major function of an event at the VFW um and and as far as you know it I think that you know I was looking through our policy of what our um you know what our you know our violation escalation policy is um you know I I think this was a really serious issue that happened I do think that um you know I I would encourage that if there is a situation like that that that they would call the police before it got to that point um so I mean I I would probably come down more on the side of um you know sort of a first violation with with a suspension held in abeyance which and have like a six-month period of re-review to make sure that these things are kind of getting addressed um well I say as opposed to there's no just giving them six months without any any you want them to come back and have some sort of discussion or revie yeah and so if we put something in a bance um in 6 months then there's no further incid there's no further incident then it wouldn't be it wouldn't be something that we would have to to um uphold and take the license away correct but you'd want to report or some kind of review with what measures have been taken yeah I would like I would like to know that that the issues are being corrected yeah there so can you leave the hearing open for 6 months could you do that no we would have no we would issue you need to close hearing and then issue a determination but then we would bring them back in six months or something so what do what are folks thinking so you think we can uh close the hearing tonight and actually issue this order hold it an OB bance and ask them to come back in six months is that is there any other details we need to add to that or any particular things such as the uh capacity calculation or view uh the occupancy or anything like that you want to include I guess my question on that would be um and this would be for our building inspector right based on a visual look of the building is 250 a good number or would you have to go in and actually do the measurements to figure that out that that would be a question right cuz yeah again based on the hear you know the information that we heard from Kim she usually leaves it 200 this this particular incident went above that it went to the 250 potentially even further so is 250 the right number does it to bry's point do we want to go in and double check that or as I said do we leave it like this for six months and then go back if something else happens but to be honest with you it's not a big deal for you know the deputy chief and I go around to all the liquor establishments okay and uh so it's not really a big deal for us to go go in there take some measurements we'll base it on uh tables and chairs which is one ENT for 15 people will'll double check the aisles uh the means of ESS uh and give it a walkth through and I can give a you know I can give a report to the town manager and he can share that with the select board would it also make sense to do one with chairs like this um because they do have events chairs like this whatever you would like to do you typically you get one occupancy load you you typically don't have multiple occupancy loads because it t to be very confusing so you know if like in a situation like this if the police go into a building we don't have nightclubs here right but if you're going into a nightclub or or a big bar um you know they like the officers were saying in the fire department were saying they looking for that right occupancy occupancy load and if they have to youve got to all these people noise you know band or whatever was playing yeah it's hard to try to figure out well what's it supposed to be I see so we would give them one and because it's uh it's it's not sprinkled it can't be a night Club so we don't want to give it to them with the ability to to uh have just wide open space m so it seems to me and I can talk further with the the chief and the deputy chief that the occupancy load should be based upon tables and chairs because that's most use the food is supposed to be the main I mean that I'm not saying that you know that the they can't have a Dan floor for little kids or the or whatever they want to do I'm saying but the bulk of it is when you get a larger crowd you want to make sure that it's manageable right how's that compared to the theater use though like is that going to be a problem prob that should be a problem probably not because because that you know I don't know how they set it up but typically you would take an area away um for the stage from the space to do your stage well they have a stage but I think from your point the best play the best way to do it would be tables and chairs filled in the space okay yes okay okay so other thank you um other discussion or thoughts so Brandy do you want to frame a motion so let's CL I I assume let's close the hearing sure I'll do that hold on any other discussion thoughts okay you should probably make a determination whether or not you want to make a determination tonight in the hearing as part of the hearing or yeah because once you close it you can't you can't right oh okay continue so rather than suspend it right like if we waited until the next meeting so if you wanted to wait until the next meeting to discuss and deliberate further and decide what you want to do I would suspend the hearing until and we could talk about the date um I would propose the second meeting in March just because the first one is is a lot or if you agree amongst yourselves again you can't necessarily take a vote that um you know you'd like to make a determination tonight then you do close the hearing and go ahead and make that I think it makes sense to make a determination tonight I don't personally see any reason to ex to suspend go another month and then have further disc discussion I don't know that I would hear anything else except maybe Joe's opinion which I sort of know where that might come in so so for me I would rather make our determination and finish the hearing tonight rather than suspend it until the second meeting in March okay I agree yeah age okay so there there's if if that's the case and that's totally fine um there's one thing that I would I would recommend um is that you know we've talked about the police essentially being on call crowd control um I know in previous instances where we've had issues with crowds specifically I'm thinking Hanto um the board's required a detail to be these Ty of or if there's a certain number of people you might want to consider putting that in as as part of your having a detail if it's a certain kind of event or a certain number of people that they're expecting I think that makes sense how are we going to Define that thank you um we are kind of volunteering you for some work here so well yeah and that's fine and obviously we're always going to be there when you need us but um certainly like in this case what comes to mind to me is if the the person holding event felt the need for armed security I mean we've all kind of picked up on that now there wasn't there wasn't a legal issue there but um and I'll say from myself I was a little concerned that we weren't notified of uh or just made aware that there was even an event in town that may require that um so certainly I personally would rather um to be able to be proactive to know that that event's happening than to have my my officers have to respond um you know reactively to a situation that's already out of control which is just a bigger safety issue if we have you know um so I would definitely ask as part of this kind of restructuring um or you know reorganizing these events that um that is taken into account that we're you know made made aware um until the Tom man's point if it's going to be a an event that would require in armed security I mean I think I think that needs to be some a discussion you know um and even to the point is like why why did a kids event need armed security like that's you know something that question my mind that's kind of a red flag that maybe at that point you know um obviously there was some there was some um misinformation with booking I understand that um but to me that would have been a red flag that maybe um a little proactive effort would have been would have been um what about the whole what about the you guys being on call or having a detail as opposed to security so I I mean I can't guarantee the on call is is tough obviously we're going to answer the calls we have mutual Aid response um but you never know what our call volume is going to be like we you don't know what our office going to be tied up for if you're going to have an event like that I mean it needs to be a detail where their their primary focus is that event um not pulling our resources like that night I believe our entire Patrol re resources were tied up with this one event U without being able to respond to the rest of the town so um one thing but but what about if if there actually this lower occupancy and doing like T tables and chairs are they ever going to reach the level where a detail would be needed I mean if we're talking about a a you know an Italian dinner with the mom and Mom and daughter's Club I don't think so but I mean in this specific situation that we're talking about it was clearly a situation where we needed to I I feel we needed to be involved um yeah and whether they knew that going in or not I understand that in this particular case there was some uh again some misinformation in the booking um but there were definitely some red flags uh I think that um you know had we even when those were seen if we were allowed to you know be aware um but going forward again I can't having my patrol Force as a standby crowd control um we just don't have the capacity just don't have the capacity and again I would call M you know the sergeant whoever was on would call M we we would get people there um but it's just not it's not the ideal situation and U this definitely safety concerns thank so some of the thoughts I've had to put in this would be that um they need to notify the police of events that are going to be over 200 people and we I these are just some my thoughts Andor they have to discuss with the police department if security issues come up or if they know they're going to be over 200 people and then the third part of that would be they would be required to have a police detail if there's going to be an event with more than 200 people yeah I mean that's that's a good start thoughts yeah I mean I think it it's hard to figure out when you might need a police detail right sometimes it's not a matter of how many people as it is is how they behave um but I think the the idea of a detail forcing a detail did come to my mind as well I have to say that probably that one of the things that bothered me almost the most in all this is that were two armed guards there that was when I read that I thought I never would have dreamed that right yeah and and to your point like it I just questioned as to why it was felt that that would yeah exactly but you know then how do you even know that that's did I mean you know do they have to show their if they're armed and have to show it they can't be concealed so they were uniformed which was which was one of my first questions cuz obviously my first question one of my first thoughts was are we talking about plane closed security guards with firearms and now my officers are responding and they're seeing guns and then that's that's a whole other issue that I don't want to think about um so thankfully you know they they did have marked Vehicles they did they were uh uniformed um you know and were were helpful to the officers so and again there was no legal issue there but um well then that was definitely a red flag then yeah so one of the things that I noticed was that in the in the contract where IT addresses security it says any event with ticket sales must have a minimum of two um two security guards for the event and I'm I'm I don't know if that's necessarily the right structure for it like ticket sales should not be the trigger yeah I think I think size of the event is much more of a trigger yeah because you could sell tickets to recital right so yeah so maybe maybe maybe it's you know there should be security and you know they need to provide that to maronies and Marone needs to provide that to the police department to let them know that there's going to be security there at this event or something and by all means you know we're we'll make ourselves available to discuss and meet with V when they have they believe they have an event that's going to meet the criteria um and you know we can make our determinations together by all means we just want to let them have their you know have their business they you know staple of the Town we're not looking to disrupt that we just want to make sure everybody remains safe and I think that's the thing for me is that you know just like when we have a marathon coming through town right one of the things we say to them as the organizers is you have to work with our police and fire department if there's going to be something that comes up so you know and if we don't think 200 people is the right is it 150 people if you know you're going to have an event of 150 people you need to bring in you you know Kim or whoever needs to have a conversation with the police department to say okay we have this event coming we have this many people what are your recommendations and again I don't know that it has to be a police detail I mean we've had real serious reasons that we've had police details but it certainly could be if you know you're having an event of of more than 150 people before it can go forward is you have to have a discussion with the police department to make sure that parking and security and anything like that that might be impacted has been reviewed I I would I would make the suggestion that it be required that they get the police department and potentially the fire department's permission that if that's yeah whatever the language is but I think they similar to us right we say you have to have a you have to have a sign off from the police and fire that what you're planning on doing make sense for your space so and what's the cut off well that's that's that's a good good question um I think 200's a lot i' would say 150 would probably be I mean I don't know how many events you have with 15 you know you get to that much Tim how many events do you have with over 150 people um probably 20% wow I was at the Jimmy tingle comedy were you there how many people were there that looked to me like over 150 were you there for that event you were yeah no it definitely wasn't over 150 oh it wasn't okay all right then we're okay yeah so 150 sounds like a good cut off then I'm just trying to judge from that room was pretty full you know is that okay so yes okay all right so does that make sense that they if they're going to have an event of 150 people or more they are required to reach out to our Public Safety departments to ensure that plans are put in place to handle the that volume of people into and out of the site and into and out of the building yeah I would say require a sign off right I said required yeah police sign Public Safety sign off y Kim thoughts on that that works for me okay I'm always welcoming the feedback to make sure everything's safe and good we do the right yeah so you are putting together a motioning Joel I just have Joel do you have a brief comment okay thank you deputy chief I'm hearing a lot of great ideas what I'm not hearing is really encouraging those who are going to enforce whatever policies you state lots of good ideas that what is the incentive in the contract that usually contracts have remedies if you don't adhere to the contract and what I would think should be given some consideration is either aurity bond which I'm not a lawyer again I'm not quite sure what that means or perhaps a security deposit you rent an apartment you give the landlord a well there is there are all in the contract that the that they have there are all kinds of security deposits and things like that so and that's not what we're addressing understood what we're addressing is the behavior and the safety of the events that are happening there but thank you for that inut okay so um we'll do the motion after we close the hearing correct correct yeah so is there any other further discussion or thoughts well I would just offer one one thought I mean directly to the to you know the VFW and um everybody here wants you to succeed um one thing I would just be very very clear about is that you can't necessarily shift the responsibility onto the renter so you mean your license is your responsibility and so you can't basic you can't say okay you know the the party that's renting the the building is responsible for you know crowd control or you know checking the people at the door it's ultimately going to fall to you guys um it's just a point I think yeah that's a good point yeah Mak sense okay so we ready to close the hearing yep motion to close the hearing second motion's been made and seconded Al those in favor of closing the hearing say I I oppose none okay so the hearing's closed and we will go on to the portion where so Yolanda you have a motion that you'd like to make I think so so I move that we require the VFW maronies for any event that is going to be over 150 people that they get a review and sign off by our Public Safety department to ensure that all parking and interior um requirements and safety is being followed does that make sense okay that's one motion I think that's and we're also uh are we doing this Standalone then we're going to add let's do yeah let's do two let's do two because I think that's something that needs to stay in place okay all right so is there a second for that any further discussion on it yeah I'll second that okay all those in favor of Yolanda's motion um as stated say I oppose none so the motion carries thank you and then the other thing I would say is I mean unless we feel like we need to put a day or two in OB bance against their liquor license I would say that they are in probation for six months um to make sure that nothing like this happens again if it does then they'll come back before us and we would review a potential penalty against their liquor license at that point all right so I so I would say I I feel I feel we need to put something in a bance because there were nips on the floor there was alcohol that was not being served from the from the bar in the facility and it's their responsibility to have control over that situation um and I am I'm fine putting it in a bance and and having that come back to us in six months and report back but I think it's important for us to have um I I I to have this have consequences in some way shape or form so what would what would we be putting in OB bance I would I would make a recommendation that um the for in our policy it says um I think it's 1 to 3 days for the first time offense um I would say that that um that we have um to do a a two-day liquor license suspension held in a bance um pending uh a review in six months that there's no further incidents um and that our Public Safety Personnel Plus our Building Commissioner are satisfied with the with the changes that have been made with the changes that have been made yeah because I think that's important because they the they talked a lot about things they're going to do so I'd like to hear or you guys would like to hear that yeah because I won't be here but it'll be your problem probably not yeah um so I mean I think that's a good suggestion i' support adding that um so we have I don't know what we have we have a motion that was made but not seconded I think and bry's suggesting some changes okay so I'm going to see if I can put it all together uh I make a motion that we give uh Marone VFW a 2-day liquor license suspension to be held inance oance I I was getting there abeyance for six months should no other violations or complaints come before this board against their um license against their license and to uh report uh from and then in after those 6 months they need to come back and tell make sure nothing has happened that they've done a review of their contract and that we've gotten a review of their use of space okay uh do I second for that I'll second that second motion's been made and seconded uh all those in favor the motion is stated by Yolanda say I I oppose none the motion passes thank you all right well thank you all I think this concludes this particular item thank you for your work on this yes sir yeah should come on up here and thank you all yeah thanks guys on a two-day liquor license suspension did do you mean in a period of 6 months or so basically what would happen is if something happens and we have to apply that suspension we would determine what those two days are so we would either say you know the first Friday of a month or the second Saturday or whatever we're hoping to not have to do that but should something happen then we would let you know when those two days are all right I just want to clarify it's almost sounded like you were assessing a two- days sus no no no no we we did but we put it in OB bance for the six months okay and should nothing happen in those 6 months and you do the work with the police and fire um and you've updated your contract and there's no other issues then it will then we'll take it away after six months it's like a warning with consequences there something to clear okay thank you all right that brings us Kim any further questions or comments no thank you very much you're welcome thank you Kim thank you good luck thank you all right if everyone's ready we'll go on to the next item in the agenda anybody want to break or anything no we're all said okay we're going to go through okay the next item is discuss the zoom problem that took place at the plany board meeting on Thursday February 8th just to clarify that that was um as I think we all know but just in case people are wondering this was when uh a group of people masqueraded as concerned citizens attempted uh really invaded the public comment per to the ashon planning board to spew hateful racist anti-semitic and anti-gay rhetoric um I did on behalf of the select board issue this statement as as did the planning board condemning this and uh reassuring everybody of our support for all our citizens and um and our efforts um you know you know speak out against hate um and some of the ideology that was expressed by these people in the racist anti-semitic and anti-gay language so I I did want to put it on the agenda just to kind of um if anyone had anything uh they wanted to add to that but also to talk about how we as a community uh are as as as in our own public meetings deal with um should this uh sort of thing reoccur and just to want to make sure that we had both technical kind of skills and knowledge available for our Zoom meetings about how to handle these but also kind of a um you know procedural or legal approach uh to this U this sort of really what is a coordinated attack that's not just a random person coming in and trying something or some kid but this seems to be a systematic approach and effort by an organized group unfortunately which is taking place throughout the uh at least um the country and at least in our region I know of similar I think most of us have heard of similar incidents in in Framingham in Worcester and other towns uh so this is something I feel we should be prepared to be cognizant of be able to take action against know how to handle speak out against um Etc so I just wanted to uh you know put that on the agenda for discussion so I'll open it up for discussion or thoughts the things I do want to try to address is both making sure we have a mechanical ability to handle this thing so we know what to do so that all chairs of committees know what to do and then kind of like a legal moral response or uh you know I guess a public policy to response to this sort of thing should it happen again so having said that I don't know if Michael if you had any other introductory remarks you wanted to make maybe updates on some of the technical or other things that you're familiar with yeah I would just it'd be similar to what you said Rob I mean there's the legal aspect of this and then there's the technical aspect and so I think from a legal perspective we re received guidance from the District Attorney's office um as disappointing as it may be um we have received guidance from a legal standpoint I've asked Paul Bowden and Paul Carpenter to talk and work out some technical things that we can put in place to first of all look at preventing something like this from happening but if unfortunately it does happen what what we can do from a technological perspective to to do that and maybe it's it's something a change as simple as you know having it to where everybody is m muted and the only person that could unmute a person to speak is the host you know um something to that effect um I think it would be a little bit more robust than that but that's that's kind of the way I I see things so just to clarify so would that be the way we would do all public meetings everyone would be muted and then would that include well it wouldn't include people in there in person but basically anybody on Zoom would be muted except the chair would then could recognize them exactly so that's the mechanical kind of exactly so that keeps people from being out of control however what it it doesn't address if so you recognize under what circumstances do you recognize somebody how long can they talk what is it they can say what do you do as chair um to handle that right so that's kind of yeah I would agree kind of the unknown so I just wanted to throw it out there for people to think about or talk about so I one thing I wanted to just make sure we also talk about this wasn't the first time it happened in Ashland so there was there was um a library trustees meeting in December that was Zoom bombed with a similar um similar messaging so I just want to make sure that you know you know we publicly talk about that one as well so this wasn't just the the planning board but um you know I I I firmly believe that having hybrid meetings is sort of like the best best practice because it allows public participation which we like um it allows access for people who may not have the ability to to come here in person um I do think that you know we do always try to balance freedom of speech with um you know the hateful speech that um happened at the planning board and the library trustees is you know just unacceptable it's literally it's it's um it it it really is unacceptable behavior um so I would say I would my thing would be you know I know we have public participation at the front end of our agenda if this does become an issue I would probably suggest moving down in our agenda um you know we make public participation first you know as a convenience for everyone that comes to our meetings so they don't have to sit through three hours of our meetings but um um you know we could you know change the position of citizens participation um as an idea and how would that how would that you think that would then make it less likely or what would that do I think if somebody wants to talk to us they will they will stay on to talk to us and if they if they're there to zoombomb us zoom boom zoom boom um they'd be less likely to hang on for a while you know I my personal perspective well they know when it's on the agenda right we're going we move it down the you know okay but that's my you know and I like the idea of muting everybody except for you know the host that can unmute because I think that that helps control yes who can speak so one thing I just wanted to add that I know one of the one of the Mayors told me um I for but they have and some towns actually do this where they there's a list of allowed speakers based on either some sort of email or some sort of communication they've made prior to the meeting and they're basically on some sort of list and those are the people that are allowed to speak it's a much more controlled I'm not necessarily saying that's a great thing but they have a list of speakers so there's no surprises no one comes in randomly but you know you have to have that process and you have to similar decision making like who gets allowed to be on this list but anyway so just the thought go ahead Yolanda were you gonna Claudia go ahead you want to go yeah go um I agree this was serious I also want us to I don't want to say overreact but I at this point I don't see the need to change where we have citizens participation I don't know that that'll change behavior um I do like the idea that we work with zoom technology and as we allow people in we keep them muted until we can unmute them um and the other thing I would recommend is and I don't know if um mapc or MMA has something but maybe we look at some kind of training for all of our boards and committees and it does I don't think it has to be a lot very detailed it even could be you know done at at our volunteer breakfast or something like that just to say okay here's some information on how to handle this if you're in a zoom meeting and you're getting Zoom bombed or you know whatever it is or someone seems to be orderly and coming in and speaking in a way that you that is not appropriate for the meeting I think those are some things that we can look at and do you are you aware of any kind of guidelines uh not off hand but I can I can research that from MMA to see what they have I'm because as you said we're not the only Community dealing with this there are other communities there are other organizations that have seen this and that have heard about it and I'm sure someone is already starting to talk about it so I'm willing to do the research and see what what's available because I think that's that's how we handle this I I if I think if it gets bad at all of our meetings then we look at maybe saying okay if you want to come speak at citizens participation or participate in any of our discussions that you need to email in I don't know that we need to take that task on right away quite yet um but I do you think the idea of keeping everybody muted until it's time for either citizens participation or a a you know a section that we know we're going to ask for input from the public that's those are my recommendations yeah I I guess um number one I think it's pretty easy to have everybody muted and and have the chair unmute people as as we go along um you know I think that the other possibility is is it only people that we allow to speak and and we need to make sure that they identify themselves and their address like we do at town meeting um make sure that we're following that and you know the bottom line is I mean I think we all value free speech um and we certainly don't want to see that be impacted however we also live in a time when hateful speech has become almost part of our climate at all levels of of government unfortunately you know in some instances LED from very high uh political figures and and I think that that's an opportunity for every single one of us to to stand up and and say that that's hateful and wrong and we do not support it it is not who we are as a people um and and that we need to be outspoken um we not sit back and you know I remember um as a you know a college student one at one point reading um and I'm sure you've all seen or read it at some point in your lives and it was an it was a letter that somebody had written about um it was World War II type it was you know I was you know I stood silently when they came and right and I cut it out of the paper and I carried it in my wallet for forever um and so I mean I I think that's so critical that we all um take this as an opportunity to stand up and say no that's not who we are in this country and that people who speak like that and talk like that and behave like that um are abhorent and that they are uh hateful and and uh that but that's not who we are and so I think we turn it on them and say all right you'll give us the opportunity to stand up again and and say who we are um but certainly in the meantime things that we can do to try to minimize that sort of thing um we should try to take advantage of those I like your idea about you know ashin res we kind of do it informally it's it's not really a requirement but that would be something certainly to consider like public par your name and address and who are you if it's not to interrupt but my understanding is at least one of the people who came to before the planning board gave a name and address before they started speaking well I'm not saying that that's that's not going to stop it was not a real name no I understand that I understand it wasn't a real name but for address yeah no and absolutely that's going to be the case right if somebody wants to circumvent those kinds of things they're going to but um you know it's just another evidence more evidence about their cus right um if they can't even say who they are and then you could I suppose if you didn't believe them or you weren't certain of their status that could be a grounds for shutting off I guess so yeah I I mean again that's it's it it just is evidence of cus really right yeah that's why I don't think they'll show up at person in person you know well I mean that to to bry's point right we love the idea of hybrid because it allows people who to participate yeah have kids in bed at 8:30 at night who want to come into a meeting they can do it via or you know or if they can't drive or they whatever it allows them to still particip ipate and I'm so glad to hear that we are going to be allowed to continue hybrid it's going to be made official here in the state that hybrid meetings will be part of open meeting law will be part of public meetings but as with many things right you have technology that helps you do things that then that same technology can help people who want to be mischievous or hateful or whatever allows them as well so I it's finding that balance Randy yeah I um one question I I believe that the that when this happened at the planning board people were on camera but I do think it is important that if people are going to speak that we do see faces that people are on camera that we do not allow we don't allow people to speak without being on camera because what I think I mean unless something anyway um what I think is if you have them then on camera you can then potentially use go to the police with that and say Here's the person and there's potential of then finding them yeah or at least or at least least keep track yeah um Joel did you want to say you would did you want to say something about this and is there anyone online that wants to speak I don't I don't see anybody uh okay go ahead Joel I have been reading a lot since this happened I found it very upsetting the whole incident and uh one of the things I read I think it was today was they asked and I think it was winr has had a lot of issues with this that's been in the in the Boston old quite a bit this was like a year to two years ago and uh they asked the FBI to comment on it so you know we've all heard the term hate speech we get into talking about standing up for our residents with all the diversity we honor here and the FBI said that this that Zoom bombing this is they didn't talk about the language they never referred to that but they said Zoom bombing is cyber crime yeah what does that mean what is our district attorne say you know it's beyond my pay grade I have no idea but but maybe it is a crime maybe we shouldn't just accept that it isn't a crime uh there's two different issues here there's one the hate speech and maybe that's protected speech and the the other is a massive disruption of a public meeting you guys are officials in the town we can't just come in here and you know start screaming at you you know I mean there's got to be some balance that's the point well on what you Shar with us Joel I think you can there you go and the thing of it is First Amendment rights give you the right to hold us accountable with anything you know if if if you wanted to come to a meeting and voice displeasure at something we are doing that is your right to do that sure if it if it becomes hateful anti-semitic or anti- a racist or any of those kinds of comments then that's a different that's a that's that's a that's a different category but it is it is your right to like to if you were upset at something we were doing that you can come and talk to us about it second point which you made and I really agree with this you shouldn't be able to duck behind the podium and speak when you come here you got to stand up and be seen you can't come in I imagine you wouldn't let me come in in a in a you know a Marx brother's outfit or something disguising myself so I don't see why we afford hybrid meeting we want everybody to participate we're really thinking that's a great thing that we have this tool but those people are allowed to not turn on their video they're allowed to blur their backgrounds or themselves they're allowed to put up pictures of Yogi barus or Yogi Bear or something and that's what you see when when they're speaking and we shouldn't allow that no we allow that so here is I don't know what the technology currently allows but it seems to me that if you guys go and call up Zoom like I tried to do today good luck with that you're you're going to get nowhere uh but maybe as a as a state we can say we are not going to allow your software to be used in our public meetings anywhere in the state unless it meets whatever the requirements would be you you say what it should be I'd like to see something that says if you are unmuted it shows you and it if you have a fake picture of a beach scene or you know whatever a picture of books on a library shelf uh the person before they unmute you before the host unmutes you I mean this gets to be kind of gamey but uh hold up two fingers because it could be a video it could be uh a static picture of somebody and you don't know if they're really there so you have to have some kind of interactive proof that it's that you're seeing a real person at the you know on camera uh so hold up two fingers now hold up your left hand one finger well and if they do it then you can unmute them if not you don't because it might not be the you might and and I think having to be seen I mean is you know the the government information is scary how quickly they can find people you know you saw that January they identified of those people all right thanks Jo do you have other points you want to make that well I wish you hadn't asked but that was it so anyway I I I think my bottom line here is that that the state and you guys and others should work with our legislature to work with the technology companies and they're going to want like if we're going to all switch over to Microsoft meeting or whatever they call it or this or that software instead of Zoom this that you're giving them an incentive to uh be a An approved product for public meetings in Massachusetts and they might have a little bit of an incentive to not get kicked out of the state so let let's leave it there all right thanks thank you I got a thing to say about okay sure Mark I'll do it right Mark the 49 hwon Road okay this is not the first Zoom bomb I set through there was another one that was a lot worse that that showed lutus and I'm not going to say where I found where I saw that that was that I mean I was at okay first of all technology is understanding that there are hackers out there that there are cyber space criminals that know how to get around systems without being traced cyber space thieves to understand that you have to upgrade every system look out for servers and be technically firewalled and um security wise and that's every other year to change but once you do that these people that come on that bom the zoom bomb they have zoom but they also have a a black a theft sort of things that goes behind the scenes that they can travel through I've been technically following this for over 10 years my computer I'm on 15 years everything I have been doing has not been hacked has not been thrown at back at me because I upgrade everything but when it's out there to the Cyber servers and everything that I can get out there for it's out there for everybody and what happened the planet board is nothing new it basically all started back around 2017 after presid the the election things that happen that's how that's how it got broken up in the systems okay so I'm hearing all that seeing all this and having everybody here to talk about participation say parti being pushing around and everything you can go so far with the people live in front of you but you but once you don't see them you don't know them they attack and that's what happened at the planning board and understanding everything that is work work behind the scenes that these people think they're proud to do yeah freedom of speech but then again there's a limit to sure what there can be actually put forth okay we in asht we're a small I'm not I got a lot more we here we just kind of running short on time Mar so if you could make a point quickly and the point was when Michael was saying that we talk to talk to um oh um our technological person here y Paul Paul Paul he needs to have a upgraded system here how long has it been before he last got pushed pushed up and not being uh what it called unfortunately Mark I I I hear what you're saying that we need to have Securities in place and firewalls and make sure we're using things I don't know that any security we put here in town hall or on our systems would help against some of the stuff that we saw on Zoom because even if you have firewalls and you have all the security and you make sure that you're using the correct malware and all that I don't know that that would help with the zoom bombing which I think is the the topic right now and then from the maws mawes is the servers that is the that goes out into the open then comes back and bounces all throughout all right okay thanks Mark thank you I see I do have to apologize I see Steve Mitchell is online he did send me an email uh with some thoughts on this but uh which I have not responded to but Steve did you want to say anything uh about this yeah if that's okay uh Mr chair so Steve Mitchell 5 Newcastle Road are you who you are say you are okay I just want to make sure I'm by the rules here tax bill but but I think uh you know to kind of uh just uh add on to this conversation uh you know I firmly believe that elected officials wherever they are not just Ashland uh need to be articulating the values of our community all the time this is not going away this is happening everywhere it's happening in Massachusetts at a at a a statistical rate that is really unbelievable when you look at acts of anti-Semitism homophobia racism supremacist groups you would be shocked at how much activity there is in Massachusetts and the Northeast uh these are not you know when it comes to uh Zoom you know we may be dealing with Anonymous cowards but there's there's plenty of this Behavior out on the street uh my my opinion is you know boards committees need to be uh just vocal about and right UPF front at meetings that we do not tolerate this kind of behavior this is not acceptable these are not our values and uh you know I had sent an email to to Rob I mean I I think uh the board may want to revisit your mission statement it was it was created in 2015 uh it doesn't really refle reflect a lot of the activities that that that communities are dealing with today and uh so just just my thoughts on it uh you know I do appreciate the the the discussion uh you know I can tell you as somebody that comes from uh you know my wife who is Jewish on the uh board Board of Trustees that that is uh you know that that is just not acceptable uh yeah and you know I I would expect that all of us would be vocal against this as much as we can so my tune thank you thank you thank you Steve St good seeing you again okay all right any anything else I guess to summarize I think Yolanda is going to look into some things I'm going to pursue some stuff I've seen we'll we'll think about some of the suggestions that have been made here and uh it will reconvene and if future meeting to kind of uh go through some of this and see if we want to make changes or other other things that uh you know in line with best practices or things we've seen well I would like to recommend I think we all agree with this is that as we do Zoom meetings that people when they get brought when they're allowed in they're muted I think I I think we can look at that I think it's I know it can be done yeah it's just a setting you just TI I've seen it on large on large meetings where you know you have 100 people and so I think if we can look at that and just let all committees know that if you're doing hybrid when you let people in you keep everyone muted until it's time and I like the idea too of maybe either Revis revisiting the mission statement or um you know at least making a public statement at the beginning of our meetings sure you know what we value yeah great um and I think yoland had a great suggestion about train I mean we do have kind of there's a training component here not just us everybody else maybe is the volunteer breakfast a realistic time to try to do something with that or is it something else that we should I would suggest you know let let Paul squar the two Pauls come up you know finish their work and have a document that could be used as like guidelines okay that could be disseminated to all yeah all the bo what other kind of moral or social or political or policy guidelines okay well thank you for that discussion everybody um so go on to the next item um this is review and approv town manager contract and review the town manager evaluation process so um thanks Joel um so what do we want to so I think the the big picture here is that after an uh series of meetings with the town manager and the select board that we did um approve um new three-year con three-year contract starting retroactive to January 1st um and we're pleased you know I'm pleased and the board is pleased to announce that Michael Herbert Our Town manager will be staying with us for another uh three years I'll you know unless something really unexpected happens uh and that also um in connection and we're pleased to have made you know basically an agreement with with uh uh Michael about you know his V his pay and various other uh things um and in connection with that we're also are revising or reviewing the um the his performance evaluation by the select board and that will be an important part of this contract um so that's just kind of my intro to that is anyone else wanted to add anything about this the only thing I wanted to add is that um you know the this was a kind of an extensive discussion that we had as a board and we had with Michael um we took a look at um what the um Market was kind of bearing for Town managers we know that there have been a lot of town managers in um in our region that have left um there's a lot of burnout in the position um there is also um so we we took a look at you know salary and other things that we wanted to make sure that um we were in line with what other communities are um paying their Town managers we know that Michael uh you know we had talked to him what did what did we say how many hours a week you you generally work is it 60 70 but that doesn't include like going to events and things like that stop the events but um but we took a look at a lot of different things and a lot of communities to make sure that what we were um proposing and talking to Michael about was in line with um sort of like the market the going Market really um and we wanted to make sure that that we did um retain Michael for another three years because I think it's important for our community um Michael brings uh a tremendous value to uh to the town and to us as a board and so just reflecting that in his contract um I think we after much discussion we came to a good place so that's all I wanted to say about it thank you any other folks Claudia no um my this is my first experience going through the the contract process with Michael and uh certainly I I agree with what Brandy said it was uh it was um an important process and one where we felt the how important it would be to keep Michael on and uh and to reward for him for his work here um and that he has been a great asset to the community um I I lik a piece where we changed a little bit in terms of um the evaluation process and um that that will be more tied into his bonus and uh you know I think that that's important um as well and so you know we're um but we certainly uh wanted to keep Michael onard board here thank you thanks so yeah I I agree I think it was a good discussion I think for continuity for our community it's important to maintain Michael as our town manager uh if you look around not only our region but the whole state the number of town managers that have been stepping down and the communities that are trying to find new count Town managers has been very difficult and they've been long processes so as Claudia and and brand said I agree that it's important to maintain Michael as our town manager and in regards to the review process we will use our current re review tool one last time because we don't have the time to put in a new review tool and we need to have a review done before the elections in May but then after that and even now we're starting to look at what is our new process going to be and it will tie more into what he's doing in regards to goals and objectives as well as his you know his work so great thank you so in terms of Michael um anything you want to say um no I just I want to thank the board for um you know the confidence that you have in me and um and my team and uh I think you know it was a good discussion it was not uh at times easy but it was a good discussion I think Brandy like you said I think we came to a really good place at the end where we each felt like each other was being heard and um our different needs and everything were taken into consideration you know I'm looking forward to you know revising the evaluation process and I think it's important that it is tied had more language that ties in ties that in the evaluation process ties it into the to the performance bonus piece than what we had before but um you know I I love this community um I've been here now um it'll in May it'll be 11 years um and I'm excited to be here for three years more so great and you know I will say um I I just you know it's uh I appreciated some of the discussions we had also just a little bit about you know making sure our staff was compensated fairly um because uh really I mean we just couldn't do what we do without them um and I couldn't do what I do and you know have the successes that I have without such a good team I'm pretty blessed well thank you Micha so we need to publicly approve it right so I move that we approve the town manager um contract that we approved in executive session does that make and that's dated um January January 1st until December 31st 2026 and I'll second that all right motion's been made to formally approve the town manager's contract all those in favor say I I I oppose none motion carries 4 Z congratulations Michael and congratulations thank you for the board for your efforts and all this negotiation so so just a quick question about the evaluation process for this time around are we like do we have a timeline yet as to what I'll present one at the first meeting in March okay um and it will basically start at the end of March and go through April okay basically yeah wrap it up just before town meeting right yep before the elections okay all right thank you um so the next item is discuss opening of next Grant cycle with submission due by March 31st so I don't know um before you guys get it before the subcommittee go Susan any um anything you want to say about this or um or is this mostly a subcommittee uh request um well I couldn't remember whether or not when you created the subcommittee the last time if it was for just that round or if they were going to do both rounds oh I think they signed up for the whole thing that's my so if they signed up for the whole thing you don't need to take that vote I'm just asking you to open the cycle okay and I will get it out I did have a question with which I want to or maybe think about to people so are we I I would like to increase the maximum on the the non uh the non um not on the other than nonprofit nonprofits yeah because I'm not sure the balance profit we had originally made it low my recollection lower because of the balance and but I would just suggest that we could use a little more flexibility there or you know a higher maximum um you know it's right now it's really 1,000 and plus you can get an additional 500 a year basically is the way I read that I would I would think we'd want to increase that or at least some some circumstance I think the concern there is the balance of that account right because that doesn't unlike the one that we can use for the 5013 C's it's lower it's that's done on the runner's account so we know that gets right we get new funds every year I guess I would suggest we don't for the other one right I suggest we give ourselves a little more flexibility but then if you're looking at a low balance maybe you then divide up the balance and lower your your max I mean so I'm just I'm just like maybe it should be like 2,000 or 2500 It just strikes me as a fairly low number for people I think when we looked at it most of those groups were $1,000 or less in the requests that they initially bless you that they had initially um requested yeah my concern is that that we need to be fiscally responsible about that that um select boards account the the gift account because I think we I think we have if I remember correctly and Susan can correct me I think that that account because that comes from um you know fees inl of taxes from the Warren Conference Center we estimate that the the money going into that account is about 20,000 a year and we use that account for our scholarships we use that account for our volunteer breakfast the volunteer breakfast Runners breakfast all uses that gift account so and I I I think the idea is that we make sure that we still are able to offer um those types of of Grants to groups that don't qualify as a 501c3 I think it's important that we still offer that um you know if we get to a point where you know that gift account goes pretty low I don't want to sacrifice the scholarships and some of the other stuff that we do to to so Susan can you what's the current balance do you know um I can look it up I don't know it off the top of my head if you guys want to move on to the next thing I can text it to Michael and he can let you know uh well I just I I just wanted to address concern that we're running out of money I well my I would say that this is only the second time using this new criteria so let's use it this cycle and if there's an issue if we have people who are for profits who are asking for more than $1,000 let's address it at that point but I think at this point let's use these new criteria that we created just last fall for this next round of of of Grants and if we find that it's an issue we can readdress it but I'd like to just get this open and get the the grant process open I just want to note I've always objected to that low level so it's nothing new but anyway okay well so well it would be great if we if if if we had the if we could guarantee we had the the money in that account to do everything that we want to do I would say you know but we gave what $5,000 for the Niza Memorial we and we have you know so we have those make speci think that's part of my point that we we should allow ourselves that kind of discretion but okay but we do we do allow ourselves that discretion you just don't do it okay well we gave $5,000 well the other one's 4500 and these guys are I don't know it's just strikes me as 4,000 4,000 with with a maximum of 6,000 a year right and we have over a I believe we have over $100,000 in that account you guys seem okay so I I I agree with Yolanda I would say that what we need to do is is see how this whole cycle um plays out okay so we don't need to vote or anything because we're not changing anything I'm just no we just need to put it open and then do do yeah you it was Claudia and I yeah do you guys are you guys willing to do it again this okay yeah raise your right hand the one thing I would say is just to to put this out there so you know again there's there's sort of these two categories of Grants there's the baa Grant um which is funded by the runner's account so organizations per the baa have to be a 501c3 organization to receive funding through those through that mechanism um I would also say that if if an organization received $4,000 in the fall Grant cycle um a couple things one they need to um submit receipts or um a list of um what they did yeah what they did with those funds in order to request additional funds for this grant cycle so um if they if they did $4,000 in the first round they can request um $2,000 or a total of $6,000 for the the two Grant Cycles um combined and for the community Grant so an organization that does not have 501c3 status um the max is um $1,000 or if they received $1,000 in the fall that they can apply for an additional 500 and again they need to show us documentation as how they've spent the funds so and that's funded by and that is funded by the the select board gift account um which um like we were talking about kind of funds multiple um multiple things for the for for the community so so we're not um uh do we need to vote on the U the um no it's the same subcommittee so I think okay so we're all set so we're just planning to open the grant cycle the grant cycle um submissions are due by March 31st okay very good all right so um the next item was discuss potential increases and water sewer rates and uh Michael is s has asked to withdraw that one he's not prepared at this moment to go into that had nothing in our packet yeah so and the next one is review of Energy savings per the electricity Consulting agreement yeah so um I'd sent this around to the board a little bit a couple weeks ago but uh recently we changed um our Consultants that we use to procure energy um and uh so one of the requirements that we had now is that they provide an end-year report for us to kind of uh let us know how much we've saved um so I will say that we were we actually had some really really great news um so looking at back in calendar year 2023 um if you look at our procured um our procured energy versus what it would be if we were on the standard ever Source rate um we uh saved $72,000 um 72,000 yep the the whole Community or the town the town so the town like everyone who's part of it not our town buildings no Our Town buildings buildings um and then also on gas we've saved 62588 so you know not as not as great a savings but uh certainly certainly more than we would have if we didn't do this so so yeah um I think that's good news I think it demonstrates to you know people you know what um kind of what we're doing as as Town leadership to you know keep cost down and manage costs I know sometimes people think look at the initiatives that we that we put forward and the projects that we're doing and think we just kind of like spin spin spin um we do take the you know time to look at places where we can save money and you know this is just one example of that okay what would you um what would you say is the the largest contributor to these savings is it solar power is it the energy the rate that we the R we' procured so it's not necessarily the solar it's it's the right it's the um negotiated contract the negotiated rate and I will say so we're looking forward to um you know future savings um with electricity it's not going to be that as great um so one of the things that we're required to do now is make sure that all of our um electricity is sourced from renewal mes um that was part of the bylaw that was passed a couple Town meetings ago um and so our new rates uh 12 cent 12427 uh cents um not all of that is because of the fact that we're at 100% Renewables um the majority of that is just where the market is um when we went to procure this but yeah so we'll be meeting those those gu or not guidelines but meeting the intentions of the that by law as well and is that the same rate that um you home owners residents can take advantage of no that's different okay it's yeah the aggregation program is is done is done differently um it's a it's a procured rate and everything but that one is 15 cents so so that's a significant increase with that one then yeah it's still yeah because I think it was nine it was nine I think it was 10 yeah we had we had such a good deal it was um because it was for like four or five years I mean that was a swing in a home run for sure bat in a th000 so what would it be um for residents if they don't participate in the you know so at this current period it'd be 16 cents but when it gets to the summer we're anticipating ever source's rate would be probably around the 23 to 25 cent range so it still be 10 cents still good savings is this something that what percentage of home owners take advantage of this do you know um I don't have that right in front of me Claudia but I would say probably 90% okay yeah the amount they've uh they haven't done this recently but they have generated a report that shows how much the savings homeowners have achieved through going through the town's negot aggregation program um and I me it's it's in the millions it's not in the hundreds of thousands it's significant like I said that rate was just incredible yeah it was so there was some concern cuz there's all these these kind of like quasi Shady characters selling the energy power to people I know I know some senior citizens who actually changed her electricity was changed without her apparent knowledge or understanding that shouldn't happen so yeah so we got to watch out for that that seems like that's died down a bit U right anyway okay anything else on that no no I think that's great thank you uh so reminders nomination papers available town clerk's office free covid tests available Town Hall uh reminder volunteer breakfast on Saturday March 23rd 9:00 a.m.

we have some projects that we're looking to fund one is continuation of our landline project and the landline project through mapc is working regionally to look at trails and how we connect the trails and look at different points where if a community is doing something how can we connect them to the other community so that's been so they're we're going to be looking work with hopkington on their lack of um unfortunately because hopkington is not part of our region is that interesting I mean they will will they will be included in the discussion and when we have our big Trails meetings they are certainly invited but a lot going on there yeah they have yeah Hopkinton has some issues that they're dealing with uh the last thing um I'm sorry I missed Subzero and I was all set on Friday to to say why I was missing it on Facebook but I couldn't do that until I got to New York City because we went to the city to surprise my daughter for her 30th birthday so I apologize I would have loved to have been there but um yeah yes oh family priorities yes and then just for fun if you're interested there's performances coming up at Hopkinson Center for the Arts uh Thursday the 29th and then the 1 and 2nd which is a Thursday uh Friday and Saturday and then the following weekend Friday and Saturday I'm stepping out on the stage as a performer for the first time in probably I don't know 20 years it's the show is called um songs for adults and the musical director takes songs from various musicals and he puts them all together in a certain order and they have all different kinds of themes but it's all things that adults are dealing with oh interesting are you singing dancing singing singing in movement there's no real dance but so it should be fun too wow yeah that's all I got all right thank you Yolanda uh just a um just a couple quick things one is um just a reminder February is Black History Month I thought that was you know an important thing to remember especially given our earlier discussion and uh did anyone I wasn't able to go to the ash United did an event I don't know if anyone else attended that did you guys oh good yeah do you want to just say anything about it or yeah I thought person we had was Kelly um trying to remember her her her last name but um she's a professor and she you know she talked a little bit about her you know experiences and and then dug a lot into um a lot of the experiences of of African-Americans like in the South and just you know some of their experiences um I thought it was really really good she was um for you guys for going she was U she was pretty Dynamic it lasted about an hour and just kudos to ashin is United for putting together another another great program great well thank j i yeah I know there just was some issues with people who were trying to get on there was like a registration um I do believe that they have a recording and they're hopeing going to share that that's cool the speaker was an author um and has podcast and and and allowed them to share that later for folks who couldn't make it so great thank you and my only other um thing I think the last minut I talked about the MBTA Fair reduction that I talked about so that's continuing and just a that's 200% you're eligible it's a 50% Fair reduction if you're 200% of the federal poverty level which for a single person as like 29,000 so I'm person and the T seems to be moving along to do this and the the governor did put some money in the budget whether it'll stay in the budget but I think it's actually going to happen which I think is a great thing so I'm I'm actually personally going to Lobby our legislators but I'm just trying to get gauge you folks what you you think if this is an important thing worth pushing with our legislators um basically in terms of Ashland so you're talking about half Fair Commuter Rail to Boston basically which from Ashland is what what is it uh currently it must be like $8 no it's more than that so so people these are service workers these are people lower income so if we think it's important to um you know help them with that um then I think it's a good good thing to pursue so just for you folks to think about if that's something we should if if the board wants to make a statement to our legislators to support that um just something to think about I'm I'm going to be talking to them personally myself that I think it's important but um you know we are kind of a commuter town so a lot of our commuters wouldn't be eligible but there is a significant amount of of lower income service workers that I think we want to support um and to use commuter rail I think benefits everybody you know as a as a whole so I think it's overall a good thing but I just wanted to put that out there um for consideration and kind of an update so I think that's going to actually happen um uh the T seems to be committed to it um and they've taken it on my understanding is they're trying to address the whole Free Fair like Boston was pushing and this is their answer to that so it's really um widespread among Subways and buses are really the significant amount but Community rail part of that too and I think that's you know an important part of it so it's true but I I you know I have to say that sometimes when I look at the continued problems right that the T faces and think about free well I mean it seems to me that they need to be trying to use money to fix their problems well that's going to be the next one yeah so I think their answer is like let's their answer is we're so awful we're going to give you free service but well they're not their answer is to reduce Fair 50% yeah no I know but I'm just you know just saying it's it's in some way I understand but the math yeah how do you balance that well 40 million from the go I think the governor's budget and then what's going to happen in coming years it's it's not as sustainable talk about not sustainable it's not sustainable it's going to need support from the state and you know other sources and that's the next big mystery or the the next big problem well I don't want to get into a can of worms but like how are they going to verify people's income oh like they're not they're they're not they're relying on other so that's self reporting no no they're relying on okay other people basically they're using Mass health and snap eligibility DTA so they've got these databases so someone who's interested they need to be on the database Goa okay that's that's it is work it seems workable okay that part of it okay all right well that's about all and I think with that we'll ask for a motion to adjourn to adjourn second all those in favor I I we are adjourned thank you all see you on March 6th March 6th yes trying to remember all the things we put on the agenda for March 6th are you keeping track of I think I think fortunately Susan is oh good thanks Mark I think I'm going to take this home actually try

to 6:00 a.m. was three times the amount being used during the peak hours which kind of took me back a little bit I've sent those out to CES to do the energy modeling to figure out why that is I also notified Tim Chan and Chris Mitchell last night and Jack budus to look at that and to look at their prior bills and their past bills to see why our bill right now has three times the amount of kilowatt usage off peak um is shouldn't be so we're trying to rectify and find out what the cause and the source of that is cuz often when I drive by it's like lit up like a Christmas tree it's really bright like I don't know if we need all those lights on is that driving I don't turn the lights on and off Joy I I don't turn the lights on and off so they're not automatic they are automatic yeah but you have custodial staff and other people in the building that you know have the lights on yes it's a bright sight um but it's LED lighting and it's energy harvesting so we your electric bill shouldn't be that High um you know we're again we're trying to get down to the root of that but again lights are on all day long so why would the kilowatt usage on the off peak 12 hours be three times the amount of the on Peak 12 hours it just doesn't make sense right now so you don't have an answer no the answer is we've been looking at it and trying to figure out why it is that but essentially we don't have an answer yet do you want the direct answer no I have a clue why your electric bills are higher okay maybe it's your custodial staff running you know they're vacuum cleaners all night I don't know okay I'm not there at night sorry for the sarcasm you're used to it for me though no worries um I I have a question but um my question actually has split a little bit so you gave us a ton of very detailed information in the beginning about current accomplishments or recent accomplishments and that is I I was going to try to write them down but I couldn't cuz because it was just too much and too fast and too technical um but I want to be able to process that information more fully so I was going to ask if you could get us your um prepared notes and and share those with us but then you said these this information is posted on the every month okay we have these for all 30 months of the construction you can start from the beginning and go right to the end I think it's really useful for for members of the community who are still like well I don't even know what's up with that school you know because there are still those folks who are wondering like is the school ever going to be finished and um I would really like to be able to give concrete f um information facts about the good work you guys are doing well I appreciate that um the concrete information though should be coming from the NBC okay we've been the stewards of the money in this building project um we have very low attendance even lower than you guys um you know we're there every month discussing things in detail uh once in a while we'll get a member of the public there but really that's where it all comes down to it and not only are we there construction manager is there our owner project manager are there our design team members are there so very specific and Technical questions can be answered in real time if they have them thanks a lot are there other questions for Mr Cho I think to piggy back off what you said because I think you made a good point that we should either put it in three main points or where they can access that information and not only just going to a meeting right cuz that's not easy for some people so true true right and I think too it's important um when there are items such as parking lot and things like that and and I don't know the most recent but Dr pep sasi keeps the the the most important people are the families so they know exactly what's going on at the school and so Dr P keeps them informed of those things too because he's in regular contact with Paul and me and team as you discussed so that is there but there are citizens who are interested in but I think if the um they check out the NBC minutes all there I just want to confirm the meetings are the third Tuesday of every month correct okay good you're coming next month all right bring cookies nobody nobody feeds us um I do have one other thing to address I did receive a copy of a petition regarding HVAC and indoor air quality and I feel compelled to address it um because the basis of it and the information that's out there is how can I put this nicely um it's just not factual it's just not correct erroneous so pardon erroneous erroneous that's too nice you know for to paraphrase I would call it BS all right so I'm going to go through this bear with me because I I everybody needs to hear it mandate the installation of openable openable Windows for the health and safety concerns of candle Lake Elementary School that petition was circulated I don't know who circulated it but I did speak with a couple of teachers that I do know who signed it and they weren't given the cover sheet they were asked directly would you like operable windows and they said yes and they said sign here the cover sheet to that petition gave a bunch of information that was false so we're going to play true and false in a minute so there's only five items stated claim as concerned members of the Brookfield Community we have witnessed firsthand the health issues that colleagues and students at clees are facing due to inadequate ventilation anybody true or false false false good okay we have a dedicated outside air ventilation system has two stages of filtration MF 13 filters filters out 90% of the microns between three and 10 microns all right that's per EPA the system has Heating cooling dehumidification system 100% outdoor Air does not mix classrooms which means each classroom gets its own outside air into that classroom why is that important well we learned during covid what happens when you mix indoor errs right Co spreads throughout a building this doesn't do that this is most commonly used in the modern schools it's been proven to to deliver excellent indoor air quality this isn't something that we make up to say geez you know what let's build a building let's not let any of the windows open this is such a Hightech system that it monitors the CO2 levels in each one of the rooms so the next data claim is the school's current window system does not allow for fresh air circulation leading to an unhealthy indoor environment that is affecting our staff and our children's well-being true or false there you go okay so again dedicated outside air mechanical ventilation it operates year round 100% outdoor air to each space in the building no question about it each and every space from your smallest room indoor rooms with no windows to your classrooms they all have 100% outside air tempered humidified dehumidified before it enters that classroom number three state claim an additional concern with windows that don't open especially on the second floor is about the safety in an emergency situation multiple classrooms do not have a second form of egress if the main one is blocked there is another reason we feel that we need to have Windows that open as a secondary means of Escape in case of an emergency the school safety gcn training video States and this is where word play comes in windows that are intended as a secondary mean to be agress should not be blocked and should be ready openable from the inside and they write our windows don't even open because the windows aren't the second means of egress each one of those classrooms has two doors some have lead you through a third classroom 60 ft down the hallway we have a building which is reinforced concrete 100% around the exterior non-combustible construction on the interior we have a sprinkler system we have every safety fire alarm system imaginable that's required by code in this building so true or false we know it's false egress was reviewed in detail we were given a building permit and it was approved by the state this isn't something that we did locally and said hey geez you know what let's save some money let's not make the windows open and let's only give them one door out of a classroom we can save $220,000 no that wasn't the case you know what I'm a licensed professional I expect other professionals whether they're Educators or such to have the information and not sort of embellish it to make a claim I I really kind of take offense to these things all right number four we're almost done here we believe it is can I miss one oh no I only have I only have four I'm sorry number four you're lucky stated claim we believe it is essential for our local schools to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for our children therefore we urge relevant authorities and Brookfield to mandate the installation of openable windows in the Candlewood Lake Elementary School this will not not only improve air quality and increase safety measures but also contribute positively toward creating an atmosphere that is more conducive to learning have you been in the school have you seen a school that's not more conducive to learning than this every turn in the school has been designed every space in the school has been designed for this well-being of the students to give them a learning environment that's probably second to none in this state even the new Sandy Hook Elementary School isn't up to these design standards so really I mean come on so is that true or false Rosa okay so in Connecticut Natural ventilation via operable Windows is generally not considered favorable why we live in the Northeast the amount of degree days that we have where you really want to open a window is limited you're not going to do it from October 15th when the state mandates you have to turn heat on till April 15th where the state mandates you have to turn heat off you only have times in the spring and fall what happens in the spring when you open the windows the pollen comes in all right you're going to add you're going to aggravate people with allergies what happens in the fall and the spring well that's mold season outside you know what happens when we don't have open openable Windows the use openable it's operable when you don't have operable windows and you have 100% outside air that's filtered we don't allow mold spores and pollen in they get filtered out so you know opening a a window for ventilation will introduce outside air into classroom yeah just like our ventilation system does it also brings in everything else from the outside whether it be noise whether it be allergens whether it be dust um if anybody was following the the uh wildfires in Canada the summer when was the last time we had a health alert October 2nd these kids were in school anybody Smell Smoke in that school mhm no it wasn't a concern because it's filtered out so these modern high performance mechanical systems such as the one at clees provide the ability to control the conditions of the outside air far greater than opening a window so you know really um I can't express enough the discontent I have with this petition um that if they had a question or a concern they could have come to the MBC and we didn't do this design in a vacuum we had user meetings for months and months right John yep months with all the different user groups throughout this process this was never a concern it was never raised and and we debated a versus B to no end to give everybody a safe secure healthy and beautiful school so I I know you all can appreciate it um you know you're on the board of ed like I was you're here for the students you're here to do the best things for the students we appreciate that we're here for the same reason to give our town and our students the best environment possible so I do hope that in the future um facts overtake the BS and they can come and ask the questions directly so if you have any other questions Paul I just have a quick question yeah for the filtration system so is there like a filter that needs to be replaced or how does it how are those cleaned those are those are maintenance items um omm has gone through training on these uh the units are the filtration is upstairs on the roof in these units there's filters that get changed you know whatever the interval is um and there actually two stages those are two stages of filtration on these so but Dan Caldwell and his staff have been trained okay with these and they've received x amount of whatever uh what we call attic stock um to do that but the filters at the end of construction were changed by the CM by the mechanical contractor so there are filters prior to taking yes prior to taking the uh occupancy of the school how often do they need to be changed I you'd have to ask Dan called well that that was part of his training okay quick question on the are there controls in each classroom like can they adjust that or is it centrally located there's controls in each classroom and all so I don't know if anybody was here when they were doing the um the control system for the high school all right but at the new school the control system was part of the entire package so there's controls in each classroom there's also temperature readings and those go all the way back to the computer that the uh maintenance staff have and you can Trend this data you can print out a report and Trend the data weeks months years at a time to see what the temperature humidity Co content any number of factors in the air quality it's really geared toward providing the maximum IAQ or IND indoor air quality that we can and controlling that and also seeing if we have an issue you know in real time because the screen in that classroom as we know will flash um if there's a problem this happened during programming and it Flash in a member of classrooms that ever was high CO wasn't actually the case but they were doing programming and one person didn't know the other person who was doing the programming so but it does give real time information so I have a question really quick if a teacher or staff member does have a concern regarding their classroom either a smell that they can't get rid of or their temperature control isn't working how do they go about that process go ahead like anything else they can go to their direct supervisor or to the principal of the school and let them know they don't need to go to the Board of Education they actually don't need to come to me and they don't certainly don't need to go to Mr check up they go right to Dr Pepsi or one of the assistant principles and say hey I'm having an issue with this and we will get right on it um or the custodian who might be cleaning their wing they could ask that person um no different than any other school um in the history of schooling it's the same thank you good question when I was on the board we put in a work order system and with a building this size you may want to implement a system of just notifying for they they have they have a a system especially at the beginning of school year but we have School dude system but that's from like School dude reports the school dude report scho but that's and then people know how to do that but if there's some issue that's a a little funny and they're not sure and it seems you know more than that they go right to the administration right and that's why they're there Dr Peele give me a call or shoot me an email it's nothing like working for free huh I know you all do because most of you Educators well for anybody who had um concerns or questions about the air quality at CES I think they're if they're watching they're much much better informed now and um can continue to either uh work there or send their kids there or just be a confident resident of the Town knowing that um air quality is top tier over there so thank you very much that was a really rich um presentation all right because you ask questions I going to offload all your notes our before this is bigger than the phone book for New Milford the fact that you phone book is really that's our financial and this was the letter from addressing the ventilation system great which a lot of my data came from so if anybody has any questions you can send it wonderful thank you so much appreciate that Paul thanks so much for coming tonight what you wish for right okay um so we're moving to the next item which is the Wendy I have one more thing that Eric wanted me to share tonight about CEs and Paul will appreciate this there's work going on they're working on the wireless Act access points tomorrow on the light polls so there may be a chance uh at student pickup and parents should try who are doing pickup that we might actually have full Wireless out there possibility so it's coming so we're working on it so everybody can give it a test give it a test tomorrow afternoon you know if you got rid of s pick up and drop off you won't have to worry about no one would be able to pick up their kids if it was up to Mr Cheo so there you go thank you Paul great so the um now the we're moving to the next agenda item this B we're getting our midyear update um so the board will receive a midyear update regarding the correct reports from Mr Roland the director of special education and thanks very much Bill hi good evening everybody uh I'd like to thank the board for giving me the opportunity to come before you this evening and give you uh uh hopefully a brief update on on where we're at with the correct recommendations um before I begin I'd like to just speak a little bit about gratitude how grateful I am to be here tonight how grateful ful I am to be part of a team uh with Dr burill Dr man Mrs diot um the principles uh and also the parents um and the students that have welcomed me into the community and have helped me uh come in and look forward to working every day with them to to make special education um what we want it to be which is inclusivity and I'll get to that again at the end but again just a a quick note of gratitude before I begin um that really it fuels me to be able to do that uh and and be grateful every day for the position I'm in now you're looking at this you're saying Bill why did you use twoo Font there are 20 recommendations in the correct report those of you who are on the board before know that it was divided into four domains um resources student learning communication um structures and it's and wait organizational structures and processes I swear I wrote this myself um so what I wanted to just show you this evening are the recommendations that were in the report but also to pull out some of the more uh pertinent ones give you an update on where they are and while I talk about them in completion obviously in a school system things are ongoing nothing is ever fully completed we're always working to improve and to refine our processes so although I'm not going to have anybody do an I test uh on this these are the seven recommendations for domain one and again I have links to the report at the end but to show you this and to then show you the next slide which is where we are on these and what areas I've uh focused on and the progress that we've made so one of the things that when I came in was was uh imperative was uh professional development and so throughout the year we've had IEP quality training we've had training from bcbas on behavioral strategies in class I consider the professional development piece completed in terms of framing it again every year we have professional development so this is not like oh we're done year one we're all set with professional development it's an ongoing process but what we needed when I first came in based on the recommendations were to really look closely at IEP development writing goals and objectives that are focused targeted and that are measurable um and again this comes throughout with coaching with professional development with working with the teams directly in buildings attending ppts as I've done uh over the course of the last six months and just giving you the option of looking at professional development not only as an ongoing process but as something that we can complete year to year based on what the needs are um in addition one of the recommendations was professional development for administrators regarding their roles for special education to ensure efficient supports throughout the building now in Prior um meetings that we've had of the board and and myself in in pres presenting to you and in the buildings one of the things that we talked about were that in Past Times um general education administrators principles and assistant principles were not necessarily at attending ppts it was the supervisors that were doing the majority if not all of the chairing of ppts that's changed this year with an ongoing plan of dividing those cases up so that the principles assistant principles can be part of the conversation because as we all know an IEP isn't just a special education piece it's how is this implemented throughout the building the advice and the guidance that a general education administrator can provide at a PPT is crucial to me being able to implement that it also gives the general education administrators insight into what the needs are of our students with IEPs what the needs are and how we can Implement that with best practices and how they can support that in the building because as we all know special education is not a piece of curriculum or an IEP over in the corner it's a living document that that we work with all our students who have IEPs to integrate them into uh general education classrooms and to provide specialized instruction as as needed um the reviewing of the Brookfield High School academic support model this also speaks to a need for more consistent transition ppts going from elementary to middle and middle to high so what a program looks like in the Middle School um has needed to be adjusted when they get when students get to the high school we're constantly looking at that and what that looks like at the high school level because often times the hours and the goals and objectives look one way in Middle School and to adjust them appropriately for high school not to just fit them into well this is our schedule and this is what we have and this is what we're going to do customizing that making sure that the students get what they need that's an ongoing conversation so I can't say to you tonight that it's complete but that the conversation is happening and ongoing if you notice um I did color code this evening so green would be the the completion or the ongoing yellow are things that are in process so one of the things that's in process could be considered ongoing but I'd rather look at it this way is analyzing the relationship between classroom teachers special education teachers and Par Educators in the context of meaningful inclusive practices before making further changes in Staffing what does an inclusive classroom look like what can teachers do to differentiate that instruction before we start looking at we need more whichever position You' like to talk about we need more teachers we need more Powers we need more let's look at what we have and how we can work through that in terms of the relationship of a co- teing model whether it's resource advising General Ed whether it's a co- teing model where two teachers are in the room to make that so that there's more of a cohesive structure around those conversations versus having one teacher F fill one role and another teacher filling another role there should be more of a collaboration so I look at that as in process I don't look at that at that as something that's complete um also aligning the purchasing of curriculum materials for general education classrooms to account for co- teing and special education teacher roles in inclusive classrooms and again this is something that's ongoing as we look at the models for what classroom instruction looks like to be able to be inclusive not just for our students but to look at differentiated materials for our general education classrooms as well again in process I don't see that as completed and I did not want to come here tonight and okay here we go again two point font um organizational structures and processes there were six recommendations on this and as you see in the the slide coming up I've uh worked to address these and you can see what this looks like here so one of the things that we've talked about pretty much every time I've I've gotten up to speak to you and and and talk with you is the special education strategic plan so that is ongoing I've gotten input from parents input from teachers the meetings are ongoing I plan on presenting that to you in May that is going to be in alignment with the district strategic plan but it's going to be focused on action steps and actions that we can take as a district specifically to special education and how we move through the next three four five years and the actions that we're going to take as a district and recommendations that we've gotten from parents from teachers from Paras from building administrators um and just observations of students that we've done as well um increased departmental meetings communication structure so this is another piece where I've said it's both completed and it's ongoing it's not like we're going to uh you know increase the communication structure and then we're done um in terms of having departmental meetings uh those have been ongoing monthly but also I've been attending more of those and I've been also in buildings for uh Team meetings and and uh uh intervention meetings uh to sort of increase that communication not only with meetings with the principles but meetings with interventionists um and with teachers in classrooms and with teams that are working with parents and in some cases uh with parents but making sure that our departmental meetings aren't just in a vacuum that the departmental meetings whether they're in CS WMS or the high school all have a cohesive theme and all have a cohesive structure and that the message is Al LED based not only on the grade levels but also in what we need to do to implement this plan in these recommendations so again completed and ongoing clear guidelines for adult support so those of you who have worked on IEPs or been in ppts know that adult support is one of the the major conversation points and you know it's not a one siiz fits-all it never has been and it never will be uh if you're looking for a student needing one to One support that's a discussion that can take place with data uh with uh you know conversations with teachers with parents and with performance in the classroom whether that's Behavioral or academic the other level is maybe just Paris support where there is a par available to multiple students in a classroom and again this depends on need and I think through some of our professional development and our conversations making it clearer that there are areas where one to one is absolutely necessary there are areas where a par in a classroom might be working with four or five students or fewer or larger but also that there's a reasoning behind it a philosophy behind it so that the conversation that takes place at a at a PPT is not well they should get a you know this child should get a one to one let's talk about why and not to say no to it but let's make sure that we're justifying it because when we're justifying Paris support it's making sure that as the student moves on there is a move towards independence and for those who are who have uh more intense needs that the one to one is provided specifically for them and again that's completed but it's also ongoing because again as we go through every year iep's annuals change and conversations change as well so this one I broke down to analyzing roles and responsibilities of building leaders supervisors and the IEP compliance teacher as I mentioned in the last slide building leaders are attending more ppts we uh worked with the supervisors and the principles to lay out which ppts they might be most effective at um where the supervisors might be more effective and in some cases where I might be more effective in order to meet parents to meet the students and to work with the teams on kind of an active coaching model of how the PPT progresses through an agenda through the discussion and so that when you're having maybe difficult conversations the meeting doesn't have to be difficult the conversations don't have to be contentious we can work through with an with a a feeling of mutual respect and that's through conversations with both parents and with teachers and with building administrators of creating that culture within each PPT um the IP compliance teacher as I spoke of in in previous months is providing immediate feedback to teachers and administrators through our CT said system uh ongoing support to PPT teams and is sometimes modeling facilitation of ppts so so that that role has been crucial in terms of implementing the recommendations and in terms of supporting what I'm seeing through the central Office Team and what I'm seeing in the buildings to be able to have that active ongoing presence and conversation across across the buildings now a side effect a side benefit of building administrators attending more ppts uh the supervisors have been don't have a full day of pp p s anymore and I I I looked at that from last year there were some days where supervisors were in pretty much the whole day in just pvts when you start including building admins and you have a more flexible approach to who's going to be the chair or or the admin for the PPT that gives the time for supervisors to be in the classrooms to uh observe and engage with students and staff uh it also allows me the opportunity to partner with them and to observe classrooms in in all three buildings and as I I said when I came on board um the one thing I wasn't going to be is is uh Not Invisible but but inaccessible um having parents call me having teachers reach out to me but being in the buildings and being visible so that the staff the students and the families know that there is a a voice and there is an advocate for what needs to be done within the buildings okay so this is not so much two.

February 28th is parent meeting regarding the France trip at 6 pm and March 12th is the B not is on March 12th the BHS counselors will be visiting uh the Middle School eighth grader to explain the registration process and the answer any student questions and then upcoming events at the high school March 7th is parent teacher conferences March 14th through 17th is the uh BHS High School Musical mam Mia gets are on sale now and March 26th is a career fair as we heard from AA um tonight she has uh several updates about that and then April 5th is Junior Prom I do not have my CES events but the only thing on there were conferences which I should know this are March conferences hold on let fill in my calendar at CS well you're finding that and we have a coupon code for Mama Mia oh yeah could you say a little bit more about that for anybody watching email so we get one coupon one ticket complimentary ticket complimentary ticket I guess sorry everyone yeah no not stop any stop or teachers listening um CES parent teacher conferences are March 28th and 29th okay as the parent of a recent graduate I want to tell all the um the folks out there who going to Junior Prom no no 14th and 14th and 15th foras ah okay okay well the kids going to prom need to wear jackets hopefully comfortable shoes hopefully not I wanted to add also that the whis caner conferences are March 5th here we go parent conferences it's a half day is it yes so at CES those two dates are also half day is lunch served the 28th and 29th is lunch served yes lunch is served at 10: a.m.

I beg you I implore you most people in this community would like to see a 6 PM meeting that is how they're able to get to City Council meetings that's how they're able to navigate work and being more active in their community so I'm sitting here and I'm imploring you all to vote to have this meeting moved to a 6:00 p.m. on a regular basis thank you thank you next we have Timothy or Tim Shaw good evening I'd like to talk about the 6.4 Pro of first let move this move the meetings to 6:00 p.m.

to 11:00 a.m. at the community center um do we want to make any other comments about that we're moving ahead with that we be getting invitations if they haven't already and please RSVP if you've gotten an invitation so we can plan accordingly for food have they gone out Susan do you know or not yet I'm actually working on it right now hopefully tomorrow I'll have it out very nice all right thank you and the nomination papers when are nomination papers due April 3rd or 4th um only because I handed mine in today and that it's one of those dates I think okay yeah you can find all the information about how to run and what you need to do if you want to run on the town clerk town on the um town website yeah town clerk's office yeah um oh so the next is the consent agenda um and I don't know will I will accept a motion to accept motion to approve the consent agenda as presented second all those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I I I consent and Michael or anybody else I don't know if you want to uh comment any of the items in there I know we had able to hire two uh two police officers and we have a light equipment operator yeah good to see I was going to bring up during Town manager reports that this is the third straight meeting where we've had an appointment of a police officer and this time too um you know to the force and everything so this is we're heading in the right direction in terms of filling those vacancies um and you know the police department the police department personnel they've done a really good job of um of recruiting and and basically highlighting the benefits of working in Ashland and working for the Ashland Police Department so it's been great we just swore in um a lateral Melvin lagon um and he uh has just a great resume but he comes to us experienced already Academy trained this is an addition of these two guys yeah Melvin you oh we saw him last night U but he's uh he's uh just a great great guy great great candidate so um again we're moving in the right direction great with that so the um the exit from civil service has been a net positive oh so I mean yeah absolutely yeah um I mean we've had to kind of like do some you know we we've used a company called get badged to basically run that process for us um and they've done a tremendous job and and again our our police department has done a a good job of really highlighting the benefits of working in Ashland um so it's been a team effort for sure so wonderful okay thank you all right so that does bring us to town manager report um yeah just I'll start with one thing that's not uh listed on here on the agenda but that's the town hall roof um and unfortunately we got some bad news uh earlier this week and that it was found well just to kind of remind you what was happening before is there was a a beam that was cracked um and the roof essentially was pulling away from the top plate of the building um and it was it was fallen so we had already planned on doing a repair there um and it was going to be about $142,000 um what we did find out this week is that when this building was renovated it wasn't done according to the plans um on a specific area so basically a main load carrying beam um wasn't supported the way it was supposed to be on the plans so we're figuring out a fix to that right now so um yeah that was a little bit of a surprise regarding that is there you know either an insurance claim or not or if that's not worth it or going back to the PE you know whoever did the construction I mean if we can show that they didn't follow the plans I know it's been 20 years but I I would think that I don't know is it worth looking into who did the construction if they didn't follow the plans and now we're paying for it yeah it's always worth asking the question I think for sure but there so that was that um so update on the FY 24 and fy2 budget so um the fy2 24 budget I I provided the info to you in the packet you know I know it's a lot of info I was going to say we going through all the 100 Pages no no I'm just going to ask if you have any questions on ites so where are we um like comparatively year-over-year like at this point um you know I mean we have you know we're at almost March 1st so we have you know four months of fy2 24 budget left comparatively to last year at this point in time are we on track are we like do we think we're going to have you know money at the end you know like where are we compared to last year yeah we we're we're tracking very similarly okay um and so we should be about at like the 66% range on things um through December what is this through through it' be through March 1st I'm just think so the report that we're looking at only goes through the second quarter so from July through December correct okay correct um but uh yeah I would expect you know we would have a free cash balance at the at the end of the year once that's done I don't know if it will be as healthy as it has been in previous years I I say that every year though um but uh we did see a noticeable you know changed this year compared to this past year compared to the year before so line items that I'm seeing 95% 100% long are a number of them are longevity so is that because it got moved into the salary line items and that's why we're seeing that at 100% now already when we're only halfway through the year yeah that happens in the fall so those payments get issued in the fall okay and so it's it's one time so you will see it's been paid it so that's why it's going to be close to 100% okay one thing that that I would is it possible to get these reports in in a spreadsheet format instead of the PDF yeah I can see if Britney can can break down it would be you know I'd like to be able to filter on you know what's what's at 75% or greater or what's over 100% so that even some of the lines even you know you have to count down okay well over here in this column it's the eighth down so CU it's hard to even align them right well um one of the things I would ask for similar to that but it's not it's just kind of like an analytical summary from you or Britney or whatever like what's going on with the expenses yeah that would be great too but I'd like to be able to just zero in on something and say what's the story like you know even on on so I could ask a question or more easily yeah I don't know if we could do it quarterly I I certainly think we could do it semiannually you know to that level with a with an anal Yeah just something like what are you seeing like what's working what's not what's over what's under I mean we might be able to take the PDF if munus produces the PDF I mean they must produce an Excel you must be able to export it to an Excel spreadsheet I just yeah you can it's been a it's it's been a while but since I've done all that it has to be manipulated I would think Britney would be able to figure out how to on a half basis send this to an Excel spreadsheet and make it look you know and readable if if we have a if we use acrobat and have ownership of acrobat then we could probably export this into a spreadsheet I mean that would be sort of a workaround and doesn't seem like it would be necessary to do it like that but that would be a potential oh you're pretty good technical whiz Claudia yeah I know but acrobats those I try a couple of things with this which I know I could have gotten through but not at 100 Pages oh okay well we'll we'll make sure you don't have to do it has to interpret text and put it in a spreadsheet it doesn't always work that well I think but anyway I'd rather have the analysis myself but anyway kind of the detail so there's that so that was the um that that's the FY 24 budget so let's talk about the FY 25 budget um and just bear with me I just wanted to bring up my most recent um now we didn't have anything in our packets no no because we've been working on that up to the day um I couldn't find here let's see otherwise I'll have to do this from memory Emil us earlier oh okay that's why it wasn't in the P okay um like why can't I find it okay so if you recall you know we were looking at a$2 point something million dollar deficit the last time we we spoke um we talked about that so since that time so hold on just because we've never spoken about that we there were a couple of us like Yolanda and Claudia and I went to your department meeting oh right good point um board meeting we never spoke we've never spoken about it was posted but we haven't talked about it in an evening board meeting correct right so so kind of just you know because I know you've been in front of fincom and you've talked to fincom about it um but we haven't spoken about the deficit and where that came from and what it looks like and you know what the feasibility of it is because um which I think is important because not all of us were at the the the department meeting and also you know for people that might be watching understanding that 2.7 million doll I know you put it in your newsletter but it didn't have a whole lot of like context around it yeah and and and I would say you know I know you you're talking about a $2.7 million deficit in our budget but we all know that we're not going to be at that right that that was everyone you know your department head saying okay this is what we want to do this is this is what we want to get to so yeah so do you want me to start the 2.7 or me you yeah start at the 2.7 but I think we need to be clear that it's this was a starting point we were never going to try and fill in my mind fill the gap between what we think we have for Revenue in the 2.7 I was going to get there going to get there um but no I'll start I'll start back a little bit a little bit earlier so yes once once we got you know some idea of what our fixed costs were going to be and once you put in all the departmental the municipal Department's uh requests in and you looked at the school department going up the 3.75% that's part of our policies um we ended up with the $2.7 million deficit so so that's um and again a Big Driver of that uh were the requests from the municipal departments um and also the fixed cost drivers so um you know that's that was pretty much I mean benefits in Insurance itself is just $670,000 plus you know we're looking at less Revenue in terms of New Growth as well that's uh that's coming in so that's kind of where we're where we're starting from or where we started from so I don't know if you want to discuss that that aspect of it at all no um we can okay so what you know Britney and I have started to do and Jen's worked with us as well is okay how do we start whittling that down um and so one of the things we did is is we basically zeroed out all the requests from the municipal departments and you know basically said what if we just essentially level Ser do like a level service budget not level funding but level service right so we had a certain point there um and that was able to knock off about a million bucks um and then one of the things that uh we've talked about is Shifting more of our funds or expenses I should say onto revolving funds that we have and so we've started looking at doing that so basically with a level service budget um you know um excuse me just a second yeah a level service budget um we the municipal uh Municipal departments went up 341,000 once you shift some of that onto the Enterprise funds we would be at like a $200,000 budget increase and how and why are we shifting costs onto the Enterprise funds um because so it's Enterprise in revolving funds as well um it's not ideal but we got to make up the Gap I thought there was certain rules as to what was in the revolving funds and the Enterprise funds versus what's in the general appropriation yeah there there's there's um rules there's certainly rules um and then there's also guidelines that you follow and it's all in in line with that so for example we can't hit a certain like Recreation revolving fund there's there's two related to that you can't hit one to basically pay for personnel but you can you can do that for others or with with the other account I should say um which I would think we were doing anyway right if I have if I'm running a camp program and I'm hiring staff for that camp program that then it's going to match the expense for the camp is going to match the revenue that we've received for the camp so it makes sense to put it out out of the revolving account right yeah I think there's certainly some that come out of like this uh seasonal employees right like they certainly come out of out of that revolving fund what we're talking about about doing is Shifting more of like Kelly's salary onto a revolving fund um you know basically people that are paid out of the general fund um shifting it onto the revolving fund again that's not ideal and it's certainly not sustainable why isn't so you charge fees for recreation are you're saying so those fees wouldn't cover or there's a surplus that's going to get spent down is that well it's not sustainable meaning that we could do it for a couple of years but eventually it draws off unless the fees are raised yeah I mean well that's I guess what I was getting at yeah so there's there's that piece um what about while you're on that subject people always talk about the water and sewer funds those are the big ones are there are there any any examples of things that are changing there um well so it would be kind of a wash in a way on the Enterprise funds because essentially what we would do is take uh some people people that are paid through indirect charges for those of you not familiar with that there's direct charges and then there's indirect charges and direct charges are those expenses that are charged directly to the Enterprise funds and then there's also indirect charges where you try to capture the you know people's time oh that's working exactly um and you try to factor that in into the indirect cost people get suspicious okay yeah so so what what what I think people get suspicious about is when we shift from indirect to direct so I mean like currently Jen and I are paid from indirect or paid through indirect does it make more sense to have a portion of us charged through directly um what difference is there like there's not that's why I said it's a it's kind of a was because you have some rationale like x% of Jen's time goes to exactly whatever exactly so you know so is it to I'm just trying to understand how that works so is it a portion of each of your salaries is divided up amongst multiple um Enterprise funds or is it yes some multiple okay specifically water and SE based currently when it's indirect you kind of make a not a guess but I'm going to say guess as to how much time of your time is associated with working on behalf of that exactly exactly and we're not talking about huge pieces huge chunks of time or you know we're not talking about like 50% or anything you know we'd be talking about like 5 to 15% um so for instance like um on the DPW side I would assume Doug you know portion of Doug Small's salary is build to trash correctly right bless you trash and recycling so you know that that's kind of what you're talking about right like staff and different you know okay but it doesn't it does seem like a wash right if whether you Bill it indirectly or directly it might make more sense to people or something but but it doesn't there's no savings associated with that exactly ex that's yeah I mean it's more for I think still spending the money it's just how you're where you're getting it from it's an accounting accounting exercise it's even coming from same place it's just right and in the past we kind of looked at those allocations right you have certain rules or you know they're all listed somewhere right yeah there are rules um especially regarding the revolving funds um and there are guidelines associated with the Enterprise funds I just wondered if people wanted to see how that was done is it just like a handy list of like how things are allocated or kind yeah we have we have I think I've seen in the past it sounds familiar I think would be good is at some point we have a you know I don't know if we're planning a tri board meeting but I think that's going to be necessary especially because we not sure what's happening at the schools because they have some Union contracts that they're negotiating and I think it would be good for the boards Finance school and us to understand what some of these transfers are and then at the same point after that then do a public review of what we've done so the public understands what we're doing and why we're doing it yeah like one of the things I've asked Britney to do is keep track of how much more we're going to put on the revolving fund so I I can say you know okay this was the Gap that we had and this is how we've closed it and it's not sustainable um it's just it it's not um again kind of the the deficit after we made those adjustments to the municipal departments um is about 1.3 million that's what the deficit is so we'll find different savings and everything that we can with that and then we have to look at things on the revenue side then you know unless we want to talk about cutting programs and cutting services I I'm kind of going under the assumption that you would want me to figure out something with cutting programs and services well ideally but if we don't have the revenue and and it's I think it's a balance right I mean certainly we don't want to cut programs but if we're taking money to pay for things in an one sustainable way we need to talk about that we need to say maybe we do need to look at what we're doing and give the town the opportunity to say we can't do that anymore or certainly not this cycle it's too late but you know we need to increase our Revenue somehow right because another you know option that we're looking at or another tool that we're looking at putting together for this budget um is do I mean and this is getting creative is is looking at overlay Surplus um so the amount of surplus that we don't or the amount of overlay that we don't utilize each year um that basically stays in an overlay account for that year I mean would the board of assessors feel comfortable with declaring some of those year Surplus and that would make money available again it' be one time that we can utilize to help close that budget deficit for this year but again we're talking about onetime onetime fixes and you know shifting costs the things that are not um that are not sustainable long term right and you I've had you know a couple conversations with Jim and you know I think you know Jim's looking at a similar approach to you know what um what we're talking um why do you say it's not sustainable for an is that the Enterprise fund you're talking about no I'm talking revolving funds revolving so but they all have a revenue source so isn't it isn't it a function of what the revenue is like you could choose the raise the r interrupt you motion to go past 10 o' second all those in favor going past 10 o'cl say I I pass okay um but just to but the revenue can be increased through fees in almost every case I think the question is are people think the increase in fees is Justified for what the service is or what they've been paying so I think but it isn't necessarily unsustainable if the fee is sufficient is it well maybe I should re reframe that and say based on current fee levels it's not sustainable I I do think if we if we're talking about um you know the the you know increasing Revenue we also have to talk correspondingly like if we don't do that what is what what is the proposal proposal to be cut because I think people have to understand what that would look like so does that mean a cut in services at the library and the community center and DPW and less less um you know what are the choices Services Town Hall yeah like cut back hours a town hall like so I I think I think we have to kind of show that because I think it's I think it's I think it's important people have to understand what what that means um because you know I mean I do think I think that you know you're talking a a school budget increase of 3.75 usually it's what 3% no um usually it's five like four five% so usually so it's less than it typically yeah so what our policy says is that it goes up 3.75% and the municipal departments go up 2 and a half% got and if we have Revenue over and above that it gets split 7030 amongst the school department and the municipal departments so what we've done in in previous years is I mean it's it's been to a point where you know you could spend 4% 4% increase on the schools and because the revenue has been there the revenue has been there um and um yeah we're not we're we're not there anymore there yeah yeah yeah because I think the reality will be something very different I have a feeling um I don't know what that looks like but um I I think I think it's going to be a tough budget year you know and I think we have to we have to be very clear as to you know when when people ask why why we're looking to raise fees on X Y or Z we have to show them the the the documentation as to like like if so if we don't do this we need to cut staff we need to cut back hours we need to cut back Services we have you know one less fire firefighter on duty we have one less police officer on duty that affects service that affects a lot of things in town so or whatever that looks like and I'm not saying we let go of Staff because I that's not what I'm saying at all but I I do think we have to be very clear of what the options look like so that people understand the decisions that we're all going to have to make together you know so because it's not going to be easy no I mean this year I've we've never been in a place where I've had to look at onetime Revenue to this extent to to cover this uh but we've been going in that direction and I've I've been saying that for years I've also been saying if we continue to take like a a slow growth what I call a slow growth approach and you know basically buy properties and take them offline to be you know where they can't be developed and basically push back against development we're going to have these situations where you have a new growth of $400,000 and you know it's it's like the new growth stuff is like drugs I I hate to I hate to say that you get you know if you're used to getting it at like the million doll level and you've you know fairly consistently and that's what you're thinking of budgetary wise um if you're getting 475,000 it's there's withdrawals you still have growth in the pipeline though and we've talked about those projections yeah Michael what produces if it's possible to um kind of put this in Lay terms or that like $100,000 in New Growth monies what what is that look like in the community um well I would say so for example um like Cirrus when Cirrus was added on so that added on about $1.2 million of of new growth in one year um sure over a couple years and that's based on was over two years but well no it it's one year but then it gets built into built into your base oh because of the property I was thinking of the fees the yeah the fees are different yeah that would come in like in in building fees and local rece Bas on the property tax I thought it hit in two separate yeah it it was split between like two I'm just saying totally that's why based on the property taxes associated with the property yes we still a bunch of Apartments coming up though I mean right so Chestnut Street when that hits that'll be New Growth when 501 Pond Street gets built but and then the after that but after that we don't have any I mean we have some smaller projects but well they always seem to be coming along but you yeah yeah so do you have a timeline in regards to your budget process tribe board meeting and then you know public discussion I know you've had some already with the finance committee but yeah um so what I was was hoping to do is Britney and I would do more of a full budget presentation on March 20th I think so our second meeting um what's March 20th our second meeting okay and um I think uh that'll give Jim and I a chance to talk to he's he's currently away right now right so but um we'll get together and I you know kind of need to see where what he's thinking in terms of a you mentioned the schools are having their budget meeting yeah I don't think they've set a date yet okay um the last I had heard was probably end of February beginning of March but I have I in fact I just looked on I was just looking at to see if there was anything posted on the calendar but there isn't anything I haven't heard of anything yet okay so um what is the the you're you're thinking on the rate increases for is it water what was the one that I need to yeah I need to sit down and how does that work into this kind of budget for the coming year or does it well it's a separate it's Enterprise fund so it it doesn't really impact the general fund so you're thinking of is that something by itself that there's no adjustments from General appropriation into those funds into those funds are into those exp accounts or exp using those funds to cover some other expenses well I think Rob's talking about using basically subsidizing the Enterprise funds with the general fund is that what you no no the other I was just so I think it was what yoland was saying so you were looking at various times moving things that are currently in general appropriation into these revolving funds so I was just wondering those are the big funds so is that part of the picture this year and is that driving this rate increase or is that something totally different no it's it's something totally it's more Capital expenses okay that would be that would be driving a rate increase what's the goal for your revolving funds in terms of how much you want to maintain how um in there those funds yeah we don't we don't really have a hard and fast rule Barb Durand always had one that that we kind of liked which was you don't spend more than what you took in the previous year it's always a good thing yeah Barbara Barbara you know had some had some concrete rules and that was as you know and that was one of them so um so that's but we don't have anything kind of like outlining that um is there any way that that um things that we've you're marked for arpa funds like is there any way that we could use arpa funds for something in the general fund and then be able to move some stuff around or is because I know arpa like there's there's some kind of like hard guidelines on how we use those arpa funds but I also know that there's they're they sunset in what 2026 MH so it's like use it or lose it and you know so not that it's going to be like a like the solution but if there's a Band-Aid where we might be able to move something from you know into the general funds you know use use arpa funds for something in the general I I don't know how it all works I'm not I am not Britney so yeah so it would be um so basically Revenue replacement is an allowable use um I do think that could come into play in this year it's interesting so and we would have to look at some of the projects that we had allocated arpa funds for and say well we just won't be able to do these projects or we won't be able to allocate as much arpa funds for them and so the revenue will have to come from some other place also we have the stabilization fund as well like if we got into a Rob bind where we needed like the rainy day fund we could potentially utilize some of that stabilization funds even though I know we don't want to do that but we've replaced it I think we'd have to look at our um policy Financial policies to determine if we wanted to do that yeah that's that's kind of like the break glass um an emergency type of type of thing you know I'm I'm you know we might have to do a big borrowing related to some water and sewer infrastructure costs so I I'm worried about our bond rating especially if we I'm worried about our bond rating just by some of the things that I'm talking about doing for this year you know without hitting the stabilization fund I mean how are they going to look at using arpa you know how are they going to look at using overlay Surplus I mean to them it's going to be one-time revenues um which is going to indicate a a structural deficit that we need to address what about um in terms of I'm not sure what numbers were used for the borrowing reled to the school um but because we got that additional $5 million that's going to work to our advantage obviously um so is there any savings there um that from what you had you know uh projected yeah we're still doing like a complete analysis on that Claudia but we were thinking we might have to do like one final borrowing for around $5 million to like finish everything up and clean everything up um that 5 million that we would get from the state would basically wash that and we wouldn't have to go out and borrow that so that's that would have a direct you know direct correlation with residents tax bills right but not to the general fund yeah right so so their taxes wouldn't have to go up again so so more to come yeah more to come I you know I wish I had better news on on this but um you know i i i i point out like the um you know where a tax bow lies within our surrounding communities and our expenditures per capita the expenditures per capita especially because it's like at the bottom um that just doesn't seem to resonate with folks I don't know why but um well I don't think they want to compare yeah and people are used to a level of service so you know it um I think I think comparing it to a level of service in Sherborne or or another Community it does like it doesn't it doesn't it you know it it's not real to them like what that means like so so Sherburn spends you know a ton more money per per household you know for per capita um what does that translate into as far as you know sidewalks and like it it you know some you know there just like well Sherburn has lots of money you know they should spend the money you know so I and I'm not justifying it I'm just saying it's not real to people this is even just the sherbons we're talking about when you talk about where we fall right and all these right yeah I mean c Katherine is always a good barometer for me just cuz she came from Medway and spent so much time there and I mean she can tell you the level of activity that we have here compared to there um you know one of the things Brandy I think I could probably do a better job of explaining in of is that the fact that you know in this region the importance of the comparison is that we're all competing for the same people um we're competing for the same Services you know we're getting asphalt from the same plants you know we're getting gas and and Diesel from the same places so like we're buying it from the same places it's the same cost for them and we might have been able to negotiate even a better rate to but it's you know our expenses are going to be very similar you know in some instances to what um to what other communities are spending and I mean I will put our service level against like hop Hopkinson true any day with you know a tax bill that's at least 50% higher or expenditures per capita I mean I just take a look at our downtown projects you know put that out in a place like Sherburn and it probably is not the best example because I mean they hardly yeah um they're different structure too it's rural kind of just man well yeah that's the way they've been able to stay rural is um but like they don't have trash service they don't have um water and sewer right depends on us yeah holl the very similar hollon uses us basically for their ALS provider volunteer fire department I think right yeah it's still call so how are their taxes and expenditures more so much more I know I know somebody in Ashland who was a volunteer firefighter for that mhm really okay it's wild in this day and age you know so so yeah more to come and that's that's all I yeah project up I got priority project and I've got very little since the last one um uh uh with Mendes since the last time we talked it did we are going to utilize uh somebody to help uh vertex is bringing somebody on to help with that inflation reduction act reimbursement oh good um which is going to be um you know Jeff Deo is anticipating a little over a million dollars um so that could be that's significant um upper Charles Trail you know we've submitted the mass work M Trails ran I keep on confusing the two um and I hope to have a meeting with Derek warus who owns the Enzo Parcels again pretty soon and kind of get an idea of what he's thinking downtown um there's um you see a lot of eversource trucks out recently so they're they're continuing to pull wires and remove wires and everything um so they're moving along we should should be putting those bids out um to do the building connection soon oh we haven't done that yet not yet no we wanted to make some adjustments and wanted to make sure they were right because I think one of the things that um I think one of the things that kind of delayed the um first phase of the downtown project the streetcape is that the bid docks left some to be desired I think so we're just making sure that we don't repeat that again so um and Jen do you have anything on Public Safety no so I would think Public Safety is wrapped up at this point right I mean the doors are in the the doors yeah that was it okay I will say just speaking of Public Safety um we did have this the recent Citizens Academy class there and it they were thrilled with the building they they all pretty much said about how a good use of taxpayer dollars speaking of the public safety building will we get a final accounting of what it actually cost and um you know the funding for that and stuff yeah we can put that together for sure that be good to see I think it would be good for the community to see to say okay this is what we said this is what it actually cost us um I think that'll be good to see greated so okay is that it Michael that's it great thank you so um board reports Claudia you want to start sure thank you um so uh I was just going to mention about the mindes building so they are starting to gear up for spring work and uh we had a meeting last week and uh getting everything on site to get the fields all squared away and finish up a few other things that really um were mostly dependent upon uh the weather um and then I had the pleasure of attending a meeting in the Box um run by Miss Kinsman and uh it was you know very enjoyable we had um you know several people they all had great ideas suggestions uh it was it was a very stimulating conversation I thought so I really enjoyed it and inspired me to uh host one myself did you not yet that's good good reminder what's the deadline for that again April 1st April 1st so really yeah okay y basically okay so uh so I intend to do that in in the month of March I appreciate that I thought that was a pretty interesting vote in Milton there about a week and a half maybe two weeks ago now um I think I heard today that the uh State pulled some money from them uh quite a bit already yeah yes oh yeah a big pulled from them so interesting and a few other things to watch that have been taken from them because they didn't support the MBTA communities yeah resoning I thought there was a deadline how could they I thought you had until X dat to do something yeah they um they passed their they may they vot they yeah I'm not sure yeah they they had a ballot question no meeting passed it I think and then they there was a group of citizens that put it had enough signatures to to put it on the ballot no yeah understand in their Charter I see what you're saying you I thought the state gave you a certain deadline yeah well except that they voted the community voted not dead over techically voted a different measure before the deadline that's all I'm saying well this is certainly incentive them for them to look at it again so anyways I thought that was interesting that was a good thing to bring up CL yeah so to that point just um I know that there's going to be another MBTA communities Forum coming up in a week or so is it next week 8th 29th 27th I just saw it today so so yeah I I think I don't I know it's kind of too early to tell what the ramifications of Milton is going to be because obviously you know I think my my gut instinct is that the Attorney General is going to make a um example an example an example out of them because and probably file file suit but I think you know I think that's going to be a big topic of conversation from residents about like you know could Ashen file a similar thing and stuff like that so I I do want to make sure like I don't know if it should be part of that Forum or something else but just kind of acknowledge what happened in Milton and um discuss possible ramifications for the community and I think my guess and I haven't I haven't watched the last one but um my guess is I know you know from what Joe had said he and Trisha and Peter and um Alvaro are really like looking to come up with a solution that has minimal impact to our community and residents and I just want to make sure like that you know that that's part of the communication as well because I I I think I think non-compliance while we can talk about it like is a kind of a drastic I don't know if we necessarily need to go in that direction right I mean I I think six months ago I remember I was one of the people going do we really have to do this based on what we're seeing and hearing they're going to make us do it so the sooner we do it and with as much public input as possible the better with this little impact with this little impact well I wouldn't I think it could be done with I think we already have a solution I'm I think a little different I think we had to actually look at some of those Parcels near the train station like the church and the burnhams and actually and other commercial properties there and actually look at zoning them um can I suggest we maybe put this on the agenda that's agenda our next meeting yeah either our next meeting or our second meeting in March yeah and I'm I'm not going to I'm not I'm not going to be at that Forum but if people can go next week I think it's going to be a useful thing but yes let's put it on yeah that's a good idea when's that when is The Forum next week it's Tuesday I believe is it Tuesday I have it on it's either Tuesday or Thursday day I don't I didn't put it on a calendar cuz both nights I'm busy so yeah I have it for Tuesday the the one they had a couple weeks ago did get recorded so you can go watch that Tuesday the 27th Jo I think I have the link somewhere yeah I think you sent it to old email okay yeah Tuesday the 27th I have my schedule so probably I think seven but anyway I think it's a good effort and you know and I think the good thing about it is we're finding it very doable however the details turn out so all right thank you was that Claudia or Claudia and then I Claudia you finished I'm glad you brought that up yeah um are you all good I'm good you're good okay um I just wanted to um thank the ABA and Beth Reynolds for an amazing ribbon cutting at Subzero um nitrogen uh ice cream this last Friday uh Claudia and I were there with Michael um and it was hugely well attended there was a lot of there were parents of kids that work there because the kids are in school so it was it was it was great uh representative LS was there rep a representative from from um Senate President spilka's office was there um and Lauren and Dan the new um owners of subzero are like thrilled to be you know they're new residents of Ashland and they are new business owners and new parents all kind of stuff all sorts of stuff and um I'm so glad that we were able to like help them out with our business incentive program and all that stuff because that's the that's the kind of stuff that we we want to bring to downtown asy so I just wanted to give kudos to the ABA and to Beth um for a great event um and um our comprehensive plan steering committee is going to be meeting on Thursday March 7th which is um off schedule off yeah off cycle we didn't have our meeting at the very end of um February February or well middle of February um so we'll be making we'll we prob two meetings in March yeah so we'll be talking about the you know all of our Outreach and all that stuff so um so mark your calendars for Thursday March 7th um for that and then the only other thing I know um at the high school winter sport s are winding down um I've seen lots of um really great um posts and things about some of our some of our winter athletes um I just wanted to give a shout out to members of our swim team and our wrestling team and um gymnastics and um indoor track we sent when I say we I'm my son's on indoor track so when I say weeds we sent um I think 16 members to to divisional stes for the first time ever like so it's like and I know the wrestling team had an amazing season an amazing state champions yeah I mean and I think this is really like number of men a number of young men were were on at the state level either within first second and third so yeah very cool and the women's wrestling I think this is really like I don't know if it's the first year I know I know Norah quit who's a senior this year has been part of the the wrestling program there and just kudos to her for yeah yeah for um you know built that program that's great so now there's there's female wrestlers which I think is just awesome so no such thing as a boy sport so I like that um so anyway I just wanted to give a shout out to all the the student athletes and um and wish those that are continuing on to the next round of all states good luck so that's it for me great uh so just tying on to the comprehensive plan not only are we meeting but you still have the opportunity please go to the website find and take the survey put your update on a crowd map attend a meeting in a box and then once you've attended if you're interested in doing one let us know and we can help you out with that tomorrow morning we have our Metro West Regional collaborative meeting via Zoom at 8 a.m.

f as you can see as we move on domain three student learning there were three recommendations um and I can address those right now this was how CRA saw how we did what we did in terms of learning and in terms of implementing specialized instruction so again creating and calibrating roles and responsibilities in partnership with building Administration this goes hand inhand with having building Administration be part of the conversation around ppts they also need to be part of how do we implement this in the building it's for all of the students who have IEPs the building administrators need to be uh involved aware and part of the conversation versus being handed a plan that says this is what we decided in a PPT this is what we're doing so making sure that there's more um accountability not only for the teachers uh for the supervisors but also for the building admins in terms of making sure that this is not just a one-size all uh approach and again ongoing um analyzing Special Education data regularly at both the building and District level in conjunction with supervisors and building administrators so we look at things like referrals we look at things like the goals and objectives and the Mastery so if you're looking at a a random IEP and you say Bill will um answer reading comprehension questions accurately four out of five times let's see the data for that because often times and this is is just anecdotal excuse me parents will ask justifiably show me the data I need to know how you arrived at this and that has been an ongoing process in terms of making sure that the data isn't anecdotal that the data is the probes that happened where are the four out of five what are the dates for the four out of five regardless of the goals and objectives and making sure that that data reflects what we're putting our attention towards and analyzing the data to ensure that when we get a referral or when we're moving a child through the special education referral process it's worked in conjunction with the intervention process which I will get to uh in a little bit so again looking doing a deeper dive on data uh is never a bad thing but in terms of you can look at data all day long what are we using it for what is the purpose the purpose is to support students and if a student isn't reaching reaching that four out of five or isn't reaching Mastery or you question what Mastery is this is where I need to focus ongoing versus just saying one and done and we've talked about it and that's it it's being able to speak to the IEP accurately and with Fidelity in a in a meeting to be able to make sure that we all are aware of where the student needs more support and where the student has mastered their goals and objectives finally uh for domain three partnering with intervention to examine academic and behavioral tier interventions and particular attention for me has been paid to the tier three intervention and the process of special education referrals so one of the things that you know parents will make referrals and we honor those requests for ppts but within each building intervention teams look and they say we we'd like to make a referral for special education okay my question back having attended these meetings is show me where where your tier three isn't working show me what you've done tier one tier 2 and tier three and in working with teachers and asking those questions to show that if you're making a school-based referral if you're an intervention team making a school-based referral at tier three that we really have exhausted our tier three options not to the exclusion of the student where where we've waited too long but also sometimes I don't know that we've given the tier three the the the opportunity to see if it's working or not over the course of you know 8we periods and and examining that data before we make that referral to special education not to deny a referral that a parent might make not to deny a referral that a school-based team may make but just to be able to be more uh targeted and precise on where does it go from tier three to special education referral are we there and if not why aren't we there and if we are there show me what that data looks like and again these are all things that are in process ongoing finally uh domain four which was communication and collaboration um this was one where I felt for the type of teacher I was and the type of administrator I am this is something that I feel comes naturally to me so I I I feel very strongly about the the recommendations on this and how we've moved forward with communication and collaboration across the building so the recommendations were things like aligning systems of collaboration with building principles and supervisors in all three schools with customizations based on scheduling in each school so I can say to you again yes it's completed but there are weekly meetings with principles there are weekly meetings with supervisors there are classroom visits I'm making making sure that the the process at CES is the process at WMS and is the process at BHS um again an ongoing process as we spoke about transition ppts before that's one area area where it can be very uh specific in terms of moving a child from middle school to high school or Elementary to middle but making sure that those systems of collaboration are similar so the parents experiences it at ppts or the parents experiences with special education are aligned not that you're getting one type of experience at CS another type of experience at whis skiner and another type of experience at the high school again ongoing as we change the culture as we improve Communications as we reach out to parents more as we have ppts where there are more conversations than they are confrontations um and establishing a school visit schedule there is not a day in the week where I'm not at a building I have my responsibilities at at TSO and I fulfill those but I also would be derel in my duties if I didn't visit the buildings to see what we're doing in action uh to be able to coach to be able to point out areas of growth and Improvement visiting classrooms visiting students making sure that there's connections um and creating uh clear expectations of availability and visibility for staff and parents parents know they can call me anytime they can email me and that I get back to them pretty much the same day and if I don't I'm telling them I'll get back to you tomorrow um but also making sure that the principles are looped in on what special education is looking like in their buildings and receiving feedback from them and receiving feedback from the supervisors in order to make sure that we are in a state of improvement again we're not looking for Mastery instantly in six seven months but what we are looking for is that we are in a better place now than we were uh in July when I when I arrived um cotter's change management model so in terms of uh the correct report looking at change management um this is a an area of leadership uh methodology uh that I've been applying in terms of how do you handle change management know you can't come in and and you know knock everything over and say we're starting over it's a matter of collaborating listening talking but also observing and seeing what else needs to be done and over the course of this change management model this is how you're how you're implementing that piece of leadership whether it's collaborating with building leaders reaching out to parents um accessing all the stakeholders within a building to be able to know that there's a visibility and there's an accessibility from my leadership point of view and again uh it kind of has been a through Point through these domains building leaders attending ppts as Administration Representatives affords the student the family and the team an opportunity to collaborate on implementation and provide context for how goals and objectives can best be implemented from a building-wide perspective so I'll give you an example example we're in a PPT and it'll be a just an average PPT if there is such a thing and you're talking about a behavior plan and what's that going to look like well maybe we do something with the lunch wave or maybe we give an incentive from class to class if I don't have a building administrator in those types of conversations then we're not collaborating to the level where we can support that student the Student Success is is incumbent upon the building leaders and the Special Education team working together so that when those plans are implemented it's not the case manager being the the only person that really knows or the related Services being the only person who knows it's a a collaboration so that we can have input from the principles to say you know I think that might be better if we did that towards the end of the day versus the beginning of the day that checkin would best take place with this person or items like that where there's a a a conversation oh did not mean to do that I apologize oh see my own fault um so those are the four domains and the recommendations that were uh across both the um crack report from June before I arrived as well as the specialized program review and out placements that was done in November by Dr corvo Who I also have to thank for her guidance and support throughout my my time uh since July being here again without the support of the teams in each building and a TSO I'm not able to do this this presentation I'm not able to be able to say to you things are completed and ongoing uh I'm not able to be able to be visible in the building so that it's it's that support that that fuels uh this report so now in summary two things I want to say so we're looking at recommendations and we're looking at you know green and yellow there's no red I'm proud of that um but really when you look at the correct report it's not really about Staffing it's not really really about increasing uh positions as it is refining systems and structures looking at those systems and structures from both a district and a building point of view and making sure that they're supporting the students but that they're valid that they're valid for parents that they're valid for students that they're valid for all of us who work in this field um so of those recommendations uh 13 of 20 have been completed but again I caution everybody that I have completed an ongoing but we could float ongoing back and forth because again in education nothing is ever completed you're always moving towards uh improving your processes and and uh aligning your processes across across the district the three that are in process and I would say are sort of on the outside of this looking in are as I mentioned before the Strategic plan there was a staffing analysis and a Time study that was in there that's probably more of a long-term uh look uh probably next year into the the year after and and that may be part of the Strategic plan and a purchasing analysis as you saw before about curricular materials aligning with both General and special education these are things that I can't come to you tonight say oh you know what we did a purchasing analysis in January and these are the results it's an ongoing piece so for those I I caution isn't the word but just that well yellow was caution but cautioning you that these are areas that are ongoing that are not going to be one and done and that the recommendations that are in there are both completed addressed and ongoing as we move through this year and ongoing and as I've said to many folks this is not a one-year uh project this is this is at least a 3 to five year project but it's something something that I that my heart is in my energy is focused towards and that I want to see through and be continue to partner with everyone I mentioned before so just to to conclude within the existing recommendations from the correct report is the belief that we must continue to Foster and reinforce a culture of inclusivity when we talk about inclusivity that means being inclusive of all students those who have IEPs those who don't have IEPs but making sure that when there are opportunities for students to be included in any activity in the building that everything that you see in these recommendations that we that we proceed from that not just recommendation number four on page eight but that we're looking at how can we best include our students all the time not just in specific times and areas uh a community of Learners which we've heard of anybody who's been in a classroom we've been at PD about community of Learners when it works when it's successful it's when all types of learning styles are recognized and supported including students with IEPs how can we best show how they can demonstrate what they know and within that we believe that all students can learn we believe that and I believe that to my core special education exists to create opportunities for all students and allow them to demonstrate their understanding the correct report is a way for us to reinforce and to implement these recommendations these are more philosophy these are more how we should proceed and and maybe they're a little more emotional or feeling than than the hardcore you know datadriven pieces that I've spoken about tonight but without those three points that I that I'm concluding with there is no uh the correct report is meaningless without a feeling of inclusivity a feeling of all students can achieve success and that all of our students students can learn so I thank you for your for your time this evening and I'm happy to entertain questions thank you Bill I also have oh finally links to the CCT report so when you if you want to look at things not in a two-point font those are in there both the June and the November and I thank you for your time thank you Bill does the board have any questions yes quick question Bill thank you for that um so what percent of time of time is used in PPT by or does an administrator like a principal or assistant principal attend a PPT would you say like 90% of the time or it's it's hard to say I i' I'd love to be able to break it down for you and I might be able to get get back to you on that what we did was we looked at um case loads and areas where a principal or an assistant principal could be in and if you're looking at let's say we have four or five ppts a day and of those four or five uh a supervisor might be in one or two of them an assistant principal might be in two of them principal might be in one of them it could be an hour to two hours a day if we're looking at a 45 minute to an hour but again hard to to break that down but it is more they're attending more than they were let's say last year so so is that a practice we're going to continue or absolutely I think that that what the principles and assistant principles being at ppts affords is making sure that we don't look at special ed as oh that's the supervisor or that's the director or that's a department you're including I mean we always include a general education teacher but to include a general education administrator puts an importance on the student it puts an importance on the plan and it puts an importance on these are your students too and this is something that we have to implement throughout the building and this is something that you need to be aware of and participate in not that they weren't before but I don't know that the opportunity was there if you have supervisors chairing every PPT I think in terms of like I said an example of a behavior plan or um anything where the larger school is concerned I think to get that message of inclusion really embedded you need a general education administrator in there to hear it and I think it they they have it affords them the opportunity to be uh part of that conversation and to be accountable for that plan as well and I think joyy bring up a great question because the other part of that is the more holistic view of a Time study of all the different positions and how they spend their time right yeah that was that was a recommendation inated into strategic planning correct for sure it's IEP compliance um person how do they play a part in that are they attending pbts or they're kind of after the iep's been implemented there's there's ongoing sort of instruction attending and following up with teams to write more appropriate and targeted goals in IEP so there is a a point where they could be facilitating ppts um uh there's also to me being able as I spoke about before writing those um writing those goals so that they're specific uh and targeted so that it's not again this is this is anecdotal and it doesn't mean Brookfield I've been in in multiple districts so I can speak to this you don't want to make a goal that is so General that almost anybody could Master it without some sort of data behind it and I think taking the ideas of what we want a student to work on and translating that into all right how are we going to show that what are those objectives going to look like what's the measurement going to look like that's where the IP compliance teacher also comes in and in terms of again interfacing with CTS which I again that's a presentation in and of itself um talking about making sure that those goals are appropriate and that they could be measured and then if a parent has a question about them that there's an answer that makes sense and not just oh we think they should work on writing what do you mean writing what does that look like what is you know if they need to work on their you know five paragraph essay or they need to work on topic sentences let's make it so it's specific and it's not just bill will work on topic sentences and write a topic sentence four out of five times what kind of topic sentence how is it related to the content um the IP compliance teacher is part of making that more specific and being able to um in instruct the teams to refine those so is that very specific pointed goal developed in the pbta or it's General at first and then it's it's definitely developed in the PPT but I think making sure that that language is available to the teachers and to be able to make it specific in the meeting versus trying to craft it out of whole cloth once you're once you're in the meeting I think the more conversations we have about what a specific goal looks like outside of a PPT and just in general I'd like to work on reading comprehension okay what kind what part of reading comprehension and what's that going to look like if a parent asks how do I know that they've mastered this goal we can't just say well you know they answered all the comprehension questions nope sorry not the right that's that's what did we do what was that specialized instruction so that kind of thinking and that kind of mindset can be brought into ppts where there should be and can be more specific conversations around that and again not happening 100% all over but again those conversations that through the correct report we needed to address and make more real and make more valid based on parent feedback teacher feedback and just looking at how those goals were were mastered and whether or not they were mastered and what evidence can you show and if it's four out of five show me the four out of five don't just give me oh it's four out of five so okay thank you all right all right great thank you very much thanks very much everybody much appreciated um okay we're going to move to item C under new business um and so I just want to make sure that I've got my dance steps right here uh this motion needs to be amended to include the information about the creative writing class as well so we we make the motion and then we amend no or you can just insert the oh the new language okay great let's do that then okay so um I'm going to move that the board established college algebra as a course offering in the math department and creative writing to in the humanities department at Brookfield High School beginning with the 2024 2025 school year uh as recommended by the cape committee including um Dr man and um and B just principal Mark Belinda second great um so the would we like to discuss that first or yeah so I can I can present on that a little bit so what I'm actually handing you is I'm not on now I'm on um what you have just take taken one and passed it along thank you very much for doing that um is a copy of the summary sheet so these are uh Mr are there not enough no no I I was thinking about my motion so much that I just passed it along okay thank you um so you have the summary sheet which is a two two-sided sheet which we're going to go through in a minute for the second motion as well as a copy of um the parts of the uh program of studies that are highlighted on that summary sheet rather than print out the 78 page packet and give you each one of those which you will all be able to see when it's online I just took the um Liberty of just taking the ones that are uh the parts that are changed so for the first motion we're going to focus on pages um we you turn to the back side of your sheet and you'll see that on page 30 which is right in the middle somewhere it is they are in chronological order um numerical order rather um so page 30 into 31 um is the is the highlight of that uh creative writing 2 is a 9 12 elective it's not it does not supplant um a required English course but it is one of the elective courses um and as Joy mentioned earlier so if you turn to page 31 um you can read the course description there but really this is an extension of creative writing one which is a current semester elective course um and it really satisfies requests for a more advanced exploration a deeper dive into creative writing the current creative writing one course is more survey oriented and kind of um just you know gives students the opportunity to explore various types of creative writing the uh the expectation and and uh purpose of a creative writing 2 course as the uh the extension of creative writing one is for uh students to practice uh creative writing areas of their choice more deeply and explore that more deeply and again that was um uh really came from student requests based on their experience now um just kind of uh Tang mentally as Joy also mentioned in her uh summary of Cape this based on the way the schedule works at the high school this would um offset the journalism course currently journalism runs kind of opposite of the creative writing course so if we have a creative writing one and then a creative writing to there may be a need and an opportunity to create a similar parody with the journalism scope and sequence so I can anticipate this time next year we might be coming back to you with a journalism too so that's just a preview I'm big on that this spring um so that's the the creative writing two course I can present the math course if you want and then we can discuss it if you'd like okay so then the last page um you'll see that actually is the wrong page number um it's supposed to be page 52 but the last page of the packet has the college algebra course and this was actually presented to us by Mr Hill at the January Cape meeting but we wanted to Spring to everything together in one Fell Swoop um this is a course that again this is more based on um prepar post-secondary preparation and and student need So currently um kind of the scope and sequence for high school anywhere from 8th grade up through senior year would be Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 possibly pre-cal um or kind of an Algebra 2 extension where Algebra 2 gets split into two years and then a calculus course um and they're really they the uh Department the math department really saw a need for um rather other than splitting Algebra 2 into two years which might be um too kind of twoo paced out for certain students or launching right into pre-cal there was really that extra need um of a college algebra Prep course so this would really uh kind of bridge the gap between Algebra 2 and pre-calculus for students who are interested in going um into post-secondary education um and just don't quite have the foundational skills in algebra or trigonometry um that they would need in order to really handle the pre-cal it could taken either as a senior if a student came in taking Algebra 1 and then going G uh geometry Algebra 2 then the college algebra or it could be taken as a junior if a student took Algebra 1 in the middle school geometry Algebra 2 college algebra and then they could take pre-cal or maybe one of the other math electives um and so that and you can read the again I'm not going to read to readers but um you can read the course description uh but both of these courses um both Department chairs felt uh very strongly and were brought by their uh um their teachers and are based on student interest and student need any questions concerns there's no budget College it's also right thank you very much Sarah so the college algebra course is um based on the um Community College course and so it's actually would have that opportunity for college um ADV advancement college credit thank you very much for that reminder is that um based on exam results or grade point average or what what's the it's because it's aligned to the current college algebra course and it would be essentially kind of like an ECE course is you know where you um as long as we use their book which that's the only U major budget implication uh use the book that's approved by uh the college uh algebra course through the state of Connecticut and uh we would have the syllabus which is fairly aligned at standards based um our and our students pass it then they would earn C Credit that's a great opportunity y so aside from the um books no budget implication because we would just readjust assignments are there other questions about these thank you for that reminder sir huge so all in favor say hi any [Applause] so it passes unanimously all right so now we'll just kind of go through those are the main presentation pieces but there'll be some other discussion points so they have to do a motion for so I know I know I think it's contagious right so um uh I move that the board approved the proposed revisions to the program of studies including any course updates as recommended by the cape subcommittee assistant superintendent Dr Anna man and BHS princip ipal Mark Banda second great so now that the motion's on the table uh let's hear from Dr man okay thank you so we're going to flip back to the front side of your page and we're just going to kind of walk through um the these uh notes so on the first page page four um and you'll notice that I highlighted the areas that we're going to be focusing on um the the adjustment for the required required course load is being adjusted from rather than carrying a um minimum of seven credits or six credits and then six credits senior year is adjusting down adjusting down half a credit for Junior and Senior year and the reason for that is that it still um requires 26 credits to graduate which the the actually the um requirement is 25 credits to graduate but this would allow that buffer if a child um didn't didn't pass a course one year would still have a one credit buffer um but what they're uh noticing at the high school is when students particularly seniors are forced to take six credits um there is a lack of investment and a lack of Engagement and it also pushes some students out who might be more interested in taking an elective course um and so it kind of just jockies things around so that's the reason for that adjustment on page four so um the it would go from 7776 to 776 and a half 5 and a half students would still be considered you know carrying a full load they would still meet requisite um requirements for C and all of that jazz the next one down um is a kind of a um bifurcating of the schedule changes and that's just more for clarity and for um focus on uh as kids are choosing their their classes kind of really having them focus in on what classes they're choosing and then once they get their schedule really taking an Earnest and honest look at what they've signed up for and what they've received on their schedule and then um clarifying that after the first day of school the time frame for which uh students can um adjust their uh schedule and drop courses um and as Mr Bland put on here um it provides an accurate representation of courses selected one of the things that uh is a constant struggle in the high school is if you allow too much time for dropping courses then a class that you ran because it had 12 or 15 kids all of a sudden drops down to six or set five we wouldn't have necessarily run that course and it again um messes up the schedule and puts more pressure on other classes uh in terms of that okay so if you turn the page to page seven um page seven is actually an adjustment back to how it had been uh last year the state uh this is class rank uh it's a revision um last year the state had uh asked districts to adjust and get kind of get rid of class rank um and so if a board of ed had class rank as part of their policy they were supposed to adjust that policy the state has now rolled that back and basically taken away um what we talked about this last year as adjusting the class Rank and not publishing class rank that is no longer the case so um they have adjusted that back so this is just now in line with our current um policy so now it's back to class rank how had been y Yeah well yeah how so this is now just in line exactly with how it had been page eight seven and eight but it's really page eight so um Mr Banda had presented this a couple years back I believe um with adjusting from um every year the Board of Ed recognizes has recognized the top 10 in the class the top 10 students in the graduating class um and this is really um an adjustment to make sure we honor and recognize the academic prowess of more students and based it on percentage rather than number um so that it might be you know 20 or 25 kids instead of just the top 10 um whereas you know students who are number 11 through 20 have worked really hard and done some really amazing things um and but they don't get necessarily get recognized so uh this is the proposal is to go to the Latin honor System which again I think this was proposed a couple years back and um agreed upon um but this is just reflecting those agreements um and so the top 5% would be Magnum ly which would include the valid dictorian and Salud Oran 6 through 10% would be Suma Kumi and then top um 11 through 15% would be just Kumi and so that the other way around Suma Magna okay yes did oh I'm sorry about that yeah he didn't adjust his notes for me sorry about that Suma Magna and then Kumi right um which would make sense so again that's just uh an expansion for our recognition for our students okay so we're going to know is that recognized like it graduation or are we still doing that I think the intention would be to do that at the Board of Education meeting in lie of the top 10 and I believe this senior class we're still doing top 10 still doing top 10 this is going to be for next year yeah this would be 24 25 um okay so then the next one is the College Planning suggestions so page 16 and 17 um and I've highlighted the the areas that um are being uh focused on I don't want to confuse this with the graduation requirements because they are not the same right so this is really a suggestion to students who are interested in going to college After High School graduation this is what Stu what most colleges are generally looking for so it is not um an adjustment to any requirements for graduation but as a suggestion for students who are looking so that to to go to co to college After High School so that as they're planning their course of studies they can think about okay so I have to take four credits of English and four credits I I should take four credits of math um the one that is really uh often um you know uh kind of the waffling one is the World Language piece do students want to stay in a world language for three or even four years because frankly four years is um what a lot of schools would prefer um so this just kind of puts it um for them the other thing we talked about was the fact that um I'm not sure any of you if any of you saw but a few schools particularly Dartmouth was in the news a couple weeks ago is bringing back sat requirement and I have a feeling that trend is going to kind of take flight a little bit um not with all but with some and so just highlighting the fact that the SAT or some sort of college ENT exam may be a requirement so students should be aware of that because we've gotten so into the mindset of it doesn't matter it doesn't matter we talked a lot about that in terms of our um our you know student achievement report not So Much Anymore now it might matter so depending on the school that you are looking to go to so that's in there along with uh focusing on the essay prompt on page 17 okay so if we so those are all kind of the operational and procedural pieces that were adjusted now we're just going into the course adjustments um a couple of which I've already spoken to and you've already voted on so I will just skip over those so on page 19 um there was there were um course the course that used to be here was critical literacy to um literacy Workshop uh this is just Clarity um so that students who need this course would sign up for this course and students who don't don't need to take the course so it's really just being much more transparent and clear that this would be literacy workshop for multilingual Learners um same course explanation um but it's just adjusting the title in the business department this is an adjustment to the grades this is on page 21 the grades that personal finance is open to um and we had some you know probably a little bit more in-depth conversation about this um currently it is open to 10th through 12th um but the proposal is to adjust it uh to be open to 11th and 12th and that is a couple fold one is um because it is a graduation requirement students have to take this course and so we kind of have to narrow it down so that if you're if you don't get at 10th grade then you don't get at 11th grade you know going to get a 12th grade because the requests are so great and the way that the the power school runs the course um or the scheduler might uh you know push some kids out so this is a greater guarantee if you have fewer n you have a lower n greater guarantee that uh those kids are going to get the course um and also the idea of just um preparation and Readiness um and probably proximity to graduation when students will need to make sure that they have these personal finance skills is narrowing down to 11th and 12th grade the other thing I'd like to add on that when Anna says that it has been for many years now a bfield gr Brookfield High School graduation requirement is now becoming a State graduation requirement um again actually for the class of 2026 so it's not even for this class yeah no it's not for this class so that's coming that is not a budget implication for us we had you know Vision the the uh leadership team faculty Board of Education a lot of great vision on this uh many many years ago and that's been instituted for a long [Music] time page 27 is just a CL again a Clarity in the in a title of a course it's the same course but rather than calling it Boe bot it's um coding for robotics so that students know what they're signing up for um we spoke about the creative writing course on page so we can kind of flip past page 30 and 31 it's actually page 34 on your sheets it says page 31 um this is again an adjustment to literacy Workshop rather than saying critical literacy 1 and critical literacy 2 um it the title was adjusted along with the kind of scope of the course you know what it's covering and um in terms of its focus for students on the next page on page 36 um oh 37 I yeah page 37 oh there was a I guess I I must have left out the um digital photography there is oh no I'm sorry 37 37 36 um so digital photography uh is just um the adjustment uh for grades offered 10 through 12 um rather than 9th through 12 and again that's a kind of a preparation and a um have kind of expecting kids to have a little bit more experience in um General artistic uh approach to um to photography and then that maturity of thought um so there's that adjustment as well moving along to the Visual and Performing Arts on page 38 um it's just kind of uh pulling out General chorus one and general chorus 2 and those are based on how they run um and clarifying uh where they um uh where they are in terms of specific to uh General versus specialized specialized course is on page 40 um which is being opened to ninth graders and I may have did I leave out syic symphonic band it's in the bottom of picture yeah the I just didn't highlight it yeah so symphonic band and then um some reason it got the description got cut off but um yep so symphonic band is again just a a clar clarification for the teachers as they are thinking about honor symphonic band versus symphonic band and that would be um you know the level of uh capacity for the students so those are the Visual and Performing Arts um special chorus is again open ninth um uh uh you open to adjust to be able to open to nth graders so that has to get adjusted and then the college algebra we talked about and then so that's we're through the adjustments and then as Joy alluded to earlier um we unfortunately have two courses that we are unable to offer um I want to just preface this with they're not being taken out of the approved course offerings we're just not running them next year and um one of them is the EMT course which I know some people have had children who have gone through the course and it's an amazing and very unique opportunity for um our students unfortunately it was a program that was kind of built around a specific person who's no longer with the district um based on certifications um and capacity to teach that course to actually give um you know an EMT licensing course uh and so we talked a lot about um various ways to bring something like that back and maybe do kind of a preed or pre you know emergency responder kind of um offering maybe partnering with different um towns trying to get a cohort together so those are that's still in the works um we just don't have the capacity to offer it next year we don't want kids signing up for it thinking they're going to get it and then we're really not able to offer it and then as Joyce said unfortunately which I know was a huge long hardfought battle for this um this body um was American Sign Language we are still committed to trying to explore how to offer that in the future um back to the educator certification piece it's not a public education certification uh for state of Connecticut there are certified instructors um but it would be you know we have to if we're going to offer it for credit um there we can try to kind of grow somebody into that or possibly um you know find somebody uh I know that there are other school districts that do have pretty robust programs so we can also talk with those folks and see how they grew their program I know Fairfield has a pretty in uh involved program so um we're not offering that next year it says deletion it's really just deletion from the program of studies it's not deletion from approved courses those are your updates to program studies my have pleasure um I I have a question sure um regarding the change um in grade levels for personal finance M aren't the personal finance classes the ones that are already um overcrowded I'm sorry to use that word is just the one that comes to mind those were the highest numbers right 28 or 29 per section how do we um how do we work around that reality well so if if we you know make fewer kids eligible to take the course um then they there would be fewer kids who that would be put into the course well except that all 11th graders and all 12th graders have to go through it well all kids do and now they only have two years to do it so maybe I I don't know I mean I hear what you're saying but when I saw that I was like wait a second you're putting a lot of kids through a smaller time window yeah I mean I don't I don't think the the way that we talked about this um with Mr Blanda um I think that there would they don't anticipate their being uh burgeoning um actually next year they might have fewer that might be smaller because they would have some of the 10th graders would have already taken it this year um and so only the remaining 11th and 12 who have to take it would would take it we'll see how it kind of plays out as we go forward um but the real the real impetus for was um the noticings of preparedness and maturity and also I think applicability it's more um although we know as is the case that there are some more precocious 10th graders perhaps even more than the 12th graders um who are prepared and excited about the course um and and then you're also mixing in the fact that it's a requirement which it already was a requirement so that wasn't that's not a big change for Brookfield okay well that works for me thank you sure are there other questions all right okay um then are you guys prepared to vote on the motion y yep okay so um all in favor say I I I okay all oppos nay right on it passes unanimously thank you very much they'll be thrilled they can get their course offerings out kids can sign courses yes um okay so now we move to um item 13 old business um the uh Board of education's adopted budget um so the recommended action is that we continue our discussion of the budget if needed I can just make maybe add like a little bit of um context if you are okay with me sort of just sharing some of the updates and then maybe you can add flavor to it if you can um but so since we've adopted our budget um and some of this was spoken about at the Joint meeting last week um but we have um some areas of reduction and some areas where we will have to increase certain line items um and I'll just kind of go through there's only a few of them but um so one of the things that was mentioned was insurance right so um when we originally adopted our budget um we had budgeted a 7% increase and it's looking like it might actually only be like a 5% increase um so that brings that item down about 151,000 um there was some since um that joint meeting some fluctuations in special education um to the tune of $225,000 for um transportation and 177,000 um for 2 ition so that's to the good of our budget um what goes what will have to be added back into the budget so actually more of an increase um is about 45,000 for um vocational agriculture education and Magnet School tuition um there could you maybe you can explain a little bit more about how that came out of the and actually just to clarify so that um that about $45,000 reduction is not part of the adopted um budget of the 6.43% increase that sort of came after you guys adopted the budget on January 17th and so that was sort of a on the horizon we we can likely reduce so it actually doesn't affect our it doesn't affect it doesn't affect it it's just is is was an opportunity um but based on the governor's um budget proposal that funding has been removed from the proposed budget so the guidance um from you know from casbo and from cave is to not really include that in our in our budgeting but it doesn't doesn't actually impact the current budget thank you um and then lastly just in terms of Revenue because we see those reductions in special education Transportation tuition we will also see a reduction in our excess cost Grant so um about $50,000 54,000 so in total we're looking at about um a net of 300,000 less than what we had adopted um but we're still looking at a couple of things um we're still going to wait on our final number for the various insurances most importantly health insurance um what were some of the other areas that we need to um basic all of our any insurance rates so our um liability insurance those are still estimates our electricity for the second half of the budget is also a big one um right now it's budgeted at 11 cents per kilowatt hour um we're you know we haven't locked in for our pricing for January 1 125 through um July so um I'm not sure if we'll be able to um get that final um estimate before the budget has to uh be approved but um but our purchasing agent is looking at that um very closely right now so fingers crossed that was a big one yep Rosa did we want to mention uh Mr Dunn's budget in the total reduction off of the adopted budget just so everybody knows that um yeah could you provide I don't have that in front of me just in in in round numbers uh Mr Dunn reduced in his proposal of the Town bu budget that he brought forth to the board of Selectmen but he shared it with the board of B and board of Finance he reduced the board of education budget by $575,000 so as we start to think about what that might mean again we're a month away from when we'll have a sense where the board of Finance lands on this whether they um stay with Mr Dunn's proposal whether they take a little bit more money from the Board of Ed uh budget or they put money back last year they they put money back uh after The Bard select brought things forward so um we don't know yet but what this means is when Rosie you you and Casey just talked about that approximately $300,000 that we know off of the adopted budget that leaves us with to meet the 575 if that was to say another $275,000 we we need to find so those are things we're starting to talk about at our leadership meetings where we might look um hopefully we get some favorable news and in administration and operation uh so we don't have to go near staff we would love that to be the case um but we'll wait and see it's it's a while off but I think it's important for everybody you know who's watching at home and the board to know that um Mr dun's proposal is $575,000 less for the Board of Education than what you all adopted in January thank you and thank you very much um oh Casey just so the people at home will hear this again more concretely um about when I think you said early March is when we should know about insurance numbers early early March is the latest information I have that we should have another update and hopefully that will be the final final number and what's the Horizon for um decision-making about electricity in your best estimate um the last conversation I had with uh our purchasing agent was that um spring like early spring is the time to to lock in so he's already in conversations and getting quotes and pricing for for that so um maybe within a month but I'm really guessing at that okay thank you yep thank you very much I'll certainly keep you updated okay early spring in Connecticut it could be anytime know now in right right um anything else from you guys about the budget okay all right then we're going to move to um public comment um we have one individual signed up for public comment um I'm just going to read our our statement and then I'll invite you up okay so the Board of Education welcomes public comment each speaker shall have up to three minutes to provide input um at the end of each regular meeting time is allotted uh to individuals and um discussion of school Personnel individualized students or of individual members of the board is prohibited so we urge you to stay issue focused um and so Mr kab the floor is yours yes and you know the drill please please think so Up is on it's on okay uh and 45 West whis Road um so I wanted to talk about um Integrity competency and doing the job for um both administrators and the board um this this has been quite a problem I think in you know with uh the administration in the past and prior boards looks like it's continuing a bit um we had a very positive example here um of Competency um and integrity and getting getting the job done today and one one of the presentations I think we have our staff member of the year pretty much figured out um an example last week or two weeks ago was a email I got that was referenced in correspondence about Public Act 22818 my response there was really a discussion of how that communication wasn't truthful it was a look at you know incompetency throughout the district um we know that there was in in the Press nationally there was Prett embarrassing situation but when we look at that communication it shows us that our district when asked to comply with the law and can't will then just make up an excuse I sent it to the board I hope you understood it um the other example here is really our budgeting process this budget was that you guys approved was essentially a rubber stamping of a of a plan over time without looking at the problem right a 6.6% increase we have a sort of a managerial Council that looks at it and says hey how do we do better we had a couple of board members look and say let let's take a different look at this the reductions that we just disc that you just discussed were really the sausage and how is it how it moves around right so in the end we're going to have essentially a 1% challenge to the budget the job is you know to look at what the objectives are for the school how we're doing what the taxpayers are going to afford and come up with a solution just looking at what we're doing in the past and how we replicate it is not actually doing the job so you know we have caucuses here who decide hey how do we you know essentially give the administration what they want and then others that are looking at what what should we really do in the end you know you focus on process research you just really got to do it is right and not just get together in little groups decide what's right to do should we tell the truth when we make a mistake should we protect kids you know when they're abused by coaches teachers and I think if you look you know behind the scenes and what's going on we can't just answer pretty simple questions so I think as you guys move forward stop caucusing try to get real things done the job is pretty simple when you think about it right prioritize understand the truth and make a decision thank you thanks for sharing your opinion okay so we're going to move to um the three main points Stephanie what have you gathered thus far uh so I suggest the three main points first be the CES update um next the crack update and and I originally thought that the course editions and revision should be the update but with the I don't know the information we discussed I was thinking perhaps even though it was small the finance update yeah the budget yeah I I think that's I think that would be a good one just because it's more broad it affects everyone rather than just the high school so people that are in high school yeah it's an important like update to see like where where the budget is in this process yeah okay so do Finance go that the budget the budget well hold on let's let's talk a bit um Sarah your thoughts I mean I think the budget has gotten a lot of air time and I think that the course offerings um with with what we went over the high school but I understand it doesn't apply to every I was on the fence about it because I thought this is like really in depth information we haven't heard but also I think because we don't have solid number well we don't have specific solid numbers for the budget yet I think maybe in a couple weeks yeah the program sort the meat in the core of our instruction 3 what are your thoughts I I could go either way Hest like I think they're both significant issues and I think either one would be be fine agreed agreed um would you consider what do you guys think of like uh for the first one the CES I was just going to say can I combine CES and school and say like school upd I think that's I think it might be too much um but I mean I think like the the budget is foundational to what we do so I think like communicating our budget and where it is at every step of the process in its approval all the way to referendum when we have these updates like that sorry um is important but it's you know that's my own personal opinion about it but I mean not to say the program of studies is not important obviously but yeah I agree with that I also think the budget's going to come up again so that it's probably going to be one of the three main points in a couple weeks probably as well so this is probably a one and done so you might want to include it oh yeah um what do you guys think of um I don't know I find your point really compelling and I I think like it could be like four for this one time you know um but for the CES what do you think about doing like slash MBC well yeah oh I have that M okay good good good that's why I asked for the meeting today okay oh that's really important I think yeah so are we going to do the three or we going to add a fourth for just something for everybody to think about um the town if you really want to stick to three cuz it's called three main points um but it's a self-imposed rule so if you need a four in a month you can do that um we we whatever three are decided the fourth one Stephanie and I are going to work on the three main points um the town um what do we call the town Spotlight we could put as many things in there as we want we have to stick to three so that's we could write up a piece on the fourth one and have it in the town spot a short little it's really just your information followed by the town we can put that in the spotlight that's fine yeah make everybody happy thanks that's decided then great um so upcoming events yeah sorry I was busy writing things down okay okay yes we have several upcoming events actually uh whis caner Middle School events this week is random acts of kindness week and so on February 23rd which is Friday there will be a kindness social for sixth graders after school and then a kindness dance for seventh and eighth graders from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

it's more of a snack okay so are we all set then yes thank you for that you you did a Tona we had a lot to discuss so for everybody watching at home the public portion of the uh Board of Education meeting is now over thanks to everybody at home and to the folks who came here um for spending your time with us uh the board is going to well I'm moving that the board enter into executive session to discuss to discuss strategy and negotiation as it relates to collective bargaining second thank you so much joy all right thanks everybody good night well let's make the [Music] motion [Music]

February 28th is parent meeting regarding the France trip at 6 pm and March 12th is the B not is on March 12th the BHS counselors will be visiting uh the Middle School eighth grader to explain the registration process and the answer any student questions and then upcoming events at the high school March 7th is parent teacher conferences March 14th through 17th is the uh BHS High School Musical mam Mia gets are on sale now and March 26th is a career fair as we heard from AA um tonight she has uh several updates about that and then April 5th is Junior Prom I do not have my CES events but the only thing on there were conferences which I should know this are March conferences hold on let fill in my calendar at CS well you're finding that and we have a coupon code for Mama Mia oh yeah could you say a little bit more about that for anybody watching email so we get one coupon one ticket complimentary ticket complimentary ticket I guess sorry everyone yeah no not stop any stop or teachers listening um CES parent teacher conferences are March 28th and 29th okay as the parent of a recent graduate I want to tell all the um the folks out there who going to Junior Prom no no 14th and 14th and 15th foras ah okay okay well the kids going to prom need to wear jackets hopefully comfortable shoes hopefully not I wanted to add also that the whis caner conferences are March 5th here we go parent conferences it's a half day is it yes so at CES those two dates are also half day is lunch served the 28th and 29th is lunch served yes lunch is served at 10: a.m.