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Okay, this one also passes. All right. Article 13, use of free cash. Uh, Miss Lynch, do you have a motion on this article? >> Yes, Mr. Moderator, I move that no action be taken. >> Seconded. >> Okay. Does anyone want to speak to this article? >> I didn't think so. Um, all right. Um, so we can we can vote now. This is a majority vote. No action. >> Yeah, the the vote is for no action. Correct. >> That's right. >> I'm slow. I'm sorry. Anyone else who's planning to vote on this one? Okay, seeing none, let's total it up. Very good. This one passes as well. Okay. Article 14, Land Acquisition Committee. Uh, Miss Lynch, is there a motion on this article? >> Yes, Mr. Moderator, I move that the charge of the land acquisition committee be amended as set forth in the 2026 advisory committee report.
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>> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. I I think it's very exciting. I was able to look at some of use a link and look at some of what the teachers have available to them and I think it's it's very well done and a lot of it can you know there's little videos that the kids can watch so they can get the idea and and really can be studentdirected and our teachers have a lot on their plate. So I I'm grateful for them to have something that can really engage students and it's there for them. they don't have to do a lot to to make sure I mean obviously there are going to need to be a lot of materials for hands-on but a lot of the curriculum is there and the instruction is there to help them. So I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you.
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>> Second. >> Okay. We'll now have a presentation by Marian Neutra concerning uh this article. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Article 14 is about the land acquisition committee. This committee was established in 1995 by a vote of town meeting. And because it was established by town meeting, any change in the language describing its job description or charge requires a town meeting vote. And that's why it's on the warrant. Article 14 simply updates the job description of this committee. The original charge was to maintain an information database on large private undeveloped lands, especially those protected temporarily under Massachusetts chapter 61. And we're proposing three changes to the charge. They're fairly minor, but we need your vote to do them. First, the committee uh the land acquisition committee should be concerned with all chapter 61 plans, not just the very large ones. And second, we're adding language to encourage the committee to work closely with the assessor and board of assessors to keep a breast of the status of these properties because they come on and off chapter 61 year by year.
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>> I have a couple of question. Sorry my mic is I'm on the soft. I will just lean into it like this. It's good. Um first of all I appreciate it just because I understand the struggle of reaching those higher students. um we often I don't want to say forget about, but we don't worry about them just because we know they're going to be okay, but they just as much need the extra attention as the lower students. So, I definitely see the value of having a curriculum that can help enrich. Um I was just wondering if when when is this utilized throughout the school day? Is it during a general ed classroom and you have specific students utilizing it? Do they have a special time throughout the day that they use the curriculum? >> Speak to you. >> Yeah, you guys are Yeah. So, we've had the opportunity to use um our our science and social studies uh blocks of time and then also we have opportunities um during I I'll call it our our Friday slots where kids can have more opportunity to once the other because we don't want this to replace anything.
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And finally, uh, the new language enables the committee to evaluate small parcels owned by the town. They're all over town. There are about 20 of them that are currently not being used or monitored by anyone. And the land acquisition committee process is very appropriate for this job. So, a yes vote on this warrant article makes these updates to the official description of the committee's work and a no vote simply leaves it the way it is. In the next slide, um I want to explain a little bit chapter 61 because many of you may not be uh uh familiar with it. It's a state law that allows private land owners that have five or more acres of excess land, open land, beyond what they need in their zoning district to put the land under temporary conservation protection in exchange for lower property taxes. It's voluntary and it's temporary.
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That's the whole point of like our our our general curriculum that students are using each and every day. this is a supplement and this is an opportunity for kids to use it um in addition to tying it together to some of the other disciplines that are existent with math and reading. Um and what's been really cool is we've been able to tie it correct directly to those content areas to be um to be used. We did go through a process with this on some of our our younger grades. We'd like to see projects span out over the course of a couple weeks, but kindergarteners and first graders, they they don't have the opportunity to or the uh I guess the the ability to wait that long to see through projects. Um and so we've we've we've learned and adapted across the the the grade levels to make it what works for the teachers.
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It needs to be renewed every year if it's for recreation or conservation or every 10 years if it's for forestry. Now, if the owner decides to develop, change the use or sell the land while it's under chapter 61, they have to inform the select board. And this triggers a legal process with many steps um that may in the end give the town the right of first refusal or the right to acquire the property or the right to assign it to a conservation or nonprofit conservation organization. So in the beginning, the select board has only 30 days to respond to this notice and to begin the process. So it's important that we have that information assembled by the land acquisition committee in advance. But what about the small town-owned properties? I'm calling them orphan parcels because nobody's watching out for them. Um they could be of benefit to the town, for example.
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And um I think giving them that individuality and the onus to uh to own some of those uh this decisions has also made it more attainable for teachers as in terms of like when it's done, how it's done, and how long it goes. Um so yeah, >> teachers the teachers are finding it easy to implement. It's not becoming something that's cuz when I think enrichment, I think small group, right? You're looking at that particular group of children that need that extra push. So it sounds like this is being used across everybody at Greenfield, correct? >> Yeah, we used a small like a small sample set of teachers to to try it out first and then we we did the whole piece where we wanted them to feel really good about it. Then I had some trainers of trainers and experts on campus to help roll that out for for a campuswide um and and define learning has been super supportive.
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They might possibly be sold to there are butters or adapted for local trails or neighborhood gardens or they could be used for environmental monitoring say of groundwater or invasive species. So the land acquisition committee could uh anal analyze these lands and we'd know what we have. And the next slide simply shows you the extent of these properties all over town. Um, chapter 61 lands here are in light purple. It's about 60 properties altogether about 20% of the town. The small properties owned by the town are in orange. You can see them scattered all around. So in summary, we recommend approval of article 14 to update the description of the land acquisition committee. Thank you. >> Okay. Is there anyone else who wants to speak to this article? Okay. I don't see anybody. Um so there's been a a motion and a second on this and now we can vote.
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We meet with them uh regularly to go through some of those kinks. Um, and I have the whole team. And what's kind of neat is I brought our our tie into it as well to support some of the technology side of things and utilizing our our supports on campus to be able to bring everything together um as often as possible. But the teachers find it extremely easy um to to use because they are truly becoming the facilitators. >> It's great. My last question and it's got my favorite word in it. So um have you looked at the data from like peer schools that use it consistently? Are you seeing growth in some of those higher students that are maybe just kind of, you know, coasting along? >> Yes. When we specifically though, the data that we looked at was really um when we went and visited uh Daart district where we went and saw it, what we were really looking for was student engagement and where they were using it specifically with their gifted and high achieving students.
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It requires a majority vote. We'll wait till the screen comes up. There we go. Please vote now. Okay. Do we have anybody else who's planning to vote on this one? Okay, I think we can put the votes up there. Okay, this one carries as well. Article 15, stormwater and land disturbance management bylaw. Mr. Bonder, does advisory have a motion on this article? >> We do, Mr. Moderator. Um, I move that the town vote to amend the Sherban General bylaws by deleting chapter 200 entitled Storm Water Management in its entirety and replacing it with a new chapter entitled Storm Water and Land Disturbance Management. the complete text of which is available in hard copy at this town meeting. >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved and seconded. We'll now have a brief presentation by Stephanie Harrison of the planning board. >> Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Can everyone hear me?
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Um, but as as Brian was mentioning with one of their experiences, students that were engaged in a project and it was almost you couldn't pull them away. They didn't want to leave for recess. They didn't want to go cuz they were engaged in it. And that was the critical piece for us. Um, along with the standards alignment that we're doing something with our students that gets them engaged not in just an activity, but in a learning process that extends beyond the classroom. And so that's specifically what we were looking for. And then over time we'll be able to see our data and how it's contributing to our um student success and achievement overall. Um but it really gives us that extra piece for like you said those those students that are so quick in learning to be able to continue to engage them and keep them learning and not just have them kind of stop while everybody else gets additional support.
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Okay. Uh I'm Stephanie Harrison. I'm the co-chair of the planning board. Uh the planning board met to discuss, held a public hearing on February 10th, 2026, and voted unanimously to support the storm water and land disturbance management bylaw. So um the next slide, please. We already have a storm water bylaw. Why add land disturbance? Land disturbance, just think construction, uh changing the ground surface. Uh this is a very appropriate and common trigger for managing storm water. Our neighboring towns all do it. Um, land disturbance can loosen the soil which can be washed away by storm water and then it can transport pollutants. Um, this these photos that you see on this slide were from uh a situation on Lake Street um a number of years ago, maybe four or five years ago where there was a construction site and runoff came down into the street and um you can see it completely blocked of the storm drain there.
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You Okay, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate you. All right. 7.02 fiscal year 2026 monthly financial report and thirdarter financials yearto date ending March 31st 2026. Dr. McCordon. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Governing board members. I'll turn this over to Associate Superintendent Bonnie Betts. >> Good evening, Dr. McChord. Um, President Thompson, governing board members, uh, I do appreciate, uh, Mr. Thompson that you did not ask me to present this this evening. However, thank you for allowing me to share the information with you. So, uh, this is our normal monthly financial uh, presentation, but also because it's uh, March 31st, we will also be presenting the third quarter financials to you as well. So the today's report includes district operating funds, federal grants, state grants, other district funds, and then a couple of the schoolbased funds. So as always, maintenance and operations and unrestricted capital is presented.
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What you see in orange is supposed to be a protection measure around the storm drain to keep clean water only going into the storm drain. This particular storm drain goes under the street directly into farm pond across the street. And this is exactly the type of situation that this bylaw seeks to address. So the next slide, please. Um why regulate storm water? Our current storm water bylaw focuses on federally regulated MS4 area. You'll hear me say MS4 here. Municipal separate storm sewer system. An M with four S's. Just think of it as a small area in downtown Sherburn in the town center area where there are regulated storm drains. Um, but it's important and and the MS4 area is is being considered for expansion to a larger area. But it's important for us to expand outside of that small area to protect water quality, not just the MS4 regulated storm drains, but also other storm drains owned by the town as well as groundwater, roads, and and um some of our other town assets.
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Uh note the available balance in maintenance operations has actually gone up um actually has gone down a little bit. The deadline for maintenance operations spend was April 7th. So we're thinking everyone's hurrying up and getting things encumbered so that they can get stuff ordered in preparation for next year. Uh in addition in unrestricted capital outlay, you've seen a lot of of projects cross under consent. Uh so Albert's been very busy uh doing some projects throughout the school district. Uh in addition in unrestricted capital if you remember you approved the Chromebook purchase uh during March and so that has fully been encumbered and that's a a $4 million cost that has decreased that available balance by that dollar amount. We will expect to see unrestricted capital spend through the remainder of this fiscal year as projects are coming to light.
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So the next slide please. What would this bylaw do? So like I said the area protection under our current stormwater bylaw which is shown in the left column is limited to the MS4 and in the right column the proposed bylaw would make it town wide would would uh regulate townwide and also consider other town storm drains, wetlands, groundwater, public streets and rights of way. Um, under our current storm order bylaw there there is a permitting threshold where land disturbance is greater than one acre or in the conservation commission jurisdiction and we are proposing to keep that same storm water permit threshold this the same storm water permit process but alter the thresholds. So you can see that we still are talking about land disturbance greater than an area but we're also talking about adding a trigger for an increased imperous area of over 20,000 square feet.
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Any questions before I move on? Okay, great. Um the next is the idea part B. I just wanted to to note the available balance of $186,000. So, we have worked to encumber all of the the tuition costs associated with our most um our most complex students with disabilities. So, those students are mostly put into private placement situations. And so, we're nearing the end of the year. So, those those amounts have been fully encumbered. We do expect that that available balance will be in that neighborhood of about $150 to $180,000 as we roll over into next year, which is kind of our normal carryover for IDEIDA. In addition, the Voke Education CTE Perkins, that dollar amount is down to $136,000. That is expected to be fully spent as well. Uh the CTE department works uh very closely with finance at the end of the school year to make sure that we've identified appropriate expenditures so that all of those Perkins monies are expended every year.
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think like a half an acre or a new standalone dwelling unit excluding accessory dwelling units. So that would be the same permit that we have uh required today. But we've also added another category of permitting which is the minor storm water permit. It's land disturbance of about a half an acre, 20,000 square feet or an increased impervious area of about 10,000 of 10,000 square feet or greater which is about a quarter acre or a new detached ADU. and the minor storm water permit is a much easier sort of like light storm water management uh approach. Um so this bylaw changes those triggers and it would also define terminology much more clearly and clarify roles and responsibility and enforcement procedures. Next slide please. So administratively um we are talking about relying on existing town permitting processes that are already in place and just adding a determination of whether a permit is necessary through those existing processes and what level of permitting is required.
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Uh the state grant funds. So this is the big fund for the current time frame, the CCIP um college credit exam incentive program. So if you remember uh two years ago in 2024 the allocation was $300 per student that for a passing exam uh and 50 a minimum of 50% of that $300 was to be allocated to those teachers that had uh students with passing exams and the remaining 150 then was deposited in each school's accounts for use for professional development primarily associated with uh advanced placement or international Balora trainings. The last two years for the 2025 school year as well as the 2026 school year, the state legislature has significantly reduced that dollar amount per exam. And so, um, on this, you've got the dollar amounts there. So, note 2024 it was $300 per exam. So, each teacher received $150 per exam. That did include the uh payroll benefit.
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