They're also allowed to use it during lunch, 38 minutes passing back and forth and then a 30 minute lunch. I think students really value that time. Um, some schools have a straight policy bellto bell. You can't use a cell phone. Ours is a little more lenient and I'm constantly reminding students of that. There's actually a bill on the table in the state of Massachusetts to actually eliminate cell phones alto together. Uh if our if our policy works how it's supposed to and I do believe we're getting better each year, uh I I would advocate that we continue with the policy we have. It doesn't always work the way we want it, but it's also a pattern. Again, remember, we're educators. We're teaching students how to use the cell phone because when they get out into the working force, they're not going to have somebody that's going to be, hey, you shouldn't have this and this is because it's going to be more, wow, you use this.
It was a little tight with drop off this morning, but the kids will be out of school then. So I already anticipate lazy mornings. Great. >> [snorts] >> Perfect. So, um, also, so okay, that sets us for when we're actually going to be reviewing. We can meet the 29th at 10:00 a.m. Um, can we do another check-in meeting June 1st, which is another Monday. It's 2 weeks from now. Also, around 10:00. So June 1st and June 29th would be our double duty in for June. Yeah, that's fine. Kinsey, June 1st 10:00 a.m. ish work for you? Um I'm going to say yes. Worst case scenario is I'm kind of I'll be there. We have um the celebration of growth week at Newton. So, I don't know when Gordon's class time would be scheduled. Okay. Let us know if for whatever reason that is like going to be a real like if that literally coincides with the one celebration that you're really wanting to to go to.
Coggins, students do not always need to be on devices throughout the entire school day. I agree with that. High-quality instruction, student engagement, collaboration, discussion, hands-on learning, and strong to teacher-student relationships remain the foundation of effective education. While I'm on that, you will not hear tonight in one of my recommendations the elimination of the any teachers. And that was communicated to the teacher union president in collaboration with the teacher union president. So, you will now see that tonight. These proposed reductions align with the broader conversation and do not diminish our commitment to prepare for parents students for modern and technologically advanced world. We just got to do it a little bit differently. Society has changed since our students and our staff were sent home for approximately six or seven months and then opened up a school year following year in a different way. Importantly, these proposed technology reductions do not eliminate technology from the classrooms.
Today we are immensely proud to announce that one of our own has been named a candidate for this esteemed recognition. This milestone is not merely a reflection of high test scores but a testament to years of discipline, intellectual curiosity and a drive to make meaningful impact to the world. To be uh among the top tier students in the US is a monumental achievement for both a student and entire school community. Our student has been selected of one of only 627 semi- finalists from across the country to advance to the final round. Please join me in a round of applause as we call to the podium Sucha. [applause] >> [applause] >> There are some other individuals who deserve recognition for all the behindthe-scenes work they do to make tonight possible. Mrs. Lindseay D'Angelo, Mrs. Donna Loyel, and Mr. Eric Dwanus in the school counseling career center work very hard organizing all the donors and materials for the scholarships.
For many of our kids, consistent intervention time is where struggles become successes and frustration becomes confidence. When my position was reduced from full to half-time for next year, I was not given the option to work between two buildings as EL and high ability teachers do. Instead, it was given to our EL teacher. In order to meet the professional responsibilities of their role, they're required to administer assessments to EL students for approximately 6 weeks throughout the school year due to MAP, ACCESS, IAR, and ISA testing, plus additional days for makeups. During those testing windows, those tier three students would not receive their their services. That's about 30 days of no tier three support. Shouldn't we be placing the same value on their instructional time and academic needs as we do for other student groups? And if not, what message does this send to those kids, their families, and to our community?
Again, there's no change. So, if people have questions, please ask, otherwise we'll just for the record read the name and number of the exhibit, um, so that we can, um, move those, uh, back over to the policy. There were, I will say also a handful of these exhibits we didn't move. If they were ones that really had more to do with, um, student issues and things like that, we left those in the procedure manual. It's really the board particular ones that were the ones that uh we felt made sense to move back over. So, uh starting with the first one, the first one is exhibit uh 2:70E, and it is a checklist for filing board vacancies by appointment. And that exhibit again would be just uh no changes to it. It would just be moving back over.
Okay. That makes sense. So, we we had two different components. She knows the expert in the programming side, where Nathan's a little removed from that. He still knows his stuff on that. Yeah. But, he's more on the finance side now. So, we had two different people helping us with the two different scenarios. Okay. I think maybe a luxury that we have, regardless, we we are members of the co-op for one more year for 12 more months. If we if the board does approve moving away, we're still in that same situation, which allows us a perfect situation to plan and prepare throughout the entire school year next year. So, that's when by getting into the weeds of those different positions, we'll have to really fine-tune what exact positions do we need, what programs do we need, where will they be housed, and that will be something that will obviously keep the board updated as we go down that road, but also keeping our our staff informed, too, because uh we have really If you think about special education in the district, you have those that the district hires, and those that work in our buildings that are co-op personnel.
Mac Whitmer turns around, takes a shot. Minnechaug gets it. Now, Minnechaug up the up the way as Sergenko's looking to go up. Good stick check by McKekney. Ball's loose. Parsons in on that. Mac Whitmer gives it chase and Yes. >> Good job by Mac Whitmer. Oh! Oh! Ooh, there's a late hit by Sergint oh. That ball was out of bounds and I I should think the official should be talking about that cuz that that should be a yellow card if that ball's out of bounds and kind of a late hit. I mean, she's going in there playing hard. I like the aggressive play on both sides but when the ball's that close to being out of bounds and I'm sorry to say it, they know it's Mac Miller. You wonder if it's if it's somebody else, do they do they go in that hard? I don't I don't think they do but Totally agree.
I mean, we get it with co-op a lot. Kids get fired because they're using their cell phone when they should be working. So, it's it's definitely we're in this pattern. We have to help the students grow. Um, if they could follow the policy, they're going to be more successful in the working world. Uh but but again I it's a very easy one I think for us to address because it's set in stone by you guys. Uh if they get it taken away the first time they get it at the end of the day 2:30 so they could go home with it. But if it happens again then I'm calling a parent and the parent has to come in and get the cell phone. I've had parents thank me after 2 or 3 days of having a cell phone in a box in my office. Sorry I didn't mean to make you come in.
Um and we'll make adjustments as needed, but for now we're going to hold the 1st at 10:00 a.m. and also the 29th at 10:00 a.m. Okay. And I will get that information to Becky. Um in the last few minutes that we have, does anyone have like this in similarly to how we brought Mike in today, are there other specific items that you would like to see or specific people that you would want to get a report from that we can start scheduling? Maybe not like right away, but I'd I'd like to have two reports probably when we have our appointees, but I think the two most pressing ones are somebody to come in and like teach us about regionalization. Mhm. Cuz I think people think they know. But what do we know? We don't really know. And um and I that might be an MACE training perhaps cuz I know that they do trainings in regionalization.
Students and staff will continue to have access to tools and resources necessary for instruction. Rather, these reductions primarily extend replacement timeline and delay expansion projects. I agree with that. In this time, when we're looking at the budget suffering, I agree that we need to look at things that we could delay and things that we may be able to do better. I appreciate the relationship and conversation that we have with the teacher union leadership. I met with her yesterday and just to say, I did meet with her last week and the week before to discuss what I'm about to speak because we need that teachers on board because teachers are going to have to teach differently. But, I'm very confident that the thoughtful approach and the collaborative collaborative spirit throughout these discussions will assist us as we move forward. There's an understanding that priority reductions in technology replacement cycles and certain capital expenditures was preferable to deeper reductions that will directly impact classroom instruction and student programming.
Because of their dedication, we as a school and community are able to offer many scholarships. The next time you are in the school counseling office, please take the time to offer them your kind words of appreciation. I would also like to recognize my assistant, Mrs. Rebecca Shaw, [applause] for all she did to make tonight's event special. It is through her hard work and diligence that the many, many, many details of tonight's event are double and triple checked to ensure everything is as accurate as possible. Thank you, Mrs. Shaw. [applause] Lastly, thank you to Jill Hail, Denise Tzakis, Sue Chason, Julio Grady, and Alicia Guess for being here tonight. And thank you to the PTO for their generous donation for tonight's program. >> [applause] >> Each year, members of the senior class apply for scholarships offered by our business community. The scholarships being presented tonight represent the generosity of our community and businesses for our students.
I understand that I was not considered for the half-time EL position because I do not hold EL certification. For that reason, I would expect the same professional standards to apply to someone assuming the responsibilities of an interventionist. However, this position was assigned to an individual who not only doesn't have a K-5 teaching certificate, but does not have a professional educator license. While I cannot say if that's even legal, I can say it seems unethical. Students who struggle with reading and math require specialized instruction by educators with the appropriate elementary teaching credentials. Tho- Those responsibilities should be entrusted to individuals with the proper training and experience to effectively meet those needs. This leads me to question whether the decision to reduce my position to half-time and combine it with a half-time EL role was made as a convenient way to maintain a full-time position for that staff member within our building.
Are there any questions about that one? If there no questions, um the ones without questions I'm going to plan to put in section seven, if that's okay. The next one is 2:80E exhibit, and this is the board member code of conduct, and that's an exhibit that again is related to that.
So, that group might be a little bit anxious. We totally understand that. We've communicated with them, obviously. Uh working with HR, working with and our building principles and with our staff, we're going to be creating, if we do move forward with leaving the co-op, we'll be creating positions that individuals then can apply for. Um so, it may not be, you know, it really offers the opportunity to uh select the best candidates for those roles, and I think that's What's the best part of it? I noticed on that one slide that we talked about the 4.3 million 4.29 Uh and I don't know what date that number was put into play, but I figured we got about 10% left of that time frame to June 10th. So, you know, if you figure 10% of 4.3, it's the same amount each month. That's going to add 400,000 more dollars, which puts us above the projected 27 [clears throat] number.
Totally agree. Not that any of our girls haven't done anything that they shouldn't have done at times but >> [clears throat] >> Mac Miller with the ball, 37 seconds left to to go in the quarter. From coach Cal telling Mac on But in classic Mac fashion, back up. No problem. Here she goes. Like nothing ever happened. Mac have she has 30 seconds and she'll wait for the the last shot. >> [snorts] >> Hopefully they wait with few seconds left, gets the ball over to McKechnie. McKechnie goes in, finds a seam. McKechnie with the ball, turns around, takes a shot. Takes a twizzler, the ball goes out wide. Kermans with the ball. Is the clock going to stop? No, it's fine. It's fine. Yeah, and they'll they'll go into the third quarter with the Spartans up eight to three. >> Mhm. >> All right, we are back with fourth quarter action as the Spartans have an 8 to 3 lead over the Minnechaug Falcons.
No, no, no. That's okay. He went without the phone for a few days and they'll learn the lesson that way. I mean it we don't understand all of us when we went to school most of us at least there was no such thing as a cell phone. We survived. Today the students have lived with this for their whole life and they they may have gotten it at an early age and and it's definitely a something we have to still work with and work for but it is a big issue in my in in the school. Um, we do the best we can with it. I'll go through the halls during class class time. If I see a kid with a phone, I'm collecting maybe 10 to 15 phones a day. So, in in that case, they get it back at the end of the day.
And then also somebody coming to the city from the city to explain to us um what is involved in scouting for a building, building a building, the ramifications financially of around that. So, cuz we have these two kind of main ideas that we're thinking about that we really don't know anything about. The other ones that like adding on to our existing buildings and whatever like we have the brain trust there and we've already kind of talked about that. But these are two things we don't know really anything about and have not undertaken. So if there's a way that we could get some sort of training for our group or like a sort of a workshop so that we have in our minds what is actually going on should we go down these paths. Maybe from people who've done it. Great. I think also adding on like what our financial timeline would be or could be from the city for a new building.
I agree with everyone that's that is out there saying, we need to keep our teachers. What's most important is our teachers and staff in front of children. I appreciate the partnership and professionalism demonstrated during these conversations. I've had many conversations with uh teachers in the in the past week and 3 weeks since the the the first reduction. I will also, as I mentioned, be closing professional development funding and small capital as well as the elimination, as some of you have said, of two staff positions. Those staff positions need to be determined what those staff positions are going to be, but I know they're not going to be teachers. While these are difficult decisions, every student has been made to protect direct classroom instruction and minimize impact on students. This can't be about scare tactics, as I believe Mr. Grantski said. I agree with that. It needs to be smart and needs to be decision-making that is clear and addressed to the public and all among the public.
The total amount for scholarships for the class of 2026 is $112,610. [applause] Principal Hamlin and I will read the names of those students receiving local scholarships. Mrs. Brie Manderosina Matthews and Mr. Michael Luji, senior class advisors, will present the students with their awards. [applause] All right, the advisors are making their way down. Uh let's um for we want to acknowledge each and every uh individual student, but for these awards, we're going to do a strong single clap for everybody who gets announced. So, I'm going to say name. We're going to uh list the scholarship or scholarships if they're receiving. Strong single clap. Got the directions? >> All right. Leah Applegard, the British. Okay, so [laughter] you told me you had it. I'm going to say the name and the scholarship or the scholarships, then clap. Ready for take two? All right. Leah Applegard, the Brenda Mcuade scholarship, sponsored by the Dodd PTA.