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e um good evening everyone and welcome to the ashelin select board meeting for March 20th 2024 this meeting is being live streamed on waca TV and is also on the uh Zoom platform form and as chair reserved the right to uh stop any um participants who are in my in my uh opinion disrupting the meeting after uh one warning okay so we will um control of both zoom and in-person participants all right well thank you all so the the first item on our agenda is as usual citizens participation and if people so I see see see Mark do you want to do okay and anyone online there interested in citizens participation I see Joel's raising his thumb all right in his hand okay so um why don't we we yeah I'm not seeing anyone else U so therefore I will start with Joel uh on on the on the zoom so you can unmute Joel and um and also just a reminder that we we're using B basically three minutes per person so go ahead Joel are you able to hear me yes thank you uh yesterday at 11:06 PM right here in Ashland spring began and I want to highlight that while it means many different things to many different people for me it means that there will be far more bike riders out on the roads in Ashland and elsewhere and last April a new law went into effect that I want to ensure that we bring to every all the drivers's attention and I hope the select board and the town manager will help advertise this frequently the new law says that drivers must provide at least four feet of space when they are passing a bike rider if there's not enough room it means they just have to wait it's not optimal but that's the law the only option they have they don't want to wait is to cross the center line which is now legal even if it's a double yellow Center Line as long as it's safe to do so last January 7th I sent an email to the select board and the town manager highlighting some of the many very good things that were done to improve bicycle safety as part of the downtown Redevelopment project I was very appreciative to see those Chang but I also highlighted that several of the changes that were made I in my view uh have created an increased danger to bike riders and I'm asking the board again to follow up with me and others to uh whether they agree with my ideas or not but to at least hear me out on the subject and uh take a careful look at what enhancements could be made uh that's about it I you know I I many of the town that make big bicycle safety enhancements on their Road the busiest day for them of any other time of year is the day after an accident happens that's when they jump on board and really take uh Swift action I hope we don't let that be the motivating force here in Ashland thank you all right thanks Joel okay I'm looking CCE do you want to come up to the podium and thank you CC do at director of Massachusetts for safe technology and I appreciate that we've been having the conversation on technology safety here in Ashlin um at the last meeting uh Mr chair you indicated that you would like to have the radio frequency meter to measure your home and that you had been on vacation and I know I still have it officer manani I know you had also been on vacation and indicated that you wanted to research the wireless radiation issue so I'd like to ask if you've taken that time and what it is that you're finding I have to confess that I have not yet done it C so I'm sorry but I'm this week okay I'll do this week I'm going th the way through the report that uh you provided on your uh excellent on your link and uh but it's slow because I have had ey surgery and I really can't see too well since that time so everything's a blur so um well please note that in my follow-up email I also sent you a 20 minute video from Dr Kent Chamberlain who's the now chair emeritus of the University of New Hampshire computer and electrical engineering department he served on that commission is appointed by governor sonunu and he developed medical devices for much of his career that was what his expertise was in using radio frequency and he thought it was going to be a slam dunk that of course Wireless must be fine once he was appointed to the commission and began to investigate the peer-reviewed studies now industry will tell you that oh they're cherry-picked they went and did their due diligence they partnered with the University of New Hampshire library system and they vetted the science and in that New Hampshire commission report you will find that this is peer-reviewed published highly credible science telling us that our children are in Jeopardy in Ashland Public Schools and one of the items I sent to you in my followup was a 20-minute video of Dr Chamberlain walking you through the New Hampshire commission report and their findings so Joe if your eyes aren't great just stop and listen and thank you yeah Dr Chamberlain slides are provided as well he would gladly join me here to speak with you via Zoom I offered that to Paul Kendall who is heading up the building committee for the Mendes where they put wireless access points on the ceiling of every single classroom and the measurements I took there are extremely high High those children are in Jeopardy as are our faculty and staff I went to the board to the meeting last night for the building committee and I gave a three-minute presentation and I asked to be put on the agenda for their next meeting and Paul Kendall replied today that no he will not put me on the agenda so we can't keep passing the buck this is cumulative harm to our child every toxin is more toxic with dose and every day we leave these kids exposed and sit here and scratch our heads as to why we are having anxiety depression suicidal ideation ADD ADHD Alzheimer's this is all documented in the scientific literature so Rob I appreciate that by next week you will have used the radio frequency meter um you know I taught your daughter in CCD we are stewards of this Earth and we need our public servants to step up and start this stewardship here I've been talking to you guys about this for almost 10 years now in which time we've only Overexposed our children even more so it's time so if you guys don't step up my next step is to go directly to the parents and this is really bad Optics on you guys because I've gotten feedback from people who watched the last meeting when you said you guys didn't go measure you didn't read the New Hampshire commission report except for Yolanda so the Optics are not looking good let's let see what we can do let's partner together I am a world expert on this topic now so use what I have to offer and let's educate the citizens and give them a choice in how to access technology safely we don't want to take anybody's technology but we should not leave our children marinating in electrolution inside of our schools so all right thank you thank you CC back all right thank you right Mark um I see we just have Joel is can we put the Macky can we do a reset so that we don't just have Joel showing but we have everyone oh my bad thank you go ahead am iead yes you're all set Mark you're all set okay Mark 49 hoton Road Mass good spring evening um I'm going to follow up a little bit but I'm asking a different way for technology the um comprehensive plan how can anybody answer because I sent out a um email question M about what technology could be landed on it if at all being talked about and I sent out to um our economic director Beth if some areas can have a hope of being in this town and um she said yeah there's always hope so I'm understand for organizational leadership biot Tech all the Sciences medical medical backgrounds and everything instead this just having this town look at it from a what this town is now why can't the town be a future Endowment for people coming through and the elders to be living through a town that has a medical superiority others why can't comprehensive plan have a technology thought that's my question I'll take it I think Mark as we're doing the comprehensive plan we're certainly looking at everything and I think my if I'm understanding your comment correctly is how how can we incorporate the discussion of technology in the comprehensive plan as we're looking at the different areas and I would think that as we do it we will look if there is anything technologically related that we need to bring in um if I'm like a said if I'm understanding it correctly from a business perspective certainly if we want more medical here in town we need to um work at having space for medical and I know Beth is always looking to bring new businesses into town and um for that be that was an aim at that but the answer I'm looking for is instead of words can't there be some sort of a direction to put forth to have this town become 2025 viable more than what it is now I think that's part of of the plan right what what do people want to see and where um it's going to be part of the plan but as I as I said I think technology will be included in what do people want to see in their downtown do they you know I think it'll be part of the plan okay and last last thing for the town manager is that's my basic thinking that you you I've been known to say to you about the businesses what is what my aim has been for what a couple years now yeah so and with with uh with Beth about businesses having them come in and having shown what this what the town can be and how to be planned for and for this area state colleges with their graduates they they take up a lot of that those those plans in the courses and they have inter ship hopefully in this town they can take them in to go forward with that's it all right thanks Mar all right anyone else for Citizens participation before we go into our agenda items I don't see any hands raised okay um all right so our first presentation is uh on the water sewer Capital needs and potential discussion vote on various Enterprise funds to with the um uh uh uh water sewer and uh uh trash fees um and bag fees which are okay so I will and I think we talked about uh Dan and Becca doing their presentation first on the um because we I I like to think it might be a little quicker than the following discussion on all the rates but uh uh hope so come on up and thank you for doing this and I understand while you guys are setting up that it was a tour of the water treatment plan that Dan LED and I think you two were there and I'm not sure Claudia Brandy I missed it but uh be good to hear about what you saw there it was very educational and I think the first time I had been in the plant was probably a year or two after it was opened when I was a school Committee Member so to see the status of our facility in that short of time time it's understandable why we are having this discussion about some of these Capital needs go ahead Dan whenever you're ready all right good evening everybody thank you for having us um just going to run through hopefully a quick slideshow here for you just for people watching Dan Mah is the water superintendent correct that's your title did I get it right very general Foreman superintendent and you're joined here by Becca Becca Navaro and she's a town engineer she's our water and sewer engineer oh she's not going to be the town engineer okay keep her for water sewer okay sorry to interrupt go ahead we took me a long time to get her so don't take her away just yet so nope let's see there we go space bar space bar gotcha so basically this is just a quick slide giving you a quick overview uh of all the different projects that we have and I kind of go into a little bit more detail on all these you know throughout the slideshow um but this just gives you an idea of of uh what we're looking at uh as we move forward so we'll start out with uh the ozone replacement is uh one of the big items that we're we're facing right now uh you can see some of the photographs here of the ozone this is in the Water Treatment Plant uh the ozone system you can see some of the pictures show that it's starting to deteriorate there's some uh on the left lower corner is a repair clamp that had to be put on the stainless steel pipe uh because it was actually leaking there's a few repair clamps that are throughout the system um there is some active leaking on it uh during the tour you can see they could see where the the staining on these tanks from where it had been the water had been leeching out of the vessels so these are the contact vessels that so the ozone systems like the the teeth you know that's the the first part of the the water treatment plant this is what knocks out all the pathogens all the iron and maganese um and gets the process going uh so with this that's where a bigger part of our our water quality comes from um some of the effects of it is the stainless steel the the just the natural the way ozone works it's attacking the the stainless steel and it burns the carbon out of it which is causing the little pinhole leaks um then just the the the treatment plant was built in back in 2000 so life expectancy of the plant and some of these items within the plant is about 20 years so we're about 22 23 years out of it at this point so uh another part of it here is uh the top left is our ska system that's a a supervisory control and data acquisition system this is what actually controls the plant and all of our stations this talks directly to our computers this will give us call outs uh during the night time when things aren't staffed so if we have an issue with this with the treatment plant or any of the stations throughout the town um this lets us know what's going on with everything uh with the you know 14 different stations that we have in town um it also is continuously monitoring when the treatment plan is running it's uh continuously monitoring all the water quality different monitors throughout this throughout the treatment plant uh you also gives us remote access 24/7 so we can dial in on our phones or computers and see what's going on uh this also is part of the you know cyber security now that's being mandated through the DP so to we have to make sure that we keep these systems upgraded uh to to stay within compliance so this is getting into our water main Replacements um um 60 to 70% of our our distribution system is a transite or asbest cement pipe uh was came out in the uh 1940 to 1970s is when it was installed typically uh with a 50-year life expand uh life expectancy uh with the service Taps there's a saddle that goes on then you do the service tab typically we either have a failure at the Joint where the picture shows you where the joint failed or we have a failure at the service tab where that saddle pops off um so over the years in the treatment plant we have four high lift pumps to fill up the tanks within our system and because the system's so fragile now we have to run one pump at a lower rate and fill the tanks very slowly uh otherwise we'll cause water breaks throughout the town so with that comes added cost because we have to run the treatment plant long ER so you have longer run times longer uh energy use and everything else right now we we run the plant typically about 3 days filling the tanks and then we have a 24 to 48 hour period that where it shuts down and we use the water out of our storage tanks and we're typically we're seeing about two to three uh failures a month right now average throughout the year usually the summer it's like a Friday at 2:30 but um this is our short list where we kind of compiled we have we had a Master Study done with uh engineering firm Haley Ward that help us put together a 20-year plan for all the different Replacements that we should do throughout town this is kind of our short list of what we're looking at in the near future um so these are kind of our top projects um so the engineering is complete for all these so these are basically once you decide whether you're not want to fund the projects these are ready to hit the street and and get construction going this is our water meter replacement program um so throughout town obviously all our services we have about 7,000 Services throughout Town people have anything from regular demestic meter to irrigation meter um we found we have some unregistered meters uh that were coming across when we're doing uh surveys or or replacing meters we deal with the the leaks which then re reach into a baits where we try to help the residents if they had a problem with a toilet running or something like that or you can see where the spet on the side of the house exploded in the cold and causes a big Iceberg on the side of the house uh obviously meteor meteor accuracy wow sorry I couldn't tell what that picture was until you said it was so that was a spet on the side of the house that it burst and it just the water from spraying it just froze and just created a nice quite a nice ice sculpture yeah but uh meter accuracy is really important I mean that this is our revenue for for our Enterprise fund so it's important to keep these meters replaced and and keep the uh billing accurate and uh move away from try and get away from some of the estimated Billings and uh the last picture shows unfortunately a part where we have some theft where somebody had actually put a bypass around the meter um and then they had valves where they could throttle it so they would only get charged so much the rest of it would bypass around the meter so these are the things that we're dealing with yeah wow yeah and the the I have to say the meter replacement process is not difficult so I think ours was done I don't know like two or three years ago so it's typically it's not sometimes it's challenging depending on where they put the meter sometimes we come across where it's hard piped which means they didn't use the proper fittings so then they have to have a plumber come back or it's behind a wall in a finished basement yeah or yeah a water heater or something like that got in the way stair under stairs we'll keep moving on uh our tank program uh this is a picture of uh this Cedar Street tank so the Cedar Street tank was uh built in 1968 has 2.6 million gallons capacity we inspect it and clean it 3 to 5 years and you can see from the pictures here on the outside obviously the Coatings are starting to fail but also on the inside there's a ceramic coating and that's starting to fail as well so instead of going the 5 years we're going the three years we're going to have it inspected just to see how far we can continue to push this out but as you can tell from the pictures it's starting to be in pretty rough shape and we we need to address it what was the life expectancy you're saying it was built in 1968 1968 so as long as they're maintained prop ly they'll last a long long time when they have the inspection done they do they have a a way to measure the thickness of the gauge of the metal to make sure that the Metal's not deteriorating to cause fatigue where it could have a failure so okay our other tank is the uh the Woodridge tank that was built in 1989 that's a concrete tank so it's a little bit different it's a 4.3 million gallons um this is this tank we have actually valve that we can control through our ska system uh to be able to fill the Cedar Street tank um with both Tanks online we can't facilitate one and the other so we're able to control that um again this is on the 3 to 5 year where we're cleaning them but you can see the spalling and checking on the the concrete on the outside uh and again this will be inspected again this year to see where we're at with this but it has some graffiti on it post 911 uh when we do our sanitary survey every three years they recommended that we put a fence up around this so um I didn't want to push to have it painted until we get a fence around it so that we don't paint it and get graffiti back on it again before uh we have a chance to to secure it so is that on the cap is that on the capital list put fencing around it or it is okay for when what year um we actually we had some funding to do it uh this this past year so okay we're we're working on that this is our new uh Independence Lane Pump Station uh just to show you what what they look like when they're nice and brand new this was put online in the uh summer 2022 uh this has the you know vfd drives with all the ska controls the vfd drive is basically a drive that can be controlled similar like uh your your uh dimmer switch for your light you can start it slowly and you can Crank It Up make it go faster um so that it's a variable rate um so that gives you an idea of what the station looks like when they're new and then the next slide shows our ledgemere station um which is one of our older stations off of Bay Colony Road uh it was scheduled to be decommissioned years ago uh when we did the bracket Road and the bramingham um connection when they redid it so part of the MW agreement we in order to increase our capacity we have to do more work in framing him so that's a whole different uh animal so whether or not we're going to do a treatment facility in town look for look for alternative methods to deal with uh getting rid of our Wastewater but uh you can see the station's just it's deteriorating needs it needs help and that one's on the capital plan to be replaced to be replaced so one point you going to decommission it but it's going to be replaced as part of the m a agreement they they'd like us to to get rid of it but this station takes the flow from the Pawn Street side of town and skips it over to Chestnut Street yeah if we get rid of that station all that flow goes through Bracket Road and we don't have the capacity and framing up to do that right now so this is waste water not this is waste water correct we don't have the capacity to go through framing him through the bracket Road station right now in order to increase that we'd have to do I I don't know what the exact number is but it's millions of dollars worth infrastructure work and framing him to be able to increase that capacity and get rid of that station so I don't see the station going away anytime soon and there's work being done there now right passed it on the way here Bay Colony yes so as part of the uh 501 Pawn Street project uh that was faford property faford back in the day was supposed to connect that to uh the main line so we can go to Bracket Road it was never finished so it's part of the agreement for that 501 Pond Street they finishing that connection now oh they are so which will be good because that gives us a fail safe on that if that station never fails um we're not going to have an SSO it'll go gravity right to to Bracket Road to save us from having Wastewater discharge all over the place yeah this just gives you an idea of the this is basically mimic the water side of the capital overview it's the sewer side of it um so we' obviously split it the costs that are are uh both shared with water and sewer so the skate upgrades because that's a it's a shared system uh the inii program so the inii program is the next piece coming up um that we're working on right now that's for uh basically storm water removal out of the sewer system because we we're paying for storm water to go through the sewer uh so we're trying to obviously remove that uh that that is funded through 75% through the MW 25% we end up paying for so we're in pretty good shape with that uh and we're working on that right now um but again that's just to make sure we're not paying to have storm water treated as sewer this is just a quick comparison um that MD does they put out a rate comparison throughout the towns so you can see with the water piece of it we're we're very low we're on the very low side unfortunately on the sewer side we're we're one of the higher ones that's due to the Framingham charge um you know we kind of refer to it as the Framingham hostage feed but that we use it is the our sewer has to transport through framing 's pipes so they charge us unfortunately just about as much as the MW does to treat our sewer so if there's a way that we could mitigate that it would certainly be a huge savings so a treatment facility plant would work I'm sorry a sewer treatment facility plant would work certainly would because the money we pay Framingham is the money we could possibly put into the payments of the building absolutely you you'd pay for it real quick I think I said that about 10 years ago I think I think that's a whole other discussion the waste wastewater treatment and how we're going to handle it questions yeah thank are you at the end of your presentation D okay some questions thank you I did see um well I guess as I think you're just saying we saw that large item of $10 million in capital for water is that a sewage treatment plant so I guess at some point we're not dealing with that tonight are the rates cor with that okay that's more for the alternative what we have to figure out a way to to we're either going to have to spend money in Framingham to increase our capacity we're going to have to do our own treatment plant or do our own connection to MW to try and mitigate those those sewer costs and I would think a $10 is a $10 million is more more of a direct mwa connection right because a wastewater treatment plant 10 years ago we were hearing 20 30 million so D's kind of a placeholder more more so probably realistically is going to be the framing Hy doing the work in Framingham to upgrade that um but then we pay through directly to frame we're we're then paying Framingham to be able to use their service can still right we' have well that would be able to increase our capacity so then we wouldn't have to worry about doing a sewer more atorium to you know stop building and stuff like that I guess the question I would have and and certainly not something in the near term but at some point can we look at I know we've talked about potential connecting directly with the MW for our um for our sewer so through potentially Southborough what would that cost look like what would increasing our capacity through Framingham and continue to pay through Framingham look like and then what would it be to do our own wastewater treatment plant and again it's I know it's one of those things that obviously a wastewater treatment plant would probably be more expensive shortterm but long term would it be beneficial so I think it would be good to I'm not sure that s BR option to connect for MW they are for water but I don't believe they are for sewer oh they are they are sewer they don't have sewer yeah they don't have sewer they don't have sewer no so our only option is framing him is only framing him yeah unfortunately okay I think Doug has already done some preliminary work looking at at the direct connection and um Doug admirably I think tried to get the MW to see if they would pay for it um and uh not surprisingly they declined imagine that so um I was gonna say is why is why is Doug here is he does he have a speech prepared as well Doug always has a speech prepared just in case Doug is had a presentation at 8:50 oh okay want to get it straight oh thanks so he wears many hats here okay well and he overse I would think there isn't water is under our public works department so correct sure um while we were on that I I did notice and I could talk about it when um when Britney gets her presentation but she did have kind of a placeholder for the Framingham cost and a question about what it was going to be and I guess last year it was 800,000 and this year's she's budgeting the usual amount but I was going to ask can we find out or do we can we get projections like why is it kind of an unknown number it's usually done in re essentially is that accurate usually they send us an estimated what what they project our our sewer capacities to be so they give us an idea how much it's going to be and then what the actuals are they'll discount that if we overpaid so our final payment they'll discount the final payment that's for the sewage we're sending through right correct okay the problem is is like when we have the the water storms we have the big I ey spikes oh right that's that kicks up our gallonage really high so it it gives us them a false number that they kind of calculate their their numbers off of given how much rain we have if we have a lot of rain it enters the Wastewater system all of a sudden Bracket Road and Chestnut Street are Surge and they they're just pumping a huge amount of volume in one day all the extra water um and they look at those little spikes and they kind of average that out and that that kind of hurts us with our estimated Valu so this might not be a question for you but maybe for Doug do we have a long-term plan in regards to replacing all of our pipes that are being impacted by inii we're doing an aggressive inii program right now right but so but do we have a like do we know what we've done do we know what's next and do we have a plan to so that we we could put out to the public okay this is our plan to get everything updated in the next 3 years 5 years seven I mean how long is it going to take us so right now we we did a a a pilot program where we put sensors in the in the manholes and it reads how much water is going through there during certain times of the day uh then Haley Ward analyzed that we came back and a couple years ago did smoke testing and that shows where you have connections or or places where the water could penetrate into the system and then this year we're working on doing the repairs facilitating all those repairs and that's where the MD pays 75% of that and we're on the hook for 25% of that so that's uh going out to bid well no I I I know that we've been doing the work I guess my question is you know do we know what needs to be repaired how much needs to be repaired yes and do we have a plan to get it done and is it going to be one year two year or five years to complete all the work four years yeah go ahead so um the stuff that Dan just talked about that was kind of like the preliminary Identify some of the repairs that to be so this year we're going to put out to bid phase one of um and if phase one goes smoothly we might be able to kind of merge some of the other phases together because phase one was our largest kind of area with identified issues um but part of phase one is also doing some more inspection to identify further issues that may be there okay so this is kind of going to be our pilot year of really going through to fix the issues um and depending on how that goes it's going to kind of set us up for the next three or four years so but but so there is a potential plan in place and it's looking at 3 to four years yes perfect and is this under the storm water part of things or is this what this is through sewer okay and and in the inii program as much as we have a dedicated four-year plan it's an ongoing thing because infrastructure fails all the time right so it's it's an ongoing program that we just have something you didn't identify breaks then you're going to go fix that first obviously because we don't want to leak or it goes anything from manhole covers in the street that are cracked or broken or not sealed properly and you get a puddle around it and you know that that's the source of ini I as well all right well well thank you Dan there's no other I don't know if uh brandy or Claudia have any questions Brandy did go ahead if you want to is she unmuted yep now we can go ahead okay um so first of all thank you Dan um you know I was part of the the walkth through of the water treatment plant with with with Dan and Jeff um last week and and it was my first time through and I think you know as a resident you just automatically assume that the water that comes out of your TAP is is is clean and and um in good shape but you don't really think about sort of the process behind it um and so for me it was it it was very clear just how sort of scientific and how how much we rely on technology and all these components to be able to ensure that our residents have have clean drinking water and so um so first of all I just wanted to to say thank you for for all the work that you guys do to to ensure that because it's it's it's probably without doubt one of the most important things that that we can provide for residents without without even um people really kind of realizing it so um that's the first thing so you know I was looking through some of the backup um that we got in our packets for for the meeting and I just had a question about the Cedar Street tank and what what year you think that it's going to be um needing to be you know um painted and and and serviced I know you said that they're looking to do an inspection but I think I I had a question about like what year it was supposed to hit on on our like um I think we had like a three or four year plan and I wasn't sure if it was because it's I think the estimate was like 1.7 million I believe and wasn't sure if that was going going to be planned for FY 26 or FY 27 or if it's still like to be to be determined we were still kind of to be determined depending on how that inspection report comes out uh in all honesty we were hoping to be able to kick it out you know four to five years with everything that we have going on I mean we're we weren't expecting that the water treatment plant to need this this amount of work to be done to it and you know we we do need to get going on at least least start the process of replacing some of the water mains and getting some of this infrastructure up the date so um if we can push it off you know we'll push it off but only if it makes sense and only if the report says that you know it's safe to do so and I know at our last meeting we talked a little bit about the ozone replacement and just so how how crucial that component is to to having um clean drinking water and so um I know that that that is sort of like your first priority to to get that um that replaced and and kind of up to Snuff and um and then obviously the sort of like the longer term plan with with the water mains and um some of the other upgrades that that need to happen um so you know I know I've been on the board five years and we really haven't done any as far as I know like major infrastructure um investments into our water sewer um and it sounds like you know this is sort of the time that we we really need to to make sure that we we invest in the system um so from from your perspective you know this this is sort of a I know we were kind of talking about the the sewer um you know the question down the road of how we are going to handle that but um from an infrastructure standpoint you know this is I think it's important to kind of have a have a you know to to um to Yolanda's point to make sure that we um communic unicate out sort of the long-term um plan for for all the infrastructure investment because it is it is it's just it's it's such an important component of of of what needs to happen and I think people don't think about that nearly enough and I know I haven't up until up until this year so um you know the more information we have the better great so so the one thing I can add to that uh for you Brandy is that the the ozone system is our like I said it's it's the teeth of the plan uh that that is a our first hardcore source of of removal all these contaminants every year there's more contaminants coming up right now the big scare is the posos um we're fortunate we have very little we have trace of it in our raw water we have zero of it coming out of our finished water in our plant so um and then that's the ozone and the and the GAC filters working together to do that if the ozone fails and we have to go to plan B you know the plan B is going to put a lot more wear and tear on the filters a lot more wear and tear on the of the plant and you're not going to get the quality of the water that you're you're receiving now um so just uh add to that and and as far as the Wastewater alternative I just think it's important to keep that up front and just keep discussing it me you know obviously it's a big number and you try and figure it out but as long as you you stay aware of it and not kind of tuck it in the back room and say well we can't do anything with that just you know see if there is something we can do all right thanks Dan um just one last thing as Joe said I remember when I was probably my first first year on the board maybe yeah first year we started having a discussion about Wastewater and what we were going to do we had a really good presentation and did other things have you know sort of bubbled up as to what were priorities so I think we're at the point where we need to start see speaking seriously about what we're going to do now we talked about using the uh the Gil scull Camp as a leeching b the leaching field you know so I mean that's how far the the discussions had gone to why bought it right that's one of the reasons why we bought it you know and where we have you know water lines right right right on all the street I mean that water could be put right into that system type of deal you know so to speak to your point too is we have the aggregate property coming up soon too correct that correct was a joint process The Joint process and there are other towns that could possibly utilize that plant as well to help pay for that down the road one thing we got yeah one of the things we got to remember first of all is we need to get D approval approval no I me I mean all that's number one so number two the other thing we have to think about is it's not just the treatment facility itself you got to get the sewage there right so course you know you got to look at replacing piping um adding piping to get it there yeah adding piping uh pump stations you know all just just a question Dan you mentioned aggregate sorry to interrupt but uh yeah and I remember there's a rest did you say it's coming it's going to be in our hands soon or how is that 2027 or 28 yeah the timing is pretty good sounds so thanks Dan and thanks for that presentation um I think we're all understanding the need for good infrastructure when it comes to water and and Sewer for that matter and storm drains uh so I'm I'm presuming and from looking at the capital plan that it's Incorporated in the material that Britney's bringing to us tonight so um that's and that's we'll be discussing that so thank you Dan and thank you Becca for that um so I guess are we ready for Britney in the presentation I think it'll take about five minutes right is that what you were thinking 15 20 minutes all right let's just so just um just a process question um how do people want to so she's got three major areas to talk about right so we're talking we're going to start with the trash and uh the trash fees and that'll revisit that discussion and then I believe we're going to do sewer and then water um so I think I'm going to suggest as Britney goes through the presentation if people have clarifying or quick questions it's probably good to ask ask questions along the way yeah and then we'll wait for discussion I guess the question I would ask do we want to take each of these in turn as she goes or wait for the end and then talk about all three at once what what are we thinking here would be and and and Brandy speak up and if if Claudia is you know in terms of I think we'll have some detailed questions for each one so I don't know I'm just throwing out the idea do we want to deal with the rate issue all together at the end or just talk about each one as she finishes each each major area I think it would make sense to speak about each one as we go through it and then then at the end we can try to at the end see what we got y so go ahead Britney so you're going to do uh trash just in the the same order you sent it to us trash and then water and first water and sewer all the visuals are in your mind right now yeah okay very good we just start with water and sewer okay go ahead this is a very quick presentation for water and soore most of the data is in the memos um updated data from um when they were previously done and also just that we all know um Claudia won't be asking questions because she's not in a private area where she can do that so she's listening but she can't actively thank you for that and I do want to say this is a very thorough and detailed presentation with a lot of information so thank you Brittney for that it's a lot to go through I think you know you tried to cover all the bases with a lot of information so certainly appreciate that yeah the memos are very detailed the the slides are it would be a lot if I put the memo in in a slide format but okay can just one last thing can we make sure that all this information gets put you know after our meeting today even though it might be draft gets posted up so that people who are listening and watching can find this detail it's up it's up right is it all up there already okay perfect and we've been doing that right we've been posting the backup which I think is excellent so great thank you sewer okay so we can start on sewer how do I go back I don't know how to back all right we'll start with sore so fy2 revenues were projected to be obviously a little bit less than um expenses so the deficit for FY 25 for sore is approximately 418,000 so as you can see below that these are the projected deficits for sewer in subsequent years for 5year forecast get this and this is a current rates this is at current rates yes so this was just a a quick analysis on the next 5 years incorporating in all of the capital needs for sewer with exception of an alternative plan for Wastewater um so all the capital needs and the developments that are proposed in the memo um current other Revenue usage so this is what I would propose for rate increases over the next 5 years um to meet our expenditures so fy2 I'm recommending a 3% increase um that would generate about 175,000 in revenue and then also using retained earnings of 245 so the dollar impact to a rate pay would be approximately $27 and then going forward you can see the impact um on future years as to what it would be so 27 and 28 we would this would be annual okay thank y why would you not recommend a smaller increase 27 and 28 so we don't have to do as large of an increase in 29 well 29 is only a 1% increase so I didn't really think that was but drastic that being said I think I think we have to maybe relook at that Britney just because I don't think we want to get in a situation where we're currently in where we haven't done rate increases and we have a big one due yeah I mean we can certainly do 2% increases every year whether we need it that year or not just so there there's not a 4% increase in one year because the sore Bic everyone knows has a greater impact on the on the build and water does so for this Enterprise fund that's why I was recommending the hybrid approach for using retained earnings and a rating increase um to get to where we need to be okay Britney just um what what's the retained you had is it 2 million or 4 million to retained revenue for in sewer yeah let me double check one it is about 2 million okay all right um Britney um quick question for you I was just looking through through the memo um and the the 2024 um Framingham assessment ended up being lower than we expected or or however you know so when we when we build out for 2024 did that take that into account or did extra go into retained earnings or how did that work so extra would have gone into retained earnings but if we had any Revenue shortfalls that year we would have absorbed those Savings in FY 24 um also in previous years I was able to get a preliminary estimate from framing cam usually in January or February um they've had some turnover there and I'm not able to really get the information I used to be able to obtain in Prior years um and then also looking just at the trend there really there is no Trend it's it's all it's up it's down and I thought for forecasting sake just being level would be better for rate setting purposes instead of one year to 800,000 and then oh great FY 26 we need to budget for 1.5 million you know what do you what do you do you'll use half our retained earnings and a massive rate increase so I think using just a flat um a flat number would be I think that makes sense advantageous yeah abely we should hopefully we get clarification on that sorry Brandy go ahead okay no I just wanted to kind of just talk a little bit about because I don't I don't know if we've maybe we have so if I if we have I apologize but I think it's it's it's worth just kind of mentioning um sort of I I Know Dan had kind of raised it too but like we the the whole IDE the whole um Financial arrangement with Framingham for for sewer um you know and we we pay quite a bit to them which is why sewer is so much higher than than water um you know I don't know Britney or Michael if you guys want to just give a just a a 30 second background as to why why that rate is so high and why we why we pay that much to Framingham just for background for folks just very briefly um at one point the town was paying Framingham $5,000 um for that charge uh Framingham in the early 2000s wanted to raise that to 50,000 uh the town of ashin didn't think that was fair and denied paying that and so it ended up being litigated and going through an administrative hearing through the Department of Public Utilities um and unfortunately we lost that and now we have to pay like a percentage of the of the flow fees as well as a percentage of like capital projects as well so that's why it's so high and that is not a little close to a million it's a little over a million um and then you because you got to factor in because of the Herbert Street um that's part of the IMA or it's not named after me folks um just want to make that clear um that's part of it as well so I think in total it's probably like 1.2.1 that's what yeah at the highest it's been 1.4 but you're saying it goes up and down it goes up and down right every year it seems and it's based upon their in areas they look at prior year so if we had a new development coming on this year it's not going to get captured until a year or two later um so I would anticipate that 24 I would anticipate 25 going up we just don't have the the assessment yet okay any more questions on sewer or do you want to stay on SE well it's go go back yeah I don't know how to go back oh boy um I did Britney you did um so this does include uh some use of some retained Revenue right what it was the number something we have 45 of rain okay so we have of course a lot more than that but I know you're recommending we don't use it um I guess I want to push it that a little bit because what is it you're concerned about keeping such a large balance when we I'm mainly concerned about any future capital projects and with the Wastewater alternative not being known will want all the rechain earnings we can have for the future so that that's a major unknown doing this type of forecast but we're also cap we're budgeting our capital projects so how much retained well we do have Debt Service too for capital projects it's not just pay as you go it's we have Debt Service as well right so that's part of the budget I guess what I'm saying retained earnings are you know they're they're basically we don't have a current use for them if we're not budgeting them we we're keeping them against a rainy day I guess it's and I guess the the question is for us as elected officials what do we want to do charge people and through their rates or spend this really what is revenue Surplus from La past years and my you know that's the way I been kind of looking at it so I know you I know it's good to be conservative and keep those cushions but we're also like how much do we want to ask people to pay versus if we already have the funds how much of that we want to use and I think it is good that you put some of it in here and and used it I guess the question is how much and you know yeah so there is on page eight there the capital projects are on page eight what was it page eight so for sewer page seven and yeah page eight yeah yeah I mean I can I can just add a little bit I think there's two well three actually knowns that could you know catch up with us pretty quickly um and you know one is the the framy ham and the MW assessments right I mean those could be who knows with a really rainy you know year that we just had if if that's going to be extremely high and we're going to see a spike more towards like the you're going to call a mayor and fix it if that we'll fix we'll fix that the other thing is I mean we do have some very very old um infrastructure in certain places and you know you look at the ledge Mir and although we've got some planned upgrades you saw just from the pictures just the kind of condition it's in you know what if something happens um to that that's a little bit more catastrophic is probably a strong word but I'll use that term catastrophic in nature and we need to do something quickly you know retained earnings would give us a little bit more of a cushion to do that that stuff but I totally understand what you're what you're saying I don't know where that sweet spot is well I guess you know I think about our other Financial policies right we say we want to have an x amount in our rainy day fund is there a policy or maybe not that we have but is there a good basis to say okay you want to have X amount in your retained earnings based on the size of your sewer and water departments or your town or I mean is there something out there that gives us a guideline as to what should what we should be holding in our retained earnings based on what our community does for water and sewer yeah it's it's not clear guidance and then they always have this caveat it's Town Bytown basis right depending upon your Capital plan so again the the alternative to the Wastewater um you know that that's a huge project and just looking at the retained earnings I mean we only had 400,000 484 th000 just a few years ago right so we've been able to build it up right um through obviously rate increases and we've had Savings in certain certain areas but it must have been through savings cuz we haven't done a large amount of rate we had some we've had vacancies in certain areas so that we had turn Backs from salaries lines or um maybe some projects weren't able to be done um due to just resources Resource Staffing okay um so we've had turn backs due to that so I wouldn't anticipate there being any turn backs if these projects are really be able can get underway we wouldn't be adding to retained earnings right and one thing just to so you're recommending option four a 3% increase for this year which is Y which should be an average impact of about $27 a year is that correct an increase okay so I'm looking I'm periodically trying to look at Brandy to see if she wants to say something so um well further discussion or question appreciate that sure no I think for me that answers my sewer questions so yeah I guess I guess my only question is like I I um because looking through the retained earnings I I you know I I I feel like I if if if we can safely utilize a little bit more the retained earnings and take that dollar increase down a little bit I I just I would I would feel better if we could minimize the impact to to Residents because you know we're talking about like the so you know my my my stance is the the water the water stuff we need because we need we need the infrastructure investment now um the sewers the sewer stuff is a little less um like I I I get that that we have a shortfall that we have to meet but it's it's it's um it just if it it seems like the if we could utilize a little bit more retained earnings and decrease the impact to to Residents a little bit more I would feel I would feel like that was a a a you know a better a better decision for for us if we can do that because it is going to be a major water investment that we're going to have to do this year so something like option three Brandy which brings the average increase down below $20 is that is that kind of what you're thinking with a little more yeah yeah sorry I'm trying to I'm like working on like one screen trying to look between the back yeah yeah and and to the point we're looking at three different funds here tonight so all with different requests so um especially if you're have two years where you're not increasing it you know to do a planket right across the board so that way the years that you're expecting to be higher if you're to lower it at least you you can smooth bring smooth it out and yeah like you were saying about a plateau going directly right across at least you have an idea what your what your fist costs are going to be without any anticipated you know catastrophes that come down the road which is why we have the retained earing set aside for that I think if it's more consistent it's better more consistent absolutely and it plan and it's easier to plan uh for individual homeowners to realize what their what their bill is going to be or have an estimated uh bill with respect to that instead of you know up and down type of deal and that would be and I would be all for something like that okay are we ready to move on to the water presentation so just so just to clarify so we're looking at and I don't have the scenario three in front of me it's right here so okay so 2% 2% about s $18 average but what does that do then for our out outlying like so are we looking 2% this year but increase retained energy I understand that it would be 2% and then retained earnings this year of 300 but if we're looking to even it out could we then say Okay instead of the 3% and the 4% increase next year do we do another 2% increase next year and do and even that out over the next few years you could do yeah two two two two right you could do that so you know and then you know and then as as we you know obviously we still have the retained earnings if we then if we need to use retained earnings we can but we're doing we know that it's going to be a 2% increase every year for the next four years and then in year in 29 we can do a 1% increase and at that point I would think we Haven it figured out what we're going to do with our waste water right in five years from now we we might not be doing anything but I would think that in five years we should be able to put a plan in place you'll have a bit of hold on it right the only thing I would and I won't be I won't be here with you folks next year when you but you can be on the other side yeah right I'll be complaining um but I would you know you may want to think about setting it for this year and then using that additional data to think about what to do next year I'm just sometimes it's good to look at both right so go with the go with the scenario three the 2% and the 300 from retained earnings with the possible thought of okay and not next year at this time when we're looking at the budget but maybe in the fall we have a more detailed discussion about what we need to be doing with some of these budgets and not during budget season when all of a sudden it's well we have to make a decision to make our budget for 25 just something to think about and you see the use too and again right well so I I usually do it I mean I would like to do these presentations sooner more in February or or late January because I do look at the usage from the previous calendar year so I use I utilize the most recent usage that I can I could start looking at on a fiscal year basis so there's a little bit more time to compile data um but end of January will be my and of course that changes with the respect to growth it changes with well it with growth but it's all it would all be factored into the analysis that's done in the memo prepared for you okay so we we'll look at the two% and the 300 in retained earnings look at that okay ready for water are you ready for water good question I am okay there so quick question for you guys um I know Claudia is not in a position to take a vote so but we would have to take a vote on on these these rates are we looking to vote at our next meeting I think so I think at this point it would make sense to wait and vote at our first meeting in April at least that way Britney can you know we can give her an idea of what we're looking at and then if that works for you I mean I I know you'd love one today so you can finalize these things but I think hopefully we'll give you some guidance I think yeah yeah yeah I I think I think you can come and lay a clear picture for us without necessarily having to to okay so moving on to water again we're expecting a deficit of about 476 for fy2 the subsequent years have been projected out based on assumptions and so forth um so these deficits obviously a little bit larger than sewer so like the sewer Enterprise fund this was just a quick analysis as to what a rate increase would look like um over the next five years to cover the capital projects and operating budget um going forward but not all the capital right not the big ones nope this would include the the big does this include the ozone it is because we would borrow for the ozone so the 21% would cover the principal and interest payments for the borrowing for the borrowing not a separate bar okay right right so it would be included principal and interest payments would be included in the budget now for the next 20 years okay um whatever capital is in that year okay um the Memo's been updated just to reflect if we're able to kick out that water tank another year depends on the inspection um and then this the increase was projected at 25 and it went down a little bit to 21% with um hopton's $1 million coming in um so this would be about a $50 impact a year for water at the 21% Michael am I wrong this is just hopkington going to get out but they guaranteed us that 1 million for this year what happens after this year that year is over with are we we have to find another way per amount dollar amount you know cover that million dollars that we were getting from hington because that would be an budget correct well that so I believe that million dollars is part of their town meeting yeah I believe that they're going to town meeting for a request for the million dollars already that's for hington I'm talking about like once that year is over with then we have that what I needed thank you if hington decides to tie in with the MW and not use our water are you talking we're we're shy of a million dollars because we were looking forward to getting anticipating that million well the the million is is a little bit separate than the operational cost but Joe you bring up a good point because if the town of hopkington no longer needs to use our wells cuz right now currently they pay 20 25% of the operating cost based on how much they draw you know if that goes away you know presumably you're not drawing as much water so you're not you you know putting as much wear and tear on the plant and everything but that's in theory I think in practicality and reality we would have to make up that revenue or a portion of that Revenue somehow okay we would lose about $240 to $250,000 a year okay so that's something we would have to make up some shape of form either through rate increase or our own water usage and it goes that way but if we have another rainy season like we had last year you know it's it's a catch 22 because we're not using the water but we're not generating Revenue as a result of it right we need the perfect season is what we need they just continue that cost and so our our cost for to run the plant would go down okay wouldn't actually be we would be losing that 250 but we wouldn't beend because we're not creating yeah so for those it would be on a one toone basis I think oh gotta I think so just just for the audience at home the super the water superintendent danmar is just pointing out that the operating cost should we stop servicing hopin operating cost will decrease a bit but not as much as our additional cost but it will be offset a bit okay thank you sorry you can come on up Doug if you like it's real quick okay but Joe just use the word guaranteed about the million dollars just so it's clear it's it's their portion of the project it's approximately million it could be 900 1.1 whatever 20 25% of what whatever what that money but that money would be guaranteed as a result of the and what's the retain Revenue in the water fund right now uh is it 2 million as well it's around million you put it in here I'm just not seeing it um sorry yeah it's about 2 million 2 million so we have another it's on page fair amount of retained Revenue available in this one as well okay Y and Britney just reminder Britney's original request and presentation was um I think a 25% increase um which I think was a $60 increase if I remember correctly um sorry I'm still looking this uh Brandy did you have anything you want to say or questions I'm just trying to go through all the all the back up in the notes um right there's a lot and I while you're while you're thinking it just you know just to note that Britney did put a pretty detailed um all the developments coming online and their various contribu ution to the revenue which is very helpful so thank you go ahead Brandy yeah I'm just trying to find where in the packet it is I'm sorry everything is kind of um because I did have some questions about um the sorry like no we're all the same we're all good trying to get through sorry I'm still waiting through sewer you know a lot of information yeah so I know that there was something in here about the like the billing tier I believe um and if I remember correctly like we had talked about usage had had gone down with water is that correct the average usage yes yes has gone down okay so um do we think that that's do we think that that's like a trend that's going to continue or do we think that that's pretty much leveled off at this point like from do we think that the the the revenue um shortfall that we're looking at is that that you know we're going to we that basically that we will actually um meet those numbers if that makes sense I'm sorry I'm trying to like dig here I'm hoping they meet the numbers for fy2 24 it'll it'll kind of come down to the summertime again and whether or not we're in a drought or it's a rainy season I tried using an average of of the user um usage over I look at a calend year basis so I look at calendar year 20 what we in what year is it 23 did I look at yeah January to December of 23 in order to put this together then I also compare it to Prior years just to see where we're at it's it's a little tough to to see where the usage is coming from it could be developments I know we've had developments come online um there also factors with the weather that play into it as well I'm hoping that we'll see a little bit more in Revenue it won't be that much more um but it it all comes down to the summertime yeah yeah well and and also you know just in general like um we were kind of talking about this the other day um when we were talking to Dan at the the water treatment plant and you know I I always hear from people who have like families that have higher usage um and complain about like the higher rates that that you know if you use more water you you pay you pay a higher rate for some of that water um so you know I always I always think like you know you know we need to put out some educa I I always like want to try to get people to use less water right um which probably doesn't help from a budgeting standpoint but from it makes me feel like we're getting more information out there but um but I do feel like you know if if we can help educate people about how to lower their water bills um we might actually you know maybe maybe people can um you know help themselves a little bit more too even though that the you know even if we need to increase the the rate of the water so I just wanted to put that out there because I think I think it's an important component to to um to water usage as well so yeah um thanks thanks for pointing that out I'd kind of for I'd forgotten about that so um Britany so you know you have your scenarios here but the rate increased 5% through 21% in the average bill how does how did you how did you work the tiers into that that data so the the tiers are included into a a large workbook that I have um I don't think I have so if so if we're saying you know you raise it 21% in the average average bill is going to be $353 right how does that you average the tiers somehow to come up with that yeah so attachment C on the memo it breaks down you input all the usage per tier and it breaks down what the average person would use so all right so this is some sort of average tier use yeah this is an average bill an average so it takes what the average person would would utilize great okay thank you and that's yeah I think that's the best you know for an imperfect world I mean that's I mean we're not going to be able to say to every single person this is what your bill is going to be no it's uh sorry and and as we all know that households are changing on a regular basis one one year you have four people in your house and the next year you have two and sometimes it's consistent or not consistent so Britney just I apologize if you went through this but she laid out these options so there's one through five and the options are 5% through 21% and their basic is the basic variable how much retained earnings is being utilized right so that's right it starts we could go as low as 5% and use 485,000 of retained earnings in in the 21% is at zero use of retained earnings in line with Britney's feeling that we shouldn't be using retained earnings so well so this 21% would only cover fix will get 25 or yeah I think yeah and then 26 we be looking at another 16% increase so if you want to talk about smoothing out the rate increase over the next five years as well I don't the averages of these increases but so there's there's 2 million I think at one point you said there's 2 million retained ear you talking about 997 yeah so if you use say 500,000 a year it lasts for four years we'll wipe ourselves out okay all right other other things about the water fund what are thoughts thinking about how to approach this I I think the 20 I think you know the 21% is certainly better than the 25% um I I I agree with for this one not using the retained earnings I mean unless we used a little bit like I'm looking at scenario 4 if we did a 20% increase I was trying to be mindful with the sewer knowing that that that has a larger impact on the taxpayer so I was I was more mindful on on the sewer using more retained earnings um water has a less of an impact yeah but still an impact Joe or brandy well BR you I mean Britney thank you um you just almost answered my question because you said if you don't use the retained earnings it's you know it's a plus but you know I I feel like we're taxing the people to keep you know uh a savings account uh for the future and that's not what the Enterprise fund is actually based for I mean it's for emergencies things that come up and and they keep you know the the balance of a of a water bill to be you know palatable to people um and again 21% in one year is that's it's I mean I like the idea when we talked about the sewer rates to keep it flat I mean this is now now we're doing Peaks and valleys again and and and it goes against what you were talking about with the sewers so if there's if there's a way we could keep that that Plateau right across the board I mean I would be in favor of that and I don't know what that figure would be within the 5 years that you have here between the 5% and the 21% but I mean I I I would feel more comfortable going something in between and using some of those retained earnings St I've set that sure that that deficit if anyone has their phone on them and wants to average it out yeah let's let's Brandy anything else on the water before we tackle the trash fees and yeah the the only thing I the only thing I have a question on is so you know the retained earnings for for water we have a lot of capital that we need to like an infrastructure issues that we could potentially um that that's gonna that I think I think that's going to be sort of like the big the big thing for water like we have all these all these capital projects on the on the horizon that we need to to do um the idea of you know I mean I don't want to I hate raising water rates on anyone at all but um I feel like if we don't if if we don't kind of have a mind to to use those retained earnings for you know unplanned water main breaks or um you know if we do have to to do the the Cedar Street um water tower you know there's going to be a lot that's that's potentially um interesting I don't I I I feel like I I feel like the the um the use for those retained earnings is much closer on the water side than it is on the sewer side if that makes sense so you know I I worry about you know spending down the retained earnings too much so you asked if someone had a calculator Claudia is watching and listening if we did 11% M um to even it out over the five years I um I don't think we'd have enough retained yeah I think we would because if we're using if you're looking at this chart with 10% we would be using 375 11% it you know probably a little bit higher or I mean a little bit less 10% but Claudia had the similar question that I did is like how do you determine what you want in your retained earnings right like I said for our rainy day fund for the state for the town we our goal was I think 10% of our budget we want in a rainy day fund should something happen and maybe that's something we need to look at okay looking at what our potential Capital costs are what should our retained earnings be in these Enterprise funds as well in regards to what we want to use I mean to to everyone's point right our our rate payers are paying in based on their usage but obviously our costs are not as much as what they're using otherwise we wouldn't have retained earnings so how can we find a balance there to have retained earnings to do some of these bigger projects but also not make as large a hit on an annual basis with our rate increases so in terms of are you are you guys suggesting that this is something we should take on as part of this process or think about for the future or I I I mean you set the base now I think we you know we look at it for this cycle but again like I just said a little while ago don't wait until January or February to have this discussion right look at at our Capital stuff and what our needs are and try to and I don't know if we'd be able to meet like a fall time frame because that's your end of year for you um Mid July to probably the end of September yeah I'm not saying exactly the fall I'm just saying that I feel like we're we're sitting here and it's one of those things right it's not until you sit through this a couple times you go oh yeah it really you know and when we're not having to raise rates right it's like okay this is our r okay it's all okay let's just keep moving forward but when you start having to raise rates certainly these amounts you start going oh wait a minute is this really how we should be looking at it that's all right so I just want to point out though for sore and water though there's so many assumptions built in if you do a fiveyear like a 2% right that's assuming that the developments are going to come online of course and so forth and and the inflation is not going to go out of control again so there's are there are a lot of assumptions built into it right I think there's inherently a lot of variables here' done a great job of trying to incorporate but they are variables and that's where I go back to you know looking at this every year and seeing where we're at and and adjustments but anyway okay yeah because I mean that's a good point I mean we're in this situation with the trash fund so we expected certain amount of Revenue coming in right and we didn't get it even with the increase in bag bag fees we didn't see we didn't see the revenue we expected we may see it not yet not yet we still have some time uh anything else Brandy before we push on to everybody's favorite subject P thr what direction do we want to give Britney well do we want to do that now or wait till one thing I'm thinking we have three different things and maybe we should look at them Al together in terms of impact and what we want to well I don't know that Britney's going to be able to give us the full impact right like right now no I mean us like if I'm if we say are we going to raise all these or are we going to maybe say I mean I'm I'm going to make a push not a push but I'm going to suggest that we look at these all three together and their impact people so right now right we said okay instead of the 3% for sewer we're going to do 2% okay that's an average of $176 68 for water and I don't know if you did this one as well and I'm not finding it right right now you're saying 21% M and that's about $50.2 per person okay well what if we go to 20% we we understand what we'd use for retained earnings but what would that be right per per did you I would you know I would push for a lower something break you the 15% like what would the per so the average bill you mean yeah average I could calculate it I didn't calculate that one I only calculated the uh 20 21% so 21 So 20% it would go up $49 excuse me 48 um and then on if 15% it would go up 30 okay so 35 excuse me 35 35 if we did 15% okay okay but that if you do 15% you're using 250 right 250 in retained earnings which to me is like I don't I would even go lower than that but um that's where I want to look at all three together and what we're you know what we're putting you know moving to do and but that now for water so we have no we 50 $502 for 21% about $41 for 20% and $35 for 15% okay yeah okay okay and then now we can go to trash trash okay go ahead and whoever is waiting we apologize this conversation is obviously taking longer than we expected but it's an important one happen there we go is um yeah everyone who who is supposed to be here at 8 and 8:20 are here so oh yes we here we here for 850 so was trash first yes in the packet yes it was so if well these guys are getting ready so um I'm just looking at her you know just a little we did increase uh the flat fee and the bag fee last last year by 50% and 40% we had a lot of discussion about that um and now I think just a let me know when you're ready Brit okay I'm ready okay go ahead all right so yes last year we increased the the flat fee by 50% and the bag fee by 40% um this was enough Revenue just to cover the FY 24 deficit so we we knew that we were going to have to relook at this um this year so the FY 25 revenues and expenses we're looking got a deficit of approximately 100,000 for FY 25 mhm wow it's going to be a fun commute home um is something going on wind wow very wind yeah so the next five year of deficits are you can see on the uh slide um so the forecast assumptions we're looking at a 3% cost of living wages 4% increase in the trash removal cost each year so that 4% um is factored in throughout the uh remainder of the 5 years but the contract ends in FY 27 so the 4% is a placeholder for 28 and 29 yep I can't see move this there we go so for fy2 the proposal would be to increase the flat fee by 15% and the senior rate by 10% the increase for the regular rate payers would correlate to a $31 increase in the flat fee annually annually okay and for senors that would correlate to an $11 increase so combined this would generate about 158,000 for the town and that's the flat fee and that's the flat fee okay so this was requested at the prior meeting was reviewing the tonnage I think maybe by Brandy or are you Yanda um so in reviewing this year's Revenue FY 24 the first 6 months it looks like we're on track to collect about $100,000 less than what we budgeted and and looking at the tonnage tonnage did go down the first 4 months and it appeared that recycling did go up not percentage per percentage but then the tonnage goes up drastically November December January February just very recent data yes this is very this data is very is this year fresh and it Compares it Compares it data yeah it Compares it till last year so I don't know how how many bags people bought last year to get them through this year but I would anticipate they're being they're going to run out soon yes a a correlation in the increase in the bag sales I just don't know when that's going to hit all right it could be um the next 6 months of this fiscal year 24 it could be next year I don't know but it it seems as though we might be six months to a year behind every single year with the B just a that's just observation of people's behavior is very hard to right analyze um anything there so with that said I am I am optimistic that the bag fee will go up it's just a matter of when um so I would re bag Revenue I was going to say optimistic that the Fiel go up I don't know that we want to be optimistic about that the bag cost I'm hoping that sales will go up a little bit um so I would recommend increasing it by 15% um for FY 25 now I just want to say if if at the end of FY 24 it really does come in a lot lower than what we anticipated or budgeted I would probably come back before you to increase the flat fee um to cover that for next year for for next year I would probably visit you sometime in September or October so we would adjust it through in the middle of the year the flat fee so and we're going to stay with the two Billings um I'm not sure yeah we just have to coordinate with our treasure collector on because I saw your data on that and the back that we're only at I think you said 85% for the first Bill yes and that went out yeah I I think there's a little bit of lag time when people pay which is which is typical yeah but I think that now that there's two installments people might take their time a little bit and paying the second Bill and that can go into the next fiscal year which will throw off all kinds of things kind of it up you know it's it's it's a timing thing more than anything yeah all right Randy um thoughts on this and yeah and trash or um yeah no I I appreciated the the data on the the tonnage because I think that really is um important information and um because I was wondering whether or not people were just throwing out less trash or if people were doing the uh hoarding bag thing and I I think we have our answer to that um so when I was looking at the different scenarios and the different percentages and things like that I was trying to kind of come up with something that was and I ran out of time be honest I was trying to do this today um you know I know you're proposing a 15% increase in the flat fee um for households and then 10% for seniors um and you know I know that um you know we do try to to keep keep the feed is lower for seniors um I know I mentioned it would be great to be able to do something that's more based on income versus versus age I know that's probably a nightmare to to um to manage and and administer but um you know at some point it would be good to kind of know if that is even a possibility at some point I know it's not for this fiscal year so I I totally get that um I would I was trying to figure out if we decreased the from 15% to something like 12% and did the same for seniors so instead of 15 and 10 we did something like 12 and 12 if we would um make up the the um if we would be able to to um to come up with a revenue for the deficit and I don't I didn't get to the point where I could make that totally work but that's kind of what I was thinking was something a little bit l less than 15% for um for everyone basically because I I think I I know there's not enough senior households to make up for the um there's a lot less of them than than the regular households but I do think I I would I would want to do something that's that's that has parity across the board for everybody um but that's just my my perspective you know I I'll I'll throw something out here as we're um get it okay no no one got it um Doug thought it was funny at least I you have to ask people if they got your joke Rob I know it's bad um so uh the one thing I I I do want to I want to introduce this idea that um you know we looked at these last year and looking at these three major funds my my suggestion is because we're looking at a couple things tonnages going up um which to me indicates one there's a revenue Source from the bags but also that people maybe should be thinking about recycling a little more and we should be thinking about how to encourage them to do that also we looked at this last year and did a fairly Hefty increase and I think your deficit that you're projecting was what about over a 100 thou just a bit over 100,000 for FY 25 so this increase would cover the next three years yeah so um so the other thing I'm proposing is we think about one year and review cuz we just did this one and that we just why don't we just raise the bag fees by your 15% which gets us what 880,000 or 100,000 I'm not opposed to the back fees so that the the flat fees would generate enough Revenue to cover the FY 25 deficit and if the bag Revenue came in or didn't come in it wouldn't impact your job is to be conservative make sure we have the money I'm looking at a little differently cuz I'm looking at the public undergoing a lot of inflation stress and I'm trying to figure out how we can minimize our impact on that so I I certainly appreciate your position but one I I think one of the things we're looking at across the board increases here one of the things we should think about rubbish just increase the bag fee give people the incentive to not throw things out to recycle more and see how that works next year we'll probably I think your projections alone from bag fees will cover the projected deficit right next year I think that will collect the bag fees that I budgeted for this year into next year yeah but we won't collect enough bag fees for what we budget or increase the bag fees for 25 I don't think that will yeah I think if if we increase the bag fees by what she's recommending don't increase the flat fee I don't think we're going to generate enough income to cover our costs based on what Britney told us theoretically if people are buying the bags right if they buying the bags they're buying the bags but based upon based upon the data but I thought your projection for the bag fee increase was around 80 to 100,000 880,000 to 100,000 is that yes that's that's assuming that people buy the Bago starting July 1st yeah which yeah right so it's it's a bit of a there's nothing certain about it but I'm not sure it has to be certain because we have retained Revenue so let's if and worst comes to worst we spend some of that I'm just looking at the big picture here and you know price yeah you do have some retained Revenue in in trash right the other thing you got to think about also is if you increase the back piece um 15% that's what BR is Project 15% but that's what she's requesting if you if you want to look at increasing it more let's just say at some point yeah so one of the things you've got to be concerned about is illegal dumping right and that's why I'm not I'm saying that and I'm maybe it shouldn't be 50 maybe it should be 10% but I think Britney's deciding that 15% is a kind of and I tend to agree is an increase but it's not going to it's not going to throw people off that much um we're likely to they're likely to continue to buy so the additional the additional cost Brandy I mean Britney I'm sorry that you uh provided us that's a 15% increase uh for the large and small Flex bags and that generates a total of 11 16,21 and that'll take care of the deficit just for this particular year if we collect all of if we collect collect it if understand and I get that um but that doesn't leave anything for the following year no no so recommend this recommendation covers the next three years um so 15% each year prior I mean each year after no there's a hold on let me go to last SL it would cover the deficits through FY 27 okay and then the next increase wouldn't be until FY 28 and 29 so this 15% will take care of right up until right and the and the bag increase will take us through the end of FY 27 and you've also got and we we're looking at a year or two I guess Gap in terms of developments and their housing developments which is what you did but after two or three years we're starting to see Revenue coming in for most of these developments right so we got a bit of a gap to cover so that that's what I was going to ask Michael uh like one 101 Main Street I mean uh chestn Street they don't do their own uh trash collections it'll be town collected no they would do their own okay so we we're not generating any interest I mean any any money from them not for trash but we also aren't generating any expense right there's no or anything like that right okay all right that's one thing and um you know so we support the condo communities with trash service but they're starting to opt out I think um interesting yeah was at a joint Association condo community's meeting last night and one of the things that they said is that they had just a couple of the you know that's like four different associations I think two of them voted to you know do their own trash service just because it's more convenient for them um so if Doug that's probably new information to you because I just found that out last night yeah well they voted for it so so that will affect our revenues but again it would also then impact loing the Tipping fees right we would gain the Tipping fees because we're not generating a tonage correct okay any any well so in terms of this so we're we're running a bit late uh how much more discussion or things do we want to talk about for these three things in terms of next next meeting I think we have information but I'd like to take a little more time and go through some more of this sure on my own yeah okay um you know it's interesting Brandy you said 12% and 12% and that was in Britney's documents as well oh it was yeah there was something about a 12% increase in your doc in the documents CU I'm like oh that's interesting that she said 12% um oh that was for FY 28 oh okay oh yeah never mind I thought it was all 5% SC right do you want to give us a dollar amount like for a total increase for all those well we're talking about trying to add all these right like how much do we want to add to people's you know do we think they can afford $100 do we additional do we you know where are we at you mean for all three together for all three together that's interesting right well that's what we were talking about right yeah so I don't know I I still think for the trash we should just increase the bag fees by 15% and leave it alone and then the others the um if I'm remembering um uh the water was that was that that was the one with the big increase but it's correct not a I would you know I think we should look at least for the next year use of these retained revenues to offset a chunk of that I think we talked about going down to what um and then claudus are you in touch with Claudia yeah she and I have been yeah does she want to unmute and say something no she can't she and she's now gone she had to jump off so so one thing question do we have retained earnings at all on trash yes so we have less than 300,000 in trash so over the last three or four years we've used about 800,000 of our trash retained earnings to balance the budget yes and that and that's the B that's to take care of the deficits over the year over the last three years remember the projected deficit next year is only what 105,000 or whatever 118 so we got 300 in retained Revenue so I guess what I'm saying if if you said to us hey you know we want to keep the total increase for these three um Enterprise funds less than $75 or $75 or less we would have to use retained earnings but we could come up with a plan that would help you I think that's I I mean because I think that's where where you were going right you're like let's let's look at all of these and I think that's I okay yeah Brandy what is what number sounds feels good I I think you know oh never I I I don't have I it's difficult for me to kind of like run numbers right now but I think if um if we can if 75 is doable I know we were kind of going back and forth on on on water quite a bit so but I if we can figure out a like sort of a a um um a number I think 75 sounds sounds right to me but again I don't I'm kind of I don't have my notebook I'm kind of um it's a working so number I think SE so if we could look at add all these together we don't increase more than 75 annually and I would say that's with the flat fee because the bags we don't know right we well I would I would push back on that because we want to like the the trash is different from a lot of these because we're trying to encourage certain behavior and my position is to put it on put it on the bag feet because we want we want people to decrease uh what they're throwing away to increase um Recycling and we've got a a solid waste problem that's not this is why we're having this problem every year so we got to look at how to decrease and so we should give people the right incentive uh I think instead of increasing everyone's fees so there's no incentive or everybody pays why don't we try why don't we try to keep the 75 with the back feet obviously we can figure out the average what an average household would utilize why don't we why don't we try that okay don't have I don't have a problem I think that's a fair inequitable yeah cuz cuz it it hits everybody it doesn't eliminate certain groups or whatever just right across the board and that's fair all right Brandy you ready to move on I'm ready to move on thank you righty so thank you all where are we in the agenda I think we have the longsuffering Helen we still have we still have uh three things that we supposed to get to before our 850 so I I think I think um the cemetery discussion can be relatively brief because because Helen and Joan um have left no no and the historical commission had presented a lot of information and what the board had wanted was them to come like work with DOs like do and I to come up with the plan um plan and costs right a big thank you guys for coming in and bearing with us yeah and they um so they provided a lot of that information previously as part of your yep um part of your packet and then Doug and I have worked with them and have got a workable plan that we think can help so okay so do we want to I think this is a great project do we need to talk to folks about it need update US based on what we asked them Helen go ahead hi um yeah um I think that the uh packet pretty much I think explained to all of the costs that we can anticipate at this point um and you know how how we're planning to the there there's a pretty good explanation of how we're planning to run that you had ask for sort of a mockup of the uh cleanup training weekend so we've kind of included all of that and some of the information from TNT to give you an idea you know of who they are and uh why we like them and um there's a bit of a I think an Excel sheet here with pretty much like you can just sort of look at that quickly and kind of get an idea of what all the costs are and I I I was thinking maybe you'd have questions more I wasn't really planning on doing as much of a presentation tonight as I was planning on answering questions about the information we sent so okay thank you questions thoughts uh about it I know I I have to confess I spent a lot of time on the on the Enterprise fund review and uh didn't get spend a lot of time on looking at their plan but well from the from what I have seen and and read and discussed with you folks at the last time you were here um you guys are very thorough um I just I just get concerned about the fact we're going to do all this work and I'm hoping uh are you going to do a presentation FR a CPC to get funding for that as well we do plan to go to the CPC um probably next year yeah okay for or for next year okay all right because I mean I know at that's a historical piece of property and we have an historical bucket I don't see why this whole project can't be funded out of that particular barl yeah I think this year Michael had said that there was a lot going on this year with CPC so we sort of kind of put that off because we didn't really have all of the uh cost expenditures yet which really once we go through this cleanup training weekend and we get a better idea of how much work has to be done professionally as opposed to what the volunteers can do we'll have a better idea of what the the total cost will be so that we can not only approach um CPC but we can see what we're getting in uh donations uh through our fundraising there's a cost associated with the weekend right the spring 24 volunteer weekend $2 to $3,000 assessment right yes and we have that cover so we have that covered we have the the uh survey covered okay um I think we have everything we needed for this this year was was covered and we are also anticipating once we get approval from you uh that there may be some additional money coming and we can't guarantee that but we we would be hoping there would be some additional money coming in through uh some donations that uh our fundraiser will be doing okay so we already have those costs cover so Helen the extra time will give you folks more time to prepare our actual costs and and the work that's going to be done by volunteers and see what's Works needed after after that work is completed is that right yes exactly okay so so Michael you're saying that the funds that are here we're looking to cover with the Guston money because it was put into to okay yeah and and donations if we need to but I think all of it can be covered under the Guston okay okay okay I think I'm good to make a decision y okay Randy anything no the information in the packet was really thorough and I think it kind of filled in a lot of the blanks that that um and and questions that I had from from when you were um here last presenting it so thank you thank you guys for for taking this initiative on and wanting to do a lot of this abolutely um work yourself so um we appreciate that very much we probably need to take a motion to okay I move that we approve the moving forward of the volunteer program presented by the historical commission for the cemetery project second motion's been made and seconded um all those in favor say I raise hands uh we need to do a roll call vote because BR she's out Point yeah she's out so go ahead um Brandy uh kinman I manani I Greaves ey share I so that's 4 z y with one member absent right okay thank you does that cover it Michael yes perfect thank you guys very thank you for doing all very much for your patience thank you can I one one quick comment yeah sure um first I just want to say that we appreciate your your um support but we also appreciate um the Board of Health and the um conservation um he and in the DPW the DPW is very receptive and as short-handed as they are they're willing to to do a lot with as long as we're um considerate of their time and we certainly will be so great thank you and I'd like to also add to that so we're very excited uh for the community uh as well because this is a very you know solid Community project um and we are utilizing a lot of volunteers so I would love to invite everyone on the select board and anyone who's listening uh we'll be putting out the information if you would like to come and join us we would love to have you when when will you be doing the the work what's the weekend so we don't have the date because we were waiting for the approval so we will be coming up with that very shortly and I let everyone know perfect cool thank you thank you thank you you all right so very nice um so the next item is uh uh Beth Reynolds with an update plan on the former police department building that's great knock it down let's wait and see what she says go ahead Beth what did she say okay we might Maybe make that happen for each um so thanks for having me here tonight we've been doing a little bit of work um planning for the police station uh the downtown police station 137 Main Street um and I'm here to just sort of give you an update of sort of what overall just a very general um overview of sort of where we're at with that at this point so as you know there has been a great need in the I would say the last year especially for additional parking spaces in downtown uh we have a lot of new business owners uh lots of successful businesses in downtown that just are creating a little bit more of a need for parking um so we have looked at this space um and what you have in your packets is um just a very rough handdrawn sketch that i' done um just kind of measuring the space and looking to see what we can put in there for parking spaces so it still a work in progress obviously um but we also um in in doing in looking at all of this we did look at the surveys that we got when we did the fire station when we put the RFI out and then oh yeah consequently the RFP in between those two um things we actually did survey the community and we asked what would you like to do with the fire station what would you like to do with the police station so um you know the the results that we have that we've that came in for that um basically were leaning towards um people really wanting to preserve the fire station not necessarily the police station um so I mean I can certainly share those with you if you're interested in that um but a you know a lot of them 209 out of 388 surveyed said yes to uh wanting additional parking so just wanted to note that we did have some feedback from the um community so what you have in front of you is some additional Park paring um but we would also put in a popup park right in front to sort of just to keep with the Aesthetics of downtown um and to really kind of you know screen off that that asphalt um basically just to make it nice and green in the front um and to soften that parking lot and that those needed spaces um so there would be that nice small park there in the front that there's a beautiful tree that would remain I was going to say is that the green area where the sign is basically build it right around that tree and then um it would it would just lend itself to you know a place for people to stop and sit have a cup of coffee we could have events there it would be a nice addition to the Holiday Stroll and the tree lighting um so there's a lot of opportunity there as well as adding in some um additional marking making it nice and safe we are adding a uh fence to the rear of the building along the train tracks um that land was just surveyed um so we will be adding that shortly just for safety purposes um we don't want anybody going well there's no fence there now no no there never hasn't been for years and that's that's interesting yeah well that's it but it is isn't it usually the the te's responsibility to have a good fence I mean that's my understanding so I don't know there's not even a chain link fence not on that side side there is on the other side well that's interesting okay sorry to interrupt but you know one of the thing to think about I mean should we be you know talking to the te to like put in a fence I don't know are they missing a fence that whole stretch I don't think that all all of the train track has fence right but think about the farmers's market yeah no but well that's another issue but okay I I don't want to interrupt what you're saying but it's a surprising to me in the downtown area there's no fence that's a little unusual that on that section okay go ahead Beth I'm sorry to no so that is um so we're looking at adding in well I believe there's about 18 spots there now um to 20 um we are looking to be able to increase that from to about 30 to 35 spots double double Lots yep they would be angled parking very much like what's out in the uh Town Hall Parking Lot yeah yep it would look pretty and just looking at this sketch so the in and out would be where it is now that wouldn't get changed correct so the parking that's along the fire depart the the firehouse would that stay yes so that's part of the Clover roads plan is to create a uh seasonal outdoor patio there um I thought that was in front no that's a well so that's that will still be there as well so they are building out a knee wall there and then about along the side so what they found was when they spent a little time at the fire station there's no sun that hits that front patio um that they're going to build it it will never be in the sun um it is in the morning it's lovely sun in the morning you're not sit at a at a brewery in the morning not during beer drinking time so they really were looking at that side so they're in front of the planning board now to add a seasonal uh patio right on the side there where those spots are and then they'll be removed um in the winter months for parking closer to the building okay um so that will be still an in and out at that location um and then the parking lot would actually be a oneway so you would actually go one way into the parking lot and then out okay uh do we have a cost estimate no no okay just really trying to get an idea of how you feel about just I mean what I would say is in one of Michael's surveys or in one of your surveys put this out to the public saying you know this is what we're we're planning what do you think would would you also entertain um putting solar solar panels up like like the ones that we have at the high school sure you know that parking lot so they generate additional it's an inter downtown yeah you're going to knock the building down and you're going to have open you'll have open space people have people have asked about EV Chargers as well um and so we could do a couple EV charger stations there's programs now through the state for new EV Chargers to get grants and stuff absolutely yep y good that's good point yeah um Beth just in terms of the parking on the railroad trucks are you thinking of any plantings back there to kind of screen the tracks or to make that's where the fence will be yeah so the fence will go right up all the space is used up there's no space for right margin okay there's parking there for lunkers too for their employees and stuff so four spots for lunkers that directly in the back area in agreement okay yeah in agreement with the town all right well you know I know you got a lot of things jugl it might be interesting to try to screen the the tracks with some kind of plantings if it'll fit but so the only problem is rub is that when the so the parking lot will go right up to the prop it goes right up to the property line you need so it would be on the it would be on the state property if we wanted to screen it okay yeah so you don't think you can set back at all I me I guess not unless we want to put the fence on State Property no I meant if you move the parking spaces back you you might parking we lose parking you would lose the okay Randy had a question oh I'm sorry go ahead Brandy thanks um I was just thinking like timeline wise what is um what are your thoughts as far as I mean obviously we' need to put something out to bid and and things like that is that are we looking at this year for for this project or is that you know what what's your what's your thoughts on that Michael you want to answer that one um first step is get money right so that was going to be and actually that's one of the things that we we talk about later under TM reports is actually the our legislative budget requests for this year because that might be some we might ask for money that might be something that we could ask for money for that's an interesting thing um and if that's the case then we wouldn't you know get that until August or September and when the economic development money that we had um I've got to figure out a whole plan for that um I was just going to say the same thing we got some money specifically for Rail and around the rail and remember it's all allocated and then oh it is all allocated already so I've got to take it from somewhere else which I can do I can do and um you know I did had sent an email just saying that we had some complications arise out of that just in terms of what the definition of obligated means we're still working through that so okay um a quick question with respect to the 119 Main Street would you fence that area as well or put some sort of uh barrier so that the uh the folks that are residing they don't have to look at the parking lot where now they just look at a building now that's going to be removed and that's right oh the um the Ashlin house yeah there is a fence in between the property they have a fence and they have green um screen they've got really huge arbiv property y their fence is on their property is on their property okay all right yep exactly yeah okay all right I'm good anything else so do you need anything else from us for this just like it sounds like a good idea and Joe said a sledgehammer a sledge I'm ready so want to help with the demo J you want ack you want me to for you that's a fun so we've got to do kind of you know best got a sketch and it's a really good sketch very good my father would be very I know that the engineers can work from that but I think it's a good sketch so and Evan has you know done some preliminary looking at this so we'll have him he was on so that was good he's still here we'll have that's great yeah Evan's been a great help um he's yeah formalize it a little bit more exactly with that right and yoland said something about a survey or trying to get the design out just maybe you could you know we could we could throw something together in the newsletter and just say this is you know this is the plan I think we got to put this sketch in the well we we'll have a better one you just got to sign it at the bottom Historical Society yeah I'm touched I'm touched I am the daughter of I am the daughter of a civil engineer Joe so I did learn a few things all right all right thank you all right thank you all right so moving on now the presentation for the roadway Traffic Safety Committee update and we got back on and Joe's moving out into the audience to make his presentation so thank you and this was you know our ongoing effort to U have committees you know come see us for an update and maybe spend a little more time with them than during board report so I would love to thank you Joe thank you thanks Rob uh thanks the select board for inviting us this evening um as you know we're part of the Ashland Traffic Safety uh study committee and I'd like to introduce uh the members some of them are not were not able to be here this evening for other commitments one person just appeared is he on your committee uh Evan Evan's there oh yeah Kevin Lang Lang me y Evan yeah yep we all the th those two are very vital to this to this committee as well so but I'll get to it uh Lieutenant uh Rich Briggs from the Ashland Police Department Michael Dua a retired fire department uh worker uh he works with our traffic Lighting Group uh Mike is the expert when it comes to all this with with respect to downtown lighting and and and any traffic lights through throughout the town so uh and hopefully he's training someone else just in case um I would hope so okay I would hope so um it's just like the old you know Water and Sewer Department you know there was one gentleman that knew everything M walkup and it was all in his mind and when he passed that went with them yeah that's not a good thing no it's not a good absolutely not right so um Donna Walsh who was a bus coordinator for the town uh school school district Kevin langmeier uh douy small Evan White Al um alvarro Espinosa uh assistant Town planner Pete matek uh Town planner uh Chief Roby uh Chief Rosy and myself quite a so we have we have a very good core of individuals uh and their expertise when it comes to uh traffic and studies uh f f none uh Ed bman used to be on the committee um he uh but when he took over uh the job in Orland he he had to he had to give it up the position so um unfortunately I took over by default as Che because nobody else wanted it h so what did they deal with me uh the purpose uh of the committee has many facets um we investigate and develop uh safety concerns throughout the town and uh as it pertains to traffic concerns pedestrian safety and roadway uh development and issues reported by the citizens um a focal point of all citizens concerns is the regarding uh of safety issues in their neighborhoods and uh in other areas of town as well uh from roadway repairs to speeding issues and other safety related matters that come to our attention via emails or letters themselves or we even have uh residents that come to our meetings and sit and talk with us uh we allow anybody to come it's an open meeting uh it's it's uh on uh we have an agenda and everything is uh for public hearing um they can easily come and sit and talk with us all and um discuss their issues and a lot of the concerns uh are looked at and uh we try to act on as much I'm going to ask you um is the camera not on on that computer that we're not seeing Joe at the podium uhoh did I touch something probably no it just says Podium that's okay they know what I look like well you're you're speak sh it it's on wacka when Joe's speaking we can see I'm on wacka oh that's interesting and on and on okay that's fine and un Zoom as long as he can be seen in the two places that's the important thing thank those people sorry sorry to inter Jo no you're not interrupting at all um okay we tried to resolve these uh any any types of concerns or questions or uh incidences that people have uh and they come to us and we talk about them uh again one of the biggest concerns is speeding throughout throughout the town and uh sidewalks to be very honest we've been talking about that for a number of years um and Kevin Lang has been uh very very responsive been very helpful when it comes to uh anybody that has an issue when it comes to speeding in the in in their areas or in their neighborhoods and we do a study it's a it's usually it takes four weeks to do a complete traffic study um with the little boxes that calculate uh the things that this this uh equipment can do today is incredible it provides the dates and times of the most uh prominent uh traffic uh concerns uh the number of vehicles that come through um U and uh the average speed and it breaks the average speed down in increments of uh 10 15 miles an hour so we can break that down right from 10 m hour 15 mil an hour and so we get we get a pretty good average as to what goes on and in most cases a lot of people say oh the cars are flying they're doing 50 m an hour and they're actually doing 35 which is actually the speed limit so you know so it and most folks when they get those reports we provide them a copy of the uh the report themselves so that way they may not believe what we have to tell them but we give them an copy of the report so they can see it you know firsthand and if they don't believe it then what we'll do when we have time because there are other studies that we have to do in different other parts of towns once all those are completed again it usually takes four weeks it's a couple of months and we explain that to the folks and then we go back and we do another assessment of that same area and basically when you get the two assessments they're almost the same so the people have a better understanding there is a big push and I know Doug will attest as with Kevin that um a lot of folks are looking for Speed bumps in their roads and you know this will slow down traffic but it also creates additional issues and one of the issues is a liability issue and a lot of towns are aware of that because if you put speed bumps on a roadway and they're there and there's an accident and as a result of the speed bumps causing that accident the town is liable so and we so we're concerned over that so we make sure that you know and we've sat down and we and we've talked with Lisa me over this as well so we have you know we have a a concern that whatever we do we want to make sure we do it so it doesn't put the town in Jeopardy you in the long run now there there's permanent speed bumps there are speed bumps that you can put down you know seasonal speed bumps types of deals um you can have the ones that are nice and smooth they they rise up and down so they're not a great impact but if you're going a high rate of speed and you get one of those you can go Airborne no matter how you know smooth it is or whatever so we have to be very careful uh we don't want to put anybody in arms way as a result of some of the things that we see are people think are u a solution to a particular problem so it comes down to a lot of things and it comes down to Manpower basically people want more radar in their neighborhoods they want to see more police officers presence well you know that's great you know our Police Department is is down Manpower right now and uh you know they can't be at the same place at the same time you know daily there's other locations in town that where their needs are uh are required so um I Know Chief rosi has done and as has uh Deputy uh Chief vula uh had their have their men and women go out and do you know different Radars at different times a day throughout throughout the town and so uh we're dealing with an right now which is current um You probably saw the sign on Water Street not a throughway because there are people that are using that as a cut through because they don't want to go all the way down to Pleasant uh Pleasant and Maine and use the lights so the folks that are traveling East on Pleasant Street heading towards Maine they're the ones that are making that turn and coming down through Water Street and and it uh you know it's very narrow it's and it's it's kind of you know wide turn and you now you have delivery trucks and you have vehicles that are going probably a little faster than than the 20 M hour that uh is is required to go through that area so there have been some concerns and one gentleman uh is very uh vocal about it and um you know we we we're trying to repase them but you know it's it's a public way you can't stop people going through a public way you can put signs up to how slow people down or whatever but it's a public way so we have these we have the you know the legal M matters that we have to be concerned about too when we do things so if we put put a sign up we come to you folks to to get the okay we just did one on Acton Road not too long ago uh it was a stop sign at uh Pine Hill in Acton uh we got we got the they okay to do that and that's resolved a lot of a lot of speeding coming down Pine Hill in that area so I'm not Pine Hill I mean Hill so that works very well so we're we're we're trying to meet all the me uh all the needs and the concerns of the residents but again it comes to Manpower and and basically and so with the committee is trying to do the best they can and U yeah you know crosswalks and sidewalks we have a new side uh new crosswalk that's being uh built thank you through the state on codal road I'm sure if you passed by you've seen that already uh that's not a solar piled one unfortunately so we'll be taking that over and I know Evan is waiting for the okay for that uh from the board so uh at some point you know maybe at our next meeting we can take a vote to pass that so we can get that sure okay done um we have a new crosswalk uh up off of uh uh Edgewood Road on 135 and you saw the the caution signs that you know making people aware of it uh that's part of this process that we're putting in uh the crosswalks I mean sidewalks along 135 hopefully starting late spring late May um so so on that matter so where we so there's already a sidewalk on West the westbound side just past uh the gas station right correct but that doesn't go all the way I understand that so where are we adding sidewalks to get to the I'll let Doug explain that to uh the new sidewalk is going to be eastbound pretty much from uh the state park road all the way down uh to just across from Indian Spring Road and they'll be another crosswalk there as well okay good and why why did we put the crosswalk if we're going to extend the sidewalk down to Indian Spring and we're going to put a crosswalk there why did we put a crosswalk up by the other Road where there are no sidewalks because that's where the there will be a sidewalk as part of that we just did that right now because we have a lot of students that want to get to the other side to walk on the sidewalk that's currently there and that's so they're walking on the so now they're going to use that side that crosswalk to get to the sidewalk to the so they'll be walking in front of the Valentine property on no sidewalk to get to the sidewalk correct yeah and unfortunately that's that's the safest route right now that we've looked at it's it's not the best route but it's this it's it's what we can work with and and if we feel comfortable it's safe enough okay so but that's believe me we've had we've had many discussions over that and we finally made that uh recommendation so um these studies like we said um when we do the traffic studies take three to four weeks and um we get a more accurate uh resolution and conclusion to what people are looking for so I got I have two two other questions so in regards to where next sidewalks are going I know it's something that's dou Doug has been working on is the traffic study committee working on that as well to determine based on requests and needs where the next sidewalks are going in town well that's that's something that we'll sitting down with Michael to go over we know the biggest one right now was Route 135 because of the because of the students that are walking through the mes school I mean the middle school and also the state park because now we're having people Park along 135 we see people parking at the middle school to walk up to the state park over the summer because the right because the parking is because the parking is full and we don't want you know Mr Hicks and his family to have to go through what they went through haven't determined so have we determined that we're we're we're just going to do sidewalks right we're not going to make that multimodal I think that's what we end it up correct we just said we're going to just do sidewalks as of right now dog is shaking we were not able to okay okay the engineer that looked at it said that it was it was just the utility polls of the issue okay and then my other question this goes back to what Joel arbitman brought up um and I thought we were getting these the 4 foot signs about bike riders we're seeing them on I'm seeing them in all other towns and I think I saw one on civille but that's a state road have we put these on our own roads on entrance into our towns Kevin Kevin my understanding is we were getting them or we were waiting for them at some point Kevin you can y I received those prior to the winter uh we didn't get them on schedule so those are for the springtime uh we have 16 of those signs and we have't kned out to go around perfect good thanks for but I'm have retainer but that's a spring project after Marathon okay perfect um before we get to Joe is there any anything else you want to say or anyone else on the committee wants to say anything to us about there know Evan if you anything you like to to add to to what we've talked about uh no I just the um there's a there's a contact from the state that's just asking us to uh uh accept the the ownership and maintenance of the uh crosswalk signals on uh quarterville going forward um so if we could get that on the next meeting that would be helpful and and that's just the one as youve as you're on Caville just before you take the right on to right right by Johnson right right okay and you and that's so that because there's a sidewalk on one side and then there's a sidewalk on the other side and this crosswalk is now going to get you from one side to the other safely and use and be able to use the sidewalks that are there that are currently there without any addition sidewalk great no it's good so thanks Evan and I don't know if we can vote on that tonight but we because it's not on our agenda to do it so I think we we'll just need to add it to our next any other uh other disc Brandy did you have questions or thoughts yeah so first of all thank you Joe that was a that that was a good um a good presentation and summary of what you guys have been up to um quick question I know that we've talked before about um putting in a cross crossing signal at uh Fountain and 135 and I that's that's on your radar as well correct yes it is yeah y a pedestrian Crossing signal is that yeah okay yeah because because now the way that because there's no real um medians in in the road kids high school students are literally running across 135 so um so I was curious what like from a timing sale Point what that might look like you know I wish I wish Mike duok was here because Mike was involved in that aspect of it and unfortunately he's not here this evening but um do do we own those now that crosswalk at 135 in Fountain those are ours now that's all our they know they were temporary at some point and then we asked to keep them permanent with the public safety building okay and I and I know that um Michael was talking to pair when we were doing the public safety building and they had come up with some some some work some prelim minary design work for that for that intersection um but that I don't know where that's going to go right now yeah do you want yeah hi um yes so that intersection itself the first thing we're doing is we're actually going to do a temporary patch to get through the marathon the next step is we have to replace the water main right there so that's hopefully going to be part of this Capital request um for this summer okay and then next year hopefully we're going to be able to break ground and uh reconstruct that entire intersection and put in some cross crosswalks so we're you looking at at least a year at least a year maybe two years depending on get all the funding and all that yep great great thank you thanks um so I hope that answers your question Brandy yes it does and then as far as like budget goes I mean I know sidewalks are you know a a big a big Capital uh lineup item for us and and things like that but some of these smaller smaller projects do we have um do we have funding set aside for things like you know stop signs and and this this was my this was my last item on my did you read over my notes uh probably did you always do um the the last thing I just wanted to talk about was was the funding of some of these projects that we have available uh that we're trying to do and I know Kevin um is very much involved in in purchasing and and procuring of some of this material um you know like street signs uh solar uh powered crosswalk signs uh post I mean they're expensive and and Kevin if you can give us a brief uh summary of how much it would cost just to put like like the solar power crosswalks that we have right downtown how much it would initially cost the town if it would if we need to put additional ones throughout the town good U so a request to have an RFB put in with just the initial signs the solo signs themselves at the crosswalk with an additional advanced warning ranges anywhere from $7,000 to $8,000 for a complete system that's just purchasing it that's not installed and time and power right well if they're solar powered then they you know they're they're pretty well you know self maintained that way right they're not not hwi so is this kind of something we appropriate every year as it would be nice it would be nice I know that street signs are expensive and you know Kevin it it not only does you know it costs to get the signs and the post but like he just said he just mentioned you know manpower to dig and and get everything done and it takes time away from the the regular duties that that are involved with the DPW so this additional work that they have to do as well because they have nothing better to do I would consider it's part of their their duties right it's not it's not as consistent as other things that they do but putting these things it's part of their and changing and changing some of the sign locations after we after we do a determination that maybe you know the sign needs to be moved so it's it's right it can gets it can get a little bit uh sure go ahead so sorry Joe so your landed um just so you know so Kevin's position right now his title is stormwater Tech trffic control it's a fairly new position that he's been in for the last two years it's a new thing for the town of ashon it was much much needed oh yeah Kevin's doing a terrific job and all this stuff but um as far as funding for a lot of these things so right now we have the 150,000 uh I think it's arpa funds that we've been using on top of that we use complete streets money um but as far as a regular operating budget there's some money in there but it's it's not not so you know and I wasn't saying that but no I was just asking yeah so actually and that goes to my next question so six years ago we did the whole complete streets project we had funding through the state through I think mapc we we had a whole list of projects yes we've done some of them certainly Elliott and that in that whole area is it time to revisit that Andor is the road Safety Committee looking at that list of projects that were identified all those years ago and then adding stuff to it and then potentially applying for more grants for complete streets if there's still money time to look at it but it's it's almost like we already have a you know we're looking at Cedar Street sidewalks next I mean we we kind of have a we have a direction we're heading in um but yeah and it is time and so year one which which we just finished which took about four years because it's part of the downtown project is done that's done now we're looking at uh put putting in an application for year two okay for the complete streets funding okay okay so but I think we we also need we do need to start being more realistic about what we can take on and what we can do no I I agree right so I mean that's that's the conversation we always have right so we have we have these projects that are winding down but we don't want to overload ourselves so much it's it's a balancing act because we have to figure out we need we want to we don't stop the the complete streets projects that we're working on but we need to figure out what we can do with Manpower and things like that but I guess my question is is the review of it and the potential for Grants and things like that is that something the road Safety Committee is doing or do we want to bring another group back you know I'd be willing to sit back on that and review it again um you know and bring other people if if you give us that charge I don't see why we wouldn't be able to do that okay but I think you know to to to your point I think it's you know we should think about the process and if we want a wider body or W A Wider group to have input and and and you guys brought up two very important things sidewalks and complete streets and I'm I guess I'm kind of wondering the overlap with the comprehensive plan process because these are both things I I see as kind of long-term projects that Transportation review of the comprehensive plan oh yeah so you know so and to you guys so what's your role interfacing with the comprehensive plan and part of you the comprehensive plan is maybe a year two years away with getting we're we're in our information gathering phase okay so it may even be longer that you guys should definitely be part of that next year we're presenting the comprehensive plan so I guess from the comprehensive plan perspective we need to look at sitting with with someone from your group well Ed no Ed burman's on our yeah but Ed's not part of our group anymore oh right he isn't part of our group but I mean he could also tell you what he's done what we've done but he doesn't know what the fut bring you guys in or we can do that's fine we be more than happy to sit down in regards to the transportation perspective of it I mean we' be more than happy to do it but the funding is the big issue you know again people are looking for this but that's where going for state grants and complete stream like we were able to do we we got I think the first round we got $425,000 that helped us do Fruit Street Elliot Street and and the um speed zones around the school the speed zones around the schools and the a the ADA Compliant ramps and all that stuff so right so here's my question I guess to Brandy and you about the comprehensive plan process so people presumably are identifying oh I think sidewalk should go here I think this needs certain things and some of it interfaces with what these folks are doing so how does that kind of how do we kind of integrate as we identify these things right and as we're getting ready to write write the comprehensive plan and say okay this is what's been identified at we will go to them or ask them to come or as we're having the discussion on transportation and infrastructure we would certainly include their committee yeah that that we be more than happy to do what needs to get done cuz again the basic line is the bottom line is we're all doing this for the safety community of the town and for the residents to to enjoy the you know being able to walk Here There and Everywhere and have our students safe safe walk to school to and from so you know uh any other we eligible for all these grants yeah I was going to ask Joe if he had any questions but he's up there no I my question is we could we could use the extra fun I did have well two things I want I I do want to encourage you guys to look at the speed bumps very closely and the liability and the WEA I know there There's issues with the weather and stuff but you know I've seen them in other towns very effective on certain back roads and you know we do have an Enforcement issue the other and you know with police time and things like that uh the other thing I want to kind of put in in your head is you know the um the traffic camera for speeding tickets or other enforcement and we don't I know Massachusetts right now doesn't allow it i' I've had a discussion with representative Lewis and there seems to be a lot of push back but I've seen it work very effectively in placees it worked on me I was a victim of I paid New York City of like $200 from my kids speeding down I'm sure they were very thankful yeah but I mean it it is it's an easy process you get a $50 ticket in the mail they have a picture of you speeding somewhere they say some technician certified that you were speeding if you just pay the fee you'll be done I you know to me it's like what a great idea one of the concerns about that is the privacy of the individuals that are driving and how it can be abused well and profiling I mean there's a whole bunch of things that can come out of this I'm sure there's is we've had this discussion used not only in other states but in other countries with no privacy issues with no concerns I mean like don't forget which state we live in yeah I know okay I saw a picture of my I got a good picture of my daughter's boyfriend speeding in my car so I was on to him so how long was his boyfriend it's actually about $200 worth yeah $200 thank you guys for thank you and thank you all for your we appreciate it thank you for thank you for coming and giving us the update thank you for the work that you're doing thank you guys thanks for showing guys yes thanks for being here did you have another comment Evan your hand is raised or anyone else there yeah I just uh it was in response to um you talking about the grants um actually do have a couple of Grants applications out right now um one's for ADA compliance on the uh West Union sidewalk um and the other one is uh shared streets and spaces um we're waiting to hear back on both of those for for that same project um we're also going to be looking at U putting in a complete streets application like Doug said for Cedar Street sidewalks as well wonderful great is that the whole lake of Cedar Street or uh what how did you are you focused in a certain area or because I've got a number of people asking me about Cedar Street all the time I would I would prefer just to do from East Union Street to Captain Em Right now the first Captain em and and then there are I think there are too many land issues further up the street as you get towards Elliot Street and so East Union near the high school down Cedar Street captain makes sense you got kids walking to school right so great right and eventually it might link with the trail so yeah that's all it's all good well thank you guys great thank you thank you for that update appreciate it all right have the different thank you so the next is an old new business process and timeline for guess what it's time to do the Town Council evaluation yeah and so thanks Doug thanks everybody um so yes just um the Town Council evaluation is a little bit um simpler as you know compared to the town managers evaluation and so what I would propose is that on April 5th so we'll distribute the um the evaluation forms um and then u i prop our next meeting right is that right no it's a it's the Friday after your next meeting okay um so have those evaluation forms due to me by April 5th the week of April 8th I'll spend that week compiling all the individual evaluations and then April 17th um which is a Wednesday Rob as as the chair you and I would sit down to with Town Council and go over the evaluation and then at your next um meeting in May or excuse me your next meeting um which is the is is April 17th so yes it would be the next meeting in May um look at um you know if you so choose to do a reappointment okay okay and that would be the the Wednesday before the election correct correct okay okay right so because we have because of when may fall when may starts town meeting is week May 1st I believe oh town meeting is May 1st yeah so we might have to do it we might have to do no because then we have a meeting on May 15th and then the election is May 21st exactly that's my last meeting I believe right okay so we could do that so does that work for everybody yeah that works so we we vote to appoint or not appoint pres uh on the 15th but the the week before uh well you have the April 17th is okay I just got to kind of review my schedule but that sounds like it'll work yeah okay and if not we have a little bit of a buffer built in there between and the reappointment vote would be you know if you so choose and um sitting down with uh Lisa to go over her firm's evaluation so if that doesn't work Rob we can yeah does that involve contractual review at all or like I'm trying to we never actually no it's um it's under the charter so it's a year-long appointment right um so right but we don't look at the terms of the contract or the price or anything like that as part of this process correct we just look at the term and if we're going to renew it correct so I do have one question that's I'll piggyback that um and Yolanda had just told me um your evaluation form we're still using the old form correct right oh yeah we can talk about that now feel I guess Yolanda said that the form was sent out to everybody I did not get that that's no I'm not sure it's sent out yet so CLA is not here but Claud and I reviewed it uh she did I think a great job in almost like automating but it's the same form but you guys will get it and now forgetting the schedule but you'll get it there's going to be a Google form sheet that everybody kind of shares but you'll get your section you fill it out um do the comments just like before it will then automatically it will then calculate the average instead of me having to do it it'll also collect all the comments in a in a form kind of like yep in a and then I'll use that oh and then I guess the thing to talk about before you complete it or at some point in the process you sit out we all sit out with Michael individually presumably I think with the form already filled out yes yes and then once that's then finalized it'll all be summarized through this sheet that Claudia is putting together but there's no change to the current form my I have two questions SL concerns so yeah um with the current form right and how we've done it before is I would fill it out and I would give it to Michael and Michael would be the only one who would see my comments and my scores is that hold on let me finish so that would be the and then he and I would talk about it yeah and sometimes I would change things sometimes I wouldn't change based on our conversation and then I would give it to the chair okay so are you saying now that the minute I fill it out Auto that automatically gets not necessar no well because I don't think that's a good idea so that's too bad that Claud is not here to discuss it I think she could do it so that it would stay until you finalized it because the other comment that I have is my individual each of our individual ones do not get made into public record right the only thing that get made into public record is the compiled one that the chair does and as the chair you get to read through them and say okay I'm GNA use this comment I'm not going to use that comment and I would hope that that is that you don't that we don't just say okay all the comments are there now and that's what's well that was going to be my question that's why I wanted to talk about it today and Brandy speak up so yes it's now possible to just include all the comments and so I guess we need to have a discussion if we don't want to do that then I guess I need to know that so couldn't you limit the um the viewer to myself and and the chair you know you for what all the comments or you know the the evaluations as they get um yeah I I I think so again I'd have to go back to my tech expert Claudia because to yanda's point which is a it's an excellent point when you sit down we individually sit down with Michael you may want to change it and you may want to change it so you don't want to hit the finalize cuz once you hit the finalize you're done right so you're going to give Michael a copy of of your recommendations or your evaluation that's not finalized so that way you can make these changes and I don't know if that's allowed I think you should be able to do that just from a technological and legal perspective because I don't I don't know if Google will will let you do that because I don't know well you would you would you have a draft filled out and um whether you probably save it or download it and you print it out but but each of ours needs to be saved separately correct to go to Michael so can't sub it what's that subm it I was gonna say like a Google form you know you basically you fill it out and you hit submit right I think because of the changes that Claudia made when you hit submit it now goes into the compiled one I think or it could I mean but you could probably also hold off and there must be a way of doing that so to you I Yolanda I think you had a suggestion here which is um I think you could fill it out and print out a version that you have and then we could talk about it and then if you had any changes you could make the changes and then hit submit I would think so right but I okay I I just think that to you know typically to save paper I send it to you electronically we look at it when we sit and talk about it so I don't know I I guess these are questions we have to ask I mean we have some time to do but I just wanted to make sure that the same my L I'll talk to Claudia after this and we'll you know we'll make it so but the one main thing I did want to just make sure you guys don't want to see all the comments in one document you want to go with me synthesiz that's the way it's been yes no I understand I just think that I think it's important that you look through the com that the chair whoever it is looks through the comments and determines you know cuz if there's five comments that are identic all five of them don't need to be there you can synthesize that and say okay based you know something all right that's my board's in agreement with but yeah yeah Randy anything else to add or not no I I think I I agree I think that the summary should be you know basically a a one to two page word doc not a Google form you know output so um okay so I wouldn't want to see everybody else's comments I think my goal is the one that needs needs to see them then and it needs to be all right thanks so I'll follow up with Claudia and we'll work it out okay uh and we finished the Town Council evaluation okay a vote to accept and sign gift of land zero Fountain Street rear is authorized in November 29th 2023 special town meeting I did too you know so this is the Bell property so you did have um you did something but yeah not this you did have the town meeting um you did do something and I can't remember exactly what it is but this is the next step so we're we're we're at the stage where you actually vote to accept a gift of land we' got do everybody sign that and everybody signs that I hereby move that the select board accept a gift of land therein known as number zero Fountain Street rear Ashlin Mass including 10,890 square feet more or less and shown on assessor map 010 lot 0045 as authorized pursuant to article four of the nove November 29th 2023 town meeting and further to authorize the chair Robert K share to execute and enter enter into any and all documents necessary to effectuate the acquisition of said property is there a second to that motion I'll second motions made and seconded roll call vote we'll start with Brandy Kinsman I manani I gavves ey Sher I okay and so we'll sign that and pass it around I yeah I've got the official version Oh which one do you want me to sign a different one yeah okay you just practiced on yeah I I got it I got my first name right okay all right so while we're signing this around the next thing is the dis or just a reminder or discussion of the uh the marathon breakfast on April 13th 2024 9 to 11 the tjs for our Runners yep and that's always a very nice time it's always fun yep very good we need to authorize any funds for that or are we good um I think we'd let Susan you when she gets back she can help calculate that a little bit better and then and then we would come back to the board Brandy okay that's good uh reminder select board Grant cycle is open submissions due by March 31st nomination papers are still available I think the deadline's what April 2nd to get them in um free covid tests are still available at Town Hall yard waste collection begins Monday April 21st April 1st April 1st 2024 continues to Monday June 3rd no yard waste collection April 15th which is Patriots Day are May 27th which must be Memorial Day right yes um we did the marathon breakfast the only um so I guess that's it for old new business volunteer breakfast March 23rd at 9:00 a.m.

uh this is the regular scheduled meeting um can I have a motion to adopt the agenda please I motion to adopt the agenda second I'll second okay all in favor say I I I opposed okay it passes three to nothing okay could all stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands na God indivisible withy and justice for all okay let's see we need to look at the uh regular board meeting for February 14th and have that approved so someone would make a motion is it the recommended actions that yes so I recomend I recommend I recommend that the governing board approve the meeting agenda as presented no not the agenda the minutes under 61 it's number 61 I got it recommend that the governing board approve the February 14th yes 2014 regular meeting minutes as presented second I'll second okay in favor I I I opposed passes three nothing item 6.2 approval of the uh minutes from the first executive session uh prior to the February 14th meeting we need a motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve um the governing Bo the minutes for the first executive session on February 14 2024 as presented Second Jason seconds okay all in favor say I I I opposed passes three to nothing and then 6.3 approval of the second executive session that occurred after the meeting of February the 14th I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the second ex executive session on February 14th 2024 is presented I'll second second thank you all in favor I I opposed okay it passes three to nothing okay uh we're down to item number seven superintendent report in celebrations thank you number of things happening even though we're coming off two week spring break there's still a lot of of uh things that have happened right before the break and uh uh during the break uh big celebration at ranch ranch was named one of thir 37 a plus schools uh of excellence in the district so it is is from the Arizona Education Foundation it's very uh lengthy uh process a lot of hard work was done uh in that uh putting that uh application together then they come out with a visit uh some of our other schools will be looking forward to moving forward uh to do that in the future um we also uh Hosea Graham was named coach of the year not only for the East Sky Region but also the Arizona Republic all Arizona coach of the year uh for the job he did with the basketball team this year so we're pleased to see him get that recognition along with Logan tuckfield who received uh from all Arizona uh from the Republic the all Arizona team honorable mention um so that was uh another good thing for the basketball team uh modern we went to the modern learning conference right before spring break and we did receive uh recognition there Kelly Bond was the finalist as is an instructional co uh coach of the year at that uh uh event and then we were recognized uh with the Infinity Ward which uh recognizes dedication to Foster modern learning environment that actively involves all Educators in the ongoing development of innovative teaching uh methods um and that uh uh that that network has about approximately 100 110 uh school districts across the country in it so it's a prestigious award uh so especially within that area recognize and thank the CIA Department under Dr fountain's leadership and the and the coaches uh that in many cases is the work that we've done with uh with our our professional development was a way to recognize that high school has had a lot of success the dance and coral uh groups uh won a variety of different activities in the last little bit the host of students uh earned third place uh and going to the state level and they are in third place in the regional competition for mental health promotion campaign uh boys basketball went to first round of playoffs uh five from the wrestling team made it to the state tournament the esport team finished second uh one of our seniors Alex aario uh signed to play with AO a university next year over in Surprise um so that was exciting uh congratulations to Harmon student Solomon rashed he finished third in the panal County Spelling be uh Jess Ferman math teacher about the High School uh received the 2023 2024 recipient of the copper Apple award for teaching in secondary mathematics that's the highest award most prestigious award that is given to uh secondary math teachers uh she received that right before um The Break um we also had some state qualifiers for FFA uh the HR department did a very successful first annual Wellness event uh 25 vendors participated we had uh a variety of different uh uh Wellness activities that took place uh on February 28th uh we will build off of that um in this report you'll also see uh the media coverage that we've received quite a bit over the over the month um the um CTA Mrs schner is working with Peterson Orthodontics to host a free community event April 5th with the goal of uniting the community I believe it's a late afternoon early evening event uh there'll be more information coming out uh uh from that samon had a plan our love our school day with Central Christian Church coming up Armon is working with uh the Boy Scouts uh troop uh 357 pack 735 to work on cleaning up uh and beautifying the campus the middle school had U uh five students qualify for the annual uh Civics B um and two students finished in the top five uh flag football team uh finished the season in top 10 made the playoffs um Ellsworth is uh getting ready toh take the stage uh with the third grade students uh pres in a presentation on the day uh the canyon the Crayons Quit excuse me a very hungry Cal pill for the first graders our robotics team is uh competed in a competition first Arizona Valley Regional end in the tournament 19th Place out of 42 teams again I think it shows as much as anything just the depth of things that are available in our district uh com Center for sucess Success had three more students that finished their cour work and and will end up graduating early they'll go through the uh through the uh ceremony in May but that brings up the number of graduates to to 31 uh students there and they also had their PE peer leadership class raise mental health awareness by giving presentations to the other students so a lot of positive things happening in the district uh as we move forward into the spring very good thank you okay uh next we're going to have school and staff recognition we'll have Miss shofner come up first and do CTA and then we'll do the recog nition it is good evening members of the board Dr Wyman amazing colleagues my staff all this amazing Community we are excited at CTA to show you oh I like it um a quick little video just to highlight some things um and we'll talk a little bit about after that [Music] um one of the reasons that we used that video as a highlight was we really wanted to show what are some of the things that we do at CTA to kind of bring the community together and build that culture um and really highlight time with our families um putting together events uh really working yes we are very proud of our a from the Department of Education and one of the things that really I feel like brings that opportunity is to partner with our fellow elementary schools our Middle School CCS the high school to to really bring that choice you know we had a great presentation before to really talk about what that looks like and having that choice at CTA brings an opportunity for our parents to really decide do we want to stay within that district and have that opportunity as well as what are some Innovative things that we can do so one of the things we did get to go to Pennsylvania and it was super fun so I brought two of my teachers to come and talk a little bit about how CTA is taking that Innovation and trying to really push the needle on letting go of direct instruction um and really trying to set up those classrooms for um a modern learning environment so I'm going to have Mrs Rosen bomb and Mrs laass come up and they're going to just share with you a little bit about what they've done in their classroom um and kind of where they see going forward so a little this thing going on um so I'm just going to talk about um how learning is in my classroom so first we do a lot of reviewing with our class vision and class code that helps with a lot of the students um ensuring that they have that culture and that buy in and that ownership in their classroom they're really good about understanding the rules with our code and they're really good about hey you're not following that code right now you need to make sure you're doing that so that's really important at a second grade level that they're really understanding that and they're able to do that at such a young age is know the right from the wrong and being able to enforce that within themselves so that's really cool I like that um when we start a new standard we unpack the standard so I'll write it on chart paper since we're second grade we're still young and so I write the standard and we go through and the kids tell me what is the verb what is the action what is the noun what is it that we're looking for in our standard then they go through and they tell me their success criteria I help them guide through with guiding questions because some of them are a little bit more difficult but they tell me what does the standard mean what does a three look like how do I know I'm proficient what does a two look like what do I know that I need to work on for developing and what is a one something like I'm emerging and I have a lot of things I need to work on so and they let and it lets them know and there's a visual on the wall so that way they know they can work from here and move up in order to understand their standard we also have pre-tests on with our standards so when they do start their learning plans they know where they are starting and it lets them know where they can work towards we talk a lot about growth mindset and you may not be at a three right now because you're learning it but that's okay it's we're not there yet we talk a lot about that and that's really important at a young age that they do understand that they do have a lot of growth and they're not going to get it the first time and that failure is okay because it's a chance for them to keep learning and learning and learning and get better it's all about that growth with them and also um one thing that I do want to work on is the advanced learning plans because they are second grade knowing that difference of a one a two and a three so they're working really hard on doing that and we're practicing and we actually started working on an advanced learning PL this is going to be something new so I think they're going to really enjoy liking the difference in um doing okay I'm going to start here but I'm going to work towards this or maybe I'm going to start here and I'm going to work towards this one so that way they know where they're moving forward to on their um standards we also um do a lot of daily five which is a lot of their choice time and so when we're doing that um I like to um incorporate or I want to incorporate more station rotation with it and I know that's a big part of the U modern learning is understanding you know I have more choice and we want to I want to expand it to a longer period instead of just this time that we have so that way I'm more consistent in getting with all of my students and not just okay these are the ones that struggle a little bit so I want to work with them but I want to make sure that I am um doing a lot of enrichment with my higher students so everybody's getting a full impact and growing as much as they can and also lastly I do um we do the data folders which is very common um with our modern learning and we look at them about weekly for a second grader and so in them they look through what is our road maps for the quarters they have a road map of visual and they track their progress so at this standard I'm here at the beginning with my pre-test but now at the end with my post test this is where I am so they can see this is where I started but this is where I went so that was um that's really good um we also um track our quarterly phonograms because we do phonograms on our campus and it's kind of very similar to foundations and we track those quarterly so the students can see at the beginning of the year this is where I am but then quarter one this is how much I've grown and then Quarter Two quarter three and then at the end of the year so our goal is to get higher in their um bar graphs and so it's really important to let them have a visual so they can see that as well um and we have also writing samples in our um data folders and so that's really important for them to see at the beginning of the year I only wrote two sentences middle of the year I was able to write five sentences and now I can write seven or eight sentences and try to make a full paragraph and so that's a lot of fun for them to see and to show their parents at conferences the progression in their writing as well and that'll definitely help them in third grade when they have to take their tests and things like that um one thing I do want to add to my data folders for sure next year is because we have the new math program try to incorporate more of the data tracking for the math and so that's something new that we're going to work on and try to inate for next [Applause] year hello my name is winter Fred um Laos I teach fifth grade this is my first year ever teaching fifth grade I actually did the math I thought I'd only been teaching for 12 years but turns out it's been 20 not sure how that happened this is the first year I've ever taught fifth grade I've always been a first and a second it's hard um I came from a District that we did incorporate a lot of the modern um learning into the classroom so it was a pretty easy thing for me to do um the first thing I did was just have lots of different places to sit lots of different elevations I took the legs off of the tables the desks and I called them creating crafting tables and then students can sit on the floor and they can work on them um I also have some tall tables uh we bought some bar St ones and they're very nice I have one student who's very tall he's taller than me um I really like to use the curriculum but I like to use it kind of maybe in an un unexpected way I get away from that direct instruction I give the kids the lessons I asked them to explore the lesson and then I come back and I I asked them about that a lot of that's just me acting like I don't know what the book is when I actually really do and I just try to get them to teach me what they just figured out um in this fourth quarter I'm experimenting with the idea with their new math program that maybe we could have a component where kids could go further and kids could hang back if they needed to and so right now I'm currently working in three topics but kids that are going faster can go faster and kids that are going slower can sit in that topic and really get Mastery and they know that 80% is Mastery on topic test 70% is passing and they're very very U mindful of that and they're very clear you need to um give me back that quiz I need to practice a little bit more and I feel like that's that's half the battle thank you so we are going to make you sit for just a minute and hear us um you know I came at CTA I'd been teaching for years um and I had been an administrator and I came into this ship and I watched people running the ship very well um they were guiding the ship they were problem solving in the ship they were plugging holes in the ship um taking turns steering the ship um they might have been on Tik Tok I'm not sure I don't know um but they really were taking CTA and and owning it and taking responsibility for what was happening on the campus so these two have been amazing on the campus so I appreciate them coming today and um you can stay or you can up to you um so we also have to give out uh some blue apples and um I think about my time at CTA and what it's been like um it was it was a challenge when I got there our philosophies had to align our perspectives had to align our behaviors had to get used to each other um our communication had to change so um tonight we have a photo um Mr Adrien Nava could not join us this evening um he is our lead he's our lead on the campus for the facilities and he's been there for several years um when I say that Adrien takes over that campus and he runs things for kids he doesn't just do the custodial work he comes up with ideas for kids puts games together at lunch gives out tickets at lunch for kids so that they can earn fun prizes um he tries to do a lot of uplifting with the kids um he participates with them at lunch she gets involved in activities that they're doing he will he jumps between us and CCS so he oversees both of those campuses so he is just all over the place he's pretty shy um very shy um but he has been an intrical piece at our campus so Adrien was um who we honored tonight as for um one of our blue apples so congratulations Adrien uh your families aren't here for no reason uh you can come on up shayin shayin has been at CTA for 11 years this your 11th year yeah it's your 11th year if you didn't know uh one of my hardest nuts to crack we've had pretty honest conversations about where our hearts are in education and we talk a lot about where are we really right where where are we as Educators really and and are we in the right place we want to be and shayen was always somebody who made me think differently she would always ask questions that I may not have been prepared to answer she has a wealth of knowledge about CTA and I didn't forget you guys are here she knows CTA inside and out she's been through several administrators um she's involved in student council she's been on our campus leadership team she is one of the biggest Partners in her team and they partner well together and watching our relationship personally and professionally grow these last three years um I knew the moment that I hit that spot I knew the moment that she and I were kind of in that connection because change isn't easy and you have a new leader who wants to do things differently um wants to get you off the ship you don't need to lead the ship right um she will help anybody on the campus she will volunteer to help kids out she sees the best in kids I mean you heard her she knows those kids inside and out she's a huge partner for me to call on she was excited in Pennsylvania she's excited to see CTA move forward because we talk about that Traditional Academy and where's it going right how do we offer you parents um opportunities your neighbors your friends that are looking for new kinds of Camp things on the campus um so shayin is one of the bright stars on the campus to really just help make the campus function every day she'll jump in and do Flag Ceremony we do our flag ceremony together every day um they put on events for the kids the stuco runs all kinds of stuff for them to do spirit days things like that so for that I want to highlight shayin and give you that blue [Applause] [Music] [Applause] apples ask she might be a little blunt he's amazing thank you appreciate it we're almost there don't worry kids it's your turn next miss laass your parents didn't show up for no reason either yeah you got to get up uh she's no lie this is her first year doing fifth grade Winnie showed up to our campus two years ago I'll never forget my interview with Winnie yeah your kids and husband are here over here come on let's get more embarrassed you thought they showed up to hear the budget and all that other stuff yeah that's exactly why they're here do that stuff all the time they do um Winnie was raw she was bold and blunt with her words she was here's who I am here's what I can bring to the table at your campus here's the history I have here's the experience I have I hope you want to ride this ride with me and I was like okay I will so um Winnie definitely she dives into Data in ways that I can't even understand numbers she wants her kids to Excel and be independent and that's a struggle for our kids just so you know it's a struggle even in fifth grade for them to go I have to do what do that by myself I just come to you when I'm ready yeah any questions no not yet she's Innovative in the classroom she thinks of ways to go outside that box of what we live in as teachers she works well with our other team members and she told me you're one I'm not going to say anything then you're two came around she said okay I'm going speak now I'mma say things um I know that when I turn around these two have my back she's she's there to make sure that her kids are successful she has a way of doing her craft and it may not agree with everybody but I know her best intentions are always to do what's right for kids and when she makes a mistake she owns that and when I ask her to step out come face to face with a parent for me a few times she knows what that challenge is like for her and she does it she's like I'm uncomfortable but I'm going to try doing something different and I'm going to see how it goes so I appreciate that she's always thinking how can I do something different and grow even after how many years something um so I appreciate everything she does on our campus she's she's taken fifth grade by a storm and is knocking it out of the park so I appreciate everything you have done only had two today so thank you for your time um CTA has a Chipotle night tonight so if you are hungry after the board meeting 4 to 8:00 at Chipotle right here you can go April 5th 5 to 7:30 CTA is um co-sponsoring or hosting with uh Dr Peterson to have a community event for Santan not a j Colmes just isolated it's a community event for Santan Valley he wants to bring the community together and allow them to uh meet each other see who's in the neighborhood what organizations do you have that we can see activities for parents and kids food trucks free did I say it was free free parking will be your only thing our campus cross the street wherever you can get to so thank you very much I appreciate it we also want to take a moment this time also to recognize some other staff members and so during spring break from March 3rd through 9th was school social worker week and the theme was Pearls of Wisdom so I'm going to call some people up um if Mr Beach is going to give the the certificates to them and then I I'll say a couple things about them if we could go ahead and have uh Janelle uh steenbergen come in up from the high school okay Loren schindeldecker from the Middle School Aaron Gomez there Tanya [Applause] Thompson and Haley [Applause] settle Colmes is very lucky uh if you're not aware uh all of our schools have both counselors and social workers uh coming out of um covid and some of the things that uh many students were going through uh social workers have been dispensable working with our kids helping our kids uh move through issues uh as they have made the transition out of Co and in back into the schools um there's a lot more going on in the world today than uh probably in some of our uh some of us as when we went to school and to have social workers there to help families to have social workers there to help kids to have social workers there to help the school adjust uh and make uh uh make a difference in their lives is what these people do every single day and we thank them for what they do for our kids because they make a positive difference in their lives um and it's skilled uh that these kids will be able to use uh the rest of their life uh to make sure it's positive so thank you so very much for everything you [Applause] do okay uh next is volunteer recognition yes we'd like to have Miss Jennifer Francisco come up Jennifer is a devel Vel mment director of the Matthews Crossing Food Bank she's dedicated to ensuring all families in the Colmes school district have a warm meal at the end of the day every week Ma Matthew's Crossing feeds over a 100 families across the district by providing weekend food packages snacks for classrooms and emergency food pantries through her continuous communication and support of our needs Jennifer has proven to be an essential part of our Colmes Community she's passionate about her job tenacious and filled with compassion for those in need it is our privilege to thank and recognize Jennifer Francisco with blue Apple volunteer of the month to Matthews Crossing Food [Applause] Bank okay next we have student of the month Dr dupes thank you Mr President members of the board colleagues in leadership family family members and students as I say every time I'm up here this is the best part of my day and I appreciate the opportunity could I have Alina August henan come up from com Center for Success there we go all right August has a commitment to persistence achievement and responsibility August has demonstrated a a dedication to finishing her classes asking for help when needed and a focus on early graduation she goes above and beyond helping others around campus congratulations August on a job well done could I have Dominic Sanchez come up from Colmes High School could I have Steven rigs Hollowell come up from hes Middle [Applause] School could I have Nicholas Dominguez from com's Traditional [Applause] Academy CTA chose Nicholas Dominguez for the student of the month because he is a great example of what responsibility in the classroom looks like Nicholas is always all about making sure his work is done first and is willing to put in extra work needed to get things done or to get himself caught up or to be able to participate in discussions he is almost always doing what is asked of him the first time we are very proud of his extra effort and I'd like to congratulate you young man and also compliment you on your glasses because I also have green in my glasses congratulations good job let give him a [Applause] round did I have Shay Richardson come up from [Applause] Ellsworth sheay has become a student who has truly invested in the responsibility of her learning she has made great strides in how she spends her time in class and always ensures that she does the best work she is learning that the responsibility of the rise code is much more than just the little things it includes sheay is learning how to be responsible for her own understanding of lessons and how to ask for help when it's needed very proud of her and how far she has come this year and we know she will do great things in the world ahead congratulations Shay could I have Emma Gara come up from [Applause] Harmon Emma shows the character trait of respon responsibility because she consistently completes assignments on time participates in class activities and seeks help when needed Emma also maintains a clean workspace and follows schoolwide rules and guidelines Emma's behavior in and out of the classroom demonstrates her commitment to learning respect for her classmates and understanding the accountability of her actions Emma is a great leader for her peers to follow overall Emma is responsible in all forms of society and greatly deserves this award congratulations [Applause] Emma could I have Elliot tuggy come up from Ranch Elementary you ready all right another great pair of glasses this is the night for glasses go ahead and turn around and look at everybody good job this is Elliot Elliot you were not nominated by uh Miss Kupa Mrs Kupa said the following I think of Elliot a lot I appreciate how he's always ready and prepared he listens to his teachers and takes care of his materials he is not only responsible but considerate of others he's quick to help and to make sure others know what they're doing and what needs to be done he is able to correct himself when he makes a mistake and is quick to apologize and is very honest I truly admire how responsible Elliott is congratulations Elliot and finally could I have Violet Jones Come From [Applause] Simington this is your moment Viet okay this is from Mr Slater the second grade teacher at Simington I'm very proud to nominate Violet Jones as Simington Elementary student of the month for March our school's core value of responsibility is consistently displayed through Violet's work ethic and compassion Violet not only only completes her work at the very best of her ability but she also uses the time to help fellow students complete theirs as well her strong character is evidenced by her Relentless positive attitud ude and belief that she can solve any problem no matter the difficulty lastly Violet was selected by her classmates to the student council to serve the students of her own school by volunteering her time to plan events and create projects to increase morale and excitement for learning viet's humble leadership by example and responsible decision making makes her a very deserving recipient of this Ward congratulations Violet that concludes our students of the month we'll now take a little bit of a break for pictures and then we'll continue with the rest of the board meeting thank you e con do something put your heart I do I'm sure they I do I'm sure they all right I think it's time for for us to reconvene so thank you all for uh for here um next is um governing board to Shelly or Jason anything to report nope not at this time I don't no no okay thank you uh do we have any public comments no we don't have no public comments okay so next on the agenda is item seven I'm sorry uh 9.1 item nine n action item is the approval of the consent agenda do does anyone have any questions on any of the items on the consent agenda I don't because I have I have two actually uh the first one would be item 9.10 and uh this item shows the building renewal Grant and it shows two different po numbers but the exact same dollar amount and I'm wondering is it one grand or two and is it just okay do two different sites that makes sense but there's one total dollar amount per site okay that's what I wasn't sure it is it's Roofing uh issues at two of our sites though that the sfob will be taking care of okay I just found it interesting that it was the same dollar amount but now I understand thank you and the other one would be um 9913 overnight and out of state travel and just to get the record straight I'd like that first travel Document going to Tucson to reflect that the ratio should be one to eight and not two to eight because there's two chaperon and 16 students so it' be a 1 to eight ratio and those are the two things I had about the about the uh consent agenda anything else and I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented second second Jason thank you all in favor I I opposed passes three to nothing down to item 10.1 cons discussion and consideration to approve the estimate of excess capacity for open enrollment acceptance for the 2425 school year this was discussed at the last meeting this is required by state law um based on what we talked about last meeting I would recommend uh uh approval um as presented and more than willing to take any questions questions no I don't have any questions no okay a motion to approve I motion to approve the estimate of excess capacity of open enroll acceptance for the 2425 school year as presented I'll second okay thank you all in favor say I I I oppos okay it passes three to nothing item 10.2 discussion and consideration of approval of community use of District facilities fee schedules for 2025 again discussed last month a couple minor things I will tell you uh this is a District uh uh facility fee schedule recommended there are changes the changes were uh determined by an analysis of other districts uh primarily the analysis was AJ Queen Creek Florence and ourselves um and so I shared something with you this morning and so I know there's may be a question or two but absent those questions um recommend approval uh either as presented or with the modifications that might be discussed okay so in terms of modifications yes I I had a I I looked it over and I think the last time that we raised any fees was has been not yeah five years so I'm thinking at this point that we probably need to look into raising some of our fees if if it's just to uh to match other District um or if we're higher than some districts leave it I don't know what are your guys' feelings on on that it I it doesn't hurt I mean I guess they're going to pay more but that does help us with uh the use of our facilities and right I mean I think that I mean our costs have gone up obviously uh just the economy in general I guess it's I don't think it's going to be a lot compared comparatively like for each person to rent however I think that by the end of the year we probably will receive a significant amount of funds maybe I don't know that's just my feeling and we can we can get you what those what those numbers will be based on what you guys say I mean it'll be an estimate based on what was done in in the P you know what was done in the past years um for clarifications because we're requesting a number of raises you're you're talking about raising some of the ones that were even below our neighbors and getting up to at least at the same level of our neighbors okay so if we approve now there's nothing that says we can't come back and make adjustments to it at another date the issue is uh we will go ahead and have um we already have people um that rent our our facility especially the CPAC um a year out uh and so once we commit to them with a contract that says this is the facility um so I recommend that we just do it once a year otherwise there's disparity in terms of who gets approval to what um but again this would be in line with our neighbor um and uh would be anything that's marked in yellow would be a represent an increase um uh for that and and make adjustments uh uh to bring sou uh I think there's about 10 others that would go up slightly um uh to to line with QC um and so I I have those uh down and so the motion would be approve the uh increases with the modifications that uh Mrs harus uh recommended and in that case we don't have to bring it back again we'll just move forward with those changes starting I mean it'll go out to people starting tomorrow for next year so if somebody's rent at our facility and in April or May of this year they're not going to pay the increase it'll be July first forward does that sound okay with you to uh yeah that's make that motion that way okay so shelle wanted you make that motion so I'll make a motion to approve the community use of the district facility fees schedules for the 2425 with the modifications discussed with uh is that okay second okay all in favor I I opposed passes three nothing item 10.3 discussion and consideration of approval of changes to policy recommendations from asba policy advisory 763 to 786 and this is the second reading right so this is again uh this is for approval it was presented last month these are just changes uh through Arizona school boards really some cleanup language uh related to changes in in statute or just the way they uh take a look at uh the policies and so I would recommend approval as presented any questions no I went through them and they look to be just you know cleaning up language and stuff like that questions no no no questions then I'll take a motion motion to approve the recommended change of the district policies as presented in asba policy advisor 3 763-786-3591 and benefit rates for the 2425 school year our current provider cyos Health Arizona recently held a board meeting and approved a 7% increase for all medical health care plans for the 2425 school year as we are within the first two years of our association we received the chyos board designated increase with the district absorbing the full increase for employee only coverage the projected budget impact will be $135,300 for the upcoming school year the plan changes first one would be that the IRS has required the high deductible Health Plan deductible to be increased from 1500 to 1600 for individuals and 3,200 for families the out-of-pocket deductible would increase 3200 to 6,400 that's the IRS requirement those employees who have elected the dental plan will see a slight increase the Delta Dental plan it will be a 3% increase TDA Dental will be a 4% increase with the Delta Dental rate increase posterior composits and third cleanings for qualified medical conditions will now be included with that there will be no changes to our vision uh plans so those will continue as they are our basic life and accid Dental death and dismemberment benefits will be administered by chyos in lie of American Fidelity starting next year our current plan provides for full-time employees to receive one and a half times their salary up to $50,000 in coverage with administrators receiving $150,000 CA coverage with the move to chyos the plan provides for all full-time employees to receive a full benefit of $50,000 and administrators of $200,000 approximately 110 employees will receive increased benefits with 300 maintaining their current levels while saving the district $ 23,5 18192 the 29 employees who have elected prepaid legal coverage you get a discount of $50 a month um the health savings account employer funded m will increase $3 um with this new adjustment um from $43 to $46 we will continue with utilizing American Fidelity for all of our other ancillary Insurance options at no rate changes whatsoever looking to the future we anticipate another increase of 7% to the medical premiums in the 2526 school year starting in the 2627 Year we will begin to receive a rate that is based on our adjust Ed own average loss over the threeyear look back period the benefits comparison has been attached to the agenda item for you to review and I just do you have any questions questions was this was this um increase was that like was that told to us UPF front that it would happen every year we knew that there would be a board adjusted rate every single year and we knew that we would get the flat adjusted rate for that I happen to know another District that is with this firm and theirs was 8% because it was based on their individual look back period because they've been there so we knew whatever the rate increase would be would be whatever the board had deemed for that year for their entire platform so yes we did know we know that that's the we'll also receive that next year and then we'll be based off of what our historical averages are but we would anticipate increased rates as a general rule Ru in the future uh it just may with our our uh employee base which tends to be younger and not as many situations it might only be a two or three or 4% instead of a 7% but we would still anticipate a rate increase just just because what's happening within the industry other questions I have a question on the prepaid legal how many employees take advantage of that thought she said 29 there's two different plans and a total of 29 employees participate okay and have they ever had the opportunity to collect as a result of any claims not not that I'm aware of but we can look into that for you no I'm just just curious if you knew that that's not a big deal yeah okay anything else how how is this um if we were to stay what I'm just wondering if it was we were to say where we were last time before with the other company that we were with before um um would we still see the 7% raise we would have seen a dramatically higher rate okay all right okay yeah right yeah other questions all right then I'll take a motion please I'll motion to approve the employee insurance and Benefit Plan rates for 20242 as presented I'll second yeah all in favor I opposed it passes three to nothing I know I know all right item 11.1 discussion and information of student achievement the March report Dr Fountain you resemble him yep all right good evening members of the board Dr Wyman Miss wner and our esteamed colleagues we have a few updates for you this month from curriculum instruction um starting with some uh student data from Miss hyim uh we're going to share with you a deep dive that we've taken into some of our usage data we're looking very carefully at our programming to ensure that it's both meeting our students needs academically as well as we're getting the appropriate usage um to be good stewards of those funds so she's going to share with you some of that usage uh miss deab or Miss Scott will have some information to share with you uh about some instructional rounds we've done uh with some guests from the high school to share with you some really great work they've been doing uh and then Mr shum is going to share with you about the mock interview process so those are our updates for tonight I'll turn it over first to miss hyam all right thank you um members of the board Dr wein our community here I'm excited to share with you some of our supplemental programs this evening make sure my clickers go in here so we're going to talk about three programs we utilize in the district tonight um two are math related and one is um Ela related the first one here is DreamBox this is a new program that we adopted this school year um it aligns directly to our new math adoption as well which um is in vision and currently right now our students um in our third through eth grade are primarily the ones who use this program we have um piloted it piloted it a little bit with a few students um that are younger than that so right now about 70% of our students are logging in at least weekly to the platform and completing at least um two lessons each week um and our staff we had over um 30 staff members logging in in the last month as well into that platform to see how our students are performing when we look at the data um there are um some definite uptrends so that first graph there is going to show you um in all usage all of our students are growing that are using the program so average usage for all levels is about half a grade level so that 0 five indicates half a grade level um we're currently you know 3/4 of the way through the year so um any usage is getting us that growth students that are utilizing the program for Five Lessons a week or more um are have seen so far a 1.4 um grade level increase so they've already made over a Year's growth in this three qus of a year that we have completed um if they're utilizing anywhere in between that 2 to five range they're kind of right on par with where we are in the school year at 7 um and then if they're utilizing it less um than two lessons per week or completing less than two lessons a week we are seeing that they are growing but um obviously at a slower rate so our highest grades that are growing right now um first grade where we're kind of piloting it with a few kiddos and third grade which is really nice to see in third grade they've already made that 0.

now normally what we do for the public forum is we have three subgroups prior where the candidates rotate through and then they come into the um gymnasium whatever we're calling it now uh for the 6m public forum and they're asked questions by a moderator it's myself and those questions will be asked and all candidates will be given the same opportunity to answer the questions this proves as well because we um learn a lot about the candidates so from the beginning of the process it's interviewing skills presentation skills those were both pieces of the first interview the second interview uh with Dr Wyman and myself is a more candid straightforward interview where we're asking them the same questions to try to find out more about them and their personality and then the public forum is a opportunity for us to see the uh candidates in action to see how they um integrate with themselves and then with the public and we feel like this process is appropriate and has been a process that we've used throughout um our systems here so that's my report glad to answer any questions you might have and just very quickly doc uh uh be normally be myself the board president that would be one of the Committees and Mr Ray is not going to be able to be president at that portion of it and so if we have a volunteer of one of the three of you uh to be part of that just let me know next couple days and we can go ahead and and set that up it would probably be about what they going to be at 4:45 yeah the 430 um committees will start at 4 and then move through those three committees yeah so if if you're if one of you available just let me know the same date yeah on the same day it goes from four four o'clock to are you be here rounds my calendar yeah I think I'll be here look at your calendar just let me know okay I'll let you know not it thank you I'll let you know thank you thank you okay moving on 11.4 discussion and information on the 2324 District student enrollment numbers so again this is just any questions coming out of the report that was provided to you earlier a couple things I would uh note um just uh as a result of of some things that we've talked about between myself and the board as well as the presentation this uh this afternoon uh from Mr Brammer uh we talked uh probably in December January I can't remember now about exit interviews for parents um and we will begin that with this new with this new quarter I appreciate kayn work that's done to get uh QR codes and a and a a program available those have been shipped out to the sites um uh we will try to recapture we've lost some uh uh some kids over the break and capture from those parents um but I have to work with principles to make sure we have the process down um and so we will we will start to review that data uh one of things we did notice of those parents that or those families that left us um uh over the break uh there was uh at least three families that left us that went to homeschool and so when Mr Brammer was talking about the vouchers I've talked with several parents uh in this case the the parents have been talking to are don't necessarily take the voucher uh because they would like their kids to participate in some activity we have and so a homeschool student can be homeschooled and and participate either in sports or one class with us and and then couple families I've talked to really enjoy that portion so they have purposely not taken the voucher because I explained to them if you take the voucher you're now a private school kid and you can't necessarily do it but they're indicating that in their Network there's a lot of communication about you need to take the voucher why aren't you taking the voucher and so I think the more that information gets out the more the competition increases because as it is I believe the last couple years through panal County uh we have about 400 students that are homeschooled and at least 400 students that have signed up through panell county is homeschooling and so uh uh with that voucher money we may start to see that number uh modify on us uh just a little bit and not necessarily in a positive way so I just wanted to bring those up but I'll answer any questions you have on that I I have one question and I don't I'm just throwing this out here and I don't don't necessarily say it has to happen on the exit interview is there any way that we could put on there if like how long that they've been going to our schools so if somebody has been going to our schools since they're kindergarten and now they're in sixth grade and they're leaving like that's a lot different and it says a lot more than if somebody was here for a year and they came from one school now they're hopping to another school th th the ones that have been here for a very long time and then are leaving for um a reason that those ones are the ones that concern me I guess so I don't know how if that's even possible I mean it's possible I think two ways whether we modified this the survey or the other piece is obviously we know who the people are that are leaving us and we can look at our data to see so either way we can capture the data when we look at the analysis uh we'll do it on a monthly basis uh of the kids we have a uh Judy runs a a report on a monthly basis and anyway say which kids have left us from this time to this time and so our ability to pull you know once we get those names then to pull those out and figure out where they're from we can definitely do that I know it's a little bit more work and I hate to give everybody more work however I think it gives us a little bit more insight on who's who's leaving and why all right anything else for that item all right then item 11.5 discussion and information on the 2425 Joes Unified School District budget okay so I'll go ahead and uh just I just want to bring bring you a little bit of an overview of of where we're at with the budget process um we're working uh with uh both leadership and CCC on this in some ways this is set in the table so as we come back in April and possibly in May but hopefully in April uh decisions haven't been made per se but given the magnitude of the situation we're in um we also need to be moving on some things so um the process that we're using again the most important part of any budget in the state of Arizona it's got to be balanced um so we don't print money like the federal government uh and so we have to balance the budget uh before we move forward uh that balanced budget will come to you guys in July so there is still some guesswork uh based on when the state budget's going to come out they have not started the discussion on the state budget just yet uh The jlbc Joint legislative budget committee did put out their um budget estimates for the previous month today or yesterday um and so those numbers are usually the numbers that that starts to push the legislature into looking at the budget uh there uh they've got an increase in tax dollars coming in and and so they're a little bit better than they thought they were but overall for the course of the year they're still down as the state in terms of of tax revenues and and where the projections are for their for their budget so they're still on target to be uh in the neighborhood of six or 700 million short of where they thought they would be um our biggest issue will be student enrollment we'll talk about that obviously with what Mr brambert uh presented at five o'clock um that's the that's the key issue uh your build budget off the number of kids you have and so what number are we going to get to and then we'd like to meet uh staff and board priorities in terms of things that we need to we're shooting for targets uh we looked at priority areas from the CCC I'm not going to go through each of these but I gave a definition but this was the areas that that CCC uh put as a priority we did the same process with leadership and Leadership came up with in many cases very similar there are some nuances between uh CCC and Leadership but it's probably just by the nature of who's in the room talking about it but you'll see that a lot of the stuff is the same student uh retention recruitment attendance was was big for both groups St staff retention recruitment attendance was big for both both groups so there's a lot of similarities between the the leadership and the CCC um we're now starting to work on uh the next part we have not had this conversation yet with uh CCC there's a meeting tomorrow afternoon when we look to say how are we going to build the budget here's the key numbers so there are four options up there um are all of those options realistic not necessarily especially in light of the the presentation at five o'clock um but one option is to say uh we're going to just do flat no growth so we'll build a budget right off the numbers that we have on the 100th day of today I can tell you that based on birth rate um we are already down 50 kids from where we are if we just take every number and roll them up so that you see option two we'll do a 50 two kid loss and that's by rolling up every grade level so kindergarten first first to second Etc and then because of the declining birth rate take five students deducted from each School in kindergarten and that would go ahead and be a be a budget we would build off a negative 1.4 uh student loss which is 52.4 five ADM the next area we could do is do Trend data which is what Mr ramt was talking about and we would build that and the trend data that he's suggesting for next year is negative 2.9% student uh loss which is 10864 ADM and then option four could be greater than two negative -2.9 leadership's discussion was a consensus of option number three and so we were doing a lot of work off option three we'll talk with um uh CCC tomorrow uh you guys can give opinions either in a few minutes or uh talk to me privately about where you sit on this um but again there has to be a rationale for why we're choosing what we're choosing it's just not trying to throw a plug number at it uh it's trying to figure out best guess obviously if we were to build off of option three on Trend data and we were to stabilize our capture rate we would actually see a growth so you would see a swing in the opposite direction but we won't know that until we get into August so again at this point we're leaning at option three but there may be other discussions and Direction given that that may change that um these are some recommended areas um that potentially be picked up within the budget uh the salary increase of 1.9% that is reflective of the same increase that went to um uh to the support staff uh this uh in January and so we would look to go 1.9% uh that cost if you apply it across the um all the employees that didn't get the increase in January is about $350,000 we also have to anticipate what's the January 25th increase or excuse me January 25 in increase because we know the minimum wage increase we're anticipating about a 35 C increase but we would hope to get some information next month or two that would give us a better uh understanding uh that could be roughly a $75,000 increase for the rest of the year so if we give the increase in January 25 it would get us through the end of the year now there are ways to make changes to that um but for right now we wanted to go on the high end if we decide to give the raise to less people then obviously that's less money uh we are talking about a student grow grow stiping we've done that the last couple years we want to hit that one hard again and that would be really is a way to talk to our staff about trying to stabilize the capture rate retain the kids that we currently have in the system as well as attract new ones and so if there's a growth uh that the district gets then we'll get current year funding on that growth and so next spring March we'd be able to give a one or two perc uh stien it's not buried into their salary schedule it's not guaranteed past one year but it's a way to incentivize people to to make sure that we're retaining kids and everybody's working together to retain kids uh Julie talked about the health insurance increase so that that that number is in there uh the reality is we will look at to pick up most of the the the U numbers of or the amount of money that we need to take care of the issue through staff reduction we're down a number of students uh at this point in time it will be through attrition not termination so no employees going to get laid off uh there positions that are based on people that are leaving we've looked at the student numbers as an example for next year and we're making adjustments according accordingly we're also looking at the supply budget reduction I will tell you that a 10 to 20% cut to the supply budget uh is going to be impactful I have looked at every open poo with Julie um I will tell you this and I've looked at several other things there's not like there's waste in this District I know that's simple for people on the outside to look and say there's all this waste but when you look at what people are are buying there people are buying things that we need we need gas for for buses it's it's just a reality and so when we look at the reduction uh that's going to have an impact because you're talking if you're in the in the uh 10 to 20 uh percent range you're talking 150 to $300,000 so it's not insignificant we are also looking at student attendance Solutions and we're going to come back to you with uh some meetings in April at the April board meeting and the May board meeting there's a a piece called the instructional time model itm from ad that may help us uh take care or help with student attendance uh those kids are absent there's ways that they can potentially make up the work and they're not counted as absent uh we're still looking at the numbers to see how significant that is uh we also look at possibly an attendance officer and then also uh instituting a campaign about the importance of attendance if we could go ahead and reduce our student attendance uh number of kids missing school that most people think of ADM as the number of kids you have on Mother's Day but you actually for every day that the kids's in school you get so much money if a kid's not in school and they're absent then you lose money that that day so you want to to take a look at that we're looking at utility savings and we adjust set points review one the unoccupied begins and ends uh can we start the unoccupied mode quicker uh and not turn on quite as fast can we do additional four day weeks during breaks to have one less day where we're not running uh we can move the the utility set points uh to unocc mode for the full day so when we're on summer break a matter of fact our schedule for this summer is to add an extra couple weeks in the four day week to try and squeeze out just a little bit more savings we're looking at increasing District Revenue that was part of the rental fees that we talked about this morning that's part of the drout recovery program uh with grad Solutions we're going to be looking at increasing potentially athletic fees um are some of the ideas we're talking about we want to see if classroom site fund and the school Improvement f F which is 020 that some of the raises to uh certified staff can use those funds I'm not sure they can uh it's pretty tight um but we're looking at that we want to look at all salary schedules including stiens and six fifth contracts uh outside uh individuals we pay uh we we contract with with outside agencies to see if there's savings there want to take a look at what we do with our daa funding District dival assistance and then are there other ways to decrease operational EXP expenses uh we will talk with CCC and Leadership so there may be other ideas but I just want to give you an idea so that if you start to see things in April and May that you have an idea of where they're coming from um uh this is not I can't stress enough the importance of the notion of stabilizing the capture rate you're getting to the point where it's getting very very difficult um based on the amount of money that was cut out of this year's budget and then potentially next year's budget and if we look at another year after that it's it's getting very very difficult in terms of where we can go to to get the savings we need the summary we're anticipating right now with all these numbers in if you make the addition we're going to need to find $2.1 million a little short of $2.2 million and so we're looking at the budget shortfall based on numbers we're anticipating from the state so everybody's on the same page we will be we believe we will get 2% increase from the state based on the way the law reads and so we that means the base supp level money you get per student will be increased by 2% we juli plug those numbers into anticipated numbers that we have if we roll everybody forward and so we believe if we Trend data as student loss of 108 ADM I know it's 108.5 to but it just rounded there for about one 1.9 short if we do the certified admin raises exempt staff that's 350 the 25 January 25 support increase would be 75 and the health insurance increase so when you look at all that if my math is correct it gets you to 21 million so that's the shortfall that we're facing and that's what we'll be working at over the next month uh or so to uh uh address um we will get there uh because if you remember on the very first slide what did I say we had to do no matter what B budget so it's not a case of if we're going to get there the question is when we're going to get there and and we will get there now part of what we'll do just in case there's questions on the agenda for uh staff we did uh you did approve the staff list uh there may be some minor changes uh since that list has been developed we have received a couple more resignations um but those staff contracts they are rep reflective of this year's B this year's staff amount or contract amount not next year's uh will'll go out to staff on Monday uh certified and classified staff have 15 days to get it back I believe that's roughly April 8th that may be off a day or two uh that's per state statute for certified staff administrators have 30 days for State Statute so that means they would come back on the 25th of April um and uh uh then we would go ahead and do an addendum depending on what the increase is so the fact that you approved uh salary or contracts to go out you have not approved any increases is at this point in time this is exactly if I'm getting the contract with the same amount I'm making this year type thing and so there's no increase we say 350 if worst case scenario my gosh we couldn't do anything we couldn't find enough money then you might not give raise if you do had to give a raise then you're going to give the 350 uh and that'll be an addendum that will go to the staff and this is the same way we've operated since I've been in this district is that we give them the contracts and then we come back with a addendum or amendment to their contract with the dollar amount for what the increase would be um between the number of of uh people that have already indicated they're leaving back to that's why we believe even with this list uh that we will not uh we will not be in a position that we be laying anybody off we will we will reduce a position by someone who's planning on leaving anyway and and that way we don't have to harm any anybody to the best of our ability is that straight across the board like all sites and district office it's yes to the extent possible it's all sites and district office we're still working on those um some places may have more or less example if you have if you lost more students and it's about uh the number of kids in the class um we build it off off of the student uh teacher ratios um you might end up getting deeper cut because you had more kids leave um than another than another place um but in some cases some of this has already taken place this year so we're actually going to combo you have to understand that to to solve the budget problem we had to solve in December we uh reduced out a number of vacants uh vacant positions anyway so in the case of Transportation uh they we reduced uh seven to 10 bus driver positions already that's part of the mix as we move forward so so there's a combination whatever we've done this uh in December as well as whatever we're going to propose to do for next year so so when you take a look at it um you're probably going to see uh 40 plus positions that have been eliminated again nobody's been laid off because either nobody was in the position or the positions already left but but you're going to see 40 40 plus in terms of FTE that have been reduced um we're trying to be very surgical in what we do uh we're trying to take a look at that what funding areas are are present to address issues um but at the end of the day we have to balance the budget and so um uh we're going to get there but I just wanted to provide you an overview so as we move forward you're aware things coming forward so I'll take any questions if you have any thanks for the good news all right yeah okay U that concludes all the 11 Point items number 12 request for future agenda items any requests I hear music Jason sh that means that it's over supposed to be wrap this up I don't have any future agenda items all right then I move that we adjourn at 803 I second all in favor I okay we are adjourned I'm I did at 803 and shelle second

n or almost a Year's growth and we're not done with the year yet so um currently we have a three-year contract in place for um DreamBox and so we will be able to utilize it for the next two years at no additional cost for us we have um purchased um enough licenses for all of our students currently um and with our purchase come some professional development so we were able to utilize one of those on November 14th with our leadership team um and our instructional coaches um they were able to get some more insight into the platform and um looking at how it can be used in the classroom as well as the data um and we have some more sessions that are available to us and we also have the Popin PD so teachers can go on to their website and log in at any time and get support in anything that they might need the other program we utilize in math um primarily for our K2 students is St Math and so um when that dream boox component was added our teachers really wanted to stay in with the ST Math in the primary grade so that was done this year um so the data is presented a little differently here but students are average number of students logging in or logins per week is 600 um they've completed over 700,000 minutes in the program and over 500,000 puzzles so this is tracked not in lessons in Puzzles puzzles can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to maybe 10 or so um minutes so students are working through that um when we look at progress over the year that Journey progress is really their progress on their grade level U material and so they have progressed about 20% of that grade level material so far um and then the teachers also have the ability to assign content to them it could be in grade level could be out of grade level um and so right now we are at about a 24% um increase in um student performance on those assigned tasks so of all those logins it averages out to about 23 minutes per week and the students that are in there are completing around 16 puzzles a week um when they get stuck on those puzzles it gives the teachers an alert so they can go in and um remediate and help those students progress through and you can see there at the bottom uh Simington and Ranch are utilizing the program that the most currently um this is a year-to-year contract that we have in place with stmath um so if we renew it for next year then we would um get an estimated 250 licenses per every elementary site um and they also provide professional learning opportunities with that and um also on demand opportunities for teachers to utilize with that as well um for ELA we've been utilizing the Lexia program there are a couple different components to the Lexia program in K5 um it's called Lexia Core um core five excuse me and power up Lexia power up for our middle school students um primarily right now we have about 74% in the K5 core logging in um across the across the district and in the Middle School the PowerUp we have a 90% um login rate and so most of that is at the middle school um obviously because they have the most kids in that rate but um we are also seeing um use at ccs and in our elementary buildings in sixth grade um we also have the Lexia English component which is for our elll Learners we have 162 students that are utilizing that program currently so again when we look at the program there is an average 211% gain that we have seen so far in students who have utilized the program um so if you just generally look beginning of the the year 73% of our students in that grade category were below grade level material um currently in the middle of March we had 52% um and then as you can see those other categories have increased as well so um our upper category of above grade level that purple color we went from 4% of our students being there to now we have 133% of our students there one of the um components of Lexia is that it is utilized um for approximately 120 Minutes uh a week so that is a large time commitment um for our students the PowerUp is divided a little bit differently into three different areas of students so we have word study grammar and comprehension and I will apologize there is a typo on here um there's an average growth or increase of 21% um in this uh grade level span as well our word use our word study has incre or excuse me at 8% of the beginning of the year our students were below now we only have 34% in that category the next two areas are a little bit of where our typo happened we um increased not decreased and I know that's what that that looks like so 61% of our students in the grammar area were below grade level now 45 um 38% in comprehension now 19 so students who are utilizing the program are seeing some positive outcomes in our Lexia English program we are are seeing that students are completing an average of one skill um if they're utilizing the program for anywhere less than 30 minutes a week and if they're utilizing it more then they're doubling that they're able to progress a little bit faster through their skills and then progress faster um through their units so we have an average of 15 units completed by all the users who have less than that 30 minute usage per week and the students who are using it more are up to a 61% average unit completion so making progress there as well um Lexia is a one-year contract that is renewable each year we have purchased it through next year with some of our Title One and our atsi funding there are um Popin PD availability through us through the website so again teachers can go get support at any time with any of the areas of the program that they might need and we did bring someone in on the 14th um for training for leadership and instructional coaches as well this past school year so as we look forward into next year one of the things um we're talking about with um our staff and our coaching staff and in our department are really evaluating the resources that we have and how we are using them and what is getting us the best results um making decisions as to what to move forward with and really hoping to scale some of that usage that we are seeing those good gains happening in in some of those programs so those would be some of our next steps what questions might you have about our supplemental programs um did you have any Targets for students to achieve you know without seeing any results right at the beginning of the program and how are you measuring against those targets so I might have to defer as I started in October and some of those things were already in place but when we met with the company recently so DreamBox for example recommends about Five Lessons a week to see the most growth and that correlates whoops with what we're seeing in our data so our students who are hitting that five level less than a week have already made a year and a half worth of growth um so far this school year so um and then with Lexia it's that two hours a week or 120 Minutes that's a little bit harder um to achieve and so um having conversations surrounding what can that look like how do we support in in getting some of the higher usage because even if our students are using it a smaller percentage of time we are seeing gains um I would say too that Lexi and DreamBox even though they seem similar in their programming are a little bit different in nature where um when Lexia was first brought in there was a heavy focus on the minutes used which is great um but we weren't seeing as much growth as we wanted to from that because a big component of Lexia is what the teachers do with that data in small group instruction so that's been more of the focus with Lexia um on the DreamBox side of things the program runs itself a little bit more and so definitely I think the data speaks for itself our Focus moving in the next year this was implementation year you expect a little bit of that um is to make sure that we're getting more in that 90 to 100% range of usage we're still sitting in that 70 to 80% range which is decent for a first year um but we would like to see that be a little bit higher um of course we're always interested to see how that correlates in Alliance with our aasa data um I will tell you that initially at the launch of the year in particular uh coms traditional was one of our biggest users in DreamBox and if we to bring back the first round of um our mimic data they had some of the most phenomenal growth on the first round of mimic so really interested to see what happens with those foundational skills that have been built at CTA and those mathematical practices so um to answer your question more directly of where we wanted to be um about where we are we're a little lagging um in terms of usage it's just a good reminder for us that we've got to make this a part of our regular data conversations to look at that usage to make sure it's really happening thank you so when you talk about the growth that you're saying is that growth from the program reporting it or do you have another outside Source you're using to show that there's actual growth yeah so because I think the program will tell you they're showing growth I just my my reason and I've not used diamond box I've used stmath and I would not use it it's a horrible program in my view it's a horrible program it doesn't connect it doesn't translate in my mind and having used it myself and seeing schools stop using it because it just just doesn't translate over so I don't know what the others are like but sure I would my recommendation would be is you think you're looking at the data from these different programs they're trying to put on the bells and whistles and a nice little ribbon they're going to say your kids are showing growth we better know that our kids are showing growth that's that's that would be my recommendation um I would say that um in most regards I would agree with that statement that's why um previously we were using ST Math across the board um that changed this year um we pulled ST Math away from those upper grades in particular um ST math is more con really good move to do that I think St maath is more conceptual in nature so it's there are some advantages for our youngest Learners who are just exploring the thought Concepts um but for our our older uh Learners who are more into the concrete elements uh we found DreamBox to be a much better program um much more research based and so that's why we had made that shift this year um we are having that conversation now as we look at next year um in terms of what that looks like for K2 um the initial request from our teaching staff was that they liked stmath for the younger Learners um but as Miss ham shared we do have some capacity within the number of licenses we have to consider moving that down into some of the younger grades as well if as we're using our our our adopted curriculum right for Combs is it actually helping the curriculum and then also bringing up is it helping us towards showing um State Testing knowledge that we need to have as well so we we have we have to be mindful that because any teacher just saying oh my kids are doing ST Math and they're relying on that I think they're going to find themselves disappointed at the end so I would just as far as our students and just as long as the teachers know I mean that it can help certain kids but if we over rely on it I think it's gonna be not good understood and I would tell you that that was one of the um that was one of the components in the adoption process for the math Core Curriculum um was the dream box and our adopted curriculum of Envision um they work collaboratively together and so that was one of the one of the pieces that the committee decided in that process uh was that it gave us a a tighter connection between the the Intervention Program cool I guess and I'll just add quickly to that too so like in DreamBox you have the ability to assign that grade level material and kids can work on filling those gaps that they might have simultaneously so we can really work on that um that exact question actually was brought up by our coaching staff just this week when we were talking to them about the programs too so something we're going to look further into um a lot of the programs uh are working on those foundational skills so sometimes take a little longer to translate into grade level skills but definitely something we are taking a look at for sure yeah I'm sure those teachers just from an instructional coach perspective as well those teachers are so so many things they're managing yeah you can say hey my kids have been on the program for how many minutes this number of rate of students in my class but unfortunately we got to take a minute and say is this actually helping if it's not then sometimes you have to reevaluate what's happening it sounds like you're already having that discussion so that's yeah that makes me happy I would say absolutely those are the the exact conversations we had on Tuesday and we'll continue to have um particularly like you said as we move into the next year and looking at budgets and what is really going to help us the most so definitely we'll continue with that um and lastly I just wanted to um Talk quickly about our Civics information so some really great things happen happening with Civics so the Civics requirement to graduate is um that everyone has to pass that test be before they um are able to graduate So currently if you're in 11th or 12th grade you need a 60% to pass um and our eth nth 10th graders need to have a 70% or higher to pass our eighth graders took that test for the first time in February and we had an 89% passing rate so very um successful with that I know the Middle School worked really hard on that and um supporting that they had lots of kids that scored 100% um and then very yes very big celebration um and the high school I think will appreciate having less kids to to catch with that test as they move up um and the other celebration really is that so far every 12th grader who's needed to take it has taken it and passed so we are 100% there um and they're working really hard at the high school and at ccs to make that happen um the test is 100 questions we did break it down into five sections so if students are struggling to pass they don't have to retake all 100 question questions they can retake parts of the test so I think that's made it a little easier for some of our kids so um very successful with the Civic test um this year and we'll continue with that next year do you have any questions surrounding that okay sounds wonderful I will pass it off to miss Scott thank you or Scott good evening members of the board Dr Wyman and Community I'm very excited today to talk to you about our comes High School instructional rounds and I'd actually like to bring over Mrs Tanya loftes who is the comes High School principal and also Tracy who is Weaver who is our instructional coach at the high school and they'll be able to talk to you a little bit more about what we went through on that day for our instructional rounds I know we I've talked before to the governing board regarding what our purposes around the instructional rounds and that's really looking at that alignment again with our what are our content standards what are our learning Tas asks how do they align and are we teaching and providing that level of rigor for our students to ensure that we are increasing that student achievement across the board so I'm GNA give it over to Tracy to talk about what our schedule look like and our focus and then Miss Tanya is going to talk about our Collective efficacy in the next level of work don't give me that good evening um I would like to say that since I've been here in the Colmes district for the last three years we have done instructional rounds at the high school um this year we kind of amped it up and are doing an all day rotation so we take almost all of our teachers in an hour um with eight other um teachers and go into about four classrooms they get to see what we're seeing what we've been seeing over the last couple of years there and we hear and listen to what they see which is actually what we were seeing that we need to focus more on high questioning skills as well as engagement strategies excuse me um and we would debrief with them talk about it and then take everything that we heard from our teachers both from October and January and roll them into our site PD for on the Wednesdays help helping with those um effective PLC times um engagement strategies questioning skills and ensuring that our rigor is aligned to the standards um to build student achievement in every classroom and then all the teachers that went on these rounds also were able to see what other teachers were doing and say o I like that I'm going to take it back to my classroom and so we've got more teachers talking to each other thank you nice good evening um with Collective efficacy instructional rounds has helped to Foster and generate a shared commitment to best instructional practices and also glean from our teachers the ability as Tracy had sh said to identify whom those are on their own campus that they can utilize to support them as they expand and learn in their own instructional practices and who to call upon to to help and support that as well with that Collective efficacy there's a commitment by all the staff to make sure that we're working towards that vision for our campus which is academic achievement that is encouraged supported and expected for all of our students as well as our staff when we say all from the principal perspective and the instructional leader on our campus that comes for a from a vantage point of our students are expected to have a growth mindset and improve and gener greater skills in within themselves that same is expected from our staff that they grow their instructional practices we have already bet myself and Tracy to plan out our PL our next PL which is going to focus on what both Administration as well as teachers has seen as an area that we need to improve upon those questioning strategies as well as active student engagement something that else that came out of instructional rounds that was not necessarily expected was teachers to say hey we really appreciate and like learning from one another and sharing in our PL together so with that what Tracy and I are working on to develop for our next instructional rounds or not instructional rounds sorry for our next P is for it to be a train the trainer model which is also something a tool an instructional an active engagement strategy that they can use in their own classroom with their students so doing that train the trainer model they will learn from from one another in a jigsaw manner which oh by the way is another active engagement instructional strategy that they can Implement in their classroom so they're going to get to learn from one another as well as participate in active engagement strategies that they could maybe even take away and utilize in their classroom I am super excited about our next PL and I really appreciate the commitment that our staff I don't know if they know they've done it the the commment that our staff has made to one another because they're supporting and encouraging one another just as well as they support and encourage and expect from their own students [Applause] thanks sorry I forgot to pass it on to you that's okay I got to bring it all the way down here thanks Tanya um and our next steps I'm really excited we're working with uh Mrs Ridge for um comes Middle School we're going to be doing that same model all day at comes middle school and then at Harmon the one of the big pieces and Dr Fountain myself Christine Jennifer we really excited about with instructional rounds is that we're also going to bring in that student voice so we're going to incorporate with our next instructional rounds I can't wait to present for you guys on that piece because we're going to include our students in those rounds and we really want to see and hear what they say about what they're seeing within that classrooms and what it works best for them for their learning so we're very excited about that piece thank you ladies any questions on this part no thank you thank you great thank you all right our next piece our supports for our new teachers just kind of a run through of where we started and um where we're at currently and kind of next steps also within this so within our induction program for all of our new teachers to uh Combs we've had three professional learning sessions already based off of the needs assessment that they all completed those were we did our first one was on classroom management our second one was on um some of that uh mental health Wellness piece Stress Management all of those pieces that uh they wanted some help with with our new teachers and then our third was instructional delivery and new instructional strategies and they were able to role model and um practice those within that setting then um our within the induction program also our teachers have had the opportunity to observe other teachers on their campuses and also I know we talked about this before that we're giving teachers now that opportunity to also observe other campuses too so that they have twofold on their own campus and then veteran teachers also on other campuses and then any additional supports provided by the instructional coach through coaching Cycles through setting those goals through working one-on-one with with our instructional coaches so to ensure that they're getting all the needs that they need especially for our new teachers so that they're prepared for our students the mentor program mentors are provided for our first and second year teachers it require our requirement is that they meet with the mentees for a minimum of a half hour a week um and we did a survey and the survey showed that all of our participants one of the main reasons they really enjoy having that Mentor was really for that pedagogic and emotional support someone to talk with every week to run through hey I had this situation come up how would you handle it if this comes up how would you handle it um or if they needed some of that additional instructional supports not only do they have their Mentor teacher there but that instructional coach and within that they observe two teachers and then also the mentors go in and observe the new teacher and give them some specific feedback and one of the areas that we really try to focus on this year is ensuring that our mentors are coming from the same grade level so if it's a new second grade teacher then their Mentor is a second grade teacher to Pro to provide that specific support if they're a biology teacher then it's a biology teacher within their Department providing that specific support so again they're getting that content level support grade level support alongside any of the other pieces and components that they need and then our instructional rounds where we've participated in instructional rounds we'll continue that and then the um I did have a separate at debrief with the induction program and what I asked from them was what are some of the pieces that you Incorporated and I have to tell you two stories I we had one one of our International teachers when you first went into that classroom they were all in rows and it was very much a traditional setting and after um some of the instructional rounds that uh they were able to participate in now their room is in groups we walked in I was doing a walkth through and uh they were doing think pair share it was phenomenal and those were straight from that instructional delivery piece and that person had actually written a lesson plan that I looked over that aligned directly with that and when I was able to observe that within that classroom so it just makes me really happy and then lastly we're going to show a little video I just click on it let's try yes well as an international teacher the induction program and professional learning sessions have greatly helped me as I navigate the challenges as a new teacher especially by providing me with valuable support and guidance so the very first one is I do we do you do and with the help of this it is very easy for me to engage these students uh in their learning teaching learning process and the second one which helped me a lot thought is a peer tutoring because nowadays the students are very comfortable to teach each other so when we give them the opportunity for the only for the 10 minutes then they gain the things like sooner and the third one is the activity Based Teaching learning process and uh in this 10 minutes when they perform any activity or maybe sometimes 20 minutes that depending upon the length of the activity so they learn in a better way through the activity through the induction program I have learned these actually so it's a great help to me it helped me better understand the hasht forward goals of the district which include nurturing culture Innovation purposeful learning and assessment it is a culture that encourages positive relationships new approaches and authentic learning experience I feel like the induction induction program and the professional learning opportunities that we get here as a new teacher really helps me connect with other new teachers um a a lot of us are going through the same experiences and have the same challenges so being able to relate to each other and share those experiences and ideas and strategies to overcome those um it really helps you feel like you're not alone and also reaches that confidence of okay I can do this I'm not the only one going through it so through these um learning sessions I have gained um Essential Knowledge um skills and resources that have helped me more to become prepared and equipped to the demands of teaching we really work hard and uh we really work harmoniously inside the classroom and helped me to connect more especially that I have gained um knowledge and you know understanding about the culture especially that I am uh I'm not an American so um I've gained insights about their perspective especially in we are sharing about the the education educational system in our country and here in the US that give me the motivation here that give me the encouragement I am surrounded with amazing people amazing um principal Miss Cheryl and um my staff members they always offer the advice when we uh are in trouble or we are new or the system is new for us so their advises are always help us a lot so all my colleagues my staff members are excellent here they are very supportive it um I believe I was trying to do the math I believe this is our sixth or seventh year we even did it uh the year that we shut down for covid we happen to get it in the day before spring break and then if you remember we didn't come back after spring break so we were able to get that event in and then the following year uh we did a a virtual model so we tried to keep this consistent uh year to year and we're grateful for um the participation of our our local community to help us and help our students so this year um I want to point out that I'm going to fill some white space with some words but I want you to pay close attention to the pictures because the pictures truly say it all right um we had over 300 interviews conducted in in one day uh they were our second and third year CTE students we also invited the first year medical assisting and nursing assistant students they're all Juniors and we felt that that was an important uh point in their um academic uh uh career to also be involved in that so again 300 interviews probably 280 of those were organic meaning that um there were a few repeats in there some students took uh more than one interview based on how many programs they were in um but uh several several students were able to gain this experience uh we hit a new high with our volunteers we had 50 volunteers from 35 different organizations in the area yeah that's that's huge um in fact it's the first year that I've had a waiting list and I had a couple that um signed up but they signed up a little too late and we put them on a waiting list uh so we were we were ecstatic about that typically I have to borrow from leadership to fill in some spots to to interview and from the board and from the board yes thank you and uh this year we just had to do it for one class period because we had so many students in third period and we we put all the uh leadership in a room and had them interview a group of kids there as well so uh just just a wonderful activity for everybody involved um and then we had some extra support we had uh uru AO who is um new to our area uh they provided U the hospitality room for our adult volunteers uh Costco with the help of shanana uh provided uh funds to provide uh what I call student nourishment uh it's the first time we've been able to do that for our students and then we had an organization come in called job path and job path really works with those 18 and older uh from everything from building a resume to um uh locating jobs uh and helping them with placement and so forth so uh we set up a room and had all our students visit with job path so that when they get to that point their senior year um they know who they can contact if they need that kind of assistance so always trying to up our game uh we also had all of our students were required to submit a resume so every CTE student provided one and then um our goal is to send those rums out to some of our volunteers who said they would um evaluate those those resumés so a lot was happening um we do a an an exit survey for all of our students when they're done with the experience and uh we find that the majority of our students and when I say majority I would say 99% of our students find the experience to be very beneficial IAL many of them come in very nervous some outright scared and they leave with a smile on their face and maybe that smile is a smile of relief I don't know but it is a fact that they come out and they've learned something from the experience and so I just pulled a couple of direct quotes from U the exit survey uh from our um from our students and you can see that um if our students are gaining this kind of understanding and knowledge and experience from uh their their mock interviews and they're taking that into the real world then uh we feel that we're doing a good job of of helping them prepare um I want to make a comment about uh the growth that we've made just as a school at Colmes we have some interviewers who have been around probably since day one since we started doing these and some of them have commented how much better our students have become at interviewing and I obviously a lot of that goes to um our teachers we just like we take our student data um we take the data from our exit interview and share that with the teachers and so that the teachers can better understand uh from a a students point of view and the volunteers point of view because we we survey them as well as to what they are seeing and what they are experiencing and then our teachers can take that to to adapt and modify their instruction when it comes to interviews and I think that's a big part of why we've seen the improvement with uh with our students over the years but again if you look at the pictures um that really says it all um you can probably um place an emotion on each of those students as they are sitting with an adult uh but uh for the most part you see students that are confident and in many cases comfortable sitting across the table from an adult that they don't know being asked questions that they didn't know were coming uh and be able to carefully articulate and share their skills and their abilities with those individuals as I mentioned we also survey our um our volunteers and uh the survey helps me as the coordinator of the event on how to better organize uh the experience for those involved uh then we also interview or survey them as far as what they feel uh the students uh benefited from areas that maybe they see that um consistently needs work on our campus and areas that they feel that we've done well in and so I've just pull again some quotes directly from uh that exit survey for our interviewers um I will tell you that every interviewer walks out with a smile on their face they love this experience they love to uh sit across from our students um I shared in years past how it for some adults it renews their faith in our youth um they they our youth sometimes get a really bad wrap and um uh sometimes it's because our youth aren't in an environment where they can share some of their skills and abilities and their passions and their goals and so this is an environment where they can do that and those adults get to hear those things um so we we again are are just um uh overly uh joyful about everything that has happened with this this event it's it's uh one of my favorite so I did want to put this up this just gives you an example of how many different organizations jumped in to help out with this and some of that came from our leadership who reached out to folks that they knew um a lot of these folks came from the different events that that either I attend or uh Dr Wyman attends with Queen Creek and Santan Valley uh and different areas and we we recruit from that database uh they don't know it's coming sometimes but we we do we reach out and invite them uh but you can see we have such a a wide array of everything from churches to to large businesses our interviewers we had everything from orthopedic surgeons to um uh small business owners it was just it's just an amazing event so um again very happy for the event we're looking forward to it again next year any questions I don't have a question but I do have a comment um I don't know if you ever have anybody follow up with you on on their the students that actually went to a real interview however my daughter three years has been out uh went to her first formal interview and they said she was an astounding interview oh wow so yeah and she went through that interview process well she's an astounding person so you that's right but they said she was impressive so yeah very good very good and and I would say this to John I I don't know if the person's reached out I had someone reach out to us from a very large District to the west of us that had heard about this and seeing all the stuff on social media and everything that we put out and and was very impressed with what we're doing and was trying to model their District off what we're doing and so they had reached out and i' passed her name on to John I don't know if she's reached out I can talk afterwards but but it's large district and so it's very impressive what John's doing that we have now other districts reaching out to us to say what can we learn from you and we have a high school principal who when she first came in asked if we could do this for all of our our students we're gonna get there one day yeah so good we can do this okay thank you very much you're welcome thank you okay next on the agenda is item 11.2 to discussion and information on peer model preschool program tuition Dr Corey you want to come up J there she is hiding in the [Music] back didn't you know you didn't you know you were on no just what a welcome surprise just explain just explain it's going to come back back for a vote next at the next uh agenda the peer tutoring peer model preschooler modeling so in the preschool we have um with the disability students we have four spots in each classroom four in the morning and four in the afternoon and what we do is allow students this a helps with inclusion and bringing in model peers for those students with disabilities to see model peers it also provides the service to families they've had a concern that their child had a disability and when they were evaluated it was found that they did not qualify however they are welcome to come in and we then service their students in the program with the kids um they don't receive direct sped services but they are they benefit from the parah the aid and the preschool programming then so it's an opportunity for the community members and we offer it at a discounted rate in comparison to the community ed program of young of Kinder and what we'll be coming forward next month is a request to increase the amount to be in line with our neighboring districts again you might want to take a look at it it's what we've tried to do when we've done increasing any of our programs is is because they're all over the place in many cases um and so try to find something that we think's Middle Ground uh just like with the earlier one today if you believe our numbers too low and and you go up then let us know and we'll make adjustments before we come with the final thing in in April in April so you can look at those numbers then we just trying to figure out what we think's best for our community but if you have different views on it please let us know and the increase hasn't happened for five years so it's it's du okay good job for short notice sure I just wait all right thank you next item 11.3 discussion and information regarding the Ranch Elementary principal position Dr dupes members of the board Dr Wyman Miss Judy and also colleagues in the room this one's a really hard one for me you know I've done a lot of hiring in my 23 years of administration work um and it's a hard one because of my appreciation and my love and my um the hard work that Sue Has has done all of these years here at Ranch but also for the many years that I've known Sue prior to coming on board at comes so um this one's a tough one for me but as you know Sue Cruz let's give her a round of applause Sue is retiring from The District in June and so this decision was to move forward with the process the purpose of this agenda item is to provide information and an update on the hiring process for the position we posted the position in early February and received 10 applications these applications then um were reviewed and were paper screened and uh two internal candidates and eight external candidates all of them uh were reviewed and uh a pool then was brought together of employees from across the district as well as from the site um these applicants were interviewed through through our normal process that we use here in the district that we've used since I've been here and prior to being here uh and scored on their performance those were collected and then these four candidates were recommended for a second interview that was conducted by Dr Wyman and myself we have three candidates that have invited uh to a community Forum that's going to take place on April 3rd at 6: pm at Ranch Elementary cafeteria now some people may not understand why we started so early but it was needed the applicant pool for administrators starts early than later which is the normal applicant pool for teachers and for other staff members so we did start early um and we continued that process through the break all candidates were communicated to as far as uh the schedule for the actual process that we're going through because uh we were bringing this to the board this evening the information regarding public form will be pushed out tomorrow we've started that process today Miss Deb Mertens over at um Ranch has that information as of today and we'll be pushing that information out to the public forum we felt like this was one where we needed to have more time to make sure that we had parent representation student representation if they wanted to attend and staff rep representation at the event so that event will be taking place as I mentioned April 3rd at 6 p.m.

agenda for this committee on education I'd like to take this time to remind our testifier that due to time restrictions on our hearings we will be limiting testimony to 1 minute per testifier per bill for people participating remotely please remain muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify when I call your name unmute yourself and your time will begin after your minute is completed staff will mute you so that we can move this hearing along in an orderly and efficient manager members please hold any questions until testimony on all measures is heard okay for our one item on our agenda onr 142 and Sr [Music] [Applause] 171 SC 142 and Sr 171 they are companion so this committee will to hear one round of testimonies for both agenda items and take the vote as one decision making with that do I have a list of testifiers thank you um superintendent Hayashi good afternoon chair Vice chair members of the committee Ken Kakak for the Department of Education uh the department does stand on its written testimony with comments we are just wanting to point out that a s salary survey was just completed in January of 20120 so we really are only four years away from that and just wanting to point to that um and with the idea that not much has changed in that short time period but we're available for any questions that you might have thank you thank you Ken also hello chair kidani Vice chair Kim Senator Asimo Senator faill all for having us today and Mahala for hearing these resolutions um often times when we are in bargaining and it comes to the money part that's always safe to the very end and that's always when it's like well legislative deadline is here we can't talk about anything we can't figure anything out we can't have in-depth discussions about things and so that's why we feel that uh doing this study will be important yes the department talks about a study being done last time and yet when we bargained for this one there was no meaningful willingness to make any changes and so we'd like to be able to have those Rich conversations and have the department come and sit and talk about them because they said well you know it's been fixed but how was it fixed we had to come to you to Big to get it fixed because they wouldn't take care of it otherwise and so we don't want that situation to come around again where we have to come back and big every time it starts to get all wacky and crazy and so uh we hope that you'll be willing to support this Bel model all these resolutions I should say thank you Chris Coffield Chris Cofield is not here Raymond longson okay also not here where does it say okay okay Chris and Raymond provided written testimony only let me see zar christio here provide the testimony and support was this also written okay good to know thank you um okay members questions other questions you're raising your hand and standing looking at us I suppose you want to testify please come forward Angela Melody young testifying um in strong support um so the schedule for the public school teachers includes steps which reflects years of teaching and I'm concerned about care I mean sorry I'm thinking about something else right now I'm concerned about teachers if teachers are making a living wage um then they are going to be equipped to teach students right so when teachers are equipped with resources The Learning Experience is fun and dynamic um and the structure of the step system should be examined especially for marginalized stigmatized lowincome impoverished districts such as khi kapalama um this is a concern and when teachers can provide um support at the community level the teachers can also raise up Community concerns um so doe is requested to collaborate with Board of Education um and also a few other stakeholders to develop a comprehensive assessment so we should be in favor of the schedule thank you thank you members questions no questions okay get one then compell I I got afraid with Angelo and stand up and hold her hand up so I stop her question for of doe according to your testimony doe address the salary comprehensive with least $55 million how has the impact on our teachers and hiring and retention rate moving forward so we have actually a number of of efforts in order to keep uh and retain teachers as well as um you heard of the hard to fill differentials and other ways that we're trying to go about in retaining our teachers we think this has been effective I we do think the compensation uh addressing the compression issue is one um Avenue that has been successful and hopefully retaining our teachers um but it is one of I think a number of different uh exercises we've been using to kind of do that you guys don't give signing bonuses no signing bonuses like professional players just checking thank you chair thank you further questions members if not [Music] recess reconvening the committee on educ ation members we are discussing 142 sr1 171 um urging the Department of Education to study the impact of teacher salary step movements on salary schedule compression members questions comments okay this is to add the D adding the Director of Human Resources development to the list of recipients of certified copies as de herd is requested to assist in the the study um this is for Technical and non-sub substantive amendments recommendation of the chair to pass members okay recommendation is to pass strr 142 and Sr 171 with amendments um chai mror Senator Richards ex Senator hi same for Sr 171 four members all voting I one excuse recommendations is adopted thank you members no further business this meeting is adjourned

and it's both days at both buildings correct um so looking to get our next year's kindergarteners get get them acquainted with their buildings and again the paperwork it's exciting time for not kids but also for parents so um definitely a really exciting um our uh overseas trip um I think was a was a success I've yet to hear much about it but I'm looking forward to um hearing some of the highlights from the kids and from our staff members um but I think overall the consensus is that was a a positive thing um for for our kids and families to see some really neat things um that might not have been possible a lot of lot lot good reports on that um and then with obviously buildings and facili obviously you know it's no secret to kind of drive by the things are starting to look more complete um with our building projects I'm just asking for everyone to be patient um because there's still some work yet to be done as we we're eager for it to be finished but we want to make sure it's done right um and we want to show it off and we're going to have an open house and we're going to invite Community ping present um into our facilities we just want some of those spaces to be buttoned up a little bit more so we're really um pushing them to to make sure that they get things done right um and that way when we're able to Avail it it's mostly mostly ready um but we're getting a lot closer so hopefully it'll take place in April um we're looking we're starting to kind of occupy more of those spaces and um our students will get access to those areas a little bit sooner even if they're not really finished um so that's very very exciting um then just some miscellaneous things um that um are kind of been projects over time hopefully we'll improve some access ability for some some of our patrons um the stairs and the new handrail back by the tennis courts those are those are complete those were kind of rougher probably longer than they needed to be and then um it looks like we're we have a mid April install on some hand drills um out at the soccer field track football field um those on those bleachers as well um yeah um but outside of outside of those things I'm just looking forward to finishing off the year in a in a positive manner obviously being the first day back from spring break I think there are a lot of smiling faces from both students and and staff and we're looking forward to the final push um which is also going to be a very busy time because we have our state testing our I learn um we have a lot of our recognition ceremonies and board ceremonies I think it's like a week and a half we have our top 10 dinner um so it's definitely a very exciting uh time of year but a very busy time of year and looking forward to sharing and sharing all those highlights yeah that's uh kind of my update for this month thank you Mr GI all right do it look like we have any old business to deal with new business we have several approval requests going before we'll start off with authorization to advertise notice of a public hearing for building projects yeah so um building project yeah right um so we're obviously working on uh working on finish up a very very large um building project um so so while exciting this is not um of even nearly the remotely the same magnitude um but we've been working to manage our our debt service tax rate um and and how we structured the original uh project to leave some room for a future opportunity to take care of Maintenance needs um because we still know that we have a lot of things that are have been deferred over time um things that are end of life you know we have a huge parking lot over at the high school that needs to be paav that wasn't a part of the project we know we just have some miscellaneous like flooring painting um lighting uh type issues and a smaller um General obligation bond issue would allow us to address those matters um so the board's not um really uh this isn't even the step that necessary needs a board approval we want to make sure that before we do move forwards and take the first step in advertising um notice of a public hearing uh for uh building projects uh that we obviously have that discussion with the board um so we've been working with um our financial advisors and looking at thatb structure and again managing to our tax rate because we don't want to raise our debt service tax rate promised our stakeholders that we're going to manage to that tax rate um and and anything moving fors um this you know would allow us to do that we have a a cliff we're going to be paying off um some obligations and that that's essentially what gives us room so in some future meetings we'll talk more specifically about that you know we're looking at an issue in the round two to two and a half million dollar range um but we won't know for sure until um the cess valuation um comes out later this summer so we w't finalize anything with that but what we're able to do is reimburse back to would allow us to essentially use some of our Randy day funds um to potentially get started on some of these things like pay and wait a little bit longer so this is just the first step so ice Miller um sto Thurber and Brock same kind of group of professionals the only difference is on this this smaller issue we would necess to be working with an architect right so outside of that I would like to and authorization to just move forward and just publish a notice of our first meeting that's all you'd be approving I I think it's a great idea we have the capacity we need to keep that U tax rate the same and it does look like moving into the future with the charts you're given us there is more capacity down the line so we're not handcuffing oursel at all we're just being due diligent so yep that's great I I like the idea of continuing to maintain things so we don't get in another situation where have to take out another few correct yeah the goal would be to do smaller issues moving forward and a couple years we have capacity a smaller issue or if we get an intervention you don't have an emergency we could do okay can I get a motion to advertise the notice of public hearing we do we need a motion to do that yeah I went ahead and I think it you know even though it's not statuto required it just it shows the board's you know good faith and moving forward to that process or commitment I will make said motion okay have a motion in a second any discussion I those in favor I opposed motion carried we have approval request for the 2024 School uh summer school yeah so as we move forward this month the April meeting in may we have some of those customary end of the year type items that we uh need to address and um in your board packets this month were our summer school proposals I'm scrolling I po 60 okay thank you um Mrs mcperson has been working with building principles to kind of finalize um finalize our plans um obviously there's a change in emphasis from the state with approach to summer school specifically with with um more heavily funding uh second and third grade I remediation and so as such our elementary plans were focusing on some of our students we just need some additional support or close to passing I read uh Middle School the return U of our Fab Lab camp and then our high school um some offerings uh for credit recovery for credit um government econ some online courses so it's kind of a mix of uh traditional iners versus um online um with with some support um from a teacher so nothing uh nothing unusual we have to submit these uh requests to the Doe by April 1 so that'll be our next step and then we will uh work to recruit uh students and make sure it's feasible to offer all of those courses so they to get reimbursed band was also band Fine Arts was also on the leave that out so it would be my recommendation that board approve our summer school plans summer school is not a popular thing to talk about all the time that's for sure it's important but it is important so all right uh can I get a motion to approve so move okay got a second motion of second any further discussion all right all those in favor any opposed motion carried all right we have approval request for special services which include the 2425 speech language pathology pathologist Services contract with Shelby slack the 2425 Physical Therapy Services contract with Sycamore services and the summer speech services all in one yeah so again as is customer it's just a approval to seek continuation really of those Services through the through those agencies and independent contractors and then obviously moving fors and offering summer speech it's a good program I will make a motion that we approve it okay I have a motion I have a second have a motion on the second any further discussion all those in favor all right opposed motion carried and we have approval request for the 2026 spring breake trip to Budapest Vienna and Prague yeah so I'm just trying to make it through trying to make the spring break 2024 we're talking about next year already I like it but obviously um much appreciated and planning ahead and not waiting to the last to the last minute um because obviously there are costs associated with such trip and savings and fundraising um essentially they've submitted U Mr Williams um and team have submitted another proposal um that is very similar to the trip the students just went on um except this time it is to budes VI Vienna and Prague um you know obviously it'll be properly chapon it'll meet all the requirements um I think it' be another good opportunity uh for our students and families and uh outside of any questions it would be my recommendation that the board approve or allow us to move forward publicizing this opportunity and getting it organized Mr Williams how did the last round go yeah I see that and how many students in total could you remind us on this last1 we have sign [Music] up thank you might be easier to get that number up now that kids are back and talking about the last thread I heard a lot of good things from those that I've spoken to today alone I think it's yeah that's exciting for the students to have that opportunity I like it okay do we have any further discussion on this can I get a motion okay I have a motion a second I have a motion and a second do we have any further discussion on hearing none all those in favor I any opposed thank you for putting it on I know it's a lot of work thank you for doing that motion carried very cool all right we have a request for the 202 2425 Chartwells Ren yeah so as is custom this is time for renewal of chart Wells as our food service management company and this is the third four renewals and they propos a 5.2% increase in fees for the 2425 uh school year um it's all fairly standard um we've already shared it ID Food Service um my recommendation that for um with the renewal do we feel like we're in a good place with chart worlds right now yeah I feel like they're uh we're in a good place I think we've had to work through some things and some transition and there going to be some additional uh items that they uh that they share share Out programs for our kids discovery kitchen um just to try and encourage our younger students to try newer and exciting food options um then also obviously building on some like our secondary AI I'm sure it's been a little bit hard from there staying playing with the kitchens being down and having to transfer sett into space yes um yep we're uh settling into the excuse me the high school kitchen and more fully staff not just at the high school throughout just same battles facing um pretty much every business that you talk to staff shortages yeah they're excited they love the new space and the new make motion being renewed okay I have a motion second I have a motion in a second any further discussion all right all those in favor I any oppos motion carried we have a request for Dell proposal for one to one device for grades K through two yeah so I'd like to thank Mrs and Mr Hill for working on our long-term ref refresh plan one of the challenges that we've been faced with the past sever several years is um having more than one building's devices um need to be refreshed at the same time and obviously it's a significant investment that only seems to be getting more expensive right there nothing's getting uh cheaper or less expensive and so one of the things we've done is work to develop essentially kind of a fouryear refresh program to where you know essentially every fourth year different building or excuse me yes different building y different building each year and uh this uh we're focusing on K to2 next year uh specifically devices that we have for for second grade won't work with um I learn and uh so we are choosing to to go with K2 and we're looking to replace those devices with Chromebooks um Cory work to secure uh three different cost options um Dell's option is the lowest cost of the threee and we're pleased with that device so that would be our recommendation we have the funds um to uh to cover this cost um obviously can't charge for student fees and textbooks or devices any longer we do receive a reimbursement from the state although it's not the full cost we're very particular with looking at excuse you know how expensive things are on the devices we've had them for a good little while now and we were lucky we had them through Co um but is this is it proven that they they learn better off the computers or is it better form them or they be would they be better off using I don't know books yeah I mean we work with the with the teachers I mean the device is just a tool yeah um so we trust the teachers we always think the best learning occurs face to face with the teacher and a student in the same classroom um so it's just a it's just a tool to enhance the learning and to uh to help them in their learning um Cly use them for assessment use them for research um just just all across across the board um but by no means are they stuck in front of a screen all day right and certainly um our buildings have even dis reflected on the use of Technology coming out of Co and they've done some things differently with uh devices based on how responsible our students are to where whether or not the viice needs to go home each night or whether rice remains in the classroom so made some adjustments there I know the Middle School's working on making an adjustment next year where uh devices don't go them right away in sixth grade they're going to work on teaching responsibility on care for the device and prepare them to use the device responsibly um so yeah it's just kind of that approach and I'm not against the devices I just think it's good for us to look at them once in a while and say is this the right way of doing it I don't I couldn't tell you the last time and this is me being Ane equated I'm sure that my kids had to write out a paper and so and it's all right here but there's no here right so it's just something to think about I can't remember the last time I wrote something out either but you had the foundation but yeah I mean it's just a tool so they handwriting and it's combinated I'll make a motion to that we go with Corey's recommendation okay so I have a motion in a second do we have any further discussion hearing none all those in favor any post motion carried I appreciate that because allow us to get those ordered so that way we're prepared to have those return students next school year okay all right we have a request for the second reading of the GCS the priorities and goals for 2024 through 27 yeah so we won't uh we won't go through this whole presentation like we did last month to the goal chairs um shared specifically about their goal um but this is a uh second reading and Adoption of our prior priorities thank you to the administrators that put all the time in to make this making sure we're all in the same directions are great ideas good okay can I get a motion okay a motion in a second we have any further discussion hearing none all those in favor I any opposed motion carries thank you thank you and finally we have an approval request for some donations we have I still there oh we do have I yes we forgot I how about that I told you I was going to mess up you guys told me I wouldn't I told you I would all right we have I for the Food Service allart well we have H before I oh so I jumped the gun I was so you messed up I messed up I take that back didn't mess up there it is you plan that I guess I did I guess did all right we'll move into the approval request on H for some donations we teach the alphabets I guess so but we don't handw write it out we don't it good grief all right we have a donation from Jeff and Denise sigworth to Green Castle High School uh top 10% dinner in the amount of $1500 can we get both of those at the same time all right and we have a Jack and shley dton Trust Green Castle High School outstanding senior recipient in the amount of $2,000 1,000 will go to last year's recipient Riley Tuttle that's great I do like donations very cool will be approved all right second a motion and a second do we have any further discussion all right all those in favor any opposed motion carried now with Brian's permission we'll move into I which will be the third server solid car increase yeah so um we're bringing a proposal here to make a couple of adjustments certainly these won't these won't be the last um but as food costs have increased we have not um we did not make any adjustments to we didn't make the needed adjustments to our olar pricing and our student whe prices for this year so this will help us transition to the prices that these items sold that in order to make sure that we have solvent food service operations program so these prices look have there four it okay yep these are all all card these are not the general Bas me okay options Li and te okay can I get a motion to approve second I have a motion to approve seconded do we have any further discussion on it all right all those in favor I any opposed motion Carri have any other business you have no other Brian do we have any other business I I've spoken enough ton okay very good and if we have nothing further to come before the board then we will move into adjournment can I get a motion to adjourn I'll second D's motion all right we have a motion and a second all those in favor any opposed motion carried thanks everybody for coming tonight appreciate you put up with me thanks for l

uh we have a public hearing for the school proposed fiscal year 25 school budget it has been advertised in the standard times um I think it was March 18th edition of the standard times that is set to open at 6:05 we've got four minutes so I'm going to ask my colleagues um if we could move the minutes up for approval um uh I would entertain a motion for the regular session minutes of March 11th so moved second we have a motion by Mr Oliver a second by Mr noons any discussion on that motion no um oh got forget all that roll call Kate Kathleen Amaral here Chris Oliver here Elizabeth Coughlin here Shannon Jenkins John Nunes y haven't catched that either I think I this is my right my last no my one more meeting where you have to deal deal with me um so we have a motion Mr Oliver um second by Mr noon uh no discussion so I will say all in favor I motion passes unanimously I will actually I will obain one passes 41 41 401 thank you1 um and since we have three minutes left before we can open up for the um uh public hearing on the school budget I want to take a a moment to recognize one of my colleagues on the school committee um this is her last meeting um I do see a little bit of a grin and so um everyone at this table sort of came together we have a certificate for you for your elected years in office we won't revisit that history but Miss Jenkins stepped up and was appointed prior to that election um and we have a little something for you um behind this certificate so make sure not to throw it [Applause] out thank you I think you'll like what's in the envelope underneath thank you um and if I I just want to say that um it's been an honor to serve with you um we've been through some difficult times and you have served uh with conviction and an unwavering commitment to uh the students and the educators of this District uh you've had um you know that focus on transparency Health Equity over these years uh transparency around all the wonderful contributions that are parent organizations and other volunteers in this District have put toward bringing in a lot of money that allows our kids to experience um extracurricular activities and uh field trips and those sorts of things um and you have just been uh incredibly um unwavering in in your stance and you've brought to us your uh background as a political science major and a professor Dr Jenkins um and you have stood firm in those and it's been an honor to witness that um and that's what I have to say I'll turn it over to my colleagues for the last minute or so if they have anything additional to add thank you madam chair I I can't believe it's been almost 10 years Shannon uh it's been a while uh so yeah I will Echo a lot of what um Kathleen said um I've enjoyed uh our time together I think we've we've got a lot of we've gotten a lot accomplished um you and I have never we didn't always see eye to eye on some issues and on a lot of issues we did and we were able to move in my uh my opinion be able to move the district forward so I learned a lot from you um and I I thank you uh for serving and uh I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors so thank you for for serving and I didn't have that much time with you here but I've learned a lot from you and I wish I could learn a lot more from you um but you're a huge asset to this committee and I will miss you thank you yeah thank I I kind of echo what my colleagues have said yeah most of the time you and I don't agree every once and every once in a while you know you know part of my pun hell free is over because we do agree on something type of deal but uh uh I have always and I mean as in all seriousness admired your conviction uh you take a stance and that's where you're going to stand irregardless of what happens and I admire you and I applaud you for that uh it has been a privilege uh to serve on this committee to call you a friend and a colleague and uh wish you and Doug and your family uh much happiness and uh enjoyment and you know if you have nothing better to do on a Monday night you know we stream live on YouTube now so we're wherever so you know my computer skills so somewhere somewhere out in space there's you know the channel is there so you know take a look and watch so but again all the best thank you excellent so now we're past the time and we can open up for so I just want to say one thing I want to say thank you to everyone here at the table but also people who've served in the past um I've served for almost 10 years on this committee um I've served we're reminiscing about other roles on the finance committee and the budget Review Committee um I can say almost to a te that every single person that I've have worked with I know on this committee but also in this town um volunteers their time because they believe they want to make this town these schools a better place um I'm proud of this committee I'm going to get all te you should have done this up at the beginning but I'm proud of this committee because we do disagree a lot and I think we're a real example of what it takes to get along in these polarized times because we all show up to the table to do the work and I think if we all in this community show up to do the work we'll make this community a better place so I encourage other people to volunteer their time to get involved um to do what it takes to help continue to make the Dartmouth schools and the town of Dartmouth a better place so thank you thank you thank you Dr Jenkins uh so at this point I understand uh that I just have to ask for a motion to open uh the public hearing for the uh fiscal year 25 proposed school budget m a motion that we open the public hearing for the proposed fy2 school budget thank you second second okay we have motion we have a second uh any discussion all in favor I I uh so I ask that if anyone has any comment specific to uh the proposed school budget uh we have a new uh setup here in the middle of um the room if you could come up to the to that microphone um state your name and um try to keep your comments brief don't all run up at once good evening my colleague and I Jody par Rene VI we were hoping some other folks would step up this evening and and greet you and let you know that though we do appreciate the hard work that you've done uh to try to balance the upcoming fy2 budget um that it's not a done deal we haven't lived through it yet um we have to get through the end of the year and see if riffing is actually going to happen uh find out what our class sizes are going to be like for the upcoming year um we say right now that we're not cutting anyone but we know that we're losing folks to attrition that means people that are uh leaving going elsewhere people that are retiring um it's disappointing right now I'll tell you that um the town people aren't concerned it's disappointing that the town's people are saying okay well they had money for school choice they put it aside and now they're going to use that as a Band-Aid for fiscal 25 because fiscal 26 is going to be even worse and we're not going to have that money those monies aside um so our concern is that the town's going to become a little bit complacent because we've been able to sort of fix it here and excuse us when we say we but we do appreciate Dr Saba Maguire's willingness and Mr Kylie's willingness to having these conversations with us um but we would like everyone in town and you folks to also uh just please keep in mind that we know enrollment has been has dropped townwide at each of the grade levels or you know the elementary middle and high um but right now what it looks like is that um the losses to due to attrition are uh losses of Staff members that work directly with students and that scares us because we do recognize that children have much higher needs than they have in the past um but looking back 20 years just when we opened this school building actually the ratio to Administration um the administration student ratio was much different than it is now recognizing that there are increased needs everywhere we just ask you to please uh take care and thinking about the number of positions that get cut that uh in which we have students uh that will be directly impacted we know we have needs we know we need a behaviorist and we appreciate that being kept in the budget we hope that we can fill all the ESP positions um but we're just sitting here a little downhearted and I imagine some of you folks are as well um because we've been able to kind of hopefully get through this year we'll know at the end what really happens um you know we know dmouth Public Schools financially isn't where it needs to be and next year is going to hurt much harder than this one is right now and this one's painful for us our members are very concerned they come to us what's going to happen you know senor riffing um Etc so we do thank you for your time and if we're a little long at least we ate up the few minutes that we're here to be offered yeah I just want to say one thing I know you know the positions that we're planning on cutting and it's supposed to be worse next year so I don't know where else you can cut the class sizes will just keep getting bigger and that is a huge concern because when we say an average class size of 21 we know that it's not all nice and neat and every class is going to have 21 students it could be some grade levels where class sizes are 18 and some where class sizes are 25 26 so it it's it's concerning and um when we hear that it's going to keep looking worse moving forward we're even more concerned so but again we do definitely appreciate the transparency the conversations that you have had with us um so hopefully we can come together and do the right thing in this thank you just so we don't have to come back up we know that it's a public comment shortly and um Dr Jenkins thank you for everything uh we appreciated the conversations um it's been uh a good number of years that we've had uh you know back and forth and we wish you well thank you thank you thank you looks like I would uh looks like nobody's rushing to the okay microphone Madam chair make a motion that we close the public hearing for the fy2 school year budget second give a motion second any discussion all in favor I I thank you very much um at this point uh we will we're back in Open Session and just again uh for just a second and if anyone wants to come up to speak to any matter that is on the agenda in addition to you know not the budget but any other items on the agenda please step forward and I'll wait an awkward couple of seconds to see if anyone rushes to the microphone okay hearing none um great uh next I will turn it over to Dr Saba Maguire to um introduce the most exciting part of um positive part of this agenda I know I would say that looking out at the number of people that are here in our audience to audience I'm calling it an audience because that's what it feels like um but the number of people that are here this evening to celebrate our Dello children is really heartening um so I want to thank everyone for being here tonight I look through the PowerPoint that they're going to be presenting and it's GM packed so um I'm not sure I can give an adequate preview but I'm going to invite the principal Miss kareah up to the microphone and I think we have a great presentation [Applause] ahead well hello and thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to Spotlight our wonderful Dello school and our students um we are really very excited to share everything with you this evening the ultimate Spotlight is on our students over there but before we can bring them up we would like to an opportunity to talk to you about what we've been doing at Dello school so con connection has always been an overarching Focus for us at Dello school and this year is uh is following in suit we know that we all learn through connection through connecting with others and at Dello we have been learning through connecting to one another in our classrooms this year across grade levels and throughout the community oops I never I think I did this last year I just talked past all the slides all right so I'm going to start off by just talking about one of our focuses for this year was to connect cultures and families throughout the building so for years we've upheld the belief that Dello school is a place of Windows and mirrors what we mean by that is that we want our students to see themselves reflected in the lessons they learn the activities they participate in the books they read we also want to provide our students with Windows through which they may learn about others last fall we hung up this world map that you see displayed on the slide presentation on a bulletin board at the entrance of our building with a simple note asking families that were there for open house or for assemblies to pin a place anywhere in the world that they had connection to and it was great because some people pinned places in the United States where their friends were a lot of people uh pinned places that they had loved ones that they were connected to um their families of origin um some people pinned places that they've visited on vacation and we used all of the pins to focus um on the areas that around the world that people had connections to and kind of interweave those places throughout the Dello School this year so um as a school we used all those locations on the map to kind of focus our schoolwide read aloud so at Dello school we we put out what started as a weekly read aloud it's more like every other week now um that we record and we share with classrooms throughout the building and sometimes the read alouds just focus on good character traits and and stories with great theme uh and a lot of them um incorporate some cultural aspect so in looking at that map we've been able to bring a lot of read alouds that reflect the the maps the pinned areas um and the these are just a few Ki in the city is about a little boy um who moves from Puerto Rico to the mainland the Arabic quilt is about a little girl who's the children of Egyptian immigrants and American Desi is about a girl who's in between her Indian culture and her American culture and through those read alouds we have to give teachers time to pause the video and really talk about the characters talk about all kinds of things um but we love honoring our students from different places uh around the world who are connected to different places I should say through those read alouds we also took a look at the pinned areas on that map to bring cultural programs to demo School this year um just not too long ago we had Len cabal who is a well-known Storyteller from the area who came and delighted our students during the day with uh storytelling from the Caribbean uh and African folktales and then he put uh on a wonderful family night for our Dello families to enjoy those stories we also had local author Janet costates with us earlier this year who um she's from I think she's from the Dartmouth area initially she definitely has Dartmouth family because she bumped into a family member in our building quite unexpectedly but she's a a very successfully published author who writes about children of color focuses a lot on cap Verdian culture and Portuguese culture and she came to our school and did writers workshops with our students on creating characters and I don't know if you can see this in the slide gave them a little Portuguese lesson um as well so another way that we are connecting with families in culture is our uh Dello family wall um we have one bulletin board soon to be two in the building dedicated to recognizing our diverse and wonderful Dello families we try to catch pictures of them whenever in they in the in the building um we took a lot of these at open house but also at student of the month assemblies anytime we can get a family in front of a green screen um Mrs vosy our wonderful instructional Tech coach who you hear a lot more about this evening um takes a picture prints it and it goes on the wall and I have to say that when students is it's the the the um bulletin board is in a hallway that's pretty heavily traveled by our students and um you see students all the time stopping and looking at everyone with their families and they point out their families but then they point out their friends families and it's such a source of joy and pride um that they take in this um in this bulletin board um this is actually an idea that we had years ago at the Dello school that we've actually seen through uh it was a pre-co dream dream that um couldn't be done with masks on and and here we are we focus this year on putting this together and every time we have a gathering we add more pictures and it's just no one passes by it without a smile I'm going to turn it over to Mr Hill to talk about classrooms yeah hi everybody Adam Hill assistant principal at the middle school so yeah in terms of connecting to the classrooms um we're going to share a little bit about our grade two they put together a stem chall all with again our wonderful um uh Tech coach Liz vosi and the stem challenge for this one it was in the during the winter time and it it had a winter theme so parents were invited in and teams grade level teams for grade two uh they developed their own town and what they did with that town is they added um cotton balls as a way to like assimilate snow and then using a bbot which is like a small little robot they then program that robot to then navigate throughout the town so really neat stem challenge they all work collectively on it was a really special day for everyone and families as well um I'm going to turn it over to Dr Heather real quick so I get to talk to you about the best part of Dello school which is recess you know you ask the kids what their favorite subject is and they say recess so I think we should just change curriculum and make it a you know recess a curricular but um I have the best room in the in the whole school because I get a prime seat to what recess looks like and a couple years ago we were noticing there was a lot of disregulation around recess primarily because people were making up their own lines and you know the goal would move and somehow the person who was supposed to be the referee then shot the goal and then the other team's ahead so we we believed that we wanted to restructure it so one of the ways we did that was applying for a DF Grant and thank you to the DF um for you know giving us some money to help us out and we had a couple of things we wanted to do and it started with these three Fields so football I don't know about any other school but um NFL has a great history um future ahead with the kids that are playing at Dello so the first thing you'll see is a miniature football field um the second field you see is a smaller practice field and what we found with that was we were bringing kids that maybe didn't know how to play so well soccer as part of the big large group and um we started doing drills with a um a a student teacher we had and kids were coming that would never have played kids were coming that didn't think that they were good enough to be on that big soccer field and it really brought that um connection back and then we have that big soccer field too so on top of that we have um rules in the making that we're going to be zip tying to uh wherever we can zip tie them um as well as working very hard with DHS to try and get some and Mr Christoph fly to get some athletes to come and be part of our um recess time and then hopefully Branch out to theater and music programs so that every kid has someone to look up to and something that Mr sheay had said when we sat down is about connecting our communities and having our kids look up to someone at the high school and have them see what it could be like to be a kid in that place and really pushing our way to staying here and being part of our community so these are our structured recess games you should come and see it it's really awesome great thank you thank you oh here they are more pictures here all right soccer and football okay continuing on with uh connecting oh this is you that's me no sorry that's me oh so uh I'm going to just move on and talk about how we connected to Melo School across grade levels so another way that we learn through connection at Dello is by bringing kids together from different grade levels um in different capacities so last year we spotlighted our stem Fridays at our Dello Spotlight at school committee and um we featured our instructional technology coach Mrs vosi who came up with the idea after covid that kids needed to kind of come together work through problems together um and kind of reconnect and stem Fridays if you ever come to Dello school and we invite everybody always to come to Dello school but if you ever come on a Friday afternoon you will see the cafeteria filled with students first graders third graders fifth graders everything in between working on stem challenges that never get old that are always super exciting um and we see that you know not only are our kids working in stem in science technology engineering in math but they're working on the soft skills that are so important that you know not many people really talk a lot about but are super important not just for our students but for every human being so you can walk into a stem Friday and watch our kids connecting while they're working on their communication skills they're working on compromising being adaptable just being overall you know kind and respectful to each other so we feel like we get a lot out of a small chunk of a Friday afternoon I know there are teachers here probably nodding saying it's the best day of the week for them also in a lot of cases because the energy in that room is palpable and the learning is fantastic but you'll learn just a tiny bit more about stem teams at the end of this presentation so we also like to connect students to one another across grade levels through buddy classes so we have a long Tradition at Dello School of getting kids together to read to each other you're looking at um a buddy day that we just had recently where the big kids and the little kids got to sit and read for a half an hour at the end of the school day but they also work on projects together across classrooms and I've never heard anyone not say anything wonderful about the time they spend with the Buddy class the kids the smaller kids look up to the the the older kids and think that they're so wonderful and the older kids are thoroughly delighted at working with um the smaller kids so everybody wins just like in stem teams we also have very very strong student councils at Dello school made up of role models who serve the Dello School its neighbors and the surrounding community so this year what you see in this picture is our fourth grade student council which is a rather large group of students um led by Mrs Baker and Mrs Mary uh and this group has partnered with gifts to give in New Bedford on doing like athletic equipment drivve so we wanted to put footballs and soccer balls and basketballs and other equipment into the hands of uh students around the region who might not have access to those uh things otherwise so that was a fall initiative that our fourth grade student council took on on engaging the whole school in bringing uh bringing those donations in and making sure that they got delivered to um to the students who need it most in the region um our fourth grade student council has also spent quite a bit at the Council on Aging next door to Dello school they were there last week for some chitchat and some crafts but the big deal is they are soon returning to do some line dancing with um some seniors at the uh Council on on aging and I'm personally hoping um to get to witness some boot scooting among our students as well as our staff so stay tuned I'm hoping um that we can bring pictures in some form of that event our fifth grade student council uh under the guidance of our fifth grade teachers Mrs colbeck Miss faras Mrs agar and Mrs alen has also been very busy this year with uh schoolwide drives to support um South Coast families in need and these wonderful cherubs also take care of all of our recycling in the building which for which we're very very thankful uh and finally uh we connect across grade levels with all of our wonderful Dello assemblies that bring us together for celebrations and fun this is a picture of one of our favorite alltime assemblies organized by Mr Hill our holiday sing along which took place right before our holiday break in December with the help of our music teacher Mrs cemi and our instructional Tech coach there's a theme Here Mrs vosy uh we had an entire School staff included singing out holiday songs one after another honestly what seems like such a simple event spread so much joy across the building we look forward to doing more of them but we are not done talking about connection at Dello school at this time I'm going to turn it back over to Mr Hill to talk about how we connect to the community all right so connecting with the community Dello has had the wonderful opportunity of connecting with the Dartmouth YMCA as well as the lead educator for sharing of the Harvest Sarah leaderman and here we had the opportunity with the support of our PTO and parent volunteers we were able to build two planter boxes uh we had um oil donated from Ace Hardware across the way and we also had wild flowers that were donated so there we created our very own pollinator garden and this is and and continues to be a great way for us to get our hands dirty as we connect with our science curriculum standards so this was really great for everybody continuing on uh we held a a really special Arbor Day ceremony at Dello where we included eversource and the Dartmouth tree uh committee uh so many uh community members came to join us including the tree Warden and here uh what we did is um again working in conjunction with eversource um our fifth grade uh student council researched trees that were being donated from eversource and so the the trees that were donated were swamp Oak a red bud and a black gum tree fifth grade did a wonderful job of researching those trees and then fourth grade red poems just talking about trees in general in Arbor Day and uh those trees are standing strong today and we're uh thrilled to see them grow and we're also looking forward to continuing our partnership with eversource and the Dartmouth tree Community uh to to turn this ARB day ceremony into an annual ceremony uh in addition we uh work with the New Bedford Child and Family Services and this has been a long-standing fifth grade tradition where fifth grade class classrooms reach out to the New Bedford Child and Family Support Services to adopt a family in need around the holidays uh our teachers you know we don't know the families except for what they might need and this picture here is a picture of our students wrapping so this is an opportunity for them to get involved in wrapping the gifts that have been donated and then our teachers will then coordinate with the child and family services to deliver the presentence to the warehouse something that's very special uh and and then uh lastly we also work with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra this has been very special for us uh they typically will come contact us and let us know what their objective is for the year and in generally they connect with both math or science standards and in this case uh the objective or was uh animal Locomotion so in this picture here it's a whole school assembly we all get to listen it's very interactive very entertaining uh but then we we dwindle it down so they work specifically with our third and fifth grade classrooms uh again we're trying to tie in which standards match the grade level the best and there they went into each classroom and children got had the opportunity to um create their own uh music tied to animal Locomotion and then as a way to wrap it up and put it all together our third and fifth grade classrooms were invited to the New Bedford uh new bford high school where the entire Symphony presented for us all and it was was just really neat for everyone to see so great opportunities for us to connect with the community and last but not least here it comes we're going to talk a little bit about how we connect with everyone at Dello school and that is through our Dello School newspaper student newspaper the howler and our mascot is a wolf if you're wondering where the howler name came from very clever here is a pict picture of the students that you see back there this is our newspaper staff so uh this is a group of fifth grade students who decided that the school Community needed a student created publication to connect us all the howler staff is led by fifth grade teacher Jasmine oene who guides and supports these Young Writers as they get curious about the people and events of our school they publish their electronic newspaper just about every month and I'll be honest I learned something new about Dello and the people in it every time I read one tonight's Spotlight was inspired really by this group who recently got curious about what students loved most about our school and here is some of what these young journalists found out okay can you can we queue it up Mr uh oh I don't see the video there's supposed to be a video oh no Mrs Bosey our instructional Tech coach is going to be sad right now if that's okay because we're going long and we've got it we want them to come up but they what they did was they spent about two weeks um interviewing students from grades one through five about what they loved about Dello school and what they really appreciated about how we connect as a school and I promise if we can't show it now we will show it um we'll share it with the whole town and everyone we'll ask we'll ask Chad Amaral to put it out on DCTV on a loop and we'll be good I'm gonna I'm gonna move on is it the next question no it was that heart that's the start of the video I promise it was there that's fine nope there's a video in it I'm going to keep talking Jonathan has told me to keep talking I'm going to keep talking so actually that was a f minute video and maybe we would be going on a little bit too long if we did that and what we want to do next but what I would love to do is to um bring our newspaper staff to and Mrs oene to um the podium so that they can tell you what they love about Dello school and why they felt it was important to start a school [Applause] newspaper hollers have um special t-shirts with their names on them so that we don't have to introduce everybody just kidding we're going to bring everyone up who who's answering the first question about what we love about D school first and you can introduce yourself I think we're going to wait on a little microphone right yeah that's it all right so what do the howlers love most about Dello we're gonna start with McKenzie my name is McKenzie I love all the fun activities at Dello school and when kids have a hard time making friends stem teams can for sure help with that because it teaches about leadership teamwork and much more stem teams stands for science technology engineering and math also what makes me feel connected to Dello school is when we had the Storyteller and when we had buddy reading and when we had buddy reading hi my name is Bella and what I love most about Dello School is I love how the teachers go out of their way to help you and if you struggle on anything they're happy to help and I also like if you can't if you're having a hard time making a friend stem teams can help form a new friend friendship hi my name is Liam and what I love most about DEA school is how is how we connect with everybody and the stem teams and everybody would like like if somebody at recess is on the Buddy bench because they don't have a friend to play with um some kids go up right away and help them and H and have them join into their game and just have them play and then they become friends and they just connect hi my name is junifer and what I love most about Dello school is um how it makes me feel connected to any everyone and it's just um I love being with my friends and the teachers and everyone here is so kind and um if somebody needs a friend stem teams help um for hi my name is Arian and for what made us want to create a newspaper was to help everyone connect through all of dellaa school and even like parents outside of school in the committee and I helps people know what's going on in the school and what they can help with or what can help change our community and make it better hi my name is Emma and when I started the newspaper I was really into journalism like it's something I wanted to see but as I got more into it I realized it's more than that it's also a way to connect with all the students and make new friends and it's really great and like thank you the teachers for helping us build this it's so great um hi my name is Ruby and I wanted to create the Dello newspaper because um I thought it was really cool to learn about the school and like learn about our teachers and um it's a great way to like make friends and it's fascinating and I like writing yeah hi my name is Samara and I joined the how newspaper because I wanted to help bring our school Community together I love it when everyone works together as a community and it's really fun to learn about everyone in Spotlight and I love telling everybody about what happened through the happenings and last but certainly not least we wanted to bring bring the uh faculty adviser to the how newspaper up Miss J Mrs Jasmine oen hello how are you um so the newspaper has really taken on a life of its own but it is truly student driven um they we had like a bunch of different ideas Spotlight and happenings and um they started coming up with like book recommendations they've done um would you rathers they've done historical facts um current issue is February March and there's um inspiring quotes for Black History Month and one thing that they've done is they go and they Spotlight and they go to different staff members they choose which staff members to highlight they started with the custodian uh monitors um for lunch and recess they've made sure that they've done all the grades they've hit grade one through five um they've interviewed Mrs Coria and it is true we've learned so much about the differ staff members but they include a fun fact they came up with the questions to ask um and I think that they've I mean they will do work on their own time I've asked them like because we have deadlines and I've asked them to you know can you work on this article um as opinion pieces and they have they we have comics in there and they have done everything I've asked them to do they've missed recess time they and even one those beautiful days to go out and um they've worked on them at home and they've collaborated together they've had to compromise they've had to kind of edit down their work we're so used to having um you know edit like by adding more revising and and adding more detail but they've actually had to like cut it down because it has to fit into the template so um they've done such an amazing job and I am so proud of them um we have students from every classroom and it's a varying um students of levels and and and they just bring so much and we really are like it's a fact fabulous community so I'm very lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people by such smart and caring people and I really appreciate where I am so thank [Applause] you like I've been instructed to keep talking in so I uh I have such love for the Dello School such love for every student in the building and such love for our teachers and staff who come to school every day game on what are we going to do today and I appreciate them all so while I'm waiting for this video to queue up I do want to say that we would be nothing without our students and we would be nothing without the wonderful adults in that building that light the way for them every day okay so thank you I do have copies of the howler color copies for the school committee and Sophia is going to come around and pass them out and it's really okay if you can't get that going what do you love about deelo school um I like doing field day because I like sports a lot do you have a favorite activity we do at field day um I like the relay race yeah I like that we get to use Chromebooks and we get to do G and epic and Starfall I love how we do read alouds what do you like about the read alouds I like how they're about different stories and they teach you a lot about persevering have you learned anything from any of the books we read so far uh yeah I think I learned that you could do things that might seem impossible and you it's always good to persevere I like that we get to um have Choice time at the end of the day and that um our teachers help us with work we really like St teams when some team when we have some teams we're always creative yeah yeah do you like working together with older students younger students kids in different grades yeah um my favorite part is would rather be Choice time stem teams or recess mine is gy um I like to do like gym and um I like to do the um student of the month CU it helps other people first one is what do you love about DEA school um I love when we get to hang out with our friends and learn new stuff every day anything else um there's one thing that I like doing it's it's um when we do writing we get to learn about our stuff we get we got to bring our toys and we got to share them with our partners that's fun oh well I kind I really like it because there's a lot of nice people there and there's like a whole bunch of my friends and they really really like respect them and the teachers they always like stand by you and they're always going to like back you up but something's going to happen what do you guys love about to school um I really like the so you guys all agree that you love stem te what's your favorite part about stem team like the um seeing my friends and to do another all right what's your favorite thing that we do like together um like writing okay um like what do you like about writing um that sometimes we do partner writing and I like that we get to make new stories every time we finish one first one is what do you love about Dello school um I really like that like everybody is nice and the teachers are really helpful and caring to all the students okay now um how like at recess and like you can make friends like every year even if you're not like in one of your like friends class you can make new friends easily everybody's so kind um I like stem teams and I like the mad scientist because he helps me like learn a lot about science and I don't really get to do that what I like about the Melo school is that everybody is inclusive and we have three rules which is respectful responsible and safe and the last reason is that I like the Storyteller because he's pretty funny and I like his stories a lot and everybody is inclusive and he's just pretty um I love how we get to learn new things every day and we get to learn like math science social studies and we get to learn a lot of new things in it um student counsel um a lot of people at recess they play a bunch of games and I feel like it makes a bunch of people bond together and there's a lot of friends playing together and so my favorite part of the Mello school is when like they have the sing alongs for the um Christmas sing along I really like that cuz it's like every single kid like singing along to like all these songs and I just really like it what's your favorite subject um one of my favorite things about J School is tell when we get to do stem teams we're like able to meet new people and it's fun because we're able to like learn about each other without being in the same class of them and they're when you have like a younger buddy than you then it gives you a responsibility to help them out and like be there for them if they need anything and when they have an and when you have an older budy then they're there for you um I love how everybody's always next to each other and they always include each other can you give us an example about how they're next to each other like if somebody's alone like on the bunny bench they always include each [Music] [Applause] other galasa that was worth the wait um I love Tech problems because it makes me feel needed and wanted I appreciate that you're welcome so we will Shuffle off unless you have questions for our Hollow turn it over to my colleagues Mr no thank you thank you madam chair uh couple of things number one ladies and gentlemen fantastic job I look forward to reading this I appreciate it I appreciate your comments uh watching the video was a an excellent job it's nice to see that the main thing that kind of came out of this is everybody talking about STEM Science Tech and and that's you know that's fantastic to uh to see and to miss ker and Mr Hill Len cabal still at this huh he's been doing this for a lot of years he's great so it was great great to see that he was there again I remember him being there a number of years ago so but you know thank you very much was a fantastic presentation I enjoyed it thanks I thought you all did a great job I was particularly impressed in the video how your journalism skills when someone gave you just a brief answer many of you asked some follow-up questions in a inviting way to get more information you did a really great job and I also love you know my kids went to Dello and um way back back when um one of my kids wrote a letter to the principal which led to a fourth grade talent show which I don't know if you still do that um so yeah preco but it what impresses me is about how um continually the leadership of the school listens to students and allow students to drive their own learning because we know when they are in that ownership position and they're they're doing that work Guided by adults is when they really get engaged and learn so great job by students you do you're do doing a great job I too look forward to reading this and also to our staff it's been awesome great job every single one of you um I'm impressed with how many of you are involved in the newspaper and how many are involved in the council and um how much everybody likes stem and I'm wondering have we crunched the numbers does it turn out that no child is sick on [Music] [Laughter] Fridays most likely anyway thank you all hard work it shows great yeah I love the whole presentation I love to hear all about Dello and the happenings and you know the garden the palen garden that was created and all the different aspects uh that was spoken about but I I really love how all of you had the courage to come up and and speak and to this crowd here some of probably some of your family members as well as in front of all these TVs these TV cameras and for everyone watching at home so you should all give yourselves a pat on the back because you all did a fabulous job uh speaking this evening um and I just love to hear that we that we have a we have a newspaper over at deelo I'm looking forward as well to uh to catching up on the latest happenings there so thank you all so very much I mean I can't really there's nothing more I can say it was fantastic presentation a fantastic um to hear all of you come up and uh share what you've been doing and what you love about your school Community um two of my three children also went through the deela school so um it's exciting to see the um you know the passion and the the uh engagement with students and um so I really my my my colleague said it all I don't know if anyone has anything else to add I do I have to just say how impressed that I was and you know there were a couple of themes that I heard that I just want to talk about that I think are important and that that's I heard you talk a lot about friends and teachers and I have to say hearing you speak directly to those two themes really tells a lot about the culture of your school and you are student leaders and please believe that your voice matters I loved hearing you talk about the Buddy bench and finding different ways to make those connections and kudos to your teachers to your principal to your assistant principal I know a lot of work goes into this but what I could hear when you were interviewing the other children um in your school was that they were echoing what you were saying and so I often come here to school committee and talk about how wonderful the students are and wonderful the schools are in Dartmouth and you just did such a wonderful job highlighting the amazing students and staff and the things that are happening in the uh in the Dartmouth schools you I couldn't have said it any better myself and Mr Oliver I agree like having these young people come to the microphone and speak to this number these number of people with the Poise that you have makes me a little jealous so when I think about that I think oh my goodness like it took me years and years to have the courage to be able to to do that and I have to say Mr Shay are you still here look at the future of your high school oh my goodness wait till Mr Higgins hears about the uh the future newspaper reporters that are heading to Dartmouth High School I think that they could probably um handle a podcast I also want to know this one thing who came up with oh it's Trevor who's Trevor oh Trevor wants to know if we want to touch a snake or pet a coyote neither you do neither all right and then the other favorite one of mine was sing or dance in front of the class those were tough those were tough so congratulations to Trevor tell them I would like to ra rather than being able to fly I would like that million so you did an amazing job thank you so much for sharing that that's just so uplifting for all of us thank you thank you great job thank you they look good that amazing great job do we really have to shift back to the budget I I um I just want to say that so it's not awkward uh after this um after I after this next um agenda item I will be leaving to see my eighth grader play uh the spring concert at the middle school so I'm going to turn over this gavel to my colleague um Vice chair Mr Oliver when that happen so um but first i'm not going to leave before this topic um I'm going to turn it over to Dr s McGuire to introduce our old business which again is the fiscal year 25 proposed budget and discussion and again I want to Echo Mrs Amaral it's a tough segue from from something that's so uplifting um to where we are here but again we convene tonight to talk about the 20242 school year I just want to again continueing I know I'm a broken record but I think it's important to stress the importance of the efforts that the people who came together to do this work in a way that's thoughtful um and at the end we we always have to keep coming back to recognizing the fact that every decision that we make has a person on the other end of it we're cognizant of that and at the end of the day every person and every decision we make has impact on on the experiences that our students have at the same time um we think we've scrutinized every line item here and um Mr Kylie is going to talk again about some of uh what the I would say highlights of of our budget recom recommendations are thank you Dr sa Maguire so you know we we have presented the budget now several times um so so I won't really go into detail um as you know we've uh um cut the operating budget to 3% U and we're using one point a little more than $1.8 million of the school choice Fund in fiscal year 25 to um attempt to continue uh operating as best we can um but I do want to stress again that that is a temporary measure um and that it will not be available to us long term um those are savings that were accumulated during the pandemic and um we're spending our savings so as we move forward uh with the discussions you know we'll continue to make sure that that's known uh with um every board that we go before and um so that no one's surprised when uh we come back next year or the year after and say okay now we're entirely out of money we've spent all our savings and uh we need some help so that's that's what's on the horizon um just just so you know following our meeting on the 11th I forwarded the proposed budget to the Town Administrator and the town Director of Finance um I did hear back inquiring why we were over the 13,000 um so what I I let them know was that um you know I didn't want to cut another position or split a position between um school choice and the operating budget um I think that mudy the waters I think 13,000 in the scope of you know more than 50 million and certainly in the in the scope of the town's budget more than 100 million um you know could be solved so um that's where I left that I'm not sure if that's going to come up in future conversations as we move the budget forward whether that 13,000 is going to be an issue or not uh I don't know I hope not um we've been invited to a finance committee meeting next Thursday at 4 pm uh at Town Hall so if um if you would like to attend or able to attend please let me know um just so that we can plan and and uh if we have a quorum uh we will post it just in case there's any you know any opport Unity for a discussion or what day of the week is that I'm sorry that's next Thursday at 400 p.m. the 4th that's right yeah I'll plan it on attending I'll be there okay so what I yeah what I would suggest is just post it irregardless if we have a quorum we're good if we're not and it saves uh we can do that that's Hass an aggravation from the never mind it just saves hassle yeah yeah what's the purpose uh the I suppose well I suppose the purpose is uh the finance committee review of our budget request I would imagine they're aware that the school committee will not have voted as you won't be voting tonight um as you can't because we just had the public hearing um so they're aware that it's not an approved school committee budget at this point um so I would imagine it will be discussion regarding our uh our budget request I not received any other information or questions from them obviously we you know we've had a lot of discussion already two joint meetings with the selectman and finance committee um obviously we've sort of I guess you could call it solved in some way um the budget problem uh for this year not without a significant impact to our operation but um so I I don't know I don't know what kind of discussion that's going to be I don't know how much more discussion we can have yeah I I wouldn't think a lot um we could talk about the future and the fact that we're going to need uh more funding I'll be prepared to do that but if you I would think that if you take the one excuse me the 1.8 and extrapolated by 3% you know uh we're going to need a minimum $2.1 million in 26 uh you know we haven't got it no period you know so somebody's got to think about something as far as the 13,000 yeah that's with all due respect been there done that easy to find back to Jenkins yeah you know I just want to reference um Renee and Jody's comment earlier I have concerns about there was a sense of urgency in January when we thought we were going to do this right you know and that it was happening but we can't wait I mean you know I'm not going to be here so I guess you can't wait you know certainly I'll be there to advocate for the schools and to help but you know I started I got involved in town service because of a budget crisis and I'm going to leave town service during a budget crisis and the fact of the matter is our tax rate is low I'm going to keep coming back to that where when the lowest 10% of all communities in the Commonwealth people seem to think that's what it's going to be one override and it's going to solve the problem and we're going to be done we're not right we're going to have to keep coming back to this it's not going to be the only override there's going to be other overrides that we're going to need it's just a fact of life right when inflation is higher than 2.5% a sort of random arbitrary number right um we're just going to have to keep coming back to the table and you know maybe we need to start approaching this that it's not such a big deal once in a lifetime once every decade sort of thing and we do smaller overrides I don't know um but we need to have a sense of urgency because right we're going to start Plan before you know it like Summer's kind of a wash people aren't around people are on vacation right we need to be doing this in the in the fall likely um in order to prepare for the next budget cycle to know what we have so um I do hope you know I know you will but I hope the rest of the Town boards the select board the finance committee um feels a sense of urgency about this we've bought some time um but we haven't bought unlimited time and it needs to we need to start being having conversations about what the amount is what the timing is when these things are going to happen um because it's also a ramp up to advocating for um that override um that we all have to prepare for so I was going to say something along the same lines um one of the reasons we didn't push for an over well we didn't push for an override because we ended up using one-time funds to stop the Gap fill the Gap um but one of the issues was how much money we needed um the first budget that was proposed back in I think it was December we made Cuts before even presenting that budget um so then was the override going to be already with those cuts which that is not even services and if we ask for an override like that which is even Services we are actually decreasing the services so I I think what we need to do is start a subcommittee now and work through through the summer um where we figure out what the schools need to be what the community wants them to be um the other reason we ditched the idea of an override in January was because um there was a crunch of time and maybe the best thing is to present to the fall town meeting our proposal which means a lot of work in in terms of having some concept about what our budget is going to be so early on like even earlier than last year um but that way we don't have to call for a special town meeting which costs the town more money and we don't have to or we don't have to have a special Town election which costs the town more money but that we can be very thoughtful and we would have time to educate the community um and get get their feelings about what they want these schools our schools to be what we want our children to have so um I propose that we start a subcommittee and I don't know is it just two people from school committee or do we want to include otheres in town certainly a good question I don't know what are your thoughts uh either Dr Sab Maguire or Mr Kylie on the uh possibility of a uh subcommittee to look into the an override is that something that that this committee can can do is that within our jurisdiction if I if I can speak to that I mean I do think certainly the um budget subcommittee it's already An approved uh you know an approved committee uh with which you'll be reappointing new members at the next school committee me meeting um you know would be a a great vehicle for that if you need a special committee for this um I mean I do think that um it would be have to be not so much focused on the campaigning for an override because there are issues in regards to being able to do that but um but in terms of Who We Are are and what we need yeah I mean that's that's the um I mean that could be part of the budget subcommittee or it could be another group but but for us it's really about the advocacy for what we believe the schools need and I think what you said um best about us educating the public as to what we need early and often is going to be important for us and I agree earlier we need to start earlier um than we even did this past year and we're working on strategic planning right now U with the hopes that you know we'll have a strategic plan to be able to present to you in the fall um so that is good right that's that's an important element of preparing a budget and you know a thoughtful um needs-based budget so um those things should coincide thank you for your answers so I have a couple of thoughts just to um do you have a question I'll come back to you um just a couple of thoughts that I have is if it wasn't for school choice funds we we'd be in a world of hurt right now um there's districts all around us I'm having conversations with colleagues that are laying off or riffing dozens of staff and those are the districts that are local uh within Bristol County in the South Coastal Massachusetts uh we're lucky enough to keep our um our cuts to a minimum um but the reality is next year we're going to be in a world of hurt if this town doesn't come together um and I'm really disappointed this was the public budget hearing was advertised um that there was only you know um some of our own staff members that got up and spoke uh about the concern for this budget so I think this is going to come down to we need to mobilize the parents uh the the parents in this District um in this town really need to think about what they want to see in this District a lot of us have moved here uh for the schools um and do you want them to stay the way they are do we want to make them better or do we want them to regress um my daughter's graduating this year she's she's had a wonderful uh career here in the doou public schools uh she's going to college next year um she's doing some great things but she's graduating um so you know I I'm given as much as I can over the close to 12 years now on this committee but I think it's important that the community uh the parents out there really get the word out that we need your help this is something that this committee cannot do alone and this town cannot do alone because in order to pass an over ride there needs to be a lot of support within this community so please please please for those of you listening at home those of you in the audience tell your friends tell your family we need you involved we need you at these meetings we need you at finance committee meetings at select board meetings if you really want to see this District continue down the road that we're on which is you know right now we're doing okay I'd like to see us doing better um you know we have a lot of great things happening our students are are excelling at what they do um we saw that this evening but we have to get the word out um so just communicate communicate communicate I'd really love to see people really asking questions about what this town is going to do to support their schools um that's that's what I have any other comments questions you're absolutely right Chris uh the toughest thing is getting the parents mobilized I mean been at this a number lot of times and that and have sat here at meetings and said you know back in the early 2000s and said we're going to close a couple of schools if the override doesn't pass and this is going to happen and that's going to happen and we still lost and yeah we closed the school you know but these this is all this is all relevant and important this is all real life real time so this is what you know it's there at the end it's not and it's not not going away it's not and at the end of the day I want to put this I want to see an override put out to the town and let the people in this town make the decision absolutely as to what they want to see in their schools absolutely an educated decision an educated decision yes agree yep uh any other discussion no uh moving on under new business superintendent update Dr sa McGuire thank you so I mean it is like quite a segue you know between the when I think about the beginning of this um when our Dello students and faculty were presenting to this conversation but at the same time I want to like just focus on uh some of the things that really are happening right now in the district and then hopefully talk more a little bit more about strategic planning and why that's going to be so important to us moving forward um so as always under teaching and learning I'm just going to remind folks that it's important that you know that mcast season is upon us it is mcast season and those of us out in the schools and in the field know what that means it does um make a difference for the routines in our schools it's really important right now that families and caregivers are paying attention to messages that are coming home from the school because they are alerting folks to what's happening and when um so we want to make sure even if if it's something um as such as a student isn't feeling well and isn't going to be able to come to school and it's an mcast day letting the school know that early on is really important as they prepare our plan for what we call the makeup season so all of that is part of this whole um cycle of of testing that happens in our schools um but on I've heard you've heard me talk about Katie poo and the team of teachers that she's been working with to look at the um literacy curriculum at the elementary school I just want to say where at at this point she has had four different Publishers out uh in the district presenting the curriculum resources to uh Team of of Educators from across the district uh we're planning on um we're planning on uh continuing to add additional voices so we want as much input as we can get from from our Educators out in the district and at some point our families as well this is a big decision to make and so I think we started talking about it probably back around the time we started talking about the budget and you're going to keep hearing us talk about it because I think it's important that folks know that it takes or it should take uh a significant amount of time to make that kind of really important investment in your community and a literacy curriculum for our element M children are is certainly that that's an important decision for the district that could have impact or will have impact for years to come uh same thing going on again at the middle school and I bring it up again because again it's an iter iterative process it's not just you don't just sit down and look at three curriculums and choose one that looks like the shiniest Penny it takes time and we want our teachers to really engage with the content before we make those kind of decisions I'm reminding you that as far as special education services and prek we want to be sure that folks are registering children the um the date for uh becoming part of the lottery has closed as of March 15th but we're still of course uh paying attention to children who might be eligible for special education services through early intervention Lori Denise and Kim redlon as I mentioned we'll be presenting about our prease supports at one of our April meetings and a broken record again remind friends and neighbors kind kindergarten registration is open um Mr Kylie and I checked in with Jen Mado today to see where we were we're making some progress uh it is important that we remind people that the sooner we know what our registration and what our enrollment is for kindergarten the sooner we have those registrations in the more we're going to be able to make the right decisions about making sure that we have the right supports in place for our students uh so for those folks that have registered and they know their children are starting kindergarten in the fall we are having a districtwide kindergarten showcase at the Quinn school on May 15th at 6: pm.

so $150,000 wasn't like I just had $150,000 of money just to look at this is a cut that will hurt and um this is where I would recommend us being right I'll take any questions questions for the superintendent please so at what point are are we deciding I know you you just want to give um broad category Cuts but at what point are you deciding detail in the spring in the spring when we really look at our hiring for what we're hiring for so we have some openings at the elementary school we have a math opening we have um uh it's a not un certifi but a certified opening so we'll have to see where those totals come in so I don't want to say that it would be like a 0 2 FTE at the high school where if our hiring and somebody retires let's say in the next month I don't want to put a staff name out there position out there when I may be able to cover it from within if I had to do it right now there would be a reduction of an ft but I know that I have an elementary opening and I know I have a high school math opening so we'll have to see where that lands Jordan are you anticipa any retirements in the uh the SI day buyout category or is that pretty much done no it's done done corre well no it's not done we still have staff members that are left but no one currently is within that the right now but for next year we we did budget for it next year just in case somebody does um take that up but we do have staff members that fall within that that's part of the contract I think before 1999 that if if you were a teacher that you before 1999 there was a CL C in that contract for 6 B and we still have staff members that um have that provision in place and that is budgeted for next year I I did not touch that Carin I don't know if you have a question this is all new to you and um anything we can answer for you on how this all works and please don't be fashional at a moment I'm still trying to take it off take it'll take two years I'm going to go online py before I go to youall go online Cindy any questions about this or what's going on you're good uh Kim no it was just disappointing last night to hear that even if we uh you know cut this budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars more and Clos Library doors and everything it's still it's still not the issue the issue is the re-evaluation so I really hope that the community can get that message because I think there's this undertone of like no it's the board of AD it's the budgets it's always they keep they keep raising everything but you know that reevaluation is really what's hurting taxpayers um so I know the the newsletter is going to out Lou right when is that going out oh not until um what mid April the last week of April a April 15 it goes see the issue is is as much as we can want want to separate ourselves from the uh the rebound but we're going to get sucked into it for and can't avoid it but um hopefully that newsletter will educate the best thing we can do is try to educate people on the merits of our budget separating it from everybody's going to be upset about their taxes so Felicia do you have a question maybe I'm good thank you okay may what what do this change remember we had a 5 point something budget incre 5.39 what does this change this to so this would change 150 it all depends where um some of you heard this other night that the education cost share was actually reduced from our $398,000 to $258,000 due to the formula that they used is different than what they it's the same formula that they used a year ago when the governor's budget was approved but in the in a year K's wealth went up so the formula gave us less money so Peggy I'm not sure where they have that on their mill rate out but if we just took 150,000 from our 5.39 355,000 is a% so this is about 25% 4.96 we go from there 5.39 to 4.96 do they project like there there's new businesses that are being built yes the new homes that are being they don't forecast any no it is um it's just rebout which is mandated by the state um the company does rebout does it for other towns it's just it's it it truly is as I said Russell and I were talking about it's a seesaw and our our values went up but the other two that were helping to offset went down so we have to Residents we uh property owners are picking up a bigger part of the tab um you know I I will say I talked I talked to Bob Skinner today and he's he's working hard to try to figure out a way to minimize this and he said he's looking into there isn't there is a uh opportunity within a law that you can phase in um an assessment like this or a reval over 3 years but he's not sure if we qualify for it he's doing a lot more work on it but I will say our our CEO is is fast at work he he realizes the pain he's trying to do something about it any further questions on these where does the where does all the reval money go it goes does it go back to the town or the state like all that money that will become coming in it doesn't get to go back into the town or into the budget no it's it's it's the money that funds the funds to town yeah right so there'll be a surplus of that there won't be a there's no Surplus there's no Sur I know that we're just paying a little bit more because the other guys are going to be paying a little bit less so okay we know the questions um we will go to public um public comment at this point see if anybody has anything is there anybody online we don't have any okay thank you all right um we going go right to the motion thank you I move that the C Board of Education reduce the final 2425 budget in the amount of 150,000 further recommendation of the board of Finance in the following areas certified salaries $6,000 non-certified salaries $20,000 technology and Technology subscriptions $20,000 professional development conferences $20,000 small capital projects $10,000 textbooks and instructional resources uh in the new category of $20,000 have a second thanks Peggy any further discussion hearing none all those in favor I online I unanimous do we have nine tonight is that right yeah so 90 90 okay thank you very much everybody okay we now we're going to move into uh want me to read yeah I move that the C Board of Ed enter into executive session for the purposes of contract negotiation discussions at 7:16 p.m.

good afternoon welcome to the senate committee on education today is Monday March 25th this is our 3:15 pm. agenda and we are in hearing room 229 this meeting including the audio and video of remote particip ipants is being streamed live on YouTube you will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and on demand and video page of the legislature's website this Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include the 3:15 p.m.

e One Nation God indivisible well good evening everyone welcome to the March meeting of the Green Castle School Board glad to see everybody here uh you get to listen to my voice this evening because the president is out so I apologize for that we're going to get through bear with me uh let's see starting off do we have any adjustments to the agenda yep we have one item I suggest item 8 I okay and that's Food Service alart price increase okay can I get a motion to add that for item 8i all right have a motion in a second all those in favor I any opposed motion carried all right do we have any public comments regarding the agenda items anything on the agenda that anyone from the public would like to speak about hearing none we'll move on moving into recognitions Mr GI yep Mr Robert good evening evening I have Mr Paxton ener here and he is a second grader at rid path um and he was nominated by his second grade teacher Hayes for our February student of the month so I will read a couple words that she wrote about him Paxon is our student of the month for February because of his kindness and genuine care for others he gives hugs to his classmates that are having a rough time offers to help others uses a calm and gentle voice with his classmates and will reassure others by giving them caring paths on the back what a great example for kindness month so congratulations to H [Applause] brought the whole crew that time so we have a photo backdrop set up for pictures students of the month after to recognize uh Mr thank you it's my honor to introduce you to aah H alah is a kindergartner of Mrs Burnham's class and she was nominated by Mrs Burnham and then uh vote received several votes from our staff members for of the month for February Mrs Burnham writes Aaliyah is always following directions in class she works so hard and is a great role model to other students I love that she always had a smile on her face and I have enjoyed watching her grow our student [Applause] [Music] month thank you so is the February student of the mon for TV is a student in Mrs Julie Stevens class she wrote some was chosen for February student of the month for many reasons first he is a kind anding student he's demonstrated on many occasions that he truly cares about helping classmates and teachers without being asked see something that needs to be done and automatically jump I appreciate this very much second is a good friend to his classmates C is willing to volunteer to help any student that needs a partner for any finally has worked very hard year and I appreciate [Applause] his stud she's not here today but I will sure that we give her and her the proud of thank [Applause] you so the same our student is not here he has another activity um we had Joseph haale and his uh teacher nominated him saying that he is kind to everyone he gives to himself freely and helps others regardless of their situation decades from now fellow students will remember Joseph for all of his kindness [Applause] okay moving on we're going to go to the approval of the consent agenda which consists of meeting minutes uh the regular board meeting minutes from February 26 of 2024 which are posted on the board or on the door excuse me uh then into the allowance of claims financial report and Personnel reports part one and two Mrs rmer yes hello um person in your um Finance packet you're going to have the two payrolls in February one dated um February 2nd total payroll of 44907 and along with that payroll came the payroll taxes and retirement total on that payroll was 131 [Music] 8429 and then the second regular payroll was dated the 16th uh total payroll 511 93737 and again payroll taxes and retirement total was 143,00 591620 for February 2024 total for some prepays um were uh excuse me was uh 323 30194 those were prepaids for February we also had a second batch of prepays due to my vacation that we dated that February 28th so those payroll which the board approved a month before for us to go ahead and do that so um those prepays totaled 81,9 328 and then next in your um packet you're going to have a list of claims dated today March 25th 2024 going through the list did anyone have any questions about any specific claim this month seem pretty okay typical there's nothing unusual on there I agree total of 318,000 83 and then we'll move on to the finance report um the balance at the end of Education or excuse me the education fund the end of February 2024 was 3 million 845 28656 and the balance uh in operations was 657 6556 total in all funds if you go to the last page was 8, 3873 next in your packet you've got the um Bank to balance um report or Excuse excuse me Bank to fund balance report and you'll see that we're balanced to the penny on that that means all of our funds balance with all of our banks and that's exactly where we want to be at the end of the month and then we've got the fund transfer report for February 2024 total for all transfers was 57135np those were pretty typical too okay and then finally in um for our finance report we've got some updates for Bond 21 and bond 2022 expenditures uh we had some uh one expenditure in bond 2021 for Construction Services um there 477,000 535 so the total um for all expenditures at the end of February 2024 as you can see we're getting really close to that original budget um the total is 31 million 581 8974 and the same holds true with Bond 2022 we had a um few expenditures um for media displays for the Middle School to finish out some of those projects so our total at the end of February 2024 um expenditures in bond 2022 3,950 9597 and any any questions I'd like to submit for approval I have no question getting close on the bonds that's cool yeah okay all right is there any further discussion on that all right hearing none can I get a motion to approve okay can I get a second call second have a motion in the second all those in favor I any oppose motion carried all right we'll move into reports uh we have the gcta here this evening communicate with they don't have to report okay all right and Mrs M C's not here so I assume she is not going to make her report very good all right so Mr giy is here so he will make the superintendent's report yeah so I just have a few couple of brief items to to report on um this evening um all one of the most exciting things that we look forward to each year is Kindergarten Roundup which correct me if I'm wrong Mr mchu um my sticky note off my computer it takes place next week the 2 and the 4th from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m.

e [Music] good evening I'd like to call to order this meeting of the school committee uh for March 25th please stand if you are able for the pledge of allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all thank you everyone um I just want to note that uh this meeting is being re uh recorded uh for re well recorded in streamed live but also for rebroadcast on DCTV channels 9 Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5: Fridays at 6:00 a.m. Saturday 8 a.m. Sundays at 2 also on channel 18 uh DCTV channel 18 on Mondays and Saturdays noon and Thursday at 3 p.m.

and that this is an opportunity for for parents for caregivers uh to hear about what they can expect for the overall experience for their children who are entering kindergarten Here in Dartmouth once those registrations are complete School assignments are made made then there'll be open houses in those individual schools so that families caregivers students will have an opportunity to go to the schools uh meet with the administrative staff to meet with teachers to see classrooms Etc so all of that is in the works and that will be happening um I would say in pretty short order so keep registering um your students and and keep reminding people how important that is U Mr Kylie me mentioned strategic planning and that's directly connected to entry planning and next month we will be reporting out on this phase this Thursday from 8:30 to 11:30 we have our first districtwide strategic planning team meeting I'm happy to say that we've expanded uh the number of people that are participating on that team and we think we have uh a really broad uh group of folks that are going to be sitting around that table that include parents School leaders teachers Etc so if you have any suggestions about things Town officials well people that you think maybe we missed we happy to hear that um we are going to be advertising that position of Early Childhood I think at the last meeting I said it was already going to have happened but we're just making some minor adjustments to make sure that when that jaob ad goes out it's really clear what the roles and respon what the role and responsibilities for that for our next director will be uh education support professionals all levels I know substitute teachers college kids are coming home soon I know they are um I have a couple of nieces who are going to be headed home shortly so let's get them uh down here to sign up to substitute teach um as far as climate and culture we just saw a great example of it from our Dello students but I want to continue just commending all of the wonderful accomplishments last week I along with Mr Oliver who I saw there we attended Dartmouth finest um I came away so impressed I think it was 3 hours long and I have to tell you it didn't see there wasn't a down moment in the entire show so it was really incredible I want to say that the seniors put themselves out there in such unique and fun ways uh ways that you wouldn't expect and at the same time I was also uh really impressed and inspired by the vulnerability that they showed because it was toward the end of their their show they all got a chance to speak and they they all shared something personal that you could literally feel in the space in the room that their their classmates their peers the support that they had for for the students that were up on stage a big shout out to the junior class so we have something to look forward to because no no doubt they were watching everything the senior class was doing and there's a lot of competition amongst classes I could see that because they even talked about the class the year before um so they all want to outdo each other in a really healthy way um Stephanie church and Julie Newman their hard work paid off they were here this evening I don't know if you saw them but they're having a screening a Dartmouth finest screening this evening for the students who participated in the event last last week it was just a week ago um John noones and Andy Christa foi this is your week Thursday they're being honored by um the MIAA uh I know Mr noones has quite a contingent of family that will be joining him to honor him for the hard work that he's done for the Dartmouth students so we congratulate you Mr Nunes I wish we could be there um I think Mr uh if I'm not mistaken Mr parate I know that I I wanted to talk a little you we're going to show a video but the screen looks blank to me but I do want to say Mr par took a group of students uh to nbc10 news um which he brought I I don't know the exact number of students but it was a pretty sizable group of students and they got to see some of the equipment they got to get into the studio they got to take some really great photos of them actually sitting at the anchor desks um do we have a video we do all right I'm excited I was going to have to do what Mrs kareah did and keep [Music] talking [Music] so it looked to me um Mr noones if you may have recognized a student or two on the screen so that's super exciting I guess there's a 2020 three graduate Holly Raposa raposo um spoke to the group so what a great connection for the students to have to actually get out into Boston to see a college campus where they may not have had the opportunity to have that kind of experience and to know that that's something that's reachable for them um so I think again an amazing experience Mr parate and I know Miss shavei had joined him uh and by all accounts the students had a wonderful time by the way the video was put together by one of our students um so you can see that no surprise that the work that they're doing with our students is making huge impact on outcomes for kids um and let's not forget the uh prepackaged clips from Dartmouth finest that uh that the uh media students had put together as well that's right maybe we can show that well right now there are oh for during that all those that Wasing by par and students as well by the students right all of that was put together by students and and if you haven't seen it I think it's probably streaming on DCTV it was it was every every part of it was something that you'd want to you want to celebrate um and then I just wanted to end with mentioning that Mr Kylie and I this morning we met with Chief L and we also met with with Lieutenant um dasta and S Sant Ola those are the folks that are working directly with our SRO um and I want to again commend our SRO it's officer dasta officer tarz well two officer tarz is Officer David tarez and officer Amanda tarez they do really wonderful work in our schools uh supporting our students supporting our Educators supporting our families and our community in general uh one thing that came out of our meeting today was that Chief L he uh he he had been investigating an opportunity for us to partner with the police department in the school department on um some opportunities sort of to strengthen our relationships and and in the way that we work together when we know that we may have students who may need additional or more support than we currently are able to provide so we are going to be joining them um in hopefully very soon in working together to probably starting at the high school although I don't think I mentioned that to Mr Shay yet so Mr Shay if you're here uh we'll be talking to you about that but we're excited to continue to strengthen those kind of Partnerships because those relationships are important to the community and so that's it thank you Dr sa questions just I mean if you look at what we have here in our DC in the studio back here that the students are operating tonight and downstairs type of deal it's in all a miniature version of what they saw in Boston and and such so you know that gives them a bigger expansion bigger view of what it is but this is a great setup that we have here it's amazing you know that these students are able to operate with so no agreed report of the chair I do not have anything uh and Kathleen ameral did not share anything with me so uh any any of my colleagues have anything to share couple of quick things Mr chairman uh not uh April 6th and 7th uh the six our colard has their nesba uh nesba finals I think it's in Salem and uh November 7th which is a Sunday uh the nesba percussion finals and wins will be here April April 7 second seventh what did I say November oh jeez okay November making sure I want people to know and I did this last month the last meeting too you weren't here messed up the dates but that's going on uh this past weekend was a busy the uh Color Guard was in new beit on Saturday afternoon and both the Junior vity and vity took first place in their class and then our percussion was down in uh Toms River New Jersey for a WGI region and uh they you know in the semi-final Saturday they took first in their class and then uh yesterday afternoon they took first again overall with the high score for the weekend in u in it of everybody that competed so that was nice and then you know spring Sports have started so just wishing all student athletes in the spring Sports good luck keep you know keep our wonderful success we've had rolling agreed thank you Mr new that's all I have I'll just remind everyone that the town election is coming up before our next meeting so everyone make sure to turn out and vote yep yes just because Sorry Miss caflin to get in front of you because I I wanted to make sure that I acknowledged how much I've enjoyed walk working with Dr Jenkins and coming in as a first year superintendent I to tell you um I watched lots of video before I actually started here and saw you at school committee and I was a little bit you know afraid intimidated so um I just want to say how much I've enjoyed working with you and I too have learned so much from working with you and I look forward to continuing our work together even though it might look a little bit different but I think it's going to be just as important so thank you for your support thank you thank you Dr samon mcgu and yes thank you once again thank you for your countless hours of uh volunteerism thanks uh next meeting the next regularly scheduled meeting of the dmas school committee is Monday April 8th 2024 at 6 pm at the dmouth high school library media center right here at this time chair will'll entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session for the purpose to discuss Union Personnel matters not to reconvene so moved second motion by Dr Jenkins second by Mr Nunes on the motion any other discussion roll call please Chris Oliver yes Elizabeth Coughlin yes Shannon Jenkins yes John noones y yes meeting is adjourned happy [Music] Easter M you guys for making me cry I you e

online is and Felicia not yet I'm okay thank you okay let's uh Hey R let's do the uh the pledge please I pledge alleg to the flag the United States of America to the for it stands one nation libery and justice for all okay thank okay um we'll go into the uh the budget workshop and then we will open up for public comment after that give people a chance to come online so the uh what what we're dealing with is uh for those of you who made the meeting last night um it it became very um apparent that the town is in a difficult situation specifically when it comes to the rebound on our homes um and I was talking to Russell about it earlier today and the fact of the matter is that um home price home um properties have gone up but unfortunately commercial properties have gone down and where we make a lot of the money as a town is with our uh car taxes and car ta car uh values have gone down significantly so the combination of those two have left the uh have left the resident residential property owners um the um unfortunately the job of of carrying the ball and because of that it's it's significant um so last last night we were trying to separate that and what we heard from the board of finance and we heard from former selectman first selectman Dick Barlo is that our budget seemed to be uh reasonable um you know if it wasn't for the Ral um a budget like this is is is um is is probably part for the course and uh that we did a good job uh getting us to where we had to but we're going to get tainted by the Ral brush clearly and uh but be it is May we'll get into that in a second so we were asked to cut $150,000 from our budget um and so tonight's the purpose of tonight's meeting is for the superintendent to inform us of where those cuts are going to come from and for us to adopt those cuts and if we do then I'll do a uh a memo to the uh uh chair of the board of Finance letting her know where the uh where the cuts are coming from uh so that they know that we've met their uh we've met their request so so with that I open it up to Dr Gman super there's a sheet going around right now and for the board members I apologize that you don't have this online um maybe somebody can text that to them can I text it to you right now she is oh Fel hi Felicia Kim Cindy I just sent Dr BR just texted you or I just sent it to Ken so we could send it to Felicia and Cindy so in front of you you have a draft Memo from the the board chair to the board of Finance member that is on Monday and the board chair and I spoke yesterday and today regarding the $150,000 cut or reduction so in front of you you have my recommendations of what would be reduced that total is $150,000 so the first line item is certified salaries I look at that as something with the the higher in that we still have to do and possible retirements and the the possibility of making a reduction to certified staff I'm recommending a $60,000 cut right now I I'm not sure exactly what certified position that would be we need to do the high school middle school schedule we need to look at enrollment I'm hoping we could absorb that in hiring this spring but I needed to put that out there non-certified salaries the same thing $20,000 that would cover a possible tutor if you remember I have a tutor at K Intermediate School that is a new position um that that could be a wide variety of non-certified type of positions ranging from Paras tutors and uh monitors so that that's something that um I I think we need to do also technology and subscriptions I met with our cabinet yesterday and Jeff deastro and John said that if we need to make Cuts this would be an area that they would recommend and we would have to meet with our team to talk to them about which subscriptions would be cut in which technology items would be specifically cut but Jeff um said we can look at that area professional development and conferences we would have our teachers and administrators stay in District and we would try to bring our own professional development into District excuse me and so that would be a cut small capital projects of $10,000 ranging from we'd have to look at some of the items that we had in our budget and we would uh cut some of those uh small capital projects and then one of the things that we need to also look at is we have textbooks in for the high school we have instructional resources in for the middle school and the elementary schools so that would be a $20,000 cut we specifically have to look at that what I'm trying not to do is create alarm within our district from a Personnel standpoint and from a instructional standpoint but $150,000 is a lot to us I don't want to minimize that it's not I already cut $351,000 from our budget which was some of it was existing already to get to the number that I was getting at and just remember that our fixed cost to roll over with special education was in a %.

inviting Jordan Gman superintendent of schools second thanks Erica any any discussion all those in favor oh um so how should we handle the people so that passes so we're going into the executive session how do you want to the phone um you want to should we call you on the phone and listen in but if nobody's on right Carol I can lock the meeting and you can stay in here yeah allop I don't think this will take

uh we have a public hearing for the school proposed fiscal year 25 school budget it has been advertised in the standard times um I think it was March 18th edition of the standard times that is set to open at 6:05 we've got four minutes so I'm going to ask my colleagues um if we could move the minutes up for approval um uh I would entertain a motion for the regular session minutes of March 11th so moved second we have a motion by Mr Oliver a second by Mr noons any discussion on that motion no um oh got forget all that roll call Kate Kathleen Amaral here Chris Oliver here Elizabeth Coughlin here Shannon Jenkins John Nunes y haven't catched that either I think I this is my right my last no my one more meeting where you have to deal deal with me um so we have a motion Mr Oliver um second by Mr noon uh no discussion so I will say all in favor I motion passes unanimously I will actually I will obain one passes 41 41 401 thank you1 um and since we have three minutes left before we can open up for the um uh public hearing on the school budget I want to take a a moment to recognize one of my colleagues on the school committee um this is her last meeting um I do see a little bit of a grin and so um everyone at this table sort of came together we have a certificate for you for your elected years in office we won't revisit that history but Miss Jenkins stepped up and was appointed prior to that election um and we have a little something for you um behind this certificate so make sure not to throw it [Applause] out thank you I think you'll like what's in the envelope underneath thank you um and if I I just want to say that um it's been an honor to serve with you um we've been through some difficult times and you have served uh with conviction and an unwavering commitment to uh the students and the educators of this District uh you've had um you know that focus on transparency Health Equity over these years uh transparency around all the wonderful contributions that are parent organizations and other volunteers in this District have put toward bringing in a lot of money that allows our kids to experience um extracurricular activities and uh field trips and those sorts of things um and you have just been uh incredibly um unwavering in in your stance and you've brought to us your uh background as a political science major and a professor Dr Jenkins um and you have stood firm in those and it's been an honor to witness that um and that's what I have to say I'll turn it over to my colleagues for the last minute or so if they have anything additional to add thank you madam chair I I can't believe it's been almost 10 years Shannon uh it's been a while uh so yeah I will Echo a lot of what um Kathleen said um I've enjoyed uh our time together I think we've we've got a lot of we've gotten a lot accomplished um you and I have never we didn't always see eye to eye on some issues and on a lot of issues we did and we were able to move in my uh my opinion be able to move the district forward so I learned a lot from you um and I I thank you uh for serving and uh I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors so thank you for for serving and I didn't have that much time with you here but I've learned a lot from you and I wish I could learn a lot more from you um but you're a huge asset to this committee and I will miss you thank you yeah thank I I kind of echo what my colleagues have said yeah most of the time you and I don't agree every once and every once in a while you know you know part of my pun hell free is over because we do agree on something type of deal but uh uh I have always and I mean as in all seriousness admired your conviction uh you take a stance and that's where you're going to stand irregardless of what happens and I admire you and I applaud you for that uh it has been a privilege uh to serve on this committee to call you a friend and a colleague and uh wish you and Doug and your family uh much happiness and uh enjoyment and you know if you have nothing better to do on a Monday night you know we stream live on YouTube now so we're wherever so you know my computer skills so somewhere somewhere out in space there's you know the channel is there so you know take a look and watch so but again all the best thank you excellent so now we're past the time and we can open up for so I just want to say one thing I want to say thank you to everyone here at the table but also people who've served in the past um I've served for almost 10 years on this committee um I've served we're reminiscing about other roles on the finance committee and the budget Review Committee um I can say almost to a te that every single person that I've have worked with I know on this committee but also in this town um volunteers their time because they believe they want to make this town these schools a better place um I'm proud of this committee I'm going to get all te you should have done this up at the beginning but I'm proud of this committee because we do disagree a lot and I think we're a real example of what it takes to get along in these polarized times because we all show up to the table to do the work and I think if we all in this community show up to do the work we'll make this community a better place so I encourage other people to volunteer their time to get involved um to do what it takes to help continue to make the Dartmouth schools and the town of Dartmouth a better place so thank you thank you thank you Dr Jenkins uh so at this point I understand uh that I just have to ask for a motion to open uh the public hearing for the uh fiscal year 25 proposed school budget m a motion that we open the public hearing for the proposed fy2 school budget thank you second second okay we have motion we have a second uh any discussion all in favor I I uh so I ask that if anyone has any comment specific to uh the proposed school budget uh we have a new uh setup here in the middle of um the room if you could come up to the to that microphone um state your name and um try to keep your comments brief don't all run up at once good evening my colleague and I Jody par Rene VI we were hoping some other folks would step up this evening and and greet you and let you know that though we do appreciate the hard work that you've done uh to try to balance the upcoming fy2 budget um that it's not a done deal we haven't lived through it yet um we have to get through the end of the year and see if riffing is actually going to happen uh find out what our class sizes are going to be like for the upcoming year um we say right now that we're not cutting anyone but we know that we're losing folks to attrition that means people that are uh leaving going elsewhere people that are retiring um it's disappointing right now I'll tell you that um the town people aren't concerned it's disappointing that the town's people are saying okay well they had money for school choice they put it aside and now they're going to use that as a Band-Aid for fiscal 25 because fiscal 26 is going to be even worse and we're not going to have that money those monies aside um so our concern is that the town's going to become a little bit complacent because we've been able to sort of fix it here and excuse us when we say we but we do appreciate Dr Saba Maguire's willingness and Mr Kylie's willingness to having these conversations with us um but we would like everyone in town and you folks to also uh just please keep in mind that we know enrollment has been has dropped townwide at each of the grade levels or you know the elementary middle and high um but right now what it looks like is that um the losses to due to attrition are uh losses of Staff members that work directly with students and that scares us because we do recognize that children have much higher needs than they have in the past um but looking back 20 years just when we opened this school building actually the ratio to Administration um the administration student ratio was much different than it is now recognizing that there are increased needs everywhere we just ask you to please uh take care and thinking about the number of positions that get cut that uh in which we have students uh that will be directly impacted we know we have needs we know we need a behaviorist and we appreciate that being kept in the budget we hope that we can fill all the ESP positions um but we're just sitting here a little downhearted and I imagine some of you folks are as well um because we've been able to kind of hopefully get through this year we'll know at the end what really happens um you know we know dmouth Public Schools financially isn't where it needs to be and next year is going to hurt much harder than this one is right now and this one's painful for us our members are very concerned they come to us what's going to happen you know senor riffing um Etc so we do thank you for your time and if we're a little long at least we ate up the few minutes that we're here to be offered yeah I just want to say one thing I know you know the positions that we're planning on cutting and it's supposed to be worse next year so I don't know where else you can cut the class sizes will just keep getting bigger and that is a huge concern because when we say an average class size of 21 we know that it's not all nice and neat and every class is going to have 21 students it could be some grade levels where class sizes are 18 and some where class sizes are 25 26 so it it's it's concerning and um when we hear that it's going to keep looking worse moving forward we're even more concerned so but again we do definitely appreciate the transparency the conversations that you have had with us um so hopefully we can come together and do the right thing in this thank you just so we don't have to come back up we know that it's a public comment shortly and um Dr Jenkins thank you for everything uh we appreciated the conversations um it's been uh a good number of years that we've had uh you know back and forth and we wish you well thank you thank you thank you looks like I would uh looks like nobody's rushing to the okay microphone Madam chair make a motion that we close the public hearing for the fy2 school year budget second give a motion second any discussion all in favor I I thank you very much um at this point uh we will we're back in Open Session and just again uh for just a second and if anyone wants to come up to speak to any matter that is on the agenda in addition to you know not the budget but any other items on the agenda please step forward and I'll wait an awkward couple of seconds to see if anyone rushes to the microphone okay hearing none um great uh next I will turn it over to Dr Saba Maguire to um introduce the most exciting part of um positive part of this agenda I know I would say that looking out at the number of people that are here in our audience to audience I'm calling it an audience because that's what it feels like um but the number of people that are here this evening to celebrate our Dello children is really heartening um so I want to thank everyone for being here tonight I look through the PowerPoint that they're going to be presenting and it's GM packed so um I'm not sure I can give an adequate preview but I'm going to invite the principal Miss kareah up to the microphone and I think we have a great presentation [Applause] ahead well hello and thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to Spotlight our wonderful Dello school and our students um we are really very excited to share everything with you this evening the ultimate Spotlight is on our students over there but before we can bring them up we would like to an opportunity to talk to you about what we've been doing at Dello school so con connection has always been an overarching Focus for us at Dello school and this year is uh is following in suit we know that we all learn through connection through connecting with others and at Dello we have been learning through connecting to one another in our classrooms this year across grade levels and throughout the community oops I never I think I did this last year I just talked past all the slides all right so I'm going to start off by just talking about one of our focuses for this year was to connect cultures and families throughout the building so for years we've upheld the belief that Dello school is a place of Windows and mirrors what we mean by that is that we want our students to see themselves reflected in the lessons they learn the activities they participate in the books they read we also want to provide our students with Windows through which they may learn about others last fall we hung up this world map that you see displayed on the slide presentation on a bulletin board at the entrance of our building with a simple note asking families that were there for open house or for assemblies to pin a place anywhere in the world that they had connection to and it was great because some people pinned places in the United States where their friends were a lot of people uh pinned places that they had loved ones that they were connected to um their families of origin um some people pinned places that they've visited on vacation and we used all of the pins to focus um on the areas that around the world that people had connections to and kind of interweave those places throughout the Dello School this year so um as a school we used all those locations on the map to kind of focus our schoolwide read aloud so at Dello school we we put out what started as a weekly read aloud it's more like every other week now um that we record and we share with classrooms throughout the building and sometimes the read alouds just focus on good character traits and and stories with great theme uh and a lot of them um incorporate some cultural aspect so in looking at that map we've been able to bring a lot of read alouds that reflect the the maps the pinned areas um and the these are just a few Ki in the city is about a little boy um who moves from Puerto Rico to the mainland the Arabic quilt is about a little girl who's the children of Egyptian immigrants and American Desi is about a girl who's in between her Indian culture and her American culture and through those read alouds we have to give teachers time to pause the video and really talk about the characters talk about all kinds of things um but we love honoring our students from different places uh around the world who are connected to different places I should say through those read alouds we also took a look at the pinned areas on that map to bring cultural programs to demo School this year um just not too long ago we had Len cabal who is a well-known Storyteller from the area who came and delighted our students during the day with uh storytelling from the Caribbean uh and African folktales and then he put uh on a wonderful family night for our Dello families to enjoy those stories we also had local author Janet costates with us earlier this year who um she's from I think she's from the Dartmouth area initially she definitely has Dartmouth family because she bumped into a family member in our building quite unexpectedly but she's a a very successfully published author who writes about children of color focuses a lot on cap Verdian culture and Portuguese culture and she came to our school and did writers workshops with our students on creating characters and I don't know if you can see this in the slide gave them a little Portuguese lesson um as well so another way that we are connecting with families in culture is our uh Dello family wall um we have one bulletin board soon to be two in the building dedicated to recognizing our diverse and wonderful Dello families we try to catch pictures of them whenever in they in the in the building um we took a lot of these at open house but also at student of the month assemblies anytime we can get a family in front of a green screen um Mrs vosy our wonderful instructional Tech coach who you hear a lot more about this evening um takes a picture prints it and it goes on the wall and I have to say that when students is it's the the the um bulletin board is in a hallway that's pretty heavily traveled by our students and um you see students all the time stopping and looking at everyone with their families and they point out their families but then they point out their friends families and it's such a source of joy and pride um that they take in this um in this bulletin board um this is actually an idea that we had years ago at the Dello school that we've actually seen through uh it was a pre-co dream dream that um couldn't be done with masks on and and here we are we focus this year on putting this together and every time we have a gathering we add more pictures and it's just no one passes by it without a smile I'm going to turn it over to Mr Hill to talk about classrooms yeah hi everybody Adam Hill assistant principal at the middle school so yeah in terms of connecting to the classrooms um we're going to share a little bit about our grade two they put together a stem chall all with again our wonderful um uh Tech coach Liz vosi and the stem challenge for this one it was in the during the winter time and it it had a winter theme so parents were invited in and teams grade level teams for grade two uh they developed their own town and what they did with that town is they added um cotton balls as a way to like assimilate snow and then using a bbot which is like a small little robot they then program that robot to then navigate throughout the town so really neat stem challenge they all work collectively on it was a really special day for everyone and families as well um I'm going to turn it over to Dr Heather real quick so I get to talk to you about the best part of Dello school which is recess you know you ask the kids what their favorite subject is and they say recess so I think we should just change curriculum and make it a you know recess a curricular but um I have the best room in the in the whole school because I get a prime seat to what recess looks like and a couple years ago we were noticing there was a lot of disregulation around recess primarily because people were making up their own lines and you know the goal would move and somehow the person who was supposed to be the referee then shot the goal and then the other team's ahead so we we believed that we wanted to restructure it so one of the ways we did that was applying for a DF Grant and thank you to the DF um for you know giving us some money to help us out and we had a couple of things we wanted to do and it started with these three Fields so football I don't know about any other school but um NFL has a great history um future ahead with the kids that are playing at Dello so the first thing you'll see is a miniature football field um the second field you see is a smaller practice field and what we found with that was we were bringing kids that maybe didn't know how to play so well soccer as part of the big large group and um we started doing drills with a um a a student teacher we had and kids were coming that would never have played kids were coming that didn't think that they were good enough to be on that big soccer field and it really brought that um connection back and then we have that big soccer field too so on top of that we have um rules in the making that we're going to be zip tying to uh wherever we can zip tie them um as well as working very hard with DHS to try and get some and Mr Christoph fly to get some athletes to come and be part of our um recess time and then hopefully Branch out to theater and music programs so that every kid has someone to look up to and something that Mr sheay had said when we sat down is about connecting our communities and having our kids look up to someone at the high school and have them see what it could be like to be a kid in that place and really pushing our way to staying here and being part of our community so these are our structured recess games you should come and see it it's really awesome great thank you thank you oh here they are more pictures here all right soccer and football okay continuing on with uh connecting oh this is you that's me no sorry that's me oh so uh I'm going to just move on and talk about how we connected to Melo School across grade levels so another way that we learn through connection at Dello is by bringing kids together from different grade levels um in different capacities so last year we spotlighted our stem Fridays at our Dello Spotlight at school committee and um we featured our instructional technology coach Mrs vosi who came up with the idea after covid that kids needed to kind of come together work through problems together um and kind of reconnect and stem Fridays if you ever come to Dello school and we invite everybody always to come to Dello school but if you ever come on a Friday afternoon you will see the cafeteria filled with students first graders third graders fifth graders everything in between working on stem challenges that never get old that are always super exciting um and we see that you know not only are our kids working in stem in science technology engineering in math but they're working on the soft skills that are so important that you know not many people really talk a lot about but are super important not just for our students but for every human being so you can walk into a stem Friday and watch our kids connecting while they're working on their communication skills they're working on compromising being adaptable just being overall you know kind and respectful to each other so we feel like we get a lot out of a small chunk of a Friday afternoon I know there are teachers here probably nodding saying it's the best day of the week for them also in a lot of cases because the energy in that room is palpable and the learning is fantastic but you'll learn just a tiny bit more about stem teams at the end of this presentation so we also like to connect students to one another across grade levels through buddy classes so we have a long Tradition at Dello School of getting kids together to read to each other you're looking at um a buddy day that we just had recently where the big kids and the little kids got to sit and read for a half an hour at the end of the school day but they also work on projects together across classrooms and I've never heard anyone not say anything wonderful about the time they spend with the Buddy class the kids the smaller kids look up to the the the older kids and think that they're so wonderful and the older kids are thoroughly delighted at working with um the smaller kids so everybody wins just like in stem teams we also have very very strong student councils at Dello school made up of role models who serve the Dello School its neighbors and the surrounding community so this year what you see in this picture is our fourth grade student council which is a rather large group of students um led by Mrs Baker and Mrs Mary uh and this group has partnered with gifts to give in New Bedford on doing like athletic equipment drivve so we wanted to put footballs and soccer balls and basketballs and other equipment into the hands of uh students around the region who might not have access to those uh things otherwise so that was a fall initiative that our fourth grade student council took on on engaging the whole school in bringing uh bringing those donations in and making sure that they got delivered to um to the students who need it most in the region um our fourth grade student council has also spent quite a bit at the Council on Aging next door to Dello school they were there last week for some chitchat and some crafts but the big deal is they are soon returning to do some line dancing with um some seniors at the uh Council on on aging and I'm personally hoping um to get to witness some boot scooting among our students as well as our staff so stay tuned I'm hoping um that we can bring pictures in some form of that event our fifth grade student council uh under the guidance of our fifth grade teachers Mrs colbeck Miss faras Mrs agar and Mrs alen has also been very busy this year with uh schoolwide drives to support um South Coast families in need and these wonderful cherubs also take care of all of our recycling in the building which for which we're very very thankful uh and finally uh we connect across grade levels with all of our wonderful Dello assemblies that bring us together for celebrations and fun this is a picture of one of our favorite alltime assemblies organized by Mr Hill our holiday sing along which took place right before our holiday break in December with the help of our music teacher Mrs cemi and our instructional Tech coach there's a theme Here Mrs vosy uh we had an entire School staff included singing out holiday songs one after another honestly what seems like such a simple event spread so much joy across the building we look forward to doing more of them but we are not done talking about connection at Dello school at this time I'm going to turn it back over to Mr Hill to talk about how we connect to the community all right so connecting with the community Dello has had the wonderful opportunity of connecting with the Dartmouth YMCA as well as the lead educator for sharing of the Harvest Sarah leaderman and here we had the opportunity with the support of our PTO and parent volunteers we were able to build two planter boxes uh we had um oil donated from Ace Hardware across the way and we also had wild flowers that were donated so there we created our very own pollinator garden and this is and and continues to be a great way for us to get our hands dirty as we connect with our science curriculum standards so this was really great for everybody continuing on uh we held a a really special Arbor Day ceremony at Dello where we included eversource and the Dartmouth tree uh committee uh so many uh community members came to join us including the tree Warden and here uh what we did is um again working in conjunction with eversource um our fifth grade uh student council researched trees that were being donated from eversource and so the the trees that were donated were swamp Oak a red bud and a black gum tree fifth grade did a wonderful job of researching those trees and then fourth grade red poems just talking about trees in general in Arbor Day and uh those trees are standing strong today and we're uh thrilled to see them grow and we're also looking forward to continuing our partnership with eversource and the Dartmouth tree Community uh to to turn this ARB day ceremony into an annual ceremony uh in addition we uh work with the New Bedford Child and Family Services and this has been a long-standing fifth grade tradition where fifth grade class classrooms reach out to the New Bedford Child and Family Support Services to adopt a family in need around the holidays uh our teachers you know we don't know the families except for what they might need and this picture here is a picture of our students wrapping so this is an opportunity for them to get involved in wrapping the gifts that have been donated and then our teachers will then coordinate with the child and family services to deliver the presentence to the warehouse something that's very special uh and and then uh lastly we also work with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra this has been very special for us uh they typically will come contact us and let us know what their objective is for the year and in generally they connect with both math or science standards and in this case uh the objective or was uh animal Locomotion so in this picture here it's a whole school assembly we all get to listen it's very interactive very entertaining uh but then we we dwindle it down so they work specifically with our third and fifth grade classrooms uh again we're trying to tie in which standards match the grade level the best and there they went into each classroom and children got had the opportunity to um create their own uh music tied to animal Locomotion and then as a way to wrap it up and put it all together our third and fifth grade classrooms were invited to the New Bedford uh new bford high school where the entire Symphony presented for us all and it was was just really neat for everyone to see so great opportunities for us to connect with the community and last but not least here it comes we're going to talk a little bit about how we connect with everyone at Dello school and that is through our Dello School newspaper student newspaper the howler and our mascot is a wolf if you're wondering where the howler name came from very clever here is a pict picture of the students that you see back there this is our newspaper staff so uh this is a group of fifth grade students who decided that the school Community needed a student created publication to connect us all the howler staff is led by fifth grade teacher Jasmine oene who guides and supports these Young Writers as they get curious about the people and events of our school they publish their electronic newspaper just about every month and I'll be honest I learned something new about Dello and the people in it every time I read one tonight's Spotlight was inspired really by this group who recently got curious about what students loved most about our school and here is some of what these young journalists found out okay can you can we queue it up Mr uh oh I don't see the video there's supposed to be a video oh no Mrs Bosey our instructional Tech coach is going to be sad right now if that's okay because we're going long and we've got it we want them to come up but they what they did was they spent about two weeks um interviewing students from grades one through five about what they loved about Dello school and what they really appreciated about how we connect as a school and I promise if we can't show it now we will show it um we'll share it with the whole town and everyone we'll ask we'll ask Chad Amaral to put it out on DCTV on a loop and we'll be good I'm gonna I'm gonna move on is it the next question no it was that heart that's the start of the video I promise it was there that's fine nope there's a video in it I'm going to keep talking Jonathan has told me to keep talking I'm going to keep talking so actually that was a f minute video and maybe we would be going on a little bit too long if we did that and what we want to do next but what I would love to do is to um bring our newspaper staff to and Mrs oene to um the podium so that they can tell you what they love about Dello school and why they felt it was important to start a school [Applause] newspaper hollers have um special t-shirts with their names on them so that we don't have to introduce everybody just kidding we're going to bring everyone up who who's answering the first question about what we love about D school first and you can introduce yourself I think we're going to wait on a little microphone right yeah that's it all right so what do the howlers love most about Dello we're gonna start with McKenzie my name is McKenzie I love all the fun activities at Dello school and when kids have a hard time making friends stem teams can for sure help with that because it teaches about leadership teamwork and much more stem teams stands for science technology engineering and math also what makes me feel connected to Dello school is when we had the Storyteller and when we had buddy reading and when we had buddy reading hi my name is Bella and what I love most about Dello School is I love how the teachers go out of their way to help you and if you struggle on anything they're happy to help and I also like if you can't if you're having a hard time making a friend stem teams can help form a new friend friendship hi my name is Liam and what I love most about DEA school is how is how we connect with everybody and the stem teams and everybody would like like if somebody at recess is on the Buddy bench because they don't have a friend to play with um some kids go up right away and help them and H and have them join into their game and just have them play and then they become friends and they just connect hi my name is junifer and what I love most about Dello school is um how it makes me feel connected to any everyone and it's just um I love being with my friends and the teachers and everyone here is so kind and um if somebody needs a friend stem teams help um for hi my name is Arian and for what made us want to create a newspaper was to help everyone connect through all of dellaa school and even like parents outside of school in the committee and I helps people know what's going on in the school and what they can help with or what can help change our community and make it better hi my name is Emma and when I started the newspaper I was really into journalism like it's something I wanted to see but as I got more into it I realized it's more than that it's also a way to connect with all the students and make new friends and it's really great and like thank you the teachers for helping us build this it's so great um hi my name is Ruby and I wanted to create the Dello newspaper because um I thought it was really cool to learn about the school and like learn about our teachers and um it's a great way to like make friends and it's fascinating and I like writing yeah hi my name is Samara and I joined the how newspaper because I wanted to help bring our school Community together I love it when everyone works together as a community and it's really fun to learn about everyone in Spotlight and I love telling everybody about what happened through the happenings and last but certainly not least we wanted to bring bring the uh faculty adviser to the how newspaper up Miss J Mrs Jasmine oen hello how are you um so the newspaper has really taken on a life of its own but it is truly student driven um they we had like a bunch of different ideas Spotlight and happenings and um they started coming up with like book recommendations they've done um would you rathers they've done historical facts um current issue is February March and there's um inspiring quotes for Black History Month and one thing that they've done is they go and they Spotlight and they go to different staff members they choose which staff members to highlight they started with the custodian uh monitors um for lunch and recess they've made sure that they've done all the grades they've hit grade one through five um they've interviewed Mrs Coria and it is true we've learned so much about the differ staff members but they include a fun fact they came up with the questions to ask um and I think that they've I mean they will do work on their own time I've asked them like because we have deadlines and I've asked them to you know can you work on this article um as opinion pieces and they have they we have comics in there and they have done everything I've asked them to do they've missed recess time they and even one those beautiful days to go out and um they've worked on them at home and they've collaborated together they've had to compromise they've had to kind of edit down their work we're so used to having um you know edit like by adding more revising and and adding more detail but they've actually had to like cut it down because it has to fit into the template so um they've done such an amazing job and I am so proud of them um we have students from every classroom and it's a varying um students of levels and and and they just bring so much and we really are like it's a fact fabulous community so I'm very lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people by such smart and caring people and I really appreciate where I am so thank [Applause] you like I've been instructed to keep talking in so I uh I have such love for the Dello School such love for every student in the building and such love for our teachers and staff who come to school every day game on what are we going to do today and I appreciate them all so while I'm waiting for this video to queue up I do want to say that we would be nothing without our students and we would be nothing without the wonderful adults in that building that light the way for them every day okay so thank you I do have copies of the howler color copies for the school committee and Sophia is going to come around and pass them out and it's really okay if you can't get that going what do you love about deelo school um I like doing field day because I like sports a lot do you have a favorite activity we do at field day um I like the relay race yeah I like that we get to use Chromebooks and we get to do G and epic and Starfall I love how we do read alouds what do you like about the read alouds I like how they're about different stories and they teach you a lot about persevering have you learned anything from any of the books we read so far uh yeah I think I learned that you could do things that might seem impossible and you it's always good to persevere I like that we get to um have Choice time at the end of the day and that um our teachers help us with work we really like St teams when some team when we have some teams we're always creative yeah yeah do you like working together with older students younger students kids in different grades yeah um my favorite part is would rather be Choice time stem teams or recess mine is gy um I like to do like gym and um I like to do the um student of the month CU it helps other people first one is what do you love about DEA school um I love when we get to hang out with our friends and learn new stuff every day anything else um there's one thing that I like doing it's it's um when we do writing we get to learn about our stuff we get we got to bring our toys and we got to share them with our partners that's fun oh well I kind I really like it because there's a lot of nice people there and there's like a whole bunch of my friends and they really really like respect them and the teachers they always like stand by you and they're always going to like back you up but something's going to happen what do you guys love about to school um I really like the so you guys all agree that you love stem te what's your favorite part about stem team like the um seeing my friends and to do another all right what's your favorite thing that we do like together um like writing okay um like what do you like about writing um that sometimes we do partner writing and I like that we get to make new stories every time we finish one first one is what do you love about Dello school um I really like that like everybody is nice and the teachers are really helpful and caring to all the students okay now um how like at recess and like you can make friends like every year even if you're not like in one of your like friends class you can make new friends easily everybody's so kind um I like stem teams and I like the mad scientist because he helps me like learn a lot about science and I don't really get to do that what I like about the Melo school is that everybody is inclusive and we have three rules which is respectful responsible and safe and the last reason is that I like the Storyteller because he's pretty funny and I like his stories a lot and everybody is inclusive and he's just pretty um I love how we get to learn new things every day and we get to learn like math science social studies and we get to learn a lot of new things in it um student counsel um a lot of people at recess they play a bunch of games and I feel like it makes a bunch of people bond together and there's a lot of friends playing together and so my favorite part of the Mello school is when like they have the sing alongs for the um Christmas sing along I really like that cuz it's like every single kid like singing along to like all these songs and I just really like it what's your favorite subject um one of my favorite things about J School is tell when we get to do stem teams we're like able to meet new people and it's fun because we're able to like learn about each other without being in the same class of them and they're when you have like a younger buddy than you then it gives you a responsibility to help them out and like be there for them if they need anything and when they have an and when you have an older budy then they're there for you um I love how everybody's always next to each other and they always include each other can you give us an example about how they're next to each other like if somebody's alone like on the bunny bench they always include each [Music] [Applause] other galasa that was worth the wait um I love Tech problems because it makes me feel needed and wanted I appreciate that you're welcome so we will Shuffle off unless you have questions for our Hollow turn it over to my colleagues Mr no thank you thank you madam chair uh couple of things number one ladies and gentlemen fantastic job I look forward to reading this I appreciate it I appreciate your comments uh watching the video was a an excellent job it's nice to see that the main thing that kind of came out of this is everybody talking about STEM Science Tech and and that's you know that's fantastic to uh to see and to miss ker and Mr Hill Len cabal still at this huh he's been doing this for a lot of years he's great so it was great great to see that he was there again I remember him being there a number of years ago so but you know thank you very much was a fantastic presentation I enjoyed it thanks I thought you all did a great job I was particularly impressed in the video how your journalism skills when someone gave you just a brief answer many of you asked some follow-up questions in a inviting way to get more information you did a really great job and I also love you know my kids went to Dello and um way back back when um one of my kids wrote a letter to the principal which led to a fourth grade talent show which I don't know if you still do that um so yeah preco but it what impresses me is about how um continually the leadership of the school listens to students and allow students to drive their own learning because we know when they are in that ownership position and they're they're doing that work Guided by adults is when they really get engaged and learn so great job by students you do you're do doing a great job I too look forward to reading this and also to our staff it's been awesome great job every single one of you um I'm impressed with how many of you are involved in the newspaper and how many are involved in the council and um how much everybody likes stem and I'm wondering have we crunched the numbers does it turn out that no child is sick on [Music] [Laughter] Fridays most likely anyway thank you all hard work it shows great yeah I love the whole presentation I love to hear all about Dello and the happenings and you know the garden the palen garden that was created and all the different aspects uh that was spoken about but I I really love how all of you had the courage to come up and and speak and to this crowd here some of probably some of your family members as well as in front of all these TVs these TV cameras and for everyone watching at home so you should all give yourselves a pat on the back because you all did a fabulous job uh speaking this evening um and I just love to hear that we that we have a we have a newspaper over at deelo I'm looking forward as well to uh to catching up on the latest happenings there so thank you all so very much I mean I can't really there's nothing more I can say it was fantastic presentation a fantastic um to hear all of you come up and uh share what you've been doing and what you love about your school Community um two of my three children also went through the deela school so um it's exciting to see the um you know the passion and the the uh engagement with students and um so I really my my my colleague said it all I don't know if anyone has anything else to add I do I have to just say how impressed that I was and you know there were a couple of themes that I heard that I just want to talk about that I think are important and that that's I heard you talk a lot about friends and teachers and I have to say hearing you speak directly to those two themes really tells a lot about the culture of your school and you are student leaders and please believe that your voice matters I loved hearing you talk about the Buddy bench and finding different ways to make those connections and kudos to your teachers to your principal to your assistant principal I know a lot of work goes into this but what I could hear when you were interviewing the other children um in your school was that they were echoing what you were saying and so I often come here to school committee and talk about how wonderful the students are and wonderful the schools are in Dartmouth and you just did such a wonderful job highlighting the amazing students and staff and the things that are happening in the uh in the Dartmouth schools you I couldn't have said it any better myself and Mr Oliver I agree like having these young people come to the microphone and speak to this number these number of people with the Poise that you have makes me a little jealous so when I think about that I think oh my goodness like it took me years and years to have the courage to be able to to do that and I have to say Mr Shay are you still here look at the future of your high school oh my goodness wait till Mr Higgins hears about the uh the future newspaper reporters that are heading to Dartmouth High School I think that they could probably um handle a podcast I also want to know this one thing who came up with oh it's Trevor who's Trevor oh Trevor wants to know if we want to touch a snake or pet a coyote neither you do neither all right and then the other favorite one of mine was sing or dance in front of the class those were tough those were tough so congratulations to Trevor tell them I would like to ra rather than being able to fly I would like that million so you did an amazing job thank you so much for sharing that that's just so uplifting for all of us thank you thank you great job thank you they look good that amazing great job do we really have to shift back to the budget I I um I just want to say that so it's not awkward uh after this um after I after this next um agenda item I will be leaving to see my eighth grader play uh the spring concert at the middle school so I'm going to turn over this gavel to my colleague um Vice chair Mr Oliver when that happen so um but first i'm not going to leave before this topic um I'm going to turn it over to Dr s McGuire to introduce our old business which again is the fiscal year 25 proposed budget and discussion and again I want to Echo Mrs Amaral it's a tough segue from from something that's so uplifting um to where we are here but again we convene tonight to talk about the 20242 school year I just want to again continueing I know I'm a broken record but I think it's important to stress the importance of the efforts that the people who came together to do this work in a way that's thoughtful um and at the end we we always have to keep coming back to recognizing the fact that every decision that we make has a person on the other end of it we're cognizant of that and at the end of the day every person and every decision we make has impact on on the experiences that our students have at the same time um we think we've scrutinized every line item here and um Mr Kylie is going to talk again about some of uh what the I would say highlights of of our budget recom recommendations are thank you Dr sa Maguire so you know we we have presented the budget now several times um so so I won't really go into detail um as you know we've uh um cut the operating budget to 3% U and we're using one point a little more than $1.8 million of the school choice Fund in fiscal year 25 to um attempt to continue uh operating as best we can um but I do want to stress again that that is a temporary measure um and that it will not be available to us long term um those are savings that were accumulated during the pandemic and um we're spending our savings so as we move forward uh with the discussions you know we'll continue to make sure that that's known uh with um every board that we go before and um so that no one's surprised when uh we come back next year or the year after and say okay now we're entirely out of money we've spent all our savings and uh we need some help so that's that's what's on the horizon um just just so you know following our meeting on the 11th I forwarded the proposed budget to the Town Administrator and the town Director of Finance um I did hear back inquiring why we were over the 13,000 um so what I I let them know was that um you know I didn't want to cut another position or split a position between um school choice and the operating budget um I think that mudy the waters I think 13,000 in the scope of you know more than 50 million and certainly in the in the scope of the town's budget more than 100 million um you know could be solved so um that's where I left that I'm not sure if that's going to come up in future conversations as we move the budget forward whether that 13,000 is going to be an issue or not uh I don't know I hope not um we've been invited to a finance committee meeting next Thursday at 4 pm uh at Town Hall so if um if you would like to attend or able to attend please let me know um just so that we can plan and and uh if we have a quorum uh we will post it just in case there's any you know any opport Unity for a discussion or what day of the week is that I'm sorry that's next Thursday at 400 p.m. the 4th that's right yeah I'll plan it on attending I'll be there okay so what I yeah what I would suggest is just post it irregardless if we have a quorum we're good if we're not and it saves uh we can do that that's Hass an aggravation from the never mind it just saves hassle yeah yeah what's the purpose uh the I suppose well I suppose the purpose is uh the finance committee review of our budget request I would imagine they're aware that the school committee will not have voted as you won't be voting tonight um as you can't because we just had the public hearing um so they're aware that it's not an approved school committee budget at this point um so I would imagine it will be discussion regarding our uh our budget request I not received any other information or questions from them obviously we you know we've had a lot of discussion already two joint meetings with the selectman and finance committee um obviously we've sort of I guess you could call it solved in some way um the budget problem uh for this year not without a significant impact to our operation but um so I I don't know I don't know what kind of discussion that's going to be I don't know how much more discussion we can have yeah I I wouldn't think a lot um we could talk about the future and the fact that we're going to need uh more funding I'll be prepared to do that but if you I would think that if you take the one excuse me the 1.8 and extrapolated by 3% you know uh we're going to need a minimum $2.1 million in 26 uh you know we haven't got it no period you know so somebody's got to think about something as far as the 13,000 yeah that's with all due respect been there done that easy to find back to Jenkins yeah you know I just want to reference um Renee and Jody's comment earlier I have concerns about there was a sense of urgency in January when we thought we were going to do this right you know and that it was happening but we can't wait I mean you know I'm not going to be here so I guess you can't wait you know certainly I'll be there to advocate for the schools and to help but you know I started I got involved in town service because of a budget crisis and I'm going to leave town service during a budget crisis and the fact of the matter is our tax rate is low I'm going to keep coming back to that where when the lowest 10% of all communities in the Commonwealth people seem to think that's what it's going to be one override and it's going to solve the problem and we're going to be done we're not right we're going to have to keep coming back to this it's not going to be the only override there's going to be other overrides that we're going to need it's just a fact of life right when inflation is higher than 2.5% a sort of random arbitrary number right um we're just going to have to keep coming back to the table and you know maybe we need to start approaching this that it's not such a big deal once in a lifetime once every decade sort of thing and we do smaller overrides I don't know um but we need to have a sense of urgency because right we're going to start Plan before you know it like Summer's kind of a wash people aren't around people are on vacation right we need to be doing this in the in the fall likely um in order to prepare for the next budget cycle to know what we have so um I do hope you know I know you will but I hope the rest of the Town boards the select board the finance committee um feels a sense of urgency about this we've bought some time um but we haven't bought unlimited time and it needs to we need to start being having conversations about what the amount is what the timing is when these things are going to happen um because it's also a ramp up to advocating for um that override um that we all have to prepare for so I was going to say something along the same lines um one of the reasons we didn't push for an over well we didn't push for an override because we ended up using one-time funds to stop the Gap fill the Gap um but one of the issues was how much money we needed um the first budget that was proposed back in I think it was December we made Cuts before even presenting that budget um so then was the override going to be already with those cuts which that is not even services and if we ask for an override like that which is even Services we are actually decreasing the services so I I think what we need to do is start a subcommittee now and work through through the summer um where we figure out what the schools need to be what the community wants them to be um the other reason we ditched the idea of an override in January was because um there was a crunch of time and maybe the best thing is to present to the fall town meeting our proposal which means a lot of work in in terms of having some concept about what our budget is going to be so early on like even earlier than last year um but that way we don't have to call for a special town meeting which costs the town more money and we don't have to or we don't have to have a special Town election which costs the town more money but that we can be very thoughtful and we would have time to educate the community um and get get their feelings about what they want these schools our schools to be what we want our children to have so um I propose that we start a subcommittee and I don't know is it just two people from school committee or do we want to include otheres in town certainly a good question I don't know what are your thoughts uh either Dr Sab Maguire or Mr Kylie on the uh possibility of a uh subcommittee to look into the an override is that something that that this committee can can do is that within our jurisdiction if I if I can speak to that I mean I do think certainly the um budget subcommittee it's already An approved uh you know an approved committee uh with which you'll be reappointing new members at the next school committee me meeting um you know would be a a great vehicle for that if you need a special committee for this um I mean I do think that um it would be have to be not so much focused on the campaigning for an override because there are issues in regards to being able to do that but um but in terms of Who We Are are and what we need yeah I mean that's that's the um I mean that could be part of the budget subcommittee or it could be another group but but for us it's really about the advocacy for what we believe the schools need and I think what you said um best about us educating the public as to what we need early and often is going to be important for us and I agree earlier we need to start earlier um than we even did this past year and we're working on strategic planning right now U with the hopes that you know we'll have a strategic plan to be able to present to you in the fall um so that is good right that's that's an important element of preparing a budget and you know a thoughtful um needs-based budget so um those things should coincide thank you for your answers so I have a couple of thoughts just to um do you have a question I'll come back to you um just a couple of thoughts that I have is if it wasn't for school choice funds we we'd be in a world of hurt right now um there's districts all around us I'm having conversations with colleagues that are laying off or riffing dozens of staff and those are the districts that are local uh within Bristol County in the South Coastal Massachusetts uh we're lucky enough to keep our um our cuts to a minimum um but the reality is next year we're going to be in a world of hurt if this town doesn't come together um and I'm really disappointed this was the public budget hearing was advertised um that there was only you know um some of our own staff members that got up and spoke uh about the concern for this budget so I think this is going to come down to we need to mobilize the parents uh the the parents in this District um in this town really need to think about what they want to see in this District a lot of us have moved here uh for the schools um and do you want them to stay the way they are do we want to make them better or do we want them to regress um my daughter's graduating this year she's she's had a wonderful uh career here in the doou public schools uh she's going to college next year um she's doing some great things but she's graduating um so you know I I'm given as much as I can over the close to 12 years now on this committee but I think it's important that the community uh the parents out there really get the word out that we need your help this is something that this committee cannot do alone and this town cannot do alone because in order to pass an over ride there needs to be a lot of support within this community so please please please for those of you listening at home those of you in the audience tell your friends tell your family we need you involved we need you at these meetings we need you at finance committee meetings at select board meetings if you really want to see this District continue down the road that we're on which is you know right now we're doing okay I'd like to see us doing better um you know we have a lot of great things happening our students are are excelling at what they do um we saw that this evening but we have to get the word out um so just communicate communicate communicate I'd really love to see people really asking questions about what this town is going to do to support their schools um that's that's what I have any other comments questions you're absolutely right Chris uh the toughest thing is getting the parents mobilized I mean been at this a number lot of times and that and have sat here at meetings and said you know back in the early 2000s and said we're going to close a couple of schools if the override doesn't pass and this is going to happen and that's going to happen and we still lost and yeah we closed the school you know but these this is all this is all relevant and important this is all real life real time so this is what you know it's there at the end it's not and it's not not going away it's not and at the end of the day I want to put this I want to see an override put out to the town and let the people in this town make the decision absolutely as to what they want to see in their schools absolutely an educated decision an educated decision yes agree yep uh any other discussion no uh moving on under new business superintendent update Dr sa McGuire thank you so I mean it is like quite a segue you know between the when I think about the beginning of this um when our Dello students and faculty were presenting to this conversation but at the same time I want to like just focus on uh some of the things that really are happening right now in the district and then hopefully talk more a little bit more about strategic planning and why that's going to be so important to us moving forward um so as always under teaching and learning I'm just going to remind folks that it's important that you know that mcast season is upon us it is mcast season and those of us out in the schools and in the field know what that means it does um make a difference for the routines in our schools it's really important right now that families and caregivers are paying attention to messages that are coming home from the school because they are alerting folks to what's happening and when um so we want to make sure even if if it's something um as such as a student isn't feeling well and isn't going to be able to come to school and it's an mcast day letting the school know that early on is really important as they prepare our plan for what we call the makeup season so all of that is part of this whole um cycle of of testing that happens in our schools um but on I've heard you've heard me talk about Katie poo and the team of teachers that she's been working with to look at the um literacy curriculum at the elementary school I just want to say where at at this point she has had four different Publishers out uh in the district presenting the curriculum resources to uh Team of of Educators from across the district uh we're planning on um we're planning on uh continuing to add additional voices so we want as much input as we can get from from our Educators out in the district and at some point our families as well this is a big decision to make and so I think we started talking about it probably back around the time we started talking about the budget and you're going to keep hearing us talk about it because I think it's important that folks know that it takes or it should take uh a significant amount of time to make that kind of really important investment in your community and a literacy curriculum for our element M children are is certainly that that's an important decision for the district that could have impact or will have impact for years to come uh same thing going on again at the middle school and I bring it up again because again it's an iter iterative process it's not just you don't just sit down and look at three curriculums and choose one that looks like the shiniest Penny it takes time and we want our teachers to really engage with the content before we make those kind of decisions I'm reminding you that as far as special education services and prek we want to be sure that folks are registering children the um the date for uh becoming part of the lottery has closed as of March 15th but we're still of course uh paying attention to children who might be eligible for special education services through early intervention Lori Denise and Kim redlon as I mentioned we'll be presenting about our prease supports at one of our April meetings and a broken record again remind friends and neighbors kind kindergarten registration is open um Mr Kylie and I checked in with Jen Mado today to see where we were we're making some progress uh it is important that we remind people that the sooner we know what our registration and what our enrollment is for kindergarten the sooner we have those registrations in the more we're going to be able to make the right decisions about making sure that we have the right supports in place for our students uh so for those folks that have registered and they know their children are starting kindergarten in the fall we are having a districtwide kindergarten showcase at the Quinn school on May 15th at 6: pm.

so $150,000 wasn't like I just had $150,000 of money just to look at this is a cut that will hurt and um this is where I would recommend us being right I'll take any questions questions for the superintendent please so at what point are are we deciding I know you you just want to give um broad category Cuts but at what point are you deciding detail in the spring in the spring when we really look at our hiring for what we're hiring for so we have some openings at the elementary school we have a math opening we have um uh it's a not un certifi but a certified opening so we'll have to see where those totals come in so I don't want to say that it would be like a 0 2 FTE at the high school where if our hiring and somebody retires let's say in the next month I don't want to put a staff name out there position out there when I may be able to cover it from within if I had to do it right now there would be a reduction of an ft but I know that I have an elementary opening and I know I have a high school math opening so we'll have to see where that lands Jordan are you anticipa any retirements in the uh the SI day buyout category or is that pretty much done no it's done done corre well no it's not done we still have staff members that are left but no one currently is within that the right now but for next year we we did budget for it next year just in case somebody does um take that up but we do have staff members that fall within that that's part of the contract I think before 1999 that if if you were a teacher that you before 1999 there was a CL C in that contract for 6 B and we still have staff members that um have that provision in place and that is budgeted for next year I I did not touch that Carin I don't know if you have a question this is all new to you and um anything we can answer for you on how this all works and please don't be fashional at a moment I'm still trying to take it off take it'll take two years I'm going to go online py before I go to youall go online Cindy any questions about this or what's going on you're good uh Kim no it was just disappointing last night to hear that even if we uh you know cut this budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars more and Clos Library doors and everything it's still it's still not the issue the issue is the re-evaluation so I really hope that the community can get that message because I think there's this undertone of like no it's the board of AD it's the budgets it's always they keep they keep raising everything but you know that reevaluation is really what's hurting taxpayers um so I know the the newsletter is going to out Lou right when is that going out oh not until um what mid April the last week of April a April 15 it goes see the issue is is as much as we can want want to separate ourselves from the uh the rebound but we're going to get sucked into it for and can't avoid it but um hopefully that newsletter will educate the best thing we can do is try to educate people on the merits of our budget separating it from everybody's going to be upset about their taxes so Felicia do you have a question maybe I'm good thank you okay may what what do this change remember we had a 5 point something budget incre 5.39 what does this change this to so this would change 150 it all depends where um some of you heard this other night that the education cost share was actually reduced from our $398,000 to $258,000 due to the formula that they used is different than what they it's the same formula that they used a year ago when the governor's budget was approved but in the in a year K's wealth went up so the formula gave us less money so Peggy I'm not sure where they have that on their mill rate out but if we just took 150,000 from our 5.39 355,000 is a% so this is about 25% 4.96 we go from there 5.39 to 4.96 do they project like there there's new businesses that are being built yes the new homes that are being they don't forecast any no it is um it's just rebout which is mandated by the state um the company does rebout does it for other towns it's just it's it it truly is as I said Russell and I were talking about it's a seesaw and our our values went up but the other two that were helping to offset went down so we have to Residents we uh property owners are picking up a bigger part of the tab um you know I I will say I talked I talked to Bob Skinner today and he's he's working hard to try to figure out a way to minimize this and he said he's looking into there isn't there is a uh opportunity within a law that you can phase in um an assessment like this or a reval over 3 years but he's not sure if we qualify for it he's doing a lot more work on it but I will say our our CEO is is fast at work he he realizes the pain he's trying to do something about it any further questions on these where does the where does all the reval money go it goes does it go back to the town or the state like all that money that will become coming in it doesn't get to go back into the town or into the budget no it's it's it's the money that funds the funds to town yeah right so there'll be a surplus of that there won't be a there's no Surplus there's no Sur I know that we're just paying a little bit more because the other guys are going to be paying a little bit less so okay we know the questions um we will go to public um public comment at this point see if anybody has anything is there anybody online we don't have any okay thank you all right um we going go right to the motion thank you I move that the C Board of Education reduce the final 2425 budget in the amount of 150,000 further recommendation of the board of Finance in the following areas certified salaries $6,000 non-certified salaries $20,000 technology and Technology subscriptions $20,000 professional development conferences $20,000 small capital projects $10,000 textbooks and instructional resources uh in the new category of $20,000 have a second thanks Peggy any further discussion hearing none all those in favor I online I unanimous do we have nine tonight is that right yeah so 90 90 okay thank you very much everybody okay we now we're going to move into uh want me to read yeah I move that the C Board of Ed enter into executive session for the purposes of contract negotiation discussions at 7:16 p.m.

half million um it jumps in the next two sales from the 1 and a half million to 2.1 million and 1.8 million and then Ai and final sale you know it's like 5 um 5.3 million that was the point she was trying to make is that we able to um move short-term eligible projects to be repaid and um used or paid for quicker um and then the total debt service ass associated with this model we still did 20 million 20 million 20 million 25 million but with the increased tax rate you'll see total debt Serv service now of 136 million as opposed sorry 10 we looked at this um I don't I don't know that it's right here I think it's on the breakup and this that we had in our spreadsheet yeah yeah it's about 3 million 3 million less so we did move some of these numbers around and we'll um redo these sheets for final versions as we get closer but as you pay off debt faster um then it obviously reduces your interest cost so um I think something is we need to fix there but yeah so just for my clarification if I understand what you're saying correctly it's a higher tax rate but ultimately the taxpayers are spending less money on the bond that's correct that's correct and um if you go back to um so one more page forward so here you'll see then the average home value in the district is 252,000 that's the average um obviously there's a lot of property that's well in excess of that but the the cost for that scenario one on an annual basis is $181 thou $181 um whereas if you go two more slides forward um you know that's $84 so um it that's just kind of the difference between the 10-cent tax increase is $3 um so I don't know if there's discussion um I I don't know that we necessarily need to make a decision about the tax rate implication here I'm mostly available for questions and I think then you guys can talk internally about um how you would you know like to proceed forward do we have any questions comments or concerns from board members I know everybody's thinking right now a lot of pro information to process yeah so and it's It's Our intention to you know based on board feedback to come back with a recommendation to the board at the April board meeting um April's a little unusual because of the nsba conference we only have the one meeting um but we feel like pushing into May would probably be too late to bring it as an item so um so that April meeting is likely the sweet spot for us to kind of come back and and ask the board if they have desire to move forward yeah and if you have a time yeah here's the time schedule so this is the county deadlines um for moving forward with an election um so the board does need to um submit uh a recommendation to which you plan to move forward in July you have to submit your um pamphlet to um the elections department so you know again you could wait till May but then also so you know it's causing your pack delay and there's lots of other implications so at a minimum though you want to do something by June but that's I think why the staff has made a recommendation to have me present this initially and then come back in April with for foral formal board approval so you're not necessarily looking for um feedback on the the different tax rates you're just saying well maybe you are but you're just saying this is kind of where we want to keep it within as these two yeah I mean theoretically I mean the district could go out for $100 million Bond and you could raise your tax rate you know 30 cents but in working with staff there's obviously um sensitivity around an increase in a tax rate um we could go out for an election and have a decrease in a tax rate but likely what you would need to do in that situation is um a lower bond amount or you know the short-term eligible projects would have to be delayed um there's implications with that because of you know your device requirements and and and the need to do that so we're trying to balance all of the different you know um variables and you know we put in front of you um you know a maintenance of and a 10% or sorry a 10cent if there was board discussion and and there was other options that were you know wanting to be um reviewed or looked at we'd be happy to you know share those and and I think our leaning at this time so it would be good like if anyone has an opinion on this is that while you know we're we're always avoiding increasing tax rate where we can it feels like that 10cent increase is fairly modest and ultimately saves our taxpayers 3 million dollars over the life of the of the bond plus gives us greater flexibility to be able to um affect projects where they need to happen because while we schedule all these projects out as we've watched watched over the last nine years sometimes something crops up that causes us to have to change a timeline on something so having that greater flexibility is really beneficial it gives um the team more flexibility to react to problems and sometimes they're not even problems sometimes they're blessings like the um electric bus Grant so we were fortunate to have some districts couldn't take advantage of it because they didn't have bus Bond dollars and the grant doesn't pay for all of it so being able to have some of those available for things like that earlier in the bond sale versus later might create opportunities that would be available to us so that's probably not the best example but it's just something that's come up recently so it's kind of a a very recent example of where that flexibility becomes very powerful so in layman's terms how would you explain to someone yes we're increasing it by 10 cents or whatever um but saving how much three three million yeah I mean and that's based on a 5% interest rate assumption and right and the actual growth rate that we're restricted to in a voter pamphlet but in you know in the materials that will be you know produced for the uh election we would help you know help with drafting any language that would try to describe that to a Layman taxpayer okay so but but it's just so I understand yeah and with my head um it's basically we're paying the debt off sooner so right okay yeah and just think about if you have 30-year mortgage and you end up paying off in 20 years your the interest cost associated with that re you know faster or rapid payment of your debt you'd save you know hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest it's the same concept here okay thank you there's also an added Advantage because if you're able to tackle the projects faster the taxpayers see the results but progress versus seeing it nine years from now any other oh sorry didn't me interrupt it all is a balance any other questions concerns um is 10 cents usually the norm um the only reason why I'm sitting here and thinking is that we don't really know with all these vouchers and what the future looks like with funding for public schools I'm not sure where that lays so I think we have an added Advantage maybe given the community that we're in um is 10 cents usually what usually is in I know you said that it's moderate has it ever been a little bit more has it been it it really has given the history of our district I haven't been here through the history of all the bonds that we've done but has there been any specific times that we've gone for higher amounts yes so what what I can't show you um but I have it in front of me um is the voter pamphlet from 2016 and at the time because the district so in 2016 the district did a bond election and the last election that they did prior to that bond election was in 2009 and it was only for 44 million so 2009 and 2016 correct how often can you run bonds um you if you ran a bond election this year you could run a bond election next year what is and I I don't want to get two in the Weeds about it yeah yeah sorry but um you if you do a bond election and it's $100 million you have 10 years to sell all $100 million but there is nothing that prevents you from selling that in four years so in year five you could go out and do another bond election got it but what happened was you had done a 2009 bond election it was 44 million your tax base was much lower um and you know you did a couple a couple sales in the $20 million range at the time prior to doing the 2016 bond election your tax rate was $151 for Bonds doing an $85 million bond election which was double the ask we showed in the voter pamphlet a tax rate of $186 so that was a 30 Cent 35 Cent tax jump on bonds just on that program alone in 2016 in 2016 you could do 85 million with no tax impact you could do 85 million with a 10-cent tax impact you could do it with a 20 cent tax impact that would just mean we would amortise your bonds even quicker than what you saw in scenario 2 and the debt associated or the interest costs associated with scenario 2 would be even less um it's dependent on every some districts do $500 million bond election and they show no tax impact some do it and they have a 50 Cent 50 Cent tax impact so it's really what you know about your community um your community is supportive you've had you know your tax pass or sorry your election passage rate um for the last bonds or the last election was 55.6% um so you know you're not you know 49 51 type of situation so it's it's really what the the cabinet and board um is most comfortable you know presenting and and alsare we kind of guided um Miss Burke to be somewhat conservative just because we were concerned about some of the comments like Miss MC cheffrey shared that there there is a sense in our community sometimes the tax rates high but I don't think that's a function specifically of kraton because keep in mind in our district we have kraton for tax rate we have Phoenix Union for tax rate um those two things show as schools we also have U Maricopa County community colleges that district has recently um passed some Bonds in recent years um and then there's you know there's there's a whole bunch of other elements but what families seem to notice at least the ones that I've spoken with is that the largest chunk of their secondary tax rate that they're paying really is for the two school districts for um for kraton and for Phoenix Union and so that that has been where we've had some communication from the community in the past about concerns around around tax rate okay I don't have any oh go ahead and just just for um reminder sake uh the overrides expire not for a while right yes so we you know we've and and I'd be happy to um provide Miss Shapiro with the chart that I may have even given it to her the chart I used to use to track all the elections but um what we've been doing is we found that the even years the gubinatorial and presidential years are the most successful for us so we've tried to schedule things to where we're not going out more than every other year so our hand isn't always out number one um so we're hitting that success successful election cycle but then the the other reasoning for it was to not try to not go out for two or three things at once so if we were to go out for this bond in 24 it would really be the right timing to go out for both overrides the m and the capital again in 26 so that would be the first time where we'd be in a position where we kind of need to run them together and that has to do with you know the down cycling of M if we don't if we if we don't pass it by 27 it starts to down cycle and then the and then the capital sunsets at a certain point so to be able to to make sure both of those are maintained over time we would actually need to float either float both of those elections in 26 or go out in back-to-back years where we might try an odd year um but you know based on the data that we have it looks like those even years are our more successful time frame sorry for taking that one I'll let you take it in the future I just had the history so absolutely and and there is on sorry there is on slide four um there is a history of bond and override um c s these are successful these aren't the ones that were unsuccessful um in the under the tax rate table sorry we didn't go into detail on this I know we were trying to keep this to a minimum um but one thing to point out is ml it says the last year that's the last year m&o does ratchet down um so they're good for seven years full for five ratchets down in six and seven by onethird in each year if it's not renewed so the year that you do see see would be if it just phased out and and and you didn't go out for a new but the daa was last done um in 2020 so that to Jay's point we would want to go out that's a full for seven years by 2026 yeah Mr Man I apologize you can I I'm not very form okay any other questions concerns comments all right thank you for your time thank you so much so Madam president members of the board with apologies to Miss Shapiro having noticed the time that it is at 7:22 in our full board meeting were you gonna shoot were you gonna pass me an out I missed out on that no I was gonna say what you're about to say okay sorry do you want to say it no go right I keep stealing I keep stealing your thunder today um it we might want to table the budget conversation for a future board meeting we have we do have more time and space with that than we do with the bond we just knew that was coming up in April um and if you're okay with that so with apologies to you both for suggesting it and for stealing your suggestion of it and I just I I would I would be grateful for uh time to spend uh discussing discussing the budget the budget process there's some uh changes in the in the requirements of reporting I think they're fantastic changes uh and they allow us to uh present the and develop the budget in um a way that I would have been doing anyways uh so it's great to get that information out there and be very transparent with the process but I do want to have time to discuss it explain it and and add value as to why that transparency is really um important for a school district and I also want to make sure that I get information from the board members on the types of things that you would like to see as we're developing the budget and the um types of information that that maybe need to stand out for you that I can go into tell you know the areas that I goober over might not necessarily be the areas that you guys uh enjoy as much um I I really jazz on uh how the budget's broken up with the account coding I've talked about account coding before I think it's fantastic to have a set of numbers that tell you everything it is amazing so um the budget is absolutely aligned with that account coding process so maybe I can make account code joy in everyone so yeah I'm I'm if I have no objection from the other board members I'm okay if we table the budget discussion to another time just to give us more clarity and give you guys more time to do that as well um do I hear any objections no since it's a study session Hilda Miss Hardis okay perfect thank you so much so with that being said we're going to go ahead and adjourn our study session I'm going to go on a quick two-minute recess and then we'll be right back with our regular board meeting thank you sorry Josh how much we value have in the top half of our district and how the bottom half can average it out to 20 that is wild even though there's four and6 million Homes at the one end I know I mean we're talking people that live on 32nd Street in Stanford yep yeah well what I was saying is they presented to the board go is that even I'm going to stag this because I know she likes to look at these e yes okay thank you very much Ward this we're going to go ahead and reconvening the meeting and we're going to go ahead and start with our land acknowledgement the cron School District understands that our community of schools is located on the ancestral land of the oam dude and Akim oam people who descended from the hokam and have inhabited these lands since time in Memorial the oam whose name translates literally to people are a vibrant culture and community Community spanning countless Generations into the past continuing to thrive in the present and carrying a powerful Legacy for Generations into the future with this acknowledgement the C School District formally recognizes that the traditional care and keeping of these lands by indigenous people is an aspirational model of community stewardship that we are committed to honor with practices policy and human relations and with that we will have um Dr Lauren start us off with the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of thank you and that brings us to roll call we are all here miss Gibson mcling Miss SS myself miss maleb and miss MC cheffrey thank you we want to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting and remind the audience of the request to address board cards that are on the left side um that must be completed and submitted to the board secretary if they wish to speak to an agenda item board policy provides for two cards White cards to be submitted in order to speak to an agenda item and blue cards to be submitted in order to speak during public comments due to open meeting law board members are not allowed to address items that are not on the agenda and that that's po that's per our reference policy BH that brings us to approval of agenda I move the governing board approve the agenda as presented second okay all those in favor awesome and that brings us to our governing board reports and Miss Gibson's writing so miss MC cheffrey I'm going to turn it over here first I do not have one today awesome thank you Miss MB I'm Gonna Save my voice okay I danced in the rain too much this weekend and so wedding went well now I have no voice Miss SS my voice is bad too I was at the wedding but I didn't dance in the rain I didn't scream a lot it's just been like this for a long time I don't know when it's going to come back so I have nothing tonight miss Gibson m um well congratulations to Lindsay and happy birthday to sopia um thank you yeah I we had a we just had another I guess hope everybody had a good Spring Break um and people got some relaxation in we had a committee meeting was it last week it was last week not this week okay it was last week um and we're chugging right along I'm honestly I will say surprised but I don't want to jinx us or anything um so so we've gotten through um wow dress code and then we've uh tackled a couple of other big things and so please join us next week I I believe it is next week on Thursday if I remember this is all just a quiz for youj yeah I know like you're just it's like are you supering just look at my calendar right now but I'm not um next week uh again we'll be here and so obviously it's March so we're really getting into the um to the uh grind here to try to get uh all of these because it seems like every time we think of something we're like well this is a related so hopefully we don't coming to you and asking for an extension I hope that we can get through everything by the end of uh the year and and the date that we've the dates we've prescribed so again if you would like to please uh come to our meetings in person or watch them online you can provide public comment um as well so thank you to everyone on the committee for their hard work and contined hard work thank you for that um just a board update that I have is that I know that we have some really cool events going on this week that I'm really excited for I know that we have our art expo I believe it is tomorrow um yes so at five o'clock so if you guys can go ahead and make the art expo at mon Vista to Showcase are the beautiful art I know we have some beautiful ones over here and on the left side this is amazing work from our students around the district so that's always awesome um I know that a lot of the schools are having their own kindergarten um fairs so that's cool um excellencia has one coming up tomorrow and I know Thursday BPA has one um so that's really awesome and I also know that in the month of April we have um The Family Resource Center is actually putting on together a baby shower for the community I don't know if that and you guys knew that our family resource puts those together so we um pregnant persons can come in sign up and they get free diapers we throw food baby shower we do games we do the H nine yards and it's remarkable what the ladies do we're also going to have a kindergarten um fair I like to say we because I live at the Family Resource Center basically so I take a lot of Pride and ownership in what they do so there's also going to be a kindergarten Fair going on in the districtwide at the Family Resource Center there and it's really cool because um they have different countries that they're representing and it was awesome to see all the parents um we did a tour of the Family Resource Center for first things first which is who the family res um Resource Center is Grand funded by and um Governor Hobbs um it's a part of Governor Hobs Administration and they were really excited with the stuff that we're doing in the Family Resource Center there's I believe 88 Family Resource Centers in the whole state State of Arizona and our Family Resource Center is one of the few if not only that has certain um enmities like giving out diapers for free or the DCS grants that they just got to help community members get their water paid their gas so if you guys know anybody in the community that's needing assistance Our Family Resource Center has direct dollars for that so it's really amazing to see all the work that our specific Family Resource um is doing and that's why it was so happy to see some itemized um numbers on there for them for the bond because they really hold the epitome of this District you know or parents go there our zero to five children go there all the services that they have um so it's it really holds the district together so um if you guys can check that out that would be awesome as well and that's the only update that I have for myself I'll go ahead and turn it over to you Mr Jay I know it's late I know it's your birthday and so I'm going to keep it very very short um I'll start with some some sad news um a longtime teacher in our district um Lan for H um we recently found out had passed away um and for those of you who knew Leanne she was just an amazing bright light of energy but also um she was our music teacher at Papago for many years and I just remember enjoying so many performances uh that she was behind I think she brought students to perform here in the boardroom a couple of times and and at a variety of other events so m h was my music teacher in the 90s wow there you go it's a small world and there's always connections right so I'm very very sad for that news and of course condolences go out to her family um to kind of build off of the committee work that our policy committee is working on um we also have our our student conduct and behavior support team that's looking for proactive supports for our students and they have actually reach the point where they have their rubric for how they're going to measure possible programmatic elements we could bring in to support um our our teachers our staff and especially our our kids throughout the district for next year and they have actually started their tours I think their their first tour of the school district to look at the program they're using was actually this morning so um so they're out there trying to get that work done so that we were able to look at um bringing some programmatic elements in uh bring a recommendation forward and then bring programmatic elements in for next year so I'm just going to go with those two for time but um thank you for the opportunity to share those things and one thing I forgot to mention is I didn't know that we had our first spases what's our special education didn't we have that last week oh my goodness that was my other one it was our CAC I can't I forgot that um yeah I got to be there it was awesome it was so awesome that they were struggling nobody wanted to leave um I my my test the next morning got canceled but I was supposed to be fasting for a test so I ducked out earlier than I wanted to I wanted to be there to The Bitter End with everybody but I realized I wouldn't get to to have my last meal before before my test so um so I didn't get I have no idea you guys could have stayed till midnight for all I know I know we were like Beyond 30 minutes past our time and people were still hanging out and I think one of the big things that we learned was that we need to build in time for the families to connect because they really loved connecting with each other as well but my thanks to the whole Special Education team everyone involved in in pulling that together I know been in planning for a while um and those families so we had if my count is right and somebody correct me if I'm wrong I think we had like eight or nine distinct families that showed up but we had more individual because there was two parents from some of those families um and that actually for us historically is a lot but we'd like it to be more but one of the things that we charge them with is toing others and they left energized to bring others so I know you know it's it's going to continue to grow and it's going to be an amazing feedback loop for us as we continue to dig in and and improve our programs throughout the district so again thanks to the team for for that effort yeah and I just want to say thank you too I know that I wasn't there I had to take a last minute trip that week but I'm really thankful for you guys um supporting us I know it's been a Talk Amongst the community and one of the things that we really strive to is listening to the the committee and I know that this is something that we've been um not neglecting but it's it hasn't been operating the way it should and I know that this is the starting point I know we only have a few families but that's the way that it starts right but what I'm most grateful for is that the initiative was done to actually hearing the community and bringing these families together to actually advocate for their students so that's awesome and it's very aligned with theg framework that we're also doing so I appreciated that and I wanted to make sure that that was that was brought up thank you for catching I'm just going to throw one more quick story because it's so awesome I'm going to embarrass um Miss Green in the background there and Dr dup in here but one of our parents who was there with their two children one who currently um is in our program and one that is one of our future attendees um in our district um he I had been introduced to him outside of Mack and school like I think last year because we ran into him I was with Dr dupin and Dr dupin was his principal when he was a student at that school school and Miss green was his teacher so it what's amazing and super cool is we do have like multi-generational families within our district and seeing them not only bring their kids back here but participate in opportunities to give us input and feedback is really so for me it was super exciting to have a former student who was I know we have a for we have former student board member but they have a former student who um who you know who actually was then part of our convers about what we're doing for students now so I I just wanted to share that just really quick because it's coming to mind and I would hate for her to just be barely mentioned but you know I think Miss V I we used to call her Miss V started in the district at a time when we didn't have a lot of money for music and art education and I recall her only being able to come so many times a month or a week like maybe like once a month because I'm sure she went to all the sites and uh I feel like she always did like the most she could with what she had which was interesting I'm sure um now looking back but she had a choir for us at monov Vista we also had a recorder choir which I'm sure our parents all enjoyed um and and we even she was even on the cuss with technology because we created we did a fundraiser where we all sang songs on a cassette tapes that she then mass produced and we sold for a fundraiser which I'm also sure sounded fantastic um which included like Barbie girl and things like that so it was great it was a great time she was a great teacher from what I recall so I'm sorry for uh her loves on loss thank you for that and thank you guys for all the work you're doing in the district um Mr man I didn't me cut you off was that it no it wasn't I'm s I'm sorry to have stretch I just thought it was the story had touched me when watching it unfold so okay perfect so that brings us to our student outcomes Focus governance update which this which is the sofg framework and for the past few weeks I think we actually completed our site councils now now I wasn't there to make it to the last few weeks but we've been going around we started it off with Community Council getting feedback on the new goals that the district is doing I think with all the feedback and I'm hoping everybody had an opportunity to look at it we can discuss the five goals if we need to make any edits and if not then I think we're ready to move forward to adopting them um I've gone through the feedback I've talked to people in the meetings in person and it seems like our goals are very aligned with what the community is saying um you guys can see it in the paperwork I don't know if you guys have any edits to any of the board goals I'm not talking about guard rail guard rails right now but from what I personally have been hearing and seeing a lot of them seem to be very aligned of not making major um changes the only concerns that I am hearing is um that our goals are very eighth grade based and a lot of the families were stating well what about the third grade and the second grade and fifth grade um I think part of this framework um and and having this interactions with our community is part of like educate education on our part and their part too where we're going to have interim goals within those goals so that's going to be up to once our goals are adopted to our superintendent and our administrators to come back and tell us well this is what we're going to do in the meantime to get to that overall 5year your goal and it can be focusing on third grade literacy it can be focusing on what we're doing in fifth grade I'm not sure what that looks like but once we get to that point we'll get to discuss um what we if we accept those intrum goals or not so I guess the question here now is after reading the feedback do you guys have any major concerns about changing the goals that we have do we have any edits what are you guys feeling thinking the one edit that I saw in here um about changing like the teachers to staff um it was under the guardrails we're talking about board goals um right now and then sorry yeah no it's okay um I think the board goals maybe if we can pull that up and have it up here too because I know that administrator had some adjustments on some um of the board goal so um think only the biggest thing that stood out well one going back to yes we had feedback on the eighth grade but I think that goes back to those interim goals and also realizing that five years from now the eth graders are the third graders now so um but the one that I heard like the most discussion about was um the looking at the 8th grade elel students and measuring using the aella to measure simply because if you're newcomer students if you know there's something else going on that you've have not been evaluated throughout the time like are we going to get to that and that was brought up by several um folks and I don't have the perfect answer for what that it's are I'm trying to recall the numbers do we remember like what the because I remember a lot of times I was having those feelings and then when we talked about actual numbers of students and what that looks like to move the the meter then I would feel better so I don't recall the actual numbers of students well and I I don't mean to put Dr dupin or Dr pombo on the spot but I know that the aella scores and the El students were one of the things that there were some potential recommendations for a possible shift so I don't know if if you have that you are okay perfect thank you um so that that and that information might help with that concern that you've heard because I think they structured it a different way to make it a little yeah a little clearer more understandable and ensure that it's attainable so and then I also wanted to make sure we we discussed or thought about the concerns over calling out um eighth grade black students um on the map just because um some students had some issues with that and there is a privacy issue in in because the number of kids are so small um and if we want to I don't want I don't want to unintentionally be adding any shame to these kids um and bring up possibilities for bullying of these particular students um in my experience that wasn't something that really was brought up in the community forums especially talking with parents I know I wasn't there when kids cogence happened and I know that was one concerned but it hasn't some it hasn't been something that I've personally heard at the different sites with administrators teachers support staff parents I that's just not something that is going around I understand that it could be a concern to um separate you know different people and how they the lens that they see it in but I don't I personally don't believe that this would cause any added on bowling or any added on any of other that especially because I haven't heard it around I don't know if anybody else has a different experience but that's not something that has been a a prominent concern going around doing the tours it just came from students that's and that's it was well I guess I just want to clarify it was one student right no it was actually it was I remember being communicated at the last meeting yeah we we shared the story from one student but um if I remember correctly Dr dup and you were there I think it was about three students who had raised concern dur course of the meeting am I remembering correctly that's correct yeah I guess I'll just clarify on the Privacy issue right like again I'll say that we're not violating any privacy because these scores are published and so if there's just an inherent privacy issue because of the number of people we're not revealing any information that isn't already publicly available is what I'm trying to that's my whole thing right so I understand we're highlighting something at the same time it's all information that's on the add website as it is right I know kids aren't going to go hang out on the ad website I also know most people aren't my other thing though is that um I also don't know how many kids are going to hang out and look at our board goals and talk about them if they're not in kids Congress all those things to say they're valid I mean if there are there concerns they are valid concerns and I have a lot of follow-up questions and Curiosities about all of that before I just go ahead and strike that as one of the goals and and I think a lot of conversations can go around with this if we decide to adopt this on maybe a strategize and have a meet a conversation with Mr Man on how we will present this especially when we're talking to students um but also I don't necessarily feel that it's something that we should completely strike out because um it's not something that I commonly have heard going around well there's another kids Congress in April I mean I'd love to have a followup with them myself after you know us discussing it a couple times um I think it's something that would be valuable for you guys to hear and there's probably other opportunities to hear from them if that's not a convenient time but I think think you know I'd like to think that our kids are not bullying each other about silly things like this but um I also want to be living in reality and not give them an opportunity to use that um especially for black kids I mean this came from someone who possibly identified and and again we don't know that was something that was brought up um just recently at builtmore there's not a way you know people identify differently on and there's not a way to identify as multi-racial and black you have to pick one I guess you can't separate that out so it's just complicated and I don't want to I don't want to unintentionally contribute to something that is shaming kids or you know putting putting them in an uncomfortable situation any further than they may already feel like they are right and I think that's why after the adoption of the goals there 's going to be a lot of communication back and forth not only with the students but the community and the parents um because I also think in our leadership roles and making sure that our students are attaining and receiving the best resources they can our data historically assuring that our black students historically year after year after year have met none of the criteria so in my I I understand but in my in my um governance mode is it's imperative that we give the resources and the attention to the most vulnerable and from the data that we've pulled from 2016 it keeps showing up that our black students are the ones that are being impacted most by the lack of whatever we're doing so I think that's why it's important to um have goals like this because then all our resources and our time and our efforts are going to go to who is being mostly impacted and clearly um one of those most impacted is black students given the 0% of them going on to high school without knowledge on math so um I I think that's why um if we decide to adopt this goal after tonight it's a very crucial that we do have a conversation with admin and our superintendent and maybe even our um principles to make sure that we're relaying the information where it's not intended to be in a hurtful matter versus uh this is what we're going to do because this is the group that's most impacted and we're going to give all our resources so you guys can be up to everybody else and then I think also using the right language like not even impacted like as adults and I'm not talking I'm not targeting anyone here teachers whatever I'm talking about every single adult in this issing us like we've said in this is responsible for all of this and so nothing at all should be placed on the students as far as like ownership of this at all and so as adults we definitely need to have these types of goals because until people are not acting like they're colorblind until people are are actually making sure that that all students are being served equally these numbers are not going to improve and I think that's an important point I think if we move forward with this as a goal it's important that we frame it not as these students have failed but that we failed these students so um so at a minimum that that framing needs to be in place so that way we're not putting the blame on the students but um I do agree one of the things I always am concerned about and we've had this happen a number of times one of the dangers when you're involving a lot of people in conversations about things is you don't want them to give their feedback and then feel like their concerns were not were not heard so I I want to make certain I think Miss MC cheffrey suggestion that we that we go back to that student group I think is is an important one um as we've tried to be more collaborative in the district one of one of the unintentional harms that's been created at times is that sometimes you know people feel like well we gave you our feedback but you didn't do what we asked you to do well sometimes you know we take the feedback we Implement what we can from within that feedback but there's multiple feedback there's multiple factors so um I think it's important for us to make sure we're we're having those conversations as well I just checked my calendar and I am free on April 19th at 11:00 a.m.