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e e testing testing one two 3 testing one two e for e e e all righty I would like to call this board meeting to order regular board meeting for creep Moni School Board 201u School District today is Tuesday September 17 2024 6:30 p.m.

yes at the middle school that's it that's that's all had okay thank you any other board updates and homecoming is Friday night and uh I will be in the concession stand T whs so what is our chance what's the probability of us winning hi hi the show can I turn my mic off and say what I want to say we I already talked to the superintendent she can f you in go all right okay so let's Warriors have we won a game yet we did what is this why does everybody think we have a bad te yeah Friday against Thorton the season started pretty much like it usually starts yeah o and two 0 and two and then they win the rest well one and one or 0 and two okay but I mean but we look to have pretty good team we we do we got we got a good team yeah all right usually the first two weeks we play someone higher rank though seven and really could have won that first game that we lost by one and uh and then the second game got they got behind by a lot came back at halftime they were down 21 or Nothing by halftime it was 2120 wow second half they had a rough go at it but wow they're pretty good pretty competitive excellent okay Bill we will have some fireworks tomorrow yeah or Friday post game okay all right so I must have lost the beer okay no further board updates back to you for the second time to hear the word good news for the second time all right good news so here is our good news each year we get to travel um to the kids Summit um um as you know um Mr uh Brown joined the kids project team where we look at our transition from ELC to kindergarten for kindergarten Readiness we have been asked the district has been asked to present at the state conference this year for kids Summit so that is our good news report and so we'll join our kids coaches State experts uh our peers across the state to talk about our journey that we've had for the past five years in this transition wow that is that is great news November 15th is it's Friday November 15th that we'll present okay great and I just want to say I'm telling you is this the room we this the room right that we have our meeting and I'm like oh it look different that to have all that brain power of our certified teachers in there for our early learning and our K5 and I think we're about equal right in in numbers and to see them collaborate with one another and to partnership with one another it's a sight to be seen and I am just so excited that those two groups right there are working together and all of that H at the end of the day we're going to see the results when they leave high school so I'm so pleased with the program thank you thank you all right that was our good news Okay so back to you superintendent with oh I need I need a motion you see what will I do without you Cher all right can I have a motion to to approve the consent agenda number seven please some moved move by Alex second by Nelson any questions comments I no it's a lot that we usually have our superintendent read all these numbers I don't think it's really necessary on on the business side uh Jason that's just any of them final I yeah when I looked through there I didn't see like they're just payments right I didn't see any finals no the only that's and then there'll be a punch list and then once all that's completed and we're 100% then you'll pay the retain out yes okay sounds good all right good question Bill thank you any other further questions we are sparing you doc and if there's no further questions roll call please sure miss sight sters I Mr swales i m rson i Mr gagos I Mr alch I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion carried moving on to number eight Action Report under business a alpha can I have a motion to approve Alpha number one motion to approve the 2024 2025 budget we skipped over Personnel did I that's part of consent isn't it yeah that is number seven Sor that's my bad because I I give you a chance skip another one I give you you know that's not been one mistake since you've been on the board yeah that's all right okay so the motion is been set forward I have anybody so move no motion so moved moved by Jamie second second second by Nelson any questions comments nothing's changed since last week okay okay no further questions or comments roll call please sure Mr gagos uh yeah miss rson I miss s stumbris i Mr swales I Mr Al I Dr Hall I president Brown I um motion I forgot the phrase that I use motion one all right uh number nine old business any old business number 10 any new business I think we just broke the record we have no need to go into close session could I have a motion to adjourn so moved okay move by Wason or Bill move by Al move by Alex and second sure can I get a um all in favor is that fine sure all in favor say I to journ I I any Nays nay I lost anyway all right we still got the record okay we are adjourned at 642 our goal was 6:45 thank you public for joining we're just getting more efficient thank you

Madam Secretary roll call please sure Mr alre here Mr gyos here here miss rup is here Mr swales here miss site stumbris here Dr Hall here president Brown here thank you let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by board member Mr Alex gagos and led by our mission statement Dr Hall board member I pledge allegian to the the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all our Mr statement is to engage and Empower our students to positively impact their community and future okay thank you all right do we have any electronic public comments okay I do have one paper public comments and it is titled welcome welcome to the new school thank you by Christin quman our cmea president um I just wanted to carry on Mary br's tradition of saying welcome to the new school year I believe we are about 21 one days into teacher attendance and about 19 days into students attendance I hope things haven't gotten really busy for you guys in noisy now that we're back um just wanted to say we appreciate all you do um just highlighting that the elementary facilities are pretty much done as far as life and safety AC HV beautification um the middle school is on its way to having more classrooms and I know we will be breaking ground on the High School athletic hopefully sooner than later so all exciting things to come and all things that we could not have done with all of you sitting here today have a good evening thank you thank you you thank you Christine and we are looking forward to working with you and and your members and teachers and I it's amazing you kept track of the number of days that says a lot about you so far St I wow that's great great great leader so thank you so much and just look forward to having communication and things of that nature with board members okay in some way shape or form in the anmin group here all right administrative updates all right I just had one oh oh really I mean I I I have been getting so much good news lately well you're going to love this one Mr Brown okay I don't know I sure did but that's why you're here thank you hold up okay thank you board updates please oh I said I don't have one oh I wanted to like Al seemed very but I did that purposely just to see if you guys was was paying attention I'm on and I think Alex has something I got an update you miss updates well I announced it last week I announced it last week so it's not really an update but uh the uh Hispanic heritage uh uh Festival in mon uh will be held uh in on Friday uh from 4: to I believe 8 I think or maybe 4 to 7 something like that um and then also the uh Education Foundation fund run uh is going to be on Saturday at I think lineup is at n like the start of the race is 9 so plan to be there by 8 8 a.m.

persons wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public Hearing in person or by logging into the zoom meeting interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit written written comments to the select board's office Town Hall 101 Main Street ashin mass 01721 or by emailing Susan Roby at sroy Asin mass.com signed by myself Yolanda greeves chair of the select board so uh I'm sure you all remember we were here at our last meeting to approve the two separate licenses and now we're combining them and I believe we have someone here from clover Road yes yes hi Jamie moldun hi Jamie how are you do you want good how are you make a motion to open the public heing yes please do um I'll make a motion to open the public hearing second all those in favor I I public hearing is now open uh so Jamie I don't really Susan can you take us through this one and then we'll go from there and then we'll hear from Jamie as well sure ultimately what this is is this is an alteration you you approved the pouring licenses for both The Malt Beverages and the wine at the last meeting but they cannot pour the product simultaneously unless you accept this chapter of the law okay Jamie anything to add um no we're just really excited to be able to serve both beer and wine in Ashland very soon Sim simultaneously yeah you go the same place who knew who knew that was a thing yeah wow any other questions is there anyone I just have a question with respect to the legal notice um where it says alcoholic beverages I don't want people to be con confused that it's liquor and not and not malt and wine and I'm just wondering does that should that have been malt and wine instead of alcoholic beverages Susan Joe I took that right from the section of the law okay all right I just want to make sure that it it it doesn't become a stumbling block down the road that's all Susan you've been working with the abcc pretty closely on this and I think I think you know Susan's been running I just want just check on it that's all thank you welcome I'm good with it that's fine no other discussion okay let's see anyone to speak against we've heard from staff okay motion to close the public hearing so moved second all those in favor I I and then if I could have a motion to amend the alteration of premise as presented which allows the consump consumption of any beverage produced by the lcy and sold under the L's brand name so moved second okay any other discussion all those in favor hi okay very uh Jamie you are all set thanks for being here again and do we do we have a date yet H not yet but we're getting closer very very soon it's been nice to see the progress on the outside so yeah people are excited they talk yeah people people are waiting we're excited too good luck with the last the last little little bit before you open yeah yes thank you I appreciate it all okay good luck and we'll hopefully see you in person soon at the brewery yes you're all invited thank you all bye bye-bye okay didn't take as long but that's okay we have our planning board here hello everybody we have Trisha online uh so the select board has already called itself to motion into uh into session so if you guys want to do the same um Can can you hear me yes we can yep okay um I will call the planning board um uh I will open the planning board meeting at 618 718 but that's okay oh sorry Midwest time 718 i' like time better say that at the end of the night so we we typically don't do a vote to open our meeting so that's fine that's fine okay um so we are here to hear we have two items on our agenda as a joint boards is the presentation by Jen Goldston and then discussion of MBTA so Jen I'm going to pass it off to you and then we'll go from there all right very good thank you I'm so happy to be here thank you for I'm glad you had several things of business to do together so that um you're making good use of your time together um Jen gon planning consultant leading the comprehensive plan uh for the consultant team and I'm here to basically tell you you how much the committee has accomplished in the first two phases at the end of each phase there are four phases which I might as well switch to that slide um there are four phases in the plan and we are basically right in between the end of phase two and the launch of phase three so at the end of each phase what we like to do is come to both of your boards and just tell you how things are going and where we are and what to expect next so that's what we're doing now so you may remember from a few months ago when we had the whole consultant team here that we presented the existing conditions profile and that was the end of phase one which was called Ashlin yesterday and today and it's really just um trying to understand where you are now and then phase two was really about where does the community want to go so there was a really big push for Community engagement I'm going to talk more about it but it was very impressive what the comprehensive plan committee many of you are on um were was able to do in that in that big push and of course there's engagement throughout we certainly not done but um but that was the big push in phase two and trying to understand what is the big Vision people have for the future of ashin where do they want to go what are the things they really care about and what do they want to see in a in a kind of a big way in this plan and we're going to start to get into the details of the plan now that we're going to enter phase three but this is not so much about the details it's about that big picture of where the community wants to go in the next decade so the process to create that Vision um I count I tried to uh do a little count of how many hours the committee worked um you worked at least for eight hours collaboratively writing and then refining the vision statement the core themes and the goals and I'll tell you what each of those pieces are so that was very impressive um it started with an open house that I think we tag teamed on an event here I can't remember the name of the event holid Holiday Stroll last DEC without open house and then January through June we had several engagement activities there was the meeting in a box which was that do-it-yourself meeting kit which I bet all of you hosted something and maybe folks who are listening to this either participated or also hosted you had a community survey and then you also had something we call it the crowd map but it's basically an interactive map that was online people pointed to places they want to see change or Improvement or preservation and then we did work with the committee and so we created this from that well you'll see right up there we keep track on this thermometer how many we call them participation touch points because we actually encourage people to participate more than once you know if you do a meeting in a box we'd love for you to also do the crowd map and and things like that so we count every touch point and you have over 2,700 touch points um you're very close to that AG you know very um ambitious engagement goal that you set you're about 88 touch points shy and you still have several months left so I know that you'll get to that and go Way Beyond your engagement goal which is which is really exciting um we worked over the summer with the committee so the committee held two visioning sessions that um they really worked collaboratively in small groups to basically write the vision and the goals we asked them hopefully they were probing questions we gave them this big summary of all the engagement touch points we call that the aggregated community engagement summary we abbreviate that as the aces report and so the committee was tasked with reading that it was very long lots of appendices and then doing a questionnaire that was kind of guiding them through answering the questionnaire they were writing their own vision statement by answering this questionnaire then they came together in these Community visioning sessions uh at the is it called the senior center or the community center okay at the community Senior Center and we spent many hours working in those small groups talking with each other trying to figure out you know what do we want to say in this vision statement and what kind of goals do we want to put with it and then we worked for two more committee meetings at the library to really refine that and get to some consensus among the whole um comprehensive plan committee so it was really impressive people didn't always start at the same place but I think we ended at a place and I I don't want to say ending so final doesn't this isn't final final this is where we have a good draft that the whole committee uh has told me there are no deal breakers in this draft and we feel good about releasing this to the public for comments so there's a survey that's live right now to get comments on this draft that was really created from that 2737 touch points that people told us about and then this collaborative work does that make sense the way I described that okay all right very good so I'll just go over some fundamentals I know I say this again and again but I always think that sometimes people are maybe listening and just patching into the plan uh or the project and haven't heard me say this again and again so for those of you who have I apologize in advance so why are we even doing this what is a comprehensive plan it's really a way for the community to take a step back and try to figure out what are we even doing here what do we want to be where are we now um you really think big picture and you also want to make those connections so there's all sorts of business the select board and the planning board deals with on a every weather week or however often you meet and you know you put all those pieces together and you'll get a a big picture but mostly what you're thinking about are those individual pieces you just had a an action that you were looking at taking in this public hearing and you do I don't know thousands of things like that um all the time so big picture thinking making those connections um guiding specialized plans so there probably will be more specialized plans that come from this bigger initiative and it will help you prioritize where do you want to focus that planning energy on over the next decade leveraging existing assets so we look at what are your Assets Now what kind of funding do you have what kind of um Staffing Resources do you have committee resources volunteer resources you have all sorts of resources infrastructure uh facilities and then how do we leverage that with trends that we're seeing in a bigger kind of bigger region than not just ashin and then we want to look at those CommunityWide priorities and that's what we're trying to really sus out in this phase two is what does the community think are the priorities here and that's where we are so just as a reminder there are in the statute the state statute there that that um asks the planning board basically to prepare a comprehensive plan or they call it a master plan in the statute there are seven statutory elements so this plan will touch all of those elements but it will also bring in other things that people weren't thinking as much about back when this was written so we've added in things you'll see sustainability isn't actually technically in the statute um sometimes we add other things in but it really depends on what the community is seeing that they really value and and want to add to that all right and then we like to really emphasize in our plan that these in the plans that we work with our communities on these elements are really interconnected I think the old school way of doing a a master plan or comprehensive plan was to just have a separate you know chapter for each element and even do them separately so you may have spent four months just on transportation and then you move on and you think about open space but you don't think about them together and we think that the beauty of doing the comp plan the compr plan is you get a chance to actually think about all these things together because they really affect each other and they can help each other or they can hurt each other all right and then the things I'm already starting to use these terms with you I'll just describe what they mean so I talked about that existing conditions profile I like this tree metaphor I've been using it for a long time um the the existing conditions is kind of like the trunk of the tree we're just trying toig figure out the trends the issues establish a baseline of information then and that's what we did in phase one then we're trying to get the big blurry picture of the whole canopy of the tree we're trying to figure out what's the vision here where are we trying to go and then we put um the conditions on the conditions are the goals and those are the branches that hold up that canopy and then later in phase three which we're about to launch we'll come up with the strategies which are the leads like well how do you do it how are you going to do it what zoning are you going to implement what uh funding sources are you going to use what um board and staff capacity are you going to do what kind of programs are you going to have kind of capital Investments do you need to do that's coming that's we are not quite there yet but we're about to launch into that and then as part of that we'll have something that's called a future land use map it's not shown on my beautiful tree I'll have to think of a way to get that map in there but but the future land use map is not a zoning map in other states it does become a zoning map but not in Massachusetts but it basically says like if we look at the the next 10 years and we try to put our vision onto a map what does that say about where we want to grow where we want to preserve where we want to conserve and how we want to you know look at our corridors and things like that and our neighborhoods so that's what the map does it can turn into zoning changes but it's not by itself a zoning map does that all make sense so far all right perfect so we are here tonight to present the we've called it the final draft Vision so it's not final final nothing's final until it's adopted but we we spent a lot of um hard work with the the committee and the community who participated um in a in a very strong way to write this so um I love I love this quote by Tony Morrison the reason we spend so much focus on phase two is because we want the community to get a chance to dream a little before we think and I know dreaming thinking it's not quite perfect metaphor but but the idea here is to think in in a in a um in an aspirational way first before you start to say can we really afford that you know how are we going to do it don't worry about that yet you'll worry about that next we'll worry about that in phase three but we just want you to Dream a Little first and that's what this is about so you'll look at the vision and you might say that is ambitious or you might say okay I think we're kind of almost there with some of these things um but that's kind of the point of it so I hope you also have this I think you got a hand out I do have a couple extra copies if people want them um I stuck them in my bag but I'm happy to get them if people want the hard copies this is also online on the comprehensive plan website and um we have a whole survey up right now about it so we encourage all of you and anyone who's listening any member of the community that wants to weigh in on what they think about this vision statement this is the first of two paragraphs we would love for you to take that survey and it's live now so I'm not going to read the whole thing um the the the vision is two paragraphs this is the first but I'm just going to um say some of the key phrases that I think will give you a gist of the things that folks are telling us they really care about so on this first paragraph and remember this is a vision for the future so this is Project yourself 10 years into the f 10 years from when the plan is done which will be next year so 2035 10 years from when this plan is done this is what the community is thinking they want Ashley to be like some of it is like staying the same in some aspects and other things are maybe improvements over what you're doing so I'm going to read some key phrases um diverse inclusive community honors and preserves its small town charm Rich history open space vibrant and sustainable neighborhoods exceptional schools aesthetically pleasing public and private spaces safe walkable bikable multimodal Transportation options enhances Community connectivity well-maintained accessible Recreation amenities and I want you to know that we we spend a lot of time on every single word here so I'm not skipping over words because I'm not honoring what they're doing I just wanted to to give you the highlights okay the second paragraph so again project yourself forward to that 2035 Ashlin is adaptive to changing needs and emphasis on cultural assets diverse housing options Town infrastructure open space climate change Solutions promotes business opportunities focuses on affordability and accessibility for people of all ages Community Spirit flourishing downtown areas welcoming Gathering spaces celebration of its diverse population and robust volunteerism and again really thinking a lot about what are the words we're using using here all right and then I want to describe what this means core themes this is not something that um this is kind of a particular to the way my firm does comprehensive plans because we feel it's so important to think about those connections of those statutory elements we ask the community and the committee to come up with what do you think are the themes that we're hearing in the engagement that can translate eventually into chapters for your plan and it will bring together those different statutory elements in a way that we think promotes the concept of these things are all connected and so this is very um customized for Ashland because you guys wrote it not us so the themes you you you are you know at least in this draft form are promoting are one building and enhancing Community two promoting long-term sustainability three three guiding development that honors open space and conservation four enhancing Town services and economic development and five creating a connected and accessible Community I'm going to go through these again because each of these has a set of goals so the goals again are not how you do things they're what you're trying to do it's the condition you're aiming for how do you know you're successful after 10 years so the next set of slides is going to be a slide for each of those and again I've paraphrased here the goals are fully written out on your handout um but just for the sake of not having too many words on the slide um I paraphrase the the kind of the key Point here so under building an enhancing Community the three goals that the committee identified are cultivating a thriving Community culture fostering connection between the community and its historical Heritage as well as preserving historic assets and developing inclusive and vibrant public spaces so those were all goals again doesn't tell you how you're going to do it just says what you're trying to do the next Core theme is promoting long-term sustainability and there are five goals here and you can just imagine I should have said this on the first Slide the next phase when we start to think of strategies our job in working with the committee is to think of strategies sets of strategies for every goal so this is we're sort of starting from the framework and we're building it out and so you'll see the next presentation I give you when phase three is close to being done we'll have strategies for every single goal of how you can get there so we have carbon neutral practices triple Net Zero Energy Water waste by 2040 and we try to carry on other goals that are already established in the community like the 20 240 goal um tree preservation and planting walkable bikable micromobility friendly neighborhoods approach zero waste and preserve water supply quality and usability so these are all under sustainability long-term sustainability the next Core theme is guiding development that honors open space and conservation and so these goals there are five one is protecting open space properties and we want to you know refer to uh the open space and Recreation plan whatever is the most current um during that 10year period to identify those priority areas strive to have publicly accessible and inclusive green spaces within half a mile of every residence in all Ashland neighborhoods some of these goals you'll see have a metric it has a way that you can actually measure success and that's an example of one offer a variety of housing options including affordable housing opportunities new development in strategic locations and the goal you'll see when it you know the full goal writes out well what do we mean by that establish adaptable spaces that seamlessly transition to accommodate a wide range of community needs and uses so I think the emphasis here is on adaptable spaces things that can have many functions and then we have um oops enhancing Town services and economic development so we have four goals vibrant and economically thriving downtown public facilities to meet the needs of a growing and diverse population improve public water sewer and high-speed INF um internet infrastructure and water Recreation to safely swim in boat and then I think this is the last one yes create a connected and accessible Community there are five goals connectivity of community Open Spaces to to neighboring towns Transportation safety and accessibility affordable and convenient regional and local public transit options townwide Corridor revitalization efforts including multimodal roadway improvements and connections from the Pawn Street Corridor to surrounding neighborhoods and key destinations specifically Ashland's surrounding neighborhoods so you lost a little bit because I didn't read the whole thing but hopefully you're getting the gist of it and we'll go back and read the full the full thing all right so I want to get into just what's going to happen next and I'm happy I don't know if time allows but I'm happy to take questions or comments or anything you'd like um but I'll just finish this if that's okay I think that makes sense okay all right so launching phase three so we're about to do this so um I love quotes So the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do strategies about making choices so that gives a good uh kind of a good framework to what to what we're about to do we're about to meet with our whole consultant team and Michael and Peter are going to help as well and we're just going to brainstorm as many strategies as we can think of that could help with those goals and that Vision we're going to kind of comb through our best practices think of cases that are case studies I should say that are similar to things done or could be done in Ashland and we're going to have a session um coming up I think it's next week where we're just going to sit down in my office and do a big brainstorm um and the idea here is is to think of as many things so we're going to start with the long list and then we're going to ask the community certainly add to it if you think we've missed something but the idea of phase three is to narrow that list down to start to make those choices to think about where do we want to prioritize our investments and our time and our energy so that is how we've designed phase three so when I talk about strategies I gave some examples before I said they could be zoning you talk about MBTA zoning right after this it could be physical design it could be something to do with other roadway improvements or or other Capital Investments it could be capacity building and I what I mean by that is people for the most part but it can also mean other funding sources or it could even mean different boards or committees than you have now so who's doing what um how do you do it where does the money come from that's what I mean by capacity sometimes it's about saying well you probably need to have this kind of position in your community if you want to make this other thing happen so you'll see recommendations like that and then we have uh regulatory policies usually zoning but it can also be other regul ations that the town has control over and then programmatic means some kind of program that you might have sometimes people want to do like a home buyer program or something like that that's local could be lots of examples of programs that you have so those are the four kinds of strategies and you'll see that we try to identify those throughout the process so we have a nice mix of those that we're thinking of and then I said we're really going to narrow down so I like this little filter so we're going to put lots of strategy ideas in the top and then through Tech something we call technical working sessions um a community survey and department manager working session and then work with the committee of course um we're going to be narrowing down and creating that strategy short list let me describe each of those um tools so these are more engagement tools so the technical working sessions we um trying to identify with the committee's help uh different town officials could be Town staff could be people who serve on boards and committees could be uh members of the community who have a special interest or a personal expertise or some professional tie we want to get people that um are really going to feel um very engaged in talking at a very technical level we're going to be talking about things that are um technical I don't know how else to say I don't want to keep saying the same word but they're technical things um so that will happen and they'll be we'll have capacity to have um at least a hundred Experts of your Community coming to these so there'll be one technical working session for each Core theme and we say that you can invite you can invite more than this but we basically have capacity to do about 20 people each session and then we have the community survey which will be we'll take down the visioning survey first because we don't want people to be confused by which survey am I supposed to take and so we'll get that we'll leave that up for you know several weeks and then when we're ready we'll put that survey up for the strategies typically how we do it because there are a lot of strategy ideas as you see from this little diagram we typically do a survey for each Core theme so that if somebody's really mostly interested in one topic or two topics they don't need to feel like they have to go through the whole survey they can just focus in if they want to go through all five of them perfectly fine and then we have the department manager working session we tend to have this a little bit later in phase three because we want to have um once we have a little bit more of a short list by working with the technical working session and understanding where the community is coming from we take a kind of a medium short list to the department managers and say tell me about your capacity for implementation where are the gaps here where are some synergies like where can you work together on things and we try to understand that better doesn't mean you can't do something if you don't have the capacity now we just want to understand what is that Gap so that we can refine the recommendation for that and then um and then we do work with the committee as well um showing them all of these results and and having them really come to some agreement around that short list so that our goal just as it was with the vision and goal setting is that the committee will have no deal breakers when we're done and at the end of this I'll be presenting that strategy short list to you in few months so how do you narrow the list you know you could you could do it many ways I just gave some examples you could look at what has the greatest positive impact to the most people you could look at what's the biggest bang for the buck what's Avail what is the availability of non- Ashland funding sources like are there state or federal sources or private monies we can tap into um what's the effect on residential property taxes promoting you know which ones promote uh diversity Equity inclusion and this is not um inclusive of every idea just want to give you ideas like these are some ways you can prioritize all right so what you're going to see next this is just an example we pulled this is from Topsfield which we finished recently and this this is a page from their comprehensive plan so you'll see at the end of the day the strategies are usually just a sentence or two the trick is finding the set that you want to prioritize that's the real work here once you get that set you can basically have them as part of your master plan and then um we also work with the committee as much as we can to identify some more metrics some of the metrics I mentioned are embedded in some of the goals but we also like to see are there other metrics we can measure success with um and so we do some work with the committee around that as well and this is just an example and it's for you to measure over the next 10 years so just because we think of a strategy idea in the year 2024 in the year 2034 you know before your your comp plan is over that doesn't mean that's the best strategy idea at that moment in time so the strategies might change over time but the things you're measuring will help you figure out are the strategies we're implementing are they working or do we need to Pivot so that's why we do that does that make sense all right and then this is just an example of a future land use map it's very you know it doesn't really get down to the parcel level it's more of an artistic representation of what you want to see for growth and preservation um on this one they have a historic district they have connectivity Improvement for intersections and corridors they have conservation areas his work preservation opportunities evolving opportunities so this is topsi I think this is Topsfield um is it Topsfield you didn't do this one we can do it for you but you can give us advice um but the idea of it is just to give the bit those big Ideas some some spatial sense to them so and you might you might have different we customize this so you may have different categories we'll work with you on what you want to call things um and that's what that looks like so I think that's it so I hope I go too long but I wanted to um get you all up to speed and I'm happy to take questions if if there's time questions anyone who wants to jump in and go first comments thoughts Claudia Joe I mean you guys haven't been as involved as Brandy and I so I actually appreciate the the presentation it provides U additional information that um I was going to have questions and you answered at least three of the four questions that I had so I'll wait sure you don't want to ask that question it it no I'm good right now I'm good right now I'm overloaded with information so yeah and and definitely if you haven't taken the time I'm sure you probably did read through everything already I have but go through it again and then if you have other questions Claudia thank you yeah no that was a great presentation and uh I guess when I was looking through some of it I thought about how much work everybody has done and um how much I appreciate that that that uh uh it's just such a massive undertaking so is very much appreciated and um you know and I look forward to uh it it's amazing I feel as though how what has come out of this is much of what I think we all hear out in the community so uh it's it's nice to know that it kind of mirrors what you you think that people want so thank you good anyone on the planning board side any comments or thoughts I did have a question about um the slide that we just had with the strategies on top top and the The Next Step I think it's called the which slide was that the prior slide I just have to find it here here we go not used to this computer okay where we're going to start with the strategies and they're going to make their way to the this one yeah just a quick question yeah just to clarify so the last comprehensive plan steering committee meeting um that we had um and I believe Peter and Michael may not have been in there so I don't know if uh others who work can confirm my recollection um the discussion was that the Consultants team would bring all the strategies forward to the entire committee to then kind of dwindle it down pick the ones that are interesting to the committee and then make their way down to the local experts the department managers working sessions Etc I see let me what I can I just fin question and so what I heard today was quite different which was that there's going to be a brainstorming session in your office with Michael and Peter that would then trickle down to the committee which is very different from my recollection um so can you clarify that what will you be doing in your office and will you be kind of creating a comprehensive list or actually narrowing it down with Michael and Peter yeah no so we're creating a comprehensive list um so we start out with as big of a list as we can think of knowing that you won't be able to implement all of them we want to give you a lot of choices and kind of a lot of options so we think of everything we can think of um and then we typically go straight to the technical working session with packets that have and all of the committee members would be coming to those usually what happens is the committee decides which members go to which Core theme based on you know their interest or what they're representing and then we basically get up exit poll from everybody that participates in the technical working session with how they would rate the ideas and then what other ideas would they add so it's a way for both you know committee members who are participating and all of the other participants to add ideas as well as rate U sorry rate I always say rank I get Rank and rate mixed up a lot so I mean they'll rate them not rank them and um and then we'll do the same thing at the same time with the community survey so that people will look at everything they can add ideas if they'd like but they'll also rate the at least the areas that they have an interest in they certainly could rate everything um and then we would go to the department manager with um what we typically do we could talk about the timing of the department manager we've done this two different ways um at the point when you finish the technical working session and the community survey the committee has then a lot of information with which to base some decisions on and what we typically do is we give the committee members a questionnaire and I think this is what you might remember me describing but maybe I wasn't clear enough about when that happens in the process so we give the committee members a questionnaire we give them the results of the technical working session and the community survey and then we give them all a questionnaire like we've done in the past where they'll each individually say what they think about the results and then we and I'll describe that more in a minute but then we bring them all together and we focus the conversation on the things that people didn't agree on so let me describe that I'm going to back up so that's kind of the end result and then we go out I would recommend actually doing the department managers after that um so that we're just doing that short list that the committee has already vetted with the department managers and then coming back to the committee to then say and this is what we heard from the department managers on the short list that you gave them so you are creating the short list at the committee level but I want to provide you with more information than you have right now and the information you're going to get is how the hopefully hundred folks that come to the technical working sessions and hopefully I don't know how many people will take the community survey but I'm hoping it'll be a nice robust um you'll have that information and what will provide you in that questionnaire is we'll show you these are the strategies that between the technical working session responses and the community survey they got very high marks like fours and fives means people really like them um these are the set that got really low marks like ones and twos means people really don't want them like don't even want to work on it they just want it out of the plan and then these are the ones that are like that you know we usually do like fraction like between 2.5 and up to four or something and are the middle ones that we're like we really need the committee's um help with these in particular but what we want you to do is look at the ones that people through this process gave a four and a five and we were asking you to basically say do you disagree with any of these things that were ranked consistently high and typically what happens is committee members are no we actually agree we think the that that's probably about right do you disagree with anything that were ranked really low because we're just suggesting they be completely ruled out and you get a chance to say well I want to consider this thing and talk to the committee about it because I think people don't understand XY or Z or and then the committee can vote on whether to raise something out of the out of the don't do it and then the middle piece is where we don't have really clear guidance from the technical working sessions and the community survey it could be sometimes that the technical working sessions really like something and the community really doesn't like something and so when we see a score like that we bring that also back for focused Community discussion like what's going on here do you feel like this is something that should stay in or not and if it should stay in does it need to be changed or tweaked and so we think the committee can have a much more informed discussion if you wait for the results of the technical working session in the community survey we won't eliminate or promote anything on our own we just we're going to say basically like if you just go with these results this is what it's telling us and then the committee will decide through that maybe it was a painful process I know it was very long but we're going to do a similar thing um it might take several meetings to get through it all but we'll do a similar thing where I want there to be no deal breakers and you like the short list that we end up with and then I would suggest we we have we're doing this differently in one Community right now and I actually don't like it very much but our client really wanted it this way but we I often recommend do the department manager we session after you do that process and then the department managers are only looking at the list that the committee is like I think this is the right short list tell us what Your Capacity you know is to to implement this so I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about the order of that but that's typically how we do it okay any other questions hold the microphone a little close so and I know we have some people online um I just we're going to finish here at the table and then I'll get to you Trisha because I know Kate and then then Brandy has something as well so Kate go ahead um so I I I have this I think I have it right you you said ask the community about the strategies and then we're again going to ask them about naring them down so I didn't quite get how that goes in the timeline and then I guess a followup to that is can you give us to publish either the funnel or the timeline with some of those details ched in because yes so we need to engage the community we want to we been doing that but if if we can't project like I don't want to be like oh now right next week you have this and I I know you're not putting exact dates but like there's a lot more Community work right and I think putting that out there is helpful yeah I'm I'm happy to do that and I think I said I do it last time and I haven't done it yet so I apologize but I will um yes the community survey is the kind of the biggest push this this quarter but no this I think in business terms this quarter this phase and that's where you know we really want to encourage a lot of involvement again like you guys were super successful in phase two we want to do another big push on that and then um and then I know people follow along with at the committee level as well so that you know I'm happy to the extent that the chairs are happy to continue to ask for public feedback at those committee levels as you're having those detailed discussions in the short list discussion and then um in terms of future weighing in what we've done in the past is that we would publish just like we published the vision statement we would publish the short list around the same time that we're coming to these two groups to present where we landed and ask for additional public feedback in kind of a broad way we typically don't do a survey again but we typically say if you have any thoughts on this just submit your comments we can do like an email like a form on the website if that's easy or have them email someone but that's typically what we do at towards that um end of phase three um just one follow so then did are can community members add to that giant list I didn't hear how that works so in the survey we'll ask for any other ideas that they can add the I'm sorry I'm not trying to be I guess I'm just confused about we're collecting as much as we possibly can right and then it gets narrowed down and the public how do they participate in that or they don't they only participate in the narrowing down right so in the community survey as well as the technical working sessions we always ask do you have any other ideas it's not part of the survey because it's a new idea so that I'm sorry I skipped over this so we usually give a list of ideas that weren't captured in our original list to the committee to basically say we want this in we want this out often what happens though not always but often what happens is we have the idea in there it's just that they didn't it wasn't in the words that they were thinking of it and so we're off often we're like that's actually Incorporated in 2B we could make that more explicit by changing the way we're describing it so we go through a process with the committee like that where we want to go through those ideas yeah thank you Brandy Thanks Jen um so when we were putting together the the vision and and and and um core themes and goals we were we had this long list of feedback that had come from you know the original surveys and the the public engagement that we had done and a lot of the stuff that was in there kind of fell under the more strategy level so I know for instance um you know we we heard a lot about say sidewalks so I guess my ask is when you guys put together that big brainstorming list to go back to all of those comments and and things that we couldn't that really didn't fit into the vision and and and goals that was much more specific that just didn't quite fit in there um and incorporate that into the big long list because I want to make sure that all of that work kind of carries forward into sort of the strategies and stuff that we're that we're going to um be looking at so yes and I should have said that so so where do we get all these great ideas from so we've created um it's nothing like too official but we basically have a list like every time we see a strategy idea we just in our office we call it put it in the strategy parking lot and we'll get to it in phase three so when we're Gathering the ideas my whole team goes back to the existing conditions profiles and like refreshes our memory because we did it a while ago I don't remember everything and the issues that were brought up and then we go back to that then we look for that strategy parking lot and bring in well where would this fit into a Core theme and we kind of sort them into the core themes um and then we also just bring our own you know what what have we done in other communities and what have we seen work and things like that yeah so thank you I forgot to mention where they where do these great ideas come from they don't all just come from our head and I think some of it as we were having those discussions within the committee you kept saying that's not really a goal that's a strategy so we'll deal with it later okay uh Trisha go ahead um hi yeah I was just wondering um just a few um procedural things about the people that are going to be involved like with the local experts I think he said about I think maybe you said 20 local experts per kind of group how are those local experts found um I assume it can be residents business owners anyone that has a connection with Ashlin but how how are those local experts found and selected and then the second part is department manager like like what is maybe I missed it but like what give an example of a department manager is that like the planning department and or DPW like maybe I missed what who that is what what department how that works great question Trisha thank you so the we're asking the committee to help identify who the technical experts are as well as you know Town staff but um and I think we're Gathering ideas I can't remember where we left it but I think we're asking committee members to send ideas yeah we're actually meeting tomorrow and we're going to have discussion and start making a list yeah so they so the com the comprehensive plan committee has a meeting tomorrow to start doing that list and then um in terms of the department managers you got it right you were completely right so I think Pete you're oh Pete's not here anymore I think Pete's a department manager um Michael can you can you answer the question about who are all the department managers and how many are there yeah I mean I I don't have any exact list but I mean certainly I mean I do but in this case you know certainly DPW I mean we would probably have everybody at the department head level be a part of this even though like I'm not sure there's going to be a lot of intersection with maybe the town clerk but maybe there are when we start talking about specific strategies related to the community engagement piece so yeah so that that level I guess you could say does that answer your question Trisha yes I think so thank you and I can add to that which during our public U meetings Trisha the our police chief for example showed up at one of our meetings in the Box um so there's already department manager engagement happening in a way so kind of taking continuing on that theme that's that's great and we also suggest although it's up to the committee um we suggest you may want to invite some of the department managers also to the technical working sessions for sure definitely they'll be part of that yeah so um so Jen I'm I'm interested like in other communities where you've done this work like how are those technical experts usually selected yeah we usually you know we have some suggestions just department managers are often good to or if there's a certain board like planning board a couple planning board members should be at anything that is going to talk about zoning right um so we suggest that you know we don't suggest the name of who it is but we just say like you should have some representation from these different things and then the yeah the committee and the town staff or the city staff um basically identify who they are or sometimes they just ask their boards like if you have a transportation heavy core theme which you do you may and do you have a transportation committee I can't remember if you do Road Traffic Safety Comm so you can also ask them if they know beyond their commities if they have other folks in the community that they would suggest so you know it depends on the community if they want want to do that but I I think that's a great idea y okay anything else from can I just P back on that J some of the Committees that you just mentioned about the the traffic study committee a lot of the same people that are on that committee are department heads right so you know it intertwines it overlaps so you know you you'll be repetitive that way as well so yeah but I just I just the question that I was not going to ask I'm going to ask now I apologize but because I'm not trying to throw a wrench in this but how do you keep person bias out of this this entire project well it's really hard as a planner and it's something that you know we are bound ethically not to have bias but we're also bound ethically to serve a community good so um so we have to balance balance that sometimes we feel like our bias is because we want it to be good for the community um so just personally that's something that planners I think all over probably struggle with but the way we've designed the process we've given a lot of authority to the decisions to the committee and we because um you know actually if you if you had worked with a different consultant I guarantee they would not have spent eight hours writing a collaborative vision statement that's another way we keep our bias out of it because we actually didn't write it yeah I actually wasn't referring your personal bias I'm talking about the committee members themselves and their their personal okay I see advises that that may come into play I would never I would never question your ADV because I I know certain people on the the committee would you'd be out so they're watching me they're watching um I guess my answer to that is you know we all bring a bias we can't help it I don't I don't want to get into roomie and stuff like that but if you guys know the parable of the elephant we all can only see the part of the elephant we're touching in the dark like nobody has a perfect view of the world of of Ashland or of anything so I think the reason the town selected or the select board I can't remember who appointed this committee the planning board okay so the reason you selected this committee was because they bring different perspectives and they actually bring a certain kind of bias that you're looking for so um it's a supposed to be hopefully it is I think it might be a microcosm of what you see in the community and that's why we have some good debates in Long meetings yeah I think so I was going to kind of reiterate that too that I think everyone in that room has bias but there's so many of us that our biases hopefully will collaborate together for a good decision right but I think in some ways we have responsibility to bring that unique bias like I view my role there as a planning planning board bias if that makes any sense just like um but occasionally if I am bringing personal bias like at the last meeting things came up relative to the 126 Corridor and I shared that I live in that area therefore if you're being transparent about your bias I feel like that's important so I've tried during the committee meetings to do that like my my planning board hat versus I live at 126 this is what I think type of thing if that's helpful no it is thank you appreciate that so uh be Michael before you go Michael is there any other committee members who are online or here in person that want to comment or add to the discussion we are all going to be meeting tomorrow night to continue the discussion that we just presented or any public that either have a question or a comment now would be your chance to do that um I see I see Flo and robed you guys have any comments or were you just watching Rob you're good okay thank you uh okay seeing none from um registry you unmuted did you have something you wanted to add okay go ahead registry well I just wanted to thank Jen and her team for shepherding us because we are a huge committee with a lot of uh opinions and a lot of choices and to have us all focus on each of these activities through these working sessions it's been um it's been a job I'm sure um you know it's a it's a tough place to be but we got through because everybody in the committee has a passion to do good for Ashland and there's a vision that that each one of us has and wants to take forward and Jen and her team have been able to take us forward through that so thank you Jen and um for this presentation also and we look forward to working with you again soon thank you okay and Michael yeah just um actually I'll make one comment as well just kind of to piggyback on what rerry said I think Jen definitely appreciate your expertise and and really your leadership and helping to Shepherd this along it was we've been together as a committee now for over a year and it was a really rough go at at the start but what's been interesting for me is to watch the committee EV evolve and you know yes there's some long discussions and all of that good stuff but you know we started like weren't you know only a few people were talking a lot of people were I think very reserved and so now I think there's more open discussion and everything as everybody's gotten more comfortable so it's been interesting to watch that evolve and I think it's been it's been good um so my question goes back to the technical experts again so you know we also have we have local experts here but we also have affiliate or affiliations with other organizations that even though they might not necessarily be residents they do have a they're a stakeholder here and do you do you is it okay to have some of them involved and and specifically I'm thinking like with open space so you know obviously we'd have somebody from open space and Recreation or in the town Force committee but should we also look at engaging like a conservation organization like the subury valley trustees and seeing if they would have a seat at the table or mass aabon is that something that you would recommend I would say it's totally up to you all different communities May have a different feeling about this okay some communities may feel like well we don't want an outside organization to to you know put their finger on the scale on our priorities other communities may feel like we we don't have enough experts to fill the room and we value their opinion and we'd like for them to give input you could do a middle ground um which I've never done before but I just thought of it right this moment as I answered the question where you have them come but they don't provide an exit poll maybe they're part of the discussion and they can help to educate you know or inform or however you want to say it but they don't give an exit poll at the end but up to you yeah like SVT they have they hold some of our conservation restrictions they you know they could potentially hold more I mean they could they are an integral partner yeah I would I would recommend that as a committee we have that discussion right tomorrow night we're going to be talking about who we think we want to bring in so I would say tomorrow night recom you know bring that in as part of the discussion and as a committee we can determine if we want to bring in these other partners but the agenda it's on the agenda I I do think it's good to discuss it today to kind of get feedback while the consultant's here not there tomorrow um and so I will say that some communities and and the consultant can speak to it have used speakers the idea is you bring an expert who's not going to vote but they're going to be a speaker to the little group so uh I I for One support your idea a lot and I think for example I was thinking for economic development inviting an economist from Framingham State um I know Peter has been working with uh Framingham State to make those connections but those folks in my opinion should not have a vote but they can certainly come to an economic development group and speak to us so it could be the same kind of concept yeah that's a good idea is that is that what you're referring to as the middle ground I think you could I wasn't thinking of them as a speaker but I think you could do that and you could even have them um we break the larger group up into smaller groups to have a discussion with like four or five people you could have that person or people be roaming the tables to do Q&A or whatever my understand is some communities have done that and that can be a useful way to sort of bring in gaps because we might have all kinds of experts but not Regional experts but we don't want Regional people to vote yeah an are we agreeing it does happen so we could record this and make sure it's in the minutes yeah it took us how many years Michael just a few right so it does happen does yeah but I'm glad you recognized it that's progress I know yeah I'll shake your hand on that one yeah right okay any other questions or comments for Jen Mark okay Mark excuse me Mark only 119 Main Street I know me and you have gone a pretty good ways of knowing each other by questions yeah and um I wanted to make sure that the that the people can understand what's going on I came as a wannabe Committee Member but ended up a citizen bystander bitter and having time to listen to understand to what it was I came to basically about 95% of the meetings and um it's understandable that you need to have the first words to get a sentence and a sentence to get an idea and by having Jen as the coordinator her company and her the U the other woman that comes with you k great Duo to set up for 29 folks and now it's been coming down to this which has been phenomenal at best and understanding that as a citizen who I who thought that I kind of knew everything I say begin to know that this group gave me an Eyes Open by then me speak and she had patience for me to speak other than the people here sometimes said the microphones it's way too much for you um I was happy to be there this group is what they ask on future and what the who the people put in the plan in the comprehensive people on this select board everybody that has put the time in is worth a gratitude of thanks and a fortunate to have them here and as a citizen who was I want to be I'm just glad that I could have my input and was put up a couple times on on your visions that I have put in my time and as as to manager did with the retreat is a form base to be coded thank you thanks Mark thank you Mark and we do appreciate your participation and I would say that to all citizens who have participated that we appreciate all the input and insight because it's not our plan it's our community's plan and the more input we can get from the community the better the plan will be great anything else for Jen no okay thank you very much for this presentation I think it was informative I would say if anyone has questions please reach out and uh we are going to continue with our agenda and let you go thank you thank you thanks Jen okay I didn't want to comment as Jen leaves that I think the planning board and select board did a great job choosing this particular consultant um and so gratitude to Jen and her team but also to to these boards in working together to get us here uh for me this presentation sort of reinforced that and I remember those early days as difficult as they were I think that it was worth it to get to this point great don't disagree okay moving on the next item in the agenda is presentation on MBTA communities again this is for both boards to review and discuss and Peter are you or Alvaro giving us this great uh yes hello Town planer Peter magic yes we're going to present alvaro's got a PowerPoint we going to plug plug in and I go from there I think there's extra paper copies of you guys need it over on the corner does anyone need a copy Deepa do you need a and if there's anyone in the public who wants a copy take a look at okay there's been some modific fresh copy yeah FR so as pull up the PowerPoint I just want to uh first and foremost thank uh joean Yani and Trisha Kendall uh we've worked very hard to put this plan together uh along with myself and Alvaro uh Alvaro has really done an exceptional job with the gis work and the modeling that has to be done by the state uh but uh but the PowerPoint is up and ready to go um Trisha uh Alvaro and I will just kind of run through it but obviously I think you should jump in at any point that you want to talk about the process uh and how we kind of landed and and additionally Joe please feel free and jump in um so with that said uh if I may start um the me communities this has been a law that's been passed 2020 uh by the former Governor Charlie Baker and uh just a recap real quick uh the town of Ashland um being home to a MBTA Community Rail station uh is one of I believe 175 communities in the state of Massachusetts in the Commonwealth that has to indor uh adopt zoning codes and Zoning changes to allow for uh Buri housing um and so I think we all know sit on the table through long discussions concerning the housing crisis and the housing shortage um this uh was adopted to uh help um help uh ease some pressure that that we're in uh so with that said um the the the regulations here uh have the a community uh such as Ashen needs to um Zone an area um 50 acres at a minimum um with 40% of those acres in this case 20 acres um within a half mile of the MBTA uh station uh no District can be greater excuse me no great no District can be less than uh 5 Acres um at least half of the district has to be in one contiguous parcel uh as a overlay District um that is really been uh a big piece of the jigsaw puzzle we've had to kind of uh identify has to be a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre uh for multifamily uh developments there shall be no age restrictions um within that and all um districts um need to have access to a training station obviously uh with that said uh really that kind of pro links back up to the part where 40% Andor 40% of the total acreage needs to be within a half mile of that uh MBTA buffer sure um so um just kind of like thinking about what we presented back on probably was like a month or like two months ago that we were talking about this just thinking of the different strategies that we could have done to approach this um one that would have been like really looking at the minimum density that Ashan could give but in that case you will be looking at the most area or acreage that you will be zoning so in that case you will be looking a 15 units over 75 Acres um the other kind of like at the scale or like at the maximum approach that you could have it's uh looking at a minimum land area but then having the highest density in that 50 acres which is the minimum requirement so 23 units per acre and I guess just one thing to keep in mind is always that all the zoning Bilo regulations will be still be in place for the MBTA um this is not like a 4B that anything is kind of just like jumping over like The Zing you're actually taking a look into everything that is within the the zoning and the districts of the zoning underneath of what we'll be kind of like presenting in approaching um just to kind of like remind everybody that uh some of these layers were already given by the state or all of these layers were given by the state and they had certain uh limitations in some cases uh for example the excluded land was uh layer that was given just explaining and showing the areas that we will not be able to Zone there is some reasons to this one of them or the main one just being it state or to town own land um there is some ways around it however none of those um were qualifying for astion so that's why we decided to stay away completely for anything that was within the excluded land in the case of sensitive land these was areas that were really red flagged by the state they will still be able to be used Within These model um at any capacity either for density or for um acreage however it's just kind of like a way of saying make sure that you're keeping in mind that this could be a potential float zone so just make sure that when you're looking at the zoning take that in consideration when you're writing The Zing um per se and then in case of the density denominator I think that was more to look into areas that were we think in the middle of parcels that will be affecting at a certain level the creation of actual housing um so that's why this it still counts for the acreage however it does not count for the den of housing so you're basically looking at it's called density denominator because it's just taking out of the denominator but not out of the numerator basically um yeah and I think that kind of like takes us and brings us back into um this map that we've seen many times and it's just kind of like showing the different Parcels that we approach um I'll pass it down to Trisha so she can kind of like talk about the um the kind of like the analysis and the risk that we did um but just kind of like to like Orient everybody um all of these are the parcels that we've talked SE the spring back to the fall and we kind of just like kept in our mind looking at it because we felt that all of these Parcels were not in either of the two maximal approaches that we mentioned so not going to maximize density or trying to maximize acreage but instead of finding like the middle ground where you're looking actually at the areas that are developed and yet you're still opening for Center areas to continue the the the actual like nature of like the zoning and the purpose of the zoning that he was approach so yeah yes so um Al did did you want me to step in yeah thank you okay yeah may maybe we can um yeah let's go back down to the map just for a minute and I can't remember who all has participated in our various presentations on this so I'll go through it briefly and obviously take uh take any questions so these are now the seven uh areas that we were really studying carefully obviously we looked at a lot more partials through this process but these seven are the kind of the ones we started to look at much more closely and and um that as well as in the first phase of this um and then the new ones the 40b projects that we added in um after Springtown meeting so a is obviously serus and we definitely want to include that this is our largest land parcel by far this is the one that gets us 50% contiguous inside the um well 50% contiguous it it makes that requirement and you can see it's located within the half mile radius so it's a really very important partiel for us to use um the green ones indicate the two green things indicate that these are project that are either built or in construction B is 100 Chestnut Street um in construction um over 5 acres and as you remember probably from many meetings the how we talked about this that um in relationship to the comprehensive plan which we're in the middle of we really wanted to use Parcels that um that Ashen was already considering for housing at least at least in most cases right to use what we already have and then to let the comprehensive plan process guide any future housing locations and we we felt our small working group felt pretty strongly about not making decisions that should be made in the comprehensive plan process so we're using we're looking for things that we that have already been determined that are already in process so the orange part of these um D is ug ugc um as we all know that's the um that's the um friendly 40b project that is um still in litigation and we don't really have any other information about that we hope that we might but we don't um C is 501 Pawn Street um in conjunction with Valley Farm which is next door um which is a project that has been approved but has not started construction yet and um and then EF and G are ones that we studied a lot more closely this round e is um the burnhams property plus um connect Church property that's on Pleasant Street you can see obviously it's another property within that half mile radius and it's one that we did discuss in the first round of things on our public forums and we had um people both on both sides for and against like adding that partiel in at that time um there was we there was more people maybe saying leave it out so in the end we left it out we didn't think we needed to use it um in this in this um iteration of things we are proposing to unit use it and um then f is 10 to 60 Main Street which as you can see is obviously right on the rim of that half mile radius given that that is one of the 40b projects and um we we looked at it more closely originally we were leaving it out and um but we think we can use it in a very effective way um and uh and and take some of the risk out of other projects and G is Waverly Street and Waverly Street is the the second for project and actually after our analysis we decided we'd rather not use that property so um if we can uh go up to the Chart now um uh I have we have the risk assessment on the next page which everyone had been given um before but we'll kind of stay on this chart and I'm kind of just talking about the risk assessment and relationship to these so so what we again starting from the top Sirrus this is currently at a um uh building density of 14 units an acre um it it's a little different than that it's it's all all these are a little bit more complicated because the bylaws are more complicated um but uh so and all that information is kind of listed here so you can look at it yourself but um but we'll say that it's an approved density of 14 units an acre we're looking to move that to 20 units an acre um because it's a completed built project fully occupied and we think there's very little opportunity to add to that site and to increase the density effectively and economically and it's using our biggest site so we get the most units out of that um out of that site um 100 Chestnut Street what we're doing there is the the approved density is 28 units an acre we're putting it up to 30 units an acre um again to get the final unit count that we need and kind of for the same reason it's in construction it would be kind of difficult for them to add just addon units and parking kind of in the middle of this process um into the orange sections again pwn Street and Valley Farm that's over on uh uh on pwn Street we again can repeat myself we don't think there's we think there's very little um possibility ility that the valley form Valley Farm property would be be torn down to put up something else and the 501 H Street project is approved but not yet developed that is a project um with 120 units and um um at 25% affordable so but but it's not in construction yet and so we thought that project was a little bit risky and we really didn't want to use the 20 really didn't want to lose the 25% affordable um under an NBTA zoning it would go only to 12.5% affordable we know all know how important the 25% affordable is so we lowered that down that density in order to basically put the density where um what they could do by right you know which would be a lower unit count um Peter El would have to jump in about what the unit count would be for that parcel uh I can't remember so G jump into it so thank you Trisha so for um 501 pwn Street the unit count is in the low 80s by right um and so therefore we're allowing it to um with the proposed unit count of of 22 it it would raise up into the to the low 90s so it give a few more but it wouldn't allow that extra density to 120 so it's just the way the numbers kind of fell uh doing our overall calculations we were trying to keep that overall number closer to the Allowed by um development allowed on the pon mix use District um obviously to protect that special permit was granted by The Zone by the planning board in 2022 thanks Peter um and then ugc this is one again this is the uh the friendly 40b over 55 community this is a parcel we in in The Proposal that we're making that we're putting for before the joint boards um that we are taking that proposal out of the MBTA zoning and the reason is that right now it's um its approved density is 10 units an acre it's age restricted it's 25% affordable and that would be then 180 units if we put it at our minimum of 15 units an acre we would have 270 units so 90 units more um at 10% affordable and um not age restricted so we thought that was a pretty big difference and big sacrifice for a project that's in litigation and we don't know how that's going to come out um going on to the yellow areas which are which are the new areas um Pleasant Street again those two kind of parcels that I talked about I don't it may actually be more Parcels but the two land owners there um when we looked at that more closely and again the zoning is more complicated than what we can put here um but basically there there is those properties the add you can already do multif family housing um or or mixed use you don't have to do mixed use but you could um so we thought it might be it might be a good idea to use that parcel because it fulfills so many things that the MBTA zoning is looking for and really um owners there can can submit the that multi family housing is already allowed there so there really isn't a difference with the MBTA zoning in fact with the with using F which is how those Parcels work the density can potentially be much greater than 15 units an acre which is fairly low um 10 to 60 Main Street again that's add and um um it cannot it's industrial underneath but add um which allows for multif family housing um and uh the there we looking at the 40b proposal The 40b Proposal which obviously isn't approved or anything like that but um the density there is proposed is 36 units an acre and that would be 250 units we're proposing to put that at 18 units an acre so half the density and so that would be 124 units spread across that whole property um and then 61 wave rarely this is the one across from the high school the proposed 40b they're proposed closing it at 17 units an acre which would be 20 226 units this is one that we decided to we would like to take out and of the MBTA zoning because there isn't that much of a difference between 17 units an acre and 15 units an acre in this case so what would be what we were concerned about is that the owner could decide if we Zone this at 15 units an acre to pull out of the so to pull out of the 40b process and um and propose the project at 15 units an acre which would just be 27 units lower than they are proposing now but the affordability would only be 10% instead of 25% so we we decided to try not to use that property so um that's kind of where everything sits it's important to understand again that the underly zoning there's a lot of pieces to the underlying zoning a lot of little tweaks and all those go into the big state spreadsheet that um that Alo keeps um and it it's also um you know important to remember that um oh that that all of these projects um need to go through whether they're special permit or not special permit special permit up in a lot of different things but but they all they all um need to go through the um site review process so there's always a level of it's not like a 40b it's always a Lev level of check that it still comes through the planning board um and yeah so I think I think I'm not a good in the evenings um but that's kind of where we landed and it's I'm sure it's not perfect but we did work really hard and we we think it's we feel good about it so be happy to answer any questions I think there's a few more slides in summary here's the risk assessment I basically already talked about that you can yeah it's the same printout sheet that you guys have received uh earlier um and this is just kind of the summary of The Green that we're looking to use and the red that we're looking not to use for the reasons I just explained so um this like last slide just shows where we are with the minimum so remember that we have to have at least 50 units sorry 50 acres our proposal puts us at 5612 Acres so we we're keeping those Acres pretty low about how it affects Ashland and it sets the number of units to about 1,136 it could be 12 or 9 it's a little over what we need so it's a little wiggle room depending on these tiny little changes between our calculations in the state which Alro could describe better the density in The Proposal ranges from 20 to 30 units an acre in properties that are already built are under construction so the ones that we don't think are likely to change and um and 15 to 22 units an acre so a lower density in projects that are just proposed or not proposed yet so um yeah so that's where we sit happy to take any questions can I can I jump in sure I just want to add one thing uh with with and and Al and Pete what we're trying to do is we're also trying to protect the 25% affordability which is what we're trying to you know get to our 10% which is what the state is requiring and anytime we we we try to play the game or a project has already been you know submitted and they withdraw because they think they have a a better opportunity then we lose that 25% affordability to you know for the town aspect to get to the goal of the 10% that the state's requiring so this part this particular plan and and that was presented tonight will protect that from happening so I like how you consider that affability keeping the 25% Anna go ahead so um one basic math question and then sort of a a more complex one um so when I add a b c e and f which are all the ones that are being recommended my math is 5542 not um 56 something yeah so you are correct so these numbers and Y and jump in Alo so these numbers start off just on paper right and that's where we're put Ling in right the Next Step which we're really kind of behind the scenes is to plug in all these numbers within a state model State algorithm right taking out all the stuff it's taking out all of that what that algorithm and alv me if I'm wrong is taken into account is is parking uh overall land setbacks X Y and Z right that's great I just want to make sure that algorithm then shaves your that total y down to the number that we have to be above which is 1124 right and so that number is in total so really the number we're trying to hit is anything above 1124 so right now we have a buffer of like 10 units per se right above that 1124 and so that's our so there's a couple numbers when we're when we're working with this that's fine I just want to make sure because if the public starts doing the math they'll have the same question 100% I think just kind of like the short answer for is probably the density denominators that we were talking about they are included for the acreage in the total 56 6.2 but they are not able to use it when you're multiplying for the density that's important and so you know so then the more complex question which is uh obviously you can do this in a variety of ways and if you add up all the stuff that's low risk you end up under 50 if you or the no like a b CF which is no or likely no you end up to 48.5 6 Which is less than 50 if you add up all in other words the configuration can't be too few Acres or to too too big Acres but my question is if you go over the 50 in theory can you go down to 50 can you essentially rezone just a section of a of a uh what do you call it a little par a section of a of a district because a district has to be five acres or greater so could you essentially choose to use the MBT zoning to get to 50 take one of these somewhat risky pieces MH but Zone a smaller piece of it to Li to make the risk less likely in other words for example ugc Memorial Drive has some risk and it's therefore disfavored but if only a section of it for example A B and C which are all no risk or low yeah together add up to GC Memorial is another 17.9 Acres so you're up up to almost 60 59.6 4 but you only need 50 so I guess my question is if you only Zone whatever the math is uh 10 of it doesn't that limit the doesn't that make the Lisk the risk less likely can't we turn these somewhat risky areas into lower Risk by doing the math in a way that makes it unlikely the developer is going to take advantage of this I think in the spirit of the in the law the Comm the the law that was passed to the state level we have created a plan that meets the law that takes that takes some of the risk out but also meets the intent uh can you do what you're stating can you can you Zone a portion of a lot I you know what I assume you can right but does five acres are greater is all you need per District so the bylaw or the state law seems to allow us as long as each section is five acres or greater we can essentially eliminate a lot of this risk but here's the thing there has to be one contiguous acre that's half of the total Acres that you're you're doing and that's why Sirus is right right which I guess what I'm saying is ugc memorial by my math you can you can actually Zone enough to get to 50 and lower the risk because you're not you don't need the whole thing to get to 50 you only need whatever 10 of the 17 this kind of goes to a question that I had is that can the state reject our plan based on they don't like what our intent is you know intent and the law is really a tricky area and um my experience is that lots of times they don't care what the intent is as well I can say that and and um it but what is the letter of the law it's a great question so here I mean can we don't know right the state a few communities have adopted this right a few communities in the fall I mean last spring at how me have adopted this the h i mean the HC and the AG's office they have not to my knowledge put their final stamp of approval on it but they they have to I mean if we if we follow the letter of the law and do what we've been asked to do they can still reject it that's within their power or not any bylaw that they that's not constitutional then they could any bylaw they have the power to reject I think but if we're following you know yeah so so Claudia you just need to remember that even the um even the communities that say put in their proposals and approve their proposals at Springtown meeting uh correct me if I'm wrong Peter but they have haven't even been cleared yet um it's taking six months for them to really look carefully to make sure all the eyes have been dotted the te's have been crossed right so we're obviously putting on our best effort to to meet the letter of the law right but this whole thing even though I think it's a lot of data is a is an extremely simplified version of the spreadsheet that that Alo has been putting together for the state so yes we believe that we are meeting the letter of the law we believe that right but until they go through and really confirm it and I do think I mean we did um you know we did Anna had suggested this idea of of using a part of a partial like cutting through it right and at at one of our planning board meetings and we and we talked about that and we and we did look at it um but we weren't sure we didn't think it was just the best way to go that it kind of added complexity to the bylaws we were creating you know where do we make that line versus versus taking Parcels that are already that already have boundaries that already are on the on the state map as a parcel right versus taking a part of a parcel so we didn't see we want you to know that we we did look at it but we didn't see and and Joe anyone else can uh jump in here but we didn't think that that was the that that was a better way to go than the way were thinking about it so my understand is the state is available as a technical expert was that framed to them as a possibility well best practices that they provide to like when you are like creating the parcel itself on like the model they do recommend they say that sure you can kind of like go over like a parcel but they do recommend for the exercise of the spreadsheet to try to like Del unate based on the parcels that are already existed and they are like assessed by the Assessor's map that they give you now you could try to do that then you will have to try to override it and then you will have to try to work on it but I think that's for it's possible it's not illegal the state the state allows it so I just want to be clear we're not going to be this is not unconstitutional this is not forbidden this is a solution to limit the risk that we're identifying we're just choosing not to do it because it's somewhat complicated but there are technical experts in the state that we can utilize and it's not forbidden I want to make that clear I'm not hearing in any way that what the idea is forbidden as far as we know it's not forbidden but the work group at on looking at it decided that the the path we were going in was a cleaner way to fulfill the MBTA requirements so and also protect the the 25% affordability of that project because if you start tampering with that the the the landowner himself could say okay I'm done I'm I'm going to put another project in here this is not the project that you know so now that that whole project that has already been approved and the 25% affordability goes off the table and now he the landowner can put whatever he wants in there without any guarantees of the 25% affordability that we once had hold on hold on affordability is what this town is required to do 10% is is our goal and taking projects that are already been approved at 25% that's that's ridiculous you don't want to take that away whether whether you take a half half an acre or whatever you a portion of the five five acres that you were recommending to to change that around well that changes the whole aspect of the project that that's already been presented so even the current project developer you know they like their plan they're not going to change their plan because they've already Mich Michael hopefully will agree with me they've already put large amounts of money invested into this project right but the risk is if we change the zoning if we change the zoning then the possibility of them saying you know what this is not what we want I can I just can I make a comment to clarify so 61 Waverly Street place has not been approved that is a 40b project that this community opposed and the planning board submitted comment I believe the town submit in comment there has been no approval of that project so which is the idea that somehow we're going to get in the way of an improved project is just not accurate so for that one that parcel for that that's the parcel that I he was right he was talking about ugc because that's where you started oh any parcel that has some risk including ugc it's it's the exact same concept if you only take a piece of it and Zone it for the MBTA sure ugc has been approved that's one point but for 61 Waverly it has not no I know your initial example cannot be cut as easily but 61 Waverly to your point this is a healthy kind of conversation but 61 Waverly which has not been approved which I believe this community is not a fan of would be a prime target of being able to uh what's the word take a piece of that to make it slightly different will that developer say oh I don't want to do a 40b anymore instead I'm going to build a 10% affordable on a piece of it I would I would think that's unlikely they're going to say oh half of it is now 10% let's do that okay Kate you had a comment well I did want to speak to Claud because if you actually go to the State website they they actually very much say communities that have built housing are allowed to take advantage of it so we we are allowed to take advantage of the housing that you've already built yeah that's kind of what we're doing here right yeah but I mean that question was can we do this yes we can we because there are things built we are doing nothing wrong we are following the law so yeah I was actually talking about the the land that animal talking about splitting up that is not built upon but but it has a project proposed right so that's part of it so um and I can I guess um one thing was the SE so did we look at increasing the density somewhat to get the unit counts we did no more than 20 I mean what I don't understand you're you're saying increase cus by to 25 for example yeah just whatever that's interesting what would happen with that well you have to remember that and Alo might be able to answer more than I you have to remember that the other zoning in place has to allow that to happen so we already know a pitus that there's not enough parking right say and it's limited to a certain height in the B laws right so those things still have to be maintained so you can't say well put a lot of units up there and build it six stories you know because we'd have to change the zoning to allow six stories or or whatever to make that happen right so you'd only have certain amount of like wiggle room because it still has to fit within the bylaws that are in place unless we also change those bylaws does that make sense so but that is the maximum and someone did all the calculations for exactly that amount of of land to say it's 20 we've done a lot of calculations in putting in a lot of different set of sets of numbers within the state model right to make it all work to make it all factor out and pencil at the end of the day and and Trish is right right if you throw a bunch of stuff in the model is going to also knock it down more because of certain setbacks and areas right and restrictions within those parcels and so we're trying to thread the needle right we're trying to take everything into consideration and we're trying to you know really it's a balancing act I would say at the best and I think we've come to a a an act or a plan right that is balanced throughout that meets the Integrity of the law as passed and that obviously takes advantage of housing that we have promoted and and developed here in Ashland okay so I think Kate I think you're asking like well what about what if it's 21 units an acre instead of 20 like is the magic number is that your question well especially yeah because even if it's 21 that's 50 more units because it's a lot of L um actually I'm sorry it's 40 it's 29 so it's 29 more units but it's it's a lot right so one or two unit makes a giant impact on the numbers yeah no I get it so Alo I mean we did play around with these numbers a little bit Alo do you have any um data on that uh I guess I can like pin down like what will be the exact perfect number to put it um 20 was not in any way like highlighted saying that you know with a maximum of three stories above grade and four from the setback was like affecting it in any sort of way so that's why we were trying to keep it at that number if that answers your question no but that's wait a minute El do you know that 21 didn't work do we know that or was 21 too close to the you know I don't I don't remember you know in the process I think that we looked at 25 and we did have like a flag on it but we brought it about at 20 because we were looking at just kind of like spreading the density and not making just one area like extremely dense um yeah that's well so for my perspective right that Ashland already said certain areas they allowed that and when it's built we don't all tend to like it which is two separate things but so I think I mean that's a that's a right for picking to looking at going up one or two if five was a flag but didn't kick it off I mean that's five times 29 Acres that's a lot of housing units that could be put back into seirs calculation on a parcel that is readily agreed should be in so I feel like that has to be push to um what's the maximum that fits the model and where would you take the units out um would you eliminate well I don't think that 10 to 60 M well I I don't think the parcels in add unless they have commercial I think they need serious consideration right because it's our our downtown 10 to 60 m is currently all commercial and it's a commercial center so to take it on MBTA and put the possibility of only housing I I do not think that's a great idea so it it it's um I I don't see how that makes sense and if you read our bylaws um the add right it's it's the purpose of the district to provide a framework to encourage growth and development successful downtown promote Village salary development with a mix of commercial retail residential usage the walk environment particularly the a specifically is the highest of commercial so proposing to completely get rid of commercial on a parcel in the middle of the downtown I I I don't I don't understand that well you have to remember hold on you guys Michael wanted to add something so I'm gonna let Michael jump in here I was going to ask a question but just to Kate's point so it doesn't the zoning already allow for all residential there the zoning allows for residential right and it makes you yeah at a at a really high rate at a two 2.0 F right right if if doing the math and the calculations right having a 2.0 F on that site right and then multiplying the the the the building square footage that you could get with a 2f right and then factoring out the 133% which is on average but what a mixed what mixed use buildings are proposing here in Ash to be over the all square footage you would have a much larger building yeah well I I agree but correct just real quick just for those watching who may not know can you explain what f is f is FL floor area ratio right so for a 2.0 floor area ratio you're taking the size of the parcel you're multiplying it by two obviously you're creating a square footage through of a factor of a process of obviously multiplying um the total number of acres by how much is in a square foot um how much square feet is in an acre it's it's 46560 um so with that said it's it's a big structure that you would be allowing to be built over there right however there are other regulations right there are height regulations there's parking regulations no one's saying that actually that would all the units would fit right with that commercial because with the factoring in the totals of the f um but also you got to realize that site to to to financially redevelop that site is going to take a lot of units to to financially make that that that that a project commercially work um and and so this number at 10 to 160 Main Street is well below what was proposed in front of the planning board um and the on the the project that was worked on throughout that planning board process yeah I I think that just the point that I was trying to make and Kate I would agree I think what what we would like to see at 10 to 60 Main and and really a lot of parcels downtown is like that mixed use right um but I I do think it's important to note that the existing zoning allows for mixed use but it also allows for all residential well no I understand that but when we're making a proposal so another overlay the the base zoning commercial the overlay allows many things right Fair Density that you're saying and then we're going to create an overlay that's only housing which to me is is channeling a value that I'm okay with just housing there but you already got a value that says it's okay to just have housing you got it under existing well we we would hope that developers read the intent and the spirit of our bylaw and we would hope to improve them so we can go back to saying I think you want the mixed use I that's what we hear from people I'm not trying to make this the um Kate Jers plan I have our real bylaws so so I I feel like that's just not a good way to go and then to Peter's point about the the one developer that was in front of so I just want to say I have never seen any economic data from that person we never had anything of evaluated by independent so given that there was a billions of dollar Bond Bill about housing there could be projects that do not look like something that was brought in front of us or the 40b right that I I don't think people are saying don't have any housing but all housing in a giant commercial in the middle of your downtown I don't think is something we want to promote a new sure it's like not it's 124 units so it's it's housing I mean 100 the project proposed at 501 which is a you know small is 120 units so um and it has to fit it would have to fit under all our concern all our current zoning I think the important thing here today because we need we need concrete feedback right so because this is about it we're kind of at the end of our timeline here so if the if the Dual boards are saying we don't want to use 10 to 60 unless we have to we need that as a directive the the bo the working group has put together something that we believe in we think is a good plan we think minimizes risk in in all of our categories we think um reflects um using using what we have which is what our our goals were you know so but if the joint boards we're just a working group if the joint boards have a a combined opinion that's says take out 10 to 60 Maine if if you can and up the percentage to Sirus as high as you can and explain you know and go that way for town meeting we can look at that but we need we can't be just throwing out ideas at this point we need to say this is what we want you to do working group and if not then go then do your plan if it doesn't work right because we're we're out of time and so we need very definitive Direction so ask a question the way that these overlays work so we have ADD in downtown if we had MBTA communities that would be another overlay and then basically what would happen is if a developer outside of the 40b process say the 40b gets denied decides to file a new project they would choose which one to apply for and you're saying basically like that the add would have a higher density anyway than what we would be proposing under MBTA communities so most likely even if even if we do keep 10 to 60 Main Street in there someone would want to develop more housing because as we discussed financially feasible that project would need more housing so is that am I understanding that correctly I couldn't say it better okay so see I swoop in at the last minute but a 40 a 40b supered everything 4 if it's approved right approved but you know that's and I just want to be careful about that because yes it is very true that the zoning board can deny a 40b project but the reality is is that the develop what makes a 40b I I'll just say dangerous is that it can be denied at the local level but then they have the opportunity under the 40b process to appeal it to a special committee known as the housing appeals committee which hears that they could a developer could even appeal it if the project is approved with conditions that the developer feels like they make it uneconomical and if you look at the history of the housing appeals committee and how they rule on these decisions the large majority I would say over 90% they find in favor of the developer and so that's why most experts around 4bs will tell you that your best approach would be to approve it with conditions and there's some strategy involved in that because when you get to the housing appeals committee if there's conditions attached the housing appeals committee can modify conditions but if if you just deny a project and the developer appeals it and the housing appeals committee findes for the developer the zoning board you lose all local control over imposing conditions so I I do want it is true that yes it can be denied at the local level and I know that's probably what a lot of people are going going to want us to do and I totally understand it but the reality is is that under 40b there's another step that's not available under traditional Zing which favors the developer and the thing is that that I would hate to have the 40b process go forward and have have you know a huge number of units built there and not get credit for it within the MBTA zoning I mean I I just feel like that we're getting hit twice instead of getting hit once m um I mean so C can I U go go ahead Marcel no there just one uh Chia just made me think about this um because we talked about this earlier I I think in general um I I am very pleased with the process we talked about these a lot and uh some things that we some of us uh disagreed in terms of Pleasant Street have been turned around so the process have been really good and I am comfortable with what's being proposed here relative to Main Street I feel that that project should remain here not only for the reasons of the numbers or the possibilities but a because of what Michael said you know that the danger is not a new danger different than what the zoning already allows but the spirit of the of the law that Massachusetts wants is the possibility that people will leave close to a Comm to to a rail station no no other partial is clear than that one tough to be such a large part so close to a train station adding more numbers to Sirus or something that that has been built is is against the the spirit of that so I think we're going to be kind of honest with trying to yeah massage it to to be con convenient for ashin I'm all for that uh but but but here we can almost have it both ways it's something that makes reasonable sense to me but also attacks the spirit of of these regulation a little more straight just a a point of clarification so let's just say the zoning as this propose zoning as the working group is put together goes forward to town meeting and let's say it it passes right is there anything that precludes us from going back and revisiting it next year and maybe making some tweaks to it no and I think a lot of communities are going to do that and I think we probably will do that with the comprehensive plan right we need to have a you know the state law we need to have a Zone you know passel meeting come this December 31st right after the next thing after December 31st in my eyes is the completion of the comprehensive plan right so looking at the comprehensive plan look at the zoning looking at the areas of development that in the process that genes outlined are there going to be tweaks probably right and we're going to go have to go back through this whole process right and we're going to have to go back and use the same model that we're using right now and plug different things in and and move forward um also at that time maybe we have understanding what happens with the 40 BS if you move things around what do you want to shift of course this is zoning it's fluent right there's nothing about it that's that is is is set in stone right um but yes we do have the ability to do that and I I and I as a town planner I suspect we're going to do that and have to go through that exercise and the state would let us go and change it after as long as we met as long as we continue to follow the the regulations set forth within the law but also this this model quote unquote that they've produced for all communities to use to make sure that everybody is statutory compliant I I think that of course they have hold I've been trying to say something for a while okay then go ahead yeah um so I I kind of have three points I want to very quickly say one is the comprehensive plan process there's been quite a bit of talk at least in the groups I participated in in a vibrant downtown and there's now a I believe an effort being made by the one of the histo history related committees to define a downtown history District um there's quite a bit of energy around there and therefore I personally I'm not 100% comfortable including Main Street in there because I think it will be highly inconvenient for the comprehensive a plan steering committee to have a zoning plan for Main Street to then have to redo this entire process this MBTA process um or to be threatened by the idea that the MBT is zoning has already defined that property and therefore we should not touch it as part of the comprehensive plan process and so if we this group is going to take Main Street and make it part of it I would like us to agree that the comprehensive plan steering committee is not prohibited from rezoning it again and from us coming back here again for another round of MBT work and I would not be comfortable voting it for for for Main Street to be included otherwise because I think it would directly get in the way of the comprehensive plan work that's number one and what vibrant downtown means um number two is the idea of meeting the MBTA requirement in Ashland by resoning five different Parcels makes me uncomfortable Ashland has done a ton of work already we are not your standard Community that's being impacted by MBT zoning we're way ahead of the curve we've done a a lot of work for for housing we are essentially already there this type of zoning change by the state is meant to create towns like Ashland Ashland is already hyperdense relative to other communities and so I personally am not comfortable using MBT zoning to rezone five Parcels I would like to find a way to only reone four because we've done enough already as a community and I heard one would like to do a little bit extra work and figure out a way to indeed take a piece of a fourth and so me personally I would recommend a b c and then 8.34 Acres out of Waverly Street I don't think 8.34 Acres out of that one will jeopardize that project um and I think that way we can tell to the public listen we know we did everything already we know this is not really about us we've met the requirement with only four well really three and a half parcels and we have done everything we can to minimize the impact on our community because we've already done all this work that the state is trying to frankly motivate in other communities not ours thank you so just hold hold on okay so we have a charge from Trisha right she has asked the subcommittee has done a lot of work and I have listened to your your your comments um I believe that based on what Peter just said not even five minutes ago was that if we approve this and it gets through town meeting comprehensive plan will still have the ability to review this and we as a community will still have an ability to review this MBTA zoning so the one thing uh in regards to yes Ashland has has done a lot of building and we've used that as as a strategy against some of the 40 BS will it work we don't know yet yet we haven't heard back from Mass housing on these 40 BS uh but because we don't have our 10% affordable we are at risk with certain things so what I'm going to ask from the Committees if people are ready for this is Trisha has asked for direction do we feel that what they've presented is something that the majority of us and it's going to be a majority vote and some people may be unhappy and that happens at this point we are we are at risk we need to have this approved and presented and available for town meeting on November 19th I know the planning board has a hearing on this for October 10th if I read correctly yes that is correct okay so um based on that information I will let Brandy say her piece and then I would like us to say okay and then after after Brandy and Claudia I'd like us to give our yes or no do we support the plan as presented or do we feel the majority of us feel that the subcommittee has to do more work Brandy go ahead so just to that end um first of all I really appreciate all the work you guys have put into this because you know there's been a crap ton of work so let's just recognize that so thank you guys for for the the work that the subcommittee has done and I appreciate all the the intricacies of you know the affordable housing discussion and Parcels at risk and how things have kind of ebbed and changed based on the 40b situation I think it's important to include the 10 to 60 Main Street parcel in there I am fully in support of revisiting this at some later point in time um if that if that is necessary I think that you know we can definitely do that I do support the recommendations that the sub that this this working group has made I think one of the other things that is really important when we go to town meeting is that we present a very wellth thought out simplified plan because if we if we present something that is incredibly complex for people to understand where things are coming from and how we got there it's not going to pass and I think that you know this is a zoning exercise this is not we are building 1100 units of housing this is a zoning exercise so I think that you know the work that the that the working group has put into this I think is our best um I think our best plan for strategy best strategy for for how to get this through to town meeting in a way that does not impact the town of Ashlen before the comprehensive plan is completed so that is that's kind of where I where I fall on it Claudia and let me say one more thing Yolanda y I mean I think I'm not at this point I'm not comfortable with dividing single Parcels into being two different zones I just think that complicates our work in a I'm not even sure we could we could get there you know by the deadlines we have and to me that seems like a complicated solution to the problem I think you know if it if it makes people feel more comfortable we could look at reducing and just take a look at it to see if it works if it if 10 to 60 can be reduced to the minimum at 15 units an acre and so it makes it even more unappealing to develop at that because it's pretty low um um and and if and if uh Sirus Apartments could accept those units on top of the 20 like that's a tweak in what we were doing you know that we could see if worked like I would I would I would deem that like a friendly amendment that if it works go in that direction otherwise we'll go in the direction we have I'm just trying to take into account the boards the boards comment so Trisha you're suggesting keep in 10 to 60 Main Street but instead of having 18 units it would be 15 units if it if it can be absorbed in the state model by then and then to Cirus add it wouldn't it would be more than three units per acre right because the 10 to 60 Main Street parcel is smaller correct so it should be it should be less than three units an acre I think yeah and just by fact can I jump in here real quick so if you did that and you multiplied that you're right now we have the 10 to 160 Main Street produ Building correct me um at 18 if you shifted that down to the minimum 15 that's at one it's moving that's to 104 okay um as a total so in theory you're shifting around 20 unit units into into Cirrus you can do it into Cirrus you can do it into other units and it's just a shift of you're we're mathematically shifting numbers well Sirrus is nice because it's a low well Sirrus CU you you know what we you know what I would probably go to Sirus first Sirus gets you the biggest bang for your buck because it's 28 Acres Shi around if it's 28 Acres it sounds like we'd only have to add one unit that's correct per acre make that 21 One units per acre and at 28 so we would add an additional 28 there and we've lost 20 at 10 to 60 Main Street correct and itn't matter if the model and I'm I assume the model will be okay and it will be able to accept it and and I think and then the only change we're making from the suggestion of the subcommittee is we would also remove F of 10 to 6 no we would keep 10 to 60 Main Street ruction yes because you also need the Acres that 6.5 Acres means a lot right you know what I mean in that total you just can't think of one acre so to the subcommittee is that something I would say check it to make sure it works with the state model does that then Anna I mean it would keep it in this but it reduces the number I mean it's definitely a move in the right direction okay Claudia you wanted to say something yeah I just you know thank thank you to the subcommittee again like brandy said I did attend um one of the forums one evening um the public forum and it was very well done the public understood it um it it was simple it it the presentation is just really superb in my mind um and I did actually review the one that you just had Monday night thank you Alvaro um um so I didn't want to miss anything um you know and I just want to to Anna to you points about this the issue isn't I think our community um and and the way we're doing things it is indeed um we have done all the things that you have outlined we are where we probably should be except for that important affordable housing number um but in terms of adding housing we've done all that and we have no freaking power here none and so it really this is about kind of minimizing um any more that in in this case could be damaging to our community based on what I think the feedback in the comprehensive plan has been and I am relieved to know that it can be Revisited again after the comprehensive plan moves along further um I think that that's a good thing but I I think when when this goes before the town I think it it at town meeting I think it needs to be made very clear about um what's happened I think we got the one thing that has to be done I think we have to draw really strong distinctions between 40 BS and the MBTA housing I think everybody knows there's been a lot of confusion around those two issues and for good reason um and and I think that you know again that we're 50 acres right why should a town our size be fif have 50 acres wouldn't one expect that a town our size at this particular density level that the law might take in those things into account it does not it's 50 acres if we were a you know whatever huge huge land every town that has corre a train station has to supply the that's such an arbitrary way of doing things it does not take into account the existing density it doesn't take into account uh it actually the existing density kind of works against you so right um are you saying it's a crappy law I'm saying it's a really crappy law and uh would agree I think everybody would maybe conc it's probably great law for a town that's not Ashland that has done absolutely nothing well that's why if you tooken some of these other things into account like the number of units that have been added in this community in the last you know 10 years or so okay do yeah I just I wrote it and read it so if it's 15 if we reduce it to 15 it becomes 104 and we add 20 make it 21 for it adds an extra 28 so yeah okay so I have a question for Peter because we're talking about revisiting and trust me as a planning board member I we should be looking at our zoning so I'm thrilled to hear people and I hope we continue that so my question is do you have any indication is this Perpetual because now we built more units and now we have to zone for more units like what's the like I don't think they're freezing this I don't know you know what nobody knows that question right how is it change what you know what I've asked that question to some to many people right and nobody can tell me this tell me an answer because here's the thing on they're just trying to get people to comply right off the bat what the criteria is to can is it going to be an annual obviously a annual um submission right I don't know is it going to be a by anual update um I we don't know yet so I think that's the crazy thing about this law is that it's only requiring the zoning so when they created this law they're like great we're going to create this zoning around MBTA but there's no there's no hook that says you have to build it which to our to our for us it's an advantage right that we just have to create this zoning so but long term their goal is going to be to build some housing because we short housing we're sort of propos in already saying we probably want to look at some changes is that going to open the door to say well you built since then more units and now you have to zone for more units my gut check from what I've heard from different people in different communities that are dealing with this is it's going to depend on how much housing actually gets created as to what the state is going to ask for are they going to ask for more if there actually is more housing built from this or not and and and as we know it could change on the administration that's there the housing that actually gets built and how many communities comply and it could get repealed it could it could get we don't know what's going to happen at the end of the day all these housing numbers at the state level across the board are all dependent on the desial census right right the Shi is all dependent on the desial census it change that true that factor changes every 10 years so theoretically right when the Cal census when the new 2020 30 numbers thank you so much 2030 numbers roll out in 2032 right which that's unbelievable still to say that um yeah maybe we'll have to update and we're going to have to submit in every town we'll have to submit new modeling information to the state to say hey you guys have to go through this exercise so so theoretically maybe Bas line it's a zoning exercise that every town is going to have to not every town7 only theed M have to go through every 10 years or once every 10 years and so maybe that's the that's what I could say if I had to link two and two together with knowing what how the state operates um that would be my that's my best guess y okay so based on the recommended change for 10 to 60 Main Street of 15 instead of 18 and then moving it into Cirrus at 21 that will get us our numbers but you're going to double check it um so Trisha and Joe have asked do we as boards support that and then support what they're presenting to present a town meeting so a b and c would be part of it e would be part of it f would be part of it but with changes so I I want to an E right you're you're talking about the whole thing AB C yep abc e and clear so we had talked about commercial being viable and I know that you have to apply I know we did unpleasant so I don't know and I know it doesn't affect the unit counts but like the whole have we done it for Main Street you mean well the whole thing that we're proposing like I I hope that's not just completely obliterated no it's not and we we we applied for it for Pleasant Street as requested we're still waiting to here back on the state and so we're actually going to work that into our bylaw that says dependent upon approval at the state so we also Main Street I thought we were looking into that in Main Street we did not we there was a conversation but it was not it was not that's requiring commercial that conversation was not completed so okay I I will say I will reluctantly support the abcf plan reluctantly for the reasons I stated I I have to say that it's a decision by process where I would have hoped the working group would have rather than saying well Anna has this idea about splitting one of these babies up to make it four Parcels but we just think it's too much it would have been helpful to see if it's been plausible um so I'm not I'm I'm somewhat frustrated that it's a decision by process because the process essentially limits our my ability to do much because we're out of time so I will I'm I'm very reluctantly going to go along with this because I'm not given any options but I will say that uh having the state do the commercial at Main Street would be really important a request just like we did with Pleasant Street and I would vote for it you know part of the reason we're out of time right is because we had these 40b projects come on and I for one was like no but we were ready to kind of move forward in the spring and then we had the 40 BS so that would have given us more time but my other comment would be is we've all had the ability to give our input to the working group no no I did and I didn't see a proposal of that for this discussion essentially the working group decided on its own that oh well it's complicated but I would have liked to see that as part of a discussion tonight like what is complicated because if the working group couldn't figure out where to draw the line to create 8.34 Acres I think we as a group could have figured it out or at the working group or at the working group level bringing it here so I'm simply recognizing that the process here is not ideal and therefore I will I will support this as is but I'm doing so openly stating the fact that an idea that was suggested was not fully explored there's lots of things there's lots of things to critique here I don't think it's the working group in this particular case and believe me I would I think you know what this is the state and everything the a lot of things that have happened to this community in the past year that caus this crunch so say that I'm going to take your comments as you know from from from a select board perspective um I would I don't know exactly how the subcommittee work but I know they worked very hard I know they've looked at a lot of different things that it didn't come back to us I I'm okay with that if if they looked at it and they T and they tried to figure it out I'm okay with that so again what I'm what I'm what I'm looking for now is and I'm going to start with the select board and then the planning board can do their process do we as a board uh support what has been recommended by the subcommittee in regards to ABC E and F with the changes in the numbers and then the only thing I would add is also if we can check on adding commercial for Pleasant Street and Main Street we don't have to take an official vote but do we we support it do you support it yes Joe yes Brandy yes and I as well so from the from our from the select board Trisha we support this with those changes okay with the so with the same description that you gave yep um I will take the same responses from the planning board I think uh Deepa is there right yes so DEA you're a yes yes and um I'm gonna put some um I about sort of the commercial and all of that but I I know we have to go forward so um I wish we were in a different place place here but so I'm having my reservations and yes okay I think I already said Yes No Reservations yes great all right and then I'm a yes so so we will we will take those two things under consideration that the swapping of the density a little bit and looking for commercial for Main Street as well as Pleasant Street and then um moving forward with those bylaw great Peter Peter is that uh doable Peter and Al yeah I think uh you know with the with the uh with the team we have and obviously with Joe and and you Trisha we can do that okay and and I just want to say thank you again to the subcommittee the work that you've put into and you know Pete and Alvaro so thank you very much for that um yes thank you any other joint conversation that we need to have as board just one quick are we meeting on September 23rd yes okay that is the the meet and greet on September 23rd um the we've talked about that data it was talked about back in August and um because I wasn't sure if you yeah I'm looking at your face and I'm we I apologize in advance I'm going to be out of the country so I I will not be able to make it um but I believe the rest of the board is I just want to make sure I want to make sure okay so we will see you all on the 23rd so that's next week Monday except for Anna safe travels um okay you guys need to do what you need y they need to adjourn do you want to adjourn us yeah we will adjourn the I'll make a motion to adjourn I'll second that and a roll vote Catherine Jersey guy great guys a minute um have a cookie we'll have cookies now because that'll keep us going know TR thanks for coming up with that um that you know solution that helped with Anna on such a you know so easily so quickly thank you well thanks every for this they're birthday cookies so there's no calories and we'll high five next okay one B STS okay we don't want to scare people my I know that would would freak people out be like what's happening with the mo I know really glass of wine another cookie oh yeah or two are you doing your movie Nights thank you you are thank you for your hard work thank you I don't need Anna Kate another cookie than okay you to Kate I am dream dream trip Paris where I've never been tomorrow yes we're at 7 comp plan is seven tomorrow and then that's a good excuse to miss thek hope you're going some place fun I thought joining you virtually from a cafe in Paris but you're on vacation Anna take the vacation e e e as you know there's a oh gosh um sorry about that just didn't have the mic close enough um so uh we have the the feasibility study for wasum which is you know treatment of the algae and the the things that are making it basically um yeah it's really difficult to uh to use that for any kind of recreation they actually the down that was one of the that down yeah so um so actually we're going to split the cost of this since the majority of it is in Framingham was is they're going to pay for 75% and we do 25% so that's the CPC article so article number seven um so it's still kind of running through our internal process but it's a new blight bylaw so um we have started getting more complaints and concerns about property maintenance and um you know basically people not maintaining their property and you know how that leads to basically a deterioration of property values leads to you know potentially crime you know that whole broken windows Theory don't we already have a blight we do not oh no we never we've talked about it but we've never done it we've never done it blight a blight byw yeah so so who's is that going through planning board or no it so the Board of Health would actually so the way the blight bylaw would work it would um name different entities in town that would be the enforcement agents so right now it's currently the building Comm the way it's written it would be the Building Commissioner it' be the health director in police and fire so I need to meet with police and fire and make sure that they're on board with everything I do think they should play a role in this and then if you know the property owner that gets cited you know if they want to appeal that they would be appealing it to the Board of Health so it was reviewed with the Board of Health last night um Dave probably gave you you know some feedback and I yeah I heard a little bit little bit about it I guess there was some technology issues with Doug yeah yeah he He Turned 67 today that's all I'll say happy birthday to Doug yeah um so Dave they've just told me that they they had heard about the blight bylaw and I said is that going in front of planning board because I figured it was a zoning thing and he's like I don't I don't know I don't know no it's not a zoning it's not a zoning thing I know we've talked about it as a board many years ago were you part of that discussion or not I had heard I I had heard a little bit about this like before like it wasn't quite ready for town meeting correct yeah and so who's who's rewriting it and who's so Doug and Raj are really taking the lead on it I'm working with Lisa um so I I got plugged in a little bit more earlier this week and you know I added my comments to it um there's a few things I'd like him to tweak uh do we have to approve it going to town meeting so it's your warrant so okay you would need you would need to be okay with putting it on the warrant so can yeah say can we add it to our October 18th agenda so we can discuss it have maybe Doug come or someone from Board of Health if they're supporting this to discuss it so we can determine do we want to move this forward I would think man's BL well and how the enforcement is going to work too because I think that's like key is trying to figure out how how it's going to be enforced and what are I wouldn't want it to just go from in front of board of just from in front of Board of Health to a town meeting agenda I'd want it to be here for other public opinion and stuff so okay I was run it by um try Mee as well she yeah she's the one who who drafted it and so like right now I mean to your point I some of the language some of the definitions are kind of squishy which I pointed out some concern so you know for example it says you know like grasp being you know unkempt or something I mean who makes that determination I mean I I just know that you know certain communities have these kinds of things and this was very drastic but there was a house that I was I was told about and they didn't mow their lawn and the landlord got cited by the town so the landlord said okay if you're not going to maintain the lawn I'm gonna cut down all the trees so now that's a very drastic yeah measure but I just want us to be careful and I don't think we're going to be able to predict all of that no no no but if can we get a copy of it you know rather than wait until the 18th let's get it out to us so we can at least look and if there's any questions okay does that include nuisance as well nuisance would be something different a little bit a little bit different um nuisance is the dog that barks at all hours and blight is because this is more could also be a bacon home yeah so this would so part of this as a play so it's so funny so just like the definitions you know grass or like there's rotted you know trim and boarded up Windows and it's like hey guess what guys you know what a prime example of this is the Valentine property and so I think you know I think we've got to think about about that and how that how that works so um so yeah we're going to meet I think next week with police and fire um and I gave Doug and Raj my instructions okay on specifying some things uh this also requires vacant properties so the owner to register them with a town and there is a fee associated with that okay um this is very similar to when I did in low back a ways back and it was it was pretty effective so so let me ask you a question you don't mind M here yeah go ahead how about dumpsters on a property yeah whether they're private or commercial and I'll use the hom AR rabish Sho it's a donation that's a donation box totally different but dumpster of of an individual that's allowing that to happen is that individual responsible for his property I I I think something needs needs to be done there um I don't know if it's planed aid needs to get the box out of there better control it or if it's there's a big sign on it now that talks about illegal dumping and I didn't get to see the whole thing but okay it says we already we already have something on do have a donation bin we have yeah we have by but you know maybe it's a good idea to to review that just make sure that it's yeah what the enforcement looks like and what the process looks like and at what point do we require them to remove it or whatever that is so I mean it's not a bad there might actually it's been a while since we we put it forward and I haven't reviewed it recently so there might actually be stuff in there about like removing it I think okay anything else so there's there's blight and then um the NBTA communities you didn't think I'd forget that um and then so finally uh we might have an opportunity to purchase a piece of property uh that buts the Town Forest um obviously I don't want to talk you know too much about it but I I will say that um we're working with a land conservation partner um and we're looking at a number of uh different funding mechanisms not just Town funds um unfortunately what we're finding out and bring this up is um so there are two big grants that we wanted to apply for that this parcel would be perfect for and unfortunately because we don't have an approved open space and Recreation plan we're not going to be able to apply for those SOB won't be able to they'll be a they'll be able to do one of them okay they'll be able to help the second the one of the grants specifically requires you to have an approved open space and Recreation plan actually it looks like both might oh really yeah and the one that we originally did that started back in 17 never got it got part it never got complete approval and even if it had it expired this year I was going to ask like so because because I remember we talked about an open space plan we've been talking about it for a while but so is that is that the open space and wreck committee committee didn't see it through or is it more like it's their responsibility to get it through okay and what is um how did you get it in place does it go does the plan go before the town or just it doesn't have to go before the town or us what happens is the open space and Rec they have requirements as to what they need to do to complete the plan that and if I don't know if you remember you guys remember but back between 15 16 and 17 there was a number of uh public engagements where they reviewed the plan so they to do to do the next plan they have to do that same public engagement and based on what we seeing we don't think we don't know that they'll be able to do it so but we've known about the deficiency public engagement for a while now and I'm not sure anything has been done since right we so this is this goes back to our appointment of committees right we've sometimes just rubber stamped people sitting there and unfortunately this could come back to bite us but yeah yeah it's a little frustrating I know we should ask representative come in and talk I can for you some information that I already have on it and then we can go from there that would be helpful yeah because I do think you know it's it's great to have an open space and Recreation plan just from a planning perspective and but you know when it starts impacting our ability to to potentially get millions in Grant funds I think so that's it's disappointing there's there's some real consequences there could that could that affect any any funding that you folks would be looking for the no no no no no that's all totally different yeah that's a different different thing just want to make okay else okay great uh moving on in our agenda vote to reduce in-person early voting hours for week one only as indicated below uh is this because of Staffing or just what they're seeing as potential for inperson and most people are doing mailin um it's a it's a combination of things um you know that's Cindy's recommendation based on so this will be on the website but Saturday 10:19 10 to 4 Monday 10:21 10 to2 Tuesday 10:22 10-2 Wednesday 10:23 2- 6 Thursday 10:24 10:2 Friday 1025 9 to noon Saturday 102 10:26 10 to 4 Monday 10:28 8 to 3:30 Tuesday 10:29 8 to 3:30 Wednesday 10:30 8-7 Thursday 10:31 88 to 3:30 and Friday 111 uh 9 to noon and then of course we all know the election is on the six fth of November so questions or comments just um question is Cindy planning to use the the basement of town hall for early voting okay sounds good okay Claudia um the other thing is you know I think over time we might need to uh kind of reconsider what voting looks like right it's changing and uh and maybe we need to provide more resources to the early voting that happens in town hall because it does I think there's a lot that has happened basically from what you know Cindy told me um I had inquired after the you know the primary it must have been um in any case so you know maybe they need some additional resources from Seniors or whoever we use at um the school in terms of trying to be able to do that at in town hall I mean I don't know if she didn't say that to me but just listening to it I'm thinking when you say additional resources meaning more Personnel or budget well I don't know I mean maybe budget maybe some we just maybe need to reallocate some things from the schools we're going to have significantly fewer people I mean I think unfortunately on Election Day you have to have you have to be able to to have all the precincts set up and able for people to vote right so I mean I think what we're seeing is so many more people are taking advantage of mailin voting that's really where kind of the trend is going um and it's interesting because you know back in 2020 like the majority of people voted by mail now that was covid right and it was also the first time that mailin voting was allowed so it's interesting you don't have the same concerns with now as you did back in 2020 but but now it's a convenience thing is a lot more people used to it you don't have to you don't have to ask for a special if you want to not go to vote because you had to have either you were traveling or you were sick or you physically you know absentee balance so yeah yeah I actually filled out my request for a mailin ballot for the first time yeah you know this year yeah yes for me I I like to go in and vote so I do too but I I I the primary like wasn't able to do it and um yeah app all okay so the uh the schedule that I read off uh it is it's a reduction from other years so I we need to if I can get a motion to approve the early voting hours that I just read off has so moved so moved and a second Joe go second not second okay thank you Brandy thank you Joe any other discussion all those in favor I I and that passes five 4 Z tell Cindy thank you for organizing all that yeah she's great she really is okay uh that moves us to town manager report okay um I'll just do it as a mishmash I know we have priority projects here listed but there's a few other things so um first uh just you know a bit of good news so I sent to the board the fact that S&P reaffirmed our AAA rating um and yeah it was uh you know was a bit concerned and yes they they had quite a few questions um and we were able to answer them adequately uh we meaning you know myself and Britney and Cindy scata um a great team and um so yeah I did get a copy of the the draft report I mean they do make mention of the fact that we had a deficit and the fact that we had to use onetime revenues and it's something that um we need to watch but you know what they say is based on our our strong performance before and our strong we we still got a very strong the top rating in our management um category they felt confident in giving us the AAA rating again so um if we do this next year could be a little bit a little bit different but we'll see um we'll cross that bridge when we get to it and it's really good time timing because um the FED dropped uh the interest rates by 50 basis points which I was a little bit surprised so you know doing that ahead of ahead of a borrowing that's great um so congratulations to everybody involved in that um so next one's a little bit of an odd one um so I don't know if any of you have heard Claudia I think you know about this the coyote at the mendz school um so we have a coyote who has uh taken a liking to a rock essentially at the Mendes school and is camping out there um and is not afraid of humans uh one bit and is has skillfully evaded uh the traps that we have set so unfortunately we have to look at the next steps um to take care of that and so I'm working with the police department and the environmental police and the school department to uh come up with a removal plan removal plan removal plan it might not that might not happen in front of students Claudia come on you would hope just want know put that out there yes has has the coyote come out when the kids are out like like to that point that's my understanding like they have they have strategies in place they have people to make sure that the kids are safe and Y it's not rabid but it's certainly got some mange and and stuff well but a coyote out in the middle of the day too is not a healthy coyote nowadays Nows I see him go through my backyard I wondered how they decided that it wasn't rabbit I mean maybe it wasn't acting rabbit but no no you would know if it's rabbit youin yeah I'm not as up on Coyote Well and then there was a bear on Sudbury Road I know it's like uh down towards it's like National Geographic here I mean think about it where the school is sitting up until however many years years ago was Forest right there was partly field but partly Forest so we're we've taken some of his range away and was UN to see oh yeah and it's you know I never I was there for a lot of years I never saw you never saw no so you know I I think given you know the proximity to the school and everything there's a little bit more concern than if you just saw this wandering out and he's he's not like wandering he's like camping yeah it is the RO yeah that rocks yeah I don't think that's going anywhere Jo oh my gosh um so see there's that I'm telling you this is the most interesting job sometimes that um so we did get some good news on the downtown project we did get bids in this time as opposed to the last time where we got no bids um and actually the low bid came in under our estimate so um so we're starting off well so we're getting that um that work under contract I'm sorry the local personel no and we really did we thought this would be a good job for local contractors U because it was just like the site work the excavation work so we did talk to a couple local ones and asked them why they they um why they didn't bid and it was just a little bit too big for them you know to the kind of the fixed cost associated with that so what's the timing so hope hope if we you know the contract documents are being exchanged and and hopefully we'll get that started next week or we'll get that finalized next week and then you know I think our deadline is mid November to have that done so concurrently we also are meeting next week to put together the RFP for the next phase which is actually the electrical connections and so what I'd like to do is oh this isn't this is just the site work so like laying the conduit remember so what we did the first time we went out to bid it was for both and the electrical connections and we got no bids div them yeah so based on some of the feedback that we got we said okay let's split it up and so that's what we did um and that worth like I said we got seven bids on this one um but what we're going to do is while that works going we hope to have out to bid the electrical connections so hopefully that'll be ready basically as soon as the this first phase is done we can move right into the second phase and then they'll be out a week after that taking the PO I love your op feeling all right I mean seeing what we're dealing with with 126 and some of that I mean it's just going to be the same process um so there's uh so there's that um just quick question so the so like the um the first phase of this that that we're that has already gone out to bid that has to be done before the ground freezes right like that has to be so like from a timing perspective we need to have that done like November is right yeah that's why that you know November mid November is I mean who knows this year it could be December before the ground you know it's it's amazing we were pouring concrete or yeah concrete you know when we were doing the sidewalks and everything a little bit later just because the temperatures were warmer anticipated I was just curious anything I I do have a question they have to dig right to put the uh conduit underground M where were they going to put it in the road or under the or near the sidewalk so this would be both this no this is their the properties like the oh so individual home exactly I'm saying I thought we already put the conduit in the yeah so the conduit is in the ground like on in the right away right and it's and it's you got the main lines and then you've run it and you'll see the hand holds you know handholes in the in the concrete and the sidewalk sidewalks okay so yes this is going to be the work on on individual properties okay and so yeah you you'll run the electrical stuff from the handholes okay so we're not having to dig up any of the sidewalks or anything like that we might have to do like in in a couple spaces it's more from the side from the end of the sidewalk to the property yes okay that's where I get a little nervous yeah yeah okay so it's the St yeah uh if I can have a motion to go past 10 o' second all those in favor I I okay um so oper Charles Trail you know we were we got we received the grant thanks to Joel and the committee to purchase that piece of property um unfortunately we haven't heard back from the property owner um on this so we had a great initial discussion got what we needed to submit the Grant and uh we've been ghosted um so I I've given the property owner a deadline in which to respond to us by that deadline is actually tomorrow and I did indicate in in that letter that you know if we do not hear back we'll have to look at different you know alternative measures so um so hopefully we'll hear back from them by tomorrow um but if not then you know we we have some decisions that we need to make okay um so Warren Barn um so just to kind of remind everybody so our intent has been to build a replica of the barn Framingham State has a bigger project that includes a rink and and kind of a reimagining of that space and so we're kind of engaged in this partnership and exploring that so basically you know we had committed 1.25 million Framingham State had committed 4 100,000 actually it's about 500,000 because they paid for this study and stuff so when we got the estimates back after coming up with the design and everything the estimates basically it's $1.4 million more than what we've already allocated and so Framingham State has proposed that we split that 5050 I'm not necessarily sure that's the right thing um so I have not gone through that estimate yet in look at it in detail but um that's kind of where we stand now and and you know it I'm not necessarily sure if 50/50 is the right thing especially if we're if our main concern is getting the barn built a replica it's one thing I'm sorry 1.4 on top of the ex 1.4 yeah on top of the 1.25 we already have well the one point the one point six okay yeah 3 million yeah okay so um wow it's a lot of money it is so is that because of the amenities and things that the that that the Framingham State wants to put into the barn or is it I haven't looked at the estimate so I don't know like so our last when we went out to bid for replica of the barn it came out at like 1.2 so I'm not sure if this if that's gone up you know it's I I have to look at it that's that's what I'm saying yeah no because I'm just I'm just thinking like if if it's due to basically the proposal that Framingham State wants to include that's over and above then yeah I I did um talk to Mr M about this a little bit and he did feel that that there were some items that could actually come out off the project and other things that could be potentially be delayed and well Dale and so Dale's the one who took a shot at that based on that discussion that we had and I think after he did that that's what was remaining but again I have to look at the estimate the fine too conb but the other thing that we have to think about is if we are let's just say we are going to contribute some extra money to it not you know whatever amount we have to look at what our agreement is with Framingham State moving forward in terms of like Revenue sharing and things of that nature so so it it's not just one isolated thing so you know you have the investment of the capital cost but then you also have I I'll just call it the revenue and cost sharing agreement as well that we have to think about right and maintenance exactly like a maintenance thing that need to be negotiated and are are those some of the things that are being discussed in your meetings Claudia no no we're really not point we're really not that far along oh okay yeah and the thing is is is so we're going to have a we're going to have a tight window potentially uh for this because you know I know Framingham State so it's not it's Framingham State but then it's also the mass State College building authority so their board is looking to approve this in October at some point I have to go back through and review the dates but is this something we should put a placeholder on special town meeting or are we not ready for that oh it's not as town meeting vot okay but if if there's a short window it should come to us for review and and a vote Yes because you you'll need to vote on it okay so it's just us approving okay yeah but um it's so are we looking at potential start this year or really next year um I you know I think the Hope was maybe to start this year later this year you know some aspects of it but um they probably want the rink part the rink's going to be the rink's go anyways okay the rink is oh they're definitely doing that this this season oh startup date for them well that's what they want clly but that I mean we have to come up with all that agreement and and stuff like that because right now right now the barn remember the barn has aspects Incorporated a part of that that supports the ring and so if we're saying like if we ultimately say hey you know what it's just too much for us we'd rather just spend the money and build a replica of the barn that kind of xays the rink plan as well I think that that the rink is already been purchased and everything I believe do yeah now I think the rink is going up and that the utilization of it this year was going to be different because the barn wouldn't be there to support it like the bathrooms and that kind of but as far as like property goes is that on is that considered our property or is that considered Framingham State's property so the rink would go so there would be it would be par so it be on our property so I mean I have before they come before they start building anything if it's going on we need to approve that I mean it would actually be me that would approve whether or not they have the basically a right of Entry agreement okay um and I'm hesitant to do that kind of just based on some of this stuff that's up in the air it's a lot of questions and unfortunately this goes to like the whole like too many projects kind of thing it's hard to like really sit down to focus on this one but we'll when we walk the site there last month right wasn't or maybe it was the the meeting the last inside meeting that we had the previous one where they specifically talked about having already purchase the rank yeah I don't remember that CLA but I I could totally not sure you were at that indoor meeting that one I mean I I was at one is that the one where we met indoors and then we then we walked the property a bit more yeah cuz we did both it might have been the pre the one before that could be because you were there for the when we walked yeah yeah and I I mean Jen's also working on this too but Jen's not here here tonight so I've been running um very likely on our that first meeting in October we're going to have to review this okay yeah okay um and then two last things so I I did talk to superintendent Adams uh last week about a number of things but one of the things we did discuss was um the athletic fields at the school and I did inform him that you know we would be looking to transition that um the school Fields the maintenance and scheduling that back to the schools and um so he understood um we you know obviously this is going to be a transition so like a you know year to two-year transition so we're just kind of in the nent stages now of getting the information and and um yeah it's going to take a while for them to cuz we got think about all kinds of things like equipment and and stuff like that so it could be it's going to be complicated um but we will you know start that process and I think it actually makes sense for everybody I would think even just like if we can I understand from a maintenance perspective there's there's equipment and things like that but just from a scheduling perspective it would be great if they could take that because my understanding what I've been told is we there's other groups scheduled and then they get bumped because school take priority so if they're if they're managing the school stuff they should I would think take it on all on yeah the field are a disgrace an absolute disgrace and I mean they're they're in bad shape yeah they're in bad shape they're they're very close to unplayable as a matter of fact the softball field at the middle school was unplayable this year really individual was asked to take a look at recomendations would not because of that field just well that's a different issue fields that exist and were and could be fine but are not right yeah so it's um okay yeah um and then finally so the Reservoir level so um I'm I'm waiting to hear back from Dan Mau but um I I do think like we've hit like the level where we would go into stage one because we're in September like those restrictions don't go into effect the thing is is if we do hit stage two then those restrictions do go into effect the the date doesn't matter and that that's no outdoor watering and stuff so I know in other years when we were at this stage a little bit earlier in August we would always take a vote to say that the the we as a select board give the town manager approval to make that call if necessary past September 1st um it wasn't on the agenda so I don't know that we can take a vote to give you approval to do that but is that is this the kind of thing that because of the timing of when we created the agenda that we should take that Vote or not or can we wait until our first our meeting in October or we I certainly got this information within the for the 40 the 48 hour yes so it was less than 48 hours so I mean I think part says should we should we take that vote to say if we get further information that we need to go to stage two that we give you approval to enact stage two because of water restrictions yeah yeah I think it makes sense you know Susan just reminded we are we do have a brief meeting on the 30th but it might make sense to just go ahead and do it now on the 30th oh that Monday yeah cuz we're doing the the borrowing right yeah just get done real quick I guess it's can I ask you a question sure because this has been I've had a gentleman today as I was lining the fields at stone pot he saw something on Facebook about this and he was very very polite but he wanted to know why aren't we using the T with the MW water we spent all that money but why haven't we used it yet because our bylaw only allows us to do it once we've declared a certain stage and a state of emergency yeah so it has to so it's a supplemental emergency connection so yes the Reservoir level has to get to a certain stage and then we can turn it on now moving forward if the town would like to use that or be able to use that on a regular basis yeah with less rest CH our bylaws you'd have to change the bylaws but it is it is more expensive to use the MW water so just you know and if you want to move down that road then we'll have to have that discussion I told them I would ask the question yeah and so I yeah I think a lot of people wonder that yeah yeah could we also put out some some like a public service announcement basically letting people know what our water levels are at and asking people to try to conserve water and limit outdoor watering whenever they can because I think if people understand that and you know people be like oh yeah okay maybe some people will still water their lawns but hopefully some people would take that under consideration and cut back a little bit and maybe I'm I'm just saying it it doesn't hurt to put that information out there to let people know where because if we do get to stage two yep and we do have to enact something then it's not a surprise to people that were doing that I know in the past we've very closely monitored that especially when we've had really dry Summers so I think this five weeks six we stretch of no rain has caught us almost by surprise because of how much rain we had earlier in the season um so I would I would say again do you guys feel comfortable because Michael only heard this within the last 48 hours we didn't have the time to amend the agenda are we comfortable taking a vote to give Michael the approval to an stage two if the water levels direct us because of our bylaws I just don't want I think it's because it's I'm I'm that's why I'm saying I mean Michael just told me today so an emergency yeah I mean and then if we want when we have our first our next meeting in October we can revisit it and do it put it on our agenda to have a discussion be the other option uh on the 30th or or if it hits level two I I'll have to go check might actually happens I'll have to I should check but I yeah because we're we are controlling that unless we give Michael the approval that's why I'm asking if we had didn't do that and it hits level two what's the what what happens at that point you call an emergency meeting or we we could do that would probably be most likely ultimately it becomes an operational issue if the wells or if the pumps start cavitating we just shut them down so shut some of the pumps down not all of them so so to make it a little cleaner could we post ity meeting Friday call well do it until Monday yeah right because if we post it tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.

this year on day one the last bus rolled out at 348 nice win-win I would also like to acknowledge that our teachers support staff and our Administration teams from both clas and central office from the warm welcomes to the perfectly prepared classrooms the dedication and hard work truly shined the energy and excitement from our students were a reflection of the incredible environment that they've created for them last but certainly not least a thank you to our families thank you for sending us these amazing students as of today we have enrolled 1,088 students prek to fifth grade making us again the largest prek 5 school in Connecticut I believe second place is Cheshire they have about 750 if I'm not mistaken Road I think is it prek 5 I think so or is it prek 8 No prek 5 okay prek 6 sorry oh see see they have all other grade level not fair not fair quick story from the opening of the school year very first day I have this adorable little kindergarten student she was holding her hand holding mom's and dad's hands very very tightly walking up to the building wide excitement and after spending a few minutes taking pictures listening to me chat with her parents and watching the other students enter the building she turned to her mother and father and said you can go now this moment was a reminder of the incredible trust that parents place in us and the Readiness of our young students to embrace new experiences it also highlighted the importance of all the work that happens behind the scenes to make students feel safe and welcome thank you thanks da thanks a lot Dave any questions all right thanks Dr PE awesome that's fantastic so let's move then to um the uh Brookfield we're going to go to presentations and updates so we're going to hear first from Logan cander of the Brookfield Educational Foundation thanks so much for coming to talk to us thank you for having us I think it's been maybe a year since we were here or so last so we appreciate the chance to let everybody know a little bit more about the Brookfield Education Foundation um first as you said my name is Logan sander I'm a resident here in Brookfield we have three kids and I can tell you one in each school and all of them had wonderful first days thank you guys very much can Echo what you said so um it's great because I also get to see a little bit within each school um but today I'm here as the president of the Brookfield Education Foundation we are a 20-year-old nonprofit organization based here in Brookfield we are not part of the town we are not part of the schools or the Board of Ed um but we do work together with those groups our mission is to empower Innovative education and Foster lifelong learning within Brookfield the primary way that we do that is through funding grants you heard uh Dean mentioned one and I'll talk about that briefly in a minute um and a couple others that I would talk about right now um o let me go see if that go up I think this our first one the Brendan slokum event this one was actually brought To Us by the Brookfield Library and it was done in conjunction with the high school Brendan slokum was the author of The Violin conspiracy which was a book that was featured as part of the one toown one read program that the library runs and then they were able to bring him back um many months later he did a program at the library we stared shared some of his own personal stories and musical talents and encouraged the audience to discover and engage their own creative voices and then the next day he was here at the high school as a keynote speaker during the high school's diversity day um here he addressed the theme of being true to yourself and he shared his experiences growing up as a young black classical musician and the power of music um this was also live stream to the library at the same time so the community could engage and watch this as well I saw it myself he probably spent half of it if not more taking questions from the students too and was really engaged and from what I understand the students were also really engaged during that event um to whiskin we funded the emotion into art program this was brought to us by Rachel jalbert and the whiner middle school counselors this is a unique program um he's a speed painter he's a motivational inspirational speaker I don't know if any of you got the chance to see it while you were there he did programs for each of the grades that were there at whiner middle school and then there was one where the community could come in at night so parents could come in and see the same kind of thing as well as other members from the community who might be interested um you can see a couple of the paintings that he did he would use Music he told stories from his own life he would talk about the different key figures that he was painting or others from history so he tied in things from the social studies curriculum and uh theal curriculum and then actually the teachers were able to use that in cross-curricular activities afterwards too that they did with the students super engaging he encouraged students I should say to to follow their dreams but not just follow them follow them with passion um then the foreign exchange program which I think you guys had a presentation on there so the exchange program was already up and running but Katherine oo and Keith Johnston seventh grade teacher had come to us to see if we could help fund another component of it and this was going to be a two-day educational tour of Paris and the cool thing here was the students were not only going to get to see all of these art and cultural historical sites and get tours of them but they took pictures they documented it and then they came back and they shared that information with other art classes um language classes and then those materials can be used in those classes now going forward as well those pictures and information that they took um moving to CL we had Jen pink and Laura Miller on behalf of the second grade teachers come to us um to launch this Andrea B thematic unit and here they selected books from author Andrew Bey picture books and a chapter book uh emphasize important learning lessons related to courage perseverance problem solving and acceptance the students were able to work collaboratively answer questions about how the characters changed the problems that they faced things like that it had in school lessons as well as some at home so it could engage families within this tube bringing that connection between the school and home and then when it ended they had a trip to the Richfield Playhouse which is part of what you see in the picture there um where they could see adaah twist scientists and friends so the students were very excited about that and they got to keep the chapter book too at the end of it and then you already heard from Dean about uh web so I won't speak too much about that but we were really excited when they came to us for this as well these these are a couple pictures actually that they had shared with us um that you can see from the the programs that he was just describing over the summertime um this was something where I think Kayla denal had and J ree had really identified a need within whis skaner Middle School went took the initiative had gotten the training and then came so we could help launch this as a program at whis um so I will leave that slide up so you can see that um a couple other programs since we missed you last year that we had also funded um we did literacy through storytelling with Sheree Smith an author that was from uh whis Ander and also done in conjunction with the Brookfield Library so there was a program there that community members could see helped to launch book Creer with Jackie waiting uh bbot which was brought to us by Joyce zalo so those were robots coding robots that kids could use um over started at Center School actually they might still be in the library at CES and Dennis Petrino brought some Oculus goggles to help with some of the science lessons and now they're actually finding other ways to use them in fourth grade that he's there and with um some special ed programs and stuff so some of these programs have really grown in total in our 20 years we have given over $245,000 to brookfield's public school programs for 92 different programs so these might be a project for one classroom one we like to reference a lot are the Ducks that Mrs sommerfeld had in kindergarten she was teaching kids about ovias and vivus birth and they got to see the eggs go and actually hatch in their classroom um so that could be for one classroom or for the whole school like the garden that used to be at Huckleberry um that was actually started from a bef Grant Joy was one of the people that was very involved in that one so kids could come out they could take some of their science lessons about the life of a seed or come out and see as you plant seeds in the garden you know use your math skills to plant you have to plant them an inch apart according inch deep that kind of thing um we have also helped the wellness room here at BHS The Writing Center the math lab the entrepreneurship and deca Business program and ruler so some of these have really grown some have had longevity and some are onetime events I should also note we also fund Community grants so about a third of the programs that we fund are actually for other community programs so for example we did three different educational series with the senior center this past year year um we have a current Brookfield senior who for his Eagle Scout project had started an origami class at the Brookfield Craft Center um the Conservation Commission has been working on an invasive species identification removal and planting of native species you may have seen some of their signs around they're working a lot at Williams Park and the story walk uh it was just at Brookfield Library that was another bef Grant and we are currently looking for new grants to fund we want to help those teacher staff and community members to launch those pilot programs those new ideas that would not traditionally be covered by the school or town budgets so thank you to the administration for letting us come to convocation we were able to speak there so we could reach all the teachers to let them know that we exist we're here please come to us with your ideas and actually to our principes too because we are about to go on uh teacher directed afternoons into each school so that we can go right to the teachers and hear their ideas have help with writing grants any of that kind of stuff that they might need we're going to be at clas in September BH in November and whiskin year in December so the last few things I wanted to note are in addition to funding these grants we celebrate the honor and educator program each year you guys have probably seen information about that we have a reception we usually host here to honor those Educators that have been nominated they're teachers but they're also coaches and other um Educators from around town it could be a scout leader so uh and that's something that we'll run again in the spring usually April May time frame and it's a great way I think to recognize some of our Educators in town and the reception we have is always really a lovely chance to be able to talk with these teachers and show our appreciation and our largest fundraiser is our annual Gala through this we raise probably most of the money that we Grant out each year some of you I know have been to it before in the past you are all invited everybody at home you are invited invitations just went to the mail information is up here it's on November 22nd at the Candlewood Inn um if you didn't gation please come to our website you are still invited please join us it's a fun night get dressed up have dinner out we have dancing silent auction and we have a new trivia bingo game this year um I just want to give a special thanks to peerpoint behavior analyst of Connecticut they're our signature sponsor for this year and my last thank yous are to our board our board is made up of 10 Brookfield residents that volunteer their time much in the way that you all volunteer your time here too thank you for that we also have Dr Anna man on our board is an ex official member Stephanie sakur is also on as a board of ed representative they are invaluable on our board um an integral part really both with our voting members and our non- voting members uh they provide valuable insights and information help promote our foundation uh support our activities grants and Grant Champions uh we really appreciate your help and thank you to our grand Champions those who come to us with these ideas like Kayla coming coming to us to start web this is fantastic for a Community member for a student for a teacher you have an idea please come talk to us we want to help you launch those new things those things that otherwise you might not be able to have in the budget to do um thanks to the community that supports us and thank you to all of you for your time and your interest in learning about the bef thank you there any questions okay thank you thanks a lot [Applause] okay now it's time for an update on Athletics uh from Mr Baldwin sorry I'm a little slow I hurt my back the other day um John asked me to keep another five so I'm going to try to go as quick as I can on our update um October 2nd we'll be having our annual Class Act pledge night at Chick-fil-A where the students sign Class Act pledge and they get um free admission to the games all year um it's a little delayed this year because Chick-fil-A is having a renovation and this year the students pick pink shirts for their shirts um I want to talk about participation just we are really high on participation this year so there's 4 78 students that are currently playing fall Sports which is 56% of our student body when we look at how many kids signed up for the whole year 701 students that's 82% of our student body will be playing sports this year that's an amazing number and I just wanted to thank the board of ed for adding um spring Unified sports so all the kids get to play their Sports all year round um we'll be heading to the um sport ship banquet in mid October um with uh we bring 10 kids but we got to take 11 because um we have a student Vanessa Greenstein on the State athletic advisory and she'll be presenting to the whole group which is a pretty cool thing hopefully she's not nervous because there's going to be like 1,500 people there I would be um just wanted to reiterate that last year we had the Nas and the CIA audit um Dr bro wanted me to talk about some of the recommendations that they made but I didn't want to leave out all the positive things that they said which I don't I don't think that we need to go through those again because you read them so there's two pages of positives and a few recommendations that um Mr bland is going to come up and speak about Steve asked me to come speak about the recommendations because it's it's also a challenging thing here's all the combinations I'm going to tell you how I'm going to be better um so but we work collaboratively and and and really kind of going through the summary of the recommendations here um you know one of the things that came up out of the audit was the responsibilities of the athletic director and all the things that he does uh prek-12 uh health and PE including all the things that go on uh with all our Sports and with the addition of the summer work that now happens because of the cia's new rule or allowing coaches and athletes to participate over the summer so it becomes a it's a it's a vast thing so was one of the recommendations was to look at that um another thing that they uh recommended we look at the stiens uh that coaches are paid uh those one of the things they looked at uh in comparison to other districts and around and uh what we the salaries that we pay our coaches um and then you know facilities and you know an effective system that Fosters communication collaboration cooperation um between Steve and the director of facilities uh there's so many things that have to go right in order for athletics to work so many different things we rely on um so many different things that can malfunction for example today you know and think I'm so glad we're able to get the maintenance crew on it there was a uh a light guard one of the things that's in the the small gym was hanging right and so we were able to get maintenance on there to get there to get and fix it because if we didn't we wouldn't be able to play that game a ninth grade freshman game which we would have a ton of those freshman volleyball games so it's nice to be able to play that it was at risk of not happening because that was there and if a ball had hit it we would have put kids in danger so that's an example of how often that the facilities and Athletics need to work together um so it's continuing to to fix some of those things there um you know we've KC Di has done an amazing job working to revamp and really look at our uh expenditures and our process for finance and budgeting and expenditures uh so that's we have handbooks coming out and things that we have so it's been that's been very helpful and that work has already been started um yeah so that those are the big recommendations in terms of what things we need to look at so I'll turn the B over to Steve and I'm proud to announce that we found out Monday that Brookfield High School has been named in National unified Champion school so I thank coach castalano and Coach Stevens for all their work and the amazing support of Mr Roland to to keep that that program going well um I talked about this last year no school has more people on committees at cic than we do uh assistant superintendent Dr man is the co-chair of indoor and outdoor track our principal Mark Blanda is the chair of the hockey committee and it's on the board of directors I am on what I feel like is a million of them cic sportsmanship committee equality Advisory Board baseball committee UniFi Sports Committee um I'm the Connecticut High School coach association chair for baseball and I was recently appointed the dance chair for for dance well we we hosted the state tournament here and swcs and they like what we did so they asked me um what I'm more proud of is that we have a student on every single uh committee um again I'll mention Vanessa again Green Scene who is her second year on the cic athletic advisory committee she's done a great job hear a lot of positive things from cic and stuff to she's doing um Emily erson a junior um will replace Ava wouth on the student equality Advisory Board and Jamie colber will replace ryy MC on the cic sportsmanship committee so our kids have a lot of say in what happens within our state um I'm proud to announce I never thought I'd say I was an author so in the next edition of inter Scholastic athletic Administration um they're publishing an article that I wrote um it started after covid and it was about belonging and getting kids to feel like they belong on teams and working to make make a better culture um and this started way back when Dr Ruby was here and she helped me finish that off and that's what last year when I went to the National superintendence Convention that's what I spoke about there um transportation issue um with the change in school start time we're not we're not getting buses to later and we are getting very few buses um I've spoken with Casey about this um we're doing whatever we can to get kids to games um our really our goto is Carriage limousine their price is very similar to the school bus and when we have to we go to land Jet and they're very pricey so um often times we're not able to get the you know the regular school bus till after 5:00 and you know there's a lot of games that have to start before them you know you think about you know programs soccer there's JV and then varsity and they often start at four and six or five and seven SO waiting for that yellow bus we can't it's hard to do so that's that's been a big issue this year but luckily we've only missed one game and that's the first time in my 16 years that that's happened um school start time and again same pictures last year of the golf team um the golf is obviously can't be played under the lights and often times they are they are out of school early there's there has been quite a quite a bit um we try to schedule them as late as possible but again you know because there's back-to-back games and often times soccer will go JV and and varsity will go on the same bus so they get dismissed early to get there volleyball has three levels freshman JB Varsity often times they go on the same bus as well so you know this has been a challenge for for me trying not to get kids out of school early but unfortunately I know it has to happen but we we keep running tally and I can share that with everybody from last year to this year all right so now I get to my big kn needs so in in no particular order I just as I thought of them I put them down so as Mark mentioned before cic has started uh a new plan a new procedure for summer workouts where coaches can coach in the summer um and often times obviously in the summer we don't have nurses here and I I really feel the big need to have our trainer here full-time 12 months instead of 11 so when our kids are here practicing we know that somebody's here to do um check the wet bulb to make sure that the Field's not hot where they can't practice she's got the radar with um detector for light lightning detector sorry um and it it it's just something I really think that we need to do um you see a lot of schools um New Milford doesn't have a trainer massic doesn't have a trainer we have a very good trainer trainers salaries are increasing in Connecticut because there's very few of them so I just think it's something that we need to look at when we look through the budget um I was told in the summer or end of the spring I had uh work done on our scoreboard he said we are very lucky that it still works so um that's going to need to have to go into the budget for next year I believe from what I found in Old paperwork that that was put in in 2012 I think so we we've got some use out of that uh we're still hoping to get a new concession stand at some point um I've been speaking with Park and wck on that um and see hopefully that they can work out something and get something similar to cadigan where we could put it over between the baseball and the The Stadium Field so it's in the middle and maybe put an additional bathroom out there so people come from tennis don't have to walk all the way up there to go to the bathroom um and how can I not mention we have the best ski coach in the state because he's here um La last year um Eric conin volunteered to to to start back up a ski team and this year as of today there's 30 kids signed up for that so you know what he did last year allowing those kids to play um he volunteer did it so I mean it's just you know there's two programs that we don't have otherwise we have every single program that the cic offers it's ski and you know towards the end I'm talking about you I have Esports in there um very important I know we have an Olympic athlete in here from from track um speaking in the past few years with um it's especially our boys track coach um he's done a great job and our numbers are growing and but if you think about it we currently have two coaches for 50 kids and you would really should have three so you have a track person a field person and a throwing person so that's something that I would like to look into put in into budget to help those coaches out and help those kids um our sound systems both inside and outside are deteriorating Eric has done a great job mending them and getting them to work we find pieces here in the building um it's just something that we may need to look at in in in the future um uh eorts again that's very very popular and there's a lot of interest in our building and there's it's a big time College thing now there are kids getting huge scholarships for Esports which you would have never thought about and the last is um if you've been in our gym we do a great job of promoting our kids that do great things but we have no room we're constantly taking banners down putting them up and and they just don't go back up it it's very difficult we actually have there's um because we in a room they put and I didn't know they put a wrestling over another wrestling banner and somebody's like my my dad's name's not up there anymore and I looked I go oh maybe it's up there but we're working on coming up with a new system Mr Bland and I have talked about it we talked with with Casey and Dan about it one time walking through um but I was looking at a touchscreen Hall of Fame where it's in the lobby we can clean up the gy we can clean up the banners in the gym and you know I like to walk in there and you can press you know 2024 volleyball and it shows their team picture shows made all state or you can just click on the All State button I mean it is 2024 we can look at updates you know cuz I again if you go in the gym and look and look at the space in there I'll tell you that I have 11 banners in my office that have to go up that I just don't have room for so and that's that any questions um I know that um you know as far as coach coaches stiens that's kind of a collective bargaining piece um but if we can maybe kind of think outside the box a little bit and maybe work on with with the Union about maybe be looking at whisk and your stiens for coaches and reallocating some of that because their um position is not quite Equitable with they're on the same level as freshman coaches right so maybe giving some conversations or working with the Union on that to maybe Offset you know the an additional like ski team coach or coaches for track and field maybe having some of those and instituting like an Mo MOA I I've given the union every time it's their time for negotiation I give them all of the surrounding areas this is what they do even a lot of surrounding areas actually give bonus pay to teams that make the state tournament you know not a lot but just something to you know because they go above and beyond what they're expected and also too think about it now is that this summer okay they're coaching the summer okay so so the summer we're doing settled settled in 22 SO3 I think we start to meet again next sum okay we definitely can work outside of that with Ana yeah that's what I'm saying working being creative and working outside of that with Ana that again I I I can only ask the union to do it I don't know what happens when they go behind closed doors thank you very much thank you guys appreciate everything congratulations on all the success all right okay now we're going to move to a tech update um from director of Technology Eric Conlin yeah aka the ski coach thank you 30 kids that's a big jump from eight yes it'll be a fun season um good evening so I'm just going to provide a quick update on a few of the big projects we worked on this summer um I'll start number one with parent Square we offici officially launched that on July 1st um uh our first user was uh Dr burill Who Um sent out a number of announcements in the summer so we started getting used to using it um the principles have taken it ran with it they're using it now primarily for their communication a number of classroom teachers um I don't have those numbers right now I I'll come back in the future with some data on you know how much it's being utilized and engagement and all that um but uh for now I I know it's being used throughout in in classrooms um we have the guidance Department looking to use it for for communication and and working together and collaborating but um it's it's being used to share announcements um Flyers community events um daily classroom announcements principal newsletters and any any of the above um I did a few uh trainings in the summer I had five information center centers I had five information sessions for parents um towards the start of the school year a couple virtual a couple in person um and then I spent two hours at each school during the professional development days and worked with each of those um sets of staff on utilizing parents Square answering questions questions getting everybody logged in and familiar with using the the interface both as a staff member to send announcements and as a staff member to receive announcements and updates and and all of that as well um we are just scratching the surface on parent Square it's not it is so far from a completed project um there is a lot of things parent Square can do that include uh field trip permission forms um uh absence attendance uh you know if if you have an unmarked attendance parent Square can call say you know your your child's not here we don't have them marked as attendance you can respond back and give a reason why maybe upload a doctor's note or anything like that right in parent Square um we'll be doing training on par on signing up for parent teacher conferences that's coming um and that's just that's just the beginning we didn't want to do everything all at once when you overwhelm and you do everything all at once it's hard to keep track of all the things you can do and then stay on top of that so we're easing into the program we're using it for our district Communications there is plenty more to come on parents square and I'll continue to kind of give updates that on that in future updates the district website launched on July 1st as well and again another work in progress that's never official well actually a district website's never really done um but it um started out with a lot of work starting back in January with the newly formed District web Master committee um that is made up of um administrators and individuals mostly secretaries that update the website for their individual schools and for the entire District uh and so we started with weeding out information from the old website planning for the new website and then we launched on July 1st I got to work on updating the district one and then working with each school on there is we held trainings for each school to learn how to update the website add information remove information find information that didn't maybe transfer over or didn't transfer over correct um and so we'll be holding a Web Master committee I don't have a date yet but it'll be in early October as kind of a followup to the opening of school the starting everybody's now had a month under their belts of utilizing the new website updating it um and this this will go on regularly to make sure that the each of the four sites are updated regularly have information um that they need now on top of that um we've already gotten some some emails and some conversations and and feedback and things that were maybe missing or don't function in a way that maybe the old website worked or we we should function send those to me send those to your school um you know we're always looking to to improve you know we're going to commit to keeping this website up to date um and also nice and clean and smooth but but um we obviously we we rely on the community and um and certainly welcome the community to reach out to us if you see anything that needs updating or um maybe didn't transfer over correctly a lot of the times when you implement a new website and they bring over from the old the the the documentation the stuff is there it just didn't link correctly and so we just have to re relink it and we've been going through Page by Page by Page um and it's it's a it's a it's a very long process to go Page by Page and and check every single link um but we have a good team of web Masters on it um taking care of all the pages um excuse me Eric just for for clarity you want um teachers or parents to reach out to you or to the building uh principles about if they find something that's not working um you know they they can really reach out to either I don't want to over complicate it and give them 10 15 people to reach out to the general rule of thumb I've been using is is the um the district website Brookfield ps.org um they can certainly reach out to me you can reach out to me for any of the sites but if it's something on the individual School site it's best to reach out to the school they have a dedicated person in each school so if you're looking at the high school website it's best to reach out to administration at the high school they'll give it to their webk master um who will update it if that person has any issues they'll come to me and and we'll go from there so perfect thank you y um Chromebooks we continue our onetoone program it carries on we got over 200 Chromebooks um delivered unboxed prepared handed out to students um and this goes along with the 800 we received back in the spring from our uh the third round of a Federal grant that came out of Co um and so uh a lot of those devices replaced an aging Fleet um many of the older Chromebooks were not touchscreen there is a big need for touchcreen with a lot of the programs and resources that we use now um and so we've replaced like I said dated machines older machines Chromebooks are now set to last as long as they don't get damaged um they're supported for up to 10 years now um and so we have uh quite the fleet of Chromebooks that uh will support us for years to come our TCH fix them in house as much as we can um and so we we buy the materials we buy the parts we fix them in house um and so we're able to um rather than having to discard a lot of Chromebooks we're able to retain a lot of our Chromebooks um and fix them at a generally low cost compared to sending them out um as everybody knows this summer we merged the town and bordered technology departments um it has not come without its learning curves I'll put it that way um you know learning um just working together um for me it's learning new passwords and resources and network equipment and and all of that we did hire our part-time person who works part with the board part with the town um her name is Lori she came in hit the ground running um got along with everybody at uh the Board of Ed side has gotten along with everybody on the town side um and and we continue to work together the town has enjoyed um having the extra support going from one person to now essentially three um so really two and a half for the part-time but uh and then um and then uh the uh the board of EDS side also gets the additional half person and it's um it's it's gone well again work in progress we're entering a budget season I get to do two budgets now so that's going to be fun um that so as as as early as we start the town has already started theirs too I have a meeting with the town on on their budg on the it budget next week and then we get to start the Board of Ed budget in October so um more to come on that um this didn't happen in the summer but it is coming you probably all walked in the front door saw that digital signage that old TV hanging out there um as part of a grant that we got last year the I'm not even going to tell you the whole name it's um it's through Pura the state um Energy company um they have a whole long acronym name for this grant but um it's giving us a total of five new digital display boards um here at the high school and over at whiskin year five each so a total of of 10 it's going to match the existing system the system that went in at CES the system that exists in the cafeteria here at the high school and the cafeteria whiskey near and so we're going to have and actually the one that's over here in the library they're all going to work together and we're going to impact increase um along with the whole theme of communication this year we're going to increase our in school communication with digital signage and and um I'm excited to have uh everything working together with that um the townwide radio project specifically the Board of Ed portion the last part was done today the last part involved um drilling a hole in the roof the brand new roof at CES and um running a cable through it we had to get the roofing company to come out the ones who installed the roof had to come out and do it that finally after a lot of organization got done 80 new radios are sitting in my office just waiting to get used um and so I'm anticipating within the next month or so the Board of Ed will be up on the new radio system um which is uh which is sort sely needed for some of our aging walkie-talkies and um and and these new walkies get a better distance can communicate between buildings uh among other things so that's coming up soon um the biggest project we one of the biggest projects we also had this summer was we did get our brand new Fleet of copiers um we had 72 copiers removed from the district and 52 new ones put in with a whole new management system um and uh so that was exciting to get some new machines um normally copier contracts are about 5 years we went six because of the opening of CES um there was just so much else going on we we delayed a year um and you can tell those machines were starting to see better days so um we've gotten some positive feedback on the uh speed and quality and the print quality and we were able to add a couple more color printers into the elementary school and they're very excited about that um and then the only thing I'll mention is it was involved in a couple of security updates and changes over the over the summer but um that's getting reported by the security task force subcommittee report and so I'll I won't repeat what's coming up so those are the big topics of the summer wasn't too busy was it questions Eric I have a question um as far as the website where can you find extensions for staff so I'm I'm going to work on so yes good question so we are going to I've gotten some feedback on staff directory so staff directory was on the old website was managed manually on the new website it was automatic and it could be synced from Power School from our student information system that has staff in it it could be synced to parents square and then to the website but what we're finding is that we can't link we can't do a link for email addresses and we can't put phone numbers in so we're going to have to change the way that that's done and we're going to have to manually add it in um for for phone numbers because we don't have extensions in there we also don't have just the district I mean at the bottom of the home pages is the district line um but we're going to have to redo the way the staff directory is done yeah it's hard because you call I mean and whiskin is I think down a secretary so when it's busy they're not picking up but you have no idea how to even get anywhere because there's no ex and this this an example of great feedback so um thank you Aaron um you know and and it's one of those things that the company that hosts this so the company that hosts the website is the same company that it's it's parent Square the product is called smart sites they are also open to feedback so something like having District phone numbers in the staff directory is is good feedback that we can give to them so I'll share that with them and maybe it'll be a feature that comes in the future but for now we need to be able to provide that to parents so thanks a lot Eric thanks Eric thank you thank you very much okay um so we're skipping over uh public comment was moved so um Mr BR what can you tell us about our new student representative do we have information on mark would you like to introduce the new student representative who wasn't able to make it tonight but it's Melissa Baines but he could share a few words and then we'll move forward uh isn't really a ton to share um because obviously she's not here tonight but she will be here at the remaining uh Board of Ed meetings so there was an application process interested student puts their put their names into um reached out to me to ask if they could um they said they wanted to be part of the process they were then sent a set of application questions uh which were then um scrubbed from names and they were actually scored by faculty anonymously with a vote um to see who came out to be um the top candidate so we had one candidate that emerged as the top vote getter um and so that person was just notified yesterday uh that they were uh in fact the student representative it was very short notice turn around to get to hear to this meeting today um but she assured me she will be here uh for the remainder of the meetings that was actually one of the questions that was on um the application was your ability to attend all meetings and listed every single one it was a very long question because it's very important and I think you know one of the conversations that I'd like to have as we continue to move forward is possibly evolving the role of what the student representative is beyond um providing the athletic report and just a general update I think the board at various times has really looked and looking for that student input it's it's important um and I think you know it's something we can talk about capitalizing and that was part of the process too that somebody be willing to to provide information feedback Beyond just a simple update um and maybe stay a little longer as well that was part of the so that I think that will slowly evolve over time and hopefully we'll get to be a more involved student here so can you can you just tell us again uh what's her first name Melissa Melissa thank Baines Baines and Wendy can I um part of one of the policies that the policy Committee just reviewed in the 9,000 Series was student update or the student representative and there were some things in that policy that we're updating the way that they're chosen the timeline there's going to be a lot of um hopefully beneficial ways that that evolves I think they yeah we we want it to happen earlier we want their role to expand that's all absolutely choosing this year going into next year and and really look to build leadership even like from it doesn't always have to be a senior do we talk about involving other kids so yeah I'm I'm excited that's great to hear good news thank you so they know what they're getting into yep yeah thank you okay let's move now then to um written correspondence Seanie the following people have emailed the Board of Education since the last meeting on August 14th Denise rice new school year recess student safety plan and agenda Andy Korea Boe responsibilities board chair responsibilities fi a for emails and texts fiia for all Brookfield School staff spring 2024 survey results and followup on policy Services Irene Korea BHS team funds and sports Banquets Brian Shapiro BHS outof Town tuition Jessica Hansen classroom displays and recess time at CES Dylan Tanger CES recess Deborah C foia John Lucas National English Honor Society efforts awesome thanks very much okay um so now we're going to move to um item 10 um the approval of board minutes I move that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting from 8:14 2024 good all in favor um please say I I any opposed okay so it passes unanimously thank you very much um and now we move to the uh superintendent update Dr bro what do you have for us all right thank you Wendy um so a number of things we're touched on so I'll be able to move through this uh quite swiftly um I did want to recognize and thank the board for showing up attending uh and all the folks who spoke um and the PTO and administration for helping to organize a very successful ribbon cutting event at CES last week um we also had tours that followed and it was nice to see some uh various families and couples that don't have kids in school anymore show up and uh take some tours we did put out an invitation for the 26th of this month and also October 10th for some late afternoon early evening tours uh for the public to come and visit and enjoy the school um parent engagement just wanted to let everybody know that uh as a followup to Eric parents square is up and running um and as he already mentioned trainings will be forthcoming as the fall unfolds with some of the uh additional features yesterday the district uh leadership team we met with the district PTO um worked on schedules calendar and soliciting volunteers uh for the food recycling that's going to go on in all of our cafeterias this year um I also have an invitation out to speaks our superintendent advisory committee um we have four meetings scheduled and that invitation went went out last week um I don't need to say anything about bef Logan took care of that in the upcoming um times uh she she and the team will be visiting the schools um Wendy thank you for acknowledging the high school um but it's really a uh beyond the high school it's the efforts of the other school folks as well um we really had an incredible uh change in our attendance last year we're 15% of our kids were counted as uh chronically absent um which is 393 students um in 2223 last year 23 24 we're down to 2.5 students 2.5% of our students were 63 students total um chronically absent chronically absent is defined as 10 or more absences in a year or four in a month unexcused and so that's just incredible we know kids need to be here to learn it's healthy for them to be here and uh credit to the admin team the mental health Team and and the families and everybody working together to make that that work um the image uh the uh image picture there from Ed site is there if anybody wants to check out the actual data um it's publicly publicly shared information uh in terms of hiring and the new teachers I did mention earlier we hired 16 new certified teachers that are part of our Brookfield Education Foundation that's out of 239 total certified teachers in the district I think it's an important number um we are essentially fully staffed with a couple exceptions I'm going to go through in terms of our certified teachers uh in the midst of our national and state shortage we still are doing quite well in Brookfield um we have uh four par particular teachers that have been hired and frankly we lured them away from other districts so they're dealing with the resignations in their districts and there is a um leadership agreement among school districts where you give ascending District 30 days so they could find a suitable replacement before um essentially pirating their their particular employee so we're waiting we have contract signed but we are waiting on the whiskey one uh psychologist at whiskin and one at the high school U but they're signed and ready to go uh by the end of September first week in October uh c a speech and language pathologist position which is again we have a contract we're waiting for that person to start in the next couple of weeks and the same thing for a special education teacher position so all of those are shortage areas speaking of shortage area we do not have the part-time bilingual Portuguese teacher that we budgeted for um there were no qualified or viable candidates um we knew going in it would be a challenge we did have a teacher on staff who uh was fluent in Portuguese um but Katherine brao worked with that teacher and the state and the way their certification and their transcript was uh it was not satisfactory to the state's uh um criteria in terms of having that person help us out in that uh situation given the fact that we couldn't find someone from the outside uh what we're doing now is working with our ml staff and we're increasing hours for one of our par Educators to work under the tutelage of our certified uh bilingual Spanish teacher and Tesa teacher to service the students and we're working with the state to make sure that everything's above board and that's uh the right now the best we can do the position is still open we'll keep looking um but that's where we're at right now so I wanted to be very upfront with everybody on that very challenging position to fill and that par educator is fluent in Portuguese yes thank you for saying that um and then the last two things I'm going to I'm going to talk about reflective intelligence working with the Boston College purpose lab I know Rose and Stephanie actually attended convocation and got to see Tim Klein uh give the keynote address about the purpose-- driven work and the things we're doing uh it naturally ties in to the new teacher evaluation system and administrator evalu uh evaluation system which is based on professional development growth and support um we're really excited about that work 141 of our staff have signed up to be a part of that um so it really is an incredible amount uh of folks um and then lastly on Monday we had the wonderful visit I think uh Steve or Mark mentioned it the nas visit for district accreditation you folks saw that application last year we submitted that I'm going to turn it my time over Dr man to talk briefly about the visit and when we might anticipate a decision as to whether we sure are part of that absolutely thank you very much so I just want to if I could just Backtrack on two items um one just back to the uh attendance data another initiative that we tagged on to with the state was the school is better with you campaign um last year so I think that's another thing another reason why we saw the district uh Improvement um this is something that the state has been focused on since the uh Co pandemic in particular and um so we just want to make sure that we you know kind of give our kudos to the state for helping us out as well they sent us a bunch of materials pamphlets uh signs um you know and kind of just literature to go home to parents um so that was I think a help as well and I still see some of those signs around around the schools so that's great um and then also with the ref reflective intelligence uh work uh and Logan was also at um at convocation so she got to see it as well um the energy that came out of that convocation um that not only from Tim Klein but also uh that that the faculty staff and you know across the district what everyone um brought uh was palpable uh Tim Klein who's the person who was our direct connection to uh Boston College purpose lab uh made mention to it at at convocation that this is um that the the feeling and the energy and the excitement about starting school um was notable and he is currently working with a couple other districts in Connecticut and across New England and um it was unique to Brookfield he was really impressed with uh what he saw here so um and also then he was overwhelmed with the response that he's gotten by the when we when John and I put this together um we were at 141 I believe we're above 145 at this point um our kind of recruiting phase will be concluding uh at the end of this week and then I'll be working with him and his team um to kind of figure out how many people are going to be facilitators how many people are going to be participants how we're going to train the facilitators and then just map out the whole uh professional learning program for this year for the people who are involved in that um but then onto the nas visit not to be confused with the neas athletic audit which is a separate part um as you all know we and that was what what uh uh um Steve mentioned um we have applied for district accreditation currently our high school is a Nas accredited uh high school has been for many many many years uh what we applied for was to be to have District candidacy so our kindergarten through 12 so really it's getting our K8 programs um on the um docket to go through the accreditation process and so the first part of that is to do the application which is what um the many members of the school district worked on through the end of last school year we submitted it into in July and then the the second part of that process is to have a representative team both a staff member and a member of the commission come and do an on-site visit essentially just to kind of vet out what they saw on the application um and so uh we had two members Fran Thompson and um Dr Jade gopy uh who is the one of the assistant superintendents in waterburry she's on the commission for Nas um spent the day with us on Monday and they went through a whole uh schedule where they met with central office staff um uh Administration and staff members uh as well as each one of the School principles and had a nice tour of the school and then they met for about 45 minutes uh with a bunch of teachers um not just uh classroom teachers but a cross crosssection representation from across the district K12 um and asked a bunch of questions about curriculum about uh leadership about all of those kinds of things um and so that was a really uh beneficial time for them to gather that kind of on-site information um and one of the things uh that they shared with us during the debrief was um how impressed they were not only with CES um and the new facility but really all three facilities they they were they were really giving kudos to how clean uh the high school and middle school were and how it really does seem to be bright and um you know and things are look considering the the age of each of these buildings how nice they were um the other thing that was that I took away from the debrief was um the consistency of responses from the teacher interviews and the support staff interviews through the building leaders up through um TSO they were they heard the same things and they saw the same VIs um so that's really nice to hear so the next step will be that they will write a report they will bring it to the next commission meeting which is in October for the uh Nas Commission of public schools and um what they will be um hopefully recommending uh they will let us know if there's anything uh that they're not comfortable with but they will be recommending um Brookfield Public Schools become a candidate for district accreditation so we are not receiving accreditation yet because we have to go through the whole self-study but um that we would become a candidate District um and so we would get that in if the commission which it has to be a commission vote if the commission agrees to that we would get a letter in um November December saying we are now a candidate District which would mean then we would go into the cycle for going through our self-study having um you know visiting teams come in 2027 and 2029 we'd get on the same cycle as the high school um and eventually earn our full C our full District district accreditation um which would mean that each one of the schools would be an accredited neas school so CES would have its own accreditation WS would have its own accreditation and BHS would have its own accreditation and then we'd you know use that those standards and framework to help our um help guide us and continue to make us better thank you sure any questions ni the report Wendy that sounds awesome um it's so cool that they already came and and kickstarted things do you guys have questions no Robert is that a yes no okay okay all right great great then then move your mic okay so then we're GNA move to subcommittee reports and when he's ready we will hear from Robert um about facilities all right all set thank you very much so um back on August 13th we met um uh we had no school dude reports because it was a summer uh for capital projects update we had um the electrical upgrade take place at uh whiskin Middle School um even though this is old news the scope of the project had changed um transformat did change and everything went well and you'll hear about that on the next the followup report as well uh BHS Media Center AC will be going out to bid within the week um the pre bid meeting was at the time was the following day uh with prospective contractors roof Replacements at w WMS and BHS determined to be um would exceed $20,000 therefore we have to uh set up uh it's going out to the purchasing agent through the purchasing agent for an RFP for the project um there's two open items at the boys locker room uh Power Monitor and the door to one of the lockers needs to be replaced I know that the construction company is still uh working on these items um as well as the uh the locks were completed uh out of the Boe operating budget for new business we had the annual cleaning of the boilers uh kitchen appliances were tested and inspected um by the appliance company fire sprinkler inspections were taken place uh all the fire pumps were being inspected fire suppression uh was being tested and completed um wooden gymnasium floors were stripped and refinished sure that looks amazing I know that looked great in my school um hussy will be out in October to perform inspections on the gymnasium seating uh grease traps were scheduled to be cleaned out later this month chart Wells has been out to look at the kitchen the equipment um everything's being repaired in the uh for the BHS is being repaired and waiting for the part in the freezer parking lot lights at BHS with damage during a thunderstorm and that is being replaced and Mr cwell met with the Fire Marshals regarding uh converting hallway area to the next to the WMS uh down next to the gym in the whiskin Middle School into a storage closet Falls within code and we have a quote from the vendor for the work uh for miscellaneous just congratulations to two custodians who retired one Pedro after 24 years and cosme after 27 years so want to shout him out on the shout those guys out on that uh as for the followup as I said in the previous one electrical service what did go smoothly they shut down the power everything came back up they were able to install everything um you've heard enough about the ballards they're all fine um there's a few outstanding items in the boy's locker room still that uh the locker room door uh there's a power to one outlet that needs to be taken care of uh Dan did tell us that he was working with tekon uh and diversity to close this out I know there's a few Kinks that they need to to get finished on uh we receiv received seven bids for the B BHS Library AC project um we got the lowest bid from fnf mechanical for 12,500 um we will move to that later on in the uh meeting an RFP was released for the uh demolition of the Portables at WMS pre-bid walk through will take place not on the 3D of September which has already passed um engineering RPS for roof projects will be uh sent out this week that was at the time of that meeting specs for WS cafeteria floor will be sent out because those need to be replaced as well to develop an R RFP uh Dan said uh will obtain um Mr cwell Excuse me will obain quotes for repair work on boiler number two which is something that we've discussed before and something that needs to get taken care of uh the new gymnasium walms have been sold WS WMS excuse me they look uh they look really great uh the walk and Frieza BHS has been fixed and we have a for new business some exciting news hopefully to save some money on energy we have a solar energy presentation um and preliminary discussions with the town on exploring solar energy plan for the schools and for the town um and that's all I got for facilities if anybody has any questions for the um the locker room Bo locker room are those those are new issues they're just lingering Sor those lingering ones um there was there's one outlet that needs to be uh P power outlet that's up High where the TV monitors that's got to be replaced um I think diversity was coming back to look at that um a couple locks that had to be switched either the the door handles or the locks were wrong so accurate lock has come out to to do those and then I think um Mr balwood gave them two new locks that that he wanted um either switched or new new lock placement so yeah they're they're working on that so that project's still open right it yeah it should be done yeah it should be done yeah um who's in charge of uh writing or updating the all hazards plan all hazards plan is a collaborative between um actually uh Lisa Dan Caldwell myself and and then the principles and we actually have a um person who works with the state who's come and helped us the last two summers on that that's due uh November 1st to the state for submission other questions for the facilities folks okay awesome let's U move to finance thank you thanks very much Robert all right so I have two meetings for um back on August uh 13th um after reviewing the check register reports uh we reviewed the fiscal year end report for 24 um if you remember we had a special appropriation from the town of um about 674 th000 we only ended up needing about 586 th000 of that so we returned about 88,000 to the town uh the yearly audit at that time was uh and is still um ongoing um so we'll get an update on that and our our next meeting in October um and then we switched our attention to fiscal year 25 um we talked about um teacher turnover savings um at the time summer hiring and transfers were still going on um we noted that electricity which we mentioned um I think at our last meeting um is probably under budgeted by about 150,000 um we are locked into a great Supply rate uh it's the delivery charges that are the issue um so that communication um um came to districts actually across the across the state um after budget approvals um so um the town is affected equally in that regard um we are seeing some savings from a legislative cap on magnet and vag tuition increases um that's also communication that came through after the budget approvals um that could save us um around $50,000 we're we're thinking um we briefly discussed special education out placements um but I'll provide uh the most up-to-date information in a second on that um we did review the purchasing processes for District employees um what all District employees must follow when uh using Boe General funds um as well as Student Activity accounts um so um that those procedures kind of gave us as a committee an understanding of U purchase orders and timings dues and don'ts um invoice tracking and how that affects our budget reimbursements you know what happens when purchases exceed the budgeted amount things like that um and then lastly as miscellaneous we are moving our regular meetings um from the to the second Thursday of every month um instead of the second Tuesday um and then at our last week at our September 12th meeting uh we reviewed the September financial report um which has a reported net budget shortfall of approximately $455,000 um thankfully we are nearly at Target for our teacher turnover savings um and we are seeing also savings from unpaid leaves in vacancies but just remember that those savings need to cover substitutes um and it is just the beginning of the year um in special education we've seen seven students newly outplaced um these could be students that either moved into the district over the summer or students that have new out placements um and also five students that were outplaced um have either moved away from Brookfield or have returned to inhouse education um so net that results in about a $446,000 budgetary shortfall considering both special education tuition and transportation and the excess cost Grant is only expected to increase by about $20,000 um we reviewed and adjusted the budget planning calendar which we'll talk about later um and then we reviewed the new Student Activity accounts procedures manual and I know there's like a lot of chatter out there so I just wanted to be very clear about this this absolutely does not prohibit Banquets or the fundraising for them at all it does however uh govern procedures related to the funds for school sponsored activities um now School sponsored activities have to be have to meet very specific criteria they have to be events that have an official endorsement from the district they have to use School resources or facilities um they have to be at least partially funded by our budget um are aligned with educational goals and specifically have oversight and supervision from District employees um and they also have to be open to students enrolled in our schools um so essentially this new procedures manual um ensures that we have efficient procedures in place for the operation and management of those funds um it adds controls that are Guided by the recommend the recommendations from both the bloom shipiro Financial advisory and our financial auditor so this is a really good thing um it does mean that outside group such as the PTO they have to operate their funds independently um this is good practice it aligns with our pre-existing policy so there's no policy that needs to be updated this is in now in alignment with that um it reduces our liability um I I believe the school Canon will help coordinate with those activities um but we're just you know we shouldn't have monies from Banquets and stuff like that being managed by our business office um and I think we kind of had a really good education on that wouldn't you agree Aon Rob like was well good feedback um then we had a discussion of the district's efforts to reduce cash payments and collections as well as reimbursements and as miscellaneous um I had made a suggestion that we add residency verification either like an audit study um to the 2526 budget proposal um with maybe a new practice of yearly verification alongside our annual information update um and that's it for finance that's a lot yeah um is there a way that we can get like when can we get um like a a printed copy of the the manual that um that you and Rosa were talking about the other night um because like I get it when you're saying here but when people in the community ask I'm like um yeah totally yes you can have Banquets but it has to look different yeah we I have a draft available so we can send that out to the full board tomorrow absolutely that'd be great yeah thanks are there questions guys all right well then let's move to um Cape uh committee update please okay we met on August 28th we got an update presentation and overview of the portrait of The Graduate the focus was on the domains and their descriptors action steps and the 2024 2025 school year and how it aligns to the board of edge strategic plan um there's some feedback to be more engaging and inclusive of all Educators um portrait of the learner was discussed as a possible adjustment to the language of portrait of a graduate we reviewed the professional learning plan outline we talked briefly about the school climate survey results on professional learning where 67% of the staff responded positive positively to the professional learning program for the 23 24 school year we also reviewed the teacher and admin support and growth plans orientation how it relates to the work with reflective intelligence um an approach in which Administration teachers and students are being more reflective we're learning we learned how to identify what's meaningful to you so you feel like you have a purpose students need to know why they are learning what they're learning and how it helps them and our staff can be a part of these reflective intelligence groups we also reviewed the professional trainings for 2425 the coming year we reviewed the BHS AP score report and discussed what we noticed that was good work and we reviewed all the summer curriculum projects that went on throughout the summer and we talked had some preliminary discussions on the upcoming class size report we did re make a recommendation or we discussed a recommendation for a subcommittee for us to start a subcommittee for an adoc ad hoc committee to create some updated guidelines for class sizes um based on our current needs of the students in District and updated research current strategic plan Etc um so we'd like to kind of get the ball rolling on that to anyone that might be interested in spearheading that and that's about it awesome super thorough thank you okay uh next policy please okay so we have had two meetings since uh the last Board of bed meeting um the Committee Member numers started in August and continue discussions on the 9,000 policy series for the purposes of updating the Brookfield Public Schools policy manual you will see on the consent agenda tonight a list of policies that we are presenting for a first read they are required and recommended by Shipman and Goodwin and along with those policies you have an explanation page that hopefully gives you a little more detail and Clarity on what exactly the policy committee is recommending in the adoption of each policy so you will see that some some of the Brookfield policies have been absorbed into the new shipment and Goodwin policies some have been combined based on our current policy language um some have been renamed just for clarity once you're able to absorb all that information and all of our recommendations please feel free to reach out for clarity it's I think it's pretty straightforward once you read through it it makes a lot of sense um but there is some renumeration and things that may at first glance be a little um need some clarity um um so what we are asking is that you send any of the feedback that you have to me by September 30th that will give the committee time to evaluate the policies and all of your feedback before putting forward for a second read and a vote for adoption in the October board meeting the policy committee Erin joy and I um we continue to work to update and bring the recommendations to the board we're continuing to work and bring the recommendations to the board um to adopt the remaining workfield specific policies in the 9000 series so as a result of the committee's desire to move as efficiently as possible we have added another special meeting on Monday September 23rd at 5:30 p.m.

now here's my point my point is these are Highly Educated been to school for 12 15 18 years what I've just described to you in terms of managing student Behavior sounds really simple when we put it in the stoic framework but here we've got even a group of Physicians who forgot some of the most basic tenants of prevention of disease so it's important that as simple as these five variable sound it's essential that we remind people of those constantly I can tell you how they fixed it they basically implemented the stoic framework here's what the first thing they did though is what we always think about because when a kid messes up at school the first thing we think about is doing what punishment so they sent threatening La nasty letters to all those Physicians saying we're going to fire you what do you think that did nothing yeah try to find another cardio thorasic surgeon as good as me you're not GNA fire me and so those things went basically unheeded so they brought all the physicians in and shared the data with them about the rise of both Insurance costs lawsuit costs and patient care costs with these horrible diseases um they then sent all the Physicians into the lab where they had um prepared Petri dishes and they asked each physician to put their hand in that petri dish those were cultured photographed and each one sent to each Physician's computer as their screen saver so they came in every morning turn on their computer what they see somebody's nasty germs now not textbook nasty germs but their own nasty germs and they got handwashing to 100% now I want you to understand what they did they had to change behavior and they did it not through punitive measures but through manipulating the variables the very variables that we're trying to manipulate in your schools of structure teach observe interact positively I don't know that they did any positive interaction so the challenge is it's really more about changing adult Behavior than it is kid behavior and that's really our challenge because changing adults behavior is difficult right we think about changing kids Behavior but changing adult behavior is somewhat more difficult it's one of the reasons that our approach to professional development in this regard is sustained over time so for instance when I start working with your schools and Foundations we're here over three years we meet with those teams multiple times usually three or four times a year over three years all the professional development um research supports that sustained training over time is what produces a lasting result so you're all's um willingness to participate in a a longterm uh view of this because it's not a quick fix it's not a quick fix anywhere so we know that we're doing we're doing the right thing questions so far comments yeah I I just want to ask Susan we did things a little backward in Apple Valley because of the pandemic yeah um we had plans to bring foundations in and then we closed yeah and so we brought moved forward with Champs first right will we be successful doing that you know what I've that's a hard question I've done it both ways okay I've I've sometimes it just depends on what people want first I don't know that there's a right or wrong way to do it um sometimes we do it simultaneously I I've done it so many ideations we've we've started at various times in the year I I think you're going to be successful I re I really do I'm already seeing change just this first year um yesterday well day before yesterday well you were there um it might be easier for you to tell that anecdote than me but we did have the the our our The Substitute absolutely do you mind if she shares an anecdote from one two of our schools that happened just this week so at the beginning of um Susan's trainings she always has them reflect on the work they've done and Report out and and one of the teams reported out and was sharing their onliners and um their schoolwide process that they have put in place and another teacher on another campus said I need to compliment you somebody that is marrying into my family has subbed at your school they subed at your school last year and they subed at your school this year and just a few weeks into school they already see a marked difference of what's going on on the campus and they asked what had changed did I know what had changed and she responded I bet it's their foundations so um for another School site teacher to speak up and talk about um the success that she was hearing outside of actually experiencing it but through somebody else's eyes that she had as a trusted um Confidant so yeah it was amazing um just some um kind of pragmatic stuff um this is what I think um Amanda's already looked this up online this is the material that we use I think that's another Hallmark of why I think our PBIS model is superior is because we really do provide material that kid that te teams can use long after I'm gone it's never our uh goal to work at a school district the rest of our lives uh we really want folks to be able to self- sustain this work um but but they always have the material that they need in order to do so there are six modules uh that work through each of the tier one tier two tier three um uh support for Behavior as well as each uh school has um access to video by all of the four of the authors and um then lots of resources I'm excited because we're in the process of revising this um uh Jessica sprick and I are working on the revision and one of the things that we do that we love is we collect samples from all across the country to go in as exemplars and we've already got a couple of schools in Apple Valley that we're going to get their exemplars and they'll be highlighted in the newest edition of Foundations when when it comes out probably in 2026 so we're excited we're excited about that um I want to go ahead now because I think we are I don't want to keep you here all night um but I would like to go ahead and talk about uh Champs but as we do that let's just finish with just a word about PBIS uh my slide just talks about that it's unlike traditional behavior management which really views the behav the individual as the problem PBIS really looks at systems and let's see if we can modify change or Implement systems that are going to eliminate uh the the challenging Behavior again more of a Disneyland approach as you will so I think that's important to uh remember and then mtss again that multi-tiered system of support which you are obligated to do by law according to um every child succeeds act you have to demonstrate that uh we're changing the system to meet the needs of youngsters and I think that's going to be that's that's been a real change in the way we viewed behavior um than than traditional kinds of systems let's go ahead and talk a little bit about champ would you all like to talk a little bit about classroom management now because is it 5 and I'm here till what time 6:30 all right we we're probably gonna get done before that six we're probably gonna get done before that would that hurt anybody feelings if we got done before that all right well let me because you know I put probably a hundred slides in here and youall don't need a hundred slides so let's go ahead and talk about let's go ahead and talk about classroom management yes the change that this has caused for me as um the superintendent when I um engage with a principal or co-administrator on a campus when there's something that doesn't seem to be working um having to do with student behaviors or playground or name it all the different things the first thing I ask them is what's the system yeah and they often are able to describe it and I'll say where is that in writing and sometimes sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't and so when it isn't I always ask that they put it in writing because how are they able to share that teach it yeah right and the expectations all of it so that has changed my my work when I'm outworking with principles and it has for me it feels a much more um supported system than one that is constantly trying to refine for them or come up with a solution for them it's more what's the system where is it written show it to me how have you taught it we go we sto the heck out of it right good and um so I am very appreciative of that from this role yeah um the the thing that I that really makes that work is all the research that we know about what teachers need in order to have um job satisfaction and that one is that they have a voice in curricular decisions and two they have a voice in behavioral decisions and so when you put that back on the on the staff to say what is your procedure again the more they are involved in that decision- making as opposed to somebody saying oh well the superintendent said we have to do this or the principal said we have to do this people are happier when they've had a voice in how their schools managed now I do always remind the teams and I had to remind them again uh yesterday or Monday that we this is never designed to usurp the power of the principal ever it's not designed to do that because what we talked with principles we want we or when I'm talking to leaders I say really there are there are three kinds of decisions that you have to make some are just you have to make a unilateral decision the superintendent calls and says I need an answer in two hours and and you don't have time to ask anybody nor does she want you to ask anybody she just want you to make a decision second way that I make decisions is that there are some things that I'm going to elicit information from the staff but ultimately that principal has to make that decision and third we really need to think about what are the decisions that our staff should make in order to be engaged in the process I don't ever like to use that word Buy in because I don't think we need to get people to buy in we need to get people engaged and so the more I can help the more I have can be a part of the decision-making process the more likely I am to be engaged in the process so I think that's again changed a lot of people's uh work um if you look back I'm back at our little pyramid and if you look in the middle you see positive classroom management and the text that we use one you have in front of you and that's the Champs book and then the other one is on my slide and that's it's companion piece that's discipline in the secondary classroom again those are almost identical uh the reason to be quite Frank with you that we don't just have one book is that high school people do not think that anything that happens in elementary school is relative to them and I can say that from an old high school teacher that's just what we believe that anything that Elementary School students do we don't need to do we have a you know because we're so different and so we just create another text it's like I said it's almost identical but it's there let me let you go ahead and in that text go ahead and open it to the table of contents you'll find the table of contents and I don't know what page it's on so if somebody will find the page number for the table of contents I should have put it in here I apologize what what what what is it Roman numeral 5 all right if you'll look at that there are 11 chapters in this text and each of those chapters has three to probably 10 discret tasks when I mentioned that this text is a compendium of the effective u schools research each one of those tasks are what we know effective teachers do in the classroom now I'll be honest with you I taught school for a real long time and I probably there probably 40 plus of those discret teacher behaviors contained in that text or each of those texts I probably didn't do all 40 of those at once but I probably did a good number of them every single day and so this is truly a resource for your teachers to help them make decisions about what they want their classroom management to look like now I'm going to tell you if I got to rule the world which I don't I probably would not call this classroom management anymore because when we use that term classroom management most people think that happens the first week of school what we hope that teachers will understand from this text and from the training is that it's really not classroom management it's instructional management and that's what I prefer to call it is just this is the way we manage instruction I don't know how many of you all have been in classes recently do you all as board members get to get in classes you do so is anybody shocked that instruction has changed significantly anybody watched elementary math instruction in the last two years yeah I don't get it don't get it don't ask me how to I I don't know what you're teaching those kindergarten kids but it's different than what I learned what I do know is that now our teachers are using a far wider variety of instructional methodology than any of my teachers did and the challenge then is how do I go seamlessly from one kind of instructional strategy to the next instructional strategy to create that kind of variety that 21st century Learners demand they're not they're not going to sit in a a bunch of rows anymore and listen to the teacher for 45 minutes and then do independent seat work for another 20 minutes we just don't have Learners who behave that way anymore our kids simply don't learn that way so we know that our teachers need a wide variety of instructional strategies and they also need to know how to execute those instructional strategies so this text allows teachers to make decisions about how to navigate those um in whatever grade level whatever grade level they need to it's set up if you look on the stoic framework so if you look at starting at chapter two I think it's chapter two don't hold me to that does that say does the heading on chapter 2 say s say structuring for success or is it thank you very much I appreciate that I this is a fairly new text I trained the old one for 20 plus years and so I'm still kind of caught up in those chapters and so this is this is a little new for me I know it well but not chapter and verse like I did the other one um so chapters two three and I think chapter four are all about how do we structure what are the decisions we make about the routines and procedures that I put in my classroom I was sharing with our your kindergarten teacher who's sitting here I was uh working in Alaska I work in rural Alaska up above the Arctic Circle over on the northwest coast with the Northwest Arctic burrow School District so I was in a a village school last week of 54 students prek through 12 54 students prek through 12 and they have a really hard time recruiting teachers to go up to that part of the world to teach and so they found a new resource for teachers and they are hiring teachers from the Philippines those folks can make more in one month than they make a year in the Philippines so they're anxious to come but they don't have the same procedures that we have um in schools and so I was in the prek class with a brand new teacher from the Philippines and um even something as simple as getting children to line up she had the so all she said was boys and girls line up well it looked like a mad rush to line up at the door we we would never do that we're going to have a routine for I'm sure you've got a routine that you she says if you're wearing red shoes you may get in line on your spot on the carpet oh if you're wearing in blue jeans you can are something to that effect right we know how to organize and this woman had no idea how to do that your that text that you're looking at is full of those kinds of ideas that help teachers think about the routines and procedures that they put in their class as we look at structure when we get to the T in uh stoic and I think that starts in chapter four so if you want to look at that heading is it chapter four somebody help me out here chapter four that's when our teachers need to then communicate their decisions that they made about how the classroom is going to be structured and organized to their kids it also in that CH those chapters what we what Jess and the other authors Jessica sprick and the other authors put in this text is what are best practices in each of the instructional strategies that we use most frequently so what I'm doing with you right now is something that we call teacher directed instruction sometimes we used to call it lecture right but we don't call it that anymore teacher directed instruction what's best practice in that there's a ton of research that says this is what good teachers do when they're delivering that kind of instruction it also looks at when kids are working independently what how do we maximize that use of Technology H how do we maximize and how does technology become a partner with instruction but not become the instruction because we can't just Advocate instruction to that computer that we're providing kids that's still not good instruction if we just say open your Google classroom and start on your assignment we've got to provide a human to provide that kind of instruction as well as using our technology to enhance instruction so throughout those chapters we look at what are Best Practices what are the what are the best teachers in the world doing in order to enhance every kind of instruction that they're using in the classroom once they've done that we ask them why it's called Champs and again Champs is an acronym again we're the alphabet people and so Champs stands for conversation help activity movement participation and success and so we ask teachers to start thinking about what they want student Behavior to look and sound like in each one of those activity structures so if I take teacher directed instruction I'm thinking okay I'm going to be in front of the class and I'm going to be teaching and they're going to be listening to me and perhaps taking notes if they're in the fifth fourth fifth sixth grade whatever can they talk to each other while I'm talking absolutely not if they need help are they going to get it well they're probably going to need to raise their hand but I need to teach them that the activity is that we're going to be uh engaged in teacher director instruction you're going to be taking notes can you ask to use a call pass during this time can you get up to get material can you get a tissue can you go talk to somebody across the room I need to be explicit about all that a lot of our schools our um secondary schools by the way Implement something called a 10 by10 or a 5 by5 depending on their schedule which means that no hall passes except for emergencies are issued during the first 10 minutes of class nor the last 10 minutes of class the benefit of that is the first 10 minut of classes usually when the teacher is providing the most robust instruction and we don't want kids just can I go can I go can I go and then we need to close instruction plus it also helps us with tardies at secondary schools if we've got our hallways clear of kids the last 10 minutes of class that's why I need to talk about movement and then I need to tell them this is what participation is going to look like during this activity and I may need to say this is what it does not look like and then if we do all all of this will be successful in addition to that when you're in classrooms it's very likely that you're going to see a visual prompt of Champs up in classrooms we've done a ton of research and we know that a strong visual prompt helps kids stay on track because it cuts down on the amount of Corrections that teachers have to verbal Corrections that teachers have to do if kids get off task I don't have to say excuse me remember you're not supposed to be talking right now I can just go right over to my visual prompt and point to whatever it is and I don't have to say a word I don't have to embarrass humiliate or make sure that make that kid feel like they're not you know because we all get off track you know everybody gets off task occasionally and we have to be corrected so you'll walk in classes and you're very likely to see some visual prompts whether it's a poster whether it's a uh it's embedded in a in a PowerPoint at one of the secondary schools I think uh TR was at a school today where they're using those little touch lights uh the teacher touches the little light to say this is who you can talk to this is how loud you can talk etc etc our research and we've got over 30 years of research on Champs um I will tell you how old I am again now I had a galley copy of this text when I was still in the classroom it was in a three- ring binder published on um a copier so I have the original one of the original copies of Champs and Dr sprick just said would you play around with us and give us some feedback back the first edition didn't um suggest that we had um a strong uh visual prompt but we've learned now that visual prompts really help I don't know if you all are aware of how prompt dependent we are just as a culture um go to the airport there's a little video going 321 right you can have three ounces right they've got that little video up and they've got signs all the way telling you what you can and can't do we are a real prompt dependent culture and so we know that kids can it'll helps if they rely on if we have the prompts that they can rely on um so here are some of the decisions that we make in terms of structure I'm sorry I got ahead of myself we're looking at just the physical setting of the of the classroom um we've got some examples in your text about what kinds of physical Arrangements work I know we're hearing an awful lot now about sort of some um different seating rather than our T typical desk we've got kids in you know sitting on a exercise ball or we've got kids sitting on a a stool where they're a little bit off balance or we've got kids sitting at tables where they're pedling a bicycle and um all of that has promising results but right now we don't have really compelling evidence that it's Superior to traditional seating um although we don't have evidence that it's inferior to traditional seating so we're jury still out basically but looking at all those routines and procedures your kindergarten teacher was just telling me she lives and dies by all of those routines and procedures and she starts on day one and day 180 she's still helping those kids understand those routines and procedures she's getting them ready to be successful uh students uh we do not prescribe that every single teacher does exactly the same thing because classrooms are unique BAS on the kids that are sitting there and based on the needs of the teacher and then we have to sort of compromise between what the teacher needs and what the needs of the class are so we in this process we don't have like all the third grade teachers sit together and come up with a plan that we're going to do in third grade because you might have one of those third grade classes that needs extremely high structure lots of predictability the teacher orchestrating almost everything and you may have another one where the kids are very responsible very respectful and they don't need the teacher to orchestrate all that as a matter of fact it would impede their learning if we tried to micromanage them and so our classrooms are unique and we want teachers to feel free within a parameter to make the decisions about how their classroom is managed based on what their kids need not what some other class need so that's kind of a kind of a bit of a difference um we also know that our teachers and oh this is the I'm sorry I have to preach to high school folks all the the time we don't teach from our bottom anymore nobody's going to sit in a big stool nobody's going to stand behind the lecture I'm having a real hard time to be honest with you standing behind the lecture because usually when I'm teaching I'm all over the place but I know I need to be on the microphone so this is killing me it's why you keep seeing me kind of step out we've got to have folks circulating around the classroom they've got to be scanning continuously particularly when we've put a an electronic device in the hand of a teenager if the teacher is not up circulating and scanning throughout that classroom and we've got kids with computers out guess what they're doing stuff they're playing games they're uh they're surfing the internet whatever they can do that that your uh system allows them to get to so we've got to impress on folks we've got to supervise we got to supervise our classrooms and our and our school uh we also want to make sure that teachers then are maximizing the i in stoic so you've got chapter seven and eight in your text or is it six and seven seven and eight I think seven and eight are all about how we build and maintain positive relationships with youngsters one of the things that we teach that's difficult is that we teach folks to pay more attention when students are behaving responsibly than when they're misbehaving it's a concept called ratio of positive interactions it's embedded in almost all of our training whether it's classroom management foundations any of the training that we provide the coaching that we're providing uh to your it this is a huge piece because as humans this is not natural to us as humans we mostly look for misbehavior in classes I me that's that's what we um most of you had children of your own am I guessing everybody had children of their own and I'm going to guess that if you had a toddler or when they first started talking the third word maybe after mama and D was probably what no yeah they don't emerge from the womb knowing that word how did they learn it repetition no no no no no no no no no no no right and so we're sort of that's kind of our practice unfortunately we have youngsters who've learned the best way for me to get attention is a mess up um sorry I I teach a lot from anecdotes so let me tell you about Big D um I was teaching at Paul Lawrence dbar High School in Lexington Kentucky I had a group of 10 students with severe emotional behavioral disabilities who were in my class it was special education class and about the fourth or fifth day of school my principal came to me and he goes who's that big kid in your class I said that's Big D I'm not going to tell you his name Big D was 6'6 260 as a freshman football coach was drooling over him now we had a big rule at Dunbar and we're from the south sorry no hats no hat we had a strong no hat rule so John Acres who was my principal came to me and he goes I've taken a hat off that kid for the last time I want you to go call his mother and tell her I've got these three hats in my office and if she wants these hats back she needs to come get them now I'd been at the IEP meeting with Big D's mom and I didn't figure she was going to come get the hats but I called her anyway and here's what she said tell Mr ERS there's gonna be a problem he he just needs to come over here and get all the rest of these hats because this gonna be a problem I don't care about those hats he can just keep them and he can come get the rest of them so I went to him and I said probably not going to work and he said well I tell you what the next time it happens I'm putting him in in school suspension now I spent enough time with this kid that I knew we were going to need in school suspension but it was probably going to be for something worse than a hat so I said can I do a little investigation before we get there and he said okay and I said I'll probably come up with a plan I I think I can come up with a plan that we can solve this hat problem without having to use in school suspension so the next morning before school I hid in the Fine Arts hallway the band room was there the orchestra room was there the art room was there and the gym was there I hid in the art room door I watched Big D as he got up came off the bus ramp and now my principal my head principal stood in the exact same place in the foyer of the building every morning greeted everybody staff and students I watched Big D come in he do have a hat on as he approached John Acres guess what he did got in his backpack put his hat on John said do you need to get that hat off he said I'm sorry Mr ACR I'm sorry I forgot I forgot Mr RR I'm sorry so he walks on I'm following him creeping along behind him he gets to where Ray Woodyard the associate principal standing and right before he gets to Ray what does he do puts his hat on Big D you need to put that hat back on I'm sorry Mr Woodyard man I'll keep forgetting turns the corner Barbara gateskill is my next associate principal and she was his middle school School principal and she's just been promoted she's known him since he was in the sixth grade as he approaches Barbara what does he do puts his hat on she walks up now she's a little short woman with some high heels on about this tall she reaches up she has to stand up she takes his hat smacks him over the head with it and says put this away and he's said Miss gaty I keep forgetting I'm so sorry so at the end of that interaction I went to John and told him exactly what would happen and he said what would make a child do that I said well let's think about it he knew that he had one way to get the attention of the three most powerful people in the school simply by doing what misbehaving I said we can solve this without any going to end school suspension if you'll go along with it he said what do I have to do I said you have to walk 50 feet closer to him tomorrow before he gets off the bus because he didn't have his hat on when he got off the bus us you can see him coming he's 6'6 260 you can see him so the next morning John moves about 50 feet closer and he goes like this big D buddy how you doing Big D walks right up to him I'm doing good Mr Acres how you doing this morning good to see you you don't have that add- on today good for you he got on the radio Ray he's coming your way Ray walks 50 feet closer Big D buddy how you doing this morning good job Mr Woodyard how you doing this morning Barbara here he comes we didn't have a hat problem we've got to make sure that we are giving kids attention when they're doing the right thing instead of hanging around waiting for them to do the wrong thing because they've learned real quickly I I'm I got a 100% guarantee of getting people's attention all I have to do is make a social error because they're guaranteed to give me attention if I do that so we really spend a lot of time teaching teachers how to do that because it's not human nature it is a concept that has been confirmed by research for over six decades um some of you may be familiar with the Gans who do marriage and family counseling and they talk about this same concept that most marriages are happier when there's more attention paid to each other when we're behaving responsibly than nagging each other I was married for 39 years um and I think I think I tried to live by that it worked pretty well I'm just sorry that that my husband had the audacity to die on me before I was ready for him to do that we also then teach our teachers in addition to how to correct misbehavior we also teach them strategies to use to correct misbehavior so that textbook that you have in chapter nine you've got about 24 or 25 correction procedures that are supported in research that we know that these can be replicated unfortunately we still have some folks who not here necessarily although I don't know I haven't heard all of the stories but I still encounter in my work that people who try to do ugly things to children to get them to stop misbehaving uh just recently I was at a school down south in your state I won't tell you which school district and the the assistant principal came to me and he had gone to middle school here so he's now the Middle School assistant principal but he'd gone to that middle school and he came to me and he goes oh what are we going to do with the science teacher and I said why is that science teacher was making kids put books on their hands and stand like this he said he did that to us when I was in school what am I going to do with him and I said I don't know I've got to think about this and so he came to me he goes I think I got it fixed and I said what' you do and he said I went to my that science teacher who was my science teacher and I said remember when I was in your class you used to make us put books on our hands hell we all go to jail we did that now wouldn't we and the science teacher goes yep guess we would guess we would end end of uh problem so we've really got to talk to people about what are research-based strategies to correct misbehavior not just what was done to you perhaps when you were in school because a lot of those things have uh been outlawed um so same whoop sorry same sto stoic uh framework here um are a couple of tools that we offer your staff to help them um make those good decisions this is a stoic management checklist that teachers can assess themselves on how well I've put the pieces into a good classroom management plan and then this is the other thing that we're asking schools to do and that is that each teacher have a written classroom management plan uh this is the form that we have um in your text there's also a download code where you can download all the forms that go along with this and this is the classroom management plan that we ask all teachers to fill out prek through 12 so that again one their their principles can support the decisions that they've made and also support our teachers if there are questions about what's going on in the classroom if parents raise questions then our principes have good answers to that because they know what teachers are doing um in the classro so we ask that they're published because we know that if it's written down I'm more likely to be consistent in the and application of of that in addition to our work in foundations and in classroom management your district is also then because we've we've done so much work in classroom management one of my colleagues uh uh Trisha Skyles is working with your instructional coaches on how they can help coach teachers in some of the strategies that are listed in that text and she's doing ongoing work that I think she'll be here next week and she'll work with those instructional coaches with your principls and with your DLT your District leadership team is that right your cabinet what do you call it cabinet um I think she's going to work with all of those instanes on how we can do how how everybody gets on the same page and how we're really coaching teachers uh to help increase the the skills that they have in CL in classroom management what questions or comments or concerns do you all have questions yes sir yeah of every state except Vermont I'm sorry every state except Vermont and Maine so how do you rate since you're here in California now obviously Southern Cali LA area how do you rate California schools California schools compared to some of these other states used to be native and used to be the Envy of the country schol yeah and now it seem to be legis social experiment my op doas it's hard to compare Alaska to anything because where I work in rural Alaska it's so different so we take Alaska out of the mix we'll take Hawaii out of the mix same thing uh very very different um one of the challenges that I think California has is the CL is class size um you know it's was not unheard of for me especially down in Southern California to go into a TK class of 30 kids rarely do I see that anywhere else uh of class size that that large um I by and large have worked in Ventura County and LA county and one of the things that I would say about those District as well as yours I also work in a couple places in Northern California right now I still see really good instruction I I I I see teachers who are you know using the methods that that um that are producing good results from from kids I still see a good rigor in classrooms where I am um in districts like yours where we've really focused on classroom management we see that behavior problems are subsiding we had a real spike in behavior problems after the pandemic um I I think we had kids who came back and they weren't ready I think they'd lost their academic stamina I think they had they had lost the ability to focus very long um and it was it was devastating for a lot of schools but I'm seeing a lot of that subside um I don't see that you're that you're an outlier from any other place in the country um as a matter of fact I would still say that that you have California still has the ability to recruit and retain really good teachers um cforia would pay you do comparable um yeah um I don't see the number of either emergency certified teachers or uh one state I'm working in right now they really the the teach the they've got probably a fourth to a third of their teachers who haven't even been to college they call them adjunct teachers it's a state in the Union it's Oklahoma I have sir um there's there there are there are some good schools there uh I think the problem there is that politics so influence what goes on that the poor teachers in the Chicago public schools are there there's such turmoil in who's in charge whether it's the mayor whether it's the superintendent whether that that they're con it's it's kind of constant turmoil but even in that sort of chaotic environment there are some really good schools in Chicago Susan I I think you've covered like the the structures of a tier one system and I want the board to understand that some of the behaviors and the things that we're seeing that are extreme are in tier two or tier three and so those are some things that um we definitely have work to do on um within the district because it's absolutely a smaller percentage and every one of those children um is probably more individualized as to how we approach them as opposed to all students and so for us the learning is that as we are um moving through tier one and getting good at tier one how do we structure and build systems for tier two that incorporate and support those children that need that second layer and I know that as we've walked classrooms as cabinet we've been into many classrooms that o over 200 now at this point of the year more than that probably together we've been but um we've hit over 600 this week of classroom visits as a a management team leaders principales cabinet the whole bit and one of the things we do see is very structured classrooms they're not often going to the expectations and having to share what those expectations are with their entire class but what we realize is that is a system that is built to be there for those tier 2 and tier three students when they come in and for people that are visiting the classroom to understand what the expectations are as well um we heard a lot this week when I've been in the room while you're working on foundations about Guest teachers about substitute Paras about other people that are showing up on the campus to support that are just visiting for a period of time who need to know what those basic systems are so that they can support all kids and that gave me a huge amount of Hope knowing that they're already recognizing that it's not just about everybody that's there every day it's about those people that are joining and Gathering so um so the you've we've done some work already um just from working with the foundations teams on some ideas that support kids at tier two our goal is that we don't bog down teams principles with um endless meetings to try to figure out a plan for youngsters who need support at tier two if we can come up with some ready to use strategies at tier two that schools can already have developed and then we sort of just plug kids into those we found that that that sometimes solves the problem um and then that really allows all of our experts our principes our bcbas our school psychologists our special education teachers all those folks freed up to really Provide support to those kids who need the most intense you know they're the they're the ones who take the most of our resources and they're always going to be there and every school has them um used to be that we had two to six% of the kids who needed support at tier three and since the pandemic that that certainly increased to probably closer to 10 to 12% of the school population is going to need support at tier three the here's the problem and I'll just be quite honest with you we we really did a disservice to our I'm sorry this is just my own can I step on my soap box for a minute yeah go ahead we did a horrible disservice to teachers 105 years ago at the time at one time we realized that literacy was so important that we had to teach our secondary teachers how to embed liter ly practices into their curriculum we taught math teachers how to embed literacy practices into their curriculum we taught chemistry teachers how to embed literacy practices into their curriculum we took the time to do that we've known that we've got growing numbers of youngsters with behavior problems in our classrooms and we did not do the same thing with behavior we missed an opportunity 10 years ago to provide good instruction to all teachers about basic Behavior information because I'll be honest with you colleges of Education are not doing a great job of this in my opinion we've got folks who come out of the College of Education and have little information about how to manage a classroom which is which is you know just drives me crazy so I'm sorry I will step off my soap box so now we have to do some cleanup and we have to begin to give people more information which I think is so wonderful that we've we've got Champs which is good information about basic behavior management in a in a kind of a nice text but we missed the boat sorry nobody asked me to rule the world if they had have I would have I'm going maam I'm going to step out of that Soap Box because you mentioned an area that is near and dear to me and that is the area of College of Education um I know that the tpe 7 TPS tp7 is now been embedded the state of California requires it now and that is the literacy piece yes um but unfortunately uh in many colleges of Education um the uh the people who are credentialed to be able to go in and support those people who are trying to get their teaching credentials are not permitted to go into the classroom to observe it oh so you find yourself observing a videotape lesson and the videotape lesson does not allow you to see what's happening into the classroom and to give quick feedback on what the students are doing yeah so um that to me is a disservice um but we continue to hire teachers who could go through those programs instead of saying no we want somebody who's been seen by real person in a real classroom we continue to do that because of a shortage but having said that I'm going to go out to another um area that you brought up or that was brought up by uh Rick about education in California uh I think what happens in many cases is that we tend to look at other places as being better H and we live in a place that is other people are striving to come to um but one of the U challenges that we continue to face is is learning loss due to to covid yeah and the learning loss is not at a straight line no so every child has their level of what they have lost in education and um the schools are required to give the instruction to raise the learning for all kids regardless of how they entered to us so the challenge continues to be there yeah uh and so um having said all of that um I came to the foundations obviously and I had the the the feel of what could possibly be in your um in your Journeys um do you have a a district that is requiring that all teachers embrace the uh safe and civil um uh program instead of giving giving it as a choice do you have that in any any District you've travel through you all probably come the closest to not mandating but making it so um accessible and um I guess I guess you sort of made it um okay we're going to do it voluntarily um so you all probably come as close as anybody to sort of getting it out to the masses um long Beach did a fabulous job several years ago um getting everybody involved we did foundations in every one of their 60 whatever schools um a district in Texas conro Texas I think one of their um we just hired one of the folks from there I think she'll be in your all's District soon doing some training on something I'm not sure exactly what uh that we did foundations and Champs in all of their schools and it's maintained since 20 7 2008 they've maintained a high level of compliance with foundations and Champs and training new teachers every year about foundations and Champs um so those are a couple that come to mind um that that probably didn't mandate it to say you have to do it but they made it so enticing that people wanted to is that if that's a good way to see it and I think that's pretty much your all's approach you provide you provided incentive for people to come in the summer to training if I'm not mistaken we pay them to be here for training if they choose to attend it is not a requirement and and I I love how Miss oara asked it because I'm interested to know if there's a place that has everybody doing it what the stand we have taken just as as a reminder for the board is that we have a mandate that we will have a classroom management plan that classroom management plan will be published and provided to the site administrator um I have access to those because of my visits to schools [Music] um if the classroom is not structured and functioning the teacher has an option to improve that through um structured support either through coaching which is um Anonymous and not evaluative right or through the other side which would be the administrator doing evaluation process to create Improvement um and finally for us it's what train so if somebody wants to utilize classroom management that is not a Champs or um discipline in the secondary classroom they can do it but we want their classroom to run effectively and efficiently for instruction right and so I did write down when you said instructional management plan because I very much appreciate that um because that is what the goal of what this is all about is to get instruction happening transitions happening and it is masterful when you see it it is inspiring to be in a classroom and watch a transition that is seamless with even a tier three kid in the room yeah yeah even with a tier three kid in the room and see this happen so you know will we get I I'm interested to see over time what is our percentage of people using Champs because I see so many more High School classrooms using Champs than I have ever seen um since we began this years and whether you see chm up anywhere looking for beginning routines looking for ending class routines looking for good transition so that we're not losing I think in that Champs book the thing that stood out to me was the research that supported that teachers if they're not skilled at transitions meaning we're moving from one activity to the next we're losing 70 minutes a day of instructional time due to poorly executed transitions that's why we need our TK teacher over here teaching kids how to how to do those transitions really well so we may not see CHMS up but we also see those features of a really well-managed classroom and I and I do know that we do have some principles who have said on their campus that is what it is we have guest teachers we want them all to know that this is what we're doing and that's a site decision at this point but I will tell you that at two sites it is a mandate they that they have taken on and got an agreement with their staffs and so you see it in every class kids don't have to guess when they move to another grade level so that's that's the other nice thing about of of a district having a comprehensive approach if you have a district that has high mobility and I and I'm gonna guess there is some mobility in Apple Valley it's really nice when kids move from building to building the language is the same correct you know that the common language is apparent and and so kids can immediately feel comfortable oh I know I know what this is about I'm also interested in in finding out as we continue to invest into this this program I'm interested in finding out um the rate of expulsions that come from school sites that have fully embraced it versus those schools that have not fully Embrace yeah to see if there's something to show that um because the students understand the the expectations yeah um that the discipline is not as intense um that it's a little hard to measure because some states have different expulsion requirements than others um but I would encourage you to look at data if we have it if you can track data prior to the initiation of Champs and Foundations comparing your own data might give us more insight than looking at other other maybe other districts in in um sorry not Kentucky but California but I don't know that we would get good comparison data state to state because of the requirements of you know some some districts use expulsion for a lot of things where I think California is pretty rigid for maybe five categories that you can expel um you all probably know that more than I do but some states have very very lack you know kids are getting expelled for dress code violations they're getting expelled for cell phone violations instead of things like drugs or weapons or sexual assault Etc the things that I think California requires well I pull back on that question because it wasn't directed at other districts I'm looking at our district oh okay I'm sorry because we are embracing it as a district and we're investing so much as a district so if we have a school that has decided that this is it we want to see what their data the data that comes out of that school what it looks like right because then you can use that same data to show to others sites to see what is what the report is showing in terms of um in terms of um you know students who are getting out of you know out of syn right yes Miss I had clarified down here it might even work just for the same school to compare their Data before to their data after so that it's the same School site so you're not even comparing one school to another school because it might vary School site to School site but kind of a before and after that will work and I do see the benefit to that for others for um deciding if this is a direction that they want to go to on their School site for all so that's great we ask the foundations teams to collect and analyze behavioral data every six to nine weeks and present those data to their staff every six to n weeks usually that traditionally that's happened at the end of a school year that we go okay this is how many absences we have this is how many suspensions this how many you know um expulsions this is how many trips to the office we have we really want to get that more in realtime data so that we can affect change if we need to um you know if we see a group of students that's really struggling what do we need to do differently for them so looking at those data more frequently and having the entire staff examine those data and then you all asking for those data more frequently I think would be beneficial to you all as well the the data piece is a great um segue to a discussion that happened um we had a a parent complaint that came in um hit the School site hit my office hit HR and it wasn't atrocious the complaint but it was a foundations team decision about a um drop off and pickup of students on a campus and when I asked the principal how that decision was made it was a foundation team decision so I asked if they could go back to the foundations team and now that they were had it implemented um were people utilizing it what were the obst all of the things that they should be doing it didn't have it didn't wait six weeks because it was already an issue and they sat together they reformatted and there's no issue got fix and so that that's the other real powerful part of this is not only are they reviewing the data every six t weeks but they have the ability to revamp and and change direction to support students and staff appropriately yeah that's a beauty of having that team they're fairly Nimble that if something comes up that oh this is not working we don't have to wait until the end of the school year to make drastic changes in the structures of our of our procedures in the building we can do it almost immediately what other questions or concerns do you have I'd like to I know I I've sound like a cheerleader or a [Music] oh yes sir yes sir I do I am they're they vary all over the country uh the most stringent one that's that I'm seeing now is Santa Barbara's Santa Barbara unified um it started with the middle school that I was working in and they got sick of cell phones and so they decided that they were going to Institute a cell phone policy that students could not have cell phones visible during the school day um they could have them at lunch but no other time during the school day if they saw the cell phone a teacher first asked the student to put it away if they saw it again the teacher did not attempt to take the cell phone away from the youngster they as asked the administrator to become involved so they called the administrator to the class that the administrator would come so that we kept the the power struggle away from the teacher and the student because we want to maintain that relationship so they did ask an a um a principal or assistant principal to step in take the cell phone it went to the office and parents had to pick it up the second time that happened um the student was not allowed to bring the cell phone for a couple of weeks that was the the rule and if it happened the third time then the cell phone was checked in at the office in the morning now the problem was they had some kids who had a fair amount of expendable income and so they had more than one cell phone so you know without search and kids um so I am seeing more and more schools ban cell phones um Los Angeles Unified has has banned cell phones completely I've not seen yet any data to support how well it's working um teachers I think are far more favorable to not having cell phones in schools uh the one thing I did see recently that I think is going to cause an issue for us is parents being so concerned that they don't have access to their students because of an emergency um you know when we just had the act of violence the last one parents were very concerned if they didn't have cell phones how would I get how would I know my kid is safe and I get that I I I get as a parent I I get I'd want to know is my kid okay um so I think that's always going to be an issue that we'll have to wrestle with as we think about electronic devices we do have one School site that started the year off with off and away for the day yeah um they have had enormous success with that and um procedures and protocols that everybody's involved in one of our largest schools sitting bll Academy and um the issue of um emergency situations where a parent would want to have access they explain to each parent as long as that would not put their child at risk right and so the example to that would be an active shooter in the middle of that we're not going to have phones going off yeah we can't but the minute it's safe for those children to take them out they will allow them to do that if there's a shelter in place that type of thing so our our current District policy allows for the school to make that decision um before any mandates of no school cell phones in school that you know that is currently just a big battle um for local control versus a state mandate so just one of many things that um uh the state is trying to tell local school boards how to operate in in the settings and Santa Barbara started with the one school who tried it and then it became a district policy that that all schools are following s a similar policy I've got it in writing if anybody wants to look at it I've got Santa Barbara's the problem with to is almost daily in Apple Valley there's a lock down at the school and it's not really a problem at the school it's a problem in the neighborhood yeah the local sheriff's department is conducting search or something and so they lock the school down and then it gets on social media and it's like how come the school's locked down rocks or whatever yeah and the parents scared to death yeah scared WP what's your opinion on armed police officers on campus we're seeing some school districts that are going away from that yeah and I was called by a group out of San Francisco about it their whole take is that it's intimidating to the kids see yeah police on c um the district SCH the distri the district where I taught we have our own police force and they're armed and they're armed um however um they're the same folks who greet kids at the door every morning um I was a teacher who had a kid with a weapon in my classroom scared me to death I thought he had a knife I kept saying why don't you just give me that knife and he kept saying I don't have a knife and and all the rest of my kids are like so finally I heard it and I said you need to give me that knife and he put a gun in my hand it was a 25 caliber Raven loaded um I was grateful that we had a police force right next door to me so I grew up and as a teacher I'm not growing up I don't mean growing up but I've always had an armed U police officer I think they had great relationships with our kids I don't see that any of our youngsters were scared however I'm going to say this at that time we were not doing as many active shooter drills so to now I'm not really sure that the presence of a gun doesn't scare kids I think we have to go a long way for those officers then to really be seen as a resource and not somebody to be scared of and so that's work that our officers may have to change their perspective just a little bit to really learn kids' names you not be seen as somebody who's carrying a gun um and and I think that's what our officers at least in the district where I work I think with support yeah there is a push or certain districts that are going away from that yeah forious reason yeah but I yeah that's I mean we we've always had and they've always been armed we usually have four or five officers in each High School our high schools are very large in fet County we've got 28 to 3,000 2,800 to 3,000 kids so we have used a team of three or four officers in each building they also then support our middle schools that are nearby because we have a lot of kind of campuses that are um you know schools close by so they they support the middle schools and also the elementary schools in that feeder pattern if we that having police on campus helps with maintaining I don't want to say control but keeping the lid on possible problems that could we're just talking about displ know that could could happen if they were not there kind like turn I I've always felt like it helped to be honest with you as a teacher in a high school where we had officers I was always grateful they were there I will say this the presence of adults period in schools is the best deterrent um if like I said if I got to be Queen of the world there would not be a a secondary school where teachers were not supervising during passing periods the only way to keep our building safe is to have eyes on kids when you've if you've got a hallway full of um teenagers and there's no adult supervision in that hallway you're asking for trouble and so trying to get um it's it's okay interesting can can I I think the more adults the better whether they're armed or not we need to get adults and and not to and not to be mean to kids but just to say hey how you doing nice to see you hey we're going to have some fun fifth period oh you got your haircut looking nice you know just buil just so kids know hey we're not out here by ourselves yeah um so so whether it's an officer or not the more principal should be in the I I worked for a fabulous High School principal and I remember being in his office with a set of parents who were angry I don't know if any of you all I'm sure you've been there y'all been there and I remember it was just about passing period and he looked at these very angry parents and he said I hope you can appreciate that I've got 25 200 kids that are going to be out in my hallways in in about a minute and I need to be out there so I'm gonna ask my secretary to bring you a cup of coffee or a soft drink and I'll be back in about eight minutes and we'll continue this conversation he did not let a passing period go by that he was not in the hallway unless and if the superintendent was there he'd say come on and walk with me but he was all of our administrators were highly visible which made our teachers highly visible so it really trickles down uh for supervision but yes I agree I think I think I always felt safer knowing that those guys were there and they were supporting me but again they didn't feel like they didn't feel like they were there to catch criminals they felt like they were there to support kids whole different yes it is it is yeah yeah yeah and Rick I really appreciate that because I want to point back to the last board meeting we had when we introduced um officer Gotti as a new um employee in the district and I think it was the loudest Applause in the room the entire evening what a what a wonderful representation people were thrilled that he was here um I have asked principles that they are not calling the school police in to help discipline a student on an edod violation because I don't want them to be seen as the disciplinarian I want them to be seen as the person that's there to help protect and and support and the the other thing just today on a campus one of our officers came in um dealing with a situation and she was struck because a student was being removed from the school by child protective services and she was the person that the child thought could save her you're a police officer you can keep me here and it was a hard moment for her yeah and so those relationships are being built every day by those officers and I'm so proud of them for that so a little emotional but yeah um they're invaluable they're invaluable to school our our office in each of our high schools greet kids every single morning uh at the door um really to you know they're really looking to see how you're feeling is anybody Under the Influence is anybody carrying something they you know that looks like it could be suspicious I know they're looking for more but you would never guess that you just see them going good morning how are y'all this morning and they're checking kids out just to make sure everybody's safe and everybody feels safer that way I think what else um we have a website if you want to ever go on and look at Oncor publishing.com um I always give everybody my cell phone number um if you have questions or concerns that you didn't feel like you wanted to ask tonight in front of everybody or on camera um I don't I never mind somebody texting me a question or send calling me again I'm in different time zones but um if you'll text me first I'm always happy to answer questions we provide full service even after we're gone uh to support uh schools in in all their efforts so we're always we're always accessible is what I would like to say so if you want to write my cell phone number down here it is I've given it to every teacher across the country 0997 you can text me anytime you want to I'll send it to them seon yeah that'd be great that' be great um the one gal I was going to say the one gal that's coming in to your District Denise has just left one of our really good districts in Texas the one that that um we we did this through in all of their schools while she's here you may want to bring her in a pick her brain just a little bit about did they mandate um because I think they did I'm not quite sure that they mandated that everybody has to do this um I know that they've got longitudal data for probably 10 to 12 years about the effects of this so you might want to pick Denise's brain cuz she just we just stole her from that District so we're happy to steal her she'll be a good asset to your District to do some training with your teachers I just want to say thanks for giving me an opportunity to share with us what I believe is going to be wonderful in your District um again I wouldn't I wouldn't be as old as I am working as hard as I work if I didn't truly believe that this can be a a real huge change for schools in the right direction so I applaud your efforts we're so grateful that you all chose us uh to bring this uh important information to your school district and if we could ever be of any service to any of you all please let us know so don't hesitate to reach out thank you all very much thank you so much thank you thank you oh you don't have to CL you don't have to clap you have other business that you're doing we're going to close uh superintendent's comment um safe and civil presentation today I just wanted to remind the board that um I likely will ask Kylie to bring a draft um change to the board calendar for the January board meeting so that the board can attend um the safe and civil mini conference which is um been an invite to our board because of the implementation um within the district and it would just shift the board meeting um potentially the week before which I believe we can still do based on the winter break and we'd still we just have to post and um we think it would be doable January so that um we would not have to leave early to come back from safe and civil um uh training as a board so writing a sleigh to the school not kidding that's all I have thank you U board comments Mr Bender Mr Bender Kentucky that big that's why their high school football teams are so good um in the large cities they areille they are other than that we got Mrs bu good uh I just want to say thank you Susan for coming down and well I mean you're here all week anyway but thank you for taking the time because I know this is a really long day for you to train all day and then come train us as well but appreciate it because we've been hearing um a lot about safe and civil and Champs and stoic for a very long time um I know a few of us are Educators or former Educators so we're familiar with some of the alphabet um I was a PBIS coach for my high school for many years um but I was not familiar with Champs or stoic until I came to Apple Valley and um last year and I was walking through many schools and I kind of had heard about it and then there was two schools in particular that they're just doing a phenomenal job um and so I guess they're cohort one I found out tonight so um but yeah so we've got some there doing a great job so it's really nice to learn more about it now so thank okay y those were the two so thank you for doing this and thank you guys for bringing her so thank you thank you Mr Ry Mr Raley and for me no comments thank you so much enjoy future items do does any board member have any future items they would like to bring forward Miss Mrs B no the only future item I would like to bring forward will be the uh the calendar for safe uh for footsteps to Freedom I'd like to bring it back for the next um they have a whole list of the schedule of when it will be uh to bring to add it to us so for us so we can see what that calendar looks for looks like thank you um I am going to ask uh there being no further business to come before the Board of Trustees it is recommended that the meeting be adjourned I need a motion all in favor I meeting adjourned

one here in the marold elementary library or NPR right where we currently are and then there's a second one on September 25th uh at 6 PM in the marsh multi-purpose room so those are two meetings to which any of our community members are invited to come and give input uh they'll be discussing the qualities that they would like to see in the next superintendent we also have uh faculty and staff input meetings scheduled they are scheduled for elementary and secondary mainly because Elementary has a different release time than does secondary although uh staff members can attend either meeting uh the first is on September 30th at 3:15 right here in the mirold multi-purpose room and the second is October 2nd at 4M at Marsh Junior High School multi-purpose room then uh we are in the process right now of accepting applications for the position there will be a paper screening process that is facilitated by bu County Office of Education and um they're expecting to do the paper screening between October 22nd and October 25th there will be interview panels currently tentatively scheduled for November 1st and we're looking at two community and staff interview panels and then the ultimate decision will be made by the Chico Unified board um on November 6th what we need now is for our board to decide which portions they would like to take part in in this process as you know we cannot have more than two board members present on any given event so um this is an opportunity for board members to discuss which aspect of the superintendent selection process they would like to participate in I will note that um at the staff and Community input meetings those are option if there are board members that want to go again we can't have more than two so we should designate those if there are board members that want to attend we do need board members to sign up two for the paper screening two for the first interview panel and two for the second interview panel so with that I will turn that back to the board for some discussion so similarly to our Workshop designation for Liaisons um it is just a good exercise probably for us to I mean to we do need to decide this during Open Session right okay um to either nominate a colleague or um you know nominate yourself for a slot um for participation so that we can kind of maybe divide out to where where we're interested in um being part of the process uh or where we would like to see a colleague be part of the process um and I know uh Mr tennis actually started this conversation last meeting so I thought maybe I could pitch it your way if you want to get us started again or open the floor for anybody really what's that or open the floor for for anybody no pressure um I didn't realize there was going to be so much opportunity for for board members to participate in this um I have got some pretty big professional obligations coming up here because uh rice Harvest is rolling around I don't want to commit to something it would be really really difficult to to get to um I think last time you made a nomination for somebody yeah um yeah I don't know where I would where I would slot her you know um I could kind of nominate myself I guess yeah um I have some interest we're gonna make this sign I'm gonna make the decision about where you're again I do I know it looks overwhelming um but the first for the the uh two uh staff input meetings and the two Community input meetings you do not have to be there uh bcoe will have scri at the tables and they will uh report record and report back all of that information so those are optional the intent of putting this on here was if we had four people or three people that wanted to go that we can't do so um we really don't have to do those first ones as long as we can agree that we won't have more than two board members show up at one the uh paper screening and interview panel one and interview panel two we do need to have two two board members participate in so really there are six opportunities and five board members I guess I'll nominate Rebecca for one of the um board Leones for the paper screening is that something you're interest happy to throw somebody else on onto it you know no like process not like me a second or anything it's just but I mean I'm happy to do a double endorsement right now you know looking at non-verbal ACC from anyone here anyone here thinking they want to be a paper screener wink at me if you think that you do I do want to I want to um say something I think that maybe helps too is um that three of the five board members sitting up here will be moving on you know with the new superintendent over the next two years um and so uh I I I feel strongly about this board you know being part of the process of making the decision um and also would like to see um Rebecca Tom and Eileen have kind of a bigger stake in the process too so you know if if anybody wants to plug me in at paper screening or an interview panel I'm I'm open to to one of them um but doesn't necessarily have to be both um so I'm kind of well I mean you're as good a warm body as anyone else I can think of agree so I'm GNA I'm gon to put you on my little motion too for Rebecca and and Caitlyn for paper screening okay I I I can agree with that I'm I'm good with that anybody else want to maybe speak out that they would like to do paper screening instead no I I'll I'm going to raise my hand for the um uh interview panels there's so there's four opportunities so all board members but one could be on an interview panel the only reason I'm I'm going to put myself on in instead of one of the other members that are staying for another well I'm staying for a year too but I've been in this district and have served under superintendent since H Lawson Smith I don't think anybody else even knows who that is but I've nine superintendant so I'd like to have just a little that sounds like somebody from another cury you know that you were involved with the 1900s 1900s so Kelly if you plug me in on on one of the interview panels you know and I think that EA and I we kind of like we get along pretty well I think you know and I think that we could be like a good foil for each other you know kind like mash potatoes and gravy in this interview and so I would like to be in that if everybody's amable to it you you know sure I'd be willing to um attend one of the community input meetings either one or two I need to verify with my schedule but I'd like to kind of get a feel for what the community um in particular is looking for so I would accept the the nomination or the recommendation whatever you want to call it for paper screening um I'd also kind of like to see the process through and I would maybe even put myself out there for another interview panel position if if possible if I here yeah if I had my brothers I would also sit on an interview panel and I will happily attend the secondary staff input meeting you two guys worked well together on the um School violence draft or what you guys yeah we did draft one of those documents I think we'll be perfectly useful on an a panel together okay I think you guys um as long as there's agreement with this I show Miss Dolby and miss conin doing the paper screening Miss Robinson and Mr tennis on one of the interview panels and miss conin and Mr Lando on the other interview panel in addition Mr Lando will uh plans to attend the secondary staff input meeting and Miss Conan plans to attend one of the community input meetings so I would just ask if there is anybody else um it doesn't have to be tonight but if you do decide that you want to go to the secondary staff meeting or one of the community meetings please let me know so that if there happen to be two of you I can make sure we get that spread out otherwise I think we are good to go um let you know which one we attend I mean I I should be able to know within a matter of that'd be great a week that'd be fabulous I I will also probably try to attend one or more um of either I should say like a staff and or a community meeting I just have to put more thought into my workload it's a busy time yeah just let me know so we it doesn't look like we'll have more than two at any one meeting um but just let me know we'll verify that and make sure I'm sorry that for the for the interview panels those will probably I do expect those to take all day okay um if we can have a motion and approval for this that would be great yes um no public comment at this time no my motion yeah move go I move the uh proposed uh slate of um uh board Lea on for various um um leadership candidate vetting activities second D un quote Yeah we have Matt with a a motion and a and and Tom with a second uh any further discussion board all those in favor of approval please say I I I opposed there are none it's unanimous thank you uh 9.3.3 is a discussion action item it's um the approval and ratification of employment agreement with Chico Unified School District Deputy superintendent of Business Services sure I'll take this um in Chico Unified we're somewhat unique our CBO or chief business officer has a contract directly with the board um and tonight we're bringing forward that contract in Open session for public approve for the board to approve in public um some of the details of this contract include the term which is July 1 2024 through June 30th 2027 uh there's a change in the title to Deputy superintendent there's a base salary of 197 2117 uh it also includes a 5% longevity increase when she reaches step year five and then after that a an annual 2% longevity increase after year five and I'm going to just say we are extremely fortunate to have Miss Jacqueline Krueger serve as our uh Chief business officer she has the trust of those that work with her she is extremely organized extremely competent and uh one of the most professional people I know it's an honor to work with her and um happy to present this contract to the board for approval do we have questions from the board no questions uh public comment how about a motion I have a comment a comment do you do you want to wait till we have a motion motion on the floor did you want to make a motion Tom you look like sure okay yes sure I will move um the the board enact the uh contract between the district and Jack M Krueger as um my gosh I really lose my words as we've just discussed um I'll second that please um from the earliest moments of me being involved in this August body um you know uh it's some steep learning curve showing up you know and you see the budget and and you've never really studied it deeply before uh and um you weren't in this this sort of top Financial job you were like the number two you know but for some reason I was talking to you about you know you were taking me through the budget and everything like that and um you were just very respectful and meticulous and you answered every question and you were just really really professional and I thought wow this is a pretty pretty sharp outfit here if you know this is the number two person taking me through the budget and you just did a really really thorough and good job and and every presentation you've ever made is completely affirmed and and um you know established that you really have a good handle on all this stuff which is um uh saying something because there's a lot of just really really mindboggling nuances that go into public education finance and so you're a true professional and um you know I think you're a good asset to your community so thank you for being here and so forth yeah and on a similar note um we've been very fortunate to have uh two really great cbos in a row and as the board becomes increasingly and frustratingly more entangled in politics it is really really important for us to be able to show to people constantly that we are being very careful and good stewards of public funds and the work that jacquin does makes it very easy for us to show that we are being very careful with how every dollar and every cent is spent in pursuit of educating our students so you make our job EAS here I appreciate that thank you and I would just comment as um a Community member it might seem like these are decisions that we're just making on the fly but this is actually something we've had the opportunity to evaluate and look at over the last couple of months and um just look at and uh just really study it and um as a public member I probably wouldn't have been aware of that um prior to being on board so I would just um uh I I guess I'm just trying to say I this is something we've G given a lot of thought to and it's um not something that we're just we've just were presented to in the last week or so well so um I am really happy to be able to have this discussion and bring this forward um especially the the uh title change um and I just want to recognize that uh Kelly has is finishing up her 18th year as a superintendent and you know we'll be will be moving on um and she's been with the district for 23 years and then besides that our cabinet and our district leadership has had a 100% changeover um and so we have a lot of fresh new knew you know new in their role folks in those seats um Charlie's new as the union president in his seat um and our board is also relatively new um and so you know in terms of how many people are multi-term folks and we're about to have two brand new board members and so it's it's been really uh eye openening how trusted Jacqueline is and how Dependable she is and has been for many many people in this District among all of those folks I just mentioned um and and the community and is very respected Beyond The District boundaries you know I've I've have heard people say great things about Jacqueline in other districts and at conferences and um we are immensely lucky to have Jacqueline with us and she get unified and we want to keep her as long as possible it's very important that we remember that um and so I think that it's appropriate to um reclassify Jacqueline's um job description as the deputy as the clear number two especially uh with that a need or a desire to have that continuation of leadership um as we do go through the superintendent search and um and and hire a new um head boss after Kelly retires and so I'm grateful for Jacqueline's uh leadership and vision and um response mble stewardship of not just the money aspect of things but of all the components that make this District run really really well um and so uh I just thank you and um this is well deserved and um if I could give you the moon I would and um ask that you stay forever but um I'm just me and that's all this is all we can do for now well and that brings up another good point if you don't mind my a little tiny bit longer um we have been very lucky to have the same superintendent for 18 years and my sincere hope is that this board and the community and bcoe do an incredible job with the search and we find someone else who's going to stay for a very long time the reality is that superintendents usually stay for three years or so um should that be the case or if we have any other hiccups with the search it's really important that we know exactly who's in charge on a day-to-day basis in the past when Kelly's been out for whatever reason we've had kind of a um Congress of the the cabinet right um which works on a short-term basis but it is as we enter the search and see what comes out the other side it's really important that we know who has the final say on what happens and that it's someone who is as trusted as Jack is oh all right um so hearing no further uh comments from the board we do have a motion from Member Lando and a second from Member tennis um this item is to approve an employment contract for the deputy superintendent business services from July 1 2024 to June 30th 2027 the compensation proposed to be awarded includes a base salary of $197,200 longevity step in 2025 each subsequent year will allow for a 2% longevity step do we oh and um with that uh let's go ahead and vote um I would like to do a Voice vote I just heard my voice come back at me that was weird um a Voice vote uh just just for Pump and Circumstance um and we'll start with M we'll start with Mr tennis tennis I Conan I Dolby I Lando I Robinson I it passes unanimously thank you jacin thank you board uh next item is items from the floor um I we've do have one okay please you know the rules I I hadn't planned on saying anything but if you've noticed I have a special guest tonight and so I just wanted to introduce everybody this is my senior in high school Lawson Cooper um I wanted to introduce him because he is actually interested in obtaining his civil Civics certificate and um I don't know how many people are aware of of what that is so um anyways he's been helping me out a lot he's here tonight to learn more sorry if we were Whispering kind of a lot but he had a lot of questions and um I thought tonight might be a little boring for him but he had a ton of questions so I was super excited about that so I just wanted to let everybody know that um this is a wonderful program I'm super excited about it and so is he so thank you very much thank you sorry you had to witness me smash a mosquito how embarrassing and if you do have any questions please feel free to reach out to any of us all right um board member request to agendize items um at this time no board member requests uh have come through um and just a reminder that those do need to get submitted by um the end of the day on Tuesdays the week that agendas are published so if we want to get things on the agenda to um go ahead and do that um I'm not going to math it in my head right now what the date is for next it's really next Tuesday yes if you want it on the October 2nd meeting um and with that uh do we have a motion to a journ oh that was a literal tie we try our best we'll be back

e e e good evening and welcome to the select board meeting for Wednesday September 18th thank you for joining us we are being recorded and broadcast live by waca TV t v you can also catch us on live stream on Facebook remote participation is available using the zoom video conferencing platform any disruptions with the video conferencing platform will result in the platform being shut down in the event of A disruption broadcasting will continue on waca TV and live streamed on Facebook we have a full meeting the planning board will be joining us a little bit later and we are going to start with citizens par participation uh if there is anyone online who would like to participate in citizens participation go ahead and raise your hand and make yourself known if you'd like to do citizens participation if I'm seeing correctly I'm not seeing anybody okay are we have our first we do have a public hearing at 7:15 so unfortunately we can't go into the joint meeting with the planning board plus we are not at Quorum yet for the planning board uh so I recommend we go into maybe consent agenda if I can get a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented so move I'll second that okay uh any discussion okay all those in favor I I four Zer it passes uh just to let you know Makita Keegan our fifth member is traveling for business that happens we all have work that we do okay so that's our consent agenda let's go back to Camp you feel com sure to have a long discussion no I don't think so to oh to release the remaining from the Esco sure let's go into that Michael if you could talk us through that this we're discussing funds to be released from the remaining es well there's no funds but just the remaining escrow Michael if you could take us through that please correct so um you know this obviously goes back to the Cirrus apartment development and uh so we did retain funds in escrow um until we were confident that the things that they needed to do and and were part of that development agreement um were actually completed so uh we feel confident in that Peter has has signed off on it Becca Solomon our conservation agent has signed off on that and so um yes we feel now it's appropriate to do this if you recall they actually came to us before to release this and right we weren't ready because of certain different things okay any questions from the board on this no okay if I could have a motion then to release the remaining escro balance outlined in the Ashen rail Transit District Camp andell th dorik serus development agreement in the amount of 25 5,723 and4 so moved so okay and any other discussion all those in favor I that's four Z as well thank you for that Michael uh like some of the Town manager um we'll go let's go through some reminders sure I think so um so couple of reminders the next select board meeting will be on Wednesday October 16th we are not meeting on the 2nd because it is a Jewish holiday so out of respect of that we are not having a meeting that night so put that on your calendars Wednesday October 16th is our next meeting and then we will also be meeting in the 30th of October uh Ashlin day will be taking place on Saturday September 21st from 9 to 4: uh Joe you want to talk to us a little bit about Ashlin day while we wait sure real quick hopefully uh the rain HS up uh or go south that would be better uh but we have uh the tradition of uh Community Pride day coming up and uh there are many food vendors from town a couple of new vendors that we have which is in a variety of uh uh food people from Thai food to Mexican food to Italian food of course which is pizza and um just it just it's it's a lot bigger and then we have uh you know traditional snow cones and popcorn and stuff from the uh from the high school kids that uh use this as a great jump star for their uh fundraising uh venues uh for the beginning of their for their year so we hope everybody shows up um we had a few uh craft vendors uh leave uh leave us unfortunately uh some due to uh personal reasons and uh some double booked their own their own events so uh needs to say so we're down to uh 90 95 uh vendors which is fine and uh we we're shap shading it up a little bit uh so we're expanding the field a little bit so you're not on top of one another and uh that should make things a lot easier for everybody and uh we have you know our annual committee members from from from the town all the all board members who are have you know want to be out there they're there um comprehensive plan will be there which is great police and fire have their displays showing up as well and um ashon toown Forest committee but I can't tell you who the uh citizen of the year is and our Grandmaster because that's a surprise until that day so um just be there and show up so come hungry come with some money to spend and come for a great day of community yeah that's it exactly community and reunion and and and reunion the time to you know so Joe real quick it mentions opening a time capsule can you tell us a little bit about that so people can be there and excit there's uh at the corner of Main and Union if you look to the left there's a brick building that used to be the old uh New England telephone building and there's a Cornerstone and this is 1963 on it while lo and behold there is the Time Capsule that was behind that Cornerstone so they went on the inside of the building they got permission to uh open up that that wall and dig out the uh the con the uh the Time Capsule so that time capsule will be opened uh after the presentation of the uh citizen of the year and Grand Marshall so it's from 1963 so that ought to be very interesting you know what what what happened you know in 63 a lot of things have happened you know so you know from JFK's you know assassination to uh The Beatles coming around so who knows maybe there's a 45 in here I'm hoping there's a couple of baseball cards in there that uh that'll be in mint condition we can sell and fundraise for Ashen exactly it'd be nice to see a Mickey Mantle or something like that you know but I doubt it I highly doubt it great but yeah we're looking forward to it it's going to be a lot of fun and um there'll be some surprises out in out in the thing I don't want to tell everybody what's going on get some surpris show up and have some fun show up have a lot of fun absolutely good okay we still have a few minutes until our hearing at 7:15 a reminder our fall baa Grant round and select board Community Grant round is now open submissions are due by September 30th so Monday September 30th and if you have questions you can go to the town's website Ashlin mass.com and you can find more information there just real quick just go ahead um about that so when the the um when we close out the submission cycle Claudia and I will meet as part of the subcommittee to do the um to do the grant okay reviews and then can we plan to put that on our next agenda for October or how do we want do you think you'll be ready for the 16th or do you want to push it into the 30th what would you like to do you tell me I don't know I think we can do it for the 16th okay okay I think so too so if we can do it for the 16th then Susan if you could take note to add that to the 16th agenda that'd be great okay awesome you guys are going to work quick appreciate that okay a couple of other reminders before we hit our 75 hearing time electronics recycling oil Mercury and oilbased paint drop off will be on Saturday October 5th so in two and a half weeks uh and from 9: to noon at the DPW off of Ponderosa Road a reminder textile clothing recycling pickup must be scheduled with simple Recycling and uh at simpler recycling.com another thing that I have found out is if you have black Earth composting you can buy tickets from them uh stickers and you can give them textiles in a white trash bag if you've purchased a sticker and then you can put it out with your compost so if you're a black Earth customer you can do that and it's another way to recycle uh let's see yard waste collection begins on Mondays on October 7th and we'll continue on Mondays through November 25th and that is uh grass leaves no big sticks or anything like that and it has to be put into those brown bags uh we are looking for individuals interested in running the 2025 Boston Marathon anyone interested to complete the form on the town's website submissions are due by October 15th and then names will be drawn at random uh it's nice that we have a few extra numbers and just a note on that I had a conversation with an other organization that has Marathon numbers and it's probably too late for this round but our next round I I think we should look at increasing the fundraising amount but that's a discussion for another time just something to think about okay where are we at now when I read that I thought in running the 25 bosson 2025 Boston Marathon so I'm saying what the marathon crew just up and left and we have to find people to run it oh to run well fortunately that's not what we I know no no no so this is for for bib numbers yeah okay okay so so it is 7:14 I'm going to start reading the legal notice and I'm sure by I'm done time I'm done it'll be 715 notice is hereby given that the select board will conduct a hearing in accordance with Mass General law 138 section 19h for an Al alteration of premise this alteration allows on premise consumption of any alcoholic beverages produced by the LC C understand section 19B and 19 C and sold under the lienes brand name Ashland Brewing LLC DBA Clover Road Ashland 151 Main Street ashin Mass 01721 a public hearing will be held on the matter uh on this matter persons wishing uh SE Wednesday September 18th at 7:15 p.m.

we wouldn't be able to do it until Monday at 8: a.m. so I do think this qualifies as an emergency and I will say over the course of the year and some of the discussions that we've collectively had if we're worried about open meeting law violations they're probably more examples OPP say I I think I think because we didn't we didn't have this information within 48 hours we're just getting it now now someone there's very possible someone will say well you've been seeing the water levels go down why haven't but I know in tracking this before sometimes it's fine and then all of a sudden it drops and it's like inches that we give Michael permission to okay yeah can I get a second it drop I'll second that great so Michael you all those in favor of giving Michael the approval I that carries 4 z um so but I would definitely put something out there now two two points so yeah Dan so when we had our meeting yesterday Dan was drafting something up that we were going to going to send to me he's going to put up so the other thing Joe we didn't pay for we didn't spend millions of dollars for the water connection it was paid through developer money and a grant so it was a $2 million project but we didn't pay a dime okay then why AR we using it because of because when we put that in place to make it was an emergency connection only because at the time that's what the residents of Ashlin wanted they didn't want us to just turn on the spet from MWR and the point I'm the point I'm trying to make is that's a $2 million project and because of the work that we did like we didn't have to pay for it right yeah see if see if maybe you can get it into your newsletter this this weekend you know just kind of stay I just say you know the more we can stay and if he's creating a flyer or some informational piece make sure he sends it off to uh waa so they can be posting it on cable so people that are watching cable will see it in as many Facebook places and the electronic sign board and all any you know yeah it's um we we'll do it I I'll I know she's watching and I'll ask Beth to put something together I'm just joking Beth she's kind she's kind of drowning she's doing double duty right now yep but we might be close to finding somebody okay good anything else from you no that's it okay board reports Claudia um yeah I don't have too much to report that I can think of um Michael touched upon the Warren Barn um we did have a school building committee meeting last night um updating us on in terms of the project and the steps that have been taken for the mold mitigation and there some discussion about the coyote um one of the things that you know has been significant to me is that um we the dugouts that were built don't have roofs and that um I have asked been asking for a couple of months um that that really needs to happen that you really don't have dugouts in this day and age that don't have roofs to protect children from balls uh to from Sun rain um thunder and lightning they've even been used to to do that um um number that was floated last night was pretty significant number in fact it was uh about one and two3 times the cost of the actual savings that we because while I quoted about 140 or $1,000 that we had saved during our value engineering on the project it was really $92,000 that we saved from the prefab and now they're talking about adding roofs to the tune of $140,000 so I do ask youand for your support going forward on that I I think that it probably can be done less expensively I'm not really sure what the I understand that has to meet certain specifications in that um but and I did ask for some additional materials um which was something that had shown us last month which was forwarded to me however it does not have any detail the only thing that it actually even looked at was different on that was that they needed had several inches of concrete on one end so I'm not really not sure without that detail what that real issue is but um it's just been sort of a you know we're going to have find we're going to have two new fields that hopefully are going to help with the issues in in town and you know it needs to be done correctly I don't like the idea of having to go back to the community and ask um for additional monies when we built this school um extraordinary School y that significant cost you checked into the LA Training Center see if they' be willing to uh use that as a project uh I have not Joe if you have somebody over there do but I I I kind of feel like it's really on the the responsibility of the committee one question that I had last night um but again it hasn't been an easy discussion to nobody seems to yeah which I don't understand why be want to about it really but um one of the questions I had could we go to an outside vendor at this point and use the monies from the school building project to pay for it how with that construction is just I'm just throwing save money yeah know I understand but that the first question is can we even go to an outside vendor and use the bu use the building project money I don't see why not the contract himself well from the from our engineers and from our from our project management right from the design and project management team they're saying we looked at this and this is what it's going to questions last night to the chair but I have not received any responses thank you I just trying to help no thank you anything else Claudia no that's good okay Joe uh thank you um first of all no thanks I'm sorry I keep forgetting that uh first of all I will just like to say thank you for uh to to Donna Sol for her years of service uh at on the CPC uh board she's leaving because she's moving out of town and other Adventures so thank you for your service Don appreciate it um I was happy to represent the select board uh this past week last weekend at the fen wall uh car show and there was over 350 cars vintage that was I went down there and I said oh my can't evenk it was nuts it was AB what a turn it was great turn out it was a perfect day so it was a perfect day it was extremely hot um and so the lines and those that were selling water made a lot of money and uh lot of new muscle cars there the only thing I was a little perturbed about there was no 67 GTO every everything but anyway long story short is they raised $21,000 y that's totally awesome yeah so congratulations to Peter and and everybody that was a part of that program over there so great job um fourth 487 Main Street uh we I thought it was going to be a presentation of the new affordable housing program going over there uh what than for saving me the trip yeah same here don't go don't come but what it was I emailed after the fact like didn't Missi who is U she is the lip director for the executive office of Housing and liberable communities was there to look at the property to make sure was a property that was well worth putting the the unit and the project online um she thought the project she saw the site was flat everything need to be done so she was she was happy with it so she took pictures and and then she also went up uh up to 100 uh Chester Street and we showed us some of the new properties that have been developed you know in in and around so hopefully that may have some some pull in a Deion that needs to be made we would expect to I I know different organization you know what another voice heard from yep so that that's all Al so hopefully that that'll happen Mass housing still taking comments well yeah well that's that that helps and uh lastly Ash L day thank you for uh providing that information earlier it's coming up this this Saturday uh we're looking forward to some hopefully a nice day I mean anything's better anything in tropical storm even though even though it fizzled out the last minute and I hope that's what happens this weekend it Fizzles out so we're looking forward let's all do our Sund dances for weather like sat I mean it'll be chilly but I think and if and if it's cloudy it may even warm up if it stays cloudy so you know but 70 is nice you don't want 80 or 90 like it was people we've had some Ashlin days where it's like 85 or it was it was hot it was the field just Bak but thank thank you all and that's it I'm good Bry so um we talked uh a lot about comprehensive plan tonight so um we are meeting tomorrow night to talk about public engagement and sort of the next step in this process um without the Consultants so hopefully we have a really good productive conversation tomorrow night um the um thank you to everybody who came out to see the comprehensive plan at the farmers market last weekend I was not there but they get good turnout do you know I heard it wasn't quite as as high as they would have liked but it but um but for anyone who didn't come to the farmers market you get a chance to come see us at Ashland day on Saturday um thanks to Joe and the Ashland Day committee for for giving us a table we have a brand new Banner that we're excited to to debut um we're going to be under the pink tent from um Lisa Churchill at Blush bouquet so so look for the pink tent stop by come come and visit us we're going to be talking about our survey talking about our goals talking about all of our vision for ashin so come come and chat um just uh wanted to just say thank you to um uh for this I was at Joe myself Michael was at the Stone Park music festival that happened two weekends ago um it was a really great event so Grace did a an amazing job amazing musicians um and there's something really cool about having a grand piano in the middle of the Gazebo that is pretty cool yeah yeah so I do not want to be the movers that had to put it there and level it and so um so kudos to Grace for for a great performance um and then just the other thing I know uh the select board's been doing office hours at the farmers market um I was talking to Yolanda and she had a really good idea about continuing office hours possibly on days where the library is doing Book Sales so kind of working it's the first Saturday of every month they have a book sale and so people are going into the library me we mentioned it to mina the the the director I would if if we do that and we can have a little more discussion I would recommend we sit upstairs in the vestibule because if we're sitting down like in the um cafeteria area people don't go that way for the book sale so something we can put it on our um our we can put that on our agenda for the 18th and I don't think it's I don't think it's a long discussion I think it's just a matter of and then committing to us being there yeah so but I think it's a good I think it's a good thing for us to do I think it's good to be able to but we have to but we also you know from experience I can tell you that if we're not at a place where the people are nobody's going to come to us right so we have to be where the people are yeah we saw that at like Bagel table yeah so you get a few people but not many yeah unless unless you provide cookies I can bring some cookies so um and the only other thing is related to the cookies so happy 60th birthday Yolanda so um so just birthday wishes to you thank you I appreciate that very much great party thank you appreciate that uh before I get into my update I have one question for you Michael I was driving by 135 to the community center the other day what are we doing about polls Where the Sidewalk is going are we leaving them there or are we just putting I had the exact same thought today as I was driving back from the community C so and so I put in a question to our engineer so I'm suspecting what they're going to say is that they do have you know you do have the required clearance that you need um I I'm just going to say this so on Elliot Street we have sidewalks but there's a number of spots where the telephone pole is almost right in the middle of the sidewalk so I understand we did this quickly because of timing and Grant and stuff like that engineering wasn't quick this was actually pretty quick but it has nothing to do with whether it was quick or not it's just that you don't have room we don't have so we so we're not even asking them to move the poles like that hasn't been thought about we're just putting it in the sidewalk based on I mean we can't even get the wires moved okay I just okay I I I I totally get it I do but it's one of those things where yes we know kind of like what the perfect project would be right and again I need to you know I'm probably going to get the answer that yes it meets the clearance requirements cuz I had some of this concerned with downtown too but um yeah I mean that that that could be years and a lot more money in terms of no I understand that I just I'm just asking the question are we going to just see the sidewalks around the polls that's all could we could very well okay yeah okay what why um would you mind explaining I think you explain to me point that the sidewalk on that side um of the street is because there's less um less expensive because it doesn't the way the land is shaped in terms of drop off on the other side no if I remember correctly it's because of where the gas line is so you know when you're putting in curb like you you told me the drop off okay it could it could very well be combination of the both yeah maybe it's both but gas line is is yeah getting that question a lot people don't seem to believe me when I say a good drun one yeah so when you know when you're doing a curve a lot of people you know they just see like what's exposed I mean you you dig pretty deep you encase it in concrete um you know you're doing you're doing a good bit of excavation well and on the other side we would have dealt with the the stone wall at the Valentine property right that would have been had a few yeah a few different obstacles there okay yeah I mean we do have to I you know we do have to kind of put our faith in the engineers who've evaluated you know both options right and um but that being said I mean Engineers need direction too because sometimes they'll just you know sometimes they don't necessarily have they think in engineering terms they don't necessarily think in community terms okay so and then just a couple of updates so uh Ashland day as we've talked about looking forward to being there um on behalf of the board I will be presenting our citations for citizen of the year and Grand Marshall so looking forward to that uh we'll be there for the comprehensive plan plus as Around the Clock we're going to be trying to broadcast live and then roaming and doing some fun stuff on uh Thursday uh September 26 via Zoom is the Metro West Regional collaborative meeting from 8 to 9:30 it's our first meeting of the Season we'll be looking at our projects as well as doing some Community share I'll then be attending and if you're interested in available the weimo event happening from 8:30 to 12:30 on Friday September 27th in person up at devans uh should be a good discussion some of our dealing with difficult people and things like that is some of the discussion we're bringing in a con consultant to sort of help us talk through some of that so if you're available and then on Saturday September 28th over at hopkington Center for the Arts it's their Spotlight event they're bringing in Mark Cohen he does the song walking on Memphis so if you're interested it's their fund it's their big fundraiser so the pr the tickets are a little bit more but uh it includes some drink some food some stuff like that so if you're interested if you like Mark Cohen or if you know people who do please share share that information and uh then our next meeting will be Wednesday October 18th no it's September 30 September oh that's right that's that's only a zoom meeting so on Monday September 30th there will be a zoom meeting um that I'm going to need you to okay manage so know what time that's do we have a time yet for the September 30th Zoom meeting uh no not that Susan do we have a time yet she there we we'll need to post soon what time Susan we don't have a time yet we're waiting to find when we're goingon to have the documents okay great okay and uh I think that's a wrap if I can get a motion to adjourn all those in favor I thank you all for being here enjoy the rest of September and uh we'll see you hopefully at Ashland day and at our big meeting in first meeting in October big meeting thank you all have a great night

all right folks we're going to go ahead and get started um I'm going to call to order the um I'm GNA call to order the um Regular meeting I know it is right of the uh Brookfield um Board of Education uh will you all it's 702 would you all please join me in uh rising and saying the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag un unit States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty justice for all it's nice to see so many people here this evening good evening um we have a full compliment of board members Mr feto Miss Scalera Miss sakur Miss Fernandez I'm Wendy Young Blood we've got Sarah dine and Miss Greenstein plus our executive team hi everyone it's really nice to see you all good evening I'd just like to make a motion to amend the agenda um launch right in um I'd like to move public comment to after roll call um for this kind of motion is simple majority do know or we two3 to make a a change to the agenda two3 is 2/3 really have a problem with that we have two we have one person for public comment sure all right um all in favor say I I hi okay anyone oppos please signify by saying nay right so it passes unanimously so let's do public comment first then or yeah let's go ahead and move public comment uh to be in place of um item four right be four yeah okay then we have um we have one person for public comment um it's Mrs Rice and you want to speak to the board about policy yes yes okay great thanks um Mrs Rice um yeah I'm gonna read the an expedited version okay so we welcome public comment we're really excited to to hear from you um three minutes and please start by saying your um your name and where you live sure uh Denise rice 3 old Hemlock Road oops sorry I just want to make sure you're oops that's long okay shocking to say and I'm sure to hear I'm not up here to speak on special ed I'm here to try to bring some attention to policy priorities that have been missed and some priorities prioritized for convenience fact is that we have policies that are out of compliance for years some of them directly affect our kids yet policies have recently be in been introduced by state have come front and center and I just don't understand here's an example um from a few years ago the bullying policy for one the law was passed July 2019 the lobby became effective July 2021 it took our district until May 2023 to update this policy most districts around us were on time or two months late but before the new school year but not us yet a policy to lower cost to our staff to send their kids in District if they lived out a district was rushed through so the speed this one was done would show that it was more important to the district drag your feet on One race through another one directly affects the kids one does not so before I'm shut down I am not speaking about anybody that goes to any of our schools it was years ago were the kids out were their kids outplaced or still being outplaced at that time due to bullying yes I know of one but unfort it wasn't the bully the victim one that was so severely bullied that it will affect him the rest of his life and many of you know the mom and or the kid don't you Erin Sarah Wendy and actually all of you he's amazing he's my son but without important policies like this to help keep our kids safe well they come home with chain marks around their necks and the bullies get nothing policies are made to help the kids staff and District as a whole and keep a school environment that is safe for everyone these are the policies that should be updated first whether it deals with safety School surveys or policy political positions displayed these should come way before anything else I can think of I want my third grader to have a great education with wonderful teachers and not get swayed by opinion either way on anything that's not why he's there I really don't need him coming home with a tampon but again that was a priority yes it's law but we don't comply with so many what's the difference I guess with so many other important policies that need to be updated that I'm a little confused with that being the one that we stood by thank you thank you Mrs Rice all right let's move then to introduction of certified staff members um Dr BR are you going to take the lead on that well what I'll do is I'll I'd like to introduce our princial to come up by school and this is a longtime Brookfield tradition long before I got here where uh new new faculty members are introduced by the principal um as part of the um other uh opportunity here where the principes talk about the first week or two weeks of school depending on the timing of the board meting it's always a nice celebratory time so maybe we start with uh kandlewood Lake and Dr P if you could come up and introduce your staff members that were able to make it today new staff members sure thank you we're on you're on okay uh we were thrilled to get the candidates to stand before me uh we had a very aggressive interview process over the summer uh I'm proud to say that we had nearly 200 applicants uh for our teaching positions to my right is our reading teacher Lindsay paselli Who Rose Way to the Top uh for a reading teacher she's already been amazing and then we have Shaina Marx she's our social worker for the upper school equally amazing and then there's Dylan hasselman first grade teacher sorry I have to do it at his interview he shared he wants to be a teacher to say have the same amazing impact his kindergarten teacher had on him he's now teaching across the hall from his kindergarten teacher at kwood Lake and I'm G to do it luchiana Goku rakai she is our she is our K2 Spanish teacher thank you Dean can you come up uh for whis skiner good evening I'm Dean Rena principal at whiskin a middle school we had three new hires this uh summer one of our hires is our new art teacher uh Miss Keef Michelle Keefe she could not be here tonight because she lit had a baby in the past year and her husband was working so she couldn't obviously leave the kids so she gets a pass um but very exciting to my right um is our Spanish teacher Mabel Santiago I not I don't know how to say all that in Spanish I'm not going to lie I probably should have paid attention when I was younger but we are very lucky to get U Mabel came from Florida and then we have Kibby gin who came to us from and our ELC program from uh New Milford so they're great addition to whiskin middle [Applause] school and Mr Banda from BHS good evening Mark Banda principal at Brook F High School uh this summer we actually had two new hires only one of them is here today um but I'm pleased to introduce uh our new reading teacher this is Miss Kathleen Crawford our the new teacher is um he's known as the father of Bobby Dale and Caitlyn Dale and uh oh my God why am I losing the um Danny Dale but now he's his own person in this building so we're very happy for him uh but Bobby Dale also joins us at as a special education teacher as well thanks welcome to all of you thanks so much and just so the board knows there was a for certified teachers that are part of the Brookfield Education Association we had 16 new hires this year that we filled so obviously we have about half the folks here tonight all right so let's move to the next item on the agenda um we've got the opening of school reports and updates all right so thanks for you guys thank you everybody good night see you tomorrow Mark do you want to come back up and uh keep on rolling the opening of school reports and we'll go the other way this time okay thank you again another long time tradition here in Brookville was de me our all right Dean's happy to be in the middle all right so um pulled up our old school enrollment reports and looked at the things we've done in the past couple years uh so a couple updates just generally about the school we I tend to start with enrollment um you know after July 1 we had 45 new registrations uh at Brookfield High School and 28 withdrawals so think of that as you go through the um the numbers here we have 229 12th graders 210 11th graders 208 uh 10th graders and 203 9th graders which is brings us to a exact total as of today of 850 students which is down from 23 students at the same time last year uh and that's with all those new registrations 45 and withdrawals that's the class the the enrollment has definitely gone down um I'd also like to start with some uh thanks certainly uh she's not here this evening but Katherine oo uh who stepped in as our interm assistant principal uh starting in April of last year all the way through the beginning uh of September got us to the beginning of the school year uh Mrs Griffin is now back uh from her leave and Mr Breo is working full-time at her uh position uh as the World Language and uh El coordinator for the district uh but we would not have been able to do the work that we did and accomplish all that we did without having her so I I want to make sure I recognize her um and then over the summer um first time doing this without uh Mrs Griffin for some time who's really worked on scheduling so had a lot of people step up and help that process I'm sure Dean's going to talk about scheduling as well uh at some point I know he had some fun but I appreciate all the um the support staff that were there whether school counselors or our power school uh technicians who did a lot of work over the summer um always thanking my secretar uh Miss Caroline archangelo who you know pretty much I can't runs my life thank God and my wife is thankful for that um you know Rosa as I told you hopcraft is our register in the building you can imagine 45 new registrations in 28 um withdraws the different schools she was busy as well um miss van roal who's worked here in the library uh in the heat all summer uh was able to do some rearranging and help create a new space over there um as always Kathy Kito and Seth Craig who do everything to technology Mary negri um who helps with Athletics obviously and you'll hear from Steve later on tonight and then our custodial maintenance staff and I got a great email from uh one of our chemistry teachers um must have been two days ago and just said an unsolicited thank you to the custodial staff for the work they do and continue to do to keep the place clean so that was that was great so I appreciate all the guys and their hard work um a couple things going on as we started the school year with some of our opening day PD we talked about the theme being ownership and perspective right and so I did my best as as the leader of the building to help teachers provide and staff understand you know that perspective for the school year and it's our theme moving forward they actually had to go and put their cell phones in a pouch and which was uh very interesting for them to go through that process um and not have it with them and then I gave them while they had the phones and the pouch then I gave them a practice sat so they could see what it's like really because sometimes I think we do lose a little bit of perspective sometimes and we talk about all the things that we're doing and how important it is and you know the SAT is definitely a different sat than we all took and even the kids that graduated from here 3 years ago it's a different sat from them so uh they had an opportunity to take that and reflect and and the types of questions we're going to be working that in um throughout the course of the school year and then the other thing that I know Dean had talked about in previous years and themes had been their why right so as you walk around the hallways you'll see pictures of uh each of the teachers created uh and all staff members including secretaries and everyone else uh has created pictures and a little little blur about why they do what they do and so it's that constant reminder when they walk in every day um you sometimes we forget and we have everybody has bad days but we walk in and say okay this is why I do this uh and it's also nice for parents when we have open house tomorrow as they walk around they get to see those faces and people as well um a lot of facilities work over the summer uh as you most of you have seen the student uh LED future teachers group that created the grant that did the uh revamping of the lockers with replac them with benches and um charging stations which is awesome um it looks fantastic you saw the new uh some new security measures right some of those the spherical ball uh what how do you say it ballards ballards ballards ballards um they're guarding the entrances now um then we're also planning for additional swipe badge access looking to upgrade and um improve additional cameras here in the building and they're also looking at um you know looking at a double door security entrance by the auditor and gym how we can make that happen um two days ago we had the club Fair what a time to do that for nth and 10th graders the same time that Nas came in for district accreditation so that was fun as they walked around and saw all the different things going on at at any one given time we're back on schedule now giving the 9th 10th and 11th graders the digital PSAT in October which is just about a month away um so that'll be exciting for us so we're looking forward to seeing how that goes um the St students started painting their senior parking lots uh their spaces uh on the weekend some amazing artists out there it's fantastic and then before you know it just the way it works out we have an early Homecoming this year uh with our game on Friday October 4th and the carnival and then the dance on the 5th um I do you know we always talk about funny anecdotes and I'm glad I get to go first and they have to follow me because I always I struggle with the comedic timing of these two other gentlemen here uh and what they do from their schools so I I guess there's two anecdotes well one anecdote I want to share specifically so the end of of must have been the first or second day of school um we had a new student who's a nth grader uh uh comes up to me as I'm standing outside of the bus you know trying to direct people and I was talking to um our security monitor M Savage and he walks right between us and he says Mr BL I just want you to know you hired fantastic teachers you did a great job and then walked away and I was like it was wow okay first second day he's like you hired fantastic teachers I was like yeah we do have pretty great teachers here um and then I would I'd be remiss if I didn't share uh one of my favorite jokes um but I want to tell you a story that once upon a time there was a king uh he was only 12 in tall John he was a terrible leader but he was a great ruler um before you leave um Mr Blanda Mr Blanda Mr Blanda before you leave I just wanted to point out this on this sheet that we have up here I don't know if you guys noticed but the reduction in chronic absenteeism that's off to you and your staff thank you I mean that's that's a really significant drop and and uh it had been an issue we were we've been talking as a board about how to how to um get kids excited about schools I mean we know you run the schools but we're like what can we do and to see a number like this something's moving in the right direction so thank you yeah that's something that was the work of really my assistant principles and I went back as I do my open house presentation and I looked my open house presentation last year I talked about things to remind people of and attendance was on there three different times it was tongue and- cheek and done intentionally but we were going to focus on it this past year and to see where those numbers are are and I you know I I give the credit to really my assistant principles and the rest of my leadership team and my teachers who were fantastic and on top of everything it it's really it's made a fantastic difference so thank you I appreciate that well please pass along our commendations on that I will absolutely thank you quick question yeah so during your two minutes of fame on TV um goodness stated that you were gonna go yeah collect any of that data so far so I I'll the lunchroom is an interesting environment I would say uh generally right a High School lunchroom is always an interesting environment um you know it's anecdotal at this point I would still say that kids are on their cell phones it's still there that is that really has not changed a ton um you know so I know that the Restriction of them able to use them in the classroom um or during instructional time is really I I do see in the hallways occasionally kids in the phones I don't think the passing time and the cafeteria has really changed much quite frankly from what it was the previous year um what I can tell you is that classroom instruction has absolutely shifted from the feedback I'm getting from teachers and then I'll be collecting feedback from students as well um it's I have teachers that have come to me and said listen I've under planned I'm used to it usually takes longer to get through these things I have eight minutes at the end of the I I can't get I I need to find something else to do because they're so engaged and there's um so I'll be able to share some survey data I I sent survey out to the staff I think 72 so far have responded so ible to share that information um probably with cape and moving on in the coming weeks um but it's been generally very very positive in the classroom and I would say not a ton of change in the hallways or lunches so it's um you know we'll we're starting small and then we'll see what happens after that so yeah okay thank Mar I question stting year Ain could you put the mic closer no just put it closer last week I don't know yeah last year you um stated that you were going to give um data for late start and if the kids were sleeping more and you did so you know it's interesting looking at so we did a the school climate survey the end of the school year we surveyed parents necessarily to get some of that information that did come out in the school climate survey uh it was about I think Fair belief there was two questions in the climate survey one was about um was your student uh negatively impacted by early dismissals that was one and the other question was do you see your child sleeping more right which I think would probably be the a more realistic assessment because when I ask kids things sometimes they're realistic and sometimes they're not I've asked my teenage son and I don't often get the response that I know is the correct one um and so I remember I think I have the survey data at my at the table but I think it was around 68% said um that they it was a favorable response that they did see an increase and and better sleep for their kids so y okay thanks yeah I was absolutely I was just wondering with sports and kids leaving early for sports so yeah we and and Mr Baldwin has been collecting since last year all the different times that we have to have kids leave because of sports and that's actually you'll see it in his presentation too a little bit later one of the things Aaron that we're definitely going to do is both of your questions there that he's talking about with Steve but to sleep we do want to uh survey the students themselves and so we do want to do an assessment at some point whether it's later this fall or mid year so we get a sense after a year and a half how are we doing with this yeah can I can I just suggest that that's the the same survey that we gave before implementing this change because that's really the best way to have like an accurate sure picture we look at that absolutely thank you Mark okay thanks Mr Renda good evening again um I am going to talk about the start of school year for whiskin middle school I will start off I'll try to keep the same theme about uh attendance uh number of students this uh year we welcomed in 596 students through the uh fir on uh the first day last year we're around the same number I think I I tried to look quickly I think it was 592 so we had 29 new students and then the exact number uh that left in the summer um I'm not sure of but the students that did come in as you can see it's it's it was like a a tra off um we had the from the 29 students we had two students move in about a week before school started from another country we had a student from Poland and a a student from Italy literally had just move moved here uh nine students from AIS um we had Georgia Pennsylvania New York and then obviously from a lot of the area towns um so that was our attendance uh I would also like to talk about just the thank you to get a to get a year started to go through the summer and Mark alluded to scheduling um we had a little incident with a person that helps out that I say helps out does it builds the schedule um couldn't do that so we had to learn me and Mr Bednar had to learn how to build a schedule and they say you look on YouTube you can find anything you know you Google we did all those things but um literally the amount of time and effort not just from us but uh from my secretaries from Denise Walsh who I know she's already loaded in doing everything that she has to do took extra time out of her days to also help us out which was tremendous um the central office for all their support that we had over the summer uh just paperwork and hiring that we do I know it's a lot in at central office at the last minute sometimes but we appreciate you pushing that through uh Deb Jones with the bus company and really you know getting all the uh routes down and being able to help some of our parents because I know the lower levels that's something they get very nervous about um we did not have any kids miss the bus that's a good thing usually have at least one every year or two but that didn't happen Park and wreck for the facilities the custodians obviously for the facilities and doing everything they can over the summer because our building was one of the ones that was used throughout we had most every program imaginable and Brookfield was at our school and really we only had a certain section that the the custodians could actually work on at the beginning so again the amount of work and then at the end trying to H hustle when they were out of there to be able to get it all done was uh tremendous staff that worked uh summer school and the staff that helped with teacher interviews and and the demo lessons that we do for those teachers like Dave was talking about um again really appreciative because they volunteer their time to to come in and do that um SE uh secretary the power school scheduling like I said Ed was just tremendous I mean he gave days that he didn't even have to be there to come and help because we knew we were it was crunch time um to all my secretaries for all the work they do over the summer closing the end of last year and then starting the new year and then ordering materials and state reports and all these different things and like Mark said you know you talking about your secretaries uh Mary Li is my secretary most of you might know who she is my wife you know thankful for her every day of the year because she was just amazing helping with it and and she's taken on so many different roles because of some things that have happened and um she keeps me on track and and keeps me sane so big shout out to her and and like I said about Mr bnar for the scheduling it was really a team effort um before school started we did a uh our normal um uh at the begin beginning of school year when the teachers come back we do have trainings but we do our IEPs and 504 training for staff excuse me meetings and we have staff from the previous grade level meet with the new grade level coming up again just so everybody everybody could really understand kids because sometimes we get a piece of paper with like you know these certain things accommodations but you really that doesn't really know the kid so we do a lot of that at the beginning um getting to know our students uh team and grade level meetings uh going over students to get ready for that first day and also we have department meetings to talk about really just the focus that we're going to have in that content area based on some of the data from the previous year also so that was there the first week of school we had a back to school dance first time ever the first week of school we had over 200 something kids we actually had to move it down to um the gyms which was like a hot boox but we had it down in the gyms and I think the kids had a really great time which was was fantastic FC couple things I know that I'm very excited about I did I think I spoke before but we started a web program it's called where everyone belongs and it's a uh a program for our sixth grade student orientation where we had two of our teachers who get all this credit Kayla denal and Jessica Reese um they applied for a state Grant a $4,000 State grant that uh really only paid for the training part of it and then we were lucky enough well they they put together something to give to the bef and the bef has helped us fund uh for them to get shirts for the students on the first day of school that they were able to to wear those on the first day of school so if kids needed to um ask any questions they knew who they can go to plus also also the sixth graders would know who their leaders were and then also just supplies that we're going to that we needed binders and all different things that we needed and for the rest of the year the bef has has graciously funded that for us too so that was something I'm very excited in this web program what it is is we have we have current eighth graders that were nominated by their teachers we started last they were nominated by their teachers they had to write a little something that they why they were interested they were trained for two days over the summer uh which Jessica did uh Reese did for us and um then they before school started we had the sixth grade students come and they did a little orientation team building activities different things like that to to really get them to feel comfortable with each other and also they they met new other students that they did actually didn't even know um then now what we're doing is the program's going to meet once a month in for every five uh sixth graders they have one eighth grader so what we did what we did was two eighth graders get 10 kids together right just because it's better to have someone else with you when you do something um they've already done one of their lessons with the students um the lessons are going to run around Stress Management teamwork dealing with mean behaviors how to lift other people up and then just getting then we will also get feedback from six grade teachers on anything else that they see with these students coming in um that may need the eighth graders may need to you know do a lesson with them the second thing I want to bring up is while the sixth grade is doing the web lessons again that's once uh the month Kayla and Jess are starting a un we started an unplugged hour and what this is is this is going to be where students will choose from a menu of activities this is for our seventh and eighth graders sixth graders will be doing their web lessons um the seventh and eighth graders will be running um the the teachers excuse me will be running uh activities is something that they enjoy to do so there's anything from crochet to listen to certain music it's unplugged though that meaning that the kids cannot use their cell phones there's no TV and there's no um computers so again trying to go along with that um as you know the staff we're reading reading the anxious generation and now that our students are supposed to No I say supposed to have their cell phones in their lockers um during the day in their duffel bags we wanted to find ways to kind of go along that theme or kids to enjoy activities that they don't have have to use technology again like that that play um that they talk about in the book and then what we'll be doing is that will be the first Friday of every month we're going to do the unplugged hour we we we told the staff about a little bit before but today we went back over it and like I said once they choose their activities they'll be putting it out to the seventh and eth graders and we're actually going to also mix the seventh and eighth graders together with a staff member it's kind of like advisory if you've heard in Middle Schools um so again that's something that I'm very excited about and one more thing that I uh we got the numbers today just wanted to share with you was that um last year when I came to you talk about the difference in a schedule for our Bandon chorus that we Chang it and it's in the UNH schedule well last year our numbers for band Bandon course total percentage was 38.4% of our kids participated this year that number is up to 51.2% so having it in the UNH special so kids don't have to don't have to miss a class or pulled out for lessons was we think has been just a really tremendous um start of the year and I have to say honestly it's been a different vibe this year um without the students walking you know walking around with cell phones little different than the high school the eighth graders are weren't always weren't really excited I have to say because we allowed eighth graders to have their cell phones in the in the um um cafeteria kids would walk around but they couldn't be on their phone or texting because then we would take them but now they're just not out and the teachers say what a different vibe the sixth grade teachers are like I don't think those guys know any better like the sixth grade so they don't know any better in that sense but our seventh and eighth graders obviously um it's different for them and you know I I just been talking to the kids about it and you know just asking them to some of our kids about that and one girl said it's actually less stressful because I'm not thinking about checking my phone because no one else is I said it's a great way to think about it you know and again I know that's just a a small you know a group of students I was talking to that was one girl's take on it but I'm going to tell you right now it is just different it's just you could see it the kids are and not that they didn't talk before like we didn't have a real big problem in the cafeteria with like all the kids had their cell phones out we really honestly didn't but now it's just you don't see any of it so and we've I think we've at this point taken about 12 phones that now parents have to come pick them up so we're doing okay thanks any questions comments thoughts all right sounds like a great start thank you it really has it not great start thanks P how about you well it is my pleasure to be here to provide tonight A Brief update on the awesomely successful star tour school year at kend Lake Elementary School all I can say is what a difference one year made our building and parking lots were truly ready and I was finally able to focus 100% of my efforts on being a principal and not a general contractor so so that was awesome I'd like to begin exess expressing my sincere thanks to several key groups who played a crucial role in ensuring that everything ran smoothly first heartfelt thank you to our custodians their hard work and dedication ensured that the school was clean safe and welcoming on the first day and every day since next huge thank you to our office staff and secretaries the start of the school year can be especially hectic and they are the calm in the storm for managing Student Records to handling parent inquiries new student registration organizing material their work is essential in keeping our school running smoothly I would also like to acknowledge our bus company and drivers and ensuring the Safe Transportation of our students to and from each day some of you may recall our first dismissal last year the last bus rolled out of can Lake Elementary School just a little before 6:00 p.m.

um Additionally the committee members and we've all agreed to divide up and begin reading through the 3,000 policy Series in anticipation of finishing the 9,000 Series um and many of these policies have been outdated I mean they need updating from like 20 years ago and these are um policies that are pretty quick to move through and actually have a lot of uh sort of overlap with some of the things that we're talking about right now and that um Casey has um been updating um the committee is also committed to listening to concerns and pivoting as needed to discuss policies that might not be in sequence and so one of these has been um Dr Burell had shared some concerns with the policy committee regarding personal displays and we wanted to meet with in Goodwin we had an executive session to talk through um some of the sort of what other what is out there what our options are how we would move forward um and so that will be an upcoming discussion um we're not that just happened tonight but that has been an example of how we definitely are listening to concerns that are coming in we are not planning on sort of just plowing through in sequence we I do have a list we've all been sort of maintaining a list of concerns that have come from both the public and other board members and we're trying to figure out how exactly those can fit in without like completely halting the work that we're doing so as we continue to have special meetings and add meetings to the calendar um because we're all committed to this we definitely will make sure that we are um communicating which policies that we're working through when we're working through them awesome um and I think I just want to take um a minute to say that this um group of policy committee members joy and um Ain and uh Stephanie have worked um overtime is almost an understatement in in um like attacking these policy updates so um the community may not know that but we sure do and thank you very much for the work that you're doing it's it's really making a big difference thanks all right so um security task force okay all right so we last met on September 9th um this was a special meeting that was moved up um due to some of the reports that we had gotten about malfunctioning badge readers so I do have an an update on that um um so the committee discussed and um they we discussed this and I can report then just for context about 80% of the badge Raiders that are in the entire District are located at CA yes um now initially when CES opened um there was a time that teachers had to have temporary badges um that's because their multi-use badges um were being programmed um and if you remember it was kind of a rushed to get into that building at the end of at the beginning of last year um but the recent issue that um you know has you know teachers are experiencing um was due to an electrical storm that damaged the motherboards um and that rendered about 25% of the badge readers that CES um locked as in a permanently locked position no door is ever unlocked um most of those doors were in the interior um could be open with keys but the badge issue was still there um the exterior doors um were staff so that teachers and students could come in during that summer repair time because the vendors were contacted right away um and at the time of this meeting all but one of the readers was repaired um and that one that still remained also had an an a door right next to it that student um teachers could use to to exit or enter the building from the outside um and since then so I actually I think like a day after we had this security task force meeting um that last one has been repaired then we talked about the townwide radio project that I think uh Mr Blanda and Eric Conlin also mentioned um this project is going to secure new handheld radios for communication between school buildings but also with the police um and it was just noted that teachers can also reach the police or an outside line via classroom and office phones okay so they don't need like cell service um then we talked about the just some remaining capital budget items that we've also heard um there's about 177,000 remaining in the capital budget for security items So the plan for that is more radios within the district more badge Raiders uh Mr Belinda talked about that and more security coverage as well as um a man trap with locked double doors at the auditorium entrance here in this building um and the completion of the Ballard installations which we've heard enough about um lastly um Alice training is um is underway as is the district's annual update of the all hazards plan and our next meeting is Thursday October 17th at 10: a.m.

e call the meeting to order roll call Maria oara I'm here this time Rick Ry I'm here Gary Ary here Amanda Buchanan here Dennis Bender here nobody is absent Amanda will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance IED to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you so much Kylie do we have any public comments per turning to a specific item on the 918 2024 special meeting slw workship agenda we do not we go straight to the discussion information presented through TR Nelson board we are excited today to offer a workshop regarding the work around our multi-tiered system support and I'm fortunate to have Susan Isaac a trainer from safe and civil schools so I'm going to read season's bio which seems very strange because we feel like we know her better than what this says now but um Susan Isaacs began her career in education teaching children with emotional and behavioral disorders for over 17 years she worked with student populations in both Elementary and secondary schools in 1994 she took a position as a behavior consultant for the Kentucky Behavior consultant Network which evolved into the model schools program ky's behavioral um initiative and later the Kentucky instructional discipline and supports kids project in this role she worked with school teams throughout the state guiding the implementation of schoolwide positive discipline policies several years ago season founded behavioral Solutions a company that allows her to continue to work with schools as an educational consultant we have Susan here through safe and civil schools and she works directly with each of our school sites around the foundations program and that is teams from um each of our school sites have teams that are representative of administration teachers classified staff members and they work on a system on the campus that needs to be addressed and they're here this week obviously that's why Susan's here so we tried to do two things at once so she's been here since first thing this morning been working with staff and is here to do the workshop with you um we are very fortunate that Susan is the person that we get to work with in Apple Valley Unified School District so welcome SE and Isaac's she's the guru than you thank you very much thank you thanks welcome everybody um glad you're here um I am always delighted when I get to speak to school boards about this absolute essential work that we're doing in schools um first of all I'm gonna tell you that I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm from Kentucky um and so you might detect a bit of an accent um if you don't understand something that I'm saying ask one of the staff members because they're probably used to my accent by now they'll figure it out uh but um I am delighted uh to work with Apple Valley we've got several of our Consultants from safe and civil schools working um in in a large capacity here and and you all are one of our favorite districts across the country because we know the good work that's going on my goal this afternoon is to give you an overview of the work that we're doing um as as it relates to the implementation of a multi-tiered system of support in um in your District so I've got a kind of a PowerPoint for you if you want to take a look at that and I'll call your attention to several slides so the goal for me this afternoon is to provide that overview of PBIS which is called positive behavior and intervention supports just as an aside it used to be called PBS positive behavior supports until we got a cease and desist letter from the public broadcasting system and they said you can no longer use that label so I guess somebody got ready and threw an eye in there just to make us just to make us difference we want to talk about what it looks like what it sounds like and then I want to be able to answer any of your questions or address any of your concerns about any of the work that we're doing to that end I'm happy if you just say hey Susan turn on your mic when you want to ask a question so here's what I say to your your teachers and your staff members if I'm in a place that I can't stop immediately to answer your question I'll just go like this and that means you can put your hand down I've got you in the queue I mean I'll put you in a queue in my head and then as soon as I can stop I'll be happy to answer your question so if that works uh that's where that's where we'll start I don't want to insult anybody this afternoon but I think it always helps if we start with a little vocabulary I was married to a man for 39 years who was not an educator um unfortunately I lost him about four years ago he called us the alphabet people he said Educators use more acronyms than anybody on the planet so he called me the alphabet people and you can see up there we've got lots and lots of acronyms the very first one that you all need to be aware of is something called every student succeeds act and every student succeeds Act is in fact the elementary and secondary um Education Act that Congress has to reauthorize every so often now you probably if you've been on the board very long you remembered its predecessor everybody remembers its predecessor which was anybody remember it no child Left Behind um and so Essa replaced that um in about the middle of the Obama Administration is when they finally after 16 years got around to reauthorizing uh the elementary and secondary Education Act part of what that act mandates because Apple Valley accepts money from the federal government do you not what are some what are some U pro programs that that are funded by your federal government here anybody know any of them title one right title two so we're talking about Transportation we're talking about lunch program we're talking about Title Nine so we get a lot of money from the federal government the federal government says if you're going to take that money you've got to meet the mandates and one of those mandates is that we have to demonstrate that we are providing a multi-tiered system of support now before we really started using the mtss label we were using something called called RTI response to intervention you all probably remember hearing about response to intervention it fell out of favor because a lot of people assumed that we were only talking about academics that we were only looking at at interventions for academics but mtss is far more encompassing than that so it really requires now that we build a system to support you youngsters yes at academics but also behaviorally and social and emotionally and that's a mandate from the federal government that we do that now it does not mandate that we do PBIS positive behavior and intervention supports but when we're looking at how we support all three tiers a behavior the only way I know to do it and you heard you heard how long I've been around did was anybody doing that math when when TR told you when I started did anybody do that math I'm old I've been in the education business for over 40 years um so I don't know of another way that we build supports for all kids for some kids and then that very few kids that does not involve positive behavior and intervention supports it is a widely accepted practice around the world not just in the United States other countries are also using that model because we know that it has a great track record of supporting youngsters at with behavior um so PBI is in fact a generic term no one owns it now there people who try to tell you that they own that term but they don't so safe and civil schools who employ me you heard TR say that I'm an independent contractor but I've been an employee well not an employee I've been an independent contractor with safe and civil schools for over 24 years I actually left um my district in Lexington Kentucky um in order to do this work because of the work that we had done in Kentucky and I saw the huge impact that it had on schools there so safe and civil schools is one of the national providers of PBIS every state has theirs some local entities I think probably your local County may have a model that they use um and there are only minor differences in all of those models of PBIS we tend to believe that ours is superior as does so of those other people uh but we do believe that what what makes ours better is that we it comes with a plethora of material that's that teams can reference you've got part of the material right there um I'll point you to some of the stuff in your that book that we've provided for you later foundations then is our there's another there's another one of those alphabet people words do you see s swpb PBIS schoolwide PBIS we'll talk about how that works but that's what foundations is called so that's what I've been working with this week we've had teams from so far seven six schools five schools so far and we'll have the remaining schools the next two days teams from those schools will be working with me we get down to that last bullet what you have in front of you is our classroom management text called Champs so now that moves out of the schoolwide into what we do in the classroom it is actually a compendium of the Effective Teacher research we know we clearly know what effective teachers do in the classroom we also know what ineffective teachers do in the classroom so this provides a road map for teachers it's not prescriptive per se but it's a framework for teachers to make decisions based on what we know happens in an effective teachers classroom make decisions about how they want their classroom managed the its companion piece is for our 9 through 12 schools our uh classrooms and that's called discipline in the secondary classroom those texts are almost identical uh we we gave you the Champs one just because it was we Pro I don't know if we had more of those or not but you've got essentially everything that we've given every teacher in Apple Valley about how to manage instruction we're gonna I'm gon I'm going to talk specifically about managing instruction later on this afternoon uh but I'd like to start with just talking a little bit about uh foundation so let's we're going to go from schoolwide and then we'll get down to the classroom and if you have questions then about either one of those we'll answer them I think we're also going to build in a break I know I know I teach a lot of adults every day and I know it's hard to sit for more than about I don't know 45 or 50 minutes before you need to get up so we'll also I've asked pad if he'll kind of help us build build in a break are there any questions or concerns or comments about our vocabulary so far everybody cool everybody good all right so foundations again is not prescriptive it's a process and the thing that makes our PBIS process different than any other of the PBIS processes is the entire staff is involved now it's led by a representative uh group that those are the folks I had here today but they go back and they share information and and elicit information from their colleagues so this is not a group of teachers who if we get a new principal go wonder what the new principal's going to do about Behavior a new principal honestly when they walk in they need to they need to know these are the kind of kids that are in the building this is the the skill of the staff that I have so they don't really need to come in and make sweeping changes about Behavior any more than they would come in and make sweeping changes about the academic program or the curriculum that we're offering so this way the entire staff is involved and we look at a comprehensive approach to Behavior Support I want to talk about the three tenants that really make this work that's in that little gray box at the bottom so let's talk about the first one the biggest piece of Foundations is that it's proactive and I know that's a buzzword that's been around and people overuse it so if you're taking notes or if you're just in your head I'd like for you to just think about prevention we do so much more when we look at ways to prevent misbehavior rather than try to figure out what to do after the fact let's face it there we don't have a lot of options in terms of correcting youngsters after the fact are you know we have to follow California Ed code in that regard um and so we get way better bang for our buck if we spend time thinking about how do we prevent misbehavior there is an analogy that's probably close to you all that you may not even realize the analogy that's close to you all write down um I don't know what road it is I guess you'd go 15 and then you'd get on 40 five and you get off an Anaheim does anybody know what I'm talking about Disney they are Masters At what we're attempting to do and that is preventing misbehavior the way that they organize and structure the routines and procedures in those parks and the reason they do it is because they hire 200 behavioral psychologists to help them think about how do we make sure that when people are spending what do it cost me I haven't been in a while too much you're spending a lot of money and you're standing in line most of the time you're there yet everybody who leaves goes dang that was fun can't we go back even though you just spent $500 and stood in line most of the time how did they do that well they do it by structuring that Park so that we prevent a lot of angst and people have fun and that's exactly what we want to do through this work is we want to prevent as much misbehavior as we can just this week we had an excellent example of what I'm talking about so one of the schools help me out Pat the menu help me out Mar Marana all right Marana has the way their kids line up in their cafeteria it's a very long line they have to come in Go kids were having a really hard time the line was getting bogged down because kids were looking at what are we going to eat today what are we gonna eat today you know what they did to solve that put a menu board at the very beginning of the cafeteria and kids can now read the menu they know what they want even before they get there and I know that sounds like a little thing but can you imagine how much that sped up the line and now we don't have people going come on let's move let's move let's move let's move and now a kid's going to get mouthy with the person who just said let's move let's move let's move let's move because some of our kids get mouthy don't they so the very first thing that we want to think about is that it's proactive we want to prevent as many misbehaviors by looking at the structures that we can modify a as we can the second big um idea um this you have to know a little bit more about behavior in order to get but the best way to change behavior is not through punishment it's real clear I have a master's degree in applied Behavior Analysis and I can tell you this that the effects of punishment are not very durable do any of you all have children of your own have any of you all ever had to say to your child this is the last time I'm going to tell you this and the next day you told them the same thing am I right the effects of punishment are not durable the very best way to change behavior is through positive measures you'll know that because I if if we had if if if we weren't on TV I'd ask you all to tell me a behavior of your own that you've attempted to change recently you know those New Year's resolutions we come up with every year and we generally don't do very well on those but most of us if we're attempting to change our own behavior very few of us set up a punishment system to help us meet that goal instead we usually set up something that we like okay I did it so now I've earned or I'm gonna give myself permission to I really have a hard time exercising I'm on the road all the time so I let myself maybe on Friday night have one glass of wine if I've done done my if I've been to the gym so most of us think like that we've got to get everybody to understand the power of positive measures to change Behavior rather than everybody's saying what ugly thing can we do to children in order to get them to stop misbehaving because here's the sad truth you all some of our kids who really misbehave the things that have been done to them by the people who profess to love them are way worse than anything that we could do so we have to be careful that we don't put all of our eggs in the punishment basket finally the last one is we have to take an instructional approach to behavior it's easy to believe that everybody's kid was raised by your mom isn't it we like to believe that everybody has had the same background the same um anybody know the phrase home training or do we just use that in Kentucky do you all know home training it's not it's it's easy for us to believe that everybody's had the home home training you have but that doesn't happen we've got some kids that the way they behave at home we don't appreciate at school and the only way they're going to learn that is if we teach them and expand that behavioral repertoire so that they have a shot in life of understanding how to be successful in more than one place so we take a very instructional approach to behavior we want to teach kids this is what it takes in order to be successful in our school our goal is that no student comes to school and doesn't understand what it takes to be successful in that building so our approach those three big tenants of of our version of PBIS is that we're proactive we're positive and we're instructional what questions or comments do you have about any of those ideas y'all are quiet I can see thought bubbles over your head Susan something I probably should have said when I was introducing you is this aligns directly with the board goals um of a safe and nurturing learning environment and um from that perspective knowing what to anticipate when they walk in is very important and congratulations on your goals of a safe and nurturing environment not every school district is brave enough to say that so congratulations on doing that all right so how do we do this so now I want to get into the nitty-gritty of how all this works because all that sounds real lofty doesn't it but we got to figure out how the mechanics of all this actually work so the goal and there are two big goals of this and the first one is through this work we want to never lose sight that our main focus is student achievement that's our main focus and that's probably what you all are looking at but in order to really facilitate student achievement we have to reduce any barriers that we can to student learning and so those are the two big goals of Positive Behavior Support now there are three levels that we have to look at I've talked about two of them already today we talk we're going to look schoolwide this is what we do holistic ially in the building for everybody then we want classroom teachers to apply these same principles to managing their classroom but we always know that they're going to be individuals who need you know extra scoops of support along the way and part of the work of safe and civil schools as we also provide information to teachers um School psychologists special education teachers Etc on how we can really establish individualized behavior intervention plans for youngsters who may need those additional scoops of support and every District that I work with now has a growing number of youngsters who need more and more support uh behaviorally and I think you all probably hear that uh just in your neighborhood and you're not unique in that regard that happens in every school district that that we're working with across the country I think the pandemic had a fair amount to do with um increasing students mental health needs and and behavioral needs you know when kids were home for a couple years and not with groups and not under the direct supervision of a teacher or direct supervision of of adults all the time sort of left to their own devices so this is our model and this is a model of a multi-tiered system of support So if you haven't seen have they seen this before have you all seen this before no okay so this is what we do in foundations but it really captures all three of our tiers so the very first thing we ask ask schools to do is to form a team and uh TR mentioned it's a representative team made up of the administrator uh teachers general education teachers a special education teacher we also like representation from your classified staff so I think we've got a custodian on one we've got a school secretary on one we've got a couple of Proctors who join us because they bring a different perspective about the entire school and that team usually made up of eight to 10 maybe we've got a couple schools with 11 members uh they really lead this process in the building they're responsible for collecting data about the school because we make decisions about what what we need to do at the school level to modify or change or protect based on the data that we collect and we collect a data from a variety of sources so the first source of data that we rely on is we look at incident incident reports sometimes people call these office disciplinary referrals so we really are looking at the nature and the frequency of misbehavior going on in the building because that gives us information about what we need to work on WE disaggregate those data by grade level by gender by ethnicity uh by location by time of day day of week month of year and that allows us to then get ahead of that for instance you all want to guess that day of the week with the highest number of office referrals anybody want to guess who said Thursday Thursday's right here's why Monday we'll go back and retach we'll we'll remind kids and remind kids Tuesday I still got a lot of energy as their teacher I'll still remind them Wednesday I'm growing weary of it but I'll put up with it another day but if I don't do it on Thursday do you know what I say by Friday fine then act like that I don't care I'm getting out of here in a couple of minutes so Thursday is a high day for office referrals you want to guess the two months that are the highest for behavior problems October's one you're close sir it's February uh October and February because about in October you know the honeymoon still just ending and now kids are like dang we're back in school again and then February such a probably kind of a as it gloomy here in February it is in most places and so I think it's just a it's just gloomy any it's just gloomy anyway so we we ask teams to analyze data because if we know that October's a pretty big month for behavior problems guess what we can do we can prevent them we can get ahead of them we can go back we can address it and say we know this is going to happen and so what can we do to prevent that from happening can we have a campaign can we go back and retach our expectations can we have some contest you know a little competition at which classroom has the fewest office we can do lots of things when we know the patterns of behavior problems just like Disneyland knows exactly where the behavior problems happen in their parks and they work then to prevent that sounds like Mr Bender knows he'd been there a little bit yes ma'am what um data collection like do we use to break that down you all are using your school uh management system which aren't you power school Aries Aries sorry wrong District sorry that I'll break it down by where and everything all the way down to it does have a location yeah it also depends on how all that's entered into Aries so we do want to get comfortable with having the time of day put in there the location put in there the reporting uh adult the report the adult who reported Etc but yeah and Susan let me add to that and it depends on the uh particular area of focus so for example in the cafeteria example they actually did some data gathering with um stopwatches in a spreadsheet because they were just timing how long it took a kid because they are they already had some anecdotal data about incidents happening deep in the line because the line was taking so long so part of their analysis as a team was let's just go find out like how long is it taking what seems to be so they mostly did a bunch of observational data on a shared spread spre sheet so they sometimes build a tool useful for the incident they're trying to measure yeah and that leads me to one of the second uh forms of data collection we have and that's observational data as a matter of fact this week I've just given that as a homework assignment for all the teams to go in and conduct some observations before I'm here in November so we'll have some data in November on those observations of their common areas we'll get into that in just a second and then other data sources that we need to be looking at attendance tardiness in our secondary campuses uh we need to look at the number of special educ referrals in our elementary schools to know if our interventions that we're using are robust enough to prevent youngsters from being identified um we also need to know the number of students who qualify once we've referred them to special education so that we have that number it's it's reasonably high that we're we're making good um recommendations for uh for testing so we've got a whole U series of of uh data collection strategies that u schools can use and then we rely on something called the Improvement cycle and again this is unique to foundations it's not in traditional PBIS and that really this is the team's work um they start with a review of data they share those data with the entire staff the staff then helps them select this is where we want you to spend your time so it does involve the entire staff and then one of the biggest challenges and I'll probably show you this I'm probably ahead of myself in my PowerPoint is we get it in writing because so much of what goes on in school relative to our procedures is oral history somebody just tells somebody this is what we do here but it's really hard to have adult consistency when it's not written down and it's really hard for our administrators to hold staff accountable when we don't have a written document that says this is the way uh our cafeteria works from that we start looking at our common areas I'm gon to I'm going to go deeper in all of this in just a second but we look at common areas and those are the areas in which all kids are at some point and they're supervised either by rotating supervisors or um multiple supervisors or in many cases they're classified employees and so we want to structure those because they that the behavior in those common areas has a major impact on what goes on in the classroom if the cafeteria is chaotic if the playground is chaotic teachers have to eat up precious instructional time getting kids back under instructional control when things are crazy so we want to make sure that all of those areas are highly structured and highly predictable uh with lots of good routines and procedures so that teachers have maximum amount of time when they're in the classroom the probably the trickiest one on that second level is our school policies that's really where we see the most inconsistency across the country and that is with and it's probably the bane of your all's existence you probably hear more about policies than than anything else and now I'm talking about hats and hoods cell phones food and drink in the in the classroom dress code any of those things that are kind of hot button issues we ask schools to really tackle those particularly our secondary schools and let's decide of those what it what based on your all's decisions as a school board then what's that going to look like how are we going to implement that in our schools so that we get as much consistency as we can it's really hard to get as much consistency um I'm not going to lie to you it's still tough because you have people who they don't they don't that's not they don't agree with it and so you've got some teachers particularly our secondary schools not you and I'm saying there are teachers out there not necessarily in Apple Valley who say you know what I think the dress code's stupid so I'm not going to enforce it so we really try to impress upon our staff it doesn't matter what you think if this is the decision that 90% of the staff says is good for our kids you've got to do your level best to implement it but but I'm not going to lie to you it still is a it still is an issue from that um if you look on just going up a little bit we're still at tier one so when you talk about tiers tier one means this is for everybody doesn't matter who you are everybody gets this everybody participates in this um we look at how we can respond to misbehavior um more efficiently and more effectively and more consistently because that's the other reason that we see an increase in misbehavior is is the adult inconsistency on a campus and so we really delve into how can we all agree these are the behaviors that we're going to manage in classroom the principal's going to say these are the uh behaviors that I need to see um in the office and and and there's a lot some squishy ones in between that we'll get there and then we really work constantly on creating that Invitational School climate because we know that kids do they Faire better in education when their school is calm when it's nurturing when they feel both emotionally and physically safe and so there's a constant talk in our in our work in foundations about creating that Invitational School climate and then um I'm so impressed with a couple of your schools because I'm sure that you all as board members hear from people about bullying do you not is that still a kind of a big issue um and and really my experience tells me that yes we still have bullying going on but we also have kids who don't know how to problem solve period And so when you don't know how to solve a problem you call it bullying and so do your parents and you've got a couple of schools that we're working with who have really delved into our um problem solving strategy called stop think plan they're teaching kids that problem solving strategy and also having parent meetings to teach the parents that strategy so I'm so impressed that they decided to take that on because it's a little tricky continuing with tier one um that's where we're going to get into classroom and I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of save that because I do want to get you into that um into that Champs book I I I hesitated about doing this but I feel like I need to this next section and that is it's one of the reasons that I lie to people on airplanes when I'm on an airplane I just flat out lie to them because if you know how you're sitting on an airplane and I'm on probably five a week and somebody the first thing they say is what do you do right so if I'm feeling frisky I tell them what I do and that we try to help schools with behavior the problem the reason I lie is because you know that everybody thinks they have the answer to that because they went to school they offer some very very simple Solutions and all of them are wrong because most of those people haven't been in a school since they were in school and they think that that solution that worked for them is going to work for somebody else and it just doesn't so I lie and tell people I do something else that uh issues in Deal dealing with behavior issues in the 70s or the 80s or even further back don't work today yeah well everybody has that opinion like well when I went to school they did this yeah they used to be this with a stick or you know ruler yeah you know exactly so why why don't why w't those issu well I know why they won't because we can't but why why don't they work or why won't they work can I I'm I'm going to be real honest with you they worked for some kids but if you'll think about the 70s 60s 70s and 80s we were largely still exclusive meaning as long as you did what you were supposed to do you were welcome at school but if you didn't we sent you packing that's true you don't think that's true no I do think that's true there wasn't disruption yeah yeah yeah you just we just sent you out and after we had No Child Left Behind we no longer have that ability to just send you out plus if you think about that as a community issue if we send kids out uneducated just go as a community we're no better off and so it really is in my opinion as an educator it's incumbent upon me to actually try to fulfill the promise that we have that everybody can be educated I think that's a promise that we've made As Americans that we've yet to fulfill is that possible I hope so I wouldn't be standing here if I didn't think it well I wouldn't be standing here at this uh old age still doing this work if I didn't think it was it was some of that is a detriment to the kids that really want to learn yeah and they're pushed into these situations where kids are in there and we can't remove them but yet the ones that really want to learn are hampered by the behavior problems yeah and I'm not going to lie it happens um partially from some mandates through idea which is the individuals disabilities Education Act meaning we it's very hard to remove a youngster I am an advocate for a full Continuum of services I hope a full Continuum of services meaning that we have to find the services that are going to support those kids where they are as opposed to trying to force all kids into a general education setting um I've been a special educator for my entire well almost my entire career I did teach high school English for two years which was a lot of fun um but I've seen that Continuum go from everybody was segregated in a special education class if you had that label to now the pendulum swung and now we've got everybody if they can in a general education class and I don't think either one of those extremes are are are benefiting everybody I think we're going to have to find some common ground um I do know that most districts like yours are providing an enormous amount of supports for those youngsters who are the most difficult to teach um we've got Mental Health Specialists now in schools we've got um bcba which is a certified behavior analyst helping develop behavior intervention plans for those youngsters it's not perfect it'll never be perfect because we're dealing with humans but I do think people are trying their very best to get those kids what they need and then not have those kids not disrupt the learning of all um the bad thing is is you all probably don't hear the success stories of kids who are integrated into General Ed classes and are doing well what you all hear about are the are the the outliers the real exceptions that this is a really tough kid to teach nobody's going to come and say my kid is in special education they're in General Ed and they're doing great and I wanted you to know that nobody does that because we don't think about that when that happens we we T tend to hear the horor stories and they're out there and they're everywhere and I'll be honest with you nobody has the absolute answer right now I know that didn't satisfy you but no no um just it was a question well it's a question so here are some things like for instance throughout my lifetime there's been an over dependence on punishment um as a matter of fact after Coline the Congress enacted what was called Zero Tolerance do you all are you all familiar with that term um and that was for two real discreet behaviors I think California Ed Cod there are five Pat show show with me yesterday but that was two that Congress enacted weapons and drugs since that time suspension has doubled or tripled for almost everything yet five or less percent of those are for weapons or drugs so we've used suspension for everything and and that's why you as a school board have probably under a mandate from the state to reduce suspension or at least look at suspension data are you all not supposed to look at that so it's one of those things we have to get a handle on um so this over dependence on punishment is the thing that kept us sort of mired in that exclusive kind of idea of Education when it's really again I I I still believe in that promise of education for all the second is we we've have people who just get emotional they want to scream and yell and um you know belittle and embarrassing and humiliate and all that kind of stuff and what we know now is that that's not good for children's mental health nor is it good for the adult who find them themselves in that position so that increase in emotional intensity has been one of those things that we've relied on uh to manage Behavior the third is that the role of the principal has probably changed more in the last 50 years than any role in school when I was in school School Warden Thomas was my Elementary School principal he was also my Sunday school teacher at the vine girl Baptist Church when I was there um nice nice man he'd been the a teacher at the high school and they thought well he's gonna be a fine Elementary teach principal and he was because at that time what were his jobs what was the job of the principal back when I went to school about the time the Earth cooled well what did he do e maybe he made sure the buses got there on time he made sure payroll was met he made sure we had textbooks he made sure substitutes were called but if if my teacher had said you know I'm having trouble with this little reading group can you help me with instruction what do you think Warden would have said I don't know anything about reading instruction for little kids I'm an a teacher see our principles are now instructional leaders every one of the principles that you all have hired have the ability to go in and help teachers deliver high quality instruction that's why you hire those folks so this idea that we can just send all the kids to the office and they're going to be handled our principal shouldn't even be in their office very much anymore they're probably in classrooms helping teachers coaching teachers to deliver the highest quality instruction they can and then finally I don't ever want to discount this but wishing and hoping is always one of those things that's been a kind of an idea that we've had that we rely on um so we I these things we still have some of them in some Con in some level but certainly we don't rely on any one of them to manage Behavior anymore it's really everybody's job in the 21st century to manage Behavior not just one person's so that's kind of where we were and what we're looking at now is now we're looking at all aspects of behavior not just the punishment side and I think that's what we relied on to think about Behavior but we have to take a far more comprehensive approach so if you look at those bullets it's really about the climate of the school that serves to prevent some misbehavior we want to make sure our schools are both physically and emotionally safe because if our schools are not physically and emotionally safe children will not take the risk to learn if I'm scared either for my physical safety or if somebody is berating or humiliating me a teacher I'm not going to I'm not going to let myself become vulnerable in front of that person to let them know what I don't know and so we've got to make sure that our schools are both physically and emotionally safe this does involve discipline although the definition of discipline if you look it up in Websters says to teach to teach and that's a tenant of of PBIS foundations is that we're going to teach youngsters how to behave in school we're going to make sure that they're taught I'll share that with you in just a second then of course we've got to have uh some plans for youngsters who need additional support and we want to make sure that students feel highly connected to school there is a huge research done by the Centers for Disease Control looked at about 70,000 I'm sorry 700,000 kids they're mostly 7th through 12th grade and they looked at the difference between kids who had a strong connection to an adult in a building and those who did not and they anticipated the differences would be academic that they would the kids who were connected they predicted they're going to graduate at higher levels they're going to make better grades they're going to go on to postsecondary activities that are going to you know serve them well what they didn't anticipate when they looked at those connections that kids would made were the health benefits they found that KS who were connected to school this startled me when I read this study they wore seat belts at higher levels than kids who did not have a school connection they used Alcohol Tobacco and drugs either not at all or they delayed the onset of the use of those things until they were almost adults there were less suicidal ideation there were fewer mental health issues um they um turned less to gangs and violence the health benefits of being connected to school are enormous and so part of this work is we really try to impress on our the adults in the building we've got to make strong connections uh with kids it's it really is all about relationships between the adults in the building and kiddos so that's kind of the big picture now of what we're doing yes ma'am I do have a question um based on what you have put out there as your Foundation just curious about why student connectedness was put last and yet if you could put them first and you made the connection with the student it will be an easier way to handle to do all of those to do the other one yeah it would but to have yes you're going to have a climate but the climate has to do with the the emotional wellbeing of all the players in the classroom on on campus and once you can have getting control of the emotional well-being of all the players and begin to work on student connectedness then Behavior Support plans will come in place and and you'll have less discipline yeah um so I'm just wondering why you put it last instead of putting it towards the top there was really a Rhyme or Reason To Where where I put those bullets I apologize but you're right and probably um as I change this I'll go ahead and put student connectedness at the top of that list because what you just said makes perfect sense because everything flows from that and and I'll just mention also that that is um part of what we gather another piece of data We Gather through that youth truth survey kind a couple of really good questions of asking students exactly what you kind of highlighted this idea is is there yes is there an adult at school that um that you can turn to if you have a need and or do you feel a part of your school Community it's really helpful in revealing data kind of by grade level and it does track nicely with kind of what we're seeing also in school climate so does principles have that data and it's um it's neat to see where it starts to rise it's correspondent with places where we see you know just kind of general climate Improvement yeah any other comments um real quickly I want to share with you we have a set of beliefs that we these are kind of what we believe as the authors of Foundations I'm one of the authors of Foundations uh but all of us at safe and civil School these are our beliefs and the first is this that the staff creates the climate of the school as a matter of fact the founder of of safe and civil schools says always the the climate and culture of your school is defined by the daily actions of the staff not the kids so we Define what the culture of the climate looks like and it needs to be warm it needs to be welcoming Invitational and that we're constantly monitor monitoring that climate the second is that we believe that if we want kids to be successful we have to teach them how to be successful at school that not every single kid is blessed with the kind of family that allows them to know everything that they need in order to be successful and when we don't when we can't guarantee that we have to do that on our own so the behaviors necessary for success we're going to ask our staff to teach those we believe that every single youngster should have access to excellent um instruction and that's why this really removing these barriers again we're not discounting instruction as a matter of fact we're trying to open up opportunities for better and higher quality instruction by removing those barriers uh to learning we also believe that every expectation should be clarified and that the adults and the campus should be as consistent as they can in enforcing all of the schoolwide expectations rules that's a challenge uh when you get a 100 plus adults in a building to try to get everybody on the same page is a little bit like hanging you know trying to her cats but but we know that with consistent work and consistent information uh we can get there we also believe and so I never want anybody to think that we don't believe in any kind of punishment and that's a really a misconception about PBIS in general a lot of people say to me oh we don't want to do PBIS because you can't correct kidss that's a lie as a matter of fact we probably need to correct more at earlier stages so that we don't get those big um kind of misbehaviors so we have to have corrective procedures but we also understand that they have limitations and so we really want to view misbehavior as an opportunity for us to teach youngsters how to behave better right that's probably our biggest uh biggest challenge and then um we want to make sure and this is true from every time we're here we talk about this and that everybody in a school should be treated with the inherent dignity that they deserve because they're a human and with the utmost respect so that's true of how our administrators deal with our staff members and students and that's also true of how our staff members should be managing students with the utmost respect even we have to correct them we have to do that respectfully this is the last slide and then we probably Pat probably should take a break I love this quote it says effective schoolwide and classroom management plans prevent misbehavior and they should be continually refined to help students become increasingly respectful responsible motivated and highly engaged in meaningful tasks that's really our mission right there there are two words in that paragraph though that I think are essentially that are absolutely important here's the first one the first one is prevention we just talked about that if we we spend all of our time talking about what ugly things we can do to children after they've misbehaved we've missed the we've missed the whole boat we need to be thinking like Disneyland we need to be thinking about how we can prevent misbehavior and the second one is the is the first word in the fourth line become it'd be nice if all of our kids arrived at Apple Valley respectful responsible and highly motivated but they're not and we have to understand that learning is a process all behavior is learned academic Behavior learned social behaviors learned it's and it's not all learned at the same rate and at the same time so we have to as the adults in the in school be patient and be persistent that we're continuing to teach kids how to be respectful responsible and motivated that's part of our job um in educating the the citizens of Apple Valley is to to teach them those three things questions how long we want a break minutes an hour I gotta go to bed I'm I'm on eastern daylight time how about start with five and if it takes a little bit longer all right can I can I set the timer for five minutes then all right I will set it for five minutes all right we'll do it so please get up get some water move around do all that stuff be back in five minutes oh there's e e e appreciate you all headed back um what the easiest way I can teach you about what we do is to show you what we call the stoit framework we um again we're the alphabet people we love acronyms and so years ago the founder of safe and civil schools came to us and he said you know I've looked at all of the components of PBIS and if you're not careful you can kind of get lost in the weeds and he said I've looked at every part of PBIS he's one of the original authors by the way um all of all of PBS PBIS started back in the 80s at the University of Oregon he was a professor there at the time and so is he is one of the original drafters of the concepts of PBS which now is PBIS so he came to us and he said I came up with this acronym called stoic because I think I can fit almost everything under one of these five variables so real quickly and I'm going to go through each one of them individually the first is that we structure all parts of the learning environment for Success once it's structured then we teach kids to Mastery what that looks like we need to make sure that we are providing good observation both through the collection and Analysis of data but the other big piece about this is active supervision um we we put a huge emphasis on teaching people how to effectively supervise youngsters uh the i in stoic means that we want to build those positive relationships and then we know that we will have to correct misbehavior because they're still kids and invariably they're going to make um social errors and we have to be prepared to correct them so let me talk about each one of those as they relate to foundations and in foundations we start by looking at each of the common areas in a school so the team that team I mentioned earlier will systematically work through each of these common areas again these are where all kids go but are supervised either by multiple supervisors or rotating supervisors or classified employees when we look at the structure we have to look at these things and there are several and I'm sorry that's a lot of words on the screen so just look at the big bold things for instance we asked the team to go in and look at the physical Arrangements is there anything that we can do to the physical setting of this area in the school that could minimize the probability that misbehavior would occur again your example of the menu would be that uh when I was teaching at the high school and we implemented this I I I was actually a charter member of the high school where I taught of a brand new building gorgeous building in Lexington Kentucky we had a glass stairwell that overlooked a a pasture where we had thorough Breads and I don't know if you know much about Kentucky but we are famous for our Thor breads well that glass staircase everybody wanted to be in it was in the middle of the hallway and so we had a class change that stairwell was packed with kids the first afternoon the principal called a staff meeting at the end of the first day and said we've got to make a change in this stairwell or somebody's going to get hurt so we had to make that stairwell one way right it was only down you could only go down in that middle stair because we had four other staircases that kids weren't using so we ask our teams to go look at the building is there anything that looks a little bit crazy if we're talking about elementary schools sometimes our playgrounds are so big that we can't effectively supervise them and so we have to think about do we cordin off part of our our playground if we can't adequately supervise this and kids are way over there and we can't see them so we we actually look up at any of the U things that we can change structurally in the building the second is any kind of scheduling issues that we want to change for instance most people don't know that there is little research that supports that there is the Optima time for passing periods at secondary schools it really depends on the size of your building it depends on the location of classroom Etc and so we ask schools to look at that and it we got to look at the Goldilocks rule for that because you give them too much time and they're like to class you don't give them enough time and they're late to class there's a sweet spot that you can get there but we we have this the team investigate that what's the best way to do that and then as we're thinking about organizational patterns for instance until kids have a driver's license they don't know that the best way to navigate a hallway is for everybody to walk on the right hand side in the direction of travel once they get a driver's license they're pretty good at that but look at a bunch of sixth graders trying to get from one class to the other with no driver's license and it is chaos unless we teach them you need to stay the right hand side of the hall in the direction of travel so I know all this sounds crazy but what we're trying to do is again prevent opportunities for misbehavior um that routines of procedures and again as I mentioned earlier that's a real tough spot trying to get all of those things like dress code ID badges um hats and hoods cell phones all of that is problematic and the the closer we can get to that that everybody agrees the fewer behavior problems we have relative to any of those procedures once all that's done then we want to be real explicit what is it that we want students to do in order to be successful in each one of those areas that you just looked at on that on that um previous slide and once that's done then we want to be real explicit about what adult be Behavior will look like and we want to put that in writing because as I said earlier it's really hard to have consistency if we don't have it in writing if we don't it's kind of like that remember that telephone game you played in school where um Matt would whisper something to Dustin and Dustin would whisper to Pat and Pat would whisper to dentist and by the time it got all the way down here it was nothing like what we thought that can happen if we don't have our procedures in writing that people will say I didn't know that or nobody told me that so we want to make sure that that we're real explicit uh for that once that's happened I'm going to go to the next slide once that once we know all that then we want to make sure that we teach youngsters what that looks like I'm going to give you a classic example I was working at a school in Mount Vernon Washington and I went it is a great place I'm going in a couple of weeks um so I went to visit the school and um it was right after the P you know about a year so after the pandemic not maybe not quite a year and I've not been in one of your Elementary cafeterias yet but in the in Washington and Oregon they have salad bars for the kids little short salad bars and the kids go through and get a salad bar same thing in Alaska where I'm going next week so the principal came in and she was carrying these great big bags and I said can I help you and she said you can carry this and so we went into the cafeteria and she had taken some a piece of one by one Lumber you know one by one she'd cut it into one inch pieces and she had bags full of it and then she had a couple of bags of dried pasta and she said our TK kids our kindergarten kids our first grade kids and our second grade kids have never used the salad bar and starting on Monday they have to use the salad bar so she filled one of those containers with those wooden blocks and the other two containers with dried pasta she had paper plates she had tongs like they were going to have to use to get the lettuce out and she scheduled all of those classes to come in and practice using the salad bar but without vegetables so that we didn't have a big mess and believe it or not everybody was able to navigate the salad bar just a little bit better because they had rehearsed it they it wasn't foreign to them so we have to not assume that kids know how to do stuff we just say you know what we're going to teach you how to be successful so we want really explicit lessons on how to be successful in each of the schools a common area and that is a Hallmark of all uh PBIS let's go oh so these are some things that we do in addition to that so we ask most schools then to have a visual prompt of that so this is uh from a restroom in one of the schools that I worked with because they were having kids have water all over the bathroom floor and you know know what happens when there's water on the bathroom floor don't you people slip right we're going to have an accident so they taught kids to turn on the water get a pump of soap wash your hands flick flick in the sink and then hold your hands up till you went to get your paper towel the C custodian said this has made a major difference in keeping the restroom clean again we have to teach kids what we need in order to be successful this is from a middle school that I worked with in uh Los Angeles Unified these are their hallway expectations one of the things that we ask teachers or ask teams to create or something called onliners we want to make it safe enough for everybody to correct every single youngster if they see a social error and sometimes that doesn't happen the reason that we hit on that I'm sorry it's a bad example but I was working with a high school in another state I won't tell you where and there was a teacher supervising in a stairwell during passing periods she saw two teenagers I think they were sophomores and they were kissing in the stairwell and it wasn't like a little peck on the mouth and go on to class it was a you remember when you were 15 anyway she didn't know them didn't teach them and so here's what she said to them you two need to get a room well the mom did didn't like that very much that this teacher had had told her kids to go and engage in sexual activity wasn't very happy and so it created a big kind of stink at the school and so we've learned then that we need to have statements that are safe enough that anybody can correct anybody uh without getting in trouble so we like those onliners and you've got an example of that right now so they would say things like uh stay in your lane of slow your roll U responding to Prof ity which is rampant among every school that I work with now and having teachers have something that they can say to remind kids that we don't use profanity um and then uh looking at uh making sure the kids are getting to class on time so those are just some examples of that the O in stoic again this is where we're going to both observe and we're going to collect and analyze data uh we know that the more we that kids know that adult eyes are on them the fewer Behavior problem s we experience it's just like anybody you know if you're if you're being watched you know you do the right thing so and especially if you like that person you tend to put your best foot forward because we know if there's not active supervision kids are going to push the limits and that's when we see a lot of stuff going on and what we've learned is that we've got to actually teach adults how to supervise particularly our classified employees we hire people who are really great people but they may not know the that there's a real Art and Science to supervision and so part of the foundation's material has good information for us to actually teach all employees how to provide a good supervision all right the I is U that we've got to teach everybody how to make sure that the interactions that we have with uh children um are positive so we teach two different things one is non-contingent attention and that's really us just interacting with kids because they're there so we say good morning uh we have teachers at their doors greeting kids uh after each passing periods at our secondary school so that kids feel welcome into the classroom um and then we also know that positive feedback is one of the integral parts of instruction so we've got to teach teachers that it's not nice to give positive feedback it's essential to give positive feedback because it solidifies what they're trying to teach and so got to get people skilled in the art of delivering positive feedback good job is not positive feedback we've got to be specific and descriptive when we when we tell kids hey this is what I saw you do this is what you've done because that begins to expand their repertoire oh I did that I'm getting it so this is something that we work on both in classroom management schoolwide discipline or schoolwide efforts uh to increase everybody's skill in the delivery of positive feedback but it's really important that every single student understand that they're noticed right that they're valued because that's really important those are the prevention variables structuring teaching observing and building positive relationships that's the way we prevent misbehavior you can man manipulate those variables in any way you choose but I'll tell you the here's the thing the worrisome thing is that we're still going to have kids who act up and why is that because they're kids right we expect that they're still in the learning process I don't know about you but I still make social errors personally so I don't know that we ever turn into perfect humans um so we can always anticipate that somebody's going to make a mistake so we have to learn how to correct Mis Behavior I call these the ly words I think I'm the only one of the trainers who does that I don't know um I don't know if you all are as old as I am but did anybody watch a little TV show called Schoolhouse Rock LLY LLY LLY get your adverbs here those are all adverbs I don't know if you all remember that or not but those are adverbs and so we teach people this is these aren't the correction procedures we use but this is the demeanor with which we need to correct other people's children we have to do it calmly because we want to model good problem solving for our kids we need to be consistent we don't need to just pick on those kids that are Troublesome to correct we need to correct everybody when they make a mistake even the kids who rarely make one still need a correction the research says that the closer we can get to that misbehavior to correct it the better off we are we don't need to become disruptive to the point that we lose instructional time addressing misbehavior we want to do it as briefly as possible and then as I said earlier one of our Hallmarks is that we do it respectfully all everything I've talked to you about in terms of the stoic framework sounds so simple doesn't it you'd think well that's common sense Pat's probably seen this but I don't think the rest of you have um has anybody read this book super Freakonomics there was a story in it about Cedar Hospital down in Los Angeles and in that story it reminds us that physician have known since 1847 that they should wash their hands between patients did you all know that Lord knows what they were doing before n 1847 I guess people were dying right so sometime in the mid90s Cedar siai realized no I'm sorry it was the early alts Cedar sin started looking at their data and they realized we've got increased numbers of people with hospital born infections MCA is one of them CI is another um necrotizing fasciitis that flesh eating one that's another one and they wondered are our physicians doing the simplest thing they know to address these these infections are they washing their hands so they ask Physicians to self-report there you go what letter grade is 74 at Apple Valley is that a c so they got a solid C in handwashing well they were a gast they said that can't possibly be right these are Physicians they're well trained so they sent teams of observers all over the hospital to observe handwashing at Cedar C oh Amanda's going it was a whole lot better than that yall think it was higher or lower what do you think %.

e e e ready all right good evening uh I will call to order the regular Board of Education meeting for chica Unified School District for September 18th 2024 it is just after 5:00 pm 50:4 uh and we will be going into close session at this time we will return to open session at 6 pm thank you e e e okay yeah microphone's already on you can hear me out there uh good evening thank you for being here uh at our September 20 September 18th 2024 uh regular Board of Education meeting for chica Unified School District uh the board was in closed session uh starting about 5:00 pm the board took no action during closed session and now we are reconvening an open session uh with that let's please stand for the flag salute I'm gonna pass it on over to superintendent Staley for student reports well we have Miss Heather sente sneaking up to the mic right behind me so she's eager and ready to introduce our student speakers so go ahead she scared me uh good evening I am super excited for the student report this evening we have a really special group with us from Chapman Elementary we have the Chapman Cats in the back here and Miss Christy teaa the principal is going to come up and introduce their community and some of the things they've been working on this year what do we do now hi my name is Amilia and I'm a student of T Elementary I'm second grade Miss man R's class and I just want to say thank you for the black top we'll get to [Applause] that this is Luna and she's in TK I'm Aurora and I'm in TK I want to say thank you for our new black top thank you girls I'm have you wait right here turn this one off okay thank you hi good evening I'm Christy T and it's my honor to serve as principal at Chapman Elementary I am joined by three super cats um and my super cats are here along with Miss Gina Rivera and she's one of our kinder Garden teachers and Katie Smith our our TK teacher and we're here um because at Chapman Elementary we value and honor the importance of community um in fact at our school we celebrate and teach students about our adopted Community Values of identity diversity Justice and action these values guide our work with our students our families and our broader School Community we have also been lucky enough to have volunteers donations and the support of organizations outside of our school Community these Community connections enhance and enrich the experiences of our students and tonight we'd like to publicly thank a few community members for their generous donation to The Chapman campus um I'd like to have Erica Gman Todd Garmin and Mark engelson uh join us please up at the podium we give him a round of [Applause] applause late last school year um Erica and Todd had noticed that our campus had some pretty uh bumpy black top behind our TK and Kinder area um Todd said to me let me take some measurements and see if there's something um my company can do to help and I'm like oh Todd sure you can come on out thinking you know new black top right um he came he checked it out and really within a matter of just a few weeks Todd contacted members of our district office and uh worked with his company to agree to come mid July and to uh put a new layer of black top behind our buildings um Not only was I shocked and surprised but I was really overwhelmed on that extremely hot day in July where I believe it was 105 they showed up at about 3:00 worked multiple hours multiple um workers and made that project happen um to say that we are thankful is an understatement um I really cannot express what that new area means to our students you can see in this picture the area at the bottom is what it looked like prior and the newly paved area this is actually the day that they came that is what it looks like now um and so these students who get to enjoy it every day wanted to come and share their things as well as you can see they were very excited to share their things for our new black top at this time I would like to introduce um Miss Gina Rivera and Katy up so that they can also um share some things come on up good evening I just want to give a quick extra thank you um I wanted to reiterate everything that Mrs teaa said in a school like Chapman in a city like Chico where there are many schools there are thousands and thousands of students that need to be taken care of and have many needs um sometimes it's hard to get the things you need in a timely matter we're not the only school that exists and and we know that and understand that so to have this happen where somebody came saw a need donated time materials worked their little bottoms off in the heat for us I I cannot say a big enough thank you um I hope the thing that we have for you here every time you look at it you remember and understand the impact that you had for some sweet little babies just like these ones right here it is um really appreciated by us and every time we open the door and walk out to the black top we'll think about what you guys did for us thank you thank you very much uh I'm Katie Smith I'm the TK teacher at Chapman um and I will add to that my old TK students who are now kindergarten students who knew what the black top looked like beforehand when they came uh in on the first day of August and I see them out on the playground they come over Mrs Smith Mrs Smith we're not going to trip and they were so excited to see the brand new payment so thank you so much uh we have cards um for your workers as well and we cannot thank you enough please what everyone else said it was wonderful thank you thank you so and I do want to mention um Todd and Mark are here from Knife River Construction but Ralph Trucking also donated the trucks and Equipment Brian rol couldn't be here tonight but we are we do have a plaque to thank him as well so [Applause] and that is community we really cannot thank them enough for caring about our schools caring about the chico community and giving back just out of the kindness of their heart and seeing the needs of our students so again a big thank you good job speaking kiddos TK that's amazing okay I am going to invite chy right on back up to the podium we're going to get to know her well tonight yeah thank you again for having me up here um I'd like to continue our theme of community with uh taking this moment to honor two individuals that have a huge impact on our community every day um as I mentioned you know we really believe strongly in our Community Values at our school and with that notion every member of our school Community has an impact on kids every day and so we really try to um reinforce that and um make sure that we're supporting each other to support our kids so tonight I also have the privilege of honoring two of my staff members for their dedication and commitment to our students I I like I'd like to start by asking uh Miss paully Jones to join me up at the podium [Applause] so Paulie Jones is our cafeteria lead she makes lunches serves students and ensures that students get the nutrition they need that's what her basic job duties would include but what those uh job duties would not include is her ability to connect with our students our staff and the positive impact she has every single day uh to say paully cares a lot about our students is an understatement she pretty much knows every students names um it is very very impressive as they come through they forget their number she's like no worry and she's she knows exactly who they are um with 300 and 22 students plus another school that shares our campus I find that pretty remarkable um she's also one of the most positive people on campus that I've that I've ever met um there is not a day no matter how busy how last minute request I may throw her away that she doesn't smile and say I got you we got this and do it and make things happen um our students absolutely adore Miss pully and in fact they um also get to Delight in her birthday announcements because she ensures that every student's birthday is announced in the cafeteria before they leave um she truly is a positive light in our school campus and her kindness is infectious um Paulie it's our honor tonight to award you with a super attendance award for classified staff for your care kindness and beautiful smile that you share with all of us every day thank you thank you oh thank you you Mr Shephard's gonna take our picture there we go congratulations thank you thank [Applause] along those lines the next person I'd like to call to the podium is Miss Heather Credo Miss [Applause] Credo Miss Heather Credo is our school Wellness counselor and she too is a ray of positivity and kindness on our campus Heather is most often seeing going to and from from classes delivering secl lessons walking with students and talking at recess and most recently uh running and supervising and supporting kids in our Wellness Center uh there is very few moments that she isn't working with a student in one way or another every single day she ensures that our students feel safe and cared for on our in our school community most recently we were able she was able really to establish a wellness center and Heather has spent hours and days setting up this Center to ensure that it was ready for that first day of school when students arrived she decorated it and uh did amazing things with her Cricket that I didn't know you could do and um she also mapped out a schedule to ensure that the new space would be accessible and welcoming to everyone she somehow managed to even include more time that were open where kids could just do drop-ins um her dedication to our students and school is app parent with any conversation you have with her I really could go on and on about the positive support that Miss Credo makes on a daily basis but I'd like to close with a message I actually received just today from a parent the parent called and wanted to report the following the positive energy and friendliness that Heather provides to every person she sees while doing crossing guard duty is wonderful she is an amazing representative of the school and makes sure to smile and wave to everyone she sees way to go Heather thank you Miss crto for your dedication to our school [Applause] everything congratulations thank you so much and I do got to give props to my Chapman crew back there let's go cats thank you and I'll turn it back over to you Madame President thank you all righty uh so that was student reports and superintendent report and recognition highlighting Chapman Elementary School thank you all for being here and for being amazing uh we will move on to item six which is announcements uh does the board or any members of the board have announcements regarding upcoming events or Awards or accomplishments of the district okay seeing none um item seven is items from the floor uh items from the floor for speakers who wish to address the board regarding a topic topic that is not currently agendized uh I don't have any pre signups for items from the floor we did not receive any PR signments and not anticipating any from the audience at this time nobody's jumping out of their seat yet um all right so we can move forward to the consent calendar uh would anybody like to pull an item from consent for further discussion okay seeing none do we have a motion I move to adopt the consent calendar second we have a motion by member and a second by member tennis any further discussion board okay we will do a roll call vote it's our first vote of the evening we'll start with Mr tennis tennis ey Conan ey Doby ey Lando ey it's unanimous it passes the consent calendar is approved and moving moving on to number nine discussion action calendar we'll start with Business Services 9.1.1 is informational this is the measure SE Bond update with Miss Julie Kissle hi good evening thank you for having me here tonight um this is going to be a bit of review uh talking about our School District bond history uh the bond measures that previously been passed um L you know we're lucky to have had passed in our community and what we've done with those Bond dollars and what our need is uh moving forward so uh looking back all the way to 1988 was when we passed our first bond in the district and um second one in 1998 so 10 years later uh with measure a for 48.7 million and then not again until 2012 with measure e which was 78 million then measure K in 2016 for 152 million which is leading us to um the measure that is on the November 5th ballad which will be uh measure C we now have a letter that goes with our measure for 239 million I have a question really quick I'm sorry yes um this might be a a question for jacqulyn as well um I have not had a chance to pull out my property tax form from last year because I was wondering if um which of these are still showing up on people's property taxes all three measure a measure e and measure K and the thing to remember about measure a is that um while approved in 1998 we didn't actually sell the first dollars until 2008 um and so it doesn't go on your tax role until we actually sell the bonds to receive the dollars so there was a 10year window um where the Chic unified board was determining what to use those dollarss on and that's why it's still in your tax role okay thank you great question so the 1988 Bond um enabled new construction of elementary schools at little Chico Creek Emma Wilson and up at Forest Ranch uh we also purchased the land for what is now Marsh junior high school and did multiple Improvement projects across the district elementary schools and Junior highs in 1998 is when uh the voters passed measure a and measure A's Focus was to build a new High School in town so a third Comprehensive High School for Chico Unified School District and it took um having gone through the site acquisition process with the state of California and the department of Ed now um on a very small parcel of land over at Chasta I can tell you that the process for uh gaining approval for a site um is a lengthy process so three different sites had to be selected by a community um uh dis um a community uh committee within the district that then had to review three different sites environmental impact reports had to be prepared for each one of those which takes quite a while to uh create and review eventually it was decided to purchase the property on ra Boulevard and Bruce Road 50 acres um there were mitigations through the US Army Corps of Engineers what is now us fish and wildlife that had to occur regarding protected species on that land it took quite some time to get over those hurdles by the time those hurdles were um uh jumped over enrollment in the district had plummeted and so had um enrollment within the whole state of California um when measure a was passed both high schools Chico high school and Pleasant Valley High School were bursting at the seams you may remember that there were there was a whole um sea of portable classroom buildings right across the street and they were bursting at the seams with enrollment but enrollment had plummeted because of things within our economy uh businesses that had left Chico at the time and we no longer had the need for a new high school so we had a choice to make um there was a lot of mashing around of different ideas of what to do with the dollars um it was eventually decided by the board at the time that they would spend those measure a dollars on the existing high schools so the dollars were spent on some really great projects you you can see one right across the street Yale Hall uh twostory uh 24 classroom classroom building for Pleasant Valley high school and the new parking lot at Chico High School there's also a large two-story classroom building with science labs and a number of other projects uh one of the larger ones is the construction Academy over at Fairview High School improvements to athletic facilities at both high schools Career and Technical education projects as well moving on to measure e measure e was a 78 m million doll tax extension the first $15 million were spent on these uh phase one quick start projects so we hadn't had any dollars in the district to make um significant safety improvements for many many years so we we had a lot of needs so we jumped in with with fencing and signage and lighting for the exterior parking lots and inside our classrooms and learning spaces uh improvements to Americans with Disabilities Act from the front door of our schools to the parking lots and the curbs in the front of the school um for those that are you know need a safe pathway um and then we moved into the the second phase uh with our measure e dollars and we made major improvements to all three junior high schools at the time we had just moved our sixth graders from the elementary schools to the junior highs so it was a really big transition to take all those sixth graders to the junior high and we needed uh improvements to our science facilities so um Chico Junior High got a new science building modernization was performed on the existing science at Bidwell as long as as as well as other upgrades to the campus and a new science building was constructed at Marsh Jr High School as well as their big multi-purpose building so that encompassed uh measure e projects um Julie what's a what is a tax extension I mean is that different how is that different so how that works is um the tax rate that was in effect when that Bond was passed when we go to sell new bonds that rate will not increase so it's essentially extending an tax that was already being paid versus incurring a new tax does that answer your question and we get there because the assessed value over time um increases and so in order to pay the same debt every taxpayer then pay slightly less another great question thank you Jacqueline for jumping in on that one uh so just some photographs here of the projects at the junior high schools I guess it's been quite a while ago they still feel new to me but it has been some time um but they still look great and they're serving students well so moving on to 2016 was a huge year uh and measure P passed um in November of 2016 for $152 million it enabled us to work our way into phase three of our master plan and those dollars uh went into this very facility that we're in right now total renovation of maragold Elementary School a new LMA Vista program building next door uh we had planned on renovating their existing building at the time it was uh it had the worst scorecard for Ada accessibility of any school in our district and we found that it was better to uh for the students to be less disruptive to their lives to build the new facility while they stayed in their existing facility then move them in once it was new and demolish the old so that was a big um a big change uh in our master plan that our architects helped us to Envision um we also did Shasta neow Pleasant Valley High School stadium and the chico High School stadium as part of phase three um I think we can all agree that the stadium projects have served not only our schools for PE but athletic programs at all of our schools and our community and then we moved into phase four and phase four started with Emma Wilson expansion of their kindergarten with a new kindergarten playground and three uh or four classrooms there one TK and three kindergartens um the modernization at Pleasant Valley High School for their career in technical education programs in nursing Medical Technology um hospitality and culinary and sports medicine and graphic arts so several programs throughout the campus and we had money in the master plan Pleasant Valley High School was part of phase 4 but we we had only planned on modernizing a couple of buildings so we took those dollars that we had kind of allocated for phase four and we applied for Career and Technical education grants for all of those program programs and we were successful and we were able to leverage our local Bond dollars with State Career and Technical education program dollars in order to do all of that work so that was a very successful um example of the way we continue to leverage our local dollars um and then as you know right now we're in the middle of mcmanis Elementary School a complete renovation we're about halfway through things are going well we are on schedule to be completed by the next uh fall semester couple pictures of some of those projects that I mentioned the stadiums the career in technical education programs I didn't mention the a program over at Chico high school we were able to renovate the two a classrooms significantly and add an outdoor covered area for their welding program and a new Greenhouse so that brings us to where we're at right now as I just said we're in progress at mcmanis elementary school we're in design at Citrus and we have transitional kindergarten projects at maragold Little Chica Creek and Emma Wilson that are in design and we're also in design design on multiple restroom upgrade projects throughout the district um Citrus Elementary School modernization is also in the works we haven't quite got into design we're still meeting with the staff in a a process that we call programming Safety and Security projects are always at the top of the list we are constantly faced with new ideas new technologies new mitigations that we can Implement on our School sites to create a safer environment for our students and families so there's always safety projects going on hey Julie just clarification really quick on the last slide um there's I guess I have it on there twice yes this is up there twice one with in design and one with in programming just wanted to it's in programming not in design okay thank you my mistake couple pictures from mcmanis these are actually uh a bit old now um you see a L more finished concrete around the new buildings transitional kindergarten projects that are be coming up at those three schools and that brings us to phase five so you know these projects so I'm going to jump to the next slide rosale Chapman Park View Inspire will also be a part of a new Bond Miss measure um projects that we'll move forward with Inspire is a shovel ready project it has already been reviewed and approved by both the division of the state architect and the California Department of Ed it is waiting on funding and if uh the bond measure passes then uh we can move forward with that project do we know sorry Julie I'm interrupt you again do we know um for the Inspire project uh if this Bond measure passes in November how soon they will be able to start and finish construction roughly I've been working on that quite a bit lately um part of the Inspire project includes a two-story modular building and modular uh Builders are very very busy right now so I've been communicating with the firm that we're working with on the Inspire project and getting in line with them so it is likely that an Inspire project could start as early as next summer but it would not be completed until the fall of 20 26 and that is within the timelines required by their state grant their um proposition 1D State uh Charter facilities Grant so um I mean uh so Bas best case scenario is that we passed the bond number one the community Community passes the bond measure and that the the cue for construction isn't isn't too lagged but 2026 is pretty reasonable that they would then probably be able to start their fall 20 26 year at that campus yes it's a simple project but it's also very complicated schedule wise because they can't exist at Chico high if we take their buildings away some of their buildings away and put them over at the new school right and they can't exist in their new school if it's not all done so summer is a short period of time uh so we have to start our planning process right now and that's what I've been working on most recently but yes it's very very possible that if the bond passes they would be U moving in and occupying that site fall of 2026 oh okay thank you okay um this is a slide I really wanted to get to um this is plan the work work the plan so we have planned the work we started with our master plan in 2013 and we started with phase one and we have worked our way all the way through an almost completed phase four we have made a promise to our community we have included our community in the process of developing this implementation and what the prior priorities are of our community and our board and the first dotted line shows you where we're at now and the big black dotted line shows you where we will be when we have expended all of the measure um current Bond measure dollars so in order to move forward with rosale and Chapman and Park View and then onto Sierra View and Fair View and Hooker Oak and eventually Chico high and you know hopefully their career in technical education programs at that campus we need new uh we need a new Bond we need uh fresh Bond dollars to come in if the bond does not pass then we will be faced with trying to put another Bond measure on before we can continue down this path this is really the only opportunity for funding for these types of projects we do do get developer fees from our local commercial and residential developers we bring in about 2.32 and5 million doll on average per year and that's nowhere near enough money to fund projects of this size of this need that we have within our district so as part of the master plan they assess all of the facilities they come up with an implementation plan uh how how are the projects prioritized how much are they going to cost when can they happen and it's about $1 billion dollar worth of facility need in our district the 239 million doesn't get us to the1 billion dollar of need but you can't ask for everything you want you need all at once um I mentioned earlier that ability the district has had to leverage our State dollars this slide has a small numbers on it it has the different state facility programs and grants but the important one is the bottom circled in red of $121 million we have been able to leverage our local dollars almost 40 cents on the dollar so for every tax $1 of tax that is collected in property taxes we're getting 40 cents from the state towards our projects and I think that that's a big promise that we've made to our public our community and we plan to continue to do so and we're going to talk more about this in a few minutes on the next item um I want to thank you for your time I know that was a little bit lengthy but if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them Julie thank you thank you thank you am I Live Now Okay um there's there's also a bond for construction on the state ballot and my question is um how handicapped will we be if that if that doesn't pass because I if it passes at the state level that makes money that we can go get and pull in and add to uh our measure see if that passes by our community voters um what kind of an impact would not passing the state Bond make thank you that's a great question um as I just stated when I showed the slide um with the circle on it uh those dollars would not be available so we don't get that 40 cents on the dollar uh of the you know assessed tax value um if we don't have a state Bond there is no money from the state we're currently in line for mcmanis elementary school we will not get funded for mcmanis elementary school that that leverage dollars if the state Bond doesn't pass we get in line with the state date on every project that we do that's eligible so a lot of times it takes the dollars a long time to catch up to uh to us luckily we have local bonds so we can pay for these projects to get done and then State monies come in four five six years sometimes later and they help to fund the momentum moving through the master plan so they just get pushed toward the next project that's in line but without a state Bond we would not have the ability um there was a bond on the ballot four years ago did not pass so they're beyond the state is beyond Bond Authority now they've run out of all their um funding with bonds so they need a new Bond uh as well thank you sure now I have another question Madam president um we have uh in the next phase we have three schools that this board has already prioritized as rosale Chapman and uh Park View Park viw thank you in order for us to get um all three of those rosale Chapman Park viw do we have to have the state matching dollars in order to be able to fund all three of those schools no we do not we are not counting on those dollars we sure hope they'll be coming because they'll as I said keep us moving through the implementation plan but in our master plan no we are not counting on funds from the state so just to recap that um the projects that we have prioritized to completely overhaul Chapman Park View and um rosale is on track as long as our community passes measure C that's correct okay thank you I don't think we're good okay yeah thank you thank you I'm next to do you want to sit down and then get back up no I mean I will if you want get some steps in uh 9.2 uh 9.1.2 is discussion action item it's resolution number 1660 24 proposition 2 kindergarten through grade 12 schools and local Community College public education facilities modernization repair and safety Bond Act of 2024 thank you so as we just discussed uh regarding proposition 2 it's a Statewide uh facilities uh bond that is on the ballot for November 5th the whole Statewide uh this resolution states that our board and our school district is in favor of the bond and um this would be sent to our state legislators so the intent is to demonstrate that the district has a need has a plan supports this proposition when the state legislature receives this what do they do with that it in informs their decision making so State Legislature receives it it goes to our local Representatives so they see the resolution that our board has passed um okay our local Representatives it's already on the ballot right it is it is I mean fine so is that kind of like in the hopes for endorsements or positive somewhere there's going to be huge long list of of every every School District in California that supported proposition to yes some of the questions that I was asked by our local news was um how is it funded you know how how is a state Bond funded and what I from my Googling what I learned was it's paid with State re tax revenue so it's part of the overall state budget that gets allocated in all these different pockets and that's how they repay um State bonds but the voters decide ultimately correct any further questions seeing none um and any public comment on this item no uh do we have a motion I move approval of resolution number d24 I will second that okay any further discussion board seeing none our last uh vote was unanimous so we can all signify approval by saying I I I any opposed no okay we have h four yeses and one no it passes um moving on to 9.1.3 discussion action um architect selection for facilities master plan FMP phase five projects thank you again so uh last Wednesday evening um we held interviews between uh the four uh selected Architects as as the um the pool of Architects that were selected uh last year and a committee was developed that um had the principles from Rosell Chapman and Parkview and also Sherwood montauri School that is uh located on the Chapman campus as well as Jacqueline Krueger and Eileen Robinson and um myself and Maria campus who is our district planner and uh we developed a list of questions to ask these architects in in the effort of choosing which one of those Architects we would bring to you as a recommendation to move forward on the programming process for uh Rosell Chapman and Parkview if you remember back when we talked about these projects when we were developing the master plan we want to be able to investigate the opportunity to create efficiency in the design so perhaps the library building that we design for rosale is the same Library building that goes to Chapman and then goes to Parkview so we have a savings in the design and the construction as as well as ongoing maintenance so our folks know the building they know all the parts and pieces they're the same at all three schools they don't have to store uh materials for repairs that are different at each site because they'll be similar we don't know for sure that our ideas are going to work but we are going to start down that road and we're going to start with one architectural firm so that they can have a broad look at all three campuses um so we interviewed four firms they were Studio W they have a local presence here in Chico and they're also out of Sacramento um HMC Architects from Sacramento lionakis who you've met uh helped us with our master plan from Sacramento and DLR group DLR group um is also from Sacramento all four of the these companies have done uh performed successful designs for the district we know that the quality of their work and their horsepower is good so we really wanted to um investigate the best fit you know which architect did the principles feel the most comfortable with that they're going to be able to work together to glean information from their school communities about their needs and how they want to approach the design so this committee met and interviewed and wanted me to bring forward that they recommend DLR group out of Sacramento to move forward on these three projects so tonight we're asking you to approve the recommendation of the committee with DLR group DLR group um has designed Emma Wilson Neil da the two-story classroom building at Chico High School for the district they're currently designing the additional TKS at Emma Wilson if I could jump in yes I I was there as part of that uh selection committee and I was very impressed with all all four firms there was um definitely uh demonstrated interest in getting a significant amount of community input and we Define they Define community as uh parents uh General Community people teachers administrators the people that are expected to be using these F excuse me the hiccups um they also had um taken a a a good look at considering where to place these buildings on the property that you know that we have for each one Chapman's going to be a little different because you can't just build it out on the field you you have to do like what we're doing at mcmanis but the others not only had they really thought through where to put these buildings but they also were very focused on the safety issues that we have to think of these days um so that not only do we have the single entry uh point but um there there's a whole safety issue of you know H how much of the campus could a an intruder see from the the front entrance um it was very impressive what these firms you know they're developing this for other schools and other districts as as well but it feels good to know that people are thinking through how do we make our schools safer can't make them completely safe but you can do something with how they're designed and how the buildings are laid out to make them safer so I was um I was impressed with everyone and just to mention it was a unanimous decision to for selecting the group that we selected and um now we need the community again to pass measure C and our community has been so supportive of the bond measures for our schools and your department Julie and has demonstrated that you take very seriously the expenditure of those funds to get the most bang for the buck uh and to leverage State dollars when they become available and um you know I know everybody who's going to vote on it isn't going to know completely what the plan is but if you've got access to um our district website the master plan is on the website and so you can see you know what it is we're going to do if our community again passes another Bond so that we can move forward and give another generation of kids because these schools are built 50s some of the some of the grandkids of the original students truly are are now attending um those kids and you know I think there's a contest between which school has the most buckets in their classrooms because things are just not good everything leaks or sticks or um you know there there's there's a huge huge need and so I'm please hoping that the community does again step forward and give our kiddos what they deserve in the way of a place to go to school that's um meant to be a good facility for learning do we have any other questions for Julie I feel you've answered every question thank you all right um we didn't have any public comments signed up for this one um not seeing anybody jump up at the moment so we'll move to uh calling for a motion yeah so moved second all right we have a motion by member to approve the architect selection for facilities master plan phase five projects with a second from member tenis um any further discussion board seeing none uh we will do a roll call vote we'll start with um Miss conen conen I Dolby I Lando I Robinson I tennis I thank you thank you passes unanimously all right our next item is uh 9.1.4 discussion action on the 2023 to 2024 un audited actuals yes hello um I'm Marie Hartman and Sharice and I are presenting this tonight um the UN audited actuals report represents the actual revenues and expenditures for the year it's um not a budget you're used to us bringing a lot of budgets to you but this is the true financial performance um and these numbers are before the annual audits complete our Auditors are coming out in a couple of weeks so um sometimes that results in an adjustment not usually but sometimes we have adjustments okay you guys are really used to seeing this slide I bring it to you every budget um session so um I just wanted to point out a couple of things in the columns down below if you look at 2324 um on both sides uh our enrollment for 23 24 and Ada are the same for actual and funded and that's because our enrollment and Ada is going up slightly so um we're funded on actuals which is a good thing for us um another thing I wanted to mention is I took a look back at the last budget cycle that we brought to you that was uh estimated actuals and we had estimated an ADA on that of 11593 and so we were really close um I wanted to give a shout out to Jen McCall and Jacqueline for good estimating um general fund income statement so as a finance person my eyes always go right down to the bottom um uh on our unrestricted side we have a positive change in fund balance of 6.5 million restricted side a positive change of 875 for a total of 7.3 million all right this slide shows our total revenues um if you look our local control funding formula that ADA accounts for 69% of our total revenue that's unrestricted and restricted sources if you took a look at that um for just unrestricted local control funding formula is 93% of our unrestricted revenues so that's the lineon share of our funding all right this shows our total expenditures both um unrestricted and restricted uh as usual we're a people business salary and benefits is 83% of these total expenditures and then this one um is the same except it's unrestricted expenditures plus the special ed salaries and benefits and if you take all of that into account um it's salaries and benefits are 89% of total expenditures um this is just a a shot of our other financing sources uses and contributions so we had some transfers in from other funds and there's the RDA pass through revenues from the Redevelopment agency that comes from fund 41 and that's used for rrma which is also below um and then we also had the developer fees administrative support that come comes in from fund 25 and then contributions to restricted programs this year were um 29 million special ed is 23 million and a routine restricted maintenance is six million and that routine restricted maintenance is 3% of general fund expenditures it's just a calculation we do and it's um increased over the past few years because of the influx of grant funding so uh I'll turn it over to sh all righty thank you Marie okay so one of the other things that we take a look at at this time of year is a comparison of estimated actuals which is the last budget we brought to you in June so that's that column on the left and then un audited actuals is where we actually ended the year so like Marie was saying a lot of times with us in finance we look at the bottom line so that ending fund balance you can see that the difference between ending fund balance when we brought to you in June it's about $2 million from where we actually ended um and it's positive which is good part of that um just to kind of go through the comparison so some of the differences we noticed between when we brought you the last budget and close um was local contr control funding formula went up a little bit um just a small increase in Ada uh which is great because now we're funded on current year um and then state revenue went up a little bit we got the final rate from the state as far as the per Ada um rate and that went up a little the biggest change had to do with uh local revenue and that's fair market value which is basically a calculation that we are given a percentage by the county um and it says if you were to liquidate all your cash as of right now here's what the market says it's worth um that was $1.2 million and so that's a large change and we have no control over that unfortunately and we don't have information when we do budgets as to what that percentage would be uh the expenditure side of things we had an overestimation of stir and purs and then delayed deliveries which usually happens around this time of year it wasn't a huge difference between estimated actuals and UA but that's it does happen and then we had a change um in the governmental Accounting Standards Board changed one of their uh standards and said that when it comes to it contracts when they are multi-year and they're over a certain amount we now have have to record them all in one year instead of splitting them over the course of multiple years uh and then the transfers and contributions we um it was a little higher due to special ed Revenue okay so then this chart goes through a comparison year-over-year um that final one on the right is where we ended for ending fund balance on the unrestricted side for 2324 and then it has all the different categories um the largest ones are other commitments those were um commitments that the board has put in place over the last few years as well as unassigned this is a list of um because we also take a look at the restricted side uh it helps us with planning for future costs and so this is a very large ending uh restricted ending fund balance uh it's probably the largest we've had in a few years um and this is due to a lot of state grants that we've received over the last few years um that will help us Main main some of the um services that were put in place with Co funding over the last few years um and the largest one there is the learning recovery block grant so that's about $1 million for just that Grant alone and then also every time that we come to you with budget and un or um un audited actuals we take a look at cash flow the reason this is important is if the state puts in place deferrals which they have for 2425 so it's really good that we have strong cash reserves this will help us to make payroll basically at those um large um if they have deferrals on the state side okay so conclusions um the nice thing about 23 24 is we have increased our attendance rate so we were up to 94.2 which is fantastic so it's the first time in the last few years that we've actually been funded on current year Ada which is wonderful um local Revenue in 23 24 as I mentioned was impact Ed by a higher interest rate um resulting in not just the greater uh fair market value adjustment but also higher interest rates or um interest Revenue that we received in 23 24 and then um larger restricted ending fund balance as I mentioned that's going to help us to maintain some of the um learning recovery and social emotional supports in 2425 and ongoing years and so as Marie mentioned right now we're in the middle of our audit so um we're hoping that there will be no adjustments but you will hear from me again in January I will come back and give you the audit report that will have any final adjustments to 23 24 and any questions okay and I will need approval on un actuals I was about to ask notes discussion actually like I can't sit down until you uh um yes please okay in that case I would like to move approval of the UN audited actuals as presented I'll second okay we have a motion by member Lando and a second by member conin any further discussion from the board yeah I just want to make one quick comment um well there really two but looking at those charts on slide three again um I'm really struck by how we were very worried about the possibility of a fall off in enrollment after Co and there was a lot of uh talk about that and it's very nice to see that hasn't materialized um and also just a how nice it is to see that ADA you know creeping back up again there was a big worry in the co years that attendance patterns were going to be really disrupted that enrollment was going to be really disrupted so it's nice to see we're at least inch and close to our you know traditional 95 perish and I just want to give a big kudos to all the staff who work very hard on retention with our students thank you guys agreed all right well I'm seeing no further discussion so we can um do a uh Voice vote since last vote was unanimous all those in favor of approval please say I I I opposed all right it passes unanimously thank you thank you see you in January I'm here dang it so close one more Caitlyn next next dang it I'm just kidding I mean I can leave but no please no please don't uh okay 91.5 is discussion action resolution number 1659 d24 Gan Appropriations limited okay so every year after the passage of on un audited actuals uh we are also required to pass a resolution for the proor calculation related to the Gan Appropriations limit this calculation is a part of the UN audited actual state report that's submitted each year um and that report was attached to this item um at this point in time it's more of a formality but we do need approval from the board no questions public comment someone makes a really great public comment about [Laughter] Gan just wasn't prepared a motion um I move uh resolution number d24 I'll second that motion all right we have a motion in a second uh any further discussion all those in favor please say I I I I oppose that's unanimous passes thank you board are you going to stay no okay thank you next up we have a 91.6 this is a discussion action item for assembly Bill ab2756 public disclosure documents for compensation agreement with the California Schools employee Association CA chapter 1 yes so the next three items are all related um we will start with our California School Employees Association chapter 110 so assembly Bill 2756 does require districts in a public forum um to disclose any sort of financial impact related to compensation for employees of the district um so in front of you um in the attachment sack if you don't mind yes that one please um this is the public disclosure that shows the dollar impact for our CCA unit members um what we are looking to do is a 2% one time off the salary schedule payment um to employees um we made during the month of October um and the cost of that for our CCA Union is um just over $485,000 um and you saw in the presentation ahead of you we do have um very healthy reserves and we do want to acknowledge our hardworking employees um to be able to give them this onetime payment do we have questions from the board at this time no I'm trying to find the um the number on the resolution that we're about to pass Adam president do you have it available it's not it's not a resolution it's not a resolution it's just a you're approving that the financial disclosure related to the compensation agreement um that John will be presenting next okay thank you I I move approval of this action for uh California School Employees Association Chico chapter 110 second okay we have a motion and a second to uh approve the public disclosure documents for the compensation agreement with CCA um any further discussion from the bo board uh yes again I just want to put out there on the record that this is a 2% off book or off step uh agreement that um we negotiated with our partners in both of the unions uh they understand that we are not in position to offer a contractual Advance within the I'm sorry it's late and I'm losing my words already but we uh are not in a position to offer anything besides regular uh step advancement this this year um but we do want to acknowledge the hard work that all of our staff does and this the way to do that uh with onetime money until uh hopefully we get more funding where we can build things into contract instead so thank you for agreeing to this appreciate it took the words from me and said it better yeah just uh Echo that um this is a a thank you to our staff um and you'll see that it's on here a couple more times um and just recognition for all the all the hard work that everybody's been enduring for a while now um and just to thank you for um being there and sticking it out um and weathering some of the storms with us and looking forward to a continued fiscal responsibility and fiscal Health um and ideally better State uh budget uh forecast in the in the future any further discussion okay seeing none um last vote was unanimous uh all those in favor of approval of this item please signify by saying I I I any opposed it is unanimous um thank you and that'll hit in October you said the payment will go to staff in October yes okay um um 91.7 is a discussion action for same assembly bill ab2756 which is public disclosure documents for compensation agreement with the Chico Unified Teachers Association cuta so yes just like csca we have the same agreement with cuta for a 2% off the salary schedule payment and the financial impact um of that agreement is just over 1.6 million for a cuta unit members so looking for the board um to approve the disclosure this evening board questions public comment motion I move approve take away yeah I move approval and add all the things Tom said at the last approval and thank you to our employees it's it's been a rough few years with campfire and Co and all of the things we did but you can tell from our enrollment going up our attendance going at good things are happening for the students in Chico Unified and I I'm glad we're able to do this second any further discussion all those in favor please say I I I any opposed it also passes unanimously and 91.8 is a discussion action for assembly Bill uh 2756 same thing as last time this time for chica unified management association uh Kuma and Chica Unified School District restricted classification employees yes so the two prior were formal um bargaining unit groups that we have um with chica unified this last um disclosure is related to our Management Group and our what we call restricted classification employees which are on the classified side of the house and these are primarily our School Aids doing yard Duty um they are not formally represented by CA but we did want to acknowledge them um as employees in the district and that they too would get this onetime payment good job so the financial impact for these two groups is just over 358,000 I hope that fly got SC was some mosquito sorry that mosquito already got me I was mad at it sorry about that Jacqueline oh I don't know why I had to be so aggressive about it but I got it um okay any uh questions for Jacqueline public comment a motion I'm of approval of the um compensation agreement with the Chico Unified management and Chico Unified School District restricted classification employees second okay wa we have a motion by uh member Robinson and a second by member conin um any further discussion um I got a question for Jack Jaclyn Krueger so this is not something that could be on the consent calendar it's just got to be in the in the regular yes per the the statute of 2756 we have to have it agendized as part of a public forum yeah all right yeah I guess that's good for making people aware of what's going you know not being buried you know yeah okay there's a balance between transparency and efficiency isn't there yes there is yes yes in all agencies for sure of government um fantastic uh any further discussion same same thank you to this group of folks um all those in favor of approval please say I I I opposed it is unanimous thank you uh moving on to Human Resources 9.2 discussion action 9.2.1 approval of variable term waiver request for a people Personnel Services credential for uh ne ne Lysa Hernandez thank you madam president before you is a request a recommendation to approve a variable term waiver essentially for a staff member School social worker who um does not have an intern program available to her regionally and most cases we we are able to find an intern program but in this situation we were not able to um this as you will read in the um attached the attached document the in the U employee will have a mentor assigned to her and at the end of the school year will be credentialed very similar to an intern program um but because there isn't a social worker internship program in the region um we have to go down this path I'm not hearing any questions I just wanted to open the document first I just want to clarify so I guess I have a question um this individual has um an MSW it looks like and it's in the process of getting the PPS grle correct thank you that was a lot of acronyms yeah so they're master of social work already we're employing them in a social work position but they need to have the P Personnel Services credential officially to that and they will have that by the end of the year correct thank you works for me they're a social worker doing social work that seems reasonable they're hard to find and practicing doing social work with a mentor also sounds great seeing no further questions public comment do we have a motion so moved I'll second it okay we have a motion by uh Mr Lando and a second by M Robinson uh last vote was unanimous all those in favor of approval please say I I I opposed it's unanimous move on 9.2.2 discussion action for a memorandum of understanding mou for one one time off the salary schedule compensation for California School Employees Association CSEA Chapter 110 you see how that c got me caught up y okay it's on to you John thank you Madame President as you've already alluded we are now I'm excited about the opportunity to support all the hard work that our employees have provided you know over the years and this will be the first of three uh recommendations for this off the salary schedule a onetime payment of 2% U we'll start with CSA and then work our way through the other three I do want to uh commend jacqulyn and her team for um basically brainstorming this concept bringing it uh forward working with Union leadership working with um board members to to make sure that um the recognition takes place um for people currently working um and acknowledging that we've been through so much in the last four years five years that um even when we have a a salary formula doesn't result in the you know in a raise we can still find ways to recognize our staff so I want to thank the team for that and our recommendation that you approve the first of three don't I don't think we have any more questions that was well said and no public comment um we'll have a motion I'm Mo approve I move approval of the memorandum of understanding for the uh one time off the salary schedule compensation for California School Employees Association chapter 110 members second okay we have a um motion by Miss Robinson and a second by Miss conin uh any further discussion uh all those in favor please say I I I opposed okay unanimous 9.2.3 discussion action andou for one time off the salary scheduled compensation for too unified Teachers Association members thank you madam president as we've already been discussing this is the second of three again with the same sentiments um just recognizing all the staff members everything they've been they've been through past few years okay same no public comment no questions um this time I'm GNA make the motion uh I move approval of the mou for one time off the salary schedule compensation for CH unified Teachers Association members second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor I I I it's unanimous none opposed all right and uh 9.2.4 discussion action item for mou for one time off the salaries schedule compensation for chica unified Management Association members and Chica Unified School District related classification employees thank you and as we've been discussing again just recognition I do have two highlights on this one the first one is to recognize Tim Caris and his leadership uh with Kuma and this is his first major action as a Kuma leader so want to make sure recognize him um and then secondly and I I I don't say this factiously I may have been factious with the first one but uh um you know previous boards have had the challenge of deciding to include or not include restricted employees in these decisions and I just want to applaud the board and the team for recognizing all staff and ensuring that that takes place we appreciate that yes I also would like to give Charlie a shout out for doing such a great job in his role um with cuta um since nobody gave shout outs in the last item I meant to I looked at you when I said Thank You true true okay yeah it's E's oh yeah right I'm failing at that tonight um no Charlie has been phenomenal in his role um as a CTA president and um that you've been in it for a year now yeah second year so going strong um what can I say I I brag to people outside of the district about how how good the relationships um among our our unions and and just um and unrepresented staff and the um District leadership is and I I strongly appreciate everybody's work in cooperation and uh it's really nice to see it play out in positive ways uh we are ready for a motion I move um uh the memorandum of understanding mou for one time off the Sou schedule compensation for CH unified Management Association members and CH Unified School District restricted classification employees will second that all right we have a um motion by member tennis and a second by member Lando any further discussion yeah just a quick comment if you don't mind yes um which is that I am thrilled to get to honor the restricted classification employees who don't always get swept up um I have to say any you guys I brought this up before the idea of a of bosses weirds me out um but that said I do want to acknowledge the incredible hard work that all of our principles especially our principles have done over the last couple of years as we've navigated all these challenges and they certainly deserve some recognition as well thank you all right uh all those in favor of approval please say I I I opposed it's unanimous all right that's fantastic um okay next item is under board 9.3.1 is informational it's the first reading of revised updated new board [Music] policies okay we are bringing forward a whole bunch of new board policies for consideration this is our first reading and so we would like to ask the board and the community to read these over and if there are questions please send those uh to to myself or to Erica and we'll bring those back when these come forward at the next board meeting uh for further discussion and approval I do however there's something that's a little unique on this uh particular set of policies something the board does isn't typically asked to do and uh that is on board bylaw 9220 Board of Education elections and this is timely as we do have Board elections that are coming up in November so uh there are some options for the board to consider here and there's actually three options that you can have you can leave the existing language as it is written you can choose the option that is tie decided by lot or you can choose the option that is tied decided by runoff election so um I would ask that on this item because it is different than how typically they are handled that you give that some thought about which op option that you would like to choose it it wouldn't be both we would need to choose one or the other um just a quick question when we bring this back on October 2nd will we have um this bylaw just as a separate item from from the batch so they'll they'll all be there but we can pull this one out and make decisions on it but we'll need to approve them all okay thank you any other questions from the board at this time for uh this informational item it's the first reading of the board policies and um they will come back October 2nd for approval from the board all right um seeing none unless anybody wants to jump in uh we can move to 9.3.2 which is a discussion action item for establish establishing leadership search board liaison that's hard to say for some reason yes it is so uh as the board and commune are now aware um we are beginning the search for uh our next superintendent and that process has many steps to it uh we have scheduled some Community meetings those Community meetings will be September 23rd at 6: pm.

persons wishing to be heard on this matter are invited to attend the public Hearing in person or by logging into the zoom meeting interested parties who are unable to attend the hearing May submit written written comments to the select board's office Town Hall 101 Main Street ashin mass 01721 or by emailing Susan Roby at sroy Asin mass.com signed by myself Yolanda greeves chair of the select board so uh I'm sure you all remember we were here at our last meeting to approve the two separate licenses and now we're combining them and I believe we have someone here from clover Road yes yes hi Jamie moldun hi Jamie how are you do you want good how are you make a motion to open the public heing yes please do um I'll make a motion to open the public hearing second all those in favor I I public hearing is now open uh so Jamie I don't really Susan can you take us through this one and then we'll go from there and then we'll hear from Jamie as well sure ultimately what this is is this is an alteration you you approved the pouring licenses for both The Malt Beverages and the wine at the last meeting but they cannot pour the product simultaneously unless you accept this chapter of the law okay Jamie anything to add um no we're just really excited to be able to serve both beer and wine in Ashland very soon Sim simultaneously yeah you go the same place who knew who knew that was a thing yeah wow any other questions is there anyone I just have a question with respect to the legal notice um where it says alcoholic beverages I don't want people to be con confused that it's liquor and not and not malt and wine and I'm just wondering does that should that have been malt and wine instead of alcoholic beverages Susan Joe I took that right from the section of the law okay all right I just want to make sure that it it it doesn't become a stumbling block down the road that's all Susan you've been working with the abcc pretty closely on this and I think I think you know Susan's been running I just want just check on it that's all thank you welcome I'm good with it that's fine no other discussion okay let's see anyone to speak against we've heard from staff okay motion to close the public hearing so moved second all those in favor I I and then if I could have a motion to amend the alteration of premise as presented which allows the consump consumption of any beverage produced by the lcy and sold under the L's brand name so moved second okay any other discussion all those in favor hi okay very uh Jamie you are all set thanks for being here again and do we do we have a date yet H not yet but we're getting closer very very soon it's been nice to see the progress on the outside so yeah people are excited they talk yeah people people are waiting we're excited too good luck with the last the last little little bit before you open yeah yes thank you I appreciate it all okay good luck and we'll hopefully see you in person soon at the brewery yes you're all invited thank you all bye bye-bye okay didn't take as long but that's okay we have our planning board here hello everybody we have Trisha online uh so the select board has already called itself to motion into uh into session so if you guys want to do the same um Can can you hear me yes we can yep okay um I will call the planning board um uh I will open the planning board meeting at 618 718 but that's okay oh sorry Midwest time 718 i' like time better say that at the end of the night so we we typically don't do a vote to open our meeting so that's fine that's fine okay um so we are here to hear we have two items on our agenda as a joint boards is the presentation by Jen Goldston and then discussion of MBTA so Jen I'm going to pass it off to you and then we'll go from there all right very good thank you I'm so happy to be here thank you for I'm glad you had several things of business to do together so that um you're making good use of your time together um Jen gon planning consultant leading the comprehensive plan uh for the consultant team and I'm here to basically tell you you how much the committee has accomplished in the first two phases at the end of each phase there are four phases which I might as well switch to that slide um there are four phases in the plan and we are basically right in between the end of phase two and the launch of phase three so at the end of each phase what we like to do is come to both of your boards and just tell you how things are going and where we are and what to expect next so that's what we're doing now so you may remember from a few months ago when we had the whole consultant team here that we presented the existing conditions profile and that was the end of phase one which was called Ashlin yesterday and today and it's really just um trying to understand where you are now and then phase two was really about where does the community want to go so there was a really big push for Community engagement I'm going to talk more about it but it was very impressive what the comprehensive plan committee many of you are on um were was able to do in that in that big push and of course there's engagement throughout we certainly not done but um but that was the big push in phase two and trying to understand what is the big Vision people have for the future of ashin where do they want to go what are the things they really care about and what do they want to see in a in a kind of a big way in this plan and we're going to start to get into the details of the plan now that we're going to enter phase three but this is not so much about the details it's about that big picture of where the community wants to go in the next decade so the process to create that Vision um I count I tried to uh do a little count of how many hours the committee worked um you worked at least for eight hours collaboratively writing and then refining the vision statement the core themes and the goals and I'll tell you what each of those pieces are so that was very impressive um it started with an open house that I think we tag teamed on an event here I can't remember the name of the event holid Holiday Stroll last DEC without open house and then January through June we had several engagement activities there was the meeting in a box which was that do-it-yourself meeting kit which I bet all of you hosted something and maybe folks who are listening to this either participated or also hosted you had a community survey and then you also had something we call it the crowd map but it's basically an interactive map that was online people pointed to places they want to see change or Improvement or preservation and then we did work with the committee and so we created this from that well you'll see right up there we keep track on this thermometer how many we call them participation touch points because we actually encourage people to participate more than once you know if you do a meeting in a box we'd love for you to also do the crowd map and and things like that so we count every touch point and you have over 2,700 touch points um you're very close to that AG you know very um ambitious engagement goal that you set you're about 88 touch points shy and you still have several months left so I know that you'll get to that and go Way Beyond your engagement goal which is which is really exciting um we worked over the summer with the committee so the committee held two visioning sessions that um they really worked collaboratively in small groups to basically write the vision and the goals we asked them hopefully they were probing questions we gave them this big summary of all the engagement touch points we call that the aggregated community engagement summary we abbreviate that as the aces report and so the committee was tasked with reading that it was very long lots of appendices and then doing a questionnaire that was kind of guiding them through answering the questionnaire they were writing their own vision statement by answering this questionnaire then they came together in these Community visioning sessions uh at the is it called the senior center or the community center okay at the community Senior Center and we spent many hours working in those small groups talking with each other trying to figure out you know what do we want to say in this vision statement and what kind of goals do we want to put with it and then we worked for two more committee meetings at the library to really refine that and get to some consensus among the whole um comprehensive plan committee so it was really impressive people didn't always start at the same place but I think we ended at a place and I I don't want to say ending so final doesn't this isn't final final this is where we have a good draft that the whole committee uh has told me there are no deal breakers in this draft and we feel good about releasing this to the public for comments so there's a survey that's live right now to get comments on this draft that was really created from that 2737 touch points that people told us about and then this collaborative work does that make sense the way I described that okay all right very good so I'll just go over some fundamentals I know I say this again and again but I always think that sometimes people are maybe listening and just patching into the plan uh or the project and haven't heard me say this again and again so for those of you who have I apologize in advance so why are we even doing this what is a comprehensive plan it's really a way for the community to take a step back and try to figure out what are we even doing here what do we want to be where are we now um you really think big picture and you also want to make those connections so there's all sorts of business the select board and the planning board deals with on a every weather week or however often you meet and you know you put all those pieces together and you'll get a a big picture but mostly what you're thinking about are those individual pieces you just had a an action that you were looking at taking in this public hearing and you do I don't know thousands of things like that um all the time so big picture thinking making those connections um guiding specialized plans so there probably will be more specialized plans that come from this bigger initiative and it will help you prioritize where do you want to focus that planning energy on over the next decade leveraging existing assets so we look at what are your Assets Now what kind of funding do you have what kind of um Staffing Resources do you have committee resources volunteer resources you have all sorts of resources infrastructure uh facilities and then how do we leverage that with trends that we're seeing in a bigger kind of bigger region than not just ashin and then we want to look at those CommunityWide priorities and that's what we're trying to really sus out in this phase two is what does the community think are the priorities here and that's where we are so just as a reminder there are in the statute the state statute there that that um asks the planning board basically to prepare a comprehensive plan or they call it a master plan in the statute there are seven statutory elements so this plan will touch all of those elements but it will also bring in other things that people weren't thinking as much about back when this was written so we've added in things you'll see sustainability isn't actually technically in the statute um sometimes we add other things in but it really depends on what the community is seeing that they really value and and want to add to that all right and then we like to really emphasize in our plan that these in the plans that we work with our communities on these elements are really interconnected I think the old school way of doing a a master plan or comprehensive plan was to just have a separate you know chapter for each element and even do them separately so you may have spent four months just on transportation and then you move on and you think about open space but you don't think about them together and we think that the beauty of doing the comp plan the compr plan is you get a chance to actually think about all these things together because they really affect each other and they can help each other or they can hurt each other all right and then the things I'm already starting to use these terms with you I'll just describe what they mean so I talked about that existing conditions profile I like this tree metaphor I've been using it for a long time um the the existing conditions is kind of like the trunk of the tree we're just trying toig figure out the trends the issues establish a baseline of information then and that's what we did in phase one then we're trying to get the big blurry picture of the whole canopy of the tree we're trying to figure out what's the vision here where are we trying to go and then we put um the conditions on the conditions are the goals and those are the branches that hold up that canopy and then later in phase three which we're about to launch we'll come up with the strategies which are the leads like well how do you do it how are you going to do it what zoning are you going to implement what uh funding sources are you going to use what um board and staff capacity are you going to do what kind of programs are you going to have kind of capital Investments do you need to do that's coming that's we are not quite there yet but we're about to launch into that and then as part of that we'll have something that's called a future land use map it's not shown on my beautiful tree I'll have to think of a way to get that map in there but but the future land use map is not a zoning map in other states it does become a zoning map but not in Massachusetts but it basically says like if we look at the the next 10 years and we try to put our vision onto a map what does that say about where we want to grow where we want to preserve where we want to conserve and how we want to you know look at our corridors and things like that and our neighborhoods so that's what the map does it can turn into zoning changes but it's not by itself a zoning map does that all make sense so far all right perfect so we are here tonight to present the we've called it the final draft Vision so it's not final final nothing's final until it's adopted but we we spent a lot of um hard work with the the committee and the community who participated um in a in a very strong way to write this so um I love I love this quote by Tony Morrison the reason we spend so much focus on phase two is because we want the community to get a chance to dream a little before we think and I know dreaming thinking it's not quite perfect metaphor but but the idea here is to think in in a in a um in an aspirational way first before you start to say can we really afford that you know how are we going to do it don't worry about that yet you'll worry about that next we'll worry about that in phase three but we just want you to Dream a Little first and that's what this is about so you'll look at the vision and you might say that is ambitious or you might say okay I think we're kind of almost there with some of these things um but that's kind of the point of it so I hope you also have this I think you got a hand out I do have a couple extra copies if people want them um I stuck them in my bag but I'm happy to get them if people want the hard copies this is also online on the comprehensive plan website and um we have a whole survey up right now about it so we encourage all of you and anyone who's listening any member of the community that wants to weigh in on what they think about this vision statement this is the first of two paragraphs we would love for you to take that survey and it's live now so I'm not going to read the whole thing um the the the vision is two paragraphs this is the first but I'm just going to um say some of the key phrases that I think will give you a gist of the things that folks are telling us they really care about so on this first paragraph and remember this is a vision for the future so this is Project yourself 10 years into the f 10 years from when the plan is done which will be next year so 2035 10 years from when this plan is done this is what the community is thinking they want Ashley to be like some of it is like staying the same in some aspects and other things are maybe improvements over what you're doing so I'm going to read some key phrases um diverse inclusive community honors and preserves its small town charm Rich history open space vibrant and sustainable neighborhoods exceptional schools aesthetically pleasing public and private spaces safe walkable bikable multimodal Transportation options enhances Community connectivity well-maintained accessible Recreation amenities and I want you to know that we we spend a lot of time on every single word here so I'm not skipping over words because I'm not honoring what they're doing I just wanted to to give you the highlights okay the second paragraph so again project yourself forward to that 2035 Ashlin is adaptive to changing needs and emphasis on cultural assets diverse housing options Town infrastructure open space climate change Solutions promotes business opportunities focuses on affordability and accessibility for people of all ages Community Spirit flourishing downtown areas welcoming Gathering spaces celebration of its diverse population and robust volunteerism and again really thinking a lot about what are the words we're using using here all right and then I want to describe what this means core themes this is not something that um this is kind of a particular to the way my firm does comprehensive plans because we feel it's so important to think about those connections of those statutory elements we ask the community and the committee to come up with what do you think are the themes that we're hearing in the engagement that can translate eventually into chapters for your plan and it will bring together those different statutory elements in a way that we think promotes the concept of these things are all connected and so this is very um customized for Ashland because you guys wrote it not us so the themes you you you are you know at least in this draft form are promoting are one building and enhancing Community two promoting long-term sustainability three three guiding development that honors open space and conservation four enhancing Town services and economic development and five creating a connected and accessible Community I'm going to go through these again because each of these has a set of goals so the goals again are not how you do things they're what you're trying to do it's the condition you're aiming for how do you know you're successful after 10 years so the next set of slides is going to be a slide for each of those and again I've paraphrased here the goals are fully written out on your handout um but just for the sake of not having too many words on the slide um I paraphrase the the kind of the key Point here so under building an enhancing Community the three goals that the committee identified are cultivating a thriving Community culture fostering connection between the community and its historical Heritage as well as preserving historic assets and developing inclusive and vibrant public spaces so those were all goals again doesn't tell you how you're going to do it just says what you're trying to do the next Core theme is promoting long-term sustainability and there are five goals here and you can just imagine I should have said this on the first Slide the next phase when we start to think of strategies our job in working with the committee is to think of strategies sets of strategies for every goal so this is we're sort of starting from the framework and we're building it out and so you'll see the next presentation I give you when phase three is close to being done we'll have strategies for every single goal of how you can get there so we have carbon neutral practices triple Net Zero Energy Water waste by 2040 and we try to carry on other goals that are already established in the community like the 20 240 goal um tree preservation and planting walkable bikable micromobility friendly neighborhoods approach zero waste and preserve water supply quality and usability so these are all under sustainability long-term sustainability the next Core theme is guiding development that honors open space and conservation and so these goals there are five one is protecting open space properties and we want to you know refer to uh the open space and Recreation plan whatever is the most current um during that 10year period to identify those priority areas strive to have publicly accessible and inclusive green spaces within half a mile of every residence in all Ashland neighborhoods some of these goals you'll see have a metric it has a way that you can actually measure success and that's an example of one offer a variety of housing options including affordable housing opportunities new development in strategic locations and the goal you'll see when it you know the full goal writes out well what do we mean by that establish adaptable spaces that seamlessly transition to accommodate a wide range of community needs and uses so I think the emphasis here is on adaptable spaces things that can have many functions and then we have um oops enhancing Town services and economic development so we have four goals vibrant and economically thriving downtown public facilities to meet the needs of a growing and diverse population improve public water sewer and high-speed INF um internet infrastructure and water Recreation to safely swim in boat and then I think this is the last one yes create a connected and accessible Community there are five goals connectivity of community Open Spaces to to neighboring towns Transportation safety and accessibility affordable and convenient regional and local public transit options townwide Corridor revitalization efforts including multimodal roadway improvements and connections from the Pawn Street Corridor to surrounding neighborhoods and key destinations specifically Ashland's surrounding neighborhoods so you lost a little bit because I didn't read the whole thing but hopefully you're getting the gist of it and we'll go back and read the full the full thing all right so I want to get into just what's going to happen next and I'm happy I don't know if time allows but I'm happy to take questions or comments or anything you'd like um but I'll just finish this if that's okay I think that makes sense okay all right so launching phase three so we're about to do this so um I love quotes So the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do strategies about making choices so that gives a good uh kind of a good framework to what to what we're about to do we're about to meet with our whole consultant team and Michael and Peter are going to help as well and we're just going to brainstorm as many strategies as we can think of that could help with those goals and that Vision we're going to kind of comb through our best practices think of cases that are case studies I should say that are similar to things done or could be done in Ashland and we're going to have a session um coming up I think it's next week where we're just going to sit down in my office and do a big brainstorm um and the idea here is is to think of as many things so we're going to start with the long list and then we're going to ask the community certainly add to it if you think we've missed something but the idea of phase three is to narrow that list down to start to make those choices to think about where do we want to prioritize our investments and our time and our energy so that is how we've designed phase three so when I talk about strategies I gave some examples before I said they could be zoning you talk about MBTA zoning right after this it could be physical design it could be something to do with other roadway improvements or or other Capital Investments it could be capacity building and I what I mean by that is people for the most part but it can also mean other funding sources or it could even mean different boards or committees than you have now so who's doing what um how do you do it where does the money come from that's what I mean by capacity sometimes it's about saying well you probably need to have this kind of position in your community if you want to make this other thing happen so you'll see recommendations like that and then we have uh regulatory policies usually zoning but it can also be other regul ations that the town has control over and then programmatic means some kind of program that you might have sometimes people want to do like a home buyer program or something like that that's local could be lots of examples of programs that you have so those are the four kinds of strategies and you'll see that we try to identify those throughout the process so we have a nice mix of those that we're thinking of and then I said we're really going to narrow down so I like this little filter so we're going to put lots of strategy ideas in the top and then through Tech something we call technical working sessions um a community survey and department manager working session and then work with the committee of course um we're going to be narrowing down and creating that strategy short list let me describe each of those um tools so these are more engagement tools so the technical working sessions we um trying to identify with the committee's help uh different town officials could be Town staff could be people who serve on boards and committees could be uh members of the community who have a special interest or a personal expertise or some professional tie we want to get people that um are really going to feel um very engaged in talking at a very technical level we're going to be talking about things that are um technical I don't know how else to say I don't want to keep saying the same word but they're technical things um so that will happen and they'll be we'll have capacity to have um at least a hundred Experts of your Community coming to these so there'll be one technical working session for each Core theme and we say that you can invite you can invite more than this but we basically have capacity to do about 20 people each session and then we have the community survey which will be we'll take down the visioning survey first because we don't want people to be confused by which survey am I supposed to take and so we'll get that we'll leave that up for you know several weeks and then when we're ready we'll put that survey up for the strategies typically how we do it because there are a lot of strategy ideas as you see from this little diagram we typically do a survey for each Core theme so that if somebody's really mostly interested in one topic or two topics they don't need to feel like they have to go through the whole survey they can just focus in if they want to go through all five of them perfectly fine and then we have the department manager working session we tend to have this a little bit later in phase three because we want to have um once we have a little bit more of a short list by working with the technical working session and understanding where the community is coming from we take a kind of a medium short list to the department managers and say tell me about your capacity for implementation where are the gaps here where are some synergies like where can you work together on things and we try to understand that better doesn't mean you can't do something if you don't have the capacity now we just want to understand what is that Gap so that we can refine the recommendation for that and then um and then we do work with the committee as well um showing them all of these results and and having them really come to some agreement around that short list so that our goal just as it was with the vision and goal setting is that the committee will have no deal breakers when we're done and at the end of this I'll be presenting that strategy short list to you in few months so how do you narrow the list you know you could you could do it many ways I just gave some examples you could look at what has the greatest positive impact to the most people you could look at what's the biggest bang for the buck what's Avail what is the availability of non- Ashland funding sources like are there state or federal sources or private monies we can tap into um what's the effect on residential property taxes promoting you know which ones promote uh diversity Equity inclusion and this is not um inclusive of every idea just want to give you ideas like these are some ways you can prioritize all right so what you're going to see next this is just an example we pulled this is from Topsfield which we finished recently and this this is a page from their comprehensive plan so you'll see at the end of the day the strategies are usually just a sentence or two the trick is finding the set that you want to prioritize that's the real work here once you get that set you can basically have them as part of your master plan and then um we also work with the committee as much as we can to identify some more metrics some of the metrics I mentioned are embedded in some of the goals but we also like to see are there other metrics we can measure success with um and so we do some work with the committee around that as well and this is just an example and it's for you to measure over the next 10 years so just because we think of a strategy idea in the year 2024 in the year 2034 you know before your your comp plan is over that doesn't mean that's the best strategy idea at that moment in time so the strategies might change over time but the things you're measuring will help you figure out are the strategies we're implementing are they working or do we need to Pivot so that's why we do that does that make sense all right and then this is just an example of a future land use map it's very you know it doesn't really get down to the parcel level it's more of an artistic representation of what you want to see for growth and preservation um on this one they have a historic district they have connectivity Improvement for intersections and corridors they have conservation areas his work preservation opportunities evolving opportunities so this is topsi I think this is Topsfield um is it Topsfield you didn't do this one we can do it for you but you can give us advice um but the idea of it is just to give the bit those big Ideas some some spatial sense to them so and you might you might have different we customize this so you may have different categories we'll work with you on what you want to call things um and that's what that looks like so I think that's it so I hope I go too long but I wanted to um get you all up to speed and I'm happy to take questions if if there's time questions anyone who wants to jump in and go first comments thoughts Claudia Joe I mean you guys haven't been as involved as Brandy and I so I actually appreciate the the presentation it provides U additional information that um I was going to have questions and you answered at least three of the four questions that I had so I'll wait sure you don't want to ask that question it it no I'm good right now I'm good right now I'm overloaded with information so yeah and and definitely if you haven't taken the time I'm sure you probably did read through everything already I have but go through it again and then if you have other questions Claudia thank you yeah no that was a great presentation and uh I guess when I was looking through some of it I thought about how much work everybody has done and um how much I appreciate that that that uh uh it's just such a massive undertaking so is very much appreciated and um you know and I look forward to uh it it's amazing I feel as though how what has come out of this is much of what I think we all hear out in the community so uh it's it's nice to know that it kind of mirrors what you you think that people want so thank you good anyone on the planning board side any comments or thoughts I did have a question about um the slide that we just had with the strategies on top top and the The Next Step I think it's called the which slide was that the prior slide I just have to find it here here we go not used to this computer okay where we're going to start with the strategies and they're going to make their way to the this one yeah just a quick question yeah just to clarify so the last comprehensive plan steering committee meeting um that we had um and I believe Peter and Michael may not have been in there so I don't know if uh others who work can confirm my recollection um the discussion was that the Consultants team would bring all the strategies forward to the entire committee to then kind of dwindle it down pick the ones that are interesting to the committee and then make their way down to the local experts the department managers working sessions Etc I see let me what I can I just fin question and so what I heard today was quite different which was that there's going to be a brainstorming session in your office with Michael and Peter that would then trickle down to the committee which is very different from my recollection um so can you clarify that what will you be doing in your office and will you be kind of creating a comprehensive list or actually narrowing it down with Michael and Peter yeah no so we're creating a comprehensive list um so we start out with as big of a list as we can think of knowing that you won't be able to implement all of them we want to give you a lot of choices and kind of a lot of options so we think of everything we can think of um and then we typically go straight to the technical working session with packets that have and all of the committee members would be coming to those usually what happens is the committee decides which members go to which Core theme based on you know their interest or what they're representing and then we basically get up exit poll from everybody that participates in the technical working session with how they would rate the ideas and then what other ideas would they add so it's a way for both you know committee members who are participating and all of the other participants to add ideas as well as rate U sorry rate I always say rank I get Rank and rate mixed up a lot so I mean they'll rate them not rank them and um and then we'll do the same thing at the same time with the community survey so that people will look at everything they can add ideas if they'd like but they'll also rate the at least the areas that they have an interest in they certainly could rate everything um and then we would go to the department manager with um what we typically do we could talk about the timing of the department manager we've done this two different ways um at the point when you finish the technical working session and the community survey the committee has then a lot of information with which to base some decisions on and what we typically do is we give the committee members a questionnaire and I think this is what you might remember me describing but maybe I wasn't clear enough about when that happens in the process so we give the committee members a questionnaire we give them the results of the technical working session and the community survey and then we give them all a questionnaire like we've done in the past where they'll each individually say what they think about the results and then we and I'll describe that more in a minute but then we bring them all together and we focus the conversation on the things that people didn't agree on so let me describe that I'm going to back up so that's kind of the end result and then we go out I would recommend actually doing the department managers after that um so that we're just doing that short list that the committee has already vetted with the department managers and then coming back to the committee to then say and this is what we heard from the department managers on the short list that you gave them so you are creating the short list at the committee level but I want to provide you with more information than you have right now and the information you're going to get is how the hopefully hundred folks that come to the technical working sessions and hopefully I don't know how many people will take the community survey but I'm hoping it'll be a nice robust um you'll have that information and what will provide you in that questionnaire is we'll show you these are the strategies that between the technical working session responses and the community survey they got very high marks like fours and fives means people really like them um these are the set that got really low marks like ones and twos means people really don't want them like don't even want to work on it they just want it out of the plan and then these are the ones that are like that you know we usually do like fraction like between 2.5 and up to four or something and are the middle ones that we're like we really need the committee's um help with these in particular but what we want you to do is look at the ones that people through this process gave a four and a five and we were asking you to basically say do you disagree with any of these things that were ranked consistently high and typically what happens is committee members are no we actually agree we think the that that's probably about right do you disagree with anything that were ranked really low because we're just suggesting they be completely ruled out and you get a chance to say well I want to consider this thing and talk to the committee about it because I think people don't understand XY or Z or and then the committee can vote on whether to raise something out of the out of the don't do it and then the middle piece is where we don't have really clear guidance from the technical working sessions and the community survey it could be sometimes that the technical working sessions really like something and the community really doesn't like something and so when we see a score like that we bring that also back for focused Community discussion like what's going on here do you feel like this is something that should stay in or not and if it should stay in does it need to be changed or tweaked and so we think the committee can have a much more informed discussion if you wait for the results of the technical working session in the community survey we won't eliminate or promote anything on our own we just we're going to say basically like if you just go with these results this is what it's telling us and then the committee will decide through that maybe it was a painful process I know it was very long but we're going to do a similar thing um it might take several meetings to get through it all but we'll do a similar thing where I want there to be no deal breakers and you like the short list that we end up with and then I would suggest we we have we're doing this differently in one Community right now and I actually don't like it very much but our client really wanted it this way but we I often recommend do the department manager we session after you do that process and then the department managers are only looking at the list that the committee is like I think this is the right short list tell us what Your Capacity you know is to to implement this so I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about the order of that but that's typically how we do it okay any other questions hold the microphone a little close so and I know we have some people online um I just we're going to finish here at the table and then I'll get to you Trisha because I know Kate and then then Brandy has something as well so Kate go ahead um so I I I have this I think I have it right you you said ask the community about the strategies and then we're again going to ask them about naring them down so I didn't quite get how that goes in the timeline and then I guess a followup to that is can you give us to publish either the funnel or the timeline with some of those details ched in because yes so we need to engage the community we want to we been doing that but if if we can't project like I don't want to be like oh now right next week you have this and I I know you're not putting exact dates but like there's a lot more Community work right and I think putting that out there is helpful yeah I'm I'm happy to do that and I think I said I do it last time and I haven't done it yet so I apologize but I will um yes the community survey is the kind of the biggest push this this quarter but no this I think in business terms this quarter this phase and that's where you know we really want to encourage a lot of involvement again like you guys were super successful in phase two we want to do another big push on that and then um and then I know people follow along with at the committee level as well so that you know I'm happy to the extent that the chairs are happy to continue to ask for public feedback at those committee levels as you're having those detailed discussions in the short list discussion and then um in terms of future weighing in what we've done in the past is that we would publish just like we published the vision statement we would publish the short list around the same time that we're coming to these two groups to present where we landed and ask for additional public feedback in kind of a broad way we typically don't do a survey again but we typically say if you have any thoughts on this just submit your comments we can do like an email like a form on the website if that's easy or have them email someone but that's typically what we do at towards that um end of phase three um just one follow so then did are can community members add to that giant list I didn't hear how that works so in the survey we'll ask for any other ideas that they can add the I'm sorry I'm not trying to be I guess I'm just confused about we're collecting as much as we possibly can right and then it gets narrowed down and the public how do they participate in that or they don't they only participate in the narrowing down right so in the community survey as well as the technical working sessions we always ask do you have any other ideas it's not part of the survey because it's a new idea so that I'm sorry I skipped over this so we usually give a list of ideas that weren't captured in our original list to the committee to basically say we want this in we want this out often what happens though not always but often what happens is we have the idea in there it's just that they didn't it wasn't in the words that they were thinking of it and so we're off often we're like that's actually Incorporated in 2B we could make that more explicit by changing the way we're describing it so we go through a process with the committee like that where we want to go through those ideas yeah thank you Brandy Thanks Jen um so when we were putting together the the vision and and and and um core themes and goals we were we had this long list of feedback that had come from you know the original surveys and the the public engagement that we had done and a lot of the stuff that was in there kind of fell under the more strategy level so I know for instance um you know we we heard a lot about say sidewalks so I guess my ask is when you guys put together that big brainstorming list to go back to all of those comments and and things that we couldn't that really didn't fit into the vision and and and goals that was much more specific that just didn't quite fit in there um and incorporate that into the big long list because I want to make sure that all of that work kind of carries forward into sort of the strategies and stuff that we're that we're going to um be looking at so yes and I should have said that so so where do we get all these great ideas from so we've created um it's nothing like too official but we basically have a list like every time we see a strategy idea we just in our office we call it put it in the strategy parking lot and we'll get to it in phase three so when we're Gathering the ideas my whole team goes back to the existing conditions profiles and like refreshes our memory because we did it a while ago I don't remember everything and the issues that were brought up and then we go back to that then we look for that strategy parking lot and bring in well where would this fit into a Core theme and we kind of sort them into the core themes um and then we also just bring our own you know what what have we done in other communities and what have we seen work and things like that yeah so thank you I forgot to mention where they where do these great ideas come from they don't all just come from our head and I think some of it as we were having those discussions within the committee you kept saying that's not really a goal that's a strategy so we'll deal with it later okay uh Trisha go ahead um hi yeah I was just wondering um just a few um procedural things about the people that are going to be involved like with the local experts I think he said about I think maybe you said 20 local experts per kind of group how are those local experts found um I assume it can be residents business owners anyone that has a connection with Ashlin but how how are those local experts found and selected and then the second part is department manager like like what is maybe I missed it but like what give an example of a department manager is that like the planning department and or DPW like maybe I missed what who that is what what department how that works great question Trisha thank you so the we're asking the committee to help identify who the technical experts are as well as you know Town staff but um and I think we're Gathering ideas I can't remember where we left it but I think we're asking committee members to send ideas yeah we're actually meeting tomorrow and we're going to have discussion and start making a list yeah so they so the com the comprehensive plan committee has a meeting tomorrow to start doing that list and then um in terms of the department managers you got it right you were completely right so I think Pete you're oh Pete's not here anymore I think Pete's a department manager um Michael can you can you answer the question about who are all the department managers and how many are there yeah I mean I I don't have any exact list but I mean certainly I mean I do but in this case you know certainly DPW I mean we would probably have everybody at the department head level be a part of this even though like I'm not sure there's going to be a lot of intersection with maybe the town clerk but maybe there are when we start talking about specific strategies related to the community engagement piece so yeah so that that level I guess you could say does that answer your question Trisha yes I think so thank you and I can add to that which during our public U meetings Trisha the our police chief for example showed up at one of our meetings in the Box um so there's already department manager engagement happening in a way so kind of taking continuing on that theme that's that's great and we also suggest although it's up to the committee um we suggest you may want to invite some of the department managers also to the technical working sessions for sure definitely they'll be part of that yeah so um so Jen I'm I'm interested like in other communities where you've done this work like how are those technical experts usually selected yeah we usually you know we have some suggestions just department managers are often good to or if there's a certain board like planning board a couple planning board members should be at anything that is going to talk about zoning right um so we suggest that you know we don't suggest the name of who it is but we just say like you should have some representation from these different things and then the yeah the committee and the town staff or the city staff um basically identify who they are or sometimes they just ask their boards like if you have a transportation heavy core theme which you do you may and do you have a transportation committee I can't remember if you do Road Traffic Safety Comm so you can also ask them if they know beyond their commities if they have other folks in the community that they would suggest so you know it depends on the community if they want want to do that but I I think that's a great idea y okay anything else from can I just P back on that J some of the Committees that you just mentioned about the the traffic study committee a lot of the same people that are on that committee are department heads right so you know it intertwines it overlaps so you know you you'll be repetitive that way as well so yeah but I just I just the question that I was not going to ask I'm going to ask now I apologize but because I'm not trying to throw a wrench in this but how do you keep person bias out of this this entire project well it's really hard as a planner and it's something that you know we are bound ethically not to have bias but we're also bound ethically to serve a community good so um so we have to balance balance that sometimes we feel like our bias is because we want it to be good for the community um so just personally that's something that planners I think all over probably struggle with but the way we've designed the process we've given a lot of authority to the decisions to the committee and we because um you know actually if you if you had worked with a different consultant I guarantee they would not have spent eight hours writing a collaborative vision statement that's another way we keep our bias out of it because we actually didn't write it yeah I actually wasn't referring your personal bias I'm talking about the committee members themselves and their their personal okay I see advises that that may come into play I would never I would never question your ADV because I I know certain people on the the committee would you'd be out so they're watching me they're watching um I guess my answer to that is you know we all bring a bias we can't help it I don't I don't want to get into roomie and stuff like that but if you guys know the parable of the elephant we all can only see the part of the elephant we're touching in the dark like nobody has a perfect view of the world of of Ashland or of anything so I think the reason the town selected or the select board I can't remember who appointed this committee the planning board okay so the reason you selected this committee was because they bring different perspectives and they actually bring a certain kind of bias that you're looking for so um it's a supposed to be hopefully it is I think it might be a microcosm of what you see in the community and that's why we have some good debates in Long meetings yeah I think so I was going to kind of reiterate that too that I think everyone in that room has bias but there's so many of us that our biases hopefully will collaborate together for a good decision right but I think in some ways we have responsibility to bring that unique bias like I view my role there as a planning planning board bias if that makes any sense just like um but occasionally if I am bringing personal bias like at the last meeting things came up relative to the 126 Corridor and I shared that I live in that area therefore if you're being transparent about your bias I feel like that's important so I've tried during the committee meetings to do that like my my planning board hat versus I live at 126 this is what I think type of thing if that's helpful no it is thank you appreciate that so uh be Michael before you go Michael is there any other committee members who are online or here in person that want to comment or add to the discussion we are all going to be meeting tomorrow night to continue the discussion that we just presented or any public that either have a question or a comment now would be your chance to do that um I see I see Flo and robed you guys have any comments or were you just watching Rob you're good okay thank you uh okay seeing none from um registry you unmuted did you have something you wanted to add okay go ahead registry well I just wanted to thank Jen and her team for shepherding us because we are a huge committee with a lot of uh opinions and a lot of choices and to have us all focus on each of these activities through these working sessions it's been um it's been a job I'm sure um you know it's a it's a tough place to be but we got through because everybody in the committee has a passion to do good for Ashland and there's a vision that that each one of us has and wants to take forward and Jen and her team have been able to take us forward through that so thank you Jen and um for this presentation also and we look forward to working with you again soon thank you okay and Michael yeah just um actually I'll make one comment as well just kind of to piggyback on what rerry said I think Jen definitely appreciate your expertise and and really your leadership and helping to Shepherd this along it was we've been together as a committee now for over a year and it was a really rough go at at the start but what's been interesting for me is to watch the committee EV evolve and you know yes there's some long discussions and all of that good stuff but you know we started like weren't you know only a few people were talking a lot of people were I think very reserved and so now I think there's more open discussion and everything as everybody's gotten more comfortable so it's been interesting to watch that evolve and I think it's been it's been good um so my question goes back to the technical experts again so you know we also have we have local experts here but we also have affiliate or affiliations with other organizations that even though they might not necessarily be residents they do have a they're a stakeholder here and do you do you is it okay to have some of them involved and and specifically I'm thinking like with open space so you know obviously we'd have somebody from open space and Recreation or in the town Force committee but should we also look at engaging like a conservation organization like the subury valley trustees and seeing if they would have a seat at the table or mass aabon is that something that you would recommend I would say it's totally up to you all different communities May have a different feeling about this okay some communities may feel like well we don't want an outside organization to to you know put their finger on the scale on our priorities other communities may feel like we we don't have enough experts to fill the room and we value their opinion and we'd like for them to give input you could do a middle ground um which I've never done before but I just thought of it right this moment as I answered the question where you have them come but they don't provide an exit poll maybe they're part of the discussion and they can help to educate you know or inform or however you want to say it but they don't give an exit poll at the end but up to you yeah like SVT they have they hold some of our conservation restrictions they you know they could potentially hold more I mean they could they are an integral partner yeah I would I would recommend that as a committee we have that discussion right tomorrow night we're going to be talking about who we think we want to bring in so I would say tomorrow night recom you know bring that in as part of the discussion and as a committee we can determine if we want to bring in these other partners but the agenda it's on the agenda I I do think it's good to discuss it today to kind of get feedback while the consultant's here not there tomorrow um and so I will say that some communities and and the consultant can speak to it have used speakers the idea is you bring an expert who's not going to vote but they're going to be a speaker to the little group so uh I I for One support your idea a lot and I think for example I was thinking for economic development inviting an economist from Framingham State um I know Peter has been working with uh Framingham State to make those connections but those folks in my opinion should not have a vote but they can certainly come to an economic development group and speak to us so it could be the same kind of concept yeah that's a good idea is that is that what you're referring to as the middle ground I think you could I wasn't thinking of them as a speaker but I think you could do that and you could even have them um we break the larger group up into smaller groups to have a discussion with like four or five people you could have that person or people be roaming the tables to do Q&A or whatever my understand is some communities have done that and that can be a useful way to sort of bring in gaps because we might have all kinds of experts but not Regional experts but we don't want Regional people to vote yeah an are we agreeing it does happen so we could record this and make sure it's in the minutes yeah it took us how many years Michael just a few right so it does happen does yeah but I'm glad you recognized it that's progress I know yeah I'll shake your hand on that one yeah right okay any other questions or comments for Jen Mark okay Mark excuse me Mark only 119 Main Street I know me and you have gone a pretty good ways of knowing each other by questions yeah and um I wanted to make sure that the that the people can understand what's going on I came as a wannabe Committee Member but ended up a citizen bystander bitter and having time to listen to understand to what it was I came to basically about 95% of the meetings and um it's understandable that you need to have the first words to get a sentence and a sentence to get an idea and by having Jen as the coordinator her company and her the U the other woman that comes with you k great Duo to set up for 29 folks and now it's been coming down to this which has been phenomenal at best and understanding that as a citizen who I who thought that I kind of knew everything I say begin to know that this group gave me an Eyes Open by then me speak and she had patience for me to speak other than the people here sometimes said the microphones it's way too much for you um I was happy to be there this group is what they ask on future and what the who the people put in the plan in the comprehensive people on this select board everybody that has put the time in is worth a gratitude of thanks and a fortunate to have them here and as a citizen who was I want to be I'm just glad that I could have my input and was put up a couple times on on your visions that I have put in my time and as as to manager did with the retreat is a form base to be coded thank you thanks Mark thank you Mark and we do appreciate your participation and I would say that to all citizens who have participated that we appreciate all the input and insight because it's not our plan it's our community's plan and the more input we can get from the community the better the plan will be great anything else for Jen no okay thank you very much for this presentation I think it was informative I would say if anyone has questions please reach out and uh we are going to continue with our agenda and let you go thank you thank you thanks Jen okay I didn't want to comment as Jen leaves that I think the planning board and select board did a great job choosing this particular consultant um and so gratitude to Jen and her team but also to to these boards in working together to get us here uh for me this presentation sort of reinforced that and I remember those early days as difficult as they were I think that it was worth it to get to this point great don't disagree okay moving on the next item in the agenda is presentation on MBTA communities again this is for both boards to review and discuss and Peter are you or Alvaro giving us this great uh yes hello Town planer Peter magic yes we're going to present alvaro's got a PowerPoint we going to plug plug in and I go from there I think there's extra paper copies of you guys need it over on the corner does anyone need a copy Deepa do you need a and if there's anyone in the public who wants a copy take a look at okay there's been some modific fresh copy yeah FR so as pull up the PowerPoint I just want to uh first and foremost thank uh joean Yani and Trisha Kendall uh we've worked very hard to put this plan together uh along with myself and Alvaro uh Alvaro has really done an exceptional job with the gis work and the modeling that has to be done by the state uh but uh but the PowerPoint is up and ready to go um Trisha uh Alvaro and I will just kind of run through it but obviously I think you should jump in at any point that you want to talk about the process uh and how we kind of landed and and additionally Joe please feel free and jump in um so with that said uh if I may start um the me communities this has been a law that's been passed 2020 uh by the former Governor Charlie Baker and uh just a recap real quick uh the town of Ashland um being home to a MBTA Community Rail station uh is one of I believe 175 communities in the state of Massachusetts in the Commonwealth that has to indor uh adopt zoning codes and Zoning changes to allow for uh Buri housing um and so I think we all know sit on the table through long discussions concerning the housing crisis and the housing shortage um this uh was adopted to uh help um help uh ease some pressure that that we're in uh so with that said um the the the regulations here uh have the a community uh such as Ashen needs to um Zone an area um 50 acres at a minimum um with 40% of those acres in this case 20 acres um within a half mile of the MBTA uh station uh no District can be greater excuse me no great no District can be less than uh 5 Acres um at least half of the district has to be in one contiguous parcel uh as a overlay District um that is really been uh a big piece of the jigsaw puzzle we've had to kind of uh identify has to be a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre uh for multifamily uh developments there shall be no age restrictions um within that and all um districts um need to have access to a training station obviously uh with that said uh really that kind of pro links back up to the part where 40% Andor 40% of the total acreage needs to be within a half mile of that uh MBTA buffer sure um so um just kind of like thinking about what we presented back on probably was like a month or like two months ago that we were talking about this just thinking of the different strategies that we could have done to approach this um one that would have been like really looking at the minimum density that Ashan could give but in that case you will be looking at the most area or acreage that you will be zoning so in that case you will be looking a 15 units over 75 Acres um the other kind of like at the scale or like at the maximum approach that you could have it's uh looking at a minimum land area but then having the highest density in that 50 acres which is the minimum requirement so 23 units per acre and I guess just one thing to keep in mind is always that all the zoning Bilo regulations will be still be in place for the MBTA um this is not like a 4B that anything is kind of just like jumping over like The Zing you're actually taking a look into everything that is within the the zoning and the districts of the zoning underneath of what we'll be kind of like presenting in approaching um just to kind of like remind everybody that uh some of these layers were already given by the state or all of these layers were given by the state and they had certain uh limitations in some cases uh for example the excluded land was uh layer that was given just explaining and showing the areas that we will not be able to Zone there is some reasons to this one of them or the main one just being it state or to town own land um there is some ways around it however none of those um were qualifying for astion so that's why we decided to stay away completely for anything that was within the excluded land in the case of sensitive land these was areas that were really red flagged by the state they will still be able to be used Within These model um at any capacity either for density or for um acreage however it's just kind of like a way of saying make sure that you're keeping in mind that this could be a potential float zone so just make sure that when you're looking at the zoning take that in consideration when you're writing The Zing um per se and then in case of the density denominator I think that was more to look into areas that were we think in the middle of parcels that will be affecting at a certain level the creation of actual housing um so that's why this it still counts for the acreage however it does not count for the den of housing so you're basically looking at it's called density denominator because it's just taking out of the denominator but not out of the numerator basically um yeah and I think that kind of like takes us and brings us back into um this map that we've seen many times and it's just kind of like showing the different Parcels that we approach um I'll pass it down to Trisha so she can kind of like talk about the um the kind of like the analysis and the risk that we did um but just kind of like to like Orient everybody um all of these are the parcels that we've talked SE the spring back to the fall and we kind of just like kept in our mind looking at it because we felt that all of these Parcels were not in either of the two maximal approaches that we mentioned so not going to maximize density or trying to maximize acreage but instead of finding like the middle ground where you're looking actually at the areas that are developed and yet you're still opening for Center areas to continue the the the actual like nature of like the zoning and the purpose of the zoning that he was approach so yeah yes so um Al did did you want me to step in yeah thank you okay yeah may maybe we can um yeah let's go back down to the map just for a minute and I can't remember who all has participated in our various presentations on this so I'll go through it briefly and obviously take uh take any questions so these are now the seven uh areas that we were really studying carefully obviously we looked at a lot more partials through this process but these seven are the kind of the ones we started to look at much more closely and and um that as well as in the first phase of this um and then the new ones the 40b projects that we added in um after Springtown meeting so a is obviously serus and we definitely want to include that this is our largest land parcel by far this is the one that gets us 50% contiguous inside the um well 50% contiguous it it makes that requirement and you can see it's located within the half mile radius so it's a really very important partiel for us to use um the green ones indicate the two green things indicate that these are project that are either built or in construction B is 100 Chestnut Street um in construction um over 5 acres and as you remember probably from many meetings the how we talked about this that um in relationship to the comprehensive plan which we're in the middle of we really wanted to use Parcels that um that Ashen was already considering for housing at least at least in most cases right to use what we already have and then to let the comprehensive plan process guide any future housing locations and we we felt our small working group felt pretty strongly about not making decisions that should be made in the comprehensive plan process so we're using we're looking for things that we that have already been determined that are already in process so the orange part of these um D is ug ugc um as we all know that's the um that's the um friendly 40b project that is um still in litigation and we don't really have any other information about that we hope that we might but we don't um C is 501 Pawn Street um in conjunction with Valley Farm which is next door um which is a project that has been approved but has not started construction yet and um and then EF and G are ones that we studied a lot more closely this round e is um the burnhams property plus um connect Church property that's on Pleasant Street you can see obviously it's another property within that half mile radius and it's one that we did discuss in the first round of things on our public forums and we had um people both on both sides for and against like adding that partiel in at that time um there was we there was more people maybe saying leave it out so in the end we left it out we didn't think we needed to use it um in this in this um iteration of things we are proposing to unit use it and um then f is 10 to 60 Main Street which as you can see is obviously right on the rim of that half mile radius given that that is one of the 40b projects and um we we looked at it more closely originally we were leaving it out and um but we think we can use it in a very effective way um and uh and and take some of the risk out of other projects and G is Waverly Street and Waverly Street is the the second for project and actually after our analysis we decided we'd rather not use that property so um if we can uh go up to the Chart now um uh I have we have the risk assessment on the next page which everyone had been given um before but we'll kind of stay on this chart and I'm kind of just talking about the risk assessment and relationship to these so so what we again starting from the top Sirrus this is currently at a um uh building density of 14 units an acre um it it's a little different than that it's it's all all these are a little bit more complicated because the bylaws are more complicated um but uh so and all that information is kind of listed here so you can look at it yourself but um but we'll say that it's an approved density of 14 units an acre we're looking to move that to 20 units an acre um because it's a completed built project fully occupied and we think there's very little opportunity to add to that site and to increase the density effectively and economically and it's using our biggest site so we get the most units out of that um out of that site um 100 Chestnut Street what we're doing there is the the approved density is 28 units an acre we're putting it up to 30 units an acre um again to get the final unit count that we need and kind of for the same reason it's in construction it would be kind of difficult for them to add just addon units and parking kind of in the middle of this process um into the orange sections again pwn Street and Valley Farm that's over on uh uh on pwn Street we again can repeat myself we don't think there's we think there's very little um possibility ility that the valley form Valley Farm property would be be torn down to put up something else and the 501 H Street project is approved but not yet developed that is a project um with 120 units and um um at 25% affordable so but but it's not in construction yet and so we thought that project was a little bit risky and we really didn't want to use the 20 really didn't want to lose the 25% affordable um under an NBTA zoning it would go only to 12.5% affordable we know all know how important the 25% affordable is so we lowered that down that density in order to basically put the density where um what they could do by right you know which would be a lower unit count um Peter El would have to jump in about what the unit count would be for that parcel uh I can't remember so G jump into it so thank you Trisha so for um 501 pwn Street the unit count is in the low 80s by right um and so therefore we're allowing it to um with the proposed unit count of of 22 it it would raise up into the to the low 90s so it give a few more but it wouldn't allow that extra density to 120 so it's just the way the numbers kind of fell uh doing our overall calculations we were trying to keep that overall number closer to the Allowed by um development allowed on the pon mix use District um obviously to protect that special permit was granted by The Zone by the planning board in 2022 thanks Peter um and then ugc this is one again this is the uh the friendly 40b over 55 community this is a parcel we in in The Proposal that we're making that we're putting for before the joint boards um that we are taking that proposal out of the MBTA zoning and the reason is that right now it's um its approved density is 10 units an acre it's age restricted it's 25% affordable and that would be then 180 units if we put it at our minimum of 15 units an acre we would have 270 units so 90 units more um at 10% affordable and um not age restricted so we thought that was a pretty big difference and big sacrifice for a project that's in litigation and we don't know how that's going to come out um going on to the yellow areas which are which are the new areas um Pleasant Street again those two kind of parcels that I talked about I don't it may actually be more Parcels but the two land owners there um when we looked at that more closely and again the zoning is more complicated than what we can put here um but basically there there is those properties the add you can already do multif family housing um or or mixed use you don't have to do mixed use but you could um so we thought it might be it might be a good idea to use that parcel because it fulfills so many things that the MBTA zoning is looking for and really um owners there can can submit the that multi family housing is already allowed there so there really isn't a difference with the MBTA zoning in fact with the with using F which is how those Parcels work the density can potentially be much greater than 15 units an acre which is fairly low um 10 to 60 Main Street again that's add and um um it cannot it's industrial underneath but add um which allows for multif family housing um and uh the there we looking at the 40b proposal The 40b Proposal which obviously isn't approved or anything like that but um the density there is proposed is 36 units an acre and that would be 250 units we're proposing to put that at 18 units an acre so half the density and so that would be 124 units spread across that whole property um and then 61 wave rarely this is the one across from the high school the proposed 40b they're proposed closing it at 17 units an acre which would be 20 226 units this is one that we decided to we would like to take out and of the MBTA zoning because there isn't that much of a difference between 17 units an acre and 15 units an acre in this case so what would be what we were concerned about is that the owner could decide if we Zone this at 15 units an acre to pull out of the so to pull out of the 40b process and um and propose the project at 15 units an acre which would just be 27 units lower than they are proposing now but the affordability would only be 10% instead of 25% so we we decided to try not to use that property so um that's kind of where everything sits it's important to understand again that the underly zoning there's a lot of pieces to the underlying zoning a lot of little tweaks and all those go into the big state spreadsheet that um that Alo keeps um and it it's also um you know important to remember that um oh that that all of these projects um need to go through whether they're special permit or not special permit special permit up in a lot of different things but but they all they all um need to go through the um site review process so there's always a level of it's not like a 40b it's always a Lev level of check that it still comes through the planning board um and yeah so I think I think I'm not a good in the evenings um but that's kind of where we landed and it's I'm sure it's not perfect but we did work really hard and we we think it's we feel good about it so be happy to answer any questions I think there's a few more slides in summary here's the risk assessment I basically already talked about that you can yeah it's the same printout sheet that you guys have received uh earlier um and this is just kind of the summary of The Green that we're looking to use and the red that we're looking not to use for the reasons I just explained so um this like last slide just shows where we are with the minimum so remember that we have to have at least 50 units sorry 50 acres our proposal puts us at 5612 Acres so we we're keeping those Acres pretty low about how it affects Ashland and it sets the number of units to about 1,136 it could be 12 or 9 it's a little over what we need so it's a little wiggle room depending on these tiny little changes between our calculations in the state which Alro could describe better the density in The Proposal ranges from 20 to 30 units an acre in properties that are already built are under construction so the ones that we don't think are likely to change and um and 15 to 22 units an acre so a lower density in projects that are just proposed or not proposed yet so um yeah so that's where we sit happy to take any questions can I can I jump in sure I just want to add one thing uh with with and and Al and Pete what we're trying to do is we're also trying to protect the 25% affordability which is what we're trying to you know get to our 10% which is what the state is requiring and anytime we we we try to play the game or a project has already been you know submitted and they withdraw because they think they have a a better opportunity then we lose that 25% affordability to you know for the town aspect to get to the goal of the 10% that the state's requiring so this part this particular plan and and that was presented tonight will protect that from happening so I like how you consider that affability keeping the 25% Anna go ahead so um one basic math question and then sort of a a more complex one um so when I add a b c e and f which are all the ones that are being recommended my math is 5542 not um 56 something yeah so you are correct so these numbers and Y and jump in Alo so these numbers start off just on paper right and that's where we're put Ling in right the Next Step which we're really kind of behind the scenes is to plug in all these numbers within a state model State algorithm right taking out all the stuff it's taking out all of that what that algorithm and alv me if I'm wrong is taken into account is is parking uh overall land setbacks X Y and Z right that's great I just want to make sure that algorithm then shaves your that total y down to the number that we have to be above which is 1124 right and so that number is in total so really the number we're trying to hit is anything above 1124 so right now we have a buffer of like 10 units per se right above that 1124 and so that's our so there's a couple numbers when we're when we're working with this that's fine I just want to make sure because if the public starts doing the math they'll have the same question 100% I think just kind of like the short answer for is probably the density denominators that we were talking about they are included for the acreage in the total 56 6.2 but they are not able to use it when you're multiplying for the density that's important and so you know so then the more complex question which is uh obviously you can do this in a variety of ways and if you add up all the stuff that's low risk you end up under 50 if you or the no like a b CF which is no or likely no you end up to 48.5 6 Which is less than 50 if you add up all in other words the configuration can't be too few Acres or to too too big Acres but my question is if you go over the 50 in theory can you go down to 50 can you essentially rezone just a section of a of a uh what do you call it a little par a section of a of a district because a district has to be five acres or greater so could you essentially choose to use the MBT zoning to get to 50 take one of these somewhat risky pieces MH but Zone a smaller piece of it to Li to make the risk less likely in other words for example ugc Memorial Drive has some risk and it's therefore disfavored but if only a section of it for example A B and C which are all no risk or low yeah together add up to GC Memorial is another 17.9 Acres so you're up up to almost 60 59.6 4 but you only need 50 so I guess my question is if you only Zone whatever the math is uh 10 of it doesn't that limit the doesn't that make the Lisk the risk less likely can't we turn these somewhat risky areas into lower Risk by doing the math in a way that makes it unlikely the developer is going to take advantage of this I think in the spirit of the in the law the Comm the the law that was passed to the state level we have created a plan that meets the law that takes that takes some of the risk out but also meets the intent uh can you do what you're stating can you can you Zone a portion of a lot I you know what I assume you can right but does five acres are greater is all you need per District so the bylaw or the state law seems to allow us as long as each section is five acres or greater we can essentially eliminate a lot of this risk but here's the thing there has to be one contiguous acre that's half of the total Acres that you're you're doing and that's why Sirus is right right which I guess what I'm saying is ugc memorial by my math you can you can actually Zone enough to get to 50 and lower the risk because you're not you don't need the whole thing to get to 50 you only need whatever 10 of the 17 this kind of goes to a question that I had is that can the state reject our plan based on they don't like what our intent is you know intent and the law is really a tricky area and um my experience is that lots of times they don't care what the intent is as well I can say that and and um it but what is the letter of the law it's a great question so here I mean can we don't know right the state a few communities have adopted this right a few communities in the fall I mean last spring at how me have adopted this the h i mean the HC and the AG's office they have not to my knowledge put their final stamp of approval on it but they they have to I mean if we if we follow the letter of the law and do what we've been asked to do they can still reject it that's within their power or not any bylaw that they that's not constitutional then they could any bylaw they have the power to reject I think but if we're following you know yeah so so Claudia you just need to remember that even the um even the communities that say put in their proposals and approve their proposals at Springtown meeting uh correct me if I'm wrong Peter but they have haven't even been cleared yet um it's taking six months for them to really look carefully to make sure all the eyes have been dotted the te's have been crossed right so we're obviously putting on our best effort to to meet the letter of the law right but this whole thing even though I think it's a lot of data is a is an extremely simplified version of the spreadsheet that that Alo has been putting together for the state so yes we believe that we are meeting the letter of the law we believe that right but until they go through and really confirm it and I do think I mean we did um you know we did Anna had suggested this idea of of using a part of a partial like cutting through it right and at at one of our planning board meetings and we and we talked about that and we and we did look at it um but we weren't sure we didn't think it was just the best way to go that it kind of added complexity to the bylaws we were creating you know where do we make that line versus versus taking Parcels that are already that already have boundaries that already are on the on the state map as a parcel right versus taking a part of a parcel so we didn't see we want you to know that we we did look at it but we didn't see and and Joe anyone else can uh jump in here but we didn't think that that was the that that was a better way to go than the way were thinking about it so my understand is the state is available as a technical expert was that framed to them as a possibility well best practices that they provide to like when you are like creating the parcel itself on like the model they do recommend they say that sure you can kind of like go over like a parcel but they do recommend for the exercise of the spreadsheet to try to like Del unate based on the parcels that are already existed and they are like assessed by the Assessor's map that they give you now you could try to do that then you will have to try to override it and then you will have to try to work on it but I think that's for it's possible it's not illegal the state the state allows it so I just want to be clear we're not going to be this is not unconstitutional this is not forbidden this is a solution to limit the risk that we're identifying we're just choosing not to do it because it's somewhat complicated but there are technical experts in the state that we can utilize and it's not forbidden I want to make that clear I'm not hearing in any way that what the idea is forbidden as far as we know it's not forbidden but the work group at on looking at it decided that the the path we were going in was a cleaner way to fulfill the MBTA requirements so and also protect the the 25% affordability of that project because if you start tampering with that the the the landowner himself could say okay I'm done I'm I'm going to put another project in here this is not the project that you know so now that that whole project that has already been approved and the 25% affordability goes off the table and now he the landowner can put whatever he wants in there without any guarantees of the 25% affordability that we once had hold on hold on affordability is what this town is required to do 10% is is our goal and taking projects that are already been approved at 25% that's that's ridiculous you don't want to take that away whether whether you take a half half an acre or whatever you a portion of the five five acres that you were recommending to to change that around well that changes the whole aspect of the project that that's already been presented so even the current project developer you know they like their plan they're not going to change their plan because they've already Mich Michael hopefully will agree with me they've already put large amounts of money invested into this project right but the risk is if we change the zoning if we change the zoning then the possibility of them saying you know what this is not what we want I can I just can I make a comment to clarify so 61 Waverly Street place has not been approved that is a 40b project that this community opposed and the planning board submitted comment I believe the town submit in comment there has been no approval of that project so which is the idea that somehow we're going to get in the way of an improved project is just not accurate so for that one that parcel for that that's the parcel that I he was right he was talking about ugc because that's where you started oh any parcel that has some risk including ugc it's it's the exact same concept if you only take a piece of it and Zone it for the MBTA sure ugc has been approved that's one point but for 61 Waverly it has not no I know your initial example cannot be cut as easily but 61 Waverly to your point this is a healthy kind of conversation but 61 Waverly which has not been approved which I believe this community is not a fan of would be a prime target of being able to uh what's the word take a piece of that to make it slightly different will that developer say oh I don't want to do a 40b anymore instead I'm going to build a 10% affordable on a piece of it I would I would think that's unlikely they're going to say oh half of it is now 10% let's do that okay Kate you had a comment well I did want to speak to Claud because if you actually go to the State website they they actually very much say communities that have built housing are allowed to take advantage of it so we we are allowed to take advantage of the housing that you've already built yeah that's kind of what we're doing here right yeah but I mean that question was can we do this yes we can we because there are things built we are doing nothing wrong we are following the law so yeah I was actually talking about the the land that animal talking about splitting up that is not built upon but but it has a project proposed right so that's part of it so um and I can I guess um one thing was the SE so did we look at increasing the density somewhat to get the unit counts we did no more than 20 I mean what I don't understand you're you're saying increase cus by to 25 for example yeah just whatever that's interesting what would happen with that well you have to remember that and Alo might be able to answer more than I you have to remember that the other zoning in place has to allow that to happen so we already know a pitus that there's not enough parking right say and it's limited to a certain height in the B laws right so those things still have to be maintained so you can't say well put a lot of units up there and build it six stories you know because we'd have to change the zoning to allow six stories or or whatever to make that happen right so you'd only have certain amount of like wiggle room because it still has to fit within the bylaws that are in place unless we also change those bylaws does that make sense so but that is the maximum and someone did all the calculations for exactly that amount of of land to say it's 20 we've done a lot of calculations in putting in a lot of different set of sets of numbers within the state model right to make it all work to make it all factor out and pencil at the end of the day and and Trish is right right if you throw a bunch of stuff in the model is going to also knock it down more because of certain setbacks and areas right and restrictions within those parcels and so we're trying to thread the needle right we're trying to take everything into consideration and we're trying to you know really it's a balancing act I would say at the best and I think we've come to a a an act or a plan right that is balanced throughout that meets the Integrity of the law as passed and that obviously takes advantage of housing that we have promoted and and developed here in Ashland okay so I think Kate I think you're asking like well what about what if it's 21 units an acre instead of 20 like is the magic number is that your question well especially yeah because even if it's 21 that's 50 more units because it's a lot of L um actually I'm sorry it's 40 it's 29 so it's 29 more units but it's it's a lot right so one or two unit makes a giant impact on the numbers yeah no I get it so Alo I mean we did play around with these numbers a little bit Alo do you have any um data on that uh I guess I can like pin down like what will be the exact perfect number to put it um 20 was not in any way like highlighted saying that you know with a maximum of three stories above grade and four from the setback was like affecting it in any sort of way so that's why we were trying to keep it at that number if that answers your question no but that's wait a minute El do you know that 21 didn't work do we know that or was 21 too close to the you know I don't I don't remember you know in the process I think that we looked at 25 and we did have like a flag on it but we brought it about at 20 because we were looking at just kind of like spreading the density and not making just one area like extremely dense um yeah that's well so for my perspective right that Ashland already said certain areas they allowed that and when it's built we don't all tend to like it which is two separate things but so I think I mean that's a that's a right for picking to looking at going up one or two if five was a flag but didn't kick it off I mean that's five times 29 Acres that's a lot of housing units that could be put back into seirs calculation on a parcel that is readily agreed should be in so I feel like that has to be push to um what's the maximum that fits the model and where would you take the units out um would you eliminate well I don't think that 10 to 60 M well I I don't think the parcels in add unless they have commercial I think they need serious consideration right because it's our our downtown 10 to 60 m is currently all commercial and it's a commercial center so to take it on MBTA and put the possibility of only housing I I do not think that's a great idea so it it it's um I I don't see how that makes sense and if you read our bylaws um the add right it's it's the purpose of the district to provide a framework to encourage growth and development successful downtown promote Village salary development with a mix of commercial retail residential usage the walk environment particularly the a specifically is the highest of commercial so proposing to completely get rid of commercial on a parcel in the middle of the downtown I I I don't I don't understand that well you have to remember hold on you guys Michael wanted to add something so I'm gonna let Michael jump in here I was going to ask a question but just to Kate's point so it doesn't the zoning already allow for all residential there the zoning allows for residential right and it makes you yeah at a at a really high rate at a two 2.0 F right right if if doing the math and the calculations right having a 2.0 F on that site right and then multiplying the the the the building square footage that you could get with a 2f right and then factoring out the 133% which is on average but what a mixed what mixed use buildings are proposing here in Ash to be over the all square footage you would have a much larger building yeah well I I agree but correct just real quick just for those watching who may not know can you explain what f is f is FL floor area ratio right so for a 2.0 floor area ratio you're taking the size of the parcel you're multiplying it by two obviously you're creating a square footage through of a factor of a process of obviously multiplying um the total number of acres by how much is in a square foot um how much square feet is in an acre it's it's 46560 um so with that said it's it's a big structure that you would be allowing to be built over there right however there are other regulations right there are height regulations there's parking regulations no one's saying that actually that would all the units would fit right with that commercial because with the factoring in the totals of the f um but also you got to realize that site to to to financially redevelop that site is going to take a lot of units to to financially make that that that that a project commercially work um and and so this number at 10 to 160 Main Street is well below what was proposed in front of the planning board um and the on the the project that was worked on throughout that planning board process yeah I I think that just the point that I was trying to make and Kate I would agree I think what what we would like to see at 10 to 60 Main and and really a lot of parcels downtown is like that mixed use right um but I I do think it's important to note that the existing zoning allows for mixed use but it also allows for all residential well no I understand that but when we're making a proposal so another overlay the the base zoning commercial the overlay allows many things right Fair Density that you're saying and then we're going to create an overlay that's only housing which to me is is channeling a value that I'm okay with just housing there but you already got a value that says it's okay to just have housing you got it under existing well we we would hope that developers read the intent and the spirit of our bylaw and we would hope to improve them so we can go back to saying I think you want the mixed use I that's what we hear from people I'm not trying to make this the um Kate Jers plan I have our real bylaws so so I I feel like that's just not a good way to go and then to Peter's point about the the one developer that was in front of so I just want to say I have never seen any economic data from that person we never had anything of evaluated by independent so given that there was a billions of dollar Bond Bill about housing there could be projects that do not look like something that was brought in front of us or the 40b right that I I don't think people are saying don't have any housing but all housing in a giant commercial in the middle of your downtown I don't think is something we want to promote a new sure it's like not it's 124 units so it's it's housing I mean 100 the project proposed at 501 which is a you know small is 120 units so um and it has to fit it would have to fit under all our concern all our current zoning I think the important thing here today because we need we need concrete feedback right so because this is about it we're kind of at the end of our timeline here so if the if the Dual boards are saying we don't want to use 10 to 60 unless we have to we need that as a directive the the bo the working group has put together something that we believe in we think is a good plan we think minimizes risk in in all of our categories we think um reflects um using using what we have which is what our our goals were you know so but if the joint boards we're just a working group if the joint boards have a a combined opinion that's says take out 10 to 60 Maine if if you can and up the percentage to Sirus as high as you can and explain you know and go that way for town meeting we can look at that but we need we can't be just throwing out ideas at this point we need to say this is what we want you to do working group and if not then go then do your plan if it doesn't work right because we're we're out of time and so we need very definitive Direction so ask a question the way that these overlays work so we have ADD in downtown if we had MBTA communities that would be another overlay and then basically what would happen is if a developer outside of the 40b process say the 40b gets denied decides to file a new project they would choose which one to apply for and you're saying basically like that the add would have a higher density anyway than what we would be proposing under MBTA communities so most likely even if even if we do keep 10 to 60 Main Street in there someone would want to develop more housing because as we discussed financially feasible that project would need more housing so is that am I understanding that correctly I couldn't say it better okay so see I swoop in at the last minute but a 40 a 40b supered everything 4 if it's approved right approved but you know that's and I just want to be careful about that because yes it is very true that the zoning board can deny a 40b project but the reality is is that the develop what makes a 40b I I'll just say dangerous is that it can be denied at the local level but then they have the opportunity under the 40b process to appeal it to a special committee known as the housing appeals committee which hears that they could a developer could even appeal it if the project is approved with conditions that the developer feels like they make it uneconomical and if you look at the history of the housing appeals committee and how they rule on these decisions the large majority I would say over 90% they find in favor of the developer and so that's why most experts around 4bs will tell you that your best approach would be to approve it with conditions and there's some strategy involved in that because when you get to the housing appeals committee if there's conditions attached the housing appeals committee can modify conditions but if if you just deny a project and the developer appeals it and the housing appeals committee findes for the developer the zoning board you lose all local control over imposing conditions so I I do want it is true that yes it can be denied at the local level and I know that's probably what a lot of people are going going to want us to do and I totally understand it but the reality is is that under 40b there's another step that's not available under traditional Zing which favors the developer and the thing is that that I would hate to have the 40b process go forward and have have you know a huge number of units built there and not get credit for it within the MBTA zoning I mean I I just feel like that we're getting hit twice instead of getting hit once m um I mean so C can I U go go ahead Marcel no there just one uh Chia just made me think about this um because we talked about this earlier I I think in general um I I am very pleased with the process we talked about these a lot and uh some things that we some of us uh disagreed in terms of Pleasant Street have been turned around so the process have been really good and I am comfortable with what's being proposed here relative to Main Street I feel that that project should remain here not only for the reasons of the numbers or the possibilities but a because of what Michael said you know that the danger is not a new danger different than what the zoning already allows but the spirit of the of the law that Massachusetts wants is the possibility that people will leave close to a Comm to to a rail station no no other partial is clear than that one tough to be such a large part so close to a train station adding more numbers to Sirus or something that that has been built is is against the the spirit of that so I think we're going to be kind of honest with trying to yeah massage it to to be con convenient for ashin I'm all for that uh but but but here we can almost have it both ways it's something that makes reasonable sense to me but also attacks the spirit of of these regulation a little more straight just a a point of clarification so let's just say the zoning as this propose zoning as the working group is put together goes forward to town meeting and let's say it it passes right is there anything that precludes us from going back and revisiting it next year and maybe making some tweaks to it no and I think a lot of communities are going to do that and I think we probably will do that with the comprehensive plan right we need to have a you know the state law we need to have a Zone you know passel meeting come this December 31st right after the next thing after December 31st in my eyes is the completion of the comprehensive plan right so looking at the comprehensive plan look at the zoning looking at the areas of development that in the process that genes outlined are there going to be tweaks probably right and we're going to go have to go back through this whole process right and we're going to have to go back and use the same model that we're using right now and plug different things in and and move forward um also at that time maybe we have understanding what happens with the 40 BS if you move things around what do you want to shift of course this is zoning it's fluent right there's nothing about it that's that is is is set in stone right um but yes we do have the ability to do that and I I and I as a town planner I suspect we're going to do that and have to go through that exercise and the state would let us go and change it after as long as we met as long as we continue to follow the the regulations set forth within the law but also this this model quote unquote that they've produced for all communities to use to make sure that everybody is statutory compliant I I think that of course they have hold I've been trying to say something for a while okay then go ahead yeah um so I I kind of have three points I want to very quickly say one is the comprehensive plan process there's been quite a bit of talk at least in the groups I participated in in a vibrant downtown and there's now a I believe an effort being made by the one of the histo history related committees to define a downtown history District um there's quite a bit of energy around there and therefore I personally I'm not 100% comfortable including Main Street in there because I think it will be highly inconvenient for the comprehensive a plan steering committee to have a zoning plan for Main Street to then have to redo this entire process this MBTA process um or to be threatened by the idea that the MBT is zoning has already defined that property and therefore we should not touch it as part of the comprehensive plan process and so if we this group is going to take Main Street and make it part of it I would like us to agree that the comprehensive plan steering committee is not prohibited from rezoning it again and from us coming back here again for another round of MBT work and I would not be comfortable voting it for for for Main Street to be included otherwise because I think it would directly get in the way of the comprehensive plan work that's number one and what vibrant downtown means um number two is the idea of meeting the MBTA requirement in Ashland by resoning five different Parcels makes me uncomfortable Ashland has done a ton of work already we are not your standard Community that's being impacted by MBT zoning we're way ahead of the curve we've done a a lot of work for for housing we are essentially already there this type of zoning change by the state is meant to create towns like Ashland Ashland is already hyperdense relative to other communities and so I personally am not comfortable using MBT zoning to rezone five Parcels I would like to find a way to only reone four because we've done enough already as a community and I heard one would like to do a little bit extra work and figure out a way to indeed take a piece of a fourth and so me personally I would recommend a b c and then 8.34 Acres out of Waverly Street I don't think 8.34 Acres out of that one will jeopardize that project um and I think that way we can tell to the public listen we know we did everything already we know this is not really about us we've met the requirement with only four well really three and a half parcels and we have done everything we can to minimize the impact on our community because we've already done all this work that the state is trying to frankly motivate in other communities not ours thank you so just hold hold on okay so we have a charge from Trisha right she has asked the subcommittee has done a lot of work and I have listened to your your your comments um I believe that based on what Peter just said not even five minutes ago was that if we approve this and it gets through town meeting comprehensive plan will still have the ability to review this and we as a community will still have an ability to review this MBTA zoning so the one thing uh in regards to yes Ashland has has done a lot of building and we've used that as as a strategy against some of the 40 BS will it work we don't know yet yet we haven't heard back from Mass housing on these 40 BS uh but because we don't have our 10% affordable we are at risk with certain things so what I'm going to ask from the Committees if people are ready for this is Trisha has asked for direction do we feel that what they've presented is something that the majority of us and it's going to be a majority vote and some people may be unhappy and that happens at this point we are we are at risk we need to have this approved and presented and available for town meeting on November 19th I know the planning board has a hearing on this for October 10th if I read correctly yes that is correct okay so um based on that information I will let Brandy say her piece and then I would like us to say okay and then after after Brandy and Claudia I'd like us to give our yes or no do we support the plan as presented or do we feel the majority of us feel that the subcommittee has to do more work Brandy go ahead so just to that end um first of all I really appreciate all the work you guys have put into this because you know there's been a crap ton of work so let's just recognize that so thank you guys for for the the work that the subcommittee has done and I appreciate all the the intricacies of you know the affordable housing discussion and Parcels at risk and how things have kind of ebbed and changed based on the 40b situation I think it's important to include the 10 to 60 Main Street parcel in there I am fully in support of revisiting this at some later point in time um if that if that is necessary I think that you know we can definitely do that I do support the recommendations that the sub that this this working group has made I think one of the other things that is really important when we go to town meeting is that we present a very wellth thought out simplified plan because if we if we present something that is incredibly complex for people to understand where things are coming from and how we got there it's not going to pass and I think that you know this is a zoning exercise this is not we are building 1100 units of housing this is a zoning exercise so I think that you know the work that the that the working group has put into this I think is our best um I think our best plan for strategy best strategy for for how to get this through to town meeting in a way that does not impact the town of Ashlen before the comprehensive plan is completed so that is that's kind of where I where I fall on it Claudia and let me say one more thing Yolanda y I mean I think I'm not at this point I'm not comfortable with dividing single Parcels into being two different zones I just think that complicates our work in a I'm not even sure we could we could get there you know by the deadlines we have and to me that seems like a complicated solution to the problem I think you know if it if it makes people feel more comfortable we could look at reducing and just take a look at it to see if it works if it if 10 to 60 can be reduced to the minimum at 15 units an acre and so it makes it even more unappealing to develop at that because it's pretty low um um and and if and if uh Sirus Apartments could accept those units on top of the 20 like that's a tweak in what we were doing you know that we could see if worked like I would I would I would deem that like a friendly amendment that if it works go in that direction otherwise we'll go in the direction we have I'm just trying to take into account the boards the boards comment so Trisha you're suggesting keep in 10 to 60 Main Street but instead of having 18 units it would be 15 units if it if it can be absorbed in the state model by then and then to Cirus add it wouldn't it would be more than three units per acre right because the 10 to 60 Main Street parcel is smaller correct so it should be it should be less than three units an acre I think yeah and just by fact can I jump in here real quick so if you did that and you multiplied that you're right now we have the 10 to 160 Main Street produ Building correct me um at 18 if you shifted that down to the minimum 15 that's at one it's moving that's to 104 okay um as a total so in theory you're shifting around 20 unit units into into Cirrus you can do it into Cirrus you can do it into other units and it's just a shift of you're we're mathematically shifting numbers well Sirrus is nice because it's a low well Sirrus CU you you know what we you know what I would probably go to Sirus first Sirus gets you the biggest bang for your buck because it's 28 Acres Shi around if it's 28 Acres it sounds like we'd only have to add one unit that's correct per acre make that 21 One units per acre and at 28 so we would add an additional 28 there and we've lost 20 at 10 to 60 Main Street correct and itn't matter if the model and I'm I assume the model will be okay and it will be able to accept it and and I think and then the only change we're making from the suggestion of the subcommittee is we would also remove F of 10 to 6 no we would keep 10 to 60 Main Street ruction yes because you also need the Acres that 6.5 Acres means a lot right you know what I mean in that total you just can't think of one acre so to the subcommittee is that something I would say check it to make sure it works with the state model does that then Anna I mean it would keep it in this but it reduces the number I mean it's definitely a move in the right direction okay Claudia you wanted to say something yeah I just you know thank thank you to the subcommittee again like brandy said I did attend um one of the forums one evening um the public forum and it was very well done the public understood it um it it was simple it it the presentation is just really superb in my mind um and I did actually review the one that you just had Monday night thank you Alvaro um um so I didn't want to miss anything um you know and I just want to to Anna to you points about this the issue isn't I think our community um and and the way we're doing things it is indeed um we have done all the things that you have outlined we are where we probably should be except for that important affordable housing number um but in terms of adding housing we've done all that and we have no freaking power here none and so it really this is about kind of minimizing um any more that in in this case could be damaging to our community based on what I think the feedback in the comprehensive plan has been and I am relieved to know that it can be Revisited again after the comprehensive plan moves along further um I think that that's a good thing but I I think when when this goes before the town I think it it at town meeting I think it needs to be made very clear about um what's happened I think we got the one thing that has to be done I think we have to draw really strong distinctions between 40 BS and the MBTA housing I think everybody knows there's been a lot of confusion around those two issues and for good reason um and and I think that you know again that we're 50 acres right why should a town our size be fif have 50 acres wouldn't one expect that a town our size at this particular density level that the law might take in those things into account it does not it's 50 acres if we were a you know whatever huge huge land every town that has corre a train station has to supply the that's such an arbitrary way of doing things it does not take into account the existing density it doesn't take into account uh it actually the existing density kind of works against you so right um are you saying it's a crappy law I'm saying it's a really crappy law and uh would agree I think everybody would maybe conc it's probably great law for a town that's not Ashland that has done absolutely nothing well that's why if you tooken some of these other things into account like the number of units that have been added in this community in the last you know 10 years or so okay do yeah I just I wrote it and read it so if it's 15 if we reduce it to 15 it becomes 104 and we add 20 make it 21 for it adds an extra 28 so yeah okay so I have a question for Peter because we're talking about revisiting and trust me as a planning board member I we should be looking at our zoning so I'm thrilled to hear people and I hope we continue that so my question is do you have any indication is this Perpetual because now we built more units and now we have to zone for more units like what's the like I don't think they're freezing this I don't know you know what nobody knows that question right how is it change what you know what I've asked that question to some to many people right and nobody can tell me this tell me an answer because here's the thing on they're just trying to get people to comply right off the bat what the criteria is to can is it going to be an annual obviously a annual um submission right I don't know is it going to be a by anual update um I we don't know yet so I think that's the crazy thing about this law is that it's only requiring the zoning so when they created this law they're like great we're going to create this zoning around MBTA but there's no there's no hook that says you have to build it which to our to our for us it's an advantage right that we just have to create this zoning so but long term their goal is going to be to build some housing because we short housing we're sort of propos in already saying we probably want to look at some changes is that going to open the door to say well you built since then more units and now you have to zone for more units my gut check from what I've heard from different people in different communities that are dealing with this is it's going to depend on how much housing actually gets created as to what the state is going to ask for are they going to ask for more if there actually is more housing built from this or not and and and as we know it could change on the administration that's there the housing that actually gets built and how many communities comply and it could get repealed it could it could get we don't know what's going to happen at the end of the day all these housing numbers at the state level across the board are all dependent on the desial census right right the Shi is all dependent on the desial census it change that true that factor changes every 10 years so theoretically right when the Cal census when the new 2020 30 numbers thank you so much 2030 numbers roll out in 2032 right which that's unbelievable still to say that um yeah maybe we'll have to update and we're going to have to submit in every town we'll have to submit new modeling information to the state to say hey you guys have to go through this exercise so so theoretically maybe Bas line it's a zoning exercise that every town is going to have to not every town7 only theed M have to go through every 10 years or once every 10 years and so maybe that's the that's what I could say if I had to link two and two together with knowing what how the state operates um that would be my that's my best guess y okay so based on the recommended change for 10 to 60 Main Street of 15 instead of 18 and then moving it into Cirrus at 21 that will get us our numbers but you're going to double check it um so Trisha and Joe have asked do we as boards support that and then support what they're presenting to present a town meeting so a b and c would be part of it e would be part of it f would be part of it but with changes so I I want to an E right you're you're talking about the whole thing AB C yep abc e and clear so we had talked about commercial being viable and I know that you have to apply I know we did unpleasant so I don't know and I know it doesn't affect the unit counts but like the whole have we done it for Main Street you mean well the whole thing that we're proposing like I I hope that's not just completely obliterated no it's not and we we we applied for it for Pleasant Street as requested we're still waiting to here back on the state and so we're actually going to work that into our bylaw that says dependent upon approval at the state so we also Main Street I thought we were looking into that in Main Street we did not we there was a conversation but it was not it was not that's requiring commercial that conversation was not completed so okay I I will say I will reluctantly support the abcf plan reluctantly for the reasons I stated I I have to say that it's a decision by process where I would have hoped the working group would have rather than saying well Anna has this idea about splitting one of these babies up to make it four Parcels but we just think it's too much it would have been helpful to see if it's been plausible um so I'm not I'm I'm somewhat frustrated that it's a decision by process because the process essentially limits our my ability to do much because we're out of time so I will I'm I'm very reluctantly going to go along with this because I'm not given any options but I will say that uh having the state do the commercial at Main Street would be really important a request just like we did with Pleasant Street and I would vote for it you know part of the reason we're out of time right is because we had these 40b projects come on and I for one was like no but we were ready to kind of move forward in the spring and then we had the 40 BS so that would have given us more time but my other comment would be is we've all had the ability to give our input to the working group no no I did and I didn't see a proposal of that for this discussion essentially the working group decided on its own that oh well it's complicated but I would have liked to see that as part of a discussion tonight like what is complicated because if the working group couldn't figure out where to draw the line to create 8.34 Acres I think we as a group could have figured it out or at the working group or at the working group level bringing it here so I'm simply recognizing that the process here is not ideal and therefore I will I will support this as is but I'm doing so openly stating the fact that an idea that was suggested was not fully explored there's lots of things there's lots of things to critique here I don't think it's the working group in this particular case and believe me I would I think you know what this is the state and everything the a lot of things that have happened to this community in the past year that caus this crunch so say that I'm going to take your comments as you know from from from a select board perspective um I would I don't know exactly how the subcommittee work but I know they worked very hard I know they've looked at a lot of different things that it didn't come back to us I I'm okay with that if if they looked at it and they T and they tried to figure it out I'm okay with that so again what I'm what I'm what I'm looking for now is and I'm going to start with the select board and then the planning board can do their process do we as a board uh support what has been recommended by the subcommittee in regards to ABC E and F with the changes in the numbers and then the only thing I would add is also if we can check on adding commercial for Pleasant Street and Main Street we don't have to take an official vote but do we we support it do you support it yes Joe yes Brandy yes and I as well so from the from our from the select board Trisha we support this with those changes okay with the so with the same description that you gave yep um I will take the same responses from the planning board I think uh Deepa is there right yes so DEA you're a yes yes and um I'm gonna put some um I about sort of the commercial and all of that but I I know we have to go forward so um I wish we were in a different place place here but so I'm having my reservations and yes okay I think I already said Yes No Reservations yes great all right and then I'm a yes so so we will we will take those two things under consideration that the swapping of the density a little bit and looking for commercial for Main Street as well as Pleasant Street and then um moving forward with those bylaw great Peter Peter is that uh doable Peter and Al yeah I think uh you know with the with the uh with the team we have and obviously with Joe and and you Trisha we can do that okay and and I just want to say thank you again to the subcommittee the work that you've put into and you know Pete and Alvaro so thank you very much for that um yes thank you any other joint conversation that we need to have as board just one quick are we meeting on September 23rd yes okay that is the the meet and greet on September 23rd um the we've talked about that data it was talked about back in August and um because I wasn't sure if you yeah I'm looking at your face and I'm we I apologize in advance I'm going to be out of the country so I I will not be able to make it um but I believe the rest of the board is I just want to make sure I want to make sure okay so we will see you all on the 23rd so that's next week Monday except for Anna safe travels um okay you guys need to do what you need y they need to adjourn do you want to adjourn us yeah we will adjourn the I'll make a motion to adjourn I'll second that and a roll vote Catherine Jersey guy great guys a minute um have a cookie we'll have cookies now because that'll keep us going know TR thanks for coming up with that um that you know solution that helped with Anna on such a you know so easily so quickly thank you well thanks every for this they're birthday cookies so there's no calories and we'll high five next okay one B STS okay we don't want to scare people my I know that would would freak people out be like what's happening with the mo I know really glass of wine another cookie oh yeah or two are you doing your movie Nights thank you you are thank you for your hard work thank you I don't need Anna Kate another cookie than okay you to Kate I am dream dream trip Paris where I've never been tomorrow yes we're at 7 comp plan is seven tomorrow and then that's a good excuse to miss thek hope you're going some place fun I thought joining you virtually from a cafe in Paris but you're on vacation Anna take the vacation e e e as you know there's a oh gosh um sorry about that just didn't have the mic close enough um so uh we have the the feasibility study for wasum which is you know treatment of the algae and the the things that are making it basically um yeah it's really difficult to uh to use that for any kind of recreation they actually the down that was one of the that down yeah so um so actually we're going to split the cost of this since the majority of it is in Framingham was is they're going to pay for 75% and we do 25% so that's the CPC article so article number seven um so it's still kind of running through our internal process but it's a new blight bylaw so um we have started getting more complaints and concerns about property maintenance and um you know basically people not maintaining their property and you know how that leads to basically a deterioration of property values leads to you know potentially crime you know that whole broken windows Theory don't we already have a blight we do not oh no we never we've talked about it but we've never done it we've never done it blight a blight byw yeah so so who's is that going through planning board or no it so the Board of Health would actually so the way the blight bylaw would work it would um name different entities in town that would be the enforcement agents so right now it's currently the building Comm the way it's written it would be the Building Commissioner it' be the health director in police and fire so I need to meet with police and fire and make sure that they're on board with everything I do think they should play a role in this and then if you know the property owner that gets cited you know if they want to appeal that they would be appealing it to the Board of Health so it was reviewed with the Board of Health last night um Dave probably gave you you know some feedback and I yeah I heard a little bit little bit about it I guess there was some technology issues with Doug yeah yeah he He Turned 67 today that's all I'll say happy birthday to Doug yeah um so Dave they've just told me that they they had heard about the blight bylaw and I said is that going in front of planning board because I figured it was a zoning thing and he's like I don't I don't know I don't know no it's not a zoning it's not a zoning thing I know we've talked about it as a board many years ago were you part of that discussion or not I had heard I I had heard a little bit about this like before like it wasn't quite ready for town meeting correct yeah and so who's who's rewriting it and who's so Doug and Raj are really taking the lead on it I'm working with Lisa um so I I got plugged in a little bit more earlier this week and you know I added my comments to it um there's a few things I'd like him to tweak uh do we have to approve it going to town meeting so it's your warrant so okay you would need you would need to be okay with putting it on the warrant so can yeah say can we add it to our October 18th agenda so we can discuss it have maybe Doug come or someone from Board of Health if they're supporting this to discuss it so we can determine do we want to move this forward I would think man's BL well and how the enforcement is going to work too because I think that's like key is trying to figure out how how it's going to be enforced and what are I wouldn't want it to just go from in front of board of just from in front of Board of Health to a town meeting agenda I'd want it to be here for other public opinion and stuff so okay I was run it by um try Mee as well she yeah she's the one who who drafted it and so like right now I mean to your point I some of the language some of the definitions are kind of squishy which I pointed out some concern so you know for example it says you know like grasp being you know unkempt or something I mean who makes that determination I mean I I just know that you know certain communities have these kinds of things and this was very drastic but there was a house that I was I was told about and they didn't mow their lawn and the landlord got cited by the town so the landlord said okay if you're not going to maintain the lawn I'm gonna cut down all the trees so now that's a very drastic yeah measure but I just want us to be careful and I don't think we're going to be able to predict all of that no no no but if can we get a copy of it you know rather than wait until the 18th let's get it out to us so we can at least look and if there's any questions okay does that include nuisance as well nuisance would be something different a little bit a little bit different um nuisance is the dog that barks at all hours and blight is because this is more could also be a bacon home yeah so this would so part of this as a play so it's so funny so just like the definitions you know grass or like there's rotted you know trim and boarded up Windows and it's like hey guess what guys you know what a prime example of this is the Valentine property and so I think you know I think we've got to think about about that and how that how that works so um so yeah we're going to meet I think next week with police and fire um and I gave Doug and Raj my instructions okay on specifying some things uh this also requires vacant properties so the owner to register them with a town and there is a fee associated with that okay um this is very similar to when I did in low back a ways back and it was it was pretty effective so so let me ask you a question you don't mind M here yeah go ahead how about dumpsters on a property yeah whether they're private or commercial and I'll use the hom AR rabish Sho it's a donation that's a donation box totally different but dumpster of of an individual that's allowing that to happen is that individual responsible for his property I I I think something needs needs to be done there um I don't know if it's planed aid needs to get the box out of there better control it or if it's there's a big sign on it now that talks about illegal dumping and I didn't get to see the whole thing but okay it says we already we already have something on do have a donation bin we have yeah we have by but you know maybe it's a good idea to to review that just make sure that it's yeah what the enforcement looks like and what the process looks like and at what point do we require them to remove it or whatever that is so I mean it's not a bad there might actually it's been a while since we we put it forward and I haven't reviewed it recently so there might actually be stuff in there about like removing it I think okay anything else so there's there's blight and then um the NBTA communities you didn't think I'd forget that um and then so finally uh we might have an opportunity to purchase a piece of property uh that buts the Town Forest um obviously I don't want to talk you know too much about it but I I will say that um we're working with a land conservation partner um and we're looking at a number of uh different funding mechanisms not just Town funds um unfortunately what we're finding out and bring this up is um so there are two big grants that we wanted to apply for that this parcel would be perfect for and unfortunately because we don't have an approved open space and Recreation plan we're not going to be able to apply for those SOB won't be able to they'll be a they'll be able to do one of them okay they'll be able to help the second the one of the grants specifically requires you to have an approved open space and Recreation plan actually it looks like both might oh really yeah and the one that we originally did that started back in 17 never got it got part it never got complete approval and even if it had it expired this year I was going to ask like so because because I remember we talked about an open space plan we've been talking about it for a while but so is that is that the open space and wreck committee committee didn't see it through or is it more like it's their responsibility to get it through okay and what is um how did you get it in place does it go does the plan go before the town or just it doesn't have to go before the town or us what happens is the open space and Rec they have requirements as to what they need to do to complete the plan that and if I don't know if you remember you guys remember but back between 15 16 and 17 there was a number of uh public engagements where they reviewed the plan so they to do to do the next plan they have to do that same public engagement and based on what we seeing we don't think we don't know that they'll be able to do it so but we've known about the deficiency public engagement for a while now and I'm not sure anything has been done since right we so this is this goes back to our appointment of committees right we've sometimes just rubber stamped people sitting there and unfortunately this could come back to bite us but yeah yeah it's a little frustrating I know we should ask representative come in and talk I can for you some information that I already have on it and then we can go from there that would be helpful yeah because I do think you know it's it's great to have an open space and Recreation plan just from a planning perspective and but you know when it starts impacting our ability to to potentially get millions in Grant funds I think so that's it's disappointing there's there's some real consequences there could that could that affect any any funding that you folks would be looking for the no no no no no that's all totally different yeah that's a different different thing just want to make okay else okay great uh moving on in our agenda vote to reduce in-person early voting hours for week one only as indicated below uh is this because of Staffing or just what they're seeing as potential for inperson and most people are doing mailin um it's a it's a combination of things um you know that's Cindy's recommendation based on so this will be on the website but Saturday 10:19 10 to 4 Monday 10:21 10 to2 Tuesday 10:22 10-2 Wednesday 10:23 2- 6 Thursday 10:24 10:2 Friday 1025 9 to noon Saturday 102 10:26 10 to 4 Monday 10:28 8 to 3:30 Tuesday 10:29 8 to 3:30 Wednesday 10:30 8-7 Thursday 10:31 88 to 3:30 and Friday 111 uh 9 to noon and then of course we all know the election is on the six fth of November so questions or comments just um question is Cindy planning to use the the basement of town hall for early voting okay sounds good okay Claudia um the other thing is you know I think over time we might need to uh kind of reconsider what voting looks like right it's changing and uh and maybe we need to provide more resources to the early voting that happens in town hall because it does I think there's a lot that has happened basically from what you know Cindy told me um I had inquired after the you know the primary it must have been um in any case so you know maybe they need some additional resources from Seniors or whoever we use at um the school in terms of trying to be able to do that at in town hall I mean I don't know if she didn't say that to me but just listening to it I'm thinking when you say additional resources meaning more Personnel or budget well I don't know I mean maybe budget maybe some we just maybe need to reallocate some things from the schools we're going to have significantly fewer people I mean I think unfortunately on Election Day you have to have you have to be able to to have all the precincts set up and able for people to vote right so I mean I think what we're seeing is so many more people are taking advantage of mailin voting that's really where kind of the trend is going um and it's interesting because you know back in 2020 like the majority of people voted by mail now that was covid right and it was also the first time that mailin voting was allowed so it's interesting you don't have the same concerns with now as you did back in 2020 but but now it's a convenience thing is a lot more people used to it you don't have to you don't have to ask for a special if you want to not go to vote because you had to have either you were traveling or you were sick or you physically you know absentee balance so yeah yeah I actually filled out my request for a mailin ballot for the first time yeah you know this year yeah yes for me I I like to go in and vote so I do too but I I I the primary like wasn't able to do it and um yeah app all okay so the uh the schedule that I read off uh it is it's a reduction from other years so I we need to if I can get a motion to approve the early voting hours that I just read off has so moved so moved and a second Joe go second not second okay thank you Brandy thank you Joe any other discussion all those in favor I I and that passes five 4 Z tell Cindy thank you for organizing all that yeah she's great she really is okay uh that moves us to town manager report okay um I'll just do it as a mishmash I know we have priority projects here listed but there's a few other things so um first uh just you know a bit of good news so I sent to the board the fact that S&P reaffirmed our AAA rating um and yeah it was uh you know was a bit concerned and yes they they had quite a few questions um and we were able to answer them adequately uh we meaning you know myself and Britney and Cindy scata um a great team and um so yeah I did get a copy of the the draft report I mean they do make mention of the fact that we had a deficit and the fact that we had to use onetime revenues and it's something that um we need to watch but you know what they say is based on our our strong performance before and our strong we we still got a very strong the top rating in our management um category they felt confident in giving us the AAA rating again so um if we do this next year could be a little bit a little bit different but we'll see um we'll cross that bridge when we get to it and it's really good time timing because um the FED dropped uh the interest rates by 50 basis points which I was a little bit surprised so you know doing that ahead of ahead of a borrowing that's great um so congratulations to everybody involved in that um so next one's a little bit of an odd one um so I don't know if any of you have heard Claudia I think you know about this the coyote at the mendz school um so we have a coyote who has uh taken a liking to a rock essentially at the Mendes school and is camping out there um and is not afraid of humans uh one bit and is has skillfully evaded uh the traps that we have set so unfortunately we have to look at the next steps um to take care of that and so I'm working with the police department and the environmental police and the school department to uh come up with a removal plan removal plan removal plan it might not that might not happen in front of students Claudia come on you would hope just want know put that out there yes has has the coyote come out when the kids are out like like to that point that's my understanding like they have they have strategies in place they have people to make sure that the kids are safe and Y it's not rabid but it's certainly got some mange and and stuff well but a coyote out in the middle of the day too is not a healthy coyote nowadays Nows I see him go through my backyard I wondered how they decided that it wasn't rabbit I mean maybe it wasn't acting rabbit but no no you would know if it's rabbit youin yeah I'm not as up on Coyote Well and then there was a bear on Sudbury Road I know it's like uh down towards it's like National Geographic here I mean think about it where the school is sitting up until however many years years ago was Forest right there was partly field but partly Forest so we're we've taken some of his range away and was UN to see oh yeah and it's you know I never I was there for a lot of years I never saw you never saw no so you know I I think given you know the proximity to the school and everything there's a little bit more concern than if you just saw this wandering out and he's he's not like wandering he's like camping yeah it is the RO yeah that rocks yeah I don't think that's going anywhere Jo oh my gosh um so see there's that I'm telling you this is the most interesting job sometimes that um so we did get some good news on the downtown project we did get bids in this time as opposed to the last time where we got no bids um and actually the low bid came in under our estimate so um so we're starting off well so we're getting that um that work under contract I'm sorry the local personel no and we really did we thought this would be a good job for local contractors U because it was just like the site work the excavation work so we did talk to a couple local ones and asked them why they they um why they didn't bid and it was just a little bit too big for them you know to the kind of the fixed cost associated with that so what's the timing so hope hope if we you know the contract documents are being exchanged and and hopefully we'll get that started next week or we'll get that finalized next week and then you know I think our deadline is mid November to have that done so concurrently we also are meeting next week to put together the RFP for the next phase which is actually the electrical connections and so what I'd like to do is oh this isn't this is just the site work so like laying the conduit remember so what we did the first time we went out to bid it was for both and the electrical connections and we got no bids div them yeah so based on some of the feedback that we got we said okay let's split it up and so that's what we did um and that worth like I said we got seven bids on this one um but what we're going to do is while that works going we hope to have out to bid the electrical connections so hopefully that'll be ready basically as soon as the this first phase is done we can move right into the second phase and then they'll be out a week after that taking the PO I love your op feeling all right I mean seeing what we're dealing with with 126 and some of that I mean it's just going to be the same process um so there's uh so there's that um just quick question so the so like the um the first phase of this that that we're that has already gone out to bid that has to be done before the ground freezes right like that has to be so like from a timing perspective we need to have that done like November is right yeah that's why that you know November mid November is I mean who knows this year it could be December before the ground you know it's it's amazing we were pouring concrete or yeah concrete you know when we were doing the sidewalks and everything a little bit later just because the temperatures were warmer anticipated I was just curious anything I I do have a question they have to dig right to put the uh conduit underground M where were they going to put it in the road or under the or near the sidewalk so this would be both this no this is their the properties like the oh so individual home exactly I'm saying I thought we already put the conduit in the yeah so the conduit is in the ground like on in the right away right and it's and it's you got the main lines and then you've run it and you'll see the hand holds you know handholes in the in the concrete and the sidewalk sidewalks okay so yes this is going to be the work on on individual properties okay and so yeah you you'll run the electrical stuff from the handholes okay so we're not having to dig up any of the sidewalks or anything like that we might have to do like in in a couple spaces it's more from the side from the end of the sidewalk to the property yes okay that's where I get a little nervous yeah yeah okay so it's the St yeah uh if I can have a motion to go past 10 o' second all those in favor I I okay um so oper Charles Trail you know we were we got we received the grant thanks to Joel and the committee to purchase that piece of property um unfortunately we haven't heard back from the property owner um on this so we had a great initial discussion got what we needed to submit the Grant and uh we've been ghosted um so I I've given the property owner a deadline in which to respond to us by that deadline is actually tomorrow and I did indicate in in that letter that you know if we do not hear back we'll have to look at different you know alternative measures so um so hopefully we'll hear back from them by tomorrow um but if not then you know we we have some decisions that we need to make okay um so Warren Barn um so just to kind of remind everybody so our intent has been to build a replica of the barn Framingham State has a bigger project that includes a rink and and kind of a reimagining of that space and so we're kind of engaged in this partnership and exploring that so basically you know we had committed 1.25 million Framingham State had committed 4 100,000 actually it's about 500,000 because they paid for this study and stuff so when we got the estimates back after coming up with the design and everything the estimates basically it's $1.4 million more than what we've already allocated and so Framingham State has proposed that we split that 5050 I'm not necessarily sure that's the right thing um so I have not gone through that estimate yet in look at it in detail but um that's kind of where we stand now and and you know it I'm not necessarily sure if 50/50 is the right thing especially if we're if our main concern is getting the barn built a replica it's one thing I'm sorry 1.4 on top of the ex 1.4 yeah on top of the 1.25 we already have well the one point the one point six okay yeah 3 million yeah okay so um wow it's a lot of money it is so is that because of the amenities and things that the that that the Framingham State wants to put into the barn or is it I haven't looked at the estimate so I don't know like so our last when we went out to bid for replica of the barn it came out at like 1.2 so I'm not sure if this if that's gone up you know it's I I have to look at it that's that's what I'm saying yeah no because I'm just I'm just thinking like if if it's due to basically the proposal that Framingham State wants to include that's over and above then yeah I I did um talk to Mr M about this a little bit and he did feel that that there were some items that could actually come out off the project and other things that could be potentially be delayed and well Dale and so Dale's the one who took a shot at that based on that discussion that we had and I think after he did that that's what was remaining but again I have to look at the estimate the fine too conb but the other thing that we have to think about is if we are let's just say we are going to contribute some extra money to it not you know whatever amount we have to look at what our agreement is with Framingham State moving forward in terms of like Revenue sharing and things of that nature so so it it's not just one isolated thing so you know you have the investment of the capital cost but then you also have I I'll just call it the revenue and cost sharing agreement as well that we have to think about right and maintenance exactly like a maintenance thing that need to be negotiated and are are those some of the things that are being discussed in your meetings Claudia no no we're really not point we're really not that far along oh okay yeah and the thing is is is so we're going to have a we're going to have a tight window potentially uh for this because you know I know Framingham State so it's not it's Framingham State but then it's also the mass State College building authority so their board is looking to approve this in October at some point I have to go back through and review the dates but is this something we should put a placeholder on special town meeting or are we not ready for that oh it's not as town meeting vot okay but if if there's a short window it should come to us for review and and a vote Yes because you you'll need to vote on it okay so it's just us approving okay yeah but um it's so are we looking at potential start this year or really next year um I you know I think the Hope was maybe to start this year later this year you know some aspects of it but um they probably want the rink part the rink's going to be the rink's go anyways okay the rink is oh they're definitely doing that this this season oh startup date for them well that's what they want clly but that I mean we have to come up with all that agreement and and stuff like that because right now right now the barn remember the barn has aspects Incorporated a part of that that supports the ring and so if we're saying like if we ultimately say hey you know what it's just too much for us we'd rather just spend the money and build a replica of the barn that kind of xays the rink plan as well I think that that the rink is already been purchased and everything I believe do yeah now I think the rink is going up and that the utilization of it this year was going to be different because the barn wouldn't be there to support it like the bathrooms and that kind of but as far as like property goes is that on is that considered our property or is that considered Framingham State's property so the rink would go so there would be it would be par so it be on our property so I mean I have before they come before they start building anything if it's going on we need to approve that I mean it would actually be me that would approve whether or not they have the basically a right of Entry agreement okay um and I'm hesitant to do that kind of just based on some of this stuff that's up in the air it's a lot of questions and unfortunately this goes to like the whole like too many projects kind of thing it's hard to like really sit down to focus on this one but we'll when we walk the site there last month right wasn't or maybe it was the the meeting the last inside meeting that we had the previous one where they specifically talked about having already purchase the rank yeah I don't remember that CLA but I I could totally not sure you were at that indoor meeting that one I mean I I was at one is that the one where we met indoors and then we then we walked the property a bit more yeah cuz we did both it might have been the pre the one before that could be because you were there for the when we walked yeah yeah and I I mean Jen's also working on this too but Jen's not here here tonight so I've been running um very likely on our that first meeting in October we're going to have to review this okay yeah okay um and then two last things so I I did talk to superintendent Adams uh last week about a number of things but one of the things we did discuss was um the athletic fields at the school and I did inform him that you know we would be looking to transition that um the school Fields the maintenance and scheduling that back to the schools and um so he understood um we you know obviously this is going to be a transition so like a you know year to two-year transition so we're just kind of in the nent stages now of getting the information and and um yeah it's going to take a while for them to cuz we got think about all kinds of things like equipment and and stuff like that so it could be it's going to be complicated um but we will you know start that process and I think it actually makes sense for everybody I would think even just like if we can I understand from a maintenance perspective there's there's equipment and things like that but just from a scheduling perspective it would be great if they could take that because my understanding what I've been told is we there's other groups scheduled and then they get bumped because school take priority so if they're if they're managing the school stuff they should I would think take it on all on yeah the field are a disgrace an absolute disgrace and I mean they're they're in bad shape yeah they're in bad shape they're they're very close to unplayable as a matter of fact the softball field at the middle school was unplayable this year really individual was asked to take a look at recomendations would not because of that field just well that's a different issue fields that exist and were and could be fine but are not right yeah so it's um okay yeah um and then finally so the Reservoir level so um I'm I'm waiting to hear back from Dan Mau but um I I do think like we've hit like the level where we would go into stage one because we're in September like those restrictions don't go into effect the thing is is if we do hit stage two then those restrictions do go into effect the the date doesn't matter and that that's no outdoor watering and stuff so I know in other years when we were at this stage a little bit earlier in August we would always take a vote to say that the the we as a select board give the town manager approval to make that call if necessary past September 1st um it wasn't on the agenda so I don't know that we can take a vote to give you approval to do that but is that is this the kind of thing that because of the timing of when we created the agenda that we should take that Vote or not or can we wait until our first our meeting in October or we I certainly got this information within the for the 40 the 48 hour yes so it was less than 48 hours so I mean I think part says should we should we take that vote to say if we get further information that we need to go to stage two that we give you approval to enact stage two because of water restrictions yeah yeah I think it makes sense you know Susan just reminded we are we do have a brief meeting on the 30th but it might make sense to just go ahead and do it now on the 30th oh that Monday yeah cuz we're doing the the borrowing right yeah just get done real quick I guess it's can I ask you a question sure because this has been I've had a gentleman today as I was lining the fields at stone pot he saw something on Facebook about this and he was very very polite but he wanted to know why aren't we using the T with the MW water we spent all that money but why haven't we used it yet because our bylaw only allows us to do it once we've declared a certain stage and a state of emergency yeah so it has to so it's a supplemental emergency connection so yes the Reservoir level has to get to a certain stage and then we can turn it on now moving forward if the town would like to use that or be able to use that on a regular basis yeah with less rest CH our bylaws you'd have to change the bylaws but it is it is more expensive to use the MW water so just you know and if you want to move down that road then we'll have to have that discussion I told them I would ask the question yeah and so I yeah I think a lot of people wonder that yeah yeah could we also put out some some like a public service announcement basically letting people know what our water levels are at and asking people to try to conserve water and limit outdoor watering whenever they can because I think if people understand that and you know people be like oh yeah okay maybe some people will still water their lawns but hopefully some people would take that under consideration and cut back a little bit and maybe I'm I'm just saying it it doesn't hurt to put that information out there to let people know where because if we do get to stage two yep and we do have to enact something then it's not a surprise to people that were doing that I know in the past we've very closely monitored that especially when we've had really dry Summers so I think this five weeks six we stretch of no rain has caught us almost by surprise because of how much rain we had earlier in the season um so I would I would say again do you guys feel comfortable because Michael only heard this within the last 48 hours we didn't have the time to amend the agenda are we comfortable taking a vote to give Michael the approval to an stage two if the water levels direct us because of our bylaws I just don't want I think it's because it's I'm I'm that's why I'm saying I mean Michael just told me today so an emergency yeah I mean and then if we want when we have our first our next meeting in October we can revisit it and do it put it on our agenda to have a discussion be the other option uh on the 30th or or if it hits level two I I'll have to go check might actually happens I'll have to I should check but I yeah because we're we are controlling that unless we give Michael the approval that's why I'm asking if we had didn't do that and it hits level two what's the what what happens at that point you call an emergency meeting or we we could do that would probably be most likely ultimately it becomes an operational issue if the wells or if the pumps start cavitating we just shut them down so shut some of the pumps down not all of them so so to make it a little cleaner could we post ity meeting Friday call well do it until Monday yeah right because if we post it tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.

this year on day one the last bus rolled out at 348 nice win-win I would also like to acknowledge that our teachers support staff and our Administration teams from both clas and central office from the warm welcomes to the perfectly prepared classrooms the dedication and hard work truly shined the energy and excitement from our students were a reflection of the incredible environment that they've created for them last but certainly not least a thank you to our families thank you for sending us these amazing students as of today we have enrolled 1,088 students prek to fifth grade making us again the largest prek 5 school in Connecticut I believe second place is Cheshire they have about 750 if I'm not mistaken Road I think is it prek 5 I think so or is it prek 8 No prek 5 okay prek 6 sorry oh see see they have all other grade level not fair not fair quick story from the opening of the school year very first day I have this adorable little kindergarten student she was holding her hand holding mom's and dad's hands very very tightly walking up to the building wide excitement and after spending a few minutes taking pictures listening to me chat with her parents and watching the other students enter the building she turned to her mother and father and said you can go now this moment was a reminder of the incredible trust that parents place in us and the Readiness of our young students to embrace new experiences it also highlighted the importance of all the work that happens behind the scenes to make students feel safe and welcome thank you thanks da thanks a lot Dave any questions all right thanks Dr PE awesome that's fantastic so let's move then to um the uh Brookfield we're going to go to presentations and updates so we're going to hear first from Logan cander of the Brookfield Educational Foundation thanks so much for coming to talk to us thank you for having us I think it's been maybe a year since we were here or so last so we appreciate the chance to let everybody know a little bit more about the Brookfield Education Foundation um first as you said my name is Logan sander I'm a resident here in Brookfield we have three kids and I can tell you one in each school and all of them had wonderful first days thank you guys very much can Echo what you said so um it's great because I also get to see a little bit within each school um but today I'm here as the president of the Brookfield Education Foundation we are a 20-year-old nonprofit organization based here in Brookfield we are not part of the town we are not part of the schools or the Board of Ed um but we do work together with those groups our mission is to empower Innovative education and Foster lifelong learning within Brookfield the primary way that we do that is through funding grants you heard uh Dean mentioned one and I'll talk about that briefly in a minute um and a couple others that I would talk about right now um o let me go see if that go up I think this our first one the Brendan slokum event this one was actually brought To Us by the Brookfield Library and it was done in conjunction with the high school Brendan slokum was the author of The Violin conspiracy which was a book that was featured as part of the one toown one read program that the library runs and then they were able to bring him back um many months later he did a program at the library we stared shared some of his own personal stories and musical talents and encouraged the audience to discover and engage their own creative voices and then the next day he was here at the high school as a keynote speaker during the high school's diversity day um here he addressed the theme of being true to yourself and he shared his experiences growing up as a young black classical musician and the power of music um this was also live stream to the library at the same time so the community could engage and watch this as well I saw it myself he probably spent half of it if not more taking questions from the students too and was really engaged and from what I understand the students were also really engaged during that event um to whiskin we funded the emotion into art program this was brought to us by Rachel jalbert and the whiner middle school counselors this is a unique program um he's a speed painter he's a motivational inspirational speaker I don't know if any of you got the chance to see it while you were there he did programs for each of the grades that were there at whiner middle school and then there was one where the community could come in at night so parents could come in and see the same kind of thing as well as other members from the community who might be interested um you can see a couple of the paintings that he did he would use Music he told stories from his own life he would talk about the different key figures that he was painting or others from history so he tied in things from the social studies curriculum and uh theal curriculum and then actually the teachers were able to use that in cross-curricular activities afterwards too that they did with the students super engaging he encouraged students I should say to to follow their dreams but not just follow them follow them with passion um then the foreign exchange program which I think you guys had a presentation on there so the exchange program was already up and running but Katherine oo and Keith Johnston seventh grade teacher had come to us to see if we could help fund another component of it and this was going to be a two-day educational tour of Paris and the cool thing here was the students were not only going to get to see all of these art and cultural historical sites and get tours of them but they took pictures they documented it and then they came back and they shared that information with other art classes um language classes and then those materials can be used in those classes now going forward as well those pictures and information that they took um moving to CL we had Jen pink and Laura Miller on behalf of the second grade teachers come to us um to launch this Andrea B thematic unit and here they selected books from author Andrew Bey picture books and a chapter book uh emphasize important learning lessons related to courage perseverance problem solving and acceptance the students were able to work collaboratively answer questions about how the characters changed the problems that they faced things like that it had in school lessons as well as some at home so it could engage families within this tube bringing that connection between the school and home and then when it ended they had a trip to the Richfield Playhouse which is part of what you see in the picture there um where they could see adaah twist scientists and friends so the students were very excited about that and they got to keep the chapter book too at the end of it and then you already heard from Dean about uh web so I won't speak too much about that but we were really excited when they came to us for this as well these these are a couple pictures actually that they had shared with us um that you can see from the the programs that he was just describing over the summertime um this was something where I think Kayla denal had and J ree had really identified a need within whis skaner Middle School went took the initiative had gotten the training and then came so we could help launch this as a program at whis um so I will leave that slide up so you can see that um a couple other programs since we missed you last year that we had also funded um we did literacy through storytelling with Sheree Smith an author that was from uh whis Ander and also done in conjunction with the Brookfield Library so there was a program there that community members could see helped to launch book Creer with Jackie waiting uh bbot which was brought to us by Joyce zalo so those were robots coding robots that kids could use um over started at Center School actually they might still be in the library at CES and Dennis Petrino brought some Oculus goggles to help with some of the science lessons and now they're actually finding other ways to use them in fourth grade that he's there and with um some special ed programs and stuff so some of these programs have really grown in total in our 20 years we have given over $245,000 to brookfield's public school programs for 92 different programs so these might be a project for one classroom one we like to reference a lot are the Ducks that Mrs sommerfeld had in kindergarten she was teaching kids about ovias and vivus birth and they got to see the eggs go and actually hatch in their classroom um so that could be for one classroom or for the whole school like the garden that used to be at Huckleberry um that was actually started from a bef Grant Joy was one of the people that was very involved in that one so kids could come out they could take some of their science lessons about the life of a seed or come out and see as you plant seeds in the garden you know use your math skills to plant you have to plant them an inch apart according inch deep that kind of thing um we have also helped the wellness room here at BHS The Writing Center the math lab the entrepreneurship and deca Business program and ruler so some of these have really grown some have had longevity and some are onetime events I should also note we also fund Community grants so about a third of the programs that we fund are actually for other community programs so for example we did three different educational series with the senior center this past year year um we have a current Brookfield senior who for his Eagle Scout project had started an origami class at the Brookfield Craft Center um the Conservation Commission has been working on an invasive species identification removal and planting of native species you may have seen some of their signs around they're working a lot at Williams Park and the story walk uh it was just at Brookfield Library that was another bef Grant and we are currently looking for new grants to fund we want to help those teacher staff and community members to launch those pilot programs those new ideas that would not traditionally be covered by the school or town budgets so thank you to the administration for letting us come to convocation we were able to speak there so we could reach all the teachers to let them know that we exist we're here please come to us with your ideas and actually to our principes too because we are about to go on uh teacher directed afternoons into each school so that we can go right to the teachers and hear their ideas have help with writing grants any of that kind of stuff that they might need we're going to be at clas in September BH in November and whiskin year in December so the last few things I wanted to note are in addition to funding these grants we celebrate the honor and educator program each year you guys have probably seen information about that we have a reception we usually host here to honor those Educators that have been nominated they're teachers but they're also coaches and other um Educators from around town it could be a scout leader so uh and that's something that we'll run again in the spring usually April May time frame and it's a great way I think to recognize some of our Educators in town and the reception we have is always really a lovely chance to be able to talk with these teachers and show our appreciation and our largest fundraiser is our annual Gala through this we raise probably most of the money that we Grant out each year some of you I know have been to it before in the past you are all invited everybody at home you are invited invitations just went to the mail information is up here it's on November 22nd at the Candlewood Inn um if you didn't gation please come to our website you are still invited please join us it's a fun night get dressed up have dinner out we have dancing silent auction and we have a new trivia bingo game this year um I just want to give a special thanks to peerpoint behavior analyst of Connecticut they're our signature sponsor for this year and my last thank yous are to our board our board is made up of 10 Brookfield residents that volunteer their time much in the way that you all volunteer your time here too thank you for that we also have Dr Anna man on our board is an ex official member Stephanie sakur is also on as a board of ed representative they are invaluable on our board um an integral part really both with our voting members and our non- voting members uh they provide valuable insights and information help promote our foundation uh support our activities grants and Grant Champions uh we really appreciate your help and thank you to our grand Champions those who come to us with these ideas like Kayla coming coming to us to start web this is fantastic for a Community member for a student for a teacher you have an idea please come talk to us we want to help you launch those new things those things that otherwise you might not be able to have in the budget to do um thanks to the community that supports us and thank you to all of you for your time and your interest in learning about the bef thank you there any questions okay thank you thanks a lot [Applause] okay now it's time for an update on Athletics uh from Mr Baldwin sorry I'm a little slow I hurt my back the other day um John asked me to keep another five so I'm going to try to go as quick as I can on our update um October 2nd we'll be having our annual Class Act pledge night at Chick-fil-A where the students sign Class Act pledge and they get um free admission to the games all year um it's a little delayed this year because Chick-fil-A is having a renovation and this year the students pick pink shirts for their shirts um I want to talk about participation just we are really high on participation this year so there's 4 78 students that are currently playing fall Sports which is 56% of our student body when we look at how many kids signed up for the whole year 701 students that's 82% of our student body will be playing sports this year that's an amazing number and I just wanted to thank the board of ed for adding um spring Unified sports so all the kids get to play their Sports all year round um we'll be heading to the um sport ship banquet in mid October um with uh we bring 10 kids but we got to take 11 because um we have a student Vanessa Greenstein on the State athletic advisory and she'll be presenting to the whole group which is a pretty cool thing hopefully she's not nervous because there's going to be like 1,500 people there I would be um just wanted to reiterate that last year we had the Nas and the CIA audit um Dr bro wanted me to talk about some of the recommendations that they made but I didn't want to leave out all the positive things that they said which I don't I don't think that we need to go through those again because you read them so there's two pages of positives and a few recommendations that um Mr bland is going to come up and speak about Steve asked me to come speak about the recommendations because it's it's also a challenging thing here's all the combinations I'm going to tell you how I'm going to be better um so but we work collaboratively and and and really kind of going through the summary of the recommendations here um you know one of the things that came up out of the audit was the responsibilities of the athletic director and all the things that he does uh prek-12 uh health and PE including all the things that go on uh with all our Sports and with the addition of the summer work that now happens because of the cia's new rule or allowing coaches and athletes to participate over the summer so it becomes a it's a it's a vast thing so was one of the recommendations was to look at that um another thing that they uh recommended we look at the stiens uh that coaches are paid uh those one of the things they looked at uh in comparison to other districts and around and uh what we the salaries that we pay our coaches um and then you know facilities and you know an effective system that Fosters communication collaboration cooperation um between Steve and the director of facilities uh there's so many things that have to go right in order for athletics to work so many different things we rely on um so many different things that can malfunction for example today you know and think I'm so glad we're able to get the maintenance crew on it there was a uh a light guard one of the things that's in the the small gym was hanging right and so we were able to get maintenance on there to get there to get and fix it because if we didn't we wouldn't be able to play that game a ninth grade freshman game which we would have a ton of those freshman volleyball games so it's nice to be able to play that it was at risk of not happening because that was there and if a ball had hit it we would have put kids in danger so that's an example of how often that the facilities and Athletics need to work together um so it's continuing to to fix some of those things there um you know we've KC Di has done an amazing job working to revamp and really look at our uh expenditures and our process for finance and budgeting and expenditures uh so that's we have handbooks coming out and things that we have so it's been that's been very helpful and that work has already been started um yeah so that those are the big recommendations in terms of what things we need to look at so I'll turn the B over to Steve and I'm proud to announce that we found out Monday that Brookfield High School has been named in National unified Champion school so I thank coach castalano and Coach Stevens for all their work and the amazing support of Mr Roland to to keep that that program going well um I talked about this last year no school has more people on committees at cic than we do uh assistant superintendent Dr man is the co-chair of indoor and outdoor track our principal Mark Blanda is the chair of the hockey committee and it's on the board of directors I am on what I feel like is a million of them cic sportsmanship committee equality Advisory Board baseball committee UniFi Sports Committee um I'm the Connecticut High School coach association chair for baseball and I was recently appointed the dance chair for for dance well we we hosted the state tournament here and swcs and they like what we did so they asked me um what I'm more proud of is that we have a student on every single uh committee um again I'll mention Vanessa again Green Scene who is her second year on the cic athletic advisory committee she's done a great job hear a lot of positive things from cic and stuff to she's doing um Emily erson a junior um will replace Ava wouth on the student equality Advisory Board and Jamie colber will replace ryy MC on the cic sportsmanship committee so our kids have a lot of say in what happens within our state um I'm proud to announce I never thought I'd say I was an author so in the next edition of inter Scholastic athletic Administration um they're publishing an article that I wrote um it started after covid and it was about belonging and getting kids to feel like they belong on teams and working to make make a better culture um and this started way back when Dr Ruby was here and she helped me finish that off and that's what last year when I went to the National superintendence Convention that's what I spoke about there um transportation issue um with the change in school start time we're not we're not getting buses to later and we are getting very few buses um I've spoken with Casey about this um we're doing whatever we can to get kids to games um our really our goto is Carriage limousine their price is very similar to the school bus and when we have to we go to land Jet and they're very pricey so um often times we're not able to get the you know the regular school bus till after 5:00 and you know there's a lot of games that have to start before them you know you think about you know programs soccer there's JV and then varsity and they often start at four and six or five and seven SO waiting for that yellow bus we can't it's hard to do so that's that's been a big issue this year but luckily we've only missed one game and that's the first time in my 16 years that that's happened um school start time and again same pictures last year of the golf team um the golf is obviously can't be played under the lights and often times they are they are out of school early there's there has been quite a quite a bit um we try to schedule them as late as possible but again you know because there's back-to-back games and often times soccer will go JV and and varsity will go on the same bus so they get dismissed early to get there volleyball has three levels freshman JB Varsity often times they go on the same bus as well so you know this has been a challenge for for me trying not to get kids out of school early but unfortunately I know it has to happen but we we keep running tally and I can share that with everybody from last year to this year all right so now I get to my big kn needs so in in no particular order I just as I thought of them I put them down so as Mark mentioned before cic has started uh a new plan a new procedure for summer workouts where coaches can coach in the summer um and often times obviously in the summer we don't have nurses here and I I really feel the big need to have our trainer here full-time 12 months instead of 11 so when our kids are here practicing we know that somebody's here to do um check the wet bulb to make sure that the Field's not hot where they can't practice she's got the radar with um detector for light lightning detector sorry um and it it it's just something I really think that we need to do um you see a lot of schools um New Milford doesn't have a trainer massic doesn't have a trainer we have a very good trainer trainers salaries are increasing in Connecticut because there's very few of them so I just think it's something that we need to look at when we look through the budget um I was told in the summer or end of the spring I had uh work done on our scoreboard he said we are very lucky that it still works so um that's going to need to have to go into the budget for next year I believe from what I found in Old paperwork that that was put in in 2012 I think so we we've got some use out of that uh we're still hoping to get a new concession stand at some point um I've been speaking with Park and wck on that um and see hopefully that they can work out something and get something similar to cadigan where we could put it over between the baseball and the The Stadium Field so it's in the middle and maybe put an additional bathroom out there so people come from tennis don't have to walk all the way up there to go to the bathroom um and how can I not mention we have the best ski coach in the state because he's here um La last year um Eric conin volunteered to to to start back up a ski team and this year as of today there's 30 kids signed up for that so you know what he did last year allowing those kids to play um he volunteer did it so I mean it's just you know there's two programs that we don't have otherwise we have every single program that the cic offers it's ski and you know towards the end I'm talking about you I have Esports in there um very important I know we have an Olympic athlete in here from from track um speaking in the past few years with um it's especially our boys track coach um he's done a great job and our numbers are growing and but if you think about it we currently have two coaches for 50 kids and you would really should have three so you have a track person a field person and a throwing person so that's something that I would like to look into put in into budget to help those coaches out and help those kids um our sound systems both inside and outside are deteriorating Eric has done a great job mending them and getting them to work we find pieces here in the building um it's just something that we may need to look at in in in the future um uh eorts again that's very very popular and there's a lot of interest in our building and there's it's a big time College thing now there are kids getting huge scholarships for Esports which you would have never thought about and the last is um if you've been in our gym we do a great job of promoting our kids that do great things but we have no room we're constantly taking banners down putting them up and and they just don't go back up it it's very difficult we actually have there's um because we in a room they put and I didn't know they put a wrestling over another wrestling banner and somebody's like my my dad's name's not up there anymore and I looked I go oh maybe it's up there but we're working on coming up with a new system Mr Bland and I have talked about it we talked with with Casey and Dan about it one time walking through um but I was looking at a touchscreen Hall of Fame where it's in the lobby we can clean up the gy we can clean up the banners in the gym and you know I like to walk in there and you can press you know 2024 volleyball and it shows their team picture shows made all state or you can just click on the All State button I mean it is 2024 we can look at updates you know cuz I again if you go in the gym and look and look at the space in there I'll tell you that I have 11 banners in my office that have to go up that I just don't have room for so and that's that any questions um I know that um you know as far as coach coaches stiens that's kind of a collective bargaining piece um but if we can maybe kind of think outside the box a little bit and maybe work on with with the Union about maybe be looking at whisk and your stiens for coaches and reallocating some of that because their um position is not quite Equitable with they're on the same level as freshman coaches right so maybe giving some conversations or working with the Union on that to maybe Offset you know the an additional like ski team coach or coaches for track and field maybe having some of those and instituting like an Mo MOA I I've given the union every time it's their time for negotiation I give them all of the surrounding areas this is what they do even a lot of surrounding areas actually give bonus pay to teams that make the state tournament you know not a lot but just something to you know because they go above and beyond what they're expected and also too think about it now is that this summer okay they're coaching the summer okay so so the summer we're doing settled settled in 22 SO3 I think we start to meet again next sum okay we definitely can work outside of that with Ana yeah that's what I'm saying working being creative and working outside of that with Ana that again I I I can only ask the union to do it I don't know what happens when they go behind closed doors thank you very much thank you guys appreciate everything congratulations on all the success all right okay now we're going to move to a tech update um from director of Technology Eric Conlin yeah aka the ski coach thank you 30 kids that's a big jump from eight yes it'll be a fun season um good evening so I'm just going to provide a quick update on a few of the big projects we worked on this summer um I'll start number one with parent Square we offici officially launched that on July 1st um uh our first user was uh Dr burill Who Um sent out a number of announcements in the summer so we started getting used to using it um the principles have taken it ran with it they're using it now primarily for their communication a number of classroom teachers um I don't have those numbers right now I I'll come back in the future with some data on you know how much it's being utilized and engagement and all that um but uh for now I I know it's being used throughout in in classrooms um we have the guidance Department looking to use it for for communication and and working together and collaborating but um it's it's being used to share announcements um Flyers community events um daily classroom announcements principal newsletters and any any of the above um I did a few uh trainings in the summer I had five information center centers I had five information sessions for parents um towards the start of the school year a couple virtual a couple in person um and then I spent two hours at each school during the professional development days and worked with each of those um sets of staff on utilizing parents Square answering questions questions getting everybody logged in and familiar with using the the interface both as a staff member to send announcements and as a staff member to receive announcements and updates and and all of that as well um we are just scratching the surface on parent Square it's not it is so far from a completed project um there is a lot of things parent Square can do that include uh field trip permission forms um uh absence attendance uh you know if if you have an unmarked attendance parent Square can call say you know your your child's not here we don't have them marked as attendance you can respond back and give a reason why maybe upload a doctor's note or anything like that right in parent Square um we'll be doing training on par on signing up for parent teacher conferences that's coming um and that's just that's just the beginning we didn't want to do everything all at once when you overwhelm and you do everything all at once it's hard to keep track of all the things you can do and then stay on top of that so we're easing into the program we're using it for our district Communications there is plenty more to come on parents square and I'll continue to kind of give updates that on that in future updates the district website launched on July 1st as well and again another work in progress that's never official well actually a district website's never really done um but it um started out with a lot of work starting back in January with the newly formed District web Master committee um that is made up of um administrators and individuals mostly secretaries that update the website for their individual schools and for the entire District uh and so we started with weeding out information from the old website planning for the new website and then we launched on July 1st I got to work on updating the district one and then working with each school on there is we held trainings for each school to learn how to update the website add information remove information find information that didn't maybe transfer over or didn't transfer over correct um and so we'll be holding a Web Master committee I don't have a date yet but it'll be in early October as kind of a followup to the opening of school the starting everybody's now had a month under their belts of utilizing the new website updating it um and this this will go on regularly to make sure that the each of the four sites are updated regularly have information um that they need now on top of that um we've already gotten some some emails and some conversations and and feedback and things that were maybe missing or don't function in a way that maybe the old website worked or we we should function send those to me send those to your school um you know we're always looking to to improve you know we're going to commit to keeping this website up to date um and also nice and clean and smooth but but um we obviously we we rely on the community and um and certainly welcome the community to reach out to us if you see anything that needs updating or um maybe didn't transfer over correctly a lot of the times when you implement a new website and they bring over from the old the the the documentation the stuff is there it just didn't link correctly and so we just have to re relink it and we've been going through Page by Page by Page um and it's it's a it's a it's a very long process to go Page by Page and and check every single link um but we have a good team of web Masters on it um taking care of all the pages um excuse me Eric just for for clarity you want um teachers or parents to reach out to you or to the building uh principles about if they find something that's not working um you know they they can really reach out to either I don't want to over complicate it and give them 10 15 people to reach out to the general rule of thumb I've been using is is the um the district website Brookfield ps.org um they can certainly reach out to me you can reach out to me for any of the sites but if it's something on the individual School site it's best to reach out to the school they have a dedicated person in each school so if you're looking at the high school website it's best to reach out to administration at the high school they'll give it to their webk master um who will update it if that person has any issues they'll come to me and and we'll go from there so perfect thank you y um Chromebooks we continue our onetoone program it carries on we got over 200 Chromebooks um delivered unboxed prepared handed out to students um and this goes along with the 800 we received back in the spring from our uh the third round of a Federal grant that came out of Co um and so uh a lot of those devices replaced an aging Fleet um many of the older Chromebooks were not touchscreen there is a big need for touchcreen with a lot of the programs and resources that we use now um and so we've replaced like I said dated machines older machines Chromebooks are now set to last as long as they don't get damaged um they're supported for up to 10 years now um and so we have uh quite the fleet of Chromebooks that uh will support us for years to come our TCH fix them in house as much as we can um and so we we buy the materials we buy the parts we fix them in house um and so we're able to um rather than having to discard a lot of Chromebooks we're able to retain a lot of our Chromebooks um and fix them at a generally low cost compared to sending them out um as everybody knows this summer we merged the town and bordered technology departments um it has not come without its learning curves I'll put it that way um you know learning um just working together um for me it's learning new passwords and resources and network equipment and and all of that we did hire our part-time person who works part with the board part with the town um her name is Lori she came in hit the ground running um got along with everybody at uh the Board of Ed side has gotten along with everybody on the town side um and and we continue to work together the town has enjoyed um having the extra support going from one person to now essentially three um so really two and a half for the part-time but uh and then um and then uh the uh the board of EDS side also gets the additional half person and it's um it's it's gone well again work in progress we're entering a budget season I get to do two budgets now so that's going to be fun um that so as as as early as we start the town has already started theirs too I have a meeting with the town on on their budg on the it budget next week and then we get to start the Board of Ed budget in October so um more to come on that um this didn't happen in the summer but it is coming you probably all walked in the front door saw that digital signage that old TV hanging out there um as part of a grant that we got last year the I'm not even going to tell you the whole name it's um it's through Pura the state um Energy company um they have a whole long acronym name for this grant but um it's giving us a total of five new digital display boards um here at the high school and over at whiskin year five each so a total of of 10 it's going to match the existing system the system that went in at CES the system that exists in the cafeteria here at the high school and the cafeteria whiskey near and so we're going to have and actually the one that's over here in the library they're all going to work together and we're going to impact increase um along with the whole theme of communication this year we're going to increase our in school communication with digital signage and and um I'm excited to have uh everything working together with that um the townwide radio project specifically the Board of Ed portion the last part was done today the last part involved um drilling a hole in the roof the brand new roof at CES and um running a cable through it we had to get the roofing company to come out the ones who installed the roof had to come out and do it that finally after a lot of organization got done 80 new radios are sitting in my office just waiting to get used um and so I'm anticipating within the next month or so the Board of Ed will be up on the new radio system um which is uh which is sort sely needed for some of our aging walkie-talkies and um and and these new walkies get a better distance can communicate between buildings uh among other things so that's coming up soon um the biggest project we one of the biggest projects we also had this summer was we did get our brand new Fleet of copiers um we had 72 copiers removed from the district and 52 new ones put in with a whole new management system um and uh so that was exciting to get some new machines um normally copier contracts are about 5 years we went six because of the opening of CES um there was just so much else going on we we delayed a year um and you can tell those machines were starting to see better days so um we've gotten some positive feedback on the uh speed and quality and the print quality and we were able to add a couple more color printers into the elementary school and they're very excited about that um and then the only thing I'll mention is it was involved in a couple of security updates and changes over the over the summer but um that's getting reported by the security task force subcommittee report and so I'll I won't repeat what's coming up so those are the big topics of the summer wasn't too busy was it questions Eric I have a question um as far as the website where can you find extensions for staff so I'm I'm going to work on so yes good question so we are going to I've gotten some feedback on staff directory so staff directory was on the old website was managed manually on the new website it was automatic and it could be synced from Power School from our student information system that has staff in it it could be synced to parents square and then to the website but what we're finding is that we can't link we can't do a link for email addresses and we can't put phone numbers in so we're going to have to change the way that that's done and we're going to have to manually add it in um for for phone numbers because we don't have extensions in there we also don't have just the district I mean at the bottom of the home pages is the district line um but we're going to have to redo the way the staff directory is done yeah it's hard because you call I mean and whiskin is I think down a secretary so when it's busy they're not picking up but you have no idea how to even get anywhere because there's no ex and this this an example of great feedback so um thank you Aaron um you know and and it's one of those things that the company that hosts this so the company that hosts the website is the same company that it's it's parent Square the product is called smart sites they are also open to feedback so something like having District phone numbers in the staff directory is is good feedback that we can give to them so I'll share that with them and maybe it'll be a feature that comes in the future but for now we need to be able to provide that to parents so thanks a lot Eric thanks Eric thank you thank you very much okay um so we're skipping over uh public comment was moved so um Mr BR what can you tell us about our new student representative do we have information on mark would you like to introduce the new student representative who wasn't able to make it tonight but it's Melissa Baines but he could share a few words and then we'll move forward uh isn't really a ton to share um because obviously she's not here tonight but she will be here at the remaining uh Board of Ed meetings so there was an application process interested student puts their put their names into um reached out to me to ask if they could um they said they wanted to be part of the process they were then sent a set of application questions uh which were then um scrubbed from names and they were actually scored by faculty anonymously with a vote um to see who came out to be um the top candidate so we had one candidate that emerged as the top vote getter um and so that person was just notified yesterday uh that they were uh in fact the student representative it was very short notice turn around to get to hear to this meeting today um but she assured me she will be here uh for the remainder of the meetings that was actually one of the questions that was on um the application was your ability to attend all meetings and listed every single one it was a very long question because it's very important and I think you know one of the conversations that I'd like to have as we continue to move forward is possibly evolving the role of what the student representative is beyond um providing the athletic report and just a general update I think the board at various times has really looked and looking for that student input it's it's important um and I think you know it's something we can talk about capitalizing and that was part of the process too that somebody be willing to to provide information feedback Beyond just a simple update um and maybe stay a little longer as well that was part of the so that I think that will slowly evolve over time and hopefully we'll get to be a more involved student here so can you can you just tell us again uh what's her first name Melissa Melissa thank Baines Baines and Wendy can I um part of one of the policies that the policy Committee just reviewed in the 9,000 Series was student update or the student representative and there were some things in that policy that we're updating the way that they're chosen the timeline there's going to be a lot of um hopefully beneficial ways that that evolves I think they yeah we we want it to happen earlier we want their role to expand that's all absolutely choosing this year going into next year and and really look to build leadership even like from it doesn't always have to be a senior do we talk about involving other kids so yeah I'm I'm excited that's great to hear good news thank you so they know what they're getting into yep yeah thank you okay let's move now then to um written correspondence Seanie the following people have emailed the Board of Education since the last meeting on August 14th Denise rice new school year recess student safety plan and agenda Andy Korea Boe responsibilities board chair responsibilities fi a for emails and texts fiia for all Brookfield School staff spring 2024 survey results and followup on policy Services Irene Korea BHS team funds and sports Banquets Brian Shapiro BHS outof Town tuition Jessica Hansen classroom displays and recess time at CES Dylan Tanger CES recess Deborah C foia John Lucas National English Honor Society efforts awesome thanks very much okay um so now we're going to move to um item 10 um the approval of board minutes I move that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting from 8:14 2024 good all in favor um please say I I any opposed okay so it passes unanimously thank you very much um and now we move to the uh superintendent update Dr bro what do you have for us all right thank you Wendy um so a number of things we're touched on so I'll be able to move through this uh quite swiftly um I did want to recognize and thank the board for showing up attending uh and all the folks who spoke um and the PTO and administration for helping to organize a very successful ribbon cutting event at CES last week um we also had tours that followed and it was nice to see some uh various families and couples that don't have kids in school anymore show up and uh take some tours we did put out an invitation for the 26th of this month and also October 10th for some late afternoon early evening tours uh for the public to come and visit and enjoy the school um parent engagement just wanted to let everybody know that uh as a followup to Eric parents square is up and running um and as he already mentioned trainings will be forthcoming as the fall unfolds with some of the uh additional features yesterday the district uh leadership team we met with the district PTO um worked on schedules calendar and soliciting volunteers uh for the food recycling that's going to go on in all of our cafeterias this year um I also have an invitation out to speaks our superintendent advisory committee um we have four meetings scheduled and that invitation went went out last week um I don't need to say anything about bef Logan took care of that in the upcoming um times uh she she and the team will be visiting the schools um Wendy thank you for acknowledging the high school um but it's really a uh beyond the high school it's the efforts of the other school folks as well um we really had an incredible uh change in our attendance last year we're 15% of our kids were counted as uh chronically absent um which is 393 students um in 2223 last year 23 24 we're down to 2.5 students 2.5% of our students were 63 students total um chronically absent chronically absent is defined as 10 or more absences in a year or four in a month unexcused and so that's just incredible we know kids need to be here to learn it's healthy for them to be here and uh credit to the admin team the mental health Team and and the families and everybody working together to make that that work um the image uh the uh image picture there from Ed site is there if anybody wants to check out the actual data um it's publicly publicly shared information uh in terms of hiring and the new teachers I did mention earlier we hired 16 new certified teachers that are part of our Brookfield Education Foundation that's out of 239 total certified teachers in the district I think it's an important number um we are essentially fully staffed with a couple exceptions I'm going to go through in terms of our certified teachers uh in the midst of our national and state shortage we still are doing quite well in Brookfield um we have uh four par particular teachers that have been hired and frankly we lured them away from other districts so they're dealing with the resignations in their districts and there is a um leadership agreement among school districts where you give ascending District 30 days so they could find a suitable replacement before um essentially pirating their their particular employee so we're waiting we have contract signed but we are waiting on the whiskey one uh psychologist at whiskin and one at the high school U but they're signed and ready to go uh by the end of September first week in October uh c a speech and language pathologist position which is again we have a contract we're waiting for that person to start in the next couple of weeks and the same thing for a special education teacher position so all of those are shortage areas speaking of shortage area we do not have the part-time bilingual Portuguese teacher that we budgeted for um there were no qualified or viable candidates um we knew going in it would be a challenge we did have a teacher on staff who uh was fluent in Portuguese um but Katherine brao worked with that teacher and the state and the way their certification and their transcript was uh it was not satisfactory to the state's uh um criteria in terms of having that person help us out in that uh situation given the fact that we couldn't find someone from the outside uh what we're doing now is working with our ml staff and we're increasing hours for one of our par Educators to work under the tutelage of our certified uh bilingual Spanish teacher and Tesa teacher to service the students and we're working with the state to make sure that everything's above board and that's uh the right now the best we can do the position is still open we'll keep looking um but that's where we're at right now so I wanted to be very upfront with everybody on that very challenging position to fill and that par educator is fluent in Portuguese yes thank you for saying that um and then the last two things I'm going to I'm going to talk about reflective intelligence working with the Boston College purpose lab I know Rose and Stephanie actually attended convocation and got to see Tim Klein uh give the keynote address about the purpose-- driven work and the things we're doing uh it naturally ties in to the new teacher evaluation system and administrator evalu uh evaluation system which is based on professional development growth and support um we're really excited about that work 141 of our staff have signed up to be a part of that um so it really is an incredible amount uh of folks um and then lastly on Monday we had the wonderful visit I think uh Steve or Mark mentioned it the nas visit for district accreditation you folks saw that application last year we submitted that I'm going to turn it my time over Dr man to talk briefly about the visit and when we might anticipate a decision as to whether we sure are part of that absolutely thank you very much so I just want to if I could just Backtrack on two items um one just back to the uh attendance data another initiative that we tagged on to with the state was the school is better with you campaign um last year so I think that's another thing another reason why we saw the district uh Improvement um this is something that the state has been focused on since the uh Co pandemic in particular and um so we just want to make sure that we you know kind of give our kudos to the state for helping us out as well they sent us a bunch of materials pamphlets uh signs um you know and kind of just literature to go home to parents um so that was I think a help as well and I still see some of those signs around around the schools so that's great um and then also with the ref reflective intelligence uh work uh and Logan was also at um at convocation so she got to see it as well um the energy that came out of that convocation um that not only from Tim Klein but also uh that that the faculty staff and you know across the district what everyone um brought uh was palpable uh Tim Klein who's the person who was our direct connection to uh Boston College purpose lab uh made mention to it at at convocation that this is um that the the feeling and the energy and the excitement about starting school um was notable and he is currently working with a couple other districts in Connecticut and across New England and um it was unique to Brookfield he was really impressed with uh what he saw here so um and also then he was overwhelmed with the response that he's gotten by the when we when John and I put this together um we were at 141 I believe we're above 145 at this point um our kind of recruiting phase will be concluding uh at the end of this week and then I'll be working with him and his team um to kind of figure out how many people are going to be facilitators how many people are going to be participants how we're going to train the facilitators and then just map out the whole uh professional learning program for this year for the people who are involved in that um but then onto the nas visit not to be confused with the neas athletic audit which is a separate part um as you all know we and that was what what uh uh um Steve mentioned um we have applied for district accreditation currently our high school is a Nas accredited uh high school has been for many many many years uh what we applied for was to be to have District candidacy so our kindergarten through 12 so really it's getting our K8 programs um on the um docket to go through the accreditation process and so the first part of that is to do the application which is what um the many members of the school district worked on through the end of last school year we submitted it into in July and then the the second part of that process is to have a representative team both a staff member and a member of the commission come and do an on-site visit essentially just to kind of vet out what they saw on the application um and so uh we had two members Fran Thompson and um Dr Jade gopy uh who is the one of the assistant superintendents in waterburry she's on the commission for Nas um spent the day with us on Monday and they went through a whole uh schedule where they met with central office staff um uh Administration and staff members uh as well as each one of the School principles and had a nice tour of the school and then they met for about 45 minutes uh with a bunch of teachers um not just uh classroom teachers but a cross crosssection representation from across the district K12 um and asked a bunch of questions about curriculum about uh leadership about all of those kinds of things um and so that was a really uh beneficial time for them to gather that kind of on-site information um and one of the things uh that they shared with us during the debrief was um how impressed they were not only with CES um and the new facility but really all three facilities they they were they were really giving kudos to how clean uh the high school and middle school were and how it really does seem to be bright and um you know and things are look considering the the age of each of these buildings how nice they were um the other thing that was that I took away from the debrief was um the consistency of responses from the teacher interviews and the support staff interviews through the building leaders up through um TSO they were they heard the same things and they saw the same VIs um so that's really nice to hear so the next step will be that they will write a report they will bring it to the next commission meeting which is in October for the uh Nas Commission of public schools and um what they will be um hopefully recommending uh they will let us know if there's anything uh that they're not comfortable with but they will be recommending um Brookfield Public Schools become a candidate for district accreditation so we are not receiving accreditation yet because we have to go through the whole self-study but um that we would become a candidate District um and so we would get that in if the commission which it has to be a commission vote if the commission agrees to that we would get a letter in um November December saying we are now a candidate District which would mean then we would go into the cycle for going through our self-study having um you know visiting teams come in 2027 and 2029 we'd get on the same cycle as the high school um and eventually earn our full C our full District district accreditation um which would mean that each one of the schools would be an accredited neas school so CES would have its own accreditation WS would have its own accreditation and BHS would have its own accreditation and then we'd you know use that those standards and framework to help our um help guide us and continue to make us better thank you sure any questions ni the report Wendy that sounds awesome um it's so cool that they already came and and kickstarted things do you guys have questions no Robert is that a yes no okay okay all right great great then then move your mic okay so then we're GNA move to subcommittee reports and when he's ready we will hear from Robert um about facilities all right all set thank you very much so um back on August 13th we met um uh we had no school dude reports because it was a summer uh for capital projects update we had um the electrical upgrade take place at uh whiskin Middle School um even though this is old news the scope of the project had changed um transformat did change and everything went well and you'll hear about that on the next the followup report as well uh BHS Media Center AC will be going out to bid within the week um the pre bid meeting was at the time was the following day uh with prospective contractors roof Replacements at w WMS and BHS determined to be um would exceed $20,000 therefore we have to uh set up uh it's going out to the purchasing agent through the purchasing agent for an RFP for the project um there's two open items at the boys locker room uh Power Monitor and the door to one of the lockers needs to be replaced I know that the construction company is still uh working on these items um as well as the uh the locks were completed uh out of the Boe operating budget for new business we had the annual cleaning of the boilers uh kitchen appliances were tested and inspected um by the appliance company fire sprinkler inspections were taken place uh all the fire pumps were being inspected fire suppression uh was being tested and completed um wooden gymnasium floors were stripped and refinished sure that looks amazing I know that looked great in my school um hussy will be out in October to perform inspections on the gymnasium seating uh grease traps were scheduled to be cleaned out later this month chart Wells has been out to look at the kitchen the equipment um everything's being repaired in the uh for the BHS is being repaired and waiting for the part in the freezer parking lot lights at BHS with damage during a thunderstorm and that is being replaced and Mr cwell met with the Fire Marshals regarding uh converting hallway area to the next to the WMS uh down next to the gym in the whiskin Middle School into a storage closet Falls within code and we have a quote from the vendor for the work uh for miscellaneous just congratulations to two custodians who retired one Pedro after 24 years and cosme after 27 years so want to shout him out on the shout those guys out on that uh as for the followup as I said in the previous one electrical service what did go smoothly they shut down the power everything came back up they were able to install everything um you've heard enough about the ballards they're all fine um there's a few outstanding items in the boy's locker room still that uh the locker room door uh there's a power to one outlet that needs to be taken care of uh Dan did tell us that he was working with tekon uh and diversity to close this out I know there's a few Kinks that they need to to get finished on uh we receiv received seven bids for the B BHS Library AC project um we got the lowest bid from fnf mechanical for 12,500 um we will move to that later on in the uh meeting an RFP was released for the uh demolition of the Portables at WMS pre-bid walk through will take place not on the 3D of September which has already passed um engineering RPS for roof projects will be uh sent out this week that was at the time of that meeting specs for WS cafeteria floor will be sent out because those need to be replaced as well to develop an R RFP uh Dan said uh will obtain um Mr cwell Excuse me will obain quotes for repair work on boiler number two which is something that we've discussed before and something that needs to get taken care of uh the new gymnasium walms have been sold WS WMS excuse me they look uh they look really great uh the walk and Frieza BHS has been fixed and we have a for new business some exciting news hopefully to save some money on energy we have a solar energy presentation um and preliminary discussions with the town on exploring solar energy plan for the schools and for the town um and that's all I got for facilities if anybody has any questions for the um the locker room Bo locker room are those those are new issues they're just lingering Sor those lingering ones um there was there's one outlet that needs to be uh P power outlet that's up High where the TV monitors that's got to be replaced um I think diversity was coming back to look at that um a couple locks that had to be switched either the the door handles or the locks were wrong so accurate lock has come out to to do those and then I think um Mr balwood gave them two new locks that that he wanted um either switched or new new lock placement so yeah they're they're working on that so that project's still open right it yeah it should be done yeah it should be done yeah um who's in charge of uh writing or updating the all hazards plan all hazards plan is a collaborative between um actually uh Lisa Dan Caldwell myself and and then the principles and we actually have a um person who works with the state who's come and helped us the last two summers on that that's due uh November 1st to the state for submission other questions for the facilities folks okay awesome let's U move to finance thank you thanks very much Robert all right so I have two meetings for um back on August uh 13th um after reviewing the check register reports uh we reviewed the fiscal year end report for 24 um if you remember we had a special appropriation from the town of um about 674 th000 we only ended up needing about 586 th000 of that so we returned about 88,000 to the town uh the yearly audit at that time was uh and is still um ongoing um so we'll get an update on that and our our next meeting in October um and then we switched our attention to fiscal year 25 um we talked about um teacher turnover savings um at the time summer hiring and transfers were still going on um we noted that electricity which we mentioned um I think at our last meeting um is probably under budgeted by about 150,000 um we are locked into a great Supply rate uh it's the delivery charges that are the issue um so that communication um um came to districts actually across the across the state um after budget approvals um so um the town is affected equally in that regard um we are seeing some savings from a legislative cap on magnet and vag tuition increases um that's also communication that came through after the budget approvals um that could save us um around $50,000 we're we're thinking um we briefly discussed special education out placements um but I'll provide uh the most up-to-date information in a second on that um we did review the purchasing processes for District employees um what all District employees must follow when uh using Boe General funds um as well as Student Activity accounts um so um that those procedures kind of gave us as a committee an understanding of U purchase orders and timings dues and don'ts um invoice tracking and how that affects our budget reimbursements you know what happens when purchases exceed the budgeted amount things like that um and then lastly as miscellaneous we are moving our regular meetings um from the to the second Thursday of every month um instead of the second Tuesday um and then at our last week at our September 12th meeting uh we reviewed the September financial report um which has a reported net budget shortfall of approximately $455,000 um thankfully we are nearly at Target for our teacher turnover savings um and we are seeing also savings from unpaid leaves in vacancies but just remember that those savings need to cover substitutes um and it is just the beginning of the year um in special education we've seen seven students newly outplaced um these could be students that either moved into the district over the summer or students that have new out placements um and also five students that were outplaced um have either moved away from Brookfield or have returned to inhouse education um so net that results in about a $446,000 budgetary shortfall considering both special education tuition and transportation and the excess cost Grant is only expected to increase by about $20,000 um we reviewed and adjusted the budget planning calendar which we'll talk about later um and then we reviewed the new Student Activity accounts procedures manual and I know there's like a lot of chatter out there so I just wanted to be very clear about this this absolutely does not prohibit Banquets or the fundraising for them at all it does however uh govern procedures related to the funds for school sponsored activities um now School sponsored activities have to be have to meet very specific criteria they have to be events that have an official endorsement from the district they have to use School resources or facilities um they have to be at least partially funded by our budget um are aligned with educational goals and specifically have oversight and supervision from District employees um and they also have to be open to students enrolled in our schools um so essentially this new procedures manual um ensures that we have efficient procedures in place for the operation and management of those funds um it adds controls that are Guided by the recommend the recommendations from both the bloom shipiro Financial advisory and our financial auditor so this is a really good thing um it does mean that outside group such as the PTO they have to operate their funds independently um this is good practice it aligns with our pre-existing policy so there's no policy that needs to be updated this is in now in alignment with that um it reduces our liability um I I believe the school Canon will help coordinate with those activities um but we're just you know we shouldn't have monies from Banquets and stuff like that being managed by our business office um and I think we kind of had a really good education on that wouldn't you agree Aon Rob like was well good feedback um then we had a discussion of the district's efforts to reduce cash payments and collections as well as reimbursements and as miscellaneous um I had made a suggestion that we add residency verification either like an audit study um to the 2526 budget proposal um with maybe a new practice of yearly verification alongside our annual information update um and that's it for finance that's a lot yeah um is there a way that we can get like when can we get um like a a printed copy of the the manual that um that you and Rosa were talking about the other night um because like I get it when you're saying here but when people in the community ask I'm like um yeah totally yes you can have Banquets but it has to look different yeah we I have a draft available so we can send that out to the full board tomorrow absolutely that'd be great yeah thanks are there questions guys all right well then let's move to um Cape uh committee update please okay we met on August 28th we got an update presentation and overview of the portrait of The Graduate the focus was on the domains and their descriptors action steps and the 2024 2025 school year and how it aligns to the board of edge strategic plan um there's some feedback to be more engaging and inclusive of all Educators um portrait of the learner was discussed as a possible adjustment to the language of portrait of a graduate we reviewed the professional learning plan outline we talked briefly about the school climate survey results on professional learning where 67% of the staff responded positive positively to the professional learning program for the 23 24 school year we also reviewed the teacher and admin support and growth plans orientation how it relates to the work with reflective intelligence um an approach in which Administration teachers and students are being more reflective we're learning we learned how to identify what's meaningful to you so you feel like you have a purpose students need to know why they are learning what they're learning and how it helps them and our staff can be a part of these reflective intelligence groups we also reviewed the professional trainings for 2425 the coming year we reviewed the BHS AP score report and discussed what we noticed that was good work and we reviewed all the summer curriculum projects that went on throughout the summer and we talked had some preliminary discussions on the upcoming class size report we did re make a recommendation or we discussed a recommendation for a subcommittee for us to start a subcommittee for an adoc ad hoc committee to create some updated guidelines for class sizes um based on our current needs of the students in District and updated research current strategic plan Etc um so we'd like to kind of get the ball rolling on that to anyone that might be interested in spearheading that and that's about it awesome super thorough thank you okay uh next policy please okay so we have had two meetings since uh the last Board of bed meeting um the Committee Member numers started in August and continue discussions on the 9,000 policy series for the purposes of updating the Brookfield Public Schools policy manual you will see on the consent agenda tonight a list of policies that we are presenting for a first read they are required and recommended by Shipman and Goodwin and along with those policies you have an explanation page that hopefully gives you a little more detail and Clarity on what exactly the policy committee is recommending in the adoption of each policy so you will see that some some of the Brookfield policies have been absorbed into the new shipment and Goodwin policies some have been combined based on our current policy language um some have been renamed just for clarity once you're able to absorb all that information and all of our recommendations please feel free to reach out for clarity it's I think it's pretty straightforward once you read through it it makes a lot of sense um but there is some renumeration and things that may at first glance be a little um need some clarity um um so what we are asking is that you send any of the feedback that you have to me by September 30th that will give the committee time to evaluate the policies and all of your feedback before putting forward for a second read and a vote for adoption in the October board meeting the policy committee Erin joy and I um we continue to work to update and bring the recommendations to the board we're continuing to work and bring the recommendations to the board um to adopt the remaining workfield specific policies in the 9000 series so as a result of the committee's desire to move as efficiently as possible we have added another special meeting on Monday September 23rd at 5:30 p.m.

that's it Rose I just have a question is the um so the reader and at CES in the cafeteria is that swiping now now it is okay so I know that there was some one of them yeah one of them was one of the ones that was malfunctioning but there was another door like right right there that that was fine so I we just thinking if there was an emergency to get them in they were all going through one stairway so I just wanted to that I did here and I think one thing that's important um at the new school there's 52 total badge readers at the at the other school there's about a half a dozen at each of the other schools so we were covered the key thing is when any Mal function happens because of a storm or what have you um the doors were always on lock out those doors are locked and that's really the key thing uh that everybody needs to know yeah it's yeah it is but you know CS is yeah it's cool okay so um then let's move to the consent agenda speaking of big and full okay I move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as recommended new hires transfers resignations May financials June financials and bylaws listed for first reading all in favor say I any opposed no okay so it passes unanimously thank you very much um moving on to new business now um okay so uh first we're going to um hear a request for funding Capital project discussion um and maybe a motion so Casey this is down to you yeah sure great thank you um Robert did mention Robert did mention this in um his update from the uh last facilities committee meeting but we do um the facilities committee did approve a request uh for additional funding this request would have to be made to the board of Selectmen these are um it's a capital project for the air conditioner in this room that we are sitting in um this is a long-standing capital project it's actually a bonded project from uh 2022 um and what happened with this project the reason it got stalled is because once the um the engineering design went out for out for it and bids came in bids came in um more than double what uh the project was estimated at um I think they had earmarked about 90 thou 80 to 9 ,000 for this project and bids were coming in closer to $200,000 the reason for that was um the the plan for the design was specked so that it needed reinforced engineering for actually a smaller unit that didn't weigh as much so logically it didn't really make any sense um so Mr Caldwell um has been working at getting uh we actually reached out to Mark sakubo who is the firm that did our building condition study um and they submitted a proposal last spring they came out they were able to um respect the project brought in their um Engineers to look at the the structural engineering piece of the project and they um agreed definitively that they it does not need to be sort of re this reinforced um original plans so that being said we were able to go out to bid again and with that lower scope of the project we were able to get um as as Robert pointed out seven bids um the low lowest being 121,00 from fnf Mechanical Services um the highest uh was um was at $226,000 um but uh Jules uh kidos who is our purchasing manager um he did um uh do all the reference checks um Mark sakubo did take a look at fnf there was no reason not to go with them they're a very highly qualified uh vendor and so that that bid was awarded um again there's about $990,000 e earmarked for this project so while it is over over budget it's a three-year-old project at this point so it is it is reasonable that the cost has gone up um I did talk talk to Marsha about this um she's a she's aware that this um you know this request would be coming um and and it does have to be funded from an another Capital project that was bonded in that same year 2022 and it does look like there are um there's a project or two that can be that there's overage on that can be um transferred so this is a formality uh for the board to make this formal request to the board of selectman um for this uh transfer of funds do we build in contingency on this project I I honestly I'm not sure this was part of the guidance swing roof and the AC on in this um roof so obviously the guidance swing portion is done um being it it was three years ago I think you know the cost just escalate year-over-year um I think typically I would say historically yes we do build in some some contingency on these projects um but this does exceed that so an amount not to exceed 400,000 would give us a contingency of 40,000 I'm sorry 40,000 I say 4,000 400,000 my gosh no I'm thinking roofs I'm thinking roofs no please um uh 40,000 does give us a contingency of about you know6 to $7,000 um so should be we should be good do um do we have to ID we don't have to identify what project it comes from is it one of our projects from it is it is our project I I mean like um where we're taking it from no okay okay and so we don't have to request that specifically no okay so we just need to read the action and yeah um are there other questions do you guys want to talk about this more are we feeling good like we could move to to approve this and get it underway stay nice and hot and toasty in this sure would you like a a project number to that you're requesting the funds for that might be specific in the wording I can get that for you um so that's uh project hs25 hs25 requires those additional funds yep thanks okay so I move that the board request from the board of Selectmen a transfer of capital funds in the amount not to exceed $40,000 to fund the completion of the BHS AC project number hs25 recommended by the director of the finance and business operations Mrs Casey deti second great um now that the motion's on the table um ready to vote right sorry oh yeah go ahead no she was off oh okay okay we were off sorry we're on so all all in favor please signify by saying I hi hi any opposed no all right great it passes unanimously that's wonderful thank you okay so we have passed the uh request for funding um for hs25 great now let's move to the budget planning calendar um bl's you Casey I believe this is you again sure make the motion first I move the well okay you want me to make a motion yes please I'm sorry um that's okay well we we haven't we haven't had a chance to discuss this is there any um moves we should have the table okay go ahead I move that the board approve the 2024 2025 budget planning calendar as presented by Director of Business operations Casey diti second great so um do we have any discussion about the planning calendar what were the CH you you mentioned that you guys made some changes or no no we didn't make any changes um just updated the dates yeah the dates yeah we moved like the the the committee meetings from a Monday to Thursday our regular meeting we have like a meeting scheduled but the but the big the big dates are you know the superintendent presents the budget at the first Board of Ed meeting in December um it's due to the first select minut uh January 31st and then a lot of TBD dates um once it's released from us but so let's hypothesize that there are members of the public who are a watching this and B really interested in learning more about how the budget is put together is there a particular um date that you would uh recommend that somebody come and listen in to learn more yes I would I would definitely think on December 4th um when Dr Burl presents the budget um to the community is is really important it's always um also available online afterwards but that's that's a great one um there's also a budget round table before our regular board meeting on December 18th so our our two regular Board of Ed meet meetings in December um are very budget heavy in that sense um and so those are good to to attend um and then there's a a public hearing on the budget on January 15th that's Wednesday January 15th um at 6:00 and then in between all of those there's the um the public meetings of the finance subcommittee um just about weekly Rosa right I think um at that yeah for those months uh that we'll be meeting to go line by line detail by detail um of the entire budget okay and another note for the board there is the way the regular meetings are scheduled for this F uh Academic Year there's one regular meeting I think it's January 15th we said in um in January the often times is to so I imagine as I kind of project out in just nine years of experience of doing this uh in town uh before the January 31st submission to the first selectman we probably would have a a a special budget meeting of the full board U because we'll need to adopt before we go and make any adjustments you know need some a few days to do that before it's submitted to the first elment assuming there's adjustments okay and John can you just get us um after when the director C and building administ submit their requests can you give us that information yes so um October Tuesday October 1st you can see the very first date up here um Casey actually is working on it now putting together the memo putting together the uh Google Sheets uh in preparation for the principles and department heads to have theirs and then I think our submission date is what did we say oober October 28th yes October 28th so they they essentially have a month to work on that um they submit and then the three of us uh here uh meet with each department head and we vet the budget we go through it we ask a lot of questions the department head or principal talks about their budget goals um whether it's new Staffing new programming whatever they might need uh consolidations eliminations what whatever they have going on for that year uh in alignment obviously with the Strategic plan the parts of the graduate work and everything else we're doing here yeah if you can get us what their preliminary requests were that would be helpful oh yeah we Shar in the past right okay yeah that's easy enough to share yeah anything else okay let's move then to um oh do we have to vote yeah we haven't voted yet oh sorry okay I was confusing the previous one um so we've uh moved and seconded okay so um all in favor of approving the budget planning calendar uh for 2526 I please say I great okay any nay no all right so it's approved unanimously marvelous now moving on to um item C the uh School calendar uh we have a draft copy of the school calendar um from Dr BR from Dr BR would you like to um walk us through sure so so there's there's not a lot of um it's not a sexy calendar or anything like that it is pretty straightforward and what we've done in the past however there are some changes I do want to share and thank our calendar committee um we have several secretaries a few teachers a couple of Administrators um who uh we Lisa and I draft a calendar kind of generally with 18 82 days and kind of block off where the holidays are and kind of the the typical uh uh points in the year and then uh we we begin the work from there um we've gotten feedback from the committee and the calendar before you is that uh feedback so what you're looking at is a calendar for 2526 with a very what's been anecdotally very popular start after Labor Day um you can see the professional development days uh in August and then starting after Labor Day on September 2nd with 182 days ending us if there no emergency days on June 16th um again with uh the uh very typical um professional days on Columbus Day indigenous people's day and on Election Day we did build in the traditional second semester for early dismissal professional learning uh half days that we have where the kids are dismissed early and the teachers uh continue on those typically in Brookfield uh for as long as I've been here have been on Fridays before some of the longer weekends um we talked about the need for a more efficacious time for the teachers to meet would be parlaying in early dismissal on a Wednesday with our after school Wednesday meetings so we wouldn't have that trans we absorb the transition time and get more of a three and a half hour meeting in there we could really get deep on some topics rather than having a two and a half hour meeting so um we thought that would be helpful for us I'm sorry Aon they can have a long yeah yeah right so there you go it would still be a regular day on a Friday though you know we wouldn't we wouldn't do early dismissal there so that's the real big change I would say there um uh like I said 182 days starting after Labor Day and I wanted to hit on the PLC days so I don't know if there's any questions the key thing for the board to know is this is very early it's um September and we're already talking about next year's calendar so it's in front of you and um plenty of time for questions thoughts chat chatting with neighbors and friends and residents in town parents and uh to get feedback the board votes on the calendar ultimately and so we typically like to get this approved by November because people start to look at their plane tickets and vacation schedules and all of that uh for the following year so we do have some time there's nothing urgent about it but we wanted to get it out to you as soon as possible do we send feedback directly to you or do we bring it to the next meeting um you could actually send feedback directly to me we can um um consolidate it and then have a conversation at the next meeting or when Wendy and I are building the budget and getting feedback from the board on what should be on the the agenda we could talk about it at both October meetings however however we want to do it is the the state so Brookfield um students go 182 days and is that the State state's 180 180 okay is the Mandate yeah thanks and our teachers can work up to 187 days so those are those professional days we build in um May I okay um I just wanted wanted to like add some food for thought because um last year when we were discussing the calendar we had students and families come in and express um you know some they were they were advocating for essentially days off for religious observances um and some policies were put into place that I think protected them from you know missing tests and assignments and things like that um but I it didn't really sit well with me because only one particular religious group is now affected by that policy whereas other religious groups are being protected by our calendar and days off um I personally would like to streamline the whole process of have not process but the days that we have off I believe really should be just the state holidays that we can't control I mean I honestly identifi three days on this that we have off that could potentially be school days and one is Columbus Day another is rashishana and the other is yam kapor the others are protected by being federal holidays or state holidays or Governor um mandated holidays um but I think our job as in terms of promoting Equity is um to treat all religions equally in terms of observan now I'm not saying like if if we have like a a very large Jewish population I have no idea and I'm not saying I wouldn't be swayed by some even anecdotal anecdotal evidence that a lot of kids would be out of school um but I think that's just something that I would I don't know want to look into yeah so I'm come at the same issue but from the opposite side and I'm I'm thinking about um how many um practicing Muslims uh I know who've moved into the community in the last 10 years and I'm wondering um if there are we are we not recognizing adequately uh a need for observing um the major Muslim holidays I don't know and so just a food for thought kind of thing for you guys to like um I don't know mull over talk to your neighbors about um over the next couple weeks I mean I totally hear what you're saying um but it it seems strange to have um Jewish holidays and not and Christian holidays and not um those of our Muslim neighbors so anyway that's just what I wanted to add are there are there other comments about this okay let's move on then okay so uh let's go to the spring climate survey that's item D um and we are going to get um memorandum from Dr BR yep yeah yeah I well I mean he's going walk us through it I'm sorry my bad yeah exhibit K am I able to go now was we didn't have to read a motion okay um so I put this memo together a memorandum together for everybody given the climate surveys uh we have the every year for many years we've had the Panorama surveys at the end of the school year where staff and parents um fill out a a pretty detailed survey um for the school and um there's areas of strength areas of growth and um we base our climate goals each School bases their climate goal or goals on the feedback they get from that survey it's a great source of data um the information from the climate survey at this point now is almost four months old just for perspective and um while there was lots of positives from the parent surveys and the majority of the staff surveys there were some areas uh specifically at CES where there was some concerning feedback whether it was anecdotal comment feedback or just percentages um reporting in in the affirmative on particular items um and and I share at the end of the memorandum I'm not going to walk through that part of it with you um where the principles are at with kind of their three main areas they want to address either in from the positive side of things or in the constructive feedback side of things and they're going to be talking on October 16th by the way I was able to work with them yesterday um they'll present their school Improv Improvement plans and uh Dr man and I will work through the um achievement report for October 16th that'll be kind of the main presentation um and they'll go through the details of their climate plans um but it's really important to know that um one of the um kind of summarizing thoughts that I had when I saw the results at CES and we don't want to go down a rabbit hole and get really detailed on this necessarily for the board because this is school work that needs to happen is Dave and I were talking about it when they when the the results first came out and I think all of us no matter how much planning we did the consolidation in three different faculties coming together affected some people much more than we anticipated it would on top of that um building in the structures at the school for communication and input and so forth especially from The Faculty side of things um was an area that uh staff was very vocal about and and so um we need to acknowledge that I could tell you um Dave uh and his team immediately uh recognized what was going on in that survey and went to the staff and held a staff meeting at the the very last day of school to say hey we here we we heard these results there was a lot of positives but there was a lot of things that were not so good and we want to work on those we want to get input from you and we're gonna really uh put our nose to the grindstone over the summer so we've done a lot um as a team each building has done a lot so you know I don't mean to leave whiskin ear and Brookfield High out of this but there was some really uh eyebrow raising uh comments in in that so wanted to acknowledge that having said that as a district we've really put a lot of time in and articulated a lot of things uh here that we're doing uh in collaboration with the schools with District actions and really that's where the board supports the superintendent to take District action to make sure which our whole existence is for ultimately is the student is to our principles who hold the keys to those schools to make sure we're doing the best we can in servicing our our students so um to that end I just wanted to go through um a couple of points from this memo it's five pages long so I'm certainly not going to read it at this time of night to you folks um and it's public information it's in the board packet so anybody can go on on the website uh and and get this information the first thing to to really think about is climate is how people feel about the school culture is kind how we do business at the school and so it's important to sep you know Define those separately and kind of understand that um the other part is um we need to really understand that from the residents our entire Community our elected officials our Board of Education the executive team here sitting at the table principles teachers par Educators custodians everyone our secretaries we all are a part of school culture and climate and we build it together and you only it's ever evolving and you only build it with well-intentioned people if you're going to build it in a positive direction we all have to be working together and trying to row in the same direction even when we disagree on things but we have to be able to come together um and and and be civil with one another so we can work through these things uh and continue to to to build uh the positive energy that we saw tonight with all the various reports that we received uh an incredible showing um so really the goal of the district actions is to engage in purpose-driven employee agency and actions to Foster our teacher and staff efficacy in service to enhance student climate that's what we're trying to do and so there's a lot of actions we're taking there um and before I go any further on the actual actions it's important we talking a lot about policy lately the um School climate law has changed it's adjusted and there's a lot of training we're going to need to do this year to be up and ready to go for July 1st 2025 there's a lot to it and I'm going to be very candid right here with you folks I shared my goals with you uh yesterday yester there may be some staffing implications to properly address the amount of work and the time constraints to uh fully implement the climate legislation I have a presentation our friends at Ed Advance are doing some great work with us and so I'll be able to share that this fall with you so you know pre- budget Workshop um so couple of things um uh it's important for everybody to know at the end of the school year we knew about the the climate survey but um driven to make sure our staff knew and understood the vision and direction for the coming year we had a kind of an end ofe summary convocation if you will on one of the PLC days and we brought everybody together the whole the whole faculty and staff and really talk through and uh put a presentation together and Anna and I went through some of the key priorities coming up for the coming year from there um we worked with each principal on their uh School climate surveys and uh help them as they're thinking about their school Improvement plans and how the work they're doing um Can dub tail um with all the the climate work they need to do um and integrating uh their school Improvement plans um also as I said working with that advance and then in addition to that um the reflective intelligent work intelligence work that we've talked about uh today again I'm not going to go deep into that and also the new teacher and administrative evaluation plan how all of this fits together in developing efficy efficacy and um improved culture and climate to that end working with not only with the principles but also with Bill each has a personal executive coach for this year um we were able to reallocate some of the professional development money um some of you may remember from some convocations and other leadership work Sebastian little of little Consulting is working again with us with the principles and uh Dr corvo from CK is actually working directly with Bill so wanted to make sure our uh our key department and building leaders uh have the support they need as they develop uh professionally throughout the year um on top of that uh some of the research I've done in my dissertation work on teacher efficacy wanted to make sure I bring that forward to the administrative team again uh brought it forward a couple of years ago because it's so important on collaboration and communication and connection um and belief and how that impacts people with the purpose-driven work so again it all dub tales and integrates together um we're going to go on listening tours and talk to uh Folks at the school to find out exactly what they're thinking and feeling about all things organizational and we're going to get that input and we'll report back out on that of course the work with the anxious generation and the limitations on cell phone use is going to be another um really impactful piece on climate started to hear it from Mark and Dean a little bit tonight the uh I've seen some of the anecdotal feedback from about 30 teachers I think Mark you were sharing a document with me they're logging in um you know what they're seeing and and with the students and the attention uh in the focus one of our teachers was at the volleyball game I was chatting with them uh earlier and they said I was actually giving an oldfashioned lecture and I felt as though they were staring at me for way too long I'm not used to that so they were really appeared engaged with uh with the lecture so um so far so good on that um and further the Improvement in attendance uh goal that we have on page three uh we saw work last year impact the uh students we want to continue with that we can't come off the gas pedal on that we need our students in school but in July I really talked to you in great detail about teach teacher attendance right and related to substitutes and related to finances but our staff um we want to get back to pre-pandemic absentee levels we're at about 15 days on average uh for our teachers that's three weeks of school you know and there's all kinds of reasons but we we it's just we cannot be missing that much pre- pandemic was around two weeks of school so about 10 days of school over the course of a school year so we really want to work and communicate with our staff how important they are to the learning process um and of course um it goes without saying but it's important to acknowledge providing a safe and orderly environment is key um our new HR supervisor is really adjusted well um is is excited and motivated T she's Inspire she's really working inspired uh to connect with staff and and really be of service to to all of those folks so that's in a nutshell what the memo is and kind of the district actions to give give our people at the building all the supports they need to do the work they need to do at the school open for any questions or ideas buts I have a couple questions um John um so the school climate coordinator who are they in each of the buildings does each building have one or uh yes unless they split a stien I can actually I don't know I can tell you the name of the person but the the they they yeah they split a stip in so how does one become a school climate coordinator like did they put in for iton they put in for it um well they're they sta staff or faculty yeah so de de can you just come to the mic and say who yours is and we can just do each one so everybody knows is it a stip in that's very people a lot of people put in for it or it's slim picking um it was it's l w and Alison Patrick last year we actually had three um it was also um Amell can you tell the positions of those people so they know what positions they what they is Ali fck and L is a reading teacher thanks at the high school we have one school climate uh coordinator that's Sarah Riki she's a math teacher um you know and I had it was to go find somebody thanks Mark we have two have and Laur a third gr teacher Laur thank you please can I just um please reply a little bit to that also um one of the things with the school climate coordinator as it has been versus as it will be it's an important differentiation question I'm I'm hoping for the November presentation for you so bring it all to we've always had school climate coordinators as a you know a stiped position and just as a kind of on a little side I don't know if we actually talked about this but we streamlined the way that all um except for the coaches um all stiped positions are applied for last uh spring it's something that I had been thinking about well my first year here and then when Casey came on board we um worked together so that um each of the schools essentially has a a Google sheet that's sent out to it that all the teachers see all of the open positions at the end and every position becomes open right because nobody holds a position for more than a year they're yearly stiens um and so and what the Casey did because she's a marvelous sheet person um put if you hovered over the the actual you know name that had a little description of what it was so and that was pulled directly from whatever the um information was in the contract or in the uh job description and so everybody was had the option of looking at and reviewing every position that was open um and then they would put their name in um through a form and then that would populate the very the sheet so that the um principles could then see who was interested and then they went through their vetting process and if they had to go ask somebody to apply they would do that or if they had to interview people and ask them why they wanted that position because they had to winnow it down then they would do that and so it was a really much more streamlined and transparent away approach versus just having a bunch of forms filled out and sent to TSO um and so I think that it went really smoothly and it was an opportunity for everybody to kind of get a sense of where they might be interested in doing even if not for L for this this year then for next year year so and how does that coordinator play into your plan this plan well it's it's part of climate you need to make sure you're following the law so you have to have a school climate coordinator so so they're just more legislative well they're they're these are district actions to make sure the principes have identified their school climate coordinators and then they work with principles on school climate at the school okay Y and then as the as the um the legislation rolls out that school climate coordinator position and the school climate teams have a lot more responsibility and so that's one of the reasons that there will probably be a budgetary impact because the St the stipended position as it is now really is about um various programming for students and working on things that might you know um enhance the school day so for example at clees uh the school climate coordinators worked this summer with some curriculum work to develop some plans for um School climate activities through their pause program which I'm sure uh Dr P will share about in o October um so they did some planning for student activities throughout the school year same thing with um at the middle school and high school in terms of that's kind of what the school climate coordinator has been in the past but as we go forward and that will s continue for this year because the legislation um is going to be changing into next year uh so the legislation happened this past two years ago for July 2025 um so that's the legislative piece of it but it doesn't mean that we're going to wait until 2025 to start working on it so just last question for that one um so the coordinator is more like student driven yeah it's more well it it can span both though it can be both students it's in case you're wondering it's not the sunshine Club that's something different so it's not about parties for teachers so but that's important because people think that that is school climate and it isn't necessarily it's a nice part of it but I'm not saying you did but that's important for people to know who listening The Faculty piece like that's not the coordinator doesn't have anything to do with the faculty piece of the climate not necessarily I mean there may have to be some after school you know like I know that when they um launched this pause program uh it was at a faculty meeting because obviously you have to get the faculty on board and they you know ran through some activities but it's not geared toward that necessarily so um Dr BR you said your your um I mean you and I talked about how this is pretty sweeping legislation it's going to be a big change and so the presentation's going to be in November you think I'm thinking as I look at the scope that I've shared with everybody the the scope of all the presentations that we need to do this fall in in October and then November prior to budget presentation I'm thinking November 20th is probably the best fit in terms of timing uh as I looked at the board meetings but um the October 30th may also be it might be worth moving it up I do um I did include in my gold do for you folks the um the actual presentation that Ed Advance did with us as a leadership team that I would be certainly sharing with you folks thanks modify presentation here awesome thank you I just have a couple more things please um are the teacher comments that we received reflected anywhere in this document or no so no the specific no I didn't include the actual climate survey here but if anybody it's an fiable document if anybody's interested they're more than welcome back no I didn't know if you embedded it in these oh no I didn't embed it no okay um for the bullet item the providing a safe and orderly environment for students and staff on the I would have lik to have seen so security updates of course facilities updates of course I think having read through the climate survey um one school in particular I think well and I think this goes across all buildings but um having a very clear and concise code of conduct level of expectations behaviors um for students what that looks you know especially at elementary level what does that look like what does that look like to walk down the hall appropriately like having that all streamlined I think that's really important in providing a safe and orderly en for students and staff I think I agree with you um I I would think that that is that's at the building level not at the superintendent level that's the only reason that wouldn't be in here but I absolutely agree that's something you would you would be overseeing that that that's well the principles be overseeing that and I oversee the principles correct right yeah okay I guess I don't I wouldn't develop a code of conduct for each School correct but overseeing that that's being implemented sure I guess that but I don't disagree with you I mean I'm okay y um um and I think that touching upon you know the comments from some faculty some big three key takeaways um I think moving forward and it's important to get out there is respect communication and Trust like that's what improves climate and culture which in turn um is directly aligned to teacher tenant so I don't want to us to have a you know unrealistic goal of we got to get teachers in school but if they don't feel valued or respected um I wouldn't come either so I think that's although I really like your breakdown of strengths and areas for growth um in that should really be embedded the very strong comments that were reflected from our staff um as playing a role in this that's important so your feedack back is right on the money the principles are hearing it this We're All in This Together absolutely right not I didn't disagree with one thing you said there okay right with you other comments or questions I C with um you know with some of the comments um if the teachers don't feel comfortable right when your walk through do they have an opportunity to you know tell tell somebody anonymously what's boing I mean I just think based on some of the comments that we saw sure I think that we really um we want them to be happy um we want them to come to school we want them to teach our children purpose and with purpose so I mean is there something that can be done as far as you know teaming teachers up just to build them up you know it's a big school it's three you know the school's enormous it's a lot of personalities but you know how do you how do you celebrate yeah their uniqueness in one big building and I think I think Dave could talk about some of the if if you don't mind Dave can you share some of the structures that you you've started to build in with the team uh maybe come to the mic and share a little bit some of the so just if you go back to the I think Jo did said the three points that you really focus back from student Behavior Uh so one thing that the climate committee did do over the summer is they wrote explicit lessons uh because we can always say this is what a student should behave like but without explicitly teaching student how to behave in these areas so when we talk about our pause lessons we have they are suppos every teacher is teaching how to behave what does PA look like in the cafeteria what's look like in the buses the assistant principles to the lessons in the cafeteria we're actually going to get onto the buses and teach that so with and that was troubling for me because you you saw the numbers for we feel respected by students or students display respect uh which was low uh and we heard it we listened and that's why the CL committee came in and did that uh with respect to communication another one so one thing I've had in place now that's been awesome I mean again 12 days in everything awesome right CLE uh after every six day cycles that I mean I so I meet every once every six day cycle by grade level now so last year our PLC blocks was split was half upstairs half downstairs by community so 4 a and I think 1 a had it on the same day it's like okay do I go up to 4 go down to onea can I get to vote have be a vote uh so this year we got created with our schedule and so our Specialists are actually working K five during the PLC block so every day one I meet with all first grade staff every day two second grade three four five day six is kindergarten we don't have a KDAY too confusing so uh at the end of that six day cycle having had these meetings and the to talk to the teachers like what is the piece of communication that's most important what do you need the rest of the school to know I have my class connects email every 6 days to go out I've also increased communication with staff request Chronicles uh again the first couple of minutes of every one of our day PLC meetings is communication what does the rest of the school need to know uh I admittedly the biggest struggle little Huckleberry so easy right to communicate to all that staff now I have over 200 staff members uh so we are absolutely focusing on communication and respect which will ultimately to hopefully that better climate Dave can you talk a little bit about I thought it was really it was fun um with the visibility you guys are working on your your satellite office and Danielle's rolling desk office and some of the different things you guys are doing yes also for visibility so uh on days 2 4 and six I work upstairs on days 135 on downstairs that way I get around the building uh a lot more frequently L and Lord knows I can use the steps and I've been actively using those this year and Dr rle has a mobile desk now so she actually has her traveling desk with laptop and she's going all around the school uh so again we listen we hear uh and we're making steps towards Improvement and honestly I really look forward to the next survey and as far as somebody mentioned do students feel or teachers have to feel comfortable I would like to think yes we have our Union President right in the building uh and he's absolutely has the open door any centry located right through up in fourth grade great yeah if I I just want to one clarify plcs are professional learning communities just so because sometimes we like to use our acronyms and that's okay that's right and they also are different names at different buildings which is another Brookfield anomaly but that's okay um but I just also wanted to Echo what um Dave was saying this year at CES not only is is he attending those plcs but all the teachers on one grade level are able B to be together last year they were split that that caused not only from a climate piece but also well from the climate piece that curricular instruction and assessment piece um it was hard for them to know what's happening across their grade level um and as far as that respect communication and Trust I mean that is something those three words have guided this entire approach from each of the building levels all the way up through the district kind of vision and bringing it all together um and that's one of the things that we were so excited about going going into this summer planning it it was kind of fortuitous that we brought in Tim Klein at the time we did because that's exactly what um that kind of efficacy and that sense of purpose and that communication and getting to to having people reflect on who they are as people in this building because teachers are people too sometimes we forget that um or you know that it gets forgotten even for teachers you know um but who they are as people and then how they connect with this work and then in turn how that connects with students that's the whole basis of all of this and um I thought that given all of the curriculum instruction and assessment work that the the CES folks were going to be faced with this year that you know I I was anticipating them trying to take a pass you know having a pass this year and really working on this SL next year we have um I don't know the total numbers yet because I'm still working with Tim on how it breaks down but I think um it is definitely a representative sample from each one of the schools it's pretty consistent AC across the schools uh out of those roughly 140 um and they are so excited I have had actually three people from CES today asked me to resend them the link so they can sign up so um you know that work is going to be I got to tell you something the Board needs to hear and and I share this with Dave this morning yesterday I happened to uh stop out with officer Jay out at recess and two veteran teachers who are unafraid to share their opinions with me um and so you love them for that um both talked about the K3 CK uh reading program and the illustrative math and both uh teachers were big fans they were talking about the reading program is a heavy lift it's a lot to learn um but they're really excited and looking forward to the future in that obviously time will tell um but getting that anecdotal feedback from your your team um is invaluable um good bad or ugly and it happened to be really positive so there a really good energy and a great starts of the year so and then the last the last thing I wanted to say was just um how important relationships are in this entire thing is this whole thing is predicated on relationships and um that's one of the reasons that Dr Brill and I have intentionally scheduled and Casey is doing the same thing into our schedules set times that we are in the buildings each every other week um we actually kind of mirror each other um we each sent out to the faculties the entire BPS uh staff the times that we will be consistently in the buildings that does not preclude us from being in the buildings at other times but just so that everybody knows this is a a whole team effort it's a concerted effort and why each of the buildings have unique you know kind of challenges and areas for growth and um you know areas of strength this also is an entire you know we are one town and we are one district and we're here to serve the kids so to that end I already have my invitation out with Aaron to come walk a couple of buildings with me during the school day so if anybody has any time in action right so anytime you want to do that I'll take you around yeah you're right awesome um that's it's wonderful to end on a high note thank you Dave really appreciate that St so um anything further on the climate survey um yes um so I just wanted you know just I'm just providing food for thought tonight because I just have a lot of thoughts um I I just think like you know we as a board I think what I'm hoping and I don't want to blabber this tonight but I also don't want to blabber this every single meeting that we're at I think climate is obviously super important but I don't want us to forget that we as board members have a responsibility play a role in that climate as well so and that does trickle down to students so I think and I'm hoping that in the coming months you know we we've already you know we've seen the climate survey results we've made the superintendent goals we have a followup on his goals tonight and we will over the course of the next month so I don't think this is ever going away but I think we need to just make sure that we're aware of the role that we're playing and how we are treating the district facing leader you know the board- facing District leadership because that is a part of climate too and it's it that's in a nutshell is our responsibility is to promote a climate for district leadership to do what they do so I want us to just hope I hope we can just remain aware of our actions and critique carefully without micromanaging this process I think that's that that's the type of leadership I think that's that's needed from any board at our level so that's just my food for thought okay Sarah did you want to say something too no okay um my food for thought for the evening is I appreciate each and every one of you volunteers um and for always being reflective and having the best interest of our students and our community at heart we do represent the community um and I think that it's good that we're all in check with each other so thank you for all your work volunteer work and for always being good reflective thinkers and Learners right on let's move to Old business there's none how about public comment um round two uh Mr Korea you have asked to speak on um climate survey and the the podium is yours oh he he knows yeah Mr Korea knows this better than anybody um okay so I'm also going to have a couple comments about things that occurred during the meeting Andy Korea 45 West whis Road um so uh during the security task force um read out I texted a friend um asking him about the badge readers if they work the comment I got back is that they that they don't work so I would check your information on that apparently this is something that is still broken um as it relates to holidays um I've lived in several places across the us as well as um went to a federal service Academy and I have classmates that live all over the US my experience with Public Schools personally as well as friends in terms of holidays um new New York and New York adjacent areas like Connecticut and and New Jersey tend to have the Jewish holidays off no other place in the US that I'm aware of does that it's more of a convenience because of population um the only other uh anomaly I guess I would say is when I lived in New Orleans area they celebrated all the Catholic holidays but none of the um Protestant specific ones because New Orleans is very unique um their counties are called parishes so outside of that it's you you observe religious holidays like you would and it's sort of you know the other ones the the Christian holidays that are you know Christmas Etc everybody's off because of the federal government um so that's my food for a thought um on the surveys uh I read all the comments read the surveys um and I read the memo the memo was very general very generic there's things in the surveys that didn't bubble up there were pervasive comments about parents and teachers talking about concerns with special education and IEPs Etc that didn't show up anywhere in the memo and that's a problem the high school had very few staff comments but many of them talked about how students they feel students are taking AP classes to um improve their GPA I didn't see that anywhere so if it doesn't get caught it doesn't get into an action plan um so in my career I've had to you know review a lot of um surveys of of employees as well as acquiring many companies uh review employees as they come in and if we saw comments were in the Cs um teacher comments those people wouldn't be continue to be employed I mean can you know comments like it's a to toxic environment people are afraid to speak up for fav retribution favoritism clicks being asked to provide daycare and um for the management team and can't say no comments of new teachers considering leaving comments of last year was the worst year in 20 years these are 45% % of our teachers it's about 20 million of our budget in salary you don't put that at risk what should have happened as a Personnel change over the summer thank you Mr K okay let's move down to the three main points so I wrote down um the opening school reports and updates is number one I figured the neas visit is number two because it's a piece of new information feels vital I don't know and number three the climate survey discussion what do you think about nask I mean that's it's big it's coming but it's isn't it next year uh it's we're actually Not Gon to have our collaborative until 2027 this is oh the district CID this is what it is we I mean it's kind of a prestigious thing it's interesting that we're Cloud it's it's going to be a big deal it's something that we can kind of get out there as like a I'm laughing thinking that like a main point for a lot of people is the fact that there's going to be air conditioning maybe we should wait yeah let's wait yeah wouldn't be prudent so I'm sorry you said you said um so my three were opening the school the opening school reports and updates the nas visit and the climate survey discussion what do you guys think well yeah it is September Jo your thoughts uh I was thinking like hiring of the new staff and then we waiting a couple positions I think that's important yeah staff update more than the ask which one is that well it's all the certified teachers so if there was a social worker here tonight different service special teacher oh yeah we we could expand it if you want yeah oh oh intro to new night yeah ucat put real secret everybody smart so can I include staff that wasn't just here oh yeah right like can can we give all the new staff yeah all the St yeahp you want you want all the names or you just want say Lisa can you copy and paste all the new St I don't know are we just introducing the four people that were able to make it well you're just going to say the staff was introduced you're going the video so you don't need to do all that awesome and also just as we we are also constantly kind of hiring that's why we don't just hire July and August okay we keep on okay it never ends speaking of which um upcoming events um yes what do you got it's the beginning of the school year okay so upcoming events for September and October first we'll start with Candlewood Lake Elementary open houses for kindergarten and 1 are September is September 23rd second and thir third grade September 24th and fourth and fifth grade September 25th all dates are half days for CES students CES picture day is October 1st uh the book fair starts October 15th and as Dr Brown mentioned there'll be tours open to the public of CES on September 26th and October 10th in the evening whis ciner Middle School the sixth grade field trip to Mountain Workshop in South Salem New York which is a team building field trip will be September 23rd the WMS PTO meeting will be at 9:30 a.m.

um Additionally the committee members and we've all agreed to divide up and begin reading through the 3,000 policy Series in anticipation of finishing the 9,000 Series um and many of these policies have been outdated I mean they need updating from like 20 years ago and these are um policies that are pretty quick to move through and actually have a lot of uh sort of overlap with some of the things that we're talking about right now and that um Casey has um been updating um the committee is also committed to listening to concerns and pivoting as needed to discuss policies that might not be in sequence and so one of these has been um Dr Burell had shared some concerns with the policy committee regarding personal displays and we wanted to meet with in Goodwin we had an executive session to talk through um some of the sort of what other what is out there what our options are how we would move forward um and so that will be an upcoming discussion um we're not that just happened tonight but that has been an example of how we definitely are listening to concerns that are coming in we are not planning on sort of just plowing through in sequence we I do have a list we've all been sort of maintaining a list of concerns that have come from both the public and other board members and we're trying to figure out how exactly those can fit in without like completely halting the work that we're doing so as we continue to have special meetings and add meetings to the calendar um because we're all committed to this we definitely will make sure that we are um communicating which policies that we're working through when we're working through them awesome um and I think I just want to take um a minute to say that this um group of policy committee members joy and um Ain and uh Stephanie have worked um overtime is almost an understatement in in um like attacking these policy updates so um the community may not know that but we sure do and thank you very much for the work that you're doing it's it's really making a big difference thanks all right so um security task force okay all right so we last met on September 9th um this was a special meeting that was moved up um due to some of the reports that we had gotten about malfunctioning badge readers so I do have an an update on that um um so the committee discussed and um they we discussed this and I can report then just for context about 80% of the badge Raiders that are in the entire District are located at CA yes um now initially when CES opened um there was a time that teachers had to have temporary badges um that's because their multi-use badges um were being programmed um and if you remember it was kind of a rushed to get into that building at the end of at the beginning of last year um but the recent issue that um you know has you know teachers are experiencing um was due to an electrical storm that damaged the motherboards um and that rendered about 25% of the badge readers that CES um locked as in a permanently locked position no door is ever unlocked um most of those doors were in the interior um could be open with keys but the badge issue was still there um the exterior doors um were staff so that teachers and students could come in during that summer repair time because the vendors were contacted right away um and at the time of this meeting all but one of the readers was repaired um and that one that still remained also had an an a door right next to it that student um teachers could use to to exit or enter the building from the outside um and since then so I actually I think like a day after we had this security task force meeting um that last one has been repaired then we talked about the townwide radio project that I think uh Mr Blanda and Eric Conlin also mentioned um this project is going to secure new handheld radios for communication between school buildings but also with the police um and it was just noted that teachers can also reach the police or an outside line via classroom and office phones okay so they don't need like cell service um then we talked about the just some remaining capital budget items that we've also heard um there's about 177,000 remaining in the capital budget for security items So the plan for that is more radios within the district more badge Raiders uh Mr Belinda talked about that and more security coverage as well as um a man trap with locked double doors at the auditorium entrance here in this building um and the completion of the Ballard installations which we've heard enough about um lastly um Alice training is um is underway as is the district's annual update of the all hazards plan and our next meeting is Thursday October 17th at 10: a.m.

on September 23rd picture day is September 24th the cross country meet at WMS is at 4M on September 26 they're hosting hats for Hope will be September 2 September 27th with more information forthcoming the shog valley visit for 8th grade is September 27th Abbot Tech visit for 8th grade is October 10th and the WMS annual wathon be October 17th with a rain date of October 18th and Brookfield High School tomorrow September 18th is open house be what isn't today September 18th sorry 19th okay I misspoke I miswrote that 19th tomorrow September 19th is the open house here at VHS the uh BHS Spirit Week starts September 30th homecoming Carnival is October 4th and the homecoming dance is October 5th districtwide days off for students are October 3rd and October 14th awesome so um for everybody who's watching at home who's still watching this is the end of the public portion of our meeting um we are going to um well we're going to move into executive session provided the motion passes oh yes yes I'm sorry please please two quick thank you out there our asso is always here for us in the evenings is here keeping an eye on us thank you and there wasn't other police officers available to be here at the meeting tonight Chief pagesi himself came here thank you very much sir okay so with that Stephanie would you care to um make the motion I move that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing the superintendent's goals and the board's valuation all in favor I I any opposed okay thanks thanks um everybody C

that's it Rose I just have a question is the um so the reader and at CES in the cafeteria is that swiping now now it is okay so I know that there was some one of them yeah one of them was one of the ones that was malfunctioning but there was another door like right right there that that was fine so I we just thinking if there was an emergency to get them in they were all going through one stairway so I just wanted to that I did here and I think one thing that's important um at the new school there's 52 total badge readers at the at the other school there's about a half a dozen at each of the other schools so we were covered the key thing is when any Mal function happens because of a storm or what have you um the doors were always on lock out those doors are locked and that's really the key thing uh that everybody needs to know yeah it's yeah it is but you know CS is yeah it's cool okay so um then let's move to the consent agenda speaking of big and full okay I move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as recommended new hires transfers resignations May financials June financials and bylaws listed for first reading all in favor say I any opposed no okay so it passes unanimously thank you very much um moving on to new business now um okay so uh first we're going to um hear a request for funding Capital project discussion um and maybe a motion so Casey this is down to you yeah sure great thank you um Robert did mention Robert did mention this in um his update from the uh last facilities committee meeting but we do um the facilities committee did approve a request uh for additional funding this request would have to be made to the board of Selectmen these are um it's a capital project for the air conditioner in this room that we are sitting in um this is a long-standing capital project it's actually a bonded project from uh 2022 um and what happened with this project the reason it got stalled is because once the um the engineering design went out for out for it and bids came in bids came in um more than double what uh the project was estimated at um I think they had earmarked about 90 thou 80 to 9 ,000 for this project and bids were coming in closer to $200,000 the reason for that was um the the plan for the design was specked so that it needed reinforced engineering for actually a smaller unit that didn't weigh as much so logically it didn't really make any sense um so Mr Caldwell um has been working at getting uh we actually reached out to Mark sakubo who is the firm that did our building condition study um and they submitted a proposal last spring they came out they were able to um respect the project brought in their um Engineers to look at the the structural engineering piece of the project and they um agreed definitively that they it does not need to be sort of re this reinforced um original plans so that being said we were able to go out to bid again and with that lower scope of the project we were able to get um as as Robert pointed out seven bids um the low lowest being 121,00 from fnf Mechanical Services um the highest uh was um was at $226,000 um but uh Jules uh kidos who is our purchasing manager um he did um uh do all the reference checks um Mark sakubo did take a look at fnf there was no reason not to go with them they're a very highly qualified uh vendor and so that that bid was awarded um again there's about $990,000 e earmarked for this project so while it is over over budget it's a three-year-old project at this point so it is it is reasonable that the cost has gone up um I did talk talk to Marsha about this um she's a she's aware that this um you know this request would be coming um and and it does have to be funded from an another Capital project that was bonded in that same year 2022 and it does look like there are um there's a project or two that can be that there's overage on that can be um transferred so this is a formality uh for the board to make this formal request to the board of selectman um for this uh transfer of funds do we build in contingency on this project I I honestly I'm not sure this was part of the guidance swing roof and the AC on in this um roof so obviously the guidance swing portion is done um being it it was three years ago I think you know the cost just escalate year-over-year um I think typically I would say historically yes we do build in some some contingency on these projects um but this does exceed that so an amount not to exceed 400,000 would give us a contingency of 40,000 I'm sorry 40,000 I say 4,000 400,000 my gosh no I'm thinking roofs I'm thinking roofs no please um uh 40,000 does give us a contingency of about you know6 to $7,000 um so should be we should be good do um do we have to ID we don't have to identify what project it comes from is it one of our projects from it is it is our project I I mean like um where we're taking it from no okay okay and so we don't have to request that specifically no okay so we just need to read the action and yeah um are there other questions do you guys want to talk about this more are we feeling good like we could move to to approve this and get it underway stay nice and hot and toasty in this sure would you like a a project number to that you're requesting the funds for that might be specific in the wording I can get that for you um so that's uh project hs25 hs25 requires those additional funds yep thanks okay so I move that the board request from the board of Selectmen a transfer of capital funds in the amount not to exceed $40,000 to fund the completion of the BHS AC project number hs25 recommended by the director of the finance and business operations Mrs Casey deti second great um now that the motion's on the table um ready to vote right sorry oh yeah go ahead no she was off oh okay okay we were off sorry we're on so all all in favor please signify by saying I hi hi any opposed no all right great it passes unanimously that's wonderful thank you okay so we have passed the uh request for funding um for hs25 great now let's move to the budget planning calendar um bl's you Casey I believe this is you again sure make the motion first I move the well okay you want me to make a motion yes please I'm sorry um that's okay well we we haven't we haven't had a chance to discuss this is there any um moves we should have the table okay go ahead I move that the board approve the 2024 2025 budget planning calendar as presented by Director of Business operations Casey diti second great so um do we have any discussion about the planning calendar what were the CH you you mentioned that you guys made some changes or no no we didn't make any changes um just updated the dates yeah the dates yeah we moved like the the the committee meetings from a Monday to Thursday our regular meeting we have like a meeting scheduled but the but the big the big dates are you know the superintendent presents the budget at the first Board of Ed meeting in December um it's due to the first select minut uh January 31st and then a lot of TBD dates um once it's released from us but so let's hypothesize that there are members of the public who are a watching this and B really interested in learning more about how the budget is put together is there a particular um date that you would uh recommend that somebody come and listen in to learn more yes I would I would definitely think on December 4th um when Dr Burl presents the budget um to the community is is really important it's always um also available online afterwards but that's that's a great one um there's also a budget round table before our regular board meeting on December 18th so our our two regular Board of Ed meet meetings in December um are very budget heavy in that sense um and so those are good to to attend um and then there's a a public hearing on the budget on January 15th that's Wednesday January 15th um at 6:00 and then in between all of those there's the um the public meetings of the finance subcommittee um just about weekly Rosa right I think um at that yeah for those months uh that we'll be meeting to go line by line detail by detail um of the entire budget okay and another note for the board there is the way the regular meetings are scheduled for this F uh Academic Year there's one regular meeting I think it's January 15th we said in um in January the often times is to so I imagine as I kind of project out in just nine years of experience of doing this uh in town uh before the January 31st submission to the first selectman we probably would have a a a special budget meeting of the full board U because we'll need to adopt before we go and make any adjustments you know need some a few days to do that before it's submitted to the first elment assuming there's adjustments okay and John can you just get us um after when the director C and building administ submit their requests can you give us that information yes so um October Tuesday October 1st you can see the very first date up here um Casey actually is working on it now putting together the memo putting together the uh Google Sheets uh in preparation for the principles and department heads to have theirs and then I think our submission date is what did we say oober October 28th yes October 28th so they they essentially have a month to work on that um they submit and then the three of us uh here uh meet with each department head and we vet the budget we go through it we ask a lot of questions the department head or principal talks about their budget goals um whether it's new Staffing new programming whatever they might need uh consolidations eliminations what whatever they have going on for that year uh in alignment obviously with the Strategic plan the parts of the graduate work and everything else we're doing here yeah if you can get us what their preliminary requests were that would be helpful oh yeah we Shar in the past right okay yeah that's easy enough to share yeah anything else okay let's move then to um oh do we have to vote yeah we haven't voted yet oh sorry okay I was confusing the previous one um so we've uh moved and seconded okay so um all in favor of approving the budget planning calendar uh for 2526 I please say I great okay any nay no all right so it's approved unanimously marvelous now moving on to um item C the uh School calendar uh we have a draft copy of the school calendar um from Dr BR from Dr BR would you like to um walk us through sure so so there's there's not a lot of um it's not a sexy calendar or anything like that it is pretty straightforward and what we've done in the past however there are some changes I do want to share and thank our calendar committee um we have several secretaries a few teachers a couple of Administrators um who uh we Lisa and I draft a calendar kind of generally with 18 82 days and kind of block off where the holidays are and kind of the the typical uh uh points in the year and then uh we we begin the work from there um we've gotten feedback from the committee and the calendar before you is that uh feedback so what you're looking at is a calendar for 2526 with a very what's been anecdotally very popular start after Labor Day um you can see the professional development days uh in August and then starting after Labor Day on September 2nd with 182 days ending us if there no emergency days on June 16th um again with uh the uh very typical um professional days on Columbus Day indigenous people's day and on Election Day we did build in the traditional second semester for early dismissal professional learning uh half days that we have where the kids are dismissed early and the teachers uh continue on those typically in Brookfield uh for as long as I've been here have been on Fridays before some of the longer weekends um we talked about the need for a more efficacious time for the teachers to meet would be parlaying in early dismissal on a Wednesday with our after school Wednesday meetings so we wouldn't have that trans we absorb the transition time and get more of a three and a half hour meeting in there we could really get deep on some topics rather than having a two and a half hour meeting so um we thought that would be helpful for us I'm sorry Aon they can have a long yeah yeah right so there you go it would still be a regular day on a Friday though you know we wouldn't we wouldn't do early dismissal there so that's the real big change I would say there um uh like I said 182 days starting after Labor Day and I wanted to hit on the PLC days so I don't know if there's any questions the key thing for the board to know is this is very early it's um September and we're already talking about next year's calendar so it's in front of you and um plenty of time for questions thoughts chat chatting with neighbors and friends and residents in town parents and uh to get feedback the board votes on the calendar ultimately and so we typically like to get this approved by November because people start to look at their plane tickets and vacation schedules and all of that uh for the following year so we do have some time there's nothing urgent about it but we wanted to get it out to you as soon as possible do we send feedback directly to you or do we bring it to the next meeting um you could actually send feedback directly to me we can um um consolidate it and then have a conversation at the next meeting or when Wendy and I are building the budget and getting feedback from the board on what should be on the the agenda we could talk about it at both October meetings however however we want to do it is the the state so Brookfield um students go 182 days and is that the State state's 180 180 okay is the Mandate yeah thanks and our teachers can work up to 187 days so those are those professional days we build in um May I okay um I just wanted wanted to like add some food for thought because um last year when we were discussing the calendar we had students and families come in and express um you know some they were they were advocating for essentially days off for religious observances um and some policies were put into place that I think protected them from you know missing tests and assignments and things like that um but I it didn't really sit well with me because only one particular religious group is now affected by that policy whereas other religious groups are being protected by our calendar and days off um I personally would like to streamline the whole process of have not process but the days that we have off I believe really should be just the state holidays that we can't control I mean I honestly identifi three days on this that we have off that could potentially be school days and one is Columbus Day another is rashishana and the other is yam kapor the others are protected by being federal holidays or state holidays or Governor um mandated holidays um but I think our job as in terms of promoting Equity is um to treat all religions equally in terms of observan now I'm not saying like if if we have like a a very large Jewish population I have no idea and I'm not saying I wouldn't be swayed by some even anecdotal anecdotal evidence that a lot of kids would be out of school um but I think that's just something that I would I don't know want to look into yeah so I'm come at the same issue but from the opposite side and I'm I'm thinking about um how many um practicing Muslims uh I know who've moved into the community in the last 10 years and I'm wondering um if there are we are we not recognizing adequately uh a need for observing um the major Muslim holidays I don't know and so just a food for thought kind of thing for you guys to like um I don't know mull over talk to your neighbors about um over the next couple weeks I mean I totally hear what you're saying um but it it seems strange to have um Jewish holidays and not and Christian holidays and not um those of our Muslim neighbors so anyway that's just what I wanted to add are there are there other comments about this okay let's move on then okay so uh let's go to the spring climate survey that's item D um and we are going to get um memorandum from Dr BR yep yeah yeah I well I mean he's going walk us through it I'm sorry my bad yeah exhibit K am I able to go now was we didn't have to read a motion okay um so I put this memo together a memorandum together for everybody given the climate surveys uh we have the every year for many years we've had the Panorama surveys at the end of the school year where staff and parents um fill out a a pretty detailed survey um for the school and um there's areas of strength areas of growth and um we base our climate goals each School bases their climate goal or goals on the feedback they get from that survey it's a great source of data um the information from the climate survey at this point now is almost four months old just for perspective and um while there was lots of positives from the parent surveys and the majority of the staff surveys there were some areas uh specifically at CES where there was some concerning feedback whether it was anecdotal comment feedback or just percentages um reporting in in the affirmative on particular items um and and I share at the end of the memorandum I'm not going to walk through that part of it with you um where the principles are at with kind of their three main areas they want to address either in from the positive side of things or in the constructive feedback side of things and they're going to be talking on October 16th by the way I was able to work with them yesterday um they'll present their school Improv Improvement plans and uh Dr man and I will work through the um achievement report for October 16th that'll be kind of the main presentation um and they'll go through the details of their climate plans um but it's really important to know that um one of the um kind of summarizing thoughts that I had when I saw the results at CES and we don't want to go down a rabbit hole and get really detailed on this necessarily for the board because this is school work that needs to happen is Dave and I were talking about it when they when the the results first came out and I think all of us no matter how much planning we did the consolidation in three different faculties coming together affected some people much more than we anticipated it would on top of that um building in the structures at the school for communication and input and so forth especially from The Faculty side of things um was an area that uh staff was very vocal about and and so um we need to acknowledge that I could tell you um Dave uh and his team immediately uh recognized what was going on in that survey and went to the staff and held a staff meeting at the the very last day of school to say hey we here we we heard these results there was a lot of positives but there was a lot of things that were not so good and we want to work on those we want to get input from you and we're gonna really uh put our nose to the grindstone over the summer so we've done a lot um as a team each building has done a lot so you know I don't mean to leave whiskin ear and Brookfield High out of this but there was some really uh eyebrow raising uh comments in in that so wanted to acknowledge that having said that as a district we've really put a lot of time in and articulated a lot of things uh here that we're doing uh in collaboration with the schools with District actions and really that's where the board supports the superintendent to take District action to make sure which our whole existence is for ultimately is the student is to our principles who hold the keys to those schools to make sure we're doing the best we can in servicing our our students so um to that end I just wanted to go through um a couple of points from this memo it's five pages long so I'm certainly not going to read it at this time of night to you folks um and it's public information it's in the board packet so anybody can go on on the website uh and and get this information the first thing to to really think about is climate is how people feel about the school culture is kind how we do business at the school and so it's important to sep you know Define those separately and kind of understand that um the other part is um we need to really understand that from the residents our entire Community our elected officials our Board of Education the executive team here sitting at the table principles teachers par Educators custodians everyone our secretaries we all are a part of school culture and climate and we build it together and you only it's ever evolving and you only build it with well-intentioned people if you're going to build it in a positive direction we all have to be working together and trying to row in the same direction even when we disagree on things but we have to be able to come together um and and and be civil with one another so we can work through these things uh and continue to to to build uh the positive energy that we saw tonight with all the various reports that we received uh an incredible showing um so really the goal of the district actions is to engage in purpose-driven employee agency and actions to Foster our teacher and staff efficacy in service to enhance student climate that's what we're trying to do and so there's a lot of actions we're taking there um and before I go any further on the actual actions it's important we talking a lot about policy lately the um School climate law has changed it's adjusted and there's a lot of training we're going to need to do this year to be up and ready to go for July 1st 2025 there's a lot to it and I'm going to be very candid right here with you folks I shared my goals with you uh yesterday yester there may be some staffing implications to properly address the amount of work and the time constraints to uh fully implement the climate legislation I have a presentation our friends at Ed Advance are doing some great work with us and so I'll be able to share that this fall with you so you know pre- budget Workshop um so couple of things um uh it's important for everybody to know at the end of the school year we knew about the the climate survey but um driven to make sure our staff knew and understood the vision and direction for the coming year we had a kind of an end ofe summary convocation if you will on one of the PLC days and we brought everybody together the whole the whole faculty and staff and really talk through and uh put a presentation together and Anna and I went through some of the key priorities coming up for the coming year from there um we worked with each principal on their uh School climate surveys and uh help them as they're thinking about their school Improvement plans and how the work they're doing um Can dub tail um with all the the climate work they need to do um and integrating uh their school Improvement plans um also as I said working with that advance and then in addition to that um the reflective intelligent work intelligence work that we've talked about uh today again I'm not going to go deep into that and also the new teacher and administrative evaluation plan how all of this fits together in developing efficy efficacy and um improved culture and climate to that end working with not only with the principles but also with Bill each has a personal executive coach for this year um we were able to reallocate some of the professional development money um some of you may remember from some convocations and other leadership work Sebastian little of little Consulting is working again with us with the principles and uh Dr corvo from CK is actually working directly with Bill so wanted to make sure our uh our key department and building leaders uh have the support they need as they develop uh professionally throughout the year um on top of that uh some of the research I've done in my dissertation work on teacher efficacy wanted to make sure I bring that forward to the administrative team again uh brought it forward a couple of years ago because it's so important on collaboration and communication and connection um and belief and how that impacts people with the purpose-driven work so again it all dub tales and integrates together um we're going to go on listening tours and talk to uh Folks at the school to find out exactly what they're thinking and feeling about all things organizational and we're going to get that input and we'll report back out on that of course the work with the anxious generation and the limitations on cell phone use is going to be another um really impactful piece on climate started to hear it from Mark and Dean a little bit tonight the uh I've seen some of the anecdotal feedback from about 30 teachers I think Mark you were sharing a document with me they're logging in um you know what they're seeing and and with the students and the attention uh in the focus one of our teachers was at the volleyball game I was chatting with them uh earlier and they said I was actually giving an oldfashioned lecture and I felt as though they were staring at me for way too long I'm not used to that so they were really appeared engaged with uh with the lecture so um so far so good on that um and further the Improvement in attendance uh goal that we have on page three uh we saw work last year impact the uh students we want to continue with that we can't come off the gas pedal on that we need our students in school but in July I really talked to you in great detail about teach teacher attendance right and related to substitutes and related to finances but our staff um we want to get back to pre-pandemic absentee levels we're at about 15 days on average uh for our teachers that's three weeks of school you know and there's all kinds of reasons but we we it's just we cannot be missing that much pre- pandemic was around two weeks of school so about 10 days of school over the course of a school year so we really want to work and communicate with our staff how important they are to the learning process um and of course um it goes without saying but it's important to acknowledge providing a safe and orderly environment is key um our new HR supervisor is really adjusted well um is is excited and motivated T she's Inspire she's really working inspired uh to connect with staff and and really be of service to to all of those folks so that's in a nutshell what the memo is and kind of the district actions to give give our people at the building all the supports they need to do the work they need to do at the school open for any questions or ideas buts I have a couple questions um John um so the school climate coordinator who are they in each of the buildings does each building have one or uh yes unless they split a stien I can actually I don't know I can tell you the name of the person but the the they they yeah they split a stip in so how does one become a school climate coordinator like did they put in for iton they put in for it um well they're they sta staff or faculty yeah so de de can you just come to the mic and say who yours is and we can just do each one so everybody knows is it a stip in that's very people a lot of people put in for it or it's slim picking um it was it's l w and Alison Patrick last year we actually had three um it was also um Amell can you tell the positions of those people so they know what positions they what they is Ali fck and L is a reading teacher thanks at the high school we have one school climate uh coordinator that's Sarah Riki she's a math teacher um you know and I had it was to go find somebody thanks Mark we have two have and Laur a third gr teacher Laur thank you please can I just um please reply a little bit to that also um one of the things with the school climate coordinator as it has been versus as it will be it's an important differentiation question I'm I'm hoping for the November presentation for you so bring it all to we've always had school climate coordinators as a you know a stiped position and just as a kind of on a little side I don't know if we actually talked about this but we streamlined the way that all um except for the coaches um all stiped positions are applied for last uh spring it's something that I had been thinking about well my first year here and then when Casey came on board we um worked together so that um each of the schools essentially has a a Google sheet that's sent out to it that all the teachers see all of the open positions at the end and every position becomes open right because nobody holds a position for more than a year they're yearly stiens um and so and what the Casey did because she's a marvelous sheet person um put if you hovered over the the actual you know name that had a little description of what it was so and that was pulled directly from whatever the um information was in the contract or in the uh job description and so everybody was had the option of looking at and reviewing every position that was open um and then they would put their name in um through a form and then that would populate the very the sheet so that the um principles could then see who was interested and then they went through their vetting process and if they had to go ask somebody to apply they would do that or if they had to interview people and ask them why they wanted that position because they had to winnow it down then they would do that and so it was a really much more streamlined and transparent away approach versus just having a bunch of forms filled out and sent to TSO um and so I think that it went really smoothly and it was an opportunity for everybody to kind of get a sense of where they might be interested in doing even if not for L for this this year then for next year year so and how does that coordinator play into your plan this plan well it's it's part of climate you need to make sure you're following the law so you have to have a school climate coordinator so so they're just more legislative well they're they're these are district actions to make sure the principes have identified their school climate coordinators and then they work with principles on school climate at the school okay Y and then as the as the um the legislation rolls out that school climate coordinator position and the school climate teams have a lot more responsibility and so that's one of the reasons that there will probably be a budgetary impact because the St the stipended position as it is now really is about um various programming for students and working on things that might you know um enhance the school day so for example at clees uh the school climate coordinators worked this summer with some curriculum work to develop some plans for um School climate activities through their pause program which I'm sure uh Dr P will share about in o October um so they did some planning for student activities throughout the school year same thing with um at the middle school and high school in terms of that's kind of what the school climate coordinator has been in the past but as we go forward and that will s continue for this year because the legislation um is going to be changing into next year uh so the legislation happened this past two years ago for July 2025 um so that's the legislative piece of it but it doesn't mean that we're going to wait until 2025 to start working on it so just last question for that one um so the coordinator is more like student driven yeah it's more well it it can span both though it can be both students it's in case you're wondering it's not the sunshine Club that's something different so it's not about parties for teachers so but that's important because people think that that is school climate and it isn't necessarily it's a nice part of it but I'm not saying you did but that's important for people to know who listening The Faculty piece like that's not the coordinator doesn't have anything to do with the faculty piece of the climate not necessarily I mean there may have to be some after school you know like I know that when they um launched this pause program uh it was at a faculty meeting because obviously you have to get the faculty on board and they you know ran through some activities but it's not geared toward that necessarily so um Dr BR you said your your um I mean you and I talked about how this is pretty sweeping legislation it's going to be a big change and so the presentation's going to be in November you think I'm thinking as I look at the scope that I've shared with everybody the the scope of all the presentations that we need to do this fall in in October and then November prior to budget presentation I'm thinking November 20th is probably the best fit in terms of timing uh as I looked at the board meetings but um the October 30th may also be it might be worth moving it up I do um I did include in my gold do for you folks the um the actual presentation that Ed Advance did with us as a leadership team that I would be certainly sharing with you folks thanks modify presentation here awesome thank you I just have a couple more things please um are the teacher comments that we received reflected anywhere in this document or no so no the specific no I didn't include the actual climate survey here but if anybody it's an fiable document if anybody's interested they're more than welcome back no I didn't know if you embedded it in these oh no I didn't embed it no okay um for the bullet item the providing a safe and orderly environment for students and staff on the I would have lik to have seen so security updates of course facilities updates of course I think having read through the climate survey um one school in particular I think well and I think this goes across all buildings but um having a very clear and concise code of conduct level of expectations behaviors um for students what that looks you know especially at elementary level what does that look like what does that look like to walk down the hall appropriately like having that all streamlined I think that's really important in providing a safe and orderly en for students and staff I think I agree with you um I I would think that that is that's at the building level not at the superintendent level that's the only reason that wouldn't be in here but I absolutely agree that's something you would you would be overseeing that that that's well the principles be overseeing that and I oversee the principles correct right yeah okay I guess I don't I wouldn't develop a code of conduct for each School correct but overseeing that that's being implemented sure I guess that but I don't disagree with you I mean I'm okay y um um and I think that touching upon you know the comments from some faculty some big three key takeaways um I think moving forward and it's important to get out there is respect communication and Trust like that's what improves climate and culture which in turn um is directly aligned to teacher tenant so I don't want to us to have a you know unrealistic goal of we got to get teachers in school but if they don't feel valued or respected um I wouldn't come either so I think that's although I really like your breakdown of strengths and areas for growth um in that should really be embedded the very strong comments that were reflected from our staff um as playing a role in this that's important so your feedack back is right on the money the principles are hearing it this We're All in This Together absolutely right not I didn't disagree with one thing you said there okay right with you other comments or questions I C with um you know with some of the comments um if the teachers don't feel comfortable right when your walk through do they have an opportunity to you know tell tell somebody anonymously what's boing I mean I just think based on some of the comments that we saw sure I think that we really um we want them to be happy um we want them to come to school we want them to teach our children purpose and with purpose so I mean is there something that can be done as far as you know teaming teachers up just to build them up you know it's a big school it's three you know the school's enormous it's a lot of personalities but you know how do you how do you celebrate yeah their uniqueness in one big building and I think I think Dave could talk about some of the if if you don't mind Dave can you share some of the structures that you you've started to build in with the team uh maybe come to the mic and share a little bit some of the so just if you go back to the I think Jo did said the three points that you really focus back from student Behavior Uh so one thing that the climate committee did do over the summer is they wrote explicit lessons uh because we can always say this is what a student should behave like but without explicitly teaching student how to behave in these areas so when we talk about our pause lessons we have they are suppos every teacher is teaching how to behave what does PA look like in the cafeteria what's look like in the buses the assistant principles to the lessons in the cafeteria we're actually going to get onto the buses and teach that so with and that was troubling for me because you you saw the numbers for we feel respected by students or students display respect uh which was low uh and we heard it we listened and that's why the CL committee came in and did that uh with respect to communication another one so one thing I've had in place now that's been awesome I mean again 12 days in everything awesome right CLE uh after every six day cycles that I mean I so I meet every once every six day cycle by grade level now so last year our PLC blocks was split was half upstairs half downstairs by community so 4 a and I think 1 a had it on the same day it's like okay do I go up to 4 go down to onea can I get to vote have be a vote uh so this year we got created with our schedule and so our Specialists are actually working K five during the PLC block so every day one I meet with all first grade staff every day two second grade three four five day six is kindergarten we don't have a KDAY too confusing so uh at the end of that six day cycle having had these meetings and the to talk to the teachers like what is the piece of communication that's most important what do you need the rest of the school to know I have my class connects email every 6 days to go out I've also increased communication with staff request Chronicles uh again the first couple of minutes of every one of our day PLC meetings is communication what does the rest of the school need to know uh I admittedly the biggest struggle little Huckleberry so easy right to communicate to all that staff now I have over 200 staff members uh so we are absolutely focusing on communication and respect which will ultimately to hopefully that better climate Dave can you talk a little bit about I thought it was really it was fun um with the visibility you guys are working on your your satellite office and Danielle's rolling desk office and some of the different things you guys are doing yes also for visibility so uh on days 2 4 and six I work upstairs on days 135 on downstairs that way I get around the building uh a lot more frequently L and Lord knows I can use the steps and I've been actively using those this year and Dr rle has a mobile desk now so she actually has her traveling desk with laptop and she's going all around the school uh so again we listen we hear uh and we're making steps towards Improvement and honestly I really look forward to the next survey and as far as somebody mentioned do students feel or teachers have to feel comfortable I would like to think yes we have our Union President right in the building uh and he's absolutely has the open door any centry located right through up in fourth grade great yeah if I I just want to one clarify plcs are professional learning communities just so because sometimes we like to use our acronyms and that's okay that's right and they also are different names at different buildings which is another Brookfield anomaly but that's okay um but I just also wanted to Echo what um Dave was saying this year at CES not only is is he attending those plcs but all the teachers on one grade level are able B to be together last year they were split that that caused not only from a climate piece but also well from the climate piece that curricular instruction and assessment piece um it was hard for them to know what's happening across their grade level um and as far as that respect communication and Trust I mean that is something those three words have guided this entire approach from each of the building levels all the way up through the district kind of vision and bringing it all together um and that's one of the things that we were so excited about going going into this summer planning it it was kind of fortuitous that we brought in Tim Klein at the time we did because that's exactly what um that kind of efficacy and that sense of purpose and that communication and getting to to having people reflect on who they are as people in this building because teachers are people too sometimes we forget that um or you know that it gets forgotten even for teachers you know um but who they are as people and then how they connect with this work and then in turn how that connects with students that's the whole basis of all of this and um I thought that given all of the curriculum instruction and assessment work that the the CES folks were going to be faced with this year that you know I I was anticipating them trying to take a pass you know having a pass this year and really working on this SL next year we have um I don't know the total numbers yet because I'm still working with Tim on how it breaks down but I think um it is definitely a representative sample from each one of the schools it's pretty consistent AC across the schools uh out of those roughly 140 um and they are so excited I have had actually three people from CES today asked me to resend them the link so they can sign up so um you know that work is going to be I got to tell you something the Board needs to hear and and I share this with Dave this morning yesterday I happened to uh stop out with officer Jay out at recess and two veteran teachers who are unafraid to share their opinions with me um and so you love them for that um both talked about the K3 CK uh reading program and the illustrative math and both uh teachers were big fans they were talking about the reading program is a heavy lift it's a lot to learn um but they're really excited and looking forward to the future in that obviously time will tell um but getting that anecdotal feedback from your your team um is invaluable um good bad or ugly and it happened to be really positive so there a really good energy and a great starts of the year so and then the last the last thing I wanted to say was just um how important relationships are in this entire thing is this whole thing is predicated on relationships and um that's one of the reasons that Dr Brill and I have intentionally scheduled and Casey is doing the same thing into our schedules set times that we are in the buildings each every other week um we actually kind of mirror each other um we each sent out to the faculties the entire BPS uh staff the times that we will be consistently in the buildings that does not preclude us from being in the buildings at other times but just so that everybody knows this is a a whole team effort it's a concerted effort and why each of the buildings have unique you know kind of challenges and areas for growth and um you know areas of strength this also is an entire you know we are one town and we are one district and we're here to serve the kids so to that end I already have my invitation out with Aaron to come walk a couple of buildings with me during the school day so if anybody has any time in action right so anytime you want to do that I'll take you around yeah you're right awesome um that's it's wonderful to end on a high note thank you Dave really appreciate that St so um anything further on the climate survey um yes um so I just wanted you know just I'm just providing food for thought tonight because I just have a lot of thoughts um I I just think like you know we as a board I think what I'm hoping and I don't want to blabber this tonight but I also don't want to blabber this every single meeting that we're at I think climate is obviously super important but I don't want us to forget that we as board members have a responsibility play a role in that climate as well so and that does trickle down to students so I think and I'm hoping that in the coming months you know we we've already you know we've seen the climate survey results we've made the superintendent goals we have a followup on his goals tonight and we will over the course of the next month so I don't think this is ever going away but I think we need to just make sure that we're aware of the role that we're playing and how we are treating the district facing leader you know the board- facing District leadership because that is a part of climate too and it's it that's in a nutshell is our responsibility is to promote a climate for district leadership to do what they do so I want us to just hope I hope we can just remain aware of our actions and critique carefully without micromanaging this process I think that's that that's the type of leadership I think that's that's needed from any board at our level so that's just my food for thought okay Sarah did you want to say something too no okay um my food for thought for the evening is I appreciate each and every one of you volunteers um and for always being reflective and having the best interest of our students and our community at heart we do represent the community um and I think that it's good that we're all in check with each other so thank you for all your work volunteer work and for always being good reflective thinkers and Learners right on let's move to Old business there's none how about public comment um round two uh Mr Korea you have asked to speak on um climate survey and the the podium is yours oh he he knows yeah Mr Korea knows this better than anybody um okay so I'm also going to have a couple comments about things that occurred during the meeting Andy Korea 45 West whis Road um so uh during the security task force um read out I texted a friend um asking him about the badge readers if they work the comment I got back is that they that they don't work so I would check your information on that apparently this is something that is still broken um as it relates to holidays um I've lived in several places across the us as well as um went to a federal service Academy and I have classmates that live all over the US my experience with Public Schools personally as well as friends in terms of holidays um new New York and New York adjacent areas like Connecticut and and New Jersey tend to have the Jewish holidays off no other place in the US that I'm aware of does that it's more of a convenience because of population um the only other uh anomaly I guess I would say is when I lived in New Orleans area they celebrated all the Catholic holidays but none of the um Protestant specific ones because New Orleans is very unique um their counties are called parishes so outside of that it's you you observe religious holidays like you would and it's sort of you know the other ones the the Christian holidays that are you know Christmas Etc everybody's off because of the federal government um so that's my food for a thought um on the surveys uh I read all the comments read the surveys um and I read the memo the memo was very general very generic there's things in the surveys that didn't bubble up there were pervasive comments about parents and teachers talking about concerns with special education and IEPs Etc that didn't show up anywhere in the memo and that's a problem the high school had very few staff comments but many of them talked about how students they feel students are taking AP classes to um improve their GPA I didn't see that anywhere so if it doesn't get caught it doesn't get into an action plan um so in my career I've had to you know review a lot of um surveys of of employees as well as acquiring many companies uh review employees as they come in and if we saw comments were in the Cs um teacher comments those people wouldn't be continue to be employed I mean can you know comments like it's a to toxic environment people are afraid to speak up for fav retribution favoritism clicks being asked to provide daycare and um for the management team and can't say no comments of new teachers considering leaving comments of last year was the worst year in 20 years these are 45% % of our teachers it's about 20 million of our budget in salary you don't put that at risk what should have happened as a Personnel change over the summer thank you Mr K okay let's move down to the three main points so I wrote down um the opening school reports and updates is number one I figured the neas visit is number two because it's a piece of new information feels vital I don't know and number three the climate survey discussion what do you think about nask I mean that's it's big it's coming but it's isn't it next year uh it's we're actually Not Gon to have our collaborative until 2027 this is oh the district CID this is what it is we I mean it's kind of a prestigious thing it's interesting that we're Cloud it's it's going to be a big deal it's something that we can kind of get out there as like a I'm laughing thinking that like a main point for a lot of people is the fact that there's going to be air conditioning maybe we should wait yeah let's wait yeah wouldn't be prudent so I'm sorry you said you said um so my three were opening the school the opening school reports and updates the nas visit and the climate survey discussion what do you guys think well yeah it is September Jo your thoughts uh I was thinking like hiring of the new staff and then we waiting a couple positions I think that's important yeah staff update more than the ask which one is that well it's all the certified teachers so if there was a social worker here tonight different service special teacher oh yeah we we could expand it if you want yeah oh oh intro to new night yeah ucat put real secret everybody smart so can I include staff that wasn't just here oh yeah right like can can we give all the new staff yeah all the St yeahp you want you want all the names or you just want say Lisa can you copy and paste all the new St I don't know are we just introducing the four people that were able to make it well you're just going to say the staff was introduced you're going the video so you don't need to do all that awesome and also just as we we are also constantly kind of hiring that's why we don't just hire July and August okay we keep on okay it never ends speaking of which um upcoming events um yes what do you got it's the beginning of the school year okay so upcoming events for September and October first we'll start with Candlewood Lake Elementary open houses for kindergarten and 1 are September is September 23rd second and thir third grade September 24th and fourth and fifth grade September 25th all dates are half days for CES students CES picture day is October 1st uh the book fair starts October 15th and as Dr Brown mentioned there'll be tours open to the public of CES on September 26th and October 10th in the evening whis ciner Middle School the sixth grade field trip to Mountain Workshop in South Salem New York which is a team building field trip will be September 23rd the WMS PTO meeting will be at 9:30 a.m.

you got your wish just before 630 is perfect oh all right great well thank you I hope thanks everyone hope you have a good trip Peter yes thank you and we will see you see you Saturday everyone else good bye everybody