Class of 2026, those aren't just sweet words from a story book about a little boy and his bear. They are a description of who you have become and who you are in this very moment at the edge of the forest. You have navigated a world that changed beneath your feet. You've tackled rigorous academics, stood up for what you believe in, and reached this finish line with a resilience that proves you are ready for whatever lies beyond this forest. There is, of course, another phrase that is often invoked in graduation speeches. This one is found in the Bible, First Corinthians. When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as as a child and I thought as a child but when I became a man or a woman I put away childish things. That quote probably perfectly captures the pressure you now feel to grow up and indeed you have to do that.
I appreciate that. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I know you're not because I got to work with you through some things this year that clearly proved you're not afraid of much, James. So, thanks. >> Um, okay. The next thing to, sorry, Jay, we're really leaning on you. Um, Sophia has mentioned a number of times a student bill of rights, but I'm not quite sure beyond that what she's thinking. And so, if you know, maybe we can see if that's something we'd also like to recommend. >> I know. >> Sorry. I was gonna actually I'm wondering if it's a student bill of rights, I wonder if that would be something better suited for Kraton Kids Congress and actually have the kids write it. I I I don't disagree. Um and I think we may want to extend to more students beyond kids congress. Um I think we might have a student present who might want to have some or might have some interest in being a part of that.
Let me make sure I get it right. Uh and also we want to give our students every opportunity to reach their fullest potential. Thank you. I'm coming. Thank you, Mr. Oh, no. >> [clears throat] >> Turned it off for you. Thank you, Mr. Bertolozzi. Um good evening, Board of Education. My name is Jennifer Bova and I have the pleasure of serving as the Director of Community Relations. I have been in this capacity uh for uh 10 years, July 1. So, here I am. I have uh been in the field of school communications for over two decades. We won't get specific there. I began as a reporter working with Sun Publications after graduating from the best university ever, UI, with a minor in Spanish. Uh I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge my team, Dan Chinelli. He uh takes beautiful photographs, helps tell our stories.
Um and it might be like I'm good. I have everything I need outside of school or no, I I would like to connect with somebody at school and then we could have that conversation of how that might work. All right, any other questions on this one? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you for all your work. We're going to continue the belonging train with Ryan. Hi, everybody. Uh so um last year when we came up, we actually felt like we had some pretty tough questions coming at us um for activities and athletics. And so we really um stepped back as a team to figure out how do we want to go at this a little bit differently. Um and so last year we did um a belonging survey for students just at the end of the year. And part of the feedback that we felt like we got from the board, it seemed like an an autopsy of kids experiences when it was too late to do something about it.
So, it helps those that are achieving as well because you can start to highlight the kids that are that are excelling. Um, I think the other part I just wanted to bring up, I know you brought this up a little bit um this word, but the part about our kids who are maybe with IEPs, 504s, intervention students, um they get hidden in grades sometimes. And so, when the and it's no one's fault, it's just it happens. So, a child who might be struggling couple years below grade level might be getting a B or a C in a class and a class and that's hard for a parent to understand sometimes. And so, what standards-based grading allows is you to kind of break that down a little more and you say you're beginning, you're getting a one on this right now, but we're giving you these supports to help you in order to get you to approaching and you're moving along on that.
So, we do have a fairly complex filtering environment at BCSC. We need to support staff, students on different levels, C4 traveling students, different equipment, and bring your own device network for staff. But fortunately, Linewise is able to fulfill all of those needs. Also, of course, all of those different filters were different price points. Some as low as $30,000 per year and as high as 50. The new filter is slightly cheaper than our current Content Keeper filter just by $2,000 per year cheaper. And an exciting part is that Linewise is going to come with two new solutions that we never had before. The first one is called Classwise and that's going to be the teacher class classroom management solution. With Classwise, the teachers will be able to keep the filter more locked if they would like to. They would be able to set certain websites to only be accessible by students at that time at the time of their classroom.
Really really cool to watch happen. And I'll hope to see the thing still flying next year. It's also pretty fragile, so their next big business is going to be how do you store this thing and it not be destroyed when it comes back. >> And I agree, I like the logo and the name. >> I I saw it on your shirts. You had nice shirts there. >> That's the only drop out we wanted but it didn't happen. >> I I we're all friends here. >> But you guys DID EXCELLENT TODAY. AND AGAIN, IF YOU WANT TO TAKE off at this point, you do not need to stay for this meeting. Pun intended. >> You can drop out. >> it out. >> Okay, education item C4, project update. >> But, I have Let's see. I'm going to start from the beginning. I just have a few photos.
And so a document titled school nutrition programs review results -6055 has been shared in the board drive and is on our website for anyone to view. Central Noble did have nine findings in this annual review. One that resulted in a financial transfer that needed to be made into the non-profit school lunch fund for unallowable costs from our food service management companies invoices. So, Central Noble had to do the initial transfer, but we can ask our food service management company to reimburse us for that those unallowable costs. All corrective action plans have been submitted to the state. Most of these findings were a result of the need for continued or updated training. And I do want to stress that all findings were based on behind-the-scenes paperwork and policies, not the day-to-day kitchen operations, which were actually commended by the state for the food service staff being friendly and helpful, the kitchen being clean and organized, and the amount of food options offered to students.
Three minutes. We'll give you 30 seconds. >> Okay. Um, so I brought with me today Pablo Perilin. He's an exchange student from Madrid, Spain, who's been living with my little family over there for um since last August. So Pablo is a sophomore at the high school and I want to start by thanking the corporation and specifically the high school because they have really made him feel at home and it's tough being away from family for that long. So I want to thank you all. Um so over the last 10 months we've tried to take take Pablo as many places as possible in our region and across the country. So, of course, he's done Indiana, he's done Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Missouri. Those are all off his bucket list. And we actually took him to Mexico twice. Uh Cabo and uh Cancun. So, and our travels aren't over because this weekend he's going to um visit LA and visit GTA spots.
Yeah. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> You can use a really old jar. >> Like you can use beeswax to wrap like food in. There's there's beeswax wrap. Um I'm trying to think what I mean and just like glass containers, even if they have a plastic lid on them as long as the the plastic's not touching the food, that's you know, can be good. And I think it's not single-use so you are reusing it so you know, You said that And you said that Massachusetts was so good about, you know, this business of making the laws, but the president of the Senate lives here in Ashland. So, Put the pressure on. Put the pressure on. We're looking at you, Ashland. >> [laughter] >> Um yeah, it's get keep keep talk you know, contacting their office um because the things will pass in the Senate like the um Becca Rauch who's our senator and you know, brought forth a plastic reduction bill that passed through the Senate, but then never was taken up by the house.
Yes. Um I have a follow-up question. >> Sure. Um if I remember correctly, in your application to the Zoning Board of Appeals, uh isn't there a condition there that that they could have uh an LSP that works for the town instead of for the applicant as well? Um honestly, I'll have to go back and there's a lot of conditions. I think though it was the LSP um let's just say for discussion's sake that is a condition. I think it was just to review what our LSP was doing, but it was not to actually serve as a primary LSP. That would be very unusual to have an LSP retained and representing a municipality working on behalf of the developer. I'm not sure if I'm answering your question. >> No, I remember I was at that hearing uh in the audience. And uh the comment was made that this would all be supervised by an LSP.
So, you know, I think at the very least if we can do our due diligence and show that sure, we're happy to bring in a third party um you know, and and compare ourselves to other have them compare us to other districts. I don't see any harm. Yeah, it'll take a little bit of work on our end, but I don't see any harm in in opening up uh what we have here and what we do to someone else if that would if that will change some people's minds in the community because I know there's always those folks um that question us. Um and that's fine. Uh and we ultimately, the five of us, have a fiduciary responsibility to every single taxpayer in this town. um while we make our own decisions up here and you know what we think is right uh we ultimately you know we we're elected um even though this is a volunteer position um we we [laughter] we are elected by folks in this town.
I don't mean everybody but there's going to be many those who are let's say savvy enough to do it. You're negotiating on where kids go. Okay, I'm going to pull my kids out. Yeah, I mean I mean that's how we had it prior. Yeah, this is this is something that >> you were like it was it was like you went to the school unless you requested to go to another school but you couldn't go to the other school unless there was space available. >> Correct. And space was always first given to out of school students and then to inner school students. No, space was always given to siblings first. Then >> So if a sibling was If they're >> used to work out mathematically really well which always fascinated me as a math person, you know, that you'd have a kindergarten class of 60 or however many we used to have 200 and some parents and they would have to put their request in writing and they were always told if there was a sibling in the school to put that first and we would put them all in this room on a table everybody who had a sibling was put on there and then we built it and it always came out okay one or two off and then it was a principal's choice do you want to go ahead and take the extra three or you know and yes because I'm going to lose some you know so why not I've got shares that's all that really matters I think we've probably covered the financial aspect of this and I don't want to get into the weeds of it because that would be outside of the scope of the subcommittee but I do have I do have a question that's actually budget related do we know how much we would be spending per pupil with this budget does that make sense sometimes I don't I'm I'm mixing all right Andy come on Andy you got this it's good by and it depends on no I'm just categorizing everyone I'm not saying like oh how much are we spending on a one-to-one but sure amuse me I'm just like how much on this budget season once what I was asking would we be spending per pupil we spend above foundation budget absolutely okay no I'm aware of that this comes out so I would not be able to truly you know have city side of the expenses okay yeah we don't have those numbers but I I said the word if this may not be proper Andy please jump in if you just took the school committee budget that's 25 plus >> That's looking for.
Uh and I don't know if anybody has any, you know, parting thoughts before we can dismiss Beyond and move on to the next item on the agenda. Yeah, thought that just crossed my mind. So, I've I've been on board for a few years and one thing I've heard a couple of times is for parents who are think their child should be [snorts] in special ed and the schools deem it not to be the case. And being able to being able to explain in layman's terms, not just what the answer is, but the process that leads to it and the sort of relative uh sort of relative explanation about yes, this is your child and you're making an analogy to this child, but here the differences in what we'll call a hypothetical child, cuz you're not going to talk about that kid, but if they bring it up, it it ends up getting brought up in conversation, but just being able to do that in layman's terms, I think is it would be super valuable for parents to just be able to understand.
They have a lot of community people coming in, but now we want to flip that a little bit and have our kids go out Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. getting some hands-on experiences. Okay. Um Next, I think we'll go back now to the new textbook recommendation for physics. Julie Barker, our um science department chair, is and our physics teacher, one of our two physics teachers, is here to talk about a unique way that she has found to address um a getting an updated resource for that physics class. Yeah, we we've been uh really searching for quite some time for an updated physics text. Uh the textbook we're currently using, we're using physical textbooks because the online component has sunsetted a couple years ago. Um And you know, we stayed with that book because we really felt like it was a good resource, but we kept looking for something new and a different option.
Again, back of the napkin math. That's $2.4 million. Plus $3.5 million that we were told was a surplus in the budget from last year that we're carrying over to this year. And if insurance benefits are the constant thread in which we're saying that we're having to potentially cut teachers or our taxes are going up, well, that was almost $1 million. So, the math isn't adding up because why do we need so much of the savings? Cutting teachers, those teachers carry benefits. So, if you're cutting those teachers and their salary and their benefits, your $1 million increase in insurance is not really $1 million, is it? The other thing, is this a workforce reduction plan? Because that's important for the public to know. Are we reducing the workforce? The other thing, we're talking about savings, tightening the belt, scrubbing the numbers. Well, we have a quite robust, and again, I'm speaking from experience.
However, as you move into the world of mathematical formulas and grown-up responsibilities that worried Christopher Robin, I have an urgent request of you. Do not lose your sense of play. In Mil's story, the tragedy isn't that Christopher Robin grows up. It's the fear that he will become so busy being important that he forgets how to be joyful. The world will try to convince you that adulthood is a synonym for joylessness. It will tell you that there's no time for the silly old bear parts of you and your spirit. But I want you to look at the most successful people in the world. The innovators, the healers, the great leaders. They are almost always the people who kept their sense of wonder. They are the ones who can still laugh at themselves and find magic in an ordinary Tuesday afternoon. So as you go out to change the world and you will change it, keep a little bit of the 100 acre wood, this 100 acre wood in your pocket.
Um and so I do see an intersection with this committee and maybe it would be an offer for this committee to support a student group in their work to put together a student bill of rights. But um I would defer back to Amy for how she feels about that because this really sits pretty squarely in her wheelhouse and she's got more expertise than I do. >> That was very kind of you. Um however, I have never wrote a student's bill of rights, nor have I worked with children on a student's bill of rights. Um so I have no idea what that would look like. I believe Washington L did this and that's where the idea came from. And I am also pretty confident that their interim superintendent is a very good friend of mine and their new superintendent that's incoming is also a very good friend.
Um helped with making uh tonight's strategic plan video come to life, which you will see in a few moments. Tracy Summerfelt is the reason why this evening, this presentation honoring our middle school student Tichenor, was so beautiful and flawless. On occasion, Pablo Sanz has helped with the best podcasts that have ever been created, these two. Dr. Ahmed Tichenor chance and rolling with it. So, I'm very fortunate to work with some very talented and gracious people. So, what do we do? Um at the core of what we do, we're very focused on keeping our community informed and engaged, uh connected, secure. We do that through uh internal and external communications. We always want to share our story with our staff first and foremost. We share our stories through our digital newsletters, handbooks, social media, the website, our videos. I also uh help oversee our uh parent notification system known as Finalsite, and uh managing crisis communications, media relations, and serving as the spokesperson when we need to go that route.
Sorry, oh my gosh, I just hit this with my face. Um, so this year we did all different thing. Um, since activities and athletics weren't um, the main focus this year, um, focusing on attendance, we wanted to know like how could we participate in making sure that kids um, that are um, involved that we can represent what their experiences are and what how it impacts their grades, their attendance. So last year, Don, you asked me, um, what is the impact of grades on students who are participating? So last year, first semester, 7% of the overall grades were F's. Of the students who are participants, it was less than 1%. Um, so for students who participate in one or more activities, they're far less likely to miss school. In fact, we started tracking kids from teams out of season and we find that sometimes their their absences double when they're out of season.