So, the chamber the chamber itself is about >> on the side? There's a dimension on the right hand left hand Sorry, right hand side. Co- Co- Correct. I I may have answered your your misunderstood your question. Let me Let me Let me try to answer a different way. The The chamber itself is is approximately 5 ft in in depth. Um and then there'll be cover on top of that to get to the ground elevation. It'll be a It Again, that will vary a little bit depending over the length of the of the chamber. Uh but that could be a few feet. Um the chamber could be a few feet below below ground depending on where you're measuring from. Okay. Well, we'll we'll I guess we'll be discussing this when we talk about storm water cuz this is obviously important feature of your storm water system, so we can come back to it.
Oliver, second by Ms. Amarall. Um all in favor? >> I unanimous. Good luck. >> Great. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you for your support. >> Safe travels. >> [cough] >> We now move on to new business. So we'll begin with a discussion um on the town budget advisory group suggestion regarding the school district audit or assessment. Um per per Mr. Oliver's suggestion um and um so I don't why don't you take it away Mr. Oliver if you have anything more. >> Yeah. No, I don't know how much more I can contribute to the discussion. I appreciate uh Madam Chair and the committee uh entertaining me putting this on the agenda for some more um discussion around it. You know, I'll go back to I I just think it's important that while every one of us up here on this table, we certainly understand our our budget, our needs, um as well as uh the the little that we have to work with for the pro for the immense amount of programming that takes place in this district.
West County? West Franklin County. They'll distinguish between where they are like on this side or this side. >> Okay, I got that meaning. So, no. They'll use that. So, One of them? Right. So, you're saying that but You want to something Roland. Yeah, one of a kind, right? You just don't you forget. But we're we'll be taking somebody from West County, right? Who's choosing to come here versus there as a high school student. So, if we can keep doing that like you you many of you the school committee members gave me, thank you, permission last summer to take additional where I thought we had and I talked to our principals, obviously, right? We have to give and take. Space where I thought that they were very limited. Last year in terms of the numbers you are leading out massive numbers and we're taking in limiting those coming in.
That's important. And so, how we do that, um I think helps us to have those difficult conversations. On that same breath though, you know, sometimes depending on what teacher it is, you do find that maybe teacher with this implementation accommodations. So, what steps do you take then? Sure. So, that's the teacher's not implementing the accommodations? Right. There's a implementation and therefore not doing what is sort of Sure. Um, I would hope that I would find that out before going into a meeting. Um, but that's not always the case. Um, but I think it it's really um, it's about looking at barriers. You know, what what is it that's holding a teacher back from um, providing those accommodations? Is it that um, she does she needs more modeling and explanation for how to do it? Um, is it that it's a philosophical, you know, disagreement about why it's her job to differentiate um, or to provide accommodations?
Many of them are seniors. They have to have a conversation with their parents. Did you save any money for me? Because if you didn't, the college I go to, I might have to take out some student loans. But, we talk so talk about choices. You have choices um you know, with where where you go and what you do. Um and then they have all the other bills to pay. Insurance, electric, water, um everything. So, oh yes, don't forget our cell phone bill, cable. Um so, they go through that project, the research, and then at the end, they look at their largest expenses. They reflect, um and then they give advice to somebody else, um, in terms of budgeting. So, I think we we cover we cover a lot when it comes to personal finance and teaching those, um, foundation financial foundation skills that you hope everybody has by the time they leave high school.
But I feel like you're incompetent, so I don't understand how we're going to fire teachers, but give you a raise. Right? But cuz we don't have money for it. And you're getting a raise, too, I assume. But we don't have money, so we're going to fire teachers, but let's pay them more. Also, I'm very curious why we need a supervisor at the central office. All of you at the central office are over a hundred K. Like who needs to supervise you? I don't get it. Also, a high school supervisor, what is that It's in your transfer things. If you look, I can't mention personnel, but your middle person is now a supervisor, your high school person is also a supervisor. I don't understand why you need supervisors. I thought you guys were against supervisors, but now we have three extra ones. To me, if you have a supervisor at the central office, you're not doing your job, cuz you're making so much money, you don't need to be supervised.
It describes the day Christopher Robin had to leave the 100 Acre Wood and in a sense say goodbye to his childhood. He is growing up and he has to go away to school to begin the serious part of life. Before he goes, he takes one last walk to a place called Gallion's Lap with the one who has been his constant companion, Pooh Bear. For the last several years, Amphitheater Unified School District and this school have been your version of that 100 acre wood. This has been a place of safety, of discovery, and of expeditions with friends. But today, the serious world is calling your name. And like Christopher Robin, you are standing at the edge of the trees, looking out at a horizon that is as vast as it is unknown. In that final scene of Milliey's book, there's a poignant tension. Christopher Robin is learning about weighty things like mathematical factors and the kings of England.
So what I mean by that is we have you know this this team reworked our bullying policy you know so one of the ways that there is a challenge for protection for individuals that fall into this group is if they're being bullied right but that bullying policy applies to all of our students. Um, so rather than writing a second bullying policy specific to this group, what we would want the committee to do from my perspective is verify that the existing one is capable of including the group and in that protection for national origins extended now also to this group. or in if it's a separate policy that mirrors that one, make any call outs and references back to those other policies that are necessary and call out anything additional that needs to happen in order to make sure that we're properly and adequately providing those protections.
I like that. Um yeah, I'm not as great as you think I am. I have wonderful people helping helping me out. Uh I want to give credit to those people. Uh Mr. Flanders is our director of facilities. Uh and also out with him at the maintenance shop is Linda McKague, who does all of our transportation. Uh she's our transportation manager, and she makes all of our lives a whole lot easier. Uh with me in the business office, uh I'm still going to call my fab five, but uh I've got Cheryl McCarthy, our business office manager. Um she's dealing with your bands key who is the business office assistant to them make sure I don't miss deadlines and I am where I need to be. Uh Sue Wininger handles all of our accounts payable. Laura Morales handles our payroll. I'd like to tell her twice a month she's my favorite employee in the district.
We could easily do that. Yeah, that would be really interesting to to know cuz I would assume that if you're more have better attendance you would have more relationships throughout the the building. Pull that and see if there's a correlation. That's a Yeah, if you could do that would be great. Surprised we didn't I know. We didn't We didn't pull it. Is there a relationship between kids who are involved in sports or activities and the number of relationships they report? Yes, that's actually our very next slides are all about that. And there is data that suggests that kids who are involved in activities and clubs tend to perform better at school, correct? Yes, and their attendance their attendance is actually really good. [laughter] Yeah, their [clears throat] attendance is higher. We're going to see it. And Courtney said that too. The relationship mapping pieces that we just presented are one part of our overall story of how we ensure that students feel connected.
We are also grades 6-12, right? And I was part of leading the transition to standards-based about eight years ago. And so, we've seen this through. It's been a process. Um so, what you would just asked that question specifically, I would say yes, there is still a comparison. The difference is though, when you do it appropriately, you're able to then say, I might have a two on this part of what I'm learning, but I'm a three on this other part of what I'm learning. And it's a different kind of conversations. So, on an assignment, you might get um a one on this part, a two on this part, and a three on this part, and you might average at a two if you were doing it overall, but you're able to see what you need to break down versus on when we were in school, it was just like you got all these, you know, you missed three of 10 and now you're a C no matter what.
Sure, people are welcome to volunteer. Get that information. >> covered. Don't worry about it. Yeah. [laughter] No, thank you so much. Any other questions? Thank you again, Mr. and Mrs. Oldsbaum. >> I'm going to have Mr. Williams. Ms. Martindale. Thank you for having us tonight. Um, I have Anastasia Martindale joining me as well who helped lead some of the change that we're going to talk about. So, we're going to have a short presentation over the network content filter and screen time. So, we are required by law to have a content filter for anybody who joins our Wi-Fi, but mostly our students to protect them from harmful material. This is a requirement for E-rate as well. E-rate pays for 60% of our internet and connections through a federal program. Um, and we just went through a large change today, actually. So, I'm going to hand it over to Anastasia who's going to talk through the advantages of this new platform.
>> Yeah, hopefully. >> And the name showed me also because I was thinking okay, you get the balloons in there and what happens if something if you need to put a new one in there and you have a door that's kind of easy to >> Yep. >> take off. Pretty slick. Pretty slick. >> So, I'd say at the onset of this I I was like well, this is going to be a quick project. Like these guys will be done with this like that. And they're going to be wanting to know what they're going to do the rest of the year. Uh this turned out to be a whole lot harder than initially anticipated. Lighter than airships make sense when they're massive. When they start getting small, their helium has essentially no lift. Like it has some lift, but it's very minuscule. And like I talked about temperature, it could have just been it'd be floating in the room and then some cloud cover rolls over and the thing hits the ground.
Uh it is for rising pre rising first graders to rising sixth graders. Uh our enrollment count for summer school is 48. Uh that's not very high for us. I think I think Shawn's numbers are going to be higher uh for what what she's doing for her summer school. So, uh we'll continue to monitor that. It's looking like three sections right now. A section of uh one and two, another section of three and four, another section of five and six. And I think those will be housed well you know, definitely housed in the elementary. Um base uh Austin, anything for athletics? No, biggest thing was just uh the contract. So, I'm glad it's over with and our spring seasons are about done. Softball sectionals next week. Baseball sectionals coming up. I think uh practice Thursday. So, we're all within a week basically of being done. Spring sports crazy.
Obviously, to run a school, there need to be people in administration, but I was shocked to see how bloated the administration is in our district. Um, as a former teacher, I know how schools work probably more than a lot of parents, and I feel obligated to question the board and admin now about the value of some of these positions. I worked with the secondary curriculum director when I taught within the Lake Central Schools as I was a part of the team developing the curriculum for the eighth grade language arts team. And I understand. continue to face the challenges of functioning with less funding from the state. I urge you to please prioritize the positions of those who work with our children instead of those removed in top administrative positions. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Lambert. U we can't make comment or have exchange but at the end of the discussion we have >> so you may want to watch later.
>> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I passes. >> Next up was a glass one. A long one. >> Yeah. Last reading on the left >> volume 38 number two. >> We save the best for last. Um so kind of as is customary this time of year puts out policy updates with the close of the legislative session. Um I met with our rep each of the policies and updated those um discussed those and there's no action being uh taken this month. It's just a first reading but we will bring them back for a second reading approval next month. And again typically most of these are the results of just the legislative updates to bring us current state law. Enjoy it. >> All right. Uh, any other business? >> No further business. >> Anybody? >> Well, I just like to congratulate the uh academic Super Bowl teams on two fantastic first place wins in the state.
So, you know, as we continue as I've done my work with trying to ban single-use plastic, I find it really heartening in that when I pick a topic and then I research who else has done it, you know, we all sort of rely on each other in order to kind of keep that that ball rolling. Um, and many states are working to, uh, to ban use plastics as well. I think California just passed a law, which is not amazing, but it's, you know, again, putting more pressure on the producers that that if they are, you know, putting something on the market, it has to be they have to recycle it or it has to be recyclable or if So, I think more people are learning about the topic and and more pressure is coming. Um, so, just, you know, keep talking to your, uh, you know, legislative bodies and and looking for, you know, supporting solutions.
Yep. Okay. Great. Um there was a comment on hay bales. The contaminated soil stockpile detail has been revised to reference straw instead of hay. Mhm. Um again, that will be incorporated into the the plan set. Um there was some discussion about how we're going to filter the ground water. Um contractor and his team are here. We uh proposed activated carbon for filtering ground water. This temporary water treatment system is going to be designed to remediate total suspended solids, chlorinated volatile organic compounds, and metals that could be recovered during dewatering. So, we have a plan in place for that. Um and and and we have um Bob and and um Joe are on the calls and if you want to get into further detail, but we we have a plan that that system in place will treat what's we've identified so far. And again, if something else is found that can't be treated, we'd come back to the commission before any dewatering were to take place.
Um, but I do also understand that at some point in the near future in order to at the very least uh keep what we have without reducing um you know, we're going to have to potentially look to creative ways to fund this school district. Um, and one of those could potentially be um some type of override. I know that no one likes that term. Um, but we we need to keep in mind that every vote counts for an override. And if there are questions still remaining out there from citizens that may feel that that the information is only coming from the school department, even though we've said it comes from the, you know, we report information out to the department of education. Um, our I know that the the town does audits the financial audits on the school department. Desi does numerous [clears throat] amounts of uh audits, financial audits as well as program audits.
Let's bring them in. They want to come. Let's bring >> Yeah. Um I don't think this is the right time cuz I never asked these but now that you and I have discussed re- reopening inner choice. Yeah, that's that politely we talked about this is something I don't believe is my perview. The committee had set parameters for people living these I'll use the word districts but for lack of a better word >> Neighborhoods. Same place. Neighborhoods they call that. Bounds, right? You live in these just bounds that are have been drawn. I'm there. Um Committee did that? I enforce. I know that I have had people come to me with like special We lost >> requests such as and I'm going to use one person a family I know example, you know, the family was going to Newton, they had a niece who was going to be going to Federal Street.