It was a great learning experience in responsibility and teamwork. And the new project was a new volleyball net. Students across the school were really excited about this choice. Thank you for listening to our presentation. This project taught us so much, like how to take responsibility, how to help our school community, and how to create activities that make school more engaging for students. We also learned about the civic duty of voting and that it's okay if the idea we voted for doesn't win because [snorts] every voice still matters. We are proud of our work and grateful for the chance to make a positive impact on our school. We hope you are just as excited as we are for the new volleyball net. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name is Layla and I am the president. Hi, my name is Ares and I'm vice president. I'm Zoe and I'm secretary.
There is no gate that is blocking public access to the school. Um so in actuality, you could drive straight onto Pelham's campus and park and have a 20-30 minute conversation with someone right outside of our school, an altercation can take place, different things can happen, and it's on our school grounds. So when you talk about a campus being open, there's actual open access to the campus and the property to the public. It's not as closed not closed off. There's no gate for them to go through that we lock on the weekends or afterwards. Um and I'll answer more questions. I did include a FAQ in there. Um school choice. Oh, I did want to say we will be updating our handbooks um because that is something that we did not do. We'll be updating our handbooks to include for the upcoming school year to include the fact that there are cameras and how the cameras um would be used and the footage would be accessed.
So we we don't know you know either it came from the from the cat or it came from the daycare in Firmingham but uh hopefully that got resolved. We're still working on that. We did uh pick up a case that's a travel case you know for chicken gona we had a IGM positive for that uh the patient have traveled to Bolivia uh uh before before the symptoms started you know so that's another active case and I guess we still have two active TV cases uh that we are working with the community outreach uh and our public health nurse doing stuff. You know, we do a monthly seminar presentation at the community center on different topics. We have uh conducted two uh vaccine clinics at the Ashland Hindu Temple from the from the last infectious disease there.
We are not. But our goal was to reach the number that both Berlin and Boylston provided to us with school committee. And just for clarity, we received the number from Berlin that was voted on at select board meeting on on Monday, March 3rd. We got that number from Berlin. I appreciate the students in Berlin that when they came to the select board meeting, the way they spoke. I also appreciate the thoughtful questions that the select board of Berlin asked me about specific positions that we're putting in place. Last night, April 6th, we attended FinCom and select board meeting of Boylston where we received a voted upon number that actually changed slightly from this morning. So, the number that you heard last night at your select board meeting that they voted upon, there was a slight change that took place between last night at 11:35 and this morning.
Any discussion? Let's do it. Sue, on the vote. Mr. Mejia. Yes. Mr. Mercedes. Yes. Mr. Tarbox. Ms. Farris. Yes. Ms. Tisler. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. And Mr. Hayden. >> Yes. All right. You know what? All right, Sue, it's all yours. I'm not going anywhere. And the superintendent's not going anywhere. And the assistant superintendent is there. 4 5 6 All right. Move in my spot. Goes with the haircut. So, you are now next to Mr. Tarbox. I was still next to Zorb. No. The what? No. You stay over here. So, she's two. See you where Julio is. She's down there. Right? But, you on this side. Stay close to me. Move it up more. Fine. Thank you. When you do it, teach me how to do it. We're going to fix that. I understand. Now, we're going to have to do it. Never slept Edison kids.
So, congratulations. >> Yeah. >> And then two wrestlers um similar to the idea of a thousand points have entered our 100 victory club um as part of our wrestling program. This would be number 19 and 20 um in school history. Um, so it's certainly amazing. Um, to first dude, I'm not sure if I'm seeing here, but Tom Johnson. Um, he was an extremely u impressive sophomore and junior seasons and Tom worked very hard to reach his hundth win. Um, he was a finalist in five tournaments this year. He was he was a top four NC player um wrestler and he also um had three top finishes um for the class S. So he had an amazing season. He finished with 104 victories. Um and again four state tournament finishes. So congratulations Tommy. Um if you sit down congratulations. We'd like to honor George who is here tonight.
All right. So, this is what we're doing tonight. This is today's uh study session. Our ed services team is going to share data with you. We're going to take a hands-on approach. And we anticipate that this process will allow us to take a deeper dive into the three themes that I mentioned earlier, belonging, engagement, and safety. you'll have time to have collaborative conversations with us as the ED services team. Uh potentially we can identify areas of strength, progress, areas of opportunity, maybe some next steps. And at the conclusion of the session, we're going to ask that you have some reflection um and identify one area that you're going to share with us using a compass reflection graphic. Aren't you excited? It's going to be great. We >> get homework, too, >> maybe. All right. So, I'm going to I'm going to share the steps that we have.
Um that will read no law enforcement officer or federal law enforcement officer officer shall wear a facial covering that conceals or obscures the officer's facial identity while engaged in official duties in a public setting except as provided in subsection B. In subsection B, every law enforcement officer and federal law enforcement officer engaging in official duties in a public setting shall display visible identification on the outermost garment or gear that includes the officer's agency name or the officer's last name or unique badge number provided that this subsection shall not apply to a plainclothes plainclothes or undercover operation authorized by supervising personnel or court order where disclosure of identity would jeopardize officer safety or the integrity of the operation. Uh then another section will another uh addition would be eliminate duplication or conflicts between the two face covering sections to keep both sections at a conforming clause at the start of chapter 710.
Beyond the media center specialist, he goes above and beyond with tech support, setting up for events. Whatever is needed to be done, Mr. Thor is a part of it because um he believes in the school and the success of it, and and he's a huge part of it. And so, that's right, the A+. So, we thank Mr. Thor for all he does, and he's a um an amazing um part of our Cooley team. So, thank you, Mr. Thor. >> [applause] >> Next up is our certified point of pride, and that's Ms. Bowman. She is one of our She's our art teacher over at Cooley Middle School. So, welcome up, Ms. Bowman. This is my second school with Ms. Bowman. Um she's phenomenal. She called me the same exact day that I had an art teacher tell me that they were moving states, and it was fate that she came over, and our students um absolutely love being in her class.
Hi, my name is Ali and I'm the member at large. Hi, my name is Trudy and I'm the treasurer. Hi, everyone. Thank you for having Gateway Point here today. We're excited to share our participatory budgeting project for this school year. As you all know, this is a process where we got to share ideas and vote on how money is spent at our school. First, we collected ideas from students across the school by going to their classrooms and getting student input. Everyone had a chance to share what they thought would make our school better, more fun, and more welcoming. Next, we turned the best ideas into detailed proposals. We thought about cost, how each idea would help students, and how it could actually work at our school. We even called vendors and spoke with their sales teams to get quotes and learn about the process. One of our ideas was to improve playground equipment for recess.
We will not move forward um with installing additional cameras without informing parents and informing the school committee. Um as the process is supposed to be done. Um school choice. I think that for me I'm going to summarize this to say um we were asked to explain a little bit about the school choice process and um some of the key things to think about or to that I want to highlight outside of what I put in my update is the process that has established when it comes to registration and school choice, especially for Pelham. Pelham has been listed as a um I want to say it's an a school choice mandatory option when it came to registering for for school choice in our districts. So, a lot of parents would express interest in Amherst, Percy, and if the space was filled in Amherst, they were automatically kind of guided towards Pelham.
Uh and I guess that's all and I'm open for any questions for the board now. >> Anybody have any questions for Raj? >> No. All right. Thank you, Raj. Thank you. >> So, the next thing on our agenda is the consent agenda approval. It's to review and approve the fiscal year 2026 year-to- date budget report and the meeting minutes from March 17th. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> I'll second it. >> You'll second it.
And Aaron will go over that as well, too. Literally, that change took place. So, it's consistently been a moving [clears throat] target for us. The new number this morning was confirmed by both Howard and April. So, we have a new number that we're presenting to you in this budget. Again, I can't stress that we are not supporting these budget cuts and reductions, but we're also not wanting to put our school district in a position where we're dealing with a 1/12 budget from the Department of Education. Aaron's going to go through our budget presentation. I want to thank Aaron for the work that he's done, this admin team that we've put hours in trying to make sure those numbers are meeting what Berlin and Boylston gave us. I also thank those that have attended the meetings along the way. Those were important meetings both in Boylston and Berlin.
Get Get soil out of thick for me. I still need Get soil out of thick for me. You can kill me in my seat. My love. Yeah. Where is Mr. Talbott sitting? He's sitting Is that Mr. Talbott? Enjoy the wish. Well, you know where where Anne Marie is. Oh. That's good. Oh, good. Okay. I give the queen I give the queen seat. All right. You don't have to remember this. Sue's going to set it up uh for the next meeting. Bill and Lorraine. Mr. Espinoza. Mr. Mejia and Zoila. >> Zoila. Zoila. And Carol. And Ralph. I don't like this doodle. And for Mrs. Ferris' sake, can we get a motion to adjourn? I make a motion to adjourn.
George come forward please. George wrestling career according to coach Bristol was defined by cover overcoming u some great odds. Um he had a great overtime victories this year. Um and that was became sort of a hallmark of what he did. This year George fought to rehab himself through a mid-season shoulder injury in order to get back on the mat to notch that 100th victory. It was his second uh NC conference championship on that same day. That was truly amazing. George George has been an invaluable asset to the team since his freshman year. Consistently working to improve himself and his teammates. George ends his career with a remarkable uh record of 102 and 52 in two NC tournament championship times. Great job, Drew. Um, how about another round of applause for all of our board of education first? Let's everybody go on over there. If you want to take on over like A little first.
So, step one, we're going to put you into groups. Um, we're going to have three stations. The first station is right here next to Latasha. The second sta station is towards the back of the boardroom and the third station is right in front of Norma. And this is the belonging station, the engagement station, and the safety station. So, we're going to number you off. Board member Greer, you're number one. Board member Ramos, you're number two. President Benvides, you're number three. And board member Pena, you are one. All right. So, you're assigned to your station. remember that cuz then we're going to do some transitioning to our stations. When you get to your station, you're going to have a copy of the slides that we'll be uh presenting to you. You'll also going to have you're also going to have a note catcher where you can potentially take down some notes on observations that you're making, things that you notice, things that you wonder, maybe some questions that you have, and our directors are going to do a great job of facilitating that conversation with you.
Requirements and exemptions in this section shall be construed consistently with section 139. And we'll amend the page nine line 20 to page 10 line two, so the criminal section also requires intentional concealment. No law enforcement officer shall intentionally wear a facial covering that conceals or obscures a law enforcement's facial identity while the officer is performing official duties. And then we'll remove uh remove a redundant SWAT exemption, so delete on page 10 lines 16 to 18. Assigned to special weapons and tactics teams while perform actively performing special weapons and tactics responsibility. Um Replace unauthorized interrogation offense with a narrower version. Replace page 12 line 16 through page 13 line 16 with unauthorized civil immigration arrest or detention. A person commits the offense of unauthorized civil immigration arrest or detention if the person is a law enforcement officer acting under color of law who intentionally or knowingly acts beyond the scope of a law enforcement officer's lawful authority by initiating or prolonging a stop, detention, or arrest for the purpose of determining or enforcing the person's civil immigration status when the law enforcement officer lacks reasonable suspicion based on specific and articulable facts that the person is unlawfully present in the United States.
Um she's an incredible teacher. She goes through so many different types of art, different projects, allowing students to express themselves, whether it's 2D art, 3D art. She's bringing in artists from outside. She's taking them on field trips. Whatever it does to get kids excited and invested in art, Ms. Bowman is absolutely doing. Um Ms. Laserenza had a a lot of things to say, and so I kind of want to share some of the things that Ms. Ms. Laserenza specifically was talking about, and that is um Ms. Laserenza takes as much pride in Ms. Bowman as a teacher as she does as Ms. Bowman does her students. Um it's an honor that we get to recognize her because Ms. Bowman never misses an opportunity to recognize and express how proud she is of her student, and then how much of she values the effort they put into her class and their artwork.
Our vision was to make recess more fun and active for everyone. We wanted to add things like soccer balls, basketballs, jump ropes, hula hoops, and kickballs so more students could play together. We also thought about adding cones and games for students who like to create their own activities. We would include safe storage so the equipment doesn't get lost. Our vision was to make our school feel more welcoming and full of pride. A window wrap outside the cafeteria with our school logo and colors would make the building look bright and exciting. We also want to expand the existing wrap in the front of the school as well as many wraps around each courtyard entrance. It would help students feel more proud of our school and help visitors navigate our campus. This would bring more school spirit and make our campus look fresh. After we presented both of our approved ideas at a school assembly, 589 students voted for their favorite project.
So, those are kind of some of the operational things that we're looking at right now as we separate the processes and separate the districts and make sure everything is outlined because we're not sure if that's how it should have been, so we're not going to do that moving forward. Um we also note that seat determination is based upon the amount of seats that we can hold. So, if a classroom, for example, first grade can max out at 20 students. Um but we have maybe currently 10 students going to first grade. And so, we would not open 10 school choice seats because we still have to account for the fact that if a child moves into the Pelham Elementary School District, we would want to make sure that we have seats available. So, even with us um determining what that's going to be, we may say, "Okay, for first grade, we may have three seats, four seats." Um we are in conversation and we're working with Mickey in the last two years.