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good evening everyone and welcome to Ashen planning board meeting of Thursday March 13 2025 a reminder to everyone that the meeting is being broadcast and recorded um I'm calling the meeting to order at 7:18 and first on our agenda as always Clerk's report okay thank you madam chair we have not received any correspondence since the last plan well that is easy then we will go on to the next agenda item thank you and next on the agenda is public comment Peter can you imagine uh manage any public comment uh if there are anybody online uh via Zoom that would like to make a public comment please raise your handbody in the room this would be the correct time to make your way to the podium we have one person at the podium Mr Mar donon Mr Mar Doone please uh address the podium with your name and address oh I gotta do it again hello porium thank you for setting me up like that okay um I'm going to ask the question I asked last time through the chairman to to the town planner any progress on working together with other committees about zoning and BOS Mark I can tell you right now that the main goal um is Staffing the zoning board of appeals and uh Staffing this planning board I would love to carve out a time to speak with you about zoning and the town manager however our schedules are busy um town meeting is building so I think if we can look to uh sometime into May probably be appropriate time uh after town meeting and then we can kind of go from there okay and I know that tonight is a little snippet I what you going to be talking about so I wait for that thank you I don't see anyone else with a hand raised so we will go on to item seven which is our first public hearing this is uh 240 to 260 Pleasant Street do you want to read that in you want me to I can read it in for you okay so the plan board will hear the petition um of Metro West facilities LLC uh requesting site plan approval design plan uh review and site uh alteration special permit per chapter 48 section 6 of the Massachusetts zoning act in chapter 282 sections 9.6 design plan review uh 9.4 site plan review in section 5.8 site alteration special permit of the town of Ashen bylaws the applicant is proposing to develop a recreational you soccer field and Tot Lot playground area additional permeable parking modified two-way site access driveway pedestrian walkway connection to the abing parcel to the West uh associate storm Water Management Facility Utility Services landscaping and electrical conduit or by direct burial wiring for the future Lighting on the field this soccer field will serve as a exil um access accessory use ancillary use to the current facility which is known as the Metro West Christians Academy inan connect Church the total development excuse me the total area of the development will be 1.9 Acres the property is question uh excuse me the property in question is located at 240 260 Pleasant Street assessors map 13 lot 108 and 109 and is located with the industrial district it's also within the underground protection uh the groundwater protection overlay district and the MBTA communities uh family excuse me the MBTA Community Family multif Family overlay District as a note um this past week the T of ashlin's MBTA overlay district has been approved by the Attorney General's office it is awaiting approval from um EC the state approval agency uh with that said before I hand it over to the applicant um just to add a little color and to put us on Pleasant Street um this is um right next to the connect Church in the daycare facility it is two I'm not going to say abandoned Lots however they're uh they are not manicured uh there's some overgrown trees overgrown vegetation and they're almost used for uh I would say overflow parking is that correct that's correct um and so at this point um in this application is going to look to develop these properties into a uh into Fields recreational space obviously ancillary to the connect church and the Christians Academy so with that said I'm going to hand it over to the applicant um Mr Wayne is it Bellic Bellic Mr Wayne Bellic from who's a um excuse me from Land Design collaboratives who is representing the applicant so Wayne please take it away and just and just to note we do have our fifth member um online you know at this time because I know it's a special permit so that just you know you do have five members of the board here now thank you madam chair thank you Peter nicely done uh looks like you took half my presentation which uh is much appreciate it Madame chair Wayne bellich Land Design collaborative civil engineers Landscape Architects uh on the project I'm joined here tonight by Jerry scherz so he's the director and executive Pastor for connect church and the Metro West Christian Academy um uh Peter uh had pretty much covered quite a bit of the site um if we could uh go to uh so Alvaro is going to be driving the bus for us to the site so if we could Alvaro uh take it to the compiled existing conditions plan couple sheets down please that's okay actually that may have been one more perhaps there you go thank you so as uh Peter had indicated it's located to the east of uh con Church in the Metro West Christian Academy as you can can see it's uh divided into two Parcels both combined uh way to about 825,000 Square F feet there 325 uh feet of Frontage serving the two properties um the zoning requires uh 150 fet of Frontage and 30,000 square feet so with that said uh it exceeds the uh Frontage in in laot area requirements um you'll note to the uh to the south of the property is the railroad tracks the MBTA uh and over to to the right is an industrially zoned piece of property Pro uh the topography on the site is is relatively flat and as Peter had indicated there's overflow parking there it can accommodate you know I looked at it um and if I look at the dimensional requirements for the town of Ashland's parking spaces and a 24t maneuvering aisle it can accommodate about 30 spaces uh that's a uh compacted gravel uh parking lot the front of and the remainder of the property is Peter had indicated is wooded with uh dense undergrowth um uh a lot of vines and dense undergrowth uh not the most desirable situation um topographically uh if you look at how storm water flows from the site um a portion of the a small amount goes to the Northeast flows off of the Northeast Direction um small portion goes to the southeast Direction uh but the balance of B the majority of it stay on the property there's some depressions on site um which tend to collect the storm water um the soils on site um are primarily Sandy gravels um we had done some soil testing as you can see on the plan uh and as was required under the uh State storm water regulations um local storm water bylaws and we found that the soils out there were fairly consistent uh to uh what the nrcs has on file um the site is accessed uh actually to the northwest of the site there's a paved uh exit uh to the site so currently uh connect church and and Metro West use that as egress from the site it's not an entrance as of this time uh but they use it uh for for erets ELO if you wouldn't mind uh go to the next slide please thank you yep TR to look at the from above sure what is the building so it's connect church and area what is the next that's a that's an industrial use the name of it uh escapes me okay yeah so if you're going down Pleasant Street you have um wher air handling s solar flare and then the next one will be the it's actually kind of cool the way it I and talk about because sort of hidden with the trees it sounds like they want to replicate that absolutely absolutely I appreciate the comments so one of one of the things that I failed to mention uh as you folks know this is PR why that the oay District was created um the nanza super fun site is uh to the southeast east of this in the plume extends onto the property um we had received information DP in the federal EPA uh have this on file uh there are no activity use limitations uh on the site or any other restrictions that prohibit uh any construction on the site um they do have in the southwest corner of the site there are three dedicated Wells monitor Wells uh a b and c uh it's the four series 4 A B and C they use this uh from monitoring uh the levels of the triethylene uh in the system um in in in the aqua or in the uh in the plume what they've uh indicated uh in the study um is that the the levels are very low it's down about 70 to 80 feet and what we've received from the EPA and D they don't concerns there are not are no concerns as to what the activity uh is on the property they did ask uh uh Jerry and his group to just keep them informed as to what's going on they asked for some soil data uh just to know what we found for soils and they wanted the soil log uh information so we decided that you know we're filing the application we'll give them everything so what they have received is what you have received so they have a a pretty good idea as to to what's going on out here and we haven't heard anything um so like I said we're we're sensitive to that as well so we're going to start with a um a site prep an erosion and sediment control plan uh to the South West uh southeast of the property there's a 100 foot buffer zone that's cast upon the property from a BBW to the south side of the railroad tracks so in speaking with uh Peter so our first meeting we had uh with the town we've had two meetings with Town Staff first one was planning and conservation the second one was early of this week on Tuesday with planning conservation in all the the department heads and we fielded some questions from them and they are offered their thoughts so with that said um we're not our filing uh with concom which is concurrent with this is not for the filing of a notice of 10 however it's for their storm water permit um so with that said all work is being proposed outside the buffer zone so what you see on this plan is the erosion settlement control uh barriers uh established out here we've got orange construction fence uh around the Well site area one of the requirements of the EPA um um and DP is they asked uh the church if they they Ed we respectfully request that you try to honor this area and and keep it protected so that there's no activity over feel that the plane does that creating a vegetative buffer uh to the area they plan to monitor this continually um so um that would be the plan they'd have access to it so in in the event uh the the plan shows uh for clearing out here uh to the erosion sediment control barriers uh so the approach would be uh to go out clear it then establish the erosion sediment uh control barriers then grub it uh start to do some rough grading stockpile areas as you see on the plan are located uh to the Southwest um um that TP you know so like any site um that's where we're targeting but they will probably move as site cond distant conditions dictate one of the very first things that we would look to do is create an a sediment Basin and that would be located to the downgradient side of the site primarily along the easterly property line South um we would in uh introduce diversion channels uh we would have a a construction trailer out at the site when they're doing their work um and we would also look to um and I'll get into this in a minute but one of the plans here is to as they go through the vegetation here um obviously uh remove and properly dispose of any invasives that are on the property but while they're out there what they're going to look for are some small uh shrubs that they could use as fillers along the front edge of the road just to again make it to Pro uh provide a little bit of a screening so to the north of the site more you know pretty much along the center of the frontage we're looking to propose a an area where um the the uh the shrubs would be balled and uh bar aped and and maintained to be uh hydrated so that when it comes time for planting the so that's basically it for the erosion and sediment control Alvaro if you would have mind so this is the layout materials plan so what you see um is a u12 sarer field that we're proposing here it's a natural turf field uh the parking in in on site like I said earlier we have 30 parking spaces currently uh on the property on the gravel parking lot this would provide uh 49 spaces so an additional uh 19 spaces access in egress in this case uh as proposed uh would be from uh Pleasant Street and the egress currently that is uh all primar all egress from connect Church would then again go to an in andout situation at this location so folks uh coming to use the soccer field um would enter at this location um so this the the parking as uh Peter had read into uh the minutes here uh is is ancillary to the existing uses so it's basically they're they're generating another 19 spaces um they also wanted to create a Rec recreational area for their students so this is why we looked at um a soccer field and initially it started as just an open field and you know it was at that point Jerry said hey why don't we just shoot for the soccer field maybe there could be multiple uses in town for youth soccer maybe we can work with the local league and uh provide them some opportunities to um there we're also proposing a tot lot about 50 by 50 it's going to be a uh hard rubber uh surface um and as I said we have the the parking area the parking area um is part of our drainage design we're proposing a uh a crush Stone parking area um the benefit to that is from a storm water runoff perspective doesn't generate as as as much as a paved surface where pretty much all of it with the exception of about 2% runs off in this case we we're going to take advantage of that stone and that's going to be part of our storm water system we're going to utilize the voids in the stone um so in terms of access and egress like you see up in the northwest corner um we're going to have access and egress into and out of the site um stop signs will be provided uh at the parking lot um as it enters uh through that uh paid surface area and then there'll be another stop line and stop bar out at the street um the pedestrian way is going to be provided from the uh existing developed lot uh to the west and then continue to the soccer field into the parking areas that currently is proposed as a a stone dust uh walkway um as part of the design we're meeting the uh planting requirements out here the landscape requirements by providing some uh trees at uh various locations if you look at what we're proposing we're proposing Seven Trees uh on the property and then we would look to as I discussed earlier enhance the uh the screening out at the street uh with the the shrubs So the plan would be as we noted on our planting uh uh notes that we would go out there with the representative from the town probably the planning department petor alaro uh the landscape architect and the contractor and view it from the street to fill the voids with uh plant material that we've plucked if we feel that uh the additional plant material is required it would come from Nursery stock uh so the from a layout materials perspective this is uh like I said this is basically what we have the rest of the area would be uh loaned and seated um to the East and to the South as I was talking uh earlier is the primary portion of our storm water basin so Alvaro if you wouldn't mind flipping over to the grading thank you so grading and drainage the site is pitched uh generally to the um soccer field so from the parking lot through the soccer field we have created a Swale in the Swale um we have created a uh We've uh proposed a half dozen or so so the swell begins from the east side of the uh the parking lot or the west side of the parking lot goes to the South and then continues up uh North the low points in this depressed Swale uh we have um area drains the area drains are eight high density polyethylene with like a beehive type grate uh so that in the uh Autumn uh conditions when the leaves come down they don't get clogged and the window will just blow them through uh and off the uh the inlets um this was an interesting site from a hydrology point of view and from an engineer's perspective it doesn't get better than this because of the soils that we had and because of what uh the church was looking to do on in the school were looking to do on the property it really didn't give us much room to discharge so with that we hit you know this is basically the cat's pajamas in terms of uh storm water runoff from the site because typically you address storm water rate Peak rates of runoff you're not required to uh address volume under the the uh State storm water RS you're required to you know ensure that you're not flooding down gradient properties but in this particular case we don't have a detention Bas and we have retention detention uh to remind the board is basically where you collect water uh and you releas it at a uh at a certain rate retention none of the water leaves the site so looking at our pre- and poost development numbers um we have some water leaving the site preconstruction post Construction it all goes in the ground um the system like I said from the drainage system we're utilizing the stone in the parking area uh we've done this on a number of of projects quite effectively um some of the projects were Ground mounted solar array Fields some of them fairly large uh solar array Fields um and it's an effective tool typically you take 40% void uh ratio in the stone we're a little conservative on this one we only took 20 so the the fact of the matter is is while uh the everything functions on site um we there is some extra capacity within the stone so um like I said that's basically the way it's laid out the soccer field is crowned um so that it pitches to either side into the swes um and contained uh on the property uh as I said earlier the uh the orange construction fencing will remain up during All Phases of construction uh the um erosion sediment control measures will also remain in place until um all everything is stabilized and we get a sign off um Alo if you wouldn't I don't know how much more we have here uh so this is utilities so one of the things that the town would like to do is so obviously if they're looking to do a soccer field um and it may host some games that may run into the night we need lighting so as part of this uh project we've uh prepared a photometrics plan prepared and we'll get to that in a minute uh but we have lighting proposed at the Four Corners of the field those po poles are going to be 25 foot tall we also have some light fixtures uh for the parking area so you'll notice to the east side of the parking area to the uh west side of the parking area and to the South we're proposing some uh poles those are only 20 foot tall different type of uh of fixture uh so those are night sky compliant fixtures all LED um for the soccer field something I should have mentioned earlier um and we have this in fact this was something that Alvaro brought up in our first meeting because of his lead foot and soccer um had asked that we provide the screening so we said we were going to provide the screening in our meeting this this week so looking at the ends of the soccer field we are providing 20 foot tall screening um but we have uh discussed with the town staff about extending that that screening a little bit further down from the corner is about another section of screening which is going to be about another 10 to 20 feet um so that's basically uh the layout of the field do we have any more here ELO well those are the details if you want to mind scrolling down I think I might have the y That's the detail so this is traffic maneu uh uh fire apparatus Maneuvers so while there isn't a building here you know there are some instances we've seen cars on fire and the like so what we did is we took typically on something like this you're not going to need a a ladder truck but we wanted to demonstrate that it would uh a a vehicle could easily maneuver through the site so we took the biggest beast in the fleet which would be the lad truck and as you can see uh coming uh into the site uh from the East uh takes the left into the site and loop around the parking area quite nicely and then take that right turn at the exit site likewise coming in from the West same type of maneuver in and out of the site and then proceeds to go westbound uh and then Alo if you want to mind flipping to the next one which would be so this is this is an exhibit that's required um in your your uh subdiv in your um zoning bylaw uh it asks that there are uh photos taken from the street um to to get an idea as to what it looks like now I think think it's disingenuous when Consultants provide a board with photos of these Lush conditions that you're going to see in South America uh from the street um like I said I think it's just ingenuous I think I want to see it what does it look like in the winter so what we did is we uh looked at three uh view sheds viewpoints and provided you summer conditions and winter conditions ELO next slide please so this is our photometrics plan so there will be some ambient lighting uh from connect church and uh from Pleasant Street but this is basically where we are so we're pretty much at a half foot candle uh at the street keeping in mind that especially during summer conditions when there's going to be activity out here and the lights would be activated uh at night for the field is going to be vegetation so you wouldn't be seeing the ve the the lighting from the street so um that you know in terms of its representation would be more of a winter condition if socer would be played in the middle of the winter and we know that doesn't happen um so that's basically the photometrics plan uh hot at the fixtures but as we uh move away from the fixtures uh the foot candle distribution uh is diminished Alvaro I think that that's the last sheet right thank you um so with that said Madam chair um uh I'm ready for some questions from the board and I will definitely open it up to questions from Ab board thank you for that presentation it was really complete I can start please go ahead I I didn't get a chance to like scrub and measure the scale um the distance from the railroad because I know the railroad's particular guess we should discuss that I I obviously we're not doing construction but if we approve something might not so I guess what do you know about the railroad so the railroad um in terms of the track itself or the the I mean they have a pretty a often a very large distance that you can't work and need special Insurance all of that and I don't know the scale on this yep so looking at the uses elsewhere um on the property this is consistent to what is is happening over at connect Church um so in terms of the insurances I would have to defer to um if if if you're referring to um property insurance or assurance that there's nothing going to be I me they call it railroad protective liability insurance okay I'm not saying that we it's under our purview yep to ask for that I think that we need to investigate but I I guess my concern for our board is if if we're approving work within some Zone that the railroad do we have liability if we don't do our eyes and cross our teas about that so I guess that's um yeah that I'm not sure I mean I do I have had a project myself we're actually just talking about it before the meeting um of a residential project on on the railroad in another town and um besides providing um the besides providing the railroad that um all this information about the project there wasn't anything else that we needed to do um so I'm not sure obviously this is a little closer maybe than than my project was but I think the it does I think it goes to it goes to um I don't remember the name of organization but it goes to them for them to review as well if I remember correctly yeah so we have to put that on our list I think then to find out um then so obviously you need that screening because that's pretty close to the road and and that's going to be 20 feet and your screening of the Landscaping is not 20 feet so that's going to we that's going to look kind of ugly right so we should talk about is there anything I mean it's it's actually a cute area you did a good job with pictures I drove down there it's cute right and and now you're going to see this wall of some kind of screening so I think that's a good question so during the winter time you're going to see it because the foliage is going to be down and that's why I provided the two of you uh the the two uh Seasons um in the summertime like I said what we would look to do is fill it with the lowly brush so we're basically looking to throw microphones around and then um looking to to fill the voids so wherever the tree canopy comes down to a certain height the goal would be to bring in that brush to to cover that curently out there with the way that brush is is grown um it was not a pleasant and no offense Jerry but it was not a pleasant experience uh going out into the site to flag the test Pit locations it gets pretty dense so we we'd be looking to replicate that out at the street um to the greatest extent I mean that the only other thing um you know these are all well established um deciduous trees um I'm looking at so when I looked at the site and as I noted in my uh my narrative um couple things that could happen here I know that I have clients that would take this would look at this and and again respectfully Jerry they'd say what is that knucklehead doing do you know how much money he could make on this thing with a fast food restaurant a bank which would be allowed out here industrial or some other commercial use um which when looking at something like that it would be much more aggressive so that's when I look at this and I do appreciate the comment and uh again like I said we're making some efforts to kind of just to screen that area um so that we can avoid having that that you know kind of break it up it's almost like looking at the facade of a a building you know if you can break it up with landscape architecture with you know some specimen trees or you know you know be a columna or a broader uh uh spread on a tree some shrubs that's what you'd like to do so that's kind of what we're looking at here so is there gonna can you I mean I think we could go I'm sorry we could go with a green screen yeah I think I think we're going to want to see like to be the most respectful to the neighborhood right there's literally houses across the street and like we get that you have choices about developing property but that's why you come here we're trying to represent the community of to get the best possible great so I feel like we're going to want to see kind of what that might look like and the best way to make that yeah um I mean I everything that you guys have done so far shows that you're willing to make something nice neighborhood but I think that's going to be so when you're talking about the screening you're talking about the C uh 401 where this says the barrier net system that's the the screen correct and that goes all the way around obviously the site to keep the soccer balls in oh so the the screening itself um the the soccer mesh if you will we'll call it mesh differentiate from vegetation yeah yeah so so with the mesh itself it's going to to be 20 ft high and it's going to go to the the far ends of the field so it will be it won't go around the entire uh field the reason we're not doing that is we're going to need to have access to the storm water basin and we have a swing gate located uh along the edge of the fence to the South to allow access to the storm water basin the other thing that we have a the the fence or entering the uh the field we have which so which line up there is the screen like is the mesh screen which so what is it the a solid line is it a mesh line so it's a it's a yeah it's that gray that Gray Line there that you're pointing to yep and there's one on the other side too I see then yep at the other end of the okay and then the long sides it's just a regular chain link fence but the parking lot side looks like it has that same mesh so no it doesn't it actually has and maybe it's just the scale of the plan um but the the parking lot side and the oppos side opposite side so the east side of the the fence and the west side of the fence don't have the screening it's only the north and south side of the fence okay because that's where the ball the errant balls are more likely uh to go yeah it's just really hard for me to find a line up there that means mesh right so that I can actually understand the design of it yep so we have it um so on the largest scale plet uh it's much easier to see um but I could get you know you know I could like I said I could probably highlight that maybe in a different color so you folks can see it one of the because it's not the thing you labeled u g right no that's underground electric that's under okay actually I should touch on that as well is it the um like Jagged Edge on that's it yeah okay so um my my question is also about not to harp on the soccer mesh um but someone who spent a lot on soccer fields and is likely to spend a lot more on soccer fields um I uh am wondering about to Kate's point about the railroad y obviously they'll have a special interest in making sure that there are not balls flying onto the tracks um so do we know whether this is acceptable to them in terms of keeping just the way that the orientation of the field is obviously you've got Pleasant Street where balls are going to fly you've got the tracks where balls are going to fly and then you know anyone who plays soccer knows that this Tot Lot is right in a corner errant corner kick you know you got you got balls yally flying into that playground so I'm I'm wondering if the railroad's okay and if there's any way to extend that screening to the playground so just to uh the reason for the the orientation um I played a a lot of ball growing up suffering for it now but um baseball soccer so soccer wasn't big when we were kids uh but the kid my kids have played soccer I coach soccer and there's nothing like a goalie being blinded from an East West orientation it's kind of like a baseball field playing baseball and then all of a sudden there's a Fly ball and you don't see it been there not nice um and so looking at this we need to go north south orientation um so I think yeah we've got the the screening one of the comments that was raised by Town staff on Tuesday which I thought was a great comment for that particular reason corner kick they asked if we could return the screening the mesh up the side of of the uh the field just a distance so we would probably look to extend that we're thinking another 20 ft Because by the time you do your your corner kick another 20 fet we feel would suffice I might actually defer to our good friend Alvaro on that um seeing that you have that lead foot typically something like that based on what what you see you know not that I want you out there playing soccer with kids You2 could be humiliating for you um but uh at u12 how far I mean is another 20 feet up that that sideline yep yep and so looking at that that's kind of what we discussed with the town so there are a couple other things that came up uh the uh Deputy Chief Fire Chief had asked about which I thought was a good uh question was access for an ambulance so we're going to put a double swing gate out there and dedicate uh a space for Access for the ambulance so with that said if we had screening around the entire field then the ambulance wouldn't be able to get into the field so into alvaro's Point another 20 feet as he said uh based on his experience would be efficient yeah I think it's a matter of like putting what you need but not going overboard with it agree right it's almost like sign pollution yeah you see some folks that put up 50 signs from the stop sign another 100 feet you know at some point it becomes White Noise um are there any trees that are there's no existing trees that are retained is that right it's been cleared and yeah so other than what's along the around the well area um anything that's between the parking lot uh the existing parking lot and what we're proposing uh we would look to to save those trees and we're looking to try to do whatever we can so if you look at the entrance uh poose entrance between uh the parking lot so just to the east of that proposed entrance exit we've maintained some screening in there uh and like I said we would look to enhance that with some of the the Shrubbery so Madam chair the question was raised about you know like I said in in in the letter the the the game plan would be to go out here once the air the trees are cut uh to go out there and say okay so this is what we're looking at let's screen this what do we have to do do that's basically the approach and that's why we would have Peter Alvaro landscape architect and the owner so that and the contractor so they have an understanding of what we're looking again recognizing that uh there are residences across the street we are sensitive that yeah I mean for me I mean I think that it's be I mean I I do see the argument about that this could become something else right and um so I I think it's a great thing that it could become a soccer field something obviously would be primarily used by the church in the in the daycare but would be available to the community as well when it wasn't being used um you know by the by the main function um and I think it brings some kind of life to this street too to have the kids there in the soccer field so it's not screening isn't about hiding it so everyone can't see it it's about just um having you know that there is this big um fence in a for lack of a better word and how do you give that a little bit of color and a little bit of softness you know I I think um I think for um you know going to I was wondering actually um on the other side which would be the the east side of the field so The Far Side that's where the um storn water is draining to is there any possibility of any further trees over there or is that doesn't work with the drainage on that side and the sale or did it just make a mess on the field so that's interesting because under the state stor water Rags they don't like to have trees in these these basins uh in this case it's interesting because a lot of times we have to deal with um and so the town engineer was involved in in the meeting on Tuesday and uh I think when he looked at this is I'm not going to speak for them but like I said earlier from a hydrologic perspective this is the cat's pajamas in this particular case we have groundwater recharge no runoff in volume no TSS removal because there's no pavement out there you know so we're not taking all that sand and and and treating that so uh it is a gem but they do require uh that um these basins not be vegetated uh so that they can be mowed oh got it okay and I think again given the the use next door I think um when we cited this and looked at the program that Jerry and his team were looking at um recognizing that the the use next door is an industrial use it's not as if it's a condo development or it's it's an industrial use yeah now it's it's I'm wasn't looking for screening for that side it's almost like just uh screening for the field itself that it be becomes a yep you know more of a secluded kind of area so that you so almost so that you don't see as much the industrial area it's like screening that that from from this site so I do appreciate that and so one of the things that we like to do I think you can see it in storm water system creativity that we you know we could have gone with an underground storm water system or we could have gone with a rectangular hole in the ground um but one of the benefits you know I've had the the honor of working with Landscape Architects since uh 2000 and prior to that I had chain link fences around all my basins just these nasty holes in the ground and you know in working with them I've come to design these things so that it's it serves a purpose as storm water but it's a CIT them in it but you want to design it so that and then when lid really started to kick in that was that was a dream so when you look at this and you you create these things you want to just create it as part of the landscape um and shape it so that it looks like the Land part of the landscape so that's why in this particular case just a very gentle Swale um is is the way we approached it um so like I said you know looking at it from the soccer field uh to the east um there'll be some trees there um along the property line honestly are there going to be a heck of a lot no but there will be some trees so other questions from board yeah I mean I just think with everything we've been kind of dealing with trees just trying to retain trees um or shade out on the I'm not a soccer player but it seems like sometimes you need some shade from all that sun but on the other hand I know that uh it can make the field a mess right um so there's downsides sometimes they just don't don't go together so um I'll leave that doc question up to others but I is there anything this is needs to go to design Review Committee correct yep who are um very uh in tune to the landscape architecture Department the um tone of things so I would recommend in going that way that um I there's there was a few questions we had here um I think the railroad question is a question for the the planning office just to see I mean it's really a question for for the applicant but I think um I'm I'm we should look at that and see what they required I don't think we've had something built along the railroad since I've been here yeah so um so that should be be understood um but also I would recommend that um that if you have more information on hereo can put provide a colored rendering okay for for the design Review Committee if that's getting the landscape um that's getting the the landscape architect more involved to produce that so that really can understand and I realized I was on the the wrong page which is why I couldn't pick up on where that mesh fence was um but so that you can really pick up where the different you know what's green on here what's what's gravel what's and and to use color to help that be a little bit um easier um I really appreciate the pictures at the end it also would' be nice to have an aerial because that's the first thing I did is go to my phone so I could picture exactly where where it was and what was happening there and I'm going to look at it closer when I drive by but so I I do appreciate that so typically what we do um and quite honestly like I said I've been absolutely swamped in work so didn't have a chance to pull something together but typically when we when we do something like this we'll take the aerial um our Landscape Architects when it comes to we work with lumon and Photoshop so we can do threedimensional flyovers so we we do these uh these these views if you look at our website in fact one of the first things that comes up is a car dealership that we've done on Boston area that it shows a uh a view of you know you know just a flyover of the site and we basically created that with our software so with respect to the the renderings uh what we'll do is we'll take um Photoshop and um lumion and create renderings that are pretty much lifelike bless you so we we insert it we take the site drop it into the um the aerial and doll it up it's pretty sweet so we can do that yeah and I think being able even if it's um as far as that mesh fence goes just to be able to if there's an example from another Community or something so you can just really just um understand what that mesh fence looks like because I know they're not real solid they're you know they're pretty light right but having and they don't look like chain link you know or anything like that so to be able to like just Express what that what that mesh typically looks like with add to that the poles cu the 25 20 foot fence essentially the mesh and 25t pole is big and we should acknowledge that and and we have been pushing to say the community really gets to see what instead of the little picture that you can say okay that's fine yeah so I do so your your comment early I do appreciate that I I like that you so basically uh what you were looking for if I understand through the chair was a visual representation from the street that shows what is this these trees these short trees what does that look like what is the filler look like and what does it look like to throw a mic around and then what does the the mesh look like behind it that is certainly something we can do yeah yeah just so it can I mean like I feel like I'm we're all like composing the image in our heads but it'd be nice for you to just show us what it is but I'm excited to see the project I think it'd be an asset for the community um so one image that really comes to mind is on the line has a ground right along the line and you see that activity and it has that flash so that's a kind of a very good example where the line runs the rail line runs and you can actually see the ground it's actually cool to see that when it's you get some pictures from the train next time you go by did that it's I mean it's great for Pleasant Street because it really activates that whole Some Way project y I was going to Echo the same to say you know I think one of the things we hear from the community is um valuing open space so I think to your point about those person things fact thater field yeah um going in I think that's an asset to community and and quite honestly as I've expressed the the folks before I done this for over 40 years and there are properties when I look at something like this and I know what could go here I look at that but I also quite honestly I go on to properties and I say why do they want to do something here leave it alone you know um but I also look at I need to put food on the table and I would rather have our firm do it and some hack job do it and put in 300 units on a Halfacre lot with no buffer to the law line I figure if we can if we could be involved at least we can do something a little bit more paceful and we like to than green and I think it's exhibited I was going to say uh speaking of green we do have a um a sustainability best practices list I don't know if if you were given that I think a lot of the stuff is covered and it really isn't meant for this type of project it's meant for our more typical project but it would be good for you to um review like I said I think you got you talked about a lot of the things with the lighting and that this is this is grass not you know artificial turf or something like that so and um the paving everything is seems to be um thinking along those lines but it would be good to take a look at the list and just see if there's anything else that that you either forgot to remark on or that could be incorporated okay can I just make one question here Wayne um and I we can share that list with you but obviously you know I I know we we talked about conduits putting the electrical electrifying the field getting lights in is that something that is in the future or is that going to be with the installation of this development so being the knucklehead that I am Peter it's on the plans I just failed to mention it so it's shown on the plan so the the plan would be coming from the main building um Alvaro if you wouldn't mind I hate doing this to you um but if we could go to the the utility plan that has uh all the bells and whistles so that came up in our discussion on um Tuesday yeah um and so we're showing so as you can see here we have a feed electrical feed uh to the field So the plan would be that we would run the electrical out to the proposed light posts uh and then just basically put Rises and cap them until they decide to put in the light poles that would be the plan there the other approach the other thing that we're looking at is the water supply uh so that would obviously because of the situation on the site with the limits of the plume plume extending onto the property we would have to draw from the municipal system from the building so we would be proposing a uh backflow preventor and a meter so the meter reader wherever they they typically install that uh would be located along with the meter in a back valow prevor that would go out to an irrigation pit and that would just sit until the the irrigation contractor comes in all right thank you so much for explaining that but I think with this decision though we also need to look at we need to think about the future if lights go in right what is the trigger regarding time right when the lights go off yep daylight savings time in the fall obviously you do have a situations where obviously the sun's starting to go down earlier but it's still nice to help people playing soccer what's the time limit so I think I would ask you and the applicant to say to start thinking about that right obviously there would be something in this decision that say you would have to come back to the planning board indoor let's iron it out right now um indoor have conversations with the abuts across the street to see what is acceptable right because what's acceptable for the town what's acceptable for you and what's acceptable for the abuts maybe three different things but I think we have to make a we have to come to a consensus to find uh a time frame what which works for everybody and I just kind of want to put out float that out there tonight rather than float there out float that one out there later because it is important um regarding time which rolls into the question of noise obviously this is a soccer field it's not not a pickle ball court um but you you still have to kind of put it on the put it on the radar right now good call Peter and before we go any further there might be last comments from the planning board but um before we do I want to open up for public comment so if there's anyone in the audience here or if there's anyone online online can raise their hands Anna if you have a comment make sure you make yourself known on there forgotten that you were hanging out in cyberspace I'm good uh that used to be a Little League field way back when so it was cleared and we played on that field I don't know how many times but uh it was a it was great it was a great field really was I think this is a great thing they're doing oh I'm sorry Robin Hicks 11 Franklin Road thank you that's a good little bit of History thank you Mr M M 119 Main Street again history yes that was ball field I was on that field try to drink the water and was burning the throat sometimes okay um this feel and the liting the the back liting the two posts they'll be tilted down with the LED and um no mind have to worry about that at all traffic don't have to worry about that because that's not a big stretch and it's artificial turf for natural to so it's all grass how much is the town water going to be used on that because it's going to be used pretty good amount of time and it's got to have to be rested and everything so there's got to be some sort of tax on the uh the water in this town and um it's it's youth yes or no yes but still might open up once the field is is open and used open up for tournaments are there going to be seed Arrangement and and bench Sidelines on this field that's all I got thank you Mark would you app to address any of those questions thank you um so basically what we're looking at so the water um typically when we look at something like this for irrigation it's one inch over the the one inch per week over the the surface area um it would be metered uh by um at the building in the church would be paying for that that water um secondly in terms of the uh sorry what was the other one see seating seating in in the in the benching benches uh we are not proposing I I we're not really for seeing tournament type play here we're just seeing you know probably practice field type thing so folks that would uh attend would stand outside the fence what I when I coached my kids that's basically what happened and the team would be on the inside of the fence so that's that's the approach we're taking and it's primarily like I said that the lot is ancillary to the church and Metro West so you know should they decide to uh to have these these events you know the local Youth Soccer like I said it's primarily for these guys and the that you said that the the the lot now right now is used for overflow parking so the parking you have there is actually essential I assume to the maintain the parking there is essential to connect church as well that they have that parking correct that's correct so basically what this is is Overflow so interestingly one of the conversations that came up a couple days ago was that you know for connect church it's overflow let's say there's a soccer event and folks come to the field for soccer the Overflow parking will be actually connect Church's parking lot so we discuss some signage that would need to be posted to to accommodate that got it any other questions from the board or comments then I think I I I think we can send this to the design Review Committee right and I would I would um want us to you know just at in our normal Tradition now is to put a memo together um for the design Review Committee I think in that memo I I see uh bill novakowski I think on there um maybe listening in from the design Review Committee um but I I think we would be the placement of everything seems logical we obviously had some questions about all the different layers of vegetation and screening and had some questions about sustainability and things like that um being able to see it from the street is there anything um otherwise we would want them to to weigh in on um I think we should add signage just that obviously if it's on their property and it doesn't really affect but we we do have um like sign bylaws and stuff so make sure we're probably going to want some more details about that before we'd approve it right right right so um okay so then I'll assume since no hands are up on online that no one else wanted to make a comment but they should feel free to raise their hand if they do um but otherwise I guess we will do we need a motion to send this to the design Review Committee do we uh sure we can take a motion I make a motion to send the 24260 Pleasant Street Soccer field project to design Review Committee is there a second second time and a roll call vote sorry it's okay Anna tminit I cther here's a guy Amanda ha and Hera kend without Alvaro I mean um with without Marcelo I'm I'm totally lost well yeah and Anna's floating up there we forget she's there and so it's very confusing for us all we're out of our our Rhythm um okay so we will be sending this to design Review Committee I don't know when they meet next so their next meeting is actually April 1 okay okay okay um and if uh since Alo kind of is the connection to the design Review Committee if you can kind of coordinate what they are typically looking for so they can um provide those images and make the process as smooth as possible to focus on the questions beautiful if you can get me an email that'd be great sooner the better that way we can get stuff to you folks earlier we can take a peek at it and if we need to add anything else want to make everybody happy excellent thank you uh just as a note that would bring it back to the planning board on April 10th if yeah if everything is uh I guess we have to continue it to some continue to a day certain so we we I think it makes sense to continue with April 10th and obviously see how it goes design review in the first and and hopefully that there's enough time to Prep Prep and and turn it around and continue to um kick the ball down the road all right niely done then I will make a motion to that we um continue um this project sure I'm just looking at the checklist we have like are we going to need um like a traffic study or anything for these the third party stuff I'm gonna say no I don't feel I don't think we need to I do they did pay for a consulted review fund I am going to send the plan to gcg just to have them take a prary look at it obviously it's a fairly simple plan there's no obviously it's a lot of catch Bas there's a couple catch basins most of the grading is done with the field um but no I I my my my opinion is that no traffic review needs to be done yet it's not required is it no I mean given the I think the major part of the traffic is getting in and out of connect Church probably on the I'm just looking so so it is at gcg now yeah so i t i i I'm going to work with gcg and they're going to take a look at it um but but as we've kind of spoke spoken it's not a very complicated site per se along with that too I think that was one of the things I cited in the in the report that if you had loading docks and you had vehicles coming at various times of the day and the lake the nightmare so this one like like Peter had said it's fairly lightweight the delt in in parking spaces is any anything else before we okay I think I can do this I'll just make a motion to continue this until April 10th is there a second second that and a roll call vote an tesis i Katherine Jersey guy and Trisha Kai so that's April 10th then design Review Committee before that sounds great thank you have a happy St Patrick's Day thank you folks all right next on our agenda our our proposed bylaw changes we're having um this meeting uh in tandem we creating a forum for bylaw changes that the the planning board uh will be that that are on the warrant already no we'll be going we'll be getting on the warrant for Springtown meeting correct they'll be submitted to the warrant um so we need to review them ourselves but maybe our big audience audience will be tuning in shortly so three um three bylaws the first one is the update to the flood plane overlay District I think everyone is what should be in the binders right the updated okay so we skip that first part that's the design review uh overlay and then flood plane is after that set so I think this was sent out on Friday and then I went through it um but really was just um formatting getting everything to line up pretty as I like to do and um there were a few things that I questioned if we needed sometimes there were little labels on things like State 10 or something like that and those were just indicators of where it had come from from the state's original document and really shouldn't be in the bylaws right yeah so I was just taking those things out kind of cleaning it up um I also had some questions and I think we talked about this a little bit with Becca under the definitions of the flood zones there's a whole bunch of definitions here and the state I think says hey take out the ones that don't apply to you and I think we were wondering if we should if it was better to keep it in keep them in or take them out or yeah just keep them all in or I couldn't really come to a conclusion on that that's under letter Q um and I think the the question we were kind of debating on last time was about the um um the exclusion for the MBTA as it's in the as it's in the flood plane but after review with Lisa it doesn't even need that because the MBTA is Al is already excused from flood things like flood planes so thank you for that I feel like that also makes sense are like existential questions how they could be like conflicting so that that's that's that's a relief I was relieved when I saw that note from you yeah well it's it's the only reason it's in the special um the sensitive land is because it's in the flood plan it's not like there's any you know endangered species on that lot you know so so this is just this is obviously our kind of just our review of it um it's not uh when by our calendar do we need to have it um we need to find have the final language to to um publish it right to uh so we have one more meeting or no yes we have more and more meeting between now and then MH before before we send it in where then it cannot be changed okay thank you umha your no comment on that definition once because I saw that and on the previous page I caught that under K we are referencing the other zones that got cancelled out yeah you know you know what I did is that um there was a note that's that's on here that says that um um I can put on the screen one that like the working draft so you can look at the it was no it's a note that says maybe it's at the beginning here yeah um definitions this is way up where in definitions definitions if the definition is from the Massachusetts building code it is from the ninth Edition which meets the minimum standards of the nfip so wherever it said base code I went back and looked at both the two um both the version nine and the ninth Edition and the 10th edition base code um which was either the 2015 or the 2021 um building code um to see why they would say that and so there are parts of this um the whole start of construction thing on L is not in the 10th edition but it is in the ninth Edition so um it's interesting why they you know obviously this started before the 10th edition and that definition isn't in there anymore which is interesting so I just so I thought well maybe with this base code I went back and I the base code does list all these things so to keep it absolutely consistent with the base code I put them back in which makes sense yeah and then um and then the other definitions are there we could someday have to have those definitions like things could change and we may have those definitions is that possible yeah you let update the bylaw do you mean no I mean um is is is it potential that someday we could have a Zone V or not really that's along a that's along a coast that will be yeah I think that like well that will be first a Bea question but I guess the geography will have to yeah I think that's a coastal those are coastal those are coastal definitions and so when you read the state when you read the state obviously template The Zone V's are actually they're velocity zones it's when you talk about V you're talking about velocity zones you're talking about wave action um that's what that's what that's what you're actually doing so in no sense does it make it doesn't help and keeping them here as all no that's why I'm wondering should we just take out things that just do not matter um the a130 has a similar story I don't know what the a130 is but yeah it wasn't it wasn't in Ashland so and we can have um back could explain that to us I I can get a better definition on the velocity zones uh and what they are kind of what they mean from a definition standpoint but like if you're a coastal zone town is situate they have they have velocity zones right um and it makes sense right wave action height uh crashing waves Rising Tides uh but we can bring those to the meeting on the the 27th and just to kind of go over them um and kind and kind of go from there yeah for me it's just a matter of does it clutter up the bylaw or make it more clear that's what I'm uh and I can't quite figure it out you know looking at the T that states the template they says okay V in red if applicable keep these in you know sand dunes keep these in right we don't have sand dunes and Ashland um right you know we don't have velocity zone so does it clutter it up or keep you know is it more streamlined not applicable to The Rivers St correct only for yeah yeah so and if something does happen in the future we we do have velocity zones right that's going to come with another update to a FEMA map which is we're also going to have to go back and edit this bylaw and so bring it back you can bring it back at that point if you would like to but obviously it's it's the board's call and then the other thing where I think we kind of uh I don't remember if we needed more information on it um was the um 8.1.9 recreational vehicles about um uh that if you're going to be placing them on a in an A or an e and I'm not sure where those are the A and E are they have to be elevated and anchored and what does elevated mean you know like um I think what Lisa told me for that one was that they come from the regulations so anything back to it so there was no for defining we didn't need to Define it within the bu but that but would that mean that someone with a recreational vehicle would need to follow whatever was there like some yeah someone who owns one right now then we should if that's not in our bylaw now we should kind of understand what that is I think like what so our our bylaw does have a recreational vehicle um component to this oh it's already there well a recreational vehicle is already defined what is a a recreational vehicle is a Wago but I mean what you have to do to it okay is is that already defined I would have to double check yeah and so if it's not we should we should and since there is a definition of recreational V here we should make sure it lines up with have our probably it does I think we checked it we checked into that CU like I emailed the state what is a recreational vehicle is this that looking at our p laww and they do match up it's not a car it's not a truck it is a a camper R and that and actually the definition for that is already in this bylaw so if it's outside of the bylaw it wouldn't count it's part of the cleaning up I'm not even sure we Define it outside of the bylaw you know our definition of recreational V is already inside of this bylaw no it's actually in our bylaws in section 10 of it's okay yeah it's in section Theory we could strike that because recreational vehicles could I think this is the only reference to recreational vehicles is this so I guess that's the only question those that's really the only question I had is those kind of clarifications on what should be in and what should be out with our various flood zones and this thing about Recreation of vehicles because I still don't understand what it is what it is people are being asked to do um and if the if the uh cure is worse than the disease and your question is more about that it's asked about elevated and anchored what does that really mean yeah like does does it okay so it needs to go back to a different to the flood plan but does that mean all all uh Vehicles need to be on a 10 foot plin well we probably wouldn't want that so I just don't know what that means I agree and I think I I I'm happy to call the state we're Happ I'm happy to send the email out is it does it and I think I'm understand you know doesn't need to be on jack stands right what is what's elevated mean right what do you have to do and what's anchored quote unquote right is it say um you know I'm not going to start throwing out theoretical is this you know and how you know yeah something that we can help somebody trying having to yeah yeah anchor is a question right is it chain do you yeah you know not to joke around but is it a boat anchor like I you know yeah what is it so we'll look into that I wish we could always have have graphics for all this so much and reading pages and Pages you're such a visual person right um so I would say also let's so I would say that definition or that explanation and um to ask Emma again because I know I had her explained this explained this to me before but about those zones and kind of her take on is it good to just keep it in or no it's just it's it's just cluttering up our bylaw right to have these things that we'll never deal with um it'd be great to have her input on that and if there's any questions from the audience either live or online please just raise your hand related to the flood PL by law at this point it is mar the Sony 519 Main Street my first question is going frame on hopefully it's not going to change is for the flood Trane overlay special district is that the same for planning board and Zoning or just planning board it's it's for the it's for the Zone it's actually it's so it's a overlay District within the bylaws they're all this is a FEMA provided men right they're FEMA provided layers we're accepting we already have accepted the previous uh FEMA flood plane which was last updated in 2010 and so FEMA is updating the Charles River Watershed floodways and so we have two areas in town to the all of FEMA's overlay districts for the state of Mass ju sits for the region are broke up broken up into tiles right and so two tiles are part of the Charles River water over over excuse me the Charles uh River Watershed and so we are adopting the two new tiles that are within the Charles River Watershed and then with that FMA is updating the regulations regarding the OVA districts and so we are updating our bylaws in addition to adopting two new tiles quote unquote which is an update to the Charles River Watership okay it's complicated stuff apparently so when yeah it it's I would probably say 90% of the Town lies in the subb aset conquered River Watershed about 10% of the Town Falls within the Charles River Watership and does our regulations have any say about it well these are our regulations but our regulations already came from the FEMA State the FEMA the flood zone and the state um sample bylaw and so we are updating what does that do to our overly special district regulations now well it updates the regulations so if I ask questions from what I have from the page can I ask him in the P the paragraphs of which they are in sure okay thank you is the purpose still going to be the same as the uh protected the public health safety in general all that's going to be all said I can say this the purpose of the FL plan overlay district is to ensure Public Safety reducing the threats of life and personal injury number two eliminate new hazards to Emergency Response officials number three to prevent um prevent uh excuse me of public emergencies resulting in water quality contamination or pollutants due to flooding number four avoid the loss of utility services which if damaged by flood would disrupt and shut down the utility Network and impact regions of the community beyond the site of flooding number five estimate costs associ eliminate cost associated with the response and clean up of flooding conditions number six reduce the damages to public and private property resulting from flooding Waters oh that's kind of way different than what I have because this is the updated State bylaws which we we're working into our bylaws our existing bylaws are fair are old the last time they were updated was 2010 so what I have is the y m so I can I give this to you sure okay yeah and the other thing that we're trying to do here Mark is we're trying to reformat the bylaw because this bylaw it's all squished together so I can read the purpose of the existing bylaw is the purpose of the flood plan overlay district is to protect the public health safety and general welfare to protect human life in property from the hazards of periodic flooding to preserve the natural flood control characteristics of the flood storage capacity of the flood plane and to preserve and maintain the groundwater table and water recharge area within the flood plane in my eyes that's very similar to the six bullet points that within our proposed um purpose and I assume and with my knowledge that this probably came from the state back in 2010 and our proposal is going to be from the state in 201 so I really don't have to ask it out loud because it's actually in a sense being done correct and uh I know you got the other ones too come out got become come for the uh the site plan the next one too okay thank you right I don't see any other comments or any comments from the board on this one so it'll be on our agenda next time and it'll be the final time we have to make any changes or comment on it before it goes to Warrant are these on the website um I think there were links to them in the where where did the link weren't they links to them in the newsletter none of the I recall exactly what I said I think I gave no the links that were send you was all the information the regulation has provided us to update it um the bylaw updated itself there okay I can certainly put them up on the website mean I think the more ways people have before town meeting yeah so why don't we put all three of them up together for people compl yeah that's that's no problem we can take care of that I think today this week we're still kind of working through them so I think I think it's after this meeting it's appropriate to do do that I can put like a water Markus it so then on the 27th will be our final final wording and then it'll be sent out and done but I think it's just really tweaks at this point is everyone okay if I go we go on to the next one the adus okay so the only thing missing from this right now again went through formatting um looking for any little tweaks um but we need to add um some of the definitions onto this um um because it gets a little specific with protected use Adu and then protected use Adu and then primary dwelling unit and dwelling unit and it's a little bit repetitive frankly but um until we have those things outside of the bylaw sitting in the definitions we should probably have it inside the bylaw at least and I'm a little leery about putting it outside the bylaw until we've read through the rest of the bylaws so that we're not changing the definition of another bylaw by by putting a defition so would it contradict in case because if we don't go through the original one and then you have another set of definition side here it can live it says for the purp I think it says for the purpose of this bylaw yeah so if you're doing an Adu this is the def this is what this is the definition you have to use for instance for instance um like the gross floor area is defined differently in our definition it's it's defined as the outside here it's defined by the inside wall um which is a different in square feet but I don't think we should change that one because we don't know if that's also related to other things besides Adu right so we could be changing a defin we could be changing something in another part of the bylaws that we're not aware of yeah and this definition 7.67 does say it's clear yeah so there's some other definitions like that um like I said I was kind of naming them a short list there's a lot of definitions that came with this thing that we don't need but just things that are mentioned in here like I said they can live in here nicely until we really start weeding through and decide my goal is is to be able to take all the definitions out of these bylaws and stick it at the end and they all mean the same thing for every single byw we have but I can't guarantee that that's true right now so I'm a little leery about pulling them out I can start I think the I think it's inre to the definitions come up front though I was maybe like the other bylaws we have couple bylaws that we purpose and then the very clear as I think that makes sense yep so that would be at 7 7.6.2 after the purpose we'll put definitions is that where it is for uh it's number two on the list for the blood overlay yeah it is yeah yeah okay yep we'll do that um I have some comments anyone else yep go ahead Kate um so I'm going to start with one on the parking I actually um got contacted by a constituent who's not available to come to the meeting that um the one mile they would like to see the one mile and it was a very thoughtful over like we're asking school children to go a mile so that's the state law actually school children with backpacks and musical instruments and sports stuff are are um that's kind of the little a and so it kind of made sense so I I um I know that we the board beat it up but I that I promised that I would represent some who asked to um so maybe get to that it it makes sense in some ways to line up I mean we're sort of lining up the same thinking um and that is the state law right you you're a mile from the school or a mile from a bus stop right that's um don't get services or you have to pay more um and then if I I go back to um 7.6.3 so it looks like stuff was added that we didn't really talk about but I'll start at the top so um the accessory dwelling unit shall be designed to maintain the appearance and essential character of one family dwelling and I started thinking about that like we the the Adu can be on your garage it can be independent so like it really doesn't make sense to say that I I think there's maybe some intent behind it but we kind of started out the whole processing we weren't going to be designed heavy yeah um and that absolutely doesn't work with the way the bylaw what what's allowed um so I think we have to talk about that the 7.6.3 can you uh um let's just checkle these one at a time because we're going to forget the list so can we go back to the parking one parking I had a a thought on the parking I mean I think when we looked at the radi when we looked at the map that was like the Stark visual for me and I think the mile was so much of town and so much area where it just didn't make sense to be expecting people to walk um and to sort of respond to the school comment again I think that is a state Rule and I I think um I've actually had people approach me um not understanding the planing board has no control over that type of thing um and I'm in this situation with war and Elementary and it's it's an all it does is create traffic right like it we are in the car with those kids like there's not sidewalks to to walk with them like I it's not walkable for me to war in school no matter what so no matter how nice the weather is I'm within the area where we have me pay for bus for my daughter but on days when she misses the bus or the bus doesn't work or the baby's sleeping in the car we drive to school drop off and that is a very traffic heavy experence well to be honest that's exact the other part of the conversation that I said I'm not bringing in because it's not but you that is the followup of why you know and for me I think you know any anyone who is in a school drop offline I think could attest the one mile thing in a in like hours I think is all that is doing is putting people in the car so so you're saying it should be a half mile exactly sorry yes thank you for that Trisha yes I'm saying I stick by the half mile for the same reason that the mile for school children I think doesn't work in our town just puts people it just makes traffic worse I think you know again having expecting that people don't have a parking spot available for anyone within the mile is going to create problems I think the half mile is the right my my problem with the my problem with like going more than the half mile is that which is different than the kids walking to school thing is that most people are going going to have at least one car some people don't but then where does the car go goes on the street you know and so now you have a car with no place to park except on the street and um yeah yeah and I'm not sure that's a good idea I complet I agree with that and I think having the expectation that people are going to walk or not use a car or not need a car you know and therefore there doesn't need to be a parking spot provided to them in an extra additional half mile radius beyond what the state mandating us to have um I think it's just asking for trouble from our problems and and as it speaks to the to the school and the bus thing I think that's that in itself is flawed so I don't think miring it makes sense in this instance no it it was your conversation and I'll be honest with the other part of it was saying that will help us get sidewalks to fix the problem like if we if we marry these two up now it's a bigger thing tackled and but I I mean we I'm representing some of that conversation we the board kind of said we can let that go and I think it's a fair conversation to say that we did have it um but I also want to just say it doesn't say they can't build it fire and the and the trend I mean we all know the trend is to say eliminate parking and I'm not saying that ashlin's ready for that because we don't have good infrastructure but it's chicken and egg right if you want your community to improve with transportation and sidewalks anyway okay yeah I think no I think that that I think that's right and I think having the accessibility conversation is I think it is chicken yeah for sure I personally stay I'm still on that half mile I'm just getting out my little half mile mile diagram I mean that we I don't know there's we were I was hoping people would be here um partipate but but people do watch and write in later so they may um and maybe I would be surprised if someone saidas it because paring but it's sort of how you solve it is doing something unfortunately but anyway um so 7.6.3 okay seven that's the next one well that was the one I said we the accessory dwelling unit shall be designed to maintain the appearance and essential character of a one family dwell dwelling yeah but I'm going to put one in my garage well that doesn't appear like a one family dwelling and I'm going to put it in my backyard which I'm allowed to do separate from my dwelling and that not the appearance of a single family dwelling so it it's starting out like a flawed description yeah I think it is what's that we talked about this one last time I back and on it yeah and I think um it's hard to um yeah I think too it doesn't um you know I I can design a house say say I'm designing a house for a brother and a sister even a husband and wife that they have different tastes I can design a house that looks like two different houses and I am allowed to do that and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me right so um so if I can do that we aren't supposed to have anything with an Adu that makes it more difficult than building a house and so I think that is you know it is I I think it might be contrary to what it's saying that if if you want to have something that looks like a house in a barn you know that or it looks like two little houses but I you know you can do that with a single family house there's nothing stopping you and just like that letter that talks about the water meter instead of shall should be say recomended I think that's in there already ready is it it says sh oh it is shell okay we should change it then yeah I mean I think when we talked about this last meeting I feel like we were kind of split and when we talked about the recommendation the worry was you know we're usually try we try to be pretty precise and should we have it it at all if it's a recommendation and you know because then it just needs to be build in code or not and I feel like if if it if we keep coming back to it and we're worried that it might not pass muster for the intent just well I think paying attention to design I don't know we don't want to put heavy conditions on it but being thoughtful because you have you probably have a neighbor who's 10 feet away from this access unit and how that unit looks may affect that property in some way right that you don't want to have a large box right about five because we reduced that back limitations right so it's the other side of the story so we can't enforce it but I think it's more recommendation or maybe something in sort of shall I agree with you DEA I definitely the last time we talked about it was on the side of leaving it in because I think the example I gave was like I think I've seen some that are like meant to look like something out of The Hobbit or something like that that like could upset or you could imagine someone is going to build you know an Adu that is you know looks like just functional a spaceship or something yeah exactly and and so I think I I come on the end last time we talked about it I said like I I like leaving it in but if we're worried about it and we're g we keep coming back to it if I'm the only one that feels that way I feel like we should well so I don't I think it I I don't even know if we would agree like what's the essential character of a one family dwelling like I If that's not somewhat defined this cannot be in their as yeah I kind of it's just not going to work I kind of agree because I I know people um who you know that I know people who love modern architecture I know people who hate modern architecture and you know which one is the essential character of a one family dwelling one looks like a box sometimes and one looks like a cute little Gable you know so you know so which we should take it out phen I I have to just to add her I remember in Alaska and there was right this like old house right next to Modern and I'm like oh my God that's me and my brother like we could live there right and you know which one I'd be living in um and but yeah they're literally right next to each other right and so I we cannot it's too subjective and uh like I said the the the state mandate does say that you cannot make the Adu more difficult than building a home so we just take that sentence off I guess I think we would just take that the full sentence off and let the I think we just try to explain what that is yeah I think we take that off but also um instead of exterior appearance and size I think it should be something like um scale yeah maybe scale and uh or trying to think how this St I do think I do like that having the staircase thing in there because that I think is no matter what style you have what I fear is these exterior staircases fire escapes going down front of buildings so unenclosed just you know um so I'm leer about that so like someone it as as to leave exterior spirit I think the facade the front the not three as well addresses the front facade of the dwelling but but just to that same point right so you're 10 feet from the property line and I I thought we agreed we were going with the regular set box so I don't know how we got five five feet somewhere else so let's just say it's 10t right so now you're saying the 10 feet but you're but like in my neighborhood there's a house right there and now I have to like I don't you're you're just making it's it's pushing it to a different neighbor to look at so are we are we taking out the essential character thing right we've the we've agreed on that to take out the essential character yeah the in the first right I think so at scale no I think we're just saying Rel leaving the exterior experience in size but taking out that scented oh yeah um subject no I think I think it's just a I think it's just a colon at the exterior appearance and size colon and then we get rid of that whole sentence yeah so 6.3.1 is the state law and you might as well repeat it it's nice to have it there they don't have to look it up yeah and so did but 7.3.2 is not in keeping with the setbacks and we definitively said we're going with the regular setback yeah did that come out that's so Lisa added and what's the the regulations are that five is defined defined in is that part of it yes okay I did not add that Lisa added that number um so that just something we missed out of the state law that needed to be in there but it's only on a lot that's 10,000 square feet or less well it's it's making so people that have 10,000 square feet or less that they can fit an Adu on when bigger Lots can do it easily so they're not they're not excluded yeah it's the same kind regul in the rules and regulations per say as an example is that say you have a rear setback of 30t from your rear setback line however your bylaw which there many our bylaws including ours to say you can have accessory structure such as a shed 10 feet from your property line so the state law also notes that really you take into account whatever is least right whatever is whatever is there so if you do have a setback of 10t for a shed the accessory structure could be 10 and we we do two so this is the AL that 5 feet and the the 10,000 square feet and the 5T is coming right from the state regulations like we have to have it in there or else small lot dimensions and and we'll make sure look this but says yes a protected Adu on a lot of not more than 10,000 square feet shall be subject to no more than a five foot setback excuse me a five foot side and rear setback a 5-ft separation between the detach structures and the separation shall be exempt from any requirements relative the floor area ratio lot coverage indoor open space so does that mean you you can make it as big as you want because it's D from the floor area ratio no it's 900 square 900 square F feet no but when you do a floor area ratio over the whole property oh yes when you're looking yes when you're doing the whole property said okay um I think that 7.63 the extent possible exterior access way shall not detract from single family appearance of the property again those are just so subjective that you don't really even get what that one means we will just get ourselves in trouble what's an aess way so yeah I could I could do without five anyone no just that might have just been in there from yeah I know we talked about last last time remember I pulled up that picture of a access way going up to a third story it was right in someone's front yard wasn't that I thought that was about the stairway stairway four okay yes that's four that we you know that's that's the one too I'm kind of want to keep in there because I I I can just see these third floor apartments with these stairs right out the window basically yeah I know I and uh not everything should become an Adu we can I can take five out that's not a big deal driveways obviously is good and so where does the um sorry where does the shell or is recommended where does that go in Department sewage so it should read okay so it is all already there okay there's an email from D yeah that's we were looking at that so okay it's already in there MH and then like I said well those definitions will will beef that up yeah so with the non-conformities and there's so many non-conformities um the nonconformities uh bylaws apply but you can't um deny the special permit just because of the Adu use right look at the non-conformities but you can't you can't lay it on the edu that they can't right okay yeah indoor imposed conditions else on that one done a little bit more chopping on it so that's an interesting way that 7.68 because like we impose conditions we said it can't be a short-term rental but now you're saying if it's a if it's a um pre-existing non-conforming special permit we can't impose that what it like I don't I don't get that well I mean the way it's written it just says uh in the event special permit required no such special permit may consider the Adu or impose conditions on its use but a condition of use in our earlier part is no no shortterm yeah because I think what they what you're speaking to is a dimensional special right and so when you do a non conforming dimensional special permit made the one number finding that the zoning board has has to make right is that the proposal is found not to be detrimental to the existing you can we add that dimensional word in or impose dimensional conditions or just to be clear because now special formit is a very generic or we Define non-conform somewhere yeah I I agree that the language is a little weird ask yeah I can bring it up to Lisa and and our concern about that that it might kick in with the rental oh yes you know that's yeah like it because it is it's just impose condition it can't we can't impose conditions on use well I'm going to use it as a short term but also you can't use it for term up in there I think it's Deep's point though like if we this is only relating to non-conformities so I think Define but there's a whole section of the bylaw and on yeah I think that's why he's referring to the requirements of section which is a which is a it's just the language is a little that doesn't make sense to lay ears I should say so um yeah we just get rid of the say may consider the use isn't that up shot that we can't deny just for just because it's yeah I guess it's is it a question that is it just about I it's about the use yeah that it's that last part or impose conditions on such use that's what we don't understand we we could put a period right on after ad Adu use but why do we need the second part I guess is the question for Lisa that we don't understand what does that mean okay we can ask a question don't big deal all right good good question there anything else on that one no questions online Mo the Sony was it third time Mary 119 Main Street can somebody read me tonight's agenda sheet and read the paragraph for this A8 Adu what it says for the introduction it says number five item number five on tonight's agenda is proposed zoning bylaw changes for the May 20 25 town meeting then there's three bullet points listed number this this one says discussion of ancillary dwelling units chapter 8 of 150 of the acts of 2024 of the Mass General law allows Adu uh no greater than 9,000 square feet to be built by right in a single family zoning District 900 900 that's what I said they say 9,000 yeah wow how big of a town do you want okay now the reason why I'm asking that is um what you just read from is there a bylaw and our bylaws about that so we have a bylaw about accessory dwellings that used to be a special permit that went through the zoning board of appeals however with the acts of 2024 which was passed this past summer which was a huge sweeping uh housing bill um that um pretty much transformed um accessory dwelling units to be by right and that's forced all communities in the state to abandon um their current Andor existing bylaws that required special permits most communities made them by a spe allowed them by a special permit and now it's pushed communities to adopt new by laws outlining regulations regarding accessory dwelling units and the development of accessory dwelling so because it's not in it's not a bylaw how would people know what to talk about if they came up here well Mark you know I I myself and Alvaro are here every day and we're always happy to talk to the citizens of Ashen that are interested in this so I was thinking to saying it this way I'm I am going to say this like an old time Western gunfight right I came up here sh in blanks all right so has everyone done any comments on that bylaw all right so the last one is at the beginning of that of three bylaws it's really just the first part well it's really just number three but I put in the other information on this sheet just so it was easy to discuss like this is all the material the 9.4.3 is like that's our current bylaw where we're changing we're looking to change the things in number three and for reference I looked up the actual Mass General law the bolded part is where it says special permit is 65 days from the filing of the application so we're trying to go from 30 to 65 just because when we have a special permit and a site plan review so they can go hand inand and not have one on one calendar and one on the other calendar um uh our the way we're stating this right now is 65 days of receipt of an application and then in the state it says from the filing of the application that's the same thing right they're received and filed on the same day whatever it's okay it it really it goes to the date that that application is file with the town clerk so they hand it to them she stamps it in correct done okay yep 100% so I have a question about that but the state law and I really think about it so someone can file an application but it's not complete and I know we have a bylaw that gives a review period right yeah so in Ashland what happens is somebody the town clerk does not just stamp an application that the CH the town clerk will send them up here to the planning office um Alvaro and I will look at the material um and then typically we have three days to St that into a notify the applicant by a certified mail that's how it always goes certified mail now it's just typically normally email um that their applicant was their application was not fulfilled right so um if we review it and it's all the materials are there um we'll stamp it in with the town clerk now if there's something missing we call them up and say hey you're missing this you please get it in of course they get it in that's how the that's is kind of um courteous you know uh relationship okay so the the date of filing is the date dat the toal clerk not when I filed it with I put on the it's a to date of the Town collect and typically if I guess something I file the next day I scan it I send it to the applicant hey applications in clock starting y here you go cool okay thank you so and then I just in looking up those things um I was just making note that there are two and I have no idea how quick quickly bills move through anything but there are two separate bills right now um and I've listed them there um that uh look like they're trying to um kind of Define more the site review process you know which now the site review process isn't even in the Mass state law that's just do it's just special permits that are in there right yeah the only thing that's in Mass law is special permits the regulations of the planning board special permits what lives at the local level is site plan review so would depending on the community every community site plan review processes are different many of them have they're all they all have obviously the same common themes um but yes they do not live at the state level you will not find the term site plan review in chapter 48 yeah so I just thought that was interesting and I got the sense in just looking through them very briefly um not being an expert in this but it seemed like they were trying to make them go more smoothly because I think you hear about that throughout Community is that everything gets bogged down in the process so it got it seemed like they were trying to regulate things to make that process go have more control of it make it go more smoothly so I put those in there just as a informational um so curious where our things may go in the future if those one of those those bills go through it some is there anything we want to change about the text in red or the anything about number three that's our bylaw is focused on number three at this point and the changes that are already there so seven days from the date of the filing that's well in the same way it's was like so if we start at three shouldn't then that be public hearing within 65 days of the filing of an application is that what you're saying first because we well otherwise we don't have filing in our in our three and maybe forget it because it's what do you guys think about that do you think it's like okay the state law says filing date of filing so should the word receip rece receipt be changed to filing and then in number two should instead of submitt of a complete application should that be but I guess you know we don't we never Define when a complete application that's something that you just guys is just part of the process right part of the process no he said when it's complete then they St so if they file and it's not complete no that's I think if you file and something's missing yeah the clerk and this is my experience not these types of projects filings which filings in general yeah you file something and something's not there the clerk calls you it might not be that day it might be the next day and they say x y and z thing is missing can you run this down they're not stamping it until you act so you in your mind the date of filing was the day that you ran it in and handed it right that's what Peter I think you guys are saying the flip but for our purpose no that's not that's Oh I thought it the filing date is when someone says here you go here's my stuff and then they check it yeah that's why we're saying receipt like the 65 days the 65 days is going to be counted on the date of the town clerk which is the date which can be different from the filing so like if someone files something on Monday the clerk on Tuesday says I need X Y and Z call them we would consider the date of receipt Tuesday on the day that we stamp it and get whatever missing thing is Right whereas the filing date would be considered Monday but yes so when does the clock the clock right there I thought we I thought we agreed it says in filing certified so they're saying filing just you could yeah it is weird it's I mean even in the state it's it's like they're saying two different things they are so I I'm not think they meant to but I'm not particularly worried about it because as long as I say 65 days it's going to be the same project the same application that's the biggest I'm I'm just not saying we're I'm not sure we're I'm not sure we can clean it up I'm not sure you know because it's all about interpretation yeah and so I don't think it you know we get the plans we circulate we put them BL BL that's what it's saying to um I'm okay with keeping it simple the way it is I think the important thing is to get those 265s in line and we acknowledge that they're some weird stuff going on at the state verbage yeah which I'm I assume with different cases it's probably been defined in some way but I don't think it's I don't think it's the C of the problem no um on the same paragraph can we lose that his agent and make it just either say applicant agent or just say agent yeah applicant or his agent shall the applicant or his agent yeah or you can say or agent our agent yeah you can take out his yeah that's fine okay take out his that's fine yeah the applicant or agent shall yeah shall attend such public meeting um in order to assist a plenty board response and that's all verbiage here obviously the the biggest thing too is it used to say public information obviously we're changing yeah yeah this yeah because the other because the special permit is a public hearing so we yes we want them both to be public hearings correct I think that's the terminology I was most yeah concerned okay so everyone's good with that good for wrapping it up hopefully for next time all right cool oh done you make it really quick because it was a really short little change okay thank you I was just say my name's Mar 19 Main Street getting to get bored of v um I know you got the same thing same page I said over there yes sorry Mark same page P you got the same page of the um 94.5 right okay if you want things done in a in a town that is running at a good Pace don't let the state interfere because they screw things up the um the 60 the 30 days to an application the 60 to 60 days is a excuse the app app applicant can say oh I'm not ready yet I continue continue continue it has happened here before and seven days Days of submitt does that mean like you just talked about does that mean it has to be a complete fent or can they add things in the middle of the seven days yes or no no Mark that is it's a complete application okay and when it it is stamped or certified it should it should be a big thing saying a complete not partial but complete file should be given to the office to be certified nothing less thank you thank you sorry all right so next on our agenda is um we're actually going to move ahead a little bit um we will just hold off just for one agenda item for the decision for 20 Ponderosa and we can go right to the um approval not required because we have a few people here getting tired just like we are uh so with that said I'll before Robin uh Mr Robin Hicks comes up to the microphone um this is an anr plan for 11 Franklin Road and and Robin can explain yeah Robin Hicks 11 Franklin Road uh we have approximately a little over 15 and a half acres uh we want to uh approval not required we have uh over 300 ft of Frontage so we're going to break off 150 ft uh we're proposing a 1 acre lot it's 3/4 Acres old uh we have a uh I'll give you a little history of the property uh we had used to write uh we could have put 22 Lots on the property what we did was we worked with the uh zoning board planning board select board uh we uh restricted our use of the property to um eight additional Lots so the Valentine estate would work um because the the select board said well if we buy the Valentine estate uh what's stopping the Hicks in and Hicks family from putting a 40b there so this this runs with the property uh if we die driving home tonight whoever takes over the property it runs with it if a develop buys it which won't be in our lifetime but if someone buys it it runs with the property so there's eight additional Lots we're breaking one off which is right in the front corner um to uh you know financially a little bit uh and you know we're working with develop with a developer or developers whoever wants that uh we will look at the plan they're not going to put a mobile home there they're not going to put a a prefab house there but uh well that's it so is there a yeah you have that plan up there yeah the plan's actually there's actually a a plan in everyone's binder um this is the plan that's the that's for Signature tonight um I've looked at this plan I've looked at it it meets the rule of 22 it meets all the zoning requirements uh with the frontage in the land area um there was a no added which respects the restricted Covenant uh which Mr Hicks just spoke about which was um which was put together through the select board the zoning board and obviously the planning board at that time um the Val State W Woods purchased so um this works out it's a it's a it's a regulated anr um it creates one buildable lot um tell me where it is I can't find it so another note uh we presented the P plan to Peter and Peter had some comments we brought it back to the engineer added some comments brought it back Peter had had some more comments and so we added those so hopefully it's yeah works out for everyone and my comments were just to flush out the note about the restricted Covenant that was something that was on the town side and so that was something that um we worked on together to make sure it it's there um there is one note on the plan that the driveway driveway has to be um five feet five feet from any property line that's within our bylaws actually 9.3 driveways and so the driveway that exists today does have to be relocated to respect that new property line Y um and obviously Mr Hicks does know that um but that's a typical note on an anr plan that we do have um but yes other than that it meets the the regulations of of an that's a lot that will be created yep that's a lot that will be created and then deeper as you can see over here yes has a scooch it has to scooch towards the yeah and I our driveway is approximately if if you know where Spencer the dog is our driveway is right next to that and we we have plenty of room to move it it it's I have a tractor I do a lot of stuff with my tractor so so the driveway is talking about is the one that goes up to the rest of the property it needs to be scooched a little bit further away from the new property you're creating yeah we maintain that stone wall we wanted to maintain the Integrity of that stone wall that's why we put the proper line there y not to follow the stone wall so we held it back so if you go into our driveway there's a buffer zone from our driveway on a on a triangle where we have apple trees um it's probably about 30 ft my and corner of our driveway to the to the new property linee I know i' been up there but it was a long time ago Christmas come up anytime Christmas season I think it was I tell everyone to come up and feed the horses and the goats and okay yeah I mean it seems uh pretty straightforward obviously it's a very regular shape for a lot so um is anyone have any questions sure I make a motion I approve uh approval not required plan for 11 Franklin Road and are there any further questions Anna any questions I don't know if she's no I'm good okay sorry I keep forting that you're there no no worries I can always raise my hand okay um all right roll call vote then Anna teski I Katherine Jers I Amanda ha I and Trisha Kendall I all right sorry to make you wait all that time no that's okay thank you for your what you guys do for no pay so Robin the Plenty board will after the meeting will sign this y tomorrow I'll scan it and then you can pick it up at any time and take it to the and take it to the registry okay thank you got thank you okay so now we're going back to um item six which is the riew of the 20 pondosa Verizon Wireless equipment decision thank you and that's under what number in our number one okay okay thank you this was pretty standard thank you said there was one line eliminated about that was from an older uh uh yeah did send me a couple I think there was three tweaks overall one was a reference to a water tank obviously it was it was a leftover from a from a previous decision um there there was one about there was three years on the special permit that was changed back to 24 months as our bylaws uh State and then I believe there was another scribn era um with Anna tesm malitzky I had her as Na and she was absent from actually when it says that in number eight it says a special permit shall lapse after 24 from the grant thereof so it needs to be 24 months or just two year or two years or whatever yeah okay I I think I wrote 24 months because that's how it's boed but not that it matters I'm just saying we need to add in the word months then so that's that's easy so otherwise 24 years seems like a long time long way um and was there any was there a third one that Anna was absent so I had her as na um when she was not an attendant so the four of you here tonight will be the four vote uh actually voted to close the public hearing and obviously okay if we vote to accept the four of us uh into the four of you will um sign a decision to okay yeah I didn't have any else anyone have any comments or questions I have a comment I I didn't decide to put an edit um because I think condition one covers it but um condition one pre-construction meeting with all subcontractors at the Town held by the town before any work is started so that they're going to have a big crane there right and it's it's only really impacting DPW potentially but it's DPW busy um and I and I feel like that needs coordination but technically I think at condition one at that meeting the town can ask for whatever they want but we're not explicit right about asking the um coordination particularly coordination safety barricades for the crane at Pres presumably they'll do it at that meeting that typically comes out in a preconstruction meeting yeah so I think we're okay but if someone wants to I mean we write these for someone that doesn't want to follow things right you have to mention that's all I don't think I kind of waffle but I'm just bringing it up yeah and I knowing that site that site's so wide open that I don't think there is that be I'm confident with DPW on on you know especially especially that's the DPW site that they kind of know what they're yeah versus if it was at a school or something I might be more okay I make a motion that we improve the special per modifications rise and wireless 20 pondosa decision a second and a roll call vote I you cannot vote right oh yeah Annie you weren't here for the last meeting I apologize can't vote for that got it Katherine Jersey guy Amanda ha ey and Trisha Kendall ey so to be on the safe side did you get someone to Second other than me someone started to second I think great okay we'll have Deepa I I was gonna say someone was saying at the same time you did so okay so six it's seven okay so the rest of these are um just a few little things discussion and comments for 61 Waverly um there was a notice that went out and now I can't remember where I saw it that asked for com the zba was asking for comments for the Waverly Street 40b in the same way they asked for the 10 to 60 main um and so my thought was we had a much smaller document obviously for the 61 Waverly but that we do the same thing we put our memo with it and we give them the letter that that we sent to the state now that project has changed I don't know if you looked at the documents but it's changed a lot since I mean never was it was never before the planning board but it has changed a lot since we looked at it and made our comments um because it was never it was never was never for before our board nope it was never before this board I can take I can kind of add some color to that so yes um the applicate the when this came for comments from the planning board to Mass housing the um it was a different developer um and it was a different site layout right um but however they the the past project was 226 units and it was made up of four different buildings two buildings were at four stories two buildings were at five stories the site was also kind of depressed from the rear um that kind of from from wave from from Union um that's not the case we have a new developer um the new the applicant is the Gutierrez company and they are proposing one large five-story building um which is 226 units Mass housing approved the transfer letter um back in December number um and uh and and so with that transfer letter that site eligibility which was approved for Bard which was the project which was 226 units with the four buildings one at you know two at four two at five to the gutier company which is one large building at five stories um that is a change um the site work on the new project doesn't dramatically drop and lower that sight um it kind of kind of tables it it kind of levels it off and there's a access to Union Street um from the site so the site is different um the buildings are more congest the one building is more centralized in that site um it's still the same site um at8 Acres um give or take um so the site has changed so with that Alvaro did send that out to all all board and committees to say hey let's get some comments back tonight we're providing you a letter that the planning board drafted uh previously um and if you if if people can go on and look at the plans I think that's the best thing to do and then kind of maybe send some comments back to myself and Alvaro this project will be opened by the zoning board of appeals on the 25th of March um and then most likely be continued for a month to be to go for peer review uh for civil and traffic peer review um that is the same thing that happened for the 10 to 60 main stre project um and so we are coming back to a planning board meet on the 27th it will not be in time for the opening of this however very shortly after if we could get something to the zoning board of appeals speaking for John chaaan the chair I'm sure he would greatly appreciate comments from the planning board um at that time yeah and I think actually uh um now remembering where we were in this conversation that um that in this case since so much has changed I think we might want to talk about it a little bit again and our comments might I don't remember what we had in that letter but it was based on that other that other proposal and this one is quite different and um so that we I think we might want to have we might want to have a conversation about that first um I'm looking at the letter now and there yeah there are places I think referencing the multiple buildings and the different heights and I wonder if we just sort of together yeah um and the memo of the 10 1060 is just for reference so we that for this we can make a cover letter sort of thing and then once you have your comments we can send the memo to them because I mean that's a very that's certainly a very different project but I also think that there were like strategic considerations the way that we responded to this yes yep yeah it's it's it's different is it drastically You could argue that however the amount of units is the same which is really what in my eyes Mass howy looked at yeah um and was limited to the total number of units um and so um it is a different it is it is the same with with that thread however it's a different um site development plan so um I mean what's the best course of action here it is 20 to 10 what do we have on our agenda for in two weeks so in two weeks we're going to have eversource coming in for a Scenic Scenic trees they are going to do some um maintenance on one of their circuits here in town which is a kind of an annual Andor biannual hearing that we typically do with eversource um and I believe that's it correct yeah well and then oh yeah and then the bylaws we'll check the bylaws one more time historic commission too that the historical Commission um they could be back at that time okay they supposed to be on for tonight they were I talked to Jim Neel um obviously with everything that was going on tonight they they decide to slide back a little bit um and kind of go from know they were still uh getting the map and stuff ready getting the map and stuff and actually you know we were alv was nice enough to print them a new map and you know we kind of getting him them some information but uh but that's where things kind of stand yeah so why don't we I I would recommend that we just put that on our agenda that we all um read through the letter look at the project before we come to the meeting and kind of be ready with how we want to alter this um I'm traveling on 27th but uh definitely I think this needs a thorough check with the pl references your Union Street said would you be if if you have a digital file of would you be able to mark it up yes so at least have your your thoughts on it yeah we have a word version we have everything so everything is online send it yeah I send it but it's also online yeah okay I'm not I'm not feeling ready to jump into it at this time of the night Den's information at 10 o' oh does anyone have any views on that all right so we'll um we'll put that on the agenda for next time um and hopefully we'll get through the other things quickly so that we can still approach it when we were are more awake okay and then the other thing on the um is this one's me yeah discussion of change to cell tower approval so yeah so just to kind of set the table for this and this is uh most likely going to be coming to the planning board um but back in April of 2022 um we approved um Verizon Wireless to update their antennas at 400 Cedar Street which is a water t Bank uh Tower here in Ashland um Verizon never did the work right um however this permit is still Al because there was a permanent extension act that was signed into law uh and so with that said um back in 20122 we approved them to take down uh out of a total of 12 antennas they were going to remove nine and put nine new ones up right they were going to leave three antennas up there so for they have a total of 12 antennas so because they didn't do the work long story they're like hey we're going to scrap it we want to take all 12 down now and put 12 new ones up there right they're changing the project a little bit the question is do we want to take this as a modification or just go through a whole public hearing process um and rehear rehear the application and I talked to talking to Trisha she asked me just to put on the agenda to pull the board just to kind of put it out there it's a self to we all know it's more of about public awareness um and notification um and so if that's a direction the planing want planing board wants to go um we can go that route notify AB Butters do all the notification and then have the hearing the public hearing um and to go in that direction if not um we can do a minor modification to the permit um which is the uh which is still live um and so I'm kind of looking at the board to wonder which direction you want take this um it's a cell tower it's owned by the town so we do have to sign consent on the application and so that's how we are kind of a little bit in the driver's seat at least about the public heing um is this a project where we we did the structural evaluation yep we already actually they've already done it and it's already been so the nine and the 12 are apples to apples it's exactly the same antennas correct same height there three additional going up there and they redid the structure the all that stuff has already been peer reviewed but they didn't take care of they didn't do any construction work after the after 22 2022 no Verizon put this on the Shelf T it and so now they're coming back and saying hey we need to do this work and we're going to do a couple things that are different to what we approved back in 20 20 2022 is the permit like good through how close it's still well it was was approved May 6 of 2022 right but we did have that Perman extension act that was past this past summer which kind of added two more years on to everything so they have until correct yeah are they extending the existing structure to add the three more how are they fitting in the additional three because I'm guessing well they were leaving three up there but they were changing the mounts right they were changing the mounts right those they were just going to stay up there so the three that's were staying up that's coming down and new ones are going in its place correct they're just saying what we're not going to leave those three up there we'll just bring them down put new stuff up let's just do it in one swoop they were going to replace nine leave three now they're replacing all 12 correct yeah the reason I wanted to you know I thought maybe we wanted to talk about it if we wanted to re you know Rel it you know is because it's a topic that um you know kind keeps coming up the people have some concerns about um and that um it's not the tower at the DPW which is a little bit more isolated and very tall this is the the water tank you know so which is just it's a very different animal you know kind of thing so I I think here's the problem I think you can't go wrong with notifying the public right and and a Butters um it's my only reluctance is we know we can't really do too much so it's like I I feel like that's a flaw of the whole thing but I feel like we need to hear right that is our job and people do respect that they at least get to be heard I think um so I I would say we I don't want to draw it out I don't think that's help ful but I I don't think we want to have people think like we were doing back deal so that that was my concern as well like not just that um you know it is another onethird more than they said I don't think onethird is a small number you know in this case so um yeah so my inclination was you know I think we I think we're going to have to relist it but I wanted it to be a board decision I think also just for people you know they got notification 2022 three years ago that work might be happening and then trucks show up yeah that's that feels very you know they're not aware of the permit extension and I feel like that just runs the risk of aggravating folks versus getting the new notice out there yeah and and really it's just the newspaper mailings and then you kind of go from there yeah which which is paid for by the applicant correct it's paid for by the the applicant will pick you know the applicant's going to do a minor modification we'll say hey this is the cost we'll put you on this put you on the agenda here and you can kind of go through obviously like the like the wireless decision tonight it was two meetings it's two weeks um it does it they had this for three years we want to do this do appropriately and notify then I think it's our duty to do that so I I don't really I I just want to make you know make sure that we had consensus did they um submit like the wireless study because if they're changing I mean like like the um the Ponderosa just submitted a whole bunch that I'm within the r the electrical magnetic stuff uh to you know what at the top my at 10 o'cl I'm not going to I can't pull up that file but we should ask we're change yeah but we can we can do that and I can get on the phone tomorrow and yeah there's new there's a third more there should be different data I assume you know okay all right that's easy we take care of that okay so we'll do that um and then unless there's something on this list um is there anything we need to do about the changes after planning board approval we'll get there eventually I hope we can do it's something that would make sense on lot of friends I know it's just that yeah not at 10 o' or whatever right almost some point we'll have I loved how she used the form today I did I have to type it up but but it helped you made a start um okay uh just to go down the list I did have a CPC meeting um week and a half ago um applicants included the Bark Park they needed a little bit more money for that and um um Town Hall wanted to digitize digitize a bunch of Records so we looked at money for that elil here showed up wanted money for the AR Arnold for the Arboretum the Ashland arum so he gave him money for that so um but it was good so those things will be coming up at town meeting um for CPC I think they were all good um you know good good things for Ashen so other than that I don't have any any Metro West Regional collaborative um stuff okay right anything else on that list otherwise we'll look at meeting minutes uh before we do that I just want to make a note um speaking with the comprehensive plan um Consultants uh getting ready for our meeting next week um they have asked to just to kind of uh float the idea out there that they're going to be looking for a another um joint meeting with the pl board and the select board um and that is going to be tentatively scheduled for June 4th which is a select board meeting on a Wednesday night they'll kind of review this stuff at their next meeting with the comprehensive plan but um when we did our when we did when I talked to them last they just kind of asked me to kind of Flo it out there it's the first it's the first week of the month so it won we won't have a meeting um so therefore will be at disciples other than that I have no updates all right I guess we just take a minute to look at we have February 19th and February 27 my only note on the February 19th minutes is the adjournment time I think it must have been 8:5 very long interview started at 7 very cont I was looking at the looking for them to like make the change yeah sorry for February 27th I was looking at just line um 93 looking at the number of rentals whether they have considered developing these as I think that should be condos we're developing these as condos rather than rentals because I think that's what we were talking about oh and they say condominum see in the next line e right any other uh changes that anyone spots sure can do both I think so I make a motion that we approve the February 19th meeting minutes as the small edit February 27th it's as presented well actually also with a small edit I'm sorry it was just changing one word from residents to condo I make a motion that the February 19th 2025 and February 207 2025 meeting minutes are approved with the small edits discussed second second and a roll call vote Han teski I Katherine Jers I Amanda ha I and Trisha Kendall I that is taken care of there's anything else okay any other absences up known absences that in that case I will make a motion that we adjourn at 958 PM is there a second I'll second though all right and a roll call vote an tesis Katherine Jers guy and Trisha Kendall ey so that is it we are over and out e e

the affordable housing proposal a 40b housing project at 61 Waverly Street is under review The Proposal includes a five-story 226 unit apartment complex with 25% affordable housing a public hearing will be held on March 25th at 7:00 p.m.

all right 6:30 call me order start welcome everyone this evening thank you for joining us and now I'll turn things over to interim superintendent go cider for tonight's celebration of Excellence thank you we'll start with the BCS robotics the Bolton bulog Bulldogs build doogs I knew I was going to mess that up sorry robotics team competed in the 2024 2025 VEX IQ rapid relay competition which wrapped up the Connecticut season on March 1st we'd like to recognize two standout teams that were top competitors in Connecticut bton 1227 C and 1227 D teams 1227 D Mia pakino por Murray and Gabby persino earn the Excellence award at three regular season competitions the Excellence award is the highest award a team can earn and recognizes a team for the robots performance engineering notebook and Team interview they also won the robot skills Champion award at two regular season competitions this award is given to the team with the highest combined score from the driver skills Challenge and the programming skills challenge at the state championship 1227 d w robot skills third place design award second place and teamwork second place missing out by first by only one point great job they also ranked 274th in the world for robot skills which is no small feat and only accom accomplished through hard work commitment and hours of building and practice this concluded their highly successful season and solidified them as the most awarded team in Bolton's robotic history well done one 12270 all right 1227 C Ethan D roers Conor mlli and Cammy Duffy built a strong robot that was that was a top Contender at the regular season competitions over the course of the Season using endless persistence this team worked to improve their robots consistency practice their driving skills and develop a strong autonomous program they sought out help from Mrs kaga about coding questions asked their teachers to grade and give them feedback on their engineering notebook and studied the interview questions to be prepared at the state championship this perseverance paid off when 1227 C earned the Excellence award at States cing them the top VEX IQ team in the state along with an invitation to the world championship congratulations 1227 C are we having a little demo they fired up specifically at the championship they extra FR be and they said bring your Bo event so you guys all get a FR be so in the game you're you inake the ball and then there is a and then those who go inside coning on it so the robot will do all of this pick up the ball drive around the field and for um without them using the controller go thank you so working really hard [Music] on very nice thank you next we're going to honor the um recipient of the Connecticut fire prevention poster recognition tonight we are honored to recognize Ali beamus a talented fifth grade student from BCS for her outstanding achievement in the Connecticut fire prevention poster contest Ali has demonstrated incredible artistic skill and creativity earning first place both in the town of Bolton and the Talon County competition for a poster she created from her own imaginative ideas the process to create our fire prevention poster includes a period of res search and many days of planning students are responsible to come up with their own composition and use their choice of materials to create the project Ali's artistic intuition helped her soar through the process to create something incredible on Friday April 11th Ally her family Mr Gard Miss paridis and Fire Marshall William call will be attending an awards ceremony and luncheon honoring all winning students in the county poster recognition program There They will announce the 2025 Connecticut state winner and we are hopeful that alli's diligence will pay off Ali is a shining example of hard work dedication and artistic excellence and we are incredibly proud of her accomplishments all right next we're going to do the cic scholar athlete award The Scholar athlete program annually recognizes two High School seniors from each member School whose academic and athletic careers have been exemplary whose personal standards and achievements are modeled to others and who possess high levels of Integrity self-discipline and courage Bolton high schools 2024 2025 CIA scholar athletes are Amber Fox and Joseph godic who embody the qualities of excellence both in the classroom and on the field both Amber and Joseph have demonstrated outstanding leadership and excelled in their Sports throughout their High School careers making them deserving recipients of this prestigious honor Amber has earned recognition as an NC all conference and CIA Allstate cross country Runner Joseph a standout and both basketball and baseball serves as a captain of each team the dedication to both academics and Athletics truly exemplifies the spirit of a scholar athlete and sets a high standard for others to follow both students will be honored at at a dinner with family and staff at the aquator yeah okay next we have the Cass Art Award cast annually honors two outstanding seniors from each of the member schools in the state who excel in the performance or Visual Arts excelling in the Performing of Visual Arts is of primary importance in the selection this year's nominating committee selected Emma der roers and Tay xram for this prestigious award Emma plays guitar and B B oh sorry and bass and jazz band tomon and concert band and performs regularly outside of school with the modern ribs she was accepted to the 20125 cmea Eastern Region High School Music Festival on jazz guitar and plans to study music education as well Tate is an outstanding visual artist that can often be found thinking outside the box Tate has excelled in both the Ceramics and digital art programs here at Bolton High School both students will be honored at a dinner with family and staff at the aquator all right and now March's Schoolboard recognition month so last but certainly not least Schoolboard members are vital to our public education system March's Schoolboard recognition month and it allows us to show our appreciation to those dedicated individuals for all the time and effort they devote as volunteers and support of our education in the Bolton Public Schools they are dedicated individuals who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to our district and the success of our students in schools on behalf of the students and staff of Bolton public schools and the Bolton community I would like to take this opportunity to thank chair Andrew bronal Vice chair Chris Davy secretary Ben Davies and members Chris Duffy Ria kleene Ashley pajoli and Ashley failen we are fortunate to have such thoughtful and dedicated community members guiding and supporting our outstanding school system thank you for all you do and if you haven't already peaked you have a bag on your chair with a little thank you gift from all of us thank you very nice um that concludes our celebration of Excellence tonight and usually when Kristen's here she says you're welcome to all join us as we do our normal meeting stuff but you're also welcome to leave if you so choose and our fire prevention poster oh here so oh all right Ellie do you want me to read what we said about you you can hear you want stand we can all see congratulations do we get see a picture is there a picture of the poster anywhere no I'll get it Mr G can send one out to us anyway congratulations we're really proud of you and good luck in the next part and have fun at your Awards dinner thank you thank all com that was smart p sure all right moving on two comments from the audience I think that was comment enough I don't know if there anyone else who would like to make a comment this evening those who remain um additions to the agenda I don't believe we have any and on to routine business items and the approval of minutes we have a motion please to approve the minutes of the February 6 2025 Board of Education business meeting I'll move second anyone have any questions comments or edits to these minutes just one correction community meeting rep section B3 uh the scholarships will be open on April 1 and then they close on May 4th not May 2nd okay anyone else have any so vote on the amended minutes all those in favor of the motion please say I I I anyone opposed or abstaining uh now can we have a motion to to approve minutes of February 6 2025 board of education budget Workshop so move second anyone have any questions or comments on these minutes all those in favor of the motion please say I opposed or abstaining everybody uh now looking for a motion to approve the minutes of February 20th 2025 board of education budget meeting move a second uh anyone have any questions or comments on these meetings minutes rather all those in favor please say I I and opposed or abstaining and finally a motion to accept the minutes of the February 26 2025 Board of Education special meeting so Mo second any questions or comments on these minutes those in favor please say I I oppos standing I think I heard everybody all right on to Board of Education committee reports and I have curriculum on March 3rd the Boe curriculum subcommittee met and reviewed the progress of the course development and textbook purchases that we approved in January these included the new courses emergency medical responder and ECE Marketing in addition to the new materials for World Language which was Spanish and French and the ninth and 10th grade world history subcommittee also reviewed pending spring and summer curriculum work in these subjects in addition to k6 reading director jigo Casper I'm sorry if I I don't know if i' over said your name also provide a short demo of Atlas the district's curriculum software to show how units are currently structured recorded and shared and she'll be sharing more details about current curriculum work in our update later this evening and that's curriculum on on to finance please sure so we met yesterday um with the finance committee there's a few things to go over one from a transfer um standpoint there's a listing of transfers in front of you in your budget packet um the first one was for 63,000 that was approved last month so that was the hbac transfer that we discussed and approved last month um on here and then there were three smaller transfers um you know one to pay for staff breakfast um on February 14 the next one to cover um some baseball costs and then the last one to cover the new Banner um which I'm sure people are very excited about and adjustments for athletics so could we have a motion to approve the February transfers please I'll make a motion to approve the transfers a second addition cover that later in the agenda you can sure can you go out of order with the agenda um on the oh let's just this uh all those in favor anyone have any questions or comments about the February transfers all those in favor please say I oppos or abstaining um and then these other things are financed so we can do sure yeah and then from a budget standpoint still budgeting full projection um 85% expended which is consistent with a prior year at this time I will call out that the Surplus right now that that we're monitoring is 45,000 so you know sizable um but nothing else notable to call up any questions all right and then if we want to go out of order later on in the agenda there's request for two waivers did you want to that back do you want to do the bid waivers now or just that additional transfer there was that fourth transfer let's do the additional transfer yeah so there's an additional transfer if you look on the bottom of your budget item budget sheet so we're looking for an additional transfer to um transfer $ 29,185 in salary and benefits to operations equipment to cover the BCS public address and Bell system upgrade this is the Bell System that um person had covered last month she gave us a perview of this it's going to be a bid waiver for that a little bit later were they trying to do that over April break still or is that not really feasible at I don't think it's I'm not sure if it's be feasible think johnin for we haven't heard anything defend it be a good time to get it yes crunched out it would uh so we have a motion to approve the transfer of $ 29175 from salaries and benefits to operation equipment to cover the BCS public address SLB system upgrade any questions further questions or comments on this all those in favor please say I Ione oppose or staining okay we'll do the bit rivers in order and on to student representative rep course right thank you very much the spring Sports season is has almost begun official practices for all teams start Saturday March 22nd but both softball and baseball will be starting next week on Monday the 17th pitchers and catchers uh everyone on the baseball softball outdoor track Golf and girls tennis teams are excited for the upcoming season uh this Tuesday the 11th senior class met as the Juniors took the SAT to review their Capstone presentations with advisers Mrs gay and Mrs kleer this was to prepare for senior capsom night on April 2nd where students will present their personalized projects to aboard teachers tomorrow the 14th the high school is putting on the third annual boys Powderpuff volleyball tournament 160 teams of students from all four grades will be participating while their peers are encouraged to come cheer them on in the audience entry is free and there's concessions available the BHS drama club Put on Disney's newes on February 27th 28th and March 1st the show was a huge success being fully sold out on Friday night and having extremely close to sold out shows both Thursday and Saturday the audiences loved the show and it was a huge success this past Tuesday March 11th the Juniors took the SAT it went off without a hitch and students finished with plenty of time earlier than anticipated the Bolton scholarship fund is holding their annual phonathon facilitated by the National Honor Society this Sunday the 16th and Monday the 17th there are three 2hour time slots where students will be making phone calls to community members asking for support of the fund students teachers and scholarship fund members will work here in the library to make the calls using 10 school phone line thank you very much well you're free to go study or person would suggest normally but free to stay as well thank you thank you very much and on to community meeting reports we have a PTA update this evening yeah I apologize for last month I came down with the flu and got on late and was slightly not working properly um tomorrow is the last date for our Crispy Cream Donuts Drive um you can uh for orders they'll be picked up on the the 20th um from 5 to 6: p.m in the lobby $17 to $20 for a dozen and 50% goes back to the PCA to help with all our fun stuff and teachers and um the other thing too is Monster Jam tickets tomorrow is the last day to pick those up um for the March 30th show those are 46 plus piece and then the next big thing that's coming up is our Gala um Spring Fling for swing on the 26th of April at elicit Brewing we're so looking for sponsors and there are t-shirts on sale for the playground the playground Community also last Tuesday presented to the board of Selectmen for approval because um the new playground will be on public grounds not on school ground so we just to go with all that um and then we should have an official response in April I believe for um approval of going ahead with the whole once we get the monies for the new playr and then we're also gearing up for teacher appreciation week which will be starting on May 5th and we'll be here before we know a lots of fun planning and progress for that as well thank you very much is there anyone else who has Community meetings to report on I attended the last Bolton scholarship fund meeting um at which we spent time assembling the uh comments bags that were used so that attendees to the news's musical last month could leave messages of encouragement and praise for the cast in crew um so the BSF directors assembled those and then took turns volunteering nights of the play to uh just help people leave messages so uh we did this last year uh kind of picked it up and it seemed to be really successful so I hope it was appreciated by all of the by all the actors and crew um in much sat news um our longest serving board member Helen Winkler died last Friday uh Helen joined the Bolton scholarship fund shortly after she joined Bolton high school as a Spanish teacher I believe that was back in the 1970s yes think it was that long ago um she served as president of the scholarship fund for many years and was instrumental in making it into the organization that it is today so she and her deep institutional knowledge of our scholarships donor base start our history will be greatly missed by the by the committee thank you Chris is there anyone else who has any Community meetings all right I'll now turn things over to director gold Snider again for the superintendent of schools report first we have director jilo Casper with a curricul film update good even um to start our update I'm just going a quick um update on our Elementary reading this we may be grabing this up this year um for k to3 um last spring as uh you may recall grade K 3 teachers shifted to the approved compendium of heg foric awareness foundations for chics and book fors for grade level reading and language arts full implementation began this year with regular professional development beginning this fall it has been extensive and I think the teachers are feeling very very confident and they're enjoying that program grades four through six are continuing with El education as the literature and non-fiction topics are well suited to Upper Elementary and Middle grades bringing in more science and social studies content they've spent professional learning time as teams and with our instructional coach reviewing and making some adjust ments to the programs based on student needs um time will also be utilized this summer to finalize the changes because the units currently that are available to the public need to better reflect sort of what is happening actually in the classroom day-to-day uh staff also began administering the mclass assessment which was one of the kto three early literacy assessments required by the state it is a digital version of the Diles assessment which we were previously administering um But it includes additional sub tests that assist in um supporting students identifying dyslexia uh rapid automatic naming and vocabulary and uh it also goes up to grade six so teachers again administering in mathematics the universal screener for number sense as an additional quick screener for students and grades excuse me I'm sorry I have also a flip in the past um grade one of new units they're revising some math units because they're um portion of the ready mathematics program has changed to increase um spiraling and repetition in the lower grades so they start with smaller blocks and uh deeper understanding in the lower grades so they've had some significant shifts in the program that changed we had training last year and they are going to have to do some rewriting of their units um but math units in grades 2 three are set for revision and will be the focus for 25 26 um professional learning for BCS and BHS World Language last year teachers worked on alignment of skills but have newly approved State World Language standards which were just released a few weeks ago um along with their new textbooks which were aligned beautifully and online materials that were approved in January they're going to be using time this summer to complete their units for Spanish 1 four um and French 1 and two BHS social studies there are three teachers who have been approved and have been uh who have committed to working after hours on completing curriculum units based on the new standards before the end of this school year so they will be working after hours not doing summer work but that work will be completed by June um as for General work each year um all Bolton Public School teachers spend generally one of the half day PD days going through our um online platform to make sure that that what's there is accurate that What's um public is uh all of the units are present if there's something that we need to put in as work in progress that it reflects that and that their uh units reflect what they want them to uh they check that regularly and that occurred during the early release PD session November new courses for 2526 uh as was discussed earlier in this year are ECE marketing and emergency medical responder we also have a returning course Mr Sean McCormick is being trained this summer so that we once again be able to offer AP music theory so that is exciting uh and one thing that I did not have on the original form because I hadn't spoken to anyone is um MCC is bringing back from Connecticut community colleges they have someone in charge of dual enrollment again so we can start looking for more opportunities we've always created a lot of opportunities for our students to take early college experience courses so they can have college credit there was not anyone previously uh for a while uh at MCC they had an interim person they have brought someone new on board and they have just been having some meetings this week to get that person in place so I'm anxious to see what the next steps are to expand those offerings for our students any questions I will turn it over to principal Gard for the DCS update thank you uh good evening uh March has been an exciting month for BCS as we celebrate read Across America month uh read Across America month really is about fostering a LEL of reading through engaging activities and positive connections throughout the month students are participating in a variety of literacy based events including spirit week which we had at the beginning of the month book Bingo switch or read switch Oro reading which Mrs Keller had a group she was reading too uh drop everything and read which the whole school will pause at a certain time and read a book together which has been great and we have guest readers into the classroom so teachers invite guest readers in which has always been a big head another highlight is March Madness book tournament so everybody who's familiar with the March Madness a couple of teachers Mrs beler and Mrs wch um organized like the bracket on the wall all the favorite books that kids recommend and then they vote and vote and vote we end up with one book and then the PTA buys that book for all the classrooms so it is really nice and kids love it uh Mrs Keller has done an outstanding job of sharing book highlights each morning during morning announcements exposing the students to a wide range of diverse and exciting stories so that's been a nice addition so that the whole school hears about different titles and stories in addition to promoting literacy we're always looking for ways to build a positive culture and energy in the building recently all staff and we made this a priority this year connected with four families about positive news because oftentimes we're calling home because maybe there's a little slide in grades or there's a discipline concern but the positive new share out when we followed up with teachers and plcs has been very positive uh parents were like oh my phone rang and I was at work and I was stressing out but then to hear this at my day so it was really nice to kind of get that positivity out there and if you think of all the staff times for over hundred uh emails and phone calls were made in that instance for that week so we're going to try to make that a regular thing to get that out the families which was really nice uh we're also looking forward to our staff potato bar um it's exactly what it sounds sounds like so we cook a bunch of potatoes a bunch of toppings and it's a great opportunity for staff to come together to connect and recharge um and as we prepare for parent teacher conferences and student Le conferences on March 20th and 21st we're excited to welcome families into the building to share the great work the students put together um especially with those student light conferences which has been an addition now for about five years uh the all these initiatives continue to strengthen our sense of community and Foster a true sense of positive culture for all any questions thank you thank you Mr melli so high school life in March Springs uh the beginning of the scheduling process and we're well underway um this year we included invitations for All Families to meet the school counselor um many of them met tonight during parent teacher conferences um the councilors were fully booked for that um Mrs Destiny and Mr J Santi have spent time in classrooms with students getting them ready sent down detailed Communications to parents and even took time to meet with the faculty to share with the faculty the same information that was going home to parents so all the teachers knew exactly what was was going on with that um we've also recently been very fortunate to welcome several different visitors to the high school Who provided lots of uh enrichment activities for our students for example uh Mr Pete Bradley Emily's husband um he's a mechanical engineer and senior technical fellow working for rathon and he specializes in parallel Computing so he brought his expertise into our advanced placement computer science class um he which Emily teaches yeah his presentation included a demonstration of how the parallel Computing can speed up a process and how to calculate the speeds and he led his industry expertise to all the students in a real Hands-On opportunity we also had once again the Goodwin University's Early College Advanced manufacturing program they came in they spent a day and for interested students they had their manufacturing trailer actually parked going in the wrong direction parked out here and students were able to visit that trailer and see all that in process uh We've doing that for the last several years it's been great um new this year the Savannah College of Art and Design scad um there's multiple locations there Atlanta and Savannah and and all over um but they came in to present to interested art students during connections they learned about the many way art design programs of study at the University admission requirements and employment opportuni so that was something new and different this year um and then just today uh Mr Thomas k who is the recently retired band director of bacon academy uh came in and conducted band class today um so he had an opportunity to work with the students on phrasing Dynamics articulation and expression um and enhancing their performances with his expert vaton so that was a neat experience for the and he had a ball that was that was a lot of fun today and lastly I just want to take a moment speaking of band and uh Emma our trombone player who was sitting there earlier um we're grateful for the donation from Gwen Mary who reached out to Mr McCormack and offered to donate books on trombone methods and a mute for a trombone and those actually came in today so we're very grateful for that donation any questions for me sir um what has the uptake been like for the Goodwin program I know the first year we offered I think we had one or two students who participated U are you talking about the Cooperative program yeah yeah so um for those who don't know um we have a couple of opportunities in different areas with either mag schools or in this case with a good Mo manufacturing program to have students to spend half their day here or a little more than half and then half the day off um at some other place so we have struggled with that some years with interest sure um and the logistics of students who want to play sports and those kinds of things um but we do have a student enrolled this year and he is having a fantastic time and already I think he's already got an internship and it leads if you know if he chose to to go right into employment next year so he's having a great experience thank you for for mentioning any other questions thank you all righty um we have no unfinished business this evening onto new business and our annual healthy food certification uh so I'm looking for a motion that pursuant to Connecticut General statute section 10 - 215f the Bolton Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not Exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards During the period of July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2026 this C certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources included but not limited to school stores vending Machin School cafeteras culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups so second anyone have any questions or comments about this all those in favor of the motion please say I I anyone oppos or abstaining now we are also looking for a motion uh that the Bolton Bo Board of Education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10- 221 Q of the Connecticut General statutes provided that the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend two the sale is at the location of the event and three the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store and a vent is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and Inter CL debates are events but soccer practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not the regular school day is the period from Midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales second CHR Ashley does anyone have any questions about [Music] this all those in favor please say I I opposed or abstaining motion passes also now we need to do the bid waiver for um oh just looking for a motion to approve the bid waiver to award the bid for the BCS public address system to environmental systems company for $2,175 second um anyone have any questions or comments about this we discussed this previously all those in favor of the motion please say I I anyone opposed or abstaining and on to Chromebook purchas bid waiver which we also previously discussed and looking for a motion to approve the bid waiver to purchase 115 non-touchscreen Chromebooks and 50 touchscreen CH books through tips for $665 40 Chris anybody have any questions about this all those in favor of the motion please say I anyone opposed or abstaining all right moving along quickly resignations we have one resignation Alex bear who is was a custodian at BHS and BCS prior to that he has resigned and moved over to the T side so we will miss Alex he was great and we wish him the very best glad you still with it down yes on John P CH internally oh best of luck thank you for your service um on to policies we have eight first read policies and I'm hoping happy to review them feel free to jump in Chris if you have anything to add make a mistake all right so policy 4118 nondiscrimination um changes to this policy fall into one of six categories uh there are a bunch of improvements just to for clarity and readability uh there are some expanded definitions for example the definition of race has been expanded um there are strengthened protections against harassment uh notably that harassing Behavior need not be intentional or directed at a specific person or repeated to be actionable uh let's see it makes changes to the reporting and investigation procedures it clarifies the guidelines for how to handle complaints against a superintendent or a board member and it makes some technical updates to formatting organization and terminology policy 41204 Section 504 and Ada uh changes there fall into one of eight categories um again we have improvements tocar and readability we have some expanded definitions uh for example noting that episodic and remissive conditions should still be considered as disabilities if they limit major life activity when they recur uh there are changes to reporting and investigation procedures there are changes to the appeals process uh which now includes a formal review process for appeals and time limits for when decisions need to be made um similar changes are reflected I think in in all of the policies that are being updated that have any sort of appeals process so um shipment and Goodwin is trying to harmonize the language across all of their policies so it's similar when it talks about appeals uh let's see 41204 changes also clarify and strengthen protections against retaliation clarifies how to handle complaints involving the superintendent or a district Ada coordinator adds new Provisions for handling complaints that arise during the summer and includes technical updates to bring the policy into compliance with Federal legislation policy 5131 student discipline uh so changes there uh provide Clarity on student rights and responsibilities under this policy it makes revisions uh so the policy is more relevant to Modern disciplinary issues for example adding language about the artificial intelligence cyber bullying uh it improves protections for students with disabilities um for example expulsion hearings must now consider whether misconduct was related to the student's ability or to the student's disability rather um I suspect that such considerations would have been made in the past um it's just now as formly in our policy uh next it provides more structure and parental involvement and clarifies aspects of the appeals process and then a bunch of technical updates to formatting organization terminology policy 5141 do5 has only a very minor clarification policy 5145 uh has improvements to Clarity and readability and it changes the appeals or it updates the appeals process to ensure it is consistent with other policies policy 5145 do4 non-discrimination students has been updated to reflect a 2020 2024 Title 9 requirement that our Title 9 policy include an appeal process that is similar to the appeals processes in our other discrimination policies it also clarifies that the types of conduct prohibited by the policy include epithets related to such sexual orientation and gender identity or expression it clarifies and strengthens protections against retaliation and it includes some technical updates policy 61713 the Equitable identification of gifted and talented students uh has been updated to clarify that assessments uh for gifted and talented students must be fair to English language Learners or multilingual students and not simply screen them out because there because of limited in proficiency it also includes some technical updates to the legal references finally policy 6205 promotion and retention includes one very minor technical clarification Chris or Beth do you have anything you wanted to add everything no nothing very good thank you very much uh we will be voting on these next month so if you have anything else to say about them figure it out in that time frame and any future business all right well looking for a motion to adjourn you any questions all those in favor of the motion please say I oppos we areed well 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My name is Autumn Brown. I will be your mistress of ceremonies tonight. I am recently retired from Brookers Junior High School. I was the drama teacher for 25 years. [Applause] And in my retirement, I am rekindling my own acting career. I do directing and acting and community theater. I give improv workshops throughout the state of California. And one of my favorite projects every year is to come back to this soapbox speech final. So, I'm very excited to be here tonight. We have a great program ahead.

in the CHS lower gym and I'd like to cordially invent invite all students parents Clifton nightes of course all of you guys uh to attend and come watch I personally will be playing in the game as well so uh if you would like to come and watch that that's happening uh finally our spring Sports season has started and with game starting as early as next week I'd like to once again urge everyone to go and support our teams in terms of the future uh I personally have been working with the math department at CHS uh to resolve some issues with our online math programs so prior to this year we had been solely using imagin math to supplement students learning imagine math was a program introduced a couple years ago uh it's a replace Study Island uh but this year my path was rolled out as a pilot program in certain uh I believe sophomore level classes uh and we are so far uh trying to test its Effectiveness working with the head of the math department I personally am trying to gauge student opinion on the program as well as trying to understand the root cause of Why students are doing poorly in math and refusing to do uh lessons on the program even though they are aware that it will hurt their grade so I believe we'll be sending out a survey next week uh which will last about a week and we will be trying to use this data uh to come up with solutions to these issues uh and I will personally be presenting uh relevant information at next week's board meeting so I will uh work with Mr Rose in regards to to that that is all for this month and thank you good night to all thank you Mark and thank you for spearheading that new math uh uh solution that sounds exciting isn't it nice that we get student input Mr bar it's wonderful that we get student input um okay Dr Robert toy has a presentation for us this evening so the floor is yours sir it is that time sir how you does it need to be here or can it be close be close we good evening commissioners of the Clifton Board of Education community members faculty staff and students looking forward to tonight's uh presentation because the idea that we'll be discussing is something that I've hoped for since year one of my superintendency here in Clifton and that was the opportunity to open up a new school now not a brand new school but nevertheless a new school a new building to us and so tonight we talk about expanding the possibilities of the Clifton public schools and as you all know and hopefully the community knows that we have agreed uh in terms to a lease for 775 Valley Road which is the former Pope Paul v 6 school and later Pope John Paul II elementary school tonight I want to talk about what's happened since October 21 when we first started October 21 when we first started discussing the possibility of getting that building so back in October 21 we did an initial walkthrough and I was very impressed with the building itself um the last time it was used as a high school was in 1990 the building is still in very very good shape since October 21 till February of 25 uh the business office um along with myself had been working uh behind the scenes with the arch dasis of Newark to um get a deal to get this property um initially we wanted to purchase the property the arch dasis of Newark wasn't selling in fact we were told that the the Catholic church in general doesn't like to sell its property because they are the largest property owners in the world uh well due to um some recent events they changed their mind and we were able to uh lease the building so since October 21 we've talked about this building in various committees in October of 24 uh when I was out on medical leave um my great team in my absence uh Mr Jenaro Miss kusich and Mr Shahar uh did a community survey to get some input from the community on what they would like to see in a new building we had the architect uh our district architect the Cara Rabino in to look at the building we started a demographic study to determine what would be the best use of the facility and we've had our technology team teams our security teams and our maintenance teams in the building to scope out the area do A needs assessment so that when we took possession of the property we'd be ready to move in we'd be ready to go and I'm proud to say that when September 25 comes we will be prepared to hopefully open a third new Middle School in the Clifton Public School District truly a historic moment in our District's history to help us along that path we posted the position for a principal and tonight on the board agenda you'll see my recommendation for Mr Rob bertolini to be the next principal of our third Middle School real quick told you about that survey we did in October here's what the community had to say you see that unlike a lot some surveys we've done in the past we actually had a pretty good response rate uh on these surveys and to be statistically significant not to get technical here but you really only need about 5% of the people to respond to get what's considered a statistically significant answer and as you can see the biggest response from the community was to open up a third Middle School the second uh biggest response which was something Administration strongly considered was opening up some sort of special ized Academy um an offshoot of Clifton High School but as you'll see later on my presentation the need in this district is for a third Middle School here's that same data in percentages so roughly 38% of the respondents um said they would like to see a third Middle School in October the board appointed a demographer to begin a demographic study to help us make a strategic decision that would meet the district's needs and part of this demographers report is a comprehensive analysis that considers operational efficiency cost Effectiveness and long-term sustainability the study looked at data from 2009 to 2022 including historical enrollment Trends local housing growth of which I know you all live in Clifton you've seen the new developments and the increase in population in our city um the demographer looked at home sales special education enrollment and did GPS geocoding mapping to provide us with 5year enrollment projections of what we can expect through 2030 geocoding of the population uh the population density for School boundaries and possible redistricting of where we might want these students to come from what neighborhoods also options for which schools should be sending their students to the Middle School the new middle school and also did statistical forecasting and predictions on what we can expect in the future now that demographers report is not fully complete ladies and gentlemen but we have um more than an exerpt we have a um an abstract which has kind of the main points of the demographers report what we do not have and what tonight I cannot tell you for sure is what when we open this third Middle School what elementary schools will be sending their students there however I can assure you that at our next Board of Education meeting we will announce the recommendation from the demographer and the administration's recommendation but you can expect at least three of our elementary schools at least three schools that their fifth grade students this year will be going to a new middle school next year instead of woodro Wilson or or Columbus Middle School and when we announce that at our next meeting the day after we announce it we will notify those parents of those students so that they be can begin planning so why why a third Middle School you've been in our buildings you've seen our needs there's certainly a lack of space and overcrowding at our current middle schools that's been a major concern of ours for a long time all of our programs across the district have been growing we've had increased enrollment in our specialized programs that require full-size classrooms whereas we used to be able to spit split a a full-size classroom and make it into two some of our specialized programs need full-size classrooms now we have a lot more need uh for classrooms at all grade levels for special education and elll students you'll recall um that our elll enrollment has doubled in the last five years doubled ladies and gentlemen growing preschool we are not yet at what is called our preschool universe meaning not every three and four year-old in the city of Clifton um is attending preschool and guess what we're we're almost at a room and thanks to the board thanks to the budgets we've created thanks to money that we receiv received during the pandemic we've been able to increase student services like counseling uh and that's taken up space too though our own District's data has indicated that our middle schools are overc capacity we have more students in our schools then we should a district survey of our staff showed that the middle schools were the biggest area where space relief was needed and if that wasn't enough the professional demographer that we hired recommended that the best option would be opening up a third middle school because of the dense population of our current middle schools now let's talk about the big picture this is the stuff I love yeah well all that sounds good Dr Robert tosy but is this good for kids ladies and gentlemen this is really good for kids there is a lot of research that suggests School sizes optimal School sizes for secondary schools range from 600 to 900 students and there is research showing that optimal size increases math and language arts outcomes currently today there are 1,111 students at Christopher Columbus Middle School and 1,46 at woodro Wilson much bigger than that optimal size and ladies and gentlemen I will tell you that our middle schools are bigger than most high schools in the state of New Jersey and middle school students have much different needs than high school students so a smaller School benefit benefits them in many many ways one is a positive School climate smaller schools are often associated with a more positive and supportive School climate which in turn can indicate better academic outcomes right makes sense if the school climate is positive people are happy and satisfied kids staff do better children do better academically there's also research indicating less disruptions less disciplinary issues small schools can lead to fewer disruptions and a more focused learning environment need more research I got it for you this is a lower incident of negative social behavior in smaller schools negative social behaviors such as bullying and victimization compared to larger schools so you are less likely to be bullied in a smaller School smaller schools increase student teacher relationships right the smaller the school the more close-knit they become our middle schools again are the size of most high schools when those students at that age really need more attention and that of course can lead to more student engagement which leads to better academic outcomes which leads to more motivated students who are willing and wanting to take more rigorous courses and finally uh there's research that indicates smaller schools can foster a sense of belonging and positive self-regard which can contribute to better mental health and well-being that's one thing we've been talking about we should have always been talking about it but since the pandemic we've been talking about seal social emotional learning and the mental health of our students and staff there is research that indicates smaller schools help students with a better sense of um of self-worth mental health and well-being so why is it important to know this important to know these things the professional demographer recommended a third Middle School the staff survey recommended a third Middle School the community survey recommended a third Middle School the administration wants a third Middle School why do we want a third middle school for all these reasons because ultimately it's better for children so here's the plan right now ladies and gentlemen and you will vote on this uh tonight we would like to open up our third Middle School at Valley Road in September of 25 right now there are 47 full classrooms Columbus 55 at woodro our new Middle School will have 33 it's not quite as big as those schools but it's plenty big enough and by the time the third year rolls around we expect there to be about 850 students at Columbus about 850 at woodro and about 650 at our new Middle School notice how those numbers fall in very nicely with the oposal school size so when I say when we reach our full capacity is because we're not going to open up a three grade middle school in September that's not the plan we're going to ease into this and we're going to start off with a sixth grade next year so those parents who get a notification that your child is going to a third Middle School what of the benefits is your children are going to be the only grade in that school so I know parents are worried about you know going to middle school is a big step there's anxiety there's worries about going to a big school well your children are going to be just with sixth graders for a year the following year we'll move up another sixth grade class and we'll have sixth and seventh grade and in three years we'll have a full Middle School which will bring us up to those projected numbers of 850 850 and 650 so look at what we're doing here right we're not just creating a smaller school that's going to help students do better we're creating three smaller schools that are going to help students do better we'll be able to balance busing throughout the district and programming and when we get the final demographic report again before our next board meeting we will know what schools are recommended to be the feeder schools and as soon as we know that for sure you will know the community know and we'll let our parents know make no mistake about it these three schools will have the same curriculum the same general programs the same scheduling and activities so regardless of where your children go to school they will have the same opportunities and we'll have more space for our specialized programs more space at each school because of this so there's the projection of how we get to 650 next year we're expecting about 220 students following year we'll add another grade that'll get us to about 440 students and the third year will get us to what we're calling our capacity um not it's not quite our capacity but about 650 students which is a very nice size school when parents get a notification and children get notification that hey your school your fifth grade class is going to the new Middle School we have to be very very strict in making any exceptions to that just so that we balance out the numbers so a parent may say but I'm my my child was planning on going to Columbus they have to go to Columbus I'm let the board know now and I trust that you will support me in this that we have to be very strict in allowing any exceptions to not going to the new school but two of those right off the bat or if a child already a parent already has a sibling going to woodro or Christopher Columbus that student can also go and finish the eighth grade year so even if the siblings in 8th grade next year we're going to allow that student to start and finish at the school they go to as to not disrupt their education more than once and then of course any student who's in a specialized program part of this redistricting a re balancing is uh as you know many of our special education programs at the middle school level are at woodro some of those will go to the new Middle School some will say it woodro and so if a child is eligible for those programs um they obviously would go there and if their sibling is in that school we we would also allow The Sibling so other than that other than what I deem and you know we can discuss this in committee other than what I deem a really good reason we have to be very strict about making any other exceptions to the middle school so we make sure our our schools are balanced so we're in the why and what phase now what's next so we have the lease signed we are waiting njd we approval New Jersey Department of Education does have to approve the lease we don't anticipate any problems with that but that hasn't happened yet tonight hopefully the board will appoint a principal and tomorrow we'll have our first meeting from then on we're also going to form a smaller committee M made up of the Middle School administrators certain select teaching staff and others who are impacted by this move to help us to think about all the little things that we might not have thought about in our plan and we'll start getting down into the the nitty-gritty details about what are all the things you have to do to open up a new school and there's a lot that you have to do and the reason why I surround myself with with those people is because I first of all I don't know that much right I pretty much get by in my good looks and personality but the people that we'll have on that committee will know a lot more and will get their input we'll review the final demographic report and I will come to the board and I will tell you this was the recommendation of the demographer and whatever the administration's recommendation is for the two or three or four schools that are going to the Middle School Will redistrict based on that report we'll notify the families we'll have an open house in the summer and finally we'll name the building this board in its foresight last year just happened to a make a new naming policy 7660 and so this is for anyone who's listening any Resident student Community member board member staff member can put in a written proposal to recommend a name for the building that procedure is as follows you can recommend the name our policy says that that the the person if it's a person doesn't have to be a person could be a tri the person has had to have significant contributions to the city and and the children in Clifton okay um it's part of your petition requirement you'll have to get 25 signatures we'll have to verify those signatures to some extent Mr Paris will create an ADH committee to review um the names that committee will include board members faculty students administrators and other community Representatives as deemed appropriate by Mr Paris and Mr Paris only that committee will then discuss all the recommendations and then make a final recommendation to myself and Mr shahada and the policy says if it meets with our approval then we bring it to the full board I will tell you this whatever that committee recommends will be my recommendation to the board we bring that to the full board the board considers it we'll probably start off in committee and then bring it to the full board and the final decision will be by a majority vote of the board on the naming of the school the application for naming of the school is on our district website thank you to Mr shahada for creating the form uh it's under the Board of Education tab we are asking it's not a firm deadline but we want to get this done rather quickly we're asking for uh submissions to be before April 1st again not a firm deadline the the the policy doesn't have a deadline you can submit a recommendation anytime to change the name or add a name to anything but for this specific purpose we're asking for an April 1st deadline and then finally in September 2025 we'll open that new school name yet to be determined ladies and gentlemen those are all the reasons why I recommend that we open a third Middle School I'm happy now to answer any questions that you may have and if you ask a question I may ask Mr Jenaro M kusich or Mr sh to help me with an answer thank you Dr Roberto for very thorough presentation Commissioners uh commissioner bassard thank you Dr Roberto for your explanation I have a couple things um I've been going back and forth with all day with uh the ba I you were not in and you now are not in during the presentation but I recall that we did we did mention we were going to have community input on on which um area of the grade level you were going to put up in the school so um I I I don't know if anybody else recalls that but I did recall that we were going to have some kind of public meeting and it never happened so I'm disappointed with that we're going to get we're going to get kick back on that I know we're going to get kick on and the other thing I'm I'm worried about is I know your reasons for implementing one grade at a time the sixth grade but why not utilize that whole building for other things where busting at the seams for and I'm I how do I tell the people in the community that we're only using a third of the building when we're when we're in a budget issue so that's my this is me with my my my Community member hat on I'm I'm concerned about that this that's that's an excellent question let me answer that first before we touch on the first comment for exactly the reason you said people might be concerned is the reason why we're phasing it in budget it is not as simple as some may think that we just take a certain amount of students from the middle schools and then we take the teachers who are currently there and it works out evenly and perfectly and it fits we're going to have to hire new staff it just doesn't work that easily so we're going to have to hire a new staff next year and then each year we're going to have to hire additional staff so as to not have to hire one of the reasons is to not have to hire all those staff in the first year so I could understand why somebody might say hey you're you're only utilizing a third building I get that but there is a significant budgetary reason why that makes sense um the second reason is we would if we redistrict everybody for September 25 we're interrupting the education of two additional uh grade grade levels right so in this regard the students who are in fifth grade yes they were expecting to go to a certain middle school but they never got there they never experienced that they get to go to the new school so we don't have to disrupt the current sixth and seventh graders to go to the new Middle School I am understand I understand that but it's just that we have an obligation we have the fiduciary obligation to the taxpayers and I'm looking at a third of this mechanism being utilized is there anything else or any other program that we could put in that building in the meantime separated out so it will be safe it will be conducive to educ learning so that's what I'm saying because you you talk about preschool and I know shifting things around and don't start yelling at me everyone I'm just how can we utilize that mechanism to its full potential so we're not we're not under burdening ourselves either because we have I told you I was in a classroom on Monday right I read to a classroom on Monday of 24 first graders and it really alarmed me it really alarmed me I didn't like to see that because they're emerging readers and I I was really upset about that I didn't say nothing to nobody I just I didn't say nothing to the teacher but I was like when I walked in I was like woo I I I I I was taken back because I know that that's really not ideal in short Miss B while I can't give you a specific program I can tell you that although only a third of the middle school students are planning to be there in September we will absolutely be using that the rest of that building for other reasons there are a myriad of things that we can utilize I don't want to TI myself down to a particular one by saying it publicly tonight but I assure you we will be using it and in addition Mr bassford I'm not sure I think the board knows but the community should know we are also taking possession of the building next to the school which is the arch dasin offices and so where when do we get that it's going to be a little longer uh we're supposed to get it in December but that is still inlux so within a year uh we'll be getting that and there's a ton of space there the good thing is it's not a good thing but the good thing is we have overcrowding everywhere so even here at school 6 there are programs that could be moved there and so and we'll have further discussions about that but I think that that every inch of both of those buildings will be used thank you you're very welcome commissioner Brak thank you Mr President Dr Robert TOA you you mentioned previously that some of the siblings who some of the older siblings who attend currently attend woodro Wilson or or Columbus that they have their parents have the option of still continuing to have them go there those are the only exceptions for now right but by year three that won't be cuz I had some some of the parents be they didn't know what it was going to be they were concerned about that as well you know my son is currently attending there but his his little brother he's coming up he wants to be in the school at least for one year two years if they got Irish twins or whatever so you know they they could potentially have up to two years or three years to two years together you know so essentially but do we have a ballpark figure of how many fifth graders have older siblings already going to a a middle school a ballpark not as many as I expected um in the low teams wow yeah um having said that Mr Brun the only other exception is if a student attends A specialized program that that would be an exception too right there's nothing you can do for that it does answer my question thank you yeah I guess the the idea is we we want to disrupt uh students and parents par lives as little as possible uh allowing what we'll call The Sibling exception I think helps with that um but other than that unless somebody has a real legitimate reason why they can't go to the new Middle School um and of course we'll consider any requests but I can't really see making exceptions commissioner SI thank you very much thank you for the presentation yes sir um special education in the school yes sir um there will be um most of our middle school special education programs not all but most are at woodro now and as part of the realignment some of those programs will move to the new school thank you you're very welcome president Paris commissioner sarez and commissioner Mia wanted to add something to my previous answer Janina right now the the majority of the self all of the self-contained special education classes are at Woodrow so we would be looking at moving some of those strands to better balance between the two schools and the vast majority of elll programs are at actually all of them for Middle School are at Christopher Columbus so even though it may sound like we're only moving up this group of fifth graders once you start layering in the specialized programs coming over as well that's going to use a lot more of the building than it sounds like just Rising fifth graders because the strands of self-contained special ed will move over there and there may be other smaller programs that can come over as well so more of the building will be utilized and special it will be balanced across a better balanced across the three schools that's why I always need you by my side commissioner Suarez thank you president Paris I was just curious if there are any plans to um put out the naming for um as an assignment to students I'd be so curious to see what ideas they might have and and make it an academic um love love that idea assignment I did not think of it but I have no problem doing that in fact that will do that I love that idea what's that chewy middle school I love that idea they have to follow the same rules as everybody else well it's probably easier for the kids to get 25 signatures and the adults you know commissioner M here so um I received a lot of calls today mainly because I think people within the community especially some of our staff members over at Christopher Columbus were worried that it would just be Target to a specific group of demographic students who live around the area and I wanted to know would it just be those main three schools that are around there or would we incorporate alleviating some of Christopher Columbus Middle School as well excellent question Mr Mia um it's part of the demographers report um not not only is it the students who live in that neighborhood but we ask them to look at ways that we can make other schools um that might be overcrowded at the elementary level to lessen the load there and to balance out now we have an obligation to provide all students with a thorough and efficient education one of the one of the things we have to consider when redistricting is that we have to balance the socioeconomics and the other demographics so you can't just move all the kids from one excuse me one section of town to that school it's going to be a balance of students from all over while considering um busing right so we're not going to take all the kids from uh you know one part of town but it's absolutely balanced it's a very good question and the demographers final recommendation will include um reasoning behind um my followup question to us going to be is there going to be options I know before we would have options like option one would include these three schools option two would include these three and option three would be would include these are we going to have things like that or is it just going to be a set final recommendation I think what the demographer will recommend and what the administration will recommend to the board is what is the most efficient and balanced um way I don't think it I don't think it would be options I don't think that that that would make um yeah I don't think that would work thank you you're very welcome vice president Santiago thank you president Paris can we will we can we get access to that report the demographers report as soon as I get it you guys will have it excellent um the special needs classes the reason this this school is chosen or for that is because the existing size of the classrooms already or the special space needed or will there be renovations to the building to make any accommodations actually Mr Santi that's a great question too the the reasoning is actually more simple than that um a child with an IEP is required to um go to class and go to school with non-disabled peers and so as part of that Balancing Act we have to include special ed programs with regular Ed programs in the new building um if that makes sense yes so that'll be part of the The Balancing Act so to speak yes and then thank you the last question in the naming um in our policy talks all back petitions we would just been saying this by names of people but as you mentioned it could be you know the famous oak tree that's been there forever um it could be the section of town it could be whatever and so um the process would be the same in terms of submitting that per the policy yes sir okay any um petition that meets the policy requirements will go to the committee that Mr Paris creates for consideration so yeah it could be you know could be a thing could be a place it could be doesn't have to be a person thank you uh Dr Danny just um thank you for the report very very um very well put together does the uh building have air conditioning just was curious box air conditioning yes is it it has split units in the classrooms in most classrooms thank you split units in most classrooms thank you that's one of the things that you know we'll be looking at with our maintenance teams thank you president Paris um I was just wondering if we have a r rough estimate when families will know about the bus schedule uh for the new school the bus schedule so the day after our next board meeting parents will be notified if their child is going to that school as part of that notification if they live more than 2 miles away they will be getting a bus and they'll be notified in that letter you're very welcome Mr sh I'm sorry 2.5 at the secondary level two at the elementary level commission M I don't know I feel like we need a little bit more input from the community in general is it okay we just table it and wait until we get everything in order cuz I know we do have to appoint a principal yes but until we have like all the information we need and then finally passing it because I know the resolution is just to make it a designated principal a PR uh building making it a middle school and all that but is it okay that we have everything in order before we finally put it down Mr we won't have everything in order to open up the new school probably till the day before that school opens so I'm just curious as and what additional information would you need to help you make a decision like all the schools who are going to be involved in transferring over to the new Middle School yeah so we're going to know that in two weeks at the most um yeah so I mean certainly um at the board's discretion if that's something that the board wanted to do I just want to say that um respect your opinion uh this resolution is part of the final piece of the packet that needs to go to the doe for um approval of the building so every building every lease unfortunately has to go to the facilities Department there they have to comb through it along with the Architects reports and every other piece of documentation um and that can take up to it it took us a year and a half to get uh CA s so you know that's it's a large undertaking from them and they are very underst staffed so this would put a huge delay in the process yes I have a question does it have to be designated a middle school before it goes down to the DOA or does can we say that we're just we're going to take it as a school that's I think that's what Mr M you're refering so I I believe uh don't quote me but I I believe it does because it has to go into our long range facility plan that has to be updated in conjunction with the packet that we submit to them when when is our next meeting april-ish second week of April maybe the 13th I believe it's April 13th that's here's my rationality I'm on the same Wing link because I was getting a lot of calls and text messages today from people saying that they didn't have weighin I'm just telling you what have what weighin weighin right and because I really Danny I I was trying to go back to look at the old meetings I didn't have time to do it today and I thought that was one of the discussions on this board is that we wanted Community input so the community survey was not enough the community survey didn't go out to all all as aspects and that was a big controversy if anybody remembers that it didn't go out to like the senior citizens I know we're talking about school age children and it went out to most of the parents but it didn't go out to the senior groups it didn't go out to the um the out of District placement people and um Dr Rob so yeah let me just say one let me just say one thing it if the board wishes to table this it would be against my recommendation but that's okay you don't have to take my recommendation I don't think and you can tell me if I'm wrong that there's something that a Community member could tell you tonight that is going to change my mind about the need for a third Middle School maybe there's something they could say that would change your mind and I'm open to change but I laid out at least what I believe are all the reasons why we need this um and I'm not sure what somebody else could tell you tonight that would change that but certainly if that's the board's perogative we can we can wait can I respond to that um my thing is that we've sometimes we dropped the ball and we didn't have follow and I'm not saying anything against anyone on this on this bis or anyone in administration I just thought that we would the process was going to go a little different I thought that we were going to have a special meeting and just put it out there what you wanted to do and I thought that the decision was going to be made after we got the demographic study back that's what I thought I don't know if I'm I'm miscalculating something somebody am if I'm wrong tell me you know cuz age but one other thing is that I'd like to know the rule does it have to be named the middle school or not named the Middle School because that would be helping me make my decision tonight I need all the facts it's just like the other night with the with the budget we don't know we do know I you know I got to I got to have concrete stuff I respect Mr M I respect this B is there any other commissioner that remembers there was going to be additional Community input or a community night I remember Community night is there anybody else guys because we it's it's been discussed in committees it's been a staff survey It's been a Community survey but if you're not comfortable with it then I respect that but if there's another commissioner who remembers that that would be helpful we let me just I haven't had a chance to make a comment so I'd like to weigh in a little bit here um we've had was it at least 2500 and more than that what was the total number of people surveyed it's thousands we're talking thousands this was done back in October students and parents and it was out of District students District Stone went out also we have a demog we have an independent third party has didn't come here with any kind of preconceived notions and they're recommending also our need is a as a middle school um and we also have our own Administration which knows I'm sure they did not I'm sure they did their homework as far as where the biggest need is for overcrowding in our district um I don't know what would be the benefit of having another public meeting um there were six months people could have come here or written to us or communicated with us um about their concerns and here we are and it's it's we're on a timeline here we want to get this school we have possession of the school regardless we need to get it prepared for the for the fall um I I don't see the need personally for a for an additional meeting on this yes commissioner siano just to uh answer the superintendent so if I'm remembering correctly Janina did the presentation on this and I think that it was said that it was going to be open for the Comm I don't remember the exact wording but commissioner Mahia commissioner bassford that's a good recollection that I have that that was said I'm not saying that I'm agreeing to table it I'm saying that I agree that something was said to that extent thank you I'm I I don't want to table this but I'm just asking for a concrete answer does it have to say Middle School in the resolution so we can get it down to the to the proper departments get it moved and then then rename it at another resolution because every time we put a resol resolution on on the agenda if there's a change to resolution including a date change it should go on a resolution because you're changing something that was agreed upon by this Collective body that's how I was taught on when you do resolutions I don't know if that's changed since I went to resolution school but that's how it was taught all right but I I'm just saying I do not want to be subject to public scrutiny saying that we didn't give the community weigh in that's all I'm asking for and can we put it is it yes can put it as a middle school or no we have to have it we have to have it uh the exact wording to go down to the state that's all I'm asking for so I can make my decision on how I'm going to vote I don't know that answer I don't know I'm trying to find but I would imagine you would I mean how are they going to approve it for a use without knowing what you're using because there are there are specifications so if we wanted it to be uh a preschool it's 950 Square ft 750 usable an elementary I mean elementary and Secondary School it's about 775 or something like that um yeah so in my professional opinion I do believe it is required because we have to amend the long range facilities plan that gets updated every 5 years unless there is an amendment of adding a building demolishing a building so on and so forth so yes president Paris yes so to to Mr Rober toy uh Dr Roberto sorry um so I asked for would we get the demographers report you said yes we would get that uh if we then review that and somebody doesn't agree with the data or wants to challenge or can we do that challenge the data or challenge the decision to make challenge the recommendation um sure but at the end of the day it's only a recommendation it's it's my recommendation that you'd be voting on so I guess the answer is sure you absolutely could challenge that um demographers report you could hire another demographer to review it um but at the end of the day the only action you're taking is to vote on the recommendation for the school itself if that that makes sense yeah I'm just I'm just saying um you know just some wild example that uh they choose schools or you know the criteria that they chose and it just seems as I believe Comm Mahia said you know these schools are from one section or whatever whatever reason that any one of us feels excuse me are you asking for like to question the recommendation of being a middle school high school elementary school kids I'll be I'll be clear let's say the three closest schools to Valley Road to the school are the ones that are selected period um you know somebody might not think that that's the right way to do it so I give okay recommendation depending upon what the demographer right they're a consultant they're third party I'm sure they're professional and they're qualified and they're going to give great data but on the chance that they come back and somebody thinks that it's not the best recommendation the CH the schools that were chosen um what can we do and Mr Santiago just so you know while I fully expect that I'm going to recommend what the professional recommends if we don't think it makes sense we we're not beholden to that rep so if we you know have a more efficient way or a better way or a way that's less busing or you know um certainly my recommendation could be different than the report good okay Dr Dan so um I I do want to say that I um do agree with Miss bassford and Mr sien on the way I thought the roll out just would be a little bit different I that was again but I'm not saying you know um to hold it up because I do understand that that would be a huge you know disruption to you know what we're planning to do here I get that and I think that Mr Santiago what you said I would think that that is sort of what Mr Mah is looking for to to be able that that we have some ability to put some input into you know when we get this study that if there's something that we see I think that's like what I think you would be okay with I mean I don't want to speak for you but that's like what I from what I heard that's what it seemed like that you know it's not there like this is the final word but there could be something that you would feel much more comfortable than maybe you know voting on that knowing that you have that option you know so I I think that was because that was going to be one of my questions was you know is this the final say in the word and that's it then like we didn't even see it so so Dr Dy um just going to read it with Dr Roberto that it they will give us a recommendation of what they believe is best ultimately it'll the recommendation will come from Administration through Dr Roberto to the board um but it is and for lack of a better phrase it is negotiable so just because they say schools 27 28 29 have to go to this new school that that is not law that is not concrete we can make tweaks you know within the confines of you know legal bounds to ensure that you know it is encompassing of you know socioeconomic stat and Al all the diversity components that come along with it so the board will ultimately see the recommendation from Dr Robert toy and have input as to if they believe it is Equitable and from by all accounts there are only two firms in the state that that do this um and they are one of the two best so I know they have a really good reputation the reference list they've done almost every single District in the state so we have full confidence in their uh in their reporting and and what they've been doing they've been keeping us in the loop every step of the way and I do believe it'll be a recommendation that we can all be proud of and remember we we're not voting this evening on which schools are being sent to the new school we don't have that data yet anyway to even consider so what we're only voting on tonight is to authorize Mr shahada to get the application finished for Middle School there again if the majority of this board says that you need to wait we respect that decision I don't personally or professionally think it's necessary but I if if you felt or if you were told that there needed to be more input or more Community input um and you felt like this the process was the correct one and I respect that and I understand it um so I'm not sure um really what else I could I could say so if you guys want to vote or motion you know it's up to you there's a motion otherwise we move on okay thank you thank you Dr arosia thank you everyone for uh a very vigorous and healthy discussion um it's getting late and I always try to have public recognition by 800m so that I'm not tying up everybody's evening so I'm going to change the order a little bit here and uh open up we'll start with virtual if there's anyone in the virtual room for public recognition one person oh and let me do one bit of business before we do that I'm sorry this portion of the meeting is open to the residents and non-residents of Clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and are directly related to the operation of the Clifton Public School District residents and non-residents are requested to sign the register provided for this purpose and to State their names addresses and subject matter comments are limited to five minutes per person issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if in one appropriate the board ask that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students Andy employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments now Mr Rose is there anyone yes online okay Gary we have Gary Gary you have the floor if you can hear me hi there sorry um will I I the last I heard uh the new Middle School would also still be a church is that correct can you can you please share your name please and uh and and city of residents I'm so sorry I really can't hear you can you share your name and city of residence oh sure Gary Lorry and I'm in Clifton thank you and your question was uh the last I read the new Middle School would also uh still be functioning as a church is that correct that is not correct oh all right very good thank you so much you're welcome was that all that was it thank you all right thank you thank you sir motion to close second second motion to close by commissioner Brun Shack seconded by commissioner bassford um would invite anyone up to our public recognition table if should you like to make any comments now uh you got a microphone over there yeah right hello well good even it's on okay thank you all right good evening my name is lur L Lama and I'm the president of the ca so my discussion tonight is did you know investing in our schools means we're investing in our future today I stand before you to talk about something that affects all of us our schools our students and the future of our community we are at a critical point where we must decide whether to invest in the success of our children or allow our schools to struggle with Rising costs and increasing demands that is why a 2% increase in the school budget is not just necessary it's essential under New Jersey law school districts are permitted to increase their tax levy to 2% to accommodate the rising costs benefits salaries programs this cap established under the state budgetary guidelines ensures that schools can maintain Financial stability while continuing to provide high quality education however this 2% increase is not automatic districts must advocate for it and that's what I'm doing to ensure that we can keep up with inflation maintain Staffing levels and support our students programs without this adjustment schools May may be faced May face budget shortfalls forcing cuts to critical Services extracurricular activities and resources that directly impact Student Success our superintendent Dr Danny Roberto during the new teacher meeting at the beginning of the school year always stresses the importance of loving our students this is the key when we truly care for our students we ensure that they have the best resources opportuni and support to thrive and that requires adequate funding the small but Ina impactful increase means maintaining class sizes and allow teachers to give each student the attention they deserve it means providing updated textbooks technology and resources that prepare our students for a rapidly evolving World it means keeping our schools safe our facilities well maintained and our staff supported the cost of living Rises each year so do cost of running the schools without this increase we lose vital programs extracurricular activities and even essential staff that's not just a loss for our students but a loss for our entire Community strong schools create strong communities they attract families increase property value values and ensure the next generation is equipped with the schools the skills that they need to be successful let's be clear this is not about excess spending this is about responsible investment a 2% increase ensures that we continue providing quality education that every child here in Clifton deserves without compromising their future so I urge you support this increase support our students support our schools because when we invest in education we invest in a brighter stronger future for all thank you thank you anyone else who' like to either pick the podium or the table whichever you feel more comfortable that they're gravitating towards a Podium so maybe you should just keep the podium up good evening um just a simple question I know at Tuesday's budget meeting it was mentioned that I believe sta it was my understanding at least that Staffing was covered under the last budget that the expenses for this school were budgeted already um but I think once again if I understood correctly that we'd be Staffing as we're incrementally adding students to the school I think you mentioned at least that we're going to be doing new hires I don't know if it's every year or something like that um so maybe before making this kind of decision that you all have to make soon um is getting projected numbers of what we're looking for in the future because you have to plan for that now unless and then we'll be stuck there saying if we don't do this now then students are going to lose and kids are going to lose and then you're almost stuck in that position again um so if we're hearing that there are going to be costs that are coming with this I think it's better that we act now and get those numbers now and see what those projected costs are going to be be so that you're ready and that's all thank you good night thank you would anyone else like to make a comment this evening uh yes so I just had a question regarding the uh new middle school as well um the location of the middle school to me is interesting considering its proximity to uh woodro Wilson so uh obviously more of the students are going to be taken from uh that would have gone to Wood Wilson are now going to be going to this Middle School uh so are we potentially anticipating any students that would have gone to the Christopher Columbus Middle School uh sent to Woodrow instead to even out the numbers or is that uh not an option Mr spis I'll answer that if you don't mind go right ahead Mark we are expecting uh some students who are slated for Columbus to go to the new Middle School okay thank you so much anyone else like to approach the ponum this evening good evening Donna papait um I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of the Clifton Little Pantry program and we want to extend our incredible thank you to the families the staff and everyone at Clifton Public Schools you recently in February had a Valentine's Day food drive for us and the response was overwhelming you know here we are pulling up in our little SUVs to we school and we each have our list of about six schools to pick up from and after every single school I had to go home and empty it was some of schools we had to make two three trips with our cars it was a testament to what we are teaching the students of this community about caring about what it means to be Community um and I just want to I want to thank you and I want to say it was absolutely heartwarming and I also want to thank the Clifton Education Association who also filled our pantries for an entire month they got a they raised food they had their own Drive they packed the pantries it was absolutely wonderful without your help you have really have made our next few months just that much easier um I can tell you we all breathed The Sire relief you know we were down to dusting you know off the shelves and suddenly uh we had to run out to Home Depot and buy tubs to store food and we are extremely extremely happy and so thank you so much to everyone parents students Administration teachers the cea everyone it was just absolutely wonderful thank you okay now I'm going to talk about for me I I don't know I mean you've been talking about this school last time I came I I I just knew it was a middle school I don't know how I knew that I just made sense to me cuz the if you're having more preschools you need to make preschools in where you have the people who don't have the transportation so like turning that into a preschool but then not finding Transportation didn't make sense and since we're getting rid of the Department of Education it looks like I don't think you're going to have any money for a preschool so that was kind of a waste um high school that doesn't ever every time we've tried I was there the last time we had that Annex for the high school yeah that did not work cuz then no one wanted to go there there were extracurriculars there was uh blah blah blah I'm telling you it was a million problems as someone who was teaching at the high school at the time please please do not do that to the staff so I I don't know I just assumed it' be a middle school because our middle schools are overcrowded and we're not giving them what they need they're doing an excellent job do not get me wrong but you know we're not giving them the tools they need there's too many kids we're trying to do a lot of character education and you can't do character education when you have 32 kids in a room because they're all characters so thank you very much thank you anyone else like to approach the podium motion to close second okay seeing none motion to close by commissioner brunjak seconded by commissioner Mia okay next up is board committee reports um like to start with residency security and Technology um that's vice president Santiago please thank you president Paris the residen security and Technology meeting took place on Wednesday February 19th 2025 and began at 5:02 p.m.

I want to thank everybody here in the audience not only for participating today but making your comments as well it's appreciated e

and get get home safely by midnight hi I'm epel coffee I'm a senior at confer high school and um also a member of the National Art Honor Society um I and many other students have had many great experience a national or Honor Society over the past few years we've had loads of fun doing activities such such as painting strawberries painting windows at the school um reindeer shopping and painting kids faces at other schools um these experiences like these not only benefit the community but they also help provide students with memorable experiences oh sorry this Ina trip is kind of like a last big thing for us it's really nice to have the experience to go out with your peers and celebrate all the work that we've done over the years it's also nice as a senior to spend time with your peers before you break for the summer or even go off to college um it seals in all the positive memories we've made over the years with the club so as a way to congratulate and celebrate all the efforts that have been made by the members in this club we would like to ask for your approval to allow the National Art Honor Society to travel du to play W any questions thank you second all in favor thank you all right the next item is in 8th grade 2025 spring hi this is our eighth grade Springfield trip by presented by I'm Co Strickland dieo berber and gram Jil our schedule will look like we will arrive at the mid schore at 6: a.m.

and April 5th at 400 p.m. tickets are being sold at the door and online on our Facebook page [Applause] Friday the 4th at 7 Saturday the 5th at 4 remind everybody of that how fun love it when it happens that way great so um next we'll ask if anyone is present who would like to speak to any item that is on the agenda for any other topic right hearing none we'll move on to Old business um programs we have virtual online school yes I'm just asking for the approval of the virtual online school option for next year um that was presented last board meeting that was presented last board meeting I think everyone had an opportunity to review it so we'll entertain a motion to approve I have a motion by Mary Lyn do I have a second second second by Pat any discussion all those in favor five of next we have a five star e rate battery proposal yes I'm just asking for approval to move forward with updating our uh backup battery system for technology we entertain a motion to approve I have a motion my Ural do I have a second second second by Cheryl any discussion all those in favor 5 next we'll move down under new business Neola yes so first reading on some more neol policies if you have any questions please reach out and I'll be back for second reading in April again that's a first reading so no vote tonight um reach out if you have questions next under programs we have a CDL textbooks yes we're super excited to offer our CDL program next year and we are um I'm asking for approval for our textbooks right now for preliminary students interest we've got enough for two groups of classes so we'll entertain a motion to approve Move Motion by pad do I have second second by Mary Lynn any discussion all those in favor 5 next we'll move down under professional staff we have um requesting permission to post yes I'm asking for permission to post four high jchs summer school teacher positions um this is the same as last year it's our typical um Credit Recovery summer school for our high school students entertain a motion to approve that posting so mov have a motion by Cheryl do I have a second second second by Earl any discussion all those in favor five next permission to post for some Elementary summer school yes I'm asking permission to post eight Elementary School summer school teacher positions um it is required by um the idoe that any third grader who failed I read or second grader who scored at risk um attend summer school um so I'm asking for these teaching position be approv entertain a motion to approve so I have a motion by Pat do I have a second second by Mar Lyn any discussion all those in favor five next we're down to recommendations yes I have the following Rec recommendations for approval please Ashley hindle Jennings County Middle School assistant track coach Caitlyn Miller Jennings County Middle School SP sped teacher Caitlyn Miller also Jennings County Middle School volunteer track coach and then career increment Master teacher stiens for the school years 2025 26 through 2029 2030 are being um asked for or being recommended for Ben jakis and Stacy Patterson please entertain a motion to approve those recommendations as read motion motion by Earl do I have a second second second by Pat any discussion all those in favor 5 and Amy if you don't mind me introducing we're fortunate to have Miller here with us tonight the newest member and Kaitlyn we have a tradition and the school board loves to be able to congratulate you on your on your approval so if you'll start over with Mr Iger they'd love to be able to have you go around the the circle in shape your hands and we're so thankful to have you you've always been a member of the family but now she's moving up into a different different title thank you welcome to the team thank you thank you I like your enthusias thank you congratulations soy thank you and Caitlyn if you don't mind we'd love for you to introduce who you have with with you yeah we we we like starting to make connections with our family crowd left that was stressing me out this is my older brother Blake Blandon this is my husband Owen Miller this is my mom Dusty Blandon and my dad Brian thank you for joining us tonight thank you guys so that you all know when she joins our family you all join our family too so welcome to the family thank you very good it's great to meet you thank you um so next we'll go down under support staff and we have again some permission to post to go along with the summer school um teaching positions I'd like one high school PA Pro position for approval for summer school entertain a motion to approve so move have a motion by Cheryl do I have a second second by mayor Lynn any discussion all those in favor five and then some Elementary School support yes the same um I'm asking for approval to post eight Elementary School PA propositions to help with ir entertain a motion to approve that those postings motion by Pat have a second second by Earl any discussion all those in favor next we have some recommendations yes please asking for the following recommendations to be approved Tyler Brown as the Jennings County High School groundskeeper custodian Sierra isaminger as the Jennings County Middle School volunteer track coach and Jennifer Moore as the Jennings County Middle School dance coach entertain a motion to approve those recommendations as read so I have a motion by Sheryl do I have a second second second by Pat any discussion all those in favor 5 we're down to finances we got some donations we have got a lot of donations ask the board to uh approve the following donations Rush Creek Elementary Anonymous three boxes of uh gumballs $150 value to the students at Rush Creek for rewards Jason Jed $80 donation for the Brush Creek Elementary student donut attendance Awards and wood all riffing and Home Improvements $75 donation for The Rush Creek student attendance award Dona attendance Awards Hayden Elementary Mike wasam $3,866 donation for audio mixers and modular ear sets for the sound system and for the high school we got the following $300 Anonymous for the basket for the boys volleyball club BB one shot $50 donation to The the boys volleyball club bem solution $300 for the boys volleyball club Jenny's Church of Christ $400 for the high school Panther Pantry Louis a Wilson contractor $175 donation to the boys volleyball club mother bear pizza $300 donation for the boys volleyball club royalty riffing $300 donation to the boys volleyball club and lastly North Elementary donation American Axle Manufacturing 13148 for poster boards and project display boards for the stem fair science night I think I don't I might be getting old no I know I'm getting old but I think um you said bem but it's BME Solutions I did say that it's B Solutions sorry about that reender dollar donation for the boys volleyball club just want to make sure you recognize them the right way yes all right so we'll entertain a motion to approve those donations as read motion by Mary ly do I have a second second second by Pat any discussion all those in favor 5 Z next we have a resolution next is a standard resolution with more than two weeks between meetings it's authorizing the treasure Deputy treasur to make payments of claims without prior board action to April 10th and allow the deputy Treasurer and treasure to make transfers of appropriation within education Debt Service and operation funds in order to balance major classifications entertain a motion to approve approve motion by Pat I have a second second by Cheryl any discussion all those in favor five of um next we have service agreement next is the service agreement with CSI advisory services for our 401a accounts for the School Corporation employees entertain a motion to approve that agreement motion by pe do I have a second second by Mary Lyn any discussion all those in favor five CTE program next I'm asking board approval to purchase a semi-tractor and trailer for the CTE program at the high school this would be for to be able to teach kids for CDL lure we'll entertain a motion to approve sove a motion by Pat do I have a second second second by Cheryl any discussion all those in favor five oh that's super exciting um I think this brings us down to other we do have a couple others um this evening first I just want to mention 25 26 school year Staffing it is time to start considering the next school year and I recently had shared with you our declining enrollment over 15 years we've lost 1, 333 students and that's been a steady loss each year which we expect by what the demographer came and presented to us to continue um due to that as we consider moving forward into next school year we know that our staffing needs to be right siiz to match what our student enrollment is so we need to um do some thoughtful planning about what staff reductions might be necessary to be fiscally responsible while taking in that enrollment decline into account um this is something we're doing with very thoughtful um planning looking across the board to make sure that our growth that we've made in academics for students and the opportunities that we provide for students are maintained while looking at how we handle this through policies and procedures that we have established in these situations um to address that enrollment Decline and that Staffing right sizing so just mentioning that as we're starting to move forward and consider the 25 26 school year is something that will be um our discussions and then we have one other um Phil has I'm I'm asking board to approve a resolution for the Board of Trustees for James County School Corporation is interested in purchasing land that's adjacent to one of our one of our current locations it's not the purchase of it it's just the interest we can start the process of looking into it so you're asking for approval of okay I have a motion by Pat do I have a second second sorry Mary Lyn I have a second by Mary Lynn any discussion all those in favor 5 zero anything else to come under other okay hearing nothing will entertain aemotion to adjourn sove I have a motion by Pat do I have a second second by chery those in favor five meeting attorney

I have a hand in it. It's it's a I'm if we just go to school. We're talking about schools who have the right to ask questions. We do n't have to do it. We have to do it in the district. We don't have to engage in it. But it's expensive. I'm losing weight and special education. Many times, and kids just want to teach some kids. We ca n't do it. But they're home schooled. It's an important part of it and so I'm not going to have to do it. I'm ... Programs and I think you're just for Apple users match the AB to Magic Art Teachers App sum under Proposition 28 fungible and we have the end June 30th 2026 so Proposition 28 is suppose to be knowing funds so this is last year's action where Proposition 28 so we receive up to 1.3 million so this is just the last allocation that experts from now be it and after it and we now have this .

To get us started, I would like to introduce our student ambassador from Cypress High School, Erin Beck, who will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. [Applause] Please stand. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin.

in attendance from administration were Mr Jenaro Mr doctor Mrs anola Mr Mountain Board of Education members and attendance were myself commissioner Kenova commissioner canano and president Paris Mr doctor explained that since the last meeting 18 non-residents were identified and removed from Clifton public schools at a savings of $350,900 based on the cost of educ ating a Clifton student he also explained that prek and kindergarten registration opened on February 19th Miss zenola stated that the drill of the month sh uh shelter and place transition to lockdown was successfully completed by all schools in January it was also shared that a former Clifton High School graduate is now working at pay County Sheriff's department and provided providing our elementary schools with presentations on Internet safety both for students and parents the presentation is a very heavy focus on social media and video games it discusses the current dangerous Trends found on apps websites and video games commonly used by Miners and brings to light the threats and dangers online Predators posed to Children Mr Mountain explained that security and referendum projects are moving along and are in the final stages of installation Mr Kenova inquired as to the fees associated with damaged or destroyed Chromebooks within the district Mr Mountain uh reassured the committee that fines are based on excessive and potentially intentional damage to the Chrome books fines are not levied for normal wear and tear of the Chromebooks cell signals at various schools was also discussed it was determined that the issues lie uh with the cell phone companies and Mr Mountain will work with other stakeholders to draft the board resolution to send to the companies imploring them to increase their service in the area for safety reasons the meeting was adjourned at 5:47 p.m.

and Char a bus to our first station all groups will go to every place in order of their stations they will be dismissed and have two to three options for dinner and they'll be allowed at any fast food restaurants in the area according to at the end they will beain the CMS to be picked up by parent or Guardian around 9 the I good brother cenal Museum there are two Journeys which take you through his childhood Journey one and his adult life this explains his story while showing vises with black remakes of and his family the museum also shows the history through like pres our eth grade students will be able to visit Abraham Lincoln's tomb and wring place this is a very cool experience as you'll be in the same room where Abraham Lincoln is buried in addition you gu will give them the history of the building and Abraham's Lincoln Abraham Lincoln's family are very been say this the values of this trip are uh the te providing students to see where LOL be buried in the background of the teb this is surreal and fun experience for all visitors the old capital building students Ste the the former Illinois state capital building they go inside the house chamber and look at the many stanes and are informed about the St architecture about the tour gu okay Lincoln Home is first and only home Abraham Lincoln owned and still still stands today Lincoln Home is a monument in history as well as a place of memories that tell the his the story of Abraham Lincoln and his family this home you can see in this home you can see a and Mary all as a young couple with a baby it's moving to the White House of the presidential family as well as Lincoln's life from a young lawyer to become president of the United States to conclude we hope that next year's eighth graders can have the same experience as the class of 2029 by going to all the exhibits and do on JS the exhibits include Lincoln Home the Lincoln Tomb the old C building and the Presidential Museum as well as enjoying fast food with your friends and whatever the selected rest is we are seeking permission to allow the 203 eth graders to visit all these locations thank you for your time any questions is there fundraising involved in this to make it there yes there is and we have we have assistance for students that may not be able to discussion to approve second all in favor all right the next good evening I'm V Kieran I'm Ella I'm Emily and today we are seeking your approval to go to Holiday World with ultimate Shield trip the students earn the ultimate Shield trip by working diligently to meet the core values all four quarters we have been working hard throughout the year to raise money for the trip with different fundraisers the trip would be on Thursday May 22nd we'll be leaving the school at 6:30 a.m.

Great opening some as well give you some point if we don't have money then whether we take it on so just additional money that was we are looking for additional grants to continue the wealth center funding at tter so mol r i looking gr funding.com additional grants and I know our staff are on top of that I look forward to hopefully fully ringing good news is we received additional grants to cover the in the future think this is all there is to the over study is any other x may in the future you can come on the deaf students but my ding is the deaf students are reading as the s Clara County Office of Education that's been through Monday through Friday so could bring us to and get a teacher who is qualified and I know we have had one here the was principal an up who is qualified so could we possibly look at it the bud i Believe me, it would be a really big saving.

I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Aaron. This annual competition provides our students a voice to share their issues that are important to them. Under the guidance of our superintendent, Michael Metsuda, the Anaheim Union High School District is recognized as a leader in both statewide and nationally for the innovative work that we do for civic engagement. We have more designated California democracy schools in our district than any other district in the state of California. So to officially kick things off, please welcome our assistant superintendent, Jiren Free. [Applause] Thank you, Autumn. First of all, I just want to thank everyone for being here. This is such an important event. I was telling uh one of our trustees, this is probably one of my favorite events of the year, just being able to watch our students.

thank you anyone with questions okay seeing n then we'll move on to policy minutes uh commissioner Suarez please thank you president Paris let me just make large the print um because there's some reading to be done um the meeting took place on February 19th those in attendance were myself commissioner Santiago commissioner Mahia and president Paris Administration who were present were Mr jenero miss kevich Mr shahada and uh Miss Maggie Miller the meeting began at 4: p.m.

and returning back at 9:30 p.m. we'll be transported by chared buses and the trip duration should be around 3 hours and 15 minutes from CMS some other information is that tickets are paid for and include food drinks and sunscreen the drinks and sunscreen will be eliminated throughout the day students will also be provided matching shirt and they do not need to bring money but they may if they want extra things we now sission callay the ultimate shter do you have any questions thank you [Music] I would recommend the board consider approve the retirement in last year to help us out the essential skill is there an excellent job reach that wonderful time she can retire recomend the board approve for retir all I recommend the board appr resignations of Di and Grace faor yeah start with the uh administration building so we've been uh waiting on some things since last time last month so the last few weeks we have received many of the materials that we were waiting on for installation so all office Furnitures arrived and has installed most countertops have arriv and are installed on the with cabinets kitchen appliances and still waiting I believe on two countertops U to be able to finish up the final pieces of uh the cabinets that are ready to to go in uh board desking panels are still scheduled for arrival next week so in terms of interior work that would be the last B some small things still that would be the last big piece that um still we need to receive and and then install on site so um outdoor work has also resumed with the nice weather it has been very very kind especially the last week so uh they have been working out there particularly in that back patio area as well prepping that uh for the concrete that will be back there um and the the landscape stone that will be creating a board as so it is coming together very nicely finishing touches are coming along and it is a very SHP so is hopefully right around the corner um so uh timeline just upcoming uh projects that uh we have approved but are getting scheduled and getting some timelines with so just an update there on uh the main gy so new conference logo and School logo go over that at the high school um and then the floor recondition uh begins either the week of June 2nd or June 9th and that will take around three weeks once day uh get that started field Turf uh that is also occurring this Summer that will start May 19th and that will be about a four to six week completion from that start then the other big one over the summer is ten with six ports uh being reconditioned this Summer that is schedle to to start July 7th and that will take two to 3 weeks uh for those who six course there so just as you there'll be a lot of action uring at the high school with with those pieces and so just as you see those things kind of happening you be aware of what those are so uh electric bus just an update here so still kind of just waiting um there as line electric continues to work through their so I did here actually from in today um they are set to wrap up their timeline the the of line Electric in mid April so following that we'll be a to get some more details on what that really means uh for us in terms of the two electric buses that we have been approved uh to purchase through that Federal grant so still kind of waiting but we are still in Conta which is good so curriculum instruction so recently attended some I Exel training teachers attended Exel training on March 3rd um and princip attended on March 4 so iel is used pretty heavy in our math and language arts particular particularly in our grades 3 through eight uh with our tested subject areas so that is one of the vender Pilots uh with the island checkpoints so they have been making a lot of updates and a lot of changes so it was really good to be able to go here um and ISO have present on those things and so feedback for from the teachers was it was a great PD to go to and they definitely pull some things and they're also excited to see whatl is doing um that that really creates individualized plans that align to the check point so um so some good things there so kind of along those state or along those same lines a lot of testing that's going on so we are working through our final checkpoint three which will finish up that pilot we have completed all checkpoint three assessments except math in middle school so as we kind of head towards I learned Su of the test which will occur in April then it will be interesting to take that first look since we never had the pilot Data before or the checkpoint data sorry um to just kind of see how that compares to individual uh summ of testing so um I read three some Nicholson completed I3 testing last week we do a couple more U just makeups to do but that was for their second and third graders so we have been giving it to second graders uh for a few years now but was required uh for the first time this year to get to those second graders so Mrs Hall her team have already started working through analyzing data working through intervention plans for those who have not pass we need to retest in May so um this will also impact our summer school planning as we look at that so the legislation that does hold certain requirements for our atrisk second grade students and then our third grade students to come pass so and again more testing High School SA occurred last uh Tuesday March 4th so we had 100% Mr Sims did confirm that um 100% of our students did complete the test and take the test so we'll look forward to getting that data and digging into that as well usually about two weeks uh following uh the completion of the testing window which actually ends tomorrow so for the state that is your assistant superintendent report all right super all right everybody left talk that's great um thank you to CMS I believe the board truly appreciates it when students um make the presentation so that is excellent I appreciate you hosting um card gifts thank you very much so that's outstanding um you can see a lot of great things going on with the Middle School think um Mrs H Mr server her student leadership team her teacher leadership you know they they do a lot of things and truly mean it and put the effort in um and if you can see that in the engagement in the building a positive atmosphere great job of um in our some celebrations Adrien Medina received an ihsa Exemplar Behavior award for his support of other swimmers and we'll recognize him um at the cordill high school board meeting for next month and a couple other folks for spotlight on Excellence um toore um our robotics team finished 13th in the state at a robotics competition you could only compete in the state competition if you finished first in a previous competition um so they surely were there amongst the best of the best so that's outstanding great to see that that longstanding team has continued to go on you think that toor is the longest and oldest robotics team in the state so that's exciting continuing with great success the starlets um won second place in hip-hop and second place in jazz at the state competition the blue Illusions W second place in Hip Hop and fifth place in Jabs state competition so good job good shobs um CMS girls and boys swimming and Diving were the 2025 County Champs and the CHS boys claim their sixth straight sectional title and the school's 24th sectional title so all great celebrations and examples of excellence in our schools um in the kind of educational instructional leadership World um the the mayor has been an amazing partner um with the Crawford Z Career Academy which is the old IB tech building um you know he he has a great vision for that building is a Career Academy so our Cooperative CTE program has moved out there and now he's agreed um that our the adult resource Academy can move out there so Cara has been at the B&T building before my existence in Cross schools I think um and so an amazing opportunity to for them to move into a place of modern walls and Technology um and and it also goes in right that I was with the mayor when he gave a tour um to one of the local industries that HR people in from all over the country and that you know he explains that right here is your Workforce they're all being trained right here they're available to you so it's a a great opportunity and it makes sense and you it's wonderful for Crawford Jill schools and for the Crawford Joel adult resource Academy um in Personnel world I attended the Brown and Brown health insurance seminar um obviously health insurance is a great benefit for our staff um and also comes along with our clinic so just great to see some of the new Innovations and ideas that are coming along there and Community world I spoke to the Community Foundation about prop community schools they had asked about Athens Virtual Academy and kind of some of the interesting or different unique challenges that we have as a school corporation so always appreciate the opportunity to speak to community groups um build Partnerships and let them know that you know what crille schools offer and you know how we overcome some of our challenges the Master Gardeners who have been at Nicholson or since I was the principal back at Nicholson so about 12 years received a grant and they were awarded the growing together Grant through the Purdue Extension so located continue to add some resources to the the garden that is there um and you continue to expand and grow the opportunities that our students um have in participating with the Master Gardeners reminders Indiana School Board Association spring regional meeting is May 5th Pur um if you haven't let Stephanie know already that you're attending please let her know if you can make it so she can get us registered our next board meeting is Thursday April 10th at CHS so um you don't know that Paving and those type of things will be done at the new admin building so I figure it's best to just go ahead and finish this year of building tourers at CHS and then we can do our first meeting there and have an open house and do those type of things for the board meeting um you haven't been in recently it you walk in and you it appears to be a building that you could go ahead and move into but there's all those little things that are there and since we aren't this placing students it'll be nice to be able to move in um once almost everything is done instead of people still working around we are looking at moving some folks in over spr break and see how the next week or so goes with some things so we're getting very close please see the March aan Oracle um just amazing things going on a lot of great things with the elementary with the Indiana author we had a little reading challenge for the elementary and then many of the celebrations that I hit were on there and I'm Rex I'm glad to be with you than board member Communications [Music] coms that six page sorry

I don't know how many students can you get from the number. I don't know what you get from the number. Now, sorry, or we can get that information because we are looking to see if we are providing her an answer versus the children being away from home Monday through Friday. I think it would be a better idea if we could bring it here, and I think the truth would be a big cost saving because there are more residents there Monday through Friday. I think we'll get to the point where I'd be a teacher and the 504 coordinator. If one of me was the 504 coordinator, we had a lot of the students moving around as a small 504 program. I think it is way too much for the teacher, so every teacher is going to follow up with guarding the Cliff teacher or I would you know who the wa pril I really any ai kra sol take pk b first let me read the hot ok so public members to address the board p or but then I read the video I read the public members to address the board b i see so in the audience and I the we only all 20 minutes b and f 2 minute bus r soni here de I were allow 1 minute f 20 speakers will go over 20 minutes b I will be fir read this a so eary buddy nos ok public members and then I take p comment let me just read this public members will to address the board p on matters not on the agenda first to address the board p members of the public can to speak about any matter under the jurisdiction of the district but not on this agenda if the subject you wish to discuss is Ready on the agenda, please provide a comment.

Before I say a few words about tonight's event, I do want to acknowledge some of the special guests that are with us today. First, I want to thank our judges who are taking the time to be here tonight. Mike Switzer, our English language arts curriculum specialist, Diana Fujimto, our coordinator of professional learning, and of course, Jessica Yet, our curriculum specialist over science. So, thank you for being here. I want to acknowledge our amazing board. We have two of our board members here with us tonight. We have our clerk, uh, trustee Jessica Guerrero and trustee Ron Hosshi. I know you heard uh I don't reference our superintendent, but our superintendent is also here, so I want to reference Mr. Matsuda who's in the back. So, thank you for being here. And I also want to take a moment before we talk about our students just to acknowledge the amazing teachers who are here who create the space and the opportunities for these performance task assessments to take place in their classrooms so students get these experiences.

items of discussion General policy and regulation updates we discussed policy P 2365 acceptable use of generative artificial intelligence which is a new policy policy guide 2365 includes a list of General AI issues for a board to consider including in Greater detail in its District's AI plan the list may be revised Andor expanded to meet local needs policy guide 2365 authorizes the superintendent to revise or suspend a provision in policy guide 2365 or the district's AI plan there is currently no statute or Administrative Code that addresses student use of AI therefore the board has flexibly has flexibility ability to determine the extent it wants to permit student use of generative AI policy guide 2365 is provided to assist a board in developing an AI plan policy guide 2365 is not the district's AI plan I am recommending this go to education committee to discuss the policy and to develop an AI plan tailored to local needs policy 511 51 111 eligibility of Resident non-resident students revised policy guide 5111 was previously revised in policy alert 231 to comply with njsa 18a 383 that prohibits admission of non-resident students to a district without the paying the payment of tuition except for those non-resident students who were children of board employeed teaching staff members however njsa 18a 383 is vague in regards to what staff members are considered teaching staff members and also does not mention whether a student who moves to or from a school district in the middle of a school year is covered in Clifton we do charge staff for non-resident tuition and it is only for certified staff the committee is in agreement with current procedure in place p546 High School graduation revised policy guide 5460 has been revised to include a new graduation requirement for high school graduating classes of 2025 2026 and 2027 on January 16 2024 PL 2023 c295 was enacted which states a board will require a student and the students parent if applicable to complete and submit a financial aid application and a form prescribed by the New Jersey higher education assistance Authority policy guide 5460 is mandated as njc excuse me njac 6A 85.1 States a board shall develop adopt and Implement graduation requirements that prepare students for success in post-secondary degree programs careers and Civic life in the 21st century policy 5516 use of electronic communication devices revised policy guide 5516 prohibits a student or School staff member from being video or audio recorded or audio or video recording others without the consent of the student parent or School staff member policy guide 5516 also addresses the student's personal use of an electronic communication device to include cell phones during the school day as districts are considering limitations on a student's use of an electric communication device specifically the use of cell phones during the school day Strauss smme has Rewritten policy guide 5516 to incorporate the provisions of the existing policy guide 5516 with the new provisions of prohibiting or limiting the use of an electronic communication devices during the school day districts have been requesting a cell phone policy that prohibits and or limits students use of cell phones for personal use during the day revised policy guide 5516 provides General requirements and defines electronic communication devices to include but not limited to cell phones SmartWatches tablets earbuds wireless headphones and other devices there is currently no statute or Administrative Code that addresses student use of electronic communication devices and schools therefore a board has the ability to revise policy and regulation guides 5516 to meet local needs policy and regulation guides 5516 were developed based upon research regarding the trends throughout the country a board that wants to limit student cell phone use May revise the times use times used is pered commed and may want to establish different times of the school day for use for different grade levels in summary a board has a lot of flexibility in addressing student use of electronic devices in schools and may develop rules and discipline that are not included in regulation guide 5516 a district that does not want to establish districtwide rules regarding student use of wireless communication devices during the school day does not need to currently the Administration has a place in plan that seems to be working at the secondary level it was agreed upon to keep the current practice in place as we await guidance from the NJ dooe policy 5701 academic in Integrity revised Strauss Esme has developed a new policy guide 571 academic Integrity to replace the existing policy guide 5701 plagiarism there were no changes to the language of the policy only the name policy 5510 student grievance revised policy guide 5710 has been revised to provide more details regarding the student grievance process the revised policy guide 5710 requires written documentation supporting the grievance timelines to file AG grievance a time and timelines for a district official to respond to grievance the procedure and policy guide 5710 shall be used to address the student grievance unless the board policy or act of a schooled employee being challenged is governed by a board policy regulation or other grievance procedure specifically designed to address the conduct the conduct in question policy 8500 Food Services revised the workingclass families anti-hunger act has been revised and the following statute sections have changed which necessitates revisions to policy guide 8500 njsa 18a 33- 3.2 18a 33-4 18a 33-11 18a 33-14 a 18a 3321 18a 3321 B 1 18a 332 21.1 and 18a 33 27.2 the revisions to the statutes include but are not limited to new terminology expansion of income eligibility to qualify students for free meals and additional parental notification of school meal information I got a few more pages everyone so please be patient policy 9163 spectator code code of conduct or inter Scholastic events which is New New Jersey state inter Scholastic Athletic Association is requiring every member school to adopt The Spectator code of conduct policy during 2024 2025 school year as per an njsi AA guidance dated May 8th 2024 policy guide 9163 includes three options explained below option one this option provides the school district the ability to impose disciplinary action to a person that is found to have exhibited unsportsmanlike conduct at any way inter inter Scholastic event to include the suspension from attending a subsequent home events in school district option two this option addresses the situation when a person is immediately removed from an inter Scholastic event for an activity and the suspension from sub subsequent home events cannot be imposed because the suspension exceeds the remaining home events for the activity or season this option indicates any remaining suspension shall cover excuse me shall carry over into the first home event of the activity in the next school year option three this option permits the principal or designate to suspend a person from attending home inter Scholastic events in excess of the suspension Provisions in this policy if the person violates the policy multiple times as determined by the board within a fixed period of time to be determined by the board the committee is recommending a hybrid of options one and two part two a uniform State me memorandum of agreement between education and law enforcement officials 2023 revisions policy 5512 harassment intimidation or bullying revised polic policy 5533 student smoking revised policy 7441 electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds policy 9320 Co cooperation with law enforcement agencies revised the uniform State memorandum of agreement between education and law enforcement officials Mo MOA was revised in 2023 all school districts must annually review revise when appropriate and adopt the Moa pursuant to the njac 6 a16 6.2 B13 through 14 the mo MOA provides a much greater level of detail regarding njac 66-6 and all of the requirements outlined therein Strauss Esme has reviewed the revised Mo MOA and made the appropriate revisions to the policy and regulation guides included in this policy alert which addresses a wide range of topics this was recently updated by the state and these policies reflect the new updates terminology required under the mo MOA all policies will be recommended for first reading resp respectfully submitted by Mr Amed shahada thank you any questions thank you commissioner sarez that was quite a read Mr Paris I would like to say there was 230 Pages worth of policy alerts that I got down to five so that was excellent summary thank you um if you really the detail is all in our first reading uh on this on today's agenda any questions for commissioner Mia so I know that we've already been starting to implement the uh the policy about having every student complete as FASA I'm getting a lot of parents asking me if I could help out their student for L of FASA are we doing any workshops with one of our partner schools or is that only going or has that not been communicated yet cuz they're just told to fill it out what do you mean by partner schools like college like our mou schools yeah are they having their F I'm not sure but I do believe in Miss Kus you can correct me if I'm wrong that the the guidance the guidance Department yes that yeah Jen Bergman I'm actually looking up the notification that I received from her regarding this um but the guidance department has done quite a bit of work with our students students the counselors have met with them there were everything was released to them um and there is support available hold on I'm just trying to find it right now sorry for those of you who might not know what Mr May is talking about the um it's a new graduation requirement that's for the state of New Jersey that parents are required to fill out the FAFSA which is the free application for federal student aid um regardless of whether the child intends to go to Secondary College or trade school or anything um there is a waiver process I'm not sure what that entails so that is the part that we are that's the part that we're required to um to complete we are required to ensure that every family checks off there's a survey that's part of real time where they have to check off if they're going to be completing FAFSA or not they have to they they fill out on that survey that they're going to fill out the FAFSA or if they're not going to and if they say no they're not going to then that that they apply for what is called a waiver if they say Yes um then our guidance Department checks with the state to make sure that they've done it um and if they have said yes that they're going to be doing it and they need support then the guidance counselors can reach out to provide that support and our um this this is kind of happening right now to make sure that it had been completed on time yeah I'm only asking because on Saturday I did get people asking can you help them out I'm like I don't know I can't personally host a a workshop saying let's all do it all at once you know so if we host a workshop that' probably be the best case scenario thank you anyone else any other questions yes president Paris yes vice president um on the communication policy just want to uh like a quick refresher on uh currently at the high school our students there are little I don't know pouches um where they leave their cell phone in the front of the classroom uh is that correct somebody yes um and then um the middle schools they leave it in a backpack in the front of the class in the backpack in the front of the class just refresh for everyone um and then in the beginning of it it talks about consent obviously you always want parents consent for pictures videos Etc um I believe our parents signed some sort of release uh just overall because you will have events the teacher doing something whatever it is um and they signed that release we just had read Across America right we all read we pictures Etc does that cover uh that kind of a scenario or No Yes uh Mr Santiago yes it it it does um and the parents fill that out before the school year starts in the parent portal it's one of the mandatory questions that they have to answer uh each year um whether or not they give permission for their children to be videotaped and pictures uh utilized so that does cover that okay thank you commission M here I know I mentioned it during our policy committee meeting um I know at the time Governor Murphy had said that he was giving out grants I think for the pouches to put your phones in would be we be able to apply for reimbursement through one of those grants nothing's come out no I believe it it's targeted schools that those grants are going to m like it's like the the schools that signed up as like Pilots or I I don't know if there was a sign up process but it is specific schools that was hand selected by the the governor's office yeah I was on a webinar this morning and there's $3 million Statewide for this roll out those Pilots they didn't say exactly what it no they didn't say it was limited to anyone necessarily um so it might be a possibility might be open to apply for I was under the impression it was a limited well certainly if we have the opportunity to apply we absolutely will um if we can get some some money back um at at the middle school level as Mr Santiago mentioned they they keep the phones in their backpacks but at the high school they're putting them not not necessarily in a one of those Yonder pouches that's that's the company that's selling them they're they're pretty expensive and like theaters are using those now um I don't know that that's necessary I don't know that we need to spend the money on that but if we can get some money we'll definitely give it a shot they just call it cell phone removal grants so they didn't specify it was it's a new it's um some new funding that's coming in this year's budget hasn't been passed yet but it's in the proposal that will be voted on by the state legislature okay anyone else on this one okay last one in under uh minutes is education and special education and that would be commissioner Dr Danny uh thank you president Paris the committee met February 19th 2025 the meet meeting began at 6m present were myself the chair Alan Paris president Tanya Suarez commissioner and Joe Kenova commissioner from the administration we had Dr Danny Rober toy superintendent of schools Mark Jenaro assistant superintendent Amed shahada assistant superintendent of business Janina kusevic assistant super intendent for curriculum and instruction Vanessa Gava principal CCMS Andrew joerger uh principal wwms Heather Rolo director of special services 8ighth grade endof Year events options Miss Gaba Mr Jager reviewed current end of year eighth grade activities and events which include school-based Awards assemblies who's who superlative assembly 8th grade field day yearbook sign signing an eighth grade breakfast or barbecue options to provide an eighth grade moving up ceremony were discussed the major concerns addressed included safety security parent participation parking building capacity and Auditorium capacity during the school day given the size of each eighth grade class evening options use of stadium and use of high school were also explored costs associated with security and Staffing for multiple evening events were also shared a virtual streaming of existing assemblies was also discussed other options for bringing the parents and school Community together were also presented such as diversity dinner at CCMS staff versus student events parent math or academic nights HSA meetings and events commissioner Joe Canova asked that we explore additional options to improve parent involvement in and opportunities for community and parent engagement commissioner Suarez discussed parent videos for viewing at home to Showcase events and Student Activities action informational updates on Pope Paul property Mr shahada shared updates on the lease Miss kusel levich presented various aspects of the one Clifton survey and preliminary demographic study as well as District programming and space needs all all of which supported using the site as a middle school The Proposal is to open a middle school with a grade byg grade roll out redistributing three to four Elementary sending schools from CCMS and woodro Wilson Middle School representing 200 to 250 Rising fifth graders balancing busing and socioeconomic status a plan for a three-year roll out was presented as follows 2025 to 26 school year about 200 students sixth graders Rising fifth grade from selected schools 2026 to 27 school year 400 students sixth and seventh graders 2027 to 2028 school year 600 students six seven eighth graders hiring an administrator to work collaboratively with CCMS and wwms um scheduling Equity courses additional information was discussed action informational continuing and counseling needs Miss kusel levich shared updates on integration of PBIS and inrs into a unified multi-tier system of supports in the linkit program to assist with academic and behavioral interventions and supports rebranding of our programs to help the community and parents better understand what our schools offer and can provide to students was discussed action informational reformatting of English course offerings at CHS Miss kusich shared that Mr White and the English teachers at CHS revised existing English 10 11 and 12 curriculum taking student input to create course choices by student interest topics including literature through film short story science fiction Edge ofyour seat Thrillers among many others students select their top three choices for scheduling action informational special education updates Miss Rolo shared information about the continued increases in special education referrals and challenges in finding space and staff to fill growing self-contained and specialized classes she referred to the integrated mtss inrs PBIS to help support students in the least restrictive environment of the general education classroom Miss Rolo provided updates on cpag meetings touchscreen CH books and student engagement activities including tours of middle school and elementary schools for smoother transitions the project UniFi basketball game LIF toown trips and polar plunge fundraiser and team for Special Olympics action informational the Zin project Foundation teaching Miss kusel levich shared a a professional development opportunity for staff including a teaching for black Liv study group the district will apply for the grant based on the ongoing application process action informational calendar input and Multicultural crosswalks Dr Rober toi discussed priorities and the changing calendar based on teacher input celebration of juneth and the option to amend the calendar were discussed options for calendar change were proposed and will be brought to the district collaborative and the next Board of Education meeting the district lessons about the many mandated and Multicultural days including juneth MLK and Indigenous peoples as well as in school lessons about Veterans Day were discussed the pros and cons of a day off from school to celebrate versus explicit lessons in each school and grade on such days were was discussed action bring calendar choice change choice to the full board meeting better branding and parent Outreach Miss kusel levich discussed a project to better communicate curriculum programs and school offerings via multiple methods including expanding the adult evening ESL program to include a parent University more instructional workshops for parents to better understand what we can do for our children better exposure through social media including videos interview and other posts action informational meeting was adjourned at 7:42 p.m.