So like that information would be good to have, too, because I mean that's huge. Like that's a very basic class that I think every high school should offer. I mean so then that means it's I I almost think it's biology >> It may have to do with the the frequency we're able to offer it. So some school some schools offer it every other year or every Yeah, I'm not I'm not 100% sure what that was. But that AP biology was part of the mix of the conversation we had. I I can't speak to the exact implication. So So these are the things we want to hear from people about, right? Yeah. Voters, parents, whoever next week. These are the types of things we want to hear about. >> [clears throat and cough] >> Do we currently offer things like anatomy and physiology through an online option?
And so just learning about other systems that other campuses have embraced makes all the difference in the world and they can enhance all the different campuses within the district. So we feel really good at the elementary level about the culture. Uh it's been uh in the schools continuous improvement plan under uh goal number three. But just some things that are simple but are very intentional is we've seen some teachers, they have a special handshake or greeting that each student has unique each morning. And so you're taking the time as the students are coming in to those 25 students into your second or third grade classroom. Um we're seeing more and more uh teachers and principles reach out once a week and make three phone calls home to parents about something great that their child has done um in that classroom or in that school. So those are some intentional things that we can do that are tangible.
I mean, I'm not saying it's ideal, but They I know they they do that with other classes. I My daughter has been offered that for science, but she's been offered like online French. She's been offered online history. I don't know. I don't know if currently we're doing the science one, but that's possible. Or maybe the college classes. I was just going to say they have a partnership with PCC, right? Or something? Yeah, but I don't I don't know if that's offered to everybody. I don't know how any of that works. Budget wise, hopefully it is. Budget wise, we're looking at a level service budget plus what the impact would be with these additional items. Mhm. What will people support? What do we want to hold over? Those are all things that we're going to have to decide next week. And then Jackie's suggestion of the lunch and recess aids Say again?
Um the other things is too those quarterly assemblies that a lot of times are tied to PBIS um the positive behavior intervention system. So you see those where students are be uh being recognized for behavior attendance academic growth and performance and not always your you know top tier students but students that are making that growth like we talked about. Maybe there's some students that were in the bottom cortile, but they're making growth on their um either CUAS or their middle of the year assessments and honoring those kids for their growth and opportunities as well. And then celebrating parents as well too because we know it takes everybody working together. And so I think particularly in that area from my perspective, we can see um at least at the elementary level how we can get more parents to be acknowledged for all the work and efforts they do in our district.
The lunch and recess aids coming out of um school choice or The some of the capital items and stuff like yeah, yeah. The account would be for the for a lot of those from that school choice or or E&D slash >> We had I think we should have buckets we're looking at. >> the salary from the aid I don't think it's a good idea. I mean what happens that year when we're we don't have a big excess value you know, do we get rid of the aid then? Yeah, I'd be I'd be uncomfortable doing this any of this as an ongoing straight out of the school choice, right? With without a plan. I mean I think that the conversation really if we're going to leverage some of that for anything operational there needs to be a plan going forward with the towns. And and and what that looks like.
I just want to say I love hearing all of that because I'll never forget when I started my first internship for admin admin and we had a I' I've watched my school go through a number of es and flows when it comes to culture and um my principal looked at me and he goes, "Oh no, Mike's my mic's doing it." Um, hey, here's a stack of happy grams. We're going out. I'm like, "What are we doing?" He goes, "We're going to just start writing happy grams to teachers." and he made sure to hit the teachers who we knew were struggling first and always. And it was just it helped build that culture and I just love that you guys are on track with that and making people genuinely feel important because it's such a big deal. So, thank you. >> So, thank you for all of that.
>> Well, that's I mean for each town that would be 15,000. I don't think that's That's not how the Well, no because they when they presented it last week they each asked for 15,000. One in Bolton and one in Berlin so they 15,000 Oh, so Berlin even though it would be less Oh, because they still have three lunches. Yeah. Yeah, the lunch recess is 15,000 per school basically. And that's only at Berlin this year just for clarity on that because of that Apple money, right? That's the only reason why Berlin had that. [clears throat] We cut that position that all of that from Bolton that from that school but the Apple money was able to save that position this year. So no one wants to look at priorities. I don't think we can do that. All right. I I don't either. I just wanted to make sure.
That was fantastic. And and I think it I think for me it it demonstrated that this is our culture that I didn't we didn't have to call out anybody specifically. I said, "Can I have some volunteers?" And you all stood up and came and offered your your wisdom and your insight. And that's our culture. That's our GPS culture is that when anybody asks for help or some direction that anybody from the superintendent to your department lead to a firstear teacher can jump in and say this is what I'm doing. This is the the progress that I'm seeing. This is what helps. This is what doesn't help. And so as we're trying to cultivate this culture, I want to submit to you that this meeting right here is a fantastic example of what that culture can be like. It's a readiness. It's a willingness. It's a knowledge and experience.
Yeah, I I think I almost think the biology teacher needs to be like a level seven. I just can't believe that. I mean we we can do that moving forward Yeah, I know. >> [clears throat] >> Well, I mean we tried it last year, right? We cut it and We cut the level seven teacher. It's not working. Yeah. Yeah, it's not working and it's Berlin because some of these I would have I believe that's what we said last year when we cut it that if it doesn't work, we're going to be talking about next year. Yeah, it doesn't seem like it's working. I mean, if we don't want we want to make sure our kids can get into the colleges that they want to go to. We can't cut like anatomy and stuff like that is Well, that's my kid. taking biology or taking four.
And it's letting all of that wisdom and experience trickle down to every part of our district from our principles to our assistant principles all the way down to our support staff. And so I just want to say thank you for that. Thank you for this this I know a lot of work went into this. Um we appreciate it. We appreciate the continued effort and we know that it's going to uh that it's going to yield the results that we're looking for and so thank you very much. All right. Uh before we adjourn, I'm going to turn some time over to Dr. McCord for an announcement >> real quick. So, breaking news, just so you guys know, all you sports fans out there, girls basketball, we have two teams that are in the championship. Uh coming up on Thursday, this Thursday, March 5th, um I think at 6:00 p.m.
Yeah. Anything else, Aaron? You've got two business items to go through. Yep. Mhm. Yeah, and on the other hand, it's really getting bad outside because all my superintendent colleagues are texting me about school tomorrow. So, it's about to get bad out there. All right. I heard the highway department is going to talk to I just talked to them about So, that's it for the So, that's it for the budget. Everybody's good on the budget. Any other questions for Aaron? Any other requests for next week? Um we got we got work to do. We're We'll send out that information. Uh all right. Al, talk to us a little bit about these two field trips. >> So, if I could just We good? Um yeah. Yeah, that's that would be split. That So, when I create the spreadsheet, I'll create that split. It would be 45 per school, basically.
is Mosquite High School, who won in overtime tonight versus Paradise Honors and Highland High School uh versus Valley Vista, which is Saturday uh March 7th at 11 a.m. And both of those games are at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. We'll make sure we get your information out to So, congratulations those teams. While we were having their meeting, then we got some uh text messages. So, good. >> Fantastic. >> That's the end of our sports center for the evening. >> All right. Thank you. >> Back to back to me for weather. All right. Uh no, that's very exciting. Thanks for sharing that. Uh all right, we are uh I will call for a motion to adjurnn. >> Well, actually, it's the work study, so we've already >> just leave. See you. Oh, what are you still doing here? >> We had to adjourn the official board meeting and now this is just the work stud so we just leave.
I like special needs, Aaron. Okay. Well, I mean, so special needs would be Mhm. one of the districts? What? >> Um that the specialist teacher at the bottom would be elementary. That that would That would be I mean, the intent was for it to be elementary. But, I I could be incorrect. We can look at that That's elementary. That's elementary. Yeah, yeah. The specialist teacher is elementary. But, that would be under the district. Right? Not BMSB. Mhm? That would be cool. I think what you're saying is that should fall under the district calculation, not the BMSB. Right? The specialist teacher The one person going to both schools, right? Yeah, that that Most of those are are where either you know, it's not going to hit so that depends on how they're used. Some of them are truly utilized 50/50 in which case we split them 50/50.
>> Well, I first second and uh vote for it. >> Thank you everybody. >> Thank you guys. >> Well done all of you. I appreciate the fact that we all get a little slap happy. It's like
Some might be utilized 60/40 so we we split them 60/40. We try to match the utilization each year. Some of these things aren't perfect like occupational therapist. They go where the need is, right? So we try to split them the best we can. It's it's an imperfect science. And even our specialists, let's be clear about that, right? Because there's a hundred more students in in Billerica than there are in Burlington. So some of them might be there three days a week, two days a week in Burlington. So it all depends where they're the amount of time they're putting in. When you do a 2/5 3/5 calculation for a specialist, that's pretty flat cuz it it is, you're right, it's three and two. Could be. Yeah, two and three, yeah. Okay. All right. So if I could go we good? Everyone good? Yeah, we're good to Okay.
So the next two things and and I apologize for the delay in this. They they came to us. We had a couple issues go on. The first one is just approving of field trips. The first one is the eighth grade student field trip to Canobie Lake Park. They do this every year at the middle school here at Tonto. I have to get approval from school committee because they're going out of state even though they're just going over to Salem, New Hampshire borderline, but because that is taking place, I need to get that. That's scheduled not until June 12th, but I'd love to get that approved by you guys if I could. Um so You want to talk about the other one? Sure. Uh and the next one is a US government class trip. This is Patrick Minihan's trip that he does every This is where he's going to be taking the kids to to Philadelphia to visit the historical sites associated with his curriculum on the 250th anniversary.
He's looking to do that overnight field trip that will be starting on April 16th and they'll returning on April 18th. The people that chaperone this trip and people that chaperone any overnight trips go through that professional lane that we're doing through the district attorney's office as well, too, for all chaperones. Does that go with that? And that one needs to be approved cuz it's an overnight by school committee. So, one because it's out of state, one because it's overnight. Looking for school committee approval. Cool. I'll have a motion, please, to approve the eighth grade student field trip to Knoebels Amusement Park on June 12th. Yes? Second. Lisa?
Any questions for Yes. All in favor? Aye. Anyone against it? All right, that passes out. Great. I'll have a motion, please, to approve the Conestoga High School US Government class field trip to Philadelphia, April 16th through the 18th, please. I'll move. Yes? Second. Lisa?
Any questions? I was just curious, they fly down and then they take a bus back? No. I think they take a I'm sorry. Are Yeah. They're taking a They're taking a plane. I'm sorry. Oh. Okay. But they're not driving to Philadelphia, they're they're taking a Yeah, they're flying. Yeah. Is this April? Yes. April of 2026. I mean, I'm not okay that you should have done it probably a month ago since I could have planned it. So, full disclosure, they're they're planning it. I just need you guys' approval, so I just We haven't put that final deposit in until you guys got approval, but it's a great field trip, great opportunity for our kids to be visiting Philadelphia during that anniversary, great opportunity for them. And then they were all on paper right away. Yeah. Yes. All in favor? Aye. Anyone against it? That motion passes.
Do I have a motion to That motion passes. Thank you. All right. Anything else? Final thoughts for next week? All right, Beth Ann. Sorry. So, I just got a text back from Rich, so they We do not offer AP Biology. At all? So, that's an absolute critical ask. Sorry. Anything else? Any last questions? I have a motion to adjourn this meeting. I heard Lisa. All discussions? All in favor? Any against? All right, drive safely. Thank you guys. Thanks everybody.