And so, um Jen is one of those people for me and uh she's been our PTO president for the last 4 years. Um I've been here the last three, so she has been an absolute fixture for me and somebody I know I can count on and rely on no matter what is going on with her and the amount of effort, work, time, care um she puts into Cooley is amazing. Uh whether it's looking for food trucks because one bailed at the last minute or uh finding different ways to help support student projects throughout the campus or teacher projects or teacher gifts or different things for student events to make sure that students can go who may not um I cannot thank Jen enough for all she does for Cooley, but for me as well. Um like I said, I This is my third year at Cooley and and Ms.
We can't wait for this playground update. Thank you for your time. >> [applause] >> Good evening, governing board members. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak with you today. We are excited to share the work we did as part of our student participatory budgeting project. My name is Sia Saban. I'm Claire Hartman. I'm Ivory Crosby. I'm Danica Garcia. I'm Cruz Costa. I'm Atticus Tate. And I'm Weston Baird. We started the SPB process by gathering ideas from every classroom from kindergarten all the way to sixth grade. Each class created a circle map of project ideas. Students were encouraged to dream big and think about things that would help our school community. Once all the ideas were collected, our SPB team sorted them into categories. We tallied how many times each idea each idea was suggested so we could see which ones were the most popular.
The cameras were installed over February break. Um and like I said, you know, to the school committee, I would have brought it forward um but there was a breakdown in communication until that gap has been addressed. Um key things is that the cameras do turn on in the evening um after school is closed. Um the after school program is not a Pelham elementary district program. Um so that's one of the key things I know I heard some of the public coming and tried to jot down some of the questions. Um no cameras in the classrooms, no cameras in the bathrooms, no cameras in private spaces. I was not informed that cameras were going to be used throughout the day throughout the day um to monitor um behaviors but as of right now, based on what I've been told by IT, they do not turn on till in the afternoon.
Um with the join drive property 20 join drive number 22 uh weekly pest control is going on we'll be out for a inspection for the other violations tomorrow me and uh nurse and will planning to go there uh I have forwarded all the pest control reports for for this unit as well as the adjoining units to the board this morning or this afternoon still have some activity in this particular unit uh that that was uh affected but uh hopefully get that resolved. 321 Leeland Farm Road. Uh this is an ongoing housing case that we have. Uh the owner have confirmed uh that u all of the violations except one are corrected. Uh and uh we have scheduled a inspection on this property on Thursday at 11:00. 21 Main Street 204. Uh that's the unit uh that have the washerd dryer uh issue and I have nothing from the management on that you know so we're still hanging out there uh with the rodent complaints uh we had one road complaint at the at the broke uh chaps place that that the bus company have taken care I' have confirmed uh been out there two three times uh or even more to check any rodent activity they they have placed uh the the traps for uh the rodent boxes.
YEAH, Matthew's not here tonight, so we'd like to recognize him at the the next school committee meeting if we could. Sure. All right, that brings us to Aaron and our budget updates. Okay. All right. We're going to have our start and then we'll lead you right into you, okay? You good? So, good evening. So, at our last school committee meeting on Tuesday, March 10th, we presented a budget at a level service that also included the addition of a grade five teacher. That was a new FTE for Boylston Elementary School. We also heard school committee vote on We also heard that school committee voted on that addition of the following priority one positions. And I know that our admin team has been working extremely hard. Had a quite a few priorities that we wanted. The particular ones were priority one that school committee voted on. That was the addition of a biology teacher at Tahanto, a reading specialist at Tahanto, ELA coach for both elementary schools, and the additional full-time nurse that went from a 0.4 to a 1.0.
Any discussion? Then call the vote, please. Mr. Mercedes? Yes. Mr. Tarbox? Yes. Ms. Farris? Ms. Disla? Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. >> Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Mr. Mejia. Yes. And Mr. Haydon. Yes. Um, and we usually do a seating chart if and let me explain that. You draw a number and to see what seat you're sitting in. If everybody's happy with where they're sitting with and that's what we've done for last couple of years. Everybody was happy. We can pass this over. Does anybody want to do a seating chart? Everybody's fine? Ms. Ditson. I'm not fine, but Then we'll since it seems like everybody else is. And we'll do it. No, I'm okay. I'm okay. Okay. I I'm okay. All right, so we don't need to need a vote for Everybody's fine and nobody wants to move. I want to move, but Oh, she doesn't. Everybody else doesn't.
She's an all-time leader in kills, hitting percentage, and kills per set, and has served as captain for the last two years. She has been the cornerstone of this amazing successful program. Uh not only did she solidify her athletic success as the most decorated player as he mentioned because she's a two-time all state player, she's two-time all league player, but most important in his words, her leadership has been vital asset uh to the program success. She's a positive influence, a role model to others in a program, as a player, as a leader, and as a student. She set a tone for the whole team the way she led and she did it with both enthusiasm and encouragement. And you mentioned no one's deserving of this award. Congratulations. >> So a few uh a few other quick awards but very important awards. Um, you know, we have many students on our athletic teams that u reach the level of all league or all state.
We'll be looking specifically at the belonging theme for students and questions from the culture theme for families and staff that are closely related to the belonging theme. We're also going to take a look at the engagement theme across all three groups. That is a common theme. Um, as well as the safety theme for families and staff and specific questions uh that students have that are related to safety. We selected these themes as they've been areas of focus for our district as well as for our school site. One of the goals that we have tonight is to help us all understand how the youth truth survey data is tied to our LCAP goals and how we use that data to inform our decisionmaking. Here you see LCAP goal four which is focused on empowering families and goal five that is focused on safe and restorative school climates.
We'll delete the reference to standard of care in the definition of gender-affirming care on page seven. And we'll provide the preamble to be consistent with the above amendments. Um make the bill effective on July 1, 2026. And I just checked with the Human Health and Human Services Chair that which you wanted to do. Okay, that's that's their suggestions. Questions or concerns? If not, Vice Chair. HB 1875 HD2 SD1 recommendation to pass with amendments. Any no votes or reservations? Vice Chair votes no. Measure is adopted. Thank you. Next up is HB 1881. This prohibits passenger ropeways in all land use districts with an exemption for a government entity or government official government recognized corporation or nonprofit organization subject to legislative approval. Um Recommendation is to apply it to public property only to avoid potential takings issues. And they did receive prior concurrence and I think it still has a bad date.
So I mean there's a chance it could change. But if that's what you're passionate about then uh good luck to both of you. Um thank you guys for coming on the podcast today. Thank you guys for telling us about FCCLA. Um hopefully y'all learned something today cuz I know I did. And uh catch you guys in the next one. Thank you for listening and watching. Beep beep.
Keys has been an absolute fixture um and somebody who I don't know that we could be as successful as we are without. So, um I'm very grateful for her. I'm very grateful for everything she does. And so, I just want to thank Ms. Keys. >> [applause] >> Should we just ask her who she brought with us tonight? She's proud. Oh, did you Who did you bring? I brought no one. I honestly was uh I'm on the Williams Field booster for baseball and I was at the game doing baseball stuff for Williams Field. So, I came straight here. So. Okay. Uh next up is our um Points of Pride classified employee, uh Lauren Thor. >> [applause] [cheering] >> Mr. Thor is the media specialist uh at Cooley Middle School and he is absolutely special to our students. He is the most warm and welcoming environment uh warm and welcoming person on our campus and that permeates through the environment he creates at the library.
After reviewing everything, we narrowed it down to the top 10 ideas. After that, we researched the estimated cost of each idea. Our goal was to choose projects that our school could afford within the $5,000 budget. Based on the pricing and student interest, we narrowed the list down to the top three ideas. The final three projects students voted on were a volleyball court, a pickleball setup, and an obstacle course. These are the ideas that students felt would make a big impact on our school and received the most votes. On February 13th, every class came to the student voting room to cast their vote. To make sure everything was accurate and fair Wait. Students even got an I voted sticker just like in a real election. It was exciting to participate in a process that felt so official. Our SPB committee counted every ballot carefully and double-checked the results to make sure everything was accurate and fair.
So that we already talked about the approval process. There's no live monitoring. Um no facial recognition. Um our IS director does not believe in um placing things in the cloud. I don't either. There is a server that is locally placed um in the school and it is a district server. That is where the recordings and everything go to. The only person has access to that is our director of IS. And I have strict requirements in terms of um requiring or asking for camera footage. Um one of the things is Pelham, the playground, um you can correct me if I'm wrong, the playground is often accessible when the school is closed. Um when school is not in session. Um I also know that from the rear end, like the the library area, there's ways that you can access the campus. All right, when you say when a when I say or an educator says the campus is open, there is no gate.
Just just out of caution, I have asked the Texas meat market also, you know, to get pest control for the exterior given u if if if the pest control works uh at at the bus company area, you'll they will definitely go to the meat market. So, they are they also have gotten pest control now. you know they have sent me confirmation that they also have the boxes to control the rodents there. Uh with the disease investigations we have quite uh few going on you know we picked up uh two cases of Jaria uh Jaria that um uh one of the kid that go to our our school and one younger sibling that go to a daycare in in Framingham. uh did uh we did speak to the Framingham Health Department. The daycare had four or five kids that have GI symptoms but nothing confirmed you know so we don't know uh if they if the kid got it from there from the daycare or uh the family cat was also u positive for GS.
So, all those additional priorities were put on that as well, too. We also I also heard very clearly from school committee and the members to say, "Come back at our next school committee meeting and be prepared to tell us what you would cut in order to make this work and how to make this addition." Remember, we came to you with a budget that wasn't able to be fulfilled at a level service. We added that fifth grade teacher on there Boylston Elementary, put that into the budget, and then we also had the addition of a school physicians. The admin team, Aaron, myself spent hours, days, weekends going through this budget. We actually even spent Easter evening finally getting some information from Boylston. And we became very skillful and thoughtful about the cuts and decisions that we made. Again, I can't stress enough that we're not in support of any of these reductions.
Then You asked me a question. You asked me if I'm fine. I said no, but everybody else seems to be. So, let's not disturb everybody just because of me. I'll be glad to change up seats. It's okay. If everybody's okay where they are, then I'll be okay. Okay. I mean, if she wants to make a change, I'm happy to support it. Whatever >> I'm happy to support it, too. I'll support Okay. That's why she wants four votes. All right, let's do a seating change. Yeah, let's take a motion on it. Can we get a motion on it? She doesn't want to sit. Somebody make a motion to change the seating arrangements, please. I'll make a motion.
Um, but every once in a while there is an historic accomplishment that happens during the seasons. Um, and they certainly should be mentioned tonight as major milestones. Um, the first person I'd like to recognize can't be here tonight. She actually had a basketball practice to attend, but this is about recognizing Ruby Furge um as a milestone for for our girls basketball program. She's the 13th player in school history to score a th00and points. Um she did that towards the end of her junior season, meaning she has one more full season um to add to that total. Um and just to mention a few words about Ruby, she's incredibly talented, competitive basketball player, but her impact goes far beyond her scoring. She's highly coachable. She possesses a great work ethic, and she really has set a standard for the program. So, we'd like to honor her tonight um for a thousand point um because she did such a great job for the team.
The bullet points that are beneath each of these goals show metrics that we're actively u measuring and that are directly tied to the youth truth data. And these um themes include survey questions um within the survey. As you can see, for both of these goals, goal four and five, there are survey questions that we're tracking. um the arrows, which the arrows aren't coming up. There they are. There's three arrows that were going to come up. These are the arrows. These arrows indicate specific questions that we're going to look at more closely in today's study session as they've been uh priorities in the LCAP. uh the uh youth tooth survey is really interconnected with the LCAP with not only the goals, they're actually metrics and they're also tied to our actions and services because our access actions and services should support progress in these areas. And through the upcoming protocol that we're going to take part in tonight, we'll we'll hope to highlight the interconnectedness between the survey data uh the goals, the actions, and the services.
Yes, still has a bad date. Questions or concerns? If not, Vice Chair. On HB 1881 HD1 SD1 recommendation to pass with amendment. Any no votes or reservations? Measure is adopted. Okay, next Thank you. Next up is HB 1886. Establishes provisions limiting state and federal collaboration for purposes of immigration enforcement standards. Establishes identification and facial coverage standards for state and federal law enforcement officers. And establishes criminal offenses for improper facial coverings and lack of visual identification and unauthorized civil immigration and interrogation, arrest, or detention. Okay, this um We do have prior concurrence and there's a whole bunch of changes, so bear with me. Um we'd like to harmonize chapter 139 with chapter 710 and add plainclothes plainclothes identification exemption. We'll amend page seven lines 9 to 12 and page eight lines 11 to 21, so the administrative section mirrors the criminal section includes a plainclothes exception.
We have students lined up to go every single day who want to to in there. We have to limit it because there are so many students who want to be um in the library hanging out with Mr. Thor. He's setting up games. He's got different projects that they can do. He moves them around during the year. He sets up a library where students have a voice and a say in what's in that library. They They recommend books. They request them. Um he looks into them, make sure they're appropriate for the library, and then um fills them. And so, we have a very vibrant library that our students actually use and actually want to be in and want to use. And that's all because of the work and effort Mr. Thor puts in. Um he's amazing, and our students absolutely adore him as do our staff.